Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule Seasonal Quiz, Or I love it when these quizzes come out!!!

1) Classic film you most want to experience that has so far eluded you.
I'll just say the majority of films by Joseph Von Sternberg and "Sunrise"

2) Greatest Criterion DVD/Blu-ray release ever
I have not seen any blue-ray but of the ones I know that are on Blue-ray/DVD at the moment, I would say "The Seven Samurai"

3) The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon?
So hard to choose, but "The Big Sleep" has the edge of being funnier, and naughtier.

4) Jason Bateman or Paul Rudd?
For me Bateman might just have the edge for "Arrested Development" alone, but I do love Paul Rudd in "I Love you Man"

5) Best mother/child (male or female) movie star combo
Scream queens Janet Leigh and Jaimie Leigh Curtis

6) Who are the Robert Mitchums and Ida Lupinos among working movie actors? Do modern parallels to such masculine and no-nonsense feminine stars even exist? If not, why not? I can't think of stars who fit the same bill as these two people, that's not me being elitist when I say that. Josh Brolin reminds me much of Mitchum in films like "No Country for Old Men", he seems so natural playing those kind of guys. Ida Lupino is another story, I like to think Holly Hunter is just as no-nonsense when she could be. This is difficult

7) Favorite Preston Sturges movie
"Sullivan's Travels"

8) Odette Yustman or Mary Elizabeth Winstead?
Since Winstead just appeared in one of my favorite movies of the year ("Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World") I will say her.

9) Is there a movie that if you found out a partner or love interest loved (or didn't love) would qualify as a Relationship Deal Breaker?
If she could never at least like "It's a Wonderful Life", we would have a serious talk about our relationship

10) Favorite DVD commentary
I love Roger Ebert's commentary on "Citizen Kane", "Casablanca", and "Floating Weeds", and but also Donald Richie on "Tokyo Story"

11) Movies most recently seen on DVD, Blu-ray and theatrically
On DVD: "A Serious Man"
Theatrically: "Machete"

12) Dirk Bogarde or Alan Bates?
Don't really have a preference

13) Favorite DVD extra
I'm a fan of the "Making of" segments in DVDs as long as they are done well, and usually if they are a classic movie, it makes it more interesting to learn about.

14) Brian De Palma’s Scarface— yes or no?
Yes! Absolutely, everything about it screams excess, I can't get enough of it.

15) Best comic moment from a horror film that is not a horror comedy (Young Frankenstein, Love At First Bite, et al.)When Norman Bates describes the smell of linen (I think if I'm remembering it right) and he refers to it as a "Creepy smell", I just love his delivery, it's something so unexpected said by him, also the re-mentioning of the name "Dr. Pretorious" in "Bride of Frankenstein", although that might also be considered a comedy.

16) Jane Birkin or Edwige Fenech?
I have seen none of their movies, therefore have no opinion

17) Favorite Wong Kar-wai movie
Have seen none of his movies, but I'll get right on that.

18) Best horrific moment from a comedy that is not a horror comedy
Maybe the A-Bombs going off at the end of "Dr. Strangelove" or the phonecall Larry receives at the end of "A Serious Man"

19) From 2010, a specific example of what movies are doing right…
By putting short films like "Plastic Bag" on Youtube for everyone to see, shows that there are more venues opening up for people to see small films.

20) Ryan Reynolds or Chris Evans?
Probably Ryan Reynolds, I like his style.

21) Speculate about the future of online film writing. What’s next?
It'll catch on more and more, with most film critics losing their jobs in newspapers, it will be the forum to go to get good (some bad) film criticism.

22) Roger Livesey or David Farrar?
No opinion

23) Best father/child (male or female) movie star combo
A different end of the spectrum and say Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Coogan in "The Kid"

24) Favorite Freddie Francis movie (as Director)
I've IMDB'd him and haven't seen any of his movies

25) Bringing Up Baby or The Awful Truth?
I have a soft spot for "Bringing up Baby", it's the first film I think of when I think of screwball comedy.

26) Tina Fey or Kristen Wiig?
Tina Fey

27) Name a stylistically important director and the best film that would have never been made without his/her influence.
John Ford/Once Upon a Time in the West

28) Movie you’d most enjoy seeing remade and transplanted to a different culture (i.e. Yimou Zhang’s A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop.)
"Inglorious Basterds" maybe

29) Link to a picture/frame grab of a movie image that for you best illustrates bliss. Elaborate.



Basically because it's of two people who have shared a life together looking out at the ocean, what could be more perfectly blissful than that?

30) With a tip of that hat to Glenn Kenny, think of a just-slightly-inadequate alternate title for a famous movie. (Examples from GK: Fan Fiction; Boudu Relieved From Cramping; The Mild Imprecation of the Cat People)"Fargo, North Dakota"