40 Years of Movies - Champion!

 

After six weeks and 63 match ups, we have reached the end and can crown a champion.  In a close final vote, Raiders of the Lost Ark has defeated The Princess Bride to claim the title as the best movie from the past 40 years.  It is a deserving movie indeed as it still stands up as a classic rewatchable film all these years later. Indiana Jones is no doubt one of the most iconic characters in film history.  And along the way, Raiders took out a Star Wars movie, a Terminator movie, a Jurassic Park movie, and Die Hard.  So it wasn't exactly an easy path to victory.  But congrats to Raiders of the Lost Ark!  

It is amusing to me that the winner of the bracket ended up being a movie that was released the year I was born, 40 years ago.  There is something ironic about that.  Well, maybe not actually ironic, but Alanis Morissette ironic, at least.  The 80s certainly dominated the bracket, which is probably more a result of nostalgia felt by those in my same age bracket doing the voting.  This was fun for me to look back on all the movies I've loved over my lifetime, and while they are all my favorites to a certain degree, it still hurt to see some get voted out each week.  And I want to thank everyone who participated.  This is something I enjoy doing each year and look forward to making.  Which brings me to the reveal for next year's theme.

Every option on the list of choices for next year received at least four votes, which tells me there is continued interest in me doing this every year.  But the winner, with 19 votes, is Movie Quotes!  So next year we will have a showdown to determine the best quote in movie history.  I can't wait!  I might actually crowdsource your help in gathering movie quotes so be on the lookout for that.  And join in the fun next March when the new bracket is revealed.

For those of you who like to look at the complete bracket from this year, here it is! 

40 Years of Movies - Championship

 

Here we are, the championship.  We've made it to the end and there are only two movies left standing.  It's fitting that there are two 80s movies left as that has been the constant theme in this bracket.  And now it all comes down to this, Raiders of the Lost Ark vs The Princess Bride. Indiana Jones vs the Dread Pirate Roberts. Sallah vs Fezzik. Belloq vs Prince Humperdink.  Ok, I may be taking this too far.  But let's take a quick look at how these two movies advanced.  The Princess Bride actually won quite easily over The Goonies, pulling ahead early and never looking back.  Raiders of the Lost Ark was engaged in a tight back and forth battle with Jurassic Park and managed to pull out a one vote victory at the very end.  The Princess Bride has already taken down one heavyweight franchise, knocking out Return of the Jedi to get to the Final Four.  We'll see if it has what it takes to take down another.  Meanwhile, in its last two matchups, Raiders has taken out Die Hard and Jurassic Park, two movies which had been winning by huge margins up until that point.  And now it comes down to this.  One vote to determine the winner.

But before we get to the vote, here's a few interesting facts from the bracket.  The actor with the most movies in the bracket is Samuel L. Jackson with six.  Although, one of those movies just used his voice and three others were just a cameo.  Behind that, there were four actors with four movies in the bracket: Daniel Craig, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, and Nicolas Cage.  The director with the most movies in the bracket was Steven Spielberg, who had four, two of which made the Final Four.  He was also a producer on five other movies in the bracket, so he definitely had a stamp on my movie watching life.  Another interesting fact about the bracket is that it included eight Best Picture nominees, but no winners.  I guess the Academy and I have different views on good movies. But enough with the useless trivia, let's get to the vote!  Thank you to all who have participated, and as a bonus, I've included an extra question to help me decide on next year's bracket.

40 Years of Movies - Final Four!

 

And then there were four!  After four weeks of voting we have made it to the final four.  The four movies that are left are nothing short of classics, and they blitzed their way into the Final Four with all four movies winning in dominating fashion to advance.  I thought we would have some much closer results from the past round, but the closest matchup was decided by 12 votes.  Now it will be interesting to see how close the next round will be.

Taking a look at the four movies, the first thing that stands out is the clear Steven Spielberg influence.  Two of the movies are directed by Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park, and they will be going head to head for a chance to compete for the championship.  A third movie, The Goonies, was produced by Spielberg, so his stamp is all over this final four.  Another trend that has been a staple of this entire tournament is the 80s dominance, as three of the four movies were released in the 80s.  And we're guaranteed to have at least one 80s movie in the championship as The Goonies takes on The Princess Bride, in our pirate influenced matchup.  So let's get to it and get down to the vote!

