Recommended Movies

Posted by Elliot

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Sure, there are lots of movie review sites. And if you’re looking up something particular, they’re a great help. But if you don’t know what to watch, you need trustworthy advice to heighten the signal/noise ratio. Welcome to etg Design’s database of worthwhile movies.

The few hundred films included focus mostly on classic movies, which today probably need a little extra help getting the attention of younger viewers. These recommendations are brought to you by Elliot and Steve Grant, longtime movie buffs who are relatively open-minded about what constitutes a good movie.

To get second opinions, you can choose to display only movies that made the AFI’s 400 nominations for Top 100 movies (62K PDF) or FilmSite.org’s 200 Greatest Films. NB: Both these lists exclude foreign films; the AFI 400 was finalized in 1996.

Steve’s list includes roughly 100 movies and also excludes foreign films. To continue the pattern of 50% greater exclusivity, Elliot’s list attempts to capture the approximately 50 most important films. Within those 50, I’ve tried to cover as many genres, cultures, eras, and themes as possible. Don’t write to me complaining about the choices—it’s subjective, it’s an impossible task, and it’ll probably change over time. Finally, the intersection of all four lists is approximately 30 movies.

(If you want a larger list, take a look at the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made.)

To display films, simply select the appropriate search criteria below. You can filter the search by genre, rating, or inclusion on the various lists mentioned above.

Movie Ratings

Movies are rated on a system devised by my movie-watching cabal based on the simple question: How much worth your time and/or money is seeing this film?

There are six levels of ratings. They’re easy to remember, and they even proceed in alphabetical order:

  1. A (Advance Showing): Some films are such must-sees that they’re worth paying extra and going out of your way to catch—as you might do for an advance (a.k.a. special sneak preview) showing.
  2. F (Full Price): A film rated Full is worth seeing on its intital run in the theaters, even though you’ll have to pay the full ticket price. It’ll be worth it.
  3. M (Matinee): Matinee movies are worth seeing in the theaters, but only if you can get a discount on the ticket price. They’re good—usually a lot of fun—but probably not worth seeing more than once.
  4. R (Rental): Rental flicks have redeeming qualities, but they’re ones you definitely won’t mind catching on video. The screen may be small, but you don’t want to pay even a matinee ticket price for this kind of film.
  5. TV: A movie that gets a TV rating isn’t worth spending any money on. If it comes on TV, you probably wouldn’t mind spending a few hours to catch it, but otherwise you can avoid it with a clear conscience.
  6. W (Worthless): This bottom category is exactly what it says. A Worthless film is one that you should skip even if it comes on TV and you have nothing better to do.

Recommended Movies

Movie Genre Rating Lists
…And Justice for All

Not to everyone’s taste, but worth a look just once for its forceful indictment of a justice system riddled with problems. Ignore Pacino’s over-the-top performance.
Drama
M
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
12 Angry Men

Searing examination of the real meaning of innocent until proven guilty. Henry Fonda battles 11 other jurors in a search for truth and justice.
Drama
A
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
2001: A Space Odyssey

See it on the big screen if at all possible. Then go beyond the obvious plot of a computer-controlled mutiny in space to explore the questions of human origin and our destiny in the cosmos.
SciFi
A
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
3 Days of the Condor

Robert Redford accidentally survives the execution of his entire office—an obscure government branch paid to read books. Now he must stay alive long enough to figure out what information is worth killing for.
Mystery
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
39 Steps, The

Robert Donat’s life is turned upside-down when a mysterious spy is murdered in his apartment. On the run from both the police and enemy agents, he must uncover the secret of the 39 steps to survive…
Mystery
A
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Adventures of Robin Hood, The

Errol Flynn only! Simply the best costume epic ever: stars, direction, script, and music all come together perfectly in glorious Technicolor.
Action
A
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
African Queen, The

Bogart and Hepburn as unlikely lovers who travel up the Congo in wild hopes of torpedoing a German gunner during WW I.
Comedy
A
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Airplane!

One of the funniest movies ever for its barrage of sight gags, bad puns, and sick humor.
Comedy
A
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Alien and Aliens

I might just give Aliens (1986) an A for an excellent job raising the stakes while injecting some tension-breaking humor. Both deliver nail-biting human vs. monster battles. I didn’t like Alien3 and skipped Alien Resurrection entirely.
SciFi
F
FilmSite200
Movie Genre Rating Lists
All About Eve

THE film about the American theater. Great performances all around, esp. by George Sanders, with Bette Davis, Gary Merrill, Anne Baxter, and a very young Marilyn Monroe. Has Davis’s classic line: Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy evening.
Drama
A
SAG100