Movies | Television

Movies I’ll Always Watch If They’re On

I was flipping around the TV channels tonight, and saw they were showing Predator on AMC. Well, that’s my evening, right there. I’ll always watch Predator. Always. If it’s half-over, if it’s just starting, if it’s the final few minutes… if it’s on, I’m watching it. If it’s on again tomorrow night, I’ll probably try to catch the parts I missed tonight, and depending on my laziness, I might just watch the parts I didn’t miss tonight, again. I think everyone probably has a few movies that, if they come across them on TV, they’ll always watch, no matter what.

These movies are generally not even what I necessarily consider my favorite movies. I tend not to own these movies on DVD (I don’t own Predator). A few of my favorite movies that I own —Blade Runner, Brazil, Seven, Das Boot, L.A. Confidential, No Country for Old Men — I rarely watch, maybe once every couple years. And I don’t watch them on if they’re on TV.

While I was watching Predator, I started trying to picture a movie channel line-up filled with my Always Watch movies that would keep me on the couch a full 24 hours because I can never pass up watching any of them. Here’s what I came up with.

What’s on your Always Watch line-up?

Comments

  1. 7AM – BEASTMASTER
    9AM – RAISING ARIZONA
    11AM – DIE HARD
    1PM – BEVERLY HILLS COP
    3PM – TWISTER
    5PM – HEY, BEASTMASTER’S ON!
    7PM – LEGALLY BLONDE
    9PM – STAR TREK II – WOK
    11PM – PREDATOR II – ELECTRIC PRED-A-LOO
    1AM – BEASTMASTER

  2. 7-9 – Waterworld
    9-11 – The Fifth Element
    11-1 – Wayne’s World
    1-3 – Wayne’s World 2
    3-5 – The Transporter
    5-7? – Ocean’s Eleven
    7?-9? – The Cable Guy
    9?-?? – The Boondock Saints
    ??-?? – Crank
    ??-?? – One by Guy Ritchie
    ??-indefinite – Die Hard/Lethal Weapon

    I just checked my TV guide, The Incredibles is on followed by Casino Royale tomorrow night…

  3. 12am – Charlie’s Angels
    2am – Shaun of the Dead
    4am – Sixteen Candles
    6am – Anchorman
    7am – Law and Order with Jack McCoy/Lenny Briscoe combo
    8am – Casino Royale
    10am – 40 Year Old Virgin
    12pm – More Law and Order
    1pm – Total Recall
    3pm – Charlie’s Angels 2
    5pm – Even more Law and Order
    6pm – Singles
    8pm – Shawshank Redemption (Chris forgot about that one and has control of the remote)
    – Nothing else because Shawshank is 4 hours long

  4. Jacquilynne says:

    The American President, A League of Their Own, Adventures in Babysitting, Dirty Dancing, Any of the Star Trek Movies, The first three Star Wars movies.

  5. Ok, I can’t lay it out as nicely as everyone else has, so in no particular order:
    Apollo 13
    Casino Royal (either)
    Fifth Element
    Leon
    Any Monty Python Film
    Amile
    District 13
    MirrorMask
    Ronin
    Train Spotting

  6. I’m with Kris pretty much, except substitute the Law & Order with Bedazzled (either version) and Singles with The American President. And because Christmas is coming up I’ll add A Christmas Story, Elf, and Christmas Vacation.

  7. How would you practically come up with the hardware/software setup that would “be a channel” that always played movies? Maybe flipping between “stations” that pick up where different video playlists would be if on infinite loop. If you have a huge DVD collection full of movies and TV shows that you’re never are in the mood to watch, but would probably watch if it was just on TV, this would be the perfect solution.

  8. Die Hard 1, 3, and 4
    Raiders of the Lost Ark
    Star Wars: A New Hope
    Casino Royale
    Trainspotting
    Predator
    Predators
    Aliens
    The Matrix
    The International
    The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus

  9. 1. Lifeforce
    2. Spies Like Us
    3. Rio Bravo
    4. American Werewolf in London
    5. Any episode of Jeopardy

  10. There are a lot of parts of movies I’ll always watch, like your first-hour-of-X, not many that would reel me in for their entire length. But these would get me for large chunks at least…

    Die Hard
    A Few Good Men
    Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home
    Terminator
    Terminator II
    The American President
    Dave
    Twelve Angry Men
    Anatomy of a Murder
    An Officer and a Gentleman
    The Empire Strikes Back
    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
    The Godfather

    Good to see I’m not the only one who’s hooked on The American President and Die Hard for reasons they can’t quite explain.

  11. charlie potts says:

    Metropolitan
    Sullivan’s Travels
    Groundhog Day
    Dr. Strangelove
    Unforgiven
    Barton Fink
    The Man Who Wasn’t There
    Stranger Than Paradise
    Mulholland Drive

  12. Does anyone else notice how 12p.m. is on that listing twice? Man that’s been bothering me.

  13. I’d like to say my list was a string of classics, but watchability and genius are seldom the same thing. Here’s my list:

    Conan the Barbarian (1980)
    Goodfellas (1990)
    Rob Roy
    Miller’s Crossing
    Fargo
    The Godfather
    Lolita
    The Road Warrior
    Rocky
    Above the Law or The One With “Take You to the Bank….The Blood Bank”
    The King of Comedy

  14. Bishop Brady says:

    French Connection, Little Big Man, Peggy Sue Got Married, Super 8, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Mystery Train, Mash, The Bourne Identity, This Is Spinal Tap…then Koyaanisqatsi on loop during witching hours.

  15. Cpt.Average says:

    From your list: Predator, Rounders.
    From other peoples lists: Groundhog Day, Ronin, Empire Strikes Back, probably The Matrix and Aliens.

    Also: Indiana Jones & the Last Crusade, Get Smart, The Last Starfighter, John Carpenter’s The Thing, Tombstone, Watchmen, some terrible space sci-fi (e.g. Star Trek/Wing Commander etc.)

    It’s surprising how many movies don’t make this list because I’d prefer to watch them from the beginning.

Trackbacks

  1. […] This gave me inspiration to do the same.  I would love to see your list. Please submit in the comments. […]

  2. […] more News About Me, I wrote a little piece on Thursday about the movies I always watch when they’re on TV. It was later posted to Metafilter, which resulted in a bunch of other […]