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Top Rated Films of the New Millennium as voted by IMDb users

IMDb Best of the new Millenium list

As this decade winds to a close, the IMDb has compiled a list of the best movies since 2000 as voted by its users.

They are:

  1. The Dark Knight (2008)
  2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
  3. City of God (2002)
  4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
  5. Up (2009)
  6. Memento (2000)
  7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
  8. Wall-E (2008)
  9. Amélie (2001)
  10. The Departed (2006)
  11. The Lives of Others (2006)
  12. The Pianist (2002)
  13. Spirited Away (2001)
  14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
  15. Requiem for a Dream (2000)

Apart from Amelie, I would find it hard to leave out any of these as significant films of the past ten years although clearly some are greater than others.

Categories
Thoughts

Film Lists + IMDb Link = A Huge Jump in Traffic

So, a couple of weeks ago I posted an item on a list of ‘the greatest films of all time’ by French film magazine Cahiers Du Cinema.

It was really just a piece commenting on the films they had chosen and the fact that some observers were upset about the lack of British films on it.

However, soon after The Guardian posted two pieces on the same list – one by Marcel Berlins without any links until a commenter pointed to my post and then one by Ronald Bergan on the ‘scourge’ of the greatest film list.

Then the IMDb linked to it on their front page hit list and my traffic went into overdrive. (The page views for yesterday were 27 times over the average number for a 24 hour period).

At one point the site buckled under the pressure, but we got it back up thanks to Matt and the author of the Super Cache plugin (which helped deal with the surge in traffic).

I never expected it to be so popular but all the interest and comments shows there is still a big appetite for debating the best films ever.

Personally, I zone out a little when I see yet another list of ‘the greatest films of all time’ as it is the usual suspects that seem to dominate (Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Star Wars, The Shawshank Redemption).

Perhaps a more interesting exercise would be something like a list of more overlooked films that deserve wider publicity (Ivansxtc, Crumb, Midnight Run, Gattaca, Taxi to the Darkside and Top Secret!).

That said, there is something healthy about debating and analysing what the great films are and why they are still worth watching.

So, I’ve thought of compiling a ‘superlist’ of films you should see.

It wouldn’t be restricted to 50, 100 but would be whatever is important and worth watching. It could be a 1000, 5123 or whatever number it grows to.

The main idea is that it would grow and be debated online – a bit like the IMDb Top Movies, only it wouldn’t be restricted to 250 titles.

As great films come out every year, maybe it shouldn’t even have a fixed number.

I’ll post some more thoughts soon, but if you have any ideas on what the format should be or what films to include then let me know in the comments below.

> The post on the Cahiers List
> IMDb Top 250
> My favourite films of 2007
> Wikipedia section on Films Considered The Greatest Ever

Categories
News Random

Strange Plot Keywords at the IMDb

When you think of plot keywords for movies you might think mafia for The Godfather or drugs for Trainspotting.

But what about The Mist, last year’s adaptation of the Stephen King novella by Frank Darabont?

If you look it up on the IMDb then you might find some interesting plot keywords, in particular the phrase:

The Black Guy Dies

Now, I don’t mean to sound like a member of the politically correct police but isn’t this a little dodgy?

Futhermore isn’t it a plot spoiler, if you do get around to seeing the film?

I know you have to roll your mouse over the keywords on the front page of each entry but it still seems wrong.

This ‘plot keyword’ or phrase even has it’s own tag section which lists various films, although I’m wary of even linking to it as it contains a number of prominent films where, well…, take a guess.

Your thoughts?

[Original screenshot found via Popurls]

Categories
Interesting News

Free Full-Length Movies & TV Shows on IMDb

The Internet Movie Database, announced today that users can now watch over 6,000 full-length feature films and TV shows for free on their new video section.

Col Needham, the founder and managing director of IMDb.com, Inc. has announced:

IMDbs mission has always been to be the worlds most comprehensive, user-friendly destination for all movie, TV and celebrity-related information, products and services,

Were excited to offer our users a simple online experience to watch full-length movies and TV episodes for free. Our goal is to show our users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com.

Whilst this is obviously a logical move for the site, I imagine rights issues will mean that UK viewers won’t be able to watch a lot of the content available to US users.

Have you used it yet? Leave any comments below.

[Link via Digg]

> IMDb’s new video section
> PaidContent with more details on the shows and films screening on the site