Matrix. Never anything like it before or after. If there wasn't a Goodfellas you can still get your gangster fill with Godfather or even the Sopranos and enjoy 6 season of it instead of a 2 hour 45 min film.
No other movie is like The Matrix, including its own excrements, and there are a few movies like Goodfellas, good movies too, some by the same director. But the contest is between the films, not the ripples they've made.
Matrix really is pretty great, but Goodfellas is still the better film. It succeeds equally at world building (yes non-sci-fi films have a lot of that to do too), but bests Matrix with its richer characters, more interesting stories and mature employments of its philosophies. That last one is The Matrix's only real nick. You could toss buildings through its philosophical holes.
Ryan - 6 years ago
I can only read so many comments about how "game changing" and "world shaking" the Matrix is before I stop to take a look at what it actually spawned:
2 dumpster fire sequels which detract from the original exposing the shallow and derivative sophomoric philosophy behind it, years of awful cgi-heavy action genre scifi films, and remind me what else is worth talking about from the Wachowski's filmography after that?? Look, I love the Matrix but when we are comparing it to Goodfellas it's not even close.
Matt - 6 years ago
Which Adam Sandler movie will I have to watch for ruining my bracket yet again? As great a movie as goodfellas is, it didn’t change my appreciation or expectation for a genre the way the Matrix did. The matrix sounds and visual effects are amazing, and the worlds are stunning. Tthe layers of philosophy religion futurism and distopia are so intertwined that this movie can be watched from so many viewpoints that it will never get old. Not to mention Carrie Anne moss is still the best super heroine ever.
C R - 6 years ago
I regret my vote. I voted for Goodfellas a couple days ago both because I had rewatched it over the weekend and was reminded of how good it is and because I remembered The Matrix as a kind of sophomoric attempt at doing philosophy with film. In both cases, I think a cultural consensus got to me. I overestimated a good film (Goodfellas) and underestimated a unique film (The Matrix) because I felt that was the "right" judgment.
Having now rewatched The Matrix, I was wrong. The movie is a carefully balanced exploration of what it means to struggle against the all-encompassing power that ideology plays in our lives. It is about finding a way out of our established ideas, which we constantly protect as true but know are false. The Matrix asks: can we bend back our inclinations of perception and create new reasons for living? And it asks this question by consciously placing itself in a tradition of secular and Christian thinking that runs from Plato's cave, to Kant's enlightenment, to Baudrillard's simulacra.
As others have pointed out, The Matrix is a true original and Goodfellas is not. I almost want to rewatch The Matrix sequels now. Almost.
Frank Reichert - 6 years ago
Some people go to the movies to laugh, some to cry, some to raise the heart rate. I go to have my mind blown. This contest goes to The Matrix. I'd rather have my mind blown than watch minds blown out of skulls. As for mafia movies, both Godfathers did it better than Goodfellas.
Jim Pallini - 6 years ago
Goodfellas in a walk! Not only is it the third best film of its genre (behind Godfather 1 & 2), but the Layla piano coda scene is the theatrical equivalent of Scorsese taking a baseball bat to the knees of The Matrix.
Plus it teaches you how to take a pinch like a man.
Thanks
Jim Pallini
JM Bossy - 6 years ago
From Vancouver
Maybe I came to Goodfellas too late... Maybe it cemented foundation in a genre I have now seen done elsewhere to greater personal response. Nothing is like The Matrix, not even the other Matrix, or the other, even worse Matrix. So, my vote goes to The Matrix.
Rob in Bourbonnais - 6 years ago
As we continue on, I feel the winner should be a film that best encapsulates the 90s and since I can't vote for the music video for "Two Princes" by the Spin Doctors, the winner should clearly be The Matrix.
Gabriel Lobb - 6 years ago
How has Matrix made it this far. The 3 previous films it has beaten are all better.
Andrew Howell - 6 years ago
Hey Neo, get your shine box.
Dave from Atlanta - 6 years ago
The Matrix is a classic, but Goodfellas is a work of art. With a narration that speeds you on the trail of the tale from the start to a fantastic climax and denouement, Goodfellas is one of those beautiful movies about family, crime, and murder. I think my favorite part is when Henry is talking about his time in prison and he's waxing about the way everybody pitches in to make Sunday dinner. As an Italian, it warmed my heart and reminded me of my days as a kid back when the grandparents were still alive and hosting spaghetti Sundays. Of course, we had our dinner at Nana's house, and not in the slammer, but there's no doubt in my mind that if we had all been locked up for something, we'd have continued the tradition the way the Goodfellas do.
