IMDb Charts Top Rated Movies 1-250: https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/?ref_=nv_mv_250

I clicked on this a few weeks ago and have decided to watch as many of the films on this list that I've never seen and fill in all the gaps.

I'm curious how far you all get before you hit a movie you haven't seen?

At first I only made it to #2 (!) because I had never seen The Godfather Pt. II which I finally watched last week. I also hadn't seen Seven Samurai (#19) which I watched a few weeks ago. So that brings me to #32 because I still haven't seen Hara-Kiri, which is on my new short list. I didn't make it past #40 after that because I haven't seen any Charlie Chaplin movies but I plan to get to 100 at least which is about 25 more for me.

Where do you stand today and do you think you'll try to work your way up the list?

Are there any movies on the list that you think don't belong there? Or any that should be higher up? Or do you not care about ratings at all?

>I'm curious how far you all get before you hit a movie you
>haven't seen?

Never saw Life is Beautiful. I'm not sure if/when i will.

>Where do you stand today and do you think you'll try to work
>your way up the list?

skimming through I've probably seen 85% or so? Seen most what I want to see on that list but there are a few I'd like to. Silent films are definitely a weak spot. haven't seen many outside of film classes. I'd like at some point but I'm not sure when that would happen. I'm kind of surprised i didn't knock more of them out when i was a more ambitious film nerd.

>Are there any movies on the list that you think don't belong
>there? Or any that should be higher up? Or do you not care
>about ratings at all?

Lol wouldn't even know where to start. Definitely yes to the first two questions, but that said, yes to all three. I don't care much about rankings anymore.

Do you feel a stronger pull to see new movies vs. watching classics? I used to struggle with that in the late nineties with buying new albums vs. classic Hip Hop albums. It was definitely more of a risk with new releases but more exciting for sure.

I just saw Soul a few days ago, so I'm definitely into new movies (and it's 160 on the list right now) but I figure why waste my time watching Wonder Woman 1984 if the consensus is that it's terrible, when I can just watch something like Hamilton or Scarface.

Also Life is Beautiful is a good flick. And I'm not usually a big fan of war movies and period pieces in general.

>Do you feel a stronger pull to see new movies vs. watching
>classics? I used to struggle with that in the late nineties
>with buying new albums vs. classic Hip Hop albums. It was
>definitely more of a risk with new releases but more exciting
>for sure.
>
>I just saw Soul a few days ago, so I'm definitely into new
>movies (and it's 160 on the list right now) but I figure why
>waste my time watching Wonder Woman 1984 if the consensus is
>that it's terrible, when I can just watch something like
>Hamilton or Scarface.

I don't have a problem watching classics. I love older movies particularly noir from the 40s and 50s. I've slacked the last decade or so on movies in general and TV kind of took over. I def will check out Soul soon.

I think the only genre i have an aversion to is musicals. I appreciate everything that goes into them but they never grab my interest.

>Also Life is Beautiful is a good flick. And I'm not usually a
>big fan of war movies and period pieces in general.

you know what, I honestly never knew anything about it beyond that dude running around happy at the oscars lol. For whatever reason it kept me from even caring what it was about lol. But i don't mind War movies or period pieces one bit. maybe i'll finally check it out haha

Yeah I'm with you on musicals but I'll definitely check out Hamilton because of all of the positive reviews. I'm also a big fan of Once which is technically a musical but it's still grounded in reality. Yeah I remember the Oscars that year but I had already seen it. LOL

I want to see Hamilton too. Weirdly enough I had tickets to Book for Mormon when the pandemic hit. Literally the first weekend when everything closed. I was on the fence about going but they made up my mind for me lol

The Movie vs. seeing it live. Must not be very close. I haven't read any of the reviews for it yet though.

That's bad luck. I guess we've all experienced something like that. eI can't for all of these things to open up again.

