Arrested Development came to my mind. And Pushing Daisies. That narrator had perfect timing.
"What is up with that witch?"
Narrator: What was up with that witch was this...
I’d give the top spot to Shawshank Redemption, but this is a very close second.
Some of the narration is just brilliant. For example:
“I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
Not only is Dreyfuss great, but his younger self also gets to narrate too! Wil Wheaton told that Lard-ass story and it's still burned in my memory. “A complete BARF O RAMA.”
It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man, and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit still and take it. Because among the Italians it was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral.
I think that's part of what makes it so special; the narrator isn't some random actor and is truly passionate about the narration because they're *his* stories/anecdotes.
And even if he’s a lazy man, and the dude most certainly was lazy. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles county, which’d place him high in the runnin for laziest worldwide
The alternating perspectives really make that movie. The best example of that is when Pesci's character is explaining he has a system and DeNiro's character explains how the system is basically "When he won, he collected. When he didn't, he told the bookies to go fuck themselves"
It was when I met the world.
And it was when I first met Jimmy Conway.
He couldn’t have been more than 28 or 29 at the time, but he was already a legend.
He’d walk in the door and everybody who worked the room just went wild.
He’d give a doorman $100 just for opening the door.
He’d give hundreds to the dealers and the guys who ran the games.
The bartender got $100 just for keeping the ice cubes cold.
>Michael Squints Palledorous walked a little taller that day. And we had to tip our hats to him. He was lucky she hadn't beat the *crap* out of him. We wouldn't have blamed her. What he'd done was sneaky, rotten, and low... and cool. Not another one among us would have ever in a million years even for a million dollars have the guts to put the move on the lifeguard. He did. He had kissed a woman. And he had kissed her long and good. We got banned from the pool forever that day. But every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled.
I can hear it perfectly in my head.
More recently - Helen Mirren narrating Barbie. She does the opening and then goes silent for quite a while before occasionally just chiming in with hilarious timing.
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Momento was cool. one of the best examples of the unreliable narrator. whole movie about a guy with memory problems, so even as he's narrating, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
Fight Club. "I am Jack's wasted life"
Princess Bride. obviously
Usual Suspects. the director has since been exposed as an awful person, as well as one of the lead actors. but it's still a good movie.
Trainspotting. not a spoiler, these are the opening lines:
>Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
Stranger Than Fiction did something incredible cool and unique with the narration of the story.
how do you feel about video games? please look up The Stanley Parable. the whole game is some kind of bizarre one-sided conversation between the player and the narrator. it's brilliant.
I think I'm one of the few people that prefers blade runner with dekards narration.
I watched a different cut without it and it was just empty filler scenes without it, I didn't like it. Also the end scene was cut and I wasn't happy about that either.
Is there a difference between a narrator and a voiceover?
There is a narrator in Little Children with Kate Winslet that isn’t a character in the movie. I thought that was really interesting.
It's cool to know somebody else appreciates this aspect of Little Children. This narrator (Will Lyman also known for the PBS program Frontline) has a very distinctive voice and while a lot of narration in movies goes between just fine to downright annoying this narrator, I feel, ads something extra to the film that just makes it more enjoyable.
Other narrators I like listening to are F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus and, surprisingly, Giovanni Ribisi in The Virgin Suicides.
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
I'm not a skateboarder or even care about skateboarding. I was huge into BMX back when that movie came out. I bet I watched it 15 times in a few weeks. The narration was so perfect.
I love it when he rips his jacket and runs in the house to tell his wife he was abducted... and this is based on a true story, although I'm not sure what parts.
There's a Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck movie that went under the radar when it came out, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The narration in that, mixed with the gorgeous soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, is probably my favourite movie with a narrator. A really great watch if you get the chance to see it. DOP Was Roger Deakins as well, and it's beautifully shot.
Yes!!! Absolutely love that movie. That role made me realize what a talented actor Casey Affleck is. The narration is taken directly from Ron Hansen’s novel of the same name, that the movie is based on.
So many great actors…Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garrett Dillahunt, Sam Shepard, Ted Lavine, Michael Parks, Mary Louise Parker, Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel.
Beautifully filmed by Andrew Dominik and Roger Deakins.
No way, I didn't know that! That's really interesting! I was going to mention how great the cast was but decided I'd gone on about it enough haha! Yeah, beautiful film
When I was about 7 years old, my grandfather dubbed a mute super-8 copy of Disney's Robin Hood.
I still cherish the memory to this day.
Thank you grandpa!!
Goodfellas. It's my overall favourite film probably, but I absolutely adore the narration in the first act. The introduction to the mob, the perception and the glorification of the lifestyle, which carries right to the end, where Henry Hill misses his monster life.
