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
This Is Spinal Tap

Hysterical pseudo-documentary about fictional heavy metal band Spinal Tap. This film actually rates an 11.
Comedy
F
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Three Godfathers

A lesser but still worthwhile John Ford-John Wayne collaboration. Filmed many times, this tale of redemption and (re)birth in the West has a little comedy, a little pathos, and a lot of sentiment. Three bank robbers on the lam across the desert discover a dying woman and her newborn baby.
Western
M
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Three Musketeers, The and The Four Musketeers

Filmed simultaneously but released a year apart, these are the most faithful adaptation of Dumas’s opus and offer nonstop action, infectious humor, and classy swordplay.
Action
A
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
To Be or Not to Be

Jack Benny’s theater troupe plays a dangerous game to aid the Polish underground. Some feel that joking about the Third Reich is tasteless; fans of the film find it funny and human.
Comedy
F
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
To Kill a Mockingbird

Seminal account of a lawyer’s attempts to combat racial prejudice in his town and raise two children to be fair and honorable.
Drama
F
ETG50
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Tootsie

A tour de force performance from Dustin Hoffman as an actor who can only get employed by auditioning in drag…then becomes a feminine role model on a soap opera.
Comedy
A
SAG100
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Top Hat

Delightful songs (e.g., “Cheek to Cheek”) and dance numbers more than compensate for the silly mistaken-identity plotline. Though Swing Time is my favorite Fred & Ginger outing, this film is probably their best-known.
Musical
F
FilmSite200
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Topper

The fun-loving and recently deceased Kerbys (Cary Grant and Constance Bennett) decide they won’t be free to shuffle off the mortal coil until they help their stuffy banker acquaintance Topper lighten up.
Comedy
R
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Treasure Island

Action
A
AFI400
Movie Genre Rating Lists
Treasure of the Sierra Madre

A study of greed and how it can wear down a man’s soul. Bogart is wonderful as Fred C. Dobbs (whom Nobody gets the better of); Walter Huston and Tim Holt are his partners in the search for gold. Contains the famous lines Badges? We ain’t got no badges. We don’t need no badges. I…

Drama
F
SAG100