Stop Ruining The IMDb Top 250

Some things are over. Screwing with the IMDb Top 250 list has to be one of them.

Because of you. It's seriously all your fault. It was a good list, and then morons like you screwed it up. Here's how you did it.

One day, you typed in the name of a popular movie on Google, to see the reviews for it. Without a doubt, you probably got a link to IMDb at that point. Viewing IMDb for the very first time is a pretty rewarding experience. You can see recommended films, and view how other people vote on new and old releases.

On the side menu, there is a link to a Top 250 Film List that basically ranks out the highest rated movies for all of IMDb. It was a pretty good guide to seeing classic movies that you would have been sure to enjoy. That is, until you ruined it on us.

Up is better than Raiders of a Lost Ark? It even outranks Jaws, The Usual Suspects, Taxi Driver, and countless other films that have been pushed off of the list to make room for this trash.

Stop voting 10 on new movies. Just cut it out. Don't do it. Think to yourself before you vote. Was that movie really a 10? Is a children's movie about a house that floats with balloons really one of the best movies you have ever seen in your life? If you answered yes, closedown your IMDb account right now and stop shitting it up for the rest of us.

Don't just impulse vote after you see something. When you vote, think about what it was rated on a scale of 1 to 10. It's not a choice between 1 and 10, there are numbers inbetween for a reason. If you're voting a 10, it better be the end all of awesome films that you have ever seen in your entire life. If you're voting a 1, it better be so horrible they won't even show it on tv at 3 in the morning.

Your vote has a huge impact. When you vote something like the new Star Trek film to number 94 on the list, you're not doing anyone a favor. A good movie that doesn't get as many recent votes is going to get bumped off the list when you vote that recklessly.

Go through the site and vote on movies you've already seen that have withstood the test of time. Go through the list itself and vote on classic movies that you've enjoyed or disliked as well.

The list is broken. More people are getting online and finding out about IMDb, which doesn't have to be a bad thing. The new users seem to just vote on movies they recently saw in theatres. Currently the list claims to not count votes from newer users, but it's not helping. The list is also supposed to adjust itself according to time, but newer movies tend to stay on the list and just push classic films off.

Put a time limit on movies. It should be about two years. All votes during the first two years a movie is released do not count. If after two years, people are still voting on the movie, then it deserves a spot on the list. All of the classic films on the list had a much more difficult time being recognized. In order for any of those movies to be on the list, a user had to remember the name of a movie they enjoyed, search it, and then vote on it. This is very different than going to the theatre and voting 10 on a movie you just saw because it made you laugh a few times.

In a couple of years, you won't remember that movie. You might own the DVD, but you never watch it anymore. If it's on tv, you don't bother waiting through the commercials to finish it. That movie didn't deserve it 10. A movie that deserves a 10 should be able to last longer than the hype that surrounds it during release, and the list should reflect that. I have no problem with good movies that recently came out being on the list, but they should have to earn their place just like everyone else did.

"When you vote, think about what it was rated on a scale of 1 to 10. It's not a choice between 1 and 10, there are numbers inbetween for a reason."
Epic, and true for any kind of internet voting, not just IMDb.

06-18-2009

this suks

06-24-2009

Is this

06-25-2009

I vote and will continue to vote based on today's standards. I couldn't care less if a movie from 1950 was huge/amazing/ground-breaking back then, if the acting/story/directing/etc is awful based on today's standards, I'm going to vote 1-3 depending how bad it is. It makes me sick seeing IMDb Top 250 filled with trash movies from 1950 topping it, and only because the majority of the voters won't even bother watching it..

07-13-2009

I agree, fuck those people for rating a movie they like. Who are they?

07-19-2009

I totally agree, as I speak District 9 which looks like ass crap is 8.5 in 39th place.

08-26-2009

Up owns you fool

09-12-2009

thats is why i stop visiting imdb... UP is a good movie but not that good.

Worst for me this year was to see The Hangover so high in the rakings.....

11-15-2009

Up is great. Obviously not among the top 20 best movies ever made, but you could have at least picked a different film.

Clearly you are retarded.

12-21-2009

Up is better than raiders of the lost ark. Everyone has different movie tastes. Clearly you don't fit into the norm and are a special case. A special case of Spielberg fanboyism.

12-29-2009

to be honest, every dumbass would notice that the average of 'up' is built upon vastly lesser amount of votes than 'raiders of the lost ark' thus raiders have more stable rank. you simply overreact, considering the weight of the problem. if people enjoy 'up' and find it good, it's their undenied right to have personal taste and mark it high, isn't it? still, i totally agree on a 'binary judgement' - judging either 1 or 10 is really lame and none of the vote sorting systems would prevent from this, unfortunatelly. speaking of classic movies, for example, i totally disagree with such a high average for 'star wars'. i have huge sentiment for it, still i see such flaws as rigid and not too credible acting, really cheap dramatic twists and so on - numerous modern pictures are better in this respect and still they are marked lower. beauty is in the eye of a beholder, right? ;) greetz!

01-10-2010

Up is an incredibly good movie. I wouldn't rate it higher than Raiders or most of the movies you listed. But it really doesn't surprise me to see it so high on the list.

