Since (almost) all of our list are dominated by movies that are highly (or at least averagely) rated on average by people, it's time to deviate from that and see which lowly rated movies we like the most.
Eligibility rules for this one are simple and clear. After a poll and some dissucion I have decided that to be eligible a movie has to have a rating of 5.9 or lower on IMDb at the moment I download the lists. To be clear "5.9 or lower" = <6.0 = ≤5.9 = "less than 6.0" = "less than or equal to 5.9".
If you all behave and be nice I will also do a quick separate countdown and list for 5.4 or lower
DEADLINE = 4 February 2022
IMDb- or iCM-lists are accepted. (If you can't make one of those, ask another user to help you out.)
Lists can be any length.
Shorts, mini-series and TV-episodes from anthology series where the episodes are unrelated, are allowed. Tv-series aren't allowed.* *A mini-series is 16 episodes or less, not multiple seasons, and not planned to be longer but canceled, and is intended as a single unified work and not episodic.
Each nominee can only be named once (of course)
Lists can be ranked or unranked or partially-ranked. In a partially-ranked list, the top X films are ranked and everything after that point is unranked. When not specified I will consider a list as ranked.
Please check if your list is stated, ordered and linked correctly. And is set to public. For iCM lists you can also set it to "Friends" and befriend me. You can edit your list until the deadline. But don't edit your post, but make a new post or notify me when you changed your ranking method or the link.
Last edited by Lonewolf2003 on February 5th, 2022, 11:37 am, edited 4 times in total.
Do I have to make a separate list for 5.9 or lower and 5.4 or lower, or just put them together... I have an IMDb account, just no ratings, but I can easily use mightysparks spreadsheet to know which are below 5.9 (however it's possible that some films their ratings in the meantime are changed, but I can quickly check 6.0 for that), and i don't think i have many 6.0 or lower favs in recent years (and it is easy to quickly go over the ones that aren't on their spreadsheet).
Is there an easy way to generate this based on an ICM list (I can export it, but no IMDb scores in the export it seems)?
I can easily get the films from the IMDb export, but then I'd have to rerank them manually, which sounds like a drag.
Decided to get to this one early, because I finally made the STARTLING realization that if I posted mine early on, others might look at it and it might, just might influence theirs a tiny bit, at least make them recall long-forgotten titles. Not sure why that never occurs to me other than my being a dumbass. I will probably re-work the top 40 somewhat though the top 10-15 looks pretty solid right now.
Anyway, I do have some "so bad it's good" titles - 12 or 15 or so, with 3 Ed Wood films and Neil Breen's filmography taking pride of place. Also just over 1/4 of the list are shorts - I suspect most of those are lost causes, but fuck it, if other people are such losers as to not skip these important parts of history, it's really their loss Anyway looking at the whole big list of stuff I'd rated really made me realize just how low the ratings on a lot of early cinema, and a lot of experimental shorts are - which made me want to include even more of them but I had to stop myself, didn't want to go over 150-200. Looking forward to lists from PdA and insomnius though for sure, if only to see what poorly-rated experimental things I haven't seen yet.
Lakigigar wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 8:48 pm
Do I have to make a separate list for 5.9 or lower and 5.4 or lower, or just put them together... I have an IMDb account, just no ratings, but I can easily use mightysparks spreadsheet to know which are below 5.9 (however it's possible that some films their ratings in the meantime are changed, but I can quickly check 6.0 for that), and i don't think i have many 6.0 or lower favs in recent years (and it is easy to quickly go over the ones that aren't on their spreadsheet).
zomgmouse wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 11:35 pm
out of 54 films I've rated 8 and above there seems to be quite a disproportionate amount directed by Abel Ferrara. do people not like his work???