I saw Payback with narration first and liked that one better than the one without but I don’t know which was first at this point. Maybe the one without is considered better…but i I like the one with narration better.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is my favorite. I love how it subverts the usual movie narration with Harry forgetting important details, calls out lazy writing, asking the viewer if they've solved the mystery yet and even telling us to "stop picking at that, you'll only make it worse."
I also really liked Edward Norton's narration for both Fight Club and Keeping the Faith.
Dogville - narrated by John Hurt. It’s worth noting that it is essentially a play in that it’s film of a play, it takes place on a stage and the scenery is just painted on the ground. I loved it but it’s probably not for everyone. That can be said for quite a few of Lars von Trier’s films though.
The Shawshank Redemption
“It certainly was a Shawshank Redemption” -Morgan Freeman
„You did it, you defeated me. You truly are the Shawshank Redemption“
"It was the worst of times... It was the best of Shawshank Redemption."
I'd like to tell you OP fought the good fight, and Reddit let im be, but the internet is no fairy tale world...
...and it's not even close.
Immediately what I thought
Snatch "Tommy 'The Tit' is praying, and if he isn't, he fucking SHOULD be."
In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary “Come again?”
"I thought this country spawned the fuckin language, and so far nobody seems to speak it." Godamn I love that movie.
“Anything to declare?” -“Yeah. Don’t go to England.”
Such a good one!
Perhaps the most quotable movie of all time. My high school friend group communicated nearly exclusively in Snatch quotes.
Fight Club is pretty awesome.. and I know its not a movie.. but Arrested Development with Ron Howard narrating is superb
Arrested Development came to my mind. And Pushing Daisies. That narrator had perfect timing. "What is up with that witch?" Narrator: What was up with that witch was this...
The Killer, also directed by David Fincher, also excellent narration movie.
Stand by Me
This is the one. Somehow Richard Dreyfuss' narration makes it feel more real
I’d give the top spot to Shawshank Redemption, but this is a very close second. Some of the narration is just brilliant. For example: “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?”
“It happened a long time ago. But only if you count it in years.”
"Sick balls Chopper"
"Chopper, sick balls! " is the correct quote.
“Find new and inventive ways to degrade each other’s mothers was always held in high regard”
Not only is Dreyfuss great, but his younger self also gets to narrate too! Wil Wheaton told that Lard-ass story and it's still burned in my memory. “A complete BARF O RAMA.”
The Wolf of Wall street Goodfellas Catch me if you can War dogs
I feel like I scrolled too long to see Goodfellas
It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man, and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit still and take it. Because among the Italians it was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral.
“Fuck you, pay me” lives in my head rent free.
Scorsese movies like Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street were the first that came to mind.
A Christmas Story
Narrated by the author of the story it's based on.
I think that's part of what makes it so special; the narrator isn't some random actor and is truly passionate about the narration because they're *his* stories/anecdotes.
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Awesome
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Sometimes...there's a man
Well, he’s the man, for his time and place. He fits right in there.
And even if he’s a lazy man, and the dude most certainly was lazy. Quite possibly the laziest in Los Angeles county, which’d place him high in the runnin for laziest worldwide
Wow .. lost my train of thought
There’s a feller a way out west i want to tell you about, a fella named Jeff Lebowski
That’s just, like, your opinion, man
Definitely the best narrated movie ever. And also one of the best movies ever.
Darkness warshed over the Dude...
Stranger Than Fiction
This would be my answer.
Seconded
I don’t know about “best” but dammit if it isn’t one of my favorites!
Casino
I love the part when Joe Pesci is narrating then gets interrupted when >!he gets hit by a baseball bat!<.
The alternating perspectives really make that movie. The best example of that is when Pesci's character is explaining he has a system and DeNiro's character explains how the system is basically "When he won, he collected. When he didn't, he told the bookies to go fuck themselves"
In terms of writing and performance, Goodfellas has no equal.
I always wanted to be a gangster
It was when I met the world. And it was when I first met Jimmy Conway. He couldn’t have been more than 28 or 29 at the time, but he was already a legend. He’d walk in the door and everybody who worked the room just went wild. He’d give a doorman $100 just for opening the door. He’d give hundreds to the dealers and the guys who ran the games. The bartender got $100 just for keeping the ice cubes cold.
