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Mr. Beaks Presents His Top 100 Films Of The Decade! Part Three Of Four Penetrating Installments!
It continues. Sorry for the delay. Part One is here. Part Two is here. Part Three is comin' at ya!
50. BEFORE SUNSET (2004, d. Richard Linklater, w. Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy)
Richard Linklater revisits the final film of his "I Can Do No Wrong" period, and sinks a whole generation into an early midlife funk. From my AICN interview with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy (since my review is MIA): "Picking up where they teasingly left off nearly a decade ago at the end of BEFORE SUNRISE, Celine (Julie Delpy) and Jesse (Ethan Hawke) go flirting once again in Richard Linklater’s intensely romantic BEFORE SUNSET. Shot in real time and, ergo, bereft of the amiable digressions of the previous installment, this film is less about the promise of youth than avoiding the tragedy of an unhappy adulthood - which is where, as the script slowly, expertly, yet quite organically peels back each layer of detail, both characters find themselves stranded. It’s not that life has been particularly cruel to either – Jesse has a popular novel, while Celine seems purposely committed to her public health advocacy – but, emotionally, they are horribly unsatisfied. Worse, in meeting again, they seem to realize that, by not fulfilling their pledge to meet six months later after their first encounter, they’ve deprived one another of a soul mate that might’ve alleviated their current unsettledness." Delpy cooing "Baby, you are going to miss that plane" while vamping to Nina Simone in her living room is exactly what we want to hear at the end - even though succumbing to their carnal wants is unquestionably the least healthy thing for either character at that moment in their life. Can't wait to see how much they hate each other in AFTER DAWN.
49. RED LIGHTS (2004, d. Cedric Kahn, w. Kahn and Laurence Ferreira-Barbosa)
From my 2004 AICN Review: "Alternately hilarious and horrifying, Cedric Kahn’s RED LIGHTS is a strange marriage of domestic drama and film noir aesthetic that plays like the humanistic, first-person crime yarn Jim Thompson never wrote. Based on a novel by the massively prolific Georges Simenon (creator of the Inspector Maigret series), it’s a visually mischievous portrait of Antoine (Jean-Pierre Darroussin), a cowardly, self-absorbed lout who drinks himself into complete oblivion while driving through the rural outskirts of Paris with his increasingly disapproving wife, Helene (Carole Bouquet), to pick up their children from summer camp. Along the way, Antoine makes multiple stops to maintain his buzz, finally barreling into a mean drunkenness that sends the disgusted Helene off sulking for safer transport. Freed from the marital yoke, Antoine begins knocking back the booze with suicidal gusto, and he soon finds himself in the precarious company of an escaped murderer from a nearby prison. Kahn is clearly having fun tweaking noir conventions, but the film’s greatest strength is in the way its narrative is directly tethered to Antoine’s desperate nocturnal peregrination. It gets so into its protagonist’s booze-addled head that it becomes something bracingly new: a stream-of-consciousness thriller. This boldness sets the stage for a giddily unpredictable third act highlighted by a ridiculously protracted series of telephone calls forestalling an expectedly dire reveal. In Kahn’s hands, however, these expectations are cannily dashed."
48. SPIDER-MAN 2 (2004, d. Sam Raimi, w. Alvin Sargent)
Everything you could possibly want out of a superhero movie. Though I (still) seem to like Raimi's first installment better than most, there's no denying he improved on the first film by selecting the right villain (Doc Ock), perfecting the look of the CG Spidey (with John Dykstra and the Sony Imageworks team), and seeking input from a top-notch writer like Michael Chabon before handing off the screenwriting reins the old pro, Alvin Sargent. There's a narrative and thematic clarity to SPIDER-MAN 2 that is lacking in pretty much every superhero movie before or since; it avoids villain overkill and doesn't try to jam in too many well-known story elements to please the fans. It's just a swiftly-paced night out at the movies that satisfies on repeat viewings. And if Mary Jane's "Go get 'em, Tiger" didn't have you walking out of the theater on air, you weren't a Spider-Man fan to begin with.
47. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009, w. & d. Quentin Tarantino)
Quentin Tarantino makes a brilliant travesty of history. "Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France," a conceited German officer hubristically allowed a young Jewish woman to elude his grasp, thus setting in motion the sudden and quite bloody downfall of the Third Reich. Total wish fulfillment dominated by Christoph Waltz's ferociously analytical Col. Hans Landa. Interestingly, this is the third Tarantino film in a row that opts for an emotionally uplifting/conventional ending, but it doesn't feel like he's getting lazy or safe in his storytelling. If anything, he's even more determined to frustrate audience expectations altogether - which, in the case of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, means he didn't make a "men-on-a-mission" movie despite swearing up and down for the better part of a decade that he was making a "men-on-a-mission" movie. Fine by me. We've enough of those, and too few "Cinema Saves the World" fables. As with several of the 2009 films on this list, I've a feeling INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS might chart higher in a year or two.
46. MEMORIES OF MURDER (2003, d. Bong Joon-ho, w. Bong Joon-ho, Kim Kwang-rim and Shim Sung Bo)
The police procedural is the modern-day equivalent of the western. Everyone knows the the lingo, the conventions, and the way through to the conclusion - which, depending on your preference, will likely end with the forensics-aided nabbing of a fiendishly clever murderer or the always-invigorating sight of Sam Waterston talking. The recent popularity in these kinds of nuts-and-bolts narratives can probably be traced back to Jonathan Demme's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, which explains the preoccupation with serial killers. But this is the wrong model. As anyone who's ever become obsessed with true-crime accounts of serial killers will tell you, the most captivating procedurals - the ones you want to return to again and again - are those in which the monster is never caught. In David Fincher's ZODIAC, the hunt for a media-savvy psychopath turns into a commentary on obsession - which is wearyingly driven home by the narrative stalling out and restarting late in the film as Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist Robert Graysmith picks up where Mark Ruffalo's Inspector Dave Toschi self-destructed. In Bong Joon-ho's superior, MEMORIES OF MURDER, the investigation of a string of brutal murders (targeting women) is set against South Korea's uneasy transition from military rule to full-fledged democracy, and is compounded by all manner of institutional incompetence. As with THE HOST, Bong's ability to tweak convention as he veers from horror to drama to borderline-broad comedy is breathtaking; this is like no other serial killer film you've ever seen (because we've never seen a filmmaker with Bong's peculiar skill set). Song Kang-ho's lead performance as the overmatched local cop who fucks up the investigation may be his best ever (though his Mifune-inspired freak-out in the inexplicably buried THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD provides stiff competition). The rich character detail, the unpredictability of the narrative (based on a true story), and the lack of precious period recreation (no matter how technically dazzling) combine to elevate MEMORIES OF MURDER above Fincher's impressive ZODIAC as the procedural of the decade.
45. BLACK HAWK DOWN (2002, d. Ridley Scott, w. Ken Nolan)
"They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the man next to you, and that's it. That's all it is." The greatest pure combat film ever made - and now that it's been made, let's please stop trying to emulate it. Short of being thrust into the middle of an actual war zone (and unless you're trying to make the most chaotic film of all time), there's just no point. Ridley Scott and screenwriter Ken Nolan do right by Mark Bowden's classic account of the clusterfuck in Mogadishu that claimed the lives of nineteen American soldiers and 1,000 Somali militiamen. Viewers looking for reasons to get incensed took issue with Scott's "dehumanizing" portrait of the Somalis, claiming it was "glumly staged racism". Had the film been an all-encompassing look at the UN's Somalian misadventure, they would've had a point. Since it was only about the extraction of trapped U.S. soldiers, this charge is like complaining about the lack of drug use in DO THE RIGHT THING. BLACK HAWK DOWN leaves you shellshocked, but appreciative of the men and women who put their ass on the line in our name - and more than a little incensed that their bravery is so frequently squandered.
44. AUDITION (1999/2001, d. Takashi Miike, w. Daisuke Tengan)
I considered excluding AUDITION from this list (as a '99 release), but it's been placing highly in other decade round-ups, so here it is. From my 2001 AICN review: "After a tragic prologue, involving the death of a spouse and a father’s inability to inform his son of his mother’s passing, director Takashi Miike treats us to a long shot of the newly motherless pair walking aimlessly down a boulevard, staggering toward a sad, uncertain future. The solemn quietude of this moment is subtly broken by the red-hued credits slicing lengthwise with a surgical precision in the top righthand corner of the screen. Suddenly, there’s a foreboding to go along with the empty sense of loss, a tonal balancing act which Miike will be performing throughout most of AUDITION. And then he will level the audience with one of the most shocking third acts in recent memory." Kiri, kiri, kiri...
43. JACKASS: THE MOVIE (d. Jeff Tremaine, w. Children)
I've never laughed so hard in a movie theater. That's got to count for something, right? From my 2002 AICN review: "In an interview given nearly a decade ago, Jean-Luc Godard opined that “television manufactures a few memories, but cinema - as it should have been - creates memory, i.e. the possibility of memory”. Though he was probably dodging a question with tenuous relevance to the subject of the boob tube, Godard might very well have been discussing the difference between “Jackass”, the MTV trouble child, and JACKASS: THE MOVIE. For while the former has implanted its share of indelible images, the latter, in all its transgressive, nauseating, gleefully imbecilic glory, has created memory like a motherfucker. It is like idiocy written in lightning."
42. THE INCREDIBLES (2004, w & d. Brad Bird)
Brad Bird's pissed-off paean to excellence. Sure, THE INCREDIBLES is a terrifically entertaining family film powered by a structurally-immaculate narrative decked out with top-of-the-line computer animation. So what? The true achievement of Bird's film is the way it contentiously asserts that litigiousness and political correctness are threatening our safety without devolving into a wild-eyed conservative screed (as if a distaste for either is exclusive to the nutzoid camp).
This was the first all-ages film to directly confront our post-9/11 world, and it doesn't sugarcoat a fucking thing; Elastigirl's stern-faced warning to her children, Violet and Dash, that the bad guys "will kill you if they get the chance" is a bold raising of the stakes that elicited gasps from critics the first time I saw the film. This, Bird believes, is the way it must be. And the only way we'll survive is by aspiring to be better than we are at all times - even if this means leaving other folks in the dust. "If everyone is special, then no one is" may not be as kind-hearted as "You don't have to be a gun", but it's an immensely valuable lesson in its own right - and quite unexpected in this "Everyone gets a medal!" age.
41. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: DIRECTOR'S CUT (d. Ridley Scott, w. William Monahan
If you're judging this film on the theatrical cut, you haven't seen KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. From my 2006 Collider review: "'Triumph' is one way to describe Ridley Scott’s restored cut of Kingdom of Heaven; 'masterpiece' is another. 'Essential', however, nails it best, since the film espouses the importance of conducting oneself in an honorable, practical and compassionate manner that could accurately be described as 'Christian' or 'Muslim', while depicting the misery and destruction that dependably washes up in the wake of fanaticism. [Screenwriter] William Monahan refers to the picture as “good-hearted”, which it is, but this was obscured early in the production by a wildly inaccurate New York Times article that claimed the screenplay depicted Muslims as backwards, bloodthirsty and, generally, evil. Later, upon the film’s theatrical release, a columnist in the Reverend Sun Myung Moon-owned The Washington Times alleged that Kingdom of Heaven was anti-Christian.
Anyone capable of such arriving at such assessments is a fool, and that is why KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is so terribly essential. It is, as Scott says, attempting to heal the wound that tore open when rival Christian and Muslim factions spoiled for war to decide sole ideological possession of Jerusalem – a folly of supreme arrogance that has been the source of so much hatred and bloodshed. Obviously, no one film is ever going to cauterize this wound, but the attempt – which takes historical liberties while remaining true to the spirit of the conflict – could still be shown in schools and churches, and at least inspire a little dialogue, which might eventually lead the way to some kind of rapprochement. Movies of this nature, particularly those developed within the studio system, are in woefully short supply, so when something like as powerful and even-handed as KINGDOM OF HEAVEN comes along, you want to share it with everyone."
40. GHOST WORLD (d. Terry Zwigoff, w. Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes)
A portrait of the misanthrope as a young woman. And maybe that's not fair: plucked from the fertile imagination of comic book artist Daniel Clowes, Thora Birch's Enid has a shot at growing up to become a reasonably tolerable eccentric who views ninety-eight-percent of the world with utter contempt - provided you're in the two-percent camp. And that's one thing I love about Terry Zwigoff's adaptation of Clowes's GHOST WORLD: we all want to think we wouldn't be a total lamer in Enid's withering gaze.
