Gigi vs. On the Waterfront (Popcorn Bowl, Game 3)

In January I challenged myself to watch the 64 award-winning movies that The Oregonian newspaper selected for readers to vote on for a tournament. My bracket is here.

On the Waterfront (1954): This is one of the few of the classic films in the Popcorn Bowl that I've actually watched before. During a film unit in high school English, we watched On the Waterfront, along with Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Dr. Strangelove, and Singing in the Rain. It's been a couple/thirty years since then, though, so I thought I ought to watch it again before comparing it to another film.

Good idea, because it turns out most of this film went over my head when I was 16.

My memory of the film before rewatching:

Aw, Charlie! I coulda been a contender!

Yeah, I was still pretty boy crazy at that point.

The whole Mob Corruption thread was totally lost on me at 16. This time around I caught on to that part, which made it a much better movie. (Though I may have enjoyed the film more at 16 when I had a greater appreciation for overly dramatic scenes and young Marlon Brando). Both times I appreciated  the mood that was set by the on-location filming, and Brando's performance (he really draws the viewer in to Terry Malloy's plight, even if you're young and don't quite understand what the plight actually is).

Gigi (1958): My favorite thing about this movie was the opening number. It's filmed on location in a Paris park, and to me it was like watching a turn-of-the-century French painting come to life. Also, I never knew where the song "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" came from, so that was fun.

By the time we got to the second musical number, though, I'd seen enough. There was really nothing of substance in the movie at all. It was a sweet romance, with songs that didn't get any better than "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and didn't add much to the story.

But, we stuck with it all the way to the end, figuring that there might be some twist in the story line that would make this an Oscar-winning caliber film.

There wasn't.

At the end of the movie, Chris said he felt sorry for the movie-goers back in 1958, if this was the best movie of the whole year.

Needless to say, our winner in this bracket is On The Waterfront, easily.

Next up: Marty (1955) vs. Dances With Wolves (1990)

Popcorn Bowl, Game 2: The Departed vs. No Country for Old Men

In January I challenged myself to watch the 64 award-winning movies that The Oregonian newspaper selected for readers to vote on for a tournament. My bracket is here.

Today I'm comparing The Departed with No Country for Old Men.

The short answer: It's a tie.

Chris and I watched most of No Country for Old Men a couple of months before the Popcorn Bowl challenge even started. I didn't realize it was the 2007 Academy Award winner for best picture. Based on a Cormac McCarthy novel and written/directed by the Coen brothers (I loved Fargo and O Brother, Where Art Thou?), I figured it'd be a good movie.

Well, we watched about 2/3 of it before I fell asleep.  I didn't like any of the characters (and believe me, characters don't have to be "likeable" in order for me to like them--many a villain has captured a piece of my heart). I didn't really get what was going on most of the time. Though the fact that I was falling asleep may have influenced that, toward the middle. We said we'd watch the rest tomorrow, and tomorrow never came. Then it showed up on the Popcorn Challenge list, and rather than forcing myself to rewatch it, I hoped that the movie it was up against would be so amazing that there would be no contest between them.


Enter The Departed.

This 2006 winner was directed by Martin Scorcese, who's famous for movies that I mostly haven't watched because Chris has told me I'd hate them (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Shutter Island). I did like what he did with Hugo, and I'm pretty sure I didn't hate GoodFellas despite the excessive violence, but that was 1990 so it's a little fuzzy.

Now, before I go on, there's one thing you have to know about me: I am not good with the faces in movies. I like for movies to be filmed like The Amazing Race where there is the pink couple and the guy who wears crazy hats, so I can keep track of who is who. I can and did get through half of Platoon before saying, "So which one is Willem Dafoe again?"

There are certain actors whose faces stick with me--I can always pick out Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts, for example. I'm really good at spotting Morgan Freeman (no, come on, I'm serious! Even when there's another black man in the film.) And I thought I had Leonardo DiCaprio down pretty well.

So The Departed begins, and there's two young guys: Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, who are somewhat similar looking. (And then there's Jack Nicholson, who I can even pick out at baseball games on TV). And they each have a separate story line, which then merges into one story line, and by ten minutes into the movie I had no idea which guy went with which back story. I spent an inordinate amount of time throughout the movie (just ask Chris and Ben) asking, "So, is that the one who was in the taxi with Jack Nicholson at the beginning?" and "Wait, so this is the good cop posing as a bad cop, or the bad cop posing as a good cop? And how does he know Jack Nicholson again?"

