So it begins

Today, while listening to the director’s commentary for Donnie Darko (which, oddly enough, featured Kevin Smith, for no apparent reason), the topic of IMDB’s top 250 came up. I decided to check the list, and realized I’d seen quite a few of these movies. I decided to see exactly how many (no easy task, especially as the original titles are used for foreign films, that I often knew by their English title). After about a half an hour I came up with this list:

First column is the seen list position, second is the IMDB ranking (list retrieved from IMDB Tue Jul 8 21:57:29 2008)

  1. 2. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
  2. 5. Pulp Fiction (1994)
  3. 8. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
  4. 10. Star Wars (1977)
  5. 12. Shichinin no samurai (1954) (Seven Samurai)
  6. 13. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
  7. 16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
  8. 19. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  9. 21. The Usual Suspects (1995)
  10. 22. Psycho (1960)
  11. 24. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
  12. 25. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
  13. 28. Citizen Kane (1941)
  14. 29. Memento (2000)
  15. 30. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
  16. 31. The Matrix (1999)
  17. 32. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
  18. 33. Se7en (1995)
  19. 36. Taxi Driver (1976)
  20. 37. American Beauty (1999)
  21. 38. Léon (1994) (The Professional)
  22. 40. American History X (1998)
  23. 41. Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) (Amelie)
  24. 43. The Departed (2006)
  25. 44. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  26. 45. M (1931)
  27. 46. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
  28. 47. Alien (1979)
  29. 48. Chinatown (1974)
  30. 52. Forrest Gump (1994)
  31. 53. The Shining (1980)
  32. 54. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
  33. 57. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
  34. 58. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
  35. 59. Laberinto del fauno, El (2006) (Pan’s Labyrinth)
  36. 61. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
  37. 62. L.A. Confidential (1997)
  38. 63. Aliens (1986)
  39. 65. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
  40. 66. Boot, Das (1981) (The Boat)
  41. 68. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
  42. 72. Rashômon (1950)
  43. 74. Metropolis (1927)
  44. 75. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  45. 78. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
  46. 79. Sin City (2005)
  47. 85. The Prestige (2006)
  48. 86. The Great Escape (1963)
  49. 89. Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) (The Seventh Seal)
  50. 90. Jaws (1975)
  51. 91. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
  52. 98. Blade Runner (1982)
  53. 99. Braveheart (1995)
  54. 100. The Great Dictator (1940)
  55. 101. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
  56. 102. Batman Begins (2005)
  57. 104. Back to the Future (1985)
  58. 107. Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983)
  59. 109. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
  60. 110. Fargo (1996)
  61. 113. Unforgiven (1992)
  62. 116. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
  63. 117. Donnie Darko (2001)
  64. 118. The Green Mile (1999)
  65. 120. Mononoke-hime (1997) (Princess Mononoke)
  66. 121. Die Hard (1988)
  67. 122. Ran (1985)
  68. 123. Gladiator (2000)
  69. 124. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
  70. 125. Yojimbo (1961)
  71. 132. The Sixth Sense (1999)
  72. 133. Ben-Hur (1959)
  73. 137. Life of Brian (1979)
  74. 140. Finding Nemo (2003)
  75. 141. The General (1927)
  76. 142. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
  77. 145. The Incredibles (2004)
  78. 147. V for Vendetta (2005)
  79. 150. The Big Lebowski (1998)
  80. 154. Stand by Me (1986)
  81. 155. The Princess Bride (1987)
  82. 156. Children of Men (2006)
  83. 157. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
  84. 162. Snatch. (2000)
  85. 167. The African Queen (1951)
  86. 168. Trainspotting (1996)
  87. 169. The Thing (1982)
  88. 171. Gone with the Wind (1939)
  89. 172. Harvey (1950)
  90. 174. Duck Soup (1933)
  91. 175. Groundhog Day (1993)
  92. 177. Toy Story (1995)
  93. 178. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
  94. 182. The Terminator (1984)
  95. 183. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
  96. 187. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
  97. 189. Wo hu cang long (2000) (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
  98. 191. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
  99. 192. King Kong (1933)
  100. 194. Ed Wood (1994)
  101. 195. The Exorcist (1973)
  102. 197. Glory (1989)
  103. 198. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
  104. 200. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922) (Nosferatu)
  105. 202. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
  106. 207. Frankenstein (1931)
  107. 210. Big Fish (2003)
  108. 218. Mystic River (2003)
  109. 221. Young Frankenstein (1974)
  110. 228. Lola rennt (1998) (Run, Lola, Run)
  111. 229. Toy Story 2 (1999)
  112. 232. Planet of the Apes (1968)
  113. 238. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
  114. 242. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
  115. 244. A Christmas Story (1983)
  116. 250. Brazil (1985)

I had also seen about half of 24 more (give or take), but decided not to count these. So, I was less than half, how embarrasing! Well, maybe I could just, watch some more.

Sidenote: I’ve also seen many of the Bottom 100, having been a huge MST3K fan.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 at 9:57 pm and is filed under Movies, The Imdb Top 250. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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