80's Movies - Bracket of 64

[EagleFan]

Since we haven't had any "brackets" posted yet this year I figured I would throw one together.

I will post the first round later tonight.

I used the IMDB user ratings to assist with ranking the movies and made some judgement calls on some movies to leave out or include (leaving out a few movies that may have been highly rated but many may not have heard of in favor of some lower rated movies that many would have seen).

Red Bracket
1 - The Empire Strikes Back
2 - Full Metal Jacket
3 - Scarface
4 - Stand by Me
5 - The Untouchables
6 - Crimes and Misdemeanors
7 - The Right Stuff
8 - Hannah and Her Sisters
9 - Airplane
10 - Back to the Future 2
11 - A Fish Called Wanda
12 - The Abyss
13 - RoboCop
14 - Planes, Trains & Automobiles
15 - Christmas Vacation
16 - Tootsie
17 - Labyrinth
18 - Beverly Hills Cop
19 - Pale Rider
20 - Re-Animator
21 - The Transformers: The Movie
22 - Lethal Weapon 2
23 - Mask
24 - Wargames
25 - Uncle Buck
26 - Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
27 - The Burbs
28 - Adventures in Babysitting

White Bracket
1 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
2 - Once Upon a Time in America
3 - Die Hard
4 - The Thing
5 - Gandhi
6 - Brazil
7 - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
8 - The Killer
9 - The Vanishing
10 - The Goonies
11 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
12 - When Harry Met Sally
13 - First Blood
14 - The Fly
15 - Trading Places
16 - Raising Arizona
17 - Driving Miss Daisy
18 - Excaliber
19 - Escape from New York
20 - Return of the Living Dead
21 - The Lost Boys
22 - Sixteen Candles
23 - Major League
24 - Moonstruck
25 - Coming to America
26 - Flight of the Navigator
27 - See No Evil, Hear No Evil
28 - Lucas

Blue Bracket
1 - Back to the Future
2 - Return of the Jedi
3 - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4 - Ran
5 - The Princess Bride
6 - This is Spinal Tap
7 - Glory
8 - The Blues Brothers
9 - Predator
10 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit
11 - The King of Comedy
12 - The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad
13 - Lethal Weapon
14 - Hoosiers
15 - Field of Dreams
16 - Beetlejuice
17 - A Room with a View
18 - Heathers
19 - Gremlins
20 - Caddyshack
21 - The Karate Kid
22 - Rumble Fish
23 - River's Edge
24 - Three O'Clock High
25 - Time Bandits
26 - Little Shop of Horrors
27 - Arthur
28 - Police Academy

Green Bracket
1 - The Shining
2 - Aliens
3 - Blade Runner
4 - Raging Bull
5 - The Terminator
6 - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
7 - The Breakfast Club
8 - Do the Right Thing
9 - Ghostbusters
10 - The Purple Rose of Cairo
11 - Empire of the Sun
12 - The Color Purple
13 - Batman
14 - Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
15 - Witness
16 - A Nightmare on Elm Street
17 - The Natural
18 - Wall Street
19 - Vacation
20 - Videodrome
21 - Fast Times at Ridgemont High
22 - Highlander
23 - Spaceballs
24 - The Monster Squad
25 - 48 Hrs.
26 - Stir Crazy
27 - TRON
28 - Weird Science

[Abe Sargent]

Not a lot of love for the Brat Pack? No St. Elmo's Fire? Sixteen Candles? Just BC and that's it?

[Coffee Warlord]

I see some serious upsets coming.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally Posted by Coffee Warlord

I see some serious upsets coming.

Yeah, we have one consistent demographic represented here on the board, so we will be biased for and against some movies because we tend to be of a selef selecting nature.

[Abe Sargent]

Wait.....where's Tim Burton's Batman?

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

ghostbusters @9? no beverly hills cop? THE SELECTION COMMITTEE IS A SHAM



edit: NO TOP GUN?!? LOST BOYS!?! :spits:

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by NorvTurnerOverdrive

ghostbusters @9? no beverly hills cop? THE SELECTION COMMITTEE IS A SHAM



edit: NO TOP GUN?!? LOST BOYS!?! :spits:

Went completely based on the IMB user ratings and to be honest, I would need to go to 128 in order to get all of the movies in.

[EagleFan]

dola: looking at the movies on the list I can't see many options to get all of those others on the list.

[Abe Sargent]

Brazil's a nice film and all, and I own it, but top 64 from the decade? Over things like freakin' Batman?


I understand that my pet films will never make a list like this (Return of the Secaucus 7 for the win!) but still, I think three are some....od...choices here.


Is that Kurosawa's Ran?

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Abe Sargent

Brazil's a nice film and all, and I own it, but top 64 from the decade? Over things like freakin' Batman?


I understand that my pet films will never make a list like this (Return of the Secaucus 7 for the win!) but still, I think three are some....od...choices here.


Is that Kurosawa's Ran?

I'll be posting links for the movies as I post.

As I said, based on the IMDB user ratings for the films. The lowest user rating on the board is a 7.4 out of 10. Everything else came out under that.

