2012 Movie Tournament: Final List + Help Wanted

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

So, who's psyched up for the movie tournament? It's starting within the week, and below is a full list of the films that have guaranteed "safe" spots in the Final 64.

EDIT: It just occurred to me that the list isn't complete. It's missing 2 or 3, and I can't for the life of me remember them off the top of my head. Point is, here's the majority of the films on the list. You'll get it completely when the tournament starts!

EDIT 2: The "Help Wanted" portion of this article was to ask for people to "seed" the list below. But as it's not technically complete, and I've made up my mind that I don't actually need 10 other people to seed anything, never mind.

Spoiler

Pulp Fiction
Fight Club
The Godfather: Part II
Tree of Life
Schindler's List
47. V for vendetta
3. Gladiator
5. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
6. LoTR: Fellowship of the Ring
7. The Dark Knight
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
9. Toy Story 3
44. Lion King
12. Wall-E
15. The Social Network
16. Forrest Gump
17. Kill Bill: Volume 1
37. The Sting
38. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
39. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
26. Saving Private Ryan
27. Inception
31. Little Miss Sunshine
32. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
33. Momento
35. The Matrix
29. The Departed
31. Back to the Future
33. Hotel Rwanda
35. Jurassic Park
21. Seven Samurai
22. The Warriors
23. 12 Angry Men
24. American Beauty
25. The Shining
28. Rocky
29. The Warriors
30. Diehard
34. Se7en
36. Jaws
37. A Clockwork Orange
38. No Country for Old Men
32. Clue
34. American History X
36. The King's Speech
40. Silence of the Lambs
41. Donnie Darko
42. City of God
43. Scarface
45. The Pianist
46. Lawrence of Arabia
48. Taxi Driver
18. Blade Runner
19. Raging Bull
49. Once Upon a Time in America
50. Dr. Strangelove
51. Sin City
52. Full Metal Jackat
53. The Usual Suspects
11. The Shawhshank Redeption

The following films will compete in some preliminary matches to fight for their place in the Final 64. They'll be broken into things like "Cult Classics", "Quentin Movies that Aren't Pulp Fiction", "New Films of 2012", etc.

Spoiler

Casino Royale
The Bourne Identity
Boondock Saints
Ocean's Eleven
Pursuit of Happyness
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance
The Prestige
The Sixth Sense
Groundhog Day
The Big Lebowski
The Breakfast Club
This is Spinal Tap
The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
Citizen Kane
Inglorious Bastards
Resevoir Dogs
Kill Bill: Part 2
Grindhouse
The Artist
Moonrise Kingdom
The Intouchables
Drive
The Avengers
The Godfather
Star Wars
LOTR: Return of the King
Alien
Terminator
Rear Window
Psycho
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflys

Now, IF I by chance, managed to miss a movie that's like...slapping you in the face with how obvious it's presence should be in the tournament, please let me know. There's still time to correct this.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'm going to start punching audience members.

 

[Shotaro]

The Reserve list has loads of much better films than the "safe" list.

The Tree of Life
The Kings Speech
Clue
Donnie Darko

As much as I love the last two, none of those films are really good enough to be anywhere NEAR the tournament let alone guaranteed a spot.

You've listed "The Warriors" twice

Rear Window
Spirited Away
This is Spinal Tap
Citizen Kane

should all be in "safe" places, at least that's my view on things.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I keep going back and forth on this this. Sorry if I seem like I'm all over the place with it. Guarantee when the tournament starts I'll have all the shit together. I've spent a lot of time planning it, and making sure it'll go smoothly.

The King's Speech won 4 Oscars. I feel like that alone probably gives it enough objective reasoning to be included. Tree of Life is one of my all-time favorite movies; a gorgeous art piece by one of the industry's most brilliant minds. Clue and Darko were voted a bunch of times.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Here, if this helps...

