My favorite source for all commentary relating to movies, television, and various other unnecessary lists, the avclub has an article today about the editors favorite drop everything movie. Here's a quick quote from the site to give you an idea:

You know the moment; you’re flipping through your channel guide, not looking for anything in particular, and you run across that film: It doesn’t matter that you’ve seen it 13 times already, nor does it matter what point in the movie it’s at: You immediately stop flipping to watch ’til the end, even if it’s 4 a.m. and you have to be up early the next morning. Which movies stand up to your unlimited viewing pleasure?

My killer weak spot, the one that brings me no end of shame, is my deep and everlasting affection for Beautiful Girls. I can't help but watch that movie everytime I stumble upon it. It does such a great job of evoking winter in a small town that it always makes me homesick for Michigan.

So, Paizoians, what's the movie you will always watch when you are channel surfing?

Willie Wonka and the chocolate factory, the one with Gene Wilder.

It was my moms favorite and reminds me of my only happy times growing up.

The Princess Bride usually makes me stop what I'm doing to watch it.

Goonies or the Lost Boys

Stripes, The Fifth Element, Demolition Man, Predator, Conan the Destroyer...

Ok, I'll stop at five, LOL! Most of them I know by heart and watch pretty much annually on DVD anyway. :D

Jaws.

JAWS, Godfather I and II, Stand By Me, PeeWee's Big Adventure, Magnificent Seven

If I come across Big Trouble in Little China, then I find I'm unable to change the channel.

A Bridge Too Far - I probably watch this 5 times a year

I have a lot of these (for good or for ill), but I'll try to throw out a few not mentioned yet.

Tombstone, Excalibur, Logan's Run, Aliens, A Christmas Story, okay, okay, I'd better stop now...

Airplane! or the Naked Gun

The Blues Brothers

Thirteenth Warrior
Any Star Wars movie

Oh, man. I have a few, but if I had to choose one?

Blade Runner.

Back to the Future.

WarGames

Breaker Morant and The Manchurian Candidate (the original). I know I've definitely done it for the latter - back on AMC back when they didn't show commercials during the movies.

I've done this for both Blazing Saddles (Once watched that 3 times in a row in one sitting. Kinda proud of that) and Hunt for Red October (Actually did stay awake until 4am when I had work 3 hours later). Either of these two movies will make me immediately stop channel surfing. Not really sure why.

Anything with dinosaurs or kaiju. My inner six-year-old must be sated once tempted.
EDIT: Or Ray Harryhausen monsters

Blade Runner
Strange Days
Children of Men

Glory
Kill Bill Vol 1+2
JFK

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

PulpCruciFiction wrote:

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm confused. What do you have against such a great movie?

red dawn

Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Kagemusha, ... anything by Akira Kurosawa.

Sebastian wrote:

PulpCruciFiction wrote:

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm confused. What do you have against such a great movie?

That's a Dr. Brown quote when he, in 1955, is waiting for Marty to show up for their attempt to send him back to 1985. He looks at 3 different watches muttering 'damn' more and more times.

/end nerd mode

:-D

As for the OPs original question - I have so many of these kinds of 'drop everything' movies it would be impossible to list them all. A few (unusual) standouts that I don't own on DVD are...

Roadhouse
Point Break
Jason and the Argonauts (original obviously)
Adventures in Babysitting (I was in love with Elizabeth Shue back in 1987)
Ladyhawke

...lots more. I love movies and will drop most anything to watch a favourite.

Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Better of Dead
Lethal Weapon 1 or 2
Princess Bride

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 & 2
Bedazzled (with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley)
Old Godzilla movies
Knocked Up
Ghost Busters 1 & 2
The Sandlot
Groundhog Day
Labyrinth
Princess Bride
The Dark Crystal
Transylvania 6-5000
Clue
The Private Eyes
Spaceballs
Clash of the Titans
The Emperor's New Groove

Pretty much anything with Bill Murray or animatronic creatures.