This was Zwigoff's debut as a fiction filmmaker (after dazzling - in the most depressing sense - with the classic documentary CRUMB), and it is a painfully perceptive look into the previously-thought-impenetrable world of above-it-all teenage girls. Enid and her pal Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) judge everything and everyone from afar - largely because (as we can only surmise) they were treated harshly throughout their middle-school years. Now that they're free of the confining, conforming grasp of high school (well, almost; Enid's got a summer art appreciation class to complete), it's time to become free-thinking adults! Except, they're stuck in the same town that bred their misanthropy, so... now, what? The film's final scene is apparently open-ended enough to encourage some critics to view it as faintly upbeat. I see it as Enid escaping into delusion (and a lifetime of profound unhappiness), but what do I know?
39. GOODBYE DRAGON INN (2004, w. & d. Tsai Ming-liang)
From my 2004 AICN review: "Further cementing his status as one of the world’s elite working filmmakers, Tsai Ming-liang’s GOODBYE, DRAGON INN, his follow-up to the brilliant WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?, feels like an in-between picture, but stands on its own as a masterfully controlled requiem for the moviegoing experience (particularly endangered in the director’s bootleg ridden homeland). Decidedly less resonant than his previous picture (owing largely to its subject matter and limited emotional scope), Ming-liang still manages numerous heartbreaking observations on loneliness and growing old (or obsolete), but the general tenor of the piece is surprisingly buoyant. With droll comedic beats suggesting a crossbreeding of Chaplin and Tati, there’s little doubt that this is Ming-liang’s funniest and most entertaining work.
Ming-liang is in such command of his craft that, if this really is the warm up for his next full-blooded effort, it’s scarily impossible to imagine how he’ll top himself. With THE RIVER, THE HOLE, WHAT TIME IS IT THERE? and GOODBYE, DRAGON INN, he’s slowly and quietly compiling an artistic winning streak that is currently unrivaled. Not since Coppola split up his GODFATHER saga with THE CONVERSATION has a supposedly minor work been so worthy of major consideration. It’s time for the critical community to stop denying Ming-liang his due just because he’s anathema to most major American foreign distributors, and doesn’t have an ingratiatingly aggressive publicist."
38. CITY OF GOD (d. Frenando Meirelles and Katia Lund, w. Braulio Mantovani)
From my 2003 AICN review: "A visually resplendent piece of pulp filmmaking that is an absolute must-see for anyone who cares about cinema. Spanning three destitute decades in the favela of the title – Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious slum – Fernando Meirelles’s audacious collision of formalist narrative technique and neo-realist aesthetic (making use of primarily non-professional actors) manages the impressive feat of entertainingly depicting a seductive criminal lifestyle without glamorizing it in the least. Nominated as Brazil’s candidate for Best Foreign Film of 2002, the only worry is that CITY OF GOD might be *too* good to win an Oscar. [Beaks note: It was.]
Ultimately, CITY OF GOD is unforgettable precisely because it never allows its high style – split-screens, bullet-cam and all – to overshadow its very real characters, so that we find ourselves despairing and wondering what it will take for one of these kids to make it out of this seedy, sweltering hell. Meirelles and company never once claim to have any substantive answers; they just give us the odds. In one brilliantly executed final shot, Rocket, having witnessed a daylong series of violence, mayhem and atrocities, walks out of the ghetto with a roll full of film that will bring him acclaim and success as a photojournalist, while a group of adolescents pass by, walking cheerfully back into the decrepit urban jungle. Ten to one. Luck."
37. PAN'S LABYRINTH (2006, w. & d. Guillermo del Toro)
Guillermo del Toro crafts a timeless fairy tale out of the misery and violence of the Spanish Civil War. Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum astutely compared the film to Charles Laughton's NIGHT OF THE HUNTER for its evocation of childlike fear; it also plays - aesthetically, at least - like a grand guignol take on Jean Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Anyone familiar with del Toro's previous work will spend most of the film waiting for the tragic ending - which arrives, but not in the way you might expect. There's so much to savor here: the uninhibited storytelling, the lovingly grotesque character design, and the vile Captain Vadim, the sadistic, gash-sewing stepfather of our protagonist, Ofelia. And the wait continues for AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS...
36. UP (2009, d. Pete Docter, w. Docter and Bob Peterson)
Looking more and more miraculous by the day, Pete Docter's UP teams a despondent geriatric with an overweight Wilderness Scout (who's on the verge of crushing unhappiness as he bumbles his way toward young adulthood) and creates a life-affirming experience like none other. How do they do it? Talking dogs. Best goddamn storytellers on the planet.
35. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007, w. & d. Andrew Dominik)
From my Best of 2007 list for CHUD: "Who the hell is Andrew Dominik to think he can follow up the modest, independently produced CHOPPER with a 160-minute western epic? A genius, I guess. Two viewings later, I still can't quantify Dominik's film other than to say that it seems like the work of a artist in complete command of his craft ala Paul Thomas Anderson and BOOGIE NIGHTS - and this is an apt comparison because I'm still not convinced that Anderson's sophomore effort is a masterpiece. That said, it is pure cinema, which is absolutely true of Dominik's film. Roger Deakins cinematography is revelatory, while the Nick Cave & Warren Ellis score is easily the year's best (i.e. it hasn't a chance with the Academy). And then there's the performances. Well, the performance: Casey Affleck. Adjectives fail."
34. KILL BILL (2003/4, w. & d. Quentin Tarantino)
From my 2004 AICN review of VOL. 2: "KILL BILL, VOL. 1 was 111 minutes of frenetically-paced mayhem aimed straight at the pleasure center, and it seemed unlikely that there would be enough time in the concluding chapter to provide the emotional ballast necessary to justify such painstakingly epic effort. For someone who feels that JACKIE BROWN remains the director’s most accomplished work, this was a profound disappointment.
VOL. 2 is all heart; a triumphant march to the Bride’s exacting of “bloody satisfaction” that - because we know she has something to live for after her work is done (i.e. her daughter) - becomes a gallant hymn of liberation. Whereas VOL. 1 is consumed with bottomless, inarticulate fury, VOL. 2 is all stirringly righteous purpose, and it’s got a big ol’ sentimental streak that’s anything but "grindhouse".
VOL. 1 is the shot. VOL. 2 is the chaser. This is a film that will leave you staggering drunk on cinema. Is it a masterpiece? Eh, who the fuck cares. Masterpieces are for pussies."
33. DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY (2005, d. Michel Gondry)
From my 2006 Collider review: “It’s a celebration, bitches." That’s the greeting Dave Chappelle receives upon hitting the rented-out community center serving as the backstage/VIP area for his whimsically assembled block party in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and while he good-naturedly returns the greeting (referring to his infamous portrayal of Rick James on his now-defunct Chappelle’s Show), it’s possible to make out the trace elements of weariness at having given birth to a pop comedic behemoth, the kind that needs to keep being fed with increased frequency until you inevitably get charged with falling the fuck off, at which point the next comedy icon steals away the zeitgeist for his or her year of cross-cultural ubiquity.
... [You] leave the film in a completely euphoric state, feeling not regret for Chappelle’s disappearing act, but hope that this mélange of good music and good times soothes his soul, too. Some artists make their friends and family miserable by selfishly demanding success on their own terms. The best thing about DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY is that it accurately depicts him as a guy sauntering through life in search of spiritual contentment and, if possible, a little social justice. And he’s smart enough to know that, if he can’t live with himself, he won’t come close to finding either.
32. BRICK (2005, w. & d. Rian Johnson)
From my 2006 Collider review: "'Film noir goes to high school' may not be the most auspicious pitch for a movie (conjuring up memories of other grown-up tales recalibrated as post-puberty showcases for teen sex symbols ala CRUEL INTENTIONS), but, somehow, first-time director Rian Johnson combines an affinity for the genre, a solid ear for stylized dialogue, and a born filmmaker’s eye to craft the most deeply affecting exercise in neo-noir since the Coen Brothers’ THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE.
The primary reason Brick is exhilarating from start to finish is that it's original in its application of film noir conventions. True, there may be an element of pandering to Johnson’s selection of genre (cinephiles are suckers for film noir and westerns), but this sucker connects with the rib-cracking force of a flush gut shot. And the high school setting turns out to be his masterstroke: when Philip Marlowe reached the end of a case, he was merely confirming everything he loathed about humanity; the answers Brendan receives in BRICK’s football field denouement come as a shock. Life is shit? Yep. That’ll learn him. That Brendan keeps this disheartening epiphany to himself suggests that he’ll keep fighting regardless. Chandler would be proud."
31. FANTASTIC MR. FOX (2009, d. Wes Anderson, w. Anderson and Noah Baumbach)
Wes Anderson retreats to the world of stop-motion animation and emerges with his best film since RUSHMORE. Yes, it's generally the same-old, same-old about aloof fathers and emotionally maladjusted sons, but it's also far more energetic than THE LIFE AQUATIC and THE DARJEELING LIMITED. Anderson has clearly been reinvigorated by this filmmaking process - which, it appears, required him to direct the voice actors while phoning in directions and design adjustments to the animators. I didn't work on the film, so unless the animators did an uncredited pass on Anderson's and Noah Baumbach's script, I don't feel particularly burned that those aren't the director's finger imprints all over Fox and Kylie the opossum. I love this movie all out of proportion. And you wrote a bad song, Petey.
30. GERRY (2002, d. Gus Van Sant, w. Van Sant, Casey Affleck and Matt Damon)
From my 2003 DVD Journal review: "An unexpected masterpiece that was greeted with jeers at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival, and as a result was barely released (if only the same could be said of former Park City fave Happy, Texas.) That's quite an achievement for a film headlined by Matt Damon and Casey Affleck, but after ten minutes it quickly becomes clear why the title sat on the shelf for a year. A tale of two young slacker-like beings named Gerry who get lost in the desert, there is no exposition, little dialogue, and only the quest for water constitutes the "narrative." There is a vague undercurrent of resentment that exists between the two men, but it's never explored to any satisfactory extent; instead, Van Sant and cinematographer Harris Savides rely on the juxtaposition of the aimless movement of the two characters with the barren, sedentary landscape to draw the viewer's interest.
Thanks to the resourcefulness of Damon and Affleck, there's a vital human gravity that anchors the film and makes it gripping even when it's just the two of them falling in and out of step in a tightly framed two-shot. By not forcing profundity, it actually sneaks up on Van Sant, and turns the film into an unusually thrilling piece of large scale experimentation by an established, commercially-viable director."
29. BAD SANTA - Pasadena Test Screening Cut (2003, d. Terry Zwigoff, w. John Requa and Glenn Ficarra)
From my 2003 AICN review: "It’s a snow globe scene yanked out of the booze-addled imagination of Charles Bukowski; a department store Santa bent over in a back alley by a dumpster, vomiting up an evening’s excessive liquor intake. Thus begins BAD SANTA, a gleefully offensive Christmas film teeming with contempt for the holiday’s crass commercialization and humanity in general.
Solid though Zwigoff and company are, this is really Billy Bob’s show, and his Willie is a perfect mix of misery and fecklessness. It’s a combination we’ve not yet seen from Thornton. I particularly love the way he’s able to subtly alternate his gaze from simply blank and drunken to blank, drunken and dangerously lascivious. Sometimes, before surrendering (far too freely, of course) to his basest carnal desires, he doesn’t even bother to feign interest, like when he’s being hit on by a cute, perky, Santa-obsessed barmaid (Lauren Graham). Apparently, when it falls right into his lap, he can’t be bothered to switch on what limited charm he has (which consists mostly of suffing a $5 winning scratch-off lottery ticket into a stripper’s g-string)."
When Roger Ebert screened Zwigoff's "Director's Cut" of BAD SANTA for his 2007 Overlooked Film Festival, I sent him an email inquiring as to whether this was the cut that tested in Pasadena. Ebert checked with Zwigoff, and he responded that it was probably the closest to his cut that any test audience got to see (which prompted Ebert to print my review in the program for that year's fest). The big difference between Zwigoff's cut and the theatrical cut is that the broad comedy stuff - e.g. the boxing ring scene - has been elided. Zwigoff's initial assemblage was much rougher. And yet I can't help but feel that the "Director's Cut" currently available on DVD still isn't the version I fell in love with back in January of 2003.
