Directors SteveGon's "Favorite Movies from His DVD Collection" Tournament (1 Viewer)

Time for me to jump on the "DVD collection tourney" bandwagon!

From the 800 or so titles currently in my collection, I've come up with a master list of 64 films. These run the gamut from the classic to the obscure, from the guilty pleasure (check out the "R" titles) to the even more obscure. These are the movies I can watch over and over and not get tired of - they may not be relevatory or ground-breaking films, but I think they all have something to offer. Knock Resident Evil all you want, I still say it's a snappy little film! :p)

Anyway, the master list has little in the way of the usual tourney favs - no Godfather or Lord of the Rings, no Vertigo or Mulholland Dr. I enjoy and admire these movies, but they're not favorites. I have included a list of eight wildcard films featuring the better-known titles from my favorites queue - these will show up later in the tourney. And my favorite film of all, The Third Man, will show up at the very end to do battle with the tourney winner.

Boy, I sure hope Bill McA participates in this sucker (otherwise I'm screwed).


The List

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein
The Accidental Tourist
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Angels & Insects
Babe: Pig in the City
Black Robe
Champagne for Caesar
Chicken Run
City of Lost Children
Cockfighter
Contact
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Cyrano de Bergerac (1990)
Dersu Uzala
The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Enter the Dragon
Escape from New York
Fat City
Fingers
Frenzy
Gettysburg
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Grand Hotel
Immortal Beloved
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring
Jude
Kiki's Delivery Service
Kiss Me Deadly
Knightriders
Lair of the White Worm
Little Odessa
Lost Horizon
Mad Dog and Glory
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
The Man in the White Suit
Men With Guns
Miami Blues
Midnight Run
Mishima
My Man Godfrey
Mystery Train
The Ninth Configuration
Nothing Sacred
Odd Man Out
Of Mice and Men (1939)
Once Were Warriors
One False Move
Only Angels Have Wings
Paths of Glory
The Producers
Quatermass and the Pit
Raising Arizona
Re-Animator
Resident Evil
Return of the Living Dead 3
Rhapsody in August
Runaway Train
Sorcerer
The Sweet Hereafter
Targets
The Tall Guy
The Train
Wings of Desire
X2: X-Men United

Wild Cards

A.I.
Aguirre: The Wrath of God
Amelie
Dawn of the Dead
The Road Warrior
Robocop
Sullivan's Travels
Three Colors: Red

Showdown

The Third Man

Without further ado:

Round 1 - Bracket 1

The "zombies and babes" matchup:

Resident Evil vs. Return of the Living Dead 3


Round 1 - Bracket 2

The "on the rails" matchup:

The Train vs. Runaway Train


Round 1 - Bracket 3

Kurosawa takes on Kurosawa:

Rhapsody in August vs. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams


Round 1 - Bracket 4

The "familial tragedy" matchup:

Jude vs. Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring

abstain

Comments:

Resident Evil and Return of the Living Dead 3 are admittedly guilty pleasures, but I also think they're pretty good genre offerings considering one is based on a video game and the other is the third in a series. Not much else to say on these.

The Train is a gritty World War II actioner helmed by John Frankenheimer. I am intrigued by the quandary that drives the action: is art, as a cultural asset, worth sacrificing your life for?

Runaway Train stars Eric Roberts and Jon Voight as escaped cons who end up on, as you can probably guess, a runaway train. Voight is particularly good as the vicious lifer who isn't so stupid that he can't see the futility of his actions and existence.

Rhapsody in August and Akira Kurosawa's Dreams, both twilight offerings from the great Japanese director, aren't generally considered to be among his better works. I think their appeal to me lies in their reflective nature which gives one a glimpse into the mind of a filmmaker near the end of his life.

Jude is awfully depressing, but I like the protagonist's refusal to give up in the face of adversity. I admire his unwillingness to trade his love and intellectual drive for faith-based comfort - a rare thing to see in a film these days.

Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring is simply a great film. And there's always Emmanuelle. Yummy.

Resident Evil
Runaway Train b/o an unfilmed screenplay by Akira Kurosawa
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Jude - I didn't realize that Jude was out on DVD!

Resident Evil

The Train - both are excellent

abstain on the rest

The Train

abstain, The Train is the only one of the 8 I've seen.

Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring easily

Return of the Living Dead 3- One of my absolute favorite zombie films, and quite underrated. I love RE as well, but not as much.

Runaway Train

Abstain

Abstain

Resident Evil
Abstain (no The Train, loved Runaway Train)
Rhapsody in August
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring

Hello Gonzo,

This should be an interesting bout after bout of abstains for me. But, I can offer a vote on one bracket. No big surprise in which it is either.

Return of the Living Dead 3 gets the nod here. I liked Resident Evil as well, but I still think it gathers an awful lot of undue praise around these parts. I mean it's no Hell Comes to Frogtown.

I should run one of these just so you could abstain at all my "crap."

abstain all the way.

My votes:

Return of the Living Dead 3 - A tossup.
The Train - Tough one.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring - Kinda tough.

Resident Evil wins 4 - 3.
The Train wins 3 - 2.
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams wins 4 - 1.
Jean de Florette/Manon of the Spring wins 3 - 1.


Round 1 - Bracket 5

The "underbelly of America" matchup:

Cockfighter vs. Fat City


Round 1 - Bracket 6

The um, "on the run" matchup:

Chicken Run vs. Midnight Run


Round 1 - Bracket 7

The "bad General!" matchup:

Gettysburg vs Paths of Glory


Round 1 - Bracket 8

The "showbuisness is damn funny" matchup:

The Producers vs. The Tall Guy