Welcome to Double Feature Fridays, a weekly competition in which I challenge YOU to pair the week’s new releases with your favourite older or classic films.
Each week I name the new theatrical releases as well as a few other bonus picks of my choice. Your job is to comment with what other movie you’d like to screen in a double bill with the given films, and why. You can pick any movie you want – recent, classic, whatever – just be sure get your answers in by Thursday May 3, so the judges have enough time to make their decision.
I’ll get to the movies for this week in just a second, but first it’s time to list off last week’s winners. Fingers crossed you are among them.
ROUND 8 WINNERS:
Squasher88, who paired The Lucky One with The English Patient.
Nolahn, who paired Think Like A Man with Walk Like A Man and Airforce One with the upcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
Andrew Robinson, who paired Chimpanzee with Project Nim.
Courtney Small, who paired The Bicycle Thief with The Kid with a Bike
Well done winners, bad luck losers, and go get ‘em future competitors. Your films for this week are:
The Five Year Engagement
The Pirates! Band of Misfits
The Raven
Safe
Bonus: Irreversible
Time to sound off! Leave your most clever or creative pairings in the comment section below!
DOUBLE FEATURE FRIDAY LEADERBOARD:
Courtney Small (7)
Squasher88 (5)
Andrew Crump (4)
Andy Hart (4)
Glen H. (4)
Nolahn (4)
Dan Heaton (3)
Simon Columb (3)
Sam Fragoso (2)
Andrew Robinson (1)
Helen Geib (1)
Jandy Stone (1)
Steve Honeywell (1)
Wayne (6)
Mette (4)
Nic Cage (4)
Sebastian (4)
steve (4)
John (3)
Nick (3)
Dan (2)
J.D. (2)
Twitter: agracru
April 27, 2012 6:36 am
The 5-Year Engagement with Knocked Up: If only because of how the latter’s primary arc reflects a secondary arc in the second (which is frankly integral to the entire film).
Pirates! Band of Misfits with Coraline: Two very different visions brought to life through the same medium/bent.
The Raven with Stranger Than Fiction: Literature comes to life. Like, for serious reals. (Bonus: Tales From the Crypt episode 19, Korman’s Kalamity!)
Safe with Leon: Leon/The Professional comes to mind immediately upon seeing trailers for a film about an adult man well-versed in the fine art of killing bad guys. They’re probably very different outside of that family resemblance, but I bet they’d be a fun pair.
Irreversible with a big comfy pillow: Nothing I’ve ever watched really comes close to the soul-crushing graphic brutality of Noe’s non-linear, thoroughly harrowing film. Just make sure you have something to hug when it’s over.
The Five Year Engagement with Blue Valentine (movies about marriage)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (pirates)
The Raven with Anonymous (fiction movies about writers)
Safe with Man on Fire (men protecting little girls)
Irreversible with A Time To Kill (movies involving rape)
Twitter: ptsnob
April 27, 2012 7:58 am
The Five Year Engagement with A Very Long Engagement
The Pirates! Band of Misfits with Cutthroat Island
The Raven with From Hell
Safe with Children of Men
Irreversible with Naked
Tempted to sit out this week, but I’ve been on such a roll…
THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT with 2009′s STAR TREK (they’re both on five-year missions — yes, I’m reaching)
THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS with the VeggieTales’s THE PIRATES WHO DON’T DO ANYTHING (a “Those are pirates?” double-feature)
THE RAVEN with 2012 (a John Cucask/Writers are Action Heroes, too! double-feature)
SAFE with THE TRANSPORTER (a “Jason Statham protecting young Asian girls IS his Bag, Baby” double-feature)
IRREVERSIBLE with MEMENTO (!feature-double backwards-all)
Twitter: fandangogroover
April 28, 2012 5:14 am
The Five Year Engagement with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (an Emily Blunt rom-com-drama double bill)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits with Creation (a Darwin double bill)
The Raven with The Raven (1963) (Poe double bill)
Safe with Uptown Girls (mismatched adult child relationship both directed by Boaz Yakin)
Irreversible with L’appartement (real life couple Vincent Cassel/Monica Bellucci double bill)
The Five Year Engagement with The 40-Year-Old Virgin: Some things just go on for way too long.
The Pirates! Band of Misfits with Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog: The latter is possibly not eligable but the pairing of two breezy entertainments about misfits attempting to win contests to which they’re rather ill-suited is too good to pass up.
The Raven with Se7en: Films about crimes inspired by literature.
Safe with On Dangerous Ground: Just for the titles’ contrast.
Irreversible with The Virgin Spring: Rape-revenge stories attempting to do more than offer cathartic violence.
Twitter: smallmind
May 2, 2012 7:54 am
The Five Year Engagement – My Big Fat Greek Wedding (comedies where families play a big role in the wedding planning)
The Pirates! Band of Misfits – The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (adventures on the high seas that feature stop motion animation)
The Raven – Anonymous (Fiction thrillers involving real life literary figures)
Safe – Mercury Rising (Bald men risking their life to protect kids who are able crack codes)
Irreversible – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (films were a rape leads to revenge)