🎥 Must Watch Movies List for Zoomers

This is a list of recommended movies to watch for everyone born after the year 2000.

This includes movies released in 2005 and before and thus today there are many young people on the planet who have not seen these amazing movies yet at all.

If you are a Zoomer, i.e. born in 2000 or later, consider knowing about these movies as part of general education.

But regardless whether you are a Zoomer, a Millenial or older, if you have not yet seen these movies yet, then go and watch them and thank me later :grinning:.

I have only included movies that I personally like. Movies only, no anime or series.

There are also movies that one absolutely must watch during one’s lifetime.
If one has not watched these, it is almost to be considered like a failed incarnation of sorts…

#JustifiedFOMO

:scream:

Such must watch movies have [MUST WATCH] behind their title.




So let’s go – movies sorted by genre:

Action:

  • Die Hard: With a Vengeance
  • James Bond 007 – GoldenEye
  • James Bond 007 – Licence to Kill
  • Face/Off
  • LĂ©on [MUST WATCH]
  • Mission: Impossible
  • Natural Born Killers
  • Speed [MUST WATCH]
  • The Long Kiss Goodnight

Drama:

  • American Beauty
  • American History X
  • American Psycho
  • Fight Club [MUST WATCH]
  • Eyes Wide Shut
  • Gone With The Wind
  • Strange Days
  • The Game
  • The Truman Show [MUST WATCH]
  • Wall Street

Comedy:

  • Austin Powers 1-3

Crime:

  • Once Upon A Time in America
  • Scarface

Fantasy:

  • Blade
  • Donnie Darko
  • Ghost
  • Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade [MUST WATCH]
  • Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
  • Interview with the Vampire [MUST WATCH]
  • Jurassic Park [MUST WATCH]
  • Jurassic Park: The Lost World
  • Queen of the Damned
  • Raiders of the Lost Ark [MUST WATCH]
  • The Mummy [MUST WATCH]
  • The Mummy Returns [MUST WATCH]
  • Underworld

Historical:

  • Hero [MUST WATCH]
  • House of Flying Daggers
  • The Messenger - Joan of Arc
  • Kingdom of Heavens
  • Last Samurai [MUST WATCH]
  • Seven Years in Tibet
  • Troy [MUST WATCH]

Horror:

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street
  • Freddy’s New Nightmare [MUST WATCH]

Romance:

  • Bitter Moon
  • French Kiss
  • Indecent Proposal [MUST WATCH]
  • Leaving Las Vegas
  • Lost in Translation [MUST WATCH]
  • Rendezvous with Joe Black
  • Titanic [MUST WATCH]
  • William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Julia [MUST WATCH]

Sci-Fi:

  • 12 Monkeys
  • Alien
  • Aliens [MUST WATCH]
  • Alien 3
  • Alien Ressurection
  • Back to the Future 1-3
  • Butterfly Effect
  • Contact [MUST WATCH]
  • Equilibrium [MUST WATCH]
  • Lost in Space
  • Minority Report
  • Starship Troopers [MUST WATCH]
  • Terminator 2: Judgement Day [MUST WATCH]
  • Terminator: Rebellion of the Machines
  • The Terminator
  • The Blade Runner
  • The Chronicles of Riddick
  • The Fifth Element
  • The Matrix [MUST WATCH]
  • The Matrix Reloaded [MUST WATCH]
  • The Matrix Revolutions [MUST WATCH]
  • Total Recall
  • V for Vendetta [MUST WATCH]

Spiritual:

  • Angel-A
  • Groundhog Day [MUST WATCH]
  • The Ninth Gate
  • What Dreams May Come

Thriller:

  • Seven
  • Spy Game

War:

  • Black Hawk Down
  • Enemy at the Gates
  • Savior [very sad and heavy!]

Others can post their personal recommendation below too.
Only movies released in 2005 or before please.

#MakeZoomersWatchQuality

15 Likes

Only you with Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey jr. - circa 1994

A terrible movie that I happen to love, I watch it mostly to see Billy Zane say “molto coinchidenchay”

Plot:

Marisa Tomei plays Faith, a hopeless romantic who brings new meaning to the term. When she’s 11 she gets the name “Damon Bradley” as her soul mate off a Ouija board.

Fast forward like a decade and change? I think she’s about 25 anyway she’s getting married to some guy in a few days she gets a random phone call and what do you know- it’s Damon Bradley. He’s calling for her fiancé. Bradley says he’s at the airport, and he said he was going to Venice or something and then hangs up.

