PopcornMoviez: movies from 1991 to 2012 by year, from Jurassic Park, Groundhog Day and Jumanji to Notting Hill, Elf, The Social Network and Hugo

How PopcornMoviez works

The home page is dark, like a cinema after the lights go down. The striped popcorn box of the logo sits at the top left with the search box opposite. Two grey bars in capital letters carry the motto and the menu of years. Under the heading, a line offers a search by alphabet and a search by year. The main column then shows eighteen tiles in three columns under the words Latest movies, and a sidebar of three grey panels lists the most popular films, the year groups and the genres.

Each tile is a still from the film with its title, its year and the opening of its summary, enough to decide whether to click. The film page gives the rest: the poster, the running time, the score out of ten, the full summary, the cast with their roles, the director and the studio. A selector beside the Watch now button offers sixteen countries, and the button opens the film on JustWatch, where the subscription, rental, purchase and free services for that country are listed.

The search box reads names and years as well as titles. Typing Julia Roberts returns Notting Hill, My Best Friend's Wedding, Runaway Bride, Eat Pray Love and Larry Crowne. Typing 1993 returns one of the best years in the guide. Finding a film explains every route.

The Latest movies tiles

The eighteen tiles on the home page are ordered by date of release, newest first, so they show the end of the catalogue: the films of 2012 and late 2011. Hope Springs has Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones as a couple married for thirty-one years who travel to a small town in Maine for a week of counselling. Trouble with the Curve sends Clint Eastwood's veteran baseball scout on the road with his daughter, played by Amy Adams. Hitchcock watches the great director, played by Anthony Hopkins, stake his house on a film that the studios refused to back.

Family films are well represented among the newest. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island follows a teenager and his stepfather to an island where small animals are large and large ones small. The Odd Life of Timothy Green gives a childless couple a boy who arrives from their garden, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days spends a summer holiday with Greg Heffley. From 2011 come Hugo, The Muppets, Dolphin Tale and We Bought a Zoo. The latest movies page describes this end of the catalogue.

1991 to 1999

The first year list holds forty-one films. The reference design grouped the nineties under a single heading, and the guide does the same. The decade's biggest film here is Jurassic Park, Steven Spielberg's adventure of 1993, in which a theme park of living dinosaurs fails on the weekend its first visitors arrive. It carries a score of 8.0 and the largest audience of any film in the guide.

The same year produced Groundhog Day, in which a television weatherman, played by Bill Murray, wakes each morning to find it is the second of February again, and slowly learns to use the day well. It also gave the guide Cool Runnings, based on the Jamaican bobsleigh team that reached the Winter Olympics of 1988, The Sandlot, a summer of neighbourhood baseball in 1962, Dave, in which a kindly lookalike stands in for the president, and The Secret Garden.

Comedy flourished throughout the decade. What About Bob? has Bill Murray as a patient who follows his psychiatrist on holiday and charms the whole family. Doc Hollywood strands a young surgeon, played by Michael J. Fox, in a small southern town. Liar Liar gives Jim Carrey a lawyer who, thanks to his son's birthday wish, must tell the truth for a full day. British romantic comedy arrived with Four Weddings and a Funeral and reached its height with Notting Hill. The years page summarises all five groups.

2000 to 2004

Forty-two films cover the first five years of the new century. A Beautiful Mind, directed by Ron Howard, tells the life of the mathematician John Nash, with Russell Crowe in the part, and won the Academy Award for best picture. The Terminal keeps Tom Hanks inside a New York airport for the better part of a year, and Ray follows Ray Charles from a Georgia childhood to the concert hall, with Jamie Foxx at the piano.

These were strong years for romantic comedy. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, written by its star Nia Vardalos, became one of the most successful independent films ever released. Serendipity lets two strangers who meet over a pair of gloves leave their future to chance. Sweet Home Alabama sends a New York designer home to the husband she left behind, Maid in Manhattan and The Wedding Planner both star Jennifer Lopez, and What Women Want gives an advertising man the power to hear what women are thinking.