I was even annoying to myself.

And I realize this is more of an issue for me than for most people, but I think dying Matt Damon's hair hot pink wouldn't have been such a bad idea. Or choosing an actor who was heavier set, or not white, or wore glasses. 

Wait, which one's Beyoncé again? 

However. Even if Colin Sullivan had been played by Beyoncé, it would not have changed the fact that by the end of the movie, any character that I could possibly have cared about had managed to either fully disappoint me, or die, or both. Chris, who can always tell his diCaprios from his Damons, was disgusted by the end, too. Not just because his movie companion kept asking annoying questions.

So I spent about 5 minutes trying to decide which of these two movies I hated less, or whether I needed to give No Country for Old Men another try, before I realized that no matter which one wins, it will be up against either Rocky or Slumdog Millionaire, both of which leave these two at the bottom of the bowl with the greasy dregs of unpopped kernels, as far as I'm concerned.

Onward!

Crash vs. Rain Man (Popcorn Bowl, Game 1)

The Popcorn Bowl is a challenge to watch 64 previous Oscar winners which are seeded against each other like this. Feel free to join the challenge if you wish.

I'm going through the list in a haphazard fashion, according to what movies are available and interest whoever at my house wants to watch with me. For the first match-up, we watched Crash and Rain Man (5th bracket from the bottom on the right, if you're following along).

Crash, 2004 (R)

Crash is pretty intense emotionally and does have quite a bit of swearing and some sex. I definitely wouldn't show it to kids who didn't have the ability to watch critically, because there is a lot of racism going on--it's a huge theme in the movie--and I'd be concerned about kids having trouble filtering that. So, my disclaimer is, I watched this with my kids (who are 12 1/2 and 16) and they both got a lot out of it, but that doesn't mean you'd want to watch it with yours.

Several disparate characters' lives get intertwined through the course of the story, which ends up being cool but at first is disconcerting because you're flitting from situation to situation without really seeing a connection except that everyone is more blatantly racist than anyone I've ever met in my life. The main thing I took away from this movie was, "Are people really that mean to each other in LA?" Not that there isn't racial tension in Portland, including systemic racism, and our police department definitely has its issues. But every single person in the movie, with the possible exception of the little girl, had some major issues.

And another thing: Do people really drive that badly in LA? Because that was a heck of a lot of car accidents in 36 hours.

I fell asleep for a few minutes in the middle of the movie. This didn't seem to have any impact on my understanding of what was going on, though I did miss the cause of one of the car crashes. It's okay, though, because I got to see the touching moment that ensued, as well as the exciting special effects moment which was probably the highlight of the movie for Evan.

My winner!

Overall, I'd say this was a good movie but when pitted against Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise in Rain Man, it was going to be a tough sell.

Rain Man, 1988 (R)

Evan acted like I'd sentenced him to 3 hours of the home shopping channel when I insisted that he try at least half an hour of Rain Man. I just knew he'd like it! For the record, the R-rating is due to f-bombs and some sexual scenes (without nudity).

I saw Rain Man when it first came out and was interested to see how it had held up over time. We know so much more about autism these days that Raymond Babbitt has become a stereotype by now. When the doctor talks about him being high functioning, I had to grit my teeth--a high functioning autistic adult shouldn't be in an institution like that! However, Dustin Hoffman is just amazing in his portrayal, and I felt like, given the time when it was made, the writers did their homework.

It was extremely amusing to see the Tom Cruise type A personality businessman trying to function in the 80s without a cell phone. One of my favorite scenes is when he realizes he needs help understanding his brother, and so he pulls into a town and looks up a psychiatrist in the phone book, then goes to meet with him. These days, a quick google search would have told him all he needed to know. These aspects definitely date the movie, but in a good way.

Overall, I'd say Rain Man is the clear winner. The relationship between the two men has stood the test of time. As for Evan, he has no comment--but he stayed and watched the full movie.

So that's one match-up down, and just 31 left to go!

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.  

Here are the brackets

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!