This girl is in her wedding dress ok? She goes, in her wedding dress, to the airport, flies to italy to find this person, and complete ridiculousness further ensues.

Enjoy :hugs:

3 Likes

Ha ha, this is literally me in 1994 :grin:

1 Like

i feel oddly emotional reading through this list…
there are simply too many great scenes in my memory

1 Like

Here is one for you :slight_smile:

4 Likes

What a millennial way to call Gen Z :rofl::rofl::rofl:

5 Likes

:heart_eyes:

3 Likes

Hamlet 1996
Everything from Andrej Tarkowski and nearly everything from Ingmar Bergman
Citizen Kane
Oldboy 2003
Tatami Galaxy
Monster (04-05 anime)
Serial Experiments Lain
Revolver
Mulholland Drive
Lost Highway
Eraserhead
12 Angry Men
Gosford Park
Casino
Magnolia
There Will Be Blood
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Memento
The Prestige

:point_up_2:

4 Likes

congrats on the wonderful topic. thank you @JAAJ! the sci fi part …all of the films i adore…how come?

with this list i must put alot of efford to think of other films that can be of the qualitty you showed with yours.

and yes you are right …with the failed incarnation. bullseye.

3 Likes

I watch about a movie a day, so I’ll try to throw in some easy to overlook gems

SciFi/Fantasy

2001

A.I.

La Jetée

Outland

Dark City

Existenz

They Live

Metropolis

Heavy Metal

Alphaville

Excalibur

Westerns—very conventional choices

The Man with No Name Trilogy

Red River

Rio Bravo

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence

Stagecoach

High Noon

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

The Wild Bunch

Documentaries—An underrated category. I could just go on, but if you get hooked, you’ll find the rest.

Hoop Dreams

Thin Blue Line

Trekkies

Stop Making Sense

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Kayaanisqatsi

Microcosmos

American Movie

Harlan County, USA

7 Up and the other UP films (Best wisdom gained for time spent deal on the planet)

The War Room

When We were Kings

Comedy

Palm Beach Story

His Girl Friday

My Man Godfrey

Some Like It Hot

The Apartment

M.A.S.H.

Galaxy Quest

Election

Groundhog Day

Repo Man

Mystery, Alaska

Tim Burton Movies

Coen Brothers Movies

The Sting

The President’s Analyst

The Bad News Bears

Dazed and Confused

Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Buckaroo Bonzai

Romance

Amélie

Metropolitan

Crime/Noir

Double Indemnity

American Gangster

The Hustler

Cool Hand Luke

Chinatown

Layer Cake

Mean Streets—and the other Scorsese Movies

Report to the Commissioner

Menace 2 Society

Carlito’s Way

Cutter’s Way

Blow Out

Maltese Falcon

Sweet Smell of Success

A Face in the Crowd

Breathless—the French Original

The Long Goodbye

D.O.A. – original

The Manchurian Candidate—original

M.

Hitchcock Films

Bullit

Heat

Collateral

Drama

Boyz in the Hood

All the Presidents Men

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

JFK

10 Commandments

Enemy of the State

Three Days of the Condor

War

Patton

Paths of Glory

Apocalypse Now

All Quiet on the Western Front

The Battle of Algiers

The Great Escape

Catch-22

Stalag 17

Lawrence of Arabia

The Bridge over the River Kwai

Saving Private Ryan

Spiritual

The Exorcist—theatrical release. Everything else is too much, and even this is not for everyone. Great movie, though

After Life

Jacob’s Ladder

2 Likes

This post is very sweet but funny, cause this list is longer than the subjects we study in school? :joy:
But as a Zoomer I’m proud to say I’ve watched a few of them. :grin:
Also shouldn’t Godfather make it into the list? Baap of all films

3 Likes

Thank you for this list man :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: I won’t have a shortage of movies to watch now for like a lifetime. So many to go :smiley:

1 Like

I just assumed everyone saw The Godfather (or Star Wars) as a part of living. Same with Part 2.

2 Likes

Hah yes they’re cult classics especially with the West. But many Zoomers in the East like me are delving into Hollywood now so even Godfather is new. In my circles, very few people of my age have seen it. It’s mostly the older generation.

1 Like

Never thought about that. American. What can I say.

Add

Waking Life
The Untouchables
Winter Kills
The Parallax View
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
The Treasure of Sierra Madre
One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Endless Summer

1 Like

I find this movie very average. 6/10 at best. Just some criminals with a few interesting lines of dialogue. Good actors, but boring story. No notable special effects. That’s why it is not on my list.

