This post will list movies which should have been on the list of 100 cult movies had the list been written exactly I’d have written it. Which is to say, perfectly.
Note that “cult” means something transcending the ordinary and also not wildly popular in an of itself. That doesn’t mean that the movie must be great, important, relevant, life altering, or get you laid when you watch it with your girl. It’s not a cut and dried definition.
In no particular order I present my abridged list of movies which you must see before you’re allowed to die:
Idiocracy (2006). Because we’re living in it. This is not a good movie. It is a stupid/fun movie. However we live in a stupid world so the movie gets at something with a lazer like focus. You will wish you could forget this silly movie and you will fail. Events will remind you of it every week. The studio tried to kill this movie and they failed. Because it’s true and we’re doomed.
We're already in it.
Blue Velvet (1986). Because Dennis Hopper’s unhinged “bad guy” character scared the living shit outta’ me. While you’re at it, remove Lynch’s appallingly bad Eraserhead from any list of anything ever.
David Lynch knows how to brew up a seriously disturbing experience.
Lawrence Of Arabia (1962). Marvelous. I watched this on a small screen and robbed myself of it’s majesty. For that misjudgment, I should be shot.
Watch it big.
The Third Man (1949). It turns out that Orsen Welles was a hellish good actor and not just a fat washed up loser. Who knew? A movie with a superb villain not because he was outscale like a Bond caricature but because he was totally believable. World class.
Yeah, go down that tunnel. I dare ya!
Tremors (1990). The only reason to watch this movie is for Michael Gross undergoing a weird transformation from loser beta male from Family Ties to the hapless Bert Gummer. Apparently Michael Gross can act. Who knew? The movie is neither deep nor intelligent. Tough shit Einstein. Watch it anyway.
You broke into the wrong damn rec room didn't ya, you bastard!
Easy Rider (1969). A good movie in it’s own right. Sadly hampered by the miasma of bullshit that lingers over the Boomer’s (and our society’s) misty eyed sympathy for “the 1960’s”.
A road trip with a happy ending.
Gran Torino (2008). A masterpiece. Clint Eastwood was trying to say something far to complex for clueless media twerps to favor but he got the point across with a sledge. Not a “cult movie” but I put it on my list because I felt like it.
Stay off the lawn.
Falling Down (1993). Just as cheerful as Gran Torino but 15 years earlier. Also not a cult movie but it should be.
This is why I no longer live in California.
How about:
THE LION IN WINTER (first version). How many films give you the chance to hear Katherine Hepburn say (to a pair of earrings) “I’d hang you from the nipples, but you’d shock the children.”?
S.O.B. The bad film Blake Edwards made as a temper tantrum over the reception the world gave his previous bad film. Julie Andrews topless scene, and Robert Preston as a (hysterically funny) Hollywood Quack Doctor.
Casino Royal (David Niven version) “It’s depressing that the term ‘secret agent’ has become synonymous with ‘sex maniac'”. No, the film doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Why does that matter?
WOW!! Casino Royale. I love that film. Great choice.
I consider it the least coherent and also the best of the long litany of James Bond spoofs. There’s a moral there, somewhere…
Lawrence of Arabia on a Small screen! horrors… I have no idea if it is a cult movie or not, but the Thomas Crowne Affair (Pierce Brosnan) is one of the best combinations of fine art and film-making, Magritte’s surrealism made real.
Almost anything by Clint Eastwood, I don’t want to watch Million Dollar Baby again, but I am not likely to forget it either.
“A boy and his dog”…greatest post apochalyptic movie
and speaking of the apochalypse how about Mel’s “Apocalypto” the ending is so heart rending as you realize all the crap he went through was merely a foretaste of the coming storm.
Let me add:
THE ADVENTURES OF FORD FAIRLANE; This movie is what happens when you take vulgarity and give it a high polish. Contains the immortal lines “Talking to Zuzu was like masturbating with a cheese grater; slightly amusing, but mostly painful.”