Why are list threads so popular?

I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that Gelflingboy has taken the inane list to the level of an art form.

Well, my favorite list thread would have to be MY TOP 46 FAVORITE ANIMATED MOVIES. The final lines more than make up for any deficiency in the overall body of work, and I think that this work is terribly underrated by film fanboys. It's not a GREAT thread, but it's entertaining, and sometimes that's enough.

What are some of your favorite list threads?

There have always been (at least since I've been here) list threads on CHUD, and there have always been periods where list threads were popular. This particular period just seems to be going on a little longer.

A better question would be, "Why is DTV/Segal/Van Damme/Lundgren discussion so popular?"

Because Moltisanti has no life, therefore we all must suffer.

I also think it's because we seem to be getting an influx of new members (with some of the regulars not posting quite as often as they used to), and in the past, one way new Chewers try to get to know people are through posting lists. Whether or not the fact that there's so much list posting going on is one of the reasons the old folks haven't been posting as much, well, that's another discussion. I know that's one of the reasons I've been posting less (also I've realized there's not much point in having a point of view unless you can discuss and defend it at length).

However, I do think that there are those who still try to have decent, thorough conversations about film, Stew, Tommy Five-Tone, Brendan, Helix, among them and of course, Nick, Devin, and the CHUD crew. The Toronto coverage, as people mentioned, was amazing and provoked some good discussion. I know it put a couple of films on my radar that I'd like to try to see.

And, of course, we're in that lull between summer and winter. Once the big pictures, starting with SERENITY and HISTORY OF VIOLENCE going wide this weekend, followed by (at least for me) WALK THE LINE, EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK, KISS KISS, BANG BANG, ALL THE KING'S MEN, not to mention KONG, I think you're going to see a revitalization of discussion.

What the hell are you talking about? I've never had a thoughtful conversation about film in my life.

Okay. I just mean I've seen a lot of your posts that are intelligent and informed. For example, I liked reading your thoughts about Garth Ennis in the comics forum.

All right. I was just speaking from personal experience. I didn't get to the movies very often this summer, and, thus, didn't participate in the discussion for films like BATMAN or WAR OF THE WORLDS. Now that I'm more secure in terms of a job and housing, I can actually make the effort to become a better film goer.

I also do think that you've seen a dumbing down of discussion in areas like the Films in Release or On Video forums (witness Gangs of New York getting maybe twelve posts, the detailed analyses Stew would make getting even less, and a discussion on the worst Steven Segal movie getting twice that), and maybe the list phenom contributed to that.

P.S.--What happened to that "film club" we had going?

Maybe new members like to post lists because it doesn't require that they master that oh-so-witty-sarcasm used by the 4000 posters who just can't wait to derail the thread.

What's funny about this is anybody can take 10 seconds and see that your average post count a day is around 10, Helix's is about 7, and I'm running at 3.5.

Both you and Helix are the reason why film discussion around here hasn't been too hot lately. Helix just doesn't see many non-animated films which is his probelm and so his posts are just lame put downs of other people or are references to the Justice League. The problem with you is that you're as useless as your own erections. Together you get the two guys who post here the most yet have nothing at all to say about actual films.

There has been a lot of talk here regarding DTV action films. What can I say? There has been a lot of those movies popping up this year. Most of the DVD reviews on this site lately have been of old late 80's/early 90's action films so I suppose that has gotten people a little more in the mood to discuss those films. Maybe you should take that up with who decides what DVD's should be reviewed for the site you contribute to. Actually don't do that because that would require a hint of balls.

I would also like to thank both you and Helix for bringing me up once again in a thread I hadn't posted in, this tells me I'm doing my job correctly. It's nice to know I have 2 people obsessing over me, even if they're dopes.

The last films we did before the summer started got very poor response for the overall effort, so I stopped doing it for at least the summer.

I think the "one film each two weeks" burned people out too fast a lot of people had trouble getting movies in time for the discussion to start. If I start it up again, I think maybe one film every 4 weeks or just one a month would help out.

I had a lot of fun with those, but it wasn't fun doing a write up and managing the input for it and then have like 10 people respond.

No shit you dope, look at your average over your time posting (I refuse to call it a career) which is longer than mine. I'm not about to research what the averages would be over the last 6 months but I'm sure you still have me beat, maybe those links to the news items shouldn't count as posts because that would probably impact those statistics greatly. I have been posting here a lot lately mainly because I have a much quicker connection to the net which makes posting as easy as changing channels on the remote. It's fun, I enjoy interacting with 99.7% of the folks on here. It's well worth interacting with you and Helix to discuss things with the rest of the emotionally stable members of the board.