#24 but seen 202 of top 250 (80%)
#1 but seen 12 of bottom 100 (https://www.imdb.com/chart/bottom)

i can't say the same for the bottom 100, but because i'd seen so much of the top 250 without trying (because it's always changing), i figure i might as well try to see the rest of what's usually on it, even though a lot of that is bollywood voted highly by that massive fanbase.

i wasn't always good about rating titles on imdb until netflix changed from stars to thumbs and i realized i needed a good place to keep track of what i've watched. now i'm proud to contribute to the site since i value user ratings and reviews as much as if not more than professional critics'.

imdb ratings can be terribly skewed, but they self-correct over time IMO.

i don't think the emoji movie belongs on the bottom 100. that's the only one of the 12 i rated a 6; the rest are all 5 or below.

i still like saving big movies for later. for instance, just today i watched The Bridge On The River Kwai (#177), and earlier this week i saw Paper Moon.

just some hot takes since i'm here:
-249. Tangerines (2013) absolutely belongs on this list, awesome movie
-32. The Usual Suspects (1995), curious how long this will stick around with singer and spacey or if there are some sickos actually voting this up in the last few years
-51. Hamilton (2020) was higher earlier in the year; i haven't seen it yet but again wonder about its staying power judged as a film
-a lot of the recurring directors on this deserve it, although nolan and kubrick (and possibly tarantino) have IMO weaker material on here because of fandoms/"like a herd mentality"
-107. Ikiru (1952) i would have higher, i prefer it to kurosawa's samurai masterpieces
-184. Tokyo Story (1953) should also be higher, incredible film
-203. Ford v Ferrari (2019) shouldn't be ranked any higher, but generally i find this movie underrated
-221. Rush (2013) as well
-245. The Help (2011) shouldn't be on it
-126. Green Book (2018) is a disgrace
-152. Shutter Island (2010) i struggle to see the appeal; i'd place bringing out the dead above it

Yeah 80% is really good. Are there any movies that are high on the top 250 that you plan on watching now, or are they films that you're not interested in?

Yeah I can see that with the ratings self correcting over time but I've been thinking a lot about the ratings system and who makes up the demographics of this user base and it's definitely going to be skewed. Your examples of The Help and Green Book are perfect examples of that. At least Crash isn't on there. I think a film with a mostly Black cast has to be much stronger to get onto this list than a lot of movies on there.

I'll definitely check out the movies that you mentioned, I haven't seen a bunch of these.

Good point about The Usual Suspects, although I think it was probably always highly rated. I am curious to see if it will go out of favor though, or if there are people purposely pushing it up. I wonder if they keep track of ratings over time. It would be interesting to see how the ratings change over time.

The bottom 100 is too much for me. I'll save that for the future maybe.

>Yeah 80% is really good. Are there any movies that are high
>on the top 250 that you plan on watching now, or are they
>films that you're not interested in?

It's a Wonderful Life (#24) i'm saving. The Intouchables (#44) and The Lives of Others (#59) i continue to see highly regarded, and seeing them previous times on this list spurred me to want to watch them for myself. Klaus (#170) i specifically want to see because of this list; i'd just assumed it was another netflix dud since i didn't recall any praise for it. Like Stars on Earth (#87) i wanted to see because of how much i loved aamir khan in 3 Idiots (#80); this list cinched it.

i'm probably open to watching anything on this list. it's no easy feat to make it, at least not past the first month of release. what i also like about this list is it puts some recent (last 15 years) foreign films on my radar that weren't hits here.


>Yeah I can see that with the ratings self correcting over time
>but I've been thinking a lot about the ratings system and who
>makes up the demographics of this user base and it's
>definitely going to be skewed.

occasionally i click on the number of ratings for a title and look at the demographics of the raters, which are self-declared age and gender. every once in a while that will sway me on whether to watch something.


>Your examples of The Help and
>Green Book are perfect examples of that. At least Crash isn't
>on there. I think a film with a mostly Black cast has to be
>much stronger to get onto this list than a lot of movies on
>there.

i agree, but it's all the more reason everyone should give their honest opinion via voting. i love the democracy of that.


>Good point about The Usual Suspects, although I think it was
>probably always highly rated. I am curious to see if it will
>go out of favor though, or if there are people purposely
>pushing it up. I wonder if they keep track of ratings over
>time. It would be interesting to see how the ratings change
>over time.

i enjoy the top 250 feature of imdb, and i do recall it being on there for a long time but not where exactly. it was one of my favorite movies, but i haven't watched it since the stories came out about singer and spacey.


