Movie Voting

It might feel a little early to vote on the movies for our second assignment, but I'm bored. To remind you, the second assignment is a movie compare/contrast critique. I'll post the movie pairings here. Please "comment" to this post to vote for your prefered pairing. Note: We will all watch and write about the pairing which receives the most votes, even if you didn't vote for the pairing. Make sure you vote! If you don't vote, it's your own fault if we end up watching two movies you don't want to watch.

Last semester, the voting process failed miserably. I emailed my students and asked them to email me back with their votes. Out of all 25, only 4 responded. Thanks, guys. That's great. Out of the four, two people voted for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory pairing--which I'll say right now is probably the easiest pairing of them all. Two votes was enough to win the election. That's why I'm posting the pairings so early. Aside from the voiting having failed, the assignment was supreme. It's a nice, easy assignment. I might have mentioned this on Tuedsay, but I gave 17 As out of 25 students.

Anyway, if you don't recognize some of these titles, look them up here. I'd link them all individually but that'd be a lot of work, more than I'm currently willing to do... right now. Let's see how long it takes before I go ahead and link them anyway.

Here are the pairings:

Dark Comedy versus Slapstick:
Rushmore (’98, Jason Schwarztman versus Bill Murry) vs. Tommy Boy (’95, Farley physical genius)

Parody:
Blazing Saddles (’74, Mel Brooks, western) vs. This is Spinal Tap (’74, Christopher Guest mockumentory, rock)

Romantic:
Garden State (’04, Delicious Portman, dark) vs. As Good as it Gets (’97, Old Jack romantic comedy, lighter)

Personal Journey:
Rocky (’76, Sly versus the world) vs. Good Will Hunting (’97, Damon, Robin, and Lousy Affelck)

Cop/Drugs:
Heat (’95, Pacino versus De Niro) vs. Blow (’01, It’s Depp--‘nuff said, cop/drugs)

Family:
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (’93, aloof Depp) vs. Meet the Parents (’00, Stiller awkwardness)

Psychological:
The Shining (’80, Young Jack) vs. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (’75, Even Younger Jack)

Re-do:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (’71, Gene Wilder genius) vs. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (’05, Depp genius)

Re-do:
Yojimbo (’61, Toshiro Mifuné, samurai) vs. Last Man Standing (’96, Bruce Willis, gangster)

Re-do:
Ocean's Eleven ('60, Sinatra's Rat Pack) vs. Ocean's Eleven ('01, Pitt's Rat Pack)

Existential:
Total Recall (’90, Ahnold) vs. The Matrix (’99, man vs. machine)

Anime:
Akira ('88, "Cartoons can be serious?" -America) vs. Sprited Away ('01, "Anime doesn't have to be action?" -America)


So, please "comment" on this post with your choice of pairings. Let's consider the voting open until the afternoon of Thursday, January 26th. Happy chosing; Rock the Vote!

Mace...out