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 . . .