Cool News
Mr. Beaks Presents His Top 100 Films Of The Decade! Part Two Of Four Stimulating Installments!
For the first twenty-five, and a thorough explanation on my highly complex ranking methodology, read this. For the next twenty-five, read on...
75. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (2005, w. & d. Judd Apatow)
From another lost-to-the-void Collider review: "As is often the case in [Judd] Apatow's work, it's not so much the material but the character - an element lacking in many studio comedies nowadays. Of course Apatow can craft a gag like nobody's business, but he's able to balance his broad sensibilities with something recognizably human. Beneath the silliness of UNDECLARED lurks a truth wincingly familiar to anyone who ever muddled through a freshman year of college. And though there hopefully aren't too many forty-year-old virgins out there, who can't empathize on some level with Andy's sexual dread?"
This was Apatow's first film as a director, and it remains his most rewarding: though the youthful ensemble of KNOCKED UP is looser and more comfortable with each other, the cutthroat competition for laughs in THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN results in more inspired riffing. And when Apatow expanded the picture to 133 minutes for the unrated DVD, the additional scenes were all gems. Hell, even the blown takes were terrific (e.g. Gerry Bednob's addled invention of a new sexual position called the "Alligator Fuckhouse"). I guess you're supposed to hate Apatow now that he's established an aesthetic, but, really, would you rather studios return to the '90s glory days of high-concept comedy? Or how about shoehorning all of Apatow's discoveries into formula dross like YOU, ME AND DUPREE or THE UGLY TRUTH? How about a remake of WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S with Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel and Dave Allen as Bernie? No? Then why don't you leave the man alone.
74. AMERICAN SPLENDOR (2003, d. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, w. Berman and Pulcini)
This highly inventive adaptation of Harvey Pekar's long-running comic book - which stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar, a well-read curmudgeon eking out a living as a Veteran's Administration file clerk in Cleveland, Ohio - seamlessly blends real life and dramatic recreation to the point where the protagonist's life feels as if it's been one long (kinda cruel) experiment in mundanity. Berman and Pulcini cleverly get you laughing at Pekar's predicament before clobbering you with the epiphany that a) most lives are this crushingly uneventful, and b) you'll be blowing out the candles on that retirement cake soon enough. A rare, perceptive film about working class intellectuals. Giamatti's performance ranks among the decade's best (which, of course, means he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar).
From my 2003 AICN interview with Harvey Pekar: "This is not to say, however, that Pekar’s outlook isn’t unremittingly bleak. The sixty-something writer doesn’t seem any happier now that he’s retired from that soul-snuffing job as a clerk at a Cleveland VA Hospital. To wit: at the end of the movie, Harvey undercuts his acknowledgement of the potential windfall from doing the movie by noting that there’s just a short window of opportunity left open to him after a life of hard work, lamenting that his family life isn’t any less contentious or complicated than it was ten years ago. But if Harvey’s reward is more tsuris, our reward, then, are more comics, which ain’t so bad for either of us."
73. THE FOUNTAIN (w. & d. Darren Aronofsky)
Darren Aronofsky's madly ambitious film about the quest to not die, and to not let anyone we love die, leads with its soul and succeeds because the writer-director never once tries to over-intellectualize the experience. He just wants to break our heart. In trying together three not-too-disparate stories - about a conquistador's search for the tree of life, a cancer researcher's attempts to disappear his wife's brain tumor, and a future dude's intergalactic journey with a dying tree and his deceased wife's ghost - Aronofsky evokes deep sadness as we have our silly hopes crushed once again. Life and love are fleeting, loss is inevitable, and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it.
THE FOUNTAIN is the heartfelt flip-side to the oppressive nihilism of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. It's also Aronofsky's finest film to date. Sadly, Clint Mansell's lovely score is now being used to sell insipid Hollywood product. If you love this film as much as I do, this cue should wreck you every time you hear it:
72. UNITED 93 (2006, w. & d. Paul Greengrass)
From my 2006 Collider review: “As for unflinching, documentary-style recreations of actual events, United 93 is as relentless as Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (though, obviously, much more contained and much, much less political). Greengrass has no intention of sparing the audience any of the ugliness that transpired on the ill-fated flight, particularly in the grisly third act, and his ferociousness will certainly prove too much for more sensitive viewers. As someone who viewed the smoldering Twin Towers from the twenty-sixth floor of the MetLife Building in midtown Manhattan, and, like so many other New Yorkers, glumly went through the motions for a week or two following the attack on our city, I often wondered what the hell I was doing in the theater. Aside from bearing witness to Greengrass’s maturation as a filmmaker (and this is easily his most accomplished work yet), I spent most of the moments prior to the start of the film trying to figure out why I’d bothered.
...[But] that’s why United 93 needs to exist, and why I think it will become an important, widely-seen documenting of the day everything changed for Americans. We need to remember the heroic deeds in the early hours of 9/11, and, for the sake of unity, we don’t necessarily need politics to enter into it. That said, the apolitical nature of Greengrass’s film may wind up rendering it a little quaint once writers and directors grow a bit bolder in tackling the subject. Rossellini’s Open City and Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers still resonate today because they have a contentious point of view; though far from timid, the objective United 93 is ripe to eventually get overshadowed by more opinionated works.”
Even if those works come along in the next decade, UNITED 93 will always be a chilling and boldly unsentimental reminder that that could've been you or me on that plane. Several years after its theatrical release, this film now feels incapable of being overshadowed.
71. THE HOLY GIRL (2004, w. & d. Lucretia Martel)
A vast improvement over her first movie, LA CIENAGA (which felt like a study of human beings struck inactive by extreme humidity), THE HOLY GIRL finds Lucretia Martel figuring it out as she goes along - both as a director and a storyteller. Whereas little seemed to coalesce by the end of LA CIENAGA (thematically or narratively), everything sort of slides into place here, and what at first threatens to be a morality play about a middle-aged doctor's improper contact with a teenage girl (brought on by, what else, a theremin) gradually turns into a mediation on the absence of innocence. At least, that's my take. Martel's film is generously open-ended - even though it's also put together with a deceptive precision. She's a major talent. (And I must shamefully admit that I have yet to see THE HEADLESS WOMAN.)
70. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005, d. Ang Lee, w. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
From my Best of 2005 for Collider: "When Ang Lee was told BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which utilizes young actors to tell a multi-generational tale of societal discovery, could be viewed as “GIANT turned inward”, he smiled and shot back, “Or GIANT turned outward”. Such irreverence may have been unexpected after the heartbreak of his lushly romantic epic, but that puckish comment underscores the wry humanity present in all of Lee’s films. Sure, he tackles weighty topics with occasionally tragic outcomes, but you can’t get to the wounded core of your characters without a touch of levity, which is abundant in Jack and Ennis’s gradual, unexpected courtship at the outset. Working from a fantastic script by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, Lee avoids the pitfalls of obviousness at every turn, right up to the pulverizing finale where the emotional understatement of all that’s come before pays off in well-earned tears - at which point BROKEBACK equals the impact of its fifty-year-old progenitor with a far more economical use of screen time. (It’s also important to note that, like George Stevens, Lee is not revising the Western genre; he's seeking to redefine an archetype much bigger than its filmic representation. In other words, comparisons to other Westerns are awfully limiting.)
I had no idea how apt those GIANT comparisons would be three years ago. And even though we got more, quantity-wise, from Ledger, the thought that he exited right at the moment he was coming alive as a performer is anything but comforting.
69. WALL-E (2008, d. Andrew Stanton, w. Stanton and Jim Reardon)
From my 2008 AICN review: Despite the gentle, MODERN TIMES-inspired satire, "true love" is the motor of this story. It's a lovely gesture, and it makes me smile, but there's a part of me that wonders whether we'd be referring to Stanton's film as genuflectingly brilliant if he left WALL-E's memory wiped at the end. Most all-ages classics require some semblance of sacrifice: we assume Elliott will never see E.T. again, whilst another noggin-knockin' trip to Oz would probably leave Dorothy talking like Leon Spinks. But after a few we-know-you're-not-going-there scares, WALL-E gets rebooted and is shipshape once again (like Uhura post-"The Changeling").
On second thought, since I've made a similar argument in defense of Tom Cruise's kid "miraculously" returning at the end of Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS, I'm going to be consistent and say the ending is exactly what it needs to be: WALL-E lays out for "the needs of the many", and he is duly rewarded by not being reduced to a memory-wiped droid. This doesn't mean WALL-E is now "genuflectingly brilliant", but it is top-shelf Pixar - and that's more than good enough to place here.
68. SUPERBAD (d. Greg Mottola, w. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen)
From my Best of 2007 list from CHUD: "The return of Greg Mottola (director of the underrated and underseen The Daytrippers), the debut of Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the Anthony Michael Hall of his generation if he's unlucky, which I don't think he'll be) and more stellar Apatow. Everyone jokes that there's going to be a backlash at some point (maybe the box office failure of Walk Hard is an indication of this), but why? As long as the company keeps expanding, and the leads keep changing (though Seth Rogen is a bona fide superstar, and could do with a movie a year), what's there to resent besides success? In a way, I think Superbad points the way forward: it's the Apatow aesthetic in the hands of a filmmaker with a completely different skill set. It's also (in its theatrical incarnation) the tightest of the Apatow flicks thus far."
Two years later, it still is. Though the comedy gets pretty broad at times, SUPERBAD effortlessly exudes that universal, wild-night-out feel that made DAZED AND CONFUSED an instant classic. This is largely the doing of Mottola, who followed this up with the ADVENTURELAND, a bittersweet evocation of post-college ennui that deserves a much wider audience. I love both films, but SUPERBAD hits so many highs (Cera enchanting a roomful of cokeheads with his frightened rendition of "These Eyes"; Carla Gallo leaving her mark on Hill's pants; that nervous/giddy moment before Mintz-Plasse empties Hader's service revolver) that it just barely gets the nod.
67. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009, d. Spike Jonze, w. Jonze and Dave Eggers)
A film that could very well move up this list as the years pile on.
I haven't gone back since my first viewing, but the final scene - where Keener falls asleep watching a safely-returned Max scarf down his dinner without a care in the world - hits me hard. Though we didn't realize it at the time, we all participated in those moments - where our mothers found solace in us just being happy and young and theirs. And you get the sense that Keener hangs on to consciousness for as long as she can because she knows how fleeting this all is. In a few years time, Max will enter middle-school, and this bond will dissolve. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE strikes many resonant, melancholy chords, but in the end, it just made me miss being a kid for my mom. And that's why it made me sad.
I also think the final shot of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a complete downer, so if I'm alone in this reading, so be it.
From my 2009 AICN interview with Spike Jonze: "While WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE feels like a deeply personal film for Jonze, its depiction of a bratty kid run amok - and away to an island of moody monsters - is also incredibly inclusive. The specifics of Max's childhood may not resemble yours, but the highs and lows he experiences should be painfully familiar. No film has more perfectly captured what it feels like to be nine years old."
66. THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005, d. Fernando Meirelles, w. Jeffrey Caine)
Beats the tar out of THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. From my 2005 review for Collider: "It took a filmmaker as prodigiously talented as Fernando Meirelles to finally transfer John le Carré successfully to the screen, though his accomplishment reaches past the angry espionage of the novel to discover a doomed romanticism reminiscent of Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient. Borrowing that film’s lead (the great Ralph Fiennes), Meirelles has skillfully constructed a love story in which affection is not truly requited until both parties are murdered. Rachel Weisz’s Tessa Quayle hastens her death questing justice; Fiennes’s Justin Quayle brings about his by taking on Tessa’s cause after jealously investigating her possible infidelity. Justin’s a horrible sleuth, the meek antithesis of Harry Palmer, but Meirelles and le Carré aren’t after a rousing thriller in that mold. And though the movie brims with righteous indignation, it isn’t a political tract, either. What stays with you is the thought of Tessa and Justin reaching the same terminus alone."
65. LAKE OF FIRE (2007, d. Tony Kaye)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I knew where I came down on the abortion issue before I saw Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire; afterwards... I was a lot less certain. An objective and exhaustive documentary examining both sides of this roiling, often violent debate, Kaye challenges our preconceived notions by juxtaposing the tired, talking-point spiel regurgitated by the rank-and-file with thoughtful analysis from journalists like Nat Hentoff (who skillfully, if not entirely persuasively, argues the inconsistency of being anti-death penalty and pro-choice). But don't mistake this for a talking heads affair; Kaye reminds us, with his brilliant black-and-white cinematography, that he's one of the most visually gifted filmmakers working today. He's also unflinching in his depiction of the actual process of abortion, the aftermath of which will surely be too much for most viewers. Sensationalism aside, Kaye's still made the most thorough and even-handed documentary on this deeply divisive subject."
64. TIME OF THE WOLF (2003, w. & d. Michael Haneke)
This unusually straightforward work from Michael Haneke is about a French family struggling to cope with the end of the world as we know it. Haneke skimps on the catastrophic particulars and instead focuses on the collapse of society - which has been depicted hundreds of times before, but rarely with this level of verisimilitude. Isabelle Huppert is sensational as the mother fighting to protect her children and maintain civility as the strangers they encounter gradually give in to their basest survival instincts. What's surprising here is Haneke's near-acknowledgment that order can be reimposed; inevitably, as long as the planet's not in a sere shambles or a pipin' hot ball of fire (hey there, Alex Proyas!), we will rebuild. This is the one Haneke film that helps you up after it knees you in the nuts.
63. KAIRO (2001, w. & d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Hands down the best J-horror film of the decade - so long as you're counting AUDITION as a 1999 release. Though its "gimmick" of spooky images being captured via webcams feels incredibly quaint nowadays, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 classic is still an impeccably-crafted, slow-burner of a ghost story. As with most films of this subgenre, the set pieces are pretty much the show (this fucker is an unrepentant nightmare machine), but there's an unexpected scale and thoughtfulness to Kurosawa's story that's more Romero than Shimizu. Unlike RINGU or JU-ON, repeat viewings are anything but a case of diminishing returns.
62. TIME OUT (2001, d. Laurent Cantet, w. Cantet and Robin Campillo)
Laurent Cantet won the 2008 Palme d'Or for THE CLASS, but he turned in his best work seven years earlier with this depressingly relevant tale. From my 2001 AICN review: "Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) is a dedicated white-collar drone, forever on the road, traveling from one crucial business meeting to another, while keeping in touch with his family via cell phone, calling only to inform them that something else has come up, and that he won’t be home as planned. This is all a facade. In reality, Vincent lost his job several months ago, due precisely to this kind of itinerant behavior born out of a disaffection with a crushingly dull and depressingly pointless middle management position. Strangely, though, Vincent, rather than following up on job leads from a former co-worker, relishes his newfound freedom, driving aimlessly through the French countryside, and sleeping in his car rather than returning home, where his unavoidable financial responsibility to his family will surely intrude upon his semi-blissful existence.
There are probably thousands of Vincent’s out there – men and women stuck in that brutal middle-management loop with no sense of escape, and little self-worth. It is Cantet’s greatest triumph that he gives their heretofore satirized predicament a sobering, mournful voice."
61. GRINDHOUSE (2007, w. & d. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I'm probably grading Grindhouse on the experience of watching it at the New Beverly opening night, but this is my list, and I'll curve how I want to. Though I would never hail Planet Terror or Death Proof as masterpieces in their own right (not even Tarantino's extended cut of the latter, which inexplicably spoils Stuntman Mike's exquisite, over-the-shoulder introduction), mashed together with three lovingly crafted faux-trailers (and one disappointing display of onanism), they were pure moviegoing bliss. Did it help that I was knocking back smuggled-in Stone IPA's throughout the three-hour running time? Absolutely. Is that part of the grindhouse experience? Well, the boozing is; the relatively high-end taste for beer... not so much. But Grindhouse qualifies as epicurean trash, so why not wallow extravagantly?"
While I understand why the Weinstein's broke up the party when this thing grossed four dollars during its initial release, now that they've had a couple of years to recoup, it's time to give us us three-hour, unified cut of GRINDHOUSE.
60. THE HOST (2006, d. Bong Joon-ho, w. Bong Joon-ho, Baek Chul-hyun and Ha Won-jun)
A heartwarming family dramedy about a giant sea monster that terrorizes Seoul as payback for a U.S. Army surgeon's careless disposal of formaldehyde.
THE HOST is a fearless melding of genres that never feels like its paying homage to one film in particular; it's also a perturbed critique of America's meddlesome involvement in the country. But it's mostly just an expertly-crafted monster movie from one of the most uniquely gifted filmmakers in the world.
59. TSOTSI (2005, w. & d. Gavin Hood)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: "How to account for a film that initially taps into the lurid exhilaration of City of God only to slam home with the moral authority of To Kill a Mockingbird? Three months after watching the film, I still don’t know much about Gavin Hood, so let’s start with Athol Fugard, the internationally renowned South African playwright on whose only novel the movie is based. The story is very simple: an unfeeling thug (a revelatory performance by Presley Chweneyage) shoots a middle class Johannesburg woman in the midst of a car jacking only to find a mile or two into his getaway that he has inadvertently kidnapped her infant child. While the parents enlist the unenthusiastic authorities to scour the shantytown for their baby, Tsotsi, not enough of a monster to cold bloodedly murder a defenseless newborn, ineptly tries to provide for the child if only to stop it from crying, and, in the process, backs away from the abyss toward which he’s been swaggering most of his life for lack of a better option.
[TSOTSI] is a timeless parable that captivates, enlightens and encourages us to better understand our fellow man no matter how far he’s fallen. And it does this without lecturing, condescending or pitying. Impossible."
And then Hood made RENDITION and WOLVERINE. Good for his bank account; bad for his art. Come back to us, Gavin.
58. HERO (2002, d. Zhang Yimou, w. Zhang, Li Feng and Wang Bin)
Zhang Yimou's high-minded answer to Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON might have some uncomfortable nationalistic undercurrents, but they've never hindered my enjoyment of this gorgeously-shot film. Ching Siu-Tung's exquisite fight choreography and Christopher Doyle's sumptuous cinematography (abetted by Huo Tingxiao and Yi Zhenzhou's production design) combine to make HERO the most stylish and emotionally fulfilling martial arts picture ever produced.
57. BURN AFTER READING (2008, w & d. Joel and Ethan Coen)
From my 2008 review for AICN: "Joel and Ethan Coen's BURN AFTER READING opens with what appears to be a spy satellite's view of a computer-generated Earth. I think. Perhaps it's a model. Whatever it is, it's laughably fake, which means it's a detail the Coens really want you to notice. That this artificiality is accompanied by a bombastic Carter Burwell cue seemingly swiped from John Landis's SPIES LIKE US only serves to heighten the onrushing sense of parody; and as the camera comes crashing down through the fake clouds toward a fake United States and through the fake roof of a fake building in fake Langley, Virginia to reveal real CIA desk jockeys doing really stupid shit, your only response is to put your guard down and let the Coens enjoy their spirited, if inconsequential, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN victory lap. Visually, they've just told you they're up to nothin' but funnin', right?
It's survival of the pettiest, and it's telling that the only person who achieves their objective is the one most hellbent on their own self-interest. But then the Coens' camera retreats from fake Langley, back through the fake clouds and out into the vast expanses of fake space, and we're reminded that people just don't get away with such things in our universe. It sure is swell to live in a world where justice prevails."
56. OLDBOY (2003, d. Chan-wook Park, w. Park, Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim and Joon-hyung Lim)
The highlight of Butt-Numb-A-Thon V, this bizarro revenge yarn is Chan-wook Park at his most ferociously inspired. Considering Oh Dae-su's prolonged isolation and subsequent rough re-adjustment to regular society, I've always viewed OLDBOY as something of a metaphor for the still-unresolved North Korea-South Korea predicament. But it's so crazily over-plotted that any kind of thematic significance is secondary to the visceral pleasure of watching Oh Dae-su fuck up nearly everything and everyone in his path. First and foremost, this is an audience picture. Nothing wrong with that - not when it's this skillfully done.
55. MUNICH (2005, d. Steven Spielberg, w. Tony Kushner and Eric Roth)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: Steven Spielberg’s A Brief History of Revenge. Depicting the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre as the starting point of the modern Palestinian terrorism, Spielberg laments the downward spiral of violence even as he allows that the notion of inaction is patently absurd. Embedded in a breathtakingly assured suspense film that’s as masterful as the best paranoid thrillers of the 1970’s is the unsettling idea that civilization’s capitulation to bloodlust effectively destroyed (or, as some might say, exposed as a lie) the global pretense to morality celebrated after the Allied victory in World War II, ending with a coup de cinema in the picture’s final pan down the island of Manhattan. By utilizing the shadowy methods of the dispossessed as a means of squaring the dispute only begets more atrocities on both sides, and Spielberg pays his audience the compliment of being even-handed, which has been misconstrued by obfuscators on the right as “moral relativism”. There is a discussion to be had on the deploying of factually sketchy events to drive the point home, but dramatic license is hardly synonymous with dishonesty."
54. THE PIANIST (d. Roman Polanski, w. Ronald Harwood)
From my Best of 2002 list for AICN: "An unflinching, unsentimental survivor’s tale of the Holocaust that is ultimately more exhausting than profound. What lingers most in memory is Adrian Brody’s haunting central performance as a man with barely enough strength to endure."
I don't know why I was so dismissive of Roman Polanski's film back in '02, but it's now (correctly) regarded as a late-career triumph for the embattled director. THE PIANIST is a harrowing experience that contrasts jarringly with the saintly-survivor view of SCHINDLER'S LIST; talent, luck and compromise are essential, while decency is a potentially fatal luxury.
53. INTO THE WILD (w. & d. Sean Penn)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "Sean Penn always seemed on the verge of being a great filmmaker; it was just a matter of wedding his penchant for emotionally unsettled characters to material that wasn't too downbeat. So leave it to Penn to find the inspirational side to trekking off into the Alaskan wilderness and starving to death. This is, of course, a flippant way of saying that Penn personalized Jon Krakauer's fascinating tome about Christopher McCandless's ill-fated quest for a transformative rite of passage. Whereas Krakauer emphasized the cautionary (while trying to defend McCandless's folly), Penn celebrates the brave, kinda-crazy, off-the-grid romance McCandless indulged as a means of rejecting the prescribed path to professionalism set down by his no-nonsense father. It was a selfish journey to be sure, but Penn portrays it as a sacrifice for all those who would never stray from the expected and venture off into the unknown."
52. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003, d. Peter Weir, w. Weir and John Collee)
From my 2004 DVD Journal review: "It's impossible to imagine [Patrick O'Brian's] books being brought to life by anyone else but Weir, whose ongoing fascination with outsiders entering strange cultures is an ideal fit for the project. Unlike his previous films, however, the characters are all completely at home in their world; it's the audience who's the outsider. When one understands this, that opening, dimly lit tour of the [H.M.S. Surprise], scored to little more than the ambient sound of a working ship at sea, makes perfect sense. It's the moment of enchantment through which Weir works his customary magic, and it lingers undisturbed for a wonderful couple of hours until the closing credits finally breaks the spell. It's as good, as stirring, and as pleasurable as time spent under a reading light with O'Brian's prose."
Tom Rothman, the much-maligned Fox chairman, deserves an enormous amount of credit for getting this (financially unsuccessful) film made. So thank you, Tom, for this immersive, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. There, I said it.
51. MULHOLLAND DR. (w. & d. David Lynch)
From my 2001 review for AICN: Technically, the film is a marvel. Peter Demming’s cinematography has an absurdly soft glow in daylight, but his most notable achievement is the way he renders darkness as an inescapably malevolent character. No one been this at home in the shadows since Gordon Willis. Meanwhile, Lynch lends this darkness a kind of voice through his sound design; a low, ominous rumble accompanies even the quietest moments, and seems ever on the verge of an abrupt crescendo to a roar. Consider yourself forewarned that Lynch is more than happy to kick the volume up to some frighteningly high-decibel levels (it’s his best use of sound since his perennially underrated TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME).
Yes, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is not for all tastes; it’ll be anathema for hard-core narrative junkies, and will send the faint-of-heart scrambling for the exits within the first ten minutes. For everyone else, it’s classic Lynch – perversely funny and unspeakably terrifying in near equal measures. To be precise, a masterpiece."
Halfway through. Apologies for relying so heavily on my old reviews for this batch, but it's been a very busy week. I'll be hard at work this weekend writing up as many fresh capsules as possible for the final fifty - which will be posted by Wednesday morning at the latest.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
73. THE FOUNTAIN (w. & d. Darren Aronofsky)
Darren Aronofsky's madly ambitious film about the quest to not die, and to not let anyone we love die, leads with its soul and succeeds because the writer-director never once tries to over-intellectualize the experience. He just wants to break our heart. In trying together three not-too-disparate stories - about a conquistador's search for the tree of life, a cancer researcher's attempts to disappear his wife's brain tumor, and a future dude's intergalactic journey with a dying tree and his deceased wife's ghost - Aronofsky evokes deep sadness as we have our silly hopes crushed once again. Life and love are fleeting, loss is inevitable, and there ain't a damn thing we can do about it.
THE FOUNTAIN is the heartfelt flip-side to the oppressive nihilism of REQUIEM FOR A DREAM. It's also Aronofsky's finest film to date. Sadly, Clint Mansell's lovely score is now being used to sell insipid Hollywood product. If you love this film as much as I do, this cue should wreck you every time you hear it:
72. UNITED 93 (2006, w. & d. Paul Greengrass)
From my 2006 Collider review: “As for unflinching, documentary-style recreations of actual events, United 93 is as relentless as Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (though, obviously, much more contained and much, much less political). Greengrass has no intention of sparing the audience any of the ugliness that transpired on the ill-fated flight, particularly in the grisly third act, and his ferociousness will certainly prove too much for more sensitive viewers. As someone who viewed the smoldering Twin Towers from the twenty-sixth floor of the MetLife Building in midtown Manhattan, and, like so many other New Yorkers, glumly went through the motions for a week or two following the attack on our city, I often wondered what the hell I was doing in the theater. Aside from bearing witness to Greengrass’s maturation as a filmmaker (and this is easily his most accomplished work yet), I spent most of the moments prior to the start of the film trying to figure out why I’d bothered.
...[But] that’s why United 93 needs to exist, and why I think it will become an important, widely-seen documenting of the day everything changed for Americans. We need to remember the heroic deeds in the early hours of 9/11, and, for the sake of unity, we don’t necessarily need politics to enter into it. That said, the apolitical nature of Greengrass’s film may wind up rendering it a little quaint once writers and directors grow a bit bolder in tackling the subject. Rossellini’s Open City and Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers still resonate today because they have a contentious point of view; though far from timid, the objective United 93 is ripe to eventually get overshadowed by more opinionated works.”
Even if those works come along in the next decade, UNITED 93 will always be a chilling and boldly unsentimental reminder that that could've been you or me on that plane. Several years after its theatrical release, this film now feels incapable of being overshadowed.
71. THE HOLY GIRL (2004, w. & d. Lucretia Martel)
A vast improvement over her first movie, LA CIENAGA (which felt like a study of human beings struck inactive by extreme humidity), THE HOLY GIRL finds Lucretia Martel figuring it out as she goes along - both as a director and a storyteller. Whereas little seemed to coalesce by the end of LA CIENAGA (thematically or narratively), everything sort of slides into place here, and what at first threatens to be a morality play about a middle-aged doctor's improper contact with a teenage girl (brought on by, what else, a theremin) gradually turns into a mediation on the absence of innocence. At least, that's my take. Martel's film is generously open-ended - even though it's also put together with a deceptive precision. She's a major talent. (And I must shamefully admit that I have yet to see THE HEADLESS WOMAN.)
70. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005, d. Ang Lee, w. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
From my Best of 2005 for Collider: "When Ang Lee was told BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which utilizes young actors to tell a multi-generational tale of societal discovery, could be viewed as “GIANT turned inward”, he smiled and shot back, “Or GIANT turned outward”. Such irreverence may have been unexpected after the heartbreak of his lushly romantic epic, but that puckish comment underscores the wry humanity present in all of Lee’s films. Sure, he tackles weighty topics with occasionally tragic outcomes, but you can’t get to the wounded core of your characters without a touch of levity, which is abundant in Jack and Ennis’s gradual, unexpected courtship at the outset. Working from a fantastic script by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, Lee avoids the pitfalls of obviousness at every turn, right up to the pulverizing finale where the emotional understatement of all that’s come before pays off in well-earned tears - at which point BROKEBACK equals the impact of its fifty-year-old progenitor with a far more economical use of screen time. (It’s also important to note that, like George Stevens, Lee is not revising the Western genre; he's seeking to redefine an archetype much bigger than its filmic representation. In other words, comparisons to other Westerns are awfully limiting.)
I had no idea how apt those GIANT comparisons would be three years ago. And even though we got more, quantity-wise, from Ledger, the thought that he exited right at the moment he was coming alive as a performer is anything but comforting.
69. WALL-E (2008, d. Andrew Stanton, w. Stanton and Jim Reardon)
From my 2008 AICN review: Despite the gentle, MODERN TIMES-inspired satire, "true love" is the motor of this story. It's a lovely gesture, and it makes me smile, but there's a part of me that wonders whether we'd be referring to Stanton's film as genuflectingly brilliant if he left WALL-E's memory wiped at the end. Most all-ages classics require some semblance of sacrifice: we assume Elliott will never see E.T. again, whilst another noggin-knockin' trip to Oz would probably leave Dorothy talking like Leon Spinks. But after a few we-know-you're-not-going-there scares, WALL-E gets rebooted and is shipshape once again (like Uhura post-"The Changeling").
On second thought, since I've made a similar argument in defense of Tom Cruise's kid "miraculously" returning at the end of Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS, I'm going to be consistent and say the ending is exactly what it needs to be: WALL-E lays out for "the needs of the many", and he is duly rewarded by not being reduced to a memory-wiped droid. This doesn't mean WALL-E is now "genuflectingly brilliant", but it is top-shelf Pixar - and that's more than good enough to place here.
