Round 3 Part 2 - Check out your Elite Eight matchups

Here are the rest of the winners from round 3. Below that you'll find a recap of how the Elite Eight games are laid out.

Drama

(11) A Few Good Men

(15) A Time to Kill

Winner: A Few Good Men

The biggest reason why I like both of these are for their courtroom dramas. While the trial in A Time to Kill is packed with tons of emotion and the desire to see Carl Lee Hailey freed, I just have to say that A Few Good Men is much better written, and its amazing cast launched it through this round without too much trouble.

Family

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

(15) Newsies

Winner: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

While Newsies is pretty close to being a top-ten pick of mine when all is said and done, Wonka's a lock for the top five. Sorry, Jack Kelly. You just couldn't overtake the Wonkavator.

Comedy

(11) Elf

(10) A League of Their Own

Winner: A League of Their Own

Elf is probably the funnier of the two movies, but A League of Their Own is better across the board in all other areas. It's tough to go against Will Ferrell's best movie ever, but we have to consider that this is also one of Tom Hanks' best movies. And Bobby Flay's best meal is always going to beat mine. Different levels, folks. Different levels.

Action

(6) The Boondock Saints

(7) The Bourne Trilogy

Winner: The Boondock Saints

And this is the end of the line for Jason Bourne and his amazingness. Although Treadstone never caught up to him, The Boondock Saints did. Does it seem like I heavily favor vigilante justice in my picks?

Okay, so there you have the rest of round 3. The matchups below, which will determine our Final Four, are dynamite!

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(11) A Few Good Men

Family

(9) Rudy

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Comedy

(4) The Princess Bride

(10) A League of Their Own

Action

(9) Man on Fire

(6) The Boondock Saints

Stay tuned...

Elizabeth's weird... and tales of the Malibu

My wife at the store today: "Don't you just, I mean, I really, do you, I just LOVE Tupperware! Whenever I see it I think, 'What could I put in that?'"

Today Elizabeth and I spent a couple of hours working on Jase's car. Don't worry, Jase, it wasn't having operational problems. We just figured that since we're going to be using it for a couple of months it'd be nice if it were a little cleaner than you're used to keeping it.

So anyway, a big huge shoutout THANK YOU to my brother Jase who's graciously allowing us to introduce his car to some Colorado roads for a few months while he's in another country. And another huge THANK YOU to Elizabeth who did some fantastic work getting the inside of the Malibu looking pretty stinking good so I can feel more comfortable in it!

Round 3 Part 1 - Half of the Elite Eight is here

These round 3 contests are ridiculous! They're all tough. The first half of round 3 is below. Tomorrow you should have the rest of the round.

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(5) Good Will Hunting

Winner: The Shawshank Redemption

This was probably the closest contest of the tournament so far, and I'd be lying if I said it was an easy win for Shawshank. At the end of the tournament I'm planning to recap the 64 movies and rank them all so that you can see that just because Good Will Hunting got knocked off in the third round doesn't mean it's ranked in the bottom half of the top 16.

Family

(9) Rudy

(4) Beauty and the Beast

Winner: Rudy

This is the first contest Beauty and the Beast has had that's not against a sort of fantastical fairy-tale kind of movie. It was a close matchup for sure, but Rudy took it over late in the 4th quarter when Notre Dame had it in the bag and he got to play for a couple of plays.

Comedy

(1) Forrest Gump

(4) The Princess Bride

Winner: The Princess Bride

This, like the Shawshank/Good Will Hunting showdown, is evidence that a third-round loss doesn't mean you're merely a third-round movie. In fact, Forrest Gump will likely rank above both of the above films in the Family region above when it comes to the final rankings.

Action

(9) Man on Fire

(12) The Patriot

Winner: Man on Fire

Maybe I'm just too violent in nature, but the revenge that Denzel Washington's character takes out on four or five people in Man on Fire is just cooler than than that which Mel Gibson's character takes out on one guy in The Patriot. It should also be noted that if Tombstone had eked out a first-round win over Man on Fire it would still be winning too. That's how close that one was.

Check back tomorrow for the second half of the Elite Eight movies. We're getting down to it now!