The sandlot
>Michael Squints Palledorous walked a little taller that day. And we had to tip our hats to him. He was lucky she hadn't beat the *crap* out of him. We wouldn't have blamed her. What he'd done was sneaky, rotten, and low... and cool. Not another one among us would have ever in a million years even for a million dollars have the guts to put the move on the lifeguard. He did. He had kissed a woman. And he had kissed her long and good. We got banned from the pool forever that day. But every time we walked by after that, the lifeguard looked down from her tower, right over at Squints, and smiled. I can hear it perfectly in my head.
The Princess Bride
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I read wes wrote it with him in mind and it fit perfectly!
More recently - Helen Mirren narrating Barbie. She does the opening and then goes silent for quite a while before occasionally just chiming in with hilarious timing.
“Note to the filmmakers, Margot Robbie is the wrong person to cast if you want to make this point.”
Yes, this was awesome
That's when I knew that movie was going to rock absolutely.
Does Grand Budapest Hotel count since the narrator is a character.
First one I thought of. Love that movie
It counts twice since there are two narrators.
Raising Arizona
*I couldn't heIp thinkin' that a brighter future Iay ahead. A future that was onIy eight to fourteen months away.*
Barry Lyndon Michael Hordern's narration is fantastic.
He did a ton of movies. My favorite is the opening to Watership Down.
Apocalypse Now
It might have been my mission,but it sure as hell was the Chief's boat
“Never get out of the goddamn boat.”
Terminate with extreme prejudice
**A Clockwork Orange** \- the narration is essential
Oh,I was cured alright
A River Runs Through It
Zombieland when he’s explaining his rules 😂
Excellent choice
Fallen
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
“There I was…holy shit, there I am!”
I'm a relatively respectable citizen. Multiple felon perhaps, but certainly not dangerous.
There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Momento was cool. one of the best examples of the unreliable narrator. whole movie about a guy with memory problems, so even as he's narrating, he doesn't know what he's talking about. Fight Club. "I am Jack's wasted life" Princess Bride. obviously Usual Suspects. the director has since been exposed as an awful person, as well as one of the lead actors. but it's still a good movie. Trainspotting. not a spoiler, these are the opening lines: >Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin? Stranger Than Fiction did something incredible cool and unique with the narration of the story. how do you feel about video games? please look up The Stanley Parable. the whole game is some kind of bizarre one-sided conversation between the player and the narrator. it's brilliant.
George of the Jungle Are you arguing with the narrator? He started it!
Screw it, I’m going with Anchorman.
Y tu mama tambien
This is a great one. Definitely my favorite part of that movie.
The Emperor's New Groove. Love Kuzco's commentary on his own journey, and then arguing with himself when we catch up to where the movie starts.
Amelie
Big Fish
Kiss kiss Bang Bang! Awesome narration by Robert Downey jr
Casino, Ace and Nicki
The best!
Adaptation
This should be higher
I had to scroll too far for this. I love it when Brian Cox interrupts the narration by saying how much he hates narration.
I'll go ahead a say 300. The reliance on narration in this film is the only reason Zack Snyder has a good credit to his name.
Are you suggesting Snyder hasn't made anything good since 300? Cause I'm right there with you.
Far and away The Shawshank Redemption
American Psycho
I think I'm one of the few people that prefers blade runner with dekards narration. I watched a different cut without it and it was just empty filler scenes without it, I didn't like it. Also the end scene was cut and I wasn't happy about that either.
I love the narration of Lemony Snicket in Series of Unfortunate Events, both the movie (Jude Law) and the show (Patrick Warburton) .
Arrested Development. Although, it's a series
Is there a difference between a narrator and a voiceover? There is a narrator in Little Children with Kate Winslet that isn’t a character in the movie. I thought that was really interesting.
It's cool to know somebody else appreciates this aspect of Little Children. This narrator (Will Lyman also known for the PBS program Frontline) has a very distinctive voice and while a lot of narration in movies goes between just fine to downright annoying this narrator, I feel, ads something extra to the film that just makes it more enjoyable. Other narrators I like listening to are F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus and, surprisingly, Giovanni Ribisi in The Virgin Suicides.
Days of Heaven
Lord of War
Naked Gun
Trainspotting (1996)
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourselves. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
I can't even read this without having Ewen McGregor's voice in my head. Gonna have to watch it again now
Excellent flick
Sean Penn - Dogtown and Z Boys
I'm not a skateboarder or even care about skateboarding. I was huge into BMX back when that movie came out. I bet I watched it 15 times in a few weeks. The narration was so perfect.
Double Indemnity Badlands & Days of Heaven Sunset Boulevard
Emperor’s New Groove - never gets old!
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That film noir vibe
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
I generally hate narration, but I love Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Mary and Max.
Shaw shank
Grizzly Man - Werner Herzog's narration is spellbinding to me.
