An Explanation of James' Movie Rating Scheme

5 -- Visionary; originality in every department
4 -- Solidly crafted, well-executed
3 -- Good work, average, not very interesting
2 -- Nice try, many flaws
1 -- Bottom of the barrel, but not completely bad
0 -- Absurd; actively stupid; completely pointless

I rate on a scale from zero to five, and 5/5 is just as rare as 0/5. I'll give a 4/5 to any movie that is extremely well put together and hard to accuse of any real flaws (such as Apollo 13), but I reserve my highest rating for a movie that has a stunning moment of genius in it somewhere. That can include almost any kind of attribute, from the nuanced ending of The Seven Samurai to the confidently-presented layers of reality in American Splendor.

5/5 Movies (alphabetical within year)

• Broken Blossoms (1916)
• Metropolis (1926)
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (1926)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
• M (1930)
• King Kong (1933)
• The 39 Steps (1935)
• You Can't Take It With You (1938)
• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Sullivan's Travels (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
• Ikiru (1952)
• Rear Window (1954)
• The Seven Samurai (1954)
• The Killing (1956)
• The 400 Blows (1959)
• Paths of Glory (1959)
• Ivan's Childhood (1962)
• Sanjuro (1962)
• Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
• The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (1966)
• Seconds (1966)
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
• The Wild Bunch (1968)
• Patton (1970)
• The Andromeda Strain (1972)
• Fellini's Roma (1972)
• Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Alien (1979)
• The Black Stallion (1979)
• Raging Bull (1980)
• Blade Runner (1983)
• The Dead Zone (1983)
• Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
• Blood Simple (1984)
• The Brother From Another Planet (1984)
• The Killing Fields (1984)
• The Terminator (1984)
• Brazil (1985)
• The Quiet Earth (1985)
• Aliens (1986)
• Matewan (1987)
• Akira (1988)
• Eight Men Out (1988)
• Powaqqatsi (1988)
• Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)
• The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1989)
• Roger & Me (1989)
• Tremors (1989)
• Jesus of Montreal (1990)
• Delicatessen (1991)
• The Fisher King (1991)
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1991)
• Thelma & Louise (1991)
• Aladdin (1992)
• Baraka (1992)
• Gas Food Lodging (1992)
• Blue (1993)
• Dave (1993)
• Faraway, So Close (1993)
• The Fugitive (1993)
• Schindler's List (1993)
• Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)
• Before the Rain (1994)
• The Mask (1994)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1994)
• Babe (1995)
• The City of Lost Children (1995)
• Dead Man Walking (1995)
• Il Postino (1995)
• Seven (1995)
• The Usual Suspects (1995)
• Flirting With Disaster (1996)
• Gabbeh (1996)
• Hamlet (1996)
• Kolya (1996)
• Secrets & Lies (1996)
• Shine (1996)
• 12 Monkeys (1996)
• Eve's Bayou (1997)
• The Full Monty (1997)
• Kundun (1997)
• Princess Mononoke (1997)
• The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
• Ulee's Gold (1997)
• Dark City (1998)
• Earth (1998)
• Elizabeth (1998)
• Last Night (1998)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• American Beauty (1999)
• Being John Malkovich (1999)
• The Limey (1999)
• The Straight Story (1999)
• Toy Story 2 (1999)
• Best in Show (2000)
• Chicken Run (2000)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
• Election (2000)
• Amelie (2001)
• Atanarjuat (2001)
• Donnie Darko (2001)
• Ghost World (2001)
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• Last Orders (2002)
• Spirited Away (2002)
• Whale Rider (2002)
• American Splendor (2003)
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• Super Size Me (2004)
• Touching the Void (2004)
• The Constant Gardener (2005)
• Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)

My favourite movie is a pick that rotates between several choices: Kolya, The Sweet Hereafter, Ikiru, The Seven Samurai and Last Orders.

Last modified: November 20, 2005

Copyright © 1998-2005 by James Schellenberg