What’s happening at Pink Raygun for the next two weeks is all because of the Arizona Wildcats. If they hadn’t lost the NCAA Tournament in the first round, I’d be spending a lot more time watching basketball. Instead, we’re using the extra time to launch our own tournament coinciding with NCAA March Madness: we’re having our PRGAAMWA Tournament (Pink Raygun Association of Associated Movie Watchers Associated).
For those of you who insist on making acronyms into words, it’s pronounced “pirg-aahm-wa”. It sounds like it means something in Swahili or Esperanto, but it doesn’t.
Here’s how it works for the first PRGAAMWA Tournament: John and I each had thirty seconds to pull eight genre movies from our DVD shelf for a total of sixteen movies. I couldn’t veto any of his choices and he couldn’t veto mine. Then we did random seeding with our match-ups: with eyes closed, we each grabbed a DVD from the pile. Whichever two we pulled are matched up in the first round of the tournament. There are some very weird match-ups.
In our pre-tournament preview, we’ve pulled some critical statistics from Rotten Tomatoes (a percentage on the Tomatometer) and viewer ratings from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB star rating) to determine how each movie might perform in the head to head that’s coming.
Batman Begins got an 84% positive rating from critics according to Rotten Tomatoes. Kyle Smith of the NY Post said “It’s a wake-up call to the people who keep giving us cute capers about men in tights. It wipes the smirk off the face of the superhero movie.”
Mulholland Drive had an 81% positive rating. Some of the critics wrote it off as a “Lynch” movie, but there is no doubt that this twisted tale stays with you long after the credits. Batman Begins has the popular vote, but cinematically, Mulholland Drive may edge Bats out of running.
Serenity has an average rating of 7/10 on Rotten Tomatoes. The Miami Herald said “A lot more sweaty fun than the last three over-hyped, sterile, for-dorks-only Star Wars cartoons.” Some critics said it felt too much like watching television, called it a B-movie, etc. Serenity did a good job taking the television characters to the big screen and is a quippy, fun ride. That’s where it has it’s edge of Clash, which takes itself pretty seriously.
Clash of the Titans doesn’t do so well with critics. It only has a 70% approval rating, which surprised me because it’s a classic. It’s boring, it’s for Harryhausen fans only, it’s silly. It’s also stop-motion animation at it’s best. Jerks.
Critics and viewers hated Stargate, which has a 43% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.4 out of 10 stars on IMDB. It’s not looking good for Stargate from the get go. There may be lots of bad reviews, but it spawned two long running series’ on the Scifi Network, so there must be something there.
Hellboy is expected to perform better: it has a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but a 6.6 out of 10 stars on IMDB, which is only slightly better than Stargate. What do the critics know? This one’s in the hands of the viewers.
The original Matrix starts out this competition with 8.6 out of 10 stars and 88% positive among critics. The Matrix was groundbreaking, it bended the mind, it spawned philosophy classes. It also introduced a new style of shooting action scenes, which has been copied and mocked a million times since 1999.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is like Lynch Lite but manages to pull 93% on the Tomatometer, 8.5 out of 10 stars among viewers. It also bends the mind without the darkness of The Matrix or the weirdness of Lynch which I guess makes it more palatable for general audiences. These two movies are evenly matched and may just come down who could kick the other one’s ass in a fist fight.
Ladyhawke has the edge starting out with 68% on the Tomatometer and 6.7 out of 10 stars from viewers. Deep down, it’s a Harlequin romance, but ultimately Ladyhawke could win out on story and heart.
Burton’s remake of Planet of the Apes only got 46% approval from critics and only slighty better from viewers at a 5.5 out of 10 stars. The key to Apes is recognizing that it isn’t a straight remake of the Charleton Heston classic; it’s a reinterpretation of Pierre Boulle’s novel. It still made a lousy job of it, but could edge past Ladyhawke with visuals. Plus, monkeys are awesome.
The Iron Giant has the stats on its side with 97% approval among critics and 7.8 out of 10 stars among viewers. It was a great critical success, but no one saw it. It’s easily one of the sweetest, most heartwarming movies out there.
Night Watch (Nochnoy Dozor) is an unlikely opponent, but here we are. 6.4 out of 10 stars on IMDB and 57% approval on Rotten Tomatoes. The editing didn’t sit well with some people, others just found it hard to follow. Ultimately, it’s dealing with what it means to be good or evil, so Night Watch may pull ahead on depth.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was a horrible interpretation of Alan Moore’s brilliant graphic novel. A very slick, cool looking movie, but totally lacking in substance or dedication to the source material. It’s starting out with 18% on the Tomatometer and 5.4 out of 10 stars on IMDB, which confuses me. Are people really that blinded by slick effects?
Nemesis gave us Picard’s clone and the death of Data, which was sad, but neccessary. It’s a movie that was made exclusively for Trek fans and anyone else could bugger off. It’s off to a good start with 38% on the Tomatometer and 6.5 out of 10 stars on IMDB, most of whom are probably Trekkers. Nemesis may win out simply based on it’s dedication to the source material and obvious love for the characters.
Bubba Ho-Tep starts with 7.4 out of 10 stars among viewers and 79% approval among critics. This may beat out the Man of Steel just on originality. Who doesn’t love Bruce Campell as The King fighting a redneck mummy?
Superman: The Movie starts off a bit weak in comparison with 7.2 out of 10 stars; however, it’s at 95% on the Tomatometer. It’s still one of the best comic adaptations out there and Christopher Reeves as the Man of Steel was dead on. What’s going against it? That dopey flying scene with Lois Lane. “Can you read my mind?” Could you be more annoying, Lois? This one will be close.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
I’m pulling for Serenity to go all the way. B movie or not, I love this show. The dialog is incredible, and the characters are a lot of fun! Gotta love a girl who can kick butt like River!
I loved Firefly too and was really annoyed when it went off the air. There was another show called John Doe that got canceled at about the same time that I liked, too.
Evidently, I’m the kiss of death for tv. If I like a show, it’s gonna get canceled. Or start sucking.
Pffft Iron Giant is amazing, theres no competition there!
The first superman was pretty good as well, and id have to say Hellboy is the winner too….
but… Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind