Jump to content

"Benzo-safe" movies to watch during withdrawal -- Now Partially Indexed (Pg. 1)


[Al...]

Recommended Posts

Hi BBs,

 

I'm being a bad boy again, 'cause this should probably be under "Chewing the Fat" or somewhere else on the site. If Pamster's on the prowl it won't last long here before she moves it.  ;)

 

But in feeling so much anxiety during withdrawal and insomnia and hypersensitivity I just can't watch the wide array of movies I used to. I used to love good action movies, prison movies, murder mysteries etc. etc. And I'm sure I will again. But for now they just rev up my system too much and just aren't healthy for me to watch, esp at night. So I thought I'd start a thread of "Benzo-safe movies to watch" you know -- good movies with a good story line that aren't over-the-top with noise, violence, intensity etc.

 

"Benzo-Safe" Movies Index

 

About the Index: Movies recommended within this index are intended to be "Benzo-Safe" to watch during benzo tapering or withdrawal. That is, the intention is that they would not contain hard-core violence, intense themes, language etc. that may be disturbing to some viewers -- like us. However, because this is an open forum, (and 'cause I don't "do" warranties) there is no "Benzo-Safe" warranty, express or implied. In fact, these movies have  been tested "Benzo-safe" by a sum total of ZERO independent laboratories. So, read the reviews, use your discretion and view at your own... well, you get my gist.

 

The recommendations are from your fellow Benzo Buddies and the movie ratings are from Rotten Tomatoes, an online site which aggregates critics' reviews. The Positive Reviews % is the percentage of critics who gave the movie in question a favorable review. The synopsis and consensus that follow are also from Rotten Tomatoes. Also, the Benzo Buddy who originally recommended the movie is listed.

 

Don't see your favorite movies? Reply to this thread and I'll add them to the index.

 

The movies are grouped alphabetically under each genre. The index is evolving (VERY SLOWLY) not unlike my recovery. So don't feel slighted if your movie hasn't made the list yet. It probably will, the good Lord and my recovery and energy levels willing.

 

 

Action/Adventure:

 

 

Book of Eli -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 47% Positive. Audience: 68% Liked It. Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman. A post-apocalyptic Western, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind. Consensus: It's certainly uneven, and many viewers will find that its reach exceeds its grasp, but The Book of Eli finds the Hughes brothers injecting some fresh stylish fun into the kind of post-apocalyptic wasteland filmgoers have seen more than enough of lately.

 

The Bourne Identity {Some viewers may find too intense and violent} -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo.  82% Positive Reviews. Matt Damon, Franka Potente. The spy thriller opens as an amnesiac is rescued at sea by the crew of an Italian fishing boat. Nearly dead, he carries nothing but the bullets in his back and the bank account number embedded in his hip. Although completely without identity or background, he possesses an array of extraordinary talents in fighting, linguistics and self-defense that speaks of a dangerous past. Consensus: Matt Damon makes a convincing action hero in this solid, if old-fashioned (in the good sense), thriller.

 

The Bourne Supremacy {Some viewers may find too intense and violent} -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo.  81% Positive Reviews. Matt Damon, Franka Potente. Two years ago, Jason Bourne thought he had walked away from his past. But now, his past is about to return. Bourne and Marie have maintained their anonymous, underground existence at the cost of permanence. Fueled by splintered nightmares and haunted by the past he cannot remember, Bourne moves Marie from city to city, trying to remain one step ahead of the threat implicit in every unexplained stranger's glance, every "wrong number" phone call -- that at any second, without any warning, he might get pulled back into the world he hopes he left behind. Consensus: A well-maded sequel that delivers the thrills.

 

The Bourne Ultimatum {Some viewers may find too intense and violent} -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 93% Positive Reviews. Matt Damon, Julia Stiles. Matt Damon returns as the trained assassin Jason Bourne for the latest showdown in The Bourne Ultimatum.  All he wanted was to disappear. Instead, Jason Bourne is now hunted by the people who made him what he is. Having lost his memory and the one person he loved, he is undeterred by the barrage of bullets and a new generation of highly-trained killers. Consensus: The Bourne Ultimatum is an intelligent, finely tuned non-stop thrill ride. Another strong performance from Matt Damon and sharp camerawork from Paul Greengrass make this the finest installment of the Bourne trilogy.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 90% Positive Reviews. Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin. Two 19th-century train robbers keep one step ahead of the law until finally tracked down in Bolivia.  Two 19th-century train robbers keep one step ahead of the law until finally tracked down in Bolivia.

 

Crocodile Dundee --  BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. Paul Hogan, Linda Kozlowski. An American reporter goes to the Australian outback to meet an eccentric crocodile poacher and invites him to New York City.

 

Heat -- BB recommendation from: D. 86% Positive Reviews. Al Pacino, Robert De Niro. Neil McCauley is a hardened professional criminal who has spent many years behind bars and is determined never to go back. A highly focused loner, McCauley's protection is that there's nothing in his life that he can't walk away from in 30 seconds flat. Vincent Hanna is a lieutenant of detectives in LAPD's Robbery/Homicide Division who searches through the remains of a crime for the scent of his prey and then hunts them down.

 

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 77% Positive Reviews. Harrison Ford. Directed by Steven Spielberg. After being forced to leave Marshall College under dubious circumstances, Indy joins forces with rebellious, young Mutt, who believes he knows the whereabouts of one of the most spectacular archeological finds in history--the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary object of fascination, superstition and fear. Consensus: Though the plot elements are certainly familiar, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull still delivers the thrills and Harrison Ford's return in the title role is more than welcome.

 

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 89% Positive Reviews. Harrison Ford, Sean Connery. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Indiana and his father outwit the Nazis in their attempt to find the Holy Grail.  Indiana and his father outwit the Nazis in their attempt to find the Holy Grail.

 

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 85% Positive Reviews. Harrison Ford. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Set in 1935, a professor, archaeologist, and legendary hero by the name of Indiana Jones is back in action in his newest adventure. But this time he teams up with a night club singer named Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott and a twelve-year-old boy named Short Round. They end up in an Indian small distressed village, where the people believe that evil spirits have taken all their children away after a sacred precious stone was stolen!

 

Men in Black -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 91% Positive. Audience: 73% Liked It. Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith. Two men who keep an eye on aliens in New York City must try to save the world after the aliens threaten to blow it up. Consensus: MIB has plenty of spectacle, but its clever script and charismatic leads are what carry the film. Its mixture of comedy and cool makes for a whole lot of fun.

 

Raiders of the Lost Ark -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 94% Positive Reviews. Harrison Ford. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Archeologist and university professor Indiana Jones must retrieve the mythic Lost Ark of the Covenant before the it gets into the hands of Adolf Hitler who plans on using its power to guarantee his global conquest. Consensus: Featuring bravura set pieces, sly humor, and white-knuckle action, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the most consummately entertaining adventure pictures of all time.

 

Run Lola, Run -- BB recommendation from: leena. 92% Positive Reviews. A young woman in Germany has twenty minutes to find and bring 100,000 Deutschmarks to her boyfriend before he robs a supermarket. Consensus: More fun than a barrel of Jean-Paul Sartre, pic's energy riffs on an engaging love story and really human performances while offering a series of what-ifs and a blood-stirring soundtrack.

 

Starsky and Hutch -- BB recommendation from: leena. 64% Positive Reviews. Two streetwise cops (Stiller and Wilson) bust criminals in their red-and-white Ford Torino with the help of police snitch called Huggy Bear (Snoop Dogg). Consensus: Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson enliven a comedy comprising mostly of sight gags.

 

The Super -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. No Reviews available. After his wife falls under the influence of a drug dealer, an everyday guy transforms himself into Crimson Bolt, a superhero with the best intentions, though he lacks for heroic skills.

 

Tombstone -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 77% Positive. Audience: 93% Liked It. Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer. Shirley's a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, who finds herself talking to the wall while she prepares her husband's chip'n'egg, wondering what happThe life and times of the famous cowboy outlaw turned town-taming marshall, Wyatt Earp. Story focuses on the build up to the gunfight at the OK Corral, located at the outskirts of the town of Tombstone, Arizona.

 

 

Classics:

 

The African Queen (1952) Action/Drama/Romance -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn. Director: John Huston. A burly ship captain helps the old maid sister of a dead missionary ellude the Germans while not to killing each other on a boat ride through Africa.

 

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, Lee Remick, George C. Scott, Eve Arden. Director: Otto Preminger. A defense lawyer takes on a case of a man accused of murdering a bartender who apparently raped his wife.  A defense lawyer takes on a case of a man accused of murdering a bartender who apparently raped his wife.  Consensus: One of cinema's greatest courtroom dramas, Anatomy of a Murder is tense, thought-provoking, and brilliantly acted, with great performances from James Stewart and George C. Scott.

 

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) Drama/Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 90% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant. Actresses Josephine Hull and Jean Adair reprise their Broadway performances as two gentle old ladies who poison men with elderberry wine to put them out of their misery. Cary Grant plays one nephew, a normal guy who just gets wind of their little hobby and tries to get them to stop, while Raymond Massey plays another, a villain just escaped from jail.

 

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) Romance/Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 86% Positive Reviews. Audrey Hepburn, George Peppard. Director: Blake Edwards.  A lonely, struggling writer becomes enchanted with his neighbor: an independent young woman who strives to be a high-climbing socialite with a penchance for high-fashion and wild parties. But, soon he uncovers the vulnerability she has at heart.

 

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Drama/Action -- BB recommendation from: Albie.  95% Positive Reviews. William Holden, Alec Guinness, After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it. Consensus: This complex war epic asks hard questions, resists easy answers, and boasts career-defining work from star Alec Guinness and director David Lean.

 

The Caine Mutiny (1954) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie.  91% Positive Reviews. Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray, Van Johnson. A captain of a US Navy destroyer during World War II begins to crack under pressure, expressing odd behavior and is forcibly relieved by his second in command, but then a trial ensues to uncover who was in the right.

 

Casablanca (1942) Drama/Romance -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 97% Positive Reviews. Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains. Classic film set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II. Rick Blaine, who owns a nightclub in Casablanca, discovers his old flame Ilsa is in town with her husband, Victor Laszlo. Laszlo is a resistance leader, and with Germans on his tail, Ilsa knows Rick can help them get out of the country - but will he? Consensus: An undisputed masterpiece and perhaps Hollywood's quintessential statement on love and romance, Casablanca has only improved with age, boasting career-defining performances from Humphrey Bogart and Ingred Bergman.

 

Cat Ballou (1965) Comedy/Western -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Jane Fonda, Lee Marvin, Michael Callan, Dwayne Hickman. A young woman returning to her Wyoming town finds her father murdered because he refused to sell his ranch. To enact revenge she enlists the help of a sharpshooting gunslinger.

 

Charade (1965) Mystery/Suspense Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 91% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn star in this stylish comedy-thriller directed by Stanley Donen, very much in a Hitchcock vein. Grant plays Peter Joshua, who meets Reggie Lampert (Hepburn) in Paris and later offers to help her when she discovers that her husband has been murdered. After the funeral, Reggie is summoned to the embassy and warned by agent/friend Bartholemew (Walter Matthau) that her late husband helped steal 250,000 dollars during the war and that the rest of the gang is after the money as well.