David in Chicago - 6 years ago
Elijah Davidson - you took the words right out of my mouth. ERA DEFINING.
The Matrix changed film making, changed me and the way I saw the world - I don't think I am alone in this. I was forever changed after seeing the Matrix and I want future generations to be able to experience the same.
If we get rid of Goodfellas we still have A PLETHORA of excellent gangster movies. If we get rid of The Matrix what do we have that is similar?
Goodfellas is great and it heightened a genre it did not change film and people's perceptions the way the Matrix did.
As much as I enjoy THE MATRIX, I always start to zone out by the time we get to the big shootout toward the end. It’s a fun movie, great great fun. But I’m pretty surprised by how much praise it’s gotten these past few weeks. Maybe the memory of its sequels tarnishes it for me. Or maybe the knowledge that The Wachowskis had much better (CLOUD ATLAS) and much worse (JUPITER ASCENDING) in them.
GOODFELLAS, on the other hand, is basically a perfect movie. As good as it gets with Scorsese, as good as it gets with mafia movies. I don’t know how much of a game changer it was, industry wise, but I think it definitely changed many people’s ideas about film. It gets my vote.
Elijah Davidson - 6 years ago
We still have Scorsese's work from the 70s and 80s, right? Okay. Cool. The era-defining The Matrix it is then.
To paraphrase Agent Smith, most film podcasts establish an equilibrium with their surroundings, living in harmony. Except FS Madness. It multiplies and devours the goodwill and souls of its listeners. It is a virus.
This is cruel but an easy pick. I rewatched The Matrix this week in introducing it to my 12yo daughter. She loved it. Her jaw dropped at the action sequences, she got immediately that nothing Morpheus says makes any sense. It’s brilliant.
But it ain’t no Goodfellas. I haven’t seen that for years but scenes are burned in my memory. The opening, the tracking shot into the Club, the pistol-whipping, funny-how?, the cocaine paranoia, the final shot. Amazing. So much as it pains me, the Matrix goes in the trunk of Goodfellas’ car...
Mike H. - 6 years ago
If you told me before this tournament started that I would be voting for The Matrix in not one, but THREE rounds of this thing, I would've said you're as crazy as Tommy Devito with a pistol in a paper bag. It's far from my favorite 90's movie. But that's what I did because it made sense in each of those match-ups, and it made me go back and appreciate what I had forgotten about the Matrix. The incredible molotov cyberpunk shock to the system it was.
But as I assume most of the filmspotting madness crowd is thinking right now, this is where my Matrix voting ends. Even Neo couldn't dodge a bullet from Jimmy the Gent. In an earlier round I said Goodfellas is the only film that truly deserved from the beginning to win this tournament more than Malcolm X, and as the field whittles down with Spike Lee's masterpiece long gone in the ashes and rubble, that just seems more true to me. But I'm gonna enjoy all the spirited debates to come about how much Pulp Fiction or Fargo deserves to reign victorious over Scorcese's quintessential gangster epic..........even if I already know they're not going to sway my final vote.
Andrew Schluckbier - 6 years ago
I asked myself which film I'd choose if they were the only two available to me, and as much as it pains me to say it, I'd choose the Matrix, its just so watchable. I've never been bored, after countless rewatches. I'd argue that Goodfellas is ultimately the better film, but if only one of them can remain after Madness....it has to be the Matrix.
Handy Barker - 6 years ago
Another simple choice. "Goodfellas" in most ways is a great 1970s gangster film done twenty years too late. But "Matrix" was a Dystopian film done twenty years too early, and as time has gone on, just gets more prophetic. In fact, I'd argue we still haven't caught up to it yet. Scorsese is a curator of old Hollywood like Tarentino and does surprisingly little new or striking, for me, by merely sifting through old gangster tropes--hence so many of his films lean on music cues rather than unique characters, language, or imagery. Even the Pesci moments, which for me are the only explosive scenes, are really just pre-code gangster fare from George Raft , Cagney, or Bogart with some "f" bombs. Whereas the Matrix is the latest Monomyth from Joseph Campbell's classic story-telling paradigm just as King Arthur and Star Wars are. Lastly, I have no problem nodding to a film by two trans sisters in the first generation in history that would allow for such to make films. Sorry, Goodfellas: go home and getcha shine box....
