The Personal Recommendation Hall of Fame IV

Two really fantastic films. I have them both on Criterion blu ray.

Looks like you made some solid movie choices, at least I'd like most of them.

Here's mine. Most of which were truly great watches. Like previous Personal Rec HoFs, a lot of the mid-level films could easily rank high in a General HoF and if I could simply group them together would be much higher.
Though Born Yesterday, Grave of Fireflies and Le Jour Se Leve firmly fit the Top Three.

1. Born Yesterday (1950)
2. Grave of the Fireflies (1988)
3. Le Jour Se Leve (1939)
4. The Searchers (1956)
5. Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)
6. Shane (1953)
7. Captain Courageous (1937)
8. The Right Stuff (1983)
9. Grizzly Man (2005)
10. Woman in the Dunes (1964)
11. Black Orpheus (1959)

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What I actually said to win MovieGal's heart:
- I might not be a real King of Kinkiness, but I make good pancakes

~Mr Minio

Congrats Hey Frederick! Thanks Cricket for pushing this across the finish line.

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Letterboxd

Sweet! I won something. Thought I played it pretty safe this time around, nominating some pretty big films, you just hope you nominated them for the right person and I'm glad you all enjoyed them for the most part. The three I was most concerned with were Brothers Keeper, The Straight Story and MASH. Oh well, 2 outta 3 ain't bad. Sorry Takoma, don't know what I was thinking with MASH. I don't even like it that much, so why I chose it is a mystery.

As for my final tally, the top five are some heavy hitters and all were among the best films I watched this year and the next five were no slouches either. Biggest surprise had to be It's Such a Beautiful Day. That and Persona were the clear favorites for the top spot when all was said and done.

1. Persona
2. It’s Such a Beautiful Day
3. Memories of Murder
4. High and Low
5. How Green Was My Valley
6. Castle in the Sky
7. Touch of Evil
8. House of Wax
9. I Walked with a Zombie
10. The Conversation
11. Another Earth
12. Brief Encounter




Thanks for hosting cricket. Wasn't sure if we'd ever finish this but you did it. Can't wait for the next one.

1 - Apocalypse Now
2 - Woman in the Dunes +
3 - Citizen Kane
4 - 3 Women +
5 - L.A. Confidential
6 - Sweet Smell of Success -
7 - Psycho +
8 - Platoon +
9 - The Others
10 - The Shawshank Redemption +
11 - Dark City
12 - The Devil’s Backbone

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"A film has to be a dialogue, not a monologue — a dialogue to provoke in the viewer his own thoughts, his own feelings. And if a film is a dialogue, then it’s a good film; if it’s not a dialogue, it’s a bad film."

- Michael "Gloomy Old Fart" Haneke

Obviously just my opinion, but a 2.5 for Shawshank is insane lol

It's an average non-special safe movie.

Anyways, great HOF in terms of the movies recommended. It has probably my favorite movies that I had to watch because of one of these events by far.

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And that marks the end of the longest running Hall ever.

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IMDb
Letterboxd

LOL. I found The Shawshank Redemption to be thoroughly mediocre.

I am not at all surprised that people like it. I'm not at all surprised that people really like it. But I find it totally baffling that a lot of people LOVE it. It makes no sense to me.

I can only explain why I love it (at least I think I love it, I only seen it once but was very impressed) But why was I impressed: The humanity.

The Shawshank Redemption used to be in my top 5 favorite films, but it fell out a while ago. In my experience, it was more of a gateway film for me rather than something which held up as I kept watching more and more classic films. I still like it quite a bit though. I think I have it at an 8/10.

I mean, yes. But I also feel like I could name 50 other films that I think have a degree of humanity and soul that puts Shawshank Redemption to shame.

Again, I don't think it's a bad film. Just very average.

It's like having someone tell you that the best food they've ever eaten was a McDonald's salad. It's not that I don't believe you it's just . . . clearly we have different criteria for what makes something a great salad.

I might be able to name 100 films that have more humanity than Shawshank, but even if there were 10,000 films with more humanity it still doesn't drop the amount of humanity I found in Shawshank to less than what I experienced while watching it.

That's right. Take your McDonald's salad and go.

Glad this HoF finally wrapped up

This was my list:

1. Rosemary’s Baby
2. The Cranes Are Flying
3. Seven Up!
4. In Cold Blood
5. Waterloo Bridge
6. The Little Foxes
7. Creature From the Black Lagoon
8. Wendy and Lucy
9. The River
10. Sansho the Bailiff
11. Gentleman’s Agreement
12. La Collectionneuse

I just don't like this paragraph because it comes off to me as sort of passive superiority, not that I think that was your intent because I don't. Change McDonald's salad to Maine Lobster and realize that you're in the minority. None of this has anything to do with how I feel about the movie.