Once there was a boy…

At age five, his parents got a divorce. That was bad, but the boy was lucky. He had an awesome Mom, wonderful grandparents, and they all loved him very much, so he never really missed his father.

He and his Mom moved away from home to the city of El Paso, Texas. Mom had to work evenings at the hospital, so the boy spent many of those evenings watching old movies. They had a new thing called "cable", and El Paso’s feed came from the movie capital of the world, Los Angeles, California!

The lonely little guy loved weird, creepy TV shows like The Munsters, Lost in Space, Star Trek, Land of the Giants, The Twilight Zone, and Night Gallery.

He also liked some of the funny shows like Gilligan's Island, F Troop, I Dream of Jeannie, and Bewitched.

As for movies, he loved anything with monsters. There was Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, Gwangi and anything with dinosaurs. His favorite was Godzilla, a gigantic fire-breathing beast from Japan.

He also loved the slapstick comedy of Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Martin and Lewis, and the bug-eyed Don Knotts. There was even room swashbucklers, Tarzan, and old Westerns with John Wayne.

At age twelve, the boy and his Mom moved back home. Goodbye cable TV. Out in rural Texas, you got one channel clearly, and two you could barely see at all. 

However, there were new motion pictures hitting theaters in nearby Abilene, so the boy dragged his Mom along as "parental guidance" and they watched Jaws, and it changed his life. Then came Star Wars and Alien and Raiders of the Lost Ark. There were a Star Trek movies!  The boy loved it… all of it!

He also loved lists. When he visited his grandparent’s house, he’d bang away on their an old manual typewriter. Using the latest issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, the boy would type up numerous lists from that monster-filled issue. One movie title at a time. He’d fill the page with titles like Day of the Triffids and Night of the Blood Beast and The Creeping Flesh.

His Mom might have been a little worried about him...

He ordered his lists by category (vampires, werewolves, mad scientists, etc.), by year, by movies he wanted to see. He liked the thought process of ranking movies top to bottom, best to worst. He liked the summation of the lists, the process of validation.

As the boy became a young man, his appreciation of film matured. He started to note directors, screenwriters and composers. He liked understanding how a film was made. He treasured "movie nights" with friends. He look film classes in college. He REALLY treasured conversations with fellow film enthusiasts. His brother introduced him to a TV show called At The Movies, hosted by Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and he loved it when they gave a movie “two thumbs up”.

Like his sister, he started collecting movies, first on VHS, then on DVD, and finally on blu-ray. He even became a little sad when "streaming" became a thing, and now there's no logical reason to collect physical movies anymore.

He witnessed film technology grow and change. Ray Harryhausen made skeletons walk with stop motion. Steven Spielberg gave us digital dinosaurs and CGI took off. Pixar partnered with Disney and digitally animated a toy cowboy named Woody. James Cameron created an entirely new world using motion-capture. The face of movies was changing. The young man loved it. However, he still loved the old ways, and the old films, too.

He also began to be more critical of films. He learned what he liked, and it wasn’t everything. He re-evaluated is tastes. He re-watched films he did not like as a child. Some he changed his mind on. Some he still did not like. He’ll just never like A Clockwork Orange or Natural Born Killers. He doesn't get films by Woody Allen and films based on plays by Tennessee Williams.

He loves films directed by John Ford, William Wyler, Frank Capra, Clint Eastwood, Judd Apatow and Steven Spielberg. He’ll always love sci-fi classics like Fantastic Voyage and The Dark Crystal.

That’s just who he is.

The young man grew older, and he hatched an idea. It grew from a question he had: how do I pass on some of the stories from my life in a creative way? He didn't want to just do a "life story". As the man swirled the question around, it eventually took shape... he loved movies... he loved lists... YES! Create a list of favorite films, review them, and incorporate parts of his life within those reviews!

That sounded pretty easy.

The man started his list on scrap paper, then created more details in a Word document. He quickly transcribed the film list into a spreadsheet. But the question remained... how to I present this to my target audience (aka my kids). It seemed kinda dumb to just email them a spreadsheet, especially when dealing with such a visual medium. He needed to show pictures from the films, maybe even link to some clips from those movies! The web was the way to go, and the man knew just enough there to be somewhat dangerous...

As the man worked on his idea, it was anything but easy. Still he worked on and created his first list. He started with his Top 40 films (you know, like the radio "Top 40" hits). Then it grew into today's Top50 Films. These are the absolute most important films to him. Yep, it's personal.

This list will be different than "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies" This is not IMBD’s "Top 100 Movies Bucket List". This is not even Esquire magazine's list or the Chicago Sun Times' list. It's his list, meant for his adoring fans, all two of them.

He quickly realized that he had he'd need more than one list. The first list would consist of his fifty absolute favorite films. These are movies that the man has watched over and over. They touched him in some way; are connected to him, his life, his past, his sorrows, his desires.  These would get the meatier, full-page reviews. This is where he'd put the most about his life, the gory details and all that. These are the reviews he hopes his kids will someday read, and maybe search for the small nuggets about their old Pa's life.

From all this, another idea arose. There were at least 200 films that didn't make the Top 50 cut. But like a nice piece of Rib-Eye, they are still important to him... hence was born the Prime 200. These are films he considers be almost perfect. These are essential to understanding the film tastes of this regular Joe. These films would get what Dad would eventually call his "Mini Reviews", which include one quote, a reason to watch the film, and a small paragraph about the film's high points.

From there, things just went crazy. He had more films he wanted to share, so he created the Next 200. They he felt bad because so many great films were left out, so he created Another 200 reviews. But wait! There are more wonderful movies that he is compelled to share and review! That was the genus of 200 More mini-reviews!

He even decided to create lists that pull films from all this lists by their genre. He'd found another fun way to share his love of movies. Please check out his Genre Lists.

And so, on it goes.

So, the man, with his limited web-page skills, created the film lists site you see here.  He hopes you enjoy it, at least a little bit.