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The trick is not minding
BTTF is really more of an adventure film. Anyway, more evidence that a MoFo Comedy list is necessary.
BTTF is a sci fi comedy, and I’ll grant you the adventure elements of it. Hybrids do exist, and shouldn’t necessarily exclude one or the other



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I think "funniest" might help a bit, simply because if you say "comedy" some people will take it to mean "best overall film that still qualifies as a comedy." Obviously "funniest" is still remarkably subjective and plenty of fights will still happen, but I do think it at least rules out those films with significant elements of humor, but who aren't explicitly adored for that humor because they're also great dramas/sci-fi/whatever.

I think it's a very marginal improvement, though. It'll just be fraught no matter what.
I would hope it'd be a bit more than very marginal because its more subjective. We don't debate what a comedy is. We just list what made us laugh the hardest. I think that'd be fascinating.



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BTTF is a sci fi comedy, and I’ll grant you the adventure elements of it. Hybrids do exist, and shouldn’t necessarily exclude one or the other
It's definitely got a comic sensibility, no argument there, I guess I think more of the adventure and scifi than the comedy, but its fuzzy



The trick is not minding
It's definitely got a comic sensibility, no argument there, I guess I think more of the adventure and scifi than the comedy, but its fuzzy
It definitely can get fuzzy at times. Comedy even more so. I don’t envy the task set forth by the poor soul who decides to run *that* countdown



2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
I feel like 2010s should be an obvious choice for the next one
I'm down. Who else is with it?

If we want to do a non decade though I would truly consider Foreign because it seemed to be grossly underrepresented in the Mofo Top 100 for the most part.



Was checking out Holden's thread the other day, my 2010's ballot is pretty far from ready.. 2000's is getting there, could complete it within a couple of months. Same goes for Noir.
War ballot is almost ready, 80's, Sci-Fi, Thriller, Comedy ballots are always ready.



Again and still I vote for a proper 2000-2009 list before embarking on a 2010-2019 list. That also gives that much extra time for movies from the last couple years of the last decade to filter to television or your local library or however people catch movies.
__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



I'd agree with that, more distance, less likely to fluctuate, etc. And it makes sense to do them "in order" somewhat.

(Standard caveat that my opinions on list things are just one person's opinion, they do not--or at least should not--have any extra weight. The lists are community-led and I'm here to support them, not direct them. )





I love Film Noir but doing even a top fifty is problematic much less getting enough participation for a top hundred. I belong to a few different Noir Facebook groups and they spend much more than half the time fighting about what does and doesn't constitute Noir. Even if you cut it off at the classic Noir period (about 1958 or so) you will have trouble finding more than ten or twenty MoFos who are going to watch fifty or sixty titles from the '40s and '50s to make a list. When you start including Neo Noir, or whatever other label you give to it, then not only do you include obvious things like Chinatown but you have to have a zillion arguments over every single thriller with scenes set at night.

Since there is no real consensus about what exactly constitutes the genre, even among Film Noir aficionados, opening it up to more casual viewers or trying to be inclusive enough that sixty or eighty MoFos might participate and turn in ballots...that is going to be very, very tough. You can call it "Crime Films" instead of Film Noir, but then you are going so broad you are getting away from genre and even the biggest actual Noirs will be crowded out by the likes of Silence of the Lambs so why even bother? Personally I can make a list of a hundred great to good classic Film Noirs, but I am insane and it is a genre I have done deep dives on for decades. I believe Film Noir is better left to the Hall of Fames where small groups can give a sampling the proper attention.


War Films are a little more clear cut a genre than Film Noir but are also problematic. Most think of "war film" as those narratives about soldiers in combat. All Quiet On the Western Front and Platoon and Glory are obviously war films. But what about Schindler's List and The Pianist and other Holocaust films which do not cover combat? What about films like Coming Home and The Best Years of Our Lives that cover the effects of war on veterans and survivors? What about Henry V or 300 or Troy that are set during more ancient wars? What about The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers or Starship Troopers and other fantasy wars? What about films set during real wars that are complete fictions like Casablanca, Inglourious Basterds, The Dirty Dozen, or Kelly's Heroes? What about Fail-Safe or Bridge of Spies and other films dealing with the 20th Century Cold War? What about comedies, be they Dr. Strangelove, Duck Soup, or Stripes?

You can deal with all of that, but as I say it is problematic.




Film Noir, Comedy, War countdowns or most any other genre countdown CAN be done simply by using IMDBs genre tags. Not perfect but no countdown ever is...AND at least it's fair as a movie is eligible for the countdown if it's IMDB genre tag matches the genre countdown being done. If it doesn't have a tag it's not allowed.

