Alphabet Movie Draft Playoffs - Round 1 Bracket #2

[Jack Jack]

7. LoungeLizard
1. W = What We Do In The Shadows
2. J = Jurassic Park
3. I = Inception
4. C = Caddyshack
5. G = Gladiator
6. F = Forrest Gump
7. K = The Karate Kid
8. P = Point Break
9. B = Big
10. # = 10 Things I Hate About You
11. U = The Usual Suspects
12. R = Remember the Titans
13. T = Tombstone
14. S = Stand By Me
15. H = The Hangover
16. D = The Departed
17. L = The LEGO Movie
18. M = Mrs. Doubtfire
19. E = Enemy of the State
20. A = Aspen Extreme
Bonus Round!
21. N = The Greatest Showman
22. Y = Catch Me If You Can
23. O = Rise of the Planet of the Apes
24. Z = Zombieland
25. X = Rumble in the Bronx
26. V = Venom
27. Q = Vision Quest
Bonus Bonus Round - Anything Goes
28. R = Rad
29. G = The Great Outdoors
30. R = Rocky IV

V

10. KainLear
1. C = Casablanca
2. T = Terminator
3. D = The Dark Knight
4. P = Parasite
5. I = Invasion of the Body Snatchers
6. A = Amelie
7. H = Hodejegerne [Headhunters]
8. E = Edge of Tomorrow
9. G = The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
10. L = L.A. Confidential
11. M = The Matrix
12. N = North by Northwest
13. R = Rear Window
14. B = Black Swan
15. F = Fargo
16. K = The Killer
17. O = One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
18. S = Seven Samurai
19. W = The Witch
20. Q = A Quiet Place
Bonus Round! - @Turgenev
21. # = 13 Assassins
22. V = Venus
23. Y = Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
24. U = The Bourne Ultimatum
25. X = Climax
26. J = Jumanji
27. Z = Dogtown and Z-Boys
Bonus Bonus Round - Anything Goes
28. C = Chef
29. H = Her
30. A = Apollo 11

 

[Jack Jack]

8. Padrino
1. B = Blade Runner
2. T = The Thing
3. H = Heat
4. G = Glengarry Glen Ross
5. J = Jaws
6. K = Knives Out
7. D = Do the Right Thing
8. V = Vertigo
9. N = No Country For Old Men
10. I = In Bruges
11. M = Mulholland Dr
12. Z = Zodiac
13. O = Once Upon a Time in the West
14. C = Children of Men
15. A = The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
16. P = Punch Drunk Love
17. W = The Wild Bunch
18. E = Escape from New York
19. L = The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
20. S = Sicario
Bonus Round!
21. U = Under the Skin
22. F = The Fugitive
23. R = Ran
24. Y = You Were Never Really Here
25. # = 28 Days Later
26. Q = The Quiet Earth
27. X = Fantastic Mr. Fox
Bonus Bonus Round - Anything Goes
28. M = Midnight Run
29. D = Deadwood: The Movie
30. T = There Will Be Blood

v

9. VF21
1. P = The Princess Bride
2. Y = Young Frankenstein
3. E = E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
4. M = M.A.S.H.
5. # = 2001: A Space Odyssey
6. H = High Noon
7. A = Amadeus
8. S = The Shining
9. K = Kill Bill Vol. 2
10. B = Being There
11. F = The Fisher King
12. R = RED
13. L = The Longest Day
14. D = Dirty Dancing
15. J = Jurassic World
16. I = Independence Day
17. C = Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
18. G = Groundhog Day
19. T = The Thing from Another World
20. O = The Others
@Mr. S£im Citrus - Bonus Round!
21. W = Avengers: Infinity War
22. N = Captain Marvel
23. V = Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
24. Q = He Qi Dao
25. U = Shao Lin San Shi Liu Fang
26. X = Fang Shi Yu yu Hong Xiguan
27. Z = Da Zui Xia
Bonus Bonus Round - Anything Goes
28. B = Black Panther (In Pen...)
29. A = Ant-Man and the Wasp
30. H = Harlem Nights

 

[Jack Jack]

This poll will close in 7 days
Friday 9/25 at 3:53 PM PST

Everyone can vote for these playoff match-ups (even if you didn't participate in the draft). Don't be shy!

Feel free to back-up your rationale here.

 

[Löwenherz]

Dude, Point Break. How could I possibly vote against Point Break (and Zombieland)?

... Well, because KainLear and Turgenev have Seven Samurai, Casablanca, Edge of Tomorrow, Amelie, Black Swan, and The Dark Knight.

