I'm taking a break from another board where this same topic was posted, but it didn't get interesting until I asked for explanations.

So, name one or more movies you feel like you should have seen by now, but haven't, and then note why you haven't seen them.

My list:

Amelie - It looks too "cute." It seems like the same people who love "Amelie" also loved "Chocolat" and I hated "Chocolat."

Passion of the Christ - I try to watch everything that gains some kind of cultural significance, but I was so sick of hearing about this movie in the news, I don't think I can ever watch it.

African Queen -- I have an aversion to Katherine Hepburn. She grates on me.

Lastly, for a guy who really likes weird cult movies, I've only seen one (I think) movie by Miike: 13 Assassins. He's got like 200 others I should really check out.

I'm sure there are more, but these are the ones that nag at me from time to time.

Yours?

Amelie is a pretty cute movie at times, but it's done really well and doesn't seem annoying. Audrey Tautou was fantastic in it, it's a shame she didn't really seem to take off too much outside of it, at least not in the US.

Takashi Miike has a very big and diverse catalog of movies, he's done everything from low-budget Yakuza films to insane social commentary and horror movies. If you don't mind some really disturbing scenes, I'd recommend Audition, which he is well known for.

The movies I really need to see are:

Seventh Seal - I'm ashamed that I haven't seen any Ingmar Bergman movies at all.

Casablanca - This is almost as synonymous with "classic films" as Citizen Kane, and I have no excuse for why I haven't watched it yet.

There aren't that many famous movies I've never seen but here are a few:

01. Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off - John Hughes' movies are not at the top of my must-see list, I must say. People say that these movies are awesome and that it helped shape their childhood/adolescence. I don't know if watching these two films for the first time in my 30's would be a good idea.

02. For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars - I've seen The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. It's time to see the rest.

03. 300 - I wasn't interested when it came out. Still not interested in seeing it.

Regarding Miike - Audition is pretty cool, but tame compared to his contribution to the Masters of Horror series - Imprint. For whacky WTF-ness, the Happiness of the Kakakuris never fails to do that. God I love that movie.

Well.. I don't feel so bad after seeing some of what you guys posted but here we go for my shame... *Note* I grew up with parents who were not big film buffs, so I missed out on stuff, ok?

1. The Godfather- Not a single one. They have been on my "To Watch" list for a while and now that I have moved in with my uber film nerd fiancé I'll probably watch them over the summer.

2. Any Stanley Kubrick movie that isn't Dr. Strangelove - I get tons of shit from friends of mine who found out that I had never seen 2001 nor a Clockwork Orange. I don't know what to say. My parents never picked those movies up at the local rental place, and I kept forgetting about them. The fiancé has some special Blu Ray collection, and he's been pressuring me to put my Netflix sub on hold just to watch what he has.

3. Schindler's List - Yes, I know. What the hell. Argh.

4. Saving Private Ryan - Yep, yep, I'm terrible.

5. Any Hitchcock that isn't the Birds or Psycho - Same thing with Kubrick. Sigh.

6. Gone With the Wind - That's a fucking time investment, and last year I had the option to watch either Cleopatra (the Liz Taylor one) or this. I went with Cleopatra. Yeah, my bad on that one.

7. Any Scorcese film that isn't the Departed or Hugo - Sigh.

I could add more, but this is embarrassing enough. All of the films I just mentioned I have access to now via the fiancé. I'll get to them, but I admit that I get easily distracted.

You know, during this year, I finally saw The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs. No joke.

This thread is heartening. On that other board many of the same movies were mentioned, but with a tone of spite toward any movie deemed "important." I didn't get that at all. Especially on a movie board.


As for Miike, well, part of my reluctance is I once saw part of a Japanese movie that I can never unsee, and I'm a bit gunshy now about "extreme Asian" cinema. I am curious about him, though, and need to give his less transgressive stuff a shot.

Jesse, Bergman is tough. Seventh Seal is weirdly one of his most accessible movies. I love Casablanca, but showed that to my wife and a friend of hers about 10 years ago and they didn't care for it. I've shutdown my emotional response to that.

Ava Driver, watch Godfather I&II. No matter how much you want to see more, do not watch part III.

Some of those other filmographies can be daunting to start on. It's hard to go wrong with Scorsese or Hitchcock, unless you pick The End of Innocence, that Dalai Lama movie, or... I can't think of a bad Hitchcock. I even like the Jimmy Stewart "The Man Who Knew Too Much." Kubrick is trickier, his movies are really polarizing. I love 2001, which bores a lot of people to tears.

Gone With the Wind holds up surprisingly well. Watched that again just a few years ago. Isn't it shorter than Cleopatra?

Irvin Malcolm, on whether to first see Ferris Bueller and Breakfast Club as an adult? I was a teen when they came out, and have to admit, Ferris never appealed to me. I hated kids like him, so I can't advise on that. But I loved Breakfast club when I was 13 & hated it at 17. Still, it's good funny lines and iconic performances. You'll get something out of it, even if it seems artificial.

Sometimes I wish I had more blank spots. I'd love to see Taxi Driver again for the first time.

I do need to see more Kurosawa. I've loved Ran for 20 years, and saw the movies he made after that, plus Seven Samurai and Rashomon, but need to go back and watch the others, I just don't know where to start.

I'm just ashamed!