For families, Elf appeared in 2003 and became a December fixture within a few years. Cheaper by the Dozen and Daddy Day Care arrived the same year. Secondhand Lions leaves a shy boy for the summer with two great-uncles in Texas, played by Michael Caine and Robert Duvall, who may once have been adventurers. Stuart Little 2 and Snow Dogs round out the list.

2005 to 2008

The largest year list, with fifty films, covers 2005 to 2008. Little Miss Sunshine is its most admired title: a family of six in a failing yellow van, driving two days to a children's pageant, and discovering along the way that they rather like each other. The Holiday exchanges a Los Angeles mansion for an English cottage, and Mamma Mia! sets the songs of ABBA on a Greek island.

The musical returned for young audiences in these years with High School Musical and its two sequels, Camp Rock and Another Cinderella Story. August Rush is a gentler musical story about a boy who hears melodies in the noise of New York. Family adventure offered The Golden Compass, Inkheart, Journey to the Center of the Earth and Charlotte's Web, and Marley & Me followed a newspaper columnist and his dog.

The period was rich in sports films drawn from life: Invincible, Glory Road, We Are Marshall and The World's Fastest Indian, in which Anthony Hopkins plays Burt Munro, a New Zealander in his sixties who took a home-built motorcycle to the salt flats of Utah. Romantic comedy carried on with Hitch, 27 Dresses, Music and Lyrics and Just Friends.

2009 to 2012

The last four years are divided into two lists, twenty-nine films from 2009 and 2010 and twenty-four from 2011 and 2012. The Social Network is the best known of the first pair of years, a fast and talkative account of how a website begun in a college room grew to connect half a billion people. Up in the Air, Julie & Julia and The Young Victoria, with Emily Blunt as the queen in the first years of her reign, came out in 2009.

Hachi: A Dog's Tale and Flipped share the highest score among the recent films at 8.0. The first is the story of a dog who waits each evening at a railway station; the second tells a first love from the boy's side and then the girl's. 17 Again, Tooth Fairy, Ramona and Beezus and Diary of a Wimpy Kid kept families supplied, and Morning Glory gave Rachel McAdams a breakfast programme to rescue.

The final pair of years brought Hugo, Martin Scorsese's tribute to the first film-makers, Moneyball, One Day, Water for Elephants and Larry Crowne, in which Tom Hanks, as director and star, sends a man in middle age back to college. Chalet Girl is a cheerful British comedy with Felicity Jones as a skateboarder who takes a job in the Alps and discovers snowboarding.

The most popular panel

The first grey panel in the sidebar lists twelve films under the heading Most popular movies. The reference design used this place for the films opening that week; the guide uses it for the films with the largest audiences, counted by the number of ratings each has received. Jurassic Park leads, followed by The Social Network, Jumanji and A Beautiful Mind.

The middle of the list holds Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Groundhog Day, The Terminal and Little Miss Sunshine, and it ends with Hugo, Hachi: A Dog's Tale, Mamma Mia! and Notting Hill. Seven of the twelve are comedies of one kind or another, which is a fair reflection of the catalogue. The most popular page explains the panel, and the two panels beneath it open the year lists and the nine genre lists.

Comedy

Comedy accounts for 128 of the 186 films, and the guide's favourite kind starts from a single impossible idea. Groundhog Day repeats a day. Liar Liar removes the power to fib. 17 Again returns a man of thirty-seven to his school years, and The Kid introduces an image consultant, played by Bruce Willis, to himself at the age of eight. Jumanji releases a jungle from a board game, and Flubber gives Robin Williams a green substance with a mind of its own.

A second kind sends a city person to a small place. In Doc Hollywood the place is Grady, the squash capital of the South. In City Slickers three friends from New York join a cattle drive, and Jack Palance, as the trail boss, won an Academy Award. Sweet Home Alabama and Snow Dogs, in which a Miami dentist inherits a team of sled dogs, belong to the same family. RV and Are We Done Yet? take the family along.

The oddest and perhaps funniest film on the list is Best in Show, directed by Christopher Guest, which follows five sets of owners to a national dog show in the manner of a documentary, with much of the dialogue improvised by the cast. Rat Race sets a dozen strangers running from Las Vegas to New Mexico after a prize, and Tommy Boy puts Chris Farley and David Spade on the road to save a family business. The comedy guide sorts the list by type.

Romance

Seventy-eight films are listed under romance. The British ones set the tone for the period. Four Weddings and a Funeral made a star of Hugh Grant in 1994, and Notting Hill, from the same writer, cast him as a bookseller whose shop is visited by the most famous actress in the world, played by Julia Roberts. About a Boy gave Grant his best part, as an idle Londoner befriended by a twelve-year-old.

Weddings supply half the plots. Julia Roberts tries to stop one in My Best Friend's Wedding and flees several in Runaway Bride. Adam Sandler sings at them in The Wedding Singer, set in 1985 with the music to match. Steve Martin pays for one in Father of the Bride. 27 Dresses, Bride Wars, The Wedding Date and The Wedding Planner continue the tradition, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding invites the whole family.

The finest romances in the guide are two films made nine years apart with the same actors and director. In Before Sunrise an American and a French student leave a train together in Vienna and talk until morning. In Before Sunset they meet again in Paris with an hour to spare. Richard Linklater directed both, and Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy helped to write the second. The romance guide groups the list by mood.

Drama

The drama list has eighty-three films, and many are drawn from real lives. A Beautiful Mind, The Social Network, Ray and Moneyball have been mentioned. Selena made a star of Jennifer Lopez as the Texan singer Selena Quintanilla. The Soloist follows a Los Angeles journalist and a gifted cellist he meets on the street. Radio is the story of a high-school coach in South Carolina and the young man he takes under his wing, and Seabiscuit tells how a small racehorse lifted spirits in the 1930s.

Others are fables about kindness. In Pay It Forward a schoolboy invents a plan in which each good turn is repaid to three new people. I Am Sam has Sean Penn as a devoted father and Dakota Fanning as his daughter. Phenomenon gives a small-town mechanic, played by John Travolta, a sudden brilliance, and The Majestic lets a Hollywood writer who has lost his memory reopen a small-town cinema in the 1950s.

Robert Redford directed and starred in The Horse Whisperer, which at 169 minutes is the longest film in the guide and uses its length to show the Montana landscape in every light. The Company Men and In Good Company are thoughtful stories about working life, and Searching for Bobby Fischer is a wise film about a seven-year-old chess player and the adults who want different things for him. The drama guide has more.

Family

Seventy-one films are listed for the whole family. Animals lead the way, as they usually do. Beethoven and Beethoven's 2nd concern a St Bernard too large for the house he has chosen. Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey sends two dogs and a cat across the Sierra Nevada to find their owners, with the animals' thoughts spoken by Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche. Dolphin Tale is based on the true story of Winter, a dolphin in Florida who learned to swim with an artificial tail, and Racing Stripes is about a zebra who believes he is a racehorse.

Inventions and mishaps form a second group. Honey, I Blew Up the Kid and Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves continue the adventures of the Szalinski family and their unreliable machine. Jumanji and Flubber both star Robin Williams. MouseHunt pits two brothers against a single mouse in the old house they have inherited, and the mouse wins every round. Mr. Popper's Penguins and Doctor Dolittle fill city apartments with wildlife.

Many are taken from well-loved books. The Secret Garden is a beautiful version of the Frances Hodgson Burnett novel. Charlotte's Web, Ramona and Beezus, Inkheart, Stuart Little 2 and the three Wimpy Kid films, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, all began on the page. The family guide sorts the list by subject.

Adventure

The adventure list holds fifty-three films and includes fantasy and science fiction. Jurassic Park stands at its head. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader sails to the edge of the world, The Golden Compass travels to the Arctic, and Lost in Space sends the Robinson family far off course. Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island treat the novels of Jules Verne as guidebooks.