28. KISS KISS, BANG BANG (2005, w. & d. Shane Black)
From my Best of 2005 list for Collider: "It doesn’t seem right to label a guy who made millions as one of the highest paid spec screenwriters in Hollywood history “mistreated”, but for Shane Black, this actually was this case artistically. After an interminably long (by this town’s standards) layoff of eight years, Black returned with a new original script that, shock of shocks, didn’t sell for seven figures. The difference is, this time he directed it. And, oh, what a fucking difference.
I was a Black fan prior to this film, but, man, was it hard to make a case for the guy’s talent when all of his scripts were being turned into soulless studio blockbusters by directors emphasizing style over substance (as was the edict of the 1980’s and early 1990’s). Produced by Joel Silver for a scant $15 million, KISS KISS, BANG BANG is obviously the cheapest Shane Black movie ever made, but it’s also a full-blooded ode to film noir that’s self-conscious in a completely disarming manner that’s always eluded Quentin Tarantino. Though Black, via his storytelling surrogate Harry Lockhart (a reinvigorated Robert Downey, Jr.), is constantly addressing the audience, he’s doing it out of a mad desire to entertain. Thankfully, he’s an immensely witty fellow, and, unlike Harry, an ace at narrative. Black’s so good, you forgive him when he cheats by planting a body in a hotel shower practically out of thin air. That’s not the only bit of iffy internal logic, but Chandler drew the same criticisms, and, somehow, he’s endured. Black isn’t on Chandler’s level yet, but now that he’s in full command of his voice as a director – and, by the way, this guy is a born filmmaker – it seems blasphemously possible that Philip Marlowe’s creator may at last have a spiritual successor in L.A. noir."
For the usual reasons (i.e. Hollywood sucks), Black has yet to follow this up.
27. EVERYONE ELSE (2009, w. & d. Maren Ade)
From my 2009 AICN review : Lifetimes are wasted lamenting "What went wrong?" when the cruel, undeniable truth is "You'll never know." And so German writer-director Maren Ade has performed something of a service with her superb second film, EVERYONE ELSE, by presenting in minute, unsparing detail the moments that knock a romance off its axis: this is what it looks like from an objective distance."
Neither a romantic comedy nor a straight-up drama, EVERYONE ELSE plays like the answer to decades of inauthentic examinations of this thing called love. Several critics have compared Ade's film to L'AVVENTURA and VOYAGE TO ITALY (mostly for its fearless flirtations with tedium), but, at least in terms of career restlessness and emotional uncertainty, it actually has more in common with Albert Brooks's MODERN ROMANCE. EVERYONE ELSE meets its characters at a very strange time in their lives. It starts with the first sign of tumult and ends with the kind of nonsensical surrender that allows most relationships to endure beyond that peril-fraught first vacation together. This is the way we connect. This is, stupidly enough, how we survive."
26. WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE: A REQUIEM IN FOUR ACTS (2006, Spike Lee)
From my 2006 review for The DVD Journal: "... [T]he most important American documentary of this horrendously fractious decade - the political jeremiads of Michael Moore and his editorializing ilk, right or left, be forever damned. Beginning with the early warnings of Hurricane Katrina as a Category 5 storm — the highest classification possible — while at sea and concluding with an uncertain look forward to the future of the proud city it helped devastate, When the Levees Broke is a phenomenally comprehensive portrait of an event that most Americans are still struggling to understand.
Lee's overall achievement is one of a societal mosaic that particularizes an incomprehensible tragedy while reminding viewers - with an embarrassment of visual and anecdotal evidence - that America is criminally indifferent to the plight of its poorer citizens, and that, in a time of great crisis, it stood idly by as they suffered and died. That it is such a remarkably measured indictment is evidence of Lee's evolving greatness. He is polarizing only because too many of his countrymen don't want to see what's wrong with their country."
Only twenty-five left. I'll get to it soon as I finish bustin' up this here chifforobe.
Faithfully submitted,
Mr. Beaks
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some odd choices
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and some stuff I thought was dreck. Though, I have been enjoying this column. It's a nice mix of politically motivated (both film and national) and personal choices. Lots of new ones to see for me, which is always a joy.
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all 25 here are films that I enjoyed. The other lists have been hit or miss, but these are all good picks, albeit odd ones.
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Beaks, you're nuts. You think Up is a better movie? I still can't believe you didn't put Oldboy near the top.
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Is it odd that I am extremely torn on the placement for Spike Lee's Katrina documentary? I mean, it was masterfully done, yet I am shocked to find it here - that high. I haven't seen any other blogger/critic/analyst/pundit list it yet. That doesn't mean it is wrong though.
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Critics are probably treating WHEN THE LEVEES BROKE as a TV movie, but it's a straight-up film to me. Considered putting THE WIRE and/or GENERATION KILL on here, but that felt like cheating.
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George W. Bush hates them.
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not 2005.
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But Up over The Incredibles? For shaaaame!
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except it kills me to get to the end and not have the kid riding away flipping the bird wearing the "shit happens when you party naked" t-shirt. That image cracks me up just thinking about it and it's so weird to not have it in the movie. Also I think it's missing the part where he fills the advent calendar with aspirin and candy corn. But otherwise it's the best cut of the movie. But let's be honest, every version is a great fucking movie.
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Pan's Labyrinth, Kingdom Of Heaven, The Incredibles and Spider-Man 2. Those are all good movies, but since they are in the top 100 that would have to mean that they rock your world and they aren’t even close to doing that. For me at least
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It's a comedic film that can make most anyone laugh their asses off... Even the people who hate that kind of comedy. A film that draws out a positive response from anyone and everyone certainly deserves to be on a best film list in terms of best comedy.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 2:48 a.m. CST
As a fan of film noir and hard boiled detective fiction
by Continentalop
I say I really did not like Brick. I honestly thought Veronica Mars covered the same idea much better. <p> Brick was just Bugsy Malone played straight. <p> My opinion only, of course.
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You screwed up a movie title. Now I'm pointing it out to make you look stupid. That is all.
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Although I was very happy to see Kingdom of Heaven and Spider Man 2 pop up, that happiness quickly turned to shock and disbelief seeing Brick and Bad Santa higher than City of God? Both are "good movies", but this is City of God here! I already had problems with this list but this takes the cake. We deserve better here at AICN Harry. I think. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Gladiator, Training Day, The Dark Knight, The Departed, and Fellowship of the Ring better be on here somewhere, or this cant be a valid "best of the decade list". And no way is Brick or Bad Santa better than any of those films I just mentioned. But to each his own. Just my opinion. I got a feeling the top 25 is really going get me going. Thanks for read though.
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Ghost World is one of those movies I really love and you hear alot of critical praise for it, but most of my friends I've shown it to were either indifferent or really annoyed by it.
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City of God, while good, wasn't even on my top 20. To derivative of QT and Scorsese's work, especially GoodFellas (episodic gangster story that uses a lot of New Wave tricks, has a protagonist that we follow from child to adult, VO narration,does not follow a traditional narrative structure - the first scene is something that will happen later in the movie; just replace Billy Batts with a chicken).
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whether your putting in these "bullshit" picks (bring it on, jackass etc) for pure shock/edge value, or maybe you've just got some fuckin BROAD cinematic tastes. Major props for Brick and KKBB, 2 absolutes in my personal list that most other lists have overlooked. but jackass? *facepalm*
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But I liked Ghost World. Maybe because I went in there with low expectations.
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This movie is too pro-US propaganda which didnt' really show the other side or made clear why soldiers had to be there. Other than that the leads all sucked ass, Josh Hartnett? Tom Sizemore? Awful. The CGI squibs look too fake , should have opted for actual squibs instead. Also "pure combat" war movies are tired, same bombed out crapholes, same stupid uniforms, same jarhead shitheads, same "war is hell" or rah rah message. The best war movies are those that use it as a backdrop like Apocalypse Now.
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The only ones I really disagree with are Black Hawk Down, and Kingdom Of Heaven. <P> Seriously? Orlando Bloom, the acting vacuum!
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It just feels good. And Jackass is the shit! Bring on Jackass 3D
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good to see it in your list! my only problems with it: ewan mcgregor and orlando bloom. i wish people would stop casting mcgregor as an american, it just doesnt work. i also just hate his face and smile. and bloom should stay away from movies, period. which segways nicely to my next point: kindgom of heaven is utter shite. and i watched the director's cut, btw. shouldve been called: eva green's character is looking from afar. and the scene where bloom is hanging out with her in his garden with his shirt off? wtf?
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Not a movie that would leap to mind for such a list, but... yeah. I remember my reaction, my bud's, and the entire audience we saw it with: doubled over with laughter for the most part. And the Jackass crew looked like they had just as much(if not more)fun making it.<P>"Ghost World" certainly belongs among the Top 100, IMO. One thing about it baffles me, and that's Thora Birch. You'd think after following "American Beauty" with GW, she could've had her pick of roles among actresses that age. Instead, she's been well under the radar ever since. Go figure.
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Ewan Mcgregor is an amazing actor, but I agree about always casting him as an american, that shows the stupidity of the studios more than anything else, they think if he doesnt sound american he cant connect with an audience. <P> However, he is great in Big Fish!
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Especially since Jackass 2 increased the mania ten-fold. At least, that's how I put it on my best 100 list.
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because this is the personal opinion of one person, we would all have a different list, I couldnt even do one for the past decade because I'm not sure their were enough amazing films out to fill a top 100. <P> I did my top 100 of all time the other day, didnt put The Dark Knight on it.
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ewan mcgregor is great, indeed! but i disagree on big fish... coincidently, i watched it on sunday for the first time and didnt enjoy it at all. and it really wasnt ewan mcgregor's finest performance. just thinking of the scene where his future wife's fiance beats him and he smiles before passing out gives me the shivers. but that's just my opinion...
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Such a good film, glad to see it on your list. I didn't care for the theatrical cut at all but the DC is one of my favorite blu-rays. It's one of the best epics of the decade and easily in my top 5 Ridley Scott films ever.
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This list is pretty decent. Though I still happen to think Inglorious Basterds was the most offensive piece of shit since Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will"
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Yeah you are entitled to your opinion, I like Big Fish, its a nice fun film in many ways. <P> Have you seen a film called Stay? Mcgregor is great in that, weird as fuck film though, complete headtrip!
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nope, havent seen Stay. just checked it out on imdb, looks good! bob hoskins, naomi watts, ryan gosling? wow, think i'll have to go check it out. my favourite ewan mcgregor film is Moulin Rouge! i was blown away when i watched that in the theatre. i'm sure that's an unpopular choice, though...
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Beware of Stay. I hated it, but am going to view it a second time just in case it's one of those films (which I think it may be). Just go in with LOW expectations.
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I really love Stay, but I can totally understand why you might have hated it. <P> Ewan Mcgregor gets a lot of critisism, most of it undeserved, but if he starts using his own accent in films all he will get is villain roles. <P> And I'm still undecided about his performance as Obi Wan. Revenge Of The Sith better be on Beaks list!!!!
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But you lost all those points and more for including Jackass, Gerry, and Dave Chappelle's Block Party. I love Dave Chappelle, and his TV show was amazing, but that film was pretty boring comes nowhere near the top 100, let alone the top 50, of the decade.
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thanks for the advice! going in on low or high expectations definitely skews one's latter judgement. i must admit that i enjoyed twilight... but that must've been because i watched it expecting one of the worst films ever - which it's second installment actually is. new moon was laughably bad.
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I agree, I prefered Twilight to New Moon, because I too went in with the lowest expectations
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So had Closer and The Man Who Wasn't There! Also: The Fall! This is not personal taste, it's FACTS! <p> OK, otherwise solid list, though I still prefer part 2. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang did nothign at all for me. But thanks for putting in the effort, Beaks. I do enjoyed reading this and look forward to your top 25.
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Colin Farrell Vs a midget!
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I can think of at least 50 movies better than the ones listed so far.
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In Bruges had better be on the list! That film was so beautiful in the most hilarious and saddest of ways.
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CF: "When I waved to you yesterday, why didn't you wave back?"<P>Midget: "I wasn't waving to anyone yesterday; I was on horse tranquilizer". Gotta love it.
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Down to different tastes but I couldn't stand it and will never ever watch it again. I feel sick at the thought that I may accidentally stumble upon it on TV while channel hopping.<p>City of God on the otherhand is possibly the best film I've seen this decade. You're bang on about the Oscar part, it was too good.
