This can be a fun way to bring a little competition into your life when life is essentially canceled, thanks a lot COVID-19. Since we are a family of four, we figured it would be more fun to include our friends on social media in the voting process. 

Pick your theme and categories, we obviously chose movies, but this would be fun to do with greatest players in sports, books, places to vacation etc. 

The categories we chose to use are: Suspense/Thriller, Family Comedy, SciFi, Comedy/RomCom, Action, Drama, Sports, and Animated. We enlisted "a little help from our friends" to get our creative juices going for the movies that would end up on the 64 field bracket. No play-in games for this competition.

Selection Sunday was full of surprises, swaps, squabbles, and serious thinking. (I know you like that alliteration!)

To get things started, Libby traded her two animation picks for Lily’s two Suspense/Thriller picks. 
Arguments quickly ensued over what falls into the categories of Comedy and Family Comedy. This still remains a grey area...

RJ tried to convince Shannon to use Men In Black as one of his SciFi picks (he really wanted it in the bracket) so he could select Ready Player One, but Shannon would not take the suggestion and Ready Player One did not make the bracket. 

Shannon seemed to be quite distracted by his phone when Libby and RJ argued over what worked as a Family Comedy vs Comedy. Again, an agreement could not be met over what could work in each category; it was determined that there is a lot of overlap and concessions were made.

RJ about Grownups: “It’s not a Family Comedy because there’s alcohol and sissys.”

RJ convinced Shannon to trade a Family Comedy pick for a Regular Comedy - 40 Year Old Virgin for Shannon. 

The Thriller/Suspense category was dominated by Libby and her four picks. 

Arguing ensued over the Action category. Lily was unsure of the movies that would qualify as Action and ended up trading both of her Action spots. Shannon and RJ both surrendered one of their Drama selections for a third Action pick.
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Here are the picks:

Teams were seeded using a random number generator and the fields were set. Voting began on Thursday, and just like the NCAA Tournament it was full of 'upsets'. 

First round results:

The East had a few blowout wins and the West had two that went into 'overtime'. ​

The South and Midwest brackets were not as exciting as the East and the West. Hoosiers moved on, not a surprise since most of the voters are from Indiana, and Shawshank destroyed A Quiet Place.

Second round results of March Movie Madness.
East -

• #1 Dark Knight - did not allow 16 Blocks a chance at winning, pure domination.
• #12 Grown Ups - come from behind win against the #4 Night at the Museum - it was close up to the end.
• #3 Elf knocked #11 Rambo out of the ring, no fighting chance. 
• #10 Ferris Bueller had a strong showing against Big Daddy.

West -

• #1 Identity Thief with a surprising win over #8 Hancock
• #11 Mall Cop vs #4 The Jungle Book - OT - Mall Cop pulls out a strong finish for the win.
• #12 We at Marshall with a tough win over #14 The Natural
• #2 Die Hard over #7 The Greatest Showman

South - 

• #16 The Big Lebowski stuns #8 Training Day
• #4 Hoosiers (of course) massacres #11 Wall-E
• #3 Toy Story destroys #6 Toy Story 4
• #10 Back to the Future with a win that was not expected, even with their higher seed. #15 Napoleon Dynamite always brings a good game to the court. 

Midwest - 

• #8 Gran Torino over #1 Almost Famous. Sex, drugs, and rock n roll have nothing over a transformed, grumpy, old man who sacrificed his life for others.
• #11 Frozen was definitely slighted with it’s seed in the selection process and its win over #5 Tangled was not a surprise. 
• #11 Con Air with a win over #14 Mad Max
• #10 Shawshank over #2 Silence of the Lambs

In the Sweet Sixteen Thursday matchups: 
Grown Ups held its own to beat The Dark Knight. Adam Sandler and his crew of comics was just too much for the dark and terrifying Heath Ledger.
Ferris, while witty and adorable, was unable to pull out a win. It was a nail biter, that is for sure, and the charm and joy of Elf brought in the W.
Identity Thief tried its best, but failed. The inspiring story of We are Marshall is not one to be messed with when emotions get involved. Marshall with the victory. 

Sweet Sixteen Friday games:
Nothing too spectacular to report on these pairings. All of the "games" were blowouts. 
#8 Gran Torino over #4 Frozen
#10 Shawshank over #11 Con Air
#4 Hoosiers over #12 The Big Lebowski - Come on, give 'The Dude' some love.
#10 Back to the Future over #3 Toy Story. This one kind of surprised me. Woody and his crew always pull on my heartstrings. 

Your Final Four Teams:
#3 Elf vs #2 Die Hard
#10 Shawshank vs #10 Back to the Future
Elf and Die Hard made their competition look like middle school teams.
Shawshank destroyed Gran Torino and Back to the Future shocked Hoosiers with a strong win.

The movies headed to the championship tomorrow night are:
#10 Shawshank vs #2 Die Hard
Voting will be posted tomorrow evening. I know y'all are not doing much else...so vote!

#10 Shawshank vs. #2 Die Hard

The game was a tough one, and loyalties were tested by many fans watching. What many thought would be a blowout by a lower seeded team (one who many feel was slighted on Selection Sunday) ended up being a battle until the end. John McClane, Hans Gruber, and Sgt. Powell fought a good fight, but they could not pull off the 'W'. Andy Dufresne, Brooks Hatlen, and Ellis Boyd proved to be too much; the powerful threesome with their offensive plays, defensive strategies, and relentless determination won by a margin of 8%.