Top 10 Cult Classics

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El Vez
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Top 10 Cult Classics

Post by El Vez »

Entertainment Weekly recently came out with a Cult Movie issue. The editors and contributing writers for EW chose This Is Spinal Tap while the readers picked Monty Python & The Holy Grail. Here's my top 10.....

1. The Big Lebowski.
2. Crumb
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
4. Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
5. Friday
6. Paradise Lost
7. The Ninth Configuration
8. Scarecrow (a Hackman/Pacino flick from the 70's that is not to be missed)
9. Repo Man
10. Don't Look Back (The Bob Dylan documentary, not the Eric Stoltz HBO movie)
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Tim(e)
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Post by Tim(e) »

In no particular order:

1. Eraserhead (David Lynch)
2. Pink Flamingos (John Waters)
3. Blue Velvet (David Lynch)
4. The Killer (John Woo)
5. Mystery Train (Jim Jarmusch)
6. Brazil (Terry Gilliam)
7. King of Comedy (Martin Scorsese)
8. Trainspotting (Danny Boyle)
9. Wise Blood (John Huston)
10. Performance (Nicolas Roeg)
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tokyo vogue
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Post by tokyo vogue »

what exactly defines a 'cult' movie? i mean, i have a general idea, but what separates cult films from every other odd film? is it the number of fans? what? and can anime be cult, or is it just live action?


i'd put up my favorite movies that could possibly be 'cult', but i do so hate to make an indie faux-pas. shhh, don't tell anyone that i'm not in the club.
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BlueChair
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Post by BlueChair »

A cult film usually refers to a movie that wasn't a big seller or popular in the mainstream, but has a large, core group of fans who really like it.

The dictionary defines cult in this usage as "a great devotion among a group to a particular person, idea, or thing"
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Post by LessThanZero »

Office Space
Loving this board since before When I Was Cruel.
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costellopunk
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Post by costellopunk »

here we go:

1. clerks (stop laughing miss b.a.)
2. repo man
3. raising arizona
4. brazil
5. true romance
6. rocky horror
7. akira
8. rushmore
9. secretary (okay so it's a very new movie but i want it to become a cult classic)
10. lost highway (it's not that i like it more than blue velvet i just watch it more)
-it takes a long time but god dies too/but not before he sticks it to you-
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DrJ
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Post by DrJ »

Wow, I'd totally forgotten that I went to see Crumb in the cinema when it came out. Can't remember a bit of it. Office Space is class too, saw it on plane two years ago, it's hilarious and there's an article about it in EW as well.

I really love "Head" The Monkees' insane movie from 1968. No plot, Frank Zappa with a cow, some of the group's best music and set pieces and and amusing deconstruction of the tv show. Top movie. I wish they'd do a kick ass dvd of it.

Wes Anderson's films are great. Rushmore, The Royal Tannenbaums, are they really cult movies?

Overall I haven't seen as many "Classic" movies as I have bought "Classic" albums. I've tried to see a few things recently what with the dvd explosion and all that: French Connection, Wicker Man... that's all good... although I still end up using my dvd player to watch old episodes of Family Guy. I still can't believe I haven't seen "Brazil", I know I'd love it. Met Terry Gilliam once, nice bloke...

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Post by spooky girlfriend »

CPunk, I love Raising Arizona. I usually never turn down a chance to watch it! :)

I know my husband would go for all the sci-fi flicks like Forbidden Planet and Dawn of the Dead. Although he would also throw in Life of Brian and Animal House. I have a few choices, although you movie intellects will probably scoff at them: Saturday Night Fever, The Breakfast Club, Pink Floyd - The Wall, and Desperately Seeking Susan.
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Post by costellopunk »

spooky, i would never scoff at the breakfast club. molly ringwald was my first love. ah, second grade. i miss it so.
-it takes a long time but god dies too/but not before he sticks it to you-
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Post by lapinsjolis »

It's hard to narrow them down:

Night of the Hunter
Strictly Ballroom
Xanadu( :oops: -I think I win Spooky)
The Window
Beauty and the Beast (Cocteau)
Orpheus
I Walked With a Zombie (really just about any Val Lewton)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
The Bicycle Thief
Umberto D

I haven't seen 'Wise Blood', is it true to O'Connor's book?
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Post by spooky girlfriend »

Lapinsjolis: I won't tell you how many times I watched Xanadu. I always tried to make my hair look like Olivia's - from that movie and Grease as well. :)
Last edited by spooky girlfriend on Thu Jun 19, 2003 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Goody2Shoes »

Lapinsjolis: I LOVE some of the movies on your list, especially Strictly Ballroom, Night Of The Hunter, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

I also like these (though I don't know if I can come up with 10):

Glen or Glenda?--also considered by many to be the worst movie ever made.
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Metropolis
Brazil
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Fast Times at Ridgemont High :oops:
Dr. Strangelove
Eraserhead
Harold and Maude

I think some of these meet the definition of Cult Classic, but that's a rather nebulous term.
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Post by sulkygirl »

spooky girlfriend wrote:I know my husband would go for all the sci-fi flicks like Forbidden Planet and Dawn of the Dead.
What, did we marry the same guy?? My F.B. insists on watching the oldest, crappiest, corniest Sci-Fi "B" Movies he can find. If I have to watch "Forbidden Planet" or "Night of the Living Dead" again, I think I'll just have to snatch myself bald...

