Trevor

5th Annual DVDTalk Action/Adventure/Crime/Mystery Challenge Discussion Thread March 2016

Dates: Sunset on February 29th (or earlier) to sunrise on April 1st.

We have three overlapping Challenges this year, so plan those days accordingly if you wish "double credit" (or even "triple credit"!). The Academy Award Challenge runs through February 28th, so we have some overlap there only if you're also exercising the bonus time "Leap Day Challenge Time Paradox" (see below). What you watch from dusk on March 30th to dawn on April 1st could also count for the annual April B-Movie/Exploitation Challenge. And our Second Quadrennial Leap Day Challenge runs from dusk on February 27th until dawn on March 2nd. This Challenge and that one have a special "Leap Day Challenge Time Paradox" which allows Leap Day Challenge content that is also A/A/C/M compliant to count in both Challenges starting dusk on the 27th. Confusing? Time travel is supposed to be!

Rules: Sorta like all the other Challenges but as lenient as you can imagine. Everything counts as one: film, TV episode, short, trailer, DVD featurette, etc. Unofficial goal of hitting 100, but don't ignore real life to hit it. Everyone who shows up in either thread is an equal "winner". Anything listed on IMDB with a genre of action, adventure, crime, or mystery (or anything that even vaguely could be argued as should be listed as such) counts.


Checklist is still open for discussion, and will be in post #3 for easier editing and cut and pasting.

Prizes: None this year!

This is the discussion thread. Discuss.

Trevor

More stuff

Trevor

Reserved for checklist

pending Official Checklist (thanks to everyone for your tweaks)

Watch items from at least 7 of the 13 decades of film history.
--- 1880 - (insert item title here)
--- 1890 -
--- 1900 -
--- 1910 -
--- 1920 -
--- 1930 -
--- 1940 -
--- 1950 -
--- 1960 -
--- 1970 -
--- 1980 -
--- 1990 -
--- 2000 -
--- 2010 -

Watch items on at least 3 different formats (DVD, BD, HD-DVD, VHS, TV, streaming, theatrical, LD, live, etc.)
--- Format 1 - (insert item title here)
--- Format 2 -
--- Format 3 -

Watch items originating from at least 3 different countries outside of your own.
--- Country 1 - (insert item title here)
--- Country 2 -
--- Country 3 -
n/a my country -

Watch items with at least 6 different ratings.
--- Pre Codes - (insert item title here)
--- Hays approved -
--- Hays unapproved -
--- G -
--- GP -
--- PG -
--- PG-13 -
--- M -
--- R -
--- X -
--- NC-17 -
--- Unrated Post-codes -
--- TV Y -
--- TV Y7 -
--- TV G -
--- TV PG -
--- TV 14 -
--- TV MA -

Watch an item from at least 7 of the following subgenres.
--- Film Noir - (insert item title here)
--- Mystery
--- Urban cop thriller
--- Modern Caper/heist
--- Depression-era crime (Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, etc.)
--- Globe-trotting adventure (Americans overseas)
--- Treasure hunt adventure
--- Swordplay
--- Jungle movie (including Tarzan)
--- Hong Kong crime
--- Japanese Yakuza
--- Italian Crime
--- Conspiracy thriller
--- Spy/Espionage
--- Serial Killer
--- Space
--- War
--- Robots
--- Vigilante

Watch an item by at least five of these directors.
--- Raoul Walsh - (insert item title here)
--- Howard Hawks
--- John Ford
--- Anthony Mann
--- Don Siegel
--- Robert Aldrich
--- Sam Fuller
--- John Sturges
--- Jean-Pierre Melville
--- Akira Kurosawa
--- Kinji Fukasaku
--- Chang Cheh
--- Sammo Hung
--- Takeshi Kitano
--- John Woo
--- Walter Hill
--- Quentin Tarantino
--- John McTiernan
--- James Cameron
--- John Frankenheimer
--- Siergo Leone
--- Wong Jing
--- Yuen Chor
--- Sam Peckinpah
--- Robert Rodriguez
--- Alfred Hitchcock

Watch an item from at least five of these stars.
--- Errol Flynn - (insert item title here)
--- John Wayne
--- Cynthia Rothrock
--- Claudia Cardinale
--- Humphrey Bogart
--- Burt Lancaster
--- Kirk Douglas
--- Steve McQueen
--- Charles Bronson
--- James Coburn
--- Toshiro Mifune
--- Clint Eastwood
--- Chuck Norris
--- Bruce Lee
--- Jackie Chan
--- Sammo Hung
--- Steven Seagal
--- Henry Silva
--- Jean-Claude Van Damme 
--- Jason Statham
--- Bruce Willis
--- Sonny Chiba
--- Arnold Schwarzenegger
--- Sylvester Stallone
--- Samuel Jackson
--- Milla Jovovich
--- Harrison Ford
--- Denzel Washington
--- Jet Li
--- Michelle Rodriguez
--- Pam Grier
--- Jimmy Wang Yu
--- Tom Cruise

Complete at least seven of these categories.
--- a Bond film or spoof - (insert item title here)
--- MST3K or similar riff -
--- won an Academy Award -- any category -
--- won a Razzie -- any category -
--- silent film -
--- a crime or mystery item -
--- a film and it's sequel -
--- a film and it's remake (examples)
--- an item with a commentary or riff
--- a special feature -
--- something animated -
--- a trailer -
--- watch a sentai or tokusatsu item -
--- something with a major holiday theme -
--- a Criterion release -
--- (insert own category, be humorous) -

Cardsfan111

Reserved for a comment about looking forward to the stuff above.

