By Dennis D. McDonald

I’ve been renting DVD’s from Netflix since before 1999, back when they were charging on a per disc basis. I remember getting a bill for $90 one month that made me jump out of my skin. Luckily they switched to a flat rate per month after that.

I recently looked over the list of movies I’ve rated as 5 stars. It’s my understanding that the attributes of these films play a significant part in the algorithms used by Netflix in generating “recommendations” for me in the various film categories.

However they do it, I’ve found that the quality of the Netflix recommendations has improved significantly over the years, which is at least partly attributable to my regular ratings of films I’ve seen on DVD or in theaters.

Here is the list of films I’ve rated with five stars; I’ve boldfaced those that I consider to be “extra special:”

• 101 Dalmatians (Animated)
• 12 Monkeys
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• A Bug’s Life
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence
• Alien 3: Collector’s Edition
• Alien: Collector’s Edition
• Alien: Resurrection: Collector’s Edition
• Aliens: Collector’s Edition
• Amelie
• American History X
• Anatomy of a Murder
• Apocalypse Now
• Apollo 13
• Armageddon
• Asoka
• Beauty and the Beast
• Ben-Hur
• Beyond the Movie: Return of the King
• Blade
• Blade Runner
• Blue Velvet
• Brazil
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s
• Bruce Springsteen: Live in NYC (2-Disc Series)
• Constantine
• Contact
• Dark City
• Das Boot
• Early Summer
• Existenz
• Expo: Magic of the White City
• Fight Club
• Forbidden Planet
• Gattaca
• Gaudi Afternoon
• Ghost World
• Ghostbusters
• Ghostbusters 2
• Girl with a Pearl Earring
• Gladiator
• GoodFellas
• Gun Crazy
• Heavenly Creatures
• High and Low
• Horatio Hornblower (6-Disc Series)
• Hostage
• House of Flying Daggers
• I Know Where I’m Going!
• I, Robot
• Identity
• Ikiru
• Incredible Adventures of Wallace & Gromit
• Jaws
• Jurassic Park III
• Key Largo
• Kill Bill: Vol. 1
• Kill Bill: Vol. 2
• Lagaan
• Lilo and Stitch
• Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
• Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• Lost in Translation
• Man on Fire
• Matinee
• Millennium Actress
• Mission to Mars
• Moulin Rouge
• My Fair Lady: Special Edition
• Not One Less
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Predator
• Princess Mononoke
• Ran
• Rear Window
• Red Beard
• Repo Man
• Riding in Cars with Boys
• Road to Perdition
• Run Silent, Run Deep
• Seven Days in May
• Seven Samurai
• Shadow of the Vampire
• Shakespeare in Love
• Shane
• Shower
• Sin City
• Solaris
• Spartacus
• Spirited Away
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture
• Starship Troopers
• Superman: The Movie
• Sweet and Lowdown
• Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense
• Tarzan
• Tears of the Sun
• The 400 Blows
• The Andromeda Strain
• The Bicycle Thief
• The Big Sleep
• The Bridge on the River Kwai
• The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys
• The Exorcist
• The Flight of the Phoenix
• The King of Masks
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• The Little Mermaid
• The Matrix
• The Matrix: Reloaded
• The Nightmare Before Christmas
• The Passion of Joan of Arc
• The Princess and the Warrior
• The Quiet American
• The Red Shoes
• The Road Home
• The Secret of Roan Inish
• The Silence of the Lambs
• The Station Agent
• The Terminator
• The Usual Suspects
• The War of the Worlds
• The Way Home
• The X-Files: Fight the Future
• To Have and Have Not
• Tokyo Godfathers
• Tokyo Story
• Toy Story
• Toy Story 2
• Training Day
• Trinity and Beyond: Atomic Bomb
• Vera Drake
• Vertigo
• Waterworld
• West Side Story
• Whale Rider
• Wings of Desire
• Yasujiro Ozu’s Good Morning