One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

I like animation like anyone. Good story, good animation. Good stuff, but none of them resonate on a deeper level, all the time, like live action does for me.

But, The Lion King crushed that for me. It was an incredible experience both times I saw it in what 96? Cried at end both times. Just amazing filmmaking that I never would have guessed would be my #2 movie of all time.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

Beetlejuice is still very near the top of my list.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

The Peacemaker. Maybe not in my Top 5 all-time but certainly in my Top 5 of Action films.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

I never thought a movie about a donkey could be one of the best films of all-time, but then I saw Au hasard Balthazar.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

I didn't think much of Lawrence of Arabia for years. Granted I was young, but I found it stilted, overwrought, and quite frankly dull as dirt.

I saw it again in 1998 and was FLOORED. I loved every frame. It's my #5 of my Top 5, but it is hands down a masterpiece of cinema and one that hits me in the sweet spot every. single. time.

My Top 5:

1. Brazil
2. Seven Samurai
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. The Godfather
5. Lawrence of Arabia

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

Speaking of Brazil:

I think I’ve wrote about this before. When I was like 8 I would see Brazil on the shelf at the video store. I hated the cover art, I didn’t like the title, the picture on the back was a poorly chosen one, and when you’d read the video store catalog (yes that was a thing) it had a really inane plot description. It was like “The twenty first century in a nutshell!” Or something like that. I absolutely hated that “in a nutshell” phrase. Sight unseen I absolutely hated the movie.

Fast forward to 17 and I see twelve monkeys and I’d already seen The Fischer King, and I start putting it all together. And I’m like, “The same dude made that stupid Nutshell Brazil movie.” So I finally watch it and it’s a fucking masterpiece.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

My top 10 hasn't changed in 20-25 years, so everything is as expected.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

^ I'm in the same boat. I do love it when I'm surprised by a movie that I expected not to like, but none so much that they have become an all-time favorite.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

The lower half of my top ten is pretty nebulous, perhaps ten different films slide in and out of that area. Only three films of this century are in that range, with two of them being last year so too fresh for me to be sure they belong. But Let the Right One In from 2008 is the most recent film I’m pretty sure is locked into my #10 range.

I have changed my top films recently, but always old films like Ordet that I’m discovering for the first time.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

About 3 of my top 10 favorites weren't even movies that I had immediately "Favorited" the first time I saw them.

Taxi Driver-A disappointment at first because, given all of the imagery of the film I had seen in publications & magazines, I thought De Niro's character was supposed to be psychotic the instant we see him. Not to mention, I expected him to have the mohawk for the whole film. But after many re-watches, the build-up to being psychotic is one of the reasons why the film is special.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre-It was really the ending that made me dislike the film at first. But hell, what movie DOESN'T have the sudden abrupt, ambiguous final shot now?

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly-Thought it was overrated as I was watching it for the very first time (Most notably during the "Tuco meets his brother" scene...But that was when the words "Character development" weren't quite in my mind yet) Little did I know that this would eventually become my most favorite film of all time.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

I love The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly too. But when I was younger I always preferred For a Few Dollars More. I think it was more easily accessible to my less sophisticated self. Over time, I’ve gained a better understanding of TGTBatU and find it to be the superior film of the trilogy.

Re: One of your top 5 favorites of all time, you never expected would be there?
 

Definitely Godfather. :)

It grew on me. The more I watched it, the more I fell in love with it. These days I'm dreaming about that future 4K release. :cool: