Sunday, March 29, 2009

Final Round of Competition #3

In the final round, I do count the votes a little differently, but you don't have to worry about that. Vote as usual in the comments section. Vote for up to three films in each group, in order of preference (best film first). If you haven't seen one of the films in a particular group, I encourage you to only vote for two films in that group. If there is more than one film you haven't seen in a particular group, you might only vote for one film in that group. You don't even have to cast votes in every group.

And as far as that bit about counting the votes differently, you may recall that the top pick in each of the five final groups will be included in the top ten list for this competition. From the list of ten runners-up (two from each group), I will select the other half of the top ten list.

Here are the final groups:

Group A)
Citizen Kane
The Wizard of Oz
A Clockwork Orange
On the Waterfront
Midnight Cowboy


Group B)
Brazil
Seven Samurai
Touch of Evil
Schindler's List
Cool Hand Luke


Group C)
Let the Right One In
Straw Dogs
Casablanca
To Kill a Mockingbird
M


Group D)
Bladerunner
The Godfather
The Manchurian Candidate
Yojimbo
2001: A Space Odyssey


Group E)
The Third Man
Bombay
City of God
My Life as a Dog
La Strada

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Results of Competition #3, Round 2

We are now getting to the point where the competition to get into our top 25 has become very tough. There were some tough calls to make in more than one group. To see the top three films in each of the eight groups, see the bold-face entrees in my previous post. But here are some details:

I once again constructed a set of "votes" based on user ratings on IMDB. These votes only created different results in two groups: A and H. I decided against using these votes in this round because of the effect they would have had on group A. With these votes, The Silence of the Lambs would be voted in, without these votes The Wizard of Oz gets the nod. I didn't vote for either of those films, I would have included Ran, but given the choice, I think The Wizard of Oz is the more deserving of the two.

Group H was very contentious. Sure, 2001 and La Strada made the top 25. But what about #3? With the IMDB "votes", it would be Psycho. Without the IMDB votes (and I'd already decided not to use them this round), it's a tie between The Andromeda Strain and Straw Dogs. There were a number of ways I could have broken this tie. I voted for Straw Dogs but not The Andromeda Strain, but I wanted this to be as democratic as possible, and I could see other tie-breakers that would give the opposite result. Since Escape Goat didn't vote for either one, I gave him the opportunity to do what I did in Group A, and cast the deciding vote. He chose Straw Dogs.

As far as how my personal choices fared, well I've already mentioned group A. In group C, I chose Bombay over Touch of Evil, but was outvoted. (Actually, that was a tie broken by the IMDB "votes".) I was badly outvoted in groups F and G, and we've covered group H.

We must bid farewell to A Face in the Crowd, which was in our original top ten. Several other excellent films are out of this competition forever. But remember, we now have a list of 24 films. I get to choose a film to save as #25.

Ran would be a strong contender for #25. Actually, all of the films we are voting on at this point are quite good. But I chose Bombay, because it has it all. On every level that you would want to evaluate a film, Bombay is there. It has cinematography, humor, music (and of course dance), drama, a really important message, influence, etc. It starts out a light-hearted romantic Bollywood musical and halfway through it turns into very serious, nasty, ugly commentary on religious intolerance. And it was banned in India for a while, or something like that. So we are keeping this one, for now.

Well, I guess that about covers it for now. I'll post the groups for the final round tomorrow. Come back soon and vote, I value your opinion almost as much as my own. Well, at least half as much, anyway.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Competition #3 - Round 2

I have the groups for round two of the current Film Fight. This works exactly the same as it did in competition #2. The 15 new films and our top 25 from the last competition are divided into 8 groups of 5 films each. Seven of the groups contain 3 films from competition two and 2 new films, one group contains 4 films from competition two and 1 new film. No films is placed in a group with another film it just competed against. I had sort of feared that City of God, Slumdog Millionaire, and Bombay would somehow all land in the same group, but that did not happen.