Spoiler

Casino Royale
The Bourne Identity
Boondock Saints
Ocean's Eleven


Pursuit of Happyness
The Man Who Shot Liberty Vance
The Prestige
The Sixth Sense


Groundhog Day
The Big Lebowski
The Breakfast Club
This is Spinal Tap


The Wizard of Oz
The Sound of Music
Citizen Kane


Inglorious Bastards
Resevoir Dogs
Kill Bill: Part 2
Grindhouse


The Artist
Moonrise Kingdom
The Intouchables
Drive
The Avengers


The Godfather
Star Wars
LOTR: Return of the King
Alien
Terminator


Rear Window
Psycho
Vertigo
North by Northwest


Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflys

 

[The Doctor]

Man, when films like Drive aren't on the guaranteed list it just feels like you're going off of personal bias, considering how much it got +1'd.

 

[TLC]

Man, when films like Drive aren't on the guaranteed list it just feels like you're going off of personal bias, considering how much it got +1'd.

+1

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Man, when films like Drive aren't on the guaranteed list it just feels like you're going off of personal bias, considering how much it got +1'd.

Aha! That was my error! I was missing one, and I could not figure it out. Drive was indeed supposed to be on the official list. Thanks Doc.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Alright. Let's do this. Here's a list...

Spoiler

1. Fight Club
2. Tree of Life
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Godfather: Part 2
5. Aliens
6. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
7. V for Vendetta
8. Gladiator
9. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes back
10. Fellowship of the Ring
11. The Dark Knight
12. Raiders of the lost Ark
13. Toy Story 3
14. Grave of the Fireflys
15. Wall-E
16. The Social Network
17. Forrest Gump
18. Kill Bill: Volume 1
19. The Sting
20. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
21. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
22. Saving Private Ryan
23. Inception
24. Little Miss Sunshine
25. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
26. Memento
27. The Matrix
28. The Departed
29. Back to the Future
30. Hotel Rwanda
31. Jurassic Park
32. Seven Samurai
33. The Warriors
34. 12 Angry Men
35. American Beauty
36. The Shining
37. Rocky
38. Diehard
39. Se7en
40. Jaws
41. A Clockwork Orange
42. No Country for Old Men
43. Clue
44. American History X
45. The King's Speech
46. Silence of the Lambs
47. Donnie Darko
48. City of God
49. Scarface
50. The Pianist
51. Lawrence of Arabia
52. Taxi Driver
53. Blade Runner
54. Ragin Bull
55. Once Upon a Time in America
56. Dr. Strangelove
57. Sin City
58. Full Metal Jacket
59. The Usual Suspects
60. The Shawshank Redpetion
61. Drive
62. Pursuit of Happyness
63. Citizen Kane
64. Psycho

Now here's a list of other possible choices. If enough of you can come to any general agreements on what should be taken out, and what should be put back in, in its place, we'll make it happen. Much less complicated than doing a bunch of preliminary matches. And as always, if there's anything that hasn't been mentioned that's really, stupidly obvious that has slipped all our minds thus far, bring it up. While I've spent a good chunk of time figure this out, I also haven't had that long to put it together. So I'll be the first to admit that it could be flawed and/or incomplete. BUT, together we can make this awesome.

Spoiler

Speed Racer (for Sam)
Casino Royale
The Bourne Identity
Boondock Saints
Ocean's Eleven
The Prestige
Groundhog Day
The Big Lebowski
This is Spinal Tap
Citizen Kane
Inglorious Bastards
Resevoir Dogs
The Artist
Moonrise Kingdom
The Intouchables
The Avengers
LOTR: Return of the King
Alien
Rear Window
Vertigo
North by Northwest
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away
Grave of the Fireflys

 

[shattered dreams]

This list looks a little better than it did but there are still some glaring omissions. I don't see why Social Network, Blade Runner and little miss sunshine are on the list. Some films I would probably put in if I was in charge: Goodfellas, Life is Beautiful and 2001: A Space Odyssey (seriously why is this not in, kids these days). I'd also consider an Eastwood directed films play in pod.

