Movie #: 248
Movie Title: Cinderella Man
Year Released: 2005
Director: Ron Howard
Notable Cast: Russell Crowe, Renee Zellweger, Paul Giamatti
Short Description: The story of James Braddock, a supposedly washed up boxer who came back to become a champion and an inspiration in the 1930s. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: #99
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/22/2013
What I Liked: If I didn’t know this was a movie I might have actually believed that Russell Crowe as James Braddock and Paul Giamatti as Joe Gould were a professional boxer and his manager, they were that good. Crowe’s portrayal of a desperate depression-era father trying to provide for his family was very captivating and the passion that Giamatti displayed is unmatched. The boxing scenes were well choreographed and showed lots of angles and detail.
What I Disliked: I'm not really a fan of Renee Zellweger so she bothered me a bit. I don’t think the movie did a good job explaining the death of the Braddock's friend and the events leading up to it.
Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: Very good movie that I plan on watching again sometime, but my dislike of Renee Zellweger keeps it from getting a higher grade.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Movie #249: Star Trek
Movie #: 249
Movie Title: Star Trek
Year Released: 2009
Director: J.J. Abrams
Notable Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Peg, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Leonard Nemoy, Karl Urban
Short Description: The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father’s legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful, time-traveling Romulan creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #99
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/20/2013
What I Liked: The special effects are top notch and the score by Michael Giacchino is spectacular. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto and great on screen chemistry as Kirk and Spock and I feel did those characters justice. References to the old movies and TV show, such as quotes by the characters and Kirk’s posture in the captain’s chair, were a nice way to pay homage to the past while building a new future for the series.
What I Disliked: After watching the TV show LOST, which was also by J.J. Abrams, I was slightly disappointed to see him use time-travel again to explain a storyline, but I understand a way to start over was needed. When Kirk crashes on a huge, near abandoned planet, it’s too convenient that he ends up not far from where old Spock was stranded.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)
Adjusted Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: One of my personal favorite movies so the score may be a bit biased.
Movie Title: Star Trek
Year Released: 2009
Director: J.J. Abrams
Notable Cast: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Simon Peg, Zoe Saldana, Eric Bana, Leonard Nemoy, Karl Urban
Short Description: The brash James T. Kirk tries to live up to his father’s legacy with Mr. Spock keeping him in check as a vengeful, time-traveling Romulan creates black holes to destroy the Federation one planet at a time. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: #99
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/20/2013
What I Liked: The special effects are top notch and the score by Michael Giacchino is spectacular. Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto and great on screen chemistry as Kirk and Spock and I feel did those characters justice. References to the old movies and TV show, such as quotes by the characters and Kirk’s posture in the captain’s chair, were a nice way to pay homage to the past while building a new future for the series.
What I Disliked: After watching the TV show LOST, which was also by J.J. Abrams, I was slightly disappointed to see him use time-travel again to explain a storyline, but I understand a way to start over was needed. When Kirk crashes on a huge, near abandoned planet, it’s too convenient that he ends up not far from where old Spock was stranded.
Grade: 4.5 out of 5 (Outstanding)
Adjusted Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: One of my personal favorite movies so the score may be a bit biased.
Friday, January 25, 2013
Movie #250: The Sting
Movie #: 250
Movie Title:The Sting
Year Released: 1973
Director: George Roy Hill
Notable Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw
Short Description: In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #99
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/16/2013
What I Liked: Reminded me of Ocean's Eleven, which is a great movie in my opinion. I loved the acting from Paul Newman as Henry Gondorff and Robert Redford as Johnny Hooker. The plot twist at the end was an unexpected surprise.
What I Disliked: I either didn't catch it or the movie didn't do a very good job explaining why the mark was a criminal other than that he commissioned the hit that killed Johnny’s old partner. I also couldn't tell if the detective that was out to get Johnny was corrupt or just trying to be a tough guy by roughing Johnny up whenever he had the chance.
Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: The acting was excellent but for varying reasons the story seemed to lose me a bit at points.