And those are just the ones I already personally own and have watched in excess of 5 times minimum. Then there's The Terminator; Parasite; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; L.A. Confidential; The Matrix; North by Northwest; Rear Window; Fargo; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; and 13 Assassins which are all just killer films. I'd almost accuse KainLear of the apparently great sin of "trying to win" and not picking authentic favorites, but the curve balls of Headhunters, The Killer, and The Witch put that suspicion to rest for me. (Not that it matters anyway).

Sorry Utah (and Tallahassee), but this was my top ranked list, and it wasn't really that close.

The second match-up at first glance, was going to be tough. VF put together a bunch of personal favorites The Princess Bride, Amadeus, Groundhog Day, The Fisher King while Slim turned up the high-octane fun with curated selections for his Avengers and Martial Arts theater (plus Harlem Nights, which I honestly had not heard of before) and I was thinking that might be enough to take down Blade Runner.

But then I noticed buried way down in the 23rd round, Padrino nabbed Ran, which paired with Blade Runner represent two of my personal top five favorites. Throw in Escape from New York, Do The Right Thing, Knives Out, Life Aquatic, and The Thing and there's no way I can vote against Padrino here.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

plus Harlem Nights, which I honestly had not heard of before)

With all due respect, that may be the most #TwoAmericas thing, ever. I've never met anybody IRL, over the age of thirty, who hasn't heard of Harlem Nights. I've barely met anybody who hasn't seen it. That almost sounds like a magic trick, to me.

 

[Löwenherz]

With all due respect, that may be the most #TwoAmericas thing, ever. I've never met anybody IRL, over the age of thirty, who hasn't heard of Harlem Nights. I've barely met anybody who hasn't seen it. That almost sounds like a magic trick, to me.

With similarly due respect, I think this might be more of a Generational Gap thing than a #TwoAmericas thing. When Harlem Nights hit theaters, I was wearing out my VHS copy of The Land Before Time. I knew Beverly Hills Cop had a cool theme song, and Balki from Perfect Strangers in it, and little else (I didn't even know what "Beverly Hills" meant). I had seen the Golden Child; probably because my parents thought Eddie Murphy fighting hell demons was closer to a "family film" due to its randomly PG-13 rating. But otherwise, Eddie Murphy was just a guy my dad thought was hilarious in Saturday Night Live and 48 Hours.

By the time I was of an age to even appreciate an Eddie Murphy movie, he was appearing in The Nutty Professor, Dr. Doolittle, and as the voice of Mushu in Mulan, shortly before hitting rock bottom with The Adventures of Pluto Nash, and The Haunted Mansion, all of which I have seen, sadly.

It really never occurred to me after that to dive too deeply into his filmography beyond Coming to America and the first Beverly Hills Cop. And to be perfectly honest, by then what seemed like edgy, "you better start clutching your pearls" comedy in the 80s, just wasn't anymore. It's entirely possible I had heard of Harlem Nights, but just as quickly disregarded it because it had the guy from Norbit in it. Maybe if he'd been in Ghostbusters my experience would have been different.

Similarly, when I think of Robert De Niro, I think of a chillingly tough, ruthless, cold-blooded killer from The Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. My wife thinks of the quirky dad in Meet the Parents. I can't remotely convince her he is known for being a badass.

I will say, I thought Murphy was fantastic in Dolemite is My Name ... the behind the scenes expose on the making of another movie I had never even remotely heard of before.

Now THAT is an example of #TwoAmericas

 

[Warhawk]

With all due respect, that may be the most #TwoAmericas thing, ever. I've never met anybody IRL, over the age of thirty, who hasn't heard of Harlem Nights. I've barely met anybody who hasn't seen it. That almost sounds like a magic trick, to me.

I've heard of it but never seen it.

KainLear/Turgenev and VF21/Mr. S£im Citrus got my vote.

Terminator, Dark Knight, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and the Matrix especially are right in my wheelhouse. There just wasn't enough on LL's list to overcome those (and a few others for me), but Jurassic Park, Gladiator, Tombstone, and The Usual Suspects are solid choices as well.

Padrino's list is just so up and down for me with some excellent choices (Blade Runner, Sicario, Heat, Knives Out) and some I detest or just don't care for (with Punch Drunk Love leading that list). But there are also a bunch I haven't seen, and are on my list to do so, but I don't know which side of that divide they might fall. VF21 selected some great comedies (including Princess Bride, RED, and Young Frankenstein) and a few other films that round out the list well. And then Mr. S£im Citrus comes in with a couple of good Marvel flicks and a whole bunch of kung fu that I've never seen - the list is almost schizophrenic but man it covers a lot of good bases.

 

[pdxKingsFan]

Another vote comes down to a stupid 80s movie, this time it's Rad!

