The Core
Why We Are Here => Water Cooler => Topic started by: ergophobe on March 28, 2020, 10:48:34 PM
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Request: simple, fun, feel good movies/TV shows that are not mean-spirited, superhero, "action" or dystopian ("action" in quotes, because there is a sort of cartoon-violence genre that seems to dominate, that is quite different from old-school action).
I'll suggest... looking at some DVDs on the shelf...
- Jeremiah Johnson
- Good Will Hunting
- The Way (Martin Sheen goes on a pilgrimage - my dad recently did part of the Santiago de Compostella route and sent it to me; not great but fun)
- Danny Deckchair
- Love Actually
- My Big Fat Greek Wedding
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You need Louise's profile. Here's a quick scan by her.
Mad Money
Failure To Launch
Monster-In-Law
Kate & Leopold
TV - Grace & Frankie
Jane The Virgin
Amz Original - Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
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Tootsie
Ferris Bueller
Back To The Future 1,2,3
There is one action movie that I must recommend; True Lies. This is Louise's all-time favorite movie. She's watched it a dozen times or more.
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>Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
It is fun and entertaining, not at all depressing -- not at all easy to find in a quality show.
Fun, not depressing movies:
Ford V Ferrari
Knives Out
Hunt for the Wilderpeople 2016
What We Do In The Shadows 2015
Added:
The Big Lebowski 1998
Little Miss Sunshine 2006
Tremors 1990
Eighth Grade 2018
Monty Python and the Holy Grail 1975
The Nice Guys 2016
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Thanks guys. Some of those I have seen, but haven't seen in decades. Some I have never seen
Ferris Bueller
That was my mom's favorite movie.
>>There is one action movie that I must recommend
I find the older action movies still fun. The new action movies often have virtually no plot (or the same plot over and over again) and millions and millions of dollars of explosions. I'm just a bit jaded on movies that blow up entire cities using the same recycled plot to do so.
>>Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
We watched the first couple of seasons and liked it. Good, raunchy fun ;-)
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Paddington
And then I realised don't have much family friendly stuff!
Adults if you haven't already or maybe even watch again
The Wire - TV
The Trip - Steve Coogan *gentle amusement - TV
Life - Eddie Murphy
In Bruges - Colin Farrell
Leon - Jean Reno
Fences - Denzel *don't skip this one (In fact all the Denzel movies)
Top Five - Chris Rock *don't skip this one either
All the Bourne's
Meet Joe Black - Brad Pitt (don't watch on a plane)
Salt - Big Lips
Layer Cake - Daniel Craig
Hoop Dreams
Knight and Day - TC (for Louise)
True Romance - Christian Slater (Louise might like this too)
Friday - Ice Cube
The Departed - DiCaprio
Snatch - Brad Pitt
Deadpools
Sexy Beast - Ben Kinsley (110% adults only)
The Fog of War - Robert McNamara *fascinating (don't watch on a plane)
Studio 54 - Docu
All Things Must Pass - Tower Records
Lenny Cooke - Remember His Face
1984 - John Hurt
Avitar
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Daniel Craig
Amazing Grace - Aretha
Blades's
Attack the Block (fun)
Contagion - Matt Demon (why not ;D)
Mr Church - Eddie Murphy (the man can *act*)
Sinner - Netflix
Ugly Delicious - Netflix and is awsome
Top Boy - Netflixhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyIoM_Nd8HtY19fuR_ov2A
Uncut Gems - Netflix (don't let Sandler put you off, KG is in it)
And to confirm all the Denzels, every single one
Youtube
Tiger Belly - Bobby Lee https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIyIoM_Nd8HtY19fuR_ov2A
Theo Von - https://www.youtube.com/user/theovonk and this stand up clip is great https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvzwmoZaNHQ&feature=emb_logo (2 tank tops in the winter)
Vlad TV - https://www.youtube.com/user/djvlad
Breakfast Club - https://www.youtube.com/user/breakfastclubpowerfm
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Actually
Christmas Is All Around
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciAsltEpCkw
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The Eddie Murphy recommendation reminds me of Mr Church.
Fair warning: it was panned by critics. According to Wikipedia, the Forbes reviewer said "It’s certainly possible the real-life Mr. Church was exactly as depicted, and loved his white 'family' more than anything else. Yet something tells me it would be more interesting to hear him narrate his own story, rather than have it expressed through the eyes of the privileged girl he served, whose life challenges were so easily solved all the time."
Whatever. I enjoyed it and thought Eddie Murphy was great (which critics agree with, they just disliked the movie).
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>True Lies
She may also enjoy "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".
Straying from original constraints...
Original "Band of Brothers" (whole series is a masterpiece).
Inglorious Basterds (Christoph Waltz performance)
Top Secret! (comedy)
Heat (De Niro & Pacino)
No Country for Old Men
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood)
Before Sunrise (Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy)
The Princess Bride
The Hunt for Red October
Spy Game (Redford and Pitt)
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>Before Sunrise
You have to watch the trilogy then.
Before Sunrise, 1995
Before Sunset, 2004
Before Midnight, 2013
All are the came couple through the years.
If you all are into dialog driven movies I'd also recommend:
Man from Earth
Boyhood (also Ethan Hawke)
Chef
Added
A dark comedy, but absolutely amazing:
The Death of Stalin
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Thanks littleman. I've seen the "before" trilogy, but not the others. I'll check them out.
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Life - Eddie Murphy
Mr Church - Eddie Murphy (the man can *act*)
The Eddie Murphy recommendation reminds me of Mr Church.
