I just went through and put all my DVDs in an excel spreadsheet. I have a nice collection of DVDs. It is not a large collection but it keeps me happy. Just for fun I decided that I would go through to find out just how many I own that I have not gotten around to seeing at least once.
If your interested you can check out the 131 DVDs I own that I’ve never seen below the cut. Am I only one who collects DVDs and never watches them. Feel free to post your list of DVDs that you haven’t watched in the comments.
Also, the family is going on a trip for a couple of days next week. Let me know which ones I should watch. I think its about time I play catch up.
2046
2 Days in the Valley
2001: A Space Odyssey
21 Grams
3-Iron
Adaptation
American Splendor
Amityville Horror, The
Angel: Season 1
Audition
Bad Education
Besieged City
Better Tomorrow 2, A
Better Tomorrow 3, A
Big Red One: The Reconstruction, The
Birth
Blind Mountain
Blow Out
Body Heat
Bonnie and Clyde
Boogie Nights
Breath
Brokeback Mountain
Brothers
Bullet & Brain
Carnage
Carrie
Casino
Catch-22
Children of Huang Shi, The
Chumscrubber, The
Cinema Paradiso
City of Violence, The
Classic Alfred Hitchcock
Clean
Code 46
Colour of Loyalty
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Crash
Crossing Guard, The
Dances with Wolves
Dead Calm
Death Note
Death Note: Dead or Alive
Death of Mr. Lazaresu, The
Descent
Devilman
Dog Bite Dog
Dogville
Eat Drink Man Woman
Eight Men Out
Election
Elizabeth
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Eye of the Needle
Falcon and the Snowman, The
Fallen Angels
Fast Company
Fatal Move
Fate
Fitzcarraldo
Five Easy Pieces
For Your Consideration
French Connection 2, The
Funky Forest
Ghost World
Girl from Monday, The
GP506
Grave of the Fireflies
Hair Extensions
Heavenly Creatures
Heavenly Mission
Hoax, The
Hotel New Hampshire, The
Hour of the Wolf
Hua Hua Xing Jing (Playboy Cops)
Ice Storm, The
In the Bedroom
Intermission
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Karas: The Prophecy
Karas: The Revelation
L Change the World
Ladykillers, The
Living and the Dead, The
Long Goodbye, The
Magnolia
Man from Earth, The
Manderlay
Master with the Cracked Fingers
Mean Season, The
Millennium Season 2
Millennium Season 3
Mob story, A
Moon Child
Morvern Caller
Network
New Fist of Fury
Office: The Complete First Series, The
Office: The Complete Second Series, The
Once Upon a Time in China
Overnight
Painted Veil, The
Panic Room
Passion of Anna, The
Patton
Platoon
Prairie Home Companion, A
Raging Bull
Renaissance: Paris 2054
Return
Road Games
Satyricon
Science of Sleep, The
Seven Swords
Shame
Solaris
Spider
Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures
State and Main
Station Agent, The
Suspect Muroi Shinji, The
Sweet Sixteen
Talk to Me
The Knot
Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon
Twilight Samurai, The
United 93
Vie en Rose, La
Wall Street
Zulu
Here’s a quick Top 10 for you:
Cinema Paradiso
Raging Bull
A Prairie Home Companion
Fitzcarraldo
Patton
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
2001: A Space Odyssey
Boogie Nights
Dances With Wolves
Brokeback Mountain
Now I’m wanting to make a similar list…
Hi John,
First time commenting, so I want to start by saying that I enjoy your posts… I’m relieved to hear that I’m not the only one who buys dvd’s & doesn’t watch them. I’ve received quite a bit of flack for this habit. Your list is around the same size as my own & yours includes a number of them that are on mine too, but I just haven’t taken the time to catalog them. You’ve inspired me to do so! Thanks! I’ll post mine if I get time to do it soon…
I have a few recommendations for you… Depending on your mood (my film viewing is highly dependant on my current mood… & it varies greatly)…
I enjoyed The Descent (one of the better horror movies in a while).
Once Upon A Time In China is a great kung fu film (if you’re into the genre) but the second one is better…
Within that same group, Seven Swords was highly enjoyable… But again, sometimes you have to be in the right frame of mind to watch kung fu movies. I happen to love them.
Other than that, if you want a laugh, The Office is great. Not sure if you’re talking about the English or American versions. Both are good, but I happen to prefer the American version. Not because I don’t like british humor (I’d kill to get my hands on a region 1 copy of the complete Filthy, Rich, & Catflap series), but because I think the cast is better, & the writing is slightly better.