Movie Title:The Sting
Year Released: 1973
Director: George Roy Hill
Notable Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw
Short Description: In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: N/A
IMDB.com: #99
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/16/2013
What I Liked: Reminded me of Ocean's Eleven, which is a great movie in my opinion. I loved the acting from Paul Newman as Henry Gondorff and Robert Redford as Johnny Hooker. The plot twist at the end was an unexpected surprise.
What I Disliked: I either didn't catch it or the movie didn't do a very good job explaining why the mark was a criminal other than that he commissioned the hit that killed Johnny’s old partner. I also couldn't tell if the detective that was out to get Johnny was corrupt or just trying to be a tough guy by roughing Johnny up whenever he had the chance.
Grade: 4 out of 5 (Excellent)
Rationale: The acting was excellent but for varying reasons the story seemed to lose me a bit at points.
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Movie #251: Ben-Hur
Movie #: 251
Movie Title: Ben-Hur
Year Released: 1959
Director: William Wyler
Notable Cast: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins
Short Description: When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: #100
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/15/2013
What I Liked: The movie felt like part Count of Monte Cristo and part Gladiator, which are both movies I enjoy. The chariot race was exciting and I was impressed by the acting from Stephen Boyd as Messala.
What I Disliked: A bit long at three and a half hours. Very daunting start to my goal when the first movie I watch is so long it requires two DVDs. Charlton Heston was good, but at times his acting seemed a little over the top. I didn’t care for the five-or-so minute orchestral sequence that preceded both halves of the movie.
Grade: 3 out of 5 (Good)
Rationale: Good yet long movie with parts I felt could have been cut or changed for the sake of time.
Movie Title: Ben-Hur
Year Released: 1959
Director: William Wyler
Notable Cast: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Jack Hawkins
Short Description: When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge. (IMDB.com)
Rank on the Top 100 Lists
AFI.com: #100
IMDB.com: N/A
Ranker.com: N/A
Lifed.com: N/A
Empire.com: N/A
FilmCrave.com: N/A
FlickChart.com: N/A
Date Watched: 1/15/2013
What I Liked: The movie felt like part Count of Monte Cristo and part Gladiator, which are both movies I enjoy. The chariot race was exciting and I was impressed by the acting from Stephen Boyd as Messala.
What I Disliked: A bit long at three and a half hours. Very daunting start to my goal when the first movie I watch is so long it requires two DVDs. Charlton Heston was good, but at times his acting seemed a little over the top. I didn’t care for the five-or-so minute orchestral sequence that preceded both halves of the movie.
Grade: 3 out of 5 (Good)
Rationale: Good yet long movie with parts I felt could have been cut or changed for the sake of time.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Welcome to The Composite 251
Welcome to The Composite 251, a blog dedicated to my goal of watching the greatest movies of all time.
As long as I can remember I've been a fan of movies. Whether it be a drama from 1939 or a comedy from 2012, good acting, a strong story, and a beautiful soundtrack have the power to captivate me in a way that makes the problems of the world disappear for a short time.
Around 2007 I stumbled across a list from the American Film Institute (AFI) of their top 100 movies of all time. I'll admit I was embarrassed at how few of those movies I had seen. Most were old and, because of that, not something I had interest in watching and others were not what I would have considered to be "up my alley". After studying the list I decided I needed more culture in my life and that someday I would watch all the films I hadn't already seen.
Flash forward to December of 2012. While at a family gathering, I was having a conversation with my wife's cousin, Josh, and somehow the topic of movies was brought up. He began telling me about a goal he was starting: by the end of 2014 he would watch all of the top 250 movies on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website. I in turn mentioned that I had a similar goal but had never gotten around to starting it.
As the days went by and the 2013 rolled in, I thought more and more about my long neglected goal. I looked up the AFI list and noticed that it had not been updated since 2007, which meant many of the great films from the past 5-6 years wouldn't be included. Not satisfied by using one slightly outdated list, I set out to make my own list of the top movies truly of all time.
