Watch the top 250 movies on the Internet Movie Database

When I started this goal, the list was pretty good; lots of classics. This goal has become less and less worth doing. Lately, the list is more about what brand new movies are crowd pleasers. Movies that have appeared on the list while I’ve been working on it include such cerebral offerings as Iron Man, The Transformers, and The Simpsons Movie. Not saying those films weren’t entertaining . . . but do they deserve to be among the top 250 best movies ever made? No way! There has also been a concerted effort by some people (who make multiple accounts and have way too much time on their hands) to manipulate the list to take off some movies that they personally don’t like and to elevate others. Older films get pushed off by these people and newer ones rise. Based on their choices of what to sink and what to elevate, these individuals are young, male, very into sci-fi/action, and dislike drama, romance, historical films, etc.

This list used to be solid. Now it’s about 50/50. Some of my favorite films still appear on the list, and some classics that absolutely deserve to be seen are here. The rest? Meh . . .

After looking at a list of the movies ranked 250-500 on IMDB, I’d even venture to say that those films are as a whole BETTER than the ones on 1-250, because the people that manipulate this stuff only care enough to push them off the list that is visible on the public website. (The 250-500 is only viewable by premium members who pay for imdbpro, although some of those people have put it up on Listsofbests.) So basically, some movies that deserve to be counted among the best of all time are sitting in the 250-500 area.

I say: to get a look at a lot of great movies, watch the top 500 films, exclude all the ones from the last 20 years so you’re not watching today’s flavor-of-the-moment crap and yesterday’s flavor-of-the-moment crap that hasn’t been down-rated enough to disappear yet or never will be because of a buncha nerds who sit there and rate their pet films a 10 and rate other movies 1.

I’ve been at 97/98% for a while now due to new theatrical releases jumping onto the list on a pretty constant basis. I have recently seen some of the new(er) additions that hit DVD such as Gran Torino, The Wrestler, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, all of which I liked to varying degrees.

The three films on the current list that I have not seen are: Up, Star Trek, and The Hangover. The Hangover is the kind of movie I tend not to watch by choice. I’m interested in seeing “Up,” but I rarely go see childrens’ films in the theater because . . . well, the theater is full of children! Noisenoisenoisenoisenoise. Did see Finding Nemo three times at the theater though.

At first, I thought there would be some 20 second time period where not one brand new movie would hit the list and I’d be 250/250 and count this done, but after having this goal for as long as I have, I don’t think that will happen. Part of me thinks “Oh just go see them and be done with it all because if you wait, new theatrical movies will come onto the list and you will never see 250/250.” I’d have to go to all three alone. (Sigh.)

I am exactly where I was 6 months ago, with 6 movies left to see.

6 months ago, the 6 films I hadn’t seen yet were: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, Sweeney Todd, American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma.

I have seen all of those. The 6 I now have yet to see are: The Dark Knight, Wall-E, Iron Man, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, La Strada, and La Dolce Vita.

La Strada and La Dolce Vita are films I’ve meant to see for a while but just haven’t got around to viewing yet. I’m thinking that Iron Man is one of those “flavor of the minute” films that usually leave the list about 2 weeks after they hit DVD like happened with The Simpsons Movie, etc. But I haven’t seen it, so perhaps it’s not fair to be categorizing it yet.

Six weeks ago, I had 12 to go. Now I have 6 to go. It’s mostly a matter of new films entering the list that is slowing my progress.

The six films I’ve yet to see are all movies released in the last year: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Juno, Sweeney Todd, American Gangster, 3:10 to Yuma

As of today, I’ve seen 238/250.

I’ve seen 225 of the current 250.

Last time I wrote an entry, I was 207/250 with 43 to go. Now I’m 218/250 with 32 to go.

I thought it was fitting to post an update, seeing as how I have 43 movies left to watch. I’ve seen 207/250 of today’s list.

After watching the list change for a while, I’ve seen that the same movies keep popping on and off the bottom of the list over and over. It makes sense; if IMDb ranked movies beyond 250, there’d be ones sitting at 251-300 right now that probably have been on the Top 250 before and will again.

I’m encouraged that, except for inevitable new releases which of course I can’t see because they haven’t come out or even been made yet, I can complete this goal successfully. I think my biggest obstacle is going to be obtaining some of the hard to find films, not the changeability of the list. I still haven’t located a legal, not horribly expensive copy of “Rebecca.”

I’ve seen 197 out of the 250. The list changes so much that some of the movies I saw since my last entry are not on the list anymore. Watching movies on this list is a two-steps-forward-one-step-back process. Just in the last few days, Ratatouille leaped into the top 50, and The Transformers and Live Free or Die Hard came onto the list (although Live Free is already slipping down, down, down and will probably fall off the list soon).

I just watched “Unforgiven,” bringing my total of movies watched to 185 out of the 250. I’m not particularly a fan of Westerns, but I liked this one.

One of the best parts about watching movies or reading books on bests lists is that it makes me get “out of my box” and see movies I normally wouldn’t see. I recently saw (and appreciated) “Hara-kiri” because it is on the Top 250; without this goal, I likely would never have seen it.