Completing all 250 movies on the IMDB's Top 250 List

Well, today I saw my 250th movie on the IMDB Top 250 list. It's something I set out to do back in 2002 and it's been lots of fun doing it. Thank Goodness for Lovefilm - it's a great online service that has helped me to get hold of most of the movies.

For posterity (since the list keeps changing), here are the movies I have seen to complete my list.

1. Godfather, The (1972)
2. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)
3. Godfather: Part II, The (1974)
4. Schindler's List (1993)
5. Casablanca (1942)
6. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002)
7. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001)
8. Shichinin no samurai (1954)
9. Citizen Kane (1941)
10. Star Wars (1977)
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
12. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
13. Rear Window (1954)
14. Memento (2000)
15. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
16. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
17. Usual Suspects, The (1995)
18. Pulp Fiction (1994)
19. North by Northwest (1959)
20. Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001)
21. Psycho (1960) 
22. 12 Angry Men (1957)
23. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
24. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)
25. Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966)
26. It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
27. Goodfellas (1990) 
28. American Beauty (1999)
29. Vertigo (1958)
30. Pianist, The (2002)
31. Sunset Blvd. (1950)
32. Apocalypse Now (1979) 
33. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
34. Matrix, The (1999)
35. Some Like It Hot (1959)
36. Taxi Driver (1976)
37. Third Man, The (1949)
38. Paths of Glory (1957)
39. Fight Club (1999)
40. Boot, Das (1981)
41. Double Indemnity (1944)
42. Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
43. L.A. Confidential (1997)
44. Chinatown (1974)
45. Once Upon a Time in the West
46. Requiem for a Dream (2000)
47. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
48. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
49. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
50. M (1931)
51. All About Eve (1950) 
52. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) 
53. Se7en (1995)
54. Saving Private Ryan (1998)
55. Raging Bull (1980)
56. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)
57. Sting, The (1973)
58. Rashômon (1950)
59. American History X (1998)
60. Life is Beautiful (1997)
61. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
62. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
63. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
64. Alien (1979)
65. Léon (1994)
66. City of God (2002)
67. Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
68. Touch of Evil (1958)
69. Great Escape, The (1963)
70. Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
71. Clockwork Orange, A (1971) 
72. Reservoir Dogs (1992)
73. Annie Hall (1977)
74. Jaws (1975)
75. Ran (1985)
76. Amadeus (1984)
77. On the Waterfront (1954)
78. Sixth Sense, The (1999)
79. Braveheart (1995)
80. High Noon (1952)
81. Modern Times (1936)
82. Fargo (1996)
83. Apartment, The (1960)
84. Blade Runner (1982)
85. Strangers on a Train (1951)
86. Aliens (1986)
87. Shining, The (1980)
88. Donnie Darko (2001)
89. Duck Soup (1933)
90. Toy Story 2 (1999)
91. Metropolis (1927)
92. Princess Bride, The (1987)
93. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
94. General, The (1927)
95. Run Lola, Run (1998)
96. City Lights (1931)
97. Notorious (1946)
98. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
99. Rebecca (1940)
100. The Seventh Scroll (1957)
101. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
102. Finding Nemo (2003)
103. Big Sleep, The (1946)
104. Dogville (2003)
105. Graduate, The (1967)
106. Great Dictator, The (1940)
107. Manhattan (1979)
108. Searchers, The (1956)
109. Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989) 
110. Mononoke-hime (1997)
111. Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004)
112. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946) 
113. Deer Hunter, The (1978)
114. Glory (1989) 
115. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
116. Patton (1970)
