SCFZ

Polling the films of Robert Rodriguez

The rules:

- your list can include no more than half* of the Rodriguez films you've seen, up to a maximum of 8. So if you've seen 6 films, you can vote for 3, and if you've seen 20, you can vote for up to 8.

* If you've seen an odd number, you can round up when deciding the length of your ballot -- e.g if you've seen 7, you can vote for 4, and if you've seen 15, you can vote for the maximum of 8.

- i'll assume ballots are ranked unless you tell me otherwise. unranked ballots are fine.

- deadline for ballots: next Tuesday, in seven days, whatever day that is

umbugbene created an index on letterboxd of all of our previous polls here: letterboxd.com/umbugbene/list/index-of-all-scfz-director-polls/

used a random number generator to pick our director because we didn't have a suggestion

Grindhouse/Planet Terror
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Bedhead
El Mariachi
Desperado
Ten Minute Cooking School: Puerco Pibil

seen seven, don't really care for the last two on my ballot so maybe will watch more... edit: seen 12

Great director!

Seen 11

Machete
Sin City
Desperado
From Dusk Till Dawn
El Mariachi


I highly anticipated Planet Terror, but it was very disappointing.

Seen 10

Sin City
El Mariachi
Once Upon a Time In Mexico
Grindhouse
From Dusk Till Dawn

Again Grindhouse causes problems for me. I quite like Planet Terror as a section of the Grindhouse theatrical experience. As a standalone film I enjoy it quite a bit less. So I'm technically throwing my vote to the full thing as a single movie that he co-directed. Not sure if that's allowed.

Also, Jon Stewart getting stabbed in the eye in the Faculty is one of the iconic moments from my youth. Maybe Rodriguez hasn't had a great career, but definitely an interesting one.

seen 2

Alita: Battle Angel

01. Grindhouse
02. Alita: Battle Angel
03. The Faculty
04. Four Rooms

Rodriguez seen: 7

el mariachi
grindhouse
spy kids
from dusk til dawn

caveat: it's been all kinds of years since i saw these

Desperado
Sin City

From Dusk Till Dawn
Planet Terror

seen 3

desperado
el mariachi
from dusk til dawn

seen 11

1. From Dusk 'till Dawn
2. El Mariachi
3. Sin City
4. Planet Terror
5. Machete


that's good enuffff

what a strange career.

Roadracers
Once Upon a Time in Mexico

seen enough to rate a lot more. should check out battle angel, which seems like a cameron movie where rodriguez was train conductor on the set from everything i've read.

seen 5

Desperado
Machete

Seen three, and they're al well-represented on the ballots, so I'll sit this one out.

His career started off somewhat promisingly then he just became another Hollywood hack. Sin City is easily his most accomplished work as a director. It grew on me with time. Seen 15.

Sin City
From Dusk Till Dawn
El Mariachi
Desperado
Planet Terror
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For
Spy Kids
Spy Kids: Game Over

I did not like Mexico at all, but Spy Kids is a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoy all of those films except for 2.

Joks Trois wrote: ↑Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:38 am I did not like Mexico at all, but Spy Kids is a guilty pleasure for me. I enjoy all of those films except for 2.

you can vote for up to 8 if you've seen 15, so you can give any of those films some love if you want to. i actually just watched spy kids and kind of hated it, but it's also kind of bonkers in an interesting way, so i can see how someone might view it differently, not a great time to be using that much cgi tho

I will add another 3 films to my list.

Spy Kids definitely has moments of eccentricity. 3 and 4 are more out there, especially 3, which is like a gonzo computer game with a camp (and playful) performance by Stallone.

seen 13:
1. Sin City (2005)
2. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
3. El Mariachi (1992)
4. The Faculty (1998)
5. Planet Terror (2007)

1. From Dusk Till Dawn
2. Alita: Battle Angel
3. Desperado

I've seen 7.

Why not just give up on this poll business when you all run out of real directors?

we have at least six-eight more months of "real directors" to poll (including andrei konchalovsky, henry hathaway, etc), but when we run out, then yeah, that's probably what i'll do.

i get that you don't think much of rodriguez but if you don't care for a director we poll, you can just ignore the poll?

okay, this is a bit complicated: first, i don't know what to do about votes for planet terror and votes for grindhouse. when i was voting, i was thinking of them as the same film, so i was only ever going to vote for one of the two. not sure if other voters felt that way, and i'm not sure if i should combine votes for the two films, or keep them separate.

i'm guessing some people will want them to be considered as separate films, and if any voter didn't anticipate that happening, i'll leave open the option to switch votes -- right now, grindhouse got more support than planet terror, and if anyone who voted for planet terror would like that vote counted as a vote for grindhouse, just post in this thread to let me know! or if i'm persuaded they should be counted as a single film, i'll just combine their vote totals.

I've never seen Planet Terror and my vote was definitely for Grindhouse.

okay, we have a second complication: a tie for 1st! so we'll have a tiebreaker vote to pick a winner -- details in my next post

and anyone who wants to switch votes from planet terror to grindhouse or vice versa, please also post below

as for the voting, all of rodriguez's early films did well, and it's only when he started his run of kids movies that some of his features failed to gain any support (some of the spy kids sequels, the sharkboy and lavagirl movie, a movie called 'shorts' that i had never even heard of)

results
1. El Mariachi (1992) — 23.05 pts
2. Sin City (2005) — 23.04 pts
3. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) — 21 pts
4. Grindhouse (2007) — 14 pts
4. Desperado (1995) — 14 pts
6. Once Upon a Time in Mexico (2003) — 8 pts
7. Machete (2010) — 7 pts
8. Alita: Battle Angel (2019) — 6 pts
9. The Faculty (1998) — 4 pts
9. Planet Terror (2007) — 4 pts
11. Bedhead (1991) — 3 pts
12. Spy Kids (2001) — 2.3 pts
13. Roadracers (1994) — 2 pts
14. Four Rooms (1995) — 1 pt
15. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014) — 0.5 pts
15. Ten Minute Cooking School: Puerco Pibil (2004) — 0.5 pts
17. Spy Kids 3: Game Over (2003) — 0.1 pts

brian d wrote: ↑Tue Dec 14, 2021 9:27 pm seen 3

desperado
el mariachi
from dusk til dawn

oh wait -- maybe we won't need a tiebreaker. brian have you seen only 3? if so, i shouldn't be counting all three of your votes, but if you've seen 5 or more, then all your votes were tallied correctly, and we'll hold the tiebreaker

just in case we need it, i'll post the tiebreaker info now, but if brian's ballot ends up truncated, the tiebreaker won't matter.

the tiebreaker vote will decide if sin city and el mariachi gets the #1 ranking. you can only vote in the tiebreaker if you have seen both films -- if you have, just post your choice below. i can infer some votes from ballots already-posted, so no need to confirm your vote if your name is already listed (unless i got it wrong) :

sin city
silga
monsieur arkadin
joks iii
oscarwerner

el mariachi
flip
deepbluefunk
brian d x1,000,000
rischka x1,000,000
greg x

sorry, no, i've seen 6 total. and i definitely vote for el mariachi over sin city, probably a million times over if i could.

ME TOO can i vote 1000000 times over??

el mariachi

el mariachi

ok well it looked like sin city was winning handily (it was up 4-2) but with the new ballots, now el mariachi is up 2,000,003 to 4