I think the key to success is to have Morgan Freeman in your movie. Yes, he was in The Godfather, you just didn't look hard enough.

Seeing Shawshank at #1 makes me a little ill.

OH LAWD!!!!!

I agree with Ian's sentiment, and I think that the Dark Knight fanboys need to get a life. The Dark Knight will only sink farther as newer movies always do in this rating system. It will eventually reside somewhere around 13 sometime this fall.

wait? how can it fall to 3rd all at at once?

Panda,

it's cause of stupid Godfather and Shawshank fanboys who rated TDK as 1/10.

I mean come on: At least 8000 people gave TDK 1/10.

No movie deserves a 1/10. Not even that stupid Mariah Carey movie Glitter or that stupid Britney Spears movie Crossroads...hell, I was nice enough to give it a 3/10 or a 4/10.

8000 people with NO LIFE WHATSOEVER.....

The Shawshank Redemption is an outstanding movie and deserves a place in the top 50, if not 25. I'm surprised it's ranked so high, but it was played ad infinitum on network television, so I'm not surprised so many have seen it and voted for it. It's funny to see Shawshank holding out at #2 for so long-as a result of the vicious downvoting between Godfather and TDK, both have been dethroned.

Of course, the greatest irony is that Shawshank moved up not because it was voted up, but because the nastiness of The Godfather and The Dark Knight fans brought them both down. What a sham. All 3 movies deserve to be on the list, mind you, but it's just pathetic the way the rankings were basically sabotaged

Guidos in NJ outweigh comicbook readers around the world.

I don't understand why there isn't a hold placed on IMDb votes, especially movies for The Dark Knight. Don't let people vote until a movie is out of theatres, hell, until a few weeks after the DVD is released. Or at the very least, don't allow it to be counted in the Top 250 for at least a year. I've seen movies come out only to be immediately in and then out of the Top 250 (most egregious incident-300). That cheapens it. There should not be the amount of fluctuation that there is

WE KNOW THE TRUE CHAMP

As long as Juno's not in the 250, I sleep peacefully at night.

All three movies deserve to win best picture in my opinion. The Shawshank Redemption was better than Forest Gump but not by much(the Godfather did win best picture). Also I hope that the Dark Knight stays in the top 5(we'll see how it does in the oscars later). Since it is the best superhero movie ever but not quite the best movie ever. Personally though I think people are giving some of the top movies 1/10 on purpose even though they don't think it just so one movie could go on the top. But anyway Morgan Freeman is happy no matter what two of his movies are on the top.

That's why I don't use IMDB.....

Everyone talks about TDK fans voting down Godfather, but never Godfather fans voting down TDK. You know The Dark Knight is going to be crapped on at the Academy Awards, if it even makes it there. God forbid a comic book/superhero movie be one of, if not the best movies of all time - or win any oscars.

I have to agree with TheDaftPunk. :?

I told you.....

The Godfather needs to be number 1 or I will not go back to imdb. Shawshank is great, just not the number 1 movie of all time!!!!

I have a question.

How does this affect peoples lives anyway at all? I mean, are awards given based on imdb votes. Does any of those three movies become terrible just because it went down a spot or two. The Dark Knight could get screwed at every award show this season. Don't get me wrong I'd be a little mad but its made a lot of money so its guaranteed another one. C'mon people is it that big of deal?

dark knight is way too long and way over rated 1/10 sounds about right

The IMDb top 250 is a popularity contest, and guess what? TDK's popularity is decreasing, so its rating goes down. Not visiting the site anymore because Shawshank is on top and the Godfather isn't is stupid.

How or why is this even newsworthy?

Look just to get it out the way, all 3 films are fantastic pieces of cinema not just within their respective genres but movies overall. As far as whats better or not, I mean its a popularity contest, but hearing about fanboys who either are rating up there film or rating down the other films is just depressing.


Even if Dark Knight drops to 13 on the list or whatever that still impressive I guess, but its all so irrelevent

Citizen Kane should be in the #1 spot, and Seven Samurai in #2... but this is all a popularity contest anyway.

oh well.

Why do people care about this pointlessly subjective list?

This is what happens when the moral fabric of society breaks down.

Shawshank is a very overrated film. A good film yes but number one all time...uhhh...now way in hell. The Godfather is a truly great all time classic and if it was number one ahead of The Dark Knight I could understand...but shawshank redemption, come on.

Who cares about IMDB anyway. I never even go on the site

This whole 'voting down' and 'voting up' thing is stupid. Nobody votes on IMDb to choose the 'best movie of all time.' When you vote you're grading an individual movie on a scale of 1-10. Just because you give a movie a 9 or a 10 doesn't mean you're specifically stating that the film should be considered one of the greatest of all time - just that you think it's extremely successful at accomplishing what it was supposed to.

The Dark Knight was graded a 10/10, or an A+ by the majority of the voters. These people weren't declaring it to be the greatest film of all time - many of them haved ranked plenty of films 10/10... individually.

To go out of your way and give a movie 1/10 just to lower its score in relation to a completely unrelated film is fucking retarded. It really skews the concept of collaborative criticism. I think, in all honesty, IMDb shouldn't count any votes of 1/10 in a film's overall score. Even if EVERY vote was a 1/10 they shouldn't count. I'd be very hard pressed to find a film that has no redeaming elements, thus deserving a 1/10.

