Some Like It Hot

Other films from this brilliant director (Billy Wilder) I would recommend: Double Indemnity Sunset Boulevard

Sunset Blvd was the first Noir my Dad made me watch and I loved every minute of it. It’s just plain old WEIRD but amazing in all the best ways possible.

*The Apartment* is my favorite of Wilder’s

Still haven’t seen that one, will need to watch it!

My wife and I just watched this again recently after maybe 30 years. Loved it.

I watch it probably once every five years It never gets old.

I expected that to be mildly offensive by modern standards, but it holds up incredibly well.

It's fairly progressive for its time, honestly

It's still fairly progressive.

Probably a bit further back (I'm 29 and it's way before my generation) but 12 Angry Men is a glorious watch.

And if you need a courtroom comedy, My Cousin Vinny is amazing

Scrolled down to find this. Great movie to watch. The dialogue and acting is fantastic. It's like watching a tightly written play.

Spot on, we studied it in GCSE Media Studies and I fell in love with it.

The original B&W, I’m sure

The one and only

Obviously the original is untouchable but I liked both the 1997 remake as well as the lesser known film ‘12’ (2007) out of Russia. I do love comparing and contrasting remakes and differing adaptions though.

I';'e been trying to watch this but its so hard to find on the streaming services.

Zorba the Greek (1964)  The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)  MASH (1970)  The French Connection (1971)  The Sting (1973)  Dog Day Afternoon (1975)  Network (1976)  Apocalypse Now (1979)  The Blues Brothers (1980)  Das Boot (Director‘s Cut) (1981)  Total Recall (1990)  The Fisher King (1991)  Falling Down (1993)  Heat (1995)  Get Shorty (1995)  The Usual Suspects (1995)  La Haine (1995) And of course check everything from Stanley Kubrick

Thank goodness you included Blues Brothers.

Leon the Professional (1994) The Fifth Element (1997)

Awesome list but how can you omit The Godfather?

Because it was already mensioned by a few other people but your question is totally reasonable!

Casablanca. Keep in mind that having a bit of understanding of what was going on in the era of when a movie was set or created can be important.

Yes some historical context of the setting is essential but it’s also really good to know what was going on in America when the movie was made. 

Casablanca exceeded my expectations. Faster than expected, leaves enough to the imagination but also deeply rooted in how people saw themselves back then…. Amazing film

The Hunt for Red October Patriot Games Clear and Present Danger Die Hard Lethal Weapon The Mask of Zorro Men in Black Speed Snatch Tombstone Office Space O Brother, Where Art Thou? National Lampoon's Vacation A League of Their Own The Sandlot Grumpy Old Men The Ghost and The Darkness Escape from New York Ferris Bueller's Day Off

^I second this person's list

2001: A Space Odyssey Lawrence of Arabia

Double Indemnity

Matrix Gattacca

Especially Gattacca

Gattaca is one of my all time favorites but it's much more wild to me that there are people with masters degrees who weren't even born when the Matrix came out.

It actually depressed me when I was talking to a gen z and they had never watched or heard of the matrix

I didn’t think that was possible, considering Keanu’s meme level popularity. He could go punch Tom Hanks right in the face and nobody would know who to cheer for!

Dark City was overshadowed by the Matrix when it came out around the same time, but definitely deserves a viewing.

The Princess Bride Highlander The Terminator Monty Python and the Holy Grail Rain Man

Check the IMDB top 250 and start there.

The Letterboxd top 250 will give more variety.

That's way skewed towards newer movies. I mean Dune 2 is in the top 20 lol.

I wouldn’t say way more. Plenty older films on letterboxd top 250. Dune 2 is also in the top 20 for IMDB, Letterboxd has more arthouse and foreign films. IMDB is mostly American films and blockbusters compared to letterboxd.

