In the summer of 2006, I read Leonard Maltin’s Movie Encyclopedia.

This book is a list with reviews of over 18,000 movies!

As a Film-Maker, watching great films and even bad films can be a great way to learn.

So, I went through Leonard Maltin’s Encyclopedia and made some lists myself.

Best/Favourites

These can be great films I can just watch over and over or films I’ve only watched once

but have one brilliant thing in them. It can be one single brilliant performance

or one single brilliant scene or some hidden gem in there.

Worst

When I finished it, I thought, “Well, there’s two hours of my life I won’t get back.

Interesting

Good/Decent/Respectable movies.

Defining Roles

Some of an actor’s best/most famous or breakout work.

Disintegration Films

This is where a character gradually disintegrates/self-destructs over the course of

the film.

Need to see

These are classics that if I want to call myself a real film fan, I had better watch.
Carol’s Movie List

Favourites

Legends of the fall. I have seen this 19 times. (18 normal plus once recently with the Audio commentary by Ed Zwick and Brad Pitt). I haven’t seen this so many times because of Mr. “allegedly quite hot” Pitt. Aidan Quinn’s so much hotter.

But let me be serious. The real reason is because I never get tired of watching it. This film has so many great themes; You have the love between a father and a son, the love between brothers, between a man and a woman and of course, personal demons.

I’d say watch it for yourself and make up your own mind.

Here are my other faves:

• About a boy
• The apartment
• Before Sunset–Oh, that scene inside the SUV is money! Thank You Richard Linklater!
• Carlito’s way
• Chariots of Fire
• It’s a wonderful life
• A soldier’s story
• Shall we dance (The Japanese Version) A movie that is not at all about dancing.
• Dead Man Walking–Sean Penn!!—I’m so not worthy!
• Forest Gump
• Fight Club
• Hero–So beautiful!! visually stunning!!
• The Incredibles

In the name of the Father–When this came out, I was a young idealistic 20-year-old. It is the only time in my life I ever wrote a letter to an actor sending him my condolences over him not winning the academy award. Daniel Day Lewis!  About 20 years after doing that, as an adult, I went back to IMDB.COM and looked at the nominees that year. That was a tough year to choose. I have since forgiven the academy.

• Marvin’s room
• The Matrix
• Nothing but a man (A masterpiece!!!!) 1964. Thank God for the day I found that movie in the back of the library. This is a classic Black film from 1964
• Remains of the day
• Simon Birch
• I am Sam
• Ray
• What’s love got to do with it?
• Bob and carol and Ted and Alice. I have to put this here. I nearly gave up on this movie because of the subject matter but as a director, I deeply admire the director doing what he needed to do to get everyone to that final scene in the bed. The last few moments of this movie paid off very nicely and I respect the willingness to go there because it was worth it.
• Citizen Kane

Interesting

Good/Decent/Respectable movies.

• About Schmidt. Jack Nicholson is a Genius and Kathy Bates is a gem!

• The accused

• Amos & Andrew. It is a constant source of inner gloating for me that I knew about Samuel Jackson before Pulp Fiction.

• A place in the sun.

• All about Eve

• Anne of Green Gables

• Awakenings

• Away from her

• Batman begins

• A Beautiful Mind

• The Best man

• Big Night

• (The movie,”Big Night”, has my second favourite movie line ever. ”After you eat the clams in Tomato sauce, you have to kill yourself. You can’t go back to normal life.” By the way, “My favourite movie line ever was Nick Nolte in the Prince of Tides, “You know, when I’m not pulling straw out of my teeth, I’m a very intelligent man.” In the book, “The prince of Tides” by Pat Conroy the line is even better.  It’s not about straw but about donkeys. I won’t repeat it here. But I digress. Back to my list.

• The Bourne Identity, Ultimatum, Supremacy.

• OK. I just have to say something about the scene in Supremacy where Matt Damon jumps off the balcony through the window. I will occasionally get up out of my bed and sneak downstairs just to watch it over and over. That jump is a beautiful thing!”

• Boyz N the Hood

• Brown Sugar

• Bulworth

• Cast Away

• Changing lanes

• The constant gardener

• 12 angry men

• ON the waterfront

• Coal Miner’s Daughter

• Clueless

• The commitments

• Cool Runnings

• Courage under fire

• Cry Freedom

• The days of Wine and Roses

• Dead Poet’s society

• Deceived

• Dream Girls

• Driving Ms. Daisy

• Duane Hopwood

• Fast times at Ridgemont High

• Forces of Nature

• Ghandi

• Gone with the wind.