 

[Coco]

Inception, Memento, and The Dark Knight... Do the young pseudo-film-buff kids watch anything other than Nolan these days?

 

[shattered dreams]

I find Memento to be an overrated, albeit interesting, film.

 

[Coco]

All of Nolan's films are overrated. That's like their defining characteristic.

 

[shattered dreams]

I'd probably consider The Prestige slightly underrated. I don't think Batman Begins is/was overrated unless it has happened retroactively recently.

 

[Alastor]

Remove.
20. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
24. Little Miss Sunshine
53. Blade Runner
57. Sin City
62. Pursuit of Happyness

Replace with
Pirates of the Carribbean
Jerry Maguire
2001: A Space Odyssey
Spiderman 2
Anyone of the Harry Potter Series.

 

[Loveless]

Remove.
53. Blade Runner

Replace with

Anyone of the Harry Potter Series.

There aren't enough facepalms on the internet for this comment.

 

[Loveless]

Man, when films like Drive aren't on the guaranteed list it just feels like you're going off of personal bias, considering how much it got +1'd.

I don't like being critical but I'm feeling the same. 2 or 3 times I've mentioned that Synecdoche: New York was voted for and then +1'd and yet no sign of it anywhere.
Forget it, there are multiple films on that 64 that no-one asked for or even mentioned.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'd probably consider The Prestige slightly underrated. I don't think Batman Begins is/was overrated unless it has happened retroactively recently.

I was going to say this. The Prestige and Batman Begins are the only two Nolan films to live up to their billing, though probably because their praises aren't sung to high heaven all day every day. Even then, I think The Prestige gets its dick sucked more thoroughly than it should.

Edit: While we're here, more eye candy:

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I don't like being critical but I'm feeling the same. 2 or 3 times I've mentioned that Synecdoche: New York was voted for and then +1'd and yet no sign of it anywhere.
Forget it, there are multiple films on that 64 that no-one asked for or even mentioned.

I could have kept this between myself, and the few people I asked to help me. There's no rule that says I have to consult the entire forum to get opinions for a tournament. My better judgement told me not to; but it worked out pretty well.

I'm offering ya'll a way to look at the near-final product, and make changes. Or...or...you can continue bitching about it, and accomplish nothing. Totally up to you.

You want to whine about how over-rated Christopher Nolan's films are? Do it in the tournament.

 

[Bernkastel]

A Beautiful Mind and The Green Mile both sound be on the list.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Yeah, it's not easy to get a list of nearly 120+ suggestions down to 64 films. There's always somebody going to be pissed about something. I'd love to put The Green Mile, Life is Beautiful, and Goodfellas in. But at this point, what gets taken out to accommodate for them?

 

[Uncle Sam]

You want to whine about how over-rated Christopher Nolan's films are? Do it in the tournament.

I was planning to do both. Have my cake and eat it, so to speak.

 

[Bernkastel]

Yeah, it's not easy to get a list of nearly 120+ suggestions down to 64 films. There's always somebody going to be pissed about something. I'd love to put The Green Mile, Life is Beautiful, and Goodfellas in. But at this point, what gets taken out to accommodate for them?

Take out Scott Pilgram vs The World and Clue and replace them with the two I suggested. Even a film like Wall-E wasn't as good as the Lion King or Toy Story 3. It could be replaced with It's a Wonderful Life or something.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'd place higher priority on movies which are likely to generate discussion - Scott Pilgrim and Clue, apparent forum favourites, being two of them - than 'objectively' great movies.

Edit: I'd also hasten to add that Alien, as the reigning champion, should probably be bumped up.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Lion King and/or Aladdin were two classics I toyed with throwing in. Got some feedback from a friend and we decided they'd both been talked about to death in the past 20ish years, and a newer Pixar classic like Wall-E could probably generate more discussion. Same reasoning for Scott Pilgrim; it's too well-loved among the 20-something demo not to be included.

Also,

I'd also hasten to add that Alien, as the reigning champion, should probably be bumped up.

I can't argue with that.