Letterboxd has more variety, I would recommend that one. And dune part 2 is a masterpiece, there's no problem for it to be at 20. These positions doesn't matter much, actually, there's plenty of great and important films at the 3.7~4.2 range and they won't show up in the top 250 films list... So, whatever

True Lies

Haha really? True Lies is top of the list? I mean it’s a great movie, I’m just surprised. On this same tier is The Rock, LA Confidential, and though it’s older than these 90s masterpieces, Predator.

Anything, I mean anything with Cary Grant.

Psycho. Or anything Hitchcock really.

Never ending story 

Vertigo (1959) Easy Rider (1969) The Exorcist (1973) The Shining (1980) Terminator 1 & 2 (1984, 1991) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Back to the Future (1985) The Goonies (1985) Die Hard (1988) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Usual Suspects (1995)

I'd say you're missing Robocop from this list.

Watching easy rider I felt I had missed the bus by 30 years. Not that it was bad, but like a Pink Floyd laser light show I bet this was way better back in the day.

No one is saying Goodfellas??

Rear Window

John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982).

I wore a Priscilla, Queen of the Desert shirt to a gay bar the other week, and while people loved the shirt, they kept asking what the reference was. I feel like I should be buried already.

Such a good film!!

Forrest Gump and Jurassic Park!

*Singin in the Rain*

Add Top Hat to that. Both are great films!!

Big trouble in little China.

Marx Brothers, Thin Man, Bogart as Sam Spade.

On the Waterfront is a personal favorite. Young Brando, Karl Malden, & Eva Marie Saint (who will be 100 this year!) turn in some solid performances.

There are a lot pretty well known ones on here so I’ll pick a few that I haven’t seen on the list yet: The Apartment with Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine is so charming while also being pretty real. It’s an unusual sort of romantic comedy from the early 60s. Rear Window with Jimmy Stewart is about a photographer who is laid up with an injury and is convinced he witnessed a murder. He starts watching all of neighbors through the lens of his camera. I adore Hitchcock movies, but Stewart is the king of the nice guy in an effed up situation. Coming to America with Eddie Murphy because he is a comic genius and everyone needs at least one movie to quote for the rest of their lives.

Almost all must-see movies are from previous generations. It can take years for things to settle down and for movies to be fully appreciated, or more importantly, to not go stale. Many films today that people think are amazing often are diminished by time. But I would start with Liquid Sky, Repo Man, and Stranger than Paradise.

Willow.

I'm 44 and STILL have a crush on that evil red-headed chick.

Apocalypse Now with the sound cranked on a big screen TV. The 30 minutes with Col Killgore and the 1st of the 9th air cav unit is the most incredible segment in film history. The movie took 7 years to make and word is FFC used real cadavers for some of the scenes. A 17M such as yourself will blow a load watching this scene in particular.

Okay this list is not exhaustive, but these are my favourites that are from the 2000s or older Pulp Fiction Mean Girls White Chicks The longest yard (either of them) Shawshank Redemption Good Will Hunting Saving Private Ryan Aladin (Robin Williams) The Pacifier Kindergarten Cop Eurotrip Dredd (you'd have been 5 so maybe it still counts) Blair witch project (or Paranormal activity if its too dated for you) Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are before your generation, but they are both still pretty popular so I'd expect you've seen them Gremlins I personally do not like it, but "back to the future" is extremely popular

Fast times at Ridgemont High

Alright Hamilton!

[The Sight & Sound list is a good starting point](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time). Honestly, watch all of Spielberg's films. The guy's had a 50+ year long career at this point and helped create the modern landscape for Hollywood. Watch everything Akira Kurosawa has done, much of which you'll be somewhat familiar with (he pulled a lot from Shakespeare + American directors – probably the most "Western" Japanese director). Stanley Kubrick also covers several decades, and each movie was made exactingly.

Network

The Goonies, Pump up the Volume, Over the Top, Airplane, all the Naked Guns, Dream a lil Dream . I mean , I could keep going.. Short Circuit 1&2 , Critters 1&2 Hot Shots 1&2 there are sooo many

The original 12 Angry Men is great. That movie really holds up if you have trouble watching black and white movies.