 

Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) Comedy/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. No reviews available. Though it's impossible to gauge just how much of it is true, this endearing family comedy (based on the book by their children Frank B. Gilbreth Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey) is inspired by the true story of the husband-and-wife efficiency experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their adventures raising 12 kids at the turn of the century.

 

Cool Hand Luke (1965) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Paul Newman, George Kennedy, Dennis Hopper, Strother Martin, Wayne Rogers. Paul Newman was nominated for an Oscar and George Kennedy received one for his work in this allegorical prison drama. Luke Jackson (Paul Newman) is sentenced to a stretch on a southern chain gang after he's arrested for drunkenly decapitating parking meters. While the avowed ambition of the captain (Strother Martin) is for each prisoner to get their mind right, it soon becomes obvious that Luke is not about to kowtow to anybody. Luke knows how to win at poker, even with bad cards, by using his smarts and playing it cool. Soon, Luke becomes a symbol of hope and resilience to the other men in the prison camp -- and a symbol of rebelliousness that must be stamped out to the guards and the captain. Consensus: A stellar script and one of Paul Newman's most indelible performances.

 

The Dirty Dozen (1967)  Action/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 95% Positive Reviews. Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Ryan, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Donald Sutherland. During World War II, an American Major is given the task of recruiting 12 soldiers from an American military prison for a special guerrilla mission that will give them the chance to regain their honor.

 

Fail-Safe (1964) Drama/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 92% Positive Reviews. Henry Fonda, Walter Matthau, Larry Hagman. A transmission blunder sets a convoy of bombers off to drop nuclear bombs on Moscow, and it's too late to get them to turn back. The President and the military brass are forced to confront the apocalyptic demise that looms before them and resort to drastic measures to save the world.

Father Goose (1964) Comedy/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 75% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant, Leslie Caron. As the unshaven, messy misanthrope Walter Eckland, a World War II-era beach bum who monitors Japanese air activity for the Australian navy in exchange for booze, Grant makes a convincingly hard-bitten, hard-drinking antihero. Until, that is, a pretty French schoolmistress (Leslie Caron) and her seven little charges (all girls) survive a nearby plane crash and invade Eckland's raunchy isolation.

 

The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) Action/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Christian Marquand, George Kennedy. The Flight of the Phoenix opens with a well-staged plane crash in the middle of the Sahara desert. The pilot (James Stewart) and the navigator (Richard Attenborough) do their best to maintain order among the survivors, a group of oil men not well-suited for survival in the desert wastes. The ultimate fate of the survivors rests in the hands of Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), who uses the wreckage of the old plane to design a new one.

 

The Godfather (1972) Drama {Some viewers may find disturbing} -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 100% Positive. Audience: 97% Liked It. Marlon Brando, Al Pacino. Epic tale of a 1940s New York Mafia family and their struggle to protect their empire from rival families as the leadership switches from the father to his youngest son. Consensus: One of Hollywood’s greatest critical and commercial successes, The Godfather gets everything right.

 

The Graduate (1967) Drama/Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 89% Positive Reviews. Dustin Hoffman, Anne Bancroft, Katharine Ross. Benjamin Braddock, adrift after college, is seduced by a woman twice his age: icily-assured friend of the family Mrs. Robinson. So its understandable that Benjamin's dream girl is aghast when she finds out he's been sleeping with... her mother. Consensus: The music, the performances, the precision in capturing the post-college malaise -- The Graduate's coming-of-age story is indeed one for the ages.

 

The Great Escape (1967) Drama/Action -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 91% Positive Reviews. Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough. Drama based on Paul Brickhill's factual account of the efforts of Allied prisoners to break out of Stalag Luft North during World War II.

 

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 63% Positive Reviews. Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton. The daughter of a well-to-do white family comes home from a vacation to announce her intentions of marrying a well-to-do black physician. The prospective in-laws must come to terms with the implications.

 

In the Heat of the Night (1967) Drama --  BB recommendation from: Albie. 96% Positive Reviews. Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger. A black detective teams up with a racist white sheriff to solve a murder in a small town in the South. Over time, they begin to find respect for one another. Consensus: Tense, funny, and thought-provoking all at once, and lifted by strong performances from Sydney Poitier and Rod Steiger, director Norman Jewison's look at murder and racism in small-town America continues to resonate today.

 

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948) Comedy/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 79% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant, Myrna Loy. It all begins when a darling smart New York City couple decide it's time pack up their two girls and leave their jaded tiny Manhattan dwelling to build a dreamy get away in rural Connecticut. This bright comedy goes on to explore in detail the harsh realities of keeping their dream alive. Not only are the Blandings besieged with local tradesman who keep upping their rates, but Cary Grant's character, Jim, is under a deadline to come up for a slogan to sell ham for his add agency, and could potentially lose his job.

 

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1959) Mystery/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 89% Positive Reviews. James Stewart, Doris Day. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. A family vacationing in Morocco accidentally stumble on to an assassination plot and the conspirators are determined to prevent them from interfering. Consensus: Remaking his own 1934 film, Hitchcock imbues The Man Who Knew Too Much with picturesque locales and international intrigue, and is helped by a brilliantly befuddled performance from James Stewart.

 

Mister Roberts (1959) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell, Jack Lemmon. A cargo officer is waiting to get reassigned from the naval supply ship he's been working on and see some real war action. His life isn't made easier by the tyrannical ship captain and a zany crew of misfits, including the woman-obsessed laundry officer, Ensign Pulver.

 

North by Northwest (1959) Mystery/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. A suave, succesful New York advertising executive finds himself, through a case of mistaken identity, embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder that takes him across the country to prove his innocence to the police and get an evil crime syndicate, looking for a lost microfilm, off his tail. Consensus: Gripping, suspenseful, and visually iconic, this late-period Hitchcock classic laid the groundwork for countless action thrillers to follow.

 

Notorious (1946) Mystery/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Consensus: Sublime direction from Hitchcock, and terrific central performances from Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant make this a bona-fide classic worthy of a re-visit.

 

The Private War of Major Benson (1955) Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. No reviews available. Charlton Heston, Julie Adams. A Major noted for advancing with his mouth before thinking is given a choice: to be drummed out of the Army, or take command of and shape up the ROTC program at Sheridan Academy before it fails its next inspection. At Sheridan he encounters three hundred pre-teen cadets who range from rascally to adorable, and a female doctor who has just the right prescription for him.

 

Roman Holiday (1953) Romance/Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 98% Positive Reviews. A princess plays hooky from her royal duties for 24 hours with a reporter. Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck. This is one of Hollywood's most sweetly romantic films -- a frothy, modern telling of the Cinderella story, in reverse. Consensus: With Audrey Hepburn luminous in her American debut, Roman Holiday is as funny as it is beautiful, and sets the standard for the modern romantic comedy.

 

The Seven Year Itch (1955) Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. Marilyn Monroe, Tom Ewell. Director: Billy Wilder. 'The Seven Year Itch' is a subversive comedy about marriage, temptation and sexual repression.  'The Seven Year Itch' is a subversive comedy about marriage, temptation and sexual repression. Consensus: A delightful, sophisticated and witty farce, using to the fullest extent the mordant humor of director Billy Wilder.

 

Singing in The Rain (1952) Musical/Romance -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 100% Positive. Audience:91% Liked It. Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor. Hollywood, 1927: the silent-film romantic team of Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) is the toast of Tinseltown. While Lockwood and Lamont personify smoldering passions onscreen, in real life the down-to-earth Lockwood can't stand the egotistical, brainless Lina. He prefers the company of aspiring actress Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds), whom he met while escaping his screaming fans.

 

Some Like it Hot (1959) Comedy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 97% Positive Reviews. Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon. Director: Billy Wilder. When two musicians witness a mob hit, they flee the state in an all female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

 

Spellbound (1955) Mystery/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 87% Positive Reviews. Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck. As Alfred Hitchcock's classic psychothriller opens, the staff of a posh mental asylum eagerly awaits the arrival of the new director. When the man in question shows up, it turns out to be handsome psychiatrist John Ballantine (Gregory Peck). But something's wrong, here: Ballantine seems much too young for so important a position; his answers to the staff's questions are vague and detached; and he seems unusually distressed by the parallel marks, left by a fork, on a white tablecloth. Dr. Constance Peterson (Ingrid Bergman) comes to the conclusion that Ballantine is not the new director, but a profoundly disturbed amnesiac--and, possibly, the murderer of the real director.

 

Suspicion (1941) Mystery/Suspense -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Cary Grant, Joan Fontaine. Director: Alfred Hitchcock. A shy young English woman marries a charming gentleman, then begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.  A shy young English woman marries a charming gentleman, then begins to suspect him of trying to kill her.

 

To Sir, With Love (1967) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 91% Positive Reviews. Sidney Poitier. Engineer Mark Thackeray arrives to teach a totally undisciplined class at an East End school. Still hoping for a good engineering job, he's hopeful that he won't be there long. He starts implementing his own brand of classroom discipline: forcing the pupils to treat each other with respect. Consensus: While it's a bit dated and overly schmaltzy, To Sir, With Love remains compelling because of Sidney Poitier's outstanding performance.

 

Von Ryan's Express (1965) Action/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 91% Positive Reviews.  This high adventure stars Frank Sinatra as the leader of a mass escape from a World War II POW camp in Italy. That mission accomplished, Old Blue Eyes has sundry adventures camouflaging the freed men as German soldiers, trying to fool the Gestapo, and finally doing battle with enemy planes and ground troops while trying to get a hijacked train through a blocked tunnel.

 

West Side Story (1961) Drama/Musical/Romance -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 92% Positive. Audience: 82% Liked It. Marlon Brando, Natalie Wood. This romantic musical update of 'Romeo and Juliet' won ten Oscars. The tale of a turf war between rival teenage gangs in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen...  This romantic musical update of 'Romeo and Juliet' won ten Oscars. The tale of a turf war between rival teenage gangs in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen and the two lovers who cross battle lines has captivated audiences for four decades. Consensus: West Side Story remains perhaps the most iconic of all the Shakespeare adaptations to visit the big screen.

 

Where Eagles Dare (1968) Action/Drama -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood. Scorned by reviewers when it came out, this concentrated dose of commando death-dealing to legions of Nazi machine-gun fodder has acquired a cult over the years. The central location, an impregnable Alpine stronghold locked in ice and snow, is surpassing cool, but the plot and action are ultra-mechanical, and the switcheroo gamesmanship of just who is the undercover double (triple?) agent on the mission becomes aggressively silly. it provides full-on thrills, maybe exaggerated thrills, to be sure, but making for an exciting ride, nonetheless.

 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966) Drama -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 97% Positive. Audience: 91% Liked It. Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton. A bitter aging couple with the help of alcohol, use a young couple to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. Consensus: Great cast plus great script equals great movie! Liz and Dick at their best.

