Other posts in series
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Analysing the movies I’ve watched, Part IV, Data visualisation
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Analysing the movies I’ve watched, Part III, Joining the tables
Introduction
In a previous post, I described how the joining missed out half the data. After making various plots, is turns out the joining was sometimes erroneous too. Hence, I bit the bullet and decided I to manually do the joining, and get a complete and clean dataset. Learning the lessons from past attempts at manual processing, it was a fairly smooth process. (Furthermore, things were significantly sped up by using Selenium - which allowed me to automate the process of searching for a movie on imdb). In the end, it took roughly 3 hours to tidy the dataset and have the official imdb id attached to each entry in my database. And now for the charts!
Year of release
Below are charts showing information about the year of release for the movies I have watched. The first one is just a histogram, and the second shows a scatter-chart showing the year I watched the movie against the year the movie released.
Not sure if there is anything surprising about any of these charts. One neat thing is that one could probably get an idea of my age based on the first chart. The second chart seems to show that the majority of movies I watch are relatively new.
Ratings
Below is a chart showing the average ratings (by users of imdb) for the movies I have watched, along with the distribution of ratings for all the movies in imdb.
It is clear from this chart that I tend to watch ‘decent’ movies, as judged by imdb users, and that I avoid ‘bad’ movies, but I also seem to avoid the ‘best’ movies.
Below is a chart comparing the ratings for all the movies I have watched with the ratings of the movie I would recommend.
It is reassuring to see that, overall, the movies I recommend are generally better regarded than the movies I do not recommend.
Lastly, here is a chart showing the variation in ratings by the year I watched the movie.
I cannot really discern any patterns here, that aren’t revealed by other charts. Patterns that I can see are that I watched a lot more movies (and greater variety of quality of movies) in 2008 and 2009, and that the movies I recommend tend to have higher ratings than those I don’t.
To end this section, here is a list of the most and least popular movies I have watched.
| Movie | Rating on imdb |
|---|---|
| the shawshank redemption | 9.3 |
| the dark knight | 9.0 |
| 12 angry men | 8.9 |
| the lord of the rings: the return of the king | 8.9 |
| pulp fiction | 8.9 |
| fight club | 8.8 |
| the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring | 8.8 |
| forrest gump | 8.8 |
| inception | 8.8 |
| the matrix | 8.7 |
| the lord of the rings: the two towers | 8.7 |
| goodfellas | 8.7 |
| star wars: episode v - the empire strikes back | 8.7 |
| se7en | 8.6 |
| city of god | 8.6 |
| interstellar | 8.6 |
| saving private ryan | 8.6 |
| the silence of the lambs | 8.6 |
| star wars: episode iv - a new hope | 8.6 |
| gladiator | 8.5 |
| the departed | 8.5 |
| casablanca | 8.5 |
| the usual suspects | 8.5 |
| dear zachary: a letter to a son about his father | 8.5 |
| whiplash | 8.5 |
| joker | 8.5 |
| psycho | 8.5 |
| senna | 8.5 |
| Movie | Rating on imdb |
|---|---|
| steel | 2.8 |
| troll 2 | 2.9 |
| the foreigner | 3.4 |
| batman & robin | 3.7 |
| half a person | 3.8 |
| friday the 13th part viii: jason takes manhattan | 4.6 |
| barely legal | 4.7 |
| elektra | 4.7 |
| doe: dead or alive | 4.8 |
| friday the 13th: a new beginning | 4.8 |
| uncut gem | 4.8 |
| blair witch | 5.0 |
| a teacher’s crime | 5.0 |
| tekken: the motion picture | 5.3 |
| in their skin | 5.3 |
| daredevil | 5.3 |
| scary movie 2 | 5.3 |
| the circle | 5.3 |
| friday the 13th part vii: the new blood | 5.3 |
| little | 5.4 |
The one thing I feel slightly ashamed of is that I watched so many of the Friday the 13th movies. I think my reasoning was that if a series has that many movies, there must be something good about it. I kept going on, even though I thought the movies were bad, in the hope that there is a moment in the series where the movies become good. I did finally stop watching the series - it just took eight movies to make that decision…
Genres
Below is a table showing a breakdown of the genres of movie I watched, ordered by which genre has the highest odds of me recommending it. Note that most movies had multiple genres.