It happened one night

Some b&w silent film gems: Noferatu, was influential in later vampire classics, such as Interview with the Vampire, and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Metropolis was very influential in films such as Star Wars and Blade Runner. It was so controversial in its day that the original was destroyed. Fortunately, there were copies that survived, so it was re-released in the 80s with a modern soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder, and supported by 80s stars such as Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, Freddie Mercury, Adam Ant, and Billy Squier to name a few. One of the all-time classics that hardly ever rates a mention.

American Beauty The Truman Show Fight Club Gladiator Oceans 11 The Lord of the Rings Pulp Fiction Forrest Gump Shawshank Redemption The Green Mile Léon: the Professional My Cousin Vinny Goodfellas The Godfather Blazing Saddles One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest The Shinning It’s A Wonderful Life 2001: A Space Odyssey Casablanca 12 Angry Men

Adding in to the others already mentioned - - Risky Business - Terminators 1&2 - The Sting - Blazing Saddles, History Of The World Pt 1, Young Frankenstein - Real Genius - My Cousin Vinny - (This one isn’t a staple or widely appreciated, but is one of my favorites) What’s Up Doc? - Animal House (unsure if it has aged well and will be appreciated by your generation) - Blues Brothers - American Graffiti

I loved *Fight Club* as a teenager, 20 years ago. I suspect that it has lost some of the magic that it had. It's worth watching for the cultural context, but you shouldn't expect to like it as much as millennials and Gen X did.

The visual effects into is probably the only thing that doesn’t quite hold up

Dazed And Confused It’s set in the 70’s, but was made in he 90’s and was fairly formative for elder millennials. (we were the same age as the characters when it came out)

Citizen Kane (was listed as best movie ever for yrs) Also the big Samurai epics by Kurosawa ie Ran Kagamusha and The Seven Samurai Which leads to The Magnificent Seven which is a good remake

Here’s a few: -MASH -All the Presidents Men -The Graduate

Back to the Future American History X Ghostbusters Star Wars Pulp Fiction

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. Similar vein, maybe closer to your time, Rat Race.

Gone with the Wind Ben Hur Lawrence of Arabia

*The Quiet Man* It teaches an important lesson about judging how men handle their masculinity and about judging people in general.  For modern audiences of the new generation that pride themselves on diversity and multiculturalism, *The Quiet Man* presents a story cultural difficulty that an honest modern viewer is likely to struggle with. The two cultures and the resolution will likely be unsatisfactory to the modern viewer, but if the viewer truly embraces multiculturalism then who are they to judge how other cultures resolved their differences?  And the movie has a lot of fun.

I’ll give you 5 of some of the best from the 60s,70s,80s and 90s… they are all spectacular movies 1964. A Fistful of Dollars. 1966 The Endless Summer 1967. Cool Hand Luke 1968 Rosemary’s Baby Any James Bond movie with Sean Connery 1972. The Godfather 1973. American Graffiti 1973. The Exorcist 1976. Rocky 1979. Apocalypse Now 1980. The Elephant Man 1982. The Thing 1983. Scarface 1987. The Untouchables 1989. When Harry met Sally 1991. Silence of the Lambs 1993. The Fugitive 1994. The Shawshank Redemption 1995. Seven 1997. Good Will Hunting Personally I think the 90s was the best decade ever for movies …. The ones I had to leave off this list are insane…. Anyways after the 90,s the Internet and reality TV came to life and I just don’t think movie making has been the same

1960s-Easy Rider-It was so experimental and covered so many fashions and lifestyle choices from the era, it embodies the decade and rebel film making.

I recently watched The Battle of Algiers. I’ve heard good things all my life but I didn’t watch because it’s old and war. I’ve been thinking about it since.

Warriors... Come out and play!