It depends but Hoosers and the Natural will usually get me to sit and watch them. I used to watch Top Gun but well not so much so anymore.

Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Lolz...

Remo Williams
Conan the Destroyer (mmmm, D'Abo)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Tombstone
Mortal Kombat
Roadhouse
Fright Night
Under Siege
Rapid Fire (Brandon Lee)
Independence Day
Flash Gordon (Sam J Jones)

ahhh, forgot Die Hard

The Rock
Top Gun

Many more, but those two more than anything else :-)

I have to choose one, but the following are honourable mentions which fall into the same catagory.

Alien
Aliens
Blade Runner
children of men
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
Mononoke-hime
Kiki's delivery service
Lucky Number Sleven
run lola, run
Mirrormask
The Dark Knight

But the winner is Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Children of Men
Raising Arizona
Fight Club
Back to the Future
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Dr. Strangelove ...
Waking Life
The Matrix
Se7en
Die Hard
Dune

kessukoofah wrote:

Sebastian wrote:

PulpCruciFiction wrote:

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm confused. What do you have against such a great movie?

That's a Dr. Brown quote when he, in 1955, is waiting for Marty to show up for their attempt to send him back to 1985. He looks at 3 different watches muttering 'damn' more and more times.

/end nerd mode

:-D

Yup! I love Back to the Future, and typically I will stop and watch whenever I find it on the air (particularly if it's near the end - I absolutely love the climax).

Shawshank Redemption.

Little Bigman

Big trouble in Little China

PsychoticWarrior wrote:

kessukoofah wrote:

Sebastian wrote:

PulpCruciFiction wrote:

Back to the Future.

Damn.

Damn. Damn.

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I'm confused. What do you have against such a great movie?

That's a Dr. Brown quote when he, in 1955, is waiting for Marty to show up for their attempt to send him back to 1985. He looks at 3 different watches muttering 'damn' more and more times.

/end nerd mode

:-D

Yup! I love Back to the Future, and typically I will stop and watch whenever I find it on the air (particularly if it's near the end - I absolutely love the climax).

When it starts playing on Starz you can go into the break room at any time and one of the movies is on. and when it is over...we change to the west coast feed and watch the movies again.

I actually have 'drop everything' actors that if I see a movie that has them in it I must do that. The short list is---
Patrick Swayze- especially Steel Dawn or Roadhouse.
Heath Ledger- especially Knight's Tale and that one with Mandy Moore in it.
Sandra Bullock- everything.
Matthew McConahaugh- everything, I have a bit of a man-crush on him. I think he could turn me! Especially Reign of Fire.

Shawshank Redemption.

I actually first saw that movie a couple months ago and WOW! That was a great movie.

Children of Men

Raising Arizona
Fight Club

Come on! You know the first rule! Expect someone to come by later to rectify the situation.....

And you......you're too......KILT WEARINGY!!!

And you......you're too......KILT WEARINGY!!!

And?!?!?! If I'm man enough to don a kilt in public on occasion (and look delicious doing it) then you should probably be nice to me!

I've been told I have well-turned calves BTW.

I've been told I have well-turned calves BTW.

I think that was in reference to your livestock.

Heathansson wrote:

And you......you're too......KILT WEARINGY!!!

And?!?!?! If I'm man enough to don a kilt in public on occasion (and look delicious doing it) then you should probably be nice to me!

You think you've got it rough? This bedsheet leaves nothing to the imagination.

Fake Healer wrote:

Heathansson wrote:

And you......you're too......KILT WEARINGY!!!

And?!?!?! If I'm man enough to don a kilt in public on occasion (and look delicious doing it) then you should probably be nice to me!

You think you've got it rough? This bedsheet leaves nothing to the imagination.

You can't tell from the photo, but my avatar's not wearing any pants.

Shawshank Redemption.

All that man-rape kind of makes the movie a downer.