 

Comedies:

 

50 First Dates -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 44% Positive. Audience: 68% Liked It. Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore. Henry Roth is a man afraid of commitment up until he meets the beautiful Lucy. They hit it off and Henry think he's finally found the girl of his dreams, until he discovers she has short-term memory loss and forgets him the very next day. Consensus: Gross-out humor overwhelms the easy chemistry between Sandler and Barrymore.

 

500 Days of Summer -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 87% Positive Reviews. Good romantic comedy that drew comparisons to Annie Hall and High Fidelity. Consensus: A clever, offbeat romantic comedy, 500 Days of Summer is refreshingly honest and utterly charming.

The Addams Family --  BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 59% Positive Reviews. Angelica Huston, Raul Julia. Con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester.  Con artists plan to fleece the eccentric family using an accomplice who claims to be their long lost Uncle Fester. Consensus: The movie is peppered with amusing sight gags and one-liners, but the disjointed script doesn't cohere into a successful whole.

Addams Family Values -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 74% Positive Reviews. Angelica Huston, Raul Julia.  A comical Gothic horror-movie-type family tries to rescue their beloved uncle from his gold-digging new love. Consensus: New, well-developed characters add dimension to this batty satire, creating a comedy much more substantial than the original.

 

Airplane -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 98% Positive Reviews. Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, Peter Graves, Lloyd Bridges. This is a spoof of the airport disaster movies. When the crew of an airplane are struck by some form of virus, the fate of the passengers depends on an ex-war pilot who is the only one able to land the plane safely! The passengers represent a selection of interesting wacky characters who seem to take every word for its literal meaning.

 

Analyze This -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 68% Positive Reviews. Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow. A buddy action-comedy about a mob boss (De Niro, natch) suffering from panic attacks who makes a nebbishy shrink (Crystal, natch) an offer he can't refuse--actually, it's not really an offer, it's a command. The good doctor is forced to help the gangster get in touch with his feelings. Consensus: Analyze This is a satisfying comedy with great performances by De Niro and Crystal.

 

Arthur -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 89% Positive Reviews. Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud. Arthur is a sweet, somewhat pathetic (and usually drunk) character whose millions have left him lonely and with no motivation in life. Arthur is on the threshold of an arranged marriage with a simpering socialite, whom he does not love.

 

As Good As It Gets  -- BB recommendation from: leena. 85% Positive Reviews. For all of its conventional plotting about an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon (Jack Nicholson) who improves his personality at the urging of his gay neighbor (Greg Kinnear) and a waitress (Helen Hunt) who inspires his best behavior, this is one of the sharpest Hollywood comedies of the 1990s.

 

Back to School -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman. This may not be on the AFI list of great films, but it delivers laughs aplenty in its story of a rough-edged tycoon who made his fortune in clothes for the stout and tall and decides to attend college in order to be closer to his son (Keith Gordon). There's not much plot, but lots of room for Dangerfield's one-line riffs. The goggle-eyed comic veteran displays surprising charm, enough to make his romance with professor Sally Kellerman believable.

 

Blast from the Past --BB recommendation from: leena. 60% Positive Reviews. Brendan Fraser, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Walken, Sissy Spacek. A romantic comedy about a naive man who comes out into the world after being in a nuclear fallout shelter for 35 years.  A romantic comedy about a naive man who comes out into the world after being in a nuclear fallout shelter for 35 years. Consensus: Cute idea, but not consistently funny.

 

The Breakfast Club -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 90% Positive Reviews. Emilio Estevez, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall. Director: John Hughes A diverse group of high schoolers forced to spend detention on a Saturday in thelibrary. Forced to make the best of their circumstances, they learn to understandeach other and discover that in spite of their initial differences, they actuallyshare many common feelings and problems. Consensus: The Breakfast Club is a warm, insightful, and very funny look into the inner lives of teenagers.

 

Big -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 96% Positive Reviews. Tom Hanks. A young boy named Josh Baskin, wish one day from an old machine to be big, despite the fact that he does not believe it is going to work. He is very surprised, therefore, to find himself in the next day- big. Now he looks like a 30 years old guy, but he still behave like a twelve years boy.

 

The Bucket List -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 41% Positive. Audience: 81% Liked It.  Jack Nicholson, Morgan Freeman. Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do before they "kick the bucket" and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest. Consensus: Not even the earnest performances of the two leads can rescue The Bucket List from its schmaltzy script.

 

City Island -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Reviews: 81% Positive. Audience: 76% Liked It. A family's bizarre and layered lies to one another come unraveled. Consensus: Raymond De Felitta combines warmth, humanity, and a natural sense of humor, and is abetted by Andy Garcia and an excellent ensemble cast.

 

City Slickers -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 88% Positive Reviews. Billy Crystal plays Mitch, a 40-year-old radio ad salesman who lives in Manhattan with his wife and two children. He feels trapped in a humdrum existence and is unenthusiastic about his job. Mitch's tolerant wife says, "Go and find your smile." So he joins his best friends, Ed (Bruno Kirby, a sporting good store owner, and Phil (Daniel Stern), a grocer, for a two-week vacation on a working dude ranch. After learning the rudiments of riding and roping, they head out into the wilderness on a cattle drive led by Curly (Jack Palance). Consensus:  This is the proverbial comedy with the heart of truth, the tear in the eye along with the belly laugh. It's funny, and it adds up to something.

 

Couples Retreat -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 12% Positive Reviews. Vince Vaughn comedy. Consensus: Bad reviews because of a light story line, but lighthearted, pretty funny and has lots of beautiful oceanic scenery.

 

Definitely, Maybe -- BB recommendation from: summermeadow. 71% Positive Reviews. When Will decides to tell his daughter the story of how he met her mother, he discovers that a second look at the past might also give him a second chance at the future. A political consultant tries to explain his impending divorce and past relationships to his 11-year-old daughter. Consensus: With a clever script and charismatic leads, Definitely, Maybe is a refreshing entry into the romantic comedy genre.

Dodgeball - A True Underdog Story -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 70% Positive Reviews. Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, When White Goodman (Ben Stiller), the owner of a trendy, high-end fitness center, makes a move to take over the stuggling local gym run by happy-go-lucky Pete La Fleur (Vince Vaughn), there's only one solution -- dodgeball! Pete and his rag-tag team of underdogs (including Stephen Root and Alan Tudyk) travel to Vegas for a knock-down, drag-out battle in which the winner takes all.

 

Dragnet -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 46% Positive Reviews. Tom Hanks, Dan Akroyd. A seemingly squeaky clean television reverend and a porno magazine king are suspected of operating a crime-ridden cult. It's up to Joe Friday's nephew and his "hip" partner to prove these allegations, with just the facts.

 

Dumb and Dumber -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 62% Positive Reviews. Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels. Two stupid guys follow the girl of their dreams to Aspen, Colorado.  Two stupid guys follow the girl of their dreams to Aspen, Colorado.

 

Fever Pitch -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 64% Positive Reviews. Cute baseball movie starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. While not a home run, Fever Pitch has enough charm and on-screen chemistry between the two leads to make it a solid hit. Consensus: While not a home run, Fever Pitch has enough charm and on-screen chemistry between the two leads to make it a solid hit.

The Great Outdoors -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 38% Positive Reviews. Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, Stephanie Faracy, Annette Bening. A Chicago man's hope for a peaceful family vacation in the woods is shattered when the annoying in-laws drop in.

 

Groundhog Day -- BB recommendation from: James-jp. 96% Positive Reviews.  Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. One of the acknowledged classics of American comedy, "Groundhog Day" concerns TV weatherman Phil Connors, who is forced to live the same Feb. 2 over and over again until he gains some karmic -- and comic -- insight into his life.

 

The Hangover -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 77% Positive Reviews. Two days before his wedding, Doug and his three friends drive to Las Vegas for a blow-out bachelor party they'll never forget. But, in fact, when the three groomsmen wake up the next morning, they can't remember a thing. For some reason, they find a tiger in the bathroom and a six-month-old baby in the closet of their suite at Caesars Palace. The one thing they can't find is Doug. Consensus: With a clever script and hilarious interplay among the cast, The Hangover nails just the right tone of raunchy humor, and the non-stop laughs overshadow any flaw.

 

Happy Gilmore -- BB recommendation from: Albie. Reviews: 58% Positive. Audience: 83% Liked It. Adam Sandler. For centuries, golf has been a gentleman's game. A game of tradition, etiquette and, above all, sportsmanship... until now. Happy Gilmore is a hockey player skating on thin ice who discovers that his wicked slap shot easily converts into a crushing 400 yard tee shot with the potential for big bucks. Happy's career takes a 180 degree swing and lands him on the Pro Golf Tour, where he's about to turn the gentleman's game into a contact sport.

 

High Fidelity -- BB recommendation from: leena. 92% Positive Reviews. John Cusack. In a biting romantic comedy, Rob Gordon is the owner of a semi-failing record store in Chicago, where he sells music the old-fashioned way -- on vinyl. Consensus: The deft hand of director Stephen Frears and strong performances by the ensemble cast combine to tell an entertaining story with a rock-solid soundtrack.

 

I Love You, Man -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 82% Positive Reviews. Offbeat romantic comedy about a guy who has to find a "man-date" in order to find a male friend to be best man at his wedding. Consensus:  I Love You, Man makes the most of its simple premise due to the heartfelt and hilarious performances of Paul Rudd and Jason Segel.

 

It Could Happen to You -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 68% Positive Reviews. Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, Rosie Perez. Inspired by an actual incident, this unassuming, wonderfully good-natured romantic comedy tells the story of a New York City street cop named Charlie (Nicolas Cage) who makes a promise to a coffee-shop waitress named Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) that will change both their lives. One day after coffee, Charlie is embarrassed to discover he doesn't have money for a tip, so he tells Yvonne that he'll share half of his winnings if the lottery ticket he's holding comes up a winner. Sure enough, he wins the jackpot--a whopping $4 million payoff.

 

Julie and Julia -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 75% Positive. Audience: 70% Liked It. Meryl Streep, Amy Adams. A woman verging on thirty and frustrated in a temp secretary job takes on a yearlong culinary quest: cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering...  A woman verging on thirty and frustrated in a temp secretary job takes on a yearlong culinary quest: cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." She chronicles her trials and tribulations in a blog that catches on with the food crowd. Consensus: Boosted by Meryl Streep's charismatic performance as Julia Child, Julie and Julia is a light, but fairly entertaining culinary comedy.

 

Juno -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 93% Positive Reviews. Very cute coming of age movie. Consensus: One of the brightest, funniest comedies of the year, Juno's smart script and direction are matched by assured performances in a coming of age story with a 21st century twist.

 

Lars and the Real Girl -- BB recommendation from: leena. 81% Positive Reviews. this weirdly affecting tall tale is about a loony guy and his entire delusional small town falling in PG love with a certainly not politically correct but irrefutably anatomically correct, well, sex doll. Consensus: Lars and the Real Girl could've so easily been a one-joke movie. But the talented cast, a great script, and direction never condescends to its character or the audience.