01-15-2010

Oh and I think your idea about movies votes not appearing for a set amount of time is a very good one as well. They already do that with TV series.

01-15-2010

I don't suppose anyone has considered the idea that IMDb was invaded and ruined 5 years ago by the movie industry and they just pad their own movies. Used to be you could just ignore the 1's and 10's, but now it's just totally worthless. Go to Rotten Tomatoes... at least they'll tell you if something blows or not.

02-23-2010

I cant but agree with you about dumbasses giving random votes to the last movie they've seen (and then commenting your article), plus I love aggressive writing; still i dont give a shit about the IMDb ranking of any movie. btw, I came to your site reading some stuff about freeBSD. keep up the good work

04-12-2010

Why does it matter?! Everyone has different tastes and you just have to accept that. Just because a movie you didn't particularly like outranks movies you do like, doesn't mean the entire list is "ruined".
I believe, while it's not a perfect list, it is a good starting point for budding movie buffs.

And besides, Up was awesome.

04-16-2010

You're not supposed to agree with the list. It's not supposed to be a reflection of the greatest movies of all time. It's a reflection of the 250 most well-liked movies by the general populace at any given moment. Of course that means it will be skewed towards newer movies. That's the way it's supposed to be. It doesn't mean you have to like them. Nobody is saying that "Up" is the 18th best movie of all time.

04-20-2010

I honestly believe that imdb is a pretty accurate representation of mosts views. You will always have the skewing going on by the billion avatar(up, titanic, etc.) fanboys out there. But if you take a look at the list as a whole. it will open you up to new genres you may never have explored. Plus, beats the hell out of afi, academy, and all the others. Just take a look at the top. all awesome movies that will almost guarantee some enjoyment.

04-28-2010

You're right, it does have good movies listed. I want to keep it that way, keep these new movies from clogging the list until they have enough votes past the time of their initial release.

04-28-2010

Yo Bro-Man, heard you been haxin. Gonna swing by and grab the box if you know what I mean. Be around 3:30ish dawg. GO HAWKS!

06-03-2010

I've been annoyed by the list since Lord of the Rings made it to the top 20. I once found the list enlightening in that it provided a standard to which I could find other films worth my time...

However, I've come to the resolution that a films rating is strictly subjective, and, while it used to signify some sort of educated opinion of random internet film geeks(myself included), the list was never intended to contain the best direction/ best editing/ best acting/ best writing etc.. All that you can say for the list is that it contains movies that have provided some sort of enjoyment for a large number of people. The fact that it's so corruptible ("Was that movie really a 10?") is just a flaw of the system that is exploited by individuals who want to promote his/her own perspective.

Personally, I find IMDB useful these days based purely on the base rating per number of votes any movie has received. I tend to find most movies above a 5.5(that's being generous) worth watching for at least the first fifteen minutes. You have to assume that not everyone that can connect to the internet is going to share your point of view, and, as such, list like this are only worthy of the time you wish to put into them.

06-13-2010

For me, "Up" is better than "Raiders of a Lost Ark". But both films do not deserve 18th and 19th places.
For new movies it take some time to get to the place it deserves. Now Up is at 82nd place with 8.3 rating. The Dark Knight (2008) was first, but now 10th.... But still Raiders of a Lost Ark remains at 19th :( sad

06-19-2010

mostley i agree what you said
i think the 2 years rule is a good idea so movies like kick a** don't get so high
but i didn't liked what you said about UP
okay i also don't think its THAT good but its still a fun movie to watch
just because its an animated movie its not automatically bad
one of my favorite movies is the lion king i mean so what
but back on topic yeah something needs to be done

06-19-2010

This is why we need a tool here on IMDB that allows us to ignore all votes of 1 and/or 10.

06-27-2010

Seriously who wrote this shit? You dont get to decide the top 250!!
I just read someone refuses to use Imdb because they are so distraught by Up being in the top 20. Seriously fuck off then!
If You dont like it use another site, (which will be far worse than Imdb
Its Fucking morons like you that give turds a bad name.

07-19-2010

I totally agree with your concerns. There should be a time delay of at least two years on the top 250 (preferably even 5 years).

08-10-2010

A time delay of 2 years? So you won't be able to see which movies were extremely good these last two years?
You talk about morans voting 10's. But look at the statistics. In the top movies, there are more people voting 1's then 6's to get the movie a more righteous ranking. This battle between the 10's and 1's clearly cancels each other. So eventually a movie will probably get a ranking it deserves. I say "probably", because a ranking is based on the average opinion and so my opinion can't say if a movie has a deserved spot or not.
So whoever wrote this can't possibly make it a fact that Up isn't as good as The Raiders of the Lost Ark.

08-14-2010

Four Lions has 8.2 on IMDB, but even though number 250 has a rating of 8.0, Four Lions doesn't show up anywhere!

08-17-2010

I think that the films have to have at least 10,000 votes.

That's why Four Lions isn't on the list.

I also think that they keep certain films off the list in favour of films from bigger studios, or better known films.

La Haine, Le samourai, Almost Famous and many other films have 8.0 upwards, but are passed over, for some reason.

08-27-2010