Directors Poll: Your Sight Unseen "Batting Average" (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

Ok, Ill see it first, thanks

 

[SteveGon]

Secretary (maybe)

Maybe? Maybe the following link will change your mind...

http://www.scoopy.com/top10_2002.htm


WARNING: the page linked to contains nudity. Just FYI.

 

[Chris_Richard]

I've been happy with all of my sight-unseen purchases. Most have been Criterion except for a couple of bargain buys.

Of the 125 or so I have, the 16 were bought blind:
Seven Samurai
Beauty and the Beast
Time Bandits
Nights of Cabria
Charade
Peeping Tom
Orphic Trilogy
M. Hulot Holiday
Mon Oncle
Playtime
Rififi
The Decalogue
The Limey
Pi
Sucide Kings
Twin Falls Idaho

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

Amélie (Sorry Steeve, I tried)

Try again!

 

[Dome Vongvises]

My sight unseen buying queue involves

Ran

And that's about it. However, I'm thinking about adding the following three titles:

Beauty and the Beast: Criterion Collection
The 400 Blows: Criterion Collection
Grand Illusion: Criterion Collection

What's keeping me from buying these films without hesitation is the fact that, well, I have horrible luck with French films. Of course, no offense to those that love 'em.

I thought The Vanishing was okay, liked City of Lost Children, and loved Amelie.

But Three Colors: Blue left an awful taste in my mouth. Every prejudice I had against French films came to bear in that movie. I watched it three times, and I kept hating it even more.

Knowing that, what do you folks say to my choice of the three French films?

 

[Chris_Richard]

I am a big fan of French films so I might not be the best to listen to but those three are good choices. Especially Grand Illusion and 400 Blows. Since these are all quite old they might be different enough from the typical French film of today that bothers you. Grand Illusion influenced many Hollywood films for years to come.

I don't know if I'd consider Three Colors to be truly French. While French language and filmed there it was largely Swiss financed and has a Polish director.

 

[Scott_MacD]

Good blind purchases

Any Given Sunday
Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain)
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence
A Knight's Tale
Annie Hall
American Graffiti
All About My Mother
American Psycho
Apocalypse Now Redux
Akira
A Night to Remember
Alec Guinness DVD Collection
A Fistful of Dollars
Arsenic And Old Lace
Almost Famous - Untitled: The Bootleg Cut: Director's Cut
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Beatles, The: A Hard Day's Night
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bowfinger
Bound
Blade II: Platinum Series
Brazil: Criterion Collection
Bananas
Bringing Out The Dead
Battle Royale: DTS
Bad Taste: Limited Edition
Batman - The Movie: Holy Special Edition
Citizen Kane
Cinema Paradiso: Director's Cut
City Hunter
Crying Freeman
Children of Paradise: Criterion Collection
Contact
Chinatown
Chopper
Conan the Barbarian
Chicken Run
Das Boot: Director's Cut
Dawn of the Dead
Donnie Darko
Drive: Director's Cut
Dancer In The Dark
Dark City: Platinum Series
Easy Rider
El Mariachi / Desperado
Election
Enemy At The Gates
Evil Dead
EDtv
For a Few Dollars More
Fight Club
Frogs
Fist of Fury
Face/Off
Frailty
Final Destination
Fly, The / The Fly 2
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Gosford Park
Get Carter
Galaxy Quest
Ghost in the Shell
Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai
Gods and Monsters
Gone with the Wind
Grave of the Fireflies: Collector's Series
Halloween
Heavenly Creatures: Uncut Version
Heat
High Fidelity
Happiness
Hard Boiled
Iron Monkey
Jurassic Park III
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
Lethal Weapon 4: Premiere Collection
Leaving Las Vegas
Lawrence of Arabia
Manhattan
Men In Black: Limited Edition
Magnolia
Metropolis: Animated
Manhunter
Man Bites Dog: Criterion Collection
Matilda
My Name Is Joe
Magnificent Warriors
Memento: Limited Edition
Night of the Living Dead: Millennium Edition
Nosferatu: The Vampyre
North By Northwest
Natural Born Killers: Director's Cut
Nuns On The Run
Nurse Betty
Notorious: Criterion Collection
New Dragon Gate Inn
Ninja In The Dragon's Den
Once Upon a Time in China
Once Upon a Time in China 2
Once Upon a Time in China 3
Ocean's Eleven
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Princess Mononoke
Prince Of Egypt, The: Signature Selection: DTS
Pollyanna
Police Story
Police Story 2
Pitch Black: Director's Cut
Planes, Trains And Automobiles
Patton
Planet Of The Apes
Pale Rider
Patriot Games
Perfect Blue
Platoon
Rope
Rear Window
Rebecca: Criterion Collection
Requiem For A Dream
Rebel Without A Cause
Strangers On A Train
Swimming With Sharks
Showgirls
Sleeper
State and Main
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Sleepy Hollow
Spetters
Small Time Crooks
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Director's Cut
Stargate: Director's Cut
Singin' in the Rain
Superman: The Movie
Superman 2
Spy Kids
Strange Days
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Platinum Collection
Storytelling
Spirited Away
Some Like It Hot
Soldier of Orange
Summer of Sam
The Godfather
Thirteen Days: Infinifilm
Turkish Delight
The Sopranos
Taxi Driver
The Ice Storm
The Godfather Part II
The Dish
The Big Sleep
The Insider
The Last House on the Left
The Outlaw Josey Wales
The Killer
The Maltese Falcon
The Others
The Fog
The Thing
The Iron Giant
This Is Spinal Tap
Twister
The Princess Bride
The Haunting: Signature Selection
The Apartment
The Rock: Criterion Collection
The 39 Steps: Criterion Collection
The Perfect Storm
The Graduate: Director's Collection
Tombstone: Vista Series
The Limey
The Red Shoes: Criterion Collection
Three Kings
The French Connection II
The French Connection
Titan A.E.
The Abyss
The Beyond
The Legend Of Drunken Master
The Long Good Friday
To Kill A Mockingbird
The Thin Red Line
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
Thelma & Louise
The Mummy: Ultimate Edition
The Longest Day
The Omen
The Guns of Navarone
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Tigerland
The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
U-571
Unforgiven: 10th Anniversary: Two Disc Special Edition
Vertigo
V: The Original Miniseries
Way of the Gun
Way of the Dragon
Welcome to the Dollhouse
When We Were Kings
X-Men
Y Tu Mamá También