I'd say he's one of the more divisive directors out of those that are taken seriously (at all) by critics. I mean, I like some films directed by Albert Pyun and Antonio Margheriti quite a bit, but they have no critical rep and are considered schlock artists; Ferrara is seen by quite a few people as on a different level - Bad Lieutenant is on the main TSP list after all - so the low ratings for him stick out.
zomgmouse wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 11:35 pm
out of 54 films I've rated 8 and above there seems to be quite a disproportionate amount directed by Abel Ferrara. do people not like his work???
I'd say he's one of the more divisive directors out of those that are taken seriously (at all) by critics. I mean, I like some films directed by Albert Pyun and Antonio Margheriti quite a bit, but they have no critical rep and are considered schlock artists; Ferrara is seen by quite a few people as on a different level - Bad Lieutenant is on the main TSP list after all - so the low ratings for him stick out.
yeah - exactly! his films constantly premiere in renowned festivals etc. though i do see that he is a polarising filmmaker and by far not everything of his has landed for me but i admire his work very much
I've mostly liked him also, but not so much that he's become a priority to seek out, and his newer movies never play here except in festivals (and not festivals I can get to). Maybe I'll catch up to more of his work someday, but there are plenty of other filmmakers ahead of him in the mental queue.
Onderhond wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 10:08 pm
Is there an easy way to generate this based on an ICM list (I can export it, but no IMDb scores in the export it seems)?
I can easily get the films from the IMDb export, but then I'd have to rerank them manually, which sounds like a drag.
I would use a VLOOKUP in Excel to grab the IMDb rating from my ratings file into a column next to the films in the iCM file.
"I do not always know what I want, but I do know what I don't want." - Stanley Kubrick
I started rating movies on IMDb only at the beginning of last year, so I've rated just 974 films. I've given a 6 or higher to only 11 "5.9 or less" films.
Visions of Eight (1973)
Letter to Jane (1972)
The Revolutionary (1970)
Rock All Night (1957)
12-12-42 (1967) <--- the only 7. Every other film was a 6.
Time and Dreams (1976)
Dilemme au Feminin (1995)
Markeneier (1967)
24 Realities Per Second (2005)
Little Hamlet (1960)
Ringling Bros. Circus Parade (1902)
And the circus short is graded on a curve, at best.
But this isn't my ballot.
I tried sorting IMDb films by popularity and rating...the highest-ranking, eligible film that I have a measurable degree of affection for is "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom." From there, it'd be "Prisoners of the Ghostland," "Willy's Wonderland," "Caligula," "A Serbian Film," "Spring Breakers," "Casino Royale" (1967), "Cannibal Holocaust," "Planet of the Apes" (2001), "Zardoz," "Final Destination 3," "The Green Inferno," "High Life," "Barbarella" (BARBARELLA, come on!) and "Death at a Funeral." Well, that takes me through the top 1000.
OldAle1 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2022, 12:24 am
I've mostly liked him also, but not so much that he's become a priority to seek out, and his newer movies never play here except in festivals (and not festivals I can get to). Maybe I'll catch up to more of his work someday, but there are plenty of other filmmakers ahead of him in the mental queue.
sol wrote: ↑January 11th, 2022, 1:58 am
Are you planning to filter out films with less than 10 votes on IMDb?
This was the latest post that was made about the issue in the poll topic: viewtopic.php?t=5738#p747479 and nobody seemed to disagree...
I don't think we need to filter out films with very low numbers of votes on IMDb. Those films have, most likely, been seen by very few participants in this poll and thus are unlikely to garner significant support from the voters.
We do not have to understand new things, but by dint of patience, effort and method to come to understand with our whole self the truths which are evident. LETTERBOXD | MUBI | IMDb | tumblr.
Fully ranked in order from #1 being highest ranked. All movies appreciated for their own sake, no ironic appreciation no "so bad it's good". Trashed auteurs, aka directors with more than one film on my list: Oz Perkins, Ben Wheatley, David Cronenberg, Harmony Korine, Albert Pyun, James Broughton, Lewis Klahr, Lukas Moodysson, Roger Corman. All movies rated 10/10 by me.