117. It Happened One Night (1934)
118. African Queen, The (1951)
119. Philadelphia Story, The (1940)
120. Ben-Hur (1959)
121. Shrek (2001)
122. Bringing Up Baby (1938)
123. Green Mile, The (1999)
124. Forrest Gump (1994)
125. Yojimbo (1961)
126. Grapes of Wrath, The (1940)
127. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
128. Unforgiven (1992)
129. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
130. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
131. Hable con ella (2002)
132. Gone with the Wind (1939)
133. Stalag 17 (1953)
134. Straight Story, The (1999)
135. Night of the Hunter, The (1955)
136. Wild Bunch, The (1969)
137. Elephant Man, The (1980)
138. Young Frankenstein (1974)
139. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
140. Hustler, The (1961)
141. Platoon (1986)
142. Die Hard (1988)
143. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
144. Back to the Future (1985)
145. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)
146. Almost Famous (2000)
147. His Girl Friday (1940)
148. Conversation, The (1974)
149. Spartacus (1960)
150. Being John Malkovich (1999)
151. Charade (1963)
152. Gold Rush, The (1925)
153. Festen (1998)
154. Gladiator (2000)
155. Amores perros (2000) 
156. Adventures of Robin Hood, The (1938)
157. Insider, The (1999)
158. Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The (1962)
159. Life of Brian (1979)
160. Toy Story (1995)
161. Sling Blade (1996)
162. Mulholland Dr. (2001)
163. Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925)
164. Magnolia (1999)
165. Brazil (1985)
166. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)
167. Exorcist, The (1973)
168. Roman Holiday (1953)
169. All the President's Men (1976) 
170. Day the Earth Stood Still, The (1951)
171. Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
172. Smultronstället (1957)
173. Terminator, The (1984)
174. Killing, The (1956)
175. Ed Wood (1994)
176. Quatre cents coups, Les (1959)
177. Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
178. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
179. Twelve Monkeys (1995)
180. Stand by Me (1986)
181. Minority Report (2002)
182. Harvey (1950)
183. Right Stuff, The (1983)
184. Others, The (2001)
185. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
186. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
187. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (1922)
188. Adaptation. (2002)
189. Trainspotting (1996)
190. Network (1976)
191. Lion in Winter, The (1968)
192. Miller's Crossing (1990)
193. Gandhi (1982)
194. Rain Man (1988)
195. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
196. Traffic (2000)
197. Groundhog Day (1993)
198. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
199. Snatch. (2000)
200. Stagecoach (1939)
201. King Kong (1933)
202. 8½ (1963)
203. Untouchables, The (1987)
204. 39 Steps, The (1935)
205. Big Fish (2003)
206. Henry V (1989)
207. Rio Bravo (1959)
208. Todo sobre mi madre (1999)
209. X2 (2003)
210. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
211. Hotaru no haka (1988)
212. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
213. Planet of the Apes (1968)
214. Die xue shuang xiong (1989)
215. Ikiru (1952)
216. Big Lebowski, The (1998)
217. Good Will Hunting (1997)
218. 21 Grams (2003)
219. Beautiful Mind, A (2001)
220. Road to Perdition (2002)
221. Lost in Translation (2003)
222. Clerks. (1994)
223. Red River (1948)
224. MASH (1970)
225. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
226. Ying xiong (2002)
227. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
228. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
229. Deliverance (1972)
230. Birds, The (1963)
231. Man Who Would Be King, The (1975)
232. Whale Rider (2002)
233. Iron Giant, The (1999)
234. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
235. JFK (1991)
236. Heat (1995)
237. Hotel Rwanda (2004)
238. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
239. Batman Begins (2005)
240. Old Boy (2003)
241. Before Sunset (2004)
242. Before Sunset (2004)
243. Mystic River (2003)
244. The Sea Inside (2005)
245. Garden State (2004)
246. Pirates of the Carribean (2003)
247. Motorcycle Dairies (2004)
248. Sideways (2004)
249. Scarface (1983)
250. Sullivan's Travels (1941)