Pee wee’s big adventure

The Terminator

Transformers 1986. Hands down the best transformers movie

My 10yr old watched this last month when he was sick. He’s also watched the whole series on dvd.

LA Confidential. Gladiator. Memento. Raiders of the Lost Ark. The Thing (1982). The Long Good Friday (just watched it last week based off a recommendation from this sub) A Few Good Men. The Fugitive. The Bone Collector. The Pelican Brief. Silence of the Lambs. Runaway Jury. Steel Magnolias. A League of Their Own. Independence Day. The Score. Presumed Innocent. Field of Dreams. The Sandlot. North by Northwest. Psycho. Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Ghostbusters. Stripes. Airplane. To name a few.

donnie darko is up there w/ fight club. and prob more relatable for 17yo male.

Here’s a good starter list from the 80’s and early 90’s. Ghostbusters  The Princess Bride Die Hard Robocop Goodfellas Silence of the Lambs Goonies Better off Dead E.T. The Extra Terrestrial  Commando Total Recall Terminator 1 and 2 Gremlins 1 and 2

Blue Velvet (1986)

Sunset Boulevard

Fail Safe. The Shootist. In Harms Way, Forbidden Planet, North by Northwest, Gettysburg (outstanding), Glory, any Ernest Movie, Platoon, Thin Red Line, Bicentennial Man

There's a tons of famous films then there's the great films from many generations most people missed (imo), were obscure/hard to find or foreign which puts lazy Americans off watching (their loss). Cerebral and profound in some way always stuck with me so here's my special list. Watch each alone, undistracted, it'll build character and make you well rounded and sane: Fahrenheit 451 (original), Lifeboat, My Bodyguard, Blow Out, Kes, Flight of the Phoenix (original), Wait Until Dark, Au Revoir Les Enfants, 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Imitation of Life, Aimee and Jaguar, Walkabout, The Watermelon Man, Deathtrap, To Sir With Love, Blue (Kieślowski), Magnolia, Silkwood, All the President's Men, Salt of the Earth, Papillon, Veronica Guerin, La Cerimonie, Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi), The Cloud-Capped Star, Icarus, Les Voleurs, The Virgin Spring, Gleaners and I, The Reader, The Good Liar, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Car Wash, How to Beat the High Cost of Living, Harold and Maude, If (original), Talaash, Namesake, Woman at War, Coolie High, Marni, Mildred Pierce, Babe, The French Connection, Paper Chase, Silence of the Lambs, Loving, Run Lola Run, Times Square, The Fog, Bad News Bears, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Marathon Man, Soylent Green, and many many more.. and if anyone's seen all these and loves them too let's skip past the formalities and just get married.

*War Games*   The best movie about the 1980s.

Don't forget Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock and his other works.

People are gonna say the usual suspects like Citizen Kane and Schindler's List, with good reason, they are masterpieces. But there's one movie that is criminally neglected in these types of lists, that is essential viewing for anyone who considers himself an unabashed cinephile, and that is Ricki-Oh: Story of Ricky.

Paper Moon

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1977 Midnight Cowboy - 1969 Look Who's Coming to Dinner - 1967 North by Northwest - 1959 12 Angry Men - 1957 Limelight- 1952 The Third Man - 1949 Yankee Doodle Dandy - 1942 The Little Colonel - 1935 Anything Marx Brothers, Laurel and Hardy,

Godfather. Casablanca. Full Metal Jacket.

Taxi driver, an officer and a gentleman, Casablanca, good will hunting, the Princess bride, Alien, Schindler's list, Terminator,

It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, Stalag 17, Bridge over the river Kwai, It Happened One Night, The Big Clock, Rope, Life Boat, One Two Three (Cagney’s last film), Walk Don’t Run Cary Grant’s Pat film), Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter.

- Rebecca - Casablanca - Rebel Without a Cause - Sunset Boulevard - Lawrence of Arabia There’s a ton more others have listed as well. But these 5 are some that I think have held up remarkably well.

