Best 90s Movie Champion!

After weeks of voting and friendly debates, a winner in the Best 90s Movie bracket is finally crowned!  The winner is Jurassic Park!  In what I expected to be a much closer vote in the final Jurassic Park outdistanced Shawshank by a score of 47-29.  In fact, Jurassic Park breezed through much of the tournament, beating four Best Picture nominees and one winner with an average margin of victory of 32 votes.  This just goes to show that even almost 30 years later, dinosaurs are still popular.  Congrats to the cast and crew of Jurassic Park who spared no expense making a timeless movie that is still a favorite of many to this day.  As a personal connection, my wife and I had our first dance as a married couple to the theme song of Jurassic Park.  You can check that out below.

I also want to thank everyone who voted along the way.  I appreciate the support as well as all the movie discussions.  It was fun for me even if I disagreed with other's opinions.  I had no idea that Mrs. Doubtfire or Good Will Hunting were so popular.  And I was surprised that movies like Goodfellas, L.A. Confidential, and Terminator 2 didn't do as well.  But that's why they play the games, so to speak.  Here are some other fun facts from the bracket.

The actor with the most movies in the field was Tom Hanks with 5, followed by Robin Williams and Kevin Spacey with 4. Hanks and Williams each had a film make it to the final four, while none of Spacey's films made it out of the second round.

The director with the most films in the field was Steven Spielberg with 4. Nobody else had more than 2. Three of his films made the elite eight, but only one advanced to the final four, and eventually won.

Best Picture winners didn't fare very well in the tournament as only two advanced as far as the elite eight with none making the final four. The two films in the championship each knocked off one Best Picture winner on the way to the title match, while Good Will Hunting is the only film to defeat two Best Picture winners.

The biggest upset in the tournament was 14 seed Mrs. Doubtfire beating 3 seed Goodfellas. Two double digit seeds made it as far as the sweet sixteen, Office Space and Home Alone, with Home Alone advancing to the elite eight and narrowly missing the final four.

Of the top ten highest grossing films of the decade, only four made it past the second round.  Both Jurassic Park and The Shawshank Redemption knocked off two films on the highest grossing list on their way to the championship.  If Shawshank would have won, they would have defeated three.  

Animated films did very well in the first two rounds, as four of the six animated films in the bracket made it to the sweet sixteen.  But only one made it past that point, although that film, Toy Story, went all the way to the final four.

Below is the entire bracket if you want to take a look.  Thanks again, and I look forward to next year's bracket, which based on your votes, is going to be the best of my favorite movies of the past 40 years.

Best 90s Movie Championship!

We've finally made it to the Championship match of the Best 90s Movie Bracket!  After five rounds and 62 head to head match ups, we are down to the final two to decide the winner.  Jurassic Park and The Shawshank Redemption have had mostly dominating performances to get to this point and they are both very well acclaimed.  That should make for a competitive match pitting escaped dinosaurs versus escaped convicts.  I can't say I'm very surprised by this match up, but I don't know that I would have predicted this final at the beginning of the tournament.  With this match up we finally say goodbye to Good Will Hunting, which had an amazing run, and Toy Story, which was the last one seed remaining.

I've also included a bonus question to ask for people's thoughts on what next year's bracket should be.  That's right, I'm already thinking about next year.  But before I get to that, there's a champion to be crowned!  Vote for your favorite, share with friends, and enjoy the thrilling conclusion to the Best 90s Movie Bracket!

Best 90s Movie Bracket - Final Four

Here we are, at the Final Four of the Best 90s Movie Bracket!  And what an impressive collection of movies it is.  We have pioneers in special effects and animation, a prison drama based on a Stephen King novella, and the movie that launched Matt Damon and Ben Affleck into super stardom.  While the Cinderella run of Home Alone finally came to an end, I still think the biggest surprise is Good Will Hunting making it this far after taking down another juggernaut in Schindler’s List.  With that victory and Shawshank beating Silence of the Lambs, there are no more Best Picture winners remaining in the field.  But that doesn’t mean the remaining films aren’t great, and clearly, they each have the popular vote on their side as most of the winners did so in runaway fashion.  The only match up decided by less than ten votes was Toy Story over Home Alone.  Now looking ahead, we have two intriguing match ups to determine the championship.  Toy Story versus Jurassic Park in a match up of groundbreaking films that changed the course of animation and special effects, respectively.  And Good Will Hunting versus The Shawshank Redemption in a battle of underdog dramas.  But enough waxing poetic, let’s vote!