• Good Will Hunting

• Deliver us From Eva

• Double Jeopardy

• Front Room (Jamaican) (The only movie I can say I’ve memorized)

• Glengarry Glen Ross

• Gone with the wind

• Guess Who? Bernie Mac Version

• Groundhog’s Day

• Heidi

• Hilary and Jackie….Disturbing

• How Green was my valley. Need to see it again

• Immortal Beloved

• In America

• In the heat of the night.

• The Joy Luck Club

• Jerry McGuire

• Intolerable Cruelty (The Court scene is priceless)

• It’s a wonderful life

• The kid

• Kramer vs. Kramer

• La Bamba

• L.A Confidential. Need to see this again to jog my memory

• The Last Samurai…I think the best part of this movie was discovering Kensuke Watanabe

• Legally Blonde 1 and 2

• Liar Liar

• Life is beautiful

• Like Mike…didn’t finish watching. Didn’t have time, I think.

• The little mermaid

• The long kiss goodnight

• Love, actually

• Malcolm 1992

• The Miracle Worker 1962

• Mommy Dearest

• An affair to remember

• Mystic River

• Napoleon Dynamite

• National Security

• My cousin Vinny

• My left foot

• Nothing to lose. Vaguely remember enjoying this. Good song by Coolio.

• One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest.1975

• On the right track. Watched this as a kid

• Ordinary People. 1980

• Overboard

• The Lion King

• Rain man

• Rebel without a cause

• Pretty woman…I guess it was ayte

• Primal Fear. Ed Norton is so good in this (Incidentally, I once met the Black Female version of Ed Norton’s character in real life several years after watching the film.)

• Primary Colors. Kathy Bates in that truck near the end, “Made me believe.” That’s all I can say. Made me believe every single thing her character was feeling in that truck.

• Patch of Blue. Saw as a child. Need to see it again.

• The Pelican Brief

• The Pursuit of Happyness

• Rounders….loved this!!

• Runaway Bride

• Rush Hour. Could watch this all day.

• Sabrina. Hepburn or Ormond version. Both good.

• Say Anything. Yup! The nostalgic vote. Saw it as a teenager.

• Schindler’s List

• Secrets and Lies

• Serendipity

• The Seven Samurai

• Shadow lands

• The Shawshank Redemption.

• Shine. Interesting but I wouldn’t want to watch it again or anything.

• Silkwood

• Sister Act. One and two

• Sleeping with the Enemy

• Sleepless in Seattle

• The Sound of Music

• Speed

• Spiderman (All). Can watch this all day.

• Splash

• Splendor in the Grass. 1961

• Stand by me.

• A star is born. The 1954 version with Judy Garland.

• A star is born. The 1976 version with Streisand. The last scene is the best thing I’ve seen Streisand do.

• Steel Magnolias

• Sunset Blvd! Woah! Very dark, but so good! 1950 version.

• Swingers. Remember that famous “You’re money” line but not much else.

• Thelma and Louise

• Talk to her. 2002.Spanish. Nice!

• The Manchurian Candidate. (Frank Sinatra Version and the Denzel/Meryl version)

• The Ten Commandments. Cecille B. Demille

• The lake house

• The three faces of Eve. 1957

• Titanic!

• To Kill a Mockingbird

• To sir with love

• A tree grows in Brooklyn…1945

• The truth about Charlie. Haven’t seen the old version. Charade

• Wall Street

• Whatever happened to Baby Jane? (So creepy but very good)

• When a man loves a woman 1994

• When Harry met Sally…1989

• With Honors

• Witness for the Prosecution. 1957. Dietrich is too creepy in this!!

• Working girl

• You can’t take it with you.

• Zoolander

Actors and their defining roles

Some of an actor’s best/most famous or breakout work.
Actors and their defining roles (That I need to see)

• Audrey Hepburn: Love in the afternoon. Sabrina. Roman Holiday.
• (Seen all except for love in the afternoon)
• Grace Kelly: The country girl
• Elizabeth Taylor: A place in the sun.
• Jack Nicholson: Five easy pieces. Chinatown. One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest
• Meryl Streep: The Deer hunter. Sophie’s choice
• Robert DeNiro: The Deer Hunter
• Denzel Washington: A second viewing of Glory
• Judy Garland: A second viewing of A star is born and meet me in St. Louis

Disintegration

1 A place in the Sun — Montgomery Clift

 UPDATE: January 7, 2024

This Page used to have a very long list of movies that I need to see.

This web site also used to have a section called Carol’s movie diary with reviews of films as I watched them.

On January 1, 2010 something changed. I went through a period that lasted for several years where I lost interest in watching movies. I now know there are no more movies I need to see.

There are only movies I need to make.