Best Picture Oscars, and IMDB's Top 250 movies..

[NatrlBornThrllr]

I've started a couple of new DVD goals for myself, neither of which I'm agressively pursuing, but as a passive, longterm goal, they should be fun. One is to collect every film that's won best picture at the Academy Awards (I figure that will give my overall collection a nice mixture of great American films from decade to decade). Another goal is to collect every film in IMDB's top 250.

The top 250 list is based solely on user-voting. With all of the varied tastes of voters (from foreign films, to classics, to creative modern films, and even a couple of modern blockbusters) I figure I'll get a mix of great films from every branch of cinema.

Those are the two goals that I decided upon today. Another, which I started a month or so ago, is amassing Criterion's entire collection (each of their films is numbered on the spine, so it's easy for me to know which of their films I need to fill holes in my collection). Criterion prides themselves on presenting "a continuing series of important contemporary and classic films." Hell, it says so on each of their DVD's. I have to agree...they're very selective with what titles they produce (aside from a couple of Michael Bay films that were produced, no doubt, so they could fund their other releases). I've yet to see a film from the Criterion Collection that I didn't enjoy.

I don't think I'll ever complete the top 250 list or the Criterion collection (the former since it's constantly changing, the latter since their prices are extremely high and they release new films on a weekly or bi-weekly basis). However, it'll be fun to try...and the Best Picture collection can be accomplished due to the fact that the titles on the list will never change, and there's only one film added on an annual basis.

Here's what I've got thus far in the three categories...a nice launching point for my goals, if I do say so myself:

Academy Awards Best Picture Winners:
1943 - Casablanca
1954 - On the Waterfront
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia
1972 - The Godfather
1974 - The Godfather Part II
1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 - Rocky
1978 - The Deer Hunter
1986 - Platoon
1988 - Rain Man
1990 - Dances with Wolves
1991 - Silence of the Lambs
1994 - Forrest Gump
1997 - Titanic
1999 - America Beauty
2000 - Gladiator
2001 - A Beautiful Mind
2003 - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

The Criterion Collection:
005 - The 400 Blows
011 - The Seventh Seal
013 - Silence of the Lambs
040 - Armageddon
051 - Brazil
070 - The Last Temptation of Christ
075 - Chasing Amy
108 - The Rock
133 - The Vanishing
138 - Rashomon
139 - Wild Strawberries
140 - 8 ½
157 - The Royal Tenenbaums
159 - Red Beard
165 - Man Bites Dog
175 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
179 - I am Curious
180 - I am Curious: Yellow
181 - I am Curious: Blue
185 - The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
186 - Stolen Kisses
187 - Bed and Board
188 - Love on the Run
190 - Throne of Blood
197 - Night and Fog
216 - Rules of the Game
218 - Le Cercle Rouge
221 - Ikiru
230 - 3 Women
231 - The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
234 - The Tin Drum
237 - Smiles of a Summer Night
239 - The Lower Depths
247 - Slacker

IMDB.com Top 250 Films:
001 - The Godfather
002 - The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
003 - The Shawshank Redemption
004 - The Godfather Part II
007 - Casablanca
008 - The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
009 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
011 - Citizen Kane
012 - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
014 - Pulp Fiction
018 - The Usual Suspects
019 - Memento
020 - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
023 - City of God
024 - Lawrence of Arabia
025 - Psycho
026 - Amélie
028 - The Silence of the Lambs
029 - Goodfellas
030 - Once Upon a Time in the West
032 - American Beauty
034 - The Matrix
035 - Apocalypse Now
037 - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
039 - Fight Club
043 - Taxi Driver
047 - Das Boot
052 - Se7en
054 - Requiem for a Dream
056 - Kill Bill: Volume 1
057 - Rashômon
059 - Saving Private Ryan
062 - American History X
063 - Léon
064 - The Wizard of Oz
070 - Reservoir Dogs
072 - 2001: A Space Odyssey
074 - A Clockwork Orange
076 - On the Waterfront
079 - Finding Nemo
082 - Jaws
086 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
089 - The Shining
090 - Fargo
091 - Donnie Darko
093 - The Seventh Seal
098 - The Sixth Sense
102 - Full Metal Jacket
109 - Kill Bill: Volume 2
110 - Forrest Gump
113 - Run Lola Run
117 - The Graduate
118 - The Deer Hunter
121 - Glory
127 - Mystic River
132 - The Green Mile
133 - Talk to Her
136 - Wild Strawberries
139 - Amores Perros
140 - Shrek
141 - Back to the Future
143 - Platoon
153 - Lost in Translation
157 - Big Fish
158 - The 400 Blows
169 - Gladiator
171 - Magnolia
175 - Ed Wood
180 - Ikiru
184 - Almost Famous
185 - Brazil
194 - 21 Grams
195 - Pirates of the Caribbean
197 - Dog Day Afternoon
198 - 12 Monkeys
202 - Trainspotting
204 - Being John Malkovich
206 - Mulholland Drive
214 - 8½
218 - Rain Man
220 - Snatch.
222 - The Big Lebowski
225 - Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
226 - Whale Rider
229 - Adaptation.
236 - Planet of the Apes
238 - X-Men 2
241 - The Others
246 - Heat

-JP

[Trent Steel]

alot of IMDB films are all films that came out in the past 5 - 10 years.

[NatrlBornThrllr]

No, a lot of IMDB films that I own are films that came out in the past 5-10 years. I haven't really started catching up on classics yet...so the holes in that list are mostly older films.

http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Scroll through and look at the dates.

-JP

[NatrlBornThrllr]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...6333363605&rd=1 (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=617&item=6333363605&rd=1)

To give an idea of how impossible of a goal, financially, that I've set for myself in completeing a collection of every title in Criterion's library.

-JP

[derekisdman]

Heh that's pretty crazy. Maybe you can find some way to screw the ebay guy like you did hastings :P

Having the whole collection would definitely be cool, but there are far too many other films which I like a lot more than some of the criterion editions that I need to get first.

[NatrlBornThrllr]

I like Criterion because it introduces me to great films that I might not otherwise check out. I watched Slacker last night, and 3 Women tonight (review for each coming whenever I stop being lazy). Both were good in their own respect, and were they not put out by Criterion, I doubt I ever would have bought or even gone out of my way to watch them (I just wouldn't have been impressed enough by Dazed and Confused to seek out Linklater's indie debut, but it really was an interesting little film).

-JP