68. SUPERBAD (d. Greg Mottola, w. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen)
From my Best of 2007 list from CHUD: "The return of Greg Mottola (director of the underrated and underseen The Daytrippers), the debut of Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the Anthony Michael Hall of his generation if he's unlucky, which I don't think he'll be) and more stellar Apatow. Everyone jokes that there's going to be a backlash at some point (maybe the box office failure of Walk Hard is an indication of this), but why? As long as the company keeps expanding, and the leads keep changing (though Seth Rogen is a bona fide superstar, and could do with a movie a year), what's there to resent besides success? In a way, I think Superbad points the way forward: it's the Apatow aesthetic in the hands of a filmmaker with a completely different skill set. It's also (in its theatrical incarnation) the tightest of the Apatow flicks thus far."
Two years later, it still is. Though the comedy gets pretty broad at times, SUPERBAD effortlessly exudes that universal, wild-night-out feel that made DAZED AND CONFUSED an instant classic. This is largely the doing of Mottola, who followed this up with the ADVENTURELAND, a bittersweet evocation of post-college ennui that deserves a much wider audience. I love both films, but SUPERBAD hits so many highs (Cera enchanting a roomful of cokeheads with his frightened rendition of "These Eyes"; Carla Gallo leaving her mark on Hill's pants; that nervous/giddy moment before Mintz-Plasse empties Hader's service revolver) that it just barely gets the nod.
67. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009, d. Spike Jonze, w. Jonze and Dave Eggers)
A film that could very well move up this list as the years pile on.
I haven't gone back since my first viewing, but the final scene - where Keener falls asleep watching a safely-returned Max scarf down his dinner without a care in the world - hits me hard. Though we didn't realize it at the time, we all participated in those moments - where our mothers found solace in us just being happy and young and theirs. And you get the sense that Keener hangs on to consciousness for as long as she can because she knows how fleeting this all is. In a few years time, Max will enter middle-school, and this bond will dissolve. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE strikes many resonant, melancholy chords, but in the end, it just made me miss being a kid for my mom. And that's why it made me sad.
I also think the final shot of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a complete downer, so if I'm alone in this reading, so be it.
From my 2009 AICN interview with Spike Jonze: "While WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE feels like a deeply personal film for Jonze, its depiction of a bratty kid run amok - and away to an island of moody monsters - is also incredibly inclusive. The specifics of Max's childhood may not resemble yours, but the highs and lows he experiences should be painfully familiar. No film has more perfectly captured what it feels like to be nine years old."
66. THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005, d. Fernando Meirelles, w. Jeffrey Caine)
Beats the tar out of THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. From my 2005 review for Collider: "It took a filmmaker as prodigiously talented as Fernando Meirelles to finally transfer John le Carré successfully to the screen, though his accomplishment reaches past the angry espionage of the novel to discover a doomed romanticism reminiscent of Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient. Borrowing that film’s lead (the great Ralph Fiennes), Meirelles has skillfully constructed a love story in which affection is not truly requited until both parties are murdered. Rachel Weisz’s Tessa Quayle hastens her death questing justice; Fiennes’s Justin Quayle brings about his by taking on Tessa’s cause after jealously investigating her possible infidelity. Justin’s a horrible sleuth, the meek antithesis of Harry Palmer, but Meirelles and le Carré aren’t after a rousing thriller in that mold. And though the movie brims with righteous indignation, it isn’t a political tract, either. What stays with you is the thought of Tessa and Justin reaching the same terminus alone."
65. LAKE OF FIRE (2007, d. Tony Kaye)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I knew where I came down on the abortion issue before I saw Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire; afterwards... I was a lot less certain. An objective and exhaustive documentary examining both sides of this roiling, often violent debate, Kaye challenges our preconceived notions by juxtaposing the tired, talking-point spiel regurgitated by the rank-and-file with thoughtful analysis from journalists like Nat Hentoff (who skillfully, if not entirely persuasively, argues the inconsistency of being anti-death penalty and pro-choice). But don't mistake this for a talking heads affair; Kaye reminds us, with his brilliant black-and-white cinematography, that he's one of the most visually gifted filmmakers working today. He's also unflinching in his depiction of the actual process of abortion, the aftermath of which will surely be too much for most viewers. Sensationalism aside, Kaye's still made the most thorough and even-handed documentary on this deeply divisive subject."
64. TIME OF THE WOLF (2003, w. & d. Michael Haneke)
This unusually straightforward work from Michael Haneke is about a French family struggling to cope with the end of the world as we know it. Haneke skimps on the catastrophic particulars and instead focuses on the collapse of society - which has been depicted hundreds of times before, but rarely with this level of verisimilitude. Isabelle Huppert is sensational as the mother fighting to protect her children and maintain civility as the strangers they encounter gradually give in to their basest survival instincts. What's surprising here is Haneke's near-acknowledgment that order can be reimposed; inevitably, as long as the planet's not in a sere shambles or a pipin' hot ball of fire (hey there, Alex Proyas!), we will rebuild. This is the one Haneke film that helps you up after it knees you in the nuts.
63. KAIRO (2001, w. & d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Hands down the best J-horror film of the decade - so long as you're counting AUDITION as a 1999 release. Though its "gimmick" of spooky images being captured via webcams feels incredibly quaint nowadays, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 classic is still an impeccably-crafted, slow-burner of a ghost story. As with most films of this subgenre, the set pieces are pretty much the show (this fucker is an unrepentant nightmare machine), but there's an unexpected scale and thoughtfulness to Kurosawa's story that's more Romero than Shimizu. Unlike RINGU or JU-ON, repeat viewings are anything but a case of diminishing returns.
62. TIME OUT (2001, d. Laurent Cantet, w. Cantet and Robin Campillo)
Laurent Cantet won the 2008 Palme d'Or for THE CLASS, but he turned in his best work seven years earlier with this depressingly relevant tale. From my 2001 AICN review: "Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) is a dedicated white-collar drone, forever on the road, traveling from one crucial business meeting to another, while keeping in touch with his family via cell phone, calling only to inform them that something else has come up, and that he won’t be home as planned. This is all a facade. In reality, Vincent lost his job several months ago, due precisely to this kind of itinerant behavior born out of a disaffection with a crushingly dull and depressingly pointless middle management position. Strangely, though, Vincent, rather than following up on job leads from a former co-worker, relishes his newfound freedom, driving aimlessly through the French countryside, and sleeping in his car rather than returning home, where his unavoidable financial responsibility to his family will surely intrude upon his semi-blissful existence.
There are probably thousands of Vincent’s out there – men and women stuck in that brutal middle-management loop with no sense of escape, and little self-worth. It is Cantet’s greatest triumph that he gives their heretofore satirized predicament a sobering, mournful voice."
61. GRINDHOUSE (2007, w. & d. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I'm probably grading Grindhouse on the experience of watching it at the New Beverly opening night, but this is my list, and I'll curve how I want to. Though I would never hail Planet Terror or Death Proof as masterpieces in their own right (not even Tarantino's extended cut of the latter, which inexplicably spoils Stuntman Mike's exquisite, over-the-shoulder introduction), mashed together with three lovingly crafted faux-trailers (and one disappointing display of onanism), they were pure moviegoing bliss. Did it help that I was knocking back smuggled-in Stone IPA's throughout the three-hour running time? Absolutely. Is that part of the grindhouse experience? Well, the boozing is; the relatively high-end taste for beer... not so much. But Grindhouse qualifies as epicurean trash, so why not wallow extravagantly?"
While I understand why the Weinstein's broke up the party when this thing grossed four dollars during its initial release, now that they've had a couple of years to recoup, it's time to give us us three-hour, unified cut of GRINDHOUSE.
60. THE HOST (2006, d. Bong Joon-ho, w. Bong Joon-ho, Baek Chul-hyun and Ha Won-jun)
A heartwarming family dramedy about a giant sea monster that terrorizes Seoul as payback for a U.S. Army surgeon's careless disposal of formaldehyde.
THE HOST is a fearless melding of genres that never feels like its paying homage to one film in particular; it's also a perturbed critique of America's meddlesome involvement in the country. But it's mostly just an expertly-crafted monster movie from one of the most uniquely gifted filmmakers in the world.
59. TSOTSI (2005, w. & d. Gavin Hood)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: "How to account for a film that initially taps into the lurid exhilaration of City of God only to slam home with the moral authority of To Kill a Mockingbird? Three months after watching the film, I still don’t know much about Gavin Hood, so let’s start with Athol Fugard, the internationally renowned South African playwright on whose only novel the movie is based. The story is very simple: an unfeeling thug (a revelatory performance by Presley Chweneyage) shoots a middle class Johannesburg woman in the midst of a car jacking only to find a mile or two into his getaway that he has inadvertently kidnapped her infant child. While the parents enlist the unenthusiastic authorities to scour the shantytown for their baby, Tsotsi, not enough of a monster to cold bloodedly murder a defenseless newborn, ineptly tries to provide for the child if only to stop it from crying, and, in the process, backs away from the abyss toward which he’s been swaggering most of his life for lack of a better option.
[TSOTSI] is a timeless parable that captivates, enlightens and encourages us to better understand our fellow man no matter how far he’s fallen. And it does this without lecturing, condescending or pitying. Impossible."
And then Hood made RENDITION and WOLVERINE. Good for his bank account; bad for his art. Come back to us, Gavin.
58. HERO (2002, d. Zhang Yimou, w. Zhang, Li Feng and Wang Bin)
Zhang Yimou's high-minded answer to Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON might have some uncomfortable nationalistic undercurrents, but they've never hindered my enjoyment of this gorgeously-shot film. Ching Siu-Tung's exquisite fight choreography and Christopher Doyle's sumptuous cinematography (abetted by Huo Tingxiao and Yi Zhenzhou's production design) combine to make HERO the most stylish and emotionally fulfilling martial arts picture ever produced.
57. BURN AFTER READING (2008, w & d. Joel and Ethan Coen)
From my 2008 review for AICN: "Joel and Ethan Coen's BURN AFTER READING opens with what appears to be a spy satellite's view of a computer-generated Earth. I think. Perhaps it's a model. Whatever it is, it's laughably fake, which means it's a detail the Coens really want you to notice. That this artificiality is accompanied by a bombastic Carter Burwell cue seemingly swiped from John Landis's SPIES LIKE US only serves to heighten the onrushing sense of parody; and as the camera comes crashing down through the fake clouds toward a fake United States and through the fake roof of a fake building in fake Langley, Virginia to reveal real CIA desk jockeys doing really stupid shit, your only response is to put your guard down and let the Coens enjoy their spirited, if inconsequential, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN victory lap. Visually, they've just told you they're up to nothin' but funnin', right?
It's survival of the pettiest, and it's telling that the only person who achieves their objective is the one most hellbent on their own self-interest. But then the Coens' camera retreats from fake Langley, back through the fake clouds and out into the vast expanses of fake space, and we're reminded that people just don't get away with such things in our universe. It sure is swell to live in a world where justice prevails."
56. OLDBOY (2003, d. Chan-wook Park, w. Park, Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim and Joon-hyung Lim)
The highlight of Butt-Numb-A-Thon V, this bizarro revenge yarn is Chan-wook Park at his most ferociously inspired. Considering Oh Dae-su's prolonged isolation and subsequent rough re-adjustment to regular society, I've always viewed OLDBOY as something of a metaphor for the still-unresolved North Korea-South Korea predicament. But it's so crazily over-plotted that any kind of thematic significance is secondary to the visceral pleasure of watching Oh Dae-su fuck up nearly everything and everyone in his path. First and foremost, this is an audience picture. Nothing wrong with that - not when it's this skillfully done.
55. MUNICH (2005, d. Steven Spielberg, w. Tony Kushner and Eric Roth)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: Steven Spielberg’s A Brief History of Revenge. Depicting the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre as the starting point of the modern Palestinian terrorism, Spielberg laments the downward spiral of violence even as he allows that the notion of inaction is patently absurd. Embedded in a breathtakingly assured suspense film that’s as masterful as the best paranoid thrillers of the 1970’s is the unsettling idea that civilization’s capitulation to bloodlust effectively destroyed (or, as some might say, exposed as a lie) the global pretense to morality celebrated after the Allied victory in World War II, ending with a coup de cinema in the picture’s final pan down the island of Manhattan. By utilizing the shadowy methods of the dispossessed as a means of squaring the dispute only begets more atrocities on both sides, and Spielberg pays his audience the compliment of being even-handed, which has been misconstrued by obfuscators on the right as “moral relativism”. There is a discussion to be had on the deploying of factually sketchy events to drive the point home, but dramatic license is hardly synonymous with dishonesty."
54. THE PIANIST (d. Roman Polanski, w. Ronald Harwood)
From my Best of 2002 list for AICN: "An unflinching, unsentimental survivor’s tale of the Holocaust that is ultimately more exhausting than profound. What lingers most in memory is Adrian Brody’s haunting central performance as a man with barely enough strength to endure."
I don't know why I was so dismissive of Roman Polanski's film back in '02, but it's now (correctly) regarded as a late-career triumph for the embattled director. THE PIANIST is a harrowing experience that contrasts jarringly with the saintly-survivor view of SCHINDLER'S LIST; talent, luck and compromise are essential, while decency is a potentially fatal luxury.
53. INTO THE WILD (w. & d. Sean Penn)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "Sean Penn always seemed on the verge of being a great filmmaker; it was just a matter of wedding his penchant for emotionally unsettled characters to material that wasn't too downbeat. So leave it to Penn to find the inspirational side to trekking off into the Alaskan wilderness and starving to death. This is, of course, a flippant way of saying that Penn personalized Jon Krakauer's fascinating tome about Christopher McCandless's ill-fated quest for a transformative rite of passage. Whereas Krakauer emphasized the cautionary (while trying to defend McCandless's folly), Penn celebrates the brave, kinda-crazy, off-the-grid romance McCandless indulged as a means of rejecting the prescribed path to professionalism set down by his no-nonsense father. It was a selfish journey to be sure, but Penn portrays it as a sacrifice for all those who would never stray from the expected and venture off into the unknown."
52. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003, d. Peter Weir, w. Weir and John Collee)
From my 2004 DVD Journal review: "It's impossible to imagine [Patrick O'Brian's] books being brought to life by anyone else but Weir, whose ongoing fascination with outsiders entering strange cultures is an ideal fit for the project. Unlike his previous films, however, the characters are all completely at home in their world; it's the audience who's the outsider. When one understands this, that opening, dimly lit tour of the [H.M.S. Surprise], scored to little more than the ambient sound of a working ship at sea, makes perfect sense. It's the moment of enchantment through which Weir works his customary magic, and it lingers undisturbed for a wonderful couple of hours until the closing credits finally breaks the spell. It's as good, as stirring, and as pleasurable as time spent under a reading light with O'Brian's prose."
Tom Rothman, the much-maligned Fox chairman, deserves an enormous amount of credit for getting this (financially unsuccessful) film made. So thank you, Tom, for this immersive, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. There, I said it.
51. MULHOLLAND DR. (w. & d. David Lynch)
From my 2001 review for AICN: Technically, the film is a marvel. Peter Demming’s cinematography has an absurdly soft glow in daylight, but his most notable achievement is the way he renders darkness as an inescapably malevolent character. No one been this at home in the shadows since Gordon Willis. Meanwhile, Lynch lends this darkness a kind of voice through his sound design; a low, ominous rumble accompanies even the quietest moments, and seems ever on the verge of an abrupt crescendo to a roar. Consider yourself forewarned that Lynch is more than happy to kick the volume up to some frighteningly high-decibel levels (it’s his best use of sound since his perennially underrated TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME).
Yes, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is not for all tastes; it’ll be anathema for hard-core narrative junkies, and will send the faint-of-heart scrambling for the exits within the first ten minutes. For everyone else, it’s classic Lynch – perversely funny and unspeakably terrifying in near equal measures. To be precise, a masterpiece."
Halfway through. Apologies for relying so heavily on my old reviews for this batch, but it's been a very busy week. I'll be hard at work this weekend writing up as many fresh capsules as possible for the final fifty - which will be posted by Wednesday morning at the latest.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
71. THE HOLY GIRL (2004, w. & d. Lucretia Martel)
A vast improvement over her first movie, LA CIENAGA (which felt like a study of human beings struck inactive by extreme humidity), THE HOLY GIRL finds Lucretia Martel figuring it out as she goes along - both as a director and a storyteller. Whereas little seemed to coalesce by the end of LA CIENAGA (thematically or narratively), everything sort of slides into place here, and what at first threatens to be a morality play about a middle-aged doctor's improper contact with a teenage girl (brought on by, what else, a theremin) gradually turns into a mediation on the absence of innocence. At least, that's my take. Martel's film is generously open-ended - even though it's also put together with a deceptive precision. She's a major talent. (And I must shamefully admit that I have yet to see THE HEADLESS WOMAN.)
70. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2005, d. Ang Lee, w. Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana)
From my Best of 2005 for Collider: "When Ang Lee was told BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, which utilizes young actors to tell a multi-generational tale of societal discovery, could be viewed as “GIANT turned inward”, he smiled and shot back, “Or GIANT turned outward”. Such irreverence may have been unexpected after the heartbreak of his lushly romantic epic, but that puckish comment underscores the wry humanity present in all of Lee’s films. Sure, he tackles weighty topics with occasionally tragic outcomes, but you can’t get to the wounded core of your characters without a touch of levity, which is abundant in Jack and Ennis’s gradual, unexpected courtship at the outset. Working from a fantastic script by Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana, Lee avoids the pitfalls of obviousness at every turn, right up to the pulverizing finale where the emotional understatement of all that’s come before pays off in well-earned tears - at which point BROKEBACK equals the impact of its fifty-year-old progenitor with a far more economical use of screen time. (It’s also important to note that, like George Stevens, Lee is not revising the Western genre; he's seeking to redefine an archetype much bigger than its filmic representation. In other words, comparisons to other Westerns are awfully limiting.)
I had no idea how apt those GIANT comparisons would be three years ago. And even though we got more, quantity-wise, from Ledger, the thought that he exited right at the moment he was coming alive as a performer is anything but comforting.
69. WALL-E (2008, d. Andrew Stanton, w. Stanton and Jim Reardon)
From my 2008 AICN review: Despite the gentle, MODERN TIMES-inspired satire, "true love" is the motor of this story. It's a lovely gesture, and it makes me smile, but there's a part of me that wonders whether we'd be referring to Stanton's film as genuflectingly brilliant if he left WALL-E's memory wiped at the end. Most all-ages classics require some semblance of sacrifice: we assume Elliott will never see E.T. again, whilst another noggin-knockin' trip to Oz would probably leave Dorothy talking like Leon Spinks. But after a few we-know-you're-not-going-there scares, WALL-E gets rebooted and is shipshape once again (like Uhura post-"The Changeling").
On second thought, since I've made a similar argument in defense of Tom Cruise's kid "miraculously" returning at the end of Spielberg's WAR OF THE WORLDS, I'm going to be consistent and say the ending is exactly what it needs to be: WALL-E lays out for "the needs of the many", and he is duly rewarded by not being reduced to a memory-wiped droid. This doesn't mean WALL-E is now "genuflectingly brilliant", but it is top-shelf Pixar - and that's more than good enough to place here.
68. SUPERBAD (d. Greg Mottola, w. Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen)
From my Best of 2007 list from CHUD: "The return of Greg Mottola (director of the underrated and underseen The Daytrippers), the debut of Christopher Mintz-Plasse (the Anthony Michael Hall of his generation if he's unlucky, which I don't think he'll be) and more stellar Apatow. Everyone jokes that there's going to be a backlash at some point (maybe the box office failure of Walk Hard is an indication of this), but why? As long as the company keeps expanding, and the leads keep changing (though Seth Rogen is a bona fide superstar, and could do with a movie a year), what's there to resent besides success? In a way, I think Superbad points the way forward: it's the Apatow aesthetic in the hands of a filmmaker with a completely different skill set. It's also (in its theatrical incarnation) the tightest of the Apatow flicks thus far."
Two years later, it still is. Though the comedy gets pretty broad at times, SUPERBAD effortlessly exudes that universal, wild-night-out feel that made DAZED AND CONFUSED an instant classic. This is largely the doing of Mottola, who followed this up with the ADVENTURELAND, a bittersweet evocation of post-college ennui that deserves a much wider audience. I love both films, but SUPERBAD hits so many highs (Cera enchanting a roomful of cokeheads with his frightened rendition of "These Eyes"; Carla Gallo leaving her mark on Hill's pants; that nervous/giddy moment before Mintz-Plasse empties Hader's service revolver) that it just barely gets the nod.
67. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009, d. Spike Jonze, w. Jonze and Dave Eggers)
A film that could very well move up this list as the years pile on.
I haven't gone back since my first viewing, but the final scene - where Keener falls asleep watching a safely-returned Max scarf down his dinner without a care in the world - hits me hard. Though we didn't realize it at the time, we all participated in those moments - where our mothers found solace in us just being happy and young and theirs. And you get the sense that Keener hangs on to consciousness for as long as she can because she knows how fleeting this all is. In a few years time, Max will enter middle-school, and this bond will dissolve. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE strikes many resonant, melancholy chords, but in the end, it just made me miss being a kid for my mom. And that's why it made me sad.
I also think the final shot of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a complete downer, so if I'm alone in this reading, so be it.
From my 2009 AICN interview with Spike Jonze: "While WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE feels like a deeply personal film for Jonze, its depiction of a bratty kid run amok - and away to an island of moody monsters - is also incredibly inclusive. The specifics of Max's childhood may not resemble yours, but the highs and lows he experiences should be painfully familiar. No film has more perfectly captured what it feels like to be nine years old."
66. THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005, d. Fernando Meirelles, w. Jeffrey Caine)
Beats the tar out of THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. From my 2005 review for Collider: "It took a filmmaker as prodigiously talented as Fernando Meirelles to finally transfer John le Carré successfully to the screen, though his accomplishment reaches past the angry espionage of the novel to discover a doomed romanticism reminiscent of Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient. Borrowing that film’s lead (the great Ralph Fiennes), Meirelles has skillfully constructed a love story in which affection is not truly requited until both parties are murdered. Rachel Weisz’s Tessa Quayle hastens her death questing justice; Fiennes’s Justin Quayle brings about his by taking on Tessa’s cause after jealously investigating her possible infidelity. Justin’s a horrible sleuth, the meek antithesis of Harry Palmer, but Meirelles and le Carré aren’t after a rousing thriller in that mold. And though the movie brims with righteous indignation, it isn’t a political tract, either. What stays with you is the thought of Tessa and Justin reaching the same terminus alone."
65. LAKE OF FIRE (2007, d. Tony Kaye)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I knew where I came down on the abortion issue before I saw Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire; afterwards... I was a lot less certain. An objective and exhaustive documentary examining both sides of this roiling, often violent debate, Kaye challenges our preconceived notions by juxtaposing the tired, talking-point spiel regurgitated by the rank-and-file with thoughtful analysis from journalists like Nat Hentoff (who skillfully, if not entirely persuasively, argues the inconsistency of being anti-death penalty and pro-choice). But don't mistake this for a talking heads affair; Kaye reminds us, with his brilliant black-and-white cinematography, that he's one of the most visually gifted filmmakers working today. He's also unflinching in his depiction of the actual process of abortion, the aftermath of which will surely be too much for most viewers. Sensationalism aside, Kaye's still made the most thorough and even-handed documentary on this deeply divisive subject."
64. TIME OF THE WOLF (2003, w. & d. Michael Haneke)
This unusually straightforward work from Michael Haneke is about a French family struggling to cope with the end of the world as we know it. Haneke skimps on the catastrophic particulars and instead focuses on the collapse of society - which has been depicted hundreds of times before, but rarely with this level of verisimilitude. Isabelle Huppert is sensational as the mother fighting to protect her children and maintain civility as the strangers they encounter gradually give in to their basest survival instincts. What's surprising here is Haneke's near-acknowledgment that order can be reimposed; inevitably, as long as the planet's not in a sere shambles or a pipin' hot ball of fire (hey there, Alex Proyas!), we will rebuild. This is the one Haneke film that helps you up after it knees you in the nuts.
63. KAIRO (2001, w. & d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Hands down the best J-horror film of the decade - so long as you're counting AUDITION as a 1999 release. Though its "gimmick" of spooky images being captured via webcams feels incredibly quaint nowadays, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 classic is still an impeccably-crafted, slow-burner of a ghost story. As with most films of this subgenre, the set pieces are pretty much the show (this fucker is an unrepentant nightmare machine), but there's an unexpected scale and thoughtfulness to Kurosawa's story that's more Romero than Shimizu. Unlike RINGU or JU-ON, repeat viewings are anything but a case of diminishing returns.
62. TIME OUT (2001, d. Laurent Cantet, w. Cantet and Robin Campillo)
Laurent Cantet won the 2008 Palme d'Or for THE CLASS, but he turned in his best work seven years earlier with this depressingly relevant tale. From my 2001 AICN review: "Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) is a dedicated white-collar drone, forever on the road, traveling from one crucial business meeting to another, while keeping in touch with his family via cell phone, calling only to inform them that something else has come up, and that he won’t be home as planned. This is all a facade. In reality, Vincent lost his job several months ago, due precisely to this kind of itinerant behavior born out of a disaffection with a crushingly dull and depressingly pointless middle management position. Strangely, though, Vincent, rather than following up on job leads from a former co-worker, relishes his newfound freedom, driving aimlessly through the French countryside, and sleeping in his car rather than returning home, where his unavoidable financial responsibility to his family will surely intrude upon his semi-blissful existence.
There are probably thousands of Vincent’s out there – men and women stuck in that brutal middle-management loop with no sense of escape, and little self-worth. It is Cantet’s greatest triumph that he gives their heretofore satirized predicament a sobering, mournful voice."
61. GRINDHOUSE (2007, w. & d. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I'm probably grading Grindhouse on the experience of watching it at the New Beverly opening night, but this is my list, and I'll curve how I want to. Though I would never hail Planet Terror or Death Proof as masterpieces in their own right (not even Tarantino's extended cut of the latter, which inexplicably spoils Stuntman Mike's exquisite, over-the-shoulder introduction), mashed together with three lovingly crafted faux-trailers (and one disappointing display of onanism), they were pure moviegoing bliss. Did it help that I was knocking back smuggled-in Stone IPA's throughout the three-hour running time? Absolutely. Is that part of the grindhouse experience? Well, the boozing is; the relatively high-end taste for beer... not so much. But Grindhouse qualifies as epicurean trash, so why not wallow extravagantly?"
While I understand why the Weinstein's broke up the party when this thing grossed four dollars during its initial release, now that they've had a couple of years to recoup, it's time to give us us three-hour, unified cut of GRINDHOUSE.
60. THE HOST (2006, d. Bong Joon-ho, w. Bong Joon-ho, Baek Chul-hyun and Ha Won-jun)
A heartwarming family dramedy about a giant sea monster that terrorizes Seoul as payback for a U.S. Army surgeon's careless disposal of formaldehyde.
THE HOST is a fearless melding of genres that never feels like its paying homage to one film in particular; it's also a perturbed critique of America's meddlesome involvement in the country. But it's mostly just an expertly-crafted monster movie from one of the most uniquely gifted filmmakers in the world.
59. TSOTSI (2005, w. & d. Gavin Hood)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: "How to account for a film that initially taps into the lurid exhilaration of City of God only to slam home with the moral authority of To Kill a Mockingbird? Three months after watching the film, I still don’t know much about Gavin Hood, so let’s start with Athol Fugard, the internationally renowned South African playwright on whose only novel the movie is based. The story is very simple: an unfeeling thug (a revelatory performance by Presley Chweneyage) shoots a middle class Johannesburg woman in the midst of a car jacking only to find a mile or two into his getaway that he has inadvertently kidnapped her infant child. While the parents enlist the unenthusiastic authorities to scour the shantytown for their baby, Tsotsi, not enough of a monster to cold bloodedly murder a defenseless newborn, ineptly tries to provide for the child if only to stop it from crying, and, in the process, backs away from the abyss toward which he’s been swaggering most of his life for lack of a better option.
[TSOTSI] is a timeless parable that captivates, enlightens and encourages us to better understand our fellow man no matter how far he’s fallen. And it does this without lecturing, condescending or pitying. Impossible."
And then Hood made RENDITION and WOLVERINE. Good for his bank account; bad for his art. Come back to us, Gavin.
58. HERO (2002, d. Zhang Yimou, w. Zhang, Li Feng and Wang Bin)
Zhang Yimou's high-minded answer to Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON might have some uncomfortable nationalistic undercurrents, but they've never hindered my enjoyment of this gorgeously-shot film. Ching Siu-Tung's exquisite fight choreography and Christopher Doyle's sumptuous cinematography (abetted by Huo Tingxiao and Yi Zhenzhou's production design) combine to make HERO the most stylish and emotionally fulfilling martial arts picture ever produced.
57. BURN AFTER READING (2008, w & d. Joel and Ethan Coen)
From my 2008 review for AICN: "Joel and Ethan Coen's BURN AFTER READING opens with what appears to be a spy satellite's view of a computer-generated Earth. I think. Perhaps it's a model. Whatever it is, it's laughably fake, which means it's a detail the Coens really want you to notice. That this artificiality is accompanied by a bombastic Carter Burwell cue seemingly swiped from John Landis's SPIES LIKE US only serves to heighten the onrushing sense of parody; and as the camera comes crashing down through the fake clouds toward a fake United States and through the fake roof of a fake building in fake Langley, Virginia to reveal real CIA desk jockeys doing really stupid shit, your only response is to put your guard down and let the Coens enjoy their spirited, if inconsequential, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN victory lap. Visually, they've just told you they're up to nothin' but funnin', right?
