A Day in the Life of Flickchart: Part 3

Looks like it's time to rank some movies on my Flickchart account and talk about them here! If you missed how this works, you can check out my previous posts in the series here and here.

Let's jump right in.

1. Billy Elliot (2000) vs. Legally Blonde (2001)

This is kind of an interesting one, because both these movies were later made into musicals. If we're comparing the musicals, I would choose Legally Blonde because Laurence O'Keefe's music trumps Elton John's any day. But when it comes to the original core movies, Billy Elliot is far more compelling and beautifully done. Billy Elliot wins.

2. Les Miserables in Concert (1995) vs. Footloose (2001)

There are two other possible versions of both of these movies -- the Les Miserables concert cast from 2010 and the original 1984 Footloose. The earlier versions of both movies are better. I was unimpressed with the 2011 Footloose remake, and it definitely didn't help that the fun 1980s soundtrack was replaced by country music. Les Mis wins.

3. Holiday Inn (1942) vs. Cheaper by the Dozen (2003)

I am not sold on Holiday Inn as a great movie, although it does have some fun sequences. But it certainly beats the mess that was Cheaper by the Dozen. I had a large family. I knew large families. And that movie was written by someone who had no idea what they were talking about. Holiday Inn wins.

4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) vs. The Matador (2005)

I remember enjoying The Matador when I watched it as part of my movie challenge last year, so it's a little puzzling that I can recall almost nothing of what actually happened in it. I had to remind myself that I actually had watched it at all. But I do remember liking it, so it beats Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy which I remember not liking. The Matador wins.

5. Fatal Attraction (1987) vs. Rosemary's Baby (1968)

At first I thought, "Ooh, this is a tough choice," but then I realized it really wasn't. I just wanted it to be a tough choice because I wanted to like Rosemary's Baby more than I did. It just never gripped me, and its final scene struck me as silly rather than scary. Fatal Attraction isn't a spectacular movie, but it's a thriller that thrills, and that was more than I got from its opponent here. Fatal Attraction wins.

6. The Karate Kid (1984) vs. Lyle, the Kindly Viking (2001)

Lyle, the Kindly Viking is a VeggieTales movie, and it's a pretty decent one. It's a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals, which is, unsurprisingly, a gimmick that works for me. That being said, though, it's not my favorite VeggieTales movie, and while the music is great, the story is kind of blah. The Karate Kid is a better story as a whole. The Karate Kid wins.

7. Freaky Friday (1976) vs. The Others (2001)

I'm oddly fascinated by body-swap stories, so I should like Freaky Friday, but Jodie Foster's acting as a child rubs me the wrong way. The Others is a really beautifully-filmed story that easily takes the match here. The Others wins.

8. John Q. (2002) vs. The Women (1939)

The Women is another movie that I watched last year that has mostly slipped my mind. Maybe that's the peril of watching five movies a week. But it is undoubtedly better than John Q., which had a potentially interesting concept and a poorly executed script. The Women wins.

9. Toby Tyler, or Ten Weeks With a Circus (1960) vs. P.S. I Love You (2007)

...Well, this is a gross matchup because I hate both of these movies. Toby Tyler is about a very annoying young boy who runs away to join the circus. We had it on VHS when I was growing up. P.S. I Love You was a movie I watched with some of my dormmates in an attempt to bond with them but, wow, did I hate that movie. I'm really not sure what to vote for here. I checked their current stats and it looks like Toby Tyler is eight spots ahead of P.S. I Love You, so it's not surprising that I'm having trouble choosing between them. I'm going to vote for Toby Tyler for now because that way at least nobody's gaining any spots on my chart. Neither one of them deserves to climb up.

10. Ali (2001) vs. Mighty Aphrodite (1995)

I'm a big fan of Mighty Aphrodite. It's one of my favorite Woody Allen comedies. I find it funny and delightful. Ali, on the other hand, is not funny and delightful (which it did not try to be) nor interesting and inspirational (which it did try to be). Mighty Aphrodite wins.

