wombat tries to watch movies again

[wombat]

OK, I have been thinking of posting this for a while, and was given the kick in the ##### by this post and by the fact that I have the day off today and am trying desperately not to do anything useful.

I would like to know what are the recent movies that Everyone has seen and refers to, like the Big Lebowski in that post, and another one that comes up all the time is Fight Club.  Recent is, what, past ten years? Maybe twenty?  Mostly what I don't want is a list of 'classics'.  We already tried the TOUAMB-inspired Classic Film Festival a while ago, which resulted in Technical Staff and I beating our heads against the concept of "Citizen Kane" fruitlessly. We don't want that to happen again.

It is safe to assume that I have seen basically nothing. Like, we spent the first many months of our Netflix subscription watching X-Files episodes.  And I just got HBO, and all I am watching is The Wire and I watched a Lewis Black comedy special.  That is the kind of person I am.  But I keep trying to reform. Help me.

[jay-ell]

Oh, I would love to help but I'm in the same boat.  Although I have seen Fight Club and it is one of my all-time favorite movies. 

I hear Pulp Fiction is one of the Minimum Requirements for Cultural Literacy, but I've never seen it. 

[CortJstr]

The Big Lebowski is a given. I know my friends and I reference PCU constantly, but it's really more of a teen movie.

I skipped Fight Club in the theatre because I thought it was a lame action movie. But it's totally worth watching. Go ahead and catch The Usual Suspects and The Spanish Prisoner while you're in the genre.

Spider-man was a good comic book movie but you can skip it as long as you're aware of the upside down kiss scene.

[jay-ell]

Spider-man was a good comic book movie but you can skip it as long as you're aware of the upside down kiss scene.

You're just being modest, Cort.  I thought you were great in that film. 

[jough]

Office Space is always good for pop-culture references.  Tech Support should cringe and laugh appropriately.

The Office (either BBC or U.S. version), while not a movie, is also very good for sparking discussion among geeks.

High Fidelity is something I reference at least once a week. (PLUS it is set in Chicago)

Ferris Bueller's Day Off is a cultural touch-stone (also set in Chicago).

My friends refer to Boogie Nights often.  Feel mah heaaat!

The Matrix, obviously.

Rushmore is a good one.

Adaptation

All of the Star Wars movies.  Yes, ALL of them.

Aliens

I make Hurlyburly references a lot.  However, I believe I am only among 17 different people who have seen this movie.

[CortJstr]

I can't believe I forgot Office Space. Definitely worth watching, for reference value alone. Now you'll get stapler jokes.

When I worked at the video store I learned that there are only like 50 peope worldwide who can remember the Alien -> Aliens -> Alien 3 progression.

[jough]

You mean people get confused that Alien³ is the third movie?

I guess Alien Resurrection just completely throws them then, huh?

[wombat]

You know, every time Fight Club comes up, I go read some reviews, and it seems so icky and, well, violent?

[Drygioni]

You know, every time Fight Club comes up, I go read some reviews, and it seems so icky and, well, violent?

I watched Fight Club on Sunday. As a teenage boy, I obviously find sex and violence deplorable, yet I enjoyed it immensely.

I don't recall referencing much from the silver screen here, but have you ever watched Withnail & I? You should watch Withnail & I.

[robot_god]

You know, every time Fight Club comes up, I go read some reviews, and it seems so icky and, well, violent?

Hell yes.

Suprisingly, though, it's not icky in a disgusting way, it's actually icky in a cute way that anyone can enjoy.  But you work with animal crap, no?  I'm sure you can stomach the ickiest of ick (but, my apologies if I assume incorrectly).

Fight Club and Lebowski are really on another level of must-see-ness.  Also, Pi is basically a masterpiece but to get the full effect, it helps to be addicted to cough syrup when you see it.  

[V-Adore]

I think I recommended this the last time this topic came up, but American Splendor remains sick-good.

On the subject of "bizarre movies I make constant reference to despite only people I know having seen it," I can't recommend The Green Butchers highly enough. It's a Danish black comedy about cannibalism and cannibalism-related topics, and it's a trip from beginning to end. While it does have icky parts (you know, dismembered dead bodies and such), most of the movie is very clean and very strange. If you ever wanted to learn how to say "don't threaten me with that giraffe!" or "Svend, I smoke twenty joints a day; I couldn't smell it if my hair was on fire" in Danish, this movie will teach you.

[AugustWest]

I hear Pulp Fiction is one of the Minimum Requirements for Cultural Literacy, but I've never seen it. 

Go watch it now.  Right now.  I mean it, young lady!

[theinevitable]

damn, there are a handful of movies I haven't seen here, too!

daayumn!

Fight Club is a must.
Pulp Fiction is a must.

[wombat]

OK, I am putting some of these in my Netflix queue even as we type but...  Pulp Fiction, isn't that all full of blood and guts too?  What is it with all the violence?  (And never mind the fact that I couldn't even remember by the end of the episode whether three or four people had died on The Wire this week... I watch it in spite of that.)  Automaton-deity is correct that I am tough enough to pick up poop with my bare hands but I really don't see the attraction of watching violence.  Must cultural literacy involve so much gore?

Also, I am going to assume that saying I should watch ALL the Star Wars movies is one of those Jough practical jokes, where I would come back and report that I had watched the prequel ones and then he would laugh at how he had fooled me into undergoing this suffering.

[JorgeFabregas]

Must cultural literacy involve so much gore?

If it's contemporary American cultural literacy, probably.