Damnit, I can’t be the only one out here that wants these… This doesn’t include the real obvious ones that everyone wants like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Heavenly Creatures, or the Max Headroom series, but my own list of titles that I haven’t seen other folks yelling about.
- Slacker. Linklater’s Austin classic
- The Horsemen. Totally awesome action/adventure movie about buzkashi players in Afghanistan. I recall seeing this in the late-70s (it came out in 1971). Frankenheimer directs. Omar Sharif and Jack Palance star
- Vanishing Point. Uber-cult movie about existential nihilism and long distance high-speed driving. Again, one of my major favorites.
- Desk Set. Wonderfully charming Hepburn and Tracy movie about early computerization. Lots of Big Iron hardware (IBM is namechecked several times in the credits) and a freaky Mondrian-esque opening titles.
- Them! Giant ants. Los Angeles storm drains. What more could you want (except the fscking DVD!)
- The Monolith Monsters. Wonderfully absurd monster movie with no monsters – just growing rocks. Always a favorite of mine because the hero is a geologist, the fictional town of San Angelo looks like it’s in the Eastern Sierra desert, and the humans win with their wits and not with a gun.
- Lord Love A Duck. Incredibly insane movie about sweaters and, er, quacking, with a groovy soundtrack.
- Action In The North Atlantic. OK, so it’s a formulaic war picture from 1943 except for two things: 1. Bogart. 2. It’s a forumulaic war picture about the Merchant Marines in WWII
- Dragnet. The 1966 TV movie with Jack Webb and Harry Morgan. Pretty hard boiled and superior to much of what aired on the subsequent series.
- The Driver. It’s another dark, brooding car chase film, but off-kilter with a heavy noir feel to it.