Thanks for that hypothetical. Well reasoned. Here’s a slice of real life to offset that, though. This is how things look after 110 Voters as compared with the situation after 48. (See above in the thread at Post #14). This listing was truncated after the last of those earlier movies, so the lag-behind group is missing here.
View Poll Results: Best Action Movie 1991-2010
110 48
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 63 57.27% 25 52.08% (1)
The Matrix (1999) 46 41.82% 15 31.25% (7)
True Lies (1994) 39 35.45% 18 37.50% (3)
The Dark Knight (2008) 38 34.55% 19 39.58% (2)
Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) 34 30.91% 12 25.00% (10)
Iron Man (2008) 33 30.00% 17 35.42% (5)
The Bourne Identity (2002) 32 29.09% 18 37.50% (4)
Casino Royale (2006) 30 27.27% 13 27.08% (9)
The Fifth Element (1997) 29 26.36% 16 33.33% (6)
Independence Day (1996) 26 23.64% 13 27.08% (8)
Speed (1994) 24 21.82% 10 20.83% (11)
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) 20 18.18% 10 20.83% (12)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) 19 17.27% 10 20.83% (14)
The Rock (1996) 18 16.36% 10 20.83% (13)
Inception (2010) 18 16.36% 8 16.67% (17)
Heat (1995) 17 15.45% 7 14.58% (20)
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) 16 14.55% 7 14.58% (19)
Braveheart (1995) 15 13.64% 7 14.58% (18)
Snatch (2000) 15 13.64% 6 12.50% (24)
Spider-Man 2 (2004) 15 13.64% 7 14.58% (22)
Ronin (1998) 14 12.73% 8 16.67% (15)
The Transporter (2002) 13 11.82% 6 12.50% (25)
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) 13 11.82%
300 (2007) 13 11.82% 8 16.67% (16)
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) 12 10.91% 7 14.58% (21)
The Mummy (1999) 12 10.91% 5 10.42% (27)
Kick-Ass (2010) 12 10.91%
Starship Troopers (1997) 11 10.00% 6 12.50% (23)
X2: X-Men United (2003) 11 10.00% 5 10.42% (28)
Rush Hour (1998) 10 9.09%
Machete (2010) 9 8.18%
Drunken Master II (1994) 8 7.27%
Air Force One (1997) 8 7.27%
Taken (2008) 8 7.27%
Red (2010) 8 7.27%
Under Siege (1992) 7 6.36%
Cliffhanger (1993) 7 6.36%
Demolition Man (1993) 7 6.36% 5 10.42% (26)
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 110
The gaps on the right indicate that those movies didn’t make the cut in that earlier “leaders” group. How things have moved and by how much suggests to me that the hypothetical you presented doesn’t have a big chance of coming true here.
I could be wrong, but I doubt it. (Charles Barkley, was it?)
How do you figure? Looks to me like roughly thirty more folks picked The Matrix, and roughly twenty more folks picked True Lies – and thirty-eight folks picked T2. Possibly every one of those thirty-eight voters first picked The Matrix or True Lies as their favorite. And, of course, it’s also possible there’s no overlap; I don’t see how the poll numbers, by themselves, make the hypothetical more or less likely.
It might help to look at the percentages and how they have changed or not.
I’m content to let this play out and see how it finishes up. Your hypothetical is not impossible just unlikely and all I have proposed is that we go ahead and acknowledge that Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) is the Number 1 movie and don’t have it in the final poll so that #2 and lower can have a better chance of getting meaningful votes. And to be clear, I’m not insisting, just proposing. This is Justin_Bailey’s poll and it’s his decision.
You might take a snapshot of the votes results and sort them and see how little the overall picture is changing. I’m through with that sort of exercise.
But my whole point is how little the overall picture is changing: The Matrix keeps going up, True Lies keeps going up, and T2 keeps going up more – which is entirely consistent with the same explanation as before: maybe lots of folks think T2 is the best, and maybe nobody figures it’s the best. The snapshots in question simply don’t tell us how many voters had T2 as a second-place or third-place or fourth-place choice.