 

Liar, Liar -- BB recommendation from: Missy. 82% Positive Reviews. Jim Carrey. A fast track lawyer can't lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time.  A fast track lawyer can't lie for 24 hours due to his son's birthday wish after the lawyer turns his son down for the last time. Consensus: Pretty rudimentary, but it keeps Carrey's occasional over-exuberance in check and delivers likeable, effective, but decidedly mainstream comedy.

 

License to Drive -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 18% Positive Reviews. Corey Haim, Corey Feldman. A teen decides to go for a night on the town with his friends despite flunking his driver's test.  

 

Lost in America -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 96% Positive Reviews. Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Garry Marshall. No one has come up with a more incisive look at the phenomenon of the '80s yuppie, a figure toward whom Brooks manages to aim both his satire and his sympathy. The bushy-haired, tightly-wound actor plays a well-paid L.A. executive who quits his job in a fit of pique when he fails to land a promotion. Armed with their savings, he and the wife (Julie Hagerty) buy a Winnebago and hit the road; they're going to search for America and find themselves. Right. They get as far as Las Vegas, where Hagerty has a little problem at the gaming tables.

 

Major League -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 84% Positive Reviews. Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Corbin Bernsen. The new owner of the Cleveland Indians puts together a purposely horrible team so they'll lose and she can move the team. But when the plot is uncovered, they start winning just to spite her. Consensus: Major League may be predictable and formulaic, but buoyed by the script's light, silly humor -- not to mention the well-built sports action sequences and funny performances.

 

Married to the Mob -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 86% Positive Reviews. Michelle Pfeiffer, Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell. A recently widowed Mafia wife tries to start her life anew, only to find past acquaintances and FBI agents on her tail.  A recently widowed Mafia wife tries to start her life anew, only to find past acquaintances and FBI agents on her tail.

 

Meet the Family -- BB recommendation from: Violet. No reviews available. Audience: 56% Liked It. Beau Billingslea, Marilyn Sue Perry. When Humphrey Rump, a shy and overweight loner who rarely dates, finally brings a person of the opposite sex home to meet his raucous African-American family, everyone's on edge to see who this mystery girl could be. As it turns out, she's a beautiful, thin white woman … and the surprises keep on coming.

 

Meet the Fockers --  BB recommendation from: Violet. 38% Positive Reviews. Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller. Now that Greg Focker is "in" with his soon-to-be in-laws, Jack and Dina Byrnes, it looks like smooth sailing for him and his fiancée, Pam. But that's before Pam's parents meet Greg's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker. The hyper-relaxed Fockers and the tightly-wound Byrneses are woefully mismatched from the start, and no matter how hard Greg and Pam try, there is just no bringing their families together. Consensus: Talented cast is wasted as the movie is content with recycling jokes from its predecessor, Meet the Parents.

 

Me, Myself & Irene -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 48% Positive. Audience: 60% Liked It. Jim Carrey, Renée Zellweger. A nice guy cop with multiple personality disorder, must protect a woman on the run from a corrupt ex-boyfriend and his associates.  Consensus: The Farrellys manage to produce some laughs with Irene, but the jokes have become tired.

 

My Cousin Vinny BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 86% Positive Reviews. Joe Pesci, Marisa Tomei. ill and Stan are mistaken for murderers while on vacation, and Bill's family sends his cousin to defend them for his first case as a lawyer. Consensus: Excellent performances by Pesci & Tomei. Essentially a court room dramedy "My Cousin Vinny" makes some good points about pointing fingers. But mostly it'll make you laugh.

 

My Father, The Hero -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 17% Positive Reviews. Gérard Depardieu, Katherine Heigl, Lauren Hutton. Andre, a Frenchman divorced from his American wife takes his teenage daughter,Nicole, on vacation with him. She's desperate to appear as a woman and not a girl,so in order to impress a local boy, she makes up more and more ridiculous stories,starting with Andre being her lover.

 

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 62% Positive Reviews. Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. It's Christmas time and the Griswolds are preparing for a family seasonal celebration, but things never run smoothly for Clark, his wife Ellen and their two kids. Clark's continual bad luck is worsened by his obnoxious family guests, but he manages to keep going knowing that his Christmas bonus is due soon.

 

National Lampoon's European Vacation -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 40% Positive Reviews. Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo. After winning a tour package in a game show, the bickering Griswald family carve a trail of destruction through England, France, Germany, and Italy. Somehow Ellen (Bevery D'Angelo), the mom, gets kidnapped by gangsters, leading to a car chase that reunites the family, despite their differences.  

 

National Lampoon's Vacation -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 94% Positive Reviews. Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo.  The Griswold family, father Clark W., wife Ellen, daughter Audrey and son Rusty, set out in high spirit to spend their vacation driving cross-country from Chicago to a glorious climax in Walley World on the West Coast.

 

Nothing to Lose -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 26% Positive Reviews. Martin Lawrence, Tim Robbins, Kelly Preston. Nick Beam's life couldn't get any worse. He discovers he has been living a lie and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So when T. Paul, a carjacker, attempts to rob him, it is the last straw for Nick. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, he kidnaps T. Paul and attempts to put his life back together.

 

Office Space -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 80% Positive Reviews. Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston. Peter Gibbons is computer programmer who at the ripe old age of 28 is having a mid-life crisis. Unable to endure another moment of the mind-numbing routine and petty annoyances that assault him day after day, Peter and some equally frustrated colleagues hatch a plot which could lead to a very lucrative and early retirement. Consensus: Mike Judge lampoons the office grind with its inspired mix of sharp dialogue and witty one-liners.

 

Orange County -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 47% Positive Reviews. Colin Hanks, Jack Black. A guidance counselor mistakenly sends out the wrong transcripts to Stanford University under the name of an over-achieving high schooler. Consensus: Smarter than the average teen movie, but a little on the unmemorable side.

 

Outsourced -- BB recommendation from: leena. 78% Positive Reviews. After his entire department is outsourced, an American novelty products salesman heads to India to train his replacement. Consensus: Outsourced is a charming and lighthearted comedy that appeals because of its timeliness and strong cast of likeable characters.

 

Raising Arizona -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 90% Positive Reviews. Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter. Director: Joel Coen. A petty crook falls in love with the woman cop who always arrests him, but when they find out she can't bear children, they steal one, hit the road, and lots of mayhem ensues.

 

Sister Act --  BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 67% Positive. Audience: 66% Liked It. Whoopi Goldberg, Harvey Keitel. A mobster's girlfriend cum trashy lounge singer is sent to a convent under the Witness Protection Program, and leads the choir there to national fame.

 

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit --  BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 7% Positive. Audience: 66% Liked It. Whoopi Goldberg. The sisters come back to Delores's show to get her back as Sister Mary Clarence to teach music to a group of students in their parochial school which is doomed for closure. One of the girls, who is the most talented of the bunch, is forbidden to sing by her mother, although the choir has made it to the state championship.

 

The Station Agent -- BB recommendation from: leena. 72% Positive Reviews. When his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss. Consensus: A sweet and quirky film about a dwarf, a refreshment stand operator, and a reclusive artist connecting with one another.

 

The Step Brothers -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 55% Positive. Audience: 68% Liked It. Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly.

Two spoiled guys (Ferrell and Reilly) become competitive stepbrothers after their single parents get hitched. Consensus: The relentless immaturity of the humor is not a total handicap for this film, which features the consistently well-matched talents of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.

 

Tommy Boy -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 45% Positive Reviews. Chris Farley, David Spade. When Tommy Callahan graduates triumphantly after seven years of college with a D+ average and returns to Sandusky, Ohio, to learn the family business, no one is prouder than his father, Big Tom--or more surprised than his hometown.

 

The Waitress -- BB recommendation from: leena. 89% Positive Reviews. WAITRESS is the story of one woman trapped in a life from which she dreams of escape. Jenna's (Russell) secret ambition is to save enough money from her waitressing job to leave her overbearing and controlling husband. Consensus: Sweet, smart, and quirky, Waitress hits the right, bittersweet notes through this romantic comedy through its witty script and a superb performance by Keri Russell.

 

The Wedding Singer -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 66% Positive Reviews. Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore. Robbie, the singer and Julia, the waitress are both engaged to be married but to the wrong people. Fortune intervenes to help them discover each other.

 

When Harry Met Sally -- BB recommendation from: Missy. 91% Positive Reviews. Billy Crystal, Meg Ryan. Director: Rob Reiner. Does sex make it impossible for men and women to be true friends? This romantic comedy chronicles this dilemma through the eleven year relationship between Harry and Sally who meet in college, then pursue their own lives until they reconnect ten years later. Consensus: Rob Reiner's touching, funny film set a new standard for romantic comedies, and he was ably abetted by the sharp interplay between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan.

 

Wild Hogs -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 14% Positive. Audience: 72% Liked It. John Travolta, Tim Allen, Martin Lawrence, Ray Liotta. A group of middle-aged friends decide to rev up their routine suburban lives with a freewheeling motorcycle trip. Taking a long dreamed-of breather from their stressful jobs and family responsibilities, they can't wait to feel the freedom of the open road.

 

 

Dramas:

 

13 Conversations About One Thing -- BB recommendation from: leena. 82% Positive Reviews. A group of people live their separate lives, unaware of the subtle interconnections that bring them together. Consensus: Thirteen Conversations About One Thing is an intelligent and poignant look at lives intersecting.

 

Adventureland -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 89% Positive. Audience: 56% Liked It. Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart. A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a recent college grad (Eisenberg) who takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.

 

A League of Their Own -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 81% Positive Reviews. Geena Davis, Tom Hanks, Lori Petty, Madonna. Two sisters join the first female professional baseball league and struggle to help it succeed amidst their own growing rivalry. Consensus: Sentimental and light, but still thoroughly charming, A League of Their Own is buoyed by solid performances from a wonderful cast.  

 

Apollo 13 -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 96% Positive Reviews. Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise. Director: Ron Howard. True story of the moon-bound mission that developed severe trouble and the men that rescued it with skill and dedication. Consensus: Apollo 13 remains Howard's masterpiece... It is, quite simply, one of the finest movies ever produced.

 

August Rush -- BB recommendation from: Violet. Reviews: 37% Positive. Audience: 84% Liked It. A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

 

Babel -- BB recommendation from: leena. 69% Positive Reviews. Brad Pitt. Armed with a Winchester rifle, two Morrocan boys set out to look after their family's herd of goats. In the silent echoes of the desert, they decide to test the rifle… but the bullet goes farther than they thought it would. Consensus: In Babel, there are no villains, only victims of fate and circumstance. Director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu weaves four of their woeful stories into this mature and multidimensional film.

 

The Blind Side --  BB recommendation from: leena. 66% Positive Reviews. Sandra Bullock. The Blind Side depicts the remarkable true story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. Consensus: It might strike some viewers as a little too pat, but The Blind Side has the benefit of strong source material and a strong performance from Sandra Bullock.

 

Breaking and Entering -- BB recommendation from: leena. 34% Positive Reviews. Professionally, things could not be better for Will (Law), but personally he spends less and less time at home with his chronically depressed partner (Wright Penn) and their troubled 13 year-old daughter. Consensus: This class warfare drama feels contrived and superficial: characters don’t act logically as the movie manipulates them towards deconstructing various social issues.