Tweetin'

I mentioned that I'm on Twitter now in a post a while back. I'm starting to pick it up a bit and see if I can figure out its positives and negatives. If you're interested, you can find me at twitter.com/valleyranch84. Also, I added a little Twitter widget to the right on this blog so you can check out my updates right here on my blog.

Round 2 Part 2 - The Sweet Sixteen & Round 3 are SET!

Here's the second half of the round two matchups. Below them you'll find a recap of how Round 3 shapes up.

Drama

(13) The Phantom of the Opera

(5) Good Will Hunting

Winner: Good Will Hunting

The music of Andrew Lloyd Webber is great, and he hit the nail on the head with Phantom, but Good Will Hunting wins this one rather easily. I don't even know what specifics to point to in order to convey why I like it, but I do.

(7) Glory

(15) A Time to Kill

Winner: A Time to Kill

When Carl Lee Hailey (Samuel L. Jackson) erupts on the witness stand I always want to jump out of me seat and cheer. But I usually don't. It's a fantastic movie.

Family

(1) The Lion King

(9) Rudy

Winner: Rudy

Rudy gets the upset here by virtue of the fact that I'm not 12 anymore. That's not to say that The Lion King is just for kids, of course. I still love it and think it's hilarious, and that the music is great. If this was a Broadway show competition The Lion King would probably win it, but I think the overall appeal of Rudy as a film is bigger and better.

(3) Toy Story

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Winner: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

I really do think Willy Wonka is the better movie here (though it's very close), but I also feel like I tend to lean toward it because it doesn't get the respect it deserves. It really is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen, and it just seems to get better with age. I don't know how people can't love Gene Wilder's Wonka. Simply hysterical.

Comedy

(4) The Princess Bride

(5) Ocean's 11

Winner: The Princess Bride

This was a major blowout. The Princess Bride so far has won two relatively uncontested matches. I don't want to take anything away from Ocean's 11, but there are very few movies on the planet that even put up a slight struggle with The Princess Bride, and this just isn't one of them. Sorry.

(10) A League of Their Own

(15) Arthur

Winner: A League of Their Own

I think that Arthur actually makes me laugh more out of these two movies, but it really has three or four side-splitting scenes (all of which come in the first 30-45 minutes of the movie), and the rest of it is just okay. Plus, Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own is hilarious. "Ball players?! I haven't got ball players, I've got girls!!"

Action

(1) The Dark Knight

(9) Man on Fire

Winner: Man on Fire

Not that close of a matchup here either. The Dark Knight was a very good movie with a very great performance by Heath Ledger, but Man on Fire is a much better movie (I might be the only person who thinks this, but that's the way it goes).

(14) Tears of the Sun

(6) The Boondock Saints

Winner: The Boondock Saints

It's tough for me to have to say good-bye to Tears of the Sun so early because I really do love it. Unfortunately, tournaments like this are all about matchups and it drew a tough one here in the second round. I don't get to see The Boondock Saints very often, but if you haven't ever seen it I would encourage you to (unless you can't handle blood or violence).

Alright, so there you go. Here are the third round matchups. Who do you think will win and head to the Elite Eight? I'll tell you right now, NONE of these are a piece of cake.

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(5) Good Will Hunting

(11) A Few Good Men

(15) A Time to Kill

Family

(9) Rudy

(4) Beauty and the Beast

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

(15) Newsies

Comedy

(1) Forrest Gump

(4) The Princess Bride

(11) Elf

(10) A League of Their Own

Action

(9) Man on Fire

(12) The Patriot

(6) The Boondock Saints

(7) The Bourne Trilogy

We're in for some nailbiters this time around!

Round 2 Part 1 - Who's gonna make the Sweet Sixteen?

According to the comments you've all been leaving, I feel like so far I'm doing an okay job in your eyes for the most part (with a few exceptions, of course). I hope I don't completely alienate you in the second round. Let's get started.

Once again, this will just be half of the second round. The rest of the second round games will be posted tomorrow. Here we go!

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(8) The Truman Show

Winner: The Shawshank Redemption

For each of these movies the first round wins were too easy to come by. This one was a bit tougher, but The Truman Show never really stood a chance. Although it's really great, Shawshank is really in another league.

(14) The Terminal

(11) A Few Good Men

Winner: A Few Good Men

"It was oregano, Dave, it was ten dollars worth of oregano."

