Global Recap (February 2, 2015)

It's been about two months since I started this project. Amazingly... I am still doing it!

There are 520 total films in the data set, including the 2014 nominees. Including films seen before the start of the project, I have seen and ranked 156.25 films and have 363.75 left to go. (The decimals are for Shakespeare in Love, where, so far, I have only been able to watch in roughly 30-minute increments before totally losing my will to live.)

Of the 156 movies seen, my average rating is 7.1. The lowest-ranked movie is Love Story (1970) at 3.2, and the highest is L.A. Confidential (1997) at 9.8.

Here is my Top 20 as of February 2, 2015:

Rank	Title	Year	Result	Thoughts	Rating
1	L.A. Confidential	1997	Nominated	By far the best movie of the year and one of my all-time favorites.	9.8
Tie 2	The Godfather	1972	Won	A film that is bigger than film, totally engrossing in every way.	9.7
Tie 2	Fargo	1996	Nominated	One of the most perfect movies. There will never be another "Fargo."	9.7
Tie 4	The Godfather Part II	1974	Won	Like its predecessor, an absolute clinic in filmmaking, though now I find the "modern day" segments harder to sit through.	9.5
Tie 4	There Will Be Blood	2007	Nominated	Despite my Coen's allegience, I still maintain that this was the best film of the year. Sheer brilliance in character development and visual/technical style.	9.5
Tie 6	Shane	1953	Nominated	The best American-directed Western I have ever seen. Cleverly presents familiar Western themes through the child's perspective and explains only as much as necessary. Beautifully shot.	9.4
Tie 6	Lawrence of Arabia	1962	Won	A timeless movie. The scale and artistry are as impressive today as they must have been when released. O'Toole's and Omar Sharif's performances are two of my favorite in any film ever made.	9.4
Tie 8	West Side Story	1961	Won	Wow! Some of the acting was spotty, but the music and choreography is as good as advertised. This is a movie I'll watch over and over again.	9.3
Tie 8	Pulp Fiction	1994	Nominated	This is probably the most important film of the year and one of the most important films of my life. Still highly watchable.	9.3
10	Barry Lyndon	1975	Nominated	To me, this is the most underrated Kubrick film. One of the most carefully crafted movies, visually, I've ever seen. Surprisingly funny, in an underhanded way.	9.2
11	Amadeus	1984	Won	Another one of my favorite films -- gives us interesting period-piece eye and ear candy and funny and multi-dimensional characters.	9.1
12	Apocalypse Now	1979	Nominated	My favorite Vietnam movie, though I prefer the original cut over all "redux" versions.	9.0
Tie 13	Dr. Strangelove	1964	Nominated	The most important film for this year, still as funny today as it ever was.	8.9
Tie 13	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	Won	Still the most spectacularly epic film I've seen other than Lawrence of Arabia.	8.9
14	The French Connection	1971	Won	A one-of-a-kind, enduring, brutally honest, nihilistic crime thriller with the best car chase scene ever in a movie.	8.7
Tie 15	Marty	1955	Won	Brilliantly written with original, believable characters.	8.6
Tie 15	Star Wars	1977	Nominated	Seems odd to encapsulte my feelings about "Star Wars" in one sentence, so I will not try.	8.6
Tie 15	Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	2000	Nominated	Ages gracefully and probably includes the best fight choreography of any movie on this list.	8.6
Tie 15	The Remains of the Day	1993	Nominated	What a year 1993 was. This movie has grown on me over time. I love Anthony Hopkins' character and the shifting period narrative. "Downton Abbey" does not exist without this movie.	8.6
Tie 15	Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	Nominated	Easily the most important film from this year. Remains the modern action-adventure standard. I love this film.	8.6

(Oops -- My update on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is coming soon. If you can't tell from above ...... I liked it very much.)

The Google document where I am tabulating data can be found here.

There are no films from 2009 in my Top 20