Time is a favourite subject. Forever Young wakes a test pilot of 1939 in the 1990s. Kate & Leopold brings a duke from 1876 to modern New York, where his manners cause a sensation. Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel is a small British comedy in which three friends in a pub discover a problem with the calendar, and Interstate 60 sends a young man down a road that appears on few maps.

Quests of a lighter kind include The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, in which a perpetual student is hired to protect a hidden collection of legendary objects, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, set on a planet invented by a daydreaming boy. The adventure guide divides the list into three parts.

Music

The music list is short, thirteen films, and all of them earn the place. Three are about real musicians: Ray, Selena and The Soloist. Jamie Foxx won the Academy Award for Ray and played the piano himself in the film.

The musicals are Mamma Mia!, the three High School Musical films, Camp Rock, Another Cinderella Story and The Muppets. Music and Lyrics is a romantic comedy about writing a song, and its opening video for an invented band of the eighties is a perfect parody.

Dance has three entries. Take the Lead has Antonio Banderas as a ballroom teacher who volunteers at a New York school and is based on a real instructor. Footloose and Step Up 3D supply the energy. August Rush completes the list. The music guide sets them out.

Sports

Twenty-three sports films have a list of their own, and most of them tell true stories. Miracle follows the coach Herb Brooks, played by Kurt Russell, as he builds the American ice hockey team that won gold at the Winter Olympics of 1980. Invincible is about Vince Papale, a thirty-year-old barman who earned a place with the Philadelphia Eagles at an open trial. Glory Road recounts the college basketball season of 1966, and We Are Marshall the rebuilding of a university football team.

Baseball has Moneyball, The Sandlot and Trouble with the Curve. Horse racing has Seabiscuit. Football of the round-ball kind has Goal! and Goal II: Living the Dream, which follow a young player from Los Angeles to Newcastle and then to Madrid, and The Damned United, with Michael Sheen as the outspoken manager Brian Clough during his forty-four days at Leeds United.

The lighter end of the list includes Cool Runnings, The Replacements, in which Keanu Reeves leads a team of stand-in players, Kicking & Screaming, with Will Ferrell as a father coaching his son's side, and Ice Princess, about a physics student who applies her science to figure skating. Wimbledon, Whip It and The Game Plan add tennis, roller derby and a quarterback with a daughter. The sports guide lists all twenty-three.

Christmas

Fourteen films are set aside for December. Elf is the favourite: Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised among Santa's helpers, who walks to New York to find his father and spreads cheer whether it is wanted or otherwise. Miracle on 34th Street, the 1994 version with Richard Attenborough as Kris Kringle, asks a courtroom to decide whether Santa Claus exists. The Santa Clause 2 and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause continue Tim Allen's term in the red suit, and Fred Claus introduces Santa's older brother.

Family chaos is the second theme. Home Alone 2: Lost in New York puts Kevin McCallister on the wrong aeroplane and into a grand hotel with his father's credit card. Jingle All the Way sends Arnold Schwarzenegger in search of the one toy every child wants on Christmas Eve. Deck the Halls is a contest between two neighbours over Christmas lights, Christmas with the Kranks is about a couple who try to skip the season, and Four Christmases makes a couple visit four households in one day.

Several romances happen to take place in the snow. The Holiday is set over Christmas and New Year. While You Were Sleeping begins on Christmas Day at a Chicago railway platform, where Sandra Bullock's lonely ticket clerk saves a stranger and is mistaken for his fiancée. Serendipity opens with Christmas shopping, and The Family Stone brings a nervous guest to a family gathering in New England. The Christmas guide groups all fourteen.

Top rated

The top rated list contains the twenty-five films that score 7.3 or higher. Four share first place at 8.0: Jurassic Park, Before Sunrise, Hachi: A Dog's Tale and Flipped. A Beautiful Mind follows at 7.9 and Before Sunset at 7.8.

Three films stand at 7.7: Selena, Little Miss Sunshine and The World's Fastest Indian. Groundhog Day, The Sandlot and I Am Sam have 7.6, and Ray has 7.5. The rest of the list includes August Rush, The Secret Garden and One Day at 7.4.

