IMDb.com was one of the first websites I remember surfing regularly with the proliferation of the world wide web around 1994. Consequently, it remains, along with eBay, one of the very few sites on which I still use an old screenname and password combo. Also, a large number of the 112 movies I’ve rated have outdated votes. While a film critic may try to render an opinion upon seeing a film for the first time that will stand the test of time, a lot of the votes I recorded were cast in-the-moment. If I had laughed my ass off, I might have given a comedy an 8, even though, in retrospect, it may have been a 5 or 6. Similarly, a drama that really struck a chord at the time might have been ranked a couple of notches higher than it deserved.
But, then again, I’ve always recognized a clear distinction between my enjoyment of a film and my appreciation of a film. I have a friend who will assert that a universally-acclaimed film is “horrible”, not with regard to the merits of its acting, writing, directing, or other technical merits, but as an absolute matter of fact. Unfortunately, it’s basically impossible to have a constructive conversation about movies with him.
Anyway, a dozen years and an Amazon.com-acquisition later, IMDB now allows you to publicly share your personal movie ratings. Maybe they’ve allowed this for years; I’ve just discovered this, in any event.
Now I’ve publicly shared this, I’ll probably move quickly to revise a lot of these votes.
I’ll also move quickly to establish a related list of “Toastie’s Favorite Movies”, as I realized that I’ve always been a big fan of lists, but this site lacks lists. What better way to define one’s self without forcing someone to read rambling narratives than to offer up a dizzying smorgasbord of lists!
Just for the record, before I start revising, these are the films that, at least at some point in time, I considered worthy of a 10/10 rating:
American Beauty (1999)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Braveheart (1995)
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Parenthood (1989)
Schindler’s List (1993)
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Titanic (1997)
When Harry Met Sally… (1989)
…
EDIT – So upon a quick perusal of my list, I don’t see any need to re-rate anything. I think I probably have gone through periodically over the years and re-calibrated my votes. If anything, I’ll probably just go crazy with movie ratings for the next few minutes, hours, or days. Surely, I’ve seen more than 112 films in my lifetime.
…
EDIT – Ok, so there have been a couple of universally-acclaimed films that I have HATED. Like Pulp Fiction and The Matrix. I’ll have to contemplate whether or not I leave my ratings for them at ’2′. I think I’ve only rated them so low as a counterweight to all those ridiculous 10′s.
