Top 5 Lists!

[Moniker]

Felt like doing this for some reason. Then I figured we shmuppers might enrich each others' lives with recommendations. So post your top 5 favorite Movies, Books, Music, and Non-Shmup Games! Note this is a list of favorites, not bests, so go ahead and put down Mean Girls, and we won't have to argue about The Godfather. If you don't feel like doing all categories, well that's just fine.

Movies
Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
Coppola - Apocalypse Now
Cameron - Aliens
Coen Bros - No Country for Old Men
Duncan Jones - Moon

Books
Melville - Moby Dick
Wallace - Infinite Jest
Dick - The Man in the High Castle
Miller - A Canticle for Liebowitz
Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov

Albums
Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia
Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Bowie - Low
Mercury Rev - Deserter's Songs

Non-Shmup
Legend of Zelda
Final Fantasy Tactics
Super Mario World
Mega Man 10
Half-Life 2

[GaijinPunch]

I don't really read enough to qualify, but I'll try. Mine aren't in order.

Movies
Coen Bros - No Country for Old Men
Coppola - Apocalypse Now
Otomo - Akira
Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
Gilliam - Twelve Monkeys

Books
Sagan - Pale Blue Dot
Sagan - Cosmos
Hawking - A Brief History of Time
McCarthy - The Road
Walter - The Financial Lives of Poets

Albums
Sun Electric - 30.7.94
The KLF - Chill Out
Casino Versus Japan - Whole Numbers Play the Basics
Pentatonik - Anthology (I hope this counts)
Geinoh Yamashirogumi - Akira Symphonic Suite

Non-Shmup
Jet Set Radio
Jet Set Radio Future
Rastan
Gussun Paradise
Diet Gogo

For extra credit!

TV Series:
Breaking Bad
Arrested Development
Curb Your Enthusiasm
X-Files
Simpsons (up to about Season 10)

[MX7]

Films:

Gregg Araki - The Doom Generation
Hisayasu Sato - An Aria For A Gaze
Takashi Miike - Visitor Q
Luis Bunuel - The Phantom of Liberty
Jean Luc Goddard - Week End
Chungking Express/Fallen Angels (Wong)

Movies:

Jurassic Park (Spielburg) 
Total Recall (Verhoeven)
Ferris Beuller's Day Off (Hughes)
Night of the Living Dead (Romero)
Fight Club (Fincher)


Directors:

Gregg Araki
Shinji Imaoka
Wong Kar Wai
Michael Haneke
Luis Bunuel

Cinematographers:

Christopher Doyle
Tak Fujimoto
Anthony Dod Mantle
Michael Haneke

Books:

Jack Kerouac: The Dharma Bums
Bret Easton Ellis - Glamourama
George Orwell - 1984
Ira Levin - This Perfect Day
Roald Dahl - Kiss Kiss/Someone Like You/Switch Bitch

Albums

Melt Banana - Catuses Come In The Flocks
Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers
Shonen Knife - Heavy Songs
Deerhoof - The Runners 4
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Video games:

Umihara kawase
Grandia
ICO
Killer 7
The Legend Of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Cigarettes:

Gauloises Blondes
Gitanes
Camel
Marlborough Lights ( :p )
Dunhill

Beer:

Goose Island IPA
Castle Rock Harvest Pale
Sierra Nevada 
Lynx (cheap and nasty Dutch lager that evokes turbo nostalgia)


Lovely women:

Doona Bae
Meiko Kaji
Monica Bellucci
Olga Kurylenko
Connie Huq

All this is just off the top of my head. I'll change my mind in an hour.

[xbl0x180]

Movies
Blue Velvet dir. by D. Lynch
Laura, Les Ombres De L'Ete dir. by David Hamilton
Malizia dir. by S. Samperi
Solaris dir. by A. Tarkovsky
Suna No Onna dir. by Teshigahara H.