Joel Karpowitz in Raleigh, NC - 6 years ago
Do not try and bend Goodfellas. That's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth. There is no Goodfellas. Matrix all the way.
And I don't even feel guilty about it.
Matthew Melnyk - 6 years ago
One is another gangster film, the other is a game changer. Easiest choice of the tourney here
Jake Albrecht - 6 years ago
I've voted against the Matrix every round but this one, and voted for Goodfellas every round but this one. Suffice to say, all of my 90's favorites are already on the pyre. Perhaps it is me who should be acquiring a shine box now.
Dena Sponheim - 6 years ago
I really liked "The Matrix" when it was released. But in the years since, I find myself turning the sound down to watch it. The dated soundtrack and the wooden dialogue have worn on me throughout the years. Besides, "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" comes out less than a year later - no less a technical marvel than "The Matrix" with a timeless message. Do I really need dime-store philosophy and repurposed special effects when I have Ang Lee? Methinks not.
As for "Goodfellas," my fifteen year old son and I watched it together a month ago. When it ended, he said "Mom, I think that's the best movie I have ever seen." Who am I to disagree? And so there it stands. Until, of course, we watch "Fargo."
Joseph Orlando - 6 years ago
I just shocked myself, voting for the Matrix and against Goodfellas, both first-time events this tournament. On the face of it, this makes no sense. I like Goodfellas more, and I think it's probably the better film. But it's clearly not the more VITAL film.
Goodfellas is a masterpiece, well-acted, realistically written, and full of moral ambiguity and style in roughly equal measures. It didn't, however, change cinema. There were films like Goodfellas before, and there have been films like it since (some by the same director!).
The Matrix shook the world. The way cinematographers shoot and grade film changed. The way action sequences were directed changed. Like its 1999 counterpart Fight Club, The Matrix stuffs freshman philosophy into its script. Unlike Fight Club, those ideas make some semblance of sense when revisited as an adult.
Finally, The Matrix is the product of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, two trans women. I love Goodfellas, but I can't in good conscience keep it around, to hang out with all of it's like-minded brethren of the 90s, while Blue-Pilling 90s cinephiles. Take the red pill, film spotting nation, and see how far down the rabbit hole The Wachowski's wild trip can take us.
Matrix. Never anything like it before or after. If there wasn't a Goodfellas you can still get your gangster fill with Godfather or even the Sopranos and enjoy 6 season of it instead of a 2 hour 45 min film.
Whoa. Nuff said.
No other movie is like The Matrix, including its own excrements, and there are a few movies like Goodfellas, good movies too, some by the same director. But the contest is between the films, not the ripples they've made.
Matrix really is pretty great, but Goodfellas is still the better film. It succeeds equally at world building (yes non-sci-fi films have a lot of that to do too), but bests Matrix with its richer characters, more interesting stories and mature employments of its philosophies. That last one is The Matrix's only real nick. You could toss buildings through its philosophical holes.
I can only read so many comments about how "game changing" and "world shaking" the Matrix is before I stop to take a look at what it actually spawned:
2 dumpster fire sequels which detract from the original exposing the shallow and derivative sophomoric philosophy behind it, years of awful cgi-heavy action genre scifi films, and remind me what else is worth talking about from the Wachowski's filmography after that?? Look, I love the Matrix but when we are comparing it to Goodfellas it's not even close.
Which Adam Sandler movie will I have to watch for ruining my bracket yet again? As great a movie as goodfellas is, it didn’t change my appreciation or expectation for a genre the way the Matrix did. The matrix sounds and visual effects are amazing, and the worlds are stunning. Tthe layers of philosophy religion futurism and distopia are so intertwined that this movie can be watched from so many viewpoints that it will never get old. Not to mention Carrie Anne moss is still the best super heroine ever.
I regret my vote. I voted for Goodfellas a couple days ago both because I had rewatched it over the weekend and was reminded of how good it is and because I remembered The Matrix as a kind of sophomoric attempt at doing philosophy with film. In both cases, I think a cultural consensus got to me. I overestimated a good film (Goodfellas) and underestimated a unique film (The Matrix) because I felt that was the "right" judgment.
