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Your Movie Buff Quotient: 90% |
 You are a movie buff of the most obsessive variety. If a movie exists, chances are that you’ve seen it. You’re an expert on movie facts and trivia. It’s hard to stump you with a question about film. |
Are You a Movie Buff?
Categories: Movies & TV
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Okay, I know I’m a grinch…but man, I hated that quiz. Two movies from the 40s, a couple from the 50s…that’s not about being a movie buff, it’s about being a recent movie buff.
Actually, I posted it because it was the best one of these I’ve seen. Most want to know if you’ve seen Monster House and 8 Crazy Nights.
For the record:
1930s: 1
1940s: 2
1950s: 1
1960s: 3
1970s: 9
1980s: 7
1990s: 16
2000s: 11
The fact that there are movies from the ’70s or ’80s at all is unusual in quizzes of this type, which normally view ’90s movies as “old.”
That’s the difference between being a “movie buff” and a “film buff”, Tom…. 😉
For the record, I got the same results as Deb. Big surprise. I think there were 4 movies I hadn’t seen…..
Based on the quiz, I’m a 92% movie buff. When I looked over the list. The only ones I didn’t see were Rocky, Star Wars, Million Dollar Baby, and there was one other one….
But yeah, not a great quiz. You know what would really show what a movie buff you are? If you created a quiz that contained more accurate information!
The ones I haven’t seen are:
Back to the Future
Crash
Requiem for a Dream
Saving Private Ryan
Schindler’s List
You know what would really show what a movie buff you are? If you created a quiz that contained more accurate information!
That’s an exceptionally interesting challenge. I’d want to represent both every decade and a variety of genres: Comedy, musical, horror, noir, drama, foreign, plus some cult movies and some snooty only-film-snobs-have-seen-them movies. Definitely challenging.
Make that 5….
Magnolia
Memento
Schindler’s List (which I have, I just haven’t been able to gear myself up emotionally to watch it)
Midnight Cowboy
Taxi Driver
I don’t know about ‘accurate’, but I’d settle for a quiz that was a) less skewed toward the really recent stuff, and b) less bland and mainstream. (To me, ‘movie buff’ implies strong reactions and passionate attachments to movies…not a tolerance for mediocrities like Rocky or The Shawshank Redemption.)
Off the top of my head, here are a few movies I think should be on any ‘movie buff’ list:
Nosferatu
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Public Enemy
King Kong
Bride of Frankenstein
His Girl Friday
The Maltese Falcon
Sullivan’s Travels
White Heat
Seven Samurai
Them
Touch of Evil
Some Like it Hot
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Conversation
Repo Man
City of Lost Children
The Limey
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
I got a 96, the only ones I haven’t seen are Amadeus and Requiem for a Dream. This surprised me since, for the last 3 or 4 years my moviegoing rate has dropped drastically (laziness and cable TV). I didn’t post on yesterday’s Oscar threads because I’d seen so few of the nominees.
I like Tom’s list better. I’ve only missed two on that (City of Lost Children and The Limey) as well. 🙂
I still haven’t seen Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Once Upon a Time in the West. I can’t make myself want to see City of Lost Children.
I’d think cult movies such as Rocky Horror, The Wicker Man, and Harold and Maude should be included, musicals such as Swing Time and Singin’ in the Rain, a good sprinkling of noir and Hitchcock, foreign films such as Seven Samurai and The Blue Angel, some of that Antonini crap I hate, and some small indies of the past fifteen years.
From Tom’s list I’m missing Sullivan’s Travels and Touch of Evil. And I get half credit for trying to watch City of Lost Children.
So Tom, what’s so major and important about Crouching Tiger anyway?
I wasn’t setting out to do a comprehensive list–just a bunch of movies that, to me, are essential movie buff movies (supplementing, of course, those movies on the original list that I think belong there), and that occurred to me in the five minutes I spent thinking about it. (And thinking about it now, I can’t believe I didn’t include any Miyazaki…for example.)
I don’t like terms like ‘major’ or ‘important’ in this context, because they imply a sort of Judgment of History approach to the thing. I prefer the term essential. (Think of Joss Whedon’s oft-repeated line about how he’d rather make a series 100 people have to watch than one a million people like to watch. That’s what I’m talking about in regard to movies.)
To me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is the sort of movie that illustrates why movies exist in the first place. It’s a gorgeous film in which every element acts as support or counterpoint to a compelling and emotionally nuanced story.
I only scored a 46%. Several of those movies I’ve only seen bits of, so I didn’t include them.