Name some good narrated/voice-over films

[pokerfan]

Watching A Christmas Story got us thinking about this. We all pretty much agreed that it's usually a sign of lazy film-making but there are notable exceptions with ACS perhaps being the best of the bunch.

We came up with the following:
A River Runs Through It
Stand By Me
The Shawkshank Redemption
Blow

(And please avoid the temptation to turn this thread into yet another Blade Runner Theatrical Cut v. Director's Cut flamefest. It's Christmas for pity's sake! :))

[leeroysphitz]

1. Blade Runner

[jobycom]

24. Yeah, and not that sucky Director's Cut, neither!

Sorry, I just never follow OP directions well.

And besides, I mean it. :P

[Fire Walk With Me]

30. Alerting. Lamebait.

[Danger Mouse]

2. Idiocracy. Little Big Man.

[underpants]

47. My favorite movie

[kayakjohnny]

3. The Civil War Documentary...PBS...Ken Burns

Maybe not quite what you wanted. But still so well done.

[sohndrsmith]

32. good call. n/t

[kayakjohnny]

4. And certainly, "Out of Africa"

[kayakjohnny]

5. "Forrest Gump"

[Starbucks Anarchist]

6. American Beauty.

[TZ]

7. Oh come on: Princess Bride!

:)

[pokerfan]

10. Oh, yeah

We missed that one.

:dunce:

[kayakjohnny]

8. "Goodfellas"

[kayakjohnny]

9. "Polar Express"

[pokerfan]

11. We had considerable debate over Goodfellas and Casino

Of course lists such as these are always subjective and opinionated.

[XemaSab]

12. Fight Club

:D

[gmoney]

17. I am Jack's raging narration...

[AlCzervik]

13. Winged Migration for a doc and "Little Children" for a movie.

[SeattleGirl]

14. March of the Penguins

Yeah, I know; they can't talk so someone had to do it.

[sohndrsmith]

27. Someone else posted Shawshank Redemption - did Morgan Freeman

narrate both - or most of both? I know he did March of the Penguins...

I'd vote for anything narrated by him - what an incredible voice - or James Earl Jones. Heh - I remember when my daughter was small (Lion King had just come out or hadn't been out long) and Mr. Jones happened to be in front of my daughter and her grandmother in line at the grocery store... my daughter of course, wouldn't have recognized him and in the small town, those who did see him occasionally respected his privacy, but I remember my mother in law just praying like MAD that he not say anything - my daughter would have gone NUTS!!.. "MUFASA!!!!" Oh heck - it would have been a scene...

It was a tense moment there for a while - all parties, thankfully, emerged unscathed and free from embarrassment.

Have to concur with your choice... though not a "movie" I _loved_ "Nature" on PBS when George Page was the host/narrator. Another marvelous voice. The program has never been the same without him.

Thanks for prompting a good memory for me... (a little off topic, but thanks nonetheless).

[SeattleGirl]

35. I'll bet if he had spoken, and your daughter cried out MUFASA!

he would have been cool about it. I'm sure it's probably happened more than once.

And yes, it was Morgan Freeman who also narrated Shawshank. I love his voice. (Jones' voice too!)

[sohndrsmith]

37. Well, that would have been the start of it. He liked to be left alone

on his own time and people knew it - but you're probably right. I'm sure he would have been annoyed internally, but suffered through it nobly. : ).

My daughter was (and is) unusually ebullient - tough to not dampen that lovely big heart while being extremely thorough in teaching her about strangers and the dangers they pose... I'm still exhausted from those first 7-8 years... : )

[pokerfan]

15. We forgot Sunset Boulevard (1950)

I'm so much smarter when I'm on the computer attached to the Intertubes than in the living room arguing with my family.

[pokerfan]

18. Script Tip: Voice Over Narration by William C. Martell

VOICE OVER by William C. Martell

You may have noticed that SIN CITY has voice over narration. It fits the film's pulpy roots - the old Film Noirs of the 1940s and Roman Noirs of the 1930s and 1940s. Tough guy stuff. But wait - isn't Voice Over Narration one of the two big no-nos in screenwriting? Shouldn't someone from the Film Police take Robert Rodriguez out and shoot him? Shouldn't he at least be kicked out of Hollywood (or Austin)?

The reason why everyone says "Never use flashbacks or voice over narration" is that most of the time they are used wrong. 95% of the scripts they read with flashbacks and voice over narration suck because the writer used both techniques to plug plot holes with a big chunk of verbal or visual exposition. The problem is, some of the greatets movies ever made have voice over - what would SUNSET BLVD be like without that "typical monkey funeral" narration?

http://www.englishforums.com/English/ScriptVoiceNarration/hhvmn/post.htm">More

[gmoney]

16. Apocalypse Now (eom)

[Iggo]

39. "Saigon." (n/t)

[rug]

19. Shawshank

[sarge43]

20. A Christmas Story, the author Jean Shepherd narrator. n/t

[General Zod]

21. Invasion of the Body Snatchers ( Original)

Actor Kevin McCarthy narrates, telling the authorities how Santa Mira was taken over by the Pods.