Best 90s Movie Bracket - Elite Eight

Well, the Sweet Sixteen certainly provided some excitement.  We lost two 1 seeds, one 2 seed, and three matchups were decided by less than 10 votes, including one upset determined by a single vote.  Three animated classics were eliminated this round, and Home Alone continues its Cinderella run.  Looking ahead to the Elite Eight, there is only one matchup of top two seeds in a region, and dramas are dominating the field.  Other than Home Alone surviving this far as an 11 seed, I think the biggest surprise is Good Will Hunting, which has taken down two powerhouses of the 90s in Titanic and Pulp Fiction in successive rounds.  It gets another high profile matchup in this round against Schindler’s List.  Speaking of Schindler’s List, it is one of three Steven Spielberg movies left standing to this point, although he is guaranteed to lose one as Saving Private Ryan and Jurassic Park go head to head.  We are one step closer to determining a winner so keep the votes coming.

Best 90s Movie Bracket - Sweet Sixteen!

We’ve made it to the Sweet Sixteen!  Round 2 is complete and we’ve narrowed the field to 16 of the best movies from the 90s.  A few takeaways from the second round of voting was the overall lack of upsets and lack of close results.  The only real upset from the second round was the 6 seed Fargo besting the 3 seed Terminator 2: Judgement Day.  And even though there are two double digit seeds in the Sweet 16, those two teams beat other double digit seeds to advance.  But after all the upsets in Round 1, there is only one region in which all the top four seeds advanced.  Aside from the lack of upsets, only one matchup was decided by less than 10 votes, so after the craziness of Round 1, the second round seemed to restore more consensus among voting.  Now looking ahead to the next round, I’m curious to see if the higher seeds will continue to advance or if we will see any more upsets.  Six of the eight matchups feature movies with seed differences of at least three spots, so this has the potential to be a very exciting round.  Looking at the remaining films, eight of the movies are drama/thrillers, six are family/comedies, and the last two are action movies.  Only one animated movie has been eliminated thus far in the bracket, but the majority of action movies have been.  It will be interesting moving forward to see where the favorites lie, and there are two matchups in this round that pit an animated classic against a popular drama.  So let’s get to it!  Cast your votes below and check out the entire bracket at the bottom of this post.

Best 90s Movie Bracket - Round 2

Voting in Round 1 of the Best 90s Movie bracket is complete!  There were a few surprises, but most of the top seeds advanced, creating even harder matchups in Round 2.  Here are some things we’ve learned after the first round.  Mrs. Doubtfire is a lot more popular than I ever would have guessed, whereas JFK may as well have been forgotten.  Of the upsets that occurred, Mrs. Doubtfire taking out Goodfellas was probably the biggest surprise.  Going into the tournament, I would have pegged Goodfellas as one of the favorites to win, but perhaps that movie hasn’t aged as well as I thought.  I also feel bad for L.A. Confidential after it made a shockingly early exit.  Not only did it lose Best Picture to Titanic in 1997, it had to watch Scream sneak by for the upset in this bracket.  It really is a phenomenal film that doesn’t get the credit it deserves.  But, also, I had no idea people liked Scream that much.  Another interesting note is that of the ten Best Picture winners in the bracket, only 4 made it to the second round.  But enough with these useless facts.  Let’s get to Round 2!  There really are some intriguing matchups, including an all Tom Hanks showdown.  I can’t even begin to make predictions after seeing how the first round went down, but we are guaranteed at least two double digit seeds in the Sweet Sixteen, so that's exciting.  Vote for your favorites below, and then you can check out the entire bracket at the end of this post.

Best 90s Movie Bracket!!!

It’s time for March Madness!  No, no, sports aren’t back, but my special brand of brackets is.  So for those of you looking to get your bracket fix, welcome to the Best 90s Movie bracket!  That’s right, this year, I’m trying to determine the best movie of the 90s by pitting 64 movies from the greatest decade against each other to try and determine the ultimate winner.

I know you’re all probably wondering how I managed to narrow down a decade’s worth of films to a 64 team bracket.  Well, let me tell you it was not that easy.  It has actually taken me two years to put this bracket together, because, as you might expect, a lot of movies came out in the 90s.  I tried to make the selections as objective as possible by looking at as many data points as possible.  My initial plan was to rank movies based on the following criteria and then average the ranks into a composite list.

Box office gross (domestic)

IMDB rating

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score

Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score

Metacritic Score

Awards Nominated and Won

Facebook Likes

Google Results

Times referenced in other movies/TV

Placement on ‘Best of the Decade Lists’

After looking at all those data points I had a top 64.  But something was missing from that list.  It didn’t allow for movies that gained in esteem over the years, like Office Space and Fight Club.  There were a lot of movies that were highly regarded at the time, but have largely been forgotten, like Howard’s End and Remains of the Day.  I needed a way to quantify cultural relevancy.  I tried to assign a cultural relevancy score, but it still didn’t capture the essence of 90s movies.  So I ended up having to make adjustments myself.  There are certain movies that just belong in a bracket of greatest 90s movies whether the data says so or not, and I tried to fit some of those movies in, while still attempting to maintain the integrity of the bracket.  While you may think this invalidates the bracket, I say, this is just for fun anyway so go with it.  And you may be upset that some of your favorite movies didn’t make the list, so let me know which movies you think were snubbed.  Because, you know what, there are some of my favorites that, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t find a way to get in either.  And others, that against my better judgement, I left in the bracket.  For example, I made sure all ten Best Picture Oscar winners remained in the bracket.  And I also tried to create a balance of various genres even though drama was by far the most popular based on the data.  But at the end of the day, I made some judgement calls based on competitive balance and decided to go with what I had for the sake of getting a bracket to the people.  So here it is in all its glory, the Best 90s Movie bracket! 