I only caught the Life rec when I read it for the first time. And it looks like both you and I disagree with the critics on that one.
Straying from original constraints...
True, but that list has several movies on there I really like. Again, it doesn't get mentioned much, but I also really like Gran Torino. Even better, several movies on that list I haven't seen and none that I have seen and disliked. So that bodes well.
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This list is from the number 2 most visited page on my blog. Traffic to it has surged over recent weeks. These movies were for family fare. A local TV station rotated through these on Sunday afternoons when I was a kid. The airtime was perfect to keep the kids busy while Mom cooked Sunday supper. These were aired year after year for 20 some years until my generation knew them by heart.
These are all old films: late 30's, 40's and 1950's. There are some clunkers like "Lloyd's of London" but there are also some good adventures for kids.
"Sink the Bismarck", "The 39 Steps" in particular remain favorites of mine.
These don't all conform to the original guidelines for this thread but I thought I'd copy them here anyway.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad
The 39 Steps (1959, Dir. Ralph Thomas, Starring Kenneth More)
A
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
B
The Black Shield of Falworth (Tony Curtis) (based on the book “Men of Iron” available for free)
Boys Town*
C
The Canterville Ghost*
Captain Blood
Captains Courageous (1937)
Charge of the Light Brigade
A Christmas Carol (Reginald Owen)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court* (1949) (Bing Crosby)
D
The Day the Earth Stood Still
G
Gulliver’s Travels
H
Hans Christian Anderson*
Heidi (Shirley Temple)
Houdini* (1953)
J
John Paul Jones (1959) (Robert Stack)
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Jungle Book (1942)
K
Kidnapped (1938)
King of Khyber Rifles
King Richard and the Crusaders (1954)
L
Lassie Come Home (1943)
The Little Princess (Shirley Temple)
Lloyd’s of London
The Lost World
M
The Mark of Zorro (1940) (Tyrone Power)
Miracle on 34th Street*
Moby d##k
My Friend Flicka
Mysterious Island
N
National Velvet*
A Night to Remember
Northwest Passage
P
The Prince and the Pauper
R
Robin Hood (1938)
S
The Seahawks
Sink the Bismarck
Snowfire*
The Song of Bernadette*
Stanley and Livingstone
The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935) Starring Paul Muni.
T
The Time Machine (1960) (Directed George Pal)
Tobor the Great
Treasure Island (1934) (Wallace Berry and Jackie Cooper)
U
Union Pacific* (1939)
W
When Worlds Collide* (1951)
Y
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Young Tom Edison* (1940) (Mickey Rooney)
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If you like oddball comedies :
Phil The Alien - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H-Af3U2yA8
Bad Milo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJ-7oJ9cqA
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Some good stuff in there. These are all from the last few years, and fit the original brief:
Yesterday [2019]
Wild Rose [2019]
Where'd You Go, Bernadette [2019]
Blinded By The Light [2019]
Fighting With My Family [2019]
The Shiny Shrimps [Subtitled, 2019]
Love, Simon [2018]
Christopher Robin [2018]
Lion [2017]
Hidden Figures [2017]
Wonder [2017]
American Made [2017]
Gifted [2017]
Midnight Special [2016]
Sing Street [2016]
Finding Dory [2016]
The Lady In The Van [2015]
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Wow! Thanks everyone. There are a lot of movies on those lists I haven't seen and generally the ones I've seen I've liked. I think that's more movie watching than I can do in just a single global pandemic.
Yesterday has been on my list for a while, but I'm hoping for an option to rent, rather than have to pay $20 or sign up for HBO.
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Fences - Denzel *don't skip this one (In fact all the Denzel movies)
Watched this a couple nights ago - good movie, but a tough one.
We also watched a few episode of Modern Love. Episodes 2-4 were okay, but episode 1 was great.
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>> Yesterday
I really liked this one. I was expecting to enjoy it, but thought the gag might wear thin, but I enjoyed it more than I thought. I would say why, but it would involve spoilers.
Also, recommended by my sister-in-law and a fun, "small" movie
- Daily Special
If nothing else, it has the best business card scene ever
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Just watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" which is trending on Netflix. Its funny, but also has a bit more to it.
It's sort of New Zealand's answer to "Peanut Butter Falcon," which is also a great watch.
The plots: troubled kids set off on quests with troubled adults.
Both are really good, fun, feel good movies.
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I'm a sucker for comedy these days. Got these on the list to rewatch for the 100th time.
Harlem Nights (Eddie Murphy)
4 Rooms (Tarantino)
For the Denzel fans; Equalizer I and II
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If you liked Hunt for the Wilderpeople I recommend other movies by Taika Waititi:
What We Do in the Shadows
Jojo Rabbit
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JoJo Rabbit has been on our watch list for a long time. It is one of the expensive ones (purchase only, $19.99) which we usually skip to be honest. At that price, I would much rather own the physical media, which at least can be loaned out or given away. It's actually cheaper on Blu-Ray. That makes no sense except that it shows the degree to which movies are impulse buys I guess.
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Netflix still rents DVDs -- think the base program is $8 for one DVD at a time. Its old fashion, but might be your least expensive legal option for harder to get movies like Jojo.
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I just saw that. You can get JoJo Rabbit and a lot of other movies on Netflix via DVD.
The Netflix movie offering has become really poor of late. I don't think I fully understood why Netflix got into the business of being a studio, but now as I see every studio break off and want to all hit me up for $10-$20/month to watch their stuff, I find very few good movies on Netflix these days. When I was looking to see how one could get JoJo Rabbit, it made me wonder whether I'd be better off with the Netflix DVD service than streaming.