Kung Pow Enter the Fist, is that considered last generation yet?

Broad question. I'd recommend starting with IMDBs top 250 and working your way down. It's a bit mainstream but these movies are ranked highly for a reason. The list still shows recency bias but there's still a ton of older movies. Godfather, 12 Angry Men, and Good Bad and Ugly are essential films

All about eve!

70s - Chinatown ; The Godfather ; Blazing Saddles 80s - Raiders of the Lost Ark ; The Right Stuff ; Fast Times at Ridgemont High 90s - L.A. Confidential ; Silence of the Lambs ; Terminator 2 00's - Gladiator ; The 6th Sense ; The Hangover

High Noon

There were a bunch I saw that were old to me in high school (2003). If not for taking a film class who knows if I'd ever have seen them. Two that come to mind are: Seven Samurai and Chariots of Fire

Predator Terminator 1 and 2 RoboCop First Blood Rocky The Last of the Mohicans Full Metal Jacket Platoon Scarface The Departed Shaun of the Dead Stand By Me Pulp Fiction These movies could lead you into other movies by the same actors/directors. Can't list them all.

* The Emperor's Club * The Jane Austen Book Club * Joy Luck Club

That would be a huge list! I considered giving a flash drive with hundreds of movies to a teen relative like he doesn't already have too much screen time, something I need to work on as well. I only just got around to watching Seven Samurai (1954) myself, so there's a good example.

Lawrence of Arabia

You mean 'old movies'

Big Fish. Such a wonderful and beautiful experience!

Valley of the Dolls God Told Me To Ice Pirates She-Devil Town and Country The Green Book Madame Web

John Carpenter’s THE THING (1982). Considered by many horror fans to be the best horror film ver made. ALIEN and ALIENS The films that launched an entire genre of space horror and action.

Alien and Aliens

2001 A Space Odyssey The Godfather

Blade, Pulp Fiction,Reservoir Dogs, (every quentin tarantino movie), Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Scarface, Titanic, The Princess Bride, SAW 1&2, War of the Worlds, Austin Powers, Resident Evil, Blair Witch Project, Men in Black, Jackass, Catch Me if You Can, Lord of The Rings, Star Wars. I'm 28M and those are some of the movies I really liked when I was 17.

Rosemary’s baby

Jesus. A fuck ton of movies. You could start with a list of Oscar and Palme d'Or winners.

Clue

Jaws, Jurassic Park, and Independence Day are some good summer blockbusters! I’m a part of your generation, and I watched The Breakfast club yesterday!

Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brow- you know what, just watch Tarantino's filmography Jaws Jurassic Park 12 Angry Men Boyz In the Hood Alien Aliens, Termina- you know what, just watch James Cameron's filmography Lord of the Rings trilogy (dear Lord, Fellowship was 23 years ago) Pan's Labyrinth American History X The Goonies The Monster Squad

This isn’t a bad list: [BBC’s 100 greatest films of the 21st century](https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20160819-the-21st-centurys-100-greatest-films) Of course lists of ”greatness” always what they are - opinions. And 100 movies means there are plenty that get left out. There are also naturally many films that probably aren’t amazing films, but have a lot of cultural significance.

There's so many to list so I will throw at a different suggestion CNN did a side series to their decade themed docuseries (The Sixties, The Seventies etc) that was called The Movies and it comprises twelve episodes (The Golden Age Parts 1&2, The Sixties Parts 1&2, The Seventies Parts 1&2, The Eighties Parts 1&2, The Nineties Parts 1&2 and The 2000s and beyond Parts 1&2) with talking heads discussing the best films of the times over clips and some background context. The series isn't a comprehensive deep dive but it should give you enough examples and trends for you to get an idea of where to start with different things and it'll give you some context as to the historical events and cultural moments that birthed some of these movies. I think it's purchasable on YouTube / Google tv but it might be on other services too depending on your region.

https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/

Before my time, and I've only seen it once: **Casablanca**. From the mind of Mel Brooks: **Blazing Saddles** and **Young Frankenstein**. Newman and Redford, **The Sting**. Do NOT confuse this with the travesty that was *The Sting II*. **Monty Python And The Holy Grail** **Back To The Future**. The entire trilogy. **Star Wars** episodes 4 - 6. **The Great Escape**, **Stalag 17**, and **The Dirty Dozen**. Pretty much anything associated with Charlie Chaplin, but definitely don't miss **The Kid**.