No shake-ups this time around. After 145,000 rankings, my chart's in pretty good order. Maybe I should start an entirely new Flickchart account from scratch for this blog series, to show how the charts take shape before you've ranked most of your movies into place. What do you guys think? And did I get any of these decisions wrong? Share your thoughts in the comments!

A Day in the Life of Flickchart... Part 2

(I'll need to come up with a better naming system than that for these blogs...)

Last December, I wrote a post about the movie site Flickchart, which lets you pit two movies against each other and choose which one you like better. Over time it builds up a list of your favorites, but a lot of the enjoyment comes from just ranking the movies, period. I did a series of match-ups to show you how it worked, and now I'm back again to rank some more movies, just for fun! Feel free to jump in and tell me where I've chosen wrong.

I have 2344 movies on my chart as I rank today, which is about 70 more than the last time I did this blog. Then I ranked my entire chart, but today I'm just going to rank my top 1000 movies. That may make the match-ups more interesting, as they'll all be movies I liked at least slightly above average -- no Casablanca vs. The Santa Clause 3.

1. The Great Gatsby (2013) vs. Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Two movies I remember liking, but don't remember all that much about. I do remember that with Gatsby the best part was that it looked great (Baz Luhrmann is one of my favorite directors for visuals), and I still have some of those images playing in my head. So Gatsby gets the nod here, although on a second viewing of either movie that could change. Looks like Gatsby was ahead in the first place, and it holds steady at #397, which is clearly far too high for a movie that faded from my memory pretty quickly.

2. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) vs. Angels in America (2003)

As much as I love Woody Allen, Hannah and Her Sisters is not one of my favorite Allen movies. The Angels in America miniseries, on the other hand, is amazing and devastating and one of my favorite things ever. It wins, no contest, and stays steady on my chart at #61.

3. The Hunger Games (2012) vs. Take Shelter (2011)

I liked The Hunger Games when it first came out, but it's faded some as I'm no longer sure I liked the movie itself as much as I liked the book and the movie was an accurate representation of the book. That's the problem with so many faithful book-to-screen adaptations -- it's very difficult for me to distinguish from the source material. Take Shelter, on the other hand, made a strong but confusing impression on me to begin with and then grew stronger in my mind the longer I stood back from it. I think I'd still say The Hunger Games wins because I'm not sure Take Shelter would improve upon another viewing -- it might slide back into "I don't know how I feel about this" territory. Hunger Games wins, and apparently I have Take Shelter ranked much higher than it perhaps should be, because Hunger Games' win takes it from #683 to #401.

4. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) vs. Sleuth (1972)

Will Smith is really charming and likable in Pursuit of Happyness, and it's a good movie, but it's not as awesome as the twists and turns in the 1970s version of Sleuth, which is really so much fun. Sleuth wins and holds steady at #139.

5. Pushing Tin (1999) vs. The Star-Spangled Girl (1971)

Another pretty easy one for me here. I liked Pushing Tin, but The Star-Spangled Girl is one of my favorite Neil Simon comedies (though I seem to be in the minority there) and this is a great movie version. It's funny and strange and is cast perfectly. It wins and holds steady at #60.

6. Secret Window (2004) vs. Secretary (2002)

Yeah, I don't hate Secret Window. I don't think it's great, but I thought it was kind of fun as a dumb suspense movie. (I don't hate The Tourist either, so maybe I just have a fondness for Johnny Depp's least-liked movies...) Secretary, though, is wonderful. I watched it last year for my movie challenge and wasn't sure what to expect, but it ended up being really lovely. It wins and holds steady at #454.

7. The Miracle Worker (1962) vs. The Master (2012)

This... is a difficult one. Specifically because I don't remember much about either of these movies, except that I liked them. I've been meaning to rewatch The Miracle Worker for a very long time and just haven't yet. I think for now I'm going to give it to The Master, because I saw it more recently and can be more confident in liking it. It holds steady at #743.

