Tropical Island Video Vault Draft - ROUND 20 - FINAL ROUND

[Bricklayer]

I've got a lot of dark/serious movies on my island, so time to lighten things up a little. Since I missed most of the comedies I wanted, I'm going with a big, fun, dumb (in a good way) action/thriller flick, Point Break.

I've always found this movie highly entertaining and very rewatchable. It also has a cool sort of zen/mystic quality that transcends the silliness of the plot.

It's got great action scenes, great stunts, and a perfect cast. I don't think any other actors besides Swayze and Reeves could have pulled it off quite as well. They were just perfect for their parts.

Oh, and always considered this kind of the cheese companion to Roadhouse. Not sure it holds up quite as well -- last time I watched it both Keanu and Busey are just painful at times. But its still got some of the same stupid spirit. And of course Swayze spouting more bad philosophy.

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

Oh, and always considered this kind of the cheese companion to Roadhouse. Not sure it holds up quite as well -- last time I watched it both Keanu and Busey are just painful at times. But its still got some of the same stupid spirit. And of course Swayze spouting more bad philosophy.

I don't see it. Point Break is actually a quality flick made by good filmmakers. Sure it has its corny aspects, but no more so than most action films. Roadhouse on the other hand is just a "so bad it's good" potboiler 80s B-movie that somehow managed to attain semi-cult status over the years.

 

[Superman]

Thrills and frills to come later. Pick for now...

20 years before Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford tried, this movie fused the sci-fi/Western genres together in a way that no other movie could. On the back of a blockbuster franchise, Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel back 130 years and break all the rules of the universe and quantum physics, all because Doc got shot in the back by the notorious Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (don't let him hear you call him that), who just so happens to be Biff Tannen's ancestor. Hijinks and hilarity ensue, complete with your standard Western dialogue and gunslinging action. I loved this movie... still do. And while I'd have loved to have Tombstone or Maverick on my island to fill the genre, this one will more than scratch the itch. Comedy, nostalgia, and time travel? Can't beat it.

With the 286th pick in the 2011 TDOS Tropical Island Video Vault Draft, Superman's Super Movie Lineup selects:
Back to the Future Part III (1990), directed by Robert Zemeckis

Oh, I know you did send me back to the future. But I'm back! I'm back from the future.

PM sent

 

[Dime Dropper]

I might be shooting myself in the foot here as I don't think many on this site would have seen this, but I could easily have taken this in the first couple rounds. It's a great movie, infinitely re-watchable thanks to the story-line, acting, and cinematography. There's a reason it's a top rated movie on IMDB. I thought it would be long gone so I didn't have it on my list, but at this point I just can't let it go any longer.

City of God

This is definitely a film I'd recommend if you haven't seen it.

 

[Spike]

I have been struggling tiryign to think of another Western I wanted to take that I did not take last time.

Gotcha covered, hoss:

 

[jalfa]

I might be shooting myself in the foot here as I don't think many on this site would have seen this, but I could easily have taken this in the first couple rounds.

It's #18 on IMDbs top 250 list. I'd be rather surprised if there weren't quite a lot of people that have seen it. But yeah, great film.

 

[Bricklayer]

Gotcha covered, hoss:

Okay, SPike has announced his next pick to keep things moving along. Very nice of him I thought.

 

[William Blake]

Sorry for the timeout. I went on a 4 days vacation, they told me the Hotel had wireless connection but I went there and it didn't work.

 

[Bricklayer]

Larry appears to be aiming for the Roseanne Lifetime acheivement award.

Last two swings through the snake! I know we're up for it. Because if we aren't, the next pic starts to get serious...

 

[William Blake]

My 18th pick is:
"You gotta have presence on the court. Presence like a cheetah rather than a chimp. Sure, they both got it, but Chimpy gotta jump his nuts around to get it. The shy cheetah moves with total nonchalance, stickin' it to them in his sexy, slow strut. Me? I play like a cheetah."
The Basketball Diaries (1995)

Out of Jim Carrol's autobiography with the same title, this is the story of a very talented high school ball player (and his friends) who destroys his future career by becoming a drug addict. I like it more than He Got Game, it's more realistic, the acting and script are better and it has a far less obvious moral lesson behind it.

 

[uolj]

Does Dime Dropper know it's his turn?

