The Name of the Rose

A monk investigates a series of mysterious happenings in an abbey with the help of his young novice.

Further Summary:

A mysterious death occurs in a monastery. The monks believe that this is the beginning of the new apocalypse. It is also extremely ill-timed as they are soon to be visited by important spiritual leaders. They therefore ask help from the monk William of Baskerville and ask him to find out what is going on. Together with his student he starts to investigate the matter, but he must also fight against the clock as they expect  the important visit..

Qualities: a Classic with a great plot, I would also highly recommend the book

Drive

A mechanic/stunt driver needs to help out a friend who got himself in a bunch of problems.

Further Summary:

The main character in Drive  is a mechanic and Hollywood stund driver, a loner by nature, who also functions as a getaway driver in the criminal underworld on the side. He get's in bad blood with LA's most dangerous criminals after he helps the boyfriend of his beautiful neighbor with a job that ends up completely messed up. The only way to protect her and to stay alive is to do what he does best: drive..

Qualities: This is actually a good car driving movie, something I find to be rare..

American Psycho

A rich yuppie businessman is a serialkiller by night.

Further Summary:

Patrick Bateman seems the perfect man at first sight: he is handsome, intelligent and earns alot of money. He may be obsessed by his appearance, but to his surroundings he's just a regular guy. At night, however, Patrick likes to kill innocent people in the most horrible ways. Jealousy, hatred, anger, any reason will do for both strangers and friends to be murdered. Police suspect nothing of his massacres untill one detective starts to get suspicious..

Qualities: Bale's depiction of a selfobsessed lunitic is brilliant. Also (without spoiling anything) the ending is very good.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

A couple uses the newest technology to erase eachother from their memories.

Further Summary:

Joel is flabbergasted when he finds out that his girlfriend, Clementine erased all her memories of their tumultuous relationship. Desperatetly, he contacts the inventor of the memory-erase process and asks for Clementine to be removed from his memory too. But as Joel's memories of Clementine slowly fades away, he begins to rediscover his love for her. All he can do now is try to stop the procces that is taking place deep in his brains, deter. While Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew chase him through his own memories, it is  getting increasingly clear that Joal doesn't want Clementine out of his head..

Qualities: In this movie Jim Carry shows his talents exceed comedy. Not just another cliché love story, Kate Winslet

Mr. Nobody

In the year 2092, the confused, 118 year old Nemo tries to tell his lifestory to a reporter.

Further Summary:

2092. The 117-year-old Nemo Nobody is the oldest man on earth and the last mortal person in a world where everyone lives forever. The only question that haunts him is whether he has lived the right life, loved the right woman. As a boy he has to make an impossible choice: to get on the train with his mother or to stay behind with his father. One choice, but with very different lives as a result. The film follows Nemo throughout all his different lives, whether dream or reality ...

Qualities: absolutely brilliant movie, this is a must-watch

NOTE: the lenght of this movie is 2h30 so only watch it when you can make some time

Secret Window

A writer gets accused of plagiarism by a mysterious figure.

Further Summary:

Morton Rainey, a writer, has retreated to the shores of Lake Tashmore after his wife decides to get a divorce. One day a man arrives who calls himself John Shooter. He accuses Morton of stealing his story. Morton tries to convince the man that this is really not the case as he has written the original story two years before Shooter claims to have written his story. However, for some odd reason he doesn't manage to find the original story..

Qualities: good Horror-movie due to the brilliant acting of Johnny Depp & John Turturro

The Machinist

An extremely underweight machinist who suffers from insomniac is loosing his mind.

Further Summary:

Trevor Reznik hasn't slept for an entire year and starts seeing things that aren't there. During his work an accident occures. He knows that he is the cause of this, but claims to have been distracted by a mysterious man. Who is this man and what is the cause of this insomniac?


Qualities: The movie gives away right from the start that there is going to be a major plotwist, but by always being one step ahead of the viewer the thought of having the movie all figured out before the end is merely an illusion, Lots of seeding so definitly worth a second view, Christian Bale

NOTE:  Bale reduced his bodymass to 54 kilograms for this role.

Rundskop (Bull Head)

A movie about steroids and a man's struggle with his manliness.

Further Summary:

Belgium, Flanders. The young Limburgish beef farmer Jackie Vanmarsenille is asked  to make a deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef farmer. But the murder of a federal police officer and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from his past set up a chain of events with far-reaching consequences ..

Qualities: nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, Matthias Schoenaerts, best movie I've seen all year

Lost Highway

I feel like telling you what this movie is about in one sentence would ruin the whole point of the movie.

Just watch it.

Further Summary:

The central figure in this hallucinatory film is Fred Madison (Bill Pullman), a saxophonist whose marriage to Renee Madison (Patricia Arquette) is full of unspoken tension. Those friction run even higher when a bunch of anonymous video tapes are found on their doorstep. Something or someone is spying on the house and its occupants. On one of those tapes, we see how Fred murders his wife, is condemned to death and ends up on death row..