8. It Happened One Night (1934) vs. About a Boy (2002)

I know a lot of people adore It Happened One Night, but I never quite fell in love with it the way others did. I think it's fine, but there's just nothing about it that stands out to me. About a Boy, on the other hand, always hits me unexpectedly when it comes to Toni Collette's performance and makes it seem like a much deeper movie than it maybe is. Or maybe it is that deep. I don't know. But I keep watching it to find out and I enjoy it every time. It wins, holding steady at #147.

9. What's Up, Doc? (1972) vs. Brave (2012)

I really liked what Brave was trying to do... I just didn't care at all about the execution. What's Up, Doc? on the other hand, is one of my favorite ridiculous screwball comedies. Clear win here, and it holds steady at #101.

10. High School Musical 3: Senior Year (2008) vs. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

...Oh, gosh.

OK, I do like the High School Musical movies a lot, though #2 is my favorite. The third one has some fantastic musical numbers but the dumbest plot of all three movies. So it's going to sit in the lower half of the 1000s. Saving Private Ryan is a pretty good movie that is about as different in tone as you can get from HSM3.

The serious movie fan side of me wants to pick Saving Private Ryan. The goofy musical fan wants me to pick High School Musical.

OK. I think I'm going to go with Saving Private Ryan for now... but if this was High School Musical 2, it'd be a whole different story.

Saving Private Ryan holds steady at #802, and I finish this blog just in time for it to be published. Whoo!

A Day in the Life of Flickchart

I casually mention Flickchart here on my blog a lot, but if you've never been quite sure what it is, well, let me walk you through the process.

The basic idea of Flickchart is a simple one: It shows you two movies and asks you to choose which one is better in your opinion. If you haven't seen one or both of them, you can click a button to indicate that and they will never come up again unless you manually add them back into your chart. You can also rank "filters," meaning groups of movies that have something in common. For example, I could rank only movies directed by Woody Allen, only musicals, or only movies in the top 100 of my chart.

Over time, this ranking of one movie as better than another movie creates a chart of your favorites in order. Granted, it takes a lot of ranking to get it to this point. My chart is probably 90-95% accurate right now, but I've ranked movies almost 140,000 times in almost five years. So if "making a list of my favorites" is your main goal with Flickchart, you're probably going to get impatient very quickly when the movie at the top of your chart is Terminator 3 for some reason. But, for me, the fun of Flickchart is in pitting two movies against each other and making me choose one. It's a fun exercise in and of itself, and the list creation is just a nice extra.

I've heard other people argue that too many of the matches are impossible to choose a winner for. It may be easy to choose between The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers as comic book superhero movies, but how do you choose between Se7en and Finding Nemo? They're too different, it's comparing apples and oranges. Or how can you compare two brilliant movies, like The Godfather and Rear Window? For me, though, I love trying to find something that will edge the other out, even if they're completely different -- or too similar in quality to make it an easy choice. (Incidentally, I think would choose Se7en, oranges, and Rear Window.)

The other thing I like to remember is that my chart is fluid. It's a reflection of my tastes right now. Plenty of movies start high on the chart and then, as time goes by and I realize that it didn't have a lot of lasting redeeming value, it starts dropping. So I don't have to agonize too hard because even if I choose one over the other, that doesn't set it in stone forever. A few weeks later, I may get a match-up where I choose the losing movie against the movie 3 spots up from the original winner. My chart changes in small increments all the time.

To demonstrate this, I figured I'd go through a couple match-ups with you guys right now. I'm a pretty quick decision maker, so some of these will be no-brainer choices for me, but hopefully I'll get a couple where I'll have to think about them. I'll be ranking my own chart today, which has 2277 movies on it currently, so it won't show me any choices I haven't seen. Feel free to chime in about where you think I've chosen all wrong!

#1: Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) vs. La Haine (1995)

I would like to rewatch Bridge on the River Kwai someday, but on its first viewing it was much more interesting to me than La Haine, which had a good ending but meandered too much for me up until that point. Checking my stats, it looks like Bridge is at #170 on my chart while La Haine is at #1460, so voting for Bridge doesn't do anything as far as chart movement.