Having now rewatched The Matrix, I was wrong. The movie is a carefully balanced exploration of what it means to struggle against the all-encompassing power that ideology plays in our lives. It is about finding a way out of our established ideas, which we constantly protect as true but know are false. The Matrix asks: can we bend back our inclinations of perception and create new reasons for living? And it asks this question by consciously placing itself in a tradition of secular and Christian thinking that runs from Plato's cave, to Kant's enlightenment, to Baudrillard's simulacra.
As others have pointed out, The Matrix is a true original and Goodfellas is not. I almost want to rewatch The Matrix sequels now. Almost.
Some people go to the movies to laugh, some to cry, some to raise the heart rate. I go to have my mind blown. This contest goes to The Matrix. I'd rather have my mind blown than watch minds blown out of skulls. As for mafia movies, both Godfathers did it better than Goodfellas.
Goodfellas in a walk! Not only is it the third best film of its genre (behind Godfather 1 & 2), but the Layla piano coda scene is the theatrical equivalent of Scorsese taking a baseball bat to the knees of The Matrix.
Plus it teaches you how to take a pinch like a man.
Thanks
Jim Pallini
From Vancouver
Maybe I came to Goodfellas too late... Maybe it cemented foundation in a genre I have now seen done elsewhere to greater personal response. Nothing is like The Matrix, not even the other Matrix, or the other, even worse Matrix. So, my vote goes to The Matrix.
As we continue on, I feel the winner should be a film that best encapsulates the 90s and since I can't vote for the music video for "Two Princes" by the Spin Doctors, the winner should clearly be The Matrix.
How has Matrix made it this far. The 3 previous films it has beaten are all better.
Hey Neo, get your shine box.
The Matrix is a classic, but Goodfellas is a work of art. With a narration that speeds you on the trail of the tale from the start to a fantastic climax and denouement, Goodfellas is one of those beautiful movies about family, crime, and murder. I think my favorite part is when Henry is talking about his time in prison and he's waxing about the way everybody pitches in to make Sunday dinner. As an Italian, it warmed my heart and reminded me of my days as a kid back when the grandparents were still alive and hosting spaghetti Sundays. Of course, we had our dinner at Nana's house, and not in the slammer, but there's no doubt in my mind that if we had all been locked up for something, we'd have continued the tradition the way the Goodfellas do.
Elijah Davidson - you took the words right out of my mouth. ERA DEFINING.
The Matrix changed film making, changed me and the way I saw the world - I don't think I am alone in this. I was forever changed after seeing the Matrix and I want future generations to be able to experience the same.
If we get rid of Goodfellas we still have A PLETHORA of excellent gangster movies. If we get rid of The Matrix what do we have that is similar?
Goodfellas is great and it heightened a genre it did not change film and people's perceptions the way the Matrix did.
As much as I enjoy THE MATRIX, I always start to zone out by the time we get to the big shootout toward the end. It’s a fun movie, great great fun. But I’m pretty surprised by how much praise it’s gotten these past few weeks. Maybe the memory of its sequels tarnishes it for me. Or maybe the knowledge that The Wachowskis had much better (CLOUD ATLAS) and much worse (JUPITER ASCENDING) in them.
GOODFELLAS, on the other hand, is basically a perfect movie. As good as it gets with Scorsese, as good as it gets with mafia movies. I don’t know how much of a game changer it was, industry wise, but I think it definitely changed many people’s ideas about film. It gets my vote.
We still have Scorsese's work from the 70s and 80s, right? Okay. Cool. The era-defining The Matrix it is then.
To paraphrase Agent Smith, most film podcasts establish an equilibrium with their surroundings, living in harmony. Except FS Madness. It multiplies and devours the goodwill and souls of its listeners. It is a virus.
This is cruel but an easy pick. I rewatched The Matrix this week in introducing it to my 12yo daughter. She loved it. Her jaw dropped at the action sequences, she got immediately that nothing Morpheus says makes any sense. It’s brilliant.
But it ain’t no Goodfellas. I haven’t seen that for years but scenes are burned in my memory. The opening, the tracking shot into the Club, the pistol-whipping, funny-how?, the cocaine paranoia, the final shot. Amazing. So much as it pains me, the Matrix goes in the trunk of Goodfellas’ car...