| Genre | Frequency | Frequency Recommended | Percent recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| thriller | 126 | 37 | 0.29 |
| war | 14 | 4 | 0.29 |
| sport | 18 | 5 | 0.28 |
| drama | 319 | 87 | 0.27 |
| sci-fi | 86 | 22 | 0.26 |
| crime | 146 | 36 | 0.25 |
| biography | 47 | 11 | 0.23 |
| music | 18 | 4 | 0.22 |
| romance | 56 | 11 | 0.20 |
| comedy | 210 | 42 | 0.20 |
| mystery | 80 | 15 | 0.19 |
| animation | 51 | 8 | 0.16 |
| family | 25 | 4 | 0.16 |
| history | 26 | 4 | 0.15 |
| fantasy | 70 | 10 | 0.14 |
| documentary | 31 | 4 | 0.13 |
| adventure | 188 | 23 | 0.12 |
| horror | 66 | 7 | 0.11 |
| action | 227 | 23 | 0.10 |
| musical | 6 | 0 | 0.00 |
| news | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| western | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
The entries that stand out to me are those with the largest frequencies. There is strong evidence that I am more likely to recommend a thriller or a drama than a comedy, and that I am unlikely to recommend adventure or action movies.
Directors
Below is a list of the directors, along with the movies, whose movies I have most watched.
Steven Spielberg
a.i. artificial intelligence
catch me if you can
jaws
jurassic park
minority report
raiders of the lost ark
saving private ryan
the adventures of tintin
Peter Jackson
king kong
the hobbit: an unexpected journey
the hobbit: the battle of the five armies
the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring
the lord of the rings: the return of the king
the lord of the rings: the two towers
Christopher Nolan
dunkirk
inception
interstellar
memento
the dark knight
the dark knight rises
Guy Ritchie
lock, stock and two smoking barrels
rocknrolla
sherlock holmes
sherlock holmes: a game of shadows
snatch
the man from u.n.c.l.e.
Martin Scorsese
cape fear
goodfellas
silence
taxi driver
the departed
the wolf of wall street
Quentin Tarantino
inglourious basterds
kill bill: vol. 1
once upon a time... in hollywood
pulp fiction
reservoir dogs
the hateful eight
Danny Boyle
28 days later
steve jobs
t2 trainspotting
trainspotting
yesterday
Matthew Vaughn
kick-ass
kingsman: the secret service
layer cake
stardust
x-men: first class
David Fincher
fight club
gone girl
se7en
the curious case of benjamin button
the social network
M. Night Shyamalan
glass
lady in the water
split
the sixth sense
unbreakable
Darren Aronofsky
black swan
mother!
noah
requiem for a dream
the wrestler
I tend not to pay any attention to who the director is, so for me, the interesting thing here is to see how movies that I would have said had no connection in fact have the same director. E.g. I did not realise I had watched that many movies by Spielberg. The other thing that stands out here is that all the directors are male.
Actors
Below is a list of actors, along with the movies, that I have most watched.
Brad Pitt
12 years a slave
allied
burn after reading
fight club
inglourious basterds
killing them softly
megamind
moneyball
once upon a time... in hollywood
se7en
snatch
the big short
the curious case of benjamin button
troy
war machine
Bruce Willis
alpha dog
die hard
die hard 2
die hard 4.0
die hard with a vengeance
fast food nation
glass
looper
moonrise kingdom
pulp fiction
sin city
the sixth sense
unbreakable
Samuel L. Jackson
die hard with a vengeance
glass
jumper
kingsman: the secret service
pulp fiction
star wars: episode iii - revenge of the sith
the hateful eight
the hitman's bodyguard
the incredibles
the negotiator
unbreakable
unicorn store
Matt Damon
adjustment bureau
contagion
good will hunting
jason bourne
ponyo
saving private ryan
the bourne identity
the bourne ultimatum
the departed
the legend of bagger vance
the martian
the talented mr. ripley
Tom Hanks
angels & demons
catch me if you can
forrest gump
saving private ryan
the circle
toy story
toy story 2
toy story of terror
you've got mail
Robert De Niro
analyze this
cape fear
dirty grandpa
goodfellas
hide and seek
joker
meet the parents
righteous kill
taxi driver
Rachel McAdams
about time
aloha
doctor strange
mean girls
red eye
sherlock holmes
sherlock holmes: a game of shadows
state of play
wedding crashers
Natalie Portman
annihilation
black swan
closer
star wars: episode i - the phantom menace
star wars: episode ii - attack of the clones
star wars: episode iii - revenge of the sith
the other boleyn girl
thor
v for vendetta
Leonardo DiCaprio
blood diamond
catch me if you can
inception
once upon a time... in hollywood
the departed
the man in the iron mask
the revenant
the wolf of wall street
Ben Affleck
argo
batman v superman: dawn of justice
daredevil
gone girl
good will hunting
paycheck
state of play
the accountant
Jake Gyllenhaal
donnie darko
jarhead
nightcrawler
nocturnal animals
prisoners
proof
source code
velvet buzzsaw
Ian McKellen
stardust
the hobbit: an unexpected journey
the hobbit: the battle of the five armies
the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring
the lord of the rings: the return of the king
the lord of the rings: the two towers
x-men
x2: x-men united
Christian Bale
3:10 to yuma
american psycho
public enemies
terminator salvation
the big short
the dark knight
the dark knight rises
the machinist
Morgan Freeman
along came a spider
deep impact
lucy
million dollar baby
se7en
the bucket list
the shawshank redemption
wanted
Tom Cruise
collateral
edge of tomorrow
minority report
mission: impossible
rain man
the last samurai
valkyrie
vanilla sky
Johnny Depp
a nightmare on elm street
fantastic beasts: the crimes of grindelwald
fear and loathing in las vegas
pirate of the caribbean: at world's end
pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
public enemies
the tourist
Ewan McGregor
angels & demons
black hawk down
star wars: episode i - the phantom menace
star wars: episode ii - attack of the clones
star wars: episode iii - revenge of the sith
t2 trainspotting
trainspotting
Laurence Fishburne
john wick: chapter 3 - parabellum
passengers
predators
the matrix
the matrix reloaded
the matrix revolutions
the signal
Robert Downey Jr.
avengers: infinity war
iron man 2
iron man 3
sherlock holmes
sherlock holmes: a game of shadows
spider-man: homecoming
the avengers
Jude Law
a.i. artificial intelligence
closer
contagion
gattaca
sherlock holmes
sherlock holmes: a game of shadows
the talented mr. ripley
Kevin Spacey
a bug's life
american beauty
margin call
moon
se7en
the negotiator
the usual suspects
Orlando Bloom
good doctor
pirate of the caribbean: at world's end
pirates of the caribbean: dead man's chest
the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring
the lord of the rings: the return of the king
the lord of the rings: the two towers
troy
Scarlett Johansson
her
jojo rabbit
lost in translation
lucy
marriage story
the avengers
the other boleyn girl
Angelina Jolie
alexander
girl, interrupted
kung fu panda
kung fu panda 2
the tourist
wanted
Paul Giamatti
duplicity
lady in the water
private life
sideways
the illusionist
win win
Joaquin Phoenix
gladiator
her
hotel rwanda
joker
quills
you were never really here
Jim Carrey
ace ventura: pet detective
dumb and dumber
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
the mask
the truman show
yes man
Anthony Hopkins
alexander
noah
proof
red dragon
the silence of the lambs
thor
Tom Hardy
dunkirk
layer cake
locke
mad max: fury road
the dark knight rises
the revenant
Keanu Reeves
john wick
john wick: chapter 2
john wick: chapter 3 - parabellum
the matrix
the matrix reloaded
the matrix revolutions
Emma Watson
beauty and the beast
harry potter and the deathly hallows: part 1
harry potter and the goblet of fire
harry potter and the half-blood prince
noah
the circle
Clive Owen
children of men
closer
duplicity
inside man
sin city
the bourne identity
Ethan Hawke
boyhood
gattaca
lord of war
predestination
the magnificent seven
the purge
John Malkovich
being john malkovich
burn after reading
johnny english
ripley's game
the man in the iron mask
warm bodies
Elijah Wood
deep impact
happy feet
maniac
the lord of the rings: the fellowship of the ring
the lord of the rings: the return of the king
the lord of the rings: the two towers
Cameron Diaz
being john malkovich
shrek forever after
shrek the third
the mask
vanilla sky
what happens in vegas
Nice list of some of the more famous actors in the industry. One thing that surprised is how many movies I have watched that starred Brad Pitt - I did not realise it was that many! Once again, it is worth noting that females are under-represented here.
Conclusion
This project has probably been the one that I spent the most time on so far. I have learnt a whole bunch and managed to produce some nice visuals and summaries. Hopefully it was interesting to read!