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Beaks, I'm guessing the LOTR trilogy will get all three into 1 slot?
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Wondering how many of them are in the top 25. TDK aside, Memento and The Prestige are two of my favorite films of the decade.
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Batman Begins, The Prestige and Memento deserve to be on this list. <P> TDK does not!
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I think City of God is top 50 this decade, but NOT top 10. If I don't see Memento, TDK or Eternal Sunshine on the next post, I will get pissed.
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What because I dont worship the hallowed ground of The Dark Knight? <P> Fuck you. <P> I dont hate that movie, never said I did, but it doesnt neccessarily deserve to be on this list, it isnt even the best Batman film!
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Dec. 8, 2009, 6:05 a.m. CST
There's no reason to be pissed, did Beaks change your list?
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
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That there are probably only 20 movies at most released in a single decade that are truly outstanding and then there's a bunch that are perfectly good and entertaining but no huge stroke of genius.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 6:20 a.m. CST
Glad to see Memories of Murder/Ghost World on the list
by NotoriousBettyRage
I ended up seeing MoM after seeing The Host and thought it was so freaking good. I still pop in Ghost World time to time and it's one of my all time favorite movies and makes me more than a little sad that Thora Birch isn't in more films. I was also kind of hoping to see 28 Days Later make the list (probably would have picked that over Drag Me to Hell).
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Good to know that not everybody who saw the film (not many), totally hated it. It's strange, hypnotic, funny as fuck, and goddamned tragic all at the same time. Yep, I love it alright.
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However, I think Ghost World is one of the most boring and over rated films ever. Deviod of excitement or stimulation in any way. A bit like that other lame-ass film that everyone loves Donnie Darko. I will NOT be happy if thats on here, Beaks lol <p>Nice to see Up on there. I just love that film. I sharn't comment on Jackass. I expected nothing less from you having Superbad earlier ;)
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To me that has been the biggest let down let down of the decade.I'm 29 i was born in 1980.growing up in the 90's tarantino changed the face of cinema.I loved his body of work from kill bill to true romance."i know he didn't direct that." i consider him one my favorite directors.so like alot of people i was excited when i heard ib was being made but as i checked in here for updates and saw some the casting choices for the bastards i started to worry.when i saw the trailer i wasn't impressed.but still having to see it for myself.i was so bored i wanted to walk out!i stayed to see if this mess could redeem itself but i was wrong.i left the theater feeling angry that i wasted my time and also the feeling was cemented that qt has lost his touch.i saw it coming with death proof but this conformed it.I guess the sickboy theory on life is true "You Have It Then You Lose It."The worst part of this being a moderate success is he'll keep beleiving his own hype.FFS his ego is big enough
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Sorry for the defensive, ok, no more arguing. Differing points of view. <P> And many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
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Haven't seen this movie, like most everyone else, but with a critic phrase like that, I already hate it. Only a movie critic could be enchanted by a director being flat-out boring, er, flirting fearlessly with tedium. A would-be artsy director thumbing their nose at an audience (like Hanake, for example) is JUST AS BORING as the mindless mayhem of shit like Transformers 2.
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Spider-Man 2, and yes, Jackass.
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Would be suprised if anything tops it for Beaks or Harry
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What the hell? That film simply sucked.
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Just Kidding
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I would say yes, but only if Return Of The King is removed from the equation. <P> Just make The Two Towers and Fellowship joint number one and everyone can be happy.
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I thought Pan's would have made it to Beaks top 25. <p> Jackass memorable enough to make it to a top 50 of the decade, fun yes, but top 50 movies for the last 10 years, hmm. <p>
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Or I would hope in the next 25 at the very least.
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apart from Beaks did others like it?
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a personal favorite.
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With the exception of Pan's and Incredibles
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But loses points for introducing us to Kate Hudson.
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I had high hopes for M Night.....
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its more like just 100 random movies from the decade. Oh and I can't wait to pounce on the last 25. There will be great films not on this list, guaranteed.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:05 a.m. CST
OHH SIT. YOUR TOP 25 WILL BE THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL TB OF ALL TI
by BringingSexyBack
I have a feeling there are going to be a bunch of omissions that will bewilder and anger the masses.
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I have never seen a more negative reaction to a good film at a theater in my life. Except maybe Limbo, but that was people hating the ending.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:08 a.m. CST
MIYAMOTO - DEFINITELY CHECK OUT KINGDOM OF HEAVEN DC
by BringingSexyBack
Well worth it. That's a Top 25-fer.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:18 a.m. CST
"If you're judging this film on the theatrical cut, you haven't
by white_vader
... KINGDOM OF HEAVEN". <p> So damn true.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:20 a.m. CST
BSB if he names the movie that shall not be named in the top 25
by Miyamoto_Musashi
then it will be the most talked about, just with Asimov's predictable rants. <p> For the record don't think Beaks will include it, we are safe there, Harry's list wouldn't be so sure
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To echo BSB and some of the other guys KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: DIRECTORS CUT is well worth it. If you like historical epics and grandiose battles then it's a winner.<p> One question for you Beaks - you describe Ridley's KOH as 'masterpiece' - meaning you believe it to be the director's best film (above ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER, et al). In which case i'm suprised you didnt rank it higher.
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Never really seen anything quite like BRICK, so it's nice to see it here. However...JACKASS? Was that really a "film"? I thought parts of it were extremely funny, but is it really to be considered a "movie"? I mean, I know it was released in theaters, but...
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TREK aside, I thought Beaks was 'gay for Bay'. Didn't he write one of the most ott gushing reviews of TRANSFORMERS? Maybe he'll back pedal and conveniently forget to include that one in the next 25.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:27 a.m. CST
I THINK IT WOULD BE FUNNY IF HE DID WRITE, IN ACTUALITY,
by BringingSexyBack
"The Movie That Shall Not Be Named" in the list. Right before 500 Days of Summer and G.I. Joe of course. <p> In other news, Tiger Woods' world continues to implode but his Top 100 Mistresses list seems to be filling up daily.
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...make Orlando Bloom's performance less shit?
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You know It is now a question that needs to be asked. <p> They are coming out of the woodwork so fast that by the end of the week we will get news reports such as "Paris Hilton confirms that she has not yet slept with Woods"
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Some I agree with, some not. That's the nature of opinions. <br> <br> <br> And that is the reason I love this time of year, all the lists. If I am able to get one movie I didn't see before opened up to me, then it's all worth it!
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What is the "film that must not be named"? Is that the name of an actual film, or are you guys using it in place of some other title? (If you refuse to say the name of the actual film, just tell me who's in it and what's it about.)
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He has a platform, a job, as a movie reviewer and this shitty list damages his credibility.
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I don't know if the film would still crack my top 100 list as I found a lot of the earliest chapters quite boring, but it greatly improves on the theatrical cut without question.
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...and Spidey-2, and Pan's Labyrinth. Although I'm not sure how "Block Party" trumped most of 'em.<p> "Stomp the Yard" must surely be in the top 25, then.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:44 a.m. CST
Jubal if i said Asimovlives would that make it clear
by Miyamoto_Musashi
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When the last 25 come out. I foresee so many left out that the TB for the final list will surpass the debauchery of any before it. BTW, still waiting for SNATCH.
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I'm not surprised about your movie picks, as any of them could make it into Top 100's, but the order they are in completely baffles me. Jackass ahead of Oldboy??? Bad Santa and Gerry ahead of Pans Labyrinth and City of God????????? All I can say is I can't wait to see your top 10, because you're setting it up for Lord Of The Rings to be trumped by Tropic Thunder.
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Yes. This MUST be in, if not the top spot,then the top five or at the very least, the top ten. If not I'm going to fire a blank right in your fookin eye you lollipop man. <p> And Kudos for putting in Brick. Great movie.
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Abom, yes DAVE CHAPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY one of the best movies of the decade, hahahaha!!<p> Why am I laughing. Should be crying.
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THink about it- top 100 of the last ten years... 33rd best movie of those last 10 years! Beaks, you really have outdone yourself. This almost tops your report on organge juice crops for 1983
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Top 25 here we come!!!!
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I'll admit docu's aren't really my thing, but real life stories can be powerful of course.<p>BLOCK PARTY however just washed over me leaving very little impression whatsoever. Not sure i'd describe KING OF KONG as one of the decades best but even that one imho was considerably more memorable than BLOCK PARTY.<p> Why did you pick that one Beaks? Wait, don't answer that. Wouldn't want you to break the habit of a lifetime and actually 'engage' with us tbers.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:01 a.m. CST
Dave Chapelle is so shocked he has gone into a panic room
by Miyamoto_Musashi
and is laughing his ass off in a somewhat insane manner
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The stomach splitting laughter that Jackass and Jackass 2 have already sold the ticket for Jackass 3D, for me.
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Dave Chapelle proclaims himself 'King Of The World'.<p> First decree is for 8th December to be forever re-named 'Beaks Day'.
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It's his list- his very narrowly-tailored, insane selection of the best 100 movies of the last ten years. OBSERVE & REPORT and BLOCK PARTY exist in this stable of films. Beaks obviously has gone out of his way to pick movies that would never show up on anyone else's list. <p> Yeah, this list is awful, but I don't think anyone is taking it seriously. If so, that needs to stop now.
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One of the best of the decade, without question. Anyone who disagrees is not your friend.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:07 a.m. CST
Jus think about it: JACKASS: THE MOVIE > MASTER & COMMANDER
by YackBacker
Guys, this list is its own form of comedy. Have a donut and relax.
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"The list is an absolute joke. The list is shite." Sir Ben Kingsley
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:15 a.m. CST
YOU DIDN'T PUT WHAT I WOULD HAVE DONE IN THERE?
by ISleptWithKathyBatesAndAllThatIGotWasThisStupidTalkbackName
FUCK YOU! MY OPINION MATTERS MORE THAN YOURS BECAUSE IT'S MY OPINION!
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great to see my work being apprechiated
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:17 a.m. CST
Hopefully its a case of 100 being too many for Beaks
by Miyamoto_Musashi
So he like most of us could work on a top 25 that really means something to us, but after that he was just trying to fill in 75 spaces. <p>
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I can't handle a TB with this short bus full of people.
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Phew.
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City of God is second. Let the Right One In is third. After that, it's a bit of a blur.
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Fuck, even Sir Ben Kingsley thinks it's shit. Let's ask Elijah Wood and Sir Ian McKellen what they think about Beaks choices...<p> "I wish none of this had happened. I wish the list had never come to my computer screen."<p> "So do all who live to see such shite choices, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is how to rank the films that we have seen. Don't be so quick to deal out death in judgement to Beaks. Even the very wise cannot see all ends."<p> "You mean he might pick LORD OF THE RINGS as his number one?"<p> "Perhaps. More likely it will be TRANSFORMERS though. The chump is gay for bay after all..."
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Closely followed by Beaks report on where the WMD's were in Iraq. <p> Ive given up trying to comprehend. Im just glad some of the films I rate have at least been mentioned. I mean, City of God < Gerry and Dave Chappelle? Jebus!
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And say good morning to Yack, Cobra, and the other Changians.<p> I'll be in-and-out today, like yesterday. They're actually trying to make me WORK here at the office. The audacity of dopes.
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I give Beaks props for putting together a list of 100 entries for our discussion. Surely, "Equilibrium" is in his top ten.
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"The Love Bug" will be in the top twenty.
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"AvP" will make the top three.
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Is the epitome of pretentiousness. How could anyone like that crap?
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"Saw V" is in the top ten, along with Zombie's "Halloween."
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Beaks, you're dumber than you look (and yes, I have met you before, you look pretty goddamn dumb).
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Just two totally different films that nail what they are going for.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:39 a.m. CST
I summon thee, Asimovlives! Rise from the pit!
by ISleptWithKathyBatesAndAllThatIGotWasThisStupidTalkbackName
STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK! STAR TREK!<p>To hell with your 'Movie That Shall Not Be Named"! I have ultimate power over all words and now I am the summoner of Asimolives! Rise devil! Delight us with your crude sentence structures and bad grammar!
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Shocked I've never heard of it. I'm totally sold now though. Fast-tracking that shit to the top of my list.
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"Professionals, Assemble!"
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:44 a.m. CST
My Top Ten of the oughties... Let the flaming begin.
