Category 6: Movies

Players may choose any five movies. If a movie belongs to a series, each movie in the series is counted individually

Derrick	Khurram	Richard	Eric
The Dark Knight	Godfather I	The Matrix	Glory
Godfather II	Coming to America	Friday Night Lights	Shawshank Redemption
Dumb and Dumber	Devil’s Advocate	Heat	Empire Srikes Back
Field of Dreams	5th Element	A Few Good Men	Return of the Jedi
Cinderella Man	A Beautiful Mind	Superbad	Space Balls

Round 1: Derrick starts us off with his favorite movie of all time, and after just watching it in IMAX, I like the pick and understand where its coming from. Because he picked first this category, he had to be sure he got Dark Knight with his first pick, as it certainly wouldn’t have been available on the way back. Khurram went with the ultimate classic movie Godfather I. It is THE mob movie and was the likely genesis of The Sopranos and the overrated Scarface. I went with The Matrix, a movie that I will always associate with some of the best days of my youth. It also pretty much redefined movies as we know them, and produced countless knockoffs, including two of its own sequels. Eric, the ultimate history teacher, closed out the round with Glory. I cannot deny that it is an excellent movie, but I think he could’ve gotten it a bit later. I also can’t help but ask Mr. Miller where Gettysburg is on his list. Ultimately, I give round 1 to me. But just barely.

Round 2: Eric doubles up on the emotional flicks with Shawshank Redemption. An instant classic according to TNT (and remember, they know drama), and me. At one point in time Shawshank Redemption may have been the single most underrated movie of all time, at least with respect to the viewing public. But now that it shows up on TV all the time, its hard for me to believe that that continues to be the case. I took Friday Night Lights, quite possibly the best modern day sports movie ever made and one of the few films that didn’t fuck up an excellent book. All three of the other movies in this category might be more beloved, but to me, none of them tops Friday Night Lights. “Can you be perfect?” Back when Eddie Murphy was still Eddie Murphy he made films like Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America. Eddie Murphy was hilarious in that era, and I like this pick a lot by Khurram. However, I can’t help but wonder if Khurram couldn’t have waited a round and instead secured the Godfather II to match his pick in the first round. But since he didn’t, Derrick did. I know some consider II to be a better film than one, but either way, I would think you need both to be truly satisfied. Therefore, I give round 2 to Eric.

Round 3: Derrick takes comedy gold with Dumb and Dumber. I remember watching that movie in theatres and laughing so hard my body hurt by the time I left. Excellent pick. Khurram threw a curveball in this round by taking the Devil’s advocate. I just don’t get this pick at all. Its not like the movie was that great, though I do believe there was some gratuitous nudity at one point (a trait sorely lacking by the films on this list). Khurram could’ve taken this mediocre movie in the last round as I find it hard to believe anyone had this on their top 5 or 10 lists. I took a much better Al Pacino movie when I picked Heat. DeNiro and Pacino facing off as criminal mastermind and cop? A hall of fame scene in a diner where they size each other up and know that each is as good at what he does as the other? Natalie Portman playing Pacino’s depressed step daughter? And Val Kilmer doing Val Kilmer type things? How could you not love that? Maybe its because you couldn’t take the heat. Eric closes out round 3 with Empire Strikes Back, the best of all the Star Wars movies. Even still, if I am flipping through channels and Dumb and Dumber is on TBS and Empire Strikes back is on TNT, I think I have to stick with Dumb and Dumber, so Derrick takes this round.

Round 4: “If you build it, they will come”. I like this movie. A lot. I’ve heard stories of guys breaking up with girls because the girls didn’t like Field of Dreams. It has baseball, baseball history, family, drama, emotion, Costner in his prime, and Mr. This is CNN himself, James Earl Jones. When it’s on, I’ll watch it until almost the end. But every time Costner goes out to play catch with his dad I always seem to have to go cut some onions or something. Sticking with his surprising picks, Khurram goes with the 5^th element. I still don’t know how I feel about this movie except for Chris Tucker can be really funny and annoying all at the same time. Let’s just move on. I took A few Good Men this round, and though you can insert MANY gay jokes right here, I prefer to ignore the title and focus on the movie itself. First you have Tom Cruise acting like Tom Cruise before anyone really knew what that was. Second, you have Demi Moore as the incompetent female attorney. A role that set back notions of equality for women a decent number of years. Then you have Jack Nicholson who has some extremely memorable lines. Everyone knows the “you can’t handle the truth!” quote, but I prefer to remember these two: “You want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.” And “I’m going to rip your eyes out and piss in your dead skull. You fucked with the wrong marine”. Anyways, Aaron Sorkin wrote the movie and play, and virtually anything Aaron Sorkin writes, I’ll watch. Finally, Eric added to his Star Wars cupboard by taking Return of the Jedi. I’m going with A Few Good Men this round, just barely edging out Field of Dreams (I can never watch the end) and Return of the Jedi (penalized slightly as a stand alone for this round).

Round 5: Instead of going with a New Hope and capturing the original trilogy, Eric goes with space balls. Though I thought the movie was very good, I also enjoy the fact that Eric went Empire Strikes Back in Round 3, Return of the Jedi in Round 4, and Space Balls in Round 5. This is hilarious to me and I don’t even know why. The Superbad pick by me was somewhat of a panic pick as I realized I had not yet picked a comedy and had to this round or not at all. Superbad was the first one that popped into my head, and I am not disappointed in it all. Though I do kind of wish I either eschewed the comedy angle all together (and gone with one of those over the top action movies like one of the Die Hards, Top Gun or Speed), or gone with the action comedy (Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon and of course Beverly Hills Cop all come to mind). Khurram makes up for two shaky rounds with A Beautiful Mind. Russell Crowe really hit the role out of the park. Outstanding value in the 5^th round. Derrick closes out the round with another Russell Crow selection, this time Cinderella Man. The movie was good, the book was even better, and yet at the end of the day I have to go with Khurram and A Beautiful Mind this round.

Overall Impressions: I’m going to give the round to me though I hate giving myself too much credit when doing one of these writeups. I could’ve chosen a better comedy perhaps but as far as a range of different movies and attempting to avoid incomplete series (I conveniently ignore the fact that The Matrix 2 and 3 even exist) I think I did the best job.

But forget that, there are some more pressing matters: Some movies I am surprised didn’t make the list: Any of the first 4 Rocky movies (almost a large enough error to disqualify me and Derrick),Rocky Balboa, Top Gun, The Replacements (Nan Desu Ka!), Speed, Beverly Hills Cop, Gladiator, A movie from the Bond Series, Any one of the Lord of the Rings movies, Major League, Dead or Alive (just seeing if anyone is still reading this), Austin Powers, A random Will Smith movie (Independence Day, anyone?), Ocean’s 11, Rounders, Napolean Dynamite, The Karate Kid, and Pootie Tang (that one’s for you Khurram).