Great Site: Flickchart.com

If you consider yourself a movie fan you must check out Flickchart.com, a new site that ranks movies based on head to head match-ups.

The Flickchart.com homepage.

Flickchart presents you with two movie posters and you decide which movie you like most and click on the poster. If you haven’t seen one or both of the movies there are buttons to click for that too. Flickchart continues to present these match-ups for as long as you want to keep ranking. As you rank the movies Flickchart builds your list of top movies. The more you rank the better your list gets and the more your votes begin to count toward the global list.

It can be a wildly addictive yet frustrating experience. It was all fun and games for me until Groundhog Day hit my number one spot. Groundhog Day is a no-brainer for my top fifty and perhaps even my top twenty – but number one? I don’t think so. It sat there for a long time as I patiently ranked movies. Even more frustrating was the occupation of that spot by a movie I didn’t even enjoy very much – Saving Private Ryan. I understand it was an excellent film and that’s why it sat there for a while. Clearly I voted for it instead of the movies against which it was matched, but I can name a couple dozen films I’d rank higher if I were putting together a list myself.

I guess that is what makes the process so compelling. You rank movies one against another and try not to let the list itself influence your judgement. You need to trust the system. Does it work? I have no idea but we won’t know unless we try it, right? Try it without letting your pre-determined ideas of what should be top on the list cloud your judgement. It can be harder to do than you think.

The most frustrating part of the Flickchart experience, by a long shot, is dealing with some of the match-ups. I know these things are subjective but I’ll share some of the most frustrating match-ups I remember seeing. Please note that this is NOT a critique the ranking system at all. I’ve not had a chance to really look at the data and see how things work. I’m sure the system has flaws but that is not what this is about. What follows is just a fun look at my addiction.

The Godfather v. Thelma & Louise

In my opinion The Godfather is one of the best films of all time. Unfortunately, it is matched up against a movie which I loved but have not yet had a chance to rank. Without a doubt I click The Godfather but my problem is that after almost 1200 rankings I have a list of more than 500 movies. When I click on The Godfather, what happens to Thelma & Louise? Does it drop all the way to the bottom of my list? In this case it went right to the middle of the list. I haven’t paid enough attention to notice if new movies always drop to the middle. In any case new movies that come into the rotation late have to fight harder to get to the top. A reverse of the Groundhog Day problem really.

Being There v. Planet of the Apes (2001)

Being There is another one of my all-time favorites (and I haven’t rated it yet) but I’ve never seen this version of Apes. No big deal, right? Just ask for the next movie. Well, I know what invariably happens in these cases. I am going to get one of those match-ups which people fret about all the time – two great movies with no clear favorite. Sure enough it happens again. Now I get Man on the Moon. In the end I decided on Being There because this match-up is not quite as hard as some I’ve seen but I’ve also not yet ranked Man on the Moon so it will drop down to a spot from which it must fight its way up the list.

Spy Kids 3 v. Superman 3
Really? I have to choose between these two? Okay, I’m making this one up but I’ve seen match-ups almost as bad which escape my memory. As I write this, another Flickchart user posts this on Twitter:

I hate choosing between 2 awful movies on @flickchart more than 2 great ones. Today: Underworld vs Exorcist: The Beginning.
@brandonRohwer

Who wants to vote for a horrible movie? and what movie on my list will drop below the “winner?” Worse yet, will the losing movie drop in at the middle and outrank half my list? I certainly hope not.

The Godfather v. Dumb and Dumber

You know what I think of The Godfather. I have not seen Dumb and Dumber which makes this similar to Being There v. Apes but this is worse. There is absolutely zero chance that I would vote for Dumb and Dumber over The Godfather – zero. So what’s the big deal? Just ask for another movie right? The problem is that I can avoid the problem I mentioned in the Apes match-up – I could pretend I’ve seen the movie and be done with it without risking another Man on the Moon situation. The problem with this approach is twofold. One, I will continue to see Dumb and Dumber in my rankings which will put me in this situation again and again. Two, it’s cheating.

