Here's how it works. Flickchart shows you the posters from two movies, then you just pick the movie you prefer of the two. It puts the movie you just ranked into an ordered list and then offers you two more movies and so on. Your list continues to get updated, sorting your favorite movies to the top and your least favorite to the bottom.
I heard about this site months ago, but it's only recently been out of beta and open to the public. I logged in two days ago and as of this typing I've gone through the process 1,867 times.
It's the new solitaire I'm telling you. Plus, if you're list-obsessive like I am it's a great method.
The funnest is when it's aggravating. Here are some examples of some of the more "Sophie's Choice" type decisions I've had to make.
This little battle managed to put Ferris Bueller's Day Off in my number one spot for a while -- even though 28 Days Later has a special place in my heart as the primary inspiration for this year's Halloween movie (also I have several friends who irrationally believe it to be the worst movie ever made, but that's another story).
Drug-induced Anglophilia or the Frenchifying of Star Wars? Love them both, but from totally different angles.
Coming of age lessons on life, joy and art OR fast cars and fast women? How can there be a WRONG choice here?
Can't vote against Heath! It would tarnish his death and his awesome marching band-backed serenade to Julia Stiles! Then again it's against one of the most beautiful movies ever and the only non-annoying occurrence of Jim Carey ever.
Poetic fighty or new-age scary?
Worst villain: Lumbergh or Joker?
Jewish power or mutant power?
... and this one. It may be easy for you, but it's hard for me, okay!
Those last two were very different, but what if I'm forced to choose between the two best Pixar films? WHAT IF?
Don't make me choose geek sides! Again!
Where do my loyalties lie Coen brother-wise?
This one made me want to invent a time machine so that I could travel to the future to see what decision I made.
Sometimes it's really difficult because you get two popular movies with critics and everyone you know, BUT YOU STILL DESPISE BOTH MOVIES!
Who would have thought that the choice between the third and fourth in a series of six would actually be so very very easy?
Also who would have thought that I would re-live that battle years ago when I was with a group of people who were considering watching the following two movies and everyone besides me said they didn't care which one we watched and I said I wanted to watch The Matrix because I loved it and absolutely despised Gladiator and then I got a phone call and by the time I got off the phone everybody informed me that we were indeed watching Gladiator. Pfft.
Anyway, here's how my top 20 has strangely panned out so far:
20. Serenity
19. The Empire Strikes Back
18. Slumdog Millionaire
17. Die Hard
16. It's a Wonderful Life
15. X-Men
14. Star Trek
13. The Incredibles
12. Grease
11. Ghostbusters
10. X2: X-Men United
9. The Ring
8. 28 Days Later
7. Match Point
6. The Fifth Element
5. Annie Hall
4. Ferris Bueller's Day Off
3. No Country for Old Men
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
1. Kill Bill Vol. 1
Now, I adore all of these movies, but if you asked me to write down my favorite 20 movies, I'd probably come up with a completely different list. Notice that Flash Gordon is nowhere to be seen and most people close to me know it to actually be my favorite movie. Well, I haven't been asked about Flash Gordon yet. PLUS, who knows what kind of mood I'll be in when I do get asked? Also notice that Empire Strikes Back is lagging behind Star Trek despite the fact that Empire won that particular battle. I'm pretty sure what happened there is Star Trek came up again in a battle with X-Men, which was already ahead of Empire. Unfair probably. The same thing probably happened with The Ring and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and also maybe The Incredibles and Wall-E. Then again, I may have been in a mood.
Here are some bad-showing surprises so far that I will fix through heavy amounts of voting:
73. Trainspotting
81. The Dark Knight
82. Amadeus
89. Star Wars (while Return of the Jedi is at 40!)
117. Top Gun
130. Shaun of the Dead
139. The Matrix
155. Office Space
282. North by Northwest
290. Scream
299. Signs
Here are some that I'm surprised are doing so well:
59. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (although the first Terminator is sitting nicely at 39)
62. Hitch
69. Die Hard With a Vengeance
72. There's Something About Mary
77. Jurassic Park
Anyway, go to flickchart.com. We can be friends, compare lists, laugh, cry, argue and finally hug.
Oh! Another awesome thing about it is that they randomly have different movie posters for each movie. Some of them are very unique and/or foreign and/or retro.
1 comment:
Wow.
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