The Seventh Seal (an oldie, but a goodie), The Silence, Tinsel & Sawdust, Through a Glass Darkly, Persona. (I studied a great deal of Bergman in college.
)
Conan the Barbarian (1982). Not really REH, but better than all else that followed.
Blade Runner. Holds up very, very well after over 30 years.
I'd love to see a production company go back to Dick's novel and adapt it very strictly.
Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds (undoubtedly the two most solid 1950's "drive-in" classics).
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (w/ Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy). So creepy that it kept me awake for days afterwards!
Excaliber (sadly not aging as well as I had hoped, but still full of great scenes and lines).
Casablanca (it's a classic for a reason). I've been a Bogie fan for ages. You can't go wrong with The Maltese Falcon, Key Largo, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, To Have and Have Not, Dark Passage, The Petrified Forest, The African Queen, among others.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Just saw this about a month ago for the first time. Very impressive given their lack of budget. A clear case of creativity and an unusual vision trumping big, later-day CGI effects.
2001: A Space Odyssey. 2010 is good but not a worthy successor to the first movie (I saw it on the big screen where it was impressive, though).
Star Wars (1977) and The Matrix were the only two effects-type movies that delivered the
WOW Factor.
In the Name of the Rose was a passable movie with great atmosphere.
Beau Geste (1939) is a classic like Casablanca. The book has much, much more in it that was never adapted to the film, sadly. There is a later version from the 70s, IIRC, but I haven't seen it yet. There was a silent version from the 20s I have yet to catch.
Captain Blood with Erroll Flynn. THE quintessential swashbuckler.
The Naked Prey, shot on-location in Africa. A terrific film you should watch at least once in your life.
Flash Gordon (the serial from 1936 with Buster Crabbe). Great in its own right, but this and two sequel serials "Flash Gordon's Trip to Mars" and "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe" are tons of fun too. Crabbe was also in a Buck Rogers serial from 1939, IIRC, but it pales compared to Flash Gordon, IMHO.
I could also go on at length about the catalogue of Hammer horror pics, but that's almost a thread in its own right.
