If you’re like me, you can’t wait for this year to be finally over. And what better way to end it, then with a good old fashioned Top Ten lists of your favourite hobby or pastime. But one small problem. You only saw 15 movies that came out this year, at most, and maybe 7 of them were decent. Well that put a kink in the whole plans, doesn’t it?
Well, I want to try something different, and it’s something you can too. Join me in a brave experiment, where instead of thinking of 20 movies to put into a top 10 best and top 10 worst, let’s share only our “four”.
What I mean is that we make a little game of our quick reviews, and maybe try to make it a social networking experiment. It’s really easy. And the best part, it doesn’t have to be movies. You played a lot of video games this year? Make your 4 in games. Read a lot of books made this year? Make your 4 in books. Sports fan? Wrestling fan? Television, Cars, News? Anything you want, and share it with the world. Want to make two lists, one for video games, one for movies? Go right ahead. In fact, that’s what I will be doing.
All you have to do is follow Four rules:
Rule 1: It can only be the following 4 categories:
1. Biggest Surprise
This is your pick that you walked into, thinking it’s going to be okay at best, and walking out thinking you saw something that exceeded all your expectations. Now keep in mind, it doesn’t mean that you loved it, or that it’s the best of the year, but it’s something that was better than what you thought it was going to be. If the reviews came out, and it got panned across the board, but you liked it, then that’s your pick for this category.
It can even be something that you would have never guessed you liked. For example, M. Night Shyamalan’s classic, The Happening. At first, you figure it’s a horror thriller, because that’s how it’s advertised. After watching it, you realized it’s the funniest unintentional comedy you’ve seen since The Room.
2. Most Disappointing
Something came out, and was the biggest hyped product in years. Then you actually checked it out, and it sucked, or didn’t live up to the hype. That’s what would be in this category. Now, you can still like it, but it still didn’t meet your expectations. Or it was something you were waiting for a long time, but it came out sucking and ruining everything.
The best example I can think of, is M. Night Shyamalan’s classic, The Last Airbender. You wanted it to be faithful to the animated television show, but it just didn’t work in any way. (I wouldn’t know, I never saw the show.)
3. Absolute Worst
Pretty self explanatory. What was the worst experience you have had all year? Something that just left you with a bitter taste in your mouth. That one title that made you tell friends, “Don’t! It sucks!”
You know, like M. Night Shyamalan’s classic, The Villiage. Like, really? That twist was so predictable. And by Zod almighty, was the acting horrible. And it still doesn’t make a lick of sense.
4. The Best
What would you call “Best of the Year”? What was the one you would herald as head and shoulders above all else?
The one I can think of is M. Night Shyamalan’s classic, Unbreakable. Yes, I love that movie more than Sixth Sense. Everything about it is perfect. The story, the twist, the themes, the acting, everything.
Rule 2: No Duplicates
If something is your Best, it cannot be your Biggest Surprise. And something that is your most disappointing cannot be your Worst. This is a thought experiment to determine what four movies etc. Would fit into that category.
Rule 3: No Ties
It’s your “Four”, not your “Four-ish”. The idea is to announce to the world, without hesitation, what are your choices for each category.
Rule 4: No Honourable Mentions
I cannot stress this one enough, “No Mentioning Which Titles Almost Won“. You can’t even say in your quick review “Well, it boiled down to Movie X and Movie AB, but between the two…”. Now you can mention how difficult it was to choose, and you can even say how many were in the running, but only mention the title that won. The idea is that you’re supposed to choose 4 and only 4, to fall under these categories.
You like the idea? You have any suggestions on how to improve? You want to participate along side with me? Let me know.
I’ll be posting mine by category, both Video Game and Movie at the same time on the following dates:
- Biggest Surprise: December 27th
- Most Disappointing: December 28th
- Absolute Worst: December 29th
- The Best: December 30th
Keep watch on this blog, and keep an eye out on my Twitter feed for any more information.
Thank you for your time. Now to figure out my 4.