 

[Dime Dropper]

Going to keep this moving.


Bizarrely enough, I don't believe this movie was taken at all during the last draft (open to correction but don't think it was). I'm at a loss as to how it could go undrafted in two movie drafts. It's a top rated movie on IMDB, won multiple oscars and it's relatively recent. What a beautiful film that doesn't rely on gimmicks or loud noises and bright lights. It's also based on a true story.

Without further ado, my pick:

The Pianist



Don't usually post videos, but here's the trailer:

 

[Larry89]

The Abyss (1989) PG-13

I have an affinity for aliens and underwater... there just seems something so interesting to me about the evolution of life and the unknown. The Abyss has spectacular effects, the movie albeit a bit dull for the first half seems to teeter totters on focusing on too many elements, but one of my favorite movies just because of the effects and discovery type genre.

Spartacus (1960) PG-13

I'M SPARTACUSS!!!!!!!

 

[Warhawk]

The Abyss is a good choice. The end was a bit much for me but I thought the movie overall is very enjoyable. Has a good cast and James Cameron directs.

 

[Superman]

Sorry for the delay. Please skip me. I'll pick later when I get home.

 

[Jespher]

Looking over my list I have a very important genre left unfilled...CARTOONS!

I suspect that much of my time on this island will be devoted to nostalgia along with the need for entertainment in the moment. This film fills both of these niches for me as a classic cartoon favorite from my childhood that I still consistently return to. It has enough action to stay entertaining, and unique stylistic artistry and content to keep adults coming back (probably the darkest tone for a G rated film I've come across). With my 19th selection, I choose:

The Secret of NIMH (1982)

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

A couple of Woody Allen films have been taken, but my favorite is still available, so I’ll go ahead and take it. With this pick, I take, Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Woody Allen was on a roll on the mid/late 80s and this is the best of several great movies he made during that period. I think one reason this is my favorite film of his is the contrasting themes. I tend to like films that cover a lot of emotional as well as philosophical ground and this one definitely does that. It’s got everything from typical whiney neurotic Woody Allen humor to deeper musings about God, morality, etc.

It’s about a man who fancies himself as moral who commits a crime and over time manages to rationalize it so that he can live with himself. The secondary story is about a man who falls for a woman only to lose her to a man he loathes. It’s basically like two movies rolled into one, which also lends to the rewatchability aspect.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

There are like a half dozen or so worthy obscure movies I wanted to pick here but frankly I'm so irritated this one hasn't been picked by now that I'm going to do it myself.

No Country For Old Men - 2007
One of the few best picture winners worthy of the title and perhaps the most recent. Javier Bardem is just awesome as Anton Chigurh, one of the oddest yet coolest baddies put to screen with his cattle gun and coin toss. Rates as my favorite "serious" flick from the last 5 years along with Inglourious Basterds and one of my favorite Coen Bros films (really too hard to pick just one top one).

 

[RookieOfTheDay]

There are like a half dozen or so worthy obscure movies I wanted to pick here but frankly I'm so irritated this one hasn't been picked by now that I'm going to do it myself.

No Country For Old Men - 2007
One of the few best picture winners worthy of the title and perhaps the most recent. Javier Bardem is just awesome as Anton Chigurh, one of the oddest yet coolest baddies put to screen with his cattle gun and coin toss. Rates as my favorite "serious" flick from the last 5 years along with Inglourious Basterds and one of my favorite Coen Bros films (really too hard to pick just one top one).

Good pick. I had that one my list of prospective picks. I ended up not taking it though because the 2nd half is so anti climactic.

 

[Dime Dropper]

There are like a half dozen or so worthy obscure movies I wanted to pick here but frankly I'm so irritated this one hasn't been picked by now that I'm going to do it myself.

No Country For Old Men - 2007
One of the few best picture winners worthy of the title and perhaps the most recent. Javier Bardem is just awesome as Anton Chigurh, one of the oddest yet coolest baddies put to screen with his cattle gun and coin toss. Rates as my favorite "serious" flick from the last 5 years along with Inglourious Basterds and one of my favorite Coen Bros films (really too hard to pick just one top one).

Finally! I took this last time around and would have considered it for my last pick simply because it's too good to go undrafted. Same can be said for some other movies too, though. One in particular still available which is just weird. I hope someone takes it before it gets back to me.

