The Shrubbery Staff's Favorite Films

Our staffers are ugly nerds, so they watch a lot of movies. Here's their lists of top attention-grabbers. To order any book from Amazon.com, simply click on the title.

This Month's Featured Film List:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python's Meaning of Life (WOW THIS IS CHEAP!!)

Kids in the Hall Brain Candy

The Blues Brothers

Primal Fear

Ferris Beuler's Day Off
(CHEAP TOO!!)

Clue

The Goonies

Airplane!

American History X

You know, whenever I get a hankerin' to sit on my dead ass, eat snack foods, and watch TV, well...I enjoy seeing a good video. These are all videos that I can highly recommend. (Yeah, I could do a "Top 10" - but why limit myself? These are for the video connoisseur in you, and cover a wide range of genres).

Animal Crackers

Duck Soup

A Night at the Opera

A Day at the Races

The Marx Brothers' finest movies, including two (Opera and Races) that were cool enough to inspire the titles of two of Queen's albums. If you don't laugh at these, you are a sad, sorry individual indeed.

Stripes

Bill Murray's finest hour, sans Ghostbusters.

A Hard Day's Night - Special Edition

Help! - Special Edition

It's the Beatles - what else do you need?

Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock's best movie...start here, and look up more of his work, you will not be disappointed.

The Third Man

I first saw this film in college, and it's the story about a man (Joseph Cotton) searching for a presumably dead friend in post WW2 Austria. It has Orson Welles in probably his best acting job, and don't miss his speech at the carousel. The chase at the end - in the sewers of Vienna - is a wonder to behold.

The Searchers

It's the greatest Western ever made without Clint Eastwood. John Ford directed, John Wayne stars...see it. You'll dig it.

Stuart Saves His Family

The only Saturday Night Live skit-inspired movie - besides The Blues Brothers that doesn't suck rubber donkey lungs. However, this isn't a kick-out-the-jams comedy; more a lightly dramatic film with comic moments. This film justifies Al Franken's existence.

The Zero Effect

This 1997 film stars Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller as a detective and his sidekick. I wish I could tell you more, but I would spoil the film, and I consider that a capital crime. Nonetheless, see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

• Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- My vote for the funniest movie ever.
• Pi -- So the math is sketchy--beautifully grating direction complements untold levels of meaning.
• Star Wars -- A cliched pick, I know, but groundbreaking and epic.
• Dr. Strangelove -- Why did Stanley Kubrik have to die?
• Rumble in the Bronx -- Jackie Chan is incredible. This movie's hilarious.
• Akira -- Excellent example of Anime.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie -- Must be watched with a large group of people.
• Metropolis -- The Maria-robot character is deliciously freaky, especially for the 30s.
• Schindler's List -- Powerful.
• 12 Monkeys -- Terry Gilliam's best movie, in my opinion. Slightly better than Brazil.

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  John Hansen, columnist, Canadian Content

  1) The Godfather

  2) Blazing Saddles

  3) Star Wars Trilogy

  4) The Decline of the American Empire

  5) The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle

  6) Hard Core Logo

  7) Annie Hall

  8) Leolo

  9) The Seventh Sign

  10) Shaft

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  Julie Wernau, contributor

  1. Anne of Green Gables/ Anne of Avonlea - (I've seen this at least eighty times, there are four tapes to it and anyone with a creative mind will appreciate Anne to death)

  2. Pretty Woman

  3. It's a Wonderful Life

  4. Dead Poet's Society

  5. What Dreams may Come (the PERFECT love story)

  6. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

  7. Dead Again (explores the issue of past lives, has a lot of hidden things in it)

  8. Silence of the Lambs (damn that's a good movie)

  9. The Shining (REDRUM)

  10. Good Will Hunting (anyone who doesn't think the dialogue in this movie is supurb should be dragged into the street and shot)

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  Matt Chamberlain, contributor

  1. The Crow

  2. Lost Highway

  3. Dracula (all the versions are good)

  4. Sailor Moon (not actually a movie but I love Sailor Moon! Little girls show that it is, it rocks!)

  5. City of Lost Children

  6. Goodfellas

  7. Clerks (I only pick this for the "guy who broke his neck trying to suck his own dick" joke)

  8. Hmm...can't really think of any more, there have been lot's of good Shakespeare film adaptations. And no, Romeo and Juliet is not one of them. I can't pick one, I've seen 2 good versions of Hamlet and one good Othello. Can't pick one.

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