 

Broken Flowers -- BB recommendation from: leena. 87% Positive Reviews. Bill Murray. The resolutely single Don has just been dumped by his latest lover, Sherry. Don yet again resigns himself to being alone and left to his own devices. Instead, he is compelled to reflect on his past when he receives by mail a mysterious pink letter. It is from an anonymous former lover and informs him that he has a 19-year-old son who may now be looking for his father. Consensus: Bill Murray's subtle and understated style complements director Jim Jarmusch's minimalist storytelling in this quirky, but deadpan comedy.

 

Catch Me if You Can -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 96% Positive Reviews. Leonardo DiCaprio in the true story of a young man who successfully impersonates an airplane pilot, counterfeits money and checks and much more. Also stars Tom Hanks. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Consensus: Spielberg lightens up and DiCaprio charms in this breezily entertaining chase flick.

 

Disclosure -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 60% Positive Reviews. Michael Douglas, Demi Moore, Donald Sutherland, Caroline Goodall. A computer specialist is sued for sexual harassment by a former lover turned boss who initiated the act forcefully, which threatens both his career and his personal life.

 

Escape from Alcatraz -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 94% Positive Reviews. Clint Eastwood. Based on the true story of a hardened convict who engineered an elaborate plan to bust out of the famed prison in 1962.  Based on the true story of a hardened convict who engineered an elaborate plan to bust out of the famed prison in 1962.

 

Footloose -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 56% Positive Reviews. Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow. When a city kid is forced to move to a conservative midwestern town, his tastes in rock music and his gyrating dance moves turn his high school upside-down and send the town and it's local preacher into a frenzy.

 

Forrest Gump -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 70% Positive Reviews. Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Sally Field, Robin Wright Penn. The story of a man who, over the course of three decades and despite having an IQ of only 75, leads a most extraordinary life. Consensus: An overly sentimental film with a somewhat problematic message, but its sweetness and charm are occasionally enough to approximate true depth and grace.

 

Frozen River -- BB recommendation from leena. 87% Positive Reviews. Life in Massena is as harsh and barren as the frigid landscape. In this bleak terrain, two hardened single mothers are trying to make lives for their children. Consensus: Veteran character actress Melissa Leo delivers a stunning performance in this powerful -- if grim -- indie film.

 

Good Will Hunting -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 97% Positive. Audience: 92% Liked It. Matt Damon, Robin Williams. Will Hunting, a janitor at MIT, has a gift for mathematics which is discovered, and a psychologist tries to help him with his gift and the rest of his life. Van Sant, working from Affleck and Damon's script, lends warmth and real emotion to the film's somewhat basic story.

 

In America -- BB recommendation from leena. 89% Positive Reviews. Academy Award-winning director Jim Sheridan brings authenticity and grit to this heartwarming drama about an Irish family starting life anew in early-1980s America. With their two daughters in tow, Johnny (Paddy Considine) and Sarah (Samantha Morton) leave Ireland and head to New York so Johnny can pursue an acting career. What follows is a series of adventures, both comical and terrifying, as they struggle to make the most of their new life.

 

Into the Wild -- BB recommendation from: D. 82% Positive Reviews. Based on a true story and the bestselling book by Jon Krakauer. After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless (Hirsch) abandons his possessions, gave his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhiked to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Consensus: With his sturdy cast and confident direction, Sean Penn has turned a complex work of non-fiction like Into the Wild into an accessible and poignant character study.

 

Letters to Juliet -- BB recommendation from leena. 96% Positive Reviews. When a young American travels to the city of Verona, home of the star-crossed lover Juliet Capulet of Romeo and Juliet fame, she joins a group of volunteers who respond to letters to Juliet seeking advice about love.  Consensus: Letters to Juliet has a refreshingly earnest romantic charm, but it suffers from limp dialogue and an utter lack of surprises.

The Lives of Others -- BB recommendation from: leena. 93% Positive Reviews. Five years before its downfall, the former East-German government ensured its claim to power with a ruthless system of control and surveillance. Consensus: Unlike more traditional spy films,  The Lives of Others doesn't sacrifice character for cloak and dagger chases, and the performances stay with you.

 

Lost in Translation -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 94% Positive Reviews. Billy Murray, Sofia Coppola. Bob Harris and Charlotte are two Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband. Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar. This chance meeting soon becomes a surprising friendship. Charlotte and Bob venture through Tokyo, having often hilarious encounters with its citizens, and ultimately discover a new belief in life's possibilities. Consensus: Murray gives one of his best performances in this expertly crafted mood piece.

 

Magnolia -- BB recommendation from: D. 83% Positive Reviews. Jason Robards Jr., Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise. An epic mosaic of several interrelated characters in search of happiness, forgiveness, and meaning in the San Fernando Valley. Consensus: Critics say Magnolia is an ambitious, lengthy work that ultimately succeeds due to the interesting stories and excellent ensemble performances.

 

Miss Potter -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 66% Positive. Audience: 67% Liked It. Renée Zellweger, Ewan McGregor. Inspired by a true story set in Victorian England, a tale charting the life of Beatrix Potter--a literary phenomenon of the early 20th century. At a time when most young women of her class aimed only to make a good marriage, Beatrix became an iconic figure, swimming quietly, but with great fortitude, against the tide. Consensus: A charming biopic with that maintains its sweetness even in sadder moments.

 

The Mosquito Coast -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 75% Positive Reviews. Harrison Ford, Helen Mirren, River Phoenix. An eccentric and dogmatic inventor sells his house and takes his family to Central America to build an ice factory in the middle of the jungle. Conflicts with his family, a local preacher and with nature are only small obstacles to his obsession.

 

My Dinner with Andre -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 89% Positive Reviews. A conversation between a globe-trotting theater director and a playwright playfully explores ideas about art, theater, and daily life.

 

O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- BB recommendation from: Missy. 76% Positive Reviews. George Clooney. In the Depression-era deep South, three escapees from a Mississippi prison chain gang: Everett Ulysses McGill, sweet and simple Delmar, and the perpetually angry Pete, embark on the adventure of a lifetime as they set out to pursue their freedom and return to their homes. Consensus: Though not as good as Coen brothers' classics such as Blood Simple, the delightfully loopy O Brother, Where Art Thou? is still a lot of fun.

 

Pirates of Silicon Valley -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 86% Positive Reviews. Noah Wyle, Anthony Michael Hall. This entertaining look at the story of the from-the-get-go rivalry of Apple founder Steve Jobs (Noah Wyle) and Microsoft pioneer Bill Gates (Anthony Michael Hall) provides equal parts laughs and insight, set to an energized soundtrack. Told from the points of view of Jobs's and Gates's collaborators--Steve Woziak and Paul Ballmer, respectively--the film intelligently charts each camp's bumpy ride from garage experimentation to industry domination.

 

Rudy -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 79% Positive Reviews. Sean Astin. Consensus: Though undeniably sentimental and predictable, Rudy succeeds with an uplifting spirit and determination. Based on a true story, Rudy is a good football movie about overcoming the odds to become a student and player at Notre Dame.

 

The Savages -- BB recommendation from: leena. 89% Positive Reviews. A sister (Linney) and brother (Hoffman) face the realities of familial responsibility as they begin to care for their ailing father. Consensus: Thanks to a tender, funny script from director Tamara Jenkins, and fine performances from Philip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, this film delivers a nuanced, beautifully three-dimensional look at the struggles and comforts of family bonds.

 

Seven Pounds -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 27% Positive. Audience: 77% Liked It.Will Smith, Rosario Dawson. Ben Thomas, an IRS agent with a fateful secret, embarks on an extraordinary journey of redemption by forever changing the lives of seven strangers. Consensus: Grim and morose, Seven Pounds is also undone by an illogical plot.

 

Slumdog Millionaire {Some viewers may find disturbing} -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 94% Positive Reviews. The story of how impoverished Indian teen Jamal Malik became a contestant on the Hindi version of "Who Wants to be A Millionaire?" -- an endeavor made without prize money in mind, rather, an effort to prove his love for his friend Latika, who is an ardent fan of the show. Consensus: Visually dazzling and emotionally resonant, Slumdog Millionaire is a film that's both entertaining and powerful.

 

Stranger than Fiction --  BB recommendation from: leena. 72% Positive Reviews. Will Ferrell. An IRS auditor has his life interrupted by the sound of a personal narrator who knows his every thought, feeling and action, including when and where he will die. Consensus: A fun, whimsical tale about about an office drone trying to save his life from his narrator. The cast obviously is having a blast with the script, but Stranger Than Fiction's tidy lessons make this metaphysical movie feel like Charlie Kaufman-lite.

Things We Lost in The Fire -- BB recommendation from: leena. 64% Positive Reviews. Halle Berre. David Duchovny. After an unspeakable tragedy, two people get a second chance at life in "Things We Lost in the Fire." Consensus: Things We Lost in the Fire is a well-acted, beautifully filmed reflection on love, loss, addiction and recovery from life's obstacles.

 

Walk The Line -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 82% Positive. Audience: 86% Liked It. Frank Whaley, Annabeth Gish. Alan Oliver "Walk the Line" follows the early years in the career of American music legend Johnny Cash. The young Cash sets out on life's journey battered by his brother's accidental death and an abusive father, who blames him for the incident. His rise to fame with such hits as "A Boy Named Sue" and "Ring of Fire" is countered by his struggle with amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol. Consensus: Superior acting and authentic crooning capture the emotional subtleties of the legend of Johnny Cash and his inevitable downfall with a freshness that is a pleasure to watch.

 

Wall Street -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 78% Positive Reviews. Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen. Enterprising stockbroker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) falls under the enticing spell of Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), an unabashedly greedy Wall Street arbitrageur. Gekko takes Fox under his wing, tutoring his charge in the unscrupulous tactics that put the corporate raider on top. But when Gekko embroils his protégé in an insider-trading scheme that may risk the jobs of kith and kin, Fox develops a conscience and decides to turn the tables.

 

With Honors -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 19% Positive Reviews. Convinced he'll graduate with honors because of his thesis paper, a stuffy Harvard student finds his paper being held hostage by a homeless man, who might be the guy to school the young man in life. Consensus: Well meaning drama but oversimplifies a lot and plays the death card too easily.

 

The Women -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 13% Positive. Audience: 41% Liked It. Meg Ryan, Annette Bening. A wealthy New Yorker leaves her cheating husband and bonds with other society women at a resort. A remake of George Cukor's 1939 film "The Women."

 

The Woodsman  -- BB recommendation from: leena. 64% Positive Reviews. Kevin Bacon. A pedophile returns to his hometown after 12 years in prison and attempts to start a new life. Consensus: Kevin Bacon’s performance as a pedophile who is trying to start fresh has drawn raves from critics, who have praised the Woodsman as compelling, creepy, complex and well-crafted.

