'retro' films you think people should see...

[jdanddiet]

I think you should all watch The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai: Across The 8th Dimension, it's quite mental.

What's that melon for?

My name is....John Bigbootie!

Some great films on this list, tremors is another fave...

[samhain81]

Halloween 1978. - My favourite film of all time. The movie that inspired the stalker/slasher film.

Christine - Another favourite of mine, about a possessed car. A Stephen King classic that often gets overlooked in favour of his more familiar stories

Alien Abduction: The McPhearson Tape - Back when found footage films were new and cool. This film started it all, as it was released before Blair Witch. A little cheesy now, but I literally covered my eyes at most of the film, because it was that scary back in the day.

[The Beans]

After watching Buckaroo Banzai it naturally becomes your sworn duty to all things retro filmy to inflict upon yourself the wonder that is Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze starring Ron Ely of telly Tarzan fame.

So retro it hurts.

Awesome trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COwzNqlUxWE

How did it ever fail? I just don't know.

[The Hardest of All Freds]

A Boy and His Dog - post apocalyptic Don Johnson and Canine do stuff
Maximum Overdrive - Stephen King movie with Emilio Estevez and possessed machinery
Damnation Alley - Hawke off Airwolf and Hannibal Smith censored about after the Bomb
Forbidden Planet - Best. Scifi. Film. Ever

[jdanddiet]

After watching Buckaroo Banzai it naturally becomes your sworn duty to all things retro filmy to inflict upon yourself the wonder that is Doc Savage: The Man Of Bronze starring Ron Ely of telly Tarzan fame.

So retro it hurts.

Awesome trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COwzNqlUxWE

How did it ever fail? I just don't know.

I loved that movie as a kid! Doesn't it end on a real cliffhanger setti up a sequel that never appeared?

[TwoHeadedBoy]

For "retro" films with ridiculous titles, there's A Nymphoid Barbarian In Dinosaur Hell, from Troma films. Nice and cheap-looking throughout, but the dinosaur/monster effects are incredible! A nice mix of stop-motion and animatronics, worth seeing for these alone (although you can see MOST of them in the trailer).

[Katzkatz]

Frenzy A Hitchcock film. A bit unusual as it was his second to last film. He wasn't as successful as he used to be, and had to mix it with a new breed of movie directors(Polanski, Coppola, Lucas, Spielberg, Scorsese, Altman, Lumet, etc.). This film proved he still had the old magic. He returns to the UK with a creepy tale. P.S. This film is rated '18' and features some graphic stuff for Hitch(he wasn't so constrained by the censors this time around).

Great Expectations - David Lean's best film. Set in beautiful black and white. Great set pieces. Great performances by Alec Guinness and John Mills. A great adaptation.

Sunset Boulevard - A superb film noir. A story all about Hollywood and fame. William Holden and Gloria Swanson are amazing in this.

Sleuth - The 1972 original with Michael Caine and Laurence Olivier. An unusual film. Great performances and the story has many twists and turns. Much better than the re-make.

Mean Streets - My favourite film by Martin Scorsese. You have De Niro as the wild man 'Johnny Boy' and Keitel trying to bring him back into line.

A Matter of Life and Death - A magical and whimsical film by Powell and Pressburger. A heartwarming film.

I could list a lot more, but I'll leave space for other people to do so.

[theantmeister]

The Princess Bride (1987) - Glorious to watch, funny and exciting. Swordsmen, monsters, pirates, rats of unusual size - it's got them all. And André the giant and a bloke who went on to play a Ferrengi...

A Ferrengi?!? How rude! Wallace Shawn was none other than Grand Nagus Zek! Not just any old Ferrengi.

Also:

[jdanddiet]

How about the Cannonball Run? Loved that film as a kid. Has a lot of Retro actors in it too!

[theantmeister]

How about the Cannonball Run? Loved that film as a kid. Has a lot of Retro actors in it too!

Any movie with the late, great, Dom DeLuise is fine by me!

[joefish]

How about the Cannonball Run? Loved that film as a kid. Has a lot of Retro actors in it too!

Cannonball Run, Smokey and the Bandit II, love those old movies. When Disney/Pixar put a series of faked-up Burt Reynolds style out-takes over the end credits of A Bug's Life I nearly died laughing. Isn't it Anchorman (not that I can stand Ferrell) that has, amongst its own out-takes, an out-take from Smokey and the Bandit II?

[Mire Mare]

A retro film that a colleague of mine thinks everyone should see is 'Repo Man'. Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez take the main roles. Stanton is very good and Estevez is unlike-able as a moody 'punk'. The film appeared like Gone in 60 seconds meets The Rockford Files meets The X-Files. It's a retro film I'll not go back to. Perhaps it needs a pair of strong prescription rose tints.

Another retro film I thought other people should see is 'Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone' . I started to watch last night. It's a film I originally watched as a kid and I don't remember it being amazing back then. It still isn't. It's fun, in a cheap and cheesy kind of way, but I couldn't stick with it until the end.

[felgekarp]

Some excellent films have been listed in this thread already, ones I would easily have put in my own so I'll list some stuff that hasn't been mentioned.
The One Armed Boxer
Hawk The Slayer
Fantastic Planet
Murder By Death
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
and I'm going to sneakily put a sixth in with Krull as well.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

Fantastic Planet

Yes yes yes!

Best soundtrack ever as well.

[Katzkatz]

The Fantastic Planet is Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' remade(without the great Bard's language of course). I agree that it is a good retro film to see. Most notably because it has Robbie the Robot and was a major influence for Star Trek.