The Greatest Movie Franchises of All Time - Western Division Round 1
 

Links to preceding threads:


You can view the entire tournament bracket here as we go along, but here's the Western division:

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Please vote for the franchise in each pair that you feel is most deserving of being in consideration for the Greatest Movie Franchise of All Time. I'll put one of these up every day or two as we go along. So vote!

Possible Concerns and Responses:

1. A franchise I like isn't on the list! Too bad. Nominations are closed. This is just a fun offseason diversion, but feel free to complain in the thread if it will make you feel better.
2. There's something on the list that I don't even think is a franchise! Don't vote for it.
3. There's something on the list that I don't recognize. Yeah, there are a few that I don't recognize either. If you feel generous, look it up and determine if you think it's worthy. Or just don't vote for it. Either option is allowed.
4. The seeding seems weird (or there's something I have no idea how it got in there). The seeding is based on total estimated tickets from Box Office Mojo, but some older franchises were randomly seeded since we don't have any data available about their ticket sales. Again, if you don't feel something is deserving, don't vote for it!

Man the 8/9 and 7/10 matchups are brutal....

Agreed (particularly for BTTF vs Bourne for me). Bourne is probably my favorite action series ever, so I had to vote for it, but...Marty McFly... :crybaby:

These aren't westerns?

Some bad matchups in this one. Next round will be an easy win over some of the ones that make it out of this bracket.

I can't believe Bogart vs Karate Kid is so close. Some of the Bogey movies are all-time classics. Ralph Macchio? Freakin' Ralph Macchio???

Alien and Die Hard are 7 and 10? Wow. That was the hardest choice of the bunch.

EDIT: Apparently, there aren't many Alien fans on here...lol.

I hate seeing Bourne against Back to the Future but I have to go with Back to the Future because of the nostalgia and that all together it’s one of my favorite movies of any kind.

Dat Matchup 5 tho.

Diehard over Alien is a surprise. Both 1 and 2's were great for both, with a slight edge to Diehard due to the screaming little girl in Aliens). The rest is shit. Prometheous was good so Aliens wins for me. Plus I like Sci-fi. Bitches can't run left or right though.

There are also many that won't stand a chance. As much as I'm bummed about Bourne vs. BTTF, it'd be a pretty major upset for either of those to make it past Bond.

Back to the Future is beating the Bourne series?
tsk tsk tsk

James Bond vs Revenge of the Nerds- Easy pick here, Revenge of the Nerds simply cannot compete with this juggernaut 1 seed. Bond all the way.

Bourne vs Back to the Future- Very tough matchup here. Bourne franchise is one of the better recent action series to come out in recent memory but Back to the Future takes the cake for me. Marty McFly is iconic.

The Hunger Games vs Herbie the Love Bug- I don't care for particularly either but I voted for the Hunger Games. Meh.

Fast and the Furious vs The Hangover- Similar in the sense that I only like one or two films from both of these franchises. The first Hangover movie is great- the rest of the series is beating a dead horse. Speaking of beating dead horses, this summarizes the entire Fast and Furious franchise but apparently people eat it up. I voted The Hangover based on the first film alone.

Classic Mysteries blah blah blah vs Karate Kid- I have no idea what classic mysteries is so I went with the Karate Kid. It is what it is.

Shrek vs Police Academy- As much as I love the first installment of the Police Academy franchise, the Shrek series is better.

Alien vs Die Hard- Easily the toughest matchup to pick between the two and I am surprised by the lopsided poll results so far. I went with Alien but I understand the argument either way. Both franchises are simply great for their own reasons.

Jurassic Park vs Blade- Layup here for Jurassic Park, interested to see the round of 32 for Jurassic Park against Alien/Die Hard.

I like both Back to the Future and Bourne series...tough choice.

but "Future" was a long time ago, and I was a very young kid when it they came out, and I just enjoy the Bourne series a lot more now that I'm older. Much more entertaining.

And I got head at the stadium drive-in movie theater during the first orig Bourne movie...something I won't ever forget. Good times.

BTTF is seeded way low, IMO. It's pretty iconic all around. The car, the characters, the humor, the style, the 911 predictions, quotable quotes, etc.

The problem with Bourne is they did the same movie over and over - the only difference is what girl gets whacked to piss him off and the high ranking spook behind it.

Alien v. Die Hard was tough. Aliens and Die Hard are my two favorite movies from the 80s. But I like Aliens just a hair better.

I went with...

Bond over Revenge of the Nerds. I'm not a huge Bond fan, but it's had its moments. Pretty straightforward win.

Back to the Future over Bourne. BTTF is an iconic film franchise. It's part of our culture now. Everyone knows Marty and the Delorean and the Doc. Bourne is just a movie. Easy win here.