Vote as usual in the comments section. Vote for up to three films in each group, in order of preference (best film first). If you haven't seen one of the films in a particular group, I encourage you to only vote for two films in that group. If there is more than one film you haven't seen in a particular group, you might only vote for one film in that group. You don't even have to cast votes in every group.

Group A)
The Wizard of Oz
Cool Hand Luke
The Silence of the Lambs
Ran
The Third Man


Group B)
Blade Runner
Slumdog Millionaire
Seven Samurai
Eating Raoul
M


Group C)
Bombay
Touch of Evil
The Godfather
Let the Right One In
The Nightmare Before Christmas


Group D)
A Face in the Crowd
The Manchurian Candidate
The Lord of the Rings
City of God
A Clockwork Orange


Group E)
Midnight Cowboy
Pulp Fiction
Yojimbo
The Last King of Scotland
My Life as a Dog


Group F)
Brazil
Casablanca
The Exorcist
In Cold Blood
On the Waterfront


Group G)
To Kill a Mockingbird
Schindler's List
MASH
Dog Day Afternoon
Citizen Kane

Group H)
2001: A Space Odyssey
The Andromeda Strain
Psycho
La Strada
Straw Dogs

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

First Round Results from Competition #3

The votes are in. I did a little something different this time, though. While I was waiting for people to vote, I generated a set of votes based on user ratings on IMDB. While I may not do this again, it worked out fairly well this time. This extra set of votes had only two effects. First, we will include Touch of Evil in the next round rather than Groundhog Day. I think this was probably the right choice, even though Groundhog Day is a nice film, and I can clearly remember the first time I saw it. The second effect of this extra set of votes is that The Silence of the Lambs will be included in the next round rather than Throne of Blood. This choice seems a little more controversial, but those films were in a tough group. I think this choice is okay, due to the fact that we already have a few Kurasawa films included in our competition, and because I see Throne of Blood not so much as a great film, but as a film with a few truly inceredible scenes.

On a more personal note, I only got outvoted in a couple of groups. I did vote for Throne of Blood. What bothers me more, though, is the inclusion of Eating Raoul instead of Videodrome. I like them both, but I voted the other way around.

To see the full list of winners, view my previous post, where I have put the winners in boldface type. These 15 winners will now have to compete against our previous top 25. I will post the groups for round two soon. Possibly tonight. More likely I will wait a day or so. We shall see.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Competition #3

I hope you are ready for another Film Fight. I believe this will mark the first time I've included a documentary film in the list of contenders. I'm also going to bend my rules just a bit.

I don't expect everyone who reads this blog to have seen every film on the list. However, I don't feel that it would be right for me to include a film that I haven't seen myself. This time I have included one film that I have not yet seen. However, a copy is supposed to be on it's way from Netflix. Hopefully I will get it in the mail tomorrow, so I can watch it Saturday night. At any rate, I should be able to watch it before first round voting is complete.

There's another film that I haven't seen yet that I wanted to include in this Film Fight, but Netflix keeps sending me other films in it's place. I realize I have other options, but I think I'll hold off on this one, maybe include it in a future competition. I'm pretty sure it would get voted out in the first round, anyway.

So, here are the films for Round 1. Voting will proceed as usual. Vote for your top 3 picks from each group, in order of preference (best film first). If you wish, you can vote for just one or two films from any group, but that won't give your vote any extra weight. Have fun.

Group A)
Crumb
Dog Day Afternoon
The Face of Another
Casablanca
Pulp Fiction


Group B)
A Boy and His Dog
City of God
Touch of Evil
Slumdog Millionaire
Groundhog Day


Group C)
The Andromeda Strain
Schindler's List
The Last King of Scotland
Poltergeist
Repo Man


Group D)
In Cold Blood
Johnny Was
Videodrome
Eating Raoul
Let the Right One In


Group E)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Manchurian Candidate
La Strada
The Silence of the Lambs
Throne of Blood

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Final Results for Competition #2

The final results are in. Four films from our original top ten list have been replaced. Those films are Dr. Strangelove, A Face in the Crowd, Run Lola Run, and Yojimbo. In fact, Dr. Strangelove and Run Lola Run did not even make the top 25 this time around, and are thus completely eliminated from future competitions. I wanted to include Yojimbo in the new top ten list, but the list already contains two other Kurasawa films, so I thought I'd give the nod to something else.