020 Gymnopedies (1965 - Larry Jordan)
038 Deadfall (1968 - Bryan Forbes)
039 I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016 - Oz Perkins)
047 Vox Lux (2018 - Brady Corbet)
055 The Liberation of the Mannique Mechanique (1967 - Steven Arnold)
104 Zardoz (1974 - John Boorman)
106 Gretel & Hansel (2020 - Oz Perkins)
108 The Keep (1983 - Michael Mann)
127 Circumstantial Pleasures (2020 - Lewis Klahr)
137 Mascara (1987 - Patrick Conrad)
143 Grenouilles (1983 - Adolfo Arrieta)
151 Hunky and Spunky (1938 - Dave Fleischer & Myron Waldman)
181 The Mafu Cage (1978 - Karen Arthur)
186 Man tänker sitt / Burrowing (2009 - Henrik Hellström & Fredrik Wenzel)
191 La chair de l'orchidée / The Flesh of the Orchid (1975 - Patrice Chéreau)
242 Heart of Midnight (1988 - Matthew Chapman)
260 La nuit des traquées / The Night of the Hunted (1980 - Jean Rollin)
296 Damsels in Distress (2011 - Whit Stillman)
321 Can She Bake a Cherry Pie? (1983 - Henry Jaglom)
335 Eye of the Beholder (1999 - Stephan Elliott)
347 Buster's Bedroom (1991 - Rebecca Horn)
349 Knight of Cups (2015 - Terrence Malick)
352 Spring Breakers (2012 - Harmony Korine)
357 Silent Trigger (1996 - Russell Mulcahy)
361 Trash Humpers (2009 - Harmony Korine)
364 Antiviral (2012 - Brandon Cronenberg)
368 Twentynine Palms (2003 - Bruno Dumont)
375 Straight to Hell (1987 - Alex Cox)
378 Heller in Pink Tights (1960 - George Cukor)
400 Maraviglioso Boccaccio / Wondrous Boccaccio (2015 - Paolo & Vittorio Taviani)
419 High-Rise (2015 - Ben Wheatley)
424 Equinox (1992 - Alan Rudolph)
433 This World, Then The Fireworks (1997 - Michael Oblowitz)
442 Мишень / Mishen / Target (2011 - Alexander Zeldovich)
445 Hit Me (1996 - Stephen Shainberg)
462 The Spirit (2008 - Frank Miller)
475 Liebestraum (1991 - Mike Figgis)
477 Un héritier / An Heir (2011 - Jean-Marie Straub)
486 The Final Programme (1973 - Robert Fuest)
490 Les Jeux des anges (1964 - Walerian Borowczyk)
503 What? (1972 - Roman Polanski)
504 In the Earth (2021 - Ben Wheatley)
514 Ett Hål i mitt hjärta / A Hole in My Heart (2004 - Lukas Moodysson)
529 Scotch Hop (1953 - Christopher Maclaine)
537 Stereo (1969 - David Cronenberg)
538 Les rencontres d'après minuit / You and the Night (2013 - Yann Gonzalez)
579 Détective (1985 - Jean-Luc Godard)
610 Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021 - Sion Sono)
636 Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012 - John Hyams)
641 Rampart (2011 - Oren Moverman)
643 La Terza madre / The Third Mother (2007 - Dario Argento)
656 Dreamwood (1972 - James Broughton)
660 Track 29 (1988 - Nicolas Roeg)
671 The Face of an Angel (2014 - Michael Winterbottom)
674 Supergirl (1984 - Jeannot Szwarc)
694 Flowers in the Attic (1987 - Jeffrey Bloom)
697 Specter of the Rose (1946 - Ben Hecht)
726 Vampyros lesbos (1971 - Jesus Franco)
734 31/75 Asyl / 31/75 Asylum (1975 - Kurt Kren)
749 The Alphabet Murders (1965 - Frank Tashlin)
765 Gods of Egypt (2016 - Alex Proyas)
767 Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It. (1970 - Roger Corman)
784 Quintet (1979 - Robert Altman)
788 Vortex (1982 - Beth B & Scott B )
790 The Young Racers (1963 - Roger Corman)
819 The Canyons (2013 - Paul Schrader)
826 Hell Boats (1970 - Paul Wendkos)
838 Two Thousand Maniacs! (1964 - Herschell Gordon Lewis)
840 Shocker (1989 - Wes Craven)
842 Aos (1964 - Yoji Kuri)
858 Cyborg (1989 - Albert Pyun)
871 Cosmopolis (2012 - David Cronenberg)
877 Una ondata di piacere / Waves of Lust (1975 - Ruggero Deodato)
879 Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982 - Tommy Lee Wallace)
906 Four in the Afternoon (1951 - James Broughton)