What's really funny is that I was hoping LORD OF WAR would get some discussion last weekend on here. It was a new film dealing with interesting subject matter and it was released all around the country so that you didn't have to just be in New York or L.A. to watch it. Time passed on and there was nothing. I didn't get to see it until the Sunday following the release yet even then there was still no talk of the film. I started a thread and a few folks had seen it and threw in their thoughts but there was really nothing much to keep it alive.

Hopefully things will be a little more lively for A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, since I don't have much interest in seeing SERENITY.

Helix and Devin add ten times more character to this community than you ever will.

Better yet, why is all of Devin's posts usually have him bitching about something? Perhaps he would feel more at home posting at AICN.

Maybe if newbies spent less time bitching about Devin and telling people to "turn your brain off and just have a good time" in threads like the Batman Begins clusterfuck of stupidity, the people worth listening to would post more.

And it's hilarious that Moltifuckingsanti is holding himself up as some sort of paragon of intelligent discourse. Yeah, just keep raging against the dying of the light there, M.

Speaking of people who post a lot and have nothing to say about film. Were you busy dealing with "Big Brother" fever? Or is it a video game that has caught your fancy lately?

Please point out any recent threads where I've posted "a lot." I post *maybe* once a day, meathead.

I, for one, would like to say that arguing the vailidity of list threads and DTV threads, is much better than continuing said threads.

Still one too many, but that one about the puppy Nintendo game or whatever the hell that is sure lit a fire under you. I eagerly await your take on something that has to do with the magic of Game Boy.

I know I'm on the right course when I've ticked off a guy who likes CRADLE WILL ROCK.

Wait a minute, Cradle Will Rock is outside of your standards of quality!? What, there wasn't enough of the Boz? Should they have thrown in a plot line with Van Damme defusing a bomb for it to meet your idea of a "great" movie? That you would ever criticize a film for being bad is absolute sham of the idea of "critique".

See now if I had hoped that for you I'm sure you'd respond like the bitch you are and say I'm going to get banned. I certainly don't want that for you and I look forward to pointing out ways in which you can end your existance, since that appears to be fair game.

Thanks for making me have to edit Shane, now it looks like I think you blow instead of Devin.

This thread is genius.

Seriously Shane, if you're going to express your love for a Cary Elwes film go with HOT SHOTS. That'll get some good discussion going that doesn't only involve mainly yourself. THE CRUSH might do that to but I was planning to rip into that one soon so just wait for my lead.

Seriously Molt, if you're going to deride a thread about understanding why people don't like a movie, especially when you don't like that movie, why don't you add to the discourse instead of offering up insults with the eloquence of a high school cheerleader? Yeah, I've had to push that thread forward, because I honestly want to know why people who have the capacity to like intelligent films don't like a movie that I felt was good. Not enough people were posting, so I was trying to get to the gist of the hate. But no, you keep talking about OUT FOR JUSTICE. There's real intellectual merit in that.

Serioulsy Shane, CRADLE WILL ROCK isn't even the best film featuring both John and Joan Cusak.

If you don't see the intellectual merit in OUT FOR JUSTICE then I suggest you watch the film again. In between all the bone breaking action their is a subtle theme about how lower class workers try to survive in a world full of power hungry men who will stop at nothing to keep them down. Sort of like CRADLE WILL ROCK!

If you want to debate CRADLE WILL ROCK, here you go, here's a thread, I'M ASKING FOR IT!
Also, I'm going to stop replying to this thread, as it's just becoming a bunch of derailed nonsense. Grofield has a point: although your posts annoy me quite a bit, you haven't made much more of a disturbance outside of creating a bunch of new threads that I have to ignore, and apparently that's what people like to talk about now. I still submit that while people see Devin's posts as inflammatory, and Helix's as pointless, they add a feel of community to these boards that I appreciate. And I don't know many people who can be as funny with a single sentence as Helix, or as (for better or worse) provoking, in his own way, as Devin.

Everybody play nice?

Thanks from me to Grofield, first for being a Walter Hill fan, and second for really being one of the people on here who does help keep good film discussion alive.

Alright Shane, I'll stop bagging on CRADLE WILL ROCK here but I have a feeling you wouldn't want me to reply in that thread because I'd just tell a bunch of Nelson Rockefeller jokes, and since you have stated a liking for Helix humor you would hate what I had to offer in criticism on that particular film. I hope you start a thread soon about a film that we can discuss with more of a clean slate. You can even pick one that doesn't involve Seagal, really I'll try to wrap my head around it.