It's survival of the pettiest, and it's telling that the only person who achieves their objective is the one most hellbent on their own self-interest. But then the Coens' camera retreats from fake Langley, back through the fake clouds and out into the vast expanses of fake space, and we're reminded that people just don't get away with such things in our universe. It sure is swell to live in a world where justice prevails."
56. OLDBOY (2003, d. Chan-wook Park, w. Park, Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim and Joon-hyung Lim)
The highlight of Butt-Numb-A-Thon V, this bizarro revenge yarn is Chan-wook Park at his most ferociously inspired. Considering Oh Dae-su's prolonged isolation and subsequent rough re-adjustment to regular society, I've always viewed OLDBOY as something of a metaphor for the still-unresolved North Korea-South Korea predicament. But it's so crazily over-plotted that any kind of thematic significance is secondary to the visceral pleasure of watching Oh Dae-su fuck up nearly everything and everyone in his path. First and foremost, this is an audience picture. Nothing wrong with that - not when it's this skillfully done.
55. MUNICH (2005, d. Steven Spielberg, w. Tony Kushner and Eric Roth)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: Steven Spielberg’s A Brief History of Revenge. Depicting the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre as the starting point of the modern Palestinian terrorism, Spielberg laments the downward spiral of violence even as he allows that the notion of inaction is patently absurd. Embedded in a breathtakingly assured suspense film that’s as masterful as the best paranoid thrillers of the 1970’s is the unsettling idea that civilization’s capitulation to bloodlust effectively destroyed (or, as some might say, exposed as a lie) the global pretense to morality celebrated after the Allied victory in World War II, ending with a coup de cinema in the picture’s final pan down the island of Manhattan. By utilizing the shadowy methods of the dispossessed as a means of squaring the dispute only begets more atrocities on both sides, and Spielberg pays his audience the compliment of being even-handed, which has been misconstrued by obfuscators on the right as “moral relativism”. There is a discussion to be had on the deploying of factually sketchy events to drive the point home, but dramatic license is hardly synonymous with dishonesty."
54. THE PIANIST (d. Roman Polanski, w. Ronald Harwood)
From my Best of 2002 list for AICN: "An unflinching, unsentimental survivor’s tale of the Holocaust that is ultimately more exhausting than profound. What lingers most in memory is Adrian Brody’s haunting central performance as a man with barely enough strength to endure."
I don't know why I was so dismissive of Roman Polanski's film back in '02, but it's now (correctly) regarded as a late-career triumph for the embattled director. THE PIANIST is a harrowing experience that contrasts jarringly with the saintly-survivor view of SCHINDLER'S LIST; talent, luck and compromise are essential, while decency is a potentially fatal luxury.
53. INTO THE WILD (w. & d. Sean Penn)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "Sean Penn always seemed on the verge of being a great filmmaker; it was just a matter of wedding his penchant for emotionally unsettled characters to material that wasn't too downbeat. So leave it to Penn to find the inspirational side to trekking off into the Alaskan wilderness and starving to death. This is, of course, a flippant way of saying that Penn personalized Jon Krakauer's fascinating tome about Christopher McCandless's ill-fated quest for a transformative rite of passage. Whereas Krakauer emphasized the cautionary (while trying to defend McCandless's folly), Penn celebrates the brave, kinda-crazy, off-the-grid romance McCandless indulged as a means of rejecting the prescribed path to professionalism set down by his no-nonsense father. It was a selfish journey to be sure, but Penn portrays it as a sacrifice for all those who would never stray from the expected and venture off into the unknown."
52. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003, d. Peter Weir, w. Weir and John Collee)
From my 2004 DVD Journal review: "It's impossible to imagine [Patrick O'Brian's] books being brought to life by anyone else but Weir, whose ongoing fascination with outsiders entering strange cultures is an ideal fit for the project. Unlike his previous films, however, the characters are all completely at home in their world; it's the audience who's the outsider. When one understands this, that opening, dimly lit tour of the [H.M.S. Surprise], scored to little more than the ambient sound of a working ship at sea, makes perfect sense. It's the moment of enchantment through which Weir works his customary magic, and it lingers undisturbed for a wonderful couple of hours until the closing credits finally breaks the spell. It's as good, as stirring, and as pleasurable as time spent under a reading light with O'Brian's prose."
Tom Rothman, the much-maligned Fox chairman, deserves an enormous amount of credit for getting this (financially unsuccessful) film made. So thank you, Tom, for this immersive, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. There, I said it.
51. MULHOLLAND DR. (w. & d. David Lynch)
From my 2001 review for AICN: Technically, the film is a marvel. Peter Demming’s cinematography has an absurdly soft glow in daylight, but his most notable achievement is the way he renders darkness as an inescapably malevolent character. No one been this at home in the shadows since Gordon Willis. Meanwhile, Lynch lends this darkness a kind of voice through his sound design; a low, ominous rumble accompanies even the quietest moments, and seems ever on the verge of an abrupt crescendo to a roar. Consider yourself forewarned that Lynch is more than happy to kick the volume up to some frighteningly high-decibel levels (it’s his best use of sound since his perennially underrated TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME).
Yes, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is not for all tastes; it’ll be anathema for hard-core narrative junkies, and will send the faint-of-heart scrambling for the exits within the first ten minutes. For everyone else, it’s classic Lynch – perversely funny and unspeakably terrifying in near equal measures. To be precise, a masterpiece."
Halfway through. Apologies for relying so heavily on my old reviews for this batch, but it's been a very busy week. I'll be hard at work this weekend writing up as many fresh capsules as possible for the final fifty - which will be posted by Wednesday morning at the latest.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
67. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE (2009, d. Spike Jonze, w. Jonze and Dave Eggers)
A film that could very well move up this list as the years pile on. I haven't gone back since my first viewing, but the final scene - where Keener falls asleep watching a safely-returned Max scarf down his dinner without a care in the world - hits me hard. Though we didn't realize it at the time, we all participated in those moments - where our mothers found solace in us just being happy and young and theirs. And you get the sense that Keener hangs on to consciousness for as long as she can because she knows how fleeting this all is. In a few years time, Max will enter middle-school, and this bond will dissolve. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE strikes many resonant, melancholy chords, but in the end, it just made me miss being a kid for my mom. And that's why it made me sad. I also think the final shot of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND is a complete downer, so if I'm alone in this reading, so be it. From my 2009 AICN interview with Spike Jonze: "While WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE feels like a deeply personal film for Jonze, its depiction of a bratty kid run amok - and away to an island of moody monsters - is also incredibly inclusive. The specifics of Max's childhood may not resemble yours, but the highs and lows he experiences should be painfully familiar. No film has more perfectly captured what it feels like to be nine years old."
66. THE CONSTANT GARDENER (2005, d. Fernando Meirelles, w. Jeffrey Caine)
Beats the tar out of THE LITTLE DRUMMER GIRL. From my 2005 review for Collider: "It took a filmmaker as prodigiously talented as Fernando Meirelles to finally transfer John le Carré successfully to the screen, though his accomplishment reaches past the angry espionage of the novel to discover a doomed romanticism reminiscent of Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient. Borrowing that film’s lead (the great Ralph Fiennes), Meirelles has skillfully constructed a love story in which affection is not truly requited until both parties are murdered. Rachel Weisz’s Tessa Quayle hastens her death questing justice; Fiennes’s Justin Quayle brings about his by taking on Tessa’s cause after jealously investigating her possible infidelity. Justin’s a horrible sleuth, the meek antithesis of Harry Palmer, but Meirelles and le Carré aren’t after a rousing thriller in that mold. And though the movie brims with righteous indignation, it isn’t a political tract, either. What stays with you is the thought of Tessa and Justin reaching the same terminus alone."
65. LAKE OF FIRE (2007, d. Tony Kaye)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I knew where I came down on the abortion issue before I saw Tony Kaye's Lake of Fire; afterwards... I was a lot less certain. An objective and exhaustive documentary examining both sides of this roiling, often violent debate, Kaye challenges our preconceived notions by juxtaposing the tired, talking-point spiel regurgitated by the rank-and-file with thoughtful analysis from journalists like Nat Hentoff (who skillfully, if not entirely persuasively, argues the inconsistency of being anti-death penalty and pro-choice). But don't mistake this for a talking heads affair; Kaye reminds us, with his brilliant black-and-white cinematography, that he's one of the most visually gifted filmmakers working today. He's also unflinching in his depiction of the actual process of abortion, the aftermath of which will surely be too much for most viewers. Sensationalism aside, Kaye's still made the most thorough and even-handed documentary on this deeply divisive subject."
64. TIME OF THE WOLF (2003, w. & d. Michael Haneke)
This unusually straightforward work from Michael Haneke is about a French family struggling to cope with the end of the world as we know it. Haneke skimps on the catastrophic particulars and instead focuses on the collapse of society - which has been depicted hundreds of times before, but rarely with this level of verisimilitude. Isabelle Huppert is sensational as the mother fighting to protect her children and maintain civility as the strangers they encounter gradually give in to their basest survival instincts. What's surprising here is Haneke's near-acknowledgment that order can be reimposed; inevitably, as long as the planet's not in a sere shambles or a pipin' hot ball of fire (hey there, Alex Proyas!), we will rebuild. This is the one Haneke film that helps you up after it knees you in the nuts.
63. KAIRO (2001, w. & d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Hands down the best J-horror film of the decade - so long as you're counting AUDITION as a 1999 release. Though its "gimmick" of spooky images being captured via webcams feels incredibly quaint nowadays, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 classic is still an impeccably-crafted, slow-burner of a ghost story. As with most films of this subgenre, the set pieces are pretty much the show (this fucker is an unrepentant nightmare machine), but there's an unexpected scale and thoughtfulness to Kurosawa's story that's more Romero than Shimizu. Unlike RINGU or JU-ON, repeat viewings are anything but a case of diminishing returns.
62. TIME OUT (2001, d. Laurent Cantet, w. Cantet and Robin Campillo)
Laurent Cantet won the 2008 Palme d'Or for THE CLASS, but he turned in his best work seven years earlier with this depressingly relevant tale. From my 2001 AICN review: "Vincent (Aurelien Recoing) is a dedicated white-collar drone, forever on the road, traveling from one crucial business meeting to another, while keeping in touch with his family via cell phone, calling only to inform them that something else has come up, and that he won’t be home as planned. This is all a facade. In reality, Vincent lost his job several months ago, due precisely to this kind of itinerant behavior born out of a disaffection with a crushingly dull and depressingly pointless middle management position. Strangely, though, Vincent, rather than following up on job leads from a former co-worker, relishes his newfound freedom, driving aimlessly through the French countryside, and sleeping in his car rather than returning home, where his unavoidable financial responsibility to his family will surely intrude upon his semi-blissful existence. There are probably thousands of Vincent’s out there – men and women stuck in that brutal middle-management loop with no sense of escape, and little self-worth. It is Cantet’s greatest triumph that he gives their heretofore satirized predicament a sobering, mournful voice."
61. GRINDHOUSE (2007, w. & d. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "I'm probably grading Grindhouse on the experience of watching it at the New Beverly opening night, but this is my list, and I'll curve how I want to. Though I would never hail Planet Terror or Death Proof as masterpieces in their own right (not even Tarantino's extended cut of the latter, which inexplicably spoils Stuntman Mike's exquisite, over-the-shoulder introduction), mashed together with three lovingly crafted faux-trailers (and one disappointing display of onanism), they were pure moviegoing bliss. Did it help that I was knocking back smuggled-in Stone IPA's throughout the three-hour running time? Absolutely. Is that part of the grindhouse experience? Well, the boozing is; the relatively high-end taste for beer... not so much. But Grindhouse qualifies as epicurean trash, so why not wallow extravagantly?" While I understand why the Weinstein's broke up the party when this thing grossed four dollars during its initial release, now that they've had a couple of years to recoup, it's time to give us us three-hour, unified cut of GRINDHOUSE.
60. THE HOST (2006, d. Bong Joon-ho, w. Bong Joon-ho, Baek Chul-hyun and Ha Won-jun)
A heartwarming family dramedy about a giant sea monster that terrorizes Seoul as payback for a U.S. Army surgeon's careless disposal of formaldehyde. THE HOST is a fearless melding of genres that never feels like its paying homage to one film in particular; it's also a perturbed critique of America's meddlesome involvement in the country. But it's mostly just an expertly-crafted monster movie from one of the most uniquely gifted filmmakers in the world.
59. TSOTSI (2005, w. & d. Gavin Hood)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: "How to account for a film that initially taps into the lurid exhilaration of City of God only to slam home with the moral authority of To Kill a Mockingbird? Three months after watching the film, I still don’t know much about Gavin Hood, so let’s start with Athol Fugard, the internationally renowned South African playwright on whose only novel the movie is based. The story is very simple: an unfeeling thug (a revelatory performance by Presley Chweneyage) shoots a middle class Johannesburg woman in the midst of a car jacking only to find a mile or two into his getaway that he has inadvertently kidnapped her infant child. While the parents enlist the unenthusiastic authorities to scour the shantytown for their baby, Tsotsi, not enough of a monster to cold bloodedly murder a defenseless newborn, ineptly tries to provide for the child if only to stop it from crying, and, in the process, backs away from the abyss toward which he’s been swaggering most of his life for lack of a better option. [TSOTSI] is a timeless parable that captivates, enlightens and encourages us to better understand our fellow man no matter how far he’s fallen. And it does this without lecturing, condescending or pitying. Impossible." And then Hood made RENDITION and WOLVERINE. Good for his bank account; bad for his art. Come back to us, Gavin.
58. HERO (2002, d. Zhang Yimou, w. Zhang, Li Feng and Wang Bin)
Zhang Yimou's high-minded answer to Ang Lee's CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON might have some uncomfortable nationalistic undercurrents, but they've never hindered my enjoyment of this gorgeously-shot film. Ching Siu-Tung's exquisite fight choreography and Christopher Doyle's sumptuous cinematography (abetted by Huo Tingxiao and Yi Zhenzhou's production design) combine to make HERO the most stylish and emotionally fulfilling martial arts picture ever produced.
57. BURN AFTER READING (2008, w & d. Joel and Ethan Coen)
From my 2008 review for AICN: "Joel and Ethan Coen's BURN AFTER READING opens with what appears to be a spy satellite's view of a computer-generated Earth. I think. Perhaps it's a model. Whatever it is, it's laughably fake, which means it's a detail the Coens really want you to notice. That this artificiality is accompanied by a bombastic Carter Burwell cue seemingly swiped from John Landis's SPIES LIKE US only serves to heighten the onrushing sense of parody; and as the camera comes crashing down through the fake clouds toward a fake United States and through the fake roof of a fake building in fake Langley, Virginia to reveal real CIA desk jockeys doing really stupid shit, your only response is to put your guard down and let the Coens enjoy their spirited, if inconsequential, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN victory lap. Visually, they've just told you they're up to nothin' but funnin', right? It's survival of the pettiest, and it's telling that the only person who achieves their objective is the one most hellbent on their own self-interest. But then the Coens' camera retreats from fake Langley, back through the fake clouds and out into the vast expanses of fake space, and we're reminded that people just don't get away with such things in our universe. It sure is swell to live in a world where justice prevails."
56. OLDBOY (2003, d. Chan-wook Park, w. Park, Jo-yun Hwang, Chun-hyeong Lim and Joon-hyung Lim)
The highlight of Butt-Numb-A-Thon V, this bizarro revenge yarn is Chan-wook Park at his most ferociously inspired. Considering Oh Dae-su's prolonged isolation and subsequent rough re-adjustment to regular society, I've always viewed OLDBOY as something of a metaphor for the still-unresolved North Korea-South Korea predicament. But it's so crazily over-plotted that any kind of thematic significance is secondary to the visceral pleasure of watching Oh Dae-su fuck up nearly everything and everyone in his path. First and foremost, this is an audience picture. Nothing wrong with that - not when it's this skillfully done.
55. MUNICH (2005, d. Steven Spielberg, w. Tony Kushner and Eric Roth)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: Steven Spielberg’s A Brief History of Revenge. Depicting the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre as the starting point of the modern Palestinian terrorism, Spielberg laments the downward spiral of violence even as he allows that the notion of inaction is patently absurd. Embedded in a breathtakingly assured suspense film that’s as masterful as the best paranoid thrillers of the 1970’s is the unsettling idea that civilization’s capitulation to bloodlust effectively destroyed (or, as some might say, exposed as a lie) the global pretense to morality celebrated after the Allied victory in World War II, ending with a coup de cinema in the picture’s final pan down the island of Manhattan. By utilizing the shadowy methods of the dispossessed as a means of squaring the dispute only begets more atrocities on both sides, and Spielberg pays his audience the compliment of being even-handed, which has been misconstrued by obfuscators on the right as “moral relativism”. There is a discussion to be had on the deploying of factually sketchy events to drive the point home, but dramatic license is hardly synonymous with dishonesty."
54. THE PIANIST (d. Roman Polanski, w. Ronald Harwood)
From my Best of 2002 list for AICN: "An unflinching, unsentimental survivor’s tale of the Holocaust that is ultimately more exhausting than profound. What lingers most in memory is Adrian Brody’s haunting central performance as a man with barely enough strength to endure." I don't know why I was so dismissive of Roman Polanski's film back in '02, but it's now (correctly) regarded as a late-career triumph for the embattled director. THE PIANIST is a harrowing experience that contrasts jarringly with the saintly-survivor view of SCHINDLER'S LIST; talent, luck and compromise are essential, while decency is a potentially fatal luxury.
53. INTO THE WILD (w. & d. Sean Penn)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "Sean Penn always seemed on the verge of being a great filmmaker; it was just a matter of wedding his penchant for emotionally unsettled characters to material that wasn't too downbeat. So leave it to Penn to find the inspirational side to trekking off into the Alaskan wilderness and starving to death. This is, of course, a flippant way of saying that Penn personalized Jon Krakauer's fascinating tome about Christopher McCandless's ill-fated quest for a transformative rite of passage. Whereas Krakauer emphasized the cautionary (while trying to defend McCandless's folly), Penn celebrates the brave, kinda-crazy, off-the-grid romance McCandless indulged as a means of rejecting the prescribed path to professionalism set down by his no-nonsense father. It was a selfish journey to be sure, but Penn portrays it as a sacrifice for all those who would never stray from the expected and venture off into the unknown."
52. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003, d. Peter Weir, w. Weir and John Collee)
From my 2004 DVD Journal review: "It's impossible to imagine [Patrick O'Brian's] books being brought to life by anyone else but Weir, whose ongoing fascination with outsiders entering strange cultures is an ideal fit for the project. Unlike his previous films, however, the characters are all completely at home in their world; it's the audience who's the outsider. When one understands this, that opening, dimly lit tour of the [H.M.S. Surprise], scored to little more than the ambient sound of a working ship at sea, makes perfect sense. It's the moment of enchantment through which Weir works his customary magic, and it lingers undisturbed for a wonderful couple of hours until the closing credits finally breaks the spell. It's as good, as stirring, and as pleasurable as time spent under a reading light with O'Brian's prose." Tom Rothman, the much-maligned Fox chairman, deserves an enormous amount of credit for getting this (financially unsuccessful) film made. So thank you, Tom, for this immersive, one-of-a-kind cinematic experience. There, I said it.
51. MULHOLLAND DR. (w. & d. David Lynch)
From my 2001 review for AICN: Technically, the film is a marvel. Peter Demming’s cinematography has an absurdly soft glow in daylight, but his most notable achievement is the way he renders darkness as an inescapably malevolent character. No one been this at home in the shadows since Gordon Willis. Meanwhile, Lynch lends this darkness a kind of voice through his sound design; a low, ominous rumble accompanies even the quietest moments, and seems ever on the verge of an abrupt crescendo to a roar. Consider yourself forewarned that Lynch is more than happy to kick the volume up to some frighteningly high-decibel levels (it’s his best use of sound since his perennially underrated TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME). Yes, MULHOLLAND DRIVE is not for all tastes; it’ll be anathema for hard-core narrative junkies, and will send the faint-of-heart scrambling for the exits within the first ten minutes. For everyone else, it’s classic Lynch – perversely funny and unspeakably terrifying in near equal measures. To be precise, a masterpiece."
Halfway through. Apologies for relying so heavily on my old reviews for this batch, but it's been a very busy week. I'll be hard at work this weekend writing up as many fresh capsules as possible for the final fifty - which will be posted by Wednesday morning at the latest. Faithfully submitted, Mr. Beaks
Readers Talkback
comments powered by Disqus-
+ Expand All
-
A slew of soon-to-be classics, and great choices all around.
-
...and included a few I hadn't heard of and might check out.
-
is among the very best movies ever made, not just alone in this decade, but ever. I'd put this one higher, but I love this part II.
-
But Hero, The Fountain and The Pianist wouldn't be in my 1000 movies of the decade. But personal tase is personal taste. Have a feling there are going to be some glaring ommisions though...
-
Brokeback and Oldboy deserve a much higher place on this list.
-
better films in the decade than OLDBOY...
-
A non-shit dvd of Mulholland Dr.? My copy doesn't even have chapters.
-
Time of the Wolf was excellent and I had forgotten about it until seeing it on yr list. killer.
-
These lists are WAY more interesting than ANY of the other lists I have seen anywhere else. WELL DONE. Can't wait for the next. On a personal note, I am happy to see here two brilliant films that I've not seen on any other list: Constant Gardener and Master & Commander.
-
Looking at my next fifty, I think it's right where it should be. (Just noticed that The A.V. Club has it at fifty.)
-
and I'll beat this horse no more - Brokeback Mountain won Best Director yet lost Best Picture to Crash due to its content. Yet, Crash was considered the courageous film because it dealt with racism. It won the Best Picture that year and there were many who instantly knew that the wrong choice had been made.<p> Ironic? Doesn't matter. Brokeback Mountain was the better story, it had the better cast, it had bravura performances from every member of its cast and it packed a punch like no other movie ever has. It was Keith Ledger's greatest performance. Sublime. There was your Best Actor. Right there. Right in front of you.
-
but what more is to come. tdk and no country for old men, obviously. but "into the wild" and "wall-e" are surely top 25 material, dude!
-
Brokeback Mountain and Oldboy belong at least in the top 25 films of the decade. The Pianist and Master and Commander deserve top 10 placement. The TB'er lists in the last article were better than this shit.
-
The "Mulholland Drive" DVD is that way by design(Lynch's doing, I suspect). Basically it's done to force you to either watch the whole movie straight through, or not at all. Hardly subtle as far as facist techniques goes.<P>"Into The Wild" is not a movie I'd put on ANY top(insert #)list of(insert time frame). First of all, it completely removes half the book(the parallel story of Jon Krakauer's own adventure on a remote Alaskan mountain peak). Second, it whitewashes the character of Chris McCandless to the point of sainthood, which bears little resemblance to Krakauer's more even-handed assessment. Third, it has Sean Penn aping Malick's directorial style and trying to fuse together a random collage of images BADLY into a tone poem instead of a coherent movie. A totally wasted effort.
-
Definitely belongs on any top100 of the decade list.
-
I'm itching to explore his catalog, looking at perhaps "hidden" to pop my cherry... Thoughts, master Beaks?
-
... is a glorious visual feast. The pacing and general flow is a little off though. Needed to be more focused. That child actor was magnificent though, so natural!
-
It's not finalized. There are some I'll take out and put in. <p> 28 Days Later </p> <p> A History of Violence </p> <p> A Scanner Darkly </p> <p> Almost Famous </p> <p> Amelie </p> <p> American Psycho </p> <p> Babel </p> <p> Bad Santa </p> <p> Batman Begins </p> <p> Battle Royale </p> <p> Beer Fest </p> <p> Billy Elliot </p> <p> Blow </p> <p> Boiler Room </p> <p> Bowling for Columbine/Fahrenheit 911/Sicko/Capitalism (Ok, i'm a liberal, so sue me) </p> <p> Capote </p> <p> Casino Royale </p> <p> Charlie Wilson's War </p> <p> Che Part 1 </p> <p> Children of Men </p> <p> Cinderella Man </p> <p> Clerks II </p> <p> Closer </p> <p> Collateral </p> <p> Constant Gardner, The </p> <p> Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon </p> <p> Darjeeling Limited, The </p> <p> Dark Knight, The </p> <p> Déjà Vu </p> <p> Departed, The </p> <p> Descent, The </p> <p> Devil's' Rejects, The </p> <p> District 9 </p> <p> Donnie Darko </p> <p> Equilibrium </p> <p> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind </p> <p> Finding Nemo </p> <p> Frequency </p> <p> Frost/Nixon </p> <p> Gladiator </p> <p> Gran Torino </p> <p> Grindhouse </p> <p> High Fidelity </p> <p> Hot Fuzz </p> <p> I Love You, Man </p> <p> Incredibles, The </p> <p> Inglourious Basterds </p> <p> Inside Man </p> <p> Insomnia </p> <p> In The Valley of Elah </p> <p> Iron Man </p> <p> Jackass (1&2) </p> <p> Kill Bill </p> <p> King of Kong, The </p> <p> Kiss Kiss Bang Bang </p> <p> Last King of Scotland, The </p> <p> Last Samurai, The </p> <p> Lord of the Rings </p> <p> Lord of War </p> <p> Lost In Translation </p> <p> Man Who Wasn't There, The </p> <p> Manchurian Candidate, The </p> <p> Matador, The </p> <p> Match Point </p> <p> Memento </p> <p> Minority Report </p> <p> Monsters Inc </p> <p> No Country for Old Men </p> <p> O Brother, Where Art Thou? </p> <p> Oldboy </p> <p> Panic Room </p> <p> Prestige, The </p> <p> Ratatouille </p> <p> Red Dragon </p> <p> Requiem For A Dream </p> <p> Rescue Dawn </p> <p> Royal Tennenbaums, The </p> <p> Shaun of the Dead </p> <p> Sin City </p> <p> Speed Racer </p> <p> Spider-Man 2 </p> <p> Star Trek </p> <p> Super Size Me </p> <p> Super Troopers </p> <p> Sunshine (The first two thirds, anyway) </p> <p> Taken </p> <p> Thank You For Smoking </p> <p> There Will Be Blood </p> <p> Traffic </p> <p> Training Day </p> <p> Unbreakable </p> <p> Up </p> <p> V For Vendetta </p> <p> Walk The Line </p> <p> Wall-E </p> <p> Watchmen, The </p> <p> Wrestler, The </p> <p> Xmen 2 </p> <p> Zodiac </p> <p> Zombieland </p>
-
I agree with almost all of those, Master And Commander, and The Fountain should be higher though. <P> Seeing the first installment inspired me to write up my top 100 of all time, damned hard!
-
Kudos for including Training Day...that movie often goes unnoticed. I just watched the trailer for Brooklyn's Finest, with Ethan Hawke as NYPD, also starring Don Cheadle, Wesley Snipes, and Richard Gere, and it looks freakin' amazing. Reminded me of Training Day.
-
Nationalistic bullshit made me want to vomit. Awesome, lets all kill ourselves so a bloodthirsty tyrant can kill a few million more people creating a country that never existed in the first place. Fuck yeah.<p> The Fountain, on the other hand: beautiful.
-
O dear, o dear. <p> Howevere, some nice love for th foreign films. Nice to see Tsotsi on there
-
woah, a gimungus list. I saw Bad Santa right off the bat. Bad Santa. Just say it, let it roll off your tongue. Bad Santa. The first, best comedy of the 2000s.
-
When does that come out? <p> What I hope Beaks is trying to do with his is what I'm trying to do with mine. Mine may not be "perfect" (there are a couple I put up not because they are "the best" but because they are fun and I have good memories of them), but it's impossible for the average joe to see all of the movies, even the good ones, how can you not go with what you had a good time watching? If Beaks is going by that standard, even with the more obscure stuff, then I will respect his list.
-
Now there's a movie I enjoyed, maybe more than Donnie Brasco. Blow got a lot of heat from reviewers. "Same old, same old." It was far from that. A totally insane story, with Depp leading the way...
-
Check out the trailer...it's pretty good: <p> http://tinyurl.com/ylxvb3v
-
...director of Training Day...I just found out...
-
Any Wire fans out there notice Omar?? Damn those people need to work more.
-
Of course the list is going to get better as it reaches the number #1 spot. Love Master and Commander, would liked to have seen a sequel.
-
It's starts great, but as soon as he is out of his prison, it just goes downhill, with one or two short highlights.
-
Or are those the two short highlights?
-
Yeah, Beaks, we don't agree on much. You've picked good movies, but I think your order is dubious. MULHOLLAND DRIVE is a top 20 film in my book, not a lower-50. These Apatow movies are flavor-of-the-month, and that month has long since passed. HERO is a visually stunning yet emotionally thin experience. MONGOL is a far more impressive film- I don't expect it to be in your top 50, so I'll predict you didn't include it in your overall list. But like I said, we don't agree on much, so it's no surprise.
-
Hell, I liked Fearless a lot better than Hero.
-
iamnicksaicn, kudos for going to the effort. Dude I agree with about 70% of your list which is roughly 69% more than I agree with Beaks.<p> Sorry Beaks but your taste is so far removed from mine. Some films in your list ive seen and wouldn't have put them anywhere NEAR a top 100 (40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN - utterly average and instantly forgettable, DEATHPROOF - rather have my toenails ripped out than sit through Jungle fucking Julia again).<p> Some films I've seen and would've put way higher (MASTER & COMMANDER - superb in every way, WALL E - art and commercial appeal go hand in hand).<p> Some films I have no interest in ever seeing (LAKE OF FIRE, TIME OUT - dull, dull, depressing, depressing).<p> I'll see what you got for the top 50, but im starting to lose faith...