It is not all frustration though. The best way to avoid these frustrations is to rank more movies and hope the system works. Once in a while I will try to refine my list a bit by choosing to rank certain genres, years, or from among my top movies. Like I’ve already said, I have no idea if it works but I am having a whole lot of fun trying. Clicking on movie after movie has proven to be far more fun than I could have possibly imagined. If you don’t believe me check it out today. Flickchart is planning for launch on 09-09-09 but is in private beta right now. Visit Flickchart.com today and submit you email for an invite. While you are waiting you can watch the trailer, check out my profile, and enjoy some of the fun by following along on Twitter and FriendFeed.

July 14, 2009 | Filed Under Fun, Movies | Comments 

Update on My Oscar Hunt

I posted a while back about my hunt to see many of the Oscar nominated films and I wanted to post an update.

I saw all of the shorts.

I also saw Man On Wire, In Bruges, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Visitor, Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, and Benjamin Button. I enjoyed all of them. I thought Slumdog was fantastic and Button was much better than I expected.

I tried Wanted but turned it off after a few minutes. It was clear it was not my kind of film.

I have The Duchess and Frozen River at home and I am off to watch Frozen River now.

February 15, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Gran Torino

In a strange twist of circumstances, I ended up seeing this film twice. After the second viewing I am even more disappointed that Clint Eastwood was not nominated for acting (directing too probably). The academy nominated the same films for directing and best picture which I think is a lazy call to begin with, but that is not something I want to rant about now.

I fully expect the actor who wins the Oscar to mention this performance – it was brilliant. When Walt (Clint Eastwood’s character) said “I could blow your head off, and sleep like a baby,” I had no doubt about it. Make no mistake, Walt is as tough a character as Eastwood has every portrayed – perhaps the toughest – but there is more to Walt than tough and I believed that too.

I was worried at the beginning of the film. The exposition of Eastwood’s character came off as a bit forced to me at first. Once I made my way past that (and one apparent moment of out-of-character behavior), I enjoyed this movie very much. I even cried a little the second time through. I do cry more easily at movies than most men, but not usually the second time I’ve seen one. I still consider myself as masculine as any man. I’m actually a pretty tough guy, though not nearly as tough as Walt – I’m sure of that.

February 7, 2009 | Filed Under Movies, Reviews | Comments 

FeedFlix: Getting My Money’s Worth at Netflix

I’ve said this before – I love Netflix.

I first discovered Netflix via it’s affiliate program in 2000. I’d been using the Internet for years but I was just starting my online profit-making ventures. The thought of shelling out $24.99 per month to get movies in the mail was much too expensive for me compared to the system I’d used since 1982 but I loved the idea and apparently lots of others did too because the affiliate program was very profitable. Netflix actually helped me survive through several months when not much other income was coming in.

I finally subscribed myself when the price fell to $5.99 a month and my family loved the experience. We liked it so much we decided to set my son up with his own BlockBuster Online account so he could have his own queue and we were could drop movies off at the store and pick up a movie on a whim – something that was not possible on Netflix (until they released instant watching – don’t get me started on that, I love it!).

There was something dreadfully wrong with BB compared to Netflix, though. It came with that feeling that I was being exploited by a giant corporation that cared little about my experience. They insisted on tacking on $0.08 per month for the DE rental tax, they always insisted on identification though I’d frequented that location for four years, they changed the terms of the coupon program, the price went up etc. Meanwhile, Netflix sends me an email announcing a reduction in the rate to $4.99! So, we ditched BB and jacked up our membership at Netflix to 5 movies at a time.

Then we found out about the sub-queues and I read something about Netflix users blowing through 80+ movies per month and my son and I realized the potential for seeing some great movies. We thought we were getting our money’s worth but we knew we could do better. Like most users we’d hold on to a movie for longer than we should. So, we set up my son for two per month and my wife, daughter and I for one each.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered FeedFlix, a site that would let me check on my account to see if I was truly getting a good value. On my first check, it only gauged my queue and my cost per movie was $2.55. I asked about support for sub-queues and learned that they expected to have that in place soon. I did not hear back from them but my last check worked as I wanted. It recognized me as a five-per-month and my price per movie is now $1.98.

What I’d like to see now is the ability to check each queue separately. Now that I think about it I realize that may be what the FeedFlix team meant when they told me they were working on support for sub-queues. If so, we should expect it soon. If not, this is my official request to have that done. I’d like to see how my son does on his. I am going to guess less than $1 per. My wife and daughter will be much higher. Obviously, it’s just my overly curious geekiness – the important thing is the total cost for all five.

If you’d like to know if you are getting your money’s worth check it out. You can also find recommendations and learn some other interesting things about your use like the amount of time you hold DVDs on average.

Have fun!

February 4, 2009 | Filed Under Fun, Movies | Comments 

Super Bowl Ads

Super Bowl Sunday is the one day when many people look forward as much to the advertisements as to the game itself. The last few years have been a letdown in my opinion, but there have been some great ones. You can see a collection of them at superbowl-ads.com.

The first great commercial I remember was the Mac commercial “1984″. We don’t consider the Skins disgrace an “afterthought” but the ad did help ease the pain.

There have been some good ones since. The Budweiser horses playing football, the Budweiser dalmations, and the e-Trade baby to name a few.

I am looking forward to the baby’s return this year.

February 1, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Is Pittsburgh’s ‘Super Bowl’ delay a Bad Sign?

People are saying this is a sign of the decay of our educational system.

Don’t be ridiculous! It’s the Super Bowl – in Pittsburgh!

City schools set two-hour ‘Super Bowl’ delay Monday.

February 1, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Invincible

In trying to stay with this week’s Super Bowl theme I was going to post a review of Invincible earlier today. Then I was distracted by Google’s wild and wacky behavior.

So, now I am ready.

Invincible is the real-life story of Vince Papale, an out-of-work substitute teacher who is very much down on his luck, and his unlikely chance at a spot on the roster of the Philadelphia Eagles. We received the Blu-ray as a gift when we bought our TV and I looked forward to watching it because I remember the events depicted in the film. I was an Eagles fan for a couple of years at just this time (and am still a Dick Vermeil fan because of that).

Good writing and a great cast made this movie better than most sports movies. The story was as predictable as any of these stories are (even those not real-life), but I never found myself disappointed. I was especially pleased that it told another story – that of a man I still revere, a hero to the city I detest so much. :)

January 31, 2009 | Filed Under Movies, Reviews | Comments 

Did Twitter Help Solve Google’s Problems?

After posting about Google’s problem and my subsequent confusion, I realized that I didn’t give Twitter it’s proper due. I made mention of my tweet and the many other I saw (1200+ in the first hour), but I didn’t ask the bigger question.

Did Twitter have a hand it getting this problem fixed more quickly than it might have been?

January 31, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Google Flags Whole Internet As Malware

I’m planning a trip to Italy. While I am there, I may fly back for the Mets home opener - seriously – so I tried to search for GMT to get the flight times straight.

Google warned me about every result. I was very annoyed by two things. One, I use a Mac so most of these warnings don’t apply (I KNOW some do), and 2) the only way to continue to the site is to copy and past the URL (or type it) and go.

Then I noticed that even the Wikipedia entry was flagged. What?

Then I decided to search to see if my websites were flagged – Yep! Even my twitter page, hmmm? So, I searched for Twitter – Yep. 

What about YouTube, a Google property. Searched for youtube and sure enough the first result was www.youtube.com which was flagged. 

So, I sent a tweet to ask for help. Seems that about 300 people sent tweets just minutes before. 

Good news – the problem seems to be fixed.

Google Flags Whole Internet As Malware .

January 31, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Athletes and Faith

The NFL is a private organization and can essentially do what it wants, but some people have suggested that it doesn’t do enough to tone down the religious overtones.

This video implies that even the officials make judgement calls based on religious intent.

It’s also clear that athletes can make public statements of faith in cases where statements of another kind would not be tolerated. The recent discussions of Tim Tebow’s eyeblack demonstrates that not everyone is happy about this.

What do you think?

January 30, 2009 | Filed Under Faith, Fun | Comments 

Playing for Pizza

Playing for Pizza is a departure from Grisham’s normal fare, but it’s a fun story about a washed up NFL quarterback who heads to Italy to play for a team that even Italy doesn’t care about.

Like most readers, I guess, I found the novel was missing a real story. I was enjoying the read but didn’t see what the point was. It actually reminded me for a while of my first reading of Hemingway. That was the experience then – I thought the story wandered around but I enjoyed reading about the characters. The one difference here, of course, is that Grisham’s characters in this one are not as interesting.

I happened to read this book during the NFL season when my Jets were thriving with their new washed up quarterback, so I was captivated by the similarities in the experiences of the football teams. It actually gave me grand hope for my Jets – hope that dissipated soon after, I’m sorry to report.

If you are a Grisham fan, you may be disappointed. You won’t find the normal twist of plot you’ve learned to expect. If you are looking for a quick, relatively fun read then you should pick this one up.

January 29, 2009 | Filed Under Books, Reviews | Comments 

Are the best two teams playing in the super bowl?

I’ve always preferred college football to the NFL. Teams always seemed to take chances in order to earn points in the eyes of voters. I understand that this may take away from the strategy necessary to win a game in some cases, but it gives the game a level of excitement that is not present in a more conservative gameplan.

That being said, I’ve come away from many seasons with a sense of disappointment at the way the national champion was decided. Not this season, mind you – I’m very happy my Gators pulled it off :) but in many other seasons, I’ve been less than excited.

I was hopeful when the BCS was instituted, and in my opinion it has done a better job of choosing a champion than the previous system. My problem with the BCS is that it seems to have ruined the bowl season. What I remember as one or two days of great football has become almost two weeks of mostly inconsequential games named after greedy corporations.

So, like many others I have been spouting off at the mouth about how college football needs a playoff of some kind. I’ve been a big proponent of a “plus one” system. When Barack Obama started talking about it, I was thrilled. Not because I want my president to worry about such trivialities, but because I was glad to hear that someone of his intelligence (and sports fan status) would agree with me.

But now I have to wonder if I am on the right side of the debate. Are we headed in the wrong direction? If we can stick to the current system I think things will be okay, but can we do that? Will a plus-one system simply lead to more controversy? If it does, will that not eventually lead to a full-blown playoff system? and is that what we want?

I’m not sure. If there were a playoff system, I think I would be disappointed. First, one of the things I like most about college football, playing for “style points,” will not be as significant a factor. Second, we may end up with a definitive yet mediocre champion. I did not think much about this until I read this piece in which the author makes a very strong argument that the playoff system in the NFL simply doesn’t work. Someone at SI raises the same issue. I’d argue that is even the case in other professional sports.

On the other hand, maybe it’s the process we enjoy anyway. Who doesn’t love the NCAA basketball tournament? One of the things I like best about March Madness is that anything can happen, yet that’s what I like least about the NFL playoffs.

I guess I really have no idea what I want now.

January 28, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

NFL Players Player’s Talk About Barack Obama

My posts over the next week will be mostly Super Bowl related and I thought the following video would be an interesting transition from my previous posts.

What do NFL players think about our new president?

Some of them speak out in this video.

January 27, 2009 | Filed Under Freedom, Fun | Comments 

Rhetoric & Rhythm

I’d have to say I agree that something is amiss here. I enjoy the non-mass-appeal movies myself, but there was a time when there were more mainstream movies represented. I think this started about the time of American Beauty. Since then movies have not only been of the more independent variety, many of them have dealt with topics that certainly don’t have mainstream appeal.

I tend to like movies like that but I think it is odd things have changed so much.

Rhetoric & Rhythm.

January 25, 2009 | Filed Under Movies | Comments 

The 2009 Oscars

Every year I make a list of Oscar nominated films and then do my best to see enough of them so that I have an opinion on as many of the categories as possible.

This year’s list is an interesting one. I’ve only seen nine of the fifty which is a lower number than usual, there are only eleven that were already on my list of films to see which is also low, and frankly, of the remaining thirty I only would normally care to see about half of them. This is the first year I can remember being this indifferent to the films nominated.

