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The Perfect Movie

colton

colton

All Around Nice Guy
Contributor
I caught the ending of The Princess Bride with my 16 year old daughter a day or two ago. We've of course seen it before, but were drawn in on a TV showing just before they stormed the castle. When it got over, my daughter said something like, "Why don't they make perfect movies any more?" I asked her what she meant, and she explained that most of her very favorite movies--ones that were done just perfectly in her estimation--tended to be from the 80s or 90s. That, combined with the recent Harold Ramis thread got me wondering--what are the perfect movies, movies which in my opinion accomplished their mission to the utmost extent and are a pleasure to watch over and over? Ones like the Princess Bride that I would probably not be able to turn away from were I to catch them playing on TV half way through. As a counter-example, I recently watched Frozen and while it was a great movie it clearly had a couple of problems in the storyline. The answer to this question will vary person by person, but I started making my own list.

(in alphabetical order)
Amadeus
Arsenic and Old Lace
Back to the Future
A Christmas Story
Groundhog Day
Mary Poppins
Men in Black
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Princess Bride
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Shrek
Star Wars (episode 4)
Strictly Ballroom

I could probably figure out a few others to include, but that's a good start. Anyone want to dispute my choices, or add to the list? (My own tastes clearly run to the PG variety.)
 
Good list. I agree with most of them you listed Colton.

Groundhog Day is IMO the most perfect movie, and one of the most brilliant movies ever made. They paid such attention to detail and carried it through what is actually a much more complex storyline than you would think on just one viewing with very few mistakes in continuity, and the acting, aside from the manikin named Andie McDowell, was superb. "Ned? Ned Bryerson?" *PUNCH*

Another for me was The Matrix. Not either of the sequels but the first was a classic work of art, not just a sci-fi movie, with groundbreaking filming techniques that greatly added to the story being told instead of being distracting as cutting edge filming tends to be, which has been copied in nearly every action movie since. Plus the use of real actors in most of the sequences and minor use of full-on CGI is impressive (this is one reason the sequels fell flat with fake-neo fighting a million fake-smiths....meh).

If we are talking about watchability, Mr. Deeds (the Sandler version) is right up there too.
 
This would be my whole list personally:

Home Alone 1 and 2
Goonies
Good Will Hunting
21
The Bourne Movies
Dumb and Dumber

And those also happen to be the only movies I own. Never have wanted to double watch anything else.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Another for me was The Matrix. Not either of the sequels but the first was a classic work of art, not just a sci-fi movie, with groundbreaking filming techniques that greatly added to the story being told instead of being distracting as cutting edge filming tends to be, which has been copied in nearly every action movie since.
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Good addition. I just watched it with my kids a month ago (edited version), and it is a great movie, perhaps "perfect".

Plus the use of real actors in most of the sequences and minor use of full-on CGI is impressive (this is one reason the sequels fell flat with fake-neo fighting a million fake-smiths....meh).
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That was one of my replies to my daughter about why so few modern movies make it on to the Perfect list--the use of CGI for the most part just makes otherwise great action scenes feel fake. And it's easy for screen writers to rely on special effects rather than actual plotting.

If we are talking about watchability, Mr. Deeds (the Sandler version) is right up there too.
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Haven't seen that one yet, I'll have to add it to my list. I loved Happy Gilmore, but most other Sandler movies are just "Meh" to me.
 
Many of those previously mentioned, and also:

Ruthless People
Edward Scissorhands
Bringing Up Baby
 
Most of the films you listed above were comedies for the whole family. For the most part these days Hollywood makes 2 types of comedies.

"Hard R" Kevin Smith/Seth Rogan type comedies aimed at the 20's/30's crowd.

Light-hearted Pixar/animation comedies aimed at the 8-12 year olds that aren't old enough to go to the movies by themselves so Mom and Dad come along and now you turn one ticket purchased into three.
 
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Prob the most perfect movie ever IMNSHO^.
 
colton said:
I just checked out IMDB for Mr. Deeds... 5.8/10. Maybe I won't add it to my "to watch" list after all. (sorry Loggrad)
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Yeah, to each their own, but I thought it was pretty bad even when it came out and I was a 14 yr old Adam Sandler fan at the time.

Maybe log means the Mr Deeds movie from 1936?? Never heard of it til I just googled.
 
candrew said:
Most of the films you listed above were comedies for the whole family. For the most part these days Hollywood makes 2 types of comedies.

"Hard R" Kevin Smith/Seth Rogan type comedies aimed at the 20's/30's crowd.

Light-hearted Pixar/animation comedies aimed at the 8-12 year olds that aren't old enough to go to the movies by themselves so Mom and Dad come along and now you turn one ticket purchased into three.
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Yes, the death of good, intelligent comedies has not gone unnoticed by me.
 
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