Books
The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys by C. Fuhrman
Johnny Got His Gun by D. Trumbo
The Little Prince by A. De Saint-Exupery
The Stranger by A. Camus
The Temple Of The Golden Pavillion by Mishima Y.

Albums
Alive 1997 by Daft Punk
Black Celebration by Depeche Mode
Florist by Loveholic
Gentlemen Take Polaroids by Japan
L'Uccello Dalle Piume De Cristallo by E. Morricone

Non-Shmup
Bomberman
Commando
Gal's Panic
Goemon
Metal Slug

[TransatlanticFoe]

Deserter's Songs is high up on my list of favourite albums, although it doesn't quite make the top 5 anymore.

Films
Aliens
T2
The Empire Strikes Back
Predator
Die Hard

Albums
The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me
Eels - Daisies of the Galaxy
Rocket From The Crypt - Hot Charity
Pavement - Brighten The Corners
Ramones - Leave Home

Games
Power Strike (SMS)
MechCommander (PC)
Deus Ex (PC)
Headhunter (DC)
Resident Evil 2 (DC)

[emphatic]

Mine in no particular order.

Movies
Lynch - Mulholland Drive
Fincher - Fight Club
Jeunet - Amélie
Tarantino - Pulp Fiction
Kar-Wai - Chungking Express

Books
Ellroy - The Black Dahlia
Pahlaniuk - Invisible Monsters
Rowling - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Lehane - Gone Baby Gone
Blatty - The Exorcist

Albums
Radiohead - OK Computer
Soundgarden - Badmotorfinger
New Order - Movement
De La Soul - De La Soul Is Dead
Method Man & Redman - Blackout!

Non-Shmup
Argus No Senshi (Rygar) - Arcade
Black Dragon - Arcade
Ninja-Kid II - Arcade
Solomon's Key - Arcade
King Of Dragons - Arcade

TV Series:
Trailer Park Boys
Breaking Bad
Angel
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Game Of Thrones

[kernow]

Method Man & Redman - Blackout!

Rad album

[Vyxx]

Uhh..

Movies
Lost in Translation
No Country For Old Men
The Quick And The Dead
Pulp Fiction
The Good, Bad and the Ugly

Albums
Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics
Lykathea Aflame - Elvenefris
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Blind Melon - Blind Melon
Augury - Concealed


Non-Shmup
Doom
Portal
Resident Evil (2-3 are the best)
Metal Gear Solid
Bomberman

[Skykid]

Movies -
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Akira
Apocalypse Now
Die Hard

Books -
Stranger in A Strange Land
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Fall of Moondust
Dracula
I Am Jackie Chan

Albums -
Use Your Illusion I & II
Cruel & Unusual
Antichrist Superstar
In Sides
Hot Fuss

Non-Shmup -
Bare Knuckle II
LOZ: Majora's Mask
LOZ: Ocarina of Time
Aliens (arc)
King of Fighters '98

And the Gaijinpunch extra credit:

TV Series -
X-Files
Cheers
The Twilight Zone (original)
ER
South Park

[Acid King]

Movies
Dead-Alive
Black Dynamite
Catch 22
Gun Crazy
Pickup on South Street

Books
Naked Lunch by William S Burroughs
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M Cain
The Iliad
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Our Right to Drugs by Thomas Szasz


Music
Nightstick - Death to Music
Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics
Hour of 13 - s/t
Trouble - The Skull
Weedeater - ...And Justice for Y'all

Games
Rallisport Challenge 2
The Warriors
Max Payne 2
Samurai Shodown IV
Counter Strike

TV Series
Frisky Dingo
The Wire
Oz
The Shield
Futurama

[mesh control]

Movies!
Lost in Translation
Barton Fink
Amelie
Let The Right One In
MacGruber

Books!?
The Dharma Bums - Kerouac
Women - Bukowski
Akira
ehhh....I don't read too much and those are the first ones to pop in my head.

