In my quest to finish “The List”, #371 has taken up most of my time so far. A list of the top 250 movies of all time as voted on by the I.M.D.B. visitors. The current list can be found here. http://www.imdb.com/chart/top

Usually, I try to work in one or two movies from the list every weekend and this weekend it happened to be three. Chinatown, Lawrence of Arabia, and M. I also happened to catch the new flick Iron Man at the theater on Saturday.

This list has given me the opportunity to see some real gems of motion picture beauty such as M by Fritz Lang, but has equally subjected me to lengthy pieces of crap such as “There Will Be Blood”. Here are some recaps and reviews.

Iron Man…each time they do a ‘superhero’ flick lately they get a bit closer to perfection. Iron Man was one of my favorite comics as a kid and I kind of grew apart from him when I got older. This film sparked my interest all over again. Especially with the insinuation at the end of the movie about a possible Avengers movie in the future.

I don’t think life could get much better than that and this list on IMDB will be constantly changing as movies for Captain America, Thor, and Black Widow come out.

Must see movie of 2008. Makes There Will Be Blood look like a gargantuan waste of time. Jon Favreau quickly reminded me of why I think we could hang out.

Robert Downey, Jr. has always been one of my favorite actors after Chaplin, but I feel confident in saying he’s my very favorite now. Kudos to him for getting his life straight.

Bottom line: 5 out of 5

“M” is a German film from 1931 that I would have never seen if not for the list. Directed by Fritz Lang, the famous director of Metropolis, the subtitled film stars Peter Lorre as a child murderer. When the cops start raiding the underworld due to mounting pressure to find him, the underworld comes together and hunts for the murderer themselves. The soliloquy by Lorre at the end of the movie was amazing and made me want to perform in front of an audience again.

Final analysis: 4 out of 5

Lawrence of Arabia: Good only because it’s based on a true story.

Chinatown: Good only because it’s Jack Nicholson. Hated the ending.

Go see Iron Man…today!