Movies, Movies, Movies

So a coworker of mine the other day informed me that they had signed up for Netflix. They have seen quite a few movies and were wondering if I could recommend some movies for them to watch. I always find recommending a movie really hard to do, because my movie tastes really range quite far and wide and I don't want to recommend a movie that doesn't fit the requesters taste. Usually I ask the requester to give me some movies they like, and then from that I will make my recommendation. Unfortunately via the blog, that is a bit harder to do (ask someone what movies they like) so I thought I would post some of my favorite movies that I have watched. The key here is I am going to try and avoid big name movies that say, 50% of you have seen. My goal is to recommend movies that less than 50% of my readership has seen, but are still awesome, awesome movies. Here are 5.

#1 - Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain [French](English title is just Amélie)
This one is probably the easiest, because like no one has ever seen this movie (which is a real shame) but it is an awesome movie. There is nothing "controversial" about this film, and I just looked in imdb, and it is rated R [it says for sexual content] but I for the life of me can't think why it isn't rated G (and neither could my coworker who I recommended it to). Needless to say, parents may want to preview the movie before showing it to their kids and not taking my word for it, but I think it is acceptable by anyone.

#2 - Memento
This is was the "breakout" movie by Christopher Nolan (of Batman Begins fame, another great [but too popular for my list] movie). This is a true Film Noir movie. The movie follows a man trying to find his wife's killer, but he has no ability to form long term memory. If you enjoy Memento and want to see more of Christopher Nolan's work, I also highly recommend Following but not his movie Insomnia with Robin Williams, that was pretty bad. Memento is probably the closest to 50% I am going to get of readership viewing, but it is just too good not to put on this list. The movie is fairly violent and isn't suitable for young kids.

#3 - Lola rennt [German](English title is Run Lola Run)
This is a short (81 minutes) film about how life's smallest choices (or even accidents) can have far reaching effects not only in our own lives, but the lives of others as well. It is rated R, but mainly just for language (so if your kids can't read well just turn subtitles on and watch it in the native German :p)

#4 - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels [British]
This was the breakout film by Guy Ritchie (he of marrying Madonna fame). Guy Ritchie's next movie after this one "Snatch" was very similar but starred Brad Pitt and was wildly successful. If you liked Snatch, LSTSB was a funnier more indy version of that film. It does have a pretty explicit nudity scene when the guys go to a strip club, so just a warning there. There is also a fair amount of violence.

#5 - Ying xiong [Chinese] (English title is Hero)
I decided the list was missing some nice Chinese/Kung Fu action on it. It is in the same vein as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon but I think is a more visually stunning film, and has a better story line. It is rated PG-13 for "martial arts violence", so you can decide if it is appropriate for your 10 year old boy or not.

So there you go, 5 movies that some of you (hopefully a majority of you or this list is a failure) have never seen. These are all a bit "older" with Hero being the newest (2002) so you shouldn't have too much trouble finding them at your local movie store for cheap, or my preferred method, Netflix. If you like any of these movies, I would love to see a comment (or if you don't, would love to see a comment that way as well) and if you would like more movie recommendations I LOVE giving them, so let me know and maybe I can do themed recommendations (Action, Comedy, whatever) for my next list.