IMDB top 250 project.

So I've decided to embark on an ambitious project. I'm going to watch the entire IMDB top 250 movies of all time. After each one, I'm going to post a paragraph (or more, if the movie drives me) summarizing my thoughts on it. I hope to get it done in about a year, maybe less as there will be days where I'll have time to watch more than one.

The rules are simple.

1. I will watch all 250 movies. Those that I've seen before, I'm going to go into with an open mind, and really try to nail down the essence of each one. I will not be skipping ANY, except in the case of rule #2.

2. In the event that I cannot locate a DVD or Blu-ray copy of any given film on the top 250, I will not be replacing it with 251, it will simply have to be omitted.

3. If I don't update for more than a week, consider the project a failure. The reason I'm doing this is twofold: to sharpen my writing chops, and to actually complete something.

4. Preferably I'd like to watch these films in the order they are on the IMDB top 250. If, for some reason, one film is available (via rental or otherwise) to me, and the one I'm on is not, I'll skip one or a couple in favor of a more readily available film.

5. I will give a 1 to 10 rating on every film that I watch. This is an overall score, and not weighted by any particular criteria. You may find it arbitrary, but it will provide a more substantial vantage point for how I feel about a film as a whole.

Here's the list.

(X indicates I've seen it)

The Shawshank Redemption - X
The Godfather - X
The Godfather: Part II - X
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly) -
Pulp Fiction - X
Schindler's List - X
12 Angry Men -
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - X
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back - X
The Dark Knight - X
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - X
Star Wars - X
Casablanca -
Shichinin no samurai -
Goodfellas - X
Fight Club - X
Cidade de Deus -
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring - X
Raiders of the Lost Ark - X
Rear Window -
The Usual Suspects - X
Psycho -
C'era una volta Il West (Once Upon a Time in the West) -
Silence of the Lambs - X
The Matrix - X
Se7en - X
Memento - X
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - X
It's a Wonderful Life - X
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb -
Sunset Blvd -
North by Northwest -
Citizen Kane -
Leon -
Apocalypse Now -
Forrest Gump - X
American Beauty -
American History X - X
Taxi Driver - X
Vertigo -
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - X
Lawrence of Arabia -
Alien -
Le fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain -
WALL-E - X
Saving Private Ryan - X
A Clockwork Orange - X
The Shining - X
Paths of Glory -
The Departed - X
The Pianist -
To Kill a Mockingbird - X
Aliens - X
Sen to Chihiro No kamikakushi (Spirited Away) -
Das Leben der Anderen -
M -
Double Indemnity -
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - X
Chinatown -
Requiem for a Dream - X
The Third Man -
Reservoir Dogs - X
L.A. Confidential - X
Das Boot -
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre -
Monty Python and the Holy Grail - X
City Lights -
El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) - X
The Bridge on the River Kwai -
Inglorious Basterds -X
Avatar -
Raging Bull - X
The Prestige - X
Back to the Future - X
Up - X
2001: a Space Odyssey -
La vita e bella -
Singin in the Rain -
Modern Times -
Der Untergang -
Some Like it Hot -
Amadeus - X
Full Metal Jacket -
Nuovo cinema Paradiso -
The Maltese Falcon -
Braveheart - X
Gran Torino - X
Rashomon -
Once Upon a Time in America - X
All about Eve -
The Green Mile -
Metropolis -
The Elephant Man -
Slumdog Millionaire - X
Sin City - X
The Great Dictator -
Rebecca -
The Apartment -
The Sting -
Gladiator - X
The Great Escape - X
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - X
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi - X
Ladri di biciclette -
Unforgiven -
Jaws - X
Batman Begins - X
Blade Runner - X
Die Hard - X
Hotel Rwanda -
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -
On the Waterfront -
No Country for Old Men - X
Oldboy -
Det Sjunde inseglet -
Touch of Evil -
Fargo - X
District 9 - X
Mononoke-hime (Princess Mononoke) -
The Wizard of Oz - X
Per qualche dollaro in piu -
Heat - X
Strangers on a Train -
Cool Hand Luke -
Donnie Darko - X
High Noon -
The Sixth Sense -
Notorious (1946) -
There Will Be Blood -
The Deer Hunter - X
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -
Annie Hall -
The Wrestler - X
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 - X
Snatch - X
The General -
Platoon - X
The Big Lebowski - X
Yojimbo -
Ben-Hur -
Into the Wild -
Ran -
The Big Sleep -
Million Dollar Baby - X
In Happened One Night -
The Lion King - X
Life of Brian - X
Witness for the Prosecution -
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -
The Bourne Ultimatum - X
Smultronstallet -
Finding Nemo -
Trainspotting -
Stand By Me -
Star Trek (2009) -
The Graduate -
The Terminator - X
Gone With the Wind - X
Toy Story - X
Groundhog day - X
Scarface - X
The Thing (1982) -
Amores Perros -
Ratatouille - X
Dog Day Afternoon - X
Gandhi -
V for Vendetta -
The Gold Rush -
The Grapes of Wrath -
Le salaire de la peur (Wages of Fear) -
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - X
8 1/2 -
Twelve Monkeys - X
Les diaboliques -
Casino - X
The Night of the Hunter -
The Princess Bride - X
Hotaru no haka (Grave of the Fireflies) -
The Incredibles - X
The Killing -
Judgment at Nuremberg -
Kind Hearts and Coronets -
The Wild Bunch -
Children of Men -
In Bruges -
The Exorcist - X
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927, this may be hard to find.) -
Le notti di Cabiria -
The Best years of Our Lives -
The Kid -
The Hustler -
Dial M for Murder -
Harvey -
Ed Wood - X
Good Will Hunting - X
Rosemary's Baby - X
Big Fish - X
King Kong (1933) - X
A Streetcar Named Desire -
Letters from Iwo Jima -
Lat den ratte komma in (Let the Right one In) -
Sleuth -
Shadow of a Doubt -
Stalag 17 -
Kill Bill: Vol. 2 - X
Le scaphandre et le papillon -
Magnolia -
Mystic River - X
Rocky - X
Crash - X
Brief Encounter -
The AFrican Queen -
Network -
Rope -
Bonnie and Clyde -
Duck Soup -
Manhattan -
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -
La strada -
La battaglia di Algeri -
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl - X
Shutter Island - X
Wo hu cang long -
Changeling -
Patton -
The Conversation -
Little Miss Sunshine - X
Planet of the Apes (1968) - X
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) -
Les quatre cents coups -
The Nightmare Before Christmas - X
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? -
All Quiet on the Western Front -
Barry Lyndon -
Anatomy of a Murder -
Mulholland Dr. (2001) - X
The Lady Vanishes -
Shaun of the Dead - X
Spartacus -
Glory - X
The Truman Show - X
Tonari no Totoro -
Monsters, Inc. - X
The Philadelphia Story -
Toy Story 2 - X
Arsenic and Old Lace -
His Girl Friday -
Brazil -
Edward Scissorhands - X
Mou gaan dou -

That's 110 of the top 250 that I've seen. The vast majority of the one's I haven't are not from what I would consider 'modern' film.

I'd like to consider this an open forum to post whatever you feel about the films as I watch them. Consider it a group project if you want; watch the films as I do - skip the ones you don't care to see.