Using the top 100 movies on AFI.com and IMDB.com as a starting point, I initially wanted to make a top 100 list that was a consensus of as many quality lists as I could find. My search lead me to top 100 lists on Ranker.com, Lifed.com, Empire.com, FilmCrave.com, and FlickChart.com. Using the top 100 lists from these 7 websites, I ended up with a list of 251 unique movies, all with at least one vote on any of the 7 lists. Then, using a formula I devised based on an individual movie's rank on each of the 7 lists, I built a composite list of the top 251 movies in order of average rank.
If that last part loses you a bit, I apologize. In short, I combined 7 smaller lists into 1 large list. Not an easy process to do, but it's fascinating when you see how one site ranks a movie very high in their top 100 and then another site doesn't even rank the movie.
Now, I'm not going to set a date of when I would like to be done with my goal. Obviously sooner is better than later but I understand that things come up and the goal is not exactly top priority. If I could do it before Josh accomplishes his goal, I think it will feel a bit sweeter, especially since I'm watching an additional movie and I took a large amount of time to build my list. Sadly, this may take a while because 184 of the 251 have to be rented using Netflix's DVD service.
Starting at #251 and working my way to #1, with each movie I will post the date I watched it, a comment about what I liked (if anything) and disliked (if anything), and my personal grade from 1-5; 1 being low and 5 being high.
I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the top 251 movies of all time.
-Greg
As long as I can remember I've been a fan of movies. Whether it be a drama from 1939 or a comedy from 2012, good acting, a strong story, and a beautiful soundtrack have the power to captivate me in a way that makes the problems of the world disappear for a short time.
Around 2007 I stumbled across a list from the American Film Institute (AFI) of their top 100 movies of all time. I'll admit I was embarrassed at how few of those movies I had seen. Most were old and, because of that, not something I had interest in watching and others were not what I would have considered to be "up my alley". After studying the list I decided I needed more culture in my life and that someday I would watch all the films I hadn't already seen.
Flash forward to December of 2012. While at a family gathering, I was having a conversation with my wife's cousin, Josh, and somehow the topic of movies was brought up. He began telling me about a goal he was starting: by the end of 2014 he would watch all of the top 250 movies on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website. I in turn mentioned that I had a similar goal but had never gotten around to starting it.
As the days went by and the 2013 rolled in, I thought more and more about my long neglected goal. I looked up the AFI list and noticed that it had not been updated since 2007, which meant many of the great films from the past 5-6 years wouldn't be included. Not satisfied by using one slightly outdated list, I set out to make my own list of the top movies truly of all time.
Using the top 100 movies on AFI.com and IMDB.com as a starting point, I initially wanted to make a top 100 list that was a consensus of as many quality lists as I could find. My search lead me to top 100 lists on Ranker.com, Lifed.com, Empire.com, FilmCrave.com, and FlickChart.com. Using the top 100 lists from these 7 websites, I ended up with a list of 251 unique movies, all with at least one vote on any of the 7 lists. Then, using a formula I devised based on an individual movie's rank on each of the 7 lists, I built a composite list of the top 251 movies in order of average rank.
If that last part loses you a bit, I apologize. In short, I combined 7 smaller lists into 1 large list. Not an easy process to do, but it's fascinating when you see how one site ranks a movie very high in their top 100 and then another site doesn't even rank the movie.
Now, I'm not going to set a date of when I would like to be done with my goal. Obviously sooner is better than later but I understand that things come up and the goal is not exactly top priority. If I could do it before Josh accomplishes his goal, I think it will feel a bit sweeter, especially since I'm watching an additional movie and I took a large amount of time to build my list. Sadly, this may take a while because 184 of the 251 have to be rented using Netflix's DVD service.
Starting at #251 and working my way to #1, with each movie I will post the date I watched it, a comment about what I liked (if anything) and disliked (if anything), and my personal grade from 1-5; 1 being low and 5 being high.
I hope you enjoy my thoughts on the top 251 movies of all time.
-Greg
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)