Love Bug over Hunger Games. I liked Love Bug as a tiny child and suspect I would like it less today. But the original was my favorite movie from the ages of roughly 5 through 8, and I remember having deep film discussions with other kids about how the movie wouldn't have been the same if they had cast a sedan or station wagon in the leading role. I saw one Hunger Games movie and it was a fine movie, but I'm going with the Bug here.

Hangover over Fast and Furious. This isn't even a contest. All three Hangover movies are great rides and highly entertaining, even if all three movies are the same plot. Fast and Furious is just a bunch of car stuff, all probably with the same plot. Hangover should go deep into the tournament.

Classic Mysteries over Karate Kid - Meh. Classic mysteries in a coin flip. They're kind of famous so they must be good.

Police Academy over Shrek. I have a minor bias against animated films, and Police Academy ... well, it was a vehicle for some former NFL players to act. Whatever.

Alien over Die Hard. Good scifi is rare. It's hard to do scifi well, and all three Alien movies were top notch. And that thing was on that guy's face and then it burst out of his chest and stuff. You gotta vote for Alien, people, you just gotta!

Jurassic Park over Blade. Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs always win.

After seeing the brackets in the east and west for round 1, my conclusion is that there aren’t really very many good movie franchises. I see quite a few that had one good movie and a bunch of money-grabbing stinkers, but not many quality series with multiple good entries.

Fun offseason tournament though.

I guess there are also some series that have relatively steady quality, but they’re so far outside my interest area that I overlook them. Like Hope & Crosby or Shrek.

That does seem to be the standard formula. I think a few stand out as exceptions, such as Back To The Future and Alien, but most are just a good movie and then a comet tail of debris.

Die Hard beating Alien is just insane. There is one... ONE good Die Hard movie and as great as it is, it isn't as good as Alien. It's POSSIBLY better than Aliens. That's all. I know people love Die Hard but I'm pretty shocked at that one.

Agreed. Alien should be a top contender, and it's getting beat up by a Christmas flick.

Whoever you dumb ****s that voted for Karate Kid over classic mysteries need to have your brains ripped out through your ****ing assholes, since you clearly don't use them.

The metric ****-ton of cinematic language born from these movies that we STILL employ is staggering. The innovations in cinematography, lighting, editing, and story structure remain every bit a part of the other movies in this contest that people are so quick to gush about.

FFS the AMC movie theater bar is called "MacGuffin's." The Maltese Falcon INVENTED the MacGuffin - the object our hero seeks which is ultimately meaningless, because what he/she truly needs to find is within.

AKA

EVERY ****ING INDIANA JONES PLOT

aka

THE ****ING HANGOVER

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BTTF seems like it's managed to stay relevant long after its cinematic release, so I'd agree that ticket sales might be an imperfect metric (although there's nothing else that's better really). My guess is that if we had a way of looking at total views in any format, it'd be seeded quite a bit higher.

It's too bad they're in black and white, though. And that they're not comedies. If they were comedies and in color, I'd support them much more strongly.

And maybe some gratuitous female nudity. That always helps.

I didn't vote for the classic mysteries because I don't see them as a movie franchise. They're obviously superior films to the Karate Kid.

I just really loved the first Die Hard movie. I can appreciate that Alien was really good and I liked it when I first saw, but it's really that horror genre that I'm not as big on. Aliens was more of a solid action flick. Neither "franchise" has anything beyond that so I picked the one all-time classic that I enjoy and based my decision on that.

I think that's what most people are doing. It's just not how I see the tournament in general. Same reason I voted against Ghostbusters in the other division even though it's probably a top ten all time movie for me.

It has also been brought to my attention that you voted against Bond, clearly the rightful eventual winner of this whole contest, in favor of Revenge of the Nerds. How we have the same parents is just beyond me.

Without the Karate Kid, we wouldn't have ever heard "wax on, wax off".

Check mate.

I can't even count the number of times I say "sweep the leg" in my daily life.

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I know, right? And I see it's influence in boxing matches, MMA and gladiator movies when the crowd quotes KK in unison, "Finish him!"

For you Karate Kid fans, I can't recommend enough watching the YouTube Red series "Cobra Kai". Includes the original actors and has Daniel and Johnny as adult rivals. It's good fun.

Interesting you should mention that. 48 seconds into Post 25, you see the reference. It's everywhere.

Alien vs. Die Hard? FFS you're KILLING ME

By what methodology is that a 7 vs. 10?

Meanwhile one wins of Herbie vs. Hunger Games. Turrible.

I've never heard of 'classic mysteries' so they probably aren't classic but I guess they are mysterious, since I've never heard of them.