If it’s drama you’re after, then 2046 (can you tell I like chinese cinema?) is quite good. Also The Ice Storm will take care of that need.
I also just wanted to note that you have some obscure titles on your list… I’m glad I’m not alone in buying movies nobody else has ever heard of…
Enjoy!
Adaptation and In the Berdroom are required viewing.
Heh. I’d say that I’ve probably not watched about 10% of my collection. A collection that is pushing 700. Yie.
Oh, and nothing says Family Trip like GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES.
You should seriously catch up on your Samantha Morton: Movern Callar and Code 46 are favourites.
@rot. I thought much of In The Bedroom was hamfisted (I’m more partial to THE DEEP END for that story). I thought Todd Field fixed nearly all the issues I had with In The Bedroom (the tortured liberal wish fulfillment for starters) with Little Children, a film we both agree on.
Obviously you need to watch Raging Bull, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Five Easy Pieces first. Nobody considering themselves a movie buff can NOT have seen these!!!
These are must watches too:
Twilight Samurai, The
Boogie Nights
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Platoon
You’re not alone, I have a small collection of movies I’ve picked up for one reason or another and have yet to see.
In addition to the ones already mentioned, I’d add The Hoax and Spider to the watch list – and I second Code 46.
@Joseph: Wow, putting A Prairie Home Companion in with the rest of those. It just seems out of place… but I haven’t seen it so I could be totally wrong.
@fallingbeside: Welcome aboard. The Descent that I haven’t seen is actually the one with Rosario Dawson. I’m a big fan of Neil Marshall’s movies (except Doomsday which just pisses me off).
The Office is the British one and for some reason when I started watching it I felt it was just too nasty which is strange because usually nasty humour doesn’t bother me at all.
A bunch of the obscure ones are probably Asian.
@Kurt: Grave of the Fireflies is on the list. Perhaps I’ll go rent Sweet Hereafter this week and get through both of them at once although that would probably turn me into a weeping pool if I did that.
Oh and damn straight on Little Children!
@Murph: heheh I do consider myself a movie buff but I also consider myself reasonable enough to say that I’ll never see everything that a “movie buff” should see. There are just too many good movies out there.
@Marina: I was hoping that Spider would have ended up on the Cronenburg list for the podcast but it didn’t so I’ll probably watch it before the recap podcast of all Cronenburg movies.
So you have bought 131 movies that you have never seen? What if you don’t like any of them? That just seems like a potentially huge waste of money.
I have watched In the Bedroom four or five times, it is as close to perfect as a film gets. We tend to agree of these kinds of films Kurt but I guess this is an anomaly. How many times have you seen it? Perhaps you watched it incorrectly
there is nothing hamfisted about it, so much is left unsaid in the film, there are no long expositions about life and death, there is very believable characters grieving in their own ways and wrestling with harsh realities they were not prepared for. Even the dynamic of the killing is unconventional, without giving anything away, its a domino effect of relationships that goes beyond anything in the Deep End. I love Little Children but In the Bedroom is a very close second.
@Matt: LOL I suppose it would but wouldn’t heading out and seeing them in the theatre have been just as huge waste of money. They are all movies that I want to see but just haven’t found the time. Its not like I head out to the store and just buy random movies.
If ever a post calls for cursing, it’s this one. Holy fuck. I own quite a few movies I’ve not seen, but not nearly as many as you – and not nearly as many masterpieces.
Knowing your penchant for Asian: 2046 and 3-Iron are must sees. You’ll probably like Audition a whole lot too.
Some of my ALL-TIME favs are on this list:
Cinema Paradiso
Boogie Nights (WATCH THIS NOW!!)
United 93 (best film of 2006 – right behind Little Children)
American Splendor
Adaptation
Election (funny enough, Chris Klein takes the cake here)
Wall Street
And everyone should try to see all the Oscar winners from their lifetime:
Crash (don’t listen to the haters. A bit hamfisted, but a quality movie)
Dances with Wolves
Here’s a small list I would blow off for now:
Funky Forest
Brokeback
Chumscrubber
Le Vie en Rose
Renaissance: Paris 2054
Ladykillers
Panic Room
Dead Calm
In short, run away from home for a week and come back to me when you’ve seen a PT Anderson movie. Fuck;, Boogie Nights is a spectacular film.
I found Code 46 to be quite awful (sorry!). When I described it to other people, they were like, “It sounds really interesting…,” and yes, the concepts were interesting but it wasn’t very well made. And it has the most awkward sex scene I’ve ever seen (Tim Robbins’ POV of an extreme close-up of Morton’s face) that seriously lasts five minutes. I had to speed it up in order to get through it. So, so awkward.