100 out of 100

At last I managed to get hold of Double Indemnity, 1944. Great movie!! That means I have now seen all 100 of the IMDB Top 100 movies. I have only 11 more movies to see and will have seen all 250 of the Top 250 list. It's taken 4 years and been a wonderful challenge to get hold of them all - I'm more in love with cinema than ever.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre

I managed to get hold of this elusive movie on e-Bay in VHS format, again for just a couple of pounds. Why it's not yet available in the UK in DVD format is beyond me - what an awesome movie. It's made me into even more of a fan of Humphrey Bogart who plays a ragged, gritty character slipping into an insane bout of gold lust. Walter Huston is also brilliant in this movie. Enthralling plot too with a very clever ending. I'm not suprised this 1948 movie is such a classic and number 66 on the IMDB list.

So that's 99 movies out 100. Just one to go - the 1944 version of Double Indemnity. It's the rarest of the top 100 movies in the UK, though I hear rumours it's being released in the UK in April. I'll also be keeping a tight watch on e-Bay.

Duck Soup

I managed to get hold of Duck Soup on E-Bay last week. It's one the 3 elusive movies I've been trying to get hold of for a while. Cost me the princely sum of £1:30. I love E-Bay! Duck Soup is cetainly an acquired taste for any one who likes The Marx Brothers and contains some pretty risque one-liners for a movie made in the 1930's. So now I've seen 98 of the top 100 IMDB movies. Only two more to go and I can get a life...

 

96 movies out of 100

I've just seen my 96th movie from the top 100 on the IMDB list. I've been helped a lot by Lovefilm, an fantastic new online DVD rental service. Only problem is that the remaining 4 movies are not on there. I think the reason is they're not readily available in the UK - very elusive they are!!

So if you come across any of the following, let me know!

• Double Indemnity (1944)
• M (1931)
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• Duck Soup (1933)

I'm in Movie Heaven

I've recently found a brilliant new service that is heaven for movie lovers (i.e. me!!)

Love Film stocks just about every DVD that exists, including the obscure, older movies that I'm after. You pay them £ 15 months per month and then can watch an unlimited number of their movies during the month. You simply select the movies you want from their enormous database, and then they send them to you by post - three at a time - with a stamped return envelope. Getting them to you takes one day - and getting them back one day too. I've been finding it really hard to find some of the remaining items on my top 250 IMDB list but now it's going to be a synch! My first movies arrived today: Rear Window, Seven Samarai and The Sting; so i have lots of watching to do in between the Olympics.

Other movies I currently have queued on the system to get are:

• Mr Smith Goes to Washington
• Paths Of Glory
• Touch Of Evil
• The Apartment
• The Big Sleep
• Das Boot
• Metropolis (Silent)
• Spirited Away
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Midnight Cowboy
• King Kong
• Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
• Rebel Without a Cause
• French Connection
• The Wild Bunch
• The Searchers

I won't be tempted!

The New York Times has just brought out its definitive list of the 1000 best movies of all time. Makes the IMDB's Top 250 list look like a picnic. But i shall not be tempted to upgrade my life's ambition to see the New York Times list. After all, I need a life... Maybe my good friend Rory has a point when he said in his email yesterday

"I've seen loads of movies recently (including Troy. Butterfly Effect, Harry Potter (not that impressed), Way too sad... But not nearly as sad as you trying to view the top 250 movies of all time..... (need I say any more ...) (Maybe that is the joy of living in a dark, cold miserable country, you get to see loads of movies to compensate!!! (hhahah)

I'll tell you one thing, though, if this damn weather in the UK doesn't improve soon (still raining today!!), I might be tempted to make an attempt for the NYT list after all!

Movie Heaven

Since the middle of last year, i've been on a quest to view the Top 100 movies as rated in the Internet Movie Data Base (my favourite site at the moment) This is a fun way of combining my passion for movies with my love of chasing lists...

I've just reached the 75 out of 100 milestone - although only 142 out of the top 250. Problem is that some of the remaining movies are rather obscure and it's getting a lot harder to find them (expecially the 1920's silent ones!! The Cambridge Library has been a great source - but is now running dry. I may have to look for some of them on e-bay.

The top 100 movies i have seen this year (I've been busy!) include ...

• Casablanca (1942)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• Usual Suspects, The (1995)
• Psycho (1960
• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
• Sunset Blvd. (1950)
• Apocalypse Now (1979)
• Some Like It Hot (1959)
• L.A. Confidential (1997)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Once Upon a Time in the West
• Maltese Falcon, The (1941)
• Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)
• All About Eve (1950)
• Se7en (1995)
• City of God (2002)
• Great Escape, The (1963)
• Clockwork Orange, A (1971)
• Amadeus (1984)
• On the Waterfront (1954)
• Sixth Sense, The (1999)
• High Noon (1952)
• Shining, The (1980)
• Run Lola, Run (1998)
• The Seventh Scroll (1957)

The movies I still need to find are ...

• Shichinin no samurai (1954)
• Rear Window (1954)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
• Paths of Glory (1957)
• Boot, Das (1981)
• Double Indemnity (1944)
• Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001)
• M (1931)
• Sting, The (1973)
• Rashômon (1950)
• Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
• Manchurian Candidate, The (1962)
• Touch of Evil (1958) 8.2/10
• Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Ran (1985) 8.1/10
• Modern Times (1936) 8.1/10
• Apartment, The (1960) 8.1/10
• Strangers on a Train (1951)
• Duck Soup (1933)
• Metropolis (1927)
• General, The (1927)
• City Lights (1931)
• Rebecca (1940)