911 Container (2006 - Lukas Moodysson)
918 Adrenalin: Fear the Rush (1996 - Albert Pyun)
921 Savage Grace (2007 - Tom Kalin)
936 Lady Oscar (1979 - Jacques Demy)
942 The Kreutzer Sonata (2008 - Bernard Rose)
945 In the Cut (2003 - Jane Campion)
956 Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979 - Irwin Allen)
962 The Pettifogger (2011 - Lewis Klahr)
I'll try and watch some more by poll close, current watchlist courtesy of OA1, PdA, Gorro and my Amerarkana project:
Saint Ange
A Safe Place
Sunstroke
A.I. Rising
Hagazussa
If anyone wants a short and sweet recommendation, try Hunky and Spunky (not what it sounds like), they're the names for two donkeys, back before spunky had the modern meaning. It's ripe for rediscovery, a Fleischer cartoon that appeals to this brave new era where we are going to end animal slavery. You can see it here:
Last edited by matthewscott8 on February 5th, 2022, 12:13 am, edited 20 times in total.
Onderhond wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 10:08 pm
Is there an easy way to generate this based on an ICM list (I can export it, but no IMDb scores in the export it seems)?
I can easily get the films from the IMDb export, but then I'd have to rerank them manually, which sounds like a drag.
I had a way of doing this fairly quickly. This is the subset of movies, 160 of them, on your top 775 list that are rated below 6.0 on IMDb, and in the order they are on your top 775 list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls530412789/, you can download it in excel from there. If you don't want me to keep this list public, or on my account, say and I'll private it or delete it.
It is great to already see so many beloved favourites on the lists of others, the critically or publicly misapprehended shared cognoscenti favourites such as: Deadfall, Zardoz, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Cosmopolis, Quintet, This World, Then the Fireworks, High Rise, Heller in Pink Tights, Gymnopédies, The Spirit, Stereo (Tile 3B of a CAEE Educational Mosaic), Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Damsels in Distress, The Canyons, Specter of the Rose, Spring Breakers, and Resident Evil: Retribution
Not cool enough to have seen/appreciated these yet? Don't worry, there's still time.
Last edited by matthewscott8 on January 11th, 2022, 1:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Onderhond wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 10:08 pm
Is there an easy way to generate this based on an ICM list (I can export it, but no IMDb scores in the export it seems)?
I can easily get the films from the IMDb export, but then I'd have to rerank them manually, which sounds like a drag.
I had a way of doing this fairly quickly. This is the subset of movies, 160 of them, on your top 775 list that are rated below 6.0 on IMDb, and in the order they are on your top 775 list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls530412789/, you can download it in excel from there. If you don't want me to keep this list public, or on my account, say and I'll private it or delete it.
Haha, I was gunning for a "teach a man to fish" moment, but this is even better! Thanks a bunch for doing this! I don't mind the list being public at all, but I don't need it anymore either, so you're free to do as you wish
@mightysparks: I guess the vlookup will be for next time
Nothing ironic, nothing doubty, no padding, just a bunch of favorites that are either too divisive, or have been marketed to the wrong crowds (which happens quite a bit, since I seem to like that edge of genre/auteur).