The list is useful because it mixes the famous with the overlooked. Everybody knows the dinosaurs; fewer have seen the old man and his motorcycle, or the two children across the street from each other in Flipped. The top rated page gives the scores in order.

Actors across the years

Because the catalogue runs for twenty-two years, it shows several careers from beginning to maturity. Julia Roberts appears again and again between 1997 and 2011. Tom Hanks is in The Terminal and Larry Crowne. Hugh Grant leads Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, About a Boy and Music and Lyrics, and Sandra Bullock is seen in While You Were Sleeping and All About Steve.

Robin Williams and Jim Carrey supply much of the comedy of the nineties, Williams in Jumanji, Flubber and RV, Carrey in Liar Liar, The Majestic and Mr. Popper's Penguins. Steve Martin is the anxious father of Father of the Bride and both Cheaper by the Dozen films. Bill Murray has What About Bob? and Groundhog Day and lends his voice to a cat in Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties.

Younger faces grow up on the site. Josh Hutcherson plays a ten-year-old in Little Manhattan, a charming film about a first crush in New York, and a teenager in the two Journey films. Zac Efron goes from High School Musical to 17 Again. Anne Hathaway moves from The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement to One Day, and Selena Gomez from Another Cinderella Story to Monte Carlo. Amy Adams appears in Julie & Julia, The Muppets and Trouble with the Curve within three years.

Directors worth knowing

Steven Spielberg made both Jurassic Park and The Terminal, an adventure on an island and a comedy in a departure lounge. Ron Howard directed A Beautiful Mind. Nancy Meyers wrote and directed What Women Want and The Holiday and co-wrote Father of the Bride, and the comfortable kitchens in her films are famous in their own right.

Garry Marshall, a specialist in warm comedy, directed Runaway Bride, The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement and Valentine's Day, which follows a large cast through a single fourteenth of February in Los Angeles. Rob Reiner made Flipped, Cameron Crowe We Bought a Zoo and Lasse Hallström Hachi: A Dog's Tale. Typing any of these names into the search box gathers their films in one place.

Choosing by the time you have

Popcorn films tend to be a sensible length, and the guide can be chosen by the clock. The shortest is Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves at seventy-four minutes, followed by Stuart Little 2 at seventy-eight and Before Sunset and Starstruck at eighty. A good number of the family comedies finish inside an hour and a half, among them Liar Liar, Doctor Dolittle, Beethoven and Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey.

The middle of the catalogue, between an hour and a half and two hours, is where most of the romantic comedies and sports films sit. A film of this length leaves time for a conversation afterwards, which is half the pleasure of Little Miss Sunshine or About a Boy.

For a long evening there are three films above two and a half hours: Ray at 152 minutes, The Majestic at 153 and The Horse Whisperer at 169. Seabiscuit, Miracle and A Beautiful Mind each pass two and a quarter hours and justify every minute. Each film page states the running time beside the year, so the choice can be made before the popcorn is ready.

Choosing by the company you keep

With small children, the safest choices are the animal films and the gentle fantasies: Stuart Little 2, Charlotte's Web, Racing Stripes, Marmaduke and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. Children of school age will enjoy Jumanji, The Sandlot, Cool Runnings, MouseHunt and the Wimpy Kid films, and Bean and Mr. Bean's Holiday need hardly a word of dialogue to make a whole room laugh.

Teenagers have a large shelf of their own. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and its sequel follow four friends through two summers. A Cinderella Story, What a Girl Wants, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, The Prince & Me, Ice Princess and Radio Rebel are bright comedies about finding a voice, and Lemonade Mouth is about five students who start a band. Whip It, directed by Drew Barrymore, is a little older in tone and very good.

For a couple, the guide suggests Before Sunrise, Serendipity or Hope Springs, depending on how long the couple has been together. For a gathering of several generations, Father of the Bride, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Secondhand Lions please grandparents and grandchildren alike, and Jurassic Park remains the great shared adventure for any household with children old enough for a fright or two.