Hell, even if you didn't like Shawshank, Godfather, or TDK, you've got to be fucking retarded to give it anything lower than 6/10 (which is a D, btw).

Am I the only one who thinks The Godfather is overrated?(It's overrated but still a great picture) I'm just saying I wouldn't put it on Top #5 even. But fanboys(Both TDK and TGF) needs to stop bitchin' about this, you're just pathetic.

Well,
I usualy try to vote on imdb as I feel its realistic and I hate all the 10pt/1pt givers but to be honest, I gave TDK a 1pt too just to smash it down #1 because the movie defnitly doesnt deserve it and until the hype is over im not going to change that :<

There are films you like/love and films you admire/rate. e.g. I admire much of Scorcese's stuff but don't like it; I love good trash but don't confuse like with rating. These lists always conflate the two criteria - espcially with Shawshank - so mean little.

It makes sense to say that The Dark Knight is the best of the Batman movies so far; that it one of the more intersting and philosophical of all the comic-book hero based movies.


For me Nolan has used the Batman vehicle to create classical Greek myth. And that's interesting. Not how long it stays at what number in a list mixing subjective preference with objective value.

2 dogs fighting for a bone, the 3rd one walks away slowly ;)

ABOUT TIME!

While the Dark Night is fun and Ledger's performance is truly a thing to see, the third act is a complete disaster.

hardly a contender for "greatest" anything.

Um I could see godfather being #1 not shawshank.. it was good but not #1 good... Perhaps top 100 anyway.. I do think Batman is better than Shawshank.. sorry, just my opinion

Its only 24 days lest give it some time and it will clime back to #1 where it belongs

I'm probably a little biased when I say this, because "The Godfather" is my favorite movie of all time, but I couldn't help but feel a bit...irked when I saw it kicked out of the #1 spot. But you guys are right. The IMDB 250 is more of a popularity contest, if anything. I love "Shawshank," I really do, and it is indeed a great film, but the fact that it's #1 is based mainly on how almost universally-beloved it is. You know how Red says "prison is no fairy-tale world?" But the movie totally is. It's like Capra decided to make a prison movie where everything ends all nice and uplifting at the end. And yet if I were to watch it right now, I'd still cry like a bitch.

Daftpunk...Not NEARLY as many Godfather fans downvoted. Simple common sense (if you possess any) would tell you that Godfather fans are FAR less likely to even KNOW about this silly IMDB war or more likely CARE about it since it is meaningless. You think the average Godfather fan is constantly wondering about its place on the IMDB after 35 years? New movies will ALWAYS have a far bigger number of people voting.

Oh, and to the person talking about getting a life to people voting movies a 1...huh? If you care enough to vote at all you need to get a life. Admitting that you not only watched, but voted for Glitter shows that you have no life that you speak of.

None of these movies are even legitimately Top 10 all time anyway. IMDB is what it is: a forum for those whose unqualified opinions used to, thankfully, go unnoticed. Don't fret the Top 250 folks, it's total rubbish.

Why does it matter where they are ranked on imdb's list?
Why would people compete for their movie to be ranked #1?

I agree with zettelfilmreviews and I think it'd be better if they could wait until hype subsided. There have been plenty of movies that I loved when I stepped out of the theater. Sometimes an hour later I realize it wasn't good. Sometimes the next day. Sometimes never.

TDK is getting a boost by kneejerk reactions (I think, I could be wrong), whereas Shawshank and Godfather are people responding to them long after. People going to their favorite movies ever and giving them 10s. People don't tend to waste much time hunting down movies they are apathetic to, I'm not going back to rate the Edge or Event Horizon. I go back for American Beauty and Shawshank.

Dude that makes perfect sense to me. Well done!

JT
www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com

it was the best movie of the year. definately deserves spot in top10. most of you are saying you hate fanboys who give it 10, but you should hate the ones that gave it 1 to bury it. it should get rating between 8 to 10. not just plain 1 do bury it!

shawshank sucks its a secret love story

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

BORING!!

And another thing, TDK wouldn't have all the "hype" if the tragedy hadn't happened

the Batman movie is a secret love story.

by syllogistic thinking... Dark night also suck

s:P

20,819 ppl voted 1/10 for GodFather, WTF!!! ok comic fans TDK is awesome but still its no way near GodFather so please be reasonable.

These movies always slip down. When it's been out on DVD for a year The Dark Knight will not be in the top 3, guaranteed, as excellent as it was.

Also I'm pretty sure that the 1/10 votes don't hurt the ranking too badly. It's a weighted average, not a mean. Presumably this means that outlying votes that don't fall within ~2 standard deviations of the mean are given less significance when calculating the score and blah blah blah. Or at least something similar to that, anyway.

the gofather had just as many fanboys as the dark knight who voted it one as well hense the reason these ratings mean nothing

Am I the only one who sees the obvious, the incessant up and downvoting of these movies has ruined the integrity of the list, which was supposed to represent the best movies of all time.

Due to idiots attempting to powervote the newest thing up there, it is no longer a representation of what it was intended to be and is merely a meter of fanaticism

movies are personal choices...for eg..mexican food to a japanese food comparision..what might be tasy could be yuck to many .....so btw my favourite list
reality bites, in bruges , the festival, pink panther ( i can't rem which one)