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?
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
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…
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
1. Lifeforce
2. Spies Like Us
3. Rio Bravo
4. American Werewolf in London
5. Any episode of Jeopardy
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.
Metropolitan
Sullivan’s Travels
Groundhog Day
Dr. Strangelove
Unforgiven
Barton Fink
The Man Who Wasn’t There
Stranger Than Paradise
Mulholland Drive
Does anyone else notice how 12p.m. is on that listing twice? Man that’s been bothering me.
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
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.
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.