Monday, January 28, 2013

Popcorn Bowl Challenge: Watching the Award Winners

Our local newspaper, The Oregonian, came up with a fun spin on the NCAA's March Madness brackets, but for movies. Apparently they had readers vote on their 64 favorite movies that have won Oscars in the past century. I don't currently subscribe to the paper, so I've been out of the loop, but Chris brought home the article with the final brackets laid out. I love stuff like this and was excited to start voting!

Only one problem. I've only seen 22 out of the 64 movies in the running. And, because of the way the pairs are matched, there are only five pairs in Round 1 for which I've actually seen both movies. While this might make voting more simple (vote for the one I've seen unless I hated it!), that didn't feel very satisfying.

I got excited about the idea of watching All The Movies as a family so we could vote intelligently.

Chris commented that he thought this would make a great year-long project.
Me: "But the voting starts this week."
Chris: "So, you wanted to . . . watch all the movies? And then, vote? By Tuesday?
Me: "Yes!! Well, only the ones we haven't seen.
Ben: I've seen three.
Chris: This is what I'm saying. I think it's a year-long project.

Well, year-long project, or not, it's got to start with one movie, right? We watched our first one last night. Netflix doesn't have very many of the movies on streaming, but our library has all of them on DVD and we own two. Chris and I went through and placed a bunch of holds Saturday. Then today I looked at the list and said, in a panic, "We can't possibly watch all these movies!!" to which Chris calmly replied, "That's why I was thinking it'd be a year-long project."

Fine. A year-long project it is! I'm stealing the Oregonian's idea and calling it my Popcorn Bowl Challenge.  
Throughout the year, I plan to watch the movies and cast my votes out into the Net. Who wants to join me? You don't have to commit to watching all the movies. Watch two that are pitted against each other and vote for your favorite, or pick one of the "regions" and watch that group, or watch whichever ones strike your fancy. Feel free to snag your own copy of my Brackets so you can fill it in as you go. If people write posts, at some point--maybe once a month?--I'll do a round-up or something of that ilk. And if not, well then I guess I get to pick the winners all by myself!

7 comments:

  1. Very cool idea. Bookmarking to check out later in earnest.

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  2. LOADS of fun for all! I've seen a few but not as many as I thought I might glancing at the list.

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  4. I did something like that last year... I made a list of about 100 movies that I thought were important for anyone to see. Everything from Anne Frank to 2001 A Space Odyssey to Ferris Bueller. I called it my " cultural literacy through cinema post-homeschooling" project. This sounds like a great list to add to it!

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  5. Ooh, I want to see your list, Rosalyn! ('Cause we need more movies to watch...)

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  6. I already know that Casablanca wins overall (for me) but am interested to see how the brackets shape up for you.

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  7. Wow. I've only seen 13. But then I'm not much of a movie watcher (kinda like those tv shows). But can I vote for the loser?? Pleeeeease??? Because Dances with Wolves? Seriously?? Urgh.

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