The best films are those that you see without knowing anything about it except the reviews on the box are from people/publications you respect, whoever they may be.
When I first watched videos in the 6th form I used the Guardian guide to tell me which films to watch, inevitibly 70's US or European films. And I must have hit about a 90% good, because it was all that was good about that time.
Regards Irreversible, this is exactly what happened. I had seen Gaspars previous stuff and it looked good on the back, I took it home and my head came apart 14 different ways. Definetly one of the best films ever but I would dread to watch on some mind bending shit like acid...........time for the broken leg, out comes the fire extinguisher: .....BANG.......BANG.......BANG.........BANG................BANG.......BANG.....BANG......ETC by the time it got to the rape I was already pulverised by the spinning cameras, and incinerating bass. Nothing has ever blown my head apart like it...not even either of the cranks

I haven't seen it since it came out but I could talk for ages about what I remember.
But I won't. I'm just remembering the extinguisher......BANG ad nauseam.