40 Years of Movies - Elite Eight

 

We are down to eight now, and the phrase Elite Eight could not be more apt.  The remaining movies are heavyweights, making the choices even more difficult.  And, as has been the case throughout the tournament, there is a distinct 80s vibe.  Five of the remaining movies are from the 80s.  That's not entirely surprising seeing as there were three all 80s matchups in the previous round.  This round features two all 80s matchups, guaranteeing at least two 80s movies in the Final Four.  We also lost another one seed in the last round as Back to the Future lost an incredibly close match to Return of the Jedi.  That was one of two matchups that was decided by two votes, and both of them went back and forth with multiple lead changes throughout the week.  But, as a result, only one region has held true to form with the top two seeds advancing, setting up a mammoth showdown between Raiders of the Lost Ark and Die Hard.  And that's not the only monster showdown as this round is full of box office behemoths and cult favorites.  I expect some very close votes, so let's get right down to it.  Cast your votes below and share with friends!

40 Years of Movies - Sweet Sixteen

 

Just like that we're down to sixteen!  The second round was full of close matchups with six matchups decided by seven or fewer votes, and three of those decided by only two votes.  That can only mean the choices get tougher in the next round.  As we head to the Sweet Sixteen, let's take a look at some of the surprises from the last round.  We lost our first 1-seed and 2-seed as both L.A. Confidential and Knives Out lost.  There's also only one 3-seed left in the entire tournament.  So the other top seeds should be on high alert moving forward.  Only one region, the Raiders of the Lost Ark region, saw all top four seeds advance to this stage.  Meanwhile, Number Five is still alive as plucky 14-seed Short Circuit squeaked out another close win to advance.  And if you take a closer look at the remaining films, you'll see that the 80s are absolutely dominating, with 10 of the remaining 16 movies.  It will be interesting to see if that domination, or maybe it's nostalgia, continues.  With that said, let's get to what everyone is waiting for, the vote! 

40 Years of Movies - Round 2

 

Round 1 in the 40 Years of Movies bracket is complete!  There were a few surprises in the first round as seven double digit seeds advanced.  Since all of these movies are my favorites, it hurts to see any of them go, but there were definitely some shockers in my opinion.  The Office Space vs Sandlot matchup was the closest result and the one that most people told me they had the hardest time choosing.  I have to agree that this was the toughest choice in the first round and I was sad to see Office Space go so early.  The other movie that I was saddest to see get knocked out was Tron.  But I have to remind myself that eventually all but one of these movies are going to lose.

So as we look toward the second round, the matchups get even tougher.  There’s a 14 seed looking for another upset, proving that "Number Five is alive!"  We have an all alien invasion matchup as Avengers: Infinity War takes on Independence Day, and two each of Star Wars, Avengers, and Jurassic Park movies.  The 80s and 90s films have dominated so far with 21 of the 32 remaining movies.  It will be interesting to see if that trend continues moving forward.  So let’s get right to it.  Time to vote for your favorites to advance to the next round!

40 Years of Movies Bracket!

 

Forty years ago NASA launched the first space shuttle, Sandra Day O’Connor was confirmed as the first female Supreme Court Justice, Prince Charles married Lady Diana.  And in October of 1981, yours truly was born.  That’s right, I turn 40 this year.  And what better way to celebrate this momentous event in our history than with a special bracket for March Madness!  So without further ado, allow me to introduce the 40 Years, 40ish Movies Bracket, a celebration of my favorite movies from the past 40 years.  This is your chance to take a trip down memory lane, perhaps revisit some classics, and vote on which of my favorite movies from the past 40 years you think is the best. 

Before we reveal the actual bracket and get to the voting itself, let me explain a little how I put this together.  (Warning: Nerdy science info to follow to make me seem smart.)  I started the process by selecting a favorite movie from every year since 1981.  I wanted to make sure every year was represented.  This proved a little difficult for some years (see: 2007).  After that, I filled out the rest of the bracket with wild cards spread throughout the forty years.  So, in basketball terms, there are 40 automatic qualifiers and 24 at-large movies.  Once I had the 64 movies locked down, I ranked them based on my preference.  Now at this point I could have just placed them in the bracket based on my ranking alone, but I wanted to remove some of the bias.  So I added critic and audience scores from Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB ratings, and a Metacritic score to form a composite ranking.  I then used that composite ranking to create the seedings for the bracket.  After I created the initial seeding, I made some adjustments to the bracket in the name of competitive balance, mostly to separate movies from the same franchise, same year, or starring the same actor/actress.  What I was left with is a bracket full of my favorites in which I think every matchup is a tough decision.

But now it is your turn to help decide which of my favorite movies of the past 40 years is the best.  You can vote below and check out the full bracket at the bottom of the page.  And please feel free to share with your friends, and comment on which movies you are surprised made the list or which ones you think I overlooked.  Enjoy!