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
1. Fellowship of the Ring <p> 2. Zodiac <p> 3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind <p> 4. Apocalypto <p> 5. Sunshine <p> 6. Gone Baby Gone 7. The Assasination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford <p> 8. The New World <p> 9. Master and Commander <p> 10. Happy Feet.
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Are you Beaks in disguise? ;) <p>The rest are all tasty though.... just recently saw Apocalypto. Was blown away by it
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Whoa there
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Oh fuck you Beaks.
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Beaks' comments on it are silly- but we still have Chapelle's BLOCK PARTY to keep us warm!
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is awesome. Nice to see it on the list. Some of the other placements are just silly though.
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Better be number fucking one. That is all.
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Far better than BLACK HAWK DOWN- in terms of acting, writing and overall storytelling. And
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:07 a.m. CST
Ya damn right Col. Tigh-Fighter...Happy Feet
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
Brilliant subversive childrens entertainment.
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Especially ones that sound like Brittany Murphy.
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Seeing Apocalypto, Zodiac and M&C on anyone's top ten list makes me happy. And anyone declaring Children of Men their number one makes me happy.<p>Beaks' list took a turn for the bizarre this time. Some good choices but a lot of WTF ones.<p>Anyone watch the Robot Chicken Star Wars specials? I finally watched part 2 last night and fell out of my chair. That stuff is genius. Showing the dinner with Vader in Cloud City was priceless. And the Emperor in his throne room on the second Death Star with the air conditioner right above his chair? Gawd I was crying.
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nomoredirtyjokes (pssst, over here), don't tell anyone but I liked HAPPY FEET too. Penguins signing 'Somebody To Love'...
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I'll get right on it. I liekd the first one where the Emperor had to talk Vader off a ledge from his office- silly shit but funnier than Jar Jar stepping in "icky poo-doo."
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*singing* we all know Penguins can't sign, that would be preposterous.
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fairly boring as hell on multiple viewings afterward for me and others I've spoken to. We get it Mr. Raimi, Parker is being shit on by the world in general, how many times do you have to state it before moving forward with the story? I swear it seems like 10 to 15 minutes could be cut from this film or scenes could just be skimmed down in one way or another to get to more of a point besides just the world is shitting on him repeatedly. I'll admit Spider-Man 3 was a mess in a way but I have not been bored watching it multiple times like I have the 2nd one. And as far as I'm concerned, that was not really Venom in the movie, it was Venom Jr. and something of a neat play by Raimi although I still want a singular movie with just Spidey dealing with Venom. Oh, and while I enjoyed watching Alfred Molina play Doc Ock as Raimi conceived him in his script, that was total blasphemy to the character. Ock does not need an overarching caricature like a German accent as was seen and heard in the animated series of the '90s, but dammit OCK WAS AN EMBITTERED ANGRY MAN IN THE COMICS not someone's favorite uncle who has had their sanity thrown slightly askew by AI driven metal tentacles. Oh and there was that other thing too OCK ALWAYS HAD CONTROL OVER HIS FUCKING TENTACLES. I don't truly mind morality plays especially in a comic book movie but in hindsight I felt like Spidey 2 was just preachy as hell. Originally, I didn't mind the ending with Ock dying, but then I realized there can be no true Sinister Six movie without him and then I proceeded to shed an imaginary tear. I do agree with Up being on the list, that movie gets better every time I watch it. I thought Watchmen was one of the best films of the decade, for me it got enough of the source material right that I could forgive parts it omitted or skimmed over (except, I wish a little more had been said about Ozymandias' past) and I'm sure that if Alan Moore watched it he probably would not be too happy with the whole Dr. Manhattan seen as a watching vengeful god by the world's populace aspect to the film's ending as was put forth in Laurie and Dan's final conversation in the movie. The Dark Knight was better than the somewhat boring Batman Begins. For the end of the decade, we got 2 great virtuoso performances out of Heath Ledger and Jackie Earle Haley. I was smiling ear to ear during the Rorschach interrogation scene with the prison psychologist. You people who want serious Transformers films don;t know how to have fun. The 2nd film was big stupid politically incorrect fun brilliance that just lovingly wallowed in its own sense of campiness while never once winking to the audience. Go on ahead, call me gay for Bay cuz I can't wait to see Bayformers 3 in 2011 (and yes even Spidey 4, I wish it were about Parker turning into the mutated Man Spider). Sue me or suck my cock, I don't really care about which one you do if you disagree with me. But I welcome the curses for the long post.
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Memento<P> The Dark Knight<p> Cloverfield<P> One (or all 3) Lord of the rings <P>Matrix Revolutions <P>Finding Nemo<P>Shaun of the Dead<P>And my prediction for number 1 (not my personal choice but it will be beaks'): Wall-E
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Wow, the lowest form of entertainment known to man. Belongs nowhere in any ones top movies of ANYTIME. People have been saying Beaks credibility is in question with some of his choices, but for me this is what makes me question that. I guess some people find this stupid bullshit funny, but I can't imagine anyone thinking this is entertainment other than maybe stupid inbred rednecks whose idea of class is dating your cousin instead of your sister. To each his own I guess. But really....fucking Jackass?????<P>I know some people will say "Jackass knows what it is so it's not as bad as Transformers that pretends to be better than it is" I still say bullshit. Jackass is worse than any bad movie because it is total and complete stupidity on every level. I will watch TF2 or T:S ANY FUCKING day, you could not pay me enough to watch this piss poor excuse for entertainment. Fuck this stupid ass bullshit, it's entertainment for fucking idiots. How anyone else can like it is beyond my comprehension.
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Thanks for playing, Jett.
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In case you can access YouTube at work, here are two links for a couple of the shorts. This stuff is priceless.<p>http://tinyurl.com/lrfacm<p>http://tinyurl.com/yb2ggmu
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:31 a.m. CST
Matrix Revolutions is in my top 25 dissapointments
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
boy did that trilogy fizzle out. <p> But then, I love Speed Racer. Speed would definetely be in my top 50 of the decade.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:32 a.m. CST
its disappointing to spell disappointments wrong...
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:33 a.m. CST
Definitely need to spell Definitely right....
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
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Rogueleader, JACKASS is indeed one of the greatest films of the decade accoring to Beaks.<p> He also wanted to include youtube classics such as 'fatkid on rollercoaster', 'jocks hammer nail through scrotum sack', and 'baby makes cute face' but sadly they didn't get a theatrical release so weren't eligible.
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Especially Vader bitching out the rebel for keeping Gary away from his daughter. That was good.
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Totally forget that it came out this decade. The state of comedy this decade has been complete shit. Jackass is funny and still funny to this day. <P> Plus its got Spike Jones in it, and I thought no one was allowed to say bad things about him? <P> Also the opening and closing of Jackass are classic.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:40 a.m. CST
Col. Tigh/Chief Justice Beef Supreme..You Must...
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
Happy Feet is bravura film-making.
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mmmmmm no.
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Glad you liked it Yack.<p>You know, I laughed at Jackass. It was funny in an absurd way. But to be ahead of Master and Commander? Yeah, that makes zero sense.
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My two favorite comedies of the last ten years.
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Well all'a y'all can sign your pitty's on my runny kine!
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Good list, but Happy Feet? LOL!
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I like the whopper you like the Big Mac!
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Watta dime my damy, watta dime. <p> All Hail Dirk_The_Amoeba for finding the true number one.
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Funny true story- a buddy of mine and I went on a double-date with these Japanese girls in NYC a few years ago. He picked them up by literally falling down on the street one day. He speaks Japanese and they came to his aid, fucking guy!<p> Anyway, a few days later the four of us go out. First we go to see POOTIE TANG. Lemme tell ya something, Japanese girls fucking love this stuff. Keep that in your back pocket in case the situation arises. After the movie, we took those two giggle-boxes to a nightclub, got rip-roaring drunk, somehow ended up in Brooklyn and well, kapa chow, baby.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:54 a.m. CST
c4andmore...for sure dude. It will be studied
by NomoredirtyjokespleaseweareYanks
It will be debated. No other Childrens film stunned me like it did. Wall-E came close.
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Marci X
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Dec. 8, 2009, 9:58 a.m. CST
Watta dime my damy, watta dime! Yak got the booty watching Poot
by Dirk_The_Amoeba
That's what ah'm talking 'bout boooy!
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I don't speak Japanese - but all women know that Amoeba is the language of love!
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If jackass can rate that high on his list, Pootie Tang must be number 1!
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Kingdom of Heaven: DC is a superb flick, and yes, Orlando's performance did not bother me that much in it. Yeah, he wasn't perfect for the part, but I was able to get past that and think he does well enough in it.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:03 a.m. CST
Listening to the female anchor on ESPN's SPORTSCENTER right now
by YackBacker
Suddenly the world's absurdity has come crashing upon me, as I listen to Hannah Storm marvel at a one-handed catch in a football highlight. What the fuck have we become?
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It showed just how paranoid the black community is, how powerless they are to change their situation, and how poor people blame everyone but themselves for their miserable predicament. Not only that, but the documentary pushes the idea that the levees were blown up on purpose by the government to kill black people. Yeah, Spike Lee actually believes that! But good little Leftist shitbag that he is, he never once mentions environmental groups and their political power when the levees were first being built, and how they forced the government to not build them the way they wanted, lest they would hurt some bacteria under the dirt. It's one of the facts brushed aside to promote more paranoid lies. Spike Lee made Do The Right Thing, a brilliant film, and then proceeded to become an awful filmmaker with utter shit like 25th Hour and He Got Game.
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Fucking solid. I loved the storytelling of the movie as it went on. And I love Pan's. Simple story yet quite well done.
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There is no freaking way that The pile of crap that is The Fantastic Mr. Fox is better than Up or The Incredibles. I've seen better stop motion in a 1960's Gumby Episode.
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Though to be fair, I would definitely throw one into Hannah. Maybe a three-way with her and that other chick Sage Steele. Perfect stage name. They can provide highlights of our evening together.
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I have no idea what it's really like to be dropped into a fucking insane hot zone, but I think that movie did a pretty good job showing what it could be like.
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Incredibles is much, much better that that one.
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TV is TV, but it just hit me seeing her gush about a catch that in all honesty she couldn't fucking give two shits about. Why the fuck is ESPN on this TV anyway? Gotta tell someone THE PRICE IS RIGHT is probably on, brb!
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Let the Right One In, LOTR trilogy,Memento, Letters from Iwo Jima, Zodiac, No Country for Old Men, There Will be Blood, Spirited Away, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sideways, Children of Men, Borat, Dark Knight, Lost in Translation, The Fog of War, Capturing the Friedmans, Donnie Darko, Amelie, The Departed, Downfall, Hotel Rwanda, Battle Royale, Finding Nemo, Cache, Casino Royale, Eastern Promises, Bourne Identity/Ultimatium, Sunshine, The Prestige,Spring Summer Fall Winter.... Spring, In The Mood For Love, Almost Famous, 25th Hour, Requiem For a Dream, Shaun of The Dead...... <p> He will somehow get that 30+ and a dozen others into 25, am sure it will be magic
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To see what the big deal was, and also because I don't like bashing anything unless I have seen it. I came away from it with my opinion unchanged. What exactly is so funny about it? A bunch of stupid assholes doing stupid shit to themselves and others. Supposedly grown men playing high school pranks on each other and doing shit to themselves that even a retard wouldn't do. I really tried to see the humor in it, but all I saw was complete and utter stupidity.<P>It is a sad statement on society that the movies made any money. The dumbing down of society continues. Ever seen "Idiocracy"? If you haven't then you should, if only to see where this world is headed. When Mike Judge made that movie he was making a comedy, but little did he know how visionary of mankind's future it really was.
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BLACK HAWK DOWN has a great moment on the commentary track where someone describes all the Military hardware rolling into the African backwater for the shoot.<p> Ridley surveys the scene with a cigar clenched in his teeth and murmurs "I think I can take this country."
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Glad to actually see it on this list.
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especially "Election" check out my 30 second video contest entry below (hit the skip intro button in the bottom right): http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/4955
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TO THE EXTREME!!! In fact, sometime in the seventies Funt released a movie What Do You Say To A Naked Lady?, which I guess was as extreme as he could think of at that time. At least Beaks can claim that one of the top films of the decade DID include a toy car inserted in someones rectal cavity...
