Match Cut Madness 2: Best of the 90s

[Idioteque Stalker]

Besides, we all know that any real world video store would have had Satantango in that genre called "foreign".

Your boss Jarod doesn’t believe in segregation according to language. Your boss Jarod is not ethnocentric.

EDIT: I would put Satantango in the comedy section, then when a customer returns the vhs tape and complains it isn’t funny, I would slap the other five tapes on the counter and say, “You just haven’t gotten to the good parts yet.”

[Ezee E]

Yeah, I would always think of video stores as the best way to classify genre.

The Wild Bunch would be located in Western before Action.
Star Wars would like be in Sci-Fi
Satantango would clearly be located in Comedy.
The Insider would be in Drama

But as Skitch said, make your list, and move on. Certainly open to anyone's interpretation of action.

[quido8_5]

Robocop sci fi
Blade Runner sci fi
Mad Max action
Time Bandits comedy
Satantango drama

Come on, that was baby town frolics.

Jarod disagrees with Robocop. He is on the fence about Time Bandits, but is still docking you because he's a dick.

[Skitch]

Jarod disagrees with Robocop.

Jarod can eat a dick.

But a rental business would probably have some sticker on the tape saying what they classify it, so it can be properly put back on the shelf. Whatever they want to call it, fine. Don't shit where you eat.

[dreamdead]

Pulp Fiction vs. Princess Mononoke
Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs. Boogie Nights
Goodfellas vs. Unforgiven
Fargo vs. Ed Wood

[StuSmallz]

It's worth asking. I've seen a number of "Best Action Films of X Year/Decade", and there are always a number of listed films where I think "Bullshit that is an action film"

From Time Out's list, I don't think The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, Heat, Oldboy etc are action movies

I definitely agree with you about Once Upon A Time (I mean, it's good, but an Action movie it is not), while Heat & ​Oldboy are a Crime Drama/Revenge Thriller (speaking respectively) that just so happen to have one particularly iconic action scene in them apiece, but I think it makes a lot of sense to include The Wild Bunch in that list. I mean, it may not be as "pure" an Action film as something like Die Hard, but if you look at it outside the context of its Western setting, I think it has more than enough intense action in it to qualify as partially part of the genre, certainly more so than what else people typically thought of as "Action" movies around that time, like The Dirty Dozen or Bullitt, both of which had one major action scene in them apiece, and that's it.

I also think its importance to Action movies is underestimated because it primarily came from a genre (the Western) where, while the outbursts of violence are common, their portrayals tended to be pretty perfunctory, and, like Tom Breihan wrote in his article on TWB, "the mechanics of the gunfights in, say, Rio Bravo don’t matter as much as John Wayne’s reaction to what’s happening around him". Compare that to the final shootout in Bunch, and how much time/effort Peckinpah obviously put into it (or even just into the first shootout), and there's a world of difference between it and the typical Western. Plus, its level of influence on future Action movies is undeniable, from the machine gun-driven carnage of Rambo, the slow-motion bloodletting of Woo, and there are even a couple of handheld cam shots in it that I would argue possibly influenced the cinematography of the Bourne films as well, sort of making it feel like the "Rosetta's Stone" of modern Action movies, even though it may not be the first movie that people typically associate with the genre, you know?

[transmogrifier]

I definitely agree with you about Once Upon A Time (I mean, it's good, but an Action movie it is not), while Heat & ​Oldboy are a Crime Drama/Revenge Thriller (speaking respectively) that just so happen to have one particularly iconic action scene in them apiece, but I think it makes a lot of sense to include The Wild Bunch in that list. I mean, it may not be as "pure" an Action film as something like Die Hard, but if you look at it outside the context of its Western setting, I think it has more than enough intense action in it to qualify as part of the genre, certainly more so than what else people typically thought of as "Action" movies around that time, like The Dirty Dozen or Bullitt, both of which had one major action scene in them apiece, and that's it.