-
of the decade. It proves that STAR TREK can be dramatically transcendent material, but in this version Kirk is dressed up as a sea cap'n and McCoy and Spock are in full katra-sharing mode. You laugh? Think about it- the dual roles of explorer v. military vessel, the cat-and-mouse match between Kirk- errr Aubrey and the Romulan-French bastards. If I had $200 and Paramount's ear years ago, I would have rebooted STAR TREK for one all-star movie, casting Russell Crowe as an alt/verse James Kirk. His performance in M&C reeks of Shatner's 60s Kirk. <p> Oh, and this movie is in my top ten of the decade. Beaks shortchanged it bigtime here.
-
HERO was the art house darling when it was released- the next CROUCHING TIGER, blah-blah-blah. Beaks is insane. Let the man have his insane list.
-
Drag Me To Hell on the list in the first place!
-
he's a very West Coast dude- he's into the business in a way that local guys get (maybe I would too if I lived out there). I had a friend who worked in the music industry back here in NY- the kid knew his stuff but once he got entrenched in knowing a lot of people, his taste became "politically correct" in some ways. Anyway, I'm completely talking out of my ass, but I imagine Beaks' perspective is partly informed by his proximity to the industry.
-
Oldboy should be much higher, top 10 for me. <p>
-
than the #100-76 list...shoot yourselves
-
Yackbacker, yeah just wait and watch Beaks rate STAR TREK and TRANSFORMERS higher than MASTER & COMMANDER.<p> WHAT. A. BAD. FUCKING. JOKE.
-
same with Kill Bill 1 or 2?
-
Now there's a devoted "Bring It On" fan if I ever saw one.
-
...at this stage can only mean that talkbackers will lose their fucking minds by the time the top 25 roll around and it becomes more clear that the truly great movies (like Master & Commander) are left by the wayside.
-
And they have resulted in the best TB interaction in a very long time. Everyone is stepping up, making the best possible arguments for their movies. Beaks' list may be greatly flawed on the one hand, but the consequence of his project has been tremendously worthwhile.
-
more than Oldboy, though not by much.<p>Actually, it doesn't really matter since you can't go wrong with any of the movies in the Vengeance trilogy. Fucking solid.
-
no contest for me, with the exception of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon not a lot of memorable ones there.
-
The way the first half of the movie is just one long, feverish, pre-suicidal masturbatory fantasy... amazing. <p> Plus, Naomi Watts has NEVER looked hotter.
-
If it wasn't for LOTR, I would be tipping Harry to vote for that for number 1. <p> I prefer Oldboy, but agree all brilliant.
-
who haven't got a fucking clue about parenthood and recognising your own, I do agree that M&C shoulda been higher. I wonder where Beaks will place Monsters Inc.?
-
Most memorable sex scene for me. <p> Have seen a lot of porn (the wife says too much), but nothing has topped that scene for me.
-
And I'm really stoned, and I totally admit I'm missing great swaths of dialogue - but let me get this RIGHT:<p> Mr. Beaks is going to rate Star Trek over Master and Commander.
-
By the way, Beaks, Master and Commander wasn't exactly "unsuccessful" at the box office. It made 94 million in the U.S., number 31 for the year. It made another 118 million worldwide. That's 212 million in theater revenues. And that's not even including DVD and Blu-Ray revenues. It didn't take the box office by storm, but it did make its money back even before leaving the theater. And I'm willing to bet that had Return of the King not come out that year, Master and Commander would have won even more Oscars, and perhaps even a good shot at Best Picture (the competition was Seabiscuit, Mystic River, Lost in Translation, and RotK).
-
It's amazing to me that the one movie talkbackers embrace is Master & Commander. You never read anybody hating on it on the boards. It's such a great movie. Peter Weir and Lucky Jack could bring the world together. This is a movie that should be a franchise - let fly!
-
I agree YB. In all seriousness, this has been the best bunch of movie bullshitting fun I've had in years! Way to go Beaks.
-
With the way Beaks' list is going, yeah, he's probably going to have films like Transformers 1/2, The Matrix 2/3, Star Drek, and Star Wars 2/3 rated higher than M&C. Ok, the only way Beaks can maintain any credibility whatsoever is if NONE of those films are included in Beaks' list. If they are, yeah, I think I'm going to have to put out that hit I mentioned in the previous TB.
-
Harsh dude. Especially considering that this list IS much better than the first. Beaks included some real gems here.<p>Jesus I'm hungover. All that booze, up until 3:00 and then awake at 7:00. This day is going to suck.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 7:48 a.m. CST
Mystic River, Lost in Translation, RoTK and Master Commander
by Miyamoto_Musashi
sorry Seabiscuit, but one of the better list of nominees for the academy awards this decade
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 7:50 a.m. CST
Mystic River AND Lost In Translation were both up for Best Pic?
by Hawaiian Organ Donor
Dire. So very dire. Master and Commander should have been nominated twice instead.
-
Wonder when/if Tarantino, Spielberg , Von Trier, brothers Dardenne and Ki-duk Kim will show up.
-
These guys are going to take you to task, like Marines talking to Muslims. Not the film choices, but their order. Get flexible. use popular opinion, alter your list, make it a fluid thing - but not too much.<p> For instance, Star Trek sucks, and so does The Dark Knight. Off ya go!
-
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring made my list. :)
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 7:52 a.m. CST
Crash is the least worthy oscar winner for the decade
by Miyamoto_Musashi
by a long way, probably slumdog and beautiful mind takings the next place
-
I see people saying "you liked (movie) better than (movie)????" So fucking what? It's all a matter of personal choice. I like Revenge Of The Sith more than The Dark Knight. I am more of a SW fanatic than I am a Batman one. That doesn't mean I am saying ROTS is a better made movie, I am just saying I like it better. <P>I am pretty sure we are all entitled to personal choice, so I don't get why everyone is slamming Beaks for his choices, they are his choices, doesn't mean they have to be yours. I like lists like this, it's always interesting to me to see the choices other people make. I may not agree with every choice, but who cares, it's not my list.
-
Tsotsi rang too close to home for me and I really had to convince myself to see it. I live near Johannesburg and in my immediate family circle/circle of friends (which isn't large) I know of 6 people who have been carjacked - one of my colleagues was shot dead in cold blood when she didn't open the door fast enough. The film deserved the Oscar and even though I found the subject matter grim and upsetting I was glad that I had seen it. Definitely thought-provoking.
-
Old Boy is the cat's meow but Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance is the lion's roar. What a punch to the gut that movie is.
-
Yeah, the 2004 and 2008 Oscars had the best line-ups. I put 2004 above, and we probably all remember 2008: No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Michael Clayton, and Juno. Juno is no Seabiscuit (that is, June is much better than Seabiscuit), so I think it's safe to say that the 2008 Oscars had the best line-up for Best Picture, with 2004 a close second.
-
You go that right about Crash. Although Million Dollar Baby isn't far behind.
-
Got a few friends from SA and all have told me horror stories. <p> Can't imagine it and wonder how the SA govt will handle the big event next year.
-
This is MY list. That's what Mr. Beaks said, from the onset.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 8:08 a.m. CST
Star Hump, think thats the only way to come up with a list
by Miyamoto_Musashi
Its got to be on movies that moved you, that you remember and really care about after leaving the cinema. <p> We are criticising something very subjective, so wouldnt think beaks would take any comments to heart. <p> mind you if Battlefield Earth makes the top 50.....
-
rogue, you could say that ROTS was your number 1 film of the entire decade. That'd be your choice.<p> But by putting it out on a website you are inviting, nay demanding, discussion of that choice. Plus don't we all want to read reviews of people who's 'taste' in films echoes our own? Who's opinions we can trust? That can help inform us of cool films that we will like?<p> So far Beaks choices do not resonate with me. He's welcome to his choices of course. That doesn't stop him being a chump for believing TRANSFORMERS/TREK are better films than the magnificent MASTER AND COMMANDER.<p> Or that TALLADEGA NIGHTS and FORTY YEAR OLD VIRGIN are amongst the very finest movies not just of their year but of the entire decade. Terrible. Terrible taste.
-
DammitJanet - I love you.<p> Sorry to hear about your woes tho.
-
where one of my top 5 films of the entire decade will be The Dark Knight. I want to be excited by Christian Bale as Batman. The Dark Knight Detective. The premiere superhero. I want to be one of those guys that smiles when he sees Maggie Gyllenhall in a black dress (used to be Katie Holmes). I want Batman to talk with a raspy voice. I want to be one of those guys who loves The Dark Knight.
-
That site is totally fucking lame.
-
"Its got to be on movies that moved you"<p> In all seriousness, yes, it has to be that way. At the end of the day, it's the movies you really love, and the world be damned. Example, I went nuts for Jules & Julia this year. I took my girlfriend to see it, and I had more fun than she did. She's from the UK and they don't have any fucking idea who Julia Childs is!! But it was Meryl Streep, and it was a damn good story (really) and it was Ms. Streep again acting her ass off. Great fucking movie.<p> I hear you man, I hear ya.
-
Audition only played at a single festival in 1999. It was released theatrically in Japan in 2000. At least, according to IMDB anyway.
-
Beaks including "40 Year Old Virgin" and "Talladega Nights" is just his way of saying "See? I am not just an elitist snob... I'm in touch with the populists as well".<P>Whatever, Clarence. If he HAD to choose a Will Ferrell/John C.Reilly yukfest, he should've gone for "Step Brothers". Much funnier than I expected, and buoyed by that prince among men Richard Jenkins.<P>Those two choices for comedies taken into effect, "Borat" better Goddamn well be somewhere among the top 50.
-
You may be the only other guy on the planet who isn't a fan of The Dark Knight.<p>I watched it again last week to see if I was missing something and I found it to be just as nonsensical the second time around.<p>I need stronger coffee today.<p>I have to give Beaks credit for putting Munich on his list. Good Christ that movie gets raked over the coals by the majority of TBers.
-
MASTER & COMMANDER fucking rules!</p> <p>Now if only they'd make that sequel mentioned earlier this year. The early word was that Peter Weir wouldn't be coming back though, which would be a real shame. Rothman should get to suckin that master-filmmaker's dick or something, as I want me some more MASTER & COMMANDER!!!
-
I prefer the Burton version of Batman.
-
What a failed and boring experiment.
-
But I surely wouldn't have put Wall-E higher on the list than Ratatouille.
-
seriously, whats with all the asian films on this section of the list? <P>Asian films generally suck and i know most fan boys think its "cool" to like asian cinema, but your really not fooling anyone into thining you're smarter then everyone else when you brag about having an import DVD of "Ching- Chang: Chicken Ball Rice Fight Movie"
-
Was amused to discover the book lacked any kind of sea battle at all.
-
and I agree with Hawaiian, I do think it's quite good. Some have said it fails over the last 1/3 of the movie, but I like it. For me, it did a good job of showing how much what they were doing weighed on their minds/soul.
-
So far I think the list is pretty good. Some movies I saw and loved, and others I wanted to see but have forgotten about. However, I did think that abortion movie already bugs me and I haven't even seen it. Hypocrisy of being pro-choice and anti-death penalty? Only if you are stupid enough to believe pro-choice is the same thing as being pro-death, which is absolutely ridiculous. Pro-choice means the government should not dictate what people do with their own bodies, especially when it comes to pregnancy. Personally I am pro-choice but don't think anyone should get an abortion...but I'm smart enough to realize that sometimes in life, shiat happens. However, what is the death penalty if not the government deciding what should happen to the body of someone else? Government wants to decide who lives and who dies, and I am against that. Granted, that is oversimplifying the issue and my position, but I don't want to get too off topic.
-
I will not sit here and let you spew your hate for such a fine film as "Ching-Chang: Chicken Ball Rice Fight Movie". It is a breath-taking classic.
-
So anyway...<p>Into the Wild always bugged the shit out of me because I thought the kid was a supreme tool. Fucker doing that to his parents...
-
"Personally I am pro-choice but don't think anyone should get an abortion" explain.
-
Go fuck yourself. Seriously. You racist douchebag.
-
some delusional guy who thought he was pivotal in the film industry, it was amusing for a while. <p> clearly you don't have Media Messiah's endurance
-
I thought all he did was spew his schtick about giving Christopher Nolan a handjob while pouring espresso down Michael Bay's gullet.<p>But as everyone else has stated, gargle piss you douche. Asian cinema puts out a ton of crap but for the past decade they have been responsible for 2-3 top ten movies every year.
-
Lake of Fire really didn't do anything? Except show me was an actual abortion looks like, and how its done?
-
The fact that you label someone as a "racist" for not liking films from a certian country makes you the racist<P>To me its all film, Ninja assasin is no different from a movie like "Squintin' Chopstick IV: Forgiva-ness Prease""<P>So before you point at someone and yell "racit" i suggest you do it in front of a mirror there buddy
-
I've got it at #6. (or #8, if you want to be technical, since I counted all three LotR movies as one film at #2.) My top 55 or so are set. Haven't decided if I want to go back any further than that or not. Top 25 are below. 25. Donnie Darko (2001) <br /> 24. High Fidelity (2000)<br /> 23. In the Mood for Love (2000)<br /> 22. The 25th Hour (2002)<br /> 21. Mulholland Drive (2001)<br /> 20. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)<br /> 19. The Incredibles (2004)<br /> 18. Memento (2001)<br /> 17. In the Loop (2009)<br /> 16. Traffic (2000)<br /> 15. Lost in Translation (2003)<br /> 14. Syriana (2005)<br /> 13. Children of Men (2006)<br /> 12. Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)<br /> 11. The Lives of Others (2007)<br /> 10. The Dark Knight (2008)<br /> 9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)<br /> 8. Before Sunset (2004)<br /> 7. No Country for Old Men (2007)<br /> 6. United 93 (2006)<br /> 5. In the Bedroom (2001)<br /> 4. The New World (2005)<br /> 3. I’m Not There (2007)<br /> 2. The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003)...and<br /><br /> 1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
-
but in the book, and the movie, there's no getting around the fact that the guy is an inter-galactic asshole. Send a fucking post card to your sister at least. Unbelievable.<p> Munich is in my top 5 for the decade. That movie knocked me on my ass in the theater. Spielberg at his best, and after all these years, that's saying something. Munich should've won Best Picture that year. Because it was Spielberg (he'd won so many already), the honor was given to someone else. Pity. Merit should win the day.
-
I thought that was a pretty great movie. <p>United 93 is a movie that I have no desire to see, no matter how good it seems to be.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 8:55 a.m. CST
Jett - You Spawn of an Inbred, ass-raped, pus-dripping Macaque
by Liberal_Warrior
Come over here and swing on my nuts, you motarded piece of twice fukked zebra shit!
-
You're dismissing ALL asian cinema, not specific movies, specifically because they're "asian" (not to mention that Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese films are all very tonally different) and doing so in very racist terms like "Ching- Chang: Chicken Ball Rice Fight Movie" and "Squintin' Chopstick IV: Forgiva-ness Prease".
-
That wasn't very Liberal of you
-
Because he was such a jerk-off, it took away from me loving Into the Wild, though I of course recognize that it was well-made, etc. <p>I just wanted that bear to fucking munch his stupid ass.
-
But i have written racist scripts...crash was my finest hour<P>yep. i wasjust messing with you guys, i actually am the script writer i appear to be...gotta finish working on 3atman, you guys are gonna love the way it looks, I guarantee it
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 8:59 a.m. CST
I Liberally kick the donkeyshit out of Motareded assholes
by Liberal_Warrior
Like you Jett, you camel fukken hyena jockey.
-
are similarly flawed pieces of heart-felt but over-sentimental cinema. I love both directors and will watch anything they do but I have a hard time, even after repeat viewings, watching movies that have no joy of life in them. There isn't a laugh or smile in a combined 4 hours. I don't care how harsh your life is, there is happiness within their as well, and that is what both movies lack.
-
Chicken Ball Rice Fight Movie"<p> and<p> "Squintin' Chopstick IV: Forgiva-ness Prease".
-
Penn made a noteworthy debut, but the lead,(kid from speed racer)ruined this movie for me. Its only saving grace was Eddie Vedders stunning soundtrack
-
I actually quite enjoyed the animated asian film "Chooey-chooey chomp: Animated seizure inducing talking dragon fish"<P>it's just in general i think asian films are overrated
-
That's a good looking list. Mirrors a lot of what the AV Club has. It's weird how no one said words of praise about 25th Hour, In the Mood For Love, Letters From Iwo Jima and Before Sunset, but now I see them on a lot of lists.<p>Agree 100% Star Hump. Munich was like being punched in the kidney. I just don't get the hate. I could watch a 10 hour director's cut of it.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 9:11 a.m. CST
Jett, go whack off on a piece of purple-assed baboon shit
by Liberal_Warrior
You motarded, racist, wildebeast cum-swoggler
-
Don't talk about the AV Club like its something we should care about.
-
Hope your head gets better soon.<p> 25TH HOUR to me is a tremendous film, I never understood why people didn't embrace it when it was released. Spike Lee is among a small number of living directors who knows how to shoot a picture in NYC. 25TH HOUR is the most powerful movie to touch on 9/11 for me, especially since the movie doesn't hit you over the head with UNITED 93 heroism. The movie isn't about 9/11, it's about NYC. But Lee was able to visually capture what happened without having characters yammer at length about their feelings. Just a brilliant film, I have it in my top 10 for the decade and I want others to give it some thought too.
-
first..sorry to hear about your parents..real shitty<P>i dont think its harsh to say SHOOT YOURSELVES cause basically these lists, including yours (which rocked) are subjective...its not the end all be all...<P>there are many on this site who proclaim that __________ beter be #1 or beaks is a fucking moron!<P>you and i did a list and it was pretty hard..a lot of soul searching to say the least...not to mention what the fuck has happened in the last ten years...<P>so yeah i think people need to lighten up a tad...beaks doesnt need peoples permission to proceed with his list "this is much better, you may continue" is nonsense.<P>also everyone should know that OBVIOUSLY as the list continues, the "choices" will be "better"
-
I think abortion isn't the problem, but a symptom of a much bigger social problem. Much like war. I don't think we should be having wars but unfortunately, sometimes it is necessary and the best/only option. Despite what conservatives think/say I don't think anyone WANTS to get an abortion. I'm sure it is a hard and long-thought out decision where the woman truly believes it is her best option...if not her only option. That doesn't even touch on the issue of pregnancy caused by rape, incest or issues where complications of the pregnancy put the woman's life at risk. So I believe women should have the choice to do what is best and right for them. However, I doubt that even those people would say abortion is good. No, I think it is more likely that they would say it is necessary at times. The issue is social. Banning abortions, or making them illegal isn't going to stop them. The only way to stop the need for abortion is to stop all the social problems (for example) that cause unwanted pregnancies in the first place. The REAL question, is how likely is that to ever happen?
-
So, I make no apologies for voicing my opinion. I'm not attacking Beaks personally. I accept that he and I view movies differently. Of all the AICN writers, he's the one I agree with the least. Well, I disagree with Harry probably more, but his reviews are works of art unto themselves, that's why I don't even think about it. But saying you disagree with Beaks' choices is legit. He's offering his opinion to us, so we can use the TBs to do the same to him. I don't think he minds at all.
-
I bet your mom wishes she had an abortion. <P> Learn how to make paragraph breaks you rambling fuck.
-
there is the occasional douche, but mostly its a discussion about film, and seeing the names of a few movies I need to see, one of the better tbs for the year
-
I'm not really one of those conspiracy theory nuts but I have to admit I have my doubts about whether or not UNITED 93 went down as depicted in the movie and what is given as the official story. I don't think the alternative theory (that the gov't shot it down) takes away from the truly heroic efforts of the passengers, which can be heard on tape, to break into the cabin and stop the hijacking one way or the other. I'm sure that really happened and they are heroes for it. Nor would I necessarily fault our government for shooting it down if that's what happened. If I was on that plane and I knew we were headed for a highly populated area like D.C. and one of the U.S.'s treasured landmarks like the White House was a target, I would agree with the gov't's decision to take whatever means necessary to take us out because if the U.S. had lost the White House or the U.S. Capitol building (the supposed targets) I think it would've fucked us up as a nation far more than losing the Twin Towers. There's evidence that's come out that just doesn't make sense with the official version. For example, some of the wreckage was found many miles away. How does that happen when a plane slams into the ground? There are other things, too, that this may not necessarily be the correct forum to address, but my point is that I've avoided this film, UNITED 93, because I don't want to take that kind of emotional rollercoaster if maybe, just maybe, I'm willing swallowing propaganda and don't know it. I suppose I could watch it and just take it as a fictional account, but I would be thinking about this the whole time I was watching the movie. Not trying to offend anybody, just sayin'.
-
I thought the film was plenty long. The knocked up dialog about munich was awesome though. Spielberg hits those jewish themed flicks out of the park, eh?
-
I mean, does anyone honestly believe our govt. could successfully fake 9/11 but not "find" WMD in Iraq? Please, we live in an age of incompetence. But anyway, to your point, I feel similar concerns over Flight 93 being drummed up as something maybe it wasn't actually. I refuse to watch the movie because it is a fictional account (with a lot of guesswork) about something very fucking real. No thanks.
-
I'm with you on United 93. I don't even want to think about it again. Unlike you, I watched it (cable). As terrible as it gets. No mas.
-
Tell your Dad I say hi
-
Chicken Ball Rice Fight Movie
-
Its an interesting movie, i'm surprised this site hasn't covered it more
-
Just to clarify, I'm not casting doubt on ALL of 9/11, I'm just saying, in particular, I have questions about UNITED 93.
-
God, I wish they'd make a sequel to that great film.
-
I have a hankering to see Potheads Two! Gotta be more entertaining than Taratino's so-called letter of love to B movies. But I agree with Beaks. Seeing this opening weekend, with the trailers and ads for green/grey colored Mexican food, really helped (could've used some smuggled brew, though).
-
And he promised to use lube oil. He also said that the rash you gave Mr. Tinkle the Hamster, is clearing up nicely.
-
Thanks for the shout out. Yes, coming up with a list is tough, especially for the decade. And my list was whack. I'm the first to admit I thought a movie like Mr. Vengeance was far superior to Kill Bill (yes, go ahead and laugh) but I put the latter on my list because I can watch it once a month. I mean, a lot of people are probably going to put Old Boy on their list but it's not something you can watch frequently and you most likely need to be in a specific mood. The stuff on my list I can watch every month and regardless of the mood I'm in.<p>With regards to my parents, I appreciate the sentiments. I may be miserable and bitter right now but I'm not blind enough to appreciate that I've had them as long as I have and they both have lived long enough to see their first grandchild.
-
and I am not even American, but have lots of American friends who have showed me shots on the pentagon missile, err I mean plane attack
-
whassup?<P>oh i love discussion..dont get me wrong thats basically what this site is about...i enjoy a great chat with someone about a film in which we agree about..but also i enjoy one where there is disagreement..but to call someone's list SHIT because a film is on his list is idiotic...we really dont even have the whole picture...<P>i love lists and stuff like this cause it gives me another perspective to a film i might have passed up or even give one another shot.<P>but clearly the people who are shooting this list down are not open to discussion..their view is the ONLY view..end of discussion and you cant have a resonable debate with them.
-
Re: the Fountain - it's not three stories, it's one story, part of which is a story-within-the-story. <i> All right, I'll give you two stories max, but it definitely isn't three.<p>Re: Wall E, your idea about sacrifice is bizarre. Memory wiped? How does THAT come to be your ultimate ending? Gee a kids' film with a happy ending, well I guess it can't be a classic like all those full of sacrifice and darkness at the end! <p>Oh and the Wizard of Oz example is even weirder. Head trauma? Is that what Wizard of Oz is about - Dorothy can't go back or else she'll get brain damage? (???)
-
Master and Commander et al. They were just scraping the surface with that movie. My Pops loves those books, he's read them all (there are a bunch of 'em) and he even has an Aubrey golossary to help him figure out the old sailing terms. He also went and met the author and got the books signed. These are super-authentic adventure books of the highest order, like Toklien's Rings novel.<p> This could've been a long-running series of great movies if only the right creatives had pushed it further. Crowe was ideally cast as Aubrey.
-
Just saw it last night and laughed my ass off. Funny how it takes a lesbian director to make a great Bromance. Funnier and more insightful about male relationships than anything Judd Apatow or Seth Rogen could ever come up with. Also, dirtier. Not a false note in the movie.
-
Whether or not it's entirely accurate is beside the point methinks. Even taken as fiction it's still a riveting story. If it's something you can't stand to watch because you don't wish to relive that day, that's a perfectly cromulent argument. It was not an easy watch, but damn if it wasn't engrossing as hell.<p>I look at it the same way I do The Perfect Storm. Who really knows what happened on that boat, but seeing those guys (loves me some William Fictner) battle the elements had me on the edge of my seat.
-
yeah thats pretty much how i made my list...quality and entertainment...<P>can i rewatch a film...i think DANCER IN THE DARK is an extremely powerful film yet i dont think i can bring myself to watch it again. but then JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS is quality and entertaining.<P>as regards to your parents, and it might not mean much coming from me but it seems as one gets older, the more selfless you become..coming from personal experience, seeing a grandchild (or any loved ones) brings people greater happiness than any material item...they will enjoy their remaining time with you and your family.
-
When I was 15 I thought it was boring and wrote it off as a failed version of Russell Crowe Foightin Round' The World. I'm older, wiser, and love all his work for the most part. Maybe I can actually appreciate the attention to detail now. Anyone else have feelings about Master and Commander before I add it to my netflix?
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 9:55 a.m. CST
How in the great gazoo did I leave Liberal Warrior off top 20 li
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
I humbly apologize oh fearsome, but broad-minded fighter!
-
I still remember the dead silence in the arthouse theater as a friend and I just about died laughing when George Clooney unveiled his top secret basement project...a rocking-chair-powered fuck machine. It was bad enough that, other than the government spooks, the movie didn't have a single likable character to invest their concern in...NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN this definitely wasn't.<p> I love when a movie fucks with yuppie heads like that...
-
Hamlet 2!
-
battle the elements and THE DEATH TRUMPET!!!!!!!!!!
-
...I could see what he is doin wit the list but WTF?!?! 40YOV behind Superbad? only truly funny part of Superbad is when fat boy says his back is on his cock or somethin...
-
Greaat soundtrack, Great cinematography. but I was not sold on McCandless. and i didnt really care about him much.
-
There was like only 1/2 a funny scene in that whole mess.
-
the frat boy culture will get it when they start showing it ad naseum on comedy central...<P>lebowski came on the heels of FARGO...just as BURN was with NO COUNTRY WITH OLD MEN...lets enjoy it before it becomes oversaturated.
-
Kubrick could have made Master & Commander. That's all you need to know.
-
I felt the same way when I first watched it - I was much too young and didn't know any of the stories it draws from (Moby Dick, The Ancient Mariner, ...). It's actually a quite philosophical film once you start thinking of the pursuing ship as a metaphor. And it's fuckin beautifully directed!
-
The only thing that bugs me about the Pentagon attack is that the Pentagon has to be one of the most secure buildings in the world with tons of camera surveillance everywhere. How the fuck is there just that tiny bit of footage from one angle? At the very least I think there is unreleased footage the Pentagon is holding.
-
Save for the head shot, its all just a big lead up to a singular joke. I think Cloondawg was a bad choice for the lead, his performence made it seem like he really had no idea what was going on.
-
That was the point. Every single person in the film was a self-absorbed moron.
-
is extraordinarily beautiful. Should have been in the top ten, maybe even the top five. Peter Weir is the dogs bollocks!
-
yeah I know I got that, it just didn't find it funny.
-
fuck
-
Just start again and take your time with the story. Pause if you want to. Also, put on the English subtitles. It makes a world of difference. Finally, get your sound system as high as it can go - this is a BIG movie, filled with ship to ship combat, cannon fire, roaring seas and the cries of dying men. One of the all-time great adventure movies.
-
The american governmet orchrastrated it in a failed attempt to create sympathy for a middle east invasion and elimination of the alquidas (whom the american government was supporting, but Osama had gained confidential information about secret money transfers and was trying to blackmail several people within the white house). The plan however failed when certian high ranking officials got cold feet and backed out post 911 causing the iraqi war to be a complete mess. Had everything gone as planned the UN would have blasted all taliban off of the map, eliminating america's Blackmail problem with osama as well as any trace of cooperation with him and his agency<P> Alot of money..and i mean alot of money was transferred mere seconds before the entire country was thrown into turmoil. the money was transferred from private investors and sent to a secret subdivision branch of NASA that is currently working on Project "Agustus" which is an operation that the government has been working on since 1961 which involves a mining colony on the dark side of the moon that digs for valuable resources as well as doubling as a missle defense station during the tail end of the cold war. The government had initially intended to continue the apollo moon flights (which were actually scouting and transport missions just as much as they were exploration missions)however the sheer cost of maintain both was too much, so the "public" space program was scraped and all monies were transfers directly into project augustus.<P> however, osama was made privy to several documents in the mid 90's and by early 2001 he had demanded access to all secret files or he would go public, A secret meeting was held in june of 2001 involving many officlias including Geroge W Bush and the 911 plan (originally codenamed Operation Talon) was put into place. September 11th was chosen because it's omnious relation to "9-1-1". several dead bodies of middle eatern men were purchased from an afghani morgue, loaded into the plane's Cargo bays under false documentation and a computer virus was implemented to drive the plans into the WTC, united 93 was not in the orginal plan however an investor whom was skeptical of the operation and had voiced to other memebrs his wish to back out was a passenger, at the 11th hour it was decided to shoot that plane down to eliminate any potential loose threads
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:15 a.m. CST
In retrospect, I probably should have put M&C on my list
by Hawaiian Organ Donor
All this talk has reminded me what a truly brilliant movie it is.<p>And so glad to see some Burn After Reading love. I thought the movie was hysterical.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:16 a.m. CST
I hated Francis MacDormand's performance in BURN AFTER READING
by ZombieHeathLedger
I thought she was trying wayyy too hard to force the comedy. Mug, mug, mug, exaggerated facial expressions. She didn't let you come to her character but was forcefeeding you, "Hey, look at me, I'm being zany!!" Brad Pitt reading the found disk on the computer for the first time is comedy gold. "Dates...and shit...names...and ahit..." Hilario.