#2: Jeff, Who Lives At Home (2011) vs. Crazy Heart (2009)

This is a slightly tougher match-up for me, as these were both movies I liked but didn't love. I watched Crazy Heart as one of the first movies in my movie challenge this year, actually, and was a little surprised by how much I liked it. Jeff, Who Lives At Home, on the other hand, I liked, but not as much as I thought I would. So let's give the nod to Crazy Heart for now.

#3: A Time to Kill (1996) vs. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)

This is a very easy choice for me. I found A Time to Kill boring and The Pursuit of Happyness charming. Pursuit is a little less than 700 spots higher than A Time to Kill, so my chart definitely reflects accurate feelings about them both.

#4: Bully (2011) vs. The Spanish Prisoner (1997)

Documentaries are often difficult for me to rank against non-documentaries, and there are some Flickcharters who feel the same way and choose not to include them in their lists at all for that reason. I do include them, but their chart rankings always feel inaccurate. However, this choice is easy, as I thought Bully was one of the better documentaries I've seen and The Spanish Prisoner didn't work for me at all. Bully takes it here.

#5: Brief Encounter (1945) vs. Hot Fuzz (2007)

I probably owe Brief Encounter another watch someday, as I'm not sure I was at all old enough to understand it when I watched it, but until I rewatch and rerank, Hot Fuzz takes it as my second favorite of the Cornetto Trilogy. (#1 is The World's End.)

#6: The Devil Wears Prada (2006) vs. Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Two chick flicks! Definitely not my favorite genre, but I happen to really like Sleepless in Seattle -- it's written very well -- and found The Devil Wears Prada OK, but a little tiringly overdramatic. Sleepless wins here.

#7: The Thing (1982) vs. VeggieTales: An Easter Carol (2004)

Shorts are another thing that are hotly contested among hardcore Flickcharters. I let some of them in but not others -- 30-minute shorts like VeggieTales or the Charlie Brown specials are in my chart, but shorter ones don't tend to make the cut because at that point I feel like I'm ranking a YouTube video and I apparently think of those differently in my head. All that being said, though, An Easter Carol was one of the most boring VeggieTales movies out there -- it didn't even have any good songs -- and so The Thing wins, even though I wasn't crazy about it.

#8: Hustle & Flow (2005) vs. Mr. Superinvisible (1970)

I saw Mr. Superinvisible once as a kid and thought it was kind of dumb even then. Hustle & Flow, on the other hand, is a solid and well-done story that I enjoyed a lot. Easy win for Hustle & Flow.

#9: Girl Shy (1924) vs. Big Business (1988)

I actually JUST saw Girl Shy about a month ago, suggested for my movie challenge by one of my Flickcharter friends. I liked it, especially the madcap race to the church that took up the last third of the movie. That was terrifically fun. I haven't seen Big Business for years, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't hold up. I'm pretty sure it's ranked low on my chart. Yeah, it's at #1929, which is unfairly low, because I remember not thinking it was terrible, just kind of bland -- not bad enough for the bottom 300 on my chart. But it doesn't get a chance to move up today, as Girl Shy wins.

#10: Interiors (1978) vs. Copying Beethoven (2006)

I had to think for awhile before I remembered what Copying Beethoven even was, which doesn't bode well for that movie... especially since Interiors is a solid, interesting Woody Allen drama. Interiors absolutely takes it here.

So I didn't have any chart movement in those ten match-ups, which is fairly frequent now, since, as I said, my chart is pretty much in order -- but I still enjoy the exercise of comparing two movies against each other. It also reminds me of movies I should rewatch at some point and brings to mind movies I haven't thought of in ages.

This was a fun time, and I may have to do more match-up blogs like this for you guys in the future. And, hey, if you're inspired by this to sign up for your own Flickchart account, add me as a friend, browse through my chart, or talk to me about the first match-ups you're given!