Strat-O-Matic Baseball 365

Greatest Catchers Right Now
1. Buster Posey, SF--The millennium's Bench, great hitter, fielder, and leader is on his way to HOF
2. Yadier Molina, STL--Only IRod was a better defensive catcher...and maybe not, could also be HOF-bound.
3. Yan Gomes, CLE--Excellent two-way threat needs to work on errors, but is still elite.
4. Jonathan Lucroy, MIL--Dangerous hitter has been improving his D every year.
5. Devin Mesoraco, CIN--Slugging backstop is similar player to Lucroy with more power, lesser hit tool.
6. Matt Wieters--BLT--Excellent 2-way lefty could rise to #3 if he stays healthy
7..Salvador Perez, KC--Defensive whiz should rise on list as offense grows.
8. Mike Zunino, SEA--College superstar has the arm and power to be an MLB all-star.
9. Brian McCann, NYY--Solid vet needs a comeback year to show he's not declining.
10. Tyler Flowers, CWS--Power and defense are coming together for beastly catcher.

Greatest Crime Movies
1. The Godfather II--Shakespearean tragedy of Micheal Corleone, the greatest character of American film.
2. Goodfellas--Hilarious, terrifying debunking of the myth of the "noble" Mafia.
3. The Godfather--Operatic epic of the Corleone's violent rise to Mafia dominance.
4. Out of the Past--Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas face off in this greatest Film Noir.
5. Chinatown--Nicholson plays both sly and clueless brilliantly in this dark tale of LA's past.
6. Pulp Fiction--Tarantino's masterpiece brings pulp novel tropes to cinematic life. Travolta dances again.
7. White Heat--James Cagney's best film is the model of the rising gangster story.
8. Scarface--DePalma's remake lets Pacino shine as the ferocious Tony Montana.
9. Fargo--Sardonic Midwest noir is the Coen Brothers' masterpiece.
10. Once Upon a Time in America--Haunting epic of the Jewish mafia confirms Leone's mastery.

Goodfellas
Once Upon A Time in America
Blow
Miller's Crossing
Big Lebowski
Ocean's 12
Homegrown
Leaves of Grass
Casino
The Good Thief

Interesting list, Radagast. I'm obviously fond of the first two. I love Lebowski and it is a great crime film, but I have that on my future best Comic Films list, so I left it off. I saw Blow years ago, and am still not sure what I think of it. I've never seen Homegrown, Leaves of Grass, or The Good Thief, so you'll have to tell me about them when you have the time sometime.

Reservoir Dogs

Catchers,

Nice list, wouldn't put Zunino on it ...YET I'm of a mind to say you have to prove it in the majors for 2 or more years and he hasn't YET. Not sure who I'd put on there though to replace him.

As for Crime films, seems too broad a topic, Strether's list seems to run more towards Gangster Films and Noir, which is fine, but what about films like:

The Sting
Ocean's 11 (both)
The Italian Job (both)
Heat
The Usual Suspects

All "caper" films I suppose but still crime.

I'm not sure how any list of Noir Films doesn't include The Maltese Falcon

and if you like your crime really twisted try:

Bound, early Wachowski brothers film with Gina Gershon (personal favorite of mine) Jennifer Tilly and Joe Pantoliano

Memento- as soon as your done watching it, you'll pop it back in to restart it, to find all the clues you missed.

Mulholland Drive- David Lynch doing what Lynch does, I've watched several times and I'm still not sure exactly WTF happened.

And for guilty pleasure

Wild Things which is known for the sex scenes but really has a neat little tale of multiple double crosses going on.

So there's some of my favorites in a genre defined in this thread a little too broadly to really do it justice.

visick wrote:Reservoir Dogs

Excellent pick, Visick. It was definitely in the running for my number ten slot. I was actually Mr. Orange with four of my fraternity brothers, as we all put on our slick black suits, thin ties, and sunglasses for Halloween '93. Nobody knew who we were when we separated, but it gave us a nice excuse to wear black suits and sunglasses in the SF clubs.

Ninersphan wrote: As for Crime films, seems to broad a topic, Strether's list seems to run more towards Gangster Films and Noir, which is fine...So there' some of my favorites in a genre defined in this thread a little too broadly to really do it justice.

Yes, "Crime Films" is a broad subject, but I wanted to actually get responses. I was going to have a Film Noir thread, but I honestly didn't think that many people had ten favorite Noir films. A Gangster Film list would just spawn the same picks, so I spliced the two into crime films.

My lists would have been

Top Ten Film Noirs (The Maltese Falcon is a great detective film, but not dark enough for Noir)
1. Out of the Past
2. Chinatown
3. Double Indemnity
4. Sunset Boulevard
5. The Big Sleep
6. Crossfire
7. Taxi Driver
8. The Postman Always Rings Twice
9. Gilda
10. Memento

Top Ten Gangster Films
1. The Godfather 2
2. Goodfellas
3. The Godfather
4. White Heat
5. Scarface (Depalma)
6. Once Upon a Time in America
7. Public Enemy
8. Reservoir Dogs
9. The Departed
10. Mean Streets

As to your films, Niners, I love Heat, Memento, Mulholland Dr., The Usual Suspects, and even Wild Things. On the opposite side, The Sting is overrated and doesn't hold up, and I'm not a fan of either of the Ocean 11s or Italian Jobs...although watching the Rat Pack screw around on the first Ocean 11 was amusing.

I have read all those books like "Maltese Falcon" and all the Raymond Chandler novels. I also really like Elmore Leonard.

We'll agree to disagree on The Sting. I absolutely LOVE this movie. I saw it at a young age (9 10?? double feature at a drive in with Star Wars on second run, GREAT NIGHT )and had NO idea about the twist near the end and it blew me away. It may be the first film with that type of an ending I ever saw and kind of opened my eye to what films could do to an audience. It had the same effect on my kids who jaws also dropped at the end when I showed it to them.

And before you ask on the other two film threads, war films and westerns are probably my least favorite genre's of film, so I haven't seen enough of them to have an informed opinion mostly because i avoid them like the plague, especially westerns.