-
While I enjoyed it I sincerely doubt that it will ever achieve the cult status that Lebowksi has rightfully earned.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:17 a.m. CST
fuck me...I echo Six Demon's sentiments on ya Hawaiian
by just pillow talk
Stay strong my friend. Clearly you've been put through the ringer, and yet you've still come on these boards posting funny, insightful stuff, whereas I would be a fucking wreck. <p>And, for what it's worth, I really appreciate all the Asian cinema you opened my eyes to. You are a class act, no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
-
no doubt abput that.
-
The american governmet orchrastrated it in a failed attempt to create sympathy for a middle east invasion and elimination of the alquidas (whom the american government was supporting, but Osama had gained confidential information about secret money transfers and was trying to blackmail several people within the white house). The plan however failed when certian high ranking officials got cold feet and backed out post 911 causing the iraqi war to be a complete mess. Had everything gone as planned the UN would have blasted all taliban off of the map, eliminating america's Blackmail problem with osama as well as any trace of cooperation with him and his agency<P> Alot of money..and i mean alot of money was transferred mere seconds before the entire country was thrown into turmoil. the money was transferred from private investors and sent to a secret subdivision branch of NASA that is currently working on Project "Agustus" which is an operation that the government has been working on since 1961 which involves a mining colony on the dark side of the moon that digs for valuable resources as well as doubling as a missle defense station during the tail end of the cold war. The government had initially intended to continue the apollo moon flights (which were actually scouting and transport missions just as much as they were exploration missions)however the sheer cost of maintain both was too much, so the "public" space program was scraped and all monies were transfers directly into project augustus.<P> however, osama was made privy to several documents in the mid 90's and by early 2001 he had demanded access to all secret files or he would go public, A secret meeting was held in june of 2001 involving many officlias including Geroge W Bush and the 911 plan (originally codenamed Operation Talon) was put into place. September 11th was chosen because it's omnious relation to "9-1-1". several dead bodies of middle eatern men were purchased from an afghani morgue, loaded into the plane's Cargo bays under false documentation and a computer virus was implemented to drive the plans into the WTC, united 93 was not in the orginal plan however an investor whom was skeptical of the operation and had voiced to other memebrs his wish to back out was a passenger, at the 11th hour it was decided to shoot that plane down to eliminate any potential loose threads
-
are you writing it with Spielberg or Nolan
-
Don't do it. Beaks made a great part II of his 2000s movie list.
-
You and Dick Cheney and the Project for American Superiority.
-
...holy shit, come on. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN and MASTER AND COMMANDER deserve to be ranked MUCH higher.<P>And thanks to that picture of Mary Elizabeth Winstead, I now have morning wood. So, I've got that going for me...
-
... is how it's making me anticipate the top 50. Like it's great to see Grindhouse here, but that means if I don't see Inglorious Basterds above it, I'll go bananas. But props for Master and Commander, a movie that just should have found a much, much bigger audience... One of Russell's best.
-
and American Splendor kick ass. Good picks there.
-
Master and Commander and Brokeback Mountain might maybe should be adjusted. Just sayin'<p> "This is my list." - Mr. Beaks.<p> But what about the children?
-
If you go into the Pedalback, let them know I'm not avoiding them. I am working at home and my Internet connection is sucking shit lately. It can't handle the massiveness of the Pedalback (I wish some girl would say that to me). <p> I've complained to Time-Warner, and I'm sure they are getting right on it.
-
So do we drop the other TB now?
-
He is President of Time-Warner after all.
-
Before it never really stuck with me afterwards, like Battle for Algiers or Z did, which are sure signs of greatness. I think United 93 was trying to hard to look and seem real but failed in truly feeling reel. <p> And surest sign that there was no 9/11 conspiracy: I think someone would have planned for Bush to make a more dramatic reaction then just sitting there for 10 minutes listening to a story about a goat if it wad pre-planned.
-
Yeah, I am swiping that phrase! <p> 'Lop - maybe you should tell TW to swing on your nuts!
-
I agree with that. Saw a free screening back in college and was blown away when his name wasn't announced come Oscar season.
-
I agree with that. Saw a free screening back in college and was blown away when his name wasn't announced come Oscar season.
-
I don't want to distract JettL from his day job of feeding stories to young impressionable actors who might actual buy his BS about working on big movies.
-
"Death is the Road to Awe", its the track that plays during the climax of the film (and also the one that now gets used during movie trailers like I Am Legend). I usually listen to it when I run. Toward the end of the track, everything goes silent for a moment... then BOOM, the music just explodes in a cacophony of strings and guitars and a chorus singing their heart out, music that accompanies the image of Jackman flying into Xibalba. Its quite epic and emotional. <p> Jaka you wanted to talk Fountain in the last TB, didn't you?
-
Totally agreed on his performance in American Splendor. Hope Davis, too. They were both stupendous. Has that guy EVER won an Oscar?
-
Crowe's best acting role, I usually find him annoying but in M&C he absolutely knocked it out of the park. <P> One of the best films of all time! SHould have won a shitload of oscars!
-
That movie probably belongs in the top 25 (to say the least). That film is a masterpiece (even if the director was a child molester).
-
it needed more karate, dinosaurs, and lesbians.<p> Kiddin'. It was a good flick.
-
...I just did not get into it at all. Yes, gorgeous, but totally uninvolving... This talk about the score has me curious again.
-
I didn't see M & C with Crowe, but if you think that's his best role and weren't impressed with either Gladiator or Beautiful Mind, then I'd better check it out, because I thought he was great in those.<p>Speaking of Beautiful Mind, I hereby throw props out to Ed Harris for Pollack. I even liked him in Radio and Natl Treasure.
-
if I bothered to put a list together.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 11:03 a.m. CST
Anyone else think that Malkovitch looks like a tranny?
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
Or maybe Frances McDormand?
-
Well, characters like Horatio Hornblower & Jack Aubrey were models for Kirk in some ways too- but I really got the feeling Crowe watched "Balance of Terror" and keyed off of Shatner's early Kirk (not the fat, mumbling mess that showed up in the Starfleet Academy video games, remember those? For shame!).
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 11:04 a.m. CST
Wall-E *is* brilliant when you look at it from a scifi perspecti
by DVader
All the science fiction tropes you find in stories about revolution and rebellion in the face of a totalitarian regime are all there. But I digress; this will probably start yet another debate on the subject, and I don't know if we need to go into it again.
-
You're referring to Burn After Reading, correct? I think he was supposed to look kinda wimpy in that movie.
-
But he still looks like a bald Frances McDormand.
-
Dirk, you hit the nail on the head. Malkovish is a non-gender specific. That's why I couldn't buy that he was friends with Charlie Sheen in that Kaufman movie. Fuck, it all makes sense now.
-
I can't wait to see who uses The Moon score first.
-
Along with some other Professionals' list: <p> http://tinyurl.com/aibntop10
-
Everyone knows McDormand was good in Fargo, but she's also good in Laurel Canyon, playing a booze and drug-addled record producer. Christian Bale plays her son, who comes to visit with his hot wife, Kate Beckinsale
-
Master and Commander is just a great freaking movie.<p>Paul Giamatti should have won an Oscar by now. I enjoyed Duplicity but it was mainly due to him. I'd watch a movie where he read the Sunday paper.
-
40YOV, Fountain, Constant Gardener, Totsi, American Splendor. M&C:TFSOTW. All inspired great choices. But fuck all this Asian shit. Fuck it up its stupid ass. Wook fucking sucks balls. And The Host is the most overrated piece of shit ever to emerge from the continent.
-
Overly long, psychotic, unfunny piece of shit.
-
Thanks for that link ;)<p> Nice to see the love there for Sunshine, KissKiss Bang Bang, and even Jackson's King Kong.
-
Hvae a lookie at Empire of the Sun
-
Do you like Huey Lewis?<p> Because Bale does, and so does Giamatti, who was great in Duets with Huey. The movie itself was just okay, but Giamatti was great as a disgruntled middle-ager who lashes out with karaoke of all things.
-
Bah I say to that!
-
hobocode re Superbad.
-
But we just put up best of the decade list for some of the TBers here. It's a great list. Lots of M&C and City of God love.
-
Empire of the Sun rocks for any number of reasons, Malkie is one of them<p> What was it, a hershey bar he gave Bale at the end of that movie?
-
Yeppers, Malky is Tranny-ish. One of the Coens probably thought he was casting his wife Franny, but got the tranny instead. Then he had to furiously write-in another character to keep peace and to make sure he kept getting a piece, in the house. <p> Franny was great in those movies, but are you so sure it was not Malky who played those characters? <p> An Amoeba wonders.
-
Yeah man awesome lists! Glad to see someone loves Battle Royale.
-
the evidence is far to hard to ignore
-
I think so. Empire of the Sun? How's that kimono treatin' ya, Malkie?<p>
-
I have watched THE FOUNTAIN several times on HBO...<p>...and I have always left upset at myself for giving it another chance. </p> The film has wonderful acting...beautiful camera work...a great score...and an interesting concept. Unfortunately, the editing of that film is a great big FAIL. </p> I just can't help but think about "failed potential" when I think of that film.
-
And when they do the sequel, they need Weir and Crowe back at the forefront.
-
BC its NOT SUPPOSED to have chapters. Lynch does not want pple to be able to go back and forth through the movie at will. He thinks it was meant to be watched start to finish, not in any other order, so he ensured that the DVD was lacking chapter breaks.
-
OK, so you don't like The Host. No biggie. But to slander Asian cinema with a blanket approach is silly. I admit, I'm biased. I love it and do my best to enlighten other people, but I realize they put out as many stinkers as we do over here. Still, there's a lot of brilliance being produced over there my friend.
-
I searched for "Chapter" in this TB, came up with nothing, and assumed no one addressed TheFear's Mulholland Drive DVD issue.
-
...I tried to let myself ignore it for years, but it may be one of the most irritating things I've ever seen. I feel that it completely negates the emotional journey the film of the film. I think it's a major misstep, and it makes me question whether or not Kaufman and Gondry are as insightful as they seem. I prefer to pretend it ends a few seconds earlier.
-
...although I prefer "Tree of Life" to "Together We Will Live Forever" for pure bombastic melancholy. The music alone puts The Fountain in top 10 of the decade for me, and the rest of the film sets it in top 10 of all time. A doomed romantic's heart and a philosopher's brain all wrapped up in a gorgeously shot package... Beaks, you're nuts for ranking it lower than the overrated The Host. <p>Grindhouse, on the other hand, would never make it on any list of mine aside from "Top Instances of Filmmakers' Fetishistic, Myopic Over-Indulgence."
-
Then who is Spock? Great idea by the way.
-
Sorry to hear that about The Fountain... but I should give it at least one full sit-through at some point. Bravo to you for trying more than once...
-
Great film, and underrated (much like SPEED RACER was). Masterful use of music.
-
Whoa, as much as I didn't like The Fountain, it's got 500% more integrity and artistic aspirations than Speed Racer... Yikes...
-
One of the best in recent memory.
-
Spock is obviously the violin dude. Jennifer Connelly's fuck buddy whatever his name it.
-
Hmph--must be in Beaks' top 50.
-
I was going to comment on your list, but my damn server can't handle AIBN now either. Fuck you Time-Warner (and your President & CEO JettL). <p> I have yet to see District 9 & Series 7. You just gave me two more reasons to check them out.
-
Apparently AMC has made it official (along with Regal) that no outside snacks are permitted in theatres. Has this been discussed? Does anyone other than myself plan on continuing to smuggle outside stuff in?
-
Stephen Maturin, the ship's doctor. The scene that cements it in my mind is when Aubrey and Maturin have their big spat in his private quarters after they lose a deck hand pursuing the Archeron. Maturin admonishes "Lucky" Jack, telling him "you're not accustomed to defeat." This reminded me of McCoy telling Kirk in TMP "You're pushing it. Let these people do their jobs." And when Maturin gets shot, Aubrey stops everything to save his friend, a la Kirk stealing the Enterprise to save Spock in TSFS. I fucking love M&C- as much as I love the very best of TREK.
-
as it was originally cast.
-
Just echoing a Series7 sentiment from up above. <p> But I still read it.
-
Apparently AMC has made it official (along with Regal) that no outside snacks are permitted in theatres. Has this been discussed? Does anyone other than myself plan on continuing to smuggle outside stuff in?
-
What the hell?
-
That movie needed to bring those two actresses and those two characters together in the third act in some way. Whether it was an expansion of Julie's borderline creepy obsession with Julia Child or real physical contact, I was left feeling very cheated by the bento box style segmentation of the two stories. Imagine if a writer/director with some guts had just thrown the story into a parallel universe where Julie and Julia square off against each other with fists rasied in a mad race to finish the perfect beef bourguignon. The mind reels.
-
I really enjoyed this movie and I've been meaning to watch it again to see if it holds up to the thrill of that first viewing. It was quite devastating.
-
Battle Royale.
-
Yeah I do to, its a good way to kill time. And at least their interviews and my year of flops are interesting. I think its mainly their talkback are so bad. I can't even read them, and I am amazed at the amount of comments their shit gets. Also their reviews consist of some fag trying to sound like he's some intellegent prick.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 11:47 a.m. CST
I've completely forgotten The Constant Gardener
by Hawaiian Organ Donor
Not to say it wasn't memorable, I just remember nothing about it. It's one of those movies that may very well be great but many people will only see once in their lifetime.
-
Fair enough. I may have overreacted. Obviously Asian cinema has its gems. I jus thappen to hate all of Beaks' choices. I DESPISE Oldboy with every fiber of my being. I also hate The Host. Hero is just plain borderline fascist. but of course there are great moments in Asian cinema. CT, HD, Infernal Affairs, Kung Fu Hustle, CJ7. Those would have been better choices IMO.
-
Well I hope you do, I think I have to watch like 6 movies on your list. <P> Man I've never heard anything but bad stuff about Time Warner.
-
It makes for a really fucking crazy movie in my head.
-
Thanks, SixDemonBag, for reminding me of that. It's amazing when you find something good in the films that you would least expect to. I recommend that film, and nobody believes me.
-
The Good, The Bad and The Weird. <P> Hunt that movie down.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 11:57 a.m. CST
DVader - what happened to your period?
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Are you on the pill?
-
Infernal Affairs and Kung Fu Hustle? Now you're talking! KFH isn't my all time favorite Asian movie but it's probably the one I had the most fun watching.
-
SPEED RACER was a tribute to artistic integrity. There wasn't a compromise made in that whole movie. It would have been more successful if they HAD compromised their vision.<p> I'd definitely put it in the top 50 of the decade.
-
Sookie and Daniel Plainview, anyone?
-
Dudes, I unabashedly adore Nathan Rabin. Read his series My Year of Flops. His look at Roberto Begnini's Pinnochio is a masterwork.
-
TGTBTW is a rollicking time. It didn't make my list but I'm sort of surprised it hasn't made someone else's. Between that, 3:10 to Yuma and The Proposition it was a powerhouse of Western movies for a few years.
-
Technically not a Jackie Chan movie until the huge end fight scene, but one of the funniest movies I ever done saw.
-
Obviously fans of a genre are going to be bias towards it. A horror fan is going to have probably a lot of horror films on his best of list, many of them probably movies you think are crap. <p> Beaks is obviously a fan of Asian films, just I'm a fan of aggressive lesbo strap on porn (I love the ones where the room mate forgets rent and has to be punished; favorite scenario).
-
...and Warner Bros. and the Wachowskis really were making a statement that I just missed. Call me blind, but all I saw was an overproduced, visually confusing, spirit-sapped stab at moneymaking. And nothing more. But maybe I'm wrong...
-
the follow-up to Constant Gardner will be titled "The Irregular Defecator"
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:03 p.m. CST
NOT CRAZY ABOUT KOREAN CINEMA. PARTIAL TO CHINESE MYSELF.
by BringingSexyBack
Yeah, I can tell the difference, unlike Jettl over there.
-
I love the way it plays with power/status levels. Just when you think you've seen the top, somebody else with more status/power comes along.
-
So did the sequel, even if it got a bit too wacky (soccer ball kick...) Asian filmmakers just really go balls to the wall sometimes and that's awesome.
-
Ah yes, if you forget the rent, you bad girl, you WILL be peed on
-
We've been smugglers all my life.
-
Ah yes, if you forget the rent, you bad girl, you WILL be peed on
-
Cripes I can't catch up. Content overload.
-
Yes, but I guess just this week they issued press stating that "It's official, and we really really mean it this time."<p> Hell yes I've always snuck in munchies. I'll usually buy an overpriced soda, but that's as far as I'm willing to go. Last I checked, the local cinema sells large popcorn for 7.50 USD. That's AMC, and that's 7.50 for popcorn they don't pop onsite--it's shipped already popped in large bags. I know they make their money on concessions, not the movies, but c'mon it's one thing to be a little pricey and another thing to be totally fucking unreasonable. With prices like that, you're ASKING people to bring their own shit.
-
Gotta say Shaolin Soccer was pretty damned silly if you ask me.
-
The load time is starting to get to me, too as we near 10,000 yet again.
-
I heard it was called "Melee Deluxe"
-
My local AMC megaplex was always cool with Starbucks, Pinkberry, whatever. And yeah, then in the last month or so, they've become snack Nazis... Again, I'll pay $5.50 for a small popcorn... IF YOU KNOCK OFF WITH THE FUCKING COMMERCIALS BEFORE THE TRAILERS, YOU BASTARDS!!!
-
My period name, D.Vader, got blocked by some fucko here at AICN. Mysteriously enough, it happened RIGHT after I criticized both Capone and Harry for their shitty, shitty "A Christmas Carol" reviews. <p> Look up both their reviews to see the truth I'm dishing- they are both terrible. And, D.Vader was never blocked, so you can read my comments underneath. <p> Were those bannable/blockable remarks? No, of course not. So they whole thing could just be coincidence, but I think someone got their feelings hurt. <p> Either that or this site just went out of whack. Either way, I asked Quint for help and he initially said he would but he's ignored me the past month. So I made the new name.
-
Now there's a fucking good Asian film.
-
Hah, I'm just playin'.
-
and video gaming as well.
-
...there's plenty of 9/11 references... If you liked the first, I'd recommend the second for sure.
-
We used to have Eastern Federal and Carmike theaters... now they're all AMC or Regal. Fucking bastards, imposing their rules on all the indie chains around here.
-
Wow, I love coffee--if I could bring a Dunkin' Donut large into a theater I'd be a happy fucking duck<p>And yeah, enough with the commercials. That's why people chose to go to the show instead of watching TV--they want entertainment without being sold more crap
-
The Chimp slaughtered me! Just an amazing performance. <p>I just hope he gets another job and does not wind up on skid row giving 'ook ook' to simian fetishists.
-
D.Vader was never BANNED it what I meant to write, not "never blocked". So all my old posts still exist.
-
I had that problem for a while to with my name. Did you try changing your password? I was using my name on a couple of account on my computer and sometimes the different accounts would fuck the system up and not let me log in.
-
Battle Royale 2 is properly queued up. Sounds like Ninja Gaiden, but realler.
-
Happened to me once.
-
Wow, that sounded a little dirty- but anyway, I have my girl bring "the big bag" with us whenever we hit the movies. Two bottles of water, mozzarella cheese sticks, trail mix, etc. And sometimes, the smell of the popcorn draws me in regardless. But I figure we're still ahead of the game, so I break and buy the stuff. WHen the guy says "want a drink?" and I say "no" they give me the stink-eye.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:19 p.m. CST
I WATCH MOVIES ON THE IPOD DURING THEATER COMMERCIALS
by BringingSexyBack
I will never be anyone's captive audience.
-
He never responded. <p> I also posted a message to him over in the National Board of Review talkback. Which he also ignored and also never responded to.
-
Then check out The Assembly. That movie will blow you away. Those Chinese are really mastering epic war movies.<p>And yes BSB, there is a really distinct difference between Korean and Chinese cinema. The Korean stuff tends to be melodramatic and wacky. But I still love it. People need to check out A Bittersweet Life and Daisy to see just how awesome an intelligently written action movie can be.
-
I don't think the movie was trying to juxtapose a kind of alternate-reality where there is no justice to our world, I think it was saying our world itself lacks justice, everything is a coincidence, what matters most to one person is totally inconsequential to the next, etc., etc... Could your idealism have warped your perception of the movie? I think it is clear that the Coens are hardcore realists, and would not make a film whose message is something like "Thank god our world isn't like that." If anything, the Coen Brothers would make the opposite film, depicting a world with total justice, to contrast our own. The world in BAR is an exaggerated take on our own world, which is what satire is all about.
-
Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. Fascist theater fuckers. Yack why don't you bring in a bag of popcorn dude? You can still use their butter machine.
-
Beef jerky. I fucking destroy that stuff. Love it.
-
Tell him to swing on your nuts!
-
You'll get it back.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:23 p.m. CST
HEY BEAKS - CAN YOU PLEASE RESET D.VADER'S PASSWORD?
by BringingSexyBack
-
It was laid on so thick that it was just too much for me. Also, I'm glad I saw THE CONSTANT GARDENER before I read your review, because you spoiled the ending.
-
AMC does free refills on a large bag of popcorn- so he brings in his bag (while it's still the currently used design) and about half an hour into the movie he grabs us some delicious, free popcorn. Genius.<p> But my girl is far too law-abiding, so she wouldn't go for that, I think. But I'll ask her next time...
-
I tried several times to watch that mess. And even with subtitles so I could understand what was being said, it was still an incomprehensible mess.<p>You want a great Asian Western that bizarre and colorful? Watch Tears of the Black Tiger instead. Damn fine movie.
-
Phenomenal stuff - you can get it spicy or not ... find it at a Chinese supermarket.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:26 p.m. CST
I once made sweet sweet Amoeba love to a popcorn kernel
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
But the female canine dumped me for another amoeba who was hung like a paramecium!
-
I took it for what it was, or at least what I thought it was, which was a folly-of-man examination a la Shakespeare. A bunch of eccentric (but everyday) types whose ambitions / dreams crash horribly into one another's. Loved Clooney's sex machine.
-
BSB - really hope you enjoy BR II; looking forward to hearing your reactions. And YackBacker, I'm keeping my next large popcorn bag. AWESOME tip and mad props to your boy!
-
There is a button you can use to just reset your password. Unless you don't have the same e-mail account.
-
I'll have to try that sometime.
-
He once banned me. Or he says he wasn't responsible for banning me, but he basically implied in his email that I had it coming and the place was better off without me. Back then I had to ask Mori to help get my old name back, which he did and I'm very thankful to him for it.<p> I dunno if this is part of the problem, but it now says you can't register a Talkback name with punctuation in it, and since D.Vader existed from the time before time here at the AICN TBs, I guess it got grandfathered in, but now it won't let the name re-register? I dunno. I just wish someone would help.
-
And it looks like I registered a new name with that old email address I used for D.Vader. I dunno how that's possible.
-
You can easily hid a 6 pack or two in a baggy/puffy jacket. Its throwing it away thats a problem. I can't just leave my trash everywhere after the movie.
-
BR stunned me when I saw it, but now I'm properly desensitized to violence so I'm looking forward to Part 2.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:34 p.m. CST
Memo just went out to AMC chain to put microchips in popcorn bag
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
Thanks a lot Yak with the Back ya spilled the beanies to the AMC lurker workers on the site! <p> There goes my free piece of popcorn kernel ass!
-
Dirk, are you diffusing booze this early in the day? Dude, you're killing me!!!
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:34 p.m. CST
UM, THEY DON'T HAVE GARBAGE CANS IN YOUR THEATER S7?
by BringingSexyBack
-
...I might actually have to try and rank my eventual 100, because this installment doesn't seem to satisfy as much as the first. In fact, I would have placed many of the films in the first installment above those in this one. But again, it's your list, so I can respect it. <br><br> Big props for including American Splendor and for placing it so high. Giamatti was great and Pekar's stuff deserves any attention it can get. I'd put John Adams on my list if I could, but technically it's not one movie. I just think Giamati and Linney killed it in that mini. <br><br>Siiigh, I actually feel icky for not having seen Where The Wild Things Are, yet. <br><br>Loooove that you included Wall-E! Would have been higher for me. I know there's a lot of hate for that one, although I have no idea why. It's incredible escapist sci-fi with an easy to digest message that even small children understand. <br><br>Into The Wild would definitely have been higher up the list for me, personally. But I'm actually pretty stoked to see that someone at this site placed it that high. Great film where, I agree, Penn finally performed well as a director. <br><br> I hate The Fountain. I hate The Fountain soooooo much. Grindhouse. Meh. Master & Commander. Meh. Mulholland Dr. Bleh and meh! Film doesn't make any damn sense. You just liked whats-her-names funbags. :P
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:35 p.m. CST
I HOPE THEY DON'T START PUTTING CHECKMARKS ON POPCORN BAGS
by BringingSexyBack
because of this talkback. heheee
-
The guy with the fucking broom? Hell no!
-
As hilarious as it was to see in action, in practicality it wouldn't have worked because it required the girl to push backwards too far to send the dildo upwards, thus missing her sexholes completely.
-
I does what I can!
-
It may help to get resensitized first. Watch Bambi, have a good cry, THEN put BR II in the player.
-
to fit in 2001's SNATCH. Make it happen buby.
-
all this great movies ar elisted so low on the list. Each and every one of them should had been rated higher.<br><br>But then again, that would ruin Mr Beak's masterplan of putting very high on the list Trasnformers 1 and 2, Bad Boys 2 and at number one Jar Jar Abrams' STINO.
-
EMPIRE OF THE SUN, DEEP IMPACT (when Morgan Freeman tells us we're all gonna die), TALK TO ME (Jaka, you know the scene- after MLK Jr. is assassinated), and I'll come back with some others, but first I have to run out for a bit. Discus.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:42 p.m. CST
BRokeback is a shit movie that shouldnt even be on the list.
by BMacSmith
Ang Lee sucks. you know it.
-
I believe it was Lord BSB who requested yesterday not to mention that movie title. You know, THAT one
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:44 p.m. CST
I know I am going to regret this, but what does STINO stand for?
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
Sexually Transmitted Insane Neuroses from Oporto?
-
I believe it was Lord BSB who requested yesterday not to mention that movie title. You know, THAT one
-
I believe it was Lord BSB who requested yesterday not to mention that movie title. You know, THAT one
-
I don't agree with a lot of his choices, especially in this section. But it gives us a great opportunity to discuss his films and the films we would place on our own lists.
-
stupid server, Bale help me
-
ACTUALLY NO THEY DON'T. <P> Its not that, its walking out carrying a bunch of beer cans or an empty bottle of Mcormicks. Though i think I once was finishing up a tall boy when I left the dollar theater and threw it away right infront of the manager. It was a dollar theater? What's he going to do? <P> I'm more affraid of drinking in places where drinking isn't allowed.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:46 p.m. CST
EAT DRINK MAN WOMAN IS STILL MY FAVORITE ANG LEE FILM
by BringingSexyBack
Damn that middle sister was hot.
-
I enjoyed JJs Cloverfield at least as much as his most recent picture, you know, THAT one
-
That scene is way heavy. I'm not good with crying at movie scenes listing, though. I've been in theaters with people balling there eyes out and I'm like, "what?". I'll tell you the one that got me BAD, and still does to this day, though. Denzel's speech in Glory when the men are sitting around givin' up their truths in a kind of prayer circle (the clapping scene). That scene just wrecks me - givin' me chills just thinking about it.
-
Can there be just one talkback without mention of STINO?
-
I just went and checked the first installment and noticed there that I said I'd put it "somewhere up in the fifties". Damn it if that's not exactly where he put it. lol
-
Here's the first one that came to my mind: Toy Story 2, the song, "When She Loved Me." Fuckin' slays me.
-
Sucks man. I registered a new name, since it seems to be cool to have two names. But whenever I switch names it fucks everything up logging on wise and I'd have to wait like a day before I could get back on with either. So I just gave up with the other name.
-
I actually tear up in Deep Impact when the blind guy is saying goodbye to his son before they go nuclear. "Be good, be good."<p>Damn, here come the waterworks.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:50 p.m. CST
Beaks, I object! Not one flaming movie about Amoebas!
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
It's discriminashun!
-
Is how Arnold first asked Maria Shriver out on a date. "Eat, drink, man, woman!"
-
Is how Arnold first asked Maria Shriver out on a date. "Eat, drink, man, woman!"
-
STINO
-
How can you not? Masterpiece.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:53 p.m. CST
MY SISTER'S KEEPER HAD ME AND THE WIFE EMPTYING THE KLEENEX
by BringingSexyBack
Yes, it was overwrought but extremely moving. So glad Jason Patric got that role.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 12:53 p.m. CST
The first time I think I had tears of joy while watching a film
by Series7
Was getting to see Toy Story again on the big screen, in the 3-D. Not so much the 3-D but the first 10-20 minutes of the movie I probably looked like the goofiest person in the world with a big ole stupid smile on my face.
-
Farrrg PG&E switching out meters. Be back shortly....
-
...brutal film, that got the waterworks going...
-
...hard not to shed 'em at the end of that one.
-
Glory is nothing BUT moments that bring on the tears. When Broderick goes out in the morning to see how many men have remained after being told they were free to leave and everyone is still there? Like a bitch.<p>And when he and the officers refuse to take a paycheck because the soldiers started tearing up theirs? Like a bitch.