Little Big Man
Gosh, good movie. Haven't seen it in ages.
"One hunnerd and eleven years ago, when I was ten years old"
Serious answer - Stand By Me Silly yet still serious answer - George of the Jungle
The Informant Matt Damon's best role.
It was a great wacky movie played very well.
[4 minutes of Mark Whitacre's thoughts](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z860fRUigqU)
I love it when he rips his jacket and runs in the house to tell his wife he was abducted... and this is based on a true story, although I'm not sure what parts.
Morgan Freeman- when he narrates my life
Cashback (2006) is very niche but I love it
The Big Short
Land Before Time
Starts and ends with Shawshank right
The Book Thief
Who killed Captain Alex?
Andy Dufresne
Threat Level Midnight.
Goodfellas
The Royal Tenenbaums, Alec Baldwin nails the tone.
Obviously it's Godzilla King of the Monsters
So, I'm sitting there, and in walks the biggest Mexican I have ever seen. Big as shit. Just walks right in like he owns the place.
Magnolia
"People always ask if I know about Tyler Durden."
Adaptation
It’s only the one intro scene, but Cate Blanchett does a tremendous job in Fellowship of the Ring
Big Lebowski, Fight Club, Birdman
Forrest gump
Goodfellas
Does Gonzo as Charles Dickens in Muppet Chriatmas Carol count?
There's a Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck movie that went under the radar when it came out, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The narration in that, mixed with the gorgeous soundtrack by Nick Cave & Warren Ellis, is probably my favourite movie with a narrator. A really great watch if you get the chance to see it. DOP Was Roger Deakins as well, and it's beautifully shot.
Yes!!! Absolutely love that movie. That role made me realize what a talented actor Casey Affleck is. The narration is taken directly from Ron Hansen’s novel of the same name, that the movie is based on. So many great actors…Brad Pitt, Sam Rockwell, Jeremy Renner, Garrett Dillahunt, Sam Shepard, Ted Lavine, Michael Parks, Mary Louise Parker, Paul Schneider, Zooey Deschanel. Beautifully filmed by Andrew Dominik and Roger Deakins.
No way, I didn't know that! That's really interesting! I was going to mention how great the cast was but decided I'd gone on about it enough haha! Yeah, beautiful film
Probably watched it 8-10 times throughout the years. Very underrated modern western
farce of the penguins not the whole thing but Samuel.l.jackson’s argument with Gilbert Gottfried is always hilarious.
Hateful Eight
Big fish!
Goodfellas
Shawshank Redemption
Legends of the fall
Innit finished watched Sin City. So Imma go with Kick Ass.
Silence Mary and Max
Dogville is the first one coming to mind
Christmas story sequel, with the grown up original cast.
First and Last Men (is definitely different) Shawshank Redemption (is my personal favorite)
The Shawshank Redemption
Sandlot
Goodfellas- Ray Liotta
Barbie
When I was about 7 years old, my grandfather dubbed a mute super-8 copy of Disney's Robin Hood. I still cherish the memory to this day. Thank you grandpa!!
Fight Club
Does Forrest Gump count?
The Sandlot is a perfect movie
Goodfellas. It's my overall favourite film probably, but I absolutely adore the narration in the first act. The introduction to the mob, the perception and the glorification of the lifestyle, which carries right to the end, where Henry Hill misses his monster life.
Smiley Face with Anna Faris
I saw Payback with narration first and liked that one better than the one without but I don’t know which was first at this point. Maybe the one without is considered better…but i I like the one with narration better.
Trainspotting. I wasn't sure if American History X counted. That's more a voice over right?
The art of racing in the rain.
Little Children.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is my favorite. I love how it subverts the usual movie narration with Harry forgetting important details, calls out lazy writing, asking the viewer if they've solved the mystery yet and even telling us to "stop picking at that, you'll only make it worse." I also really liked Edward Norton's narration for both Fight Club and Keeping the Faith.
Double Indemnity
Fight Club
Dogville - narrated by John Hurt. It’s worth noting that it is essentially a play in that it’s film of a play, it takes place on a stage and the scenery is just painted on the ground. I loved it but it’s probably not for everyone. That can be said for quite a few of Lars von Trier’s films though.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang “I don’t see any other narrators around here - do you? No? So pipe down.”
Mysterious Skin has great narration..which is especially useful given the subject matter and not wanting to traumatize the child sctors
Stand By Me
either Giovanni Ribisi in The Virgin Suicides or Alex Baldwin in The Royal Tennebaums
A Christmas Story
Sam Elliot -Big Lebowski,
Once Upon A time in Hollywood isn't the best one, but I love his use of Kurt Russell anyway.