Last edited by Onderhond on January 11th, 2022, 1:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Onderhond wrote: ↑January 10th, 2022, 10:08 pm
Is there an easy way to generate this based on an ICM list (I can export it, but no IMDb scores in the export it seems)?
I can easily get the films from the IMDb export, but then I'd have to rerank them manually, which sounds like a drag.
I had a way of doing this fairly quickly. This is the subset of movies, 160 of them, on your top 775 list that are rated below 6.0 on IMDb, and in the order they are on your top 775 list: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls530412789/, you can download it in excel from there. If you don't want me to keep this list public, or on my account, say and I'll private it or delete it.
Haha, I was gunning for a "teach a man to fish" moment, but this is even better! Thanks a bunch for doing this! I don't mind the list being public at all, but I don't need it anymore either, so you're free to do as you wish
@mightysparks: I guess the vlookup will be for next time
in terms of teach a man to fish, I downloaded your list from ICM in csv format, I then created an identical IMDB list using a ViolentMonkey script from this forum, by pasting in the IMDb URLs from the download. I then downloaded the resulting IMDb list in csv format, which now crucially had the IMDb ratings. I set up a new column in excel with an if formula, to return true if the film was less than 6 and false if above. On that column I added an Excel filter, and filtered for true. Because I did it via filter rather than sort, the order stayed the same. I pasted the resulting list of IMDb identifiers into a new IMDb list via the script which I think is called IMDb list helper if memory serves.
matthewscott8 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2022, 1:06 pm
in terms of teach a man to fish, I downloaded your list from ICM in csv format, I then created an identical IMDB list using a ViolentMonkey script from this forum, by pasting in the IMDb URLs from the download. I then downloaded the resulting IMDb list in csv format, which now crucially had the IMDb ratings. I set up a new column in excel with an if formula, to return true if the film was less than 6 and false if above. On that column I added an Excel filter, and filtered for true. Because I did it via filter rather than sort, the order stayed the same. I pasted the resulting list of IMDb identifiers into a new IMDb list via the script which I think is called IMDb list helper if memory serves.
My Excel skills are terrible I'm afraid, not helped by the fact that I don't actually have Excel (but use LibreOffice). So yeah, I can build my own website and all, just not filter on column on values in another column (which I shamefully failed to do for more than an hour yesterday evening)
matthewscott8 wrote: ↑January 11th, 2022, 1:06 pm
Your link doesn't work for me fyi.
Thanks for the heads-up, the classic "link the edit state" issue. Should work fine now.
sol wrote: ↑January 11th, 2022, 1:58 am
Are you planning to filter out films with less than 10 votes on IMDb?
This was the latest post that was made about the issue in the poll topic: viewtopic.php?t=5738#p747479 and nobody seemed to disagree...
If it's got less than 10 votes on IMDb how is it possibly going to place well on this poll? Seems moot.
Not "place well" necessarily, but 3 votes is certainly enough to make the cut in most forum polls. And of course not every forum user rates what they have seen on IMDb.
I'm not here to argue the point though. It is Lonewolf's poll and if that is what he is going for, that's okay. I was just confused because the issue was brought up in the other thread, but not resolved there and not mentioned in the OP here. I'm glad to have it clarified and I look forward to seeing how many (if any) of the 26 films on PdA's ballot with under 10 votes make the cut.
Sixty-three movies. The first four are in my all-time top 500. Most of them have young women in the leading roles. They're often teen movies or old comedies.
This is a significant film historical artefact, chapeau to you.
He rated over half of those movies 6/10. Sure, these are truly recommendations.
as I understand it 6/10 is a positive rating from PdA. I believe 6/10s are on his monthly highlights lists. Unlike me, if I rated something 6 I'd happily erase it from my memory in most cases.
He'd have to confirm this himself I guess if he would like to that is. There are so many higher up unseens for me to look into on his list, the issue is a little moot to me.
I should add that I have a history of good results from watching films that he raises that have low IMDb ratings, for around two decades now. As a "satisfied customer" of his, I'm going to be pretty sanguine about this issue.