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Amazing Standalone Movies?

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Blues1990

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I'm currently watching Superbad for the first time, and & it's a pretty funny, if crude, film. But I started wondering if there are any other awesome standalone movies, as I can only think of trilogies, two-parters, and films that were once standalone, but had gotten a crappy sequel in later years.
 
Casablanca
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Double Indemnity
Shawshank Redemption
Citizen Kane
Chinatown
Taxi Driver

etc etc
 
There are at least as many great movies without as with some kind of sequel, the former exceeds the latter actually. That's a pretty broad question you're asking, especially coming of Superbad of all things (most comedies are standalone).

There is more out there than multimillion dollar Hollywood franchises OP. Expand your cinematic horizons.
 
There's so many answers to this I don't even know where to start. Just looking for comedies OP or something else?
 
Most good films aren't part of franchises.

Few suggestions:
The White Ribbon
Blue Valentine
Brazil
Stranger Than Paradise
The King of Comedy
After Hours
etc.
 
...what a bizarre thread. "Name good movies that didn't have/are sequels" which is an insanely broad question.

Social Network
Gone Girl
Drive
Gone Baby Gone
Fight Club
The Prestige
Inception
Moon
Rear Window
Shaun of the Dead
Hot Fuzz
The World's End
The Iron Giant
There Will Be Blood
Paranorman
Groundhog Day
Gladiator
Blade Runner
No Country for Old Men
Take Shelter
The Shining
Grand Budapest Hotel
L.A. Confidential
....


there's a lot of movies out there, OP
 
Okay then, I'll give it a shot.

The Tree of Life.
Days of Heaven.
The Wolf of Wall Street.
The Wrestler.
Barry Lyndon.
2001.
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.
Das Boot.
Cloud Atlas.
Django Unchained.
Do The Right Thing.
Misery.
The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Saving Private Ryan.
Watership Down.
The Plague Dogs.
Stand By Me.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Watchmen.
Total Recall.
Nosferatu: The Vampyre.
Aguirre: Wrath of God.
 
Pfft, a couple of Nolan movies? And a bunch of Ridley Scott movies?

Memento
The Prestige
Inception
Blade Runner
Gladiator
Kingdom under Heaven (Director's Cut)

I agree, weird thread.
 
Chinatown

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it has a sequel, not a very good one
 
So many OP, can't even start naming. From top of my head

Inception
Fight Club
Memento
The Prestige
Interstellar
Gladiator
Pulp Fiction
The Departed (actually most of Martin Scorsese movies)

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
 
This question kind of makes me want to cry. You are missing out on so much, OP.

This year alone:

Birdman
Foxcatcher
Whiplash
Interstellar
Gone Girl
Nightcrawler
Edge of Tomorrow

If you like Superbad:

The Interview
The 40 Year Old Virgin
Knocked Up
Role Models
Bridesmaids
This Is The End
Pineapple Express

to name a few others off the top of my head:

The World's End
Shaun of the Dead
World's Greatest Dad
Snowpiercer
Attack the Block
Her
The Shining
Fargo
anything by Tarantino
anything by Scorcese
anything by David Fincher


Seriously, man if you want more direction, I recommend posting again asking about a specific genre or giving some criteria for what you like in a movie. Because I'm sure we'd all be able to provide more specific recommendations with more to work with than "non-franchise movies".
 
The IMDB top 250 is far, far from perfect but it is a great starting point. Once you try a bunch of those movies and find a few you really like you can start looking for more of that style or from that director that is outside the top 250 list, which in my opinion is a bit too biased towards 'internet nerd' tastes, especially for stuff released since about 2003.
 
What I recommend the most, in order:

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Stripes
Eurotrip
The World's End
Shaun of the Dead
 
As some others pointed out, most movies. Sorry OP

Off the top of my head:

Adaptation
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Assassination of Jesse James
Blood Diamond
Casablanca
Catch Me if You Can
Fargo
The Fugitive
Good Will Hunting
Heat
The Machinist
Munich
Mystic River
No Country for Old Men
The Green Mile
Shawshank Redemption
The Prestige
Rain Man
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Django Unchained
Inglourious Basterds
Road to Perdition
Saving Private Ryan
Slumdog Millionaire
Stripes
There Will Be Blood
Trainspotting
127 Hours
American Graffiti
Argo
Apollo 13
Attack the Block
The Big Lebowski
Cabin in the Woods
Collateral
Descendants
District 9
Drive
The Grey
Gone Baby Gone
The Town
Gravity
Hugo
The Hurt Locker
Inception
Insomnia
Looper
Memento
Minority Report
Moneyball
Moon
Pan's Labyrinth
Seven Psychopaths
Se7en
Silver Linings Playbook
The Social Network
Source Code
Super 8
Taxi Driver
Titanic
Three Kings
The Usual Suspects
Zero Dark Thirty
Zodiac

Of course that's just from my collection, I am sure there's more :P
 
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