What are the films you return to again and again when you’re tired, stressed or upset?
A few of mine are Chef, Good Will Hunting and The Princess Bride
(Stupid title courtesy of the limit on figures!)
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The History of Future Folk
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Jane Austen Adaptions. Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet and Alan Rickman. And the more recent Pride and Prejudice…
Star Wars.
Matrix. Only the first though.
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Not necessarily feel-good movies for me, but comfortable, as you said. I know I’ll forget anything else and be gripped and happy for a few hours.
It’s A Wonderful Life, Casablanca, The Man Who Would Be King, Jaws, Goodfellas, The Medusa Touch, The Dead Zone, The Big Lebowski, Citizen Kane, Double Indemnity, Rear Window.
I’m surprised how few are genre films given that I’m a huge geeky nerd.
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The “two” that spring immediately to mind are It Happened One Night, and all of the Astaire and Rogers musicals (Shall We Dance and Swing Time are my absolute favourites, though). Also Bringing Up Baby and The Lady Eve. Pretty much anything Preston Sturges made would work, for that matter.
Edit: After more thought, I’ll happily add the following (some of which I haven’t watched enough to really qualify, but I still think if any of them were in a mood-lifting line-up it would be highly agreeable to me).
- Amelie
- Back to the Future
- Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
- Ghostbusters
- Hot Fuzz
- Intolerable Cruelty
- Paterson
- Shaolin Soccer
- Sing Street
- The Big Lebowski
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- The Incredibles
- The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Princess Bride
- Zoolander
- classic Jackie Chan (Police Story series, Drunken Master 2, etc)
I think I’ll include Shanghai Knights as “classic” Jackie Chan as well. One of those unexpected cases of a sequel being vastly better than the original film (which also means I sadly skipped it at the cinema).
(If we consider more than just things to make me feel better then the list of films I don’t think I’d ever tire of seeing gets a lot bigger; but I think that would be a different question.)
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The Princess Bride is definitely one of mine too.
Off the top of my head I’d add Singin’ in the Rain, Guardians of the Galaxy, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and most Studio Ghibli films (particularly Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle) to my list, although I’m sure I could think of several more.
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Rogue One has been my go to recently for some reason.
Historically I think the most common are Enter the Dragon, Fifth Element, The Mummy, Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, UHF, LA Story, and Get Shorty.
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Sliding Doors
Pitch Perfect 1 + 2
Easy A
Pride
Birds of Prey
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Bringing Up Baby is so good. I’m a sucker for a lot of Cary Grant comedies.
I don’t know what my comfort movies are anymore. For the longest time it was High Fidelity but I haven’t watched that in a while. Before that it was a lot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I still love both movies but don’t turn to them anymore.
Then there was a stretch (2012-2016/17) where I just watched a lot of standup comedy. Both constantly watching new specials, and re-watching a lot of the ones I really liked.
And after that, it’s more re-watching shows, though I do occasionally gravitate towards Deadpool and Thor Ragnarok at least once or twice a year still.
Generally my wife and I re-watch all of Parks and Rec yearly (she also goes through yearly watchings of Scrubs and 30 Rock), though I don’t honestly remember if I did re-watch Parks last year. Mostly because we started playing video games together with friends instead.
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Aliens and The Big Lebowski are the only two that come to mind, but I probably haven’t seen either in over a dozen years.
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I don’t really have movies that I turn to when stressed, but if I am just zoning out, there are some movies that always make good background:
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Any Marvel film, but especially the Guardians films, and Thor Ragnarok
Original Star Wars trilogy
Real Genius
Deadpool 2
That said, most of the time these days, background movies are for the kids, and they aren’t interested in these (or old enough, in the case of Deadpool).
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Monty Python, either Life of Brian or Holy Grail
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My favourites are usually either Star Wars (any of them, really, but with a slight preference given to the newer ones), Scott Pilgrim vs the World, or, if I’m in the mood for a good cry, Moana or Encanto.
And anything from the Ghibli collection. Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service are personal favourites, but yeah, any of them.
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It has always been The Empire Strikes Back, but I can watch anything from the OT and be satisfied. I’d also put Jaws, Jurassic Park, Star Trek: First Contact/The Undiscovered Country, The Road Warrior, Princess Mononoke, Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner (either), Fellowship of the ring, Amelie, and Cleo From 5 to 7 in there. I can really put on any Ghibli movie like a lot of folks and be happy. I also will generally have Star Trek: TNG/DS9 or Star Wars: Rebels on in the background when I’m stressed and really trying to meet a deadline or get some serious writing done.
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I should just +1 the list.
Undiscovered country always works even though it’s a mystery film at it’s heart.
No wrath of Khan though?
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I could add a lot of the mentioned movies to my own list. Definitely, Big Lebowski and Fifth Element. Thor Ragnarok.
Also the new Dune and the old Blade Runner. Old Western movies especially Once upon a time in the West. Highlander. Possibly Braveheart. Likely a lot of Tarantino and Rodriguez movies. Definitely Drunken Master. A lot of martial arts movies. OG Ghost in the Shell.
Main requirement seems to be: good visuals, good soundtrack, no cringe, a certain directness and the type of tension that goes away after first watching.
Edit: completely forgot a really important one: Good Omens.
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I don’t know why, but Wrath of Khan doesn’t quite fit in the comfort zone. I think probably because I have a deep primal fear of bugs entering orifices, and I get irrationally anxious just knowing that ceti eel is in there. 
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Totally understand
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Ouch, that list could be very long for me.
-Any of the original Star Wars trilogy.
-Conan the Barbarian.
-Any bit of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. And like with Star Wars, it does not matter if the movie has started already, I’d happily watch on from any point.
-Enemy at the Gates, Saving Private Ryan.
-Shawshank Redemption.
-Braveheart, Gladiator.
-The Princess Bride, Shrek or Shrek 2.
-A fair few Disney movies, namely Jungle Book, Brave, Moana, Peter Pan, Mulan, Lion King.
-The Matrix, Blade Runner (although being my favourite movies of all time, I tend to make them more of an special event when watching them).
-The Last Crusade, and to a lesser degree, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
-Highlander, Willow (which I haven’t seen for ages, actually), and plenty of other 80s adventure movies, like Golden Boy, Big Trouble in Little China, Beverly Hills Cop.
-And strangely, American Gigolo. I love that movie style.
I am pretty sure there are plenty more, but I sort of went by genre, and that’s what I can remember now.
EDIT:
I can’t believe I did not include any comedy: Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Life of Brian, Top Secret, Zoolander, Wayne’s World, and any of the Naked Gun or Austin Powers movies with my OH, she loves those silly ones, and I love laughing along with her.
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Can’t believe I forgot Conan or rather the Conan soundtrack…. This was the theme for our 17 year fantasy rpg campaign.
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