 

Working Girl -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 83% Positive Reviews. Melanie Griffith, Harrison Ford, Sigourney Weaver. An ambitious secretary climbs up the corporate ladder by taking over when her boss breaks her leg.  An ambitious secretary climbs up the corporate ladder by taking over when her boss breaks her leg.

 

Up in the Air -- BB recommendation from: leena. 90% Positive Reviews. George Clooney. Ryan Bingham, a corporate hatchet man who loves his life on the road, is forced to fight for his job when his company downsizes its travel budget. Consensus: Led by charismatic performances by its three leads, director Jason Reitman delivers a smart blend of humor and emotion with just enough edge for mainstream audiences.

 

The Visitor -- BB recommendation from: leena. 90% Positive Reviews. In a world of six billion people, it only takes one to change your life. A college professor becomes embroiled in the lives of a young immigrant couple living in New York City and stumbles into an unexpected romance as a result. Consensus: The Visitor is a heartfelt, humanistic drama that deftly explores identity, immigration, and other major post-9/11 issues.

 

Family:

 

 

Aladdin Animated -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 92% Positive. Audience: 85% Liked It. Robin Williams's dizzying and hilarious voicing of the Genie is the main attraction of Aladdin, the third in the series of modern Disney animated movies that began with 1989's The Little Mermaid and heralded a new age for the genre. After a sultan (Douglas Seale) gives his daughter, Jasmine (Linda Larkin), three days to find a husband, she escapes the palace and encounters the street-savvy urchin Aladdin (Scott Weinger), who charms his way into her heart. Consensus: A highly entertaining entry in Disney's "second golden age," Aladdin is beautifully drawn, with near-classic songs and a cast of scene-stealing characters.

 

Alvin and The Chipmunks -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 27% Positive Reviews. In a tree farm, three musically inclined chipmunks, Alvin, Simon and Theodore, find their tree cut down and sent to Los Angeles. Once there, they meet the frustrated songwriter David Seville, and despite a poor house wrecking first impression, they impress him with their singing talent. Seeing the opportunity for success, both human and chipmunks make a pact for them to sing his songs.

 

Beethoven -- BB recommendation from:Albie. 30% Positive Reviews. Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Dean Jones. Story of a dog who persuades a family with five kids to take him in.

 

Cats & Dogs -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 53% Positive. Audience: 41% Liked It. Jeff Goldblum, Elizabeth Perkins. Unbeknownst to their human companions, dogs have been fighting for thousands of years to keep mankind from falling under the rule of cats. When a rogue feline, Mr. Tinkles, initiates a plan to strategically disable the world's dog population and leave humans defenseless against his tyranny, a crack team of dog agents and a loyal puppy named Lou are all that stand between mankind and slavery. Consensus: A great concept, but the movie fails to develop the characters and some of the jokes are hit-or-miss.

 

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe --  BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 76% Positive Reviews. Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion. Consensus: With first-rate special effects and compelling storytelling, this adaptation stays faithful to its source material and will please moviegoers of all ages.

 

The Goonies -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 64% Positive Reviews. Sean Astin, Josh Brolin. A band of young boys find a treasure map and embark on a magical adventure. Consensus: Fun and harmless, but identical to other suburban kids adventure movies.

 

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 82% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. Harry Potter returns to Hogwarts School of Wizardry for his second year. After a confrontation with a house elf named Dobby, Harry escapes to the Weasley house with Ron Weasley in a flying car. Consensus: Darker and livelier than the first Harry Potter, but much of what's wrong with the first movie is also present here.

 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 88% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. Harry Potter (Radcliffe) returns to Hogwarts for his fourth year, where the Trizwizard tournament is becoming ready to begin. Students must be over 17 to enter, with the winner receiving eternal glory. Consensus: The main characters are maturing, and the filmmakers are likewise improving on their craft; vibrant special effects and assured performances add up to what is the most complex yet of the Harry Potter films.

 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 83% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. As Harry Potter begins his 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he discovers an old book marked mysteriously "This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince" and begins to learn more about Lord Voldemort's dark past. Consensus: Dark, thrilling, and occasionally quite funny, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is also visually stunning and emotionally satisfying.

 

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 78% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. After returning to Hogwarts to begin his fifth year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter discovers that much of the wizarding world, including the Ministry of Magic, is in denial about Lord Voldemort's return. Consensus: It's not easy to take the longest Harry Potter book and streamline it into the shortest HP movie, but director David Yates does a bang up job of it, creating an Order of the Phoenix that's entertaining and action-packed.

 

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 90% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. Approaching his third year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter has had enough of his muggle relatives. He runs away from them (finally) and enters his third term facing trouble from more than one side: for using magic outside the school and from the news that a notorious criminal, serial killer Sirius Black, has escaped the wizard's prison at Azkaban and apparently is headed for Harry. Consensus: In Cuaron's hands, Azkaban has emotional depth to go along with the technical wizardry.

 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 78% Positive Reviews. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint. On his 11th birthday, young Harry Potter discovers the life he never knew he had, the life of a wizard. In his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he meets his two best friends Ron Weasley, an expert at Wizard Chess, and Hermione Granger, a girl with non-magic parents. Consensus: Being so faithful to the book is both the movie's strength and weakness. The movie unfolds exactly as written in the book, so there is little room for surprises or discoveries.  

 

Holes -- BB recommendation from:Albie. 77% Positive Reviews. Sigourney Weaver, Jon Voight, Patricia Arquette. Stanley Yelnats is an unusual hero with dogged bad luck stemming from an ancient family curse. Perpetually in the wrong place at the wrong time, Stanley is unfairly sentenced to months of detention at Camp Green Lake for a crime he didn't commit. There, he and his campmates are forced by the menacing warden and her right-hand men to dig holes in order to build character. Consensus: Faithful to its literary source, this is imaginative, intelligent family entertainment.

 

Hook -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 24% Positive. Audience: 72% Liked It. Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman. Peter Pan (Williams) has grown up to be a cut-throat merger and acquisitions lawyer, and is married to Wendy's granddaughter. Captain Hook (Hoffman) kidnaps his children, and Peter returns to Never Land with Tinkerbell (Roberts). With the help of her and the Lost Boys, he must remember how to be Peter Pan again in order to save his children by battling with Captain Hook once again.

 

Iron Will -- BB recommendation from:Albie. 58% Positive Reviews. Mackenzie Astin, Kevin Spacey. Charismatic MacKenzie Astin plays a teenager trying to save the family farm by entering a 522-mile sled-dog marathon. Except for Astin, the lusciously scenic background has more depth than most of the characters.

 

The Lion King Animated -- BB recommendation from: Violet. Reviews: 92% Positive. Audience: 89% Liked It. A heroic coming-of-age story which follows the epic adventures of a young lion cub named Simba as he struggles to accept the responsibilities of adulthood and his destined role as king of the jungle. Consensus: Emotionally stirring, richly drawn, and beautifully animated, The Lion King stands tall within Disney's pantheon of classic family films.

 

Mouse Hunt -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 43% Positive. Audience:50% Liked It. Nathan Lane, Lee Evans. Two stumblebum inheritors are determined to rid their antique house of a mouse who is equally determined to stay where he is.  

 

Nanny McPhee -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 73% Positive Reviews. In this dark and witty fable, Nanny McPhee (a person of an unsettling appearance and magical powers) enters the household of the recently widowed Mr. Brown and attempts to tame his seven exceedingly ill-behaved children. The children, led by the oldest boy Simon, have managed to drive away 17 previous nannies and are certain that they will have no trouble with this one. But as Nanny McPhee takes control, they begin to notice that their vile behavior now leads swiftly and magically to rather startling consequences. Consensus: A bit alarming at first, Nanny McPhee has a hard edge to counter Mary Poppins-style sweetness, but it still charms us and teaches some valuable lessons.

 

The Sandlot -- BB recommendation from:Albie. 58% Positive Reviews. Tom Guiry, Mike Vitar, Karen Allen. The story takes place during the summer of 1962, when a new boy in town joins a baseball team and tries desperately to fit in with the others.  

 

Stand by Me --  BB recommendation from:Albie. 94% Positive Reviews. Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell, Richard Dreyfus. Director: Rob Reiner. Four boys set out on a search for a missing teenager and have the adventure of their lives.

 

Horror:

The Mummy -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 54% Positive Reviews. Brendan Fraser stars as an American serving in the French Foreign Legion who, on an archaeological dig at the ancient city of Hamunaptra accidentally awakens the Mummy. Consensus: Flat jokes and overblown effects rubbed critics raw.

The Mummy Returns -- BB recommendation from:tydydgrll. 47% Positive Reviews. Brendan Fraser. Another legend. Another monster. Another quest for the world! The Scorpion King. A legendary warrior who sold his soul to Anubis was erased from record in the ancient kingdom. His existence was lost to the sands, preserved only in mythology. Consensus: The special effects are impressive, but its excessive use gives the movie a detached, artificial feel. As such, the characters seems secondary to the computer generated imagery, and they lose much of the charm they had in the first movie.

 

Mystery & Suspense:

 

Dirty Pretty Things -- BB recommendation from: leena. 94% Positive Reviews. Okwe, a kind-hearted Nigerian doctor, and Senay, a Turkish chambermaid, work at the same West London hotel. The hotel is run by Senor "Sneaky" and is the sort of place where "dirty business" like drug dealing and prostitution takes place. However, when Okwe finds a human heart in one of the toilets, he uncovers something far more sinister than just a common crime. Consensus: An illuminating and nuanced film about the exploitation of illegal immigrants.

 

The Net -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 33% Positive Reviews. Sandra Bullock. Angela Bennett is a software engineer type who works from home and has few friends outside of cyberspace. Taking her first vacation in years she becomes embroiled in a web of computer espionage.

 

No Way Out -- BB recommendation from: Albie. 100% Positive Reviews. Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Sean Young. A coverup and witchhunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress. A superior example of the genre, a film in which a simple situation grows more and more complex until it turns into a nightmare not only for the hero but also for everyone associated with him. Consensus: Roger Donaldson's modern spin on the dense, stylish suspense films of the 1940s features fine work from Gene Hackman and Sean Young, as well as the career-making performance that made Kevin Costner a star.

 

Practical Magic --  BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 21% Positive. Audience: 73% Liked It. Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman. Actor Griffin Dunne improves a bit on his first film as a director, Addicted to Love, with this drama-comedy about a family of witches. Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock play spell-casting sisters of different temperaments: the former is a high-living, free-spirited sort, while Bullock's character is a homebody who can't get around a family curse that kills the men in their lives.

 

Romance:

 

Along Came Polly -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 24% Positive Reviews. Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston. Risk-averse Reuben Feffer, whose best-laid plans for life and love careen wildly off-track when his bride dumps him on their honeymoon for a muscle-bound scuba instructor. Stunned, humiliated and in the grip of acute indigestion, Reuben plans to play it safer than ever. But a chance adventure with an adventure-craving childhood friend named Polly, shoots him into a whirlwind of extreme sports, spicy foods, ferrets, salsa dancing and living in the moment.

 

Before Sunrise -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 100% Positive Reviews. Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. While traveling through Europe on a train, a twentysomething American male meets a young French woman. It's his last day before returning to the US, but the two impulsively agree to spend his few remaining hours together.  