Seriously, I enjoy this one. It covers such a broad area of genres, that I never have trouble deciding what to watch.

lisadoris

After the Oscar Challenge is finished I planned on continuing my Trek through the Star Trek franchise. I think TNG would count for this challenge so count me in.

Dimension X

Earliest list thread ever?

I might watch mostly comic-based stuff again, but I'm thinking of doing that in May, and I'm sure if I want to do two months of similar stuff or not.

Trevor

Actually, that was just a brain fart on my part. I knew I was a couple days late on the normal discussion thread start time, and in my haste I was thinking both went up approximately a month before.

In related news, I plan to get the Time Travel Challenge thread up later tonight.

omike

I always have a lot of fun with this challenge. I've been yearning for some Hong Kong action lately but I've been holding off since this is coming up fairly soon. I'm also starting to get into Midsomer Murders and other British TV mysteries. I usually have some ideas about what I'd like to get to but I tend to rely more on whims in this challenge than in others.

BobO'Link

Last night, while watching Kung Fu Panda 2 with my granddaughters, I was wondering what I might watch this year when it occurred to me that I recently acquired the full run of Agatha Christie's Poirot as well as the new Rockford Files full series box set and then I remembered I purchased the full Murder She Wrote series last year about this time. I think I have enough...

coyoteblue

I've got plenty to watch even without netflix/amazon; just on tv there's Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Lucifer, iZombie and that's just the comic based tv.

For stuff on hand, I'm thinking, next movie in the Miss Marple (Rutherford) box, crack that Columbo box and watch a movie/episode, Black Tavern (1972), Fun and Fury (1992), 100 Ways to Murder Your Wife (1986), The Raid (2011), maybe dig out Relic Hunter and watch a couple of eps... and I know I've got a copy of Ivanhoe (1952) somewhere. The Princess and the Pirate (1944) and Casanova's Big Night (1954) come to mind, too. Plenty of choices.

davidh777

I think the inclusion of crime and mystery makes the challenge more fun and broad than if it were just action.

BobO'Link

Be aware the print for this one has registration issues on at least one reel. They've never gone back and corrected it. It almost makes it unwatchable but I suffer through it as I love Bob Hope films.

shadokitty

For those who watched Batman in January, how is it? I have Season One, but never got around to watching it, and I might watch a few episodes in March.

lrend

I like to watch Snapped. If you have the Oxygen channel they have marathons of Snapped every Sunday and I think a new episode usually comes on that night.

shadokitty

Thanks for the tip. I'll keep an eye out for it.

BobO'Link

While I didn't watch it in January I'll still chime in. Batman is one of my all-time-favorite TV shows. I *loved* it as a kid during the original run and was somewhat worried it might not hold up when I purchased the series shortly after release. My worries were unfounded - it held up *very* well. I saw things I'd not seen during those original airings and "got" lots of the more "adult" type humor. I'm thrilled to say that my youngest granddaughter (4.8 yrs old) loves the series as well. We babysit her and her brother and sister every day. She asks "Can we watch Batman?" almost every day.

The one thing I strongly suggest is to *not* watch more then 2-4 episodes per day as it'll start to blur together some. If you can stand waiting, watch *one* episode per day to simulate the original airings (of course don't wait a week between arcs). Season 1 is the best, season 2 is still pretty good but has a few "stinkers" with season 3 being the worst, although it, too, has some very good episodes among the chaff. Even with S3 as the "worst" I'd still rather watch it than many "modern" TV programs and consider it far superior.

shadokitty

Sounds good. I'm looking forward to checking out the series. I almost did pop it open in January, but something always stopped me. Maybe figuring I could watch it next month, I don't know.

Trevor

Reminder that our Quadrennial Leap Day Challenge starts at dusk on Friday the 27th, and as a special bonus, any content that qualifies for that Challenge can also be counted in this one. So you can have a bonus 24 hour head start, but only time travel content counts.

Dimension X

Hey, it's up to you, and you may make your own challenge rules that differ from mine, but I think it's bad form to go pimping your upcoming challenge in another challenge's thread. Again, that's just me - you may make your own challenge rules.

shadokitty

I see what you did there

Trevor

Dimension X

All I said was I thought it was bad form to be pimping a challenge you host in another challenge's thread.
I don't get why you're treating my last post as comedy. Challenge etiquette is important to me.

Trevor

Then why don't you have the last Leap Day Challenge list linked in your sig? That was agreed upon at the last ruling council.

Dimension X

You make your own challenge links the way you want, and I'll make mine how I want.

I link to my list post, and I don't think we've started those yet for the Leap Day Challenge. Or have we? - Wait, you said "the last Leap Day Challenge list" - I didn't participate in that one (I think I was asleep that day, or something, and missed it).

Trevor

Not acceptable. Go back in time and participate.