MOFO Movie Tournament: Bracket 4

Okay sexy, you asked for it.

Well, it will take me some time to sort my thoughts....

I'll try to not mention stuff I've talked about elsewhere, if I can. So don't freak if I leave out stuff.

First, let me say, I love movies. Just movies, period. I love watching movies, I love the very idea of movies. So I'm always partial, more generous and open than maybe the average person. It's very hard for me to be as specific as you probably want.

I have my personal preferences, of course. They are not set in stone, though. Sometimes my mood says one type of movie, sometimes another. Mainly I just want to see something well-made with an interesting story and good acting. That's all.

I have a particular affection for horror/fantasy/sci-fi. That's just me. But I also love many, many others. I have broad tastes. Sling Blade is one of my favorite movies ever. Hotel Rwanda was a great film. The Grumpy Old Men movies. The Conversation was a superb movie. Marathon Man was cool.

What else? 21 Grams and Babel. The Talented Mr. Ripley. I liked Ripley's Game even more. As Good As It Gets. I always like seeing Jack Nicholson do his thing. Fried Green Tomatoes is a good movie. I like Kathy Bates. About Schmidt. Boys Don't Cry is a movie I really like. Trainspotting is another top favorite. Shine is too. I also highly recommend Perfume. It was amazing. Harold and Maude. Great movie. Ghost Dog.

Land of the Blind. Dancer in the Dark. The Pianist. The Color Purple. Beloved. Cool Hand Luke. Man on the Moon. Broken Vessels. Deceiver. Joe Versus the Volcano. Copycat. Michael. Of Mice and Men (remake). The Minus Man. Kinsey. Jerry Maguire. The Sweet Hereafter. Eve's Bayou. In the Company of Men.

I'm not especially interested in western and war movies, but I love Saving Private Ryan and Tombstone, as well as other films from those genres. Platoon is fantastic. McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Das Boot was excellent. Casualties of War. The Thin Red Line. The Assassination of Jesse James.

I really dug Revolutionary Road. Thought it was a great drama. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is one of my favorite movies too. If you like Night of the Hunter, I recommend Undertow. It's very much like it.

The Aviator was fantastic. I've seen most of Scorcese's stuff. He's great. I also like Woody Allen. Match Point. Crimes and Misdemeanors. Pretty much all his movies, I dig. Sweet & Lowdown. Annie Hall. Sleeper.

Hitchcock. Rear Window. The Birds. Strangers on a Train. Tarantino. I like his movies. The Coen Bros. Barton Fink, ect. Lynch. You know that.

I have seen lots of movies, man. I'm forgetting lots of titles, I'm sure.

I have never disowned a movie if I liked most of it. I'm willing to accept a movie that goes against what I expect/think it should be in the end. I think I'm intelligent enough to recognize when a movie is leading to something, when it has a slow build. I can be patient. We all have our bad days though, so maybe I misjudged a few. Hey, I don't claim to be perfect.

And I've never ended up liking a movie that I hated throughout most of it, as far as I remember... I'm not talking about so-so movies. I'm forgiving of movies that aren't very good. It takes a lot for me to really hate a movie. So if I hate it, I really hate it.

Maybe that's just me.

These were all movies I would rate 4 or 5 stars out of 5. I purposely tried to avoid listing horror/fantasy/sci-fi because I don't want to crash the internet.

Like I said, film nut.

__________________
#31 on SC's Top 100 Mofos list!!

Out of those movies, I like: About Schmidt, As Good As It Gets, I remember liking the Grumpy Old Men movies but it's been about 15 years since I saw them, Babel, Harold and Maude, The Pianist, The Color Purple, Cool Hand Luke, MAN ON THE MOON -- I used to really love this, Copycat, Kinsey, Jerry Maguire (but it's been years), Eve's Bayou (but it's been years, too), Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Revolutionary Road, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, Das Boot (I swear, you must be looking at my Top 100 thread), The Aviator, Tarantino movies -- but I do not like Lynch. Barton Fink was good, I saw that about 6 years ago. I have the Of Mice and Men movie now - the one with Gary Sinise and John Malkovich -- it's on my list of movies to watch.

I do tend to be more forgiving of a movie if it has at least one thing going for it that I am partial to, such as an actor I'm fond of, or a specific directorial style, or just an off-the-wall story. It's not so easy for me to pinpoint just what I'll like or dislike. But usually I'll knock my rating down a bit in those cases.

When I personally rate movies, I mostly rate within genres and subgenres. For example, I'm not usually going to rate an Evil Dead 2 with a King Kong in mind, or an Exorcist against a Forrest Gump. That's not fair, in my opinion. Of course, in this case, that's exactly what we're expected to do. And yes, the movies are unfairly and arbitrarily put up against each other.

But as I said in the beginning, I don't see this as definitive. Only as an interesting thought experiment, contrasting movies I ordinarily wouldn't and maybe seeing them both in new ways.

That's worth the minor annoyance of having to make hard choices between movies I really like. Plus it promotes interesting debate, and I get to beat up on people who pick A History of Violence over Ferris Bueller.

Well then, why don't you fill out all your Movie Lists in your profile so we can all see what you have and haven't seen?

__________________
It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
My IMDb page

Hehe... that was one of the first things you said to me on here. You even used that same emoticon. By the way, I ought to do that now.

__________________
"Loves them? They need them, like they need the air."

Because.

WARNING - Do not visualize the next sentence.

Trust me, I don't consider it a pissing contest because I'm old and you guys can piss a lot further than I can. It just makes discussions more interesting and helps out in some of the threads if we know what you have and haven't seen.

If you think you can get me to write anything I don't want to or fill out some anal list just so you can feel all superior watching me put the lotion in the basket, then you're just pissin into the wind, my friend.

You know, I judged a pissing contest one time. But only once. I wasn't asked to do it again because I didn't even notice the guys were pissing.

I always win pissing contests.

Now you're gettin' all Buffalo Bill/Silence of the Lambs creepy on me.

Yeah, he should have been Buffalo Bob.

Er, Bob?

They call me Bill.

2. A Boy and His Dog vs. 15. Million Dollar Baby

It's not even close in my opinion. Though I did enjoy A Boy and His Dog at least halfway through the movie (I'd have given it an 8/10 half way through) it's weird and whacky second half ends up giving it an overall 3 or 4/10 for me. Which is kind of sad really. Not sure how it has actually garnered votes thus far, but I'd be guessing it's due to all the hate for Million Dollar Baby, which is an amazing film to me.

I don't think Deadite's seen anything. Maybe Lambs a few hundred times, but that's it.

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

i remember seriously disliking Million Dollar Baby when i saw it a few years back, so now i'm wondering what A Boy and His Dog will be like, seeing as it's taking a harsh beating in this tournament and all.

Less than a hundred, I assure you.

Million Dollar Baby can't be too far ahead vote-wise. Which is a bit of a joke to me.

6. The French Connectionvs. 11. Pulp Fiction

Bracket 4
1. The Man with a Movie Camera vs. 16. Amadeus
8. Touch of Evil vs. 9. Heavenly Creatures
5. Out of the Past vs. 12. Heat
4. Mildred Pierce vs. 13. Platoon
6. The French Connection vs. 11. Pulp Fiction
3. Cabaret vs. 14. Midnight Cowboy
7. Persona vs. 10. Fight Club
2. A Boy and His Dog vs. 15. Million Dollar Baby