 

Before Sunset -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 95% Positive Reviews. Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy. Nine years ago, two strangers met by chance, spent a night together in Vienna, and parted before sunrise. Now, they're about to cross paths again--in Paris--where they will get the chance we all wish we had: to find out what might have been. The only problem is they have just a few hours to figure out if they belong together. Consensus: Filled with engaging dialogue, Before Sunset is a witty, poignant romance, with natural chemistry between Hawke and Delpy.

 

Chocolat -- BB recommendation from: Violet. Reviews: 62% Positive. Audience: 82% Liked It. Juliette Binoche, Lena Olin. A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community. Consensus: Chocolat is a charmingly light-hearted fable with a lovely performance by Binoche.

 

Dear John -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 28% Positive. Audience: 66% Liked It. Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried. A soldier home on leave falls for a conservative college girl. Instead of returning home to her, he reenlists after the attacks on September 11th, 2001. Time and distance begin to take a toll on the young lovers. Consensus: Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom's curiously detached directing.

 

Don Juan DeMarco -- BB recommendation from: Violet. Reviews: 73% Positive. Audience: 70% Liked It. Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp. A psychiatrist must cure a young patient that presents himself as Don Juan, the greatest lover in the world.

 

Pursuit of Happiness -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: N/A. Audience: 20% Liked It. Frank Whaley, Annabeth Gish. Alan Oliver (Frank Whaley) is an ad executive who lives life in the fast lane. Leaving his job in sunny L.A. to work for a web site in rainy Seattle doesn't seem like such a bad idea, since the perks are great. But just when Alan thinks everything is fine, his longtime girlfriend moves out, and his employer (Jean Stapleton) jettisons him from his most lucrative account. Can his best friend (Annabeth Gish) offer the needed comfort and advice?

 

Serendipity -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 58% Positive. Audience: 79% Liked It. John Cusack, Kate Beckinsale. A couple reunite years after the night they first met, fell in love, and separated, convinced that one day they'd end up together. Consensus: An improvement on the first movie in the franchise, X2 gives viewers more of what they want. Consensus: Light and charming, Serendipity could benefit from less contrivances.

 

Shirley Valentine -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 73% Positive. Audience: 85% Liked It. Pauline Collins, Tom Conti. Shirley's a middle-aged Liverpool housewife, who finds herself talking to the wall while she prepares her husband's chip'n'egg, wondering what happened to her life. She compares scenes in her current life with what she used to be like and feels she's stagnated and in a rut. But when her best friend wins an all-expenses-paid vacation to Greece for two, Shirley begins to see the world, and herself, in a different light.

 

Sideways -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. 97% Positive Reviews. A wine tasting road trip to salute Jack's final days as a bachelor careens woefully sideways as he and Miles hit the gas en route to mid-life crises. The comically mismatched pair, who share little more than their history and a heady blend of failed potential and fading youth, soon find themselves drowning in wine and women. Emerging from a haze of pinot noir, wistful yearnings and trepidation about the future, the two inevitably collide with reality.

 

Sweet Home Alabama -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 37% Positive Reviews. Reese Witherspoon, Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey, Candice Bergen. New York fashion designer Melanie Carmichael suddenly finds herself engaged to the city's most eligible bachelor. But Melanie's past holds many secrets, including Jake, the redneck husband she married in high school, who refuses to divorce her. Bound and determined to end their contentious relationship once and for all, Melanie sneaks back home to Alabama to confront her past, only to discover that you can take the girl out of the South, but you can never take the South out of the girl. Consensus: Reese Witherspoon is charming enough, but the road to Alabama is well-traveled.

 

Truly, Madly, Deeply -- BB recommendation from: Violet. Reviews: 72% Positive. Audience: 82% Liked It. Juliet Stevenson, Alan Rickman. A bereaved woman literally wills her dead lover back from the beyond.

 

You've Got Mail -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 68% Positive. Audience: 70% Liked It. Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan. Two business rivals hate each other at the office but fall in love over the internet.

 

 

Sci-Fi:

 

A Scanner Darkly -- BB recommendation from: D. 68% Positive Reviews. Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder. Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, an undercover cop, Fred, is one of many agents hooked on the popular drug Substance D, which causes its users to develop split personalities. Consensus: A faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, A Scanner Darkly takes the viewer on a visual and mind-blowing journey into the author's conception of a drug-addled and politically unstable world.

 

Avatar -- BB recommendation from:BYBYMatrix. Reviews: 83% Positive. Audience: 92% Liked It. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana. Director: James Cameron. In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na'vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture. Consensus: It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking.

 

The Matrix -- {May be too intense for some viewers} BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Reviews: 86% Positive. Audience: 81% Liked It.  Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, In the near future, a computer hacker named Neo discovers that all life on Earth may be nothing more than an elaborate facade created by a malevolent cyber-intelligence, for the purpose of placating us while our life essence is "farmed" to fuel the Matrix's campaign of domination in the "real" world. He joins like-minded Rebel warriors Morpheus and Trinity in their struggle to overthrow the Matrix. Consensus: An ingenious combination of Hong Kong action, ground-breaking Hollywood FX, and an imaginative vision.

 

Underworld -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. 30% Positive Reviews. Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman. For centuries, two races have evolved hidden deeply within human culture - the aristocratic, sophisticated Vampires, and the brutal, feral Lycans (werewolves). To humanity, their existence is no more than a whisper of a myth. But to each other, they are lifelong mortal rivals, sworn to wage a secret war until only one race is left standing.

 

X-Men: The Last Stand -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 57% Positive. Audience: 73% Liked It. Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry. A "cure" for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, although it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test -- triggering the war to end all wars. Consensus: Director Brett Ratner has replaced the heart and emotion (and character development) of the previous X-Men films with more action and explosions.

 

X2: X-Men United -- BB recommendation from: Bevoir. Reviews: 88% Positive. Audience: 84% Liked It. Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman. The X-Men band together to find a mutant assassin who has made an attempt on the President's life, while the Mutant Academy is attacked by military forces. Consensus: An improvement on the first movie in the franchise, X2 gives viewers more of what they want.

 

 

TV Series:

 

Burn Notice -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Review from Vertigo:  It's well written, sometimes a little over the top but keeps me entertained without too much thinking.  It's about a CIA operative who get's black balled and basically loses his identity, credit cards, bank accounts... so returns to his home town Miami where his mother lives. He has to figure it out but needs to make some money so he helps everyday people who are in trouble (his mother's neighbor, an old school friend's daughter who gets manipulated by a con man... so with the help of a few spy friends he knows, he does some little jobs using his secret op experience to help the little guy.  It's kind of fluffy but it's not bad when you're bored and don't have a whole lot else to do.A former spy works as a private investigator in Miami while he attempts to learn why the CIA terminated his services in this darkly-comic original drama.

 

Curb Your Enthusiasm -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Review from Vertigo: Never fails to put me in stitches.  It's created and acted in by the guy who did Seinfeld, Larry David along with the very funny Wanda Sykes, Ted Danson and other guest appearances including ones from the original Seinfeld cast.  A very unique style in which there are no formal scripts, just outlines of scenes and the actors ad lib much of the dialogue. They are available on Netlfix.  I'd start with season one and go through them.

 

House -- BB recommendation from: Gman7470.  "House" marathon on Bravo Saturday nights. House (aka House MD), from executive producers Paul Attanasio, Katie Jacobs, David Shore, and Bryan Singer is a new take on mystery, where the villain is a medical malady and the hero is an irreverent, controversial doctor who trusts no one, least of all his patients.

 

Hung -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Review from Vertigo: If you're not shy or opposed to material that is a little seedy, my wife and I recently watched the first season of "Hung" on Netflix, another series from HBO.  Some very funny stuff but not for the prudish.

 

In Treatment -- BB recommendation from: Vertigo. Review from Vertigo: Speaking of great HBO series, I'd also give a thumbs up to "In Treatment" where you can get some vicarious free therapy!  Gabriel Brrne is fantastic.

 

Pawn Stars -- BB recommendation from: Albie.  Review from Albie: A History Channel series --  real-life events that take place at a Las Vegas pawn shop, owned and operated by a grandfather, son and grandson. It's "guy stuff" though gals may like it too. Utterly harmess -- I find it relaxing -- but very interesting. Show starts out with Rick, the son saying, "...one thing I've learned after 21 years in this business, you never know what's going to walk through that door." And you really don't. I've seen people pawning everything from boats and planes, to stuff signed by JFK, WWI diving equipt, Viet Nam ejection seat, juke boxes, motorcycles, guns, knives and much more. The shop owners know "a guy who's an expert" in just about every field under the sun, and get help appraising these items, then haggle with the sellers on a price.

 

 

P.S. There are LOTs more movies recommended by your fellow BBs that are not yet indexed because, well, frankly I'm a slacker. And if you don't see the movies you recommended in the index, do not despair BBs, it's only because I'm taking them in the order they were received. So, if you're looking for more movie recommendations, please peruse this thread.

 

Thanks for checking it out. And keep those recommendations coming,

 

Albie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 191
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • [Al...]

    41

  • [sa...]

    13

  • [vi...]

    13

  • [Pa...]

    9

Am I really that bad?  I'm just trying to entertain myself, it's one of my favorite pastimes!  Just to prove you wrong, I'm going to leave it here.  :2funny:
Link to comment
Share on other sites

AWESOME!!!  :D  Not only that you're so flexible, but that my reverse psychology insinuating that you'd feel compelled to move this, actually worked.  :pokey:

 

I may have a couple of cells still functioning yet.  :crazy:

 

Your pal,

 

Albie

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AWESOME!!!  :D   Not only that you're so flexible, but that my reverse psychology insinuating that you'd feel compelled to move this, actually worked.  :pokey:

 

I may have a couple of cells still functioning yet.  :crazy:

 

Your pal,

 

Albie

 

 

 

I walked right into that one!  :nono:  :laugh:  I'd say you're fully functioning.  :thumbsup:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are one smart man if you can out-fox Pamster, Albie! ;)

 

This is a great topic...a FUN topic (if you can relax enough to sit and watch a movie) :P

 

Thanks, Pam, for being such a good sport!  It will definitely get more reads here!

 

OK...here are some of our all time favorites  (husband including in "our")...(We keep them written on a list, just for times like these!)

 

I won't give a synopsis because of my severely compromised brain cells but you can get

a good synopsis/review from Rotten Tomatoes :thumbsup:

 

Movies that were either fun or thought-provoking.  We loved all of these:

 

*Thirteen Conversations about One Thing          *Outsourced

*The Lives of Others                                     *Things We Lost in the Fire  (more serious)

*High Fidelity                                               *As Good As It Gets

*Lars and the Real Girl                                   *Stranger than Fiction

*The Station Agent                                       *Run Lola Run

*Waitress                                                    *Up in the Air

*Wit                                                           *The Blind Side

*The Visitor                                                 *Letters to Juliet  (don't know if it is out on DVD yet...husband hasn't seen it.  I LOVED it!