-
...cried more than once...
-
And so di THe Journey of Natty Gan. Sue me you heartless bitches.
-
Like a bitch!
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 1:01 p.m. CST
AICN Presents: A Retard and his Netflix Queue
by Glory_Fades_ImMaxFischer
-
...Terms of Endearment. I was with that movie 100%, loving it to death, until that moment when D. Winger says something like, "Hey, what's that lump under my arm?" And I was all, "Oh, NO, this is a fucking CANCER MOVIE?!" So disappointed...
-
Should be MUCH higher. But this is your list, so it's all good. And a great list it has been, Beaks.
-
I've said it before in other TBs, I just bitch out hard at the end of that movie...
-
The movie, unfortunately, did not.
-
I love lists like this. Personally I'd have Oldboy in my Top 20, but can't wait to see your Top 50!
-
I don't remember the blind guy? I'll have to watch it again.<p> Silly movie, but hell it had Morgan Freeman as President, Maximillian Schell, and Tea Leoni whom I'd like to throttle with my flesh pipe
-
Like a bitch.<p>"You bow to no one." A tear or two.
-
Skull made my cry AND vomit, simultaneously... a rare feat.
-
so overjoyed was I
-
Empire Of The Sun and The Remains Of The Day. Always. Never fails, those two movies. I always cry like a Mary Magdalene by the end of those two movies.
-
Not exactly like a bitch, but close.
-
Yeah, when Maximus' slave-gladiator friend buries the little figurine at the end. Thank you Ridley Scott
-
See, now I almost ALMOST cried during Rocky not at that part, but the part where Rocky himself cries: "I didn't know it would be this hard, Paulie..."<p> Nearly lost it like a little girl whose puppy gets hit by a car.
-
Crystal Skullfuck also made me cry, and also for the very same reasons. I just wish that it had all been a bad dream and never existed.
-
As coined by Asimovlives ...
-
Movie from my childhood that I haven't seen since I was a kid usually always make me tear up.
-
Movies from my childhood that I haven't seen since I was a kid usually always make me tear up.
-
Of course I saw it right after my Father died, so...
-
How thr fuck Mr Beaks puts it so low? i know why, so he can stuck all of Michael Bay's and Jar Jar Abrams' movies at the top ten. Always faithful to his real bosses.
-
back in '82 when I first saw Khan at the theatre:<p> "You are, and always will be, my friend...."<p> Cue bagpipes
-
When he's talking about how many more he could have saved if he had sold his watch and shit. <p> Like a bitch.
-
What used to get me everytime I watched it was the series finale of Angel. When Illyria transformed herself into Fred for a dying Wesley, and he says, "Hello you.." Damn, it's making me teary just typing the damn scene.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 1:12 p.m. CST
STINO: Sexually Transmitted Insane Neuroses from Oporto
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
Or, <p> STINO: STAR TREK IN NAME ONLY <p> We provide, you decide!
-
... i advise some of you guys to never watch GRAVEYARD OF FIREFLIES. You guys will cut your wrists afterwards.
-
I enjoyed it for what it was. But Ron Eldard plays the guy who gets blown out of the hole they're digging and blinded by the sun.<p>Before the crew blows themselves up, they all say goodbye to their families back home. And then Duvall says, "Honey, I'm coming home" to his dead wife before detonation. Call me pathetic but that whole scene chokes me up.
-
just bitch slapped me at the end also.
-
You're referring to the Jessie song, right, the one Sarah McLachlan sings? Yes, that one always did make me want to fellate a shotgun.
-
Unfortunately the rest of the movie stinks.
-
Was slaughtered by phasers!!! <p> Why? He was so young!
-
Cut me some slack but I bawled.
-
then yeah, it's a real tear-jerker indeed... of the best kind. The most honest emotional moment in a Disney movie since EVER.
-
That was truly an unexpected moment. Hit me like a ton of bricks. Had to wipe the tears off the 3D glasses.
-
My least favorite Burton film easily. Even with Marion Cotillard it still stunk.
-
I also cried at 300... of how fucking pissed off i was of that piece of shit abortion of a movie!! What fucking shit!
-
love to see that its up there, hopefully step brothers makes the top 25
-
Hate for 300 I'll never get. It's inspirational.
-
I can't see the movie through my tears at that point. And Neeson is just emotionally staggering.
-
That mvoei just completly redefines the notion of harshness and cruelty in cinema. The stuff that happens in it will turn you to jello. Hostel is kid's play compared to it. and worst, Martyrs actually has soemthign to say, which makes it even more powerful and potent.
-
always makes me a little emotional when Dreyfuss gets on the ship. You know it's his dream, he's followed his heart--but we have to assume he'll never see his family or anyone else ever again. And he might get analy probed.
-
Yes, CLICK. The Sandler flick, when he realizes he's missed his life and has heart attack and his son races to him.
-
300 inspires me to vomit my guts out. Movies rarely go more retarded then that shit.
-
next week. Hate the hell out of that show, but I may just tune in for the love of my life.
-
Like 10 bitches.
-
See=??? That's why i so fucking hate that Big fish bullshit. The movie even made me not notice that the super-lovely Marion Cotillard is in it. That's a fucking crime right there. Fuck Tim Burton!
-
Goodc all. I forgot Age Of Innocence. That movies also makes me weep. In many ways, for me it might be Scorsese's most powerful emotional movie, in the weepy cathegory.
-
We got to see the man with 6 fingers blow up Mrs. Monk last week.
-
You are right about Jessie's song in Toy Story 2 - for a Disney movie, it's really breathtakingly sad, and speaks on so many levels to the adults in the audience. And a dear friend of mine who died a couple of years ago had long told me about Graveyard/Fireflies and how amazing/sad it was, and I still don't think I can watch it yet, not with him gone.
-
I can't wait. I've never watched that show before but for Zooey I'll watch anything.
-
That means you will get TWO Deschanels for the price of one. The lead actress is Zooey's sister, you know?
-
Whats funny is that Empire Of The Sun doesnt get me at the ending, but the scene when he is seperated from his Mother, and he cries, no, practically bleats "MOM! MOMMY!", and the Cadillac of the sky bombing scene, because of his delirious happiness bordering on the crazy.
-
...I agree wit the 911 theory... it was brought to my attention in History class durin the 2000 elections... my teacher said "if Bush becomes president, expect a war six months into his presidency"... not sure bout the timeline but hey, we are in a war arent we?<p> ...and also, he correlated Enemy of the State to his theory... cuz in the movie, Gene says somethin to the effect nobody cares until buildings start crashin down... so in real life, buildings came crashin down and THEN we get the Patriot Act... hmmmmm (and Im gonna repost this 3x so Ill be sure you read it...sorry in advance tho)
-
Let me tell you, i make no associations of GRAVEYARD OF FIREFLIES with anybody i know or knew, and yet the movie is soul destroying anyway. i can't even begin to imagine the effect it would make on you if you hacve such a strong emotional association. Still, it's a crime not to watch that movie, because it's really really very good. Who knows, maybe watching it would be cathartic for you. Certainly that's the vibe of the movie, to provide catharsis. And in a strange way, the movie might even be somewhat uplifting, only it doesn't spare any punches on the drama.
-
...I agree wit the 911 theory... it was brought to my attention in History class durin the 2000 elections... my teacher said "if Bush becomes president, expect a war six months into his presidency"... not sure bout the timeline but hey, we are in a war arent we?<p> ...and also, he correlated Enemy of the State to his theory... cuz in the movie, Gene says somethin to the effect nobody cares until buildings start crashin down... so in real life, buildings came crashin down and THEN we get the Patriot Act... hmmmmm (and Im gonna repost this 3x so Ill be sure you read it...sorry in advance tho)
-
Every man's dream: two Deschanel sisters as once.
-
...I agree wit the 911 theory... it was brought to my attention in History class durin the 2000 elections... my teacher said "if Bush becomes president, expect a war six months into his presidency"... not sure bout the timeline but hey, we are in a war arent we?<p> ...and also, he correlated Enemy of the State to his theory... cuz in the movie, Gene says somethin to the effect nobody cares until buildings start crashin down... so in real life, buildings came crashin down and THEN we get the Patriot Act... hmmmmm (and Im gonna repost this 3x so Ill be sure you read it...sorry in advance tho)
-
Threw in some obscure shit in a pathetic attempt to hide is awful fucking taste. Seriously, what can possibly be your top 25? Transformers? GI Joe? Iron Man (yes, in Beaks mind IM is better than Oldboy, M&C, Hero...) <P> Death Proof fucking SUCKED! There... I finally said it.. it was the reason I didn't see IG in it's theatrical run (I watched it last night tho. Holy shit I loved it. QT finally wrote real dialog for the first time since Jackie Brown) <P> Can't wait to see Transformers in the top 25. <P> Can't wait to see GI JOE in the top 10
-
Just fucking devastates me...that ending is just too much to handle. I fucking love it.
-
Really? Maybe it's just because they are right next to each other that puts that into higher relief, but that seems like a major stretch. Glad you got Master and Commander on the list though.
-
Most overrated movie of the year.
-
Until you see the trailer for Haji. I'm a sucker for dog movies, but just mace me instead next time. It took 20 minutes to make the wife stop hugging the dog.
-
Oh yeah! I forgot that one! John Merrick (John Hurt) nearly reduced me into a little baby bitch
-
It's after the Cadillac Of The Sky stuff, when Jim says he doesn't remembers his mother's face, that busts me. And the whole sequence after Jim is taken out of the concentration camp and all his travel is played like a surreal dream affects me. but the real killer punch for me is the last scene. It always works, no matter how many times i have watched it. It's just.... undescriable. I can't explain why it affects me so much but there's something fundamental in that scene that hits the very core of my soul. and it's not even because it's a family regrouping scene, it's just Jim's reaction, and acknowleging that his mother is still alive. It's... it's easuily Spielberg's most powerful scene he ever put in any movie he ever made.
-
You shit the bed putting Oldboy so low on the list. <P> Don't worry, we still know you enjoy watching euro-trash fucking in dimly lit rooms w/ piano music playing, so you MUST have impeccable taste.
-
I'm convinced Stomp the Yard will be #1
-
...I'll give Graveyard a try. And, you know, come to think of it, there's a bunch of anime that, if it doesn't make me cry, does get a tear rolling: My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, in particular, both just because they're so awesomely satisfying and enjoyable.
-
...and certainly a collectively stronger batch of movies than the first twenty five (unsurprisingly). Out of interest did you use your Flickchart list when putting together this list? If so I might just know what will be taking the top spot ;) . My personal Flickchart top 100 of the decade currently shapes up like this; 100. Roadtrip 99. Quantum Of Solace 98. Blood Diamond 97. Casino Royale 96. Zodiac 95. Harry Potter & The Prisoner Of Azkaban 94. Death Proof 93. War Of The Worlds 92. The Core 91. Mission Impossible III 90. The Incredibles 89. No Country For Old Men 88. Spider-Man 2 87. Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines 86. The Proposition 85. Jackass: The Movie 84. Hot Fuzz 83. Brokeback Mountain 82. Harry Potter & The Goblet Of Fire 81. Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl 80. Star Trek 79. The Patriot 78. American Gangster 77. Dawn Of The Dead 76. Lord Of War 75. The Protector 74. The Host 73. 3:10 To Yuma 72. Snatch 71. Little Miss Sunshine 70. 300 69. Iron Man 68. Ocean's Eleven 67. Saw 66. The Royal Tenenbaums 65. Layer Cake 64. Hellboy II: The Golden Army 63. Watchmen 62. Memories Of Murder 61. Hero 60. Stardust 59. The 40-Year-Old Virgin 58. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King 57. 8 Mile 56. Elf 55. Ong-Bak 54. Jackass: Number Two 53. Stephen King's The Mist 52. Hellboy 51. Donnie Darko 50. Brotherhood Of The Wolf 49. Pitch Black 48. The Chronicles Of Riddick 47. 28 Days Later 46. Eastern Promises 45. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 44. The Bourne Identity 43. Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith 42. Road To Perdition 41. Rocky Balboa 40. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring 39. V For Vendetta 38. Collateral 37. Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone 36. Closer 35. Troy 34. X2: X-Men United 33. A History Of Violence 32. Unbreakable 31. Zatoichi 30. Old School 29. House Of Flying Daggers 28. District 9 27. Sin City 26. Memento 25. Taken 24. Blade II 23. Stranger Than Fiction 22. The Ring (remake) 21. Old Boy 20. Amelie 19. In Bruges 18. Into The Wild 17. The Dark Knight 16. Open Range 15. Kill Bill: Vol. II 14. Gladiator 13. Kingdom Of Heaven 12. Death To Smoochy 11. Kill Bill: Vol. I 10. The Prestige 9. Sexy Beast 8. The Bourne Supremacy 7. Battle Royale 6. Kung Fu Hustle 5. Spirited Away 4. Brother 3. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind 2. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers 1. Batman Begins Quite a few guilty pleasures in there but that's what makes it personal to me. Looking forward to seeing how many (or how few) of these movies appear in your top 50...
-
Good call on the ending of The Elephant Man.<br><br>From another scene from a David Lynch movie, that scene in Mulholland Drive when Naomi Watts' character realsies that her once lover isn't interesdted in her and invited her to the party just to toy with her feelings, and her single tear... man. That scene is devastating. That scene alone instantly turned me into a fan of Naomi Watts.
-
Yeah, Steve loves movies where the kids are separated from mom and dad, if they even have both a mom and a dad. He loves messing with those relationships, stretching them. Like in ET--no dad for Elliott, except the symbolic "Keys" or CEOTTK Barry apparently doesn't have a dad, although Roy gets with his mom (after ditching his own family)
-
Specialty in it's 3rd act.
-
...I think GI Joe gets that title... Hangover WAS good, just ruined when you watch the commercials and read reviews... GI Joe on the other hand...
-
The ending scenes with Betty and Rita superimposed over the Los Angeles skyline, with that beautiful score by Badalamenti welling up. Goddamn that shit hurts.
-
There's this other anime which i find very moving and pretty depressing-like: The Wings of Honnêamise. Despiste it has a lot of goofy comedy and the score is msotly upbeat, by the end of the movie you do get a feeling of the blues. It's a cumulative effect. But very good. Try it out too.
-
... all the scene sin Rob Roy between Neeson and Jessica Lange, i find them very very moving.
-
...just glanced over the "Royal Space Force..." Wiki page... sounds pretty cool. I will check that out.
-
but it wasn't the end all be all to comedy that everyone made it out to be.
-
...Edward Scissorhands! Like a bee-yotch. Sue me.
-
When Adolph has to kill Blondi. Terribly depressing in an otherwise uplifting film.
-
Funnily enough in her next film she plays a charcater named Chubbie. I find this funny becasue that's what she gives me.
-
I LOVE THAT FILM. Its my new favorite date film.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 1:56 p.m. CST
STINO: Sexually Transmitted Insane Neuroses from Oporto
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Uh huh, no brainer. Dirk strikes again.
-
Can you tell it's a very slow day at work for me?
-
ALINO's favorite movie...<P>THE MEN WHO SHARE GOATS!
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 2:03 p.m. CST
STINO: Single Tranny Idiot Native of Oporto
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Just what the hell is oporto anyway?
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 2:11 p.m. CST
STINO: Shit Talking Insane Neurotic Orifice
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
-
Who would have expected Beaks' list TB to turn into the "like a bitch" memoirs. Last movie to make me lose it was actually Braveheart... was driving from NJ to IN in a midnight Fear and Loathing-style trip, and was too tired to continue, so I pulled over and got a motel room, turned on the TV and there's Mel bugging his eyes out. I was deliriously tired and imbibing generously from the mini-bar, and in that state of mind, even though I'd seen it a hundred times, when I got to the torture scene at the end, and he lets loose with that "FREEEEEDOM!" man, I was fighting back the tears and felt like Bill Murray with his fist in the air at the conclusion of Max Fischer's play. <p> And even though it's not a movie, the only thing I can remember that utterly destroyed me were the various seasons of The Wire. In the first season, when Bodie has to finally "put in work," ? Like a bitch. Second season, when Ziggy is giving his statement to Landsman, and talking to his dad before going back into the holding tank? Or D'Angelo's scene in the library? Like a bitch. Or, dear god, the whole second half of the fourth season... Randy yelling at Carver, "You gonna help me now?" Michael's goodbye to Bug, and Dukie walking off into the junkyard? Jesus, Bubbles whole relationship with Sherrod, and finding his rock bottom? Like friggin' Sylvia Plath being pepper sprayed.
-
The MAC is ours tonight, Beaks!!! OURS!!!!!!!
-
That Jason Reitman is a complete fucktard? <P> Here is a little quote from his 5 favorites from Rotten Tomatoes: <P> " Alien is a perfect film and if I were to ever make a sci-fi or horror film, the benchmark for me would be Alien. I would put Alien and Aliens side-by-side, actually. I think Alien 3 is mediocre and I think Alien: Resurrection is a travesty. AvP is fun. Whoever wins, we lose, you know -- why not? I would love to see a return to greatness for that franchise. Knowing that David Fincher was given a chance, it's actually kind of confusing. I think with better writers Alien 3 would be measuring up, because obviously he is as quality a director as Scott or Cameron. Jeunet is a brilliant director too, but just not right for that series. " <P> DID YOU READ THAT! he said AVP was fucking fun! I think nothing brings the geek community closer then the hatred of AvP. Jason Reitman hates America and he hates geeks too.
-
Hey man, this is your list, but really? I think there should be a dedicated talkback for The Talkbackers 100 Best Films of the Decade. Leave it up for awhile. And do it.
-
I am an odd duck covered in crude oil and unable to fly.
-
...last great comedy movie... Im still callin hoes "ho fo sho" but I got to stop puttin pussy on a pedestal...
-
My sister went to OU. Kick ass!
-
Cadillac of the sky scene is when he admits that to the British doc. Watch Bale's performance throughout the movie, as he carries the entire film on his young shoulders. I think it eclipses even his best adult work.
-
Are both 1987 and both are two of my all-time favorite films. I'm not sure what else was that good that year, but those two are classics.
-
When Mel yells out "freeeeedoooom" at the end and the priest sort of looks like, "oh damn" and then they cut to his friends in the crowd and they're just barely holding it together. Like a bitch.
-
is that you have WALL-E so far down. As if you can find 68 movies better than that made since 1999.<br><br>(Hint: you can't, and you've already listed dozens that don't deserve it.)
-
I just don't get it. And I mean literally - I don't understand the damn movie. lol I see all you film lovers LAVISHING praise upon it, as you've been doing for years, and I just. don't. get it. Is it because you love Lynch so much? Because I genuinely found it to be a terrible movie.
-
But a lot of people really hate Wall-E, much to my amazement.
-
I didn'a like it, laddie.
-
you need a roadmap and a cheat sheet just to know which scenes are dreams, which are dreams within dream, which are flashbacks and which are hallucinations. The actual real-world present-time content of that movie is like 5% of its running time. I fail to see the point. <p> and this list in general is frustrating but interesting. Can't believe Oldboy is so low, can't believe Fountain made the list, can't believe Into The Wild ranks this high. ITW was good, but Penn ruined it with pretentious narration and shit on the screen instead of just letting the story play. Props for Grindhouse though. I still havent seen the whole thing since the theatre.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 2:39 p.m. CST
There is waaay to fucking much male estrogen in here!
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Supposed Men crying at movies and bragging about it? <p> The last time I cried was when the Mohel performed my Brit milah (Bris to the non-Jews).
-
...and several times at that... and even to sleep...<p> AKIRA...<p>...all he wanted was to fit in, be cool, have a girlfriend...but NOOO some crazy ass old lookin kids cause him to crash, go crazy, then get killed...damn you flashback at the water fountain!
-
...heh new word... I find Animes sadder than any freakin "goin full retard or half retard", oscar baitin movie... theres another anime, forgot the name, bout two siblings in post WW2 movie... in the end, the lil sister died and the boy starved to death... damn you my fellow Japanese people!
-
And I'm prepared for the beat down, so it's cool. One, ultra-violence does not make a movie good, it just makes it ultra-violent. Two, the premise and set-up is kind of lame, and not all THAT original (it's a revenge flick - there has been a ton of em). Three, and I'm not saying they're bad in any way - I swear, I'm not. But I just don't get down on Asian cinema they way, seemingly, a large portion of AICN readership does. It doesn't "do it" for me. In fact, it makes the films really difficult for me to watch (with subtitles). Again, in my defense, I am not saying it's bad cinema. I understand that execution wise, from a technical standpoint, they often blow American cinema right out of the water. It's just a personal thing for me, I guess. But over the life of AICN Harry in particular has gone bat shit for any number of Asian films (from several different countries) and I've always TRIED to get into them, but can't. The only two exceptions are Hero and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. The later of which some people can argue against until they're blue in the face.
-
sure its a communist propaganda movie but its damn good. Jet Li's FEARLESS is also a kickass movie with a solid story going for it, but since this list already called HERO the best martial arts movie ever (really?) I guess we won't be seeing Mr. Li any higher up the list.
-
The first part of Mulholland Drive is a dream that a drug-addicted lesbian is having about losing her actress lover leaving her where names, people and places are changed (like in a dream). As the movie progresses reality begins to creep in. It turns out that the lesbian put a hit out on her girlfriend and not being able to live with the guilt killed herself by O.D.ing. So, it is kind of like a "your life flashing before you die" kind of dream. Does that help a little, buddy?
-
...Im glad you liked Hero at least cuz if not, I dunno what was wrong wit you... Crouchin was ok to me, but Hero really is great (wit the color set pieces and action and story)... <p>...any chance you ever see the Returner? Terminator meets ET meets Matrix (in a good way I swear)
-
I've been waiting for us to get into that one, but I often wonder how many people have a) actually seen it, b) made it through the entire thing when they attempted to watch it, and c) cared about that shit pile enough to actually formulate an opinion. In general I think it's another one of those films where people love the director, or the directors potential, so much that they love it blindly. It's NOT a good movie in story or execution, IMO.
-
...was long and very arty for me... but I like the scene of the garden growin... thats freaky... that and Jackman's huge head...
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 2:54 p.m. CST
Despite the fact that these talkbacks get kinda dickish
by seppukudkurosawa
I'm gonna have to disagree with Beaks' choice of Into the Wild.<p> Anytime the hippie couple, played by Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker, were on screen, this movie was at least watchable. Same goes for Hal Holbrook (though his whole segment seemed pretty hastily thrown together to tug our heartstrings. Job done).<p> However, the fact that the lead character was the kind of fella wont to make these kind of statements: "I think careers are a twentieth-century invention" was a bit of a movie-killer for me.<p> If I wanted to see bratty preps try to escape from their middle-class existence, I'd go watch Patrick Bateman drop a chainsaw on a hooker. At least that way I get to listen to some New Order.
-
Shalom, brother! So, no tears for SCHINDLER'S LIST? You're a hard boychik!
-
I was mesmerized by Hero. It's beautiful and hypnotic and half the time I just wanted them to get past the martial arts pieces so I could get back to enjoying the insane beauty on the screen. I'll be keeping the communist propaganda angle in mind next time I watch it, though. <br><br> Yeah stabby, I mean, it helps a little I guess. I've had a ton of people try and explain it to me in one way or another. And I've always understood the dream vs reality concept. I just don't think it succeeds very well. Like, it would be near the top of my least favorite 100 of the last decade. And I AM a Lynch fan. Even at surreal weirdest. But Mulholland missed the mark for me.<br><br> The garden growing is cool. But it's also one of the only consistently positive things I've heard said about that film. That alone does not make for good cinema.
-
So obviously you never read the book. Otherwise why would you have bothered with ITW at all?
-
lol - The first two installments of this list have been two of the best talkbacks in like, forever! Lovin' it.
-
I just don't get it.
-
I may have sniffed once or twice
-
I kind of saw him as stupid and he got what he deserved. i think that was what i liked about the movie. It did not over-romanticize what this kid did and you could take away from it what you will as opposed to manipulative crap like Crash where there is only on interpretation: the way the director wants you to see it.
-
Give me Jet Li in Fearless instead. Or Warlords.
-
While I think it's sad that the hunters found his body so soon after he died, I was actually physically angered at the way he discarded his family and the opportunities he had presented to him. So many people never have those opportunities and there's myriad ways to take them and twist them to piss off your parents without throwing away your entire life and running off into the wilderness. Now, the running off into the wilderness part, the hippie in me loves that. And I love the journey part of the film. I just think his selfishness is unforgivable. I really dig that film, though.
-
Huh?
-
I can look up at any scene and just enjoy the artistry on screen. It's an amazing film and it's definitely in my top 100 list.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:10 p.m. CST
Well, I dig The Crossing Guard and it was a choice---
by seppukudkurosawa
between that and some shitty romcom, so I checked it out. I hadn't read the book- from what I hear it's been compared to a modern Catcher in the Rye?- but that doesn't change the fact that the movie was a brat odyssey which HINTED at some kinda early Herzog vibe, but never got there.<p> And since when did you have to read the source material in order to enjoy a movie?<p> Mo powah to you if you liked Into the Wild, but I think it would have worked better for me if I thought Emile Hirsch's character exuded an inch of charisma and depth, instead of coming across like a bit of a self-entitled emo. I dug him in Speed Racer, though. (Yeah, I threw that line in there to let you know how out of joint my taste in movies is).
-
Much appreciated.<br /><br /> Still figuring out the rest of the list, and 100-60 get pretty arbitrary, but it's a fun exercise.<br /><br /> Along with LotR together at 2, I also count the Bournes together at 49 (the Greengrass ones are virtually indistinguishable to me), as well as X2/Spidey 2 at 35 (couldn't decide which I preferred) and 24 Hour Party People/Control (the Ian Curtis double feature) at 46.
-
Come dude, elaborate a little. We're discussing here, not passing judgment.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:12 p.m. CST
When Clive is carrying the baby down the stairs & all the soldie
by iamnicksaicnsn
Like a bitch. <p> There are others, more recent, but I can't think of them right now. </p> <p> Damn, the Wire's a good series, ebonic_plague. </p>
-
That was the failure of the film in my opinion. The fact that you really don't empathize wit hthe character that much. I recommend reading the book. It strikes a much better balance of "Wow what a fucking douche that kid was." and "Wow what a brave dude that guy was."
-
Just like Grizzly Man. The more seasoned or native residents tend to dismiss both McCandless and Treadwell as idiots who ignored the very real and very obvious dangers of the Alaskan environment. <P> College kids & Sourdoughs seem to be more sympathetic to both, since they we're also drawn to Alaska for it's abundance of nature, being the last frontier, it's sense of freedom and endlessness. <P> Ask an Alaskan about either films and your bound to get a pretty passionate response.
-
For a director to share his vision with the audience?
-
...as directed. And that's exactly why his decisions pissed me off so much. I'll be honest in that I also haven't read the book, so I'm strictly basing my opinion on the film. His childish nonsense pissed me off. But it's that performance that made me decide I didn't hate Speed Racer.
-
The Alaskan government should have taken greater measures to ensure Treadwell didn't do what he did. They knew he was out there.<P> McCandless just seemed to have a disbelieving family.
-
Damn limit.
-
I can totally understand why McCandless would rather starve to death in Alaska rather than have to visit his parents in McLean, VA on a routine basis.
-
I see where you're coming from Soylent, but are they really the same? I mean, what idiot thinks bears, freakin' BEARS! of any kind are really our friends. They are not. They are above us on the food chain and we'll do well to remember that. Into The Wild, on the other hand, that draw back to the primal lives inside a lot of us. Many of us act on it to varying degrees. Fishing, hunting, camping and hiking, etc. Was it wise to run off into the REAL Alaskan wilderness with what actually amounts to almost no training? No, definitely not. But I just can't equate it in any way to attempting to PURPOSELY live with freakin' grizzly bears. lol
-
In Up In The Air. <P> Thanks a lot Ebert.
-
FUCK. Thanks for spoiling, you bastich.
-
Fucking asshole.
-
Fucking asshole.
-
...and bears. About a guy, I believe also in Alaska, living with black bears all around his property. He like, fell in love with them. Fought hunters over them. Was leaving his family behind for months at a time. And was attempting to fight the government, but lost - thankfully. I don't understand why people can't put two and two together in this regard. Wild animals are WILD! Damn it. And I love the wilderness. I'm an Eagle Scout. I understand the draw, but I also understand how much you need to respect it and give it's space. Attempting to live with wild animals is taking away from everything that makes them special and awe inspiring to begin with.
-
When Ned Beatty cheers on his son, the proudest father there ever was. Like a bitch.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:24 p.m. CST
OLDBOY is very personal for me. Thanks for including it.
by RICHARD_GERE_RAPED_MY_GERBIL
When I was at college, one of my roomies was a guy called Jack. I remember him talking about OLDBOY a lot and he persuaded me to watch it one Sunday afternoon, and i thought it was the greatest thing ever. We used to watch it almost every month at stupid hours in the morning after returning from a club, or whilst smoking too much weed.<p>He commited suicide several years ago and so OLDBOY is forever connected in my mind to that good friend i once knew. I've passed it on to many others who never had the opportunity to watch it, or who had never even heard of it. Thanks Jack for introducing me to OLDBOY, thanks to the people who made such a great movie and thanks to Beaks for including it in this list.
-
Fuck anyone that actually wants to see Cloondawg smug fuck the camera for and hour and half. <P> If I see any Reitman film anywhere near anyones top 100 list, I am gonna JUST BE SO FURIOUS! Just realized I can't do much more then bitch about it.
-
Thanks, Series 7. Jackass.
