Movies that are Perfect:

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Snark218

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  • #1
    What counts as a perfect (or near-perfect) movie? I got into this discussion with my wife and a few friends this weekend, and my buddy advanced the notion that there are some movies that absolutely hit on all levels - writing, cinematography, editing, pacing, performances, music, story, visual style, as an expression of a genre, as an example of the cinematic art of telling stories visually.

    But it's not necessarily your favorite movie! Many of my favorite movies have major flaws with one or several of the aspects mentioned above and some of the below movies I do not count among my favorites - or even on my rewatch list. But there's substantial overlap with favorite movies, because of course there is. And it needn't be a movie that aged particularly well, though most "perfect movies" tend to age better than their contemporaries. Even pop-culture, blockbuster-type movies can be perfect examples of that genre, which is why I include Top Gun as maybe the best spectacle movie of all time even if it's no Citizen Kane.

    Here's my entirely non-inclusive initial list that I came up with a few beers deep. James Cameron, Ridley Scott, and Denis Villeneuve are heavily overrepresented here, I notice.

    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ranking the rest is debatable, this one is not for me)
    Princess Bride
    Terminator 2
    Jurassic Park
    The Usual Suspects
    Chinatown
    The Martian
    LA Confidential
    The Godfather and Part II
    The Shining
    Alien
    Aliens
    Blade Runner (Final Cut)
    Blade Runner 2049 (I said what I said)
    Titanic (fuckin come at me, it'll be harder than you think)
    Top Gun
    Mad Max: Fury Road
    Godzilla Minus One
    Pulp Fiction
    The Matrix
    Back To the Future
    Parasite
    Arrival
    Toy Story
    28 Days Later

    And the debatable ones, brought to you largely by Nolan and Tarantino, which sure tracks, doesn't it:

    Oppenheimer
    Interstellar
    Top Gun: Maverick
    Pulp Fiction
    Django Unchained
    Fight Club
    Shaun of the Dead
    Sicario
    No Country for Old Men
     
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    thrillhouse

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  • #3
    Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (ranking the rest is debatable, this one is not for me)
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    Raiders of the Lost Ark is far better, IMO. I'd put Crusade third.


    Top Gun: Maverick
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    I just don't get this. It was an OK sequel at BEST. Good popcorn movie. Meh.

    ----------------

    Some obvious omissions:

    Star Wars
    The Empire Strikes Back
    Jaws
    ET
    Saving Private Ryan
    The Silence of the Lambs

    ----------------
    My personal choices:

    Hot Fuzz (Shaun of the dead was spectacular, but Hot Fuzz is perfection.)

    Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

    Snatch

    The Incredibles

    Predator

    Prey

    The Sound of Music

    Tropic Thunder
     
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    fitten

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  • #4
    You got most of mine (plus a few I've never seen) but I don't agree with a few on your list. Probably in the minority but I think "The Breakfast Club" is up there, too... character development, characters' introspections, music, etc. along with the huge loose end at the end... despite their characters' bonding and the characters discussing it, thinking that they will just fall back into what's comfortable, will the characters, or some of them, actually change come Monday? They leave that up to the movie watcher to decide and fill in with their imagination, which I think is great.
     
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    Snark218

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  • #11
    thrillhouse said:
    Raiders of the Lost Ark is far better, IMO. I'd put Crusade third.




    I just don't get this. It was an OK sequel at BEST. Good popcorn movie. Meh.

    ----------------

    Some obvious omissions:

    Star Wars
    The Empire Strikes Back
    Jaws
    ET
    Saving Private Ryan
    The Silence of the Lambs

    ----------------
    My personal choices:

    Hot Fuzz (Shaun of the dead was spectacular, but Hot Fuzz is perfection.)

    Kill Bill Vol 1 & 2

    Snatch

    The Incredibles

    Predator

    Prey

    The Sound of Music

    Tropic Thunder
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    re: Maverick: yes, but it was a perfect popcorn movie in my view. That's what makes this tricky! It's not an all time favorites list. It might not be a favorite at all, like Toy Story.

    I like your additions (nothing was omitted, I knew it wasn't comprehensive and said so) but disagree with Kill Bill and Tropic Thunder.
     
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    BigVince

    BigVince

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  • #20
    CrackFraggle said:
    The Blues Brothers (original)

    I may be biased.
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    I would argue that at the time it was released it was the best action movie ever, the comedy and musical performances are just gravy!

    Id like to also add that there are scenes in that movie could never ever be done in film again.
     
