{"id":35928,"date":"2016-05-23T22:45:58","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T05:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=35928"},"modified":"2016-05-23T22:45:58","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T05:45:58","slug":"challenge-week-20-sneakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/challenge-week-20-sneakers\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 20: Sneakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hadn’t heard of this movie at all until it came up on a podcast I randomly listened to a few months ago, and I was intrigued because I love spy-type and hacker-type movies, so I was glad to have a push to see it. I didn’t know much what to expect from tone, though I figured it’d be light, and it was.<\/p>\n

Robert Redford plays Marty Bishop, formerly a juvenile delinquent hacker now working to test security systems with a team of folks whose backgrounds aren’t exactly upstanding either. He’s approached by the NSA to get ahold of a box that supposedly can decrypt anything – but is it really the NSA? WHO KNOWS. There’s some double-dealing, but it’s more straight-forward than you might expect, with a lot of it coming down to Marty and his childhood partner who got nabbed back in the day while Marty got away.<\/p>\n

\"tf-listening\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I thought that interpersonal rivalry thing was a bit tired, but I enjoyed the film as a whole, with its combination of hacking, espionage, and heist, all things that I greatly enjoy in movies. The cast is pretty great, too, with David Strathairn as a blind hacker who is more capable than most people (but is still pretty non-plussed when Marty tells him to drive the van, a great scene), River Phoenix as the young guy on the team (so funny to see him so soon after raving about him in Stand by Me<\/em>, though to be honest, he’s not a standout here as I would’ve expected – he’s fine, but overshadowed by the older powerhouses), Dan Aykroyd (he was also just kind of there and the fact that his nickname was “Mother” threw me off SO MUCH), Mary McDonnell (sad to say I TOTALLY didn’t recognize her despite being a huge BSG\/President Roslin fan), Ben Kingsley, and effing SIDNEY POITIER. The whole thing was worth it just to see Sidney Poitier take command of every room he walked into, no matter who else was in there.<\/p>\n

It was a good matchup with The Abyss<\/em>, both movies featuring a disparate team of experts working together to solve a problem, but with a variant tone that made them refreshing to see close together. Interestingly, the heist angle of this also fit with the third film I watched this week, Escape from Alcatraz<\/em> – escape\/heist films scratch the same itch for me, so it was cool to see both of these films, again very different from each other, in the same week.<\/p>\n

\"tf-group-day\"<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1992, USA<\/em>
\ndirected by Phil Alden Robinson, screenplay by Phil Alden Robinson & Lawrence Lasker<\/em>
\nstarring Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn, Ben Kingsley, River Phoenix<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Sneakers<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Sneakers<\/b> beats Successful Alcoholics
\nSneakers loses to Breakfast on Pluto<\/b>
\nSneakers<\/b> beats The Devil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Double
\nSneakers loses to Way Down East<\/b>
\nSneakers loses to Frozen River<\/b>
\nSneakers loses to Stella Dallas<\/b>
\nSneakers loses to Bunny Lake is Missing<\/b>
\nSneakers loses to Dark Victory<\/b>
\nSneakers loses to The Desert Song<\/b> (1953)
\nSneakers<\/b> beats A Corny Concerto
\nSneakers loses to Twin Warriors<\/b>
\nSneakers<\/b> beats Lambchops<\/p>\n

Final ranking #1360 out of 3642 films on my chart (63%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #4 Phil Alden Robinson film, my #4 Robert Redford film, my #2 Sidney Poitier film, my #3 Ben Kingsley film, my #30 Action Comedy, my #14 Caper, and my #17 film of 1992.<\/p>\n

Sneakers<\/em> was recommended by Ben Lott, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook. Averaging together this #1360 ranking with my #768 ranking of his other film, The Abyss<\/em>, gives Ben an average ranking of 1064.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-redford\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-scientist\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-glassescode\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-poitier\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-McDonnell\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-strathairnackroyd\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-kingsley\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-River\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-poitierbadass\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-contemplative-redford\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hadn’t heard of this movie at all until it came up on a podcast I randomly listened to a few months ago, and I was intrigued because I love spy-type and hacker-type movies, so I was glad to have a push to see it. I didn’t know much what to expect from tone, though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3139,3138,3126,3136,3137,3135],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/tf-feat4.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36130,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/07\/challenge-week-28-quiz-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 28: Quiz Show","author":"Jandy","date":"July 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've known about this movie forever and that it was supposed to be good, but I never really knew that much about it - I think I thought it was some comedy about folks going on quiz shows or something. Well, it is about people on quiz shows, but not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/tf-feat-quiz-show.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35490,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/challenge-week-4-marty\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":1},"title":"Challenge Week 4: Marty","author":"Jandy","date":"January 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure I've ever seen as pure a cinematic expression of joy as the look on Marty's face after he drops Clara off at her apartment and realizes he's just had the best time of his life talking with this girl. Maybe Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tf-feat-Marty.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36629,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/challenge-week-49-love-comes-softly\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":2},"title":"Challenge Week 49: Love Comes Softly","author":"Jandy","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I tend not to seek out Hallmark-type movies, but when on vacation with my cousins this year, they heard about my challenge and wanted to give me some movies, and this is what my cousin's teenage daughter assigned me. I'm game for anything! The pioneer setting helps a lot, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tf-feat-lovecomessoftly.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36630,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/12\/challenge-week-49-loves-enduring-promise\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":3},"title":"Challenge Week 49: Love’s Enduring Promise","author":"Jandy","date":"December 13, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the (first) sequel to Love Comes Softly, so it was nice to see them so close together. And I was actually interested to see more of Marty and Clark's story, even though the first movie tied it off pretty nicely. This is mostly Missy's story, though - the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/tf-feat-lovesenduringpromise.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35387,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/the-2016-movie-challenge-a-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":4},"title":"The 2016 Movie Challenge: A Preview","author":"Jandy","date":"January 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I can't leave well enough alone, here's a brief rundown of (some of) what I'll be watching in 2016 for this crazy challenge. I currently have 50 people signed up to recommend me movies, and all but a handful have already chosen their picks, so this thing is scheduled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fc-keaton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":36268,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-34-the-long-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":35928,"position":5},"title":"Challenge Week 34: The Long Memory","author":"Jandy","date":"September 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of the few films I hadn't heard of at all going into this challenge, even more surprising as it's an older film, and a noir to boot! The trick is it's British noir, and I'm not as familiar with that as I should be, so thank you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/john-mills-elizabeth-sellers-long-memory-xlarge.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}