"Yeah? Well your client thought it was marijuana."

"My client's a moron, that's not against the law."

It's awfully tough to beat the side-splitting humor mixed with amazing drama and acting in A Few Good Men... and we haven't even mentioned Nicholson yet.

Family

(4) Beauty and the Beast

(5) Finding Neverland

Winner: Beauty and the Beast

I honestly don't think Finding Neverland gets the credit it deserves for being a beautifully made creative piece of work, but if I chose it as the winner in this contest it would only be as some kind of statement-maker, and that's not fair. At the end of the day, it's the musical score from Beauty and the Beast that just pushed this one over the edge.

(7) Miracle

(15) Newsies

Winner: Newsies

The drama and the emotion of Miracle are much stronger than in Newsies, but the latter has marvelous music, marvelous choreography, and a set of lovable characters tied into a real-life story that came out on top.

Comedy

(1) Forrest Gump

(9) Marley & Me

Winner: Forrest Gump

The only way for a movie to beat Forrest Gump is to be at least ten years old and to have proven itself more timeless and enduring. Maybe in ten years Marley & Me will be at that point, but I doubt it. Sorry, Elizabeth. I still love Marley.

(14) Matilda

(11) Elf

Winner: Elf

I think Will Ferrell is one of the funniest guys in the business, but unfortunately most of his movies are vulgar and inappropriate. Elf is the exception to that rule. It's totally clean, and even funnier than the gross ones. I think it's pretty much the humor that puts this one out of reach.

Action

(4) Gladiator

(12) The Patriot

Winner: The Patriot

Probably the toughest decision of round 2. These are both amazing movies with very good manly-man kinds of lead characters. It was hard. I couldn't even decide it based on historical periods, because my two favorites to study would be captured in each of these movies. I don't know what the X-factor was that gave The Patriot the win, but it happened.

(7) The Bourne Trilogy

(15) Armageddon

Winner: The Bourne Trilogy

Maybe it's a little unfair that three great movies are going up against one, but that's the way it's happening. Armageddon really is a fabulous movie, but I'm won over by how Jason Bourne is so obviously a re-programmed man whose pretty much a machine, knowing exactly what to do to accomplish his goal. It's just cool.

Yarn

I saw a billboard yesterday advertising a store called Yarns. Its tagline was, "The 2nd Friendliest Yarn Store in the Universe!"

If its intent was to make me curious, it worked. Because I really want to know what the first friendliest yarn store in the universe is.

Round 1 Part 2 - And Round 2 is set

Below are the winners and explanations of the second half of the first round winners. After that I'll lay out round 2 for you.

Drama

(2) Schindler's List

(15) A Time to Kill

Winner: A Time to Kill

I hear a lot of people say that A Time to Kill was Grisham's best book, but it's not that great of a movie. I obviously don't agree. In fact, I think Grisham has books that are much better, but the movie is fantastic.

(4) The Prestige

(13) The Phantom of the Opera

Winner: The Phantom of the Opera

The fact that I've seen Phantom the Broadway show on stage before I'm sure weighed on this decision more than it should have. That stage show is unreal. And the singers are better (than they are in the movie). But it's still a better movie than The Prestige, but not by a whole lot. I just tend to like Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals.

(6) Big Fish

(11) A Few Good Men

Winner: are you kidding? A Few Good Men

Big Fish is a good flick. That's all I have to say about it. A Few Good Men is one of the best two or three movies ever. Which is why you might see it going a ways in the tournament.

(8) The Truman Show

(9) The Breakfast Club

Winner: The Truman Show

Bottom line: The Truman Show is creative, original, and extremely well done. It's only problem? Shawshank is its next opponent...

Family

(1) The Lion King

(16) First Knight

Winner: The Lion King

I'll never forget watching The Lion King as an 11 year-old and thinking it was the best movie I'd ever seen. Now I think it's even funnier than I did then. Well-written, good music, good animation. It's a tough Disney movie to beat, that's for sure.

(3) Toy Story

(14) A Goofy Movie

Winner: Toy Story

This is a battle between one of the best-loved Disney movies ever, and a much less well-known Disney movie that's usually just played on the Disney Channel ever couple of months. Still, I think A Goofy Movie has a great soundtrack, and it's really funny. But I don't know if there's another family movie out there that's funnier than Toy Story.