Voting for Round 1 starts today and will last one week.  Each successive round of voting will open after a week until a winner is crowned.  You can determine your own criteria for picking the winners, whether you want to vote for your favorites or the movies you feel best represent the decade.  But make your choices and be sure to come back each week to see the winners and vote in the next round.

2020 Golden Adam Award Winners!

As some of you may have seen, the Golden Adam Award winners were announced live on Facebook in a thrilling and emotional awards ceremony.  For those who may have missed it, here are the winners!

Drama

Best Picture

Much like the Oscars, Parasite took home the big prize at the Golden Adams just beating out 1917, Ford v Ferrari, and Bombshell.  It is a most deserving winner as it is one of the most original scripts I've seen in years.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it, and if you're anything like me, you will be thinking about it long after the final credits roll.

Best Actor

The winner here is Adam Driver for his powerhouse performance in Marriage Story.  He was really good and very deserving.

Best Actress

Saoirse Ronan wins for Little Women in a bit of a surprise.  I actually enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would, mostly because of Ronan's performance, which is fantastic.

Best Supporting Actor

It's official, Brad Pitt has now swept all the major awards.  He was the best part of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Best Supporting Actress

This was a really close vote and Margot Robbie narrowly beat out Jennifer Lopez and So-Dam Park for her role in Bombshell.  The movie was excellent and featured outstanding performances by all involved, so it's nice to see Robbie get recognized.

Comedy

Best Picture

In one of the closer races, Knives Out beat Jojo Rabbit by one vote to take the prize.  Both movies were excellent and would be deserving winners, but Knives Out was probably the most fun I had in a theater all year.

Best Actor

Daniel Craig wins for Knives Out.  He was great!

Best Actress

In an absolute runaway vote, Ana de Armas wins for her performance in Knives Out. 

Best Supporting Actor

Continuing the Knives Out dominance in this category, Chris Evans takes home the prize.  He was excellent, but if you haven't seen Jumanji: The Next Level, you should if only for Kevin Hart's hilarious performance.

Best Supporting Actress

Knives Out couldn't quite pull off the sweep, as Scarlett Johansson wins for her amazing performance in Jojo Rabbit.  She was absolutely wonderful in this film and I really wanted her to win the Oscar, so I'm glad she won the Golden Adam.

Action

Best Picture

Avengers Assemble!!  Endgame was one of my favorite movies of the year, and now it is a Golden Adam winner.

Best Actor

The Avengers wouldn't be the Avengers without Tony Stark/Iron Man, and Robert Downey Jr. had the perfect send off in Endgame.  Now he gets to call himself a Golden Adam award winner.

Best Actress

While some Star Wars fans may not have liked The Rise of Skywalker, I loved it.  Mostly because of Daisy Ridley as Rey.  She was great and a deserving winner for Best Actress.

Best Supporting Actor

In probably the least surprising vote of all, Paul Rudd is the runaway winner for Avengers: Endgame.  Everyone loves Paul Rudd and was fantastic and hilarious as usual, despite playing Ant-Man.

Best Supporting Actress

Carrie Fisher.  Enough said.

Thank you to all who voted this year.  It's always fun for me to see which movies are liked by everyone else.  Congrats to the winners and make sure you all tune in next year to vote again!

2020 Golden Adam Awards!

Welcome to movie awards season! By now most of the major awards have been handed out but I know you've all been waiting for the most important awards: The Golden Adams!  Well here they are in all their glory.  As many of you know, but for those who don't, I have a tradition that dates back over 20 years of giving my own movie awards, trying to give recognition to many of the movies which I think got overlooked by the bigger awards shows.  This is why I give awards for drama, comedy, and action.  After seeing close to 60 movies (thanks to AMC A-List), and deliberating for hours among the committee (myself), the nominations have been finalized.  But the best part of my awards is that you, the fans, get to vote for the winners!  (Pause to let the excitement die down)  I just nominate the movies that I think are deserving, but I want you to vote for your favorites.  If you have seen all the movies, that's ok, vote for what you have seen.  And if you don't agree with my choices, that's ok too.  Tell me why.  I love to have conversations about movies with people.  Winners will be announced at the beginning of March via a Facebook Live Awards Show.  But enough background, let's get to the voting!