Match Cut Madness 3: Best of the 00s

[Yxklyx]

...
The biggest shocker to me is Anchorman at only 293k. I would've expected it to be at least twice that much, and I think the reason is related tangentially -- Anchorman isn't the type of film LB users seek out, not due to language and distribution, but due to "taste."

What about Mean Girls (630k) then?

[Mr. McGibblets]

The number of votes for both Mean Girls and Donnie Darko suggest to me that Letterbox users vastly over-represent one age group.

[transmogrifier]

History of Violence over Ghost World for me.

Same here.

[quido8_5]

Ghost World seemed really great when I was a teenager dealing with things. Watched as an adult and it was good, but a lost a lot of luster-- overestimated because of the particular moment it was released into? A History of Violence fundamentally changed how I view action films and the weight of violence in cinema.

[Dukefrukem]

Can A Beautiful Mind replace the Hurt Locker?

[Dukefrukem]

and The Machinist over Y Tu Mama Tambien

[Dukefrukem]

also was 2004 the worst year for film ever?

[Dukefrukem]

History of Violence over Ghost World for me.

by a mile.

[Dukefrukem]

Kung Fu Hustle replace Talk to Her?

[Ezee E]

GHOST WORLD.

[baby doll]

also was 2004 the worst year for film ever?

Beautiful City, Before Sunset, The Big Red One: The Reconstruction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Howl's Moving Castle, I ♥︎ Huckabees, Kung Fu Hustle, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Moolaadé, Mysterious Skin, La niña santa, Notre musique, Le Pont des Arts, Primer, Triple Agent, Tropical Malady, 2046, Vera Drake, The World, Yes. Maybe not the best year ever but far from the worst.

[baby doll]

and The Machinist over Y Tu Mama Tambien

Ugh.

[DFA1979]

also was 2004 the worst year for film ever?

Nah. It's one of my favorite years for movies, actually.

[StuSmallz]

There used to be a time when Hollywood films were just ahead of the culture. Part of what's fascinating about a '30s film like Gone with the Wind, for instance, is its ambivalent attitude towards its heroine, which reflects certain ideological tensions within the United States during the Depression: the modern woman who flaunts social norms is simultaneously a cause for anxiety (and therefore must be punished) and an object of fascination. In other words, classical cinema provided a space in which the contradictions of modernity could be negotiated for a mass audience. In attempting to be timeless and mythic, Jackson's trilogy doesn't speak to the early 21st century in the way that Gone with the Wind spoke to the 1930s.

Sure it did; the role of women in combat continued to be a growing trend worldwide during the era of third wave feminism, after all, and just looking specifically at the years that the LOTR trilogy was being released ('01-'03), that period alone saw German women being allowed to serve in that country's combat units, the promotion of the first female general in South Korea's military, and the first Australian woman to achieve a two-star rank in their Defence Force (heck, the year Fellowship came out was the same year that New Zealand itself authorized women to serve in all defense units in their military). So, taking all that into account, elements like the change to have Arwen single-handedly rescue Frodo's life from the Black Riders, and bring him to Rivendell (as opposed to Elrond & Glorfindel in the book) takes on a new relevance to contemporary society, and ignoring that is selling the trilogy short, IMO.

Beautiful City, Before Sunset, The Big Red One: The Reconstruction, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Howl's Moving Castle, I ♥︎ Huckabees, Kung Fu Hustle, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Moolaadé, Mysterious Skin, La niña santa, Notre musique, Le Pont des Arts, Primer, Triple Agent, Tropical Malady, 2046, Vera Drake, The World, Yes. Maybe not the best year ever but far from the worst.

Don't forget The Incredibles!

[baby doll]

Sure it did; the role of women in combat continued to be a growing trend worldwide during the era of third wave feminism, after all, and just looking specifically at the years that the LOTR trilogy was being released ('01-'03), that period alone saw German women being allowed to serve in that country's combat units, the promotion of the first female general in South Korea's military, and the first Australian woman to achieve a two-star rank in their Defence Force (heck, the year Fellowship came out was the same year that New Zealand itself authorized women to serve in all defense units in their military). So, taking all that into account, elements like the change to have Arwen single-handedly rescue Frodo's life from the Black Riders, and bring him to Rivendell (as opposed to Elrond & Glorfindel in the book) takes on a new relevance to contemporary society, and ignoring that is selling the trilogy short, IMO.

Even granting that the films update the novels' sexual politics to bring them more in line with contemporary attitudes (and even without having read any Tolkien, I have little doubt the films do this), Jackson's trilogy does not seem to me very revealing as a site of ideological tension in which contradictory attitudes towards femininity (or any other issue) are negotiated on the screen, as happens in studio-era melodramas about unruly women (and, as I've argued elsewhere on this forum, in Verhoeven's Basic Instinct and Showgirls). As far as the films seem concerned, the issue is basically settled.

