Now, before everybody starts tearing me apart for my choices, I realize that my ratings are a bit unusual considering that these movies are the "best of the best" as ranked by IMDB.

I am not a big war movie fan, so most of those are not rated highly. I don't enjoy musicals even a little bit ("Grease" being a rare exception) so those go unseen. Jimmy Stewart annoys the heck out of me, so his films are low (I LOATHE "It's a Wonderful Life"). Older films where everybody is "over-acting" the drama are also low because I can't "get into" them. Anything dramatic for the sake of being dramatic just seems cheesy and stupid to me (i.e. "Magnolia," "Rain Man," and "The Straight Story").

And yes, I gave some bombs. "Gone With the Wind" was utter crap... overblown, overacted, and too bloody long. I did not enjoy a single minute. "It's a Wonderful Life" is so cheesy-annoying that it makes me want to shoot myself. I loathed "Wizard of Oz" as a kid, and have only grown to loathe it more over time... the acting is SO bad. And don't get me started on "The Piano," which was so awful I could do nothing but laugh.

Ooog. I see too many movies!

You DON'T like "It's A Wonderful Life"? I'm shocked. I know it's cheesy but it makes you feel SO good.

I'll do that meme tomorrow if I have time.

Sorry, but no. It's from that era of film where everybody over-acted every line. I just can't get into a film where the actors are not "acting" like normal people. Jimmy Stewart is normally a little difficult for me to take... except in Hitchcock films, because Hitch totally knew how to reign him in. I also liked "The Glenn Miller Story".

I got an email asking me "what films that you like are missing from the list?"

Many, many films. Off the top of my head... The Big Blue, Clerks, Chasing Amy, Creator, A Fish Called Wanda, Foul Play, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn, Beverly Hills Cop, Galaxy Quest, Akira, The Iron Giant, Woonder Boys, Office Space, Men in Black, Jackie Brown, Highlander, True Lies, and my favorite film of all time: Field of Dreams.

There are probably dozens more.

Cool thing. Too much work for me to do it though... While I naturally wouldn't agree with all of your ratings, I don't think your ratings are too harsh or anything.

If I may recommend things: Cidade de Deus was surprisingly good -- although I hesitated to watch it at firs because I'm not really a fan of South America. And I'd also recommend seeing Festen.

Just when I thought you couldn't be any more like me, you drop a bomb on "It's a Wonderful Life." Good God that movie is horrific. My wife just made us watch another of Stewart's hideous flicks, "The Shop Around the Corner." What was even better than the overacting was that it was set in Budapest and there was absolutely no reason for it to be, other than what I'm guessing is the 1950's idiot mentality that anywhere but the US is exotic.

At least "It's a Wonderful Life" has the excuse of having been made in the 1940's to explain why it's an overly-acted pile of sappy manipulation... this makes a movie like "Life is Beautiful" AKA "Vita e Bella" (made in 1997) all that much worse to me.

I'm really not the best movie reviewer because I rarely have a middle ground. A movie either kicks ass or sucks ass. Those in the middle are films which are probably great, but don't blow my mind ("Casablanca" is a good example of an amazing film that falls into that category for me).

I'm loving that you gave the Pianist a bomb! I hated that movie—I guess I just didn't 'get' it or something. I notice that you give Toy Story high marks, and while I thought the animation was above amazing, I didn't get into the whole story that much, so I say three stars to the first one, but a bomb to the second one. *shrug*

REALLY? In all honesty, I think I enjoyed the second Toy Story better than the first. Much more involving story, and no wasted time introducing the characters.

Just tried to abuse your list to decide on which film to see... and seeing your first comment you say The Piano is a bad film. While in the list you give a bomb to The Pianist (when The Piano isn't in).

Any chance you mixed those two up? I thought The Pianist was a rather good film. Topic-wise it's similar to Schindler's List (which you seem to like) but IMHO much better because there's less kitsch.

Uh oh... you are CORRECT! My loathing for "The Piano" blinded me to the fact that the film in question was "The Pianist!"

Thanks for pointing that out... you're absolutely right, "The Pianist" was an excellent film, easily deserving four stars. I've gone ahead and corrected it.

I LOVE that you bombed "It's a Wonderful Life".

Whenever I was forced to watch that film, do you know how mortified I was to share the last name of Bailey with that character??

"Apocalypse Now". Ugh. People love that movie to death, but I found it really sloooow. That and I HATED "Heart of Darkness". HATED IT! Almost as much as "Walden 2", which is the worst book on the planet, in my opinion.

However, you need to see "Shadow of a Doubt (1943)" I think it's my favorite Hitchcock film. But, bear in mind that I haven't seen it since I was a kid/teenager, so maybe it's horribly bad, and I'm talking out of memory as a kid....but, I thought it was a good story. And it's HITCHCOCK...so, how bad can it be?

(I've seen most of the old movies that you haven't seen. I grew up w/o cable, and have extremely older parents, so I spent a lot of afternoons watching the classic movies playing on PBS...and I think Portland used to have a classic movie station that was on basic television, back in the day. So....yeah. God, I had a happening life as a teenager, huh??)