(5) Finding Neverland

(12) John Q

Winner: Finding Neverland

I've seen both of these movies recently, and they're both wonderful. John Q makes me cry, and wish that there wasn't anyone in the world who would ever have to watch their child die because they're not financially stable. I chose Finding Neverland because it's idealistic, imaginative, and fun. It's got some cool cinematography going on too.

(7) Miracle

(10) The Rookie

Winner: Miracle

The Rookie is really good, but nothing beats givin' the 1980 Soviet hockey team a good whoopin'. Also, I like Kurt Russell's Minnesoooootan accent.

Comedy

(1) Forrest Gump

(16) From the Hip

Winner: Forrest Gump

My dad got me into From the Hip the first time. I loved it. Still do. Forrest Gump, however, is a timeless classic of huge proportions. Just about everything about it is perfect.

(3) Singin' in the Rain

(14) Matilda

Winner: Matilda

I think I've only seen Singin' in the Rain about twice all the way through, which is part of the reason Matilda beat it. Another contributing factor might just be that the former is a bit too old to really fall into my "absolutely love it" category, though the music and the humor of it are quite good.

(5) Ocean's 11

(12) 10 Things I Hate About You

Winner: Ocean's 11

I think overall Ocean's 11 is just funnier, and has more of the re-watch factor (which means I like to re-watch it a lot).

(7) The Sandlot

(10) A League of Their Own

Winner: A League of Their Own

The Sandlot is a classic kids movie, and it's too bad they've made so many stupid sequels. I don't blame Squints at all for what he pulled with Wendy Peffercorn. But I've got to go with A League of Their Own here. Tom Hanks is hilarious. One of the best Tom Hanks characters out there.

Action

(2) Fight Club

(15) Armageddon

Winner: Armageddon

I'm not really sure Fight Club should even be in my top 64. I'm sure I could think of some others more deserving. But it made it, and has now become the fourth #2 seed to go out in the first round against a #15 seed. I don't know if that's ever happened before, folks!

(4) Gladiator

(13) Ransom

Winner: Gladiator

This might have been the most difficult decision of the first round. Both of these movies are very good. I think in the end I was swayed a little bit by the second round matchup. By pitting Gladiator against The Patriot we have a little bit more of an epic battle than if Ransom was in there instead.

(6) The Boondock Saints

(11) The Italian Job

Winner: The Boondock Saints

The Boondock Saints is much less family-friendly than The Italian Job, but it's a better movie too. It's action-packed, and cinematically speaking, it's one of the best movies I've ever seen. The best part is when one guy accidently shoots a cat, which instantly disintegrates into a blood spatter on the wall, and then the guy asks (dead seriously), "Is it... dead?"

(8) Tombstone

(9) Man on Fire

Winner: Man on Fire

I wish these two hadn't faced each other in the first round. Remember when I said that Gladiator vs. Ransom was the toughest choice of the round? Well I might be changing my mind now. Tombstone is a classic western, with a stellar cast, and maybe Val Kilmer's best performance ever. But alas, Man on Fire squeaks into the second round by the skin of Denzel Washington's teeth.

So there are the rest of your Round 1 winners. The round two matchups are recapped for you below. It'll probably be a few days before we get to those.

Drama

(1) The Shawshank Redemption

(8) The Truman Show

(13) The Phantom of the Opera

(5) Good Will Hunting

(14) The Terminal

(11) A Few Good Men

(7) Glory

(15) A Time to Kill

Family

(1) The Lion King

(9) Rudy

(4) Beauty and the Beast

(5) Finding Neverland

(3) Toy Story

(6) Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

(7) Miracle

(15) Newsies

Comedy

(1) Forrest Gump

(9) Marley & Me

(4) The Princess Bride

(5) Ocean's 11

(14) Matilda

(11) Elf

(10) A League of Their Own

(15) Arthur

Action

(1) The Dark Knight

(9) Man on Fire

(4) Gladiator

(12) The Patriot

(14) Tears of the Sun

(6) Boondock Saints

(7) The Bourne Trilogy

(15) Armageddon