>The bottom 100 is too much for me. I'll save that for the
>future maybe.

that is totally unintentional on my part, but i like seeing a range of movies, not just in type but in execution. i like a noble failure. sometimes i am just curious if it's as bad as people say; often i can find something redeeming in it. i wouldn't purposely pursue the bottom 100, but i'll probably keep watching movies on it. i almost watched Cats recently.

Yeah I was inspired to set up an IMDb user account so I could rate movies and mark which ones I've seen. I'm at 125 of the 250, so half way there!

Yeah I'm also really interested in The Intouchables after hearing about it when the Michael Cranston remake came out, but more intrigued since I see that it's rated so high on there.

>Yeah I was inspired to set up an IMDb user account so I could
>rate movies and mark which ones I've seen. I'm at 125 of the
>250, so half way there!

excellent! here's some advice from someone who's added thousands of ratings in the last 4 years. aside from rating from the top 250 page, a great way to rate a lot at once is to click on the year from any movie page. i usually went through the top 200 by popularity before moving onto the next year. when you have a lot of ratings, the recommendations get better from your profile or the homepage. you can click through them and rate what you've already seen there as well. finally, i love browsing the user lists suggested on the side of a movie or tv show page, and you can rate from there, too.


>Yeah I'm also really interested in The Intouchables after
>hearing about it when the Michael Cranston remake came out,
>but more intrigued since I see that it's rated so high on
>there.

i remember when the original came out but wasn't really interested in it at the time. when the remake came out i thought it would be dismissed as yet another unnecessary american remake of a not very old foreign movie, but it's maintained a good reception and probably helped elevate the profile of the original. i'm going to try to see the original first.

I think I'm going to start doing it.

pages for movies and shows also display a carousel of similar titles, so that's another good place to rate them with the same directors, actors, and time periods and related plots.

imdb lets you download all of your ratings in an excel file, which i find the easiest to reference.

That's cool that you can export it all.

Happy New Year!

>occasionally i click on the number of ratings for a title and
>look at the demographics of the raters, which are
>self-declared age and gender. every once in a while that will
>sway me on whether to watch something.

1. they've changed it. i just checked one and was only offered countries, which was too bad because i was especially interested in age for that title. then i got this interesting explanation that ties to the complaints here about the votes:

2. they've switched to a weighted vote system.
https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/track-movies-tv/weighted-average-ratings/GWT2DSBYVT2F25SK?ref_=ttrt_wtavg#
as much as i'd prefer every vote counting equally, i know the votes can be unstable, and i assume it's people like me whose votes are weighted more. maybe this will inspire more confidence.

I pre deleted my rant.

Enjoy your films.

Yeah that makes sense because that generation is probably the most active on IMDb. I definitely think that these ratings are skewed by demographics. I'm interested in your thoughts about which movies don't belong on this list or what films you think should be there. What era of great films is missing? I did notice certain types of films are not really represented on this list. Do you think it gets worse the farther down the list or do you think the top of the list is suspect as well?

It's a list of popular films - some quite good and some exceedingly bad.

Shawnshank is a good film, very entertaining, but #1? Maybe if you only had TBS growing up - it is #1 if Roadhouse is #2.

I feel The Dark Knight is a BAD movie -but even it's not- then its way way way too far up on the list.

LOTR:ROTK was not a great movie either. Not in the top 2 of the 3 LOTR films.

The Good The Bad and The Ugly is a popular film but that it beat Yojimbo by 110 or so slots show that it's just a popularity contest.

Fight Club: Bad movie. Rips off P.K. Dick and does it in a stupid way.

Inception: Bad, stupid, awful movie. But a popular one.

Life is Beautiful?? That's considered a "good movie?" Glad Schindler's was up higher - but this is a pretty meaningless film.

The Green Mile in the top 30????????? Interstellar at 29??? This is more a list of "films you like that you saw on HBO in 2014."

Seppuku isn't as good as Yojimbo but it beats it by a hundred points. And High and Low isn't on the list???

The Pianist - not a good movie.

American History X beats ANY serious Spike Lee film?

The Departed is on this list? How is that there ? It's because people like Godfather and Goodfellas - not that it's a good movie. People just like the Mob. I'd say taxi Driver is better. So is After Hours. So are like 10 of his other films.