Tell you what. If Bond does win the whole I'll watch any 3 James Bond movies of your choosing to give the series a chance. As it stands I've seen 4 or 5 of them and they really weren't memorable. Revenge of the Nerds was at least memorable.

I really enjoy Alien and Blade but those are some tough matchups unfortunately.

Round 2 in this division will be a bloodletting.

Shrek beating out Police Academy?? Really?? Shrek movies are okay, but mostly annoying. Police Academy is hilarious. There were some not so good ones, but the first one was better than the best of the Shrek movies. Hell, the worst Police Academy was better than the best Shrek.

How is 'The Godfather' not in this lineup? I voted but I'll have you know I gave a stink eye before hitting submit.

Dude it’s March Madness bracket style. The Godfather is in another region.

Some tough choices in this bracket. Hell, Revenge of the Nerds could had some upset mojo if not up against maybe the number 1 overall seed.

Seriously. Karate Kid is pulling ahead too. I'm gonna :Lin: :Lin: :Lin:

Maybe you missed the analysis of the Karate Kid's widespread influence in our culture posted earlier in the thread.

I just don't understand how a collection of movies from the same genre constitute a movie franchise. Same actor or not.

I suspect a lot of that will get "corrected" in the next round. There's a lot of subpar competition in this round. Once things truly heat up, that kind of thing will become more important. For now, people often just vote for stuff they remember liking.

Don't judge my ADD!

What is this Die Hard over Alien nonsense....you all suck.

Die Hard might be a touch better across the course of it's existence, but none of the Die Hard movies come close to Alien or Aliens, and the two bad Die Hard movies are far worse than the bad Alien movies.

BTW, the Bourne movies are fine but in 20 years no one will care about them.

Back to the Future is timeless.

It's the very definition of timeless.

The Bourne Identity is almost 20 years old. I don’t know about everyone else but I still care

Let's say you have a newborn son and when he is 10, a massive EMP attack wipes out all stored media on planet earth.

Only two movies survive this attack.

Blu-ray copies of The Bourne Identity and Back to the Future.

You can pick either one of them to show your son, but watching one will erase the other.

Yeah we all know which one he's watching.

I cared about Back to the Future 20 years before I even saw it.

Who are the maroons who voted the Karate kid over Humphry Bogart? :shake:

Not that either of them are favorites to win it all, but Fast and the Furious vs. The Hangover appears to be the tightest battle we've had so far.

Fast and the Furious basically knotted up with The ****ing Hangover?

The first five F&F movies are entertaining as shit. The Hangover is shit.

The Hangover franchise is awesome. Fast and Furious is only getting pity votes or something.

Would someone read the public poll to our friend, alanm, please?

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Lol.

I've been asking all the people saying this to defend a collection of Bogart movies as a "movie franchise". No one has taken me up on that. If you'd like to, I'm all ears.

If you've seen the first Hangover, you've seen them all. They're practically identical.

Fast Five is my favorite. Sure, the acting isn't the greatest, and they've gotten more into just blowing stuff up than about cars, but at least there's an ongoing story line.

Watching the movies is kind of like being in them. When you watch a new one, you have a feeling you've been there before, but you don't remember the specifics. It's almost like zach galifianakis roofied you. What a brilliant franchise easter egg.

The late night crowd apparently loves the Hangover. Who knew?

That 7/10 is terrible seeding.

The 8/9 is pretty great though. Really about the same level franchises and about middle of the road.

Fast and Furious is going to lose the the friggen Hangover franchise?

Man...that's a travesty.

Look, The F&F films aren't Citizen Kane, but that's pretty much par for the course in ANY film franchise. Maybe 20% of those have any real artistic merit. The rest are Rambo.

But that franchise has gotten better as it's gone along, it's staying power has been incredible and only a couple of them are true clunkers out of, what, 8?

The Hangover, OTOH, is one good movie and two pieces of complete shit. The 3rd movie was especially terrible. Building an entire damn movie around Chow? Lord that was a terrible decision.

I just.....man I don't get that one at all.

It's times like this that I wish I had 7 or 8 mults....

This is true. I mean I don't this F&F is final four material, but losing to the Hangover is crazy. REALLY not making this a race thing, but the CP demo isn't what has made F&F a box office juggernaut. That's the only explanation I can come up with.

Is there some race thing with Fast and Furious? I never watched it because I figured they were just car chase movies, and I'm not into car chase movies.

Yeah but Alien and Die Hard are a 7-10 seed. ROFL

While popular with most people in general, it has been especially popular with black and brown people. A lot of that has been attributed to the higher level of representation in them relative to other action franchises. That's all. Nothing inherently racial about the plot or anything.

Ah, interesting. I didn't know that.