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The tournament for best summer film of 1999 rolls on as we are down to the final eight films, including one wildcard from the month of April.
Two number-one seeds have been voted out, as have all four of the films seeded second. Star power and big budget movies have fallen by the wayside with indie movies, plucky upstarts, and animated films taking their place.
Truly only one of the films, Runaway Bride, can be considered both a big budget and star-driven film. This movie, the top moneymaker from July of 1999, featured the reuniting of Julia Roberts and Richard Gere, stars of 1987's Pretty Woman. The pairing again turned into box office gold, collecting over 152 million dollars at the domestic box office.
Among the other films still vying for the esteemed honor of being named "best film from the summer of 1999" (as bestowed upon by you, the reader), we have South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, American Pie, and The Sixth Sense.
This South Park film cemented Trey Parker and Matt Stone as bona fide Hollywood stars, and also delivered an Academy Award nominated song in "Blame Canada".
American Pie, meanwhile, helped launch the careers of most of the teen cast, including Jason Biggs, Shannon Elizabeth, Chris Klein, and Mena Suvari, with Klein (American Pie, Election) and Suvari (American Pie, American Beauty) both appearing in multiple films in 1999.
And we can't forget about the career-defining movie from M. Night Shyamalan. The Sixth Sense launched the filmmaker's career into another stratosphere, one in which he eventually fell out of and one he is trying to climb back into as part of his second act.
Onto the final eight!
May region
The final two movies are films that did not have the strongest box office showings but, judging by your votes, were better than box office smashes like The Phantom Menace and The Mummy.
The first is the ensemble dark comedy and 8th-seed in the May region, Go.
Watching this trailer, I never realized Melissa McCarthy was actually featured in it. I was aware of her being in the movie but making the trailer turned her into a star! (Okay, maybe not).
Go will be taking on the movie that thrust Alexander Payne onto the scene (though Citizen Ruth was also good) and is the 10th-seed, Election. Reese Witherspoon was fantastic and even Chris Klein had some great moments. "Paul Metzler: You betzler".
June region
Over in the June region, it is the 12th-seed Run Lola Run that might be considered the surprise in the tournament, at least based off its box office run from back in 1999. This film has always been critically acclaimed so it's not much of a surprise to me its made it this far.
This film's opponent? None other than the sixth-seed South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut.
July region
The July region held closest to the way the films finished at the box office back in '99. The first seed from this month was the aforementioned Runaway Bride.
The film's opponent will be the third seed in the region, American Pie, which won a close contest against The Blair Witch Project. American Pie was a throwback to the raunchy teen comedies from the 1980's and had a surprising box office run. The film also made stars of its mostly teen cast and introduced the talents of Eugene Levy to a much broader audience.
August region
Rounding out the final eight films are the two films from August, one a surprise hit and the other an animated film that was well-adored but struggled at the box office.The first is the number one seed from August, The Sixth Sense.
The Sixth Sense is facing the 7th-seed The Iron Giant for the right to represent August in the final four.
Voting can be done over on Twitter.
If you don't have Twitter, feel free to contribute comments or gif's on this post or in the comments on Facebook with your favorite film(s).
Part one: The summer box office of 1999 tournament
Part two: Summer box office of 1999 and the movie 'Go'
Part three: Out of nowhere the Blair Witch beckoned in 1999
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