I care most about the acting and writing categories so I like to see most of those movies. I am not very much interested in The Reader or The Wrestler, but I will probably see them if they win awards. My main priority this year will be to see all of Meryl Streep’s competition for best actress. I think she was simply fantastic in Doubt – one of the best performances I’ve ever seen. After that, I think I want to see the five actors whom the academy deem more deserving of the best actor award than Clint Eastwood. I’ve seen Gran Torino twice and I find it hard to believe he did not give one of the five best performances of the year.

What I’ve Seen

Changeling
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Encounters at the End of the World
Iron Man
Kung Fu Panda
Presto
This Way Up
Wall-E

On My List Before Nominations

Bolt
The Class
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Man On Wire
Rachel Getting Married
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
The Visitor
Waltz with Bashir
Wanted

Added To My List After Nominations

Australia
The Betrayal
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Duchess
The Final Inch
Frozen River – writing, actress
The Garden
Happy-Go-Lucky – writing
In Bruges – writing
Milk
Simple Pinki
Trouble the Water
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306

Movies I Will See If They Win Awards

The Reader
The Wrestler

January 25, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

House Roll Call 1-22-2009

Commending the University of Florida Gators for winning the Bowl Championship Series National Championship Game. 

NO votes from AR, AZ, GA, PA, and TX :)

via Final Vote Results for Roll Call 29.

January 23, 2009 | Filed Under Fun | Comments 

Daily Links

January 22, 2009 | Filed Under Links | Comments 

I haven’t eaten since later this afternoon

I love the idea of time travel and am fascinated by the paradoxes it may or may not cause. Primer is a movie that addresses these paradoxes head-on. It’s a must see movie for anyone who likes time travel. Hang on, it’s a wild ride.

Since the ladies are away for a few days, Billy and I decided to have some good sci-fi stuff around to watch. He already had Primer on hand and four eps of
The X Files ( season two ), but we wanted to maximize our time so we sent Primer back without watching it. This would get us another disc sooner and we could watch Primer via Netflix on Xbox Live.

After watching it on Saturday, we found The 10-Step Method to Watch Primer and Really Understand It.

1. Watch the movie: if you get really confused – great, that’s part of it.

I’ll say we were confused! That’s what sent us looking online for explanations. Now we knew what to do next.

2. Watch the movie again: still confused? Good. You did step 2 so you can better understand step 3.
3. Look at this timeline chart: http://neuwanstein.fw.hu/primer_timeline.html
Read over it twice.

The comments point out four other timelines and we reviewed three of those (fourth no longer available) too. Billy prefers a more narrative understanding of the movie and preferred this one. I like the dates and times so I preferred this one, which is low on speculation and very succinct. The third is an interesting take loaded with speculation – fine with me. :)

Can’t move on to step four until we get a DVD copy again. We checked a local store and didn’t find it so I’ve ordered my copy. Amazon’s DFC is just a few miles from here so it’s actually posssilbe I will get it tomorrow (even though it’s Sunday), but we can wait a few days if we must.

I’m sure I will have more to say about this one another time. :)

Go, watch it! There is a “ten step” program for you if you need it.

January 11, 2009 | Filed Under Fun, Movies, Reviews | Comments 

Daily Links

January 10, 2009 | Filed Under Links | Comments 

The Third Chimpanzee

This is a fascinating book. I’ve been working on it for some time because I keep restarting it and marking it up.

Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, tries to explain 

How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight

The book is filled with a myriad of ethical issues raised by the similarity between humans and animals. Ethical questions which, to me, should be addressed even by those who do not consider themselves Darwinists, or even evolutionists. While I am sure I will have more to say about these ethical questions after I’ve finished the book, I also find several quotes from the book intriguing to both my interest in evolutionary biology and my belief in the spirit of man. There are so many and they are so though provoking that I will probably post here many times about them. The prologue opens with this one:

It’s obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It’s also obvious that we’re a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.

January 3, 2009 | Filed Under Books, Reading, Reviews, Work Books | Comments 

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