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    MichaelC

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  • #21
    Robocop
    Prey
    John Carpenter's The Thing
    Ronin (1998)
    Shakespeare in Love
    Hero (2002)
    Unforgiven
    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
    Any Given Sunday
    Alien
    Terminator
    The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
    Voices of a Distant Star (2002)
    Kubo and the Two Strings
    Airplane!
    Young Frankenstein
    High Noon
    Jaws
     
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    Scifigod

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  • #23
    I agree with a lot of the choices already presented so I'll put forward a couple of options:
    • Die hard
    • Smokey and the bandit
    • Galaxy quest
    • Starship troopers
    You can probably debate on how well they interpreted the source material in the case of troopers or that galaxy quest doesn't work without a knowledge of Star Trek. I think all things considered these movies accomplish exactly what they set out to do.
     
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    BigVince

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  • #26
    Quick list

    Titanic (1997)
    Heat (1995)
    Groundhog Day (1993)
    Donnie Darko (2001)
    Scott Pilgrim VS the World (2010)
    The Terminator (1984)
    Shaun Of The Dead (2004)
    Lost in Translation (2003)
    The Usual Suspects (1995)
    Psycho (1960)
    The Big Lebowski (1998)
    E.T. (1982)
    Inglourious Basterds (2009)
    Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
    Saving Private Ryan (1998)
    Forrest Gump (1994)
    Point Break (1991)
    Ghostbusters (1984)
    Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
    Die Hard (1988)
    Fight Club (1999)

    There are more that i would call perfect or close to perfect, perfect to me anyway!
     
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    papadage

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  • #27
    vassago said:
    Kung Fu Panda
    Smokey and the Bandit
    The Big Lebowski
    Ip Man
    Iron Man (the first one, before all of the MCU got exhausting and terrible)
    Dumb and Dumber
    Click to expand...

    Iron Man is excellent, but the ending is anti-climactic. Captain America: Winter Soldier would be my nominee from the MCU. And Blade from the pre-MCU Marvel stable.
     
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    BigVince

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  • #30
    papadage said:
    Iron Man is excellent, but the ending is anti-climactic. Captain America: Winter Soldier would be my nominee from the MCU. And Blade from the pre-MCU Marvel stable.
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    I'd go for Avengers: End Game as representative of Marvel for perfect movie. It ties up most if not all loose threads in the MCU up until that time and manages to setup the next phase of MCU movies, all while being a gut twisting emotional send off to Iron man and a being a spectacular action movie.
     
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    Doomlord_uk

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  • #32
    The hard part here is choosing between a favourite film (The Fast & The Furious Tokyo Drift) and a perfect film (Lost In Translation). I have a longish list of favourite movies, all of which I think are good movies, but that can be for various reasons. But if I try to take an objective view, it's easy to point out the flaws in them. It's just that I don't mind them :) Also, movies, like music, can act as totems and milestones in our personal lives in a way that is meaningless to anyone else. So eliminating that bias is important too.
     
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    yd

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  • #34
    papadage said:
    The Thing also. It's a brilliant ensemble film that fits a lot of plot, tension, suspense, conflict, and characterization into less than 1:50.
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    Yup, that was my second thought.

    However, if can pick one only as 'perfect'......I am going to go with

    Under the Skin - it beautifully filmed, unscripted, fucked up, interesting, visually stunning and is just...perfect

    Don't get me wrong, I have a looooooooong list of great movies but if you said pick one to just show what a movie can do, thats my vote
     
    NervousEnergy

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  • #36
    History of the World Part I had pretty much no flaws for a comedy. Virtually every line is quote worthy. Every cast choice brilliant.

    Snark218 said:
    Blade Runner (Final Cut)
    Blade Runner 2049 (I said what I said)
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    2049 was the rare sequel that met, and in some ways exceeded the original. IIRC it didn't do all that great at the box office, but I thought the movie was a masterpiece.

    Unforgiven and The Outlaw Josie Whales are the greatest westerns ever filmed.

    Star Wars was the single most purely entertaining movie I have ever seen.
     
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    Snark218

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  • #39
    MichaelC said:
    Ronin (1998)
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    So, we're friends now. I just thought you needed to know that.

    Because GOD DAMN was Ronin a perfect movie. I'm ashamed I didn't think of it straight off. Just the dialogue alone was a master class, and that's before we get into the car chases. "Ever killed anybody?" "Eh, I hurt someone's feelings once."
     
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    Snark218

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  • #40
    Doomlord_uk said:
    The hard part here is choosing between a favourite film (The Fast & The Furious Tokyo Drift) and a perfect film (Lost In Translation). I have a longish list of favourite movies, all of which I think are good movies, but that can be for various reasons. But if I try to take an objective view, it's easy to point out the flaws in them. It's just that I don't mind them :) Also, movies, like music, can act as totems and milestones in our personal lives in a way that is meaningless to anyone else. So eliminating that bias is important too.
    Click to expand...
    Lost in Translation! Deep cut, but I agree.
     
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