[EagleFan]

dola: crud, Batman came out higher than 7.4. Not sure why it didn;t show up in the list of 80's movies.

May have to make a couple changes to the rankings.

[finketr]

Blue Bracket is bracket of death.

[Coffee Warlord]

God, yeah. I see 2, maybe 3 movies that deserve to die there. Everything else are pretty damn good. Red and Green (particularly Red) are relatively weak, aside from a couple bigguns.

[NorvTurnerOverdrive]

fast times, beetlejuice, heathers

sepp blatter would blush at this malfeasance

[stevew]

Hoosiers vs indiana jones and the last crusade

[Chief Rum]

I don't know if it's too late for EF to make changes to add movies like Batman or Top Gun (sorry, both of those should be in there). Hell, Beverly Hills Cop should be in there, too. Heck there are tons.

Any thought to making this best of 96 and give the top 32 seeds a first round bye?

I am going to guess that you can find 32 more movies easily which define this decade.

[Chief Rum]

I would also rank them by domestic gross as well as user rating.

Take the two rankings, average them out, and then re-rank. That might give you better matchups to start and down the line.

I would also look at the top ten grossing movies for each year 1980-89 and see if any clear standouts are missing. Ratings are fine, but movies are about making money, too, and money is also somewhat a measure of popularity.

I know that's a lot of work, though. Just food for thought.

Love the idea, EF!

[Chief Rum]

Just as an example of how the current seedings don't represent things, IMO, for instance, consider that currently 2 seed Once Upon A Time In America is going against 15 seed Trading Places. Anyone have any doubts how that one is going to go?

[EagleFan]

There will be changes. May add a play in round as well (or go to 96).

[EagleFan]

How about 112? Top 4 seeds get 1st round byes.

[EagleFan]

That would make the 1st round:

Red Bracket
Byes:
1 - The Empire Strikes Back
2 - Full Metal Jacket
3 - Scarface
4 - Stand by Me

(5) The Untouchables vs. (28) Adventures in Babysitting
(6) Crimes and Misdemeanors vs. (27) The Burbs
(7) The Right Stuff vs. (26) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
(8) Hannah and Her Sisters vs. (25) Uncle Buck
(9) Airplane vs. (24) Wargames
(10) Back to the Future 2 vs. (23) Mask
(11) A Fish Called Wanda vs. (22) Lethal Weapon 2
(12) The Abyss vs. (21) The Transformers: The Movie
(13) RoboCop vs. (20) Re-Animator
(14) Planes, Trains & Automobiles vs. (19) Pale Rider
(15) Christmas Vacation vs. (18) Beverly Hills Cop
(16) Tootsie vs. (17) Labyrinth

White Bracket
Byes:
1 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
2 - Once Upon a Time in America
3 - Die Hard
4 - The Thing

(5) Gandhi vs. (28) Lucas
(6) Brazil vs. (27) See No Evil, Hear No Evil
(7) Ferris Bueller's Day Off vs. (26) Flight ofthe Navigator
(8) The Killer vs. (25) Coming to America
(9) The Vanishing vs. (24) Moonstruck
(10) The Goonies vs. (23) Major League
(11) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom vs. (22) Sixteen Candles
(12) When Harry Met Sally vs. (21) The Lost Boys
(13) First Blood vs. (20) Return of the Living Dead
(14) The Fly vs. (19) Escape From New York
(15) Trading Places vs. (18) Excaliber
(16) Raising Arizona vs. (17) Driving Miss Daisy

To be continued...

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

How about 112? Top 4 seeds get 1st round byes.

Sounds good to me.

I am guessing there are enough high quality options to fill that out.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

Sounds good to me.

I am guessing there are enough high quality options to fill that out.

I think the quality is pretty decent overall.

[rowech]

Do any of the one seeds even make the final four?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by rowech

Do any of the one seeds even make the final four?

I didn't look at the other seeds below the #1s and am just going on my impression of those #1 seeds, but I think all of them have a very good shot except for Back To The Future (which I think will fall off as too campy for this crowd).

But obviously, all of them will be very much tested.

[Chief Rum]

I have seen 23 of the 28 movies in the Red Bracket.

[rowech]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I didn't look at the other seeds below the #1s and am just going on my impression of those #1 seeds, but I think all of them have a very good shot except for Back To The Future (which I think will fall off as too campy for this crowd).

But obviously, all of them will be very much tested.

That's the one seed I thought had the best chance!

[Carman Bulldog]

Not sure that IMDB rankings are working.

Where is A Christmas Story? Arguably the best Christmas movie of all time and scores an 8 on IMDB. Was released in 1983.

The Coen brothers first film Blood Simples cores a 7.7 but has also been omitted.

Say Anything (7.4) also seems to have been excluded.

For what it's worth, I understand that it's probably very difficult to cut the list down. I think the IMDB Moviemeter list found here should count for something. This list appears to take into account the popularity in searches and thus also includes films such as Willow, The Outsiders, Footloose, Roadhouse etc. as well as a number of other late additions (Top Gun, Karate Kid, etc.).

