Today’s movies are just crap, help me delve into some golden oldies.

Only a few years old but a Polish film called "Cold War" is one of my favourite films, worth checking out

Usual suspects

Shawshank

great escape

Road house

Good will hunting

alien

I'd recommend these (I think the recent ones are a bit under the radar):

Walk Hard

The Gift (starring Jason Bateman and Joel Edgerton)

The Grey (Liam Neeson)

12 angry men

Casablanca

Wake in Fright

The Town is my favorite movie.

The Day of The Jackal (1974)

I'd also recommend a few Redford did in the 70's & 80's.

The Candidate, Jeremiah Johnson, All The President's Men, Brubaker, The Natural, Three Days of the Condor.

Edit: 12 Angry Men is a great shout:-)

Also, Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1978)

Zulu (1964)

The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)

The Man Who Would Be King (1975) - Sean Connery and Michael Caine - it's a hoot.

Saturn 3 (1980) - it's terrible but it has Kirk Douglas, Farah Fawcett and Harvey Keitel. The screenplay was by Martin Amis and he based the Lorne Guyland character from his most famous novel, "Money", on his experience of working with Douglas on the film.

Just a few random picks...but all top stuff

Alien

Pulp Fiction

The Big Lebowski

One Upon a Time in the West

The Bourne Identity

Leon The Professional

Outland

The Getaway

Bit of an outlier in that list but a personal favourite 'Night On Earth'

For me, it's got to be The Hunt for Red October. Best modern submarine movie ever, by several country (or nautical?) miles. Tense, well-paced, not dumbed down but with enough clues to figure out the sub-speak.

Also 2010: The Year we make Contact - The sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nowhere near as mind-bending as 2001, it's still a taut sci-fi mystery tale told against the background of an escalating Cold War. The effects also generally hold up well.

Edit: forgot to mention that 2010 was also written by Arthur C. Clarke, the original author behind 2001: A Spacer Odyssey.

As for more modern fare, I can recommend Zero Dark Thirty.

Arrival

I think it's an excellent recent sci fi movie.

Really?

2001 is a hard watch, bit on a side note I’d recommend the book. It’s much more accessible than the film.

If you liked Lawrence of Arabia OP, Stanley Kubricks 'Barry Lyndon' is a good watch

Has anyone seen The Big Red One? Supposed to be a great war film.

Das Boot , Wolfgang Petersen's 1981 German WW2 U Boat epic, the best Submarine movie ever

John Houston's "The Misfits" is a fantastic black and white film, with wonderful perfomances from all the cast ( incl. Eli Wallach, Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift etc). Another favorite of mine is "Being There", starring Peter Sellers in his last film. "Badlands", starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen is one I keep returning to. I recently rewatched "The adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and it's great fun. Plenty of great foreign language films out there too, check out the work of Pedro Almodovar for example.

Star Trek The Motion Picture Directors Edition. It is a masterpiece and epic however if you want more action then Star Trek The Wrath of Khan is for you.

More recent ones that are very good -

Hell or High Water - essentially a modern day western cops and robbers. Jeff Bridges and Chris Pine

Prisoners - Hugh JackMan and Paul Dano. mystery/horror

All the money in the world - the Getty Kidnapping

Knives out - murder mystery

Still good movies being made but not nearly as many as before. It’s all big budget now.

A fee modern classics, IMO

Unforgiven

Crimson Tide

Office Space

Pure mindless entertainment- Unstoppable- Denzel and a runaway train.

Good video essay on the demise of mid-budget movies in the last 15 years.

Hard to believe 'No Country' is 16 years old. Great film.

I do try and advocate for good modern pictures - like 'Inception' for instance.

But I watched 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' earlier this evening with Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier and I'd forgotten what an absolutely superb movie it is.

To put in context, Tracy lost out on the Oscar that year to Rod Steiger for 'In The Heat of The Night'

Also in the Category; Paul Newman in 'Cool Hand Luke', Dustin Hoffman for 'The Graduate' and Warren Beatty for 'Bonnie and Clyde'

Beat that competition with a stick.....

And Inception is 13 years old, if you can believe that! Also Insomnia by Mr. Nolan. Robin Williams playing against type and an aging cop played by Pacino.

Nearly all the recommendations so far are top notch and I'd have gone for them myself but I'll try to avoid repeating

The thing (1982 John carpenters original)

The producers (again original do not I repeat do not go near the remake)

The blues brothers (again original)

Don't know if unforgiven has been mentioned but it you want a slightly newer western with a more realistic take (1980s I think) then we'll worth ...but any of the Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns top notch too...but I think they've been mentioned ... fistful of dynamite entertaining ...likewise once upon a time in the West

I know you don't want superhero movies but if you haven't watched the original matrix...you should...likewise the dark Knight...

Then there is memento (Nolan too)

Pitch black (2000) I thought this was excellent but it did spawn a legacy of shocking shite but again original well worth watching

Existenz....cronenberg around 00s too...I quite liked it

A bit of brainless action that may have been forgotten and kind of went under the radar but not bad by any means imo....shooter.. (mark wahlberg)...its shite but not bad 07

Then if you like brainless but enjoyable action/"drama" there's the holy trinity of

Point Break (original ..again don't go near the shite they followed it with)

Top Gun...I'll have to take issue with anyone disliking top gun....yes its **** but its also magnificent at the same time and not in a schrodingers film sort of way ...when you take it out of the box it's still good....

Days of thunder (top gun on wheels)

Ah there's so much more, I'll be back

This is a good thread , great recommendations.

Id like to mention the Onion Field, Munich , Das Boot and the Deerhunter again.