At any rate, the new top ten list, in alphabetical order is

2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Brazil
Cool Hand Luke
The Godfather
Midnight Cowboy
My Life as a Dog
Ran
Seven Samurai
The Third Man

A new competition will begin shortly. There are one or two films I'd like include in the competition which I have not actually seen yet, so I'm not ready to post the new list of contenders. Check back in a few days.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Comp 2 is nearly over

The votes are in. Bill delivered votes in person, this time, so I do have the minimum requirement of three sets of votes. I correctly picked the winners of two groups (C and D), but was outvoted in the other three groups. I am a bit disappointed to see Straw Dogs and The Exorcist not even make it to the runners-up list, but that's the way it goes.

The five group winners are

The Third Man
Seven Samurai
Midnight Cowboy
Ran
The Godfather

The ten runners-up are

2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
My Life as a Dog
On the Waterfront
Cool Hand Luke
Bombay
M
Brazil
Citizen Kane
Yojimbo

From this list of ten I will select five films to complete the top ten list for competition #2. If you wish to express an opinion, feel free to do so, but realize that this last stage is basically my call. The complete top ten list will be posted soon, followed shortly by one more (possibly the last) competition.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Comp 2, Final Round

Here are the groups for the final round of the second Film Fight. You may, as usual, select your top 3 picks from each group. Keep in mind, though, that the top pick from each group makes into our top ten list, with five more films selected at large from a list of 10 runners-up (2 runners-up from each group). Also keep in mind that you can always suggest films for inclusion in future film fights. At the moment, I'm about five films short of having enough film ideas for Competition #3.

Group A)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
The Third Man
The Nightmare Before Christmas
To Kill A Mockingbird

Group B)
My Life as a Dog
On the Waterfront
Seven Samurai
Psycho
The Wizard of Oz

Group C)
Cool Hand Luke
MASH
The Lord of the Rings
Midnight Cowboy
Bombay

Group D)
M
Straw Dogs
Ran
A Face in the Crowd
Brazil

Group E)
The Godfather
A Clockwork Orange
Citizen Kane
Yojimbo
The Exorcist

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Nine to Five

Nine films in our last Top 25 list have been replaced. Nine of the films we added in this new competition have replaced previous entries to form the new top 25. Coincidence? I think not.

In 6 of the 8 round two groups I was outvoted a little bit. Group B was obvious, everyone agrees on that. The votes for group H also agreed with me, in general. In the other six groups, I was somewhat outvoted, but I used my rescue vote on Cool Hand Luke, so only five of my picks lost out.

You can look at the previous post to see how the groups played out, but the net result is that

Dr. Strangelove
The City of Lost Children
Scarface
Run Lola Run
Baraka
Alien
Memento
Blue Velvet
The Deerhunter

have dropped out of our competition forever. They have been replaced, in the new top 25, by

The Godfather
Psycho
Citizen Kane
The Wizard of Oz
To Kill a Mockingbird
MASH
On the Waterfront
Ran
The Exorcist.