Places in the guide

The catalogue travels widely for a list of popular films. London appears in Notting Hill, About a Boy, What a Girl Wants and Wimbledon. Paris is the setting of Hugo and Before Sunset, Vienna of Before Sunrise, and Rome of To Rome with Love, When in Rome and The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Eat Pray Love visits Italy, India and Bali in turn, and Monte Carlo moves from Paris to the Riviera.

New York is the most filmed city in the guide: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Elf, Serendipity, Maid in Manhattan, Kate & Leopold, One Fine Day, Little Manhattan, August Rush and The Nanny Diaries are all set there. Chicago has While You Were Sleeping and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. The American South has Sweet Home Alabama, Doc Hollywood, Radio and Ray, and the West has City Slickers and The Horse Whisperer.

Further off, Cool Runnings begins in Jamaica and ends in Calgary, Snow Dogs goes to Alaska, Mamma Mia! to a Greek island, Chalet Girl to the Austrian Alps and The World's Fastest Indian from the southern tip of New Zealand to the Bonneville Salt Flats. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Golden Compass leave the map altogether.

Double bills

A guide sorted by year invites comparisons, and some films ask to be seen in pairs. The obvious pair is Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, best watched on consecutive evenings. Goal! and Goal II: Living the Dream tell one continuous story, as do the two Sisterhood films and the two films about the Baker family, Cheaper by the Dozen and Cheaper by the Dozen 2.

Other pairs are joined by a theme. Groundhog Day and 17 Again both give a man a second attempt at his own life. Father of the Bride and My Big Fat Greek Wedding show a wedding from the father's side and the bride's. Miracle and Cool Runnings are both set at a Winter Olympics and could hardly be more different in tone. Julie & Julia can be followed by Eat Pray Love for an evening about food and travel, and Hugo by The Majestic for an evening about the love of cinema itself.

The same actor can make a pair. Meryl Streep sings on an island in Mamma Mia! and sits in a counsellor's office in Hope Springs. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the gentle hero of Radio and the bewildered dentist of Snow Dogs. Dwayne Johnson is a quarterback in The Game Plan and a reluctant fairy in Tooth Fairy.

One film for every mood of the year

The catalogue also follows the calendar. In January, when resolutions are fresh, Julie & Julia and Larry Crowne are stories about starting something new. February has Groundhog Day on the second and Valentine's Day on the fourteenth. Spring suits The Secret Garden, in which a walled garden and three children come back to life together.

Summer belongs to The Sandlot, Camp Rock, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The return to school in autumn has High School Musical, Lemonade Mouth and Radio Rebel. The sports films fit their seasons: baseball in summer, football in autumn, ice hockey and bobsleigh in winter.

December has the fourteen films of the Christmas list, and the last week of the year, when households are full and tired, is the time for the longest and gentlest films in the guide: Seabiscuit, The Horse Whisperer and Secondhand Lions.

What these years were like at the cinema

The films in the guide were made in a period with its own habits. In the early nineties a family comedy could top the box office for weeks, and stars such as Robin Williams, Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy led films written around their talents. The romantic comedy was at its commercial height from Four Weddings and a Funeral to The Holiday, and a new one seemed to open every month.

Technology changed what could be shown. Jurassic Park proved in 1993 that computers could put living creatures on the screen, and Jumanji followed with its stampede two years later. By the time of The Golden Compass and Journey to the Center of the Earth whole worlds were drawn digitally, and Hugo used three-dimensional photography to recreate a Paris station of the 1930s.

The television film grew in ambition as well. The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, Lemonade Mouth, Starstruck, Camp Rock and the first two High School Musical films were all made for the small screen and found audiences in the tens of millions. The guide lists them beside the cinema releases, since on a sofa with popcorn the difference hardly matters.

Teachers, coaches and mentors

A surprising number of films in the guide are about one person helping another to become better at something. The sports list is full of them. In Glory Road the coach Don Haskins builds a college basketball team in Texas on talent alone and takes it to the national final. In We Are Marshall Matthew McConaughey plays Jack Lengyel, who agrees to coach a university side that has to be rebuilt from its first-year students. Miracle is as much a portrait of a coach as of a team, and Radio shows a coach who learns as much as he teaches.