[Vince, Pt. II]

The Goonies vs Major League
Airplane! Vs Wargames

Both absolutely brutal first round draws.

[heybrad]

Originally Posted by Chief Rum

I didn't look at the other seeds below the #1s and am just going on my impression of those #1 seeds, but I think all of them have a very good shot except for Back To The Future (which I think will fall off as too campy for this crowd).

But obviously, all of them will be very much tested.

I think Back to the Future has held up pretty well, but that's based on the fact that my teenage kids watched it for the first time this weekend and loved it.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Bracket of death matchups of note:

(13) Lethal Weapon vs (20) Caddyshack
(5) The Princess Bride vs (28) Police Academy
(14) Hoosiers vs (19) Gremlins
(12) The Naked Gun vs (21) The Karate Kid

[ntndeacon]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

dola: crud, Batman came out higher than 7.4. Not sure why it didn;t show up in the list of 80's movies.

May have to make a couple changes to the rankings.

As Did Dangerous Liasions

[Abe Sargent]

Abe's predictions of winners from each bracket:

Empire
Die Hard
Princess Bride
Blade Runner


I almost went with Aliens instead of Blade Runner

[Grammaticus]

The green bracket has the most good ones.

[vex]

Still no Red Dawn. smh

[Butter]

Good thing we're talking this to death instead of voting.

[Passacaglia]

Maybe we should all vote on who gets to be in the play-in round, I mean, Round 1?

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by vex

Still no Red Dawn. smh

Or Top Gun! That surprised me.

Like I said before, I think top grossing movies shoul dhave been considered, too, regardless of user rating.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by Butter_of_69

Good thing we're talking this to death instead of voting.

We're waiting on the polls. EF is busy.

[Logan]

Where the hell is Teen Wolf?

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by Logan

Where the hell is Teen Wolf?

thats in the shitty 80s movie bracket

[WVUFAN]

Predictions:
Red Bracket:
(5) The Untouchables vs. (28) Adventures in Babysitting
This is a bad draw for Babysitting, which might have won against some of the others.
(6) Crimes and Misdemeanors vs. (27) The Burbs
Toss up. Doesn't matter anyway -- will get KILLED by Lethal Weapons/Wanda winner in next round. Why is there two Woody Allen movies in this bracket? Woody Allen sucks.
(7) The Right Stuff vs. (26) Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
What a horrible seed for Bill & Ted. Should be at least a 5-7 seed.
(8) Hannah and Her Sisters vs. (25) Uncle Buck
Hannah is a Woody Allen movie. Woody Allen sucks, and people love John Candy. No-brainer.
(9) Airplane vs. (24) Wargames
Wow, this is a tough one. Both are great for different reasons. I go for Wargames because of the group of people here on FOFC; it seems they(I) appreciate Wargames for being ahead of it's time.
(10) Back to the Future 2 vs. (23) Mask
Mask was good, but bad draw for it.
(11) A Fish Called Wanda vs. (22) Lethal Weapon 2
Common sense says upset, but I think there's a good number of Monty Python/Cleese fans on here.
(12) The Abyss vs. (21) The Transformers: The Movie
Best death scene in movie history.
(13) RoboCop vs. (20) Re-Animator
Re-Animator is a good cult classic, but really shouldn't be in the tourney.
(14) Planes, Trains & Automobiles vs. (19) Pale Rider
Another tough call.
(15) Christmas Vacation vs. (18) Beverly Hills Cop
Toss up.
(16) Tootsie vs. (17) Labyrinth
This one won't be as close as one might think.

[WVUFAN]

Also, as a animation fan, I see you put in Roger Rabbit. Good job!

Where's Akira?

[Grammaticus]

Did I miss Blue Velvet or was it in there somewhere?

[Grammaticus]

IMDb's top 100 movies of the 80s includes movies like the following. Which I just picked some of the ones I thought were top movies:

Amadeus
Platoon
Dangerous Liaisons
Rain Man
The Last Emperor
Das Boot
The Killing Fields
Mississippi Burning

Not to mention movies like Top Gun, Pretty in Pink and Say Anything which would also rank above many of the movies listed in the brackets.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

Did I miss Blue Velvet or was it in there somewhere?

Good call, classic Hopper

[Vince, Pt. II]

Red Bracket: Empire's bracket to lose. There really appear to be no serious challengers, though Scarface and Full Metal Jacket may see some strong support.

White Bracket: I see this as a toss-up between Die Hard and Raiders of the Lost Ark. Might have the strongest mid-major presence with The Lost Boys, Sixteen Candles, Major League and Coming to America as 21, 22, 23 and 25 seeds.

Blue Bracket: The Bracket of Death is the most wide open in my mind. The strongest challengers seem to be Back to the Future, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and The Princess Bride, but don't count out Caddyshack down at 20.

Green Bracket: Possibly the most underrated bracket. There's a lot of firepower at the top, as any of the top five seeds would surprise no one to come out of this bracket alive.

My final four:
The Empire Strikes Back
Die Hard
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Aliens

Champion: The Empire Strikes Back