By all accounts, The Godfather is one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of all time.
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It's release in 1972 saw it instantly become a critical and commercial success, raking in almost $US244 million worldwide at the box office.
The film went on to pick up 12 awards - including the Academy Award for Best Actor that Marlon Brando refused - and almost half-a-century later the film still tops lists of must-watch films.
Yet, up until recently, I had never seen it - which for many colleagues was an absolute travesty.
That's really where all of this began - with the realisation from many in the office that I hadn't seen one of the cinematic greats, followed by questions about other films they considered to be must-watch.
Usually, my response to these types of questions is - "No, but it's on the list". However, for all intents and purposes "the list" didn't actually exist. It was just something that I - and I'm sure other people - say for suggested films, TV shows and books that I'm possibly interested in but may never actually consume.
This time, however, I actually started to write these films down.
Top Gun, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, The Shining, The Princess Bride, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and, of course, The Godfather trilogy - the list of films I (apparently) should have seen but hadn't.
And the list continued to grow as more people found out what I was doing. After all, everyone has their own favourite film they want everyone to enjoy as much as they did the first time they saw it.
However, the question remained: after 30 years or more, do these films still stack up?
Ahead of its release, The Godfather had everything going against it. At the time director Francis Ford Coppola was seen as the Hollywood joke behind a string box office duds, Marlon Brando was a has-been and the rest of the cast were relatively unknown or B-grade actors.
But still, the film was cinema magic - and 48 years later it still is.
It's interesting watching a film for the first time after pop culture has referenced it so heavily. The Simpsons, The Sopranos and even Return of the Jedi have taken elements from The Godfather - albeit, some more obviously than others. But even after seeing Homer Simpson embody his own Godfather, or The Sopranos' Silvio Dante (Steven Van Zandt) perform his convincing Al Pacino impersonation, nothing quite beats the real thing.
But the same thing can't be said to everything on the list. The Princess Bride for one.
Don't get me wrong - it's not bad. I can completely see why people are so attached to it, particularly if they were kids when they first saw it. I just don't feel the need to watch it again, or indeed recommend it as a must-watch.
Unlike The Godfather, The Princess Bride was not a box office success when it opened in 1987 but has lasted the test of time. Even today, cinemas still have special screenings of the film where I can only imagine die-hard fans go to quote Mandy Patinkin's "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die".
And then there's Ferris Bueller's Day Off - a film which has just as dedicated fan base but has had an enduring charm. I must admit I am a sucker for an 80s musical number so Matthew Broderick lip-syncing Twist and Shout certainly made the film for me, but just the fact he is every kid's hero for pulling such a feat makes for a coming of age film like no other.
But still, when it comes to The Princess Bride and Ferris Bueller I think nostalgia has a lot to do with their longevity.
Films can create a certain nostalgia that is therapeutic. According to a Chinese study from Sun Ta-Sen University, it was found that nostalgia has a strong connotation of warmth and "participants who recalled a nostalgic ... event perceived ambient temperature as higher". So, nostalgic films are quite literally heartwarming - whether you realise it or not.
Of course, it could be argued that any film that you continue to rewatch or recommend could just come down to nostalgia. It can also explain why movie execs keep insisting on remaking or returning to previous films.
This year will see new installments of Top Gun and The Matrix, and just a few months ago we saw Doctor Sleep - the sequel to The Shining - hit the big screen (although that, of course, was a Stephen King book first).
The Shining, like The Godfather, has continued to inspire pop culture since its release in 1980, and of all the films on the list, it was the one I was most excited about.
However, because it has been referenced so heavily, The Shining had lost its shine. And while I admit I did yell at the TV "why would you go into the maze?!" when Danny was running for his life, pop culture has left the film predictable.
Perhaps it was because pop culture's parodies and references, while at times subtle, have been plentiful. Whereas when it came to films such as The Sixth Sense - where I knew the main plot twist years before I actually sat down to watch the film - I was still able to enjoy seeing how the film set up said twist (which I won't mention, just in case there is someone out there who doesn't know).
And as for Top Gun, I knew about Goose's fate heading in. What you don't know, however, is how that moment affects the rest of the plot and Tom Cruise's character Maverick. Plus, the film has the added bonus of showcasing an epic 80s soundtrack and has cheesy lines for days which makes it worth a watch.
Is it enough to warrant a sequel? Only time will tell. It's been 34 years since the film was released and it begs the question, how will Top Gun fare in the modern world? Either way, there is sure to be cinemas filled with people connected by the fact they want to feel the need, the need for speed.
After all, isn't that what watching and sharing films is all about? Connecting. Even if a suggested film is terrible, the friend who suggested it is still going to ask you what you thought (before starting a hearty debate about why you should have liked it).
It can really all be summed up by something actor Jack Nicholson said about why he and many others love films during a speech at the 2008 Academy Awards.
"They entertain us, they offer us hope, they give us traumas, they can take us places we have never been, just even for few moments they can take us away when we want to get away. Movies inspire us. They challenge us and despite our differences, they are a common link that touches the humanity in all of us."