QUALITIES:  one of those movies you have to watch a few times to get, but when you do, it's the best experience ever, David Lynch

Battle Royale

A class of ninthgraders is send to an island and given the instruction to fight eachother untill only one of them is left.

Further Summary:

A class of students is send to a small isolated island. Once there they get a map of the island, food and a random weapon (ranging from a stick to a gun). They are instructed to fight eachother. After 3 days only one person can be left or they will die. They all get to wear a collar. If after the third day there are still several people alive, all the collars will explode..

QUALITIES:  very creepy horrormovie, great to watch late at night with friends

Reservoir Dogs

Six criminals are given the assignment to rob a jeweler.

When the heist doesn't go as planned they learn that not everything is as it seems.

Further  Summary:

Cabot is the unwritten master in organizing attacks on jewelers. His son "Nice Guy" Eddie brings together a band of criminals to rob a major jeweler. The six do not know about each other and only know each other's code names: Mr. White, Mr. Blue, Mr.. Pink, Mr. Orange, Mr. Brown. & Mr. Blond. Furthermore have the men all been instructed to conceal their real identity for the others. When the raid is over, they get a financial reward that assures a peaceful old age. But during the hold-up thing get out of hand..

QUALITIES:  great plot, extreme violence, Quentin Tarantino

NOTE: Tarantino took the plot of this movie almost entirely from an old Hong Kong action movie named City on Fire.

Mulholland Drive

A woman comes out of a carcrash with a bag of money, but she lost her memory.

Further Summary:

A mysterious woman escapes a road accident with a purse filled with cash, but without her memory. Meanwhile, Betty Elms has come to LA, hoping to start a film career. When Betty finds the nameless woman in her apartment, she decides to help her. The two women go on a bizarre search for the truth..

QUALITIES:  David Lynch movie

NOTE:  the budget of this movie was very low near the end, if you pay attention you can see the quality of  - for example - the wigs go down drasticly which is pretty funny imo.

A Clockwork Orange

A criminal and his friends terrorize people in future brittain.

On of them goes to jail and volunteers to take part in an experimental aversion therapy.

Further Summary:

Great Britain, the future: a group of teenagers go out every night with the sole purpose of leaving behind a trail of destruction. They beat and rape helpless victims. As one of the boys is arrested, he agrees to undergo a specific therapy. When he is finally released, he hates violence, but then the problems start piling up..

QUALITIES:  hard and cold, very aplicable to today's society

Let's go to Prison

A rich asshole get's send to prison for a crime he didn't commit. His cellmate is the one who framed him.

Further Summary:

Criminal John has all the luck in the world when he finds the perfect revenge on the judge who sent him to jail. He frames the judges son into getting send to prison. John ensures that he is quickly sent back to prison and gets to share a cell with this man in order to see to it that he's getting the full treatment..

QUALITIES:  admittetly: some of you won't find this movie funny, but I personally laughed alot about the absurdity

Rounders

A retired pokerplayer must play high stakes poker to help out his friend, who's having a debt problem with a group of loan sharks.

Further Summary:

The law student Mike (Matt Damon) loses all his money during a poker game. He learns his lesson and promises his girlfriend he won't play ever again. When his best friend Worm (Edward Norton), a cheater, is released from jail and gets into trouble with loan sharks, he is dragged back into the poker circuit. He gets a huge debt to the Russian mob boss Teddy KGB (John Malkovich). The only way to get all the money back on time is to play Teddy himself..

QUALITIES:  gives a very realistic view of the pokerscene (in 1999), multiple perspectives on poker, Matt Damon, Edward Norton is brilliant

the Shawshank Redemption

An accountant gets falsefully accuesed of murder and is send to prison for life.

His friend Red is the only one he has.

Further Summary:

Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is accused of murdering his wife and her lover. He insists he is innocent, but still gets two life sentences in Shawshank prison strict. He befriends a black inmate Ellis Boyd Redding (Morgan Freeman), who can arrange things for everyone and the nickname 'Red' has. Life in prison isn't easy with the constant fights and rape. There are only two things that Andy has got left in this world: hope and a poster of Rita Hayworth..

QUALITIES:  good plot, althought the dark undertone it still has it feel good moments, Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

Pulp Fiction

Follow the lives of two hit men, a boxer and two small time thieves.

Further Summary:

Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) are working for the mighty criminal Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Vincent runs into trouble when Mia (Uma Thurman), the wife of Wallace, who he has to keep company for an evening, when she OD's.Wallace is also engaged in a deal with the boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) who has a hit on his head after he walks off with the bosses money..

QUALITIES:  plots start out as standard crime drama, but then the whole situation changes unexpectedly , Quentin Tarantino