-
Funny to think how Rudy's friend went on to be a big time movie director.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:28 p.m. CST
Alright, I agree that you don't have to LIKE the characters
by seppukudkurosawa
-in order to like the movie. And the hippie in me also groks the idea of dropping all your possessions and smegging off to the wilderness. I only saw it that once in the cinema, and in my experience if you're having a shit day, it'll probably rub off on the movie...but I found it kinda contrived. From his flirtations with the Twi-lite chick to his interactions with the flower children to the beating by the train conductor, it just didn't quite work for me. (I know those were scenes in the book). The tone was off or something. I know this is a bit of a flakey argument, but there you have it. I think my main problem with it was the direction: too many slow motion shots, not to mention that voiceover totally took me out of the movie. It made it seem like The Wonder Years or something. And then randomly swapping the narrator to Jena Malone?<p> I really liked the Eddie Vedder soundtrack, though.
-
Shit, I thought you were going to say my roomate at Virginia Tech was a huge fan of the film and he showed it to me, and the rest is history.
-
Hey I just saved you $10 bucks. YOU SHOULD BE KISSING MY ASS!
-
And then I started racking my brain, going through characters from THE TICK to see if that's what you were talking about.
-
Sean Austin has been in quite a few movies and television shows, but boy did he pick well with those three. Iconic movies that people will be watching forever. I suppose he didn't really "pick" Goonies so much, since he was just a kid. But still. Iconic I say!
-
SPOOOOON!!!!!
-
I'm still seeing it tomorrow. It just means I'll spend the whole movie waiting for the other shoe to drop.
-
Astin. Duh.
-
Sucks for you. <P> Up In The Air, smug fucking your eyeballs in 2009.
-
If that's Aronofsky's best, did the Wrestler not even make it? Good articles so far Beaks, I look forward to seeing Anchorman in the top ten at least.
-
The film is better then most of these clowndawgs
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:40 p.m. CST
yeah you gys are behaving a little better than last one
by Six Demon Bag
good job..<P>aint it fun...im sure #25-1 list is gonna be a massacre.
-
...if the movie is worth a shit to begin with. I, personally, will also be paying to see Up In The Air and I don't believe knowing that Cloondawg bites it will affect how I view the movie in the least. In fact, I often forget spoilers going in if the movie is good enough for me to do that suspending disbelief thing. If they're bad, admittedly I often site there going over everything I've read before hand wondering when it's going to take place, or if I agree with the level of badness previously described. However, again, I have faith in this one. Really looking forward to it, actually.
-
Ebert wasn't referring to Clooney's character dying, he was suggesting the character Clooney plays is the type of guy who, when people are at his funeral can't really say much about him because they didn't really know him.
-
I still remember my friends being weirded out that I liked it so much after we left the theater. Now, they ALL quote it constantly. I think FIGHT CLUB is one helluva a "man movie," and not likely to be topped anytime soon--with the success of things like TWILIGHT, I think we'll see a more effeminate decade coming up next, not that that's entirely a bad thing. Just saying. We're all just floating.
-
the possibility of any and all characters dying has to be in the back of your mind. Unless that character is a ghost and then the movie spoiled that death for you already. <P> If you read the interwebs some asshole is gonna ruin the surprise <P> My only question is: Does Clooney's character bite it during some mile high action? Oh yeah!
-
but I don't necessarily think his Asian movie titles were racist. The terms "racist" and "racism" get tossed around a lot to corral thoughts and ideas that are not always racist, but possibly in bad taste or stereotyping cultures. <p> Those terms (racist, racism) are thrown around so their definitions have been diluted; actually being more detrimental than good.
-
To be able to watch Up In The Air at home tonight. Really looking forward to that one as well.
-
FIGHT CLUB came out in 1999.
-
Unless you live in Luxembourg or something, where it's probably still awaiting a release.
-
i didn't refresh my page for several hours so that whole argument is long over.
-
Didnt know that about Up In The Air. Damn, mate :(
-
and one who uses tired cliches to manipulate the audience into an emotional response, i.e. Paul Haggis. Have you ever heard of a little thing called ambiguity?
-
what a great year for movies. FIGHT CLUB, BEING JOHN MALKOVICH, THREE KINGS, THE MATRIX. THE PHANTOM...oh wait, never mind.
-
Here's a link to the other guy living with bears I was talking about. http://tinyurl.com/ygsmugh Freakin' Bearhaven! Whatever. And he was living with Grizzlies too! I became completely engrossed in this Primetime, a show that I don't normally watch. Not sure how much of the actual video is available, but there's plenty of the text in there to make you go, "wtf, dude?!" The reporter even got sucked into it during the time he spent out there. I just don't get it. They're bears! They can eat you! lol
-
Series misread what Ebert said. So relax and go enjoy the movie spoiler free.
-
You sure? I thought that at first, but re read it. Have you seen it? I mean its not like Ebert doesn't spoil movies all the time.
-
that got them killed. That old bear smelled the blood and it was like a dinner bell. I know that's a joke in Anchorman, but it's for real.
-
<p> The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle </p> <p> Charlie's Angels (except for Crispin Glover) </p> <p> Date Movie </p> <p> Driven (though it had a couple funny taglines) </p> <p> Hostel: Part II </p> <p> Japon </p> <p> Josie and the Pussycats (this one literally had me cry out in pain in the theater) </p> <p> Lara Croft: Tomb Raider </p> <p> The Master of Disguise </p> <p> Reign of Fire </p> <p> Van Helsing (I'm sorry, but it was retarded.) </p>
-
My bad. Hmmmm...wonder what my fave of THIS decade is then? I'll have to rethink that.
-
...except that the first Charlie's Angels is kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I dig Drew in pretty much anything, though. Admittedly, the second one is a pile. And Van Helsing, ugh! lol Really, Jackman should count his blessing for the Wolverine part every damn day.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 3:57 p.m. CST
Nice to see the HTML wasn't fucked up on this one.
by Nasty In The Pasty
-
But when I think "worst" I tend to think of "movies I was most disappointed by." Which reminds me of ATTACK OF THE CLONES. HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE was a well-meaning failure (tho' too much Trillian-Arthur romance, imo) and INDY IV had serious, like life-threateningly serious, problems, but ATTACK OF THE CLONES stands out in my mind as the biggest "what the fuck just happened" moment of the decade. I'd submit it's worse than PHANTOM MENACE because Pod-racing and all that ridiculousness aside, the Maul/Obi-Wan/Qui-Gon fight still holds up.<br /><br /> SOUTHLAND TALES is probably up there too. It and THE BOX made DONNIE DARKO worse in retrospect, almost knocked it out of my top 25.
-
It came out in the fall. So, sorry, folks.
-
<p> A Walk To Remember (though I had a lot of fun MST3K-ing it with a friend) </p> <p> Wild Hogs </p> <p> Blade II (YEAH I SAID IT *puts knuckles up) </p> <p> Catwoman </p> <p> Crossroads(Zoe Saldana was in this apparently) </p> <p> Dreamcatcher </p> <p> Dungeons and Dragons </p> <p> Frailty </p> <p> Ghosts of Mars </p> <p> Indy Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull </p> <p> Jurassic Park III </p> <p> Red Planet </p> <p> The Ring Two </p> <p> Silent Hill </p> <p> Star Trek: Nemesis </p> <p> Thirteen Ghosts </p> <p> Aliens V Predator </p> <p> Bad Boys II </p> <p> CA: Full Throttle </p> <p> Fantastic 4 </p> <p> Miami Vice </p> <p> Nutty Professor II: The Klumps </p> <p> Mona Lisa Smile </p> <p> Mysterious Skin </p> <p> Quarantine </p> <p> 15 Minutes </p> <p> Stealth </p>
-
The Phantom Menace Spanish track actually makes the movie a lot better. The Spanish actors for Jar Jar and Anakin were much better than the actual voices.
-
a studio film that is pretty subversive...blasting the demographic audiences paying to see their film...im sure kurt cobain wouldve laughed his ass off.
-
Frailty was a decent Twilight Zone-y B-movie. Blade II was a good popcorn flick (although the Blade franchise peaked in the first five minutes of the first film.) And Miami Vice is legitimately a really good film, imo.
-
Has to be one of your favorite movies, if you want to be a member of the AV Club cult.
-
...but I dig Mona Lisa Smile (ducks! please don't swing too hard!)<br><br>Now, as far as disappointment being a factor in rating something as "the worst" - that would put Dungeons & Dragons at or near the very top of any such list for me. I wanted that film to be good sooooooo much. Was dreaming about how cool it would be to have a series of films under the D&D banner. Now we'll probably never get see another one.
-
..is the Darth Vader breathing bit after the closing credit scroll.
-
I wasn't sure if I'd put Miami Vice up there, but did anyway just to counter Beaks. <p> Frailty just really pissed me off in the theater, maybe because I expected some good from Bill Paxton and couldn't handle his over-acting or something </p> <p> Blade II I just can't forgive though. It had so little of the atmosphere of the first one. </p>
-
Ebert was just writing bad again. Seriously check out his Fantastic Mr. Fox review, its awful. <P> SOOO all you Cloondawg fans can stop crying, he doesn't die. Which makes sense since Reitman Jr's films never go anywhere, for the movie to end with Cloondawg dying would actually say something, and Reitman doesn't make films that say anything, he makes films that make you feel like you just saw something important. But you didn't.
-
Planet Terror. Oh, and the fake trailers of course.
-
Looking through my end-of-years lists, my most disappointing flicks include: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, SIGNS, ROAD TO PERDITION, THE HULK (Ang Lee), THE MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS (I liked RELOADED, with reservations), THE LADYKILLERS, FANTASTIC FOUR, THE BROTHERS GRIMM, HITCHHIKERS, ALL THE KING'S MEN, X3: THE LAST STAND, SPIDERMAN 3, GRINDHOUSE, SOUTHLAND TALES, THE GOLDEN COMPASS (they cut the end?!), and INDY IV.<br /><br/> CLONES still seems like the most depressing of those, tho. I don't think I was ready to internalize the fact that Star Wars had gotten mediocre after THE PHANTOM MENACE.
-
It was Crank 2 and Black Dynamite and the same fake trailers, instead of the other movies.
-
My favorite movie of the aughts.
-
that gives away the ending to UP IN THE AIR. And maybe ban his sorry ass for being such a douche.
-
I had it at #15 on my list (up above) -- My main problem was Lost in Translation is that it feels a little too much like score-settling. The Giovanni Ribisi character is, for all intent and purposes, Spike Jonze, and Coppola even threw in a Beastie character ("You don't like hip-hop?") to make it clear.<br /><br /> Plus, while I can understand Bill Murray's melancholy, I think the Johansson character should've gotten her head out of her ass a bit more and done more sight-seeing. There are worse fates in the world than lounging around a 5-star hotel in Tokyo, being depressed.<br /><br /> Not to lose the forest for the trees, I did like it quite a bit -- Like I said, it's at #15. But those issues bugged me.
-
... that Lost In Translation and Eternal Sunshine will be farther up the list. I hope they are, anyway.
-
Beaks, you're NUTS. United 93 is easily the most intense movie I've ever seen, while Superbad was merely decent. Oh, and Jonah Hill is a one-trick pony. Or wildebeest.
-
It's not spoiled. Series7 also admitted he misread the article.
-
Sarah Polley & Milla Jovovich it was a pretty cool and brutal Western preceding Deadwood, yet it almost exists in the same bleak universe.
-
Shut the fuck up, you whiny bitch. I was wrong anyway. Don't act like I just told Bruce Willis was dead at the end of 6th sense.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 4:46 p.m. CST
well, ok, but he's still a douche for trying to spoil it
by ZombieHeathLedger
-
Also do you think Beaks actually reads anything past 20 comments? He's not your mommy.
-
Go read Eberts article. I mean if I'm a douche for trying to spoil it when I haven't seen it, then what would Ebert be if he actually had spolied it? <P> I mean I'm PRETTY SURE more people are going to read his review then this talk back.
-
Hmm. Old School was great. Dodgeball was pretty good. Those Pirate movies are great comedy.
-
It's a movie written and directed by a woman, that became the most unlikely "Guy Flick". It seems like the most ardent fans of this movie are men. I guess it's the idea of a middle-aged guy escaping the monotony of everyday life, to run around with a beautiful girl in an interesting setting. And, even though it flirts with infidelity, it's a very pure love story. They never hook up. Their kiss at the end is very sweet. The whisper is a wonderful piece of movie mythology, as well. And, I actually love the fact that Sophia was referencing her own life in the very minimalist, yet effective script. I can go on and on about this movie, which still isn't out on BluRay godammit, but to sum it up; It's the one flick that I had the biggest emotional reaction to this decade.
-
You STFU you dumb piece of shit. Who the fuck are you to try to spoil movies for everybody? Luckily for everybody your reading comprehension skills match your stupidity or you would have ruined the ending for a movie some are calling 'the best of the year.' Idiot.
-
Go read his review and tell me you got something different from it? <P> I don't think anyone is really going to give a shit about some stupid critic mastabatory exercise in Oscar bait film making, ten minutes after they see it.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 4:53 p.m. CST
and Series7 if Ebert sucks a cock are you gonna too?
by ZombieHeathLedger
Nevermind you're prob cumgargling as you type. It's your INTENTION to spoil that makes you a douche. Now go eat a bag of dicks.
-
lockesbrokenleg actually has been very funny about that label. I think so far there have been about 100 best of the year movies just going off of this site alone.
-
I mean THIS thread!! Or, whatever. lol Come on, though - either way it's not the end of the world. That will probably involve grizzly bears.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 4:56 p.m. CST
Hear that everybody? Series7 has already decided for you
by ZombieHeathLedger
what movies are worthy and if HE doesn't think they are, he feels free to SPOIL THEM FOR YOU. Quit sucking your own dick, asshole.
-
Ok Louis C.K. <P> Obviously I think the movie Up In The Air is pretenious douchness in movie form, so of course I am going to go out of my way to spoil it. <P> I'm sorry if your world collapsed and you had to go running to teacher to tattle on me.
-
Prophecy
-
Any movie by a director that enjoys AvP loses all credibility.
-
If the best you can do is say, "Hey Ebert did it" (when he didn't) and quote Lockesthetroll, you are one poor, pathetic heaumeau and you need to just admit you tried to pull a dick move and STFU before you make an even bigger ass of yourself.
-
That movie is so filled with WTF moments, I love it! Now stop spoiling movies Series7, we're all gonna cry...
-
Cock smokers, someone give ZombieJack'sTop a shoulder to cry on. My shift at McDonalds is up, time to go home and suck some bags of dicks!
-
...just because you think it will suck, is the true douche move. ZHL is right; failing in your attempt to be a douche does not make the attempt any less douchebaggish. And this whole argument is why I don't read Ebert's reviews before seeing the movie anymore.
-
Directed by Michael Anton, 2005. www. imdb. com/name/nm0031216. I worked on it for a few days. I don't know if there is a Potheads II though.
-
In Prophecy, turns out that the two cowboys hunting the bear are actually gay, and the bear is really their father, but he's been dead this whole time. So they've been hunting a ghost that can be killed with water, and they think they've been living in the woods the whole time but really their father the dead bear just protected them from modern times, and it turns out that one of the guy cowboys is actually a girl. <P> And Samuel Jackson has been trying to kill them the whole time to just find a out that one of them is the super powerful human he has always been looking for. <P> And Cloondawg dies at the end.
-
not that this egotistical retard will ever "get it." All he gets is his Dad's balls on his chin when he deepthroats him nightly.
-
There's a youtube video collecting various really awful clips from it including Cage running around in a bear costume (and not in a good, Michel Gondry way) and being tortured with bees. Batshit insane.
-
I was so shocked when somebody mentioned that film as being GOOD in the first installment of this list last night that I couldn't even formulate a thought. It's so bad that I almost wonder if it was intentional..... but I know it wasn't.
-
Value of spoilers depends I think on the kind of movie you're dealing with. If it's something integral to the plot or setup (e.g., Sixth Sense, most mysteries) it would piss me off if someone spoiled it but if it's a flick that sounds like I might want to see it for its overall impression or content then the spoiler might not be so critical. In the case on this TB right now, though it first struck me as "WTF?," based on the trailers I've seen of the given film I don't see how it is essential to the set up. In fact, it strikes me (not having seen the film) as one of those things were they might have shot different endings and someone didn't decide 'til post production which one to use.
-
No, it's not good, it's fucking hilarious!
-
That sucker faded fast.
-
It's gotta be in the top 5.
-
Remember how unpretentious Tarantino's top ten list was? <p> Sigh. Still a lotta good pics though.
-
All are really good and I do like. Most of the rest haven't seen, or if I have, on the idiot box etc. <p> Never had any interest in BrokeButt Mtn AKA Fartknocker Cowboys Over-Easy, but did enjoy the Sockpuppet version done by Cokey later on.
-
Tried to remember the name of that one last night. Kept thinking of Black Book.<P>
-
How Hilary Swank went from that piece of shit to become an Oscar winner.
-
Beyond great really.
-
Worthy of a true dick -take a bow asshole.
-
-----and you know you'd watch it amidst your fetid pile of raped goat rectums there Almada----
-
both are absolute bs hollywood versions of reality<p> the real pianist turned his back on his religion...he was far from a hero and shoulda fried<p> and trust me, the real munich assasins of the fucking terrorist butchers had absolutely no prob with killing those motherfuckers<p> and i do hope that idiocracy ends up somewhere on this list
-
I mean the guy who directed that is "directing" the next Predator movie. You would think there would be some opinions on Armored here. Anybody seen it?
-
40 Year Old Virgin, Below, Pitch Black, Hot Fuzz, The Bridge, House of Sand and Fog, [Rec]/Quarantine, The Hulk. Not in any order.
-
Wonder if/where it will end up on the list? That would be in my top ten of the decade without question.
-
ARMORED = not screened for critics. Remember these guys became full fledge critics sometime back in ought 5.
-
300 followed by Imax STINO! Were you a fan of the comics by Miller and disappointed by the film version or just hated it for what it was? I had no expectation going into 300 and enjoyed it. STINO had alot to live up to and failed on every level.
-
But I bet the AICN crowd didn't get a free screening invite, so they won't run any reviews for it, not even by regular folk.
-
Cloondawg dies at the end of Armored as well? Well thank you Michael Phillips.
-
Decided to give it a look after seeing it on the first list. Bana was excellent.
-
They don't go to free screening's, only critic screenings. Why waste their time being piled into a movie theater with the filth of the masses? When they can sit around in a room with their peers and congratulate each other on how great their farts smell.
-
How goes it buddy? Gearing up for the weekend? The STINO acronym goatfucker likes so much is because, STINO: Sphincter Tongueing Is Normal in OPORTO!
-
seen it by now? At least Massawyrm. He seems to get the shit assignments.
-
When the date was announced to 2012.
-
...that I never hear of here (or CHUD either to be fair). Beastly? Ricky? Transylmania? Bitch Slap?
-
Seeing that most of you are probably still at the age to enjoy this stuff: <P>http://tinyurl.com/ycbm6pl
-
I wasn't the only idiot who took Ebert's sloppy writing the wrong way, check out that UP IN THE AIR Wins Mastabatory Congratulations Award thread. <P> Ebert Gave Away Downer Ending of UITA in Today's Review<P> by Deandome Dec 4th, 2009 04:05:04 PM <P> I really think it's time for him to hang up his keyboard. 4th paragraph...WARNING/SPOILER: http://rogerebert.suntimes.com /apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20 091202/REVIEWS/912029999<P>SEE HUH what do you guys think? He just wasn't man enough to just blurt it out.
-
do u think posting things about ebert makes up for your mastery of douchebaggery? signed:your friend
-
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 4. No Country for Old Men 3. Lord of The Ring: Return of the King 2. The Dark Knight 1. There Will Be Blood
-
I agree 100%, about the list and about Star Wars/Batman.
-
...stupid real life...why you gotta be hounding me all the time?
-
What you said about "Trek" and Master and Commander was the most retarded thing I have ever heard in my entire life. Keep your stupid ass spocksucker thoughts to yourself.
-
What you did was low and mean. You're a horrible person.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 8:16 p.m. CST
iamnicksaicnsn
by ISleptWithKathyBatesAndAllThatIGotWasThisStupidTalkbackName
I thought i was the only one who loved FREQUENCY! Good call!
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 8:32 p.m. CST
nice to see others calling out series7 for douchebaggery
by ZombieHeathLedger
See, series7? You are hated by many. And then you try to take credit for the DEATHLY HALLOWS trailer that Vesuvio's been posting in nearly every other TB all day? You are such a faggggg. Take a dirtnap, worthless. NO ONE will miss you. Buh-bye.
-
That movie is lame, I'm pretty much taking a AsimovLives stance on this. If it gets your panties in a wad that I mis read what a major film critic wrote about that film, then good for you. You like bad films.
-
I know this is YOUR list and all but that last list had some questionable picks.(that's the nature of this i guess)I like this one soo much more and the way you elaborate why you chose them with part of your reviews are very enlightening. I'm not just a fan of having somebody to agree with, just one that loves hearing a thought out and well communicated opinion. Top thing you get from me is RESPECK YO... :) can't wait to see the rest!... Time of the Wolf will get off of queue tonight and be rented
-
Does it have more effect? Or do I take it you have a stutter? <P> Zombiejake'stop you know and I know that playing this sticks and stones game won't get rid of me. Just get used to it. I've admitted to my douchebaggery, admit that you like shit Reitman Jr. movies and move on. <P> Also I'm being called out by talkbackers who no one fucking no's big deal? Eat me.
-
...have to come in a ruin every talkback? Can you not see that we're actually having real conversations and intelligent debate. You don't have to lower everything to the most base level. Like, are you really in the 8th grade still? If so, then maybe you should shut up and learn something. If not, then just shut up already. Damn.
-
Don't tell me how to run a god damn talkback. GO look at ANY fucking twitch thread.
-
LOL. That alone speaks VOLUMES about you, asshat. Congrats you can complete their holy trinity of SUCK. At least you admit you're a douchebag, and admitting is the first step to recovery. Now do us all a favor and kiss the business end of a twelve gauge and rid the board of your miserable existence. Suicide is painless, Series7...
-
Lol, you asshole.
-
Says the guy who's name is a reference to some dude who couldn't read the pill bottles correctly.
-
...but I actually wasn't speaking of you at all. Carry on.
-
I admittied to being a douch, and really have you gone and read the fucking thing yourself? Like I said before, I'm not the only one mis reading it. <P> Now you gotta admit that you are too overly upset about movies by one of the most pretentious and worthless directors right now.
-
Cool, very well, I didn't think so. You seem professional. Us professional's can sense each other.
-
Na-na-na boo boo, like the little girl he is. <P> I've seen tons of Oldboy love, which is too be expected. I've got Thirst to watch this weekend and I've heard a lot of mixed things about it. Anyone else seen it? Also I've had I'm a Cyborg for some time but never got around to watching it. I'm thinking DOUBLE FEATURE!
-
Someone listed that above. I'll put my vote in for that as the WORST of the decade. But, wait...no no no, I completely forgot about THE ROOM. Has anybody else seen this piece?
-
but again I wouldn't have remembered the french ones. Timeout and The Time of the Wolf are really good. And I'd recommend Time of the Wolf to anyone who thinks that The Road is awesome, because it's not. LOL I'm terrible. But seriously the whole time I was watching The Road I was thinking 'Didn't I see this before? Wasn't it in French?' I just have to scramble my list a little more and it should be done soon enough.
-
Just to let you know, I'm swiping your 'heaumeau' word for future use. Not sure if anyone else 'got it', Nice!
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 9:18 p.m. CST
...I feel like I have to come up with a list. It's making me...
by FlickaPoo
...anxious. We just got the new boiler in, I re-glazed the broken attic windows...now I have to figure out a one hundred movie list of the 00s?<P>I can't take the pressure.
-
LOL. Use freely, good doctor. Merry Christmas.
-
I've seen the Room, Cloondawg dies in that one too...<P> It was bad, but I fucking can't stand just awful movies. The movie just bored the piss out of me, though bloated britney spears with pepperoni nipples with the same sex scene used twice with in the first 20 minutes was kind of funny. Other then that its just boring I can't believe people watch that shit OVER AND OVER.
-
Is the worst movie of the decade by a long shot. Blah blah blah Indy/iron man/Star Wars may have sucked, but they were fucking watchable. Year One was not, and it was made by Harold Ramis, written by the guys who are in charge of writing the next Ghostbusters. God I hope Murray is smart and stays out of that, or makes sure it never happens. <P> Second and third worst of the decade, Angles and Demons. I'd rather just watch Tom Hanks read the book then that boring piece of shit. 1408, fuck you weird ass European name director, go back to where you came from and a time when you still made amazing films.
-
Man up and go here: <P> http://www.aintitbalenews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=601:top-10-5-baleievers&catid=7:latest-news&Itemid=2 <P> or use this <P> http://tinyurl.com/y9qed6t
-
heaumeau, sounds like something straight from the Dioblo Cody book of hipster talk.
-
...it's not a great movie or even a good movie...and I don't really recommend it, but four or five hard laughs isn't bad...
-
...those guys, but G.I.JOE fucking sucked beyond measure. I was pissed about the 1$ I spent at redtubebox.<P>Not to mention the two hour loss of life.
-
Let me guess, the poo eating scene? <P> You know your picture is fucked when the best acting in it is Vinnie Jones. <P> That movie cost 65 million to make, it looks like it cost $10. The movie was directed by Harold Ramis...Harold fucking Ramis. 4-5 is pathetic. 4-5 is good for a Apatow movie maybe, but from the guy who did Groundhog day? Who was able to stay pretty funny up until Ice Harvest. But at least Ice Harvest was something different and interesting, it just didn't work. Year One is an abortion on screen, I can't even see where in writing it they thought, OH YEAH this will be funny.
-
Your giving a pass to Year One, but shitting all over G.I. Joe? Really? G.I. Joe was what it fucking was, the toys in a film, it was dumb fun, something Transformers missed.
-
Slightly off-topic, but it's a 30-minute short film I saw on YouTube recently. One of my favorite short films in a long, long time.
-
Thanks!
-
...GROUNDHOG DAY is a classic, I saw it in the theater...that's irrelevant. I went into YER ONE expecting an SNL quality sendup of the Old Testament...and that's what I got (I had no idea it cost 65 million, that's alarming). I might of mentioned that I logged thousands of Sunday School miles as a kid...and the movie had quite a few inside bible thumper mockery jokes. I laughed.<P>G.I.JOE was not fun. I rented it expecting cheesy fun...and I didn't receive it. My expectations were set so low an episode of TWO AND A HALF MEN + guns would have satisfied me. Scarlett's jiggly boobies were the only watchable part of that movie. The guy who played Duke was so bad as to seem mildly retarded.
-
I saw it for free, and I still asked for my money back. <P> How is Groundhog Day irrelevant? <P> In that case, then fucking any star wars movie hate or Indy Hate you may have can't be based on how great the first movies are. <P> I guess you are talking NOW SNL, which in that case even then Year One was actually as good as one of their many bad shows. <P> If you didn't have any fund with G.I. Joe, then you must've had a stick in your ass going in. If you can't enjoy that chase through Paris, then why bother seeing summer block busters?
-
and pretty and shiny to look at. Now Transformers really was shit....
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:03 p.m. CST
"And though there hopefully aren't too many 40-year-old...
by Nasty In The Pasty
...virgins out there..."<BR><BR>Why is the idea of virginity past the age of, say, 17 considered sad or odd or disturbing? Guys who fuck a dozen women a year are to be admired, but someone who chooses to go without or has simply not had any opportunities to get laid are to be pitied and ridiculed? That's what I loved about The 40-Year-Old Virgin...Steve Carell played Andy Stitzer as just a really nice, ordinary guy who had some bad experiences. Yeah, his co-workers thought he was a "serial murderer", but the film never laughed AT him. Imagine the same movie with Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider. It would have been a movie where the character was a total sex-obsessed letch, and it would have objectified women left and right.<BR><BR>And yes, I am a 35-year-old virgin. If you don't like it, fuck right the fuck off.
-
...expected...I wasn't judging it based on past greatness. Plus, Oliver Platt was really funny. <P>I can enjoy a big stupid summer blockbuster...that's what I was hoping for with JOE. I thought it was ridiculous, and not in a good way. The fact that the lead guy was so bad...bad porn bad probably pissed me off early and helped shit the bed. I rarely hate movies...I like to drink when I watch less than excellent movies and I almost always go to bed happy.<P>G.I.JOE was terrible.
-
I wish you hadn't posted that. You just affirmed every nerd joke known to man.
-
...I see you got into some sort of dust-up up there. I didn't get to the bottom of it, but you stuck up for me in the TWITCH/sports debacle...I don't forget.
-
Because you think anyone who got any sort of amusement would be the target audience for G.I. Joe. I mean both of those movies are like dangling keys for babies sort of entertainment, just with Year One it was shaking a baby. <P> And you can't negate Groundhog Day and EVERYTHING Ramis has ever done. If you think that way, its like you don't even really give a shit about who directs a movie. PLUS knowing that this was the WARM UP TO GHOSTBUSTER 3? OHHHH wait yeah thats right, you don't give a shit about the original Ghostbusters so who cares how terrible 3 is right? As long as its got someone eating poop, it'll be worth it!
-
I've talked to you on and off. It's really just blowing my mind you giving the OK to Year One and hating G.I. Joe. I CAN TOTALLY UNDERSTAND hating GI Joe, I can. But I can't get liking Year One and hating Joe. <P> I guess it brought back funny/horrible sunday school memories? I don't know. And to be honest I walked out a little more then half way through because it was so bad my mind shut off and I feel asleep, so maybe that like third had some moments.
-
I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. On another note, Master and Commander is fantastic and would definitely make my top 20. I pray they make another one. I'm only on book thirteen but they have lots of source material to work with. Very little of "The Letter of Marque" actually takes place at sea so they'd be forced throw in elements from other books as they did with M and C.