*Happy Go Lucky

 

And of course.......What about Bob? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

 

Movies with more mature themes that we both really liked...I wouldn't watch any of these if depression or anxiety is an issue.

 

*Babel

*Dirty Pretty Things (some pretty serious skin in this one...but we could overlook it because of the topic)

*The Savages

*Breaking and Entering

*The Woodsman

*Frozen River

 

Thanks, Tino!  (500 Days of Summer and Juno were also on my list :))

 

~Leena

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

    Good idea Albie. The only one I could think of that reminds me of the whole benzo issue is 'A Scanner Darkly'.  Quite appropriate for this whole situation.

    Pamster:  :laugh: Your funny.  :laugh:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Awesome Leena! Thanks.

 

You inspired me to get out my DVD index. Most of these are a bit older, but nonetheless:

Comedies:

Airplane

Arthur

Back to School

Dodgeball

Great Outdoors

Happy Gilmore

License to Drive

Lost in America

Major League

Married to the Mob

My Father, The Hero

Nothing to Lose (a little bit intense)

Office Space

Wedding Singer

A League of Their Own

Analyze This

It Could Happen to You

Orange County

Raising Arizona

Sweet Home Alabama

When Harry Met Sally

 

Dramas:

Apollo 13

Disclosure

Fail-Safe

Mosquito Coast

Pirates of Silicon Valley

Wall Street

Working Girl

 

Action/Adventure:

Crocodile Dundee

The Dirty Dozen

Escape From Alcatraz

Mystery/Suspense:

The Net

No Way Out

 

Classics:

African Queen

Anatomy of a Murder

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid

Casablanca

Father Goose

The Flight of the Phoenix

The Graduate

In the Heat of the Night

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House

North by Northwest

The Seven Year Itch

Some Like it Hot

 

Family:

Beethoven

Holes

Iron Will

Sandlot

Stand By Me

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey D,

 

That movie's got a great cast: Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder

 

Sounds a bit intense, but here's the synopsis from Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movie/

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, an undercover cop, Fred, is one of many agents hooked on the popular drug Substance D,... Set in a future world where America has lost the war on drugs, an undercover cop, Fred, is one of many agents hooked on the popular drug Substance D, which causes its users to develop split personalities. Fred, for instance, is also Bob, a notorious drug dealer. Along with his superior officers, Fred sets up an elaborate scheme to catch Bob and tear down his operation.

 

Thanks,

 

Albie

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

C'mon BBs,

 

We need more movies. Pretty sad when I have to keep posting to keep my thread alive -- must not be as good an idea as I thought.  :-[

 

Oh well, here's some more classics:

 

Arsenic and Old Lace

Bridge on the River Kwai

The Caine Mutiny

Cat Ballou

Charade

Cheaper by the Dozen

Cool Hand Luke

The Great Escape

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

The Man Who Knew Too Much

Mr. Roberts

Notorious

The Private War of Major Benson

Spellbound

Suspicion

To Sir, With Love

Von Ryan's Express

Where Eagles Dare

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Goonies

All of the Indiana Jones movies

The Mummy and The Mummy Returns with Brendan Frasier

With Honors

The Super

My Cousin Vinny

The Vacation movies with Chevy Chase

The Addams Family and Addams Family Values

The Breakfast Club

Big

Forrest Gump

Dragnet with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks - Hilarious!

Starsky and Hutch with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller

Tommy Boy

Dumb and Dumber

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Harry Potter movies

There's lots more, I will think about it and post more tomorrow, too tired to do more now. :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a great idea Albie! Here are some I have watched during withdrawal. I'll post mmore later when my brain is functioning better ( it's 4 am right now).

 

Oh Brother Where Art Thou (a strange but incredibly funny movie)

Liar Liar

Forrest Gump

When Harry met Sally

 

I find comedies are very healing for me. :)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

    Best movies Ive seen since I started the withdrawal are Magnolia, Into the Wild and Mullholand Drive. Id avoid the last one though. Disturbing but great. Oh and Heat! How could I forget Heat.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey James, tydydgrll, Missy & D.

 

Yes, Missy, I definitely find that light, warm comedies are the best for me during withdrawal. Smiling is good. Laughter is good. Intense, nail-biting, adrenaline-pumping, edge-of-your-seat thrillers  -- not so good right now.

 

Thanks all -- keep 'em coming,

 

Albie

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Albie,

 

My husband and I watched a movie last night. It was a "Date Night" Movie on Demand. It was called "Definitely, Maybe", 2008

 

Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin

 

"When Will decides to tell his daughter the story of how he met her mother, he discovers that a second look at the past might also give him a second chance at the future"

 

We both had a wonderful time watching the movie. Dinner and a Movie at home. Nice!

 

Summer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Ablie and others. I definitely maybe have enjoyed many of the movies already mentioned :pokey::laugh:.  Harry Met Sally is one of my all time top ten faves and already mentioned earlier.  I agree that the light comedies are perhaps easier to stomach during withdrawal and especially before bed.   Although I enjoy a fluffy no brain comedy where I don't have to think too much about the plot as much as the next benzo or post benzo brain :D;D, I found that it helped my cog fog brain during taper to try and watch some movies that had more dialogue which made me use my brain a little more.  Two of my favorite movies in this regard are Before Sunrise (Eathon Hawke and Julie Delpe are fantastic in this one but beware, lots of philosophical conversation about the meaning of life as two young travelers in Europe pursue a spontaneous romance in Vienna) and the sequel which took almost ten years to come out is equally worthwhile, "Before Sunset" which takes place in Paris.  By the way, I also enjoy movies that have a lot of travel and different cultures.  For example, Lost in Translation is one that will make you think of different perspectives.  Also, the material is disturbing at times but Slumdog Millionaire was also a great film based on a different culture but might not recommend during withdrawal if you're very anxious.   I won't list foreign films here but will say that reading subtitles can also get your brain going.  If you're really cerebral, a film that will make you think but may also bore the daylights out of you if you're not into it is "My Dinner with Andre".   I enjoyed it but some people really hate it.   One more fave of mind was "Sideways".   I think that laughter can sometimes be the best medicine especially during the worst of withdrawal.   Sideways was very funny and enjoyable but beware, if you're a wine drinker and currently abstaining, you might not wish to be tempted by this one.  Before Benzos, I watched this movie at home and consumed a bottle of wine by myself while watching it and I'd already seen it twice :tickedoff:  By the way, I thought "I love you Man" was one of the funnier movies I've seen in a while Albie.  Great minds think alike!  Speaking of comedy, if you haven't seen the HBO series "Curb your Enthusiasm", thats another one that never fails to put me in stitches.  It's created and acted in by the guy who did Seinfeld, Larry David along with the very funny Wanda Sykes, Ted Danson and other guest appearances including ones from the original Seinfeld cast.  A very unique style in which there are no formal scripts, just outlines of scenes and the actors ad lib much of the dialogue. They are available on Netlfix.  I'd start with season one and go through them.  Not everyone is a Larry David fan but he's tops in my book.  Speaking of great HBO series, I'd also give a thumbs up to "In Treatment" where you can get some vicarious free therapy!  Gabriel Brrne is fantastic. If you're not shy or opposed to material that is a little seedy, my wife and I recently watched the first season of "Hung" on Netflix, another series from HBO.  Some very funny stuff but not for the prudish.  One more, although my wife hates these kind of movies... but what "real man" ;D wouldn't enjoy the Bourne Identity and other Bourne films, but again maybe not if you're really having blurry vision or issues with visual tracking during taper as I did last year!  A lot of chase scenes and action fighting which might stir up the senses so save it for post taper perhaps.  Great thread Alb.

 

Keep on laughing and thanks Pam for keeping the thread alive :pokey:, probably would have missed it elsewhere :)

 

Vertigo (no more)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey Summer & V,

 

Thanks for the suggestions!!! I think if we can keep this thread going, we'll have end up compiling a great go-to repository of flicks to check out. And who better than to recommend movies for those in w/d than our fellow BBs?  

 

Can you imagine going into Blockbuster and asking the young "movie dude" working there for recommendations, with the caveat that, "By the way, I'm currently in a bit of a protracted withdrawal from benzodiazepines, so I've kinda got that whole depersonalization-derealization-hair-trigger anxiety-agitation-insomnia-chills-sweats-myoclonic jerks-spasms-tics-and-internal-vibrations-and-a-bit-of-a-cog-fog thing going on. Ya' know what I'm saying? So, if you could recommend something really good, gripping, interesting and funny that doesn't play on any of those symptoms, that would be good. And I'd prefer a new release. And if you have something like Raisinets and Snow Caps, except without the chocolate and sugar, cause that revs up my symptoms, I'll take that too. Thanks."  Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't even bat an eyelash.  ;)

 

Anyway, in case there's anybody on the planet not familiar with this movie review site... if you see a movie title that intrigues you, just plug the title into the Search box here:

 

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/movie/

 

It gives, not one review, but an aggregation of critics' reviews for each movie, which is then compiled into a Tomato Rating of 0-100%. You can read most of the individual reviews, get a synopsis of each movie, watch trailers etc. A great site. Fast, easy, excellent overviews and, no, I don't even own stock in the company.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

 

Can you imagine going into Blockbuster and asking the young "movie dude" working there for recommendations, with the caveat that, "By the way, I'm currently in a bit of a protracted withdrawal from benzodiazepines, so I've kinda got that whole depersonalization-derealization-hair-trigger anxiety-agitation-insomnia-chills-sweats-myoclonic jerks-spasms-tics-and-internal-vibrations-and-a-bit-of-a-cog-fog thing going on. Ya' know what I'm saying? So, if you could recommend something really good, gripping, interesting and funny that doesn't play on any of those symptoms, that would be good. And I'd prefer a new release. And if you have something like Raisinets and Snow Caps, except without the chocolate and sugar, cause that revs up my symptoms, I'll take that too. Thanks."  Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't even bat an eyelash.  ;)

 

 

oh my gosh....LOL

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Almost forgot one of my favorite light, touchingly poignant and fun "Benzo-Safe" movies:

 

Billy Crystal in City Slickers.

 

The story of three men turning 40 who go on a Montana cattle drive.

 

Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%

Link to comment
Share on other sites

let's see, oh yeah, there is a great movie called

'MEET THE FUCKERS'

 

 

 

scroll down

 

 

 

 

 

actually this is bait for pam and albie. all an attempt to see if NOW pam will remove the post. no pam

you can not blame me for being a lousy speller.

it is my favorite comedy. albie, how did i miss this thread. just when i've been searching

for a list of winter movies which i'm going to need big time.

no wait, it's coming to me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,oh ys, it's called, "Meet The Fockers", yes, good movie.

yours in peace, violet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Violet, Violet, Violet,

 

Such language on a nice, little family-oriented thread. What ever are we going to do with you?   :muscle:

 

Let's start by coming clean. I promise you're going to feel a whole lot better if you tell the truth.  But I'm only going to ask you this once. Were you and the other orangutans playing in the wine cellar again today?  

Link to comment
Share on other sites


×
×
  • Create New...