I also think its importance to Action movies is underestimated because it primarily came from a genre (the Western) where, while the outbursts of violence are common, their portrayals tended to be pretty perfunctory, and, like Tom Breihan wrote in his article on TWB, "the mechanics of the gunfights in, say, Rio Bravo don’t matter as much as John Wayne’s reaction to what’s happening around him". Compare that to the final shootout in Bunch, and how much time/effort Peckinpah obviously put into it (or even just into the first shootout), and there's a world of difference between it and the typical Westerm. Plus, its level of influence on future Action movies is undeniable, from the machine gun-driven carnage of Rambo, the slow-motion bloodletting of Woo, and there are even a couple of handheld cam shots in it that I would argue possibly influenced the cinematography of the Bourne films as well, sort of making it feel like the "Rosetta's Stone" of Action movies, even though it may not be the first movie that people typically associate with the genre, you know?

Good analysis. I still don't really consider it an action film in that it is not really about kineticism and the shootouts are just Western staples ramped up by Peckinpah's excess, but I appreciate that you and others would disagree.

[Dukefrukem]

Heat has three action scenes.

[baby doll]

Besides, we all know that any real world video store would have had Satantango in that genre called "foreign".

Not if the video store is in Hungary.

[DFA1979]

Because I've interacted with bd before. I rolled my eyes and moved on.

Those responding to it are giving him his upcoming excuses. Quit taking the bait.

Define it however you want, bd. You will anyway.

I donno I liked his question. Why not define it? I mean adventure movie and action film get mixed up way too much.

[DFA1979]

It's worth asking. I've seen a number of "Best Action Films of X Year/Decade", and there are always a number of listed films where I think "Bullshit that is an action film"

From Time Out's list, I don't think The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, Heat, Oldboy etc are action movies

I think Heat kind of is but it's more film noir drama thriller instead to me. Oldboy is definitely not an action movie and the other two are very much westerns.

[DFA1979]

I don't see what's wrong with baby doll's question.

I've never considered Aliens an action movie, yet it is frequently on "best action movies" lists.

Aliens is a sci-fi horror flick with strong war movie overtones. So yeah not an action flick to me.

[DFA1979]

Is “adventure” a genre, or is that just video games? Because that’s where I’d put stuff like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and LOTR.

I think adventure is it's own genre.

[DFA1979]

Video stores are mostly dead so that's just a hypothetical question powered by nostalgia. I'm good.

[megladon8]

Not if the video store is in Hungary.

I laughed.

[StuSmallz]

Good analysis. I still don't really consider it an action film in that it is not really about kineticism and the shootouts are just Western staples ramped up by Peckinpah's excess, but I appreciate that you and others would disagree.

Thanks, trans! Anyway, just for the record, I'm not trying to say I feel that The Wild Bunch is a 100% an Action movie, just that, with the amount/intensity of action that it had at such an early point in the genre's history, and its undeniable influence on its subsequent development, I have no problem with it making an Action movies list, especially not when they're trying to come up with as many as 100 picks to fill it up; genre is subjective anyway (as we can see from the last couple of posts in this thread, ha), the lines blur between categories, and some movies are going to have one foot in one genre, and one in another, so I get the decision to avoid a strict genre purism for that list, just like I wouldn't bat an eye if a list of the 100 greatest Horror movies had something Silence Of The Lambs somewhere on it (or even at the #1 spot), you know?

[Gizmo]

Damn, probably my favorite era for films and I missed most of this. Guess I should poke in more often. Anyway:

Pulp Fiction vs. Princess Mononoke
Terminator 2: Judgment Day vs. Boogie Nights
Goodfellas vs. Unforgiven
Fargo vs. Ed Wood

[Idioteque Stalker]

Match Cut seems to have found its sweet spot in the Elite Eight. Match-ups are pretty even across the board, with no blowouts on the horizon. With ~24 hours left to vote, we have two uber-close nail-biters:

Terminator 2 vs. Boogie Nights
Fargo vs. Ed Wood

If you've been thinking about voting and have a preference in these match-ups (or any others), now would be a great time to vote by posting in this thread or sending me a PM.

[Grouchy]

Terminator 2
Fargo

[megladon8]

Terminator 2
Ed Wood

[Spun Lepton]

You already voted, Meg, you bastard.

[Skitch]

You already voted, Meg, you bastard.

He's voting in Florida.

[megladon8]

Shit sorry. Honestly misunderstood I thought IS was asking everyone to vote again on those two.

My bad.

[Spun Lepton]

You'll be sorry when you got my foot up your ass. Then you'll have something to cry about. Don't make me turn this message board around.

[megladon8]

...

Are you...coming on to me?