Albums!~
Cars Get Crushed - Evolution to Thrust
Black Flag - My War
Galaxie 500 - On Fire
Brian Eno - Another Green World
John Coltrane - Interstellar Space

Games:
Guilty Gear XXAC
Dark Souls
Timesplitters 2
Twisted Metal 2
Metal Gear Solid

[RGC]

Movies
Spielberg - Jaws
Carpenter - The Thing
Robinson - Withnail & I
Ramis - Groundhog Day
Scorsese - Taxi Driver

^ my desert island selection - just about all emotional bases covered. Sorry, Bladerunner. Apologies, Aliens. Maybe next time, Lost in Translation.

Books
Potocki - Saragossa Manuscript
Lovecraft - Fungi from Yuggoth
Mitchell - number9dream
Lewis - The Monk
Homer - The Iliad

Albums
Heroin and Your Veins - Dead People's Trails
Frank Black - Teenager of the Year
Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
And Also the Trees - Angelfish
Billy Cobham - Total Eclipse

Non-Shmup
[PCE] Dragon Slayer
[MD] Herzog Zwei
[Wii] Resident Evil IV
[X360] Fallout 3
[SFC] F-Zero

TV Series
The Wire
Battlestar Galactica
Twin Peaks
I'm Alan Partridge
Red Dwarf

[RGC]

The Iliad

snap! I took too long making my choices.

[burgerkingdiamond]

Seinfeld episodes.
the hot tub
the marine biologist
the puffy shirt
the rye
the race

Southpark episodes
asspen
the return of the fellowship to the two towers
christian rock hard
quest for ratings
make love not warcraft

[DJ Incompetent]

Movies
Scott Pilgrim
Face/Off
Kill Bill (both)
The Shawshank Redemption
The Legend of Drunken Master (2)

Albums
The Offspring - Smash
Mike Relm - Radio Fryer
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Tokyo Police Club - A Lesson in Crime
2ManyDJs - As Heard on Radio Soulwax pt. 2

Books
1984
The Giver
Stuff White People Like
Project Arcade
Watchmen

Podcasts
DGRadio
198x
Fast Karate For the Gentlemen
Giant Bomb
This American Life

Non-Shmup
Rez HD
Pinball FX2
Mr. Driller
Child of Eden
Megaman X1

[blackoak]

very difficult to pick just 5...

books
Celine - Journey to the End of the Night (changed my life, seemed to be written to me)
Mishima - Kinkakuji or Taiyou to Tetsu (cant decide, love both)
Lem - His Master's Voice (erudite scifi; ruins you for others though)
Conrad - Heart of Darkness (an early favorite)
Schopenhauer - Essay on the Freedom of the Will (a favorite starting point)

movies
Malick - Days of Heaven (badlands a close runner up)
Marker - La Jetee (favorite film from teenage years on)
Polanski - Chinatown (the score, the ending, the understated acting)
Kubrick - 2001 (majestic; saw it on cinerama some years back)
Scott - Alien (the atmosphere/pacing... yet to be matched in scifi imo)

music
autechre - confield (ae is to electronic music as lem is to scifi)
autechre - oversteps (floral and impressionistic, sweet)
fushitsusha - i saw it! that which before i could only sense (hard to choose really)
cocteau twins - victorialand (many pleasant evenings with this)
yes - close to the edge (steve howe is probably my favorite "daylight" guitarist)

non-shmups
final fantasy iv (the music and nostalgia)
seiken densetsu 2 (music, and still the most enjoyable multiplayer action rpg to me today)
zelda lttp (music, nostalgia)
final fantasy tactics (not really well balanced but a favorite)
ascendancy (likewise, not super challenging but i loved the aesthetic)

[Battletoad]

movies
Die Hard
Back to the Future
Alien
Braindead
Desperado

music
Moonsorrow - Kivenkantaja
Waltari - Big Bang
Breach - Kollapse
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
Turisas - Battle Metal

non-shmups
Contra: Hard Corps (MD)
Streets of Rage II (MD)
Thief: The Dark Project (PC)
Battletoads (Arcade)
MDK 2 (DC)