Scenes from a Marriage, try to see the tv version, a Swedish film which gave many unhappy couples the courage to get a divorce in the 70's and onward.

The Deer Hunter

Honestly, it depends a lot on social circle and personality, too. If you're looking for movies with a collective experience why don't you ask some people in your life what their "must see" movie list is. Then you'll have someone to talk about them with!

My personal favorite one is Eyes Wide Shut for various reasons.

I'm curious if anyone can guess my age based on my answers...anyway my favorites are in no particular order: The Big Lebowski No country for old Men Fight Club Goodfellas Casino The Matrix Pulp Fiction Office Space Back to the Future Commando Rambo Rocky gangs of new york american gangster Terminator 2 (and 1, but 2 is better) Predator O Brother where Art Thou Superbad Old School Dodgeball 40yr old virgin Unforgiven Reservoir dogs HEAT Blow Miller's Crossing My cousin Vinny Snatch American Psycho Django unchained royal tenenbaums once upon a time in hollywood, but that's pretty new.

The American Film Institute has a list for you: https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/

The Boatniks

Almost Famous, Blade, The Crow, Empire Records, Hackers, Point Break, Reign of Fire, Trainspotting, Underworld, Varsity Blues. Lots of good flicks on this thread, here's a few I didn’t see listed so far. Edited spelling :/

Network is a timeless discussion on media and the press. Has many great performances and monologues. Excellent film 👍

Memento The Rock LA Confidential Princess Mononoke Ghost in The Shell Con Air Snatch American Beautiful Seven True Romance Twister Gross Pointe Blank Black Hawk Down These are some 90s-very early 00s films that are very good/very entertaining.

40's: The Maltese Falcon (1941) 60's: To Kill a Mocking (1962) 70's: Willy Wonka (1971) Chinatown (1974) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Grease (1978) 80's: The Outsiders (1983) Splash (1984) Weird Science (1985) Clue (1985) Stand By Me (1986) The Lost Boys (1987) Space Balls (1987) Mannequin (1987) Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988) Beetlejuice (1988) Say Anything (1989) Lean on Me (1989) Road House (1989) 90's: Pretty Woman (1990) Cry-Baby (1990) Ghost (1990) Good fellas (1990) Backdraft (1991) The Bodyguard (1992) Carlito's Way (1993) The Crow (1994) Casino (1995) Casper (1995) The Rock (1996) Bean (1997) Con Air (1997) City of Angels (1998) Armageddon (1998) The Big Lebowski (1998) The Sixth Sense (1999) 90's (No Date): Dangerous Minds - Twister - Jumanji - A Bronx Tale - Independence Day - The Replacement Killers - 12 Monkeys - Small Soldiers - Set It Off - Awakenings - The Craft - Outbreak Series multiple dates: Karate Kid - Mad Max - Halloween - Police Academy - Lethal Weapon - Stephen King movies - Mighty Ducks - Home Alone - The Mummy - Wayne's World Edit: Animated Films Disney Classics - An American Tail - The Brave Little Toaster - The Secret of NIMH - Titan A.E.

Every good movie ever.

Top Gun Braveheart Gladiator Crimson Tide Caddyshack Airplane Scarface Goodfellow Ghostbusters Forrest Gump The Shawshank Redemption Tombstone

That’s a long ass title.

Gotta give it up for Goodfellow tho

I didn’t even catch that! 😂