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:23 a.m. CST
Jackass 2 was way funnier than the first one
by supercowbell5THECOWBELLHASSPOKEN
And how the hell can anyone like spiderman 1 more than 2? Eh, to each his own.
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YOu're right about Apocalypto--it didn't make my top ten, but that's only because it slipped my mind. I dig that one.
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Stomp the Yard will be in the top ten. Whoever made that movie should reboot Gymkata, the new version of which will surely make the top ten best 2010-20
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if only because of Elastigirl. Few animated ladies make me want to touch myself like she did.
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too bad it came out in 1999.
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That's like saying herpes is better than gonorrhea.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:28 a.m. CST
Litigiousness and political correctness are threatening our safe
by PTSDPete
Sure, it did.</p>So,um, why Bush and Cheney et al. AREN'T in jail yet ? Is it because you're so busy riding on their 'politically incorrect' attack on democracy that you've become too 'politically correct' about their fascism ?!?</p></p>And I don't buy that whole ' brave men and women protecting America' bullshit. I mean, why not just advocate military rule and end all civilian supremacy altogether. That way you wouldn't have to deal with inconveniences such as'laws' and forever bask in your PATRIOTISM </p>...
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Just watched it again a few weeks ago, what a great flick, everyone was spot on in that movie. <P>"Were not electing the fucking Pope here, just tell me who won" fucking great stuff
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when the cops shot santa in the back for trying to bring a stuffed doll to the kid. I want to print that on all my christmas cards and send it to friends. second is Mr. beaks' choice of santa puking in an alley
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Pretty damn good list there..did Beaks already include The Lives Of Others...?
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... Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith?
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FUCK YEAH.
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FUCK YEAH.
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But goes right into the toilet as soon as they reach South America.<p>I thought Wall*E was better because at least it gave us a full first half that was good.<p>Abom, I need to watch Apocalypto again because it may just rocket up the charts. Thrilling entertainment.
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And why is Pixar's best UP so low on the list? I bet Where the Wild Things are "The best movie of 2009 (according to AICN)" isn't on the list. Fuck this shit
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Totally surprised to see Jackass and Kingdom of Heaven this far up on your list. Super awesomeness as I dig both Jackass films and both versions of Kingdom of Heaven. I agree the directors cut is better, but I believe the theatrical cut received far too much hate. It might be the best thing that Legolas has done thus far (yes, I know his name is Orlando Bloom) Also glad to see Black Hawk Doen made your list at all! It's an underrated Ridley Scott work for sure. But I wouldn't have expected to see it that high, either. Ghost World - fuck yeah! Brilliant choice.<br><br>Assassination of Jesse James - rulage! I love it more each time I watch it. The epilogue portion (spoiler) after Jesse gets shot always seems a bit clunky and anticlimactic. But the rest of the movie just keeps growing on me... and in a good way. <br><br>Before Sunset, really? I found it VASTLY inferior to Before Sunrise. Just my personal opinion/feeling, though.<br><br> Spiderman 2, up that far, really? I'll admit it's the best of the three, but I don't enjoy any of them enough to put on a personal best of list. They're all kind of boring and, I don't know. I never seem to be able to express it properly. They're just missing something. <br><br>Inglorious Basterds that high on the list? Meh. Just, meh. I'd say you were just giving Tarantino AICN love, but you're also got Kill Bill in there and those films did absolutely nothing for me. As I said in a previous installment, I respect what QT was trying to do, but his aping other genres period really never got me off the same way Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction did. <br><br> I'll get hate for it, and I'll take it, as powerful as City of God clearly is (and I watched it with my friends who immigrated from San Paulo), it just didn't move me as much as it did a lot of other folks. I'm not bashing it in any way, it just didn't like, grab me by the throat and make me do a "holy shitballs". Which it clearly did to a lot of people.<br><br>I haven't seem Fantastic Mr Fox, Everyone Else, Gerry (not sure why I missed that one) and Goodbye Dragon Inn - so I can't really comment there.<br><br> Random thoughts on two completely unrelated films. When The Levees Broke was deeply moving, but wow is it long. Block Party is very entertaining, but just feels way too short.
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Really interested in what might be in the top section. Now I'm gonna go check out what kinda craziness people have spewed all over this talkback already. : )
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The first one, I think.
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Brick is amazing. Assassination of Jesse James is number one for me, no question, I've seen it about seven times now and can't wait for more. I think it is a masterpiece. City of God is fantastic. The DC of Kingdom of Heaven is another masterpiece that I loved. Orlando Bloom is actually watchable in it (barely, but still!)
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I would put Up miles above (hah!) The Incredibles. But I'm sure that at least partly due to my aversion to all things superhero. Personally, I'd also put Wall-E and Ratatouille above The Incredible. Wall-E would be WAAAAAAY higher as I think it would make my top ten.
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think my list of what beaks has yet to include is a bit light on foreign language films. <p> I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and I know there will be disagreements like "Beaks has Memento in at 15, definetely top 5 for me", but there is clearly going to be a lot of very good movies that won't make the 100 at all, when there are a few movies like Jackass and Block Party etc its kind of concerning.
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Think of it as the sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Like THIS IS what became of him. It adds a whole new level to the film.
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Team America: World Police, coming up, as it is one of the funniest, most incisive satires of the past ten years.....starring puppets.
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Not sure if thats a reflection of the quality of movies this year, or need more time to reflect on it, watch repeated viewing of the ones I liked etc.
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Team America should be on the list, maybe not top 25 for me, but in a list of 100 films for the last 10 years, it has a place without a doubt.
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That movie did nothing for me. I didn't feel it reinvented a genre. I felt like it had a good marketing department. Seeing "Gerry" mentioned in the top 100 movies is just sad. Horrible movie. Does not deserve the placement at all. It's both indulgent and boring. It's the "Brown Bunny" as far as I'm concerned. Kill Bill however should have made the top 25. It's a masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. And for the record, if you group trilogies into one movie in the top 25, you're cheating. Oh and I agree, nothing stands toe to toe with The Wire. You could have put it #1 on this list and I would have applauded your choice.
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the Tony Ja baby elephant movie will be in the top five. How could it not be?
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Team America? FUCK YEAH!! Coming your way to save the motherfuckin' day now! Great movie.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:55 a.m. CST
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
by IAmLegolas
Easily in my Top 10 movies of the decade, same with KINGDOM OF HEAVEN : DIRECTOR'S CUT.
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..Block Party, as well as a few of his other choices. Like, seemingly, every Pixar movie of the last decade. To me, means two things. First, he's a real film geek. One who looks at all films with an open heart and mind (cheesy, yes - but we're all moved by different things). And two, that he's not a stuck up pretentious prick. lol I'm sure there are more foreign films that many people would consider "better" than some of his choices. But, put as simply as possible, I'm not foreign (in relation to this site or talkback). So I relate much more to his "American" film choices, I guess.
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I haven't felt so much affinity for a movie and its main character more this decade. Also it makes you want to do something real. I have to say The Queen is also an amazing film that I think is going to get left by the wayside.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:57 a.m. CST
Abom, you got me thinking- top elephant movies of all time
by YackBacker
DUMBO obviously gets on the list. But Bill Murray's LARGER THAN LIFE does loom as legendary cinema. Oh, fuck BABAR, that privileged sell-out cunt. While other elephants are slumming it on the Serengeti, Babar is hunting down a pair of pennyloafers at Nordstroms. Cock.
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if you aren't like Enid or Seymour, then you don't fucking get it. "HAVE SOME MORE KIDS, WHY DON'T YOU????"
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looks like I missed a couple on my list. It's the foreign ones that get me because I went down my vote history at the IMDb to figure out what should be on it and I'm too lazy to click on the foreign titles to see what they are. LOL Here it is if you're interested or bored. http://tinyurl.com/yh38t8w Just assume CITY OF GOD is supposed to be on there somewhere toward the bottom, and maybe AUDITION, maybe not. I've got to fix my all-time 100 too, since doing this made it invalid.</p> <p>In the interest of full disclosure I should let you guys know that I'm the person who hates SPIDER-MAN 2 with the heat of 1000 suns. And I just barely like the first one. These are important things you should know about me. :) I'm going to have to check out RED LIGHTS. I've never heard of that one before. </p>
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I would agree that Tarantino's 90's output far surpasses his 00's work. Put Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, next to Kill Bill, Death Proof and Inglorious Basterds and see which come out on top. Back then he served the material. With KB, DP, and IB Tarantino seemed to say,"Now here's a revenge story, B-movie and war movie, but they're gonna be done MY way, and you're gonna love it, cuz its me!"
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I'm an old geezer! _____ check out my 30 second video contest entry below (hit the skip intro button in the bottom right): http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/4955
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I can't even pretend that the situation Mel got himself into still taints my enjoyment of that film. The same as it does whenever I see him on screen. And it ABSOLUTELY affected the original box office run and critical reviews of it. However, I do actually love that movie. And moreso each time I watch it. The story is not all that original - someone gets taken captive, must escape and return to rescue someone else - but the movie is! I'm not sure I've ever seen another film that looks quite like that. The fact that, as I recall, it was shot digitally (no film) makes it even more amazing.
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Something significant- I can't put my finger on it at the moment. It just felt like a collection of disparate elements, all selected from other movies and slapped together. And unlike PULP FICTION, these elements didn't quite mesh. I still enjoyed the movie, but it's not as good as it should have been.
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First off, we've never seen the Mayan civilization rendered so magnificently on screen before. From the moment the blue dudes are lead down the tunnel to the sacrificial temple, the film is 100% original. Heads rolling down staircases, the "if you can reach the cornfield" dodge game, a leopard chewing off a guy's face, I mean, it's just epic stuff.
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list, dude. It's Mr. Beaks list. Chillax, mang.
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For people of normal mentalities. As far as people on here who are saying they liked it, well, I don't know what to say to that, because I cannot see how anyone with even marginal intelligence could think that Jackass is funny. It is entertainment for idiots, by idiots.
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Fuck off.
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I know for absolutely certain that I am not an idiot and both of those films, as well as large portions of the series, leave me with my side hurting and my eyes watering. It's basically slapstick comedy and stunts rolled into one, but done right in front of your eyes. No pretensions about story or movie gimmick editing.
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For sure, for sure. I have no doubt that he could NEVER have made that film in Hollywood. That's why he made it the way he did.
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Honnestly that along with bugs life is the forgotten pixar film, and while bug's life gebnerally just goes unnoticed, Monsters is usually only rought up so someone can bash it<P>Monsters inc is by far a better film then Wall-E or finding Nemo, lets see it in the top 25
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I like your list. :) And for that matter, I don't understand why anyone would tell anyone what should or shouldn't be on their list. That's silly. Everyone gets to have their own favorites. It's just fun to see who you agree with and sometimes people remind you of something or point out a movie you didn't see. It's all good. And I think you can tell a lot about people from their favorites. In fact, if I was in charge of everything I'd make people exchange favorite movie lists on first dates. That way you'd know who you were dealing with right away.
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Wow, Robert Duvall claimed Apocalypto was the best movie of the past 25 years.<p>I need to watch it again tonight.
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TEAM AMERICA: FUCK YEAH!!!
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If you're really effin' high when you watch it.
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Don't forget Smokey and the Bandit 2<p> Team America: Everyone has AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS!
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Regarding your comment about the story in Apocalypto not being original--I agree, but I LOVE the movie. I went in not knowing what it was about, but by the second act I was like, "Oh my God! This is like 'First Blood' for Mayans!"
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Monsters Inc, meh. It's great, but it's not my favorite Pixar film. Finding Nemo, on the other hand, is! So it will be interesting to see if either of those make Beaks list, and where. <br><br>Almost Famous! Holy crapballs! I COMPLETELY forgot about that film when trying to come up with 100 in the last decade. That film rocks my world. It would be WAY high on my list.
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I would place "The Elephant Man" above "Dumbo" even though it's not technically about a pachyderm. "Elephant Man" made me want to put my head in a noose, but embrace life, all at the same time.
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... a very fine idea! I wish life were that simple. "OK, here's my list, let's compare. ..... Mmmm, nope. Sorry, this just won't do. Lovely meeting you, though."
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wtf???? it aint a real movie
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I liked both Nemo and Monsters. I give Nemo credit for freaking killing Coral, Nemo's mom, and disturbing all the kiddies. So at least it wasn't an emotionally "easy" movie for them.<p> Monsters had a more imaginative story, I thought, plus it had Buscemi and James Fucking Coburn, hosanna on high
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is not in the top 50 means this list loses all credibility for me. That said, I love Bad Santa and the "3 B's". If anyone of the Star Wars prequels make it into the top 25 I'll go apeshit, I promise.