Bad blind purchases..
Army of Darkness
Deep Blue Sea
Exorcist - The Version You've Never Seen
Game of Death
Pearl Harbor: Director's Cut
Planet Of The Apes (2001)
Shrek
The Godfather Part III
Vertical Limit
Willow

so, 203 out of 213 is an average of 95.3%. Not bad.

 

[Angelo.M]

I've made all of 3 blind purchases, two for myself and one for my daughter.

I consider my average 1.000...

Road to Perdition
Days of Heaven
Lilo and Stitch

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I'm doing pretty good. My Darling Clementine was a great film.

 

[ChrisV]

Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Casablanca
Chasing Amy
Chinatown
Clerks
The Color of Money
Fantasia 2000
Finding Nemo
Grave of the Fireflies
The Hustler
Mallrats
Moulin Rouge
Once Upon a Time in the West
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Talk to Her
Three Colours Trilogy

A pretty good average, really. The two I didn't really care for kind of go with other ones that I do like. I've had worse luck buying ones I've already seen and then later deciding that I don't want them in my collection.

 

[Brook K]

I just hit one out of the park a few days ago with Minnie & Moskowitz. Since it was Cassavetes I figured it was a safe bet but I'm completely in love with it. Beautiful, funny, and very, very human. One of his 2 or 3 best pictures.

 

[Casey Trowbridg]

Ok, you guys might be shocked at my list of blind buys but you've got to understand that movies weren't a large part of my growing up, and I don't really go to the theater all that much.

So, I'll break it down like this, Blind Buys I like, Blind Buys I haven't watched, and Blind Buys I didn't care for.

Ones I like...
American Pie
American Pie 2
American Wedding
Back to the Future Trilogy
Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns
Big Mommas House
Bull Durham
Caddyshack
Citizen Kane
Crocodile Hunter Colision Coarse
An Evening with Kevin Smith
An Extremely Goofy Movie
Galaxy Quest
A Goofy Movie
King of Queens: The Complete First Season
Groundhog Day
Kissing Jessica Stein
Left Behind
Left Behind 2
Lilo and Stitch
Lion King
M*A*S*H 5 Star Collection
Meet the Parents
Monty Python and the Meaning of Life
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Remember the Titans
The Replacements
Robin Williams: Live on Broadway
The Rookie
Sex and the City: Season 1 (it got me hooked on all the seasons)
Shrek
There's Something About Mary
13 Days
Toy Story
Toy Story II
Treasure Planet

Ones I haven't watched...
24: Season 1 and 2 (bought because I love the premise and when I do finally watch these I will like them by force of will for what I paid for them)
Adventures of Indiana Jones Trilogy
Alien Quadrilogy (still working through it...)
Beverlyhills Ninja
Braveheart
Chasing Amy
Clerks
Clerks: Uncensored
Daredevil
Dogma
E.t.
Freaky Friday
Godfather Movie Collection
Hoosiers
Jackass: The Movie
Mallrats
LOTR FOTREE (love the extras though)
LOTR TTEE (again I love the extras, but I want to wait until ROTK so I think I can understand these movies better)
Rites of Autumn: The History of College Football
Rocky Gift Set
Saving Private Ryan
Sinbad: Legend of the 7 Seas
Spiderman
Thumb Wars
The Ultimate Vacation Collection

Ones I didn't care for too much
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
A Bug's Life (though I like this better on repeat viewings)
Fun and Fancy Free
The Ladies Man
Ready to Rumble
What Women Want

The thing is, though that even among those that I don't care for the only 1 I regret purchasing is Ready to Rumble. Also, I got a number of these as gifts, and even among those i haven't watched yet, I'm more likely to end up liking them, because I don't just pick a blockbuster and purchase it, I always have a reason whether its a particular genre, actor, director or whatever.

 

[James T]

Army of Darkness
Traffic
Mullholland Dr
Toxic Aveneger(in a trade) (but in a hit/miss grade, I'd give it a miss- )
Clerks
Chasing Amy


...but, even though I gave the thumbs up on several of my blind purchases, I cut down on my DVD collection and sold Traffic, Mullholland Dr, Toxic Avenger and Clerks.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

apocalypse now
donnie darko
memento
boogie nights
election
barton fink
eraserhead
being john malkovich
the kids are alright
election

i guess about a third of my collection (of about 180) was purchased sight unseen, and i liked them all except a few, which have been sold.

CJ

 

[JoN:MiLLeR]

im game... let's see...

10 Things I Hate about You
The Animatrix
Baise-Moi
The Boondock Saints
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Crow: City of Angels
The Crow: Salvation
Cruel Intentions 2
Donnie Darko
Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money
From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter
Girl, Interrupted
El Mariachi (pass... havent watched it yet)
Major League: Back To The Minors
Once Upon a Time in Mexico (pass... havent watched it yet)
Practical Magic (pass... havent watched it yet)
Showgirls
Tremors 2: Aftershocks
Tremors 3: Back To Perfection
White Man's Burden

so that would make me... .777 not too bad...