Daily Loaf

Note: This is our first Tournament of Summer Movie Blockbuster. In case you missed it, here’s the skinny on the tourney and a full list of competing films. And for news and reviews of this summer’s blockbusters, be sure and check CL’s Movies & TV site.

In Wednesday’s poll results, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial squeaked by Transformers to move on to round two. (Sorry Murray Jr. and offspring!). This weekend, the polls are open for our final Round 1 battle involving a #1 seed, as #1 The Dark Knight takes on #8 Armageddon.

Details on the films and your chance to vote are after the break.

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The Dark Knight stormed the box office last year, leaving the film a re-release away from replacing Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all time. Some of this incredible success can be attributed to the untimely death of star Heath Ledger, the media circus that followed and the fact that Ledger’s performance as The Joker is incredible. (The actor won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar for the performance at this year’s Academy Awards.) That aside, though, The Dark Knight stands as perhaps the best comic book film ever made, with a tense plot, stunning cinematography (much of the film was shot in IMAX), and a subtext that relentlessly asked the audience to consider when it was OK to do wrong in the name of right. Though it’s probably too early to deem The Dark Knight a classic, the film seems well on it’s way.
Final Box Office Gross: $533,345,358.00
Rank on AFI’s “100 Years … 100 Movies” list: N/A (So far)

Following on the heels of The Rock, director Michael Bay unleashed Armageddon on the 1998 summer box office, and it burned the place down. Credit the film’s special effects (the destruction of Paris, pictured above, is breathtaking) and the moving sacrifice Bruce Willis‘ character makes for the happiness of his daughter (Liv Tyler). Oddly, this is one of the few films I can think of where guys who saw it admitted to crying afterwards. On the down side, Armageddon’s plot is preposterous, and the film often substitutes noise and a shaky camera for thoughtfulness.
Final Box Office Gross: $201,578,182.00
Rank on AFI’s “100 Years … 100 Movies” list: N/A (forever!)

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