I’ve watched a lot of movies. As of today, I have rated 1,897 of them IMDB. I’ve seen plenty more than that, of course. I only started rating them a decade ago, and many movies I saw too long ago to give a reliable rating.
Like Patrick Swayze’s Next of Kin. I definitely watched it. I remember Liam Neeson entering the movie and doing a pretty good job of wresting it away from Swayze. He rode on top of a train at one point. Then he dies, I think. Very sad.
I recall quite liking it, but not enough to watch it again, clearly. With movies like this, I have resisted rating them because I would probably just end up giving them 6/10. I’ll leave it until I catch it again at some point. Then I’ll give it a 6.
IMDB’s Top 250
But I digress. You are probably aware of IMDB’s top 250 list; that is, the 250 movies with the highest average rating on the popular movie website. I’m not saying these the best movies ever made, but it’s still a pretty good list.
I went through it the other day, and despite having seen a lot of movies, I was surprised at the number of top 250 movies I hadn’t seen. I must watch a lot of niche shit, or just plain shit. There sure aren’t many giant spider movies in the top 250, that’s for sure.
Some gaps are excusable – foreign movies, for example, or movies so old that I wouldn’t come across them unless I was specifically seeking them out. Which I haven’t been. So much easier to watch Star Wars for the 150th time, or whatever couch movie slop the streaming service of your choice has chosen to serve up and make extra sloppy for you.
Other gaps in my movie watching history are… not so excusable, so I have resolved to, er, resolve that. But I decided to let the good people of Last Movie Outpost select which ones I watch first. In return, I will not only watch them but review them.
To make it a little easier, I have grouped the movies in question into genres. Each round I will put up a poll of movies from a specific genre. Choose which one you want to see reviewed/discussed here at LMO and I’ll do the rest. Expect the review about a week later.
Round 1: Period Drama
Here are the options to choose from:
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
IMDB rating: 8.5
Sicily, 1945. Italian coming-of-age drama about a famous film director who looks back at his childhood growing up in post war Sicily and his bond with a movie theatre projectionist.
I’ve never fancied this one, but it means a lot to BobaPhil, and I trust his judgement, so I’m finally ready for a viewing.
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
IMDB rating: 8.4
Hollywood, 1949. Faded silent movie star Norma Desmond plots a comeback by hiring broke screenwriter Joe Gillis to fix a movie script she wrote.
It’s a classic film noir, so I’m guessing that something goes wrong.
The Lives of Others (2006)
IMDB rating: 8.4
East Berlin, 1984. A secret police officer conducts surveillance on a writer and his lover and becomes increasingly absorbed by their lives.
The Lives of Others won the Academy award for best foreign language film in 2007. Still seems like a pervy peeping Tom movie to me. Fingers crossed.
Harakiri (1962)
IMDB rating: 8.6
Japan, 1630. An ageing Ronin (a Samurai without a master) requests to commit suicide (harakiri) within the manor of a local feudal lord. He explains the events that drove him to ask for death to an audience of samurai and exposes the hypocrisy of the Samurai code.
I’m not too sure about this one. It looks slow and serious. But it’s got swords and people with a code, so let’s keep an open mind.
The Poll
Register your vote below.