Away from sport, Searching for Bobby Fischer gives its young chess player two teachers with opposite methods: a strict master, played by Ben Kingsley, and a speed player from the park, played by Laurence Fishburne. Take the Lead brings ballroom dancing to a class kept after school. In The Soloist a journalist tries to help a musician and finds the friendship changes him instead, and in About a Boy it is the twelve-year-old who does most of the teaching.

Secondhand Lions may be the warmest of them all. Two old men with a barn full of unopened deliveries and a head full of stories give a neglected boy the summer that forms him, and the film leaves the audience to decide how many of the stories were true.

Parents and children

The other great subject of these twenty-two years is the family. Fathers and daughters have a shelf to themselves in all but name: Father of the Bride, in which a father struggles to let go; Jersey Girl, in which a widowed father learns to put his daughter first; The Game Plan, in which a sportsman meets a daughter he had yet to hear of; What a Girl Wants, in which an American teenager travels to London to find an English father; and Trouble with the Curve, in which a grown daughter and her father finally talk on a long drive between ballparks.

I Am Sam and Little Miss Sunshine show families holding together under strain, one in a courtroom and one in a van. Because I Said So has Diane Keaton as a mother who cares rather too actively about her youngest daughter's romantic life, and You Again sets a mother and daughter against rivals from their respective school days at the same wedding.

Large families are a comedy tradition of their own, from the twelve Baker children to the Munros of RV and the grown children who gather for The Family Stone. Life As We Know It begins a family from scratch when two single friends become guardians of a baby girl, and We Bought a Zoo rebuilds one around two hundred animals.

Work has its own small corner of the catalogue. In Good Company gives a veteran advertising salesman, played by Dennis Quaid, a manager half his age, and lets the two men learn from each other. The Company Men follows three colleagues through a difficult year and finds dignity in a fresh start. Morning Glory is in love with the bustle of a television studio at dawn, The Nanny Diaries with the view from a Manhattan nursery, and Up in the Air with the strange calm of airports. Hitch makes a profession out of giving advice to nervous suitors, and Will Smith makes it look like the best job in New York.

My Bucket

My Bucket, at the right-hand end of the grey bar, is your own list of films to watch, named after the tub the popcorn comes in. A film is added with the list button on its page and removed with one press on the list page. The list is stored in the browser on your own device, which keeps it private and quick, and its page can save it as a file. The My Bucket page explains each step.

A good bucket holds a mixture: one comedy, one romance, one true story and one film for the children. What About Bob?, Serendipity, Miracle and MouseHunt would fill a weekend nicely, and the genre panels in the sidebar will suggest replacements as each one is watched.

The bucket is also a handy way to settle a household debate. Each person adds two films during the week, and on Friday the choice is made from the list instead of from an hour of scrolling.

The PopcornMoviez film sheet

Each film on PopcornMoviez has a sheet set out on the same dark ground as the home page. The title is at the top in white with the year after it, and the poster stands to the left. A row of small labels gives the running time and the genres, and the score out of ten appears with the count of ratings that produced it. The summary follows in a few plain sentences. Below it the cast is listed with the names of their characters, then the director and the studio, and every name is a link that gathers the other films in the guide connected with that person or company. The country selector and the yellow Watch now button are placed high on the sheet, so they are in view on a telephone as soon as the page opens, and a second button at the foot repeats them for readers who have scrolled through the details.

Where to begin

A first-time visitor could simply open the newest tile on the home page. A better plan is to pick the year of a happy memory and open its list, since the films of a particular year bring back the season in which they were first seen. The year lists are short enough to read in a minute.

Failing that, three films suit almost any company: Groundhog Day for laughter with a little wisdom in it, Little Miss Sunshine for a family that needs reminding it is one, and Hugo for wonder. All three are on the top rated list, and each is under two hours and ten minutes long.

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