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I've done a new foreign language film list man- have a look. <P>Fuck posting the link here, you know where it is.
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Batman Begins<P>The Dark Knight <P>Casino royale<P>Napolean dynamyte<P>The Wresler<P>Iron Man<P>Shrek<P>Treasure Planet<P>there will be blood<P>Punch Drunk Love<P>Funny People<P>The foot fist Way<P>G-force
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"Name a bush after me. Something prickly and hard to eradicate."
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Get outta here! The rest of those are pretty good, though. But toss in Rocky Balboa. And Stomp the Yard.
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That should definitely make this list, hopefully Beaks included it in his top 25.<p> Oh yeah, Jackass still deserves to be on this list. Eat it.
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Kill Bill higher than City of God? Geddafuckouttahere...
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i watched that movie all the way to the end just because of Thora's marvellous rack. who knew back then that Scarlett would eventually grow her own pair to rival them. :P
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Elastigirl in a thong. You'll want to spit on your palm and rub one out.
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Will it make the list, simply for the amount of old school bloody mayhem it brought to the big screen in an era of pussified action movies?
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Yerp! It's undeniable that Mel caused a lot of people to just completely ignore that film. Then you have the fact that word got out that there was no English dialogue, just subtitles. Then no "known" actors, and in fact, it's NON-actors. Then you have the Mayan/Incan storyline which was uninteresting to some, can't possibly be "historically correct" for others (well duh! It's a movie! Not a fact based documentary. But I remember people arguing that point on THIS SITE ad nauseam). It also got hate for being "filmed" digitally. And lastly it was ultra-violent. Some people are opposed to that to begin with, but after Mel had already made the ultra-violent Passion and then went on a drunken anti-semite rage-out, well, the movie was kind of fucked. All those things rolled together, I think, have kept a lot of people from watching the movie with an open mind, or even watching it at all. I know it affected my decision to not watch it for a couple years. But damn it, simple story and all, I love that movie.
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Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot. <P> I liked Jackass, 1 and 2.
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Got that ass...
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...there have been an inordinate amount of (easily) top 10-15 movies which have been placed criminally low on this list. I fear for the worst when the top ten roll around...
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No Step2 the Streets? High School Pukical? Surely Hulk 2003 is in the top ten.<p> Savagedave, he's still got 25 to go...Master and Commander could be in there someplace, lopping off arms and takin' names.
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If people are going to make blanket statements such as "a film made by idiots for idiots" they should expect to get replies. As I said before, I know for absolutely certain that I am NOT an idiot. If you think you can somehow prove otherwise based on some text attached to a made up name on an internet movie gossip site, go for it! : )
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Then 'Duets' will make the top 25
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Schwarzenegger's 1985 film "Commando" just stepped out of the time machine into Mr. Beaks' top ten.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 11:40 a.m. CST
Jackass = a film only pretentious assholes don't laugh at
by turketron_2
It's true!
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I think they're both imaginative stories, as that's just something Pixar does well. But if I think about it objectively, which is hard to do since Nemo is a personal favorite, you're correct. The idea that the monsters children believe live in their closets, or under their beds, are real and need their fear to power their universe is pretty bad ass. And turning it all around at the end, making laughter more powerful. Well that's pretty cool, too. However, I'm kind of annoyed by Billy Crystal in general. Only The Princess Bride doesn't totally bug me (it' in my top five of all time, easy). And the Boo character is sometimes a little too "sweet" for me, but that's just because I hate kids. lol
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ugh! That film is RANK! lol
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I worship Pixar, generally speaking. Only Cars and Bugs Life were weak entries for me. Everything else by them is golden at my house. Hell, I was a 24 year old man when I saw Toy Story at the theatres--and no children were with me. I saw TS2 with my wife, again without kids. Freakin' LOVE it<p> I liked Crystal in Monsters, I just kinda figured his character was supposed to be mildly obnoxious. Goodman, on the other hand, was a wonderful, sympathetic Sully.
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I forgot, have we seen "American Psycho" in Beaks three posts so far? The movie came out in 2000, right, and thus is eligible for inclusion, yes?<p> Do you have a little dog or something?
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I don't know, if you like Gerry or even sat all the way through Gerry, you automatically become a pretentious asshole, so maybe there is some hope for them yet!
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I was down with that movie.
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how about THE FLAMING LEG KICK?
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Will be Beaks #1
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You're most welcome. Carry on.
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Emma stone is busy dusting off my coffee table and bureau. After I "compensate" her I'll direct her your way
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...since Bring It On was number 100.
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Site unseen.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 12:03 p.m. CST
I'M NOT FEELING A TINGE OF DISAPPOINTMENT WITH BEAKS' CHOICES
by BringingSexyBack
Just knowing that 500 Days, Hurt Locker and GI Joe are in the Top 10 assures me that the foundations of his movie taste are solid, even if he does have an eclectic list overall.
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Good, cause I'm feeling a little superbad. Plus my laundry is just piling up...
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...based on the preamble in the first installment.
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Bring It On...This Is It.
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It was easily Moore's best and you can't deny its societal impact. It was a genuine game-changer.
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Bill Murray's LARGER THAN LIFE with the elephant.<p> Saw it years ago on TV. Remember absolutely nothing about it. But I know in my soul it's THE GREATEST FUCKING MOVIE OF ALL TIME!<p> OF ALL TIME!!
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Like Slumdog millionaire or qwaltz with bashir<P>also it better not be asian, beaks needs to make number 1 an american film or the list will be a laughing stock, my choice the Dark Knight, second choice Meet the fockers
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Yes it will be a pretentious art film...like "Paul Blart Mall Cop."
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For me, the "Aluminum Falcon" episode (SW) on Robot Chicken is unsurpassed. Your examples were great too.
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In which, I believe, the US tried to combat the Vietcong by feeding elephants laxatives and then flying said elephants over enemy installations, dropping lbs of steaming elephant shit all over them. It was a tactic Richard Nixon embraced, despite his own Attorney General advising him it violated numerous elements of the Geneva Conventions.<p> At least that's what I got from the movie's trailer...
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Yes it will be a pretentious art film...like "Paul Blart Mall Cop."
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:The Movie. Like you, I don't think I've ever laughed that loudly, that often in a theater. The show embodies what I hate most about TV now, even though it's only loosely reality TV. I went into the movie prepared to hate it and came out a fan. There's just something about the way it's constructed. The pace, the build-up. After seeing it again a few years later, I would swear to you that if it were edited just slightly differently.. it'd be a failure. But something magical happened with that one. And I almost hate myself for saying it.
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By far the best film of 2008, hands down the best vampire movie ever, and arguably one of the greatest love stories of the past 30 years.
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Heh. We're such idiots. We mouth-breathing imbeciles.
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you know this to be true.
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So far, it's not really that different from Firefox. I'm gonna check my activity monitor and see how much juice its using...
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And wasn't there some movie in production not too long ago where the elephants rampaged all over town? Maybe I'm confusing that with real-life. Oh, and lets not forget the LOTR Oliphants. They didn't look exactly how I'd pictured them, but they did rampage quite effectively.
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Beaks' list doesn't fit the primary definition of eclectic, secondary or tertially, agreed.
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My god there are some whiners on here. Any good list needs a combination of drama, comedy, weird and mainstream. To date Beaks has done an admirable job, though The Departed better be up top unless I missed it already.
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I had friends tell me for years I needed to be watching it. And I've had friends since offer to let me borrow the complete season DVD sets. For some reason, one with cannot really put into words, I just can't muster up enough interest to do so. I'm sure I'm wrong for feeling that way and I'll eventually love it. Just can't seem to get around to that point.
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Given that he also does a top 10 worst films of the year, the only thing that is clear is that he saw only 200 films in the decade. Gerry? Bring it on? Black Hawk Down in top 100 of a particular year would be bad enough. Beaks, you are easily taken in by critic pandering forced arthouse tripe.
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THE WIRE is really the best thing produced on TV in the last few years, period. I didn't get onboard until its 3rd season and have since gone back and seen the entire run. It's worth the time commitment.
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...slow down during the lunch-time periods and are heavier when people should be working. Heh. Just sayin'.
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I hope it's not on your system, but I'm sticking with IE and Firefox. I did try an early version though ...
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SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT 2, they were transporting an ELEPHANT.
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..eventually. I don't have the option at the moment. But the next time somebody offers the DVD sets I'll take 'em up on it.
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Excellent show, I didn't get into it until the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4 but I'm totally glad I did. I'm not even sure when the show completely entangled me... it wasn't the first episode but somewhere in those first few episodes I became a fan.
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...is even making an OS. ?? Anybody? Google is a search engine - leave it at that.
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Sure I thought it was a good movie but some of you are really gushing over it. What am I not seeing that you applaud? Someone even called it his #1. Educate me please.
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A perfectly cromulent assessment.
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Google want to take over the world.
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...as Enid killing herself.
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much better than the last two lists.Spidey 2,City of God,Kill Bill,when the leeves,Bad santa and the incredibles? I'm down with that.<p>I would love to see AICN come up with the worst or most underrated films of the decade but that might ignite a flame war amongst Tbers.<p>*Snicker*
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And Chrome is actually significantly lighter on my memory than Firefox. I should probably just stick with Safari, but I don't like it for some reason. I'll give Chrome a whirl for a few days. But the memory usage is very good so far...
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It's branded Linux (genuinely.. look it up) with a focus on browser-based applications and "cloud" computing. In that sense, it's actually a great idea for netbooks and some laptops. Most of what everyone does now is in the browser anyway. But myself.. I don't trust "the cloud" for more than e-mail. The only bad thing about Chromium so far is that it seems to take more power than Windows 7, which is not a good start. But it'll get there in time. When all is said and done, I think it will actually end up being the holy grail of the true "desktop home user linux distro" that your grandma can figure out with a little help. But google is a LOT more than a search engine now. It knows where you live, why you live there, who you live with and why you made every choice that led to those realities. Be afraid. Hell, I just saw a new app for Android... you point your Droid phone at ANYTHING and it pops up details about it. Objects, art, buildings, businesses, products, bar codes... eventually... people and SOYLENT GREEN!!
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I also believe if Inglorious Basterds had twenty minutes of action. It would have been of the greats of all time. Too wordy for me.
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The same CNBC doc I did!
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He already put M & C in his first 25, somewhere around number 80. Heresy.
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I use Firefox, but it took me several years more than most people to get there (former ie user who had to be convinced to switch). I don't have a problem with Windows and I never have. If you take proper care of you pc it works just fine. But I never upgrade to the newest version until long after the first round of bugs have been worked out (and I skipped Vista entirely - which wasn't even very hard to do). I have NEVER used Google. I'm a loyal Yahoo-er and I always will be. So I guess I'm a little out of touch as to all the bells and whistles related to Google/Chrome. Yahoo has quite a few of it's own these days - and I do dig Google Maps/Space. Oh, and I have never owned a cell phone or a portable pc of any kind. Don't get me wrong - I am a tech geek. But when I leave the house I'm off the grid and I like it that way. So, anyway, I actually think Series7 has it right. Google just wants to take over the world. lol If it ends up that my super geek friends are all like, "Chrome is better than sex on sliced bread!", then I may switch. Until then I'm skraight. Oh, but I remember reading about that barcode reader a few years back. Cool to see that they're actually putting it to good use.
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I love Black Hawk Down, but it seems to be largely forgotten and mostly overlooked when people get into film discussions of any kind. Never understood that.
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A Simpsonite?
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Dec. 8, 2009, 12:56 p.m. CST
Nice list but Im not sure your interprtation of Incredibles is c
by subtlety
The way I see it, its more about giving people the chance to be great than saying that some people are great and others are not. By dismissing Syndrome at the beginning, due to his not being "super," the whole chain is set in motion, which is aided by the idea that Syndrome obvious had what it took to be great, if only someone had given him the chance before he became embittered. I'm also not sure that having a serious threat in a movie exactly makes it a 911 allegory.
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ha ha
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BTW I was in N.O. in '08 and all the places that really matter (French Quarter, Cemeteries ...) looked as intact as ever and the ghettos you couldn't tell the difference whether a hurricane struck or not so that was something of a relief. I don't need to see another installment of Spike Lee hatin' on whitey thanks.