:shock:
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Post by spooky girlfriend »

I think it's a guy thing, Sulky. :)

Although, at the same time I enjoy the "chick flicks" so I can't say much really. :o

And Fast Times, what a great movie. I'm such an 80's gal. :oops:
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Post by lapinsjolis »

All this time I thought that Xanadu was a place only I dared to go. . .It's hard to believe 'Night of the Hunter' was panned when it came out and ended Charles Laughton directing career, considering how influential it still is. I defy anyone to watch 'Strictly Ballroom' and remain in any sort of depression. I confess a crush on Cesare and the imagery (gasp).

Cheating add on some Robert Wise fare:

The Haunting
Curse of the Cat People
The Set Up
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El Vez
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Post by El Vez »

The Body Snatcher is another Robert Wise classic and my vote for Boris Karloff's finest film performance.

Fast Times At Ridgemont High is a GREAT movie. Sean Penn shoulda copped a supporting actor nod.

The Night of The Hunter.........if only it had made a dime at the box office. We missed a lot of Charles Laughton behind the helm because Hunter bombed.
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Post by selfmademug »

Okay, have scrolled down without reading so I can come up with mine without being influenced... Sorry, can't order them... this is off the top of my head.
1. Brazil
2. Dr. Strangeglove
3. Night of the Hunter
4. Diva
5. Earth Girls Are Easy
6. MP & the Holy Grain (really, just has to be there)
7. Rocky Horror Picture Show (ditto)
8. Shrek (Will be, I promise you)
9. The Fantastic Voyage
10. 8 1/2
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

The Holy Grain? Sounds like you've been on the whisky trail again, Mug.
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Post by selfmademug »

I only wish, Pal Otis...

But I've been thinking I missed these:

- Moulin Rouge
- Velvet Goldmine (okay so have small Ewan McG thing)
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Barton Fink
- Lair (almost typed 'liar,' just for you Ote) of the White Worm
- Princess Bride

And I agree entirely about SECRETARY. And I'm surprised to see all the NIGHT OF THE HUNTER fans. Saw that when I was about 8 years old, on a rainy Saturday afternoon with my Mom (who'd never seen it and so didn't know to censor). Scared the living fuck out of me.

Three more future candidates:

- Rushmore
- Election
- The Royal Tennebaums. God what a gorgeous (and funny, and moving) movie. Every shot perfectly stylized.
Last edited by selfmademug on Thu Jun 19, 2003 6:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by spooky girlfriend »

Oh mug, I love Some Kind of Wonderful. :)
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Lair of the White Worm is truly bad!

I love NOTH. So beautifully filmed and acted. Totally magical.
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...

Post by girl out of time »

the king of comedy
faraway, so close
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henry
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...the promise of indulgence in my confidential voice approached inmortal danger but you´ll never know how close....
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Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Faraway, So Close over The Wings of Desire aka Der Himmel Über berlin (Cielo Sobre Berlin)? I tapes FSC the other night, but haven't watched it yet, and almost don't want to, knowing it can't match the magic of the first one, which I saw many times over and loved to death.
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Post by Tim(e) »

This is starting to look like my DVD collection (too many dollars, not enough sense). So far of those mentioned I have:

8 1/2
Akira
Animal House
Blue Velvet
Crumb
Diva
Dr. Strangelove
Eraserhead
Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas
Forbidden Planet
The Killer
King of Comedy
Life ofBrian
Lost Highway
Metropolis
Monty Python & the Holy Grail
Moulin Rouge
Mystery Train
Night of the Hunter
Pink Flamingos
Princess Bride
Repo Man
Reservoir Dogs
Rushmore
Shrek
Strictly Ballroom
Trainspotting
True Romance
Wings of Desire

And lapinsjolis, I have not read the book of Wise Blood, but I can assure you that it is one seriously good film!!

I was once involved in an online chat with a couple of people from Criterion (the DVD company) and in answer to a question I raised on the possibility of ever seeing this film come to DVD (and in particular Criterion DVD), one of the Criterion people mentioned that it was among his favourite films and that he would look into the possibilities of them doing it... unfortunately I never heard anything further, so I continue to wait in hope.
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tokyo vogue
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Post by tokyo vogue »

hmm. my favorites (not classics, maybe, but cult):

1. Angel Sanctuary
2. Pi
3. Dr. Strangelove
4. Ghost in the Shell
5. Metropolis (Kino version)
6. Baghdad Cafe
7. Suspiria
8. Akira
9. Wavetwisters
10. Rocky Horror Picture Show
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