And 2001 and Adaptation really are must-sees. I’m not saying that because I’m Roger Ebert; I’m saying that because they’re truly brilliant. Adaptation has my favorite script of all time (and the only performance by Nicolas Cage I can stomach). It’s multi-dimensional and the ironic allegories are extremely well stitched together. (Charlie Kauffman wants to write a script without drugs, sex, or violence… and yet…) And 2001 will completely change the way you understand the science fiction genre. (It could also potentially ruin Star Wars for you. George Lucas is a master appropriator.) I can honestly say that there isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of a scene or a moment or a character from this film. Still shots. Musical scores. HAL (the greatest character ever). But perhaps that says more about me than it does about the movie… but still, you should really watch it.
Wow, this is a mammoth list! I actually only have one DVD that I’ve not seen (and will this weekend). I don’t buy them that often so once I get home I try to quickly but gingerly open the freaking plastic & sticker-y packaging and stick that sucker in the DVD player!
I have a few films on VHS that I haven’t seen though, heh.
Out of the list the ones I’d say to watch (from a happy-surprize point of view) are:
Birth
The Descent
Seven Swords
Solaris
The Station Agent
Oh, I’m jealous you have Sweet Sixteen – I’ve missed that film twice now! I didn’t know it was even available here.
@Sara Awesome: I started watching 2001 and was blown away by what I was watching. Unfortunately I was watching it for the podcast and then realized I was watching the wrong movie so I had to quit. I just haven’t gotten back to it yet.
I picked up Sweet Sixteen for 5 bucks when Rogers Video had a sale on used DVDs. Most of my DVDs are previously viewed. I very rarely buy anything new anymore. I just can’t justify 20+ bucks for a DVD.
I think I’ll put up a post on Monday with the list of movies I’m going to watch based on everyone’s comments here. I should be able to get through 2-3 each night for the two nights.
Boogie Nights
United 93
Raging Bull is the big, big must watch on there in my opinion.
I’m going to second The Twilight Samurai too. I might put it in a Top Ten of the Decade, if I were to attempt such a list.
Indeed Jonathan. Raging Bull actually lives up to its decades of hype. Great film.
Code 46 is great precisely because it is awkward, earthy, cold, steely, distant and disconnected, it is kinda the point of the narrative. It’s a film that really gets better with subsequent viewing. I’m tempted to label it Winterbottom’s best film, and I’m a big fan of his Steve Coogan flicks: 24 Hour Party People and Tristram Shandy, but Code 46 was a bit of a revelation to me.
What Kurt said about Code 46. Seems like a cheap way out but he said it all right there.
“everyone should try to see all the Oscar winners from their lifetime”
I’ll just assume that by ‘everyone’ you mean ‘all americans’. If this is the case, all that is needed is some consciousnessraising. If you seriously believe that everybody *should* watch the american award winners, you’re stupid. All other nations have their awards too you know, maybe people would want to start there, rather than go to hollywood right away. It definitely would seem more appropriate.
As for the list, it is 2001 and it is The Office.
I have a few I haven’t watched because of the fact they are universally stated to be utter crap (Legally Blonde 2 is an example; oi, don’t laugh!:P)
Others I own, want to see but just have’t gotten around to it:
Open Range
The Long Good Friday
Letters from Iwo Jima
Collateral Damage
Gandhi
It
Salem’s Lot
Time Bandits
@John,
Wow, there is a lot of required viewing you have in that last (are all of those ones you haven’t seen or just you haven’t watched them since you bought the DVD?). Imo the must-sees are:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Audition
Bonnie and Clyde
Boogie Nights
Magnolia
Raging Bull
United 93
Have to agree with Henrik’s blunt statement on the Oscars. No doubt there are some great films on the list, but some of them are terrible. There are better lists to follow – for example the Sight and Sound Polls or even Criterion’s catalogue is a much better guide than the Oscars.
The Oscars, like many lists, are a good starting point. I used to try and see everything but know I won’t like them all. They nominations for best foreign are great ones to add to lists and the rest well, some are good to see (if current) just to know the pulse of the (American/popular) film world.
I realized I had more unseen DVDs than I though… Les Boys and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin. Hopefully I’ll get to those soon.
I hope you enjoy the ones you pick John!
