Double Feature Duel (Rd3): Super 8 vs. It’s a Wonderful Life

Double Feature Duel (Rd3):
Super 8 vs. It’s a Wonderful Life 

A movie without an ending vs. a movie with only an ending. Could go either way.

Title: Trying to compare movie titles with a movie icon is a recipe for failure. But Super 8 has just the proper amount of spices to overcome that taste. (Point, Super 1-0)

Funnier: It’s a Wonderful Life surprisingly still had a few parts funny by today’s standards. But mostly, it didn’t. (Point, Super 2-0)

Better Turn: I do appreciate the stock market crash and the cancelled honeymoon, but the Final Destination-type train crash scene was borderline epic. (Point, Super 3-0)

Better Ending: No contest. (Point, Wonderful 3-1)

Better Message: Another no contest. (Point, Wonderful 3-2)

Better Acting: I think I like Elle Fanning more than I should. (Point, Super 4-2)

More Creative: Super 8 was super creative, but it shot itself in the foot with the alien reveal. It’s a Wonderful Life is so wedged into the culture that it’s hard to see as creative anymore. But it still holds up after 65 years and that’s got to count for something. (Point, Wonderful 4-3)

Poster: Again, I can’t say enough about the Super 8 poster. Brilliance. (Point, Super 5-3)

Watch again: Not that it needed this point, but I’m itching to watch Super 8 again. At least the first 75% of it. (Point, Super 6-3)

Overall: The battle of the 7s goes to the one that was supposed to have taken place 40 years ago, and yet that’s still 40 years more recently than the one it beat. Or something like that. Winner: Super 8 (6-3) 

Double Feature Duel (Rd2): Sherlock Holmes 2 vs. Monster

Double Feature Duel (Rd2):
Sherlock Holmes 2 vs. Monster 

Two 9-buggers meet in the last of the second round matchups. And these movies don’t have a lot of crossover.

Title: I err on the side of the one-word titles. Besides, the full title of Sherlock breaks the 7-word rule. (Point, Monster 0-1)

Funnier: What’s not funny about sexual assault and murder? (Point, Sherlock 1-1)

Better Turn: Not only is it dramatic, but it gets us to a place of understanding. (Point, Monster 1-2)

Better Ending: I do love the truth behind the end of Monster and the completion of the character, but Sherlock’s question mark was too funny. (Point, Sherlock 2-2)

Better Message: Not a lot of movies can get you to understand a serial killer. Especially not one from real life. (Point, Monster 2-3)

Better Acting: Love Downey and Law, but not even close. (Point, Monster 2-4)

More Creative: Guy Ritchie has fun with this one. (Point, Sherlock 3-4)

Poster: I think Monster may have actually been trying to look like it was made in the 80s or early 90s when the story took place. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s better. (Point, Sherlock 4-4)

Watch again: I do love Monster and I put the documentary about the actual serial killer on my Netflix list, but Sherlock was too fun. (Point, Sherlock 5-4)

Overall: What a comeback! Downey Jr. takes the last spot in Sweet 16. And now the matches actually get easier. Winner: Sherlock Holmes 2 (5-4)

Double Feature Duel (Rd2): It’s a Wonderful Life vs. Tree of Life

Double Feature Duel (Rd2):
It’s a Wonderful Life vs. Tree of Life

This matchup may not be a lot of things, but it will certainly be full of life.

Title: Taking the lowest common denominator, we have “It’s a Wonderful” vs. “Tree of”. Tree of sounds incomplete whereas It’s a Wonderful sounds Italian. (Point, Wonderful 1-0)

Funnier: Staring at a rock for 2 hours is funnier than Tree of Life. (Point, Wonderful 2-0)

Better Turn: I’ll let somebody else go looking for a turn on a Mobius strip. (Point, Wonderful 3-0)

Better Ending: Cheesy, campy, silly, but it worked on me for sure. And nothing about Tree of Life worked for me. I can’t believe it made it this far. (Point, Wonderful 4-0)