Yeah, because an adult playing video games is much more humiliating than an adult who still likes Transformers and posts about shitty, sweaty Van Damme movies to such an obsessive degree that the only possible explanations are homoerotic lust or severe autism.

And in another shocking development, Grofield enters a thread just to take a shot at Devin for the 763rd consecutive time. The mind wobbles.

Okay, so I said I wouldn't post here again, but this is rather civil: I really do want you to post in that thread. You said it yourself, I'm getting so desperate for critiques of that movie that most of that discussion is just me talking. Post there, please, get some sort of a dialouge going in there. I'm begging for your criticisms of that film. Also, clean slate? I started a thread about Paradise Now today, try wrapping your head around that movie, pre-release and post-release.

Grofield, I was being civil. You posted like an ass. That you can't see a problem between this statement and this: is amazing.

What's ironic about Slater is that you'd think I would get along better with one of the few people on here who enjoyed the more recent version of THE PUNISHER almost as much as I did, though I admit I'm sure I liked it more.

So tell us Slater, with this month coming to an end do you end up doing Devin's laundry or does Helix get the even months. Either way, keep getting those whites their whitest!

Man, this was just too easy.

Well, you're certainly leading by example, sunshine.

And Moltisanti, there's a Woodward-sized difference between enjoying the occasional guilty pleasure and structuring your entire online persona around a rabid devotion to the shittiest of shit.

Er, getting back to the original topic (I think there was one somewhere), I suppose people like list threads to have their own views validated and to tear down other people's.

Utter nonsense. The very idea that this would ever happen on CHUD is ridiculous.

What's also funny about this thread is that it is about "list" threads. This very site is still in the middle of the "100 Greatest Bastards" list and I believe it was mentioned that a feature was coming about the "100 Best moments involving Nudity," or something like that.

It's heard to argue with anyone who uses the term "online persona."

Slater and I used to be tight. We built a soap box racer together and even spent a summer helping out Habitat for Humanity side by side.

Things took an ugly turn one day when we were rough housing and things went way too far. Luckily there is a photo to keep the memory alive forever. That's me on the right!



I take full responibility for that mess. It wasn't supposed to go down that way.

Moltisanti: flawless victory.

Avoiding the name calling and hair pulling in this thread and sticking to the topic, it is a shame that there isn't more discussion in these lists. Some of the topics could produce some good discussion, prehaps people don't comment for fear of being shot down? I don't know but Devin is right it is a shame.

On a related note what ever happend to the draft lists? They were pretty fun and did provoke some good discussion.

Okay, i'm not gonna pretend that I know everyone that posts, nor that i've been visiting the forums for more than a few months now, but here's my view.

Devin: If you want to see more informed/constructive film debate, perhaps you and Nick should start more threads yourself rather than just copying and pasting the links to your articles.

And you can't give people the freedom to discuss ANYTHING they want and then complain that it isn't high profile enough. If Moltisanti wants to discuss DTV, fair play. You don't have to read it. But I happen to know that I've tried to start a couple of threads on films that I thought were really decent and been shot down out of the blocks. (I also have my fair share of shitty list threads too, for which I apologise).

The rest of you: What separates CHUD from other film discussions is that every now and then something really interesting/downright hilarious crops up on the boards and everyone mucks in with their two cents. Don't let personal differences in taste make this place as unwelcoming, retarded and unpleasant as the AICN talkback. Man, the difference in class is amazing and is a large part of why I spend so much more time over here these days. (Plus the design over there is vaguely offensive to the eyes). As I said, everyone is free to say what they want. If you don't like it, its simple - don't post. Cos if you rip someone to the ground in a personal way, they're gonna do the same fucking thing to you, for no reason in particular and before you know it, we're all acting like the leaders of the free world.

The K.I.T.T. argument in the vehicle one effectively killed the draft lists. Bastards!

Moltisanti, like Gruber and Otik before him, gets a bum rap.

Gruber, maybe, but not Otik. That guy deserved all the hate he got.

As for the topic-
I've posted in plenty of list threads, but I usually try to provide some reasoning or insight. I don't understand why people post or read title lists with no context.
The Guzzlefish thing is completely beyond me. Why take the time to make a public list of the movies you own? Who actually reads that stuff and why?

Virtual masturbation.