I look at movies (and TV) as entertainment, escapism and an opportunity to learn so I have a wide variety that appeal to me at different times. Because reality and time doesn’t allow us the opportunity to experience everything in life, I find movies are a safe way to live vicariously. I get to be the characters in the movie and experience everything they do without training, death or being independently wealthy.
I’ve always loved spy thrillers, especially the older British ones (Avengers, Saint, Bond). The Hollywood blockbusters are great entertainment, but I like strange and bizarre foreign and artsy films too. The ones that make you shake your head or question if you are on drugs or not J Ones that make you think, wonder and experience something out of the ordinary, expose you to a different culture or way of life.
I also love musicals (which embarrasses my son and elicits taunts questioning my manhood J ) The glamour, music and romance of the older musicals is very appealing to me (Astaire, Rogers, Garland, Kelly, etc.) I never tire of those.
Of course I love humour as well, and quite a variety, but I think it works best as a by-product of another genre. Some films must not inject humour (like Saving Private Ryan, etc.) but most benefit from some satire, irony, slap stick, etc. Some of favorites are just silly, campy fun. The type of humour is important as I don’t find toilet humour at all appealing. For example, some of Austin Power's parody of the spy genre's is quite funny, but too much of it is crass and classless.
Documentaries are important too because I really like to learn things.
I think I now have nearly 1000 DVDs (I really don’t know how that happened) and they cover the widest spectrum of content and type that you could imagine. Check out my on-line database of my movie collection if you're curious as to what's in my collection.
There are many genres I haven’t even mentioned but I nevertheless enjoy a great deal. There are also TV series (Alias, 24, Three’s Company, CSI, X-Files, Green Acres, Gilligan’s Island, Buffy, etc.) that we watch on a regular basis. Gotta' love DVDs - no commercials, MY schedule!
There are few that appreciate my obsession with '50s Sci-Fi and I'm still trying to define why it has so much appeal to me. It's often low budget and completely ludicrous in scientific hindsight, but perhaps it aligns with my fantasies about the abnormal and extraordinary. The stories are often simple, the endings completely predictable, but I love 'em.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Much to write on this....