Better Message: If the movie did nothing else, it drove home the “way of grace vs. the way of nature” point. Even if it was whispered in my ear like someone trying to get me in bed. (Point, Tree 4-1)

Better Acting: It’s tough to compare acting across decades. It’s like comparing apples to 50-year-old apples. Maybe if I got the point of the movie, I’d appreciate what it was that Tree of Life was trying to do. (Point, Wonderful 5-1)

More Creative: Some people think Jackson Pollack is creative. I see a devalued canvas (Point, Wonderful 6-1)

Poster: Sure, we’ll give you a garbage 4^th quarter touchdown. (Point, Tree 6-2)

Watch again: If all goes well with my life, I’ll never watch that movie again. (Point, Wonderful 7-2)

Overall: I still can’t believe a 0-bug movie got past the first round. That should give hope to the University of Vermont. Winner: It’s a Wonderful Life (7-2) 

Double Feature Duel (Rd2): Midnight in Paris vs. Horrible Bosses

Double Feature Duel (Rd2):
Midnight in Paris vs. Horrible Bosses 

Woody Allen’s Best Picture nominated film vs. a movie with Charlie Day. OK. Could be a good match.

Title: I didn’t watch True Lies for a long time because of how stupid the title was. Horrible Bosses is a little better than that. (Point, Midnight 1-0)

Funnier: Two very different kinds of humor. Horrible Bosses has that in-your-face low burlesque humor working for it, while Midnight in Paris has that high-brow intellectual non-funny type of humor. (Point, Bosses 1-1)

Better Turn: Horrible Bosses’ trailer was pretty much the turn. So I had already seen it. (Point, Midnight 2-1)

Better Ending: It was no Pineapple Express, but I think given an afternoon, at least 4 people in my wedding party could have come up with better endings. (Point, Midnight 3-1)

Better Message: The grass is always greener on the other side of a time-traveling horse-drawn carriage. (Point, Midnight 4-1)

Better Acting: Not to devalue Marion Cotillard’s cuteness and all the 1920s caricatures, but I loved Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston in their new calling as comedic villains. (Point, Bosses 4-2)

More Creative: A time traveling writer who longs for days of old only to find that others from the days of old long for days of older, and so on and so on. I’ll buy that. (Point, Midnight 5-2)

Poster: Horrible Bosses, Horrible Poster. (Point, Midnight 6-2)

Watch again: I’d certainly watch either over Tree of Life, but I’d like to sweep up the dirt I may have missed in Midnight in Paris. (Point, Midnight 7-2)

Overall: Sorry Charlie. Winner: Midnight in Paris (7-2)

Double Feature Duel (Rd2): Swimming To Cambodia vs. Super 8

Double Feature Duel (Rd2):
Swimming To Cambodia vs. Super 8

What if you took 3 hours worth of random scenes and told them in story form in about 80 minutes vs. what if Lost was condensed from 200 hours down to 2…

Title: Two favorites here, but I’ll go with the one that evokes thoughts of an era. (Point, Super 0-1)

Funnier: Very funny, but only if you’re in the mood for highbrow stuff. (Point, Swimming 1-1)

Better Turn: It’s a little tough to discern a turn in the sojourn Spalding burned. (Point, Super 1-2)

Better Ending: Maybe it wasn’t much for theatrics, but it didn’t ruin the movie. (Point, Swimming 2-2)

Better Message: To those paying attention, a lot was to be learned in that monologue. I think. (Point, Swimming 3-2)

Better Acting: I still don’t think that a word was misplaced in 8 straight minutes of monologue. (Point, Swimming 4-2)

More Creative: Bold, yes. But is sitting in front of a desk talking for 80 minutes creative? (Point, Super 4-3)

Poster: I think Swimming’s poster was done by Spalding Gray in the back of his car on the way to the DVD release. (Point, Super 4-4)

Watch again: There is another Spalding Gray monologue out there that I’d like to watch someday. And because of that, this loses. (Point, Super 4-5)

Overall: The most unique movie (if you believe that those two words can be put together like that) in this bracket almost pulled off the upset. But it didn’t. Go Elle Fanning! Winner: Super 8 (5-4)