The IMDB Top 250 Challenge Part III

Just watched 2 more films on this list – Seven Samurai and City of God. And meh, wasn’t blown away by either. Still hoping there’s going to be something better to come. There are 4 more films in the next 10 I haven’t seen.

No	Film	Seen?
11	Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)	Y
12	Inception (2010)	Y
13	Fight Club (1999)	Y
14	Seven Samurai (1954)	Y
15	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	Y
16	Goodfellas (1990)	Y
17	Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope	Y
18	City of God (2002)	Y
19	Casablanca (1942)	Y
20	The Matrix (1999)	Y
21	Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)	N
22	Rear Window (1954)	N
23	Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)	N
24	The Silence of the Lambs (1991)	Y
25	The Usual Suspects (1995)	Y
26	Se7en (1995)	Y
27	Psycho (1960)	N
28	Forrest Gump (1994)	Y
29	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)	Y
30	It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)	Y

So I have Rear Window, Once Upon a Time in the West, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Psycho to watch. I’ve seen bits of Psycho and Raiders of the Lost Ark but never watched either one all the way through – in fact I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen any of the Indie movies all the way through so I’m going to include them on this list.

Addendum: Just realised that stupid Live Writer deleted Part II of this list where I watched The Godfather: Part II and The Good the Bad and the Ugly. Although I wasn’t blow away by either film I’d have to say that both are slow burners and well worth watching. Both are also quite layered with complexity and throw up some interesting dilemmas for the characters especially The Good, The Bad and the Ugly where two characters which hate each other both hold half of a secret they need for riches.

The IMDB Top 250 Challenge

Been talking about starting this for a while. And well… I’ve decided… It is time. That challenge being to watch every film on the IMDB top 250 although to save time I only intend to watch the films I haven’t already seen. People balk about the usefulness of the list sure. More recent films are grossly overrated. Films over 10 years old though I would argue deserve to be there since the hype surrounding them has long since faded and their ratings likely reflect a majority consensus as to their overall quality.

But regardless I intend to watch every film on this list and find out if there are any surprises. So starting with the top 10, here are the ones I’ve seen already.

No	Film	Seen?
1	The Shawshank Redemption (1994)	Y
2	The Godfather (1972)	Y
3	The Godfather: Part 2 (1974)	N
4	The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)	N
5	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Y
6	Schindler's List (1993)	Y
7	12 Angry Men (1957)	Y
8	Inception (2010)	Y
9	One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)	Y
10	The Dark Knight (2008)	Y

So the only two I’ve not seen out of the top 10 so far are The Godfather Part 2 and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. I think both are going to require patience since I’ve tried watching them before and neither particularly held my interest. Inception and The Dark Knight whilst good films I really don’t think deserve to be rated this highly. The Shawshank Redemption at number 1? I agree it probably should be. The biggest surprise for me on this list was 12 Angry Men – a film I expected to hate but totally loved. The film I’m a little fuzzy on – One flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest – haven’t seen it for years and can barely remember what it’s about but I remember being blown away by it. Perhaps I should give it another watch sometime. If a film on this list really blows me away I’ll write a review otherwise I really can’t be arsed kind of thing. Next up: 11 –20.