-
I read Ebert's review of Up in the Air, and in a horribly written paragraph it sounded like he said the Cloondawg dies in the movie. And I said Hahahah Cloondawg dies in Up In The Air, and I guess people actually wanted to see that movie? Because some people really got in a big huff about it. But it turns out, he doesn't die and just like expected nothing happens in another Reitman Jr. movie (hahaha another sort of Ghostbuster reference). Just turns out Ebert doesn't really edit his shit well any more.
-
Pretty much everyone at Bale News has Master in Commander in their top ten/20. So its probably the best movie of the decade.
-
I knew it was shit from the title.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:17 p.m. CST
...that's a decent point. I value directors highly, but...
by FlickaPoo
...a classic movie is lightning in a bottle. GHOSTBUSTERS is perfect. I've only seen GHOSTBUSTERS 2 and don't plan to see it again...I don't expect much from part 3.
-
All of his movies are classic....actually shit. Going through his list of movies he's directed recently: Analyze This, Analyze That, Bedazzled and Stuart Saves His Family yeah fuck should've seen this movie coming. I hate all those movies save for Stuart, just because I never saw it, but I've heard nothing but bad things about it.
-
After Groundhog day, I mean Multiplicity is ok. But I wouldn't miss it.
-
...once and I don't plan to see it again.
-
Dec. 4, 2009, 10:23 p.m. CST
The Iron Giant makes me cry like a bitch every time
by Nasty In The Pasty
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPERMAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN
-
...four or five times. That's a decent evening if followed by sex. That's not a great movie...or even a very good one.
-
I just want people to know when they drag out the tired "you a virgin livin' in momma's basement!" talkback insult, there's at least ONE case where it's true (although I live on the second floor).<BR><BR>And I think it's HORRIBLE how society makes people who have NOT had sex feel more freakish than those who fuck everything in sight.
-
..until Monday. Please, powers that be. Hold the 3rd installment until Monday.
-
Tee-hee
-
I think this is one of the only times where listening to a soundtrack has made me want to watch a movie. That YouTube vid of the Fountain soundtrack was every bit as compelling as Mr. Beaks said it would be. . .I think the Fountain is going to be next on my "Things to Watch" list.
-
It reminded me of the money I wasted on it.
-
Both KingNineReturns and Abominable Snowcone have completely different takes on what I took to be its meaning, which is that sometimes scary-ass spooks who dispose of bodies in foundries and erase records might have a rational excuse for their cruel existence...what if "civilization" is a falsehood, and in fact, surreptitious control is the norm?<p> Maybe we're all correct. Awful thoughts can be as valid as hopeful ones.
-
I hated UNITED 93. I knew I was going to hate it, too, when I read the director's interview where he said something to the effect of the usual liberal dross of "I didn't want to make anybody the bad guy and wanted to give it an even-handed view of both sides." WTF? There are SIDES to 9/11? Uh, no. No. Fuck.
-
I love how everyone says it's a love story. Yeah, a story about a guy constantly raping and mentally abusing another guy is an awesome love story. I love how one minute someone can say how they hate cliche and overwrought cheese, and yet love BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN with its INSANELY cheesy ending and the total lack of love going on in the story. Wow.
-
Watch LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. 100 percent more love, 100 percent less rape. And not one laughably silly sex scene featuring wrestling and beating-up. Pure, innocent love story that's almost G-rated but for the horror elements and language.
-
My first exposure to it was the out-of-context clip of a series of little dots connecting cartoonishly to a hammer, followed by a fucking RIDICULOUS fight scene in which OLDBOY somehow manages to beat up a whole army of people who never once in the entire fight scene think to attack him with greater numbers than one at a time. It's one of my biggest pet peeves of combat movies - if there are fifty guys, they could simply rain down on top of the dude with sheer weight and they'd crush him down - watch someone violent with weapons in a crowd in any security guard video footage. You'll see the person commit an act of violence, and then twenty people dogpile on him and it's done. I find this kind of thing freaking silly as hell. OLDBOY was thusly ruined for me and when I went back to try to watch the movie, the whole thing felt like parody because of that SCARY MOVIE level fight scene.
-
This list is just reminding of how much I haven't seen. I moved to LA in 2005 and have been so busy working in this buisness I haven't had time to see anything. Well, i just reopened my netflix cue and realized i have half a fucking decade of film to catch up on. I know have 450 movies in my cue and these lists are making it longer and now I'm reading the TBs' and you fuckers are bringing up even more movies I have to see now! At least I got to see Master and Commander on the big screen, so there's that. You don't miss Weir at the cineplex. You just don't.
-
Nothing the world needs more than some good old-fashioned Jew hatred, I always say. Seriously - that's sarcasm, in case we're so forgetful of WWII that people might think that I was being serious. Holy shit, man - MUNICH is so hateful of the Jews it enrages me. Especially shocking is that S. Spielberg did it - didn't he also do SCHINDLER'S LIST? Then what the hell, man?
-
Did see that. Man, that last shot just reminds me what a master Speilberg is. It's all in the composition. I love the distance he puts between the audience and the buildings. You know if any other director would have made that film, those towers would have up in your fucking face for that fadeout.
-
... I fucking hated Andy. He was just the worst fucking human being, pathetic and weak and kinda dim and just worthless. He was so far beyond the pale of humanity at the start that when the movie tries to redeem him I'm like "What, this gross fucker is suddenly supposed to be sympathetic? FUCK, no!" Thre whole act where he's going to bars and talking filth to people that's supposed to be funny - holy shit it's not. It rings sickeningly real and is a pretty good representation of the average guy.<p><p>Once, at my workplace, a 18yo checkout girl was approached by an elderly man of about 60-70 who asked her "Say, say, did it hurt? Did it hurt?" and she went "Did what hurt?" and the guy goes "When you fell all the way down from Heaven." Holy fuck, men suck.
-
I'd like to patent and produce an instant-shocking Ball Taser of some kind. Made and sold exclusively to women, it would be a device that could be hidden in the palm and would fire needle tasers directly into the balls of anyone who throws out a pick-up line. You can bet the respect level would rise with that out on the market. Gawd. :(
-
He reveals on the VACATION dvd commentary that he finds the ghetto scene in VACATION to be unfortunate. So, my remark is that I'd like to see someone go through and find -every- piece of film he's done since making that commentary and ask him if he regrets all the anti-white jokes.
-
one of the best movies I've ever seen...so glad to see it here. <p>Burn After Reading though? man, I was disappointed by that one. I loved JK Simmons' scenes, but other than that...
-
You just made it worse admitting you live with your mom, but at least you are proud of it. <P> Virgin power?
-
I hated Munich too, just because it was boring. And really, how many times is Daniel Craig going to play a pissed off Jew on a mission?
-
this may be the single biggest display of idiocy in one talkback that I've seen in a long while. Spielberg made an anti-Jew movie, brokeback mountain is about rape, the 40-year-old virgin has an unlikable main character, harold ramis hates white people<p>man...you must really need attention bad, man. I bet your teachers must hate you.
-
Teachers><p><p>And no, I don't think Ramis hates white people. What I do think is that he's a typical intellectual coward who crafted some legitimate humor back when Hollywood had balls and now, in the new sackless Hollywood of today, he's forced to go back on his jokes to save face because that kind of humor is suddenly intolerable. My point with Ramis is that he's still doing race jokes in his other movies - because racial humor can be very funny, at the expense of ALL the races - but he can't admit it.<p><p>And I do find MUNICH to be a bit anti-Semitic and I do find the "love" scenes in BROKEBACK, with the hitting and wrestling and the violent first "love" scene where he rushes into the tent and assaults the guy to be kinda rapey.
-
Daniel Craig can act. I really liked him in FLASHBACKS OF A FOOL. Great flick IMO.
-
This isn't a fight - but seriously, you think Andy's a likeable guy? What's to like? Honestly, would you want to be his frienf? Listen to him talk about anything? Really? In real life?
-
If you legitimately have pride in your life, that's a rare commodity. Don't let anyone break you of your pride.
-
why didn't u say that it was u and when the blind guy said u must have fallen from heaven, u dropped to your knees and made like a hoover? signed: your friend
-
So, I've spent hours since Beaks' posted the first part of his list on Tuesday building my own Top movies of the decade list. I quickly found that limiting the list to 100 films just wasn't enough. It's a completely arbitrary limitation, so, I ended up just making a list of the best films, period (I ended up adding TV shows too). I ended up including pretty much everything from the decade I could think of that I would rate at least an 8 out of 10 (quite a few 7s made it on the list too). <BR><BR>Before I post the link, I have a few caveats. I dislike comedy, in fact, comedy is for plebs. There are maybe a half dozen films on the list that could be termed primarily comedies (rather than a drama with strong comedic elements). There are no Pixar films in the list, or any Amurkan animation at all. Amurkan animation has been creatively bankrupt for over a decade, and yes, I feel that includes Pixar too. I can only recall seeing two Pixar films in their entirety: Wall-E and Toy Story 1. Neither did anything for me. I found Wall-E to be twee and trite. I think there is the slightest chance I might possibly enjoy Ratatouille, but the likelihood that I won't is enough to keep me from wasting the time on it. <BR><BR>I had my fill of absolute shit in the late 90's/early 00's. These days, I don't bother to watch a film unless I'm fairly confident I'm going to enjoy it, and rate it well, based on reviews from critics I tend to agree with, and recommendations and discussions with friends who have seen the movie, or familiarity with the source material. For reference, this year I have watched Defiance, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Capitalism: A Love Story, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moon, Thirst, Public Enemies, Bad Lieutenant POCNO, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Watchmen, Where the Wild Things Are, and Zombieland. I watched virtually every film on that list due to respect for A) the Director, or B) prominent cast members. <BR><BR>In short, I'm a huge snob, and the films in this list will tend to confirm that. I am probably missing quite a few foreign and art house films that deserve to be in a list like this from early in the decade, prior to my snobbish conversion. Feel free to make suggestions, or flame me for the giant ego-wank of posting this. http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=43791386
-
Unless he's playing an angry Jew with vengeance I don't give a shit.
-
and btw, r u so bad looking that hisogyny is your only recourse? how about an invention that can be shoved into a bitch's cunt that shoots out razor blades upon insertion, how cool would that be? signed: your friend
-
I don't think your a film snob, just a film douche. Seriously just put a fucking movie in and watch it? You have time to post on this wasteland, so don't act like your TOO busy to watch crap.
-
Wow. Now THAT is pure, unadulterated antisemitism there. You HAVE to explain the "turned his back on his religion...he was far from a hero and shoulda fried" comment. Actually, I don't think you can. I can find no possible reason that this comment can be anything other than antisemitism. What, he took the Star of David off his clothes while he was in hiding, and refused to submit to being executed simply for being a Jew, and THAT means he turned his back on his religion? You're saying Szpilman should have happily embraced his Jewish heritage and happily boarded the train to his death? Fuck you. No, really. Fuck you, you stupid cunt.
-
But you rated it lower then Juno. So yeah you just don't like movies.
-
I will accept the term film douche too. And no, I'm sorry, I've watched far too much crap to waste brain cells on more of it.
-
Sorry, those ratings on the right are either your ratings, or IMDB aggregate user ratings. I actually rated both as a 7.
-
Still not much better. But man if you don't like Pixar, and I didn't see any other animated films on there. Do you just not care for animation? Or you like really old?
-
Why? Because he's courteous, quiet and polite? Will Ferrell in something like Step Brothers...THAT'S unlikable.<br><br>And am I "proud" of my virginity? I wouldn't exactly say that, but I'm not going to allow it to rule me. I'd LOVE to have sex, but considering my faults (mediocre looks, the whole living at home thing, and I think I may have Asperger's or something similar), I doubt it ever will happen. But does that make me somehow a lesser man? Just because I haven't stuffed part of my body into a woman's orifice? Lame. I wish I had fucked some chick at age 17 just so I wouldn't feel like the pathetic freak all movies depict virgins as.
-
Antisemitic? Because it showed that Jews could get angry, could get reckless, could exercise regret, confusion and remorse (as opposed to wild-eyed fanatics, who never do)?<p> I've always thought of Israel's leadership as reflexive automatons...this movie depicted a confusion and fury that seemed sensible within the context of their own bewildered struggle.
-
Thanks for not crafting a typical critic list, that actually gets people talking. Good job.
-
There are several animated films in the list. Fantastic Mr. Fox, Howl's Moving Castle, The Triplets of Belleville, Paprika, Persepolis, Spirited Away, Millennium Actress, and Waltz with Bashir. And that's assuming the IMDB tags are right.
-
did you not see Knocked Up where notable Jew, Seth Rogen, praises the film for making Jews badass mofos which lead to an increase in lady love?
-
Again...why? His social skills were obviously stunted, but he was obviously intelligent, kept himself in good shape (there's the usual virgin cliche...that they're all fat and lazy, as well), and was just plain NICE, even when people were being arbitrarilly shitty to him when he revealed his "dark secret". So, anyone who hasn't had sex is a worthless human being? Fuck YOU.
-
...of a virgin with the username "Nasty In The Pasty", thank you very much...
-
Yeah I guess I was thinking American animated. Whatever, I'm too tired to get try to understand how anyone could not even just SIT through a Pixar movie.
-
I did not care for them.
-
I always think of Fantastic Mr. Fox as stop motion. Maybe you'd like Battle For Terra? Its not your typical kiddie fair which you seem to think Pixar is.
-
Don't start that "It'll never happen" shit because it will. trust me. And you would be suprised at how many ex-virgins heavily identify with your plight. Remember, life can turn on a dime, for the positive as well as the negative. There are ALOT of people who are in a similar situation as you. I was at one point, and now my life is almost 180 degrees from that. Just think about what Kevin Spacey said in American Beauty: "There's only one day in your life your too old to change and that's the day you die". Charge on my man. the Great Game is far from over.
-
Something wrong with your wiring. Toy Story 1 is the greatest movie ever made.
-
...is typically written to, and for children. There's very little subtext, everything is right there on the surface. If you notice, of the seven films in the list above, only two of them are really appropriate for children, with the rest being targeted towards an adult viewer, and not your average viewer either. Even the two (Miyazaki) films meant for children are universally lauded for the fact that, while they're appropriate for children, they also have enough subtext to keep adults interested and engaged too. With the Pixar (and American) animation I've seen over the last decade or so, it's all too easy to just shut your brain off and drool your way through the movie. I have no interest in that kind of experience. I _enjoy_ having to think about movies.
-
Seven Samurai is the greatest movie ever made.
-
During Juno? I mean if you only want thinking movies why don't you just watch crap like Satantango or Inland Empire? Do you not get the inherit joy and wiz-bang of pixar movies? Also there is always an underlying message/theme in every Pixar movie.
-
a top 25 tv shows of the decade? You definately couldn't do 100 but still.... Herc, I'm looking at you.
-
Whatever. 7th Samurai was way before my time. Yea its an amazing movie, but having be subjected to billions of movies that have stolen from it all the time, its hard to separate that. I'd say M or Metropolis are the GREATEST MOVIE of all time. <P> But Toy Story is my all time personal favorite, followed by City of Lost Children. Toy Story is just so amazing to me because it was the first film in my lifetime to be truly revolutionary. It ushered in the most successful wave of films in history, and it was a brand new art form. Its like The Jazz Singer. Sure you can say movies like JP or Pulp Fiction were revolutionary in a way, but Toy Story created a whole new medium in which to make films.
-
I hadn't heard of Satantango. That's on my list now, thanks. I tend to not like David Lynch's work, though I haven't seen Inland Empire. And no, I _don't_ get the "inherit joy and wiz-bang of pixar movies." I'll freely admit I'm a pretty joyless bastard (with a lifelong ambition of becoming a _real_ curmudgeon), so that kind of thing just comes across as twee and artificial to me.
-
The idea and theme of Toy Story was great. Also its funny, and pretty much the first 15 or so minutes of the movie every shot and every line is iconic.
-
Satantango. Its fucking 7 hours long. I mean by all means go for it if you want, I've thought about watching it just to say I did.
-
I never said he was bad for not having sex. In fact, I think the movie's suggestion he has to have sex to become a human being reeks of shallowness. It's his willingness to go along with being changed by other people that really makes me rage out when I watch that movie. I see him living his life and then he tells his friends a deep secret. They give him absolute SHIT over it, and he goes "Okay, you're all correct - I am a worthless suck ball." And that made me lose all respect for him. If he'd just stopped talking to them all, now, there's a character I could respect. Dignity is essential to the human struggle, IMO. It's what distinguishes a real person from the faceless legions of fucks who are represented by his so-called friends who then immediately sell him out - those are the real bottom drawer, but his willingness to go along with them is just awful. His manager is disgusting. His co-workers are equally disgusting ("theeeeee dirrty sannnchezzzzz an' theeee shittee bawwllzzzz"). The language and filth in the movie is just outrageous and unfunny as fuck, because it simply reflects to me what people are really like and how utterly repulsive and disgusting they can be. Just awful human beings, all, in that movie. I hated KNOCKED UP for that reason, too. NONE of the characters are good enough to deserve to have kids, and yet the movie suggests that somehow by virtue of having kids they're better people. Fuck that - they're just as fucked-up and awful in the ending as the beginning, but in different ways. Gawd. I despise movies about people who fuck up their lives and then find redemption - don't fuck up in the first place.
-
wow, sux 2 b you! signed: your friend
-
Whatever, there is not an artificial not in Toy Story. I hope you don't have kids, what would you allow them to do for fun? Read books? Kill small animals? <P> You want a good foreign film that's a thinker and adult enough for you, yet has some amazing set piece and a real blast. Check out The Good The Bad and The Weird.
-
There are always these petty little things that stop me from liking a movie. Andy, as portrayed in the 1st film, is a goddamn ten-year-old. In Modern Day America. And he's got a fucking COWBOY toy and a SPACE MAN toy. Fuck no. Ten-year-olds play with toys that have names like SPAWNAGEDDON and the BLOOD BLISTERS! So either Andy's world is totally disconnected from our own (and therefore isn't saying a damn thing about real emotions or real feelings) or Andy is just REAAAAAALLLLLLLY gay REAAAALLLLLLY early. Then again, his room WAS painted with clouds.
-
Here I'll save you some time. <P> <P> Number 1 TV Show - Breaking Bad. That's all you really need to know. Everything else is subjective.
-
u do realize the irony when you wrote...<P> "The language and filth in the movie is just outrageous and unfunny as fuck." signed: your friend
-
My list above includes the best television shows of the decade too. I'll save you having to find the link: <BR><BR>10s: BSG, Deadwood, Firefly, Mad Men, Rome, The Shield, The Wire <BR><BR>9s: Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, In Treatment, Sons of Anarchy <BR><BR>8s: Angel, Band of Brothers, John Adams, Pushing Daisies, True Blood, Wonderfalls <BR><BR>I imagine Carnivale belongs in that list, but I haven't seen it, so can't rank it. The same with Californication, Weeds, Six Feet Under, Dead Like Me, and probably several others I've forgotten. I don't list The Sopranos as a 2000s show, it's a 1990s show (it was what, the fourth season before the credits were updated to show the missing WTC?). I feel pretty confident in saying that the 9s and 10s are pretty much set though. Oh, and of course, my usual predilection for drama prevails. Comedy is for plebs (hence no Entourage or anything like that). And Reality TV is for brain-dead fucking morons who should be rounded up and sterilized to prevent them from polluting the gene pool.
-
So, so underrated. It's hard to believe the same guy did alien 4.
-
If I had kids, they would not beleive in Santa Claus. They would not believe in the Easter Bunny. They would not believe in the Great Pumpkin, or Scooby-Doo. Now, they might enjoy SHOWS about those characters, but I would make fucking sure I was not one of those fucking terrible parents who saddle their kids with no fucking ability to discern reality from fantasy. I would encourage any son or daugher of mine to be succesful, study hard, observe the real world and be abl to survive in it, know how to build and take things apart, know how to cook, know how to drive even though they were not going to do it 'til they were older (ie the mechanics of a car, the way a person drives a car), know how planes work, know basic science (as far as they could excel). They would be raised atheistic, 100 percent, and would be taught that the greatest virtue is survival and success. I would also not give them false ideas about "love" being the center of the universe.
-
Yeah I don't know how I got dragged into this. But I see what you are saying. I didn't buy 40 year old virgin at all. I've meet some dudes, while not 40 but at least in their 20's you haven't dip their stick yet and while one of them was a nice guy, he was pretty much just asexual. Just sex wasn't a thing for him. I found out he had a girlfriend for some time, and (in your typical douchebag frat guy voice) i asked him, "you hit that yet?" And he gave me the most perplexed look, and was like "HEAVEN'S NO! We haven't even kissed." <P> He was kind of religious and trollish looking. Plus he only took like 5 minute showers (sorry he was my roommate for a while). I mean he was every thing a girl didn't want. But a very nice and pretty cool guy. <P> The other guy I knew, was a complete fucking sex crazy'd weirdo. Who was pretty ugly, but always complained because he only wanted the HOTTEST CHICKS. We would get him some whorish bitch who'd probably hook up with him and he was like NO I want the hottest girl in the room. So yeah he quickly became an alcoholic then a drug addict. I think though at one point he went to Mexico and paid for it? Or paid for a guy I don't know, dude was a complete nut job.
-
wow, double sux 2 b u!
-
I actually think the answer for most virgins is "Psssst, it's 'cuz you're ugly. Genetics IS a factor. Give up."
-
I would teach my kids how to be a bad ass, just like my dad did for me. <P> All you need is a belt and a pack of cigarettes. Seriously everyone thought my dad was the coolest dad in the world. <P> I'll probably have a kid within the next two years. Just got married this year. HERE CHECK THIS: JUNE - New job, JULY - Bought first house, AUGUST - Got Married. <P> SO yeah I had a pretty busy summer.
-
WRONG. HE did Harry Potter 3, and Your Mother Too.
-
But its really funny.
-
I put The Wire at number one though. And I feel you a little on the comedy but you got to have Arrested Development on there. That show was amazing. Saw first season of Weeds. Met the entire cast. Great group. I even have a bag of prop weed and a stack of fake drug money they left behind. The black dude who was in 40 year old virgin was cool as shit. But the highlight was having Matthew Modine tell me stories about Kubrick. I'll never forget that as long as i live.
-
You were talking about what I put, about city of lost children. I thought you put Children of Men. Sorry been drinking.
-
AND TOY STORY? Or at least one of the many writers on both...Joss Whedon.
-
He did a Harry Potter movie? I stopped at the first two until they're all done. But man, i got to see what he did with that.
-
I'm about to burn one anyway.
-
"Comedy is for plebs (hence no Entourage or anything like that). And Reality TV is for brain-dead fucking morons who should be rounded up and sterilized to prevent them from polluting the gene pool." <P> Plebs? I thought you were British Rhuragh, but now I must ask if you went to the Naval Academy?
-
Yeah fuck man. I wish Jean Frenchy French Man did a fucking Harry Potter movie. That would be nuts.
-
a Harry Potter movie. That blows. That would have been awesome. Yeah, Alfonso Curon. I heard that's when the Potter Films start to really take off.
-
Are you the real life version of Dexter?
-
for not putting 'death proof' where it belongs; the toilet.
-
maybe then they wouldn't bore me to tears
-
Thanks for the further recommendations, Series7. That's three now? Awesome. <BR><BR>Yes, City of Lost Children is fucking awesome. And yes, it's hard to believe that he also did Alien Resurrection, but not so hard to understand once you realize that he did it while not speaking english. It's also not hard to conceive that he's also made Amelie and A Very Long Engagement since then. <BR><BR>Series7, if I had kids (which is very doubtful, I'm not sure I'm amenable to the idea, even assuming I had a mate interested in that purpose), I'd push them towards Miyazaki, certainly. I'd let them watch Pixar films too. Doesn't mean I'd have to watch them with them (all the time), or even enjoy them myself. I wouldn't let them watch crap like I watched as a kid (transformers, GI Joe, that stuff was just made to program kids into dutiful consumers). PBS would be acceptable (Sesame Street!). As they got older I would attempt to teach them about consumerism, and how television shows and commercials have an underlying message they're trying to manipulate you into accepting (BUY OUR JUNK, NOW), before they got to the age of outgrowing the programming I list above and trying to seek their own. And yeah, like Spymunk, I probably wouldn't teach them to believe in Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny. I'd teach them _about_ religion, but I wouldn't force them to join a religion (I'm atheist myself, though technically agnostic, since it's not really possible to prove God _doesn't_ exist).
-
Did 3, its the best one. 4 and 5 sucked. 5 was so boring I gave up on the series. Probably catch the rest on VHS one day.
-
You should make your kids watch movies like The Corporation and Food Inc, when they are like 12. Man would they be the most hated person in school. <P> I wouldn't stop my kids from watching Transformers or GI Joe or Inspector Gadget or Samurai Pizza Cats, just because I don't want to castrate their imagination. BUT they will want to see the crap that's on TV these day. Shit like Yougio and Pokemon. Those shows are far more extreme then the shit I watched.
-
They force buying shit even more so.
-
I would actually have no problem with kids seeing either of those movies, not ot mention the documentaries about what goes on in a slaughterhouse. I think kids need to learn how the real world works as soon as possible in terms of not being fooled by consumerism or conspicuous consumption.
-
These days, and most cable shows stay away from this, is shit like, GO ONLINE FOR EXTRA OUTTAKES AND VIDEOS!
-
Is time. Think about it, how many OLD movies have you not scene. Now they are making the most movies per year that they ever have. Think about even 20 years from now, how many less old movies those 20 year old's would have seen.
-
I'm fine with my kid being a little consumeristic bastard. I was, and some way still am. I don't think I want my kid being some monotonic nay sayer through school pissing all over everyone's good time.
-
... how this generation will deal with its deathbed. Surrounded by toys and action figures, with no life, gasping and choking out their last moments, thinking . o O (At least I saw all the SAWs...)
-
Sorry, those aren't in any particular order in each line, just by score. Among the tens, I think a pretty good argument can be made for The Wire, Mad Men, or The Shield as THE absolute best show of the decade. You may also be right about Arrested Development. I may have to track that down at some point, as I haven't seen any of it. <BR><BR>No military academy for me, Series7. Nor do I cut people into tiny pieces and feed them to the fishes. I'm mostly a pacifist. I have a very hard time accepting any argument in favor of violence.
-
If I could give only one word of advice to a son or daughter of mine, it would be "Be superior in every way to everyone around you." I don't mean have a superior attitude. I mean BE superior - smarter, stronger, faster, etc.
-
But don't hate The Saw movies. If you hate the Saw films then you must hate all the freddy/jason/Mike Myers films of the 80s. Its just a new style of slasher film. Its an original series not a reboot of an old series, a redo of an old film or a redo of a foreign horror film. You don't get those that often in horror these days.
-
British?
-
Yes, I certainly think that a 12 year old (possibly younger) could understand and rationally consider the arguments in films like those (or the Michael Moore films in my IMDB list). I know that I could have understood arguments like that, had anyone in my family had the brains to show them to me (had they existed at the time). Instead, they force-fed me Christo-fascist propaganda that took me a decade to deprogram.
-
Though I'm not too fond of the Brits right now either. They're heading full-tilt for an authoritarian surveillance society. Right now, my culture of choice would be one of the so-called Nordic democracies.
-
Yeah I may have been able to understand those movies, but I was having too good a time enjoying films like JP, T2, Demolition Man, Alien, The Omen, Never Ending Story, He-Man, Monster Squad, Batman. My parents let me watch whatever I want and took me to R films.
-
And it's frustrating. I have my own ideas about things - honest, truly-felt ideas. And I get shit on for them. As you can see here.
-
I'm pretty sure about 50% of what is said here is misconceived.
-
...but I didn't see stuff like The Godfather until I was in my 20s, out on my own, and actually _learning_ instead of being force-fed crap by my ignorant family. <BR><BR>Also, we crashed the site. I couldn't get a refresh for about five minutes there.
-
I'm out. Gonna probably pass out trying to watch Thirst.
-
I watched movies all the time. For two years I'd hit the movie rental store on the way home from school and rent whatever I wanted. Shit like Pink Flamigos to whatever just came out that week.
-
Except the one time my brother locked me in a room and forced me to watch Aliens, can't really blame him for that. <P> By high school I dictated what movies we saw as a family.
-
If not only as far as being the most culturally impactful film of this decade. Putting it at 70? That's just fucking ridiculous. Im not debating here so much as Im stating a fact that there were not 70 better films made in the last decade. I guess it's Beaks' personal taste but I think there are certain objective artistic truths that any fan of cinema worth his salt need to follow to keep credibility.
-
movies are subjective.
-
Amplifying my previous comment a bit (in an attempt to keep the conversation going), I'd probably let my kids watch films like JP, T1 (and 2), Alien, Demolition Man, and (definitely) Neverending Story. The first few would have to wait a while until I sure they could handle the violence/gore/ideas inherent in those films, but Neverending Story could be an easy early film. He-Man and Batman though...those are films that mean a lot to use because we A) grew up watching the He-Man cartoon, and B) have seen the evolution of comic book movies being a joke in the '80s to being considered serious cinema today (thanks to Singer's X-Men and Nolan's Batman). In another decade (the earliest any of us could have children who would be interested in seeing thirty year old movies), the idiom of films like that will be VERY old by then. I'm not sure those two films speak in a language that would be appreciated by children (or any audience) in the future. That criticism also holds for some of the other films in that list, like JP. The CGI in JP is already looking very old and dodgy to us. Imagine how it will look to our children having grown up on a steady diet of Avatar or District 9 level CGI? Many of the big effects films of the past may simply not have much to say to future generations once the novelty and ingenuity of their effects has worn off.
-
Dec. 5, 2009, 2:10 a.m. CST
How was Brokeback the most culturally impactful film of the deca
by Series7
More so then crap like Twilight?