Movie IMDB Top 250

[GROTTO]

And 12 years later and Shawshank still sits at the top.

And still at number 4 The Dark Knight, pretty surprised that hasn't slipped right back.

Controversially I will call TDK the best comic-book movie ever made.

 

[raskolnikov]

It's very Hollywood biased. There are some foreign movies I would rate much more highly than any of the ones in the top 250.

 

[AFDogs]

3 Nolan films in the top 25. The dude is the absolute king right now.

 

[Kram]

Controversially I will call TDK the best comic-book movie ever made.

It's no doubt a good movie, just think that the only thing about it that is greatest of all time is Mr Ledger's performance.

 

[Roobs321]

To be fair, IMDB's Top 250 lost relevancy about a decade ago. Never really gets talked about anymore. I don't think I've taken a glance at it since the 2000s.

According to my Letterboxd I've seen 213/250. Films like Intouchables and Avengers Endgame are some of the highest several I haven't yet seen, which doesn't reflect well on the overall list quality.

 

[RolandF1]

The list is most loved films that aren't as polarising. It's all about the consistency of the overall voting, not what select groups perceive as the best films.

20 years of different generations voting has turned up some interesting results. I remember when the Back to the Future sequels were slumming in the 6s.

 

[Lyttelton Ranger]

It's very Hollywood biased. There are some foreign movies I would rate much more highly than any of the ones in the top 250.

Yep. I think I'd have about 8-10 foreign flicks in my top 50. I'm not fussed by subtitles and it puzzles me why so many people hate them

 

[spinynorman]

When I was starting to get into film around 2001, the IMDB Top 250 was a godsend. During school holidays I would go into the video shop, pick the seven highest ranked movies that I hadn't seen that were in the shop, and watch them. In the course of a week, I would watch The Third Man, Apocalypse Now, Das Boot, Raging Bull, Chinatown, M and The Bridge on the River Kwai. I was just totally immersing myself in great cinema. For someone starting out as a cineaste, it's not a terrible first step.

But there are major issues, which were bad then but have only been exacerbated with time. There is a horrendous recency bias, with half the list being from 1994 onwards. Middling Hollywood mainstream films rise to the top, with the most successful foreign films being regularly ones that are Hollywood-friendly shallow feel good types (The Intouchables, most egregiously). Weirdos on IMDB have come to spam vote with 1s high profile movies with LGBT, female or ethnic minority lead characters before they come out, which distorts results. The very good but not much more than that The Shawshank Redemption being the #1 movie of all time is a bit of a joke.

I some time ago took to ignoring IMDB's ratings and only used it as an informative source on production details etc. There are substantially better websites to find out what's worth watching. I mean, c'mon, The Wizard of Oz has fallen off the bloody list!

 

[Kram]

The very good but not much more than that The Shawshank Redemption being the #1 movie of all time is a bit of a joke.

This comes up time and time again but whatever was there at number 1 a lot of people would claim it was a 'joke', nothing surer. If I had to make a list it's personally probably only just in my top 30 or something but it's an excellent film with broad appeal and something has to be there.

 

[Roobs321]

Same here, it once served its purpose as a budding cinephile (IMDB was really one of the first websites to get me interested in the internet in 1999-2000). I also now use it almost entirely for production details (for which it is a very useful and accessible resource).

I personally can't really stand The Wizard of Oz (big fan of Return to Oz though). Wizard of Oz deserves plaudits for its innovative spectacle, but definitely a best-left-to-kiddies film for me (e.g. Land Before Time). I can still adore things like Dumbo or Mary Poppins, but Wizard of Oz is just repellent to me now.

 

[Kram]

I don't bother with IMDB anywhere nearly as much since they got rid of the message boards.

 

[edgie]

I don't bother with IMDB anywhere nearly as much since they got rid of the message boards.

Such a big hole that's impossible to fill.

 

[raskolnikov]

Same here, it once served its purpose as a budding cinephile (IMDB was really one of the first websites to get me interested in the internet in 1999-2000). I also now use it almost entirely for production details (for which it is a very useful and accessible resource).

I personally can't really stand The Wizard of Oz (big fan of Return to Oz though). Wizard of Oz deserves plaudits for its innovative spectacle, but definitely a best-left-to-kiddies film for me (e.g. Land Before Time). I can still adore things like Dumbo or Mary Poppins, but Wizard of Oz is just repellent to me now.

I love The Wizard of Oz and I didn't really like Return to Oz. I quite liked Oz the Great and Powerful.

 

[Roobs321]

I love The Wizard of Oz and I didn't really like Return to Oz. I quite liked Oz the Great and Powerful.

I'm the absolute opposite. Adore Return, think the others are crap.

 

[bok_party]

This comes up time and time again but whatever was there at number 1 a lot of people would claim it was a 'joke', nothing surer. If I had to make a list it's personally probably only just in my top 30 or something but it's an excellent film with broad appeal and something has to be there.

I probably only saw it within last five years and whilst I enjoyed it, seeing that it was rated the best on IMDB made me gawk.

 

[Kram]

12. Forrest Gump
40. American History X

Decent movies but hardly great.

 

[GROTTO]

12. Forrest Gump
40. American History X

Decent movies but hardly great.

Many movies I would rate better than these two. If not for the American theme in these movies, Im sure they would rate lower.

I guess everyone has biases.

I definitely rate Heat, Warrior, T2, Silence of the Lambs, Interstellar, Alien, higher than both these movies, just to name a few.

 

[GROTTO]

I don't bother with IMDB anywhere nearly as much since they got rid of the message boards.

I presume it was for legal reasons. Disappointing as there was some great discussions of movies in there.