Movie Death Match 2007 tuh 2008

Top Gun v. Royal TannerBombers - Both of these are personal favorites, but the latter has probably been more influential in my life since it is so easy for me to relate to all of the characters and their problems.

The Mission v. Waking Ned Divine - I'd rather watch Waking Ned Divine on an airplane than ask deep questions about my faith. Also, I don't think Al Pacino is a very good role model. But I guess The Mission is better, even though I'll probably never watch it.

Miller's Crossing (7) over Amelie (2)

When does one vote against a movie that is cute as homemade pants? When said movie is pitted against a lean and mean classic like Miller's Crossing. Let's put it this way: If I were hanging out at a friend's house around midnight and he suggested watching Amelie, I would remark that I needed to get on my way home. But if he so much as mentioned that he had a copy of Miller's Crossing that we could watch, I would immediately reveal that I had brought my toothbrush and retainer, call my manservant to tell him that Daddy ain't coming home tonight, and hunker my ass in front of the TV with a bowl of Werther's Originals.

Donnie Darko (3) over Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (13)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is an elegant and mesmerizing cinematic experience. The fight scenes are poetry in motion. It is at once exhilarating, philosophical, and poignant. Yet it lacks one crucial ingredient of which Donnie Darko can boast: the Swayze. Occident 1, Orient 0.

My father, Joel Dodson, told me stories as a child about the great unfinished Movie Tournament of 2007. The night he passed, he made me promise him that, should it ever start up again, I was to "finish the race" for him, as he put it, quoting Philippians 3, clutching that silly old tattered rag-tag dog-eared Gideon's Bible in his hand, the one that saw him through so many rip-em-up, strangle-hold, alcohol-sodden nights with Mom. So here's my attempt to carry on the tradition.

Yours truly,

Justin Dodson


Last Waltz over Smoke

I haven't seen either movie, but I was told I had to choose the first one in earlier rounds.

Dazed and Confused over Hudsucker Proxy

Hudsucker Proxy is pretty solidly a product of its time. It never really makes it past, for me, the early 90s bourgeois sentimentality for all things old, and it has more in common with Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy than not. Dazed and Confused is the inverse of this, and it has all the timelessness that Saturday afternoon movies have conferred on it over the last few years. Or, to put it less pretentiously, it activey encourages us to hate Ben Affleck, as Lee pointed out in his original, now-classic posting. My only complaint is that it also actively encourages us to root for a kid as the everyman whose gender is frustratingly unclear throughout the entire movie.

1. The Big Lebowski vs. 18. The Life Aquatic

Unlike a lot of people, I thought The Life Aquatic was quite good. And while in my mind Wes Anderson hasn't made a bad movie, the Coen Brothers have made a couple. Still, we all know who the rightful winner is here. I think I can safely say that Lebowski is a classic. I could go on and on about what makes it so great, but instead I'll keep it to one quote" "Who's the fuckin' Nihilist now, huh!?"

7. Pulp Fiction vs. 24. Delicatessen

This has probably been the hardest call for me to make so far. I love Delicatessen and there's a big part of me that wants to see this underdog go on. Pulp Fiction though. I don't know. It's a great movie. It's a classic. I rewatched it not too long ago and it still stood up. Plus it's pretty funny that the passage Sam Jackson quotes from Esekial doesn't actually exist. I'd give it props just for that.

Raise your hand if you're sick of me using the word classic. I sure as hell am.

Ug, Sweet Hereafter. Talk about depressing.

Absolutely gorgeously shot. But seriously. It's not that things like that don't happen in real life. But for fiction, I think the premise is too melodramatic to treat properly. It's like saying: Let's make a movie about someone and everyone in his family dies in pain, and it's his fault, and then let's say that the only thing in life that keeps him at all happy is playing the piano, but then he has a horrible accident where all his fingers are chopped off, but still the only thing that he's really afraid of is jellyfish (a childhood phobia), and he's finally convinced by this new woman in his life to go swimming with his fingerless hands in a place where there is guaranteed to be no jellyfish, but then he goes there and there's jellyfish, and then this woman drowns saving his life. Curtain.

I just liked Pi so much that my expectations were too high for Requiem for a Dream. It's not your fault, Requiem. Although I do hold against you the difficulty of spelling your title. I mean, where did that "e" come from? Plus, you're drunk.

32. Ghostbusters v 3. The City of Lost Children
more like City of Lost Crap. I am looking forward to seeing the rendition of Ghostbusters in the new movie "Be Kind. Rewind". I think this version will be better than City of Lost Crap as well.

28. Dead Alive v 22. Jaws
There was a musical about the movie Jaws called "Great Killer Shark" done by some guys in brampton ontario. it was really funny. they basically just said shark a lot.
Plus, i believe it's called Dead and Deader.

Andy
1. The Big Lebowski v 18. The Life Aquatic
7. Pulp Fiction v 24. Delicatessen

Dwight
32. Ghostbusters v 3. The City of Lost Children
28. Dead Alive v 22. Jaws

Eric
5. The Mission v 7. Waking Ned Divine
19. Top Gun v 2. The Royal Tennenbaums

Me
1. Bottle Rocket v 25. Punch Drunk Love
6. The Usual Suspects v 30. Apocalypse Now

Joe
27. The Fifth Element v 10. Blade Runner
11. The Professional v 2. Star Wars

Joel
13. The Last Waltz v 15. Smoke
17. The Hudsucker Proxy v 15. Dazed and Confused

Karl
5. The Godfather v 29. Requiem for a Dream
12. Twelve Monkeys v 4. The Sweet Hereafter

Lee
7. Miller's Crossing v 2. Amelie
13. Crouchin Tiger, Hidden Dragon v 3. Donnie Darko