My Big Movie Database

About four years ago or so (in my pre-blog days) I made a list of movies. It was one of my many 'idle-time' projects, and I was being the obsessive compulsive data analyst that I can often be. I made a list of movies that I thought were good viewing and sorted them into three categories - 'must see', 'likeable but not must see', and 'watch if playing on TV'.

To cut the expectedly long story short, a few recent discussions and the 'geekify Kirti' campaign made me think of this long forgotten Excel workbook, and I thought to update it. To my chagrin, I did not have a copy any more! So I wrote to some people that I had sent it to all that time ago, and it turned out one of them was still using it to come up with DVD recommendations. So she came to the rescue and sent me a copy (Thanks Richa!)

As you can no doubt tell from the pie chart, I've spent some part of the last few days updating it...

It is now a list of 532 English movies, sorted into a five point rating system (1 to 5). It includes 144 movies that I would like to see (18 are as yet unreleased) taking the number of records in the list to 676. The ratings have the following meanings assigned to them:

1 - My 50 movie hall-of-fame; essential viewing for any film buff.
2 - Almost-made-it movies. Must see for movie geek status.
3 - Good viewing; not in contention for the hall of fame.
4 - Flawed movies; break your heart for how much better they could've been.
5 - Movies that should never have been made.
N - This film is not yet rated ;)

The list of movies rated 5 includes some real stinkers whose directors deserve rehab at a monastery to reflect on the doodoo they've subjected the world to. This is really for the sake of completeness or just to express my frustration with them ;)

Caveats: The list and the ratings will always be work in progress, as I hope to keep updating them as time passes. The whole thing is colored by my preferences and ignorances and so on (of course). You will undoubtedly notice my bent toward things fantastic or more recent movies; or the fact that popular and 'art' cinema are gauged on the same meter; or that for someone who rates movies with impunity, I have a HUGE list of movies I haven't seen (and therefore not rated), some of which are must see for any movie buff...

But hey! I'm not trying to pull a Roger Ebert here - just hoping to catalogue a hobby and in the process share a few recommendations with you, is all. And besides, as someone said, we are all slaves to our circumstance. So think of this as recommendations from a standard phoren based desi IT employee who awoke to cinema in the wee years of the 20th century.

(Some would like me to come up with a similar database of Bollywood movies - but I honestly couldn't be bothered. Let me know if you feel like making one. I'll be happy to publish it for you.)

And by the way, I took this opportunity to fiddle around with Google Docs and have published the spreadsheet using that fine service (I'm quite impressed).

So without much further ado, you can click here to view the database with auto-filters set via Google Docs.

If instead you'd like to export the data for offline viewing or analysis, you can use this link to view the spreadsheet. If you cannot figure out how to export the data for offline viewing/ analysis, write to me and I might be magnanimous enough to send it to you :)

And (drumroll!) a list of my top 50 movies (in alphabetic order):

1. 300
2. A Scanner Darkly
3. American Beauty
4. Back to the Future: 2
5. Batman Begins
6. Before Sunrise
7. Before Sunset
8. Ben Hur
9. Bourne Ultimatum, The
10. Casablanca
11. Cast Away
12. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
13. Children of Men
14. Dead Poet's Society, The
15. Die Hard
16. E.T - The Extra Terrestrial
17. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
18. Godfather, The
19. Godfather: Part Two
20. Good Will Hunting
21. Guns of Navarone, The
22. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban
23. Home Alone
24. Independence Day
25. Inherit The Wind
26. Inside Man, The
27. Lord Of the Rings: Fellowship Of the Ring
28. Lord Of the Rings: Return of the King
29. Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers
30. Mask, The
31. Matrix, The
32. Mission: Impossible
33. Ocean's Eleven
34. One Fine Day
35. Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
36. Pulp Fiction
37. Rambo: First Blood
38. Reality Bites
39. Shawshank Redemption, The
40. Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back
41. Superman
42. Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut
43. The Usual Suspects
44. To Kill A Mockingbird
45. Truman Show, The
46. Unforgiven, The
47. Untouchables, The
48. Wall Street
49. What Dreams May Come
50. Where Eagles Dare

Peace... Out!