 

[uolj]

I realize I already have a Farrelly brothers film but for some reason this movie kept sticking out amongst those I've been considering. Maybe it's Jim Carrey being Jim Carrey, or maybe it's his sons in the movie that I distinctly remember cracking me up. Regardless I could use one more comedy so my pick is...


Me, Myself & Irene (2000)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183505

 

[pdxKingsFan]

^That one came along well after Jim Carrey fatigue had set in for me, and especially since I really didn't care for Dumb and Dumber I found it to be a pleasant surprise.

 

[uolj]

^That one came along well after Jim Carrey fatigue had set in for me, and especially since I really didn't care for Dumb and Dumber I found it to be a pleasant surprise.

Yup. I'd agree with that assessment.

 

[Superman]

Two things about this pick: 1) If I'm on a desert island, I've got to have a heapin' helpin' of football, no two ways about it; 2) I'd prefer to have the TV show, but the movie will do just fine.

This might be an(other) example of Hollywood taking more liberties than necessary with a sports story that is actually based on real events in history, but I happened to find it well done, right down to the ending, which isn't as cliched as you might expect. Acting is well done, great cinematography, great score and soundtrack (Explosions in the Sky gets it), and the football action is better than standard fare. I have a friend that played for Dallas Carter in the early '90s, after the rise and then fall following the cheating scandals there. It was definitely a rabid climate, and this film captures the mentality of small Texas towns and their lust for high school football.

With the 291st pick in the 2011 TDOS Tropical Island Video Vault Draft, Superman's Super Movie Lineup selects:
Friday Night Lights (2004), directed by Peter Berg

Gentlemen, the hopes and dreams of an entire town are riding on your shoulders. You may never matter again in your life as much as you do right now.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

In some ways the movie is better than the tv show. Particularly where actual football is concerned.

 

[Spike]

Rambo: First Blood (1982) R

John J. Rambo is a former United States Special Forces soldier who fought in Vietnam and won the Congressional Medal of Honor, but his time in Vietnam still haunts him. As he came to Hope, Washington to visit a friend, he was guided out of town by the Sheriff William Teasel who insults Rambo, but what Teasel does not know that his insult angered Rambo to the point where Rambo became violent and was arrested, as he was at the county jail being cleaned, he escapes and goes on a rampage through the forest to try to escape from the sheriffs who want to kill him. Then, as Rambo's commanding officer, Colonel Samuel Trautman tries to save both the Sheriff's department and Rambo before the situation gets out of hand.

There you have it.

 

[Superman]

In some ways the movie is better than the tv show. Particularly where actual football is concerned.

Yeah, I think in the movie they were able to really focus on those game scenes and do them right, whereas the TV show had more limitations. I really, really liked both.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Yeah, I think in the movie they were able to really focus on those game scenes and do them right, whereas the TV show had more limitations. I really, really liked both.

I loved the tv show but the whole every other episode or third episode thing ending with the game which comes down to a last second play bit got pretty stale which is why as the show went on there seemed to be less game day episodes. That may have also been due to some other reasons, mainly revolving around NBC's failure to properly market the show to the right audiences.

 

[William Blake]

"Be a mensch!"

The Apartment (1960)

Prototypical romantic comedy, good guy falls in love with girl who's in love with a selfish bastard. There's nothing particularly fancy about the storyline but this is my favourite movie in its genre, it's funny but can be deep and sad at times and the acting is excellent.
Also, Shirley MacLaine in this one is one of my biggest movie crushes ever:

Spoiler

 

[Superman]

I loved the tv show but the whole every other episode or third episode thing ending with the game which comes down to a last second play bit got pretty stale which is why as the show went on there seemed to be less game day episodes. That may have also been due to some other reasons, mainly revolving around NBC's failure to properly market the show to the right audiences.

True. True. True.

The show suffered from the writers' strike, which also completely derailed Heroes (among other shows). FNL had to fight to stay on TV, even got cancelled at a certain point. The third season had a sense of finality to to it because they didn't know if it was going to get picked back up. But yeah, they over-did the last second finishes and miracle comebacks, for sure. There's a hundred different ways to do that, but in five seasons I don't think I ever saw a victory formation.