25 movies you need to watch
by helmut_bergstrom | created - 10 Nov 2012 | updated - 10 Nov 2012 | PublicIf you like one or two of these movies, make sure you at least try and watch all on the list, you may be surprised...
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1. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
R | 229 min | Crime, Drama
A former Prohibition-era Jewish gangster returns to the Lower East Side of Manhattan 35 years later, where he must once again confront the ghosts and regrets of his old life.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Treat Williams
Votes: 377,492 | Gross: $5.32M
Just an amazing movie,Sergio Leone's masterpiece was supposedly 10 years in the making. This movie looks at the human soul and how people can change over their lives.
2. Goodfellas (1990)
R | 145 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
Director: Martin Scorsese | Stars: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco
Votes: 1,256,562 | Gross: $46.84M
Scorsese's masterpiece and the benchmark for gangster movies. A timeless movie that can be watched over and over.
3. Akira (1988)
R | 124 min | Animation, Action, Drama
A secret military project endangers Neo-Tokyo when it turns a biker gang member into a rampaging psychic psychopath who can only be stopped by a teenager, his gang of biker friends and a group of psychics.
Director: Katsuhiro Ôtomo | Stars: Mitsuo Iwata, Nozomu Sasaki, Mami Koyama, Tesshô Genda
Votes: 205,077 | Gross: $0.55M
The movie that introduced the west to Japanese anime and the movie certainly peaked appetites for future releases such as Ghost in the Shell, Spirited Away, Appleseed and the Death Note series. Still holds its own today.
4. Fight Club (1999)
R | 139 min | Drama
An insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soap maker form an underground fight club that evolves into much more.
Director: David Fincher | Stars: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Meat Loaf, Zach Grenier
Votes: 2,321,973 | Gross: $37.03M
A movie that tries to engage that part of your mind that knows that something wrong with today's consumer society. Thought provoking from start to finish.
5. Bad Lieutenant (1992)
NC-17 | 96 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness and redemption.
Director: Abel Ferrara | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Brian McElroy, Frank Acciarito, Peggy Gormley
Votes: 47,844 | Gross: $2.00M
The original crooked cop who finds redemption. This is a must see movie.
6. Donnie Darko (2001)
R | 113 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
After narrowly escaping a bizarre accident, a troubled teenager is plagued by visions of a man in a large rabbit suit who manipulates him to commit a series of crimes.
Director: Richard Kelly | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell, Holmes Osborne
Votes: 849,703 | Gross: $1.48M
An interesting interpretation on quantum physics and time perception through the mind of social outcast, Mr Darko.
7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)
R | 152 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
A journalist is aided by a young female hacker in his search for the killer of a woman who has been dead for forty years.
Director: Niels Arden Oplev | Stars: Michael Nyqvist, Noomi Rapace, Ewa Fröling, Lena Endre
Votes: 223,300 | Gross: $10.10M
The original and the best, great storyline that twists and turns until the very end.
8. Carlito's Way (1993)
R | 144 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A Puerto Rican former convict, just released from prison, pledges to stay away from drugs and violence despite the pressure around him and lead on to a better life outside of N.Y.C.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, John Leguizamo
Votes: 232,267 | Gross: $36.95M
Brian De Palma, great movie starring Al Pacino based on the novels Carlito's Way and After Hours by Judge Edwin Torres. Pacino is at his best showing the weaknesses of a man freed from prison for heroin trafficking due to a legal technicality.
9. American Psycho (2000)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama, Horror
A wealthy New York City investment banking executive, Patrick Bateman, hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he delves deeper into his violent, hedonistic fantasies.
Director: Mary Harron | Stars: Christian Bale, Justin Theroux, Josh Lucas, Bill Sage
Votes: 714,728 | Gross: $15.07M
Interesting comment on some parts of today's corporate culture where image is more important than substance and any indiscretions can be covered up.
10. The Usual Suspects (1995)
R | 106 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
The sole survivor of a pier shoot-out tells the story of how a notorious criminal influenced the events that began with five criminals meeting in a seemingly random police lineup.
Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Kevin Spacey, Gabriel Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin
Votes: 1,144,841 | Gross: $23.34M
Who is Kaiser Soze. Always amazed when I meet people today that haven't seen this movie.
11. Limitless (I) (2011)
PG-13 | 105 min | Sci-Fi, Thriller
A mysterious pill that enables the user to access 100% of his brain's abilities transforms a struggling writer into a financial wizard, but it also puts him in a new world with many dangers.
Director: Neil Burger | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Anna Friel, Abbie Cornish, Robert De Niro
Votes: 612,118 | Gross: $79.25M
maybe not one of the classics but I really enjoyed this movie. Great idea and Brad Cooper does a nice job to keep it on track.
12. Natural Born Killers (1994)
R | 119 min | Action, Crime, Romance
Two victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Rodney Dangerfield
Votes: 251,661 | Gross: $50.28M
You might say with Tarantino writing and Stone directing, how could you go wrong and you would be right. Possibly Stone's greatest masterpiece splicing together scenes with artwork and music video, creating a piece of cinema that can be watched over and over again.
13. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
R | 99 min | Crime, Thriller
When a simple jewelry heist goes horribly wrong, the surviving criminals begin to suspect that one of them is a police informant.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Chris Penn
Votes: 1,087,673 | Gross: $2.83M
Tarantino's '92 movie with excellent dialogue and slick feel that surely generated a new generation of wannabe gangsta movies.
14. Constantine (2005)
R | 121 min | Action, Fantasy, Horror
Supernatural exorcist and demonologist John Constantine helps a policewoman prove her sister's death was not a suicide, but something more.
Director: Francis Lawrence | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Djimon Hounsou, Shia LaBeouf
Votes: 374,020 | Gross: $75.98M
The ultimate anti-hero, John Constantine, who stands between earth and Hell. The atmosphere alone of this movie is enough to keep you coming back for more
15. Apocalypse Now (1979)
R | 147 min | Drama, Mystery, War
A U.S. Army officer serving in Vietnam is tasked with assassinating a renegade Special Forces Colonel who sees himself as a god.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Frederic Forrest
Votes: 709,719 | Gross: $83.47M
Classic piece of film, especially after you watch the '91 doco, Hearts of Darkness about the making of the movie. Truly Coppola's most impressive work and that is really saying something!
16. Oldboy (2003)
R | 120 min | Action, Drama, Mystery
After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.
Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Kim Byeong-Ok
Votes: 635,323 | Gross: $0.71M
The ultimate revenge film. You won't believe the sting in the tail of this movie. One of Korea's finest and once you watch this movie, check out the other 2 from the revenge trilogy.
17. JFK (1991)
R | 189 min | Drama, History, Thriller
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison discovers there's more to the Kennedy assassination than the official story.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau
Votes: 169,851 | Gross: $70.41M
Oliver Stone's seminal biopic of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison who courageously takes it upon himself to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Watch and decide for yourself.
18. The Matrix (1999)
R | 136 min | Action, Sci-Fi
When a beautiful stranger leads computer hacker Neo to a forbidding underworld, he discovers the shocking truth--the life he knows is the elaborate deception of an evil cyber-intelligence.
Directors: Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 2,051,757 | Gross: $171.48M
The original and the best. The movie that questions human thought and how many people take the blue pill so that they can "wake up safe and sound in their bed and believe whatever you want to believe"
19. Gallipoli (1981)
PG | 110 min | Adventure, Drama, History
Two Australian sprinters face the brutal realities of war when they are sent to fight in the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey during World War I.
Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Mel Gibson, Mark Lee, Bill Kerr, Harold Hopkins
Votes: 41,940 | Gross: $5.73M
Peter Weir's story of Australian army forces outnumbered and outgunned on the shores of Gallipoli in Turkey. The beauty to the movie is the back-story to the main characters prior to the war.
20. Lost Highway (1997)
R | 134 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Anonymous videotapes presage a musician's murder conviction, and a gangster's girlfriend leads a mechanic astray.
Director: David Lynch | Stars: Bill Pullman, Patricia Arquette, John Roselius, Louis Eppolito
Votes: 153,116 | Gross: $3.80M
Another Lynch masterpiece beautifully directed about how infidelity and lack of self esteem can tear apart a person's mind
21. Martyrs (2008)
R | 99 min | Horror
A young woman's quest for revenge against the people who kidnapped and tormented her as a child leads her and a friend, who is also a victim of child abuse, on a terrifying journey into a living hell of depravity.
Director: Pascal Laugier | Stars: Morjana Alaoui, Mylène Jampanoï, Catherine Bégin, Robert Toupin
Votes: 106,326
Certainly not for everyone's tastes but I love a horror movie with a reasoned premise. This movie is about people using other people to attempt to see the other side, worth watching if you can stomach a little brutality.
22. Scarface (1983)
R | 170 min | Crime, Drama
In 1980 Miami, a determined Cuban immigrant takes over a drug cartel and succumbs to greed.
Director: Brian De Palma | Stars: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Votes: 915,889 | Gross: $45.60M
No introduction needed to Brian DePalma's rags to riches story of Cuban drug lord Tony Montana. Pacino's over the top acting was enough
23. The Butterfly Effect (2004)
R | 113 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Evan Treborn suffers blackouts during significant events of his life. As he grows up, he finds a way to remember these lost memories and a supernatural way to alter his life by reading his journal.
Directors: Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber | Stars: Ashton Kutcher, Amy Smart, Melora Walters, Elden Henson
Votes: 520,907 | Gross: $57.94M
Loved this movie and the premise that just because you may be able to go back and change the past, it doesn't mean that the future will turn out better!
24. The Godfather Part II (1974)
R | 202 min | Crime, Drama
The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.
Director: Francis Ford Coppola | Stars: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton
Votes: 1,363,398 | Gross: $57.30M
Looking back on how Don Corleone came to power. DeNiro at his best.
25. The Sixth Sense (1999)
PG-13 | 107 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Malcolm Crowe, a child psychologist, starts treating a young boy, Cole, who encounters dead people and convinces him to help them. In turn, Cole helps Malcolm reconcile with his estranged wife.
Director: M. Night Shyamalan | Stars: Bruce Willis, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, Olivia Williams
Votes: 1,050,754 | Gross: $293.51M
Great suspense, great sting in the tail. M. Night Shyamalan probably peaked too soon.
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