Directors SteveGon's "Favorite Movies from His DVD Collection" Tournament (2 Viewers)

[Arman]

go abstain x4!

 

[SteveGon]

Comments:

Knightriders is a change of pace for director George Romero. Ed Harris, in one of his earliest starring roles, heads up one of those traveling renaissance fairs and takes the job a bit too seriously - he really believes in better living through chivalry. Unfortunately his sadly outdated views don't jibe with the modern world - the fair is slowly but surely going under and something must be done to increase income. Enter a television producer - he's interested in the spectacle of knights jousting on motorcycles and his promises of fame and wealth causes a rift in the close-knit community... A slow but rewarding film.

Only Angels Have Wings is Howard Hawks at the top of his game. Cary Grant leads a squadron of mail fliers in South America. Lots of action, snappy patter, and babes.

Miami Blues has Alec Baldwin as a nutcase hood roaming Miami. He hooks up with hooker Jennifer Jason Leigh and is tailed by cop Fred Ward. Based on a novel by Charles Willeford, but just as well could have been written by Elmore Leonard.

Fingers stars Harvey Keitel as the son of a loan shark who would rather be performing Bach than collecting for dear old dad. He also seems to have inherited his mother's dementia. Double-bill this with Taxi Driver.

Lost Horizon has its detractors, and perhaps it hasn't aged as well as other Capra, but it's still a grand experience. And Ronald Colman is a fav.

Men With Guns is my favorite John Sayles flick. Set in a fictitious Latin American country, a naive and aging doctor sets out to find the students he sent out into the wilderness. Have any of them survived the ongoing civil war, the men with guns? A different kind of road movie...

Dersu Uzala is classic Kurosawa. A diminuitive hunter in the Russian forests guides a greenhorn band of surveyors through the wilderness and strikes up a lasting friendship with the leader.

Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) stars Gerard Depardieu in this exemplary retelling of the classic. Beautifully-filmed and Depardieu is excellent.

 

[Nick Sievers]

Abstain on every one of these films.

 

[george kaplan]

Quadruple Abstain (though I have seen 2 of the films)

Steve,

Are you going to tell us who won the last round?

 

[Jim_K]

Abstain - no Knightriders
Miami Blues - Fingers was interesting but a little too weird for me.
Abstain - no Men With Guns
abstain - I've seen 3 versions of Cyrano but not this one

 

[Bill McA]

Knightriders
abstain - no Fingers
Men With Guns
Dersu Uzala

 

[Ric Bagoly]

abstain x4

 

[SteveGon]

Oops! Here's the winners of the previous brackets including my votes:

The Man in the White Suit wins 3 - 1.
Raising Arizona wins 5 - 4.
Sorcerer wins 3 - 1.
The Enigman of Kaspar Hauser wins 3 - 1.

I was in a hurry... :b

 

[John C. Wilson]

Only Angels Have Wings
Lost Horizon

 

[Brook K]

Men With Guns

 

[SteveGon]

Jim: this version of Cyrano de Bergerac just hit DVD. I have the disc but haven't watched it yet so I can't say how the transfer is.

My votes:

Knightriders - Very tough.
Miami Blues
Men With Guns - Another tough one. MWG gets the vote to avoid a tie.
Dersu Uzala


Knightriders wins 2 - 1.
Miami Blues wins 2 - 0.
Men With Guns wins 3 - 1.
Dersu Uzala wins 2 - 0.


Round 1 - Bracket 21

The "killers on the loose" match

Frenzy vs. One False Move


Round 1 - Bracket 22

The um, "going to a new place on a train at the beginning of the movie" matchup

Mystery Train vs. Kiki's Delivery Service


Round 1 - Bracket 23

The "trying to escape" matchup

Escape from New York vs. Odd Man Out


Round 1 - Bracket 24

The "culture clash and repercussions thereafter" matchup (bear with me)

Black Robe vs. Once Were Warriors

 

[Jim_K]

Frenzy- liked both
Abstain - no Mystery Train
Escape from New York - a cult fav since I was a teen.
Once Were Warriors - Excellent film but what a friggin downer.

 

[SteveGon]

Comments:

Frenzy is the best of Hitchcock's late films and among my top five Hitch.

One False Move is a pretty good modern noir, low-key with good attention to detail and characterization.

Mystery Train is a quirky, deliberately paced comedy from Jim Jarmusch. Probably not everyone's cup o' tea.

Kiki's Delivery Service is a pure delight. A young witch leaves home, her only companion a sardonic cat. Arriving in a big city, she starts a delivery service using her flying broom! Fairly predictable of course, but there's great animation, spirit, and characters.

Escape from New York - Need I say more?

Odd Man Out is my second favorite Carol Reed film. James Mason is an IRA chief, on the run after being wounded in a robbery. Tense and offbeat (lots of quirky characters give it an almost surreal quality).

Black Robe is a somber historical drama. French Jesuit missionaries in the Canadian wilderness try to "save" the native Huron and Algonquin tribes. Graphic and depressing, but worth a look.

Once Were Warriors takes us to the other side of the world - New Zealand, where the natives have already been pacified. Their second-class citizenship has taken its toll on the men, especially Jake Heke who drinks, drinks, drinks...and beats the hell out of his wife on a regular basis. Powerhouse performances from Rena Owen and Temuera "Jango Fett" Morrison propel this trenchant film.

 

[george kaplan]

Hey I can vote, and it's an easy one.

Frenzy

Triple Abstain

 

[Bill McA]

Frenzy
Mystery Train
Escape from New York
Once Were Warriors

 

[Brook K]

Kiki's Delivery Service - (Mystery Train was mildly amusing but no where near as good as Down By Law)

Seen Frenzy and Once Were Warriors but not the competition. I'll abstain on the other match as I haven't seen Escape From New York in 20 years or more.

 

[Brian Kissinger]

Frenzy
Escape From New York

 

[Nick Sievers]

Once were Warriors

 

[Arman]

abstain

 

[John C. Wilson]

Frenzy
Odd Man Out