IMDB Top 250 outliers
On the IMDb top 250, you normally see a correlation between the number of votes and the rating for a movie. Better rated movies are more watched. The outliers are interesting.
The movies that are popular despite not having a high rating are:
I can understand why The Sixth Sense, Pirates of the Caribbean and especially The Matrix are on this list — geeks would have watched these and voted on IMDb, though their voting need not have been high. But why are Gladiator and Sixth Sense on that list?
Movies that are highly rated, but not as popular are:
Seven Samurai and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly probably didn’t get the votes they deserve because they’re written in their Japanese and Mexican names on IMDb. I hadn’t seen them for a long time for the same reason. As for The Godfather, I personally think it’s just overrated. But Rear Window? That’s a surprise. Hitchcock thriller with all the classic elements…
Another correlation is between the rating and the year of the movie. Early movies get lower ratings than recent movies. Technique could be the reason, but I doubt it. In any case, some movies stand out of their time.
- The Shawshank Redemption
- The Godfather 1
- The Godfather 2
- Seven Samurai
- Rear Window
- Casablanca
- Citizen Kane
- Metropolis
- M
- Modern Times
- City Lights
I haven’t seen Metropolis or M. But among the others, I think Citizen Kane is the one that deserves to stand out, if only for portraying the anti-hero, and for not having a happy ending. The Shawshank Redemption was a bit of a surprise. Few people that I know have heard of it. And yet, there it is, right on top.