:astonished: :hushed: this is the first time I’ve heard someone say that about Godfather. Haha I suppose there are better movies when you’ve seen so much

Godfather and Godfather II are kind of a rite of passage in the U.S., I think they’re great, but @JAAJ’s pick Once Upon a Time in America is better. Both are fascinating studies of the American Dream.

3 Likes

Loved Interview with a Vampire! I never realised how much of a good actor Tom Cruise was until I watched that movie. Check out his other movies that are worth watching too; Rain Man (featuring Dustin Hoffman). Heard good things too about Vanilla Sky but not seen this though.

I really enjoyed The Shawshank Redemption and I’ve watched it numerous times but it is kind of overrated I think (…especially on IMDB). No Zoomer or anyone for that matter has seen the greatest prison drama until you’ve watched Papillion. The remake is good but the old version is a masterpiece with an all round great cast and exceptional performance by Steve McQueen. The new version is still worth watching but the original is better directing, acting and narrative since the remake had lots of changes made to it so they can sell the film more (sex and violence etc).

Here are many honourable mentions:

Comedy:

  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  • Patch Adams
  • Mrs Doubtfire
  • Lets go to Prison
  • Clerks (trilogy)
  • Airheads
  • Planes, Trains and Automobile’s
  • Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World 1963 (The funniest movie I’ve ever seen and great legendry actors you’ll never see again. It makes Rat Race and The Cannon Ball Run movie look disappointing/inadequate)
  • Uncle Buck

Crime/Gangster/Thriller:

  • Donnie Brasco
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Pulp Fiction
  • Jackie Brown
  • New Jack City
  • Heat (A bank heist shootout that makes WW2’s D-Day look like Disneyland)
  • Falling Down (I don’t blame him :laughing:)

Action:

  • Con Air (High-octane pure action… cant ask for anything more)
  • Speed (There’s a bomb on the bus!!! That ending scene where that train light takes Dennis Hopper’s head clean off :laughing: :laughing:)
  • The Running Man

Sci-Fi:

  • Bicentennial Man (Very wholesome movie for the family to watch)
  • AI: Artificial Intelligence (Unbelievably sad and tear jerking that would even make Jason Voorhees burst in to tears)
  • Steven Spielberg Presents Taken- Short/3 seasons TV series (Bonus)
  • Red Planet (It’s basically like the film Predator but instead it’s about a robot called AMEE that turns rogue on the space crew and starts hunting/picking them off one by one… worth watching if you liked Predator movie)

Romance:

  • Ghost
  • Leaving Las Vegas

Horror:

  • The Ring 1998 Japanese version (Even Freddy Kruger would run a mile)
  • Pet Sematary 1989 (Very disturbing horror… but underrated)
  • Day of the Dead 1985 (Gruesome, sick and gory but a notorious zombie classic that was banned once… the ending can be quite difficult to watch)
  • The Thing 1982
  • Carrie 1976
  • The Fly 1986
  • The Lost Boys (About vampires…)
  • Arachnophobia (Most horrors are usually adults only but this is rated PG-13. Many critics say it should be a 15 due to the psychological horror theme and fear factor)
  • Blade
  • Dead Silence (Killer Ventriloquist dummies… terrifyingly good that will keep you awake at night for a whole week)
  • Scream 1996

Drama:

  • Heavenly Creatures (Its a great film by Peter Jackson and underrated but very weird/uncanny… adults only for this one)
  • A Clockwork Orange (A notorious controversial cult classic that was once banned… a Stanley Kubrick must watch for any Zoomer)
  • Animal Farm 1999 (Controversial film by George Orwell about Communism and collectivism… 1984 film is another similar adaptation that’s worth watching if you enjoyed Animal Farm)
  • This Boys Life (Great acting chemistry between Robert Di Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio)

War:

  • Apocalypse Now (Disturbing Vietnam war drama about an army officer been sent to assassinate a renegade special force soldier)
  • Platoon
  • We Were Soldiers
  • The Pianist
  • The Deer Hunter
  • Empire of the Sun (Coming of age WW2 drama about the Japanese Empire)
  • Full Metal Jacket (Ruthless dehumanising basic training that takes place before embarking the killings of Vietnam… adults only)
  • Hamburger Hill (War is hell…)
1 Like

I tried watching Godfather on the TV this one time but it was the slowest movie I’ve ever watched… I literally fell a sleep, no word of a lie. I usually handle similar films like Apocalypse Now and Blade Runner but Godfather for me unfortunately was just next level slow.

Honestly though if anyone here cant sleep at night… just slap on Godfather.

3 Likes