Call in sick and see them all. Otherwise, send me the Asian titles that I haven’t seen and I’ll write about them. Priority one recommendations are Bonnie & Clyde, Raging Bull, 2001, Passion of Anna, Big Red One. I also am a fan of Kim Ki-duk, but that is a more personal choice. The top films are based on being great films by generally acknowledged great directors.
Can’t add too much to what’s been suggested above as must-sees (Bonnie and Clyde, Boogie Nights, Raging Bull, 2001, Magnolia, Cinema Paradiso and Patton are definitely at the top of that list). Others, like In The Bedroom and Adaptation, are also films mentioned above that I would strongly recommend.
Some others I’ve seen and enjoyed are:
Carrie
Eight Men Out
Ghost World
Grave of the Fireflies
Heavenly Creatures
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Morvern Callar
The Station Agent
Zulu
Last time I checked the Oscars had a foreign language category. And for the most part, they are fantastic films – as are the regular nominees.
Secondly Henrik, is it that improbable that an American made film is good? Just because I like “Kramer vs Kramer” or “Dances with Wolves,” I must be ethnocentric right? I only consider those films to be worthy of watching because they won the Oscar right? Meanwhile, you’re as hypocritical and ethnocentric as they come.
At any rate, mostly I just think it’s not a bad idea to watch all the Oscar winners as they are important movies to have knowledge about when discussing film. Is it really that difficult to watch 30 movies that were Oscar winners? Especially since in all likelihood you’ve already seen most of them? Not necessarily because they are the pinnacle of cinema for their year, but because it’s a big part of being a movie fan. If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain and Crash, isn’t it a bit difficult to discuss cinema of 2005 in general? And as Shannon said, it’s a great place to start. It’s a quick and easy way to fill holes in your “movie watch-ography.”
And for the record, the best movie I’ve seen in about 18 months is “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days;” which is Romanian.
I suppose it would but wouldn’t heading out and seeing them in the theatre have been just as huge waste of money
DVD’s are anywhere from 2x to 4x as much as going to see a movie in the theater. I can probably count the number of movies I have bought without ever watching them on one hand.
Not to mention, if you get into the habit of simply buying movies instead of watching them in the theater you are watching them in a lesser setting. Which is dumb.
I’m not saying the oscars don’t at times select good movies, I just take issue with your statement that “everybody should” make an effort to watch the winners. I might as well go on here and say that “everybody should” make an effort to watch all of the Bodil winners of their lifetime. But I don’t say stuff like that, for some reason.
“If you haven’t seen Brokeback Mountain and Crash, isn’t it a bit difficult to discuss cinema of 2005 in general?”
Not if you perceive America as a country, instead of the centrepiece of existence and artistic interest.
Boogie Nights
As much as I want to have 2 nights of movies I have decided to spend the time working on the TIFF section. I’m hoping to add in around 50+ movies to it within the next couple of days.
If I burn out later in the evening I think I’ll do a PT Anderson fest with Magnolia and Boogie Nights.
I watched half an hour of Prairie Home Companion today before turning it off. Watched it mostly because of the PT Anderson connection to that film. I have come to the conclusion I simply fucking hate Robert Altman.
All his films look fantastic, but I have never been into a single one of his characters, ever. And its bizarre considering how much talking they do, you’d think I’d find something to latch onto like I do with Linklaters dialogue heavy films of seemingly idle chatter, but it has just never happened.
As it is listening to Streep and Tomlin backstage to me is as painful as actively listening to another persons conversation while at a restaurant. “Oh yanno Jim’s boy, he’s in trouble these days.” “Oh ya” “Yah, seems he brought the Johnsons car home with only a quarter tank of gas left” “Aw geez”
It drives me up the goddamn wall. So many directors can pull me into a world I’d otherwise have no interest in, but Altman leaves me as an outside disconnected observer to a bunch of boring boring people. And maybe that great visual style is the disconnect. Maybe if it were more Maysles ish verite I could connect, but I can’t.
Didn’t finish thus no rating.
A Prarie Home Companion is a fabulous film, it’s Altman self-eulogizing himself before he passed on. You’re insane if you don’t watch it to the end. Great film.
Goon, watch Altman’s work before he started doing shots of ‘a bunch of conversations at once’
McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, California Split, 3 Women. etc. etc.
Altman films I have seen in full:
Gosford Park, Pret-a-Porter, Short Cuts, The Player, Popeye
I didnt mind Gosford Park but one thing I can say about all of them is I no longer remember a thing about any of them other than even the best of those was mostly boring.
Consider me insane then. I aint finishing Prairie… – it was boring and I didn’t like the music.