Whiplash - shit movie.

Hamilton is on the list??That's a filmed stage play form this year - and not a very good one. The music is king - but as a movie it's not great. West Side Story Isn't on the list but this is? (At least Singing in The Rain made the top 100.)

Momento???? Come on now - he's a popular director is all.

Django Unchained??? It got my money - but it's not a good film. It's a pulpy exploitation film - but, really??

Joker??? Where's the source material Taxi Driver? I couldn't make it through this god awful movie.

At least Crash isn't on the list.

Wrap up:
But again, enjoy it - and if you don't like a movie just turn it off and go to the next one.

Spike Lee films have flaws but so do all of the movies you just listed so they should be there. I think Crooklyn and Inside Man and maybe a few others should be on here.


The thing I do like about his list is that it isn't curated by one person or even a small group of people. So it's not any one voice telling me which films are better. It definitely suffers from groupthink though and it's definitely very mainstream. I also don't look at it as a comparison of any of the films on the list too much. I guess the top 100 is different than 200-250 but I think making it on the list is just a stamp of approval.

This list is pushing me out of my comfort zone. I don't think I'd have seen Seppuku otherwise and that is a masterpiece. I'm not a fan of Westerns but I figure I should at least watch the greatest hits if I'm going to keep saying that.

I also think that over time some of these movies will fall off the list once the shine wears off. LOL about Crash. I'm sure it would be on here if it had just won the Oscar, but I'm also glad that it's not on here. Yeah the Dark Knight is getting elevated by its super fans, so it can definitely be ignored, but I've seen it already so no issues from me.

I'm curious what you though about Whiplash, which I thought was pretty good, but I was definitely surprised to see it rated that high. Was it the inaccuracies about the realities of NYC music schools or the music choices, or the acting? Or something else?

>I'm curious what you though about Whiplash, which I thought
>was pretty good, but I was definitely surprised to see it
>rated that high. Was it the inaccuracies about the realities
>of NYC music schools or the music choices, or the acting? Or
>something else?

That wasn't a film about music school - that's a film about an abusive relationship. And that's not "jazz drumming" either. That's a film where people can do BIG ACTING and it seems intense, but ultimately has no substance.

To each his own, but the movie was overblown and over popular - IMHO.


I guess the AFI lists are the ones that make more sense to me:
Top 10 of 10 genres: https://www.afi.com/afis-10-top-10/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_10_Top_10


Top 100 Movies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AFI%27s_100_Years...100_Movies_(10th_Anniversary_Edition)

That list is from 2006 - so it's missing some new ones - but Inception would not make that list.


But if you're enjoying the IMDB lowest denominator list then it's FINE. It's LOADS better than RT's https://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/

Seriously, have fun watching the movies and just skip the ones you don't like - it's like a book - there's a point where I can stop reading a book if it's going nowhere.

And thanks for the AFI list, I'll definitely check it out.

which is "30ish (white) male"

but hey, all lists are biased in some form or fashion

Looking at the top 20:

- Seen and remember - Dark Knight, Forrest Gump, Goodfellas, Star Wars, Shawshank
- Never seen in full any of the Godfathers, Se7en, Pulp, 12 Angry
- Never seen parts of any Rings, Schindler, Matrix, Inception, Seven Samurai, Good/Bad/Ugly, Fight Club, Cuckoo

Yeah I was thinking seen and remember. Lot's of great movies in the top 20 that you should check out.

I think it's great you are deciding to watch more movies because of it

I saw a ton of interesting films when the last Sight and Sound list came out -- really helped build my perspective on cinema

despite my disdain for the list, there are some truly great films on there that you may not of heard of -- so again, fantastic if this spurs you on to watch them

I've been watching a lot of Westerns and Samurai films lately.

The AFI and Sight and Sound ones are exactly what I'd expect from a top films list. But honestly, I don't think anyone's actually watching Citizen Kane and really thinking it's their favorite movie of all time in terms of enjoyment. But I get why it's at the top of the list and I do enjoy the technical elements of films based on their own merit as well as appreciate the cultural significance and influence of films. And, I get that having The Matrix next to Citizen Kane on a list looks stupid. I'm going to check out more lists and use IMDb to keep track of them all.