[ratlhead]

Movies
Cronenberg - A History of Violence
Lynch - Lost Highway
Nolan - Batman Begins
Eastwood - Unforgiven
Zemeckis - Contact

Books
Jensen - Dante's Equation
Pratchett - Colour of Magic
Sagan - Contact

Albums
Of the Wand & the Moon - Emptiness:Emptiness:Emptiness
Paradise Lost - Icon
The Gathering - Mandylion
Katatonia - Tonight's Decision
My Dying Bride - The Light at the End of the World

Non-Shmup
Xenoblade
Yakuza 2
Sonic Generations
TLoZ: Ocarina of Time
Sin & Punishment 2

[iconoclast]

Movies:
Pulp Fiction
A Clockwork Orange
Oldboy
Mulholland Drive
End of Evangelion

Games:
Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Ninja Gaiden II (360)
Virtua Fighter 5 (I prefer it over VF4E solely due to online play)
Fire Pro Wrestling Returns
Steel Battalion / Line of Contact

Television
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Breaking Bad
House
Monster
Welcome to the NHK

[drauch]

Moovies:
Taxi Driver
Crazy Love
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Road Warrior
Conan the Barbarian

Books: (I only read comics because i am 12)
Saga of the Swamp Thing
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Ode to Kirihito
John Constantine: Hellblazer
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Albums:
Leonard Cohen- Songs From a Room
Windir- 1184
The Dead Milkmen- Eat Your Paisley!
Manowar- Kings of Metal
Godspeed You! Black Emperor -F# A# ∞

Non-Shmuppies:
Half-Life (PC)
Myth II: Soulblighter (PC)
Diablo II (PC)
Castlevania: Dracula X Rondo of Blood (PCE)
Ghoul School (NES)

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

Movies
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
John Carpenter's The Thing
Dawn Of The Dead
Battle Beyond The Stars

Books
H.G. Wells: War Of The Worlds
Arthur C. Clarke: 2001: A Space Odyssey
John Christopher: The White Mountains
John Christopher: The City Of Gold And Lead
John Christopher: The Pool of Fire

Albums
Bis: Return To Central
The Human League: Travelogue
David Bowie: 1.Outside
Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene 1-6
Peter Gabriel: 3rd Album

Non-Shmup
Phantasy Star Online
Star Wars: Battlefront II
Star Trek Online
Turrican
Silent Hill

Pony
Pinkie Pie
Silver Spoon
Rarity
Twilight Sparkle
Twist

[GaijinPunch]

Seinfeld episodes.
the puffy shirt

Fuck yeah!

[ebarrett]

MOVIES
Once Upon a Time in the West
Fitzcarraldo
Seven Samurai
Kill Bill
Taxi Driver

BOOKS
Molloy - Samuel Beckett
Cronopios and Famas - Julio Cortázar
A Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
Ficciones - Jorge Luis Borges
The Plague - Albert Camus

ALBUMS
The Marble Index - Nico
Fun House - The Stooges
Low - David Bowie
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) - Brian Eno
Out to Lunch! - Eric Dolphy

NONSHMUP
La Mulana
Baldur's Gate series (a bit of cheating here)
Bayonetta
Half-Life series (another bit of cheating here)
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup

STUFF THAT ALMOST FITS IN THE CATEGORIES ABOVE BUT NOT QUITE
Jorge Furtado's "O Dia em que Dorival Encarou a Guarda" (short film)
Jorge Furtado's "Barbosa" (short film)
Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" (play)
Voltaire's "Micromegas" (short story)
Nico's "The Peel Sessions" (EP)

[Siren2011]

Fuck yeah!

I have a Vandelay Industries shirt. lol. Kudos if you can guess which episode that's from.

[blackoak]

Cronopios and Famas - Julio

Great book!