That is by far the most fair way for a genre countdown to be done.



Can we do a list of 'Really Good bad movies'?
Everybody can make their own, but talk about an open-ended set of criteria. Once you get past things like Plan 9 from Outer Space and Battleship Earth that I think virtually everyone can agree on it becomes a slippery slope. Do you count movies that are intentionally campy? Does Killer Klowns from Outer Space qualify as so bad it is good if it was absolutely designed to be a fringe, self-aware cult movie? A list of Cult Movies might be a little easier to get ballots for than So-Bad-They're-Good, but again since there is no firm definition of the term it is wide open. El Topo and The Rocky Horror Picture Show seem obvious because they basically invented the midnight movie revival screening, but you could include virtually anything from any genre or any time period as long as it wasn't nominated for Oscars or it didn't make a hundred million at the box office. How else do you prove it has a "cult following".

The great thing about the decade lists is there is a defined, simple criteria. Was it made during this ten year span? It was? Then it is eligible, end of debate. Once you get away from that...it gets messy.



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
Film Noir, Comedy, War countdowns or most any other genre countdown CAN be done simply by using IMDBs genre tags. Not perfect but no countdown ever is...AND at least it's fair as a movie is eligible for the countdown if it's IMDB genre tag matches the genre countdown being done. If it doesn't have a tag it's not allowed.

That is by far the most fair way for a genre countdown to be done.
I get it, but at the same time, I'm against it.

Markf brought up Jaws again.

They have Jaws 2 as horror, what makes that more horror than the first?

I go over to Letterbox, they have Jaws listed as horror. I look at Rottentomatoes and they list it as Horror. I look at MetaCritic and they list it as horror.

Why are we picking IMDb when every other site seems to be in agreement? It just feels....odd to me. Maybe pick 3 sites to reference and if 2/3 of them are in agreement, use that consensus? I don't know. I don't want to get into another debate about this but it always seems to raise issues.
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Any genre countdown could be done and we've already have done many. Whatever countdown we do next, needs to be put up to a vote with a poll, the most popular choice wins...If there's more than one person who wishes to host, we need to put that up to vote too. That's fair.



Personally I like the idea of only doing non-decades if there's a pretty clear consensus. If you have seven options and one of them wins by a single vote, and with like 35% of the vote because the vote is so split, then two-thirds of the voters will be disappointed. I think genre lists work better when there's a lot of demand for them, so maybe there should be a clear genre choice to overcome the default position of doing the next decade in line. What does everyone think about that?



Also, I will preemptively volunteer myself as a human sacrifice to make genre qualification choices if the Curator does not want to deal with the headache. I'll be the bad guy. Only if they don't want to, that is.



Personally I like the idea of only doing non-decades if there's a pretty clear consensus. If you have seven options and one of them wins by a single vote, and with like 35% of the vote because the vote is so split, then two-thirds of the voters will be disappointed. I think genre lists work better when there's a lot of demand for them, so maybe there should be a clear genre choice to overcome the default position of doing the next decade in line. What does everyone think about that?
A 'clear consensus'...but then shouldn't that also apply equally to decades? I believe the current countdown only won as a choice by a very narrow margin and yet it was wildly successfully. So I'm not so sure winning by a clear margin is all that important. Whatever is done it should be by a poll with MoFos deciding.

Also, I will preemptively volunteer myself as a human sacrifice to make genre qualification choices if the Curator does not want to deal with the headache. I'll be the bad guy. Only if they don't want to, that is.
The use of genre tags has been fairly standardized in the countdowns and it serves to eliminate making any person the 'bad guy' when they declare a movie out or declare it in. I think that's better than one person deciding.

There has been a lot of support for Foreign Language too.



A 'clear consensus'...but then shouldn't that also apply equally to decades? I believe the current countdown only won as a choice by a very narrow margin and yet it was wildly successfully. So I'm not so sure winning by a clear margin is all that important. Whatever is done it should be by a poll with MoFos deciding.
Part of my thinking is that people will inevitably fight over qualifications when they're not well-defined, so it might be a lot to fight over the choice and its implementation. Which is why I like the idea of time-based lists being the "default," since at worst you're only fighting about that one thing. It's my experience that very few people get upset over doing decade lists, too, even if they're not their first choice. They're unobjectionable. Genre-lists, some people just sit out entirely, either because they don't like the genre, haven't seen enough of it, or maybe just don't like the rulings.

Anyway, I'll participate in any of them. Just noting that I think time-based lists are kind of "safe" relative to others.