IMDb Top 250 - The Quest!

[Tiplodocus]

Oh and it was 174 for me.

I was wondering where Once Upon a Time in The West was until I figured out they were using foreign names.  Claudia Cardinale - wow!

Nice to see The Searchers in the list as well.  But definitely some recent viewing colouring people's perceptions.

[Funt Solo]

Not seen 79 of them.  (And some of them don't belong in a top 250 list, which is predictably plagued by modern artefacts such as The Bourne Ultimatum.  I mean, come on.  There's no chance of me ever seeing any Chaplin - because everytime he appears on a screen I can't help but smash it to little bits.  I really should see A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), though.)

Seen significant chunks of 15 of them.  (Raging Bull might be classic cinema, but I can't be arsed watching a fat De Niro punch up his wife and best mate for too long, and Metropolis bores the pants off me, even though I keep trying to will myself to sit through it all.)

That leaves 156 I've seen all the way through.  

[Buttonman]

"Button, you're a man who pursues many noble quests, and this is one I share"

It's true, it's true - noble or OCD you decide! It's the keyring collection all over again!

I agree a lot of the newer stuff needs culling but who decides? They have some elaborate formula to prevent vote stuffing by rabid fans :


The formula for calculating the Top Rated 250 Titles gives a true Bayesian estimate:

weighted rating (WR) = (v ÷ (v+m)) Ã? R + (m ÷ (v+m)) Ã? C where:  R = average for the movie (mean) = (Rating)  v = number of votes for the movie = (votes)  m = minimum votes required to be listed in the Top 250 (currently 1300)  C = the mean vote across the whole report (currently 6.7)

The formula is clearly wrong as it doesn't allow 'The Omega Man' a place.

Today I went to see 'American Gangster' and as good as it was it certainly wasn't a classic and will be off the list within a couple of years.

As the list is fluid I've noted the content at the start of the mission and will use that. Seeing as 'Wings of desire' has dropped off (possibly due to my '7') I'm not starting over again.

Tonight I shall be mainly watching '12 Angry Men', 'Big Deal series 2' and, if the wife goes to bed early, 'Buttman's Big Tit Adventure'.

[I, Cosh]

Twelve Angry Men is a fantastic film.

[Buttonman]

It was good and I hope I get a Henry Fonda type on my jury when the case comes up!

Interesteing to see that Jack Klugman is the only one of the 12 still alive and he's most famous for cutting up dead bodies.

Just goes to show you can do a great film without leaving a single room - probably cost 1/10th of 1% of Waterworld.

[Funt Solo]

Just in case you don't already know:

As Twelve Angry Men progresses, the walls of the room are moved in further and further.

(And Frank Beard is the member of ZZ Top without a beard.)

</things everyone already knows>

[I, Cosh]

As Twelve Angry Men progresses, the walls of the room are moved in further and further.

I didn't know that. That's cool.

The events of the film High Noon take place in real time.

[Funt Solo]

The events of the film High Noon take place in real time.

I didn't know that. That's cool.

When Luke jumps down from his X-wing at the end of Star Wars, he audibly shouts "Carrie" instead of "Leia".

[Bart Oliver]

If you can reach past the "Only for art-schoolers and film studies students" tag that gets hung on most if not all of Andrei Tarkovsky's films I recommend Ivan's Childhood.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/protectedimage.php?image=NoelMegahey/ivanschildhood3.jpg_30092007&cachedimage=true&width=400>

One of the better ways to spend a rainy December Sunday afternoon.

Link: http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=66059" target="_blank">The lowdown..

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/protectedimage.php?image=NoelMegahey/ivanschildhood4.jpg_30092007&cachedimage=true&width=400">

[Richmond Clements]

122- I'm plesantly suprised by that, with a few more I'm not sure about.

Raging Bull: like Apocalypse Now, it's a movie I'm glad I watched, but while I didn't actually enjoy it, I'm glad I watched it.

[Dark Jimbo]

Only 61, probably in part because I only go to the cinema about once every two years (Button's track record boggles my mind!). Plus I haven't really seen any of the acknowledged 'classics' of recent years - The Godfathers, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Carribean, any CG animations post-Toy Story - not seen any of 'em.

But as Funt says, it's a pretty suspect list anyway. Deep down in their hearst, the voters must know that most of those choices won't last another two years on that list.

[Trout]

I counted 117, which I think must be fairly respectable. There are a few on there that I've been meaning to see for ages.

But I'mn astonished to see V For Vendetta on the list. (I know, let's not start that argument again!)

- Trout

[Trout]

I counted 117, which I think must be fairly respectable. There are a few on there that I've been meaning to see for ages.

It's A Wonderful Life will deffo be watched again in my house this Christmas Eve. *sniff* *sob*

As for High Noon, it's a terrific film.

But I'm astonished to see V For Vendetta on the list. (I know, let's not start that argument again!)

- Trout

[TordelBack]

Amazingly, I've seen 124, although to be fair many of the ones i have seen didn't deserve to be on that list IMHO (Batman Begins!?!), while many I haven't seen (any of the Godfathers, for example) seem to be alleged classics.  Looking good for future nights in!

I'm reminded of Dave Sim, where he has put off reading the works of certain authors he thinks he might enjoy, so that he has something to look forward to.  'Course, when he sat down to read his long-delayed complete Hemmingway (as recounted and represented in Cerebus: Going Home), he found he utterly hated him - the key phrase was "that's not writing, it's typing" (a phrase I've appropriated for work, when proofing reports).

[Peter Wolf]

 I am going to watch GoodFellas again later.I cant watch Casino as i lent it to someone but thats my number 1 film out of this list by a mile.


 Apart from the subject matter its a beautiful film to watch just for the cinematography .Its just has class written all over it.I also love the way that Scorsese has such attention to detail in creating backgrounds to scenes etc.Wonderful.


 It beats watching Marlon brando mumbling away over a dinnertable in the Godfather.

 Quite enjoyed godfather 3 what with the Vatican laundering the cash.