The most important geeky movies

[chuckro]

My dad and I were discussing the 100 books you'd need to read to be "educated," or 1,000 books you'd need to read to be "well read". Mostly, we were focusing on the graphic novel portion of that, and that post will have have its day.

For the moment, however, I've been distract by a discussion with nanonicole about a grad student she knows who apparently made it into her twenties without ever hearing of Darth Vader. That got me thinking: In order to be an educated geeky-type, want the minimum of movies you'd need to see?

What I came up with, in no particular order:
1. Star Wars episodes 4, 5, 6
2. Back to the Future (parts 2 and 3 are optional, but recommended)
3. Princess Bride
4. Indiana Jones: either Raiders or Last Crusade
5. At least one Sean Connery Bond film
6. Men In Black
7. The Matrix (only the first one)
8. The original Planet of the Apes
9. Star Trek 2, 3, 4, Generations and First Contact.
10. Terminator 2
11. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
12. Army of Darkness
13. Labyrinth
14. One other fantasy movie of: Legend, the Last Unicorn, The Dark Crystal, Willow or The Neverending Story
15. Any one movie as redubbed in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
16. At least one Romero zombie film
17. 2001: A Space Oddessy
18. Ghostbusters
19. Robocop OR Terminator (the first one) OR Highlander (again, the first one)
20. The Day the Earth Stood Still (original) OR Forbidden Planet OR Invasion of the Body Snatchers (original).
21. Aliens

And from the superhero list:
1. The two Richard Donner Superman films
2. The first Tim Burton Batman film
3. Batman Begins and The Dark Knight
4. Spider-Man 1 and 2
5. X-Men 1 and 2
6. Iron Man
7. Blade

I know there's more. Suggestions? Additions or deletions?

Comments

[elissali.livejournal.com]

I'd say a good well-rounded geek should have seen one of: Legend, the Last Unicorn, The Dark Crystal, or Labyrinth. (and maybe a few others?) I know this is a genre I really like (fantasy) so of course I've seen them all, but it just seems to me that it would be representative to have seen one of them.

How about having seen at least one Mystery Science Theater 3000 or listened to one RiffTrax? That's not exactly a movie, though.

How about TV shows?

I would almost say that one might put one of the new star wars movies on there; most geeks really hate them, but they do get referred to a lot. Was the list supposed to be only really good movies that are generally agreed upon as being good?

Also, how about Mystery Men? I love that movie... maybe it's not a geek requirement, but it should be. "why am I balancing this hammer on my head?" "Because once you can balance a tack hammer on your head, then you can head off your enemy with a balanced attack." "why am I wearing the watermelons on my feet?" "I don't recall having asked you to do that."

I'm sure I can come up with more. :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I second Dark Crystal and Labyrinth.

[xannoside.livejournal.com]

Thirded.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

The issue with Mystery Men (which I love, incidentally), is that it requires a known of the tropes of superheroes, like I noted about Galaxy Quest below. If you don't know what it's referencing, you won't get the jokes.

I think "Any episode of MST3K" is worthy for the list. The problem with TV shows, is that the list starts spiraling out of control. You either end up with 40 espides of 20 shows that need hunting down, or just whole seasons that you need to devote entire weekends to watching.

[ecmyers.livejournal.com]

Fortunately, there's one MST3K theatrical film...which unfortunately wasn't as good as the show.