Sunday 12 December 2010

50 Movies in 20 Days


I have set myself an epic challenge! [See Heading]

So, what’s it all for?

Well, I’m a bit of a download junkie when it comes to movies, so much so that I’ve amassed a backlog of over 400 movies – that’s 400 movies I have but have never seen! To justify the greed I have set myself the challenge of selecting 50 of these movies to watch in the upcoming 20 days I have off work – Dec 15th to Jan 3rd.

Lunacy? Maybe.

I sincerely hope that the hours spent watching all of these films during the busiest time of the year will prove to be less taxing than it’s been selecting ‘The Final 50’.

The first cut was the deepest (and easiest). I scrolled through 400 plus files and was able to generate a shortlist of 125 movies – piece of cake. The next stage however was a drawn out process which lasted 7 days and involved me going over the list again and again and again, cutting movies bit by arduous bit.

I had to seek guidance in the form of friends, of family, of colleagues, and of Twitter. Unwanted recommendations were put forward, suggestions were made of what to cut, and movies were reinstated as the list fluctuated, ebbed and flowed into The Final 50 below.

It may not have been so difficult if there was a theme or bar of standard, however I wanted The Final 50 to be a movie mash up, bringing together the good, the bad and the dreadfully ugly.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, The Final 50:





  1. 10 Items or Less
  2. 17 Again
  3. A Beautiful Mind
  4. A Simple Plan
  5. Arlington Road
  6. Aviator
  7. Beauty Shop
  8. Black Dynamite
  9. Bulworth
  10. Casualties of War
  11. Chicken Run
  12. Chopper
  13. Citizen Kane
  14. Cool as Ice
  15. Coraline
  16. Dead Poets Society
  17. Dorian Gray
  18. Dream Girls
  19. Driven to Kill
  20. Good Will Hunting
  21. Gridlock’d
  22. Invictus
  23. Jennifer’s Body
  24. Kids
  25. Lakeview Terrace
  26. Lost in Translation
  27. Love & Basketball
  28. Magnolia
  29. Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus
  30. Mirrors
  31. Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
  32. Notorious
  33. Pan’s Labyrinth
  34. Raising Arizona
  35. Rescue Dawn
  36. Rise of the Footsoldier
  37. Schindler’s List
  38. Skarktopus
  39. Spanglish
  40. Stir of Echoes
  41. Stomp the Yard 2: Homecoming
  42. Superman Returns
  43. The Box
  44. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  45. The Devil Wears Prada
  46. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  47. The Hunchback of Notre Dame
  48. The Shining
  49. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
  50. You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger

It’s not for charity; however donations towards popcorn, nachos, hot dogs and slush puppies would be greatly appreciated.

You can follow me on Twitter and find out how I get on with #50MoviesIn20Days.

A to the . . .