[Kat45]

22. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill n/t

[Fire Walk With Me]

23. Little Children.

[jobycom]

25. The Big Lebowski.

:rofl: Hey, there's a voice-over.

[Fire Walk With Me]

26. "Raising Arizona" as well.

[jobycom]

28. I was just thinking about that--several Coen films do that

They start out and wrap up with a voice-over, but don't really use it during the film. Hudsucker Proxie, The Man Who Wasn't There, Lebowski, Arizona.

[sohndrsmith]

29. not sure if this counts, but It's one of my favorite movies: Smoke Signals...

it's a bittersweet favorite because there is a lot of it that mirrors my life, in an oddly coincidental sort of way. My dad was a tribal member (I'm just a land trustee - wish I was a full member) , and our tribe is from the same region - "dances with salmon", fry bread and all that. I thought that maybe there was a _little_ too much affectation in Thomas' narration, (I thought), but not much. My favorite characters were Lester Falls Apart and Victor.

I lived out on the reservation with my dad as a kid for a while, and grew up with an alcoholic parent (not my dad, and now sober for over 20 years)... the reservation was a huge expanse of beautiful land - dotted with abject poverty, fading customs and a lot of despair, unfortunately (I did love being able to ride a horse out in the desert just about every day - so fast my eyes would tear up... but I was terrified of Big Foot and I was sure he was around every corner... < . smile . >). My father was there for a couple of years working with the NIMH and as a tribal member to build and facilitate mental health/ counseling centers. It was the best work he ever did...

(Edited because I can't figure out how to add a "smile" or "grin" without the little yellow thingy showing up... I'm a little old-school on that. Try as I might to "fool" the smiley genie, I haven't been able to do so).

[sohndrsmith]

31. Was "Lost In America" narrated? There should be at least one

movie in this list narrated by Albert Brooks, at least in part. Maybe my memory is playing tricks on me - I don't own the DVD - but I should. I love that movie...

[gmoney]

33. No narration in any Albert Brooks movies as I recall...

"Hulk running? It should be labeled Hulk screaming!"

[sohndrsmith]

34. Well, there should have been. : ) I think he's hilarious - though if

I recall he recently did a movie (recently as in the last 5 years or so) that was a dud and I was sad. I love Lost in America and the other one with Meryl Streep - um... shoot - I'm drawing a blank on the name. "Being There?" No... I know it wasn't Heaven can wait.

Oh right! That is what the Google machine is for (thanks for the term, Ms. Maddow) : ).

I go look up.

Oh heck - now I really want to watch the nest egg scene... and the crossing guard scene... dang. My kingdom for a car and an open Borders store right now (sigh).

[gmoney]

41. Lost in America has the nest egg and crossing guard

Defending your Life had Meryl Streep and Rip Torn... probably his best, IMHO, and one of my favorites.

His last one, Looking for Humor in the Muslim World was extremely awful... it's almost like he had Al Franken help him write it.

The ones before that, The Muse, and Mother, weren't so great either, but sort of had their moments.

True Romance was another really good one of his.

Join Netflix and you can watch Defending Your Life online tonight.

[sohndrsmith]

43. That's IT!! Thank you!!! I used to have Netflix and didn't use it enough...

there is nothing more difficult than trying to find a movie that is suitable for and, if not enjoyable, at least tolerable for the following group of people:

A 55 yr old physicist/engineer, 45 yr old artist, 17 yr old teenage girl and a 10 yr old girl

I would love to know if it's even possible to come up with more than a couple of choices that are:
1. Actually good,
2. Have a rating that includes all of the above and
3. Are more than barely tolerable for one of the above... ("slightly better than painful" doesn't count...).

So, the account lapsed... (sigh).

[Orrex]

36. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Truly sublime.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

38. No one thinks "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a good film?

It has a voice-over through at least some of the movie

[SeattleGirl]

44. Doh! You're right!

I don't know why I didn't think of that one. Love that movie, and love the voice-over.

[rcrush]

40. Casino n/t

[Lionel Mandrake]

42. Tom Jones (1963)

[Radical Activist]

45. The princess bride

a classic.

[Enrique]

46. Double Indemnity

some of the best movie writing of all time is Fred MacMurray's narration.

[Orsino]

48. Conan The Barbarian

Okay, it's a terrible film, but it's still awesome.