Don't forget The Incredibles!

I haven't seen it.

[Dukefrukem]

Ugh.

That's what you get for replacing Atonement.

[baby doll]

That's what you get for replacing Atonement.

I didn't realize you were so invested in that movie.

[Idioteque Stalker]

Can A Beautiful Mind replace the Hurt Locker?

+ This tournament's lack of Russel Crowe belies what the early 00s were actually like
- Do we really want Ron Howard in Madness 3 instead of Kathryn Bigelow?
= Thank you, try again!

and The Machinist over Y Tu Mama Tambien

+ The Machinist has an iconic performance from one of the 00s biggest stars
- Alfonso Cuaron is a respected director, YTMT is non-English language, another MCer chimed in with dissent
= Thank you, try again!

Kung Fu Hustle replace Talk to Her?

+ For a moment the world was Stephen Chow's oyster, KFH is a strict genre film
- Pedro Almodovar is a respected director
= Talk to Her is out! Kung Fu Hustle is in!

[Dukefrukem]

Do we really want Ron Howard in Madness 3 instead of Kathryn Bigelow?

We do. But whatev

[Idioteque Stalker]

As the Play-In round winds down, please note:

Ezee E has blocked Ghost World from replacing A History of Violence, which will now advance to Round 1 (i.e. can no longer be replaced or blocked).

Yxklyx has one replacement left. Duke has two.

Get your submissions in -- Round 1 begins soon!

The 32 movies that are on the bubble, and therefore able to be replaced:
[

Show Spoiler

Finding Nemo 903k
Donnie Darko 601k
Amelie 480k
Hot Fuzz 452k (Replaced by Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl -- Yxklyx)
Requiem for a Dream 444k
Oldboy 364k
Anchorman 293k (Replaced by Tropic Thunder -- Yxklyx)
City of God 282k

Unbreakable 279k
In Bruges 256k
Moon 223k
The Hurt Locker 201k (Replaced by The Life Aquatic -- Dukefrukem)
Atonement 189k (Replaced by A.I. Artificial Intelligence -- Baby Doll)
Adaptation 173k
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon 159k
Let the Right One In 146k (Replaced by Battle Royale -- Skitch)

Synecdoche NY 146k (Replaced by O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- Yxklyx)
Y Tu Mama Tambien 128k
History of Violence 111k (Replaced by Ghost World -- Yxklyx) BLOCKED by Ezee E, History advances
Assassination of Jesse James 110k (Replaced by Paprika -- Skitch)
Elephant 94k (Replaced by Primer -- Skitch)
Squid and the Whale 93k (Replaced by The Descent -- Peng)
Once 79k (Replaced by Irreversible -- Ezee E)
Cache 73k (Replaced by Assassination of Jesse James -- Ezee E)

Grizzly Man 65k (Replaced by Dogtooth -- Baby Doll)
25th Hour 62k
Talk to Her 52k (Replaced by Kung Fu Hustle -- Dukefrukem)
Yi Yi 52k
4 months 3 weeks 2 days 33k (Replaced by Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring -- Peng)
Beau Travail 32k (1999?) (Replaced by I'm Not There -- Baby Doll)
Wendy and Lucy 28k (Replaced by The Diving Bell and the Butterfly -- Ezee E)
L’Enfant 13k (Replaced by Still Walking -- Peng)

]

[Dukefrukem]

The third best film of 2003 The Matrix Reloaded to replace City of God

[Idioteque Stalker]

The third best film of 2003 The Matrix Reloaded to replace City of God

From rules:

Your film is less likely to be chosen if:
-- You are trying to replace a film in an underrepresented group (see above) with a film in a group already sufficiently represented (normie films, you know the type). Theoretically, if you tried to replace City of God with Iron Man, I’d tell you to save your energy.

Save your energy. No movie in the play-in round is untouchable -- but if there is one, it's City of God. Your post would fit better in this thread.

[Yxklyx]

City of God should be in the tournament and I was against all of Dukefrukem's changes but it's too late ....

Surprised to see Dogtooth with so many views. I mean it's a great film.

[Dukefrukem]

City of God should be in the tournament and I was against all of Dukefrukem's changes but it's too late ....

It will be kicked out as soon as it goes up against Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Might as well have some fun with it.

These rules are so arbitrary it's hard to take anything serious here.

[Skitch]

- Do we really want Ron Howard in Madness 3 instead of Kathryn Bigelow?

I don't know, but if we going Russel Crowe it should be Gladiator.