Might be the most I ever paid for a movie to get that on 4k UHD. Any list with that is a winner.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I almost never get bothered about losing these things, since I understand how niche my lists are, but seeing people say that the movie that put the other list over the top is something I've never heard of ****s with my head, a little bit.

 

[Jack Jack]

Congrats Loungelizard and Padrino.

Nice lists KainLear, Turgenev, VF21, and Mr. S£im Citrus. I love the marvel franchise Mr. S£im Citrus, the Princess Bride is my favorite movie VF21, and The Dark Knight and Jumanji are wonderful! Thank you for a wonderful draft

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

With similarly due respect, I think this might be more of a Generational Gap thing than a #TwoAmericas thing. When Harlem Nights hit theaters, I was wearing out my VHS copy of The Land Before Time...

Okay, so I was dubious of this take when I first saw it, and after I saw someone post a Harlem Nights meme on Twitter last night, I decided to revisit it. If you tell me that you've seen Goodfellas, but you've never even heard of Harlem Nights... okay, I can buy that: Goodfellas was a super-popular movie. If you tell me that you've seen Escape From L.A., but not having heard of Harlem Nights was a "Generational Gap thing", I'm inclined to believe that it was more a function of which movies you made the choice to seek out. Like, I'm not going to say that Escape From L.A. wasn't popular, at the time, I won't even say it was bad, but it was certainly no Casablanca, or The Godfather, or even The Princess Bride. Which is to say, it's not some timeless classic that all serious cinema-heads must have seen, regardless of how old you are. Like, to me, that'd be like saying that one of my favorite movies was Superfly T.N.T, but I'm not old enough to have heard of Death Wish.

I don't know why that bothers me so much, but it does.

 

[Löwenherz]

Okay, so I was dubious of this take when I first saw it, and after I saw someone post a Harlem Nights meme on Twitter last night, I decided to revisit it. If you tell me that you've seen Goodfellas, but you've never even heard of Harlem Nights... okay, I can buy that: Goodfellas was a super-popular movie. If you tell me that you've seen Escape From L.A., but not having heard of Harlem Nights was a "Generational Gap thing", I'm inclined to believe that it was more a function of which movies you made the choice to seek out. Like, I'm not going to say that Escape From L.A. wasn't popular, at the time, I won't even say it was bad, but it was certainly no Casablanca, or The Godfather, or even The Princess Bride. Which is to say, it's not some timeless classic that all serious cinema-heads must have seen, regardless of how old you are. Like, to me, that'd be like saying that one of my favorite movies was Superfly T.N.T, but I'm not old enough to have heard of Death Wish.

I don't know why that bothers me so much, but it does.

You make a great point. Maybe I could claim the “generation gap” defense at the time Harlem Nights was released, but that stance doesn’t hold water now that it’s 30 years later and I’ve sought out and watched films dating back to the 1890s.

I’m not even certain why I was initially resistant to accept the cultural gap explanation. It passes the occam’s razor test elegantly enough. Same reason why you’ve never heard of Rad, while I am all too familiar with Lori Laughlin interrupting a suburban high school dance with synchronized BMX ballet to the sounds of Real Life’s Send Me an Angel and thunderous applause. I was basically that movie’s target audience, or at least directly connected to someone who was. Otherwise, I would have no reason to know it existed.

That said, you got me to consider exactly how I choose which movies to seek out, and I think it’s the same as most people: either someone I know suggests it, or I read up about it and it sounds interesting. As such, I can’t ever remember anyone I know even mentioning in passing Harlem Nights, and professional critics widely panned it, so if I had heard of it, I had reason to quickly dismiss it.

But to expand on your point I think, yes, that is a reflection of the fairly homogenous culture of my inner circle, and the dominate hegemonic view of the mainstream critics I rely on to suggest what’s worth watching. All the more reason I value these silly little summer diversions we occasionally stumble into on an NBA team forum.

Simply put, exposure. I’d like to think I make a genuine effort to track down culturally diverse and cerebrally expansive “deep cut” cinema, and yet just now Baja casually rattled off 10 high quality films I’d never even heard of. Hrdboild linked me to a film directly connected to two of my personal favorites (and a cinematic legend in its own right) that I’d never knew existed. And years ago I watched Five Deadly Venoms, and now I’m going to watch Harlem Nights, even though I had never heard of them before, explicitly because you picked them. This is one of my tools to break out of my culturally siloed echo chamber. So thanks for keeping me honest.

I do want to correct you on one point though. I think you meant to reference 1981’s Escape from New York. Its 1996 sequel Escape from L.A. is better off forgotten.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]