I agree that the most likely explanation involves T2 simply getting the win; I just don’t see how “it might help to look at the percentages and how they have changed or not.” If the alternate explanation is correct, then wouldn’t the overall picture of percentages look the same?
And of course, it’s not just that one single scenario. You could also have people favoring any of the other movies on the list, but also thinking T2 was pretty good. All that performance in this poll shows is how broad any given movie’s appeal is, not how deep it is.
I’m left wondering how popular Terminator 2 really was versus how much of a a role being the first option on the poll played. I wonder if listing the movies in reverse order of their box office take would have skewed things more fairly (will there ever be a "randomize order for each pollee option?).
I’m also left wondering how much of a hit certain movies, particularly The Matrix, took merely due to how people felt about their sequels.
Like Last of the Mohicans? More action than most of the movies on this list. Basically an action movie in a historical setting. The entire second half of the movie is an extended chase sequence, first with Magua chasing Hawkeye and crew, and then vice versa.
Mystified that this one didn’t make the cut but Braveheart did.
Fun poll, and I’m glad to have the chance to vote (and to lengthen my Netflix queue), but why did The Incredibles not make the list? I know it was nominated in the other thread.
I’ve never seen it, but after it was nominated a few people said it wasn’t really an action movie. I trusted their judgment.
So now that Round 1 is off to a rousing start, what do we want to do for Round 2? I was thinking of splitting the top votegetters into 90s and 2000s lists and then the top 3 or so from each list goes on to the finale.
I like the 90s 2000s idea split idea a lot, but suggest doing single choice for the second round. Multiple choice is good for getting early consensus on who should move on from the preliminaries, but I think the only way to get a solid final group is with single vote.
Just to be ornery, and taking into account that there are 53 (if I count right) titles on the list, I would break it into thirds so there are 17 in one and 18 in two, and go strictly chronological on the breaks. One vote per poll in those.
Final poll would be top five from each of those with one vote per Voter.
I believe that would distribute the Big Titles more or less evenly and still allow voting for the Little Ones if voters feel they were slighted in the multiple votes section.
With a day (or so) to go before deadline, here’s how things stand after 159 Voters:
View Poll Results: Best Action Movie 1991-2010
This poll will close on 06-25-2011 at 12:41 PM
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) 96 60.38%
The Matrix (1999) 63 39.62%
True Lies (1994) 54 33.96%
The Dark Knight (2008) 53 33.33%
The Bourne Identity (2002) 49 30.82%
Iron Man (2008) 48 30.19%
Kill Bill Volume 1 (2003) 47 29.56%
Casino Royale (2006) 38 23.90%
Speed (1994) 37 23.27%
Independence Day (1996) 35 22.01%
The Fifth Element (1997) 35 22.01%
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) 28 17.61%
The Rock (1996) 27 16.98%
Braveheart (1995) 25 15.72%
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) 25 15.72%
Heat (1995) 24 15.09%
300 (2007) 24 15.09%
Inception (2010) 24 15.09%
Spider-Man 2 (2004) 23 14.47%
Die Hard With a Vengeance (1995) 22 13.84%
Ronin (1998) 22 13.84%
The Mummy (1999) 19 11.95%
X2: X-Men United (2003) 19 11.95%
Snatch (2000) 18 11.32%
The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) 17 10.69%
Taken (2008) 17 10.69%
Starship Troopers (1997) 16 10.06%
The Transporter (2002) 15 9.43%
Kick-Ass (2010) 15 9.43%
Con-Air (1997) 13 8.18%
Kung Fu Hustle (2004) 13 8.18%
Machete (2010) 12 7.55%
Red (2010) 12 7.55%
Air Force One (1997) 11 6.92%
Hero (2002) 11 6.92%
Hard Boiled (1992) 10 6.29%
Bad Boys (1995) 10 6.29%
Rush Hour (1998) 10 6.29%
Shoot 'Em Up (2007) 10 6.29%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 159