Yes, it's an imperfect process. It's meant to be. The new top 25 is, in no particular order,

Cool Hand Luke
M
Blade Runner
The Godfather
Bombay
Brazil
Seven Samurai
A Clockwork Orange
The Third Man
Psycho
Straw Dogs
2001: A Space Odyssey
Citizen Kane
The Lord of the Rings
A Face in the Crowd
The Wizard of Oz
Midnight Cowboy
My Life as a Dog
To Kill a Mockingbird
Yojimbo
MASH
On the Waterfront
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Ran
The Exorcist


I will post the groups for the final round tomorrow-ish. Vote soon.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Comp 2, Round 2

The first round results are in. See comments on the previous post to see how a couple readers voted. Also see the previous post for the round 1 results; I've put the winners from each group in bold-face type. I correctly predicted the winners of groups A, B, and C. (It would have been pretty difficult for anyone to get Group C wrong.) I was outvoted in groups D and E. (I voted for Frida and Night of the Hunter.) As I said, though, I'm quite willing to be outvoted this time around.

To the 15 winners of Round 1, I've added the top 25 films from the first competition. I've divided this list of 40 films into 8 groups of 5. Each of the groups contains 3 of the top 25 films, plus 2 of the newcomers, except the first group, which contains 4 from the top 25 and just 1 newcomer. I've set things up so that no two films that were just up against each other appear in the same group. Other than that, the placement is random. So don't give me any crap about Vertigo and Psycho appearing in the same group, it was just the luck of the draw.

From each group we will select the 3 best films. Vote as in Round One. This will produce a list of 24 films, and I will then rescue 1 film to complete our new top 25 list. The third round, in which we select the top 10, will proceed exactly as round three in the previous competition.

The groups are

Group A)
Cool Hand Luke
M
The Deerhunter
Blade Runner
The Godfather

Group B)
Bombay
Brazil
Seven Samurai
Osama
The Brother from Another Planet

Group C)
A Clockwork Orange
Alien
The Third Man
Vertigo
Psycho

Group D)
Straw Dogs
2001
Blue Velvet
Citizen Kane
A Life Aquatic

Group E)
The Lord of the Rings
The City of Lost Children
A Face in the Crowd
The Wizard of Oz
Picnic at Hanging Rock

Group F)
Midnight Cowboy
My Life as a Dog
Dr. Strangelove
Heavenly Creatures
To Kill a Mockingbird

Group G)
Yojimbo
Run Lola Run
Baraka
MASH
On the Waterfront

Group H)
Scarface
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Memento
Ran
The Exorcist

Monday, March 2, 2009

Competition #2

Hello again. As mentioned in my previous post, I started this blog with a vague process in mind by which I could keep evolving and, hopefully, improving my top ten film list. That process involves a series of competitions, the first being somewhat unique, but all subsequent competitions running similarly to each other. Thus, I need to run one more competition to show how this will work.

The top 25 films from the previous competition will automatically be included in this competition, but not until round 2. (They get a bye in the first round.) The first round will consist of 25 films that have not shown up in any Film Fight so far. (I'm keeping a list of the films we're discarded.) I've placed these 25 films in 5 groups of 5. We will select the top 3 from each group. My plan is to add these films to the previous competition's top 25 to produce a list of 40 films, without "rescuing" any other films from round 1, but we'll see. That might end up being unfair to some great film, but I don't think I'll be changing my mind.

So vote now, you can't fix it later. (Unless you can.)

Here are the groups. As further "proof" that this competition is to be more democratic than the first one, and is not so much intended to be my top ten as it is a group effort, consider that I never would have included films like Mystery Men, The Running Man, or Bull Durham if I were only listing my own favorites. So vote, damnit. And remember you can always suggest a film for the next competition, assuming there is one.

Group A)
Osama
The Godfather
Vertigo
Bull Durham
Apocalypse Now

Group B)
The Running Man
Duck, You Sucker (also known as A Fistful of Dynamite)
The Wizard of Oz
Ran
The Brother from Another Planet

Group C)
Mystery Men
MASH
Heavenly Creatures
The Killer Inside Me
The Exorcist

Group D)
Picnic at Hanging Rock
A Life Aquatic
Frida
To Kill a Mockingbird
Jaws

Group E)
Citizen Kane
Night of the Hunter
On the Waterfront
Psycho
Sideways