[NTSC-J]

Movies
Fargo
The Empire Strikes Back
The King of Kong
Akira
The Fly (1985)

Books
Patriots: The Vietnam War Remembered from All Sides edited by Chrisitan G. Appy
Pet Semetary by Stephen King
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima
Darkess Visible by William Styron

Comics
Berserk by Kentarou Miura
Miracleman by Alan Moore, John Totlebon, Alan Davis, Garry Leach, and others
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #31, 35-36 by Michael Zulli

Non-Shmup
Castlevania Symphony of the Night (PS)
Dracula X (PCE)
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Chrono Cross

TV Series
Simpsons (up to Season 10)
I, Claudius
Louie
Chappelle Show
Aeon Flux

Athletes
Jerome Le Banner
Peter Aerts
Alexis Arguello
Fedor Emelianenko
Mirko CroCop

Things that hit me hardest with nostalgia
the background music in the Ninja Turtles cartoon (not the theme, but that weird synthy shit they played during episodes)
Boyz II Men's "End of the Road"
the theme song to Legends of the Hidden Temple
the episode of the Ghostbusters cartoon with the Sandman character
the commercial for the Crossfire board game

[burgerkingdiamond]

Fuck yeah!

I have a Vandelay Industries shirt. lol. Kudos if you can guess which episode that's from.

I don't recall the spcifics of the episode, but George was trying to convince the unemployment lady that he was looking for a job at a place called Vandelay Industries, they did importing/exporting I think...

I have a t-shirt that says Dr. Van Nostrand with a giant picture of Kramer's face with a pipe in his mouth.
Also a t-shirt of that painted portrait of kramer in the suit.

Man I love Seinfeld. After seeing every episode at least half a dozen times or more it still hasn't gotten old (last couple seasons kind of suck a little bit though. It got pretty goofy at the end.)

[GaijinPunch]

Man I love Seinfeld. After seeing every episode at least half a dozen times or more it still hasn't gotten old (last couple seasons kind of suck a little bit though. It got pretty goofy at the end.)

Only one I didn't like was the finale, and I thought the pseudo-reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm was really well done. Can't name a favorite episode, although The Puffy Shirt ranks way the fuck up there. For later episodes, I really liked Putty's appearances. The European Carryall I quite liked as well. The Contest should of course go down in the history books, and The Move, of course, being an excellent example of having the entire subject of an episode a mystery.

[handsome_rakshas]

Korean Films...

A Bittersweet Life
Vengeance Trilogy (Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy, Lady Vengeance)
Memories of Murder
A Tale of Two Sisters
Joint Security Area

Albums of 2011...

Wild Flag- Wild Flag
tUnE-yArDs- WHOKILL
Primus- Green Naugahyde
Lykke Li-Wounded Rhymes

Non-shmup games...

Shadow of the Colossus
Castlevania Rondo of Blood
Castlevania SotN
Silent Hill 1-4
Yakuza series
Contra DS
20 more I forgot...

TV shows...

MST3K
Arrested Development
Seinfeld
Simpsons
Sailor Moon

Manga

Berserk
Akira
Monster

[stryc9]

TV SHOWS -

Open All Hours
Porridge
G.P.
Justice League Unlimited
League Of Gentlemen

ANIME/MANGA -

Hokuto no Ken
JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Darkstalkers
Urotsukedoji Legend of the Overfiend
Streetfighter Animated Movie

MOVIES -

Strange Days
Lassie in the Painted Hills
Santa Clause (Mexico)
Love Laughs at Andy Hardy
Transformers the Movie (animated)

NON-SHMUPS -

Streetfighter Zero 3 Upper
Capcom Vs SNK 2
Castlevania Bloodlines
Black Tiger
Wonderboy in Monsterland (arcade), But DAMMIT one more - Midnight Resistance (arcade and MD)

BOOKS -

Not sure you'd be interested

MUSIC -

Tha Alkaholiks
M.O.P
Kool Keith
The Prodigy (years ago)
Bumpy Knuckles