If you told me before this tournament started that I would be voting for The Matrix in not one, but THREE rounds of this thing, I would've said you're as crazy as Tommy Devito with a pistol in a paper bag. It's far from my favorite 90's movie. But that's what I did because it made sense in each of those match-ups, and it made me go back and appreciate what I had forgotten about the Matrix. The incredible molotov cyberpunk shock to the system it was.
But as I assume most of the filmspotting madness crowd is thinking right now, this is where my Matrix voting ends. Even Neo couldn't dodge a bullet from Jimmy the Gent. In an earlier round I said Goodfellas is the only film that truly deserved from the beginning to win this tournament more than Malcolm X, and as the field whittles down with Spike Lee's masterpiece long gone in the ashes and rubble, that just seems more true to me. But I'm gonna enjoy all the spirited debates to come about how much Pulp Fiction or Fargo deserves to reign victorious over Scorcese's quintessential gangster epic..........even if I already know they're not going to sway my final vote.
I asked myself which film I'd choose if they were the only two available to me, and as much as it pains me to say it, I'd choose the Matrix, its just so watchable. I've never been bored, after countless rewatches. I'd argue that Goodfellas is ultimately the better film, but if only one of them can remain after Madness....it has to be the Matrix.
Another simple choice. "Goodfellas" in most ways is a great 1970s gangster film done twenty years too late. But "Matrix" was a Dystopian film done twenty years too early, and as time has gone on, just gets more prophetic. In fact, I'd argue we still haven't caught up to it yet. Scorsese is a curator of old Hollywood like Tarentino and does surprisingly little new or striking, for me, by merely sifting through old gangster tropes--hence so many of his films lean on music cues rather than unique characters, language, or imagery. Even the Pesci moments, which for me are the only explosive scenes, are really just pre-code gangster fare from George Raft , Cagney, or Bogart with some "f" bombs. Whereas the Matrix is the latest Monomyth from Joseph Campbell's classic story-telling paradigm just as King Arthur and Star Wars are. Lastly, I have no problem nodding to a film by two trans sisters in the first generation in history that would allow for such to make films. Sorry, Goodfellas: go home and getcha shine box....
Do not try and bend Goodfellas. That's impossible. Instead, try to realize the truth. There is no Goodfellas. Matrix all the way.
And I don't even feel guilty about it.
One is another gangster film, the other is a game changer. Easiest choice of the tourney here
I've voted against the Matrix every round but this one, and voted for Goodfellas every round but this one. Suffice to say, all of my 90's favorites are already on the pyre. Perhaps it is me who should be acquiring a shine box now.
I really liked "The Matrix" when it was released. But in the years since, I find myself turning the sound down to watch it. The dated soundtrack and the wooden dialogue have worn on me throughout the years. Besides, "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" comes out less than a year later - no less a technical marvel than "The Matrix" with a timeless message. Do I really need dime-store philosophy and repurposed special effects when I have Ang Lee? Methinks not.
As for "Goodfellas," my fifteen year old son and I watched it together a month ago. When it ended, he said "Mom, I think that's the best movie I have ever seen." Who am I to disagree? And so there it stands. Until, of course, we watch "Fargo."
I just shocked myself, voting for the Matrix and against Goodfellas, both first-time events this tournament. On the face of it, this makes no sense. I like Goodfellas more, and I think it's probably the better film. But it's clearly not the more VITAL film.
Goodfellas is a masterpiece, well-acted, realistically written, and full of moral ambiguity and style in roughly equal measures. It didn't, however, change cinema. There were films like Goodfellas before, and there have been films like it since (some by the same director!).
The Matrix shook the world. The way cinematographers shoot and grade film changed. The way action sequences were directed changed. Like its 1999 counterpart Fight Club, The Matrix stuffs freshman philosophy into its script. Unlike Fight Club, those ideas make some semblance of sense when revisited as an adult.
Finally, The Matrix is the product of Lana and Lilly Wachowski, two trans women. I love Goodfellas, but I can't in good conscience keep it around, to hang out with all of it's like-minded brethren of the 90s, while Blue-Pilling 90s cinephiles. Take the red pill, film spotting nation, and see how far down the rabbit hole The Wachowski's wild trip can take us.