In Contention

Tag: polls

  • POLL: The most influential films of all time, round one, part five

    I’ve got family coming into town this afternoon, and since this week’s poll had three runaway winners in “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Godfather” and “Pulp Fiction,” and I doubt three more hours will close the gap on the stragglers (poor “Jurassic Park”), I think it’s time for a new installment.  Next week will be the final round one poll and we’ll be closer to the end and your view of the 10 most influential films of all time.

    Once again, check the background on this series here.  Have a look in the left sidebar and chalk up no more than three films to survive and move on to the next round.  This week should make for an easier selection than last week.  As always, though, it’s a random assortment.  Blame the fates if you find yourself facing a Sophie’s Choice.

  • POLL: the most influential films of all time, round one, part four

    I decided to bump today’s poll an hour to give some extra lead time to the sad news of director Marc Rocco’s passing, but I don’t think it ultimately mattered much.  The three survivors of last week’s slate were “Casablanca,” “The Matrix” and “Star Wars.”  On to a new set of 10.

    Again, the groupings in these polls are decided at random.  So no yelling at your humble servant.  But I expect more than a few to be dismayed at having to choose three from the sterling collective you’ll find in the left sidebar.  C’est la vie.

    Choose your trio and be heard!  Two more weeks of round one after this and we’ll be moving on.  Once again, for background on this series, click here.

  • Get your votes in!

    This week’s “Most Influential” poll closes up shop at 2:00pm PST, so get your votes in if you haven’t already.  The film leading the pack should come as no surprise, but I’m surprised to see “Casablanca” so high.  “The Matrix” is just barely ahead of “Taxi Driver” for the third and final slot, while truly influential staples like “It Happened One Night” and “The Great Train Robbery” are apparently down for the count.

  • POLL: The most influential films of all time, round one, part three

    Alright, we’ve moved on and three more films have survived: “The Birth of a Nation,” “The Godfather Part II” and “Metropolis.”  Color me confused on the inclusion of Coppola’s film.  Chalk it up to popularity, I guess, because it’s a shame to see truly deserving films like “The Jazz Singer,” “sex, lies and videotape” and even “Die Hard” get passed over for something that no one (I think) can argue as more influential (even if it is a masterpiece).  But that’s how it crumbles.

    Next up, a new set of ten and your choice of three to continue.  As always, check out the background on this series here.  Give us your vote in the sidebar and feel free to cut loose in the comments section below with your thoughts on the series so far.

    This poll will close in one week, Wednesday, May 6 at 2:00pm PST.

  • Get your votes in!

    Just a reminder that today is the last day for the second part of round one in our “most influential film of all time” poll series.  Get your votes in over in the left sidebar.  The new poll will hit tomorrow at 2:00pm PST.  I’m still shocked “The Godfather Part II” is surging ahead of the pack, but oh well.

  • POLL: The most influential films of all time, round one, part two

    Harrison Ford in Blade RunnerAnd with that, part one of the first round of voting comes to a close.  Go here for the background on our survey.

    Today, we have 10 fresh titles in the left sidebar for you to rifle through on the way to choosing THREE worthy of moving forward to the next round.  Each poll throughout the rest of round one will include 10 films and choices of up to three.  Last week’s poll was the big dive, 16 titles.  The five that moved on from there were:

    “Apocalypse Now” (1979)
    “Battleship Potemkin” (1925)
    “Citizen Kane” (1941)
    “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
    “Rashomon” (1959)

    I must say, I was sad to see “Bonnie and Clyde” left out.  The Arthur Penn classic was in the top five for a while, but it was too close for comfort on “Battleship Potemkin” as far as I’m concerned.  Literally, a final vote right at the deadline secured it a place in the top five over “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial.”  That says one thing to me: more people need to see it.  So to those of you who’ve never seen it, do yourself a favor: seek it out.

    No, it is not the most captivating film of all time and no, you won’t be seeing anything “new” by your standards.  But do a little digging and find out why the film has meant so much to the practice of film editing and montage and you’ll discover why its impact is probably felt as much if not more than the most seminal titles on our massive list of 66.

    Keep in mind when voting: this isn’t a popularity contest.  Don’t just rattle off votes for your favorite films (which, I imagine, has to be the main reason “E.T” was so high on the list during part one).  Take a moment to think about what the films have meant to the medium.  This list represents you, the readership, after all, so vote wisely.

    This poll will close Wednesday, April 29 at 2:00 pm EST.

  • Get your votes in

    Part one of the first round on our big, mammoth “most influential movie ever” poll closes tomorrow and part two will launch on Thursday, so make sure you get your votes in.  I’m happy to see “Rashomon” has pushed into the top five, but poor “Battleship Potemkin” is left in the cold, apparently largely unseen and, therefore, not receiving the fair leg up.  But it’s a readership poll so I’m leaving it all in your hands.

  • POLL: The most influential films of all time, round one, part one

    Earlier in the week we told you about TCM’s list of the 15 most influential classic films of all time.  I decided to use that news item as a spring board for another giant poll, something akin to the “Which Oscarless director deserves it more?” query last summer that saw Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick in a fight to the death.

    Rather than just stick with films from the “classic” time frame, I thought we’d just go all in and collectively decide on the top 10 most influential films of ALL TIME.  I’ve taken all suggestions from our commenters on the TCM thread and tossed my own ideas in for a massive slate of 66 films.  So this will take some time.

    We’ve kicked it off today with the largest poll of the lot, a 16-film query with the titles taken at random.  Your task: pick up to five of the films list in the left sidebar that you think deserve to move on to the next round.  Next week we’ll settle the rest with five more polls, each with 10 titles and allowing no more than three choices per voter.  The idea is, by the end of this first round of voting, we’ll have 20 films that can move on until we narrow it to a definitive list of the 10 most influential films ever, as voted on by the In Contention readership.  So make your vote count!

    (Brendon Connelly at /Film, by the way, has taken a different approach, listing what he feels will one day be viewed as the most influential films of the last 10 years.  Devin Faraci at CHUD takes considerable umbrage.)

  • POLL: Which summer blockbuster are you most anticipating?

    Thanks to BJT for getting my creative juices flowing here.  But as we head into the summer months, let’s find out what the readership is most anticipating in the arena of blockbuster entertainment.  Let us know your thoughts in the sidebar poll.

  • Give me an idea for a poll…

    Obviously the old one is stale.  I got nothin’.  What do you think?

  • POLL: What did you think of ‘Knowing?’

    I guess I’ll leave it with an updated poll before heading out.

    The weekend’s box office champ was the Nicolas Cage starrer “Knowing,” from director Alex Proyas.  Even though a mere handful of you said you’d be seeing it this weekend, I figured I’d ask anyway: what did you think?  I have a hard time believing it to be this awful disaster given that Proyas is generally a guy who busies himself with sci-fi that could hardly be called brainless, but given the reviews and some brief assessments I’ve heard, maybe this really is the clunker of 2009 so far.

    So tell us your thoughts in the sidebar poll.

  • POLL: What are you seeing this weekend?

    I figure it’s time for a new poll since everyone has spoken on “Watchmen” by now.  Since there’s an interestingly diverse slate of films set to open this weekend, I figured I’d ask the old stand-by: What are you going to see?

    I’m strangely looking forward to “Knowing,” more because of Alex Proyas than anything else (which, by the way, finally caught up with that “Dark City” director’s cut I wrote about earlier in the week — MUCH better experience than the theatrical version, I’d say).  Then again, “I Love You, Man” is frankly looking like the right antidote lately, while the reviews of “Duplicity” have piqued my interest in Tony Gilroy’s latest.

    There are also a couple of limited releases in play this weekend, most notably Steve McQueen’s “Hunger” (which you all know was one of my favorite films of last year when it played the festival circuit).  But maybe you’d rather see “Watchmen” again, or something else that’s still kicking around the marketplace.  Whatever the case, let us know in the sidebar poll and feel free to expand on your pick in the comments section below.  We’ll find out what the masses decided when Chad writes up the weekend’s box office Sunday.

  • POLL: What did you think of the Oscarcast?

    Very easy thumbs up, thumbs down poll this week.  But please, keep your opinions of the winners out of it.  We’re interested in what you thought of the actual show.  Let Bill Condon and Larry Mark know what you thought in the sidebar poll.

  • Who deserves it? Poll results!

    The readership of In Contention has spoken.  Here’s who you all think deserves to win across the 24 Oscar categories we polled you on.  A couple of these races were very close but we didn’t have time to revisit the couple of categories that were decided by less than 10 votes.  Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any parallels Sunday night, but here’s what you had to say:

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Actor: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”
    Best Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader”
    Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”
    Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “WALL-E”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music (Original Score): “WALL-E”
    Best Music (Original Song): “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Editing: “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Mixing: “WALL-E”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Thanks to everyone for voting.  Enjoy the show!

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST PICTURE

    And we come to the last category…have your say in the sidebar poll.

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST DIRECTOR

    Closing in…tell us in the sidebar poll.

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST ACTOR

    And this, my friends, is the race to watch.  Tell us in the sidebar poll.

  • POLL: Who deserves it? — BEST ACTRESS

    Moving into the top tier categories, have your say in the sidebar poll.  This one should be interesting.