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...whether Spike hates on whitey or not. The sad this to me is that it's going to happen again. There were many computer forecast models built and they all show that area getting completely wrecked by storms sometime in the near future.
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While Billy / Syndrome may have always had an aptitude for science and engineering, I think the main reason Bob / Mr. Incredible kept blowing him off was because the kid was damn clumsy, and his presence messed up crimefighting, like at the beginning when "Bomb Voyage" or whatever his name was gets away.
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While Billy / Syndrome may have always had an aptitude for science and engineering, I think the main reason Bob / Mr. Incredible kept blowing him off was because the kid was damn clumsy, and his presence messed up crimefighting, like at the beginning when "Bomb Voyage" or whatever his name was gets away.
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Some facts about LARGER THAN LIFE:<p> -LARGER THAN LIFE is a buddy road movie starring Bill Murray and an elephant named Tai. -LARGER THAN LIFE grossed $8,315,693 dollars domestically.<p> -LARGER THAN LIFE rated 13% at RottenTomatoes.<p> -LARGER THAN LIFE is not eligible to be number 1 in Beaks list. It was released in 1996.
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I always thought the problem was two-fold. A) Billy went about things in the wrong way B) Mr Incredible had his own kids and didn't want an obnoxious sidekick to deal with as well. However, this may be my least favorite Pixar movie, and I've already made it clear that I don't dig superheroes. So I'm probably missing something there.
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one of the best things ever. Not just TV, not just movies, one of the best things ever. I didn't start watching it until the show was over and I blew through it in a matter of weeks. It may be the best show ever.
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In all seriousness though, the scene where the illiterate Peter Berg tries to get an ice cream cone IS fucking funny as Hell.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 1:43 p.m. CST
IE, firefox and chrome, all suck, the best browsing choice is...
by JettL93
AVANT BROWSER<P>It's the browser that most top internet people like me prefer to use
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Because every thread needs a dumbass. Blaming the poor whose lives were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina? Talk about pathetic and low. Ad while some crazies believe the government blew up the levees, the doc makes it clear, they are about as small a minority as the 9/11 truthers. And blaming enviromentalists? Really? Chemicals, you couldn't be a more stereotypical Glenn Beck loony if you wanted to be.
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sorry about larger than life not making the list..
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25th hour and HE GOT GAME kicked al kinds of ass..
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Sorry, Jett, I rock the macs- you know, what us internet people use.
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Yes, it does actually. It gives him an actual character arc and explains why he can lead an army and why he's always so damn mopey.
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I had expected to see Super Troopers somewhere on this list. There are just so many good movies yet to be listed and only 25 spots left. Perhaps I just have a strong personal attachement to it but I laugh everytime I see it and find it ridiculously quotable.
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SDB, that recent Spike Lee one with Clive Owen as a crafty bank robber was pretty decent too.
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That I'll make an effort to check it out. I really don't doubt it's great. I just think it's one of those things where I've been told so many times that it's great that I'm fighting it. Ya know what I'm sayin'? But I promise I'll check it.
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...just sounds wrong in so many ways. My sincerest apologies for writing that.
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And HE GOT GAME is vastly underrated- love the Aaron Copland score.
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Almost forgot about this. Superb film. As long as this, The Prestige and Shaun of the Dead make the top 25 then all of my personal ten faves made the 100.
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Ok, I saw Chappelle's Block Party at the Crenshaw Magic Theaters, which I mention because it's in the heart of black LA. The theater was maybe half-full at the beginning. My friends all walked out. Other people walked out. I stayed to see the Fugees reunited, but I was sooooo bored I couldn't stand it. I can't believe anyone defended/defends this horrible, boring, junk! I am a big fan of the late, lamented Chappelle Show, and Block Party was HORRIBLE! The people who didn't walk out were, like me, semi-conscious and far from euphoric at the end. <p> Well, maybe a little euphoric that it was finally over.
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The problems I had with INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS is that in the end you never actually think that the events that went down actually could have happened. I wanted the events to play out a tad more believable instead of a Jewish revenge film. I wanted everything to fall through in the end. I wanted the fire to start and then the dynamite to blow out the fire so in the end we have two groups trying to take out a common enemy yet they take down each other instead. I wanted to think that Hitler got away and later killed himself in a bunker. I tad bit of realism and 'aw crap' would have helped this film however it is not the best QT. Great dialog - lame revenge flick.
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one of the best westerns of the last 15 years
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...post and then hit the wrong button, thereby loosing the whole damn thing. Siiiigh. Lemme try that again.
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Kingdom of Heaven may look good, but Orlando Bloom is awful. Even more, I just can't get over how painfully inaccurate it is, historically.
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Keeping in mind the need to fast forward through the Soul Train-inspired cave dance segment.
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not the greatest movies of the last 10 years, but one of the most honest looks at a man that is reveard through the annals of history...i'm place it at least #6 if i were making the list
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Hitler is "reveard"? What is that word? If you mean "revered" then where are you writing this from? A Nazi base on the South Pole? The world pretty much despises Hitler, so I think you're fucking loony. I do love the posts though, keep 'em coming.
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JettL93 - agreed on Downfall - great movie.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 2:18 p.m. CST
...Vlad The Impaler: Part Three Of Four Penetrating Installments
by FlickaPoo
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...carry on.
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To be clear I do not revere Hitler. I just agree that Downfall was a great movie. :)
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After Billy Bob Thornton completed his cut (said to be somewhere between three and four hours) producer/distributor Harvey Weinstein forced him to cut more than one hour out of it. Peter Biskind suggests in Down and Dirty Pictures that this was at least partially done as payback for Thornton's refusal to cut Sling Blade down. In the end, Thornton was forced to cut the film down, which had an impact on the storytelling. Matt Damon was publicly critical of this decision, saying to Entertainment Weekly, "You can't cut 35% of the movie and expect it to be the same movie." Some attempts have been made to release a director's cut DVD, but arrangements can not be reached with the original composer, Daniel Lanois. As part of the re-cut, Weinstein scrapped the original score and hired Marty Stuart. Lanois felt insulted, and has steadfastly refused to license his score (which, unusually, he owns) to any release of the film.
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I get you try to justify it Beaks by adding re-release dates a year or two after, but thten you might as well throw in Blade Runner Final Cut as a 2000s movie with that logic.
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All Hitler worship from Jett aside.
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I really wish there was a movie focusing on Stalin, and not that one with Robert Duvall, i mean on a level of dedication that Downfall was, i just went through two books on this guy and this guy is even more fascinating than Hitler, Hitler was just the typical "fuck everyone" type of guy, Stalin was waaaaaaay more layered.
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The last great Chrsitian Bale movie before he started shouting/rasping and never stopped. For all the bitching about remakes, this is one that topped the already very good original and became a classic. And Ben Foster was ROBBED of a Supporting Actor nomination. The coldest motherfucking henchman in recent memory.
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this is HIS list, OK, not THE list. its his PERSONAL list.... of course it's gonna be different from yours, different from mine and different from the guys/gals list at #12 main street US fuckin A... for fucks sake..... i agree, theres no way I'd have Jackass on my list AT ALL, but I would have Pan's Labyrinth, and I'd probably have The INcredibles in the top 20..... we're all different, but i bet we all have a good deal of the same movies on our list!!!!!!
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Take the dive, seriously. It's the most rewarding experience you can have that is related to pop culture.
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...is what I meant to say.<BR><BR>The final scene with Bale and his son ("You've got all the best parts o' me, what little there is") still chokes me up a little.
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...by the Coward Robert Ford. <br><br>I love westerns, but particularly deconstructionist westerns where some part of their great film mythos is taken apart and put back together in an unexpected way. Unforgiven and Dances With Smur... I mean Wolves, are two of my favorites.<br><br>The art direction and set decoration (the look and feel of the time period as represented in the film) are so pitch perfect as to not even be discussed. At least not that I can remember. They just got that part right.<br><br>The lighting, whether it's indoors by candle light, outside under a gray sky or the dark of night, is incredibly well done. I'm pretty sure some of it is even natural. It's almost always dim, dark or murky (I can think of one scene with clouds and blue sky), which does nothing but add to the overall uncomfortable feeling of impending doom. I mean, the movie is called The Assassination Of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - we KNOW what's going to happen. But every time I watch it I get completely caught up in the story all over again.<br><br>I'm a sucker for good narration. This movie, along with The Royal Tenenbaums, are two of my favorites.<br><br>The acting, and thereby I must assume at least in part, the directing are phenomenal. In my opinion, Brad Pitt hadn't done anything where he worked that hard in years. Maybe in this decade. Sam Rockwell played nervous so well that he makes ME nervous watching the film. Casey Affleck finally convinced me he could act. His portrayal of the unappreciated, picked on, slightly odd family member/guy around town and the lengths he was willing to go to in order to change that perception are fascinating to me. He took an incredibly odd and unlikable character and made him interesting and identifiable. Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us have some same insecurities.<br><br>I love the dialogue of the script and the accent choices by the actors. There is something just slightly "off" about the way Casey and Brad speak their lines, and it works. <br><br>Also, I never thought of Jesse James the way he's portrayed in this film. So many westerns, and movies in general, make a character like that out to simply be "the villain" or "the hero". This Jesse James is neither of those. He's flawed, paranoid and insecure. He's also a family man. But he's still a hardened criminal and a cold-blooded killer.<br><br>The score is minimal and unobtrusive. But still adds greatly to the tension.<br><br> Now, all this together, for me, makes it a wonderfully deconstructed, meditative western. I love the pace at which the story unfolds. To other people, it makes it boring. And it's a point of view that I fully understand. I don't think it's a film that everyone can just sit down and love on first viewing. But I love a film where I can just sit back and soak it in. I'm pretty tired of constantly being beaten about the head and shoulders with endless explosions, gun fights and fight scenes, action sequences and special affects. The visuals, the sets, the dialogue and the acting in the Assassination of Jesse James allow me to just sit back, watch, and listen. It all works for me in this one, and it works better each time I watch it. I still think the post shooting epilogue is a big clunky and long. But the movie as a whole is an easy 9 out of 10 for me. Maybe a 9.5 <br><br>Anyway, long winded and rambling. But that's why I love The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
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We are NOT afraid! We are NOT afraid!<p> (cue Soul Train cave-dancing and the giving of cryptic, bent spoons)
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Agreed, Bale and Crowe were both sublime in 3:10. A woefully overlooked picture.
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But whatever, both were entertaining. Maybe not really appropriate for a "best" list, but definitely fun hour and a half. <p> Inglorious was indeed very good, but then...better than Wall-E, among others? <p> Kill Bill Vol 1 is definitely awesome, but Part 2 is boring crap. I'd say Kill Bill 2 competes with QT's half of Grindhouse for the "Worst. Tarantino. Ever" award.
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coming in at number one:<p> The Blonde in Lesbian Masseusse Training: "Mwuhhhoohhgod, you're making me COME."
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Now that is a style over substance film I can get behind. Beautiful and weird over the ugly starkness of Miami Vice. Also, glad to see love for Assassination of JJ, a weirdly divisive film in my circle.
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More than I thought I was going to, actually. But not to The Assassination of Jesse James, Unforgiven or Dances With Wolves levels.
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...top 25. Seriously, Jackass? Everyone defending Jackass, sure, go ahead, call me a pretentious asshole, as long as I get to call you a fucking philistine. <BR><BR>Also, I said this in the previous TB, but it bears repeating. Audition only played at a single film festival in 1999. It didn't see wide release until March 2000 in Japan. It is, therefore, a 2000 film. Deal with it.
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If you had read one of my earlier posts, I did say I cannot speak for people on this site who enjoyed Jackass, I just made a general statement. <P>Perhaps then you could explain the appeal of that stupid idiotic nonsense to me, there is nothing about anything those ass clowns do that I find even remotely amusing. Please explain how someone with intelligence, like yourself, can like that moronic drivel. I am at a loss to understand it.
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I agree so wholehearted on Jackass 2. Jackass 2 is fucking amazing because they stop terrorizing the public (as much) and turn the pranks on each other. Jackass 1 has dumb fun... but Jackass 2 has that dumb fun lead to Bam Magera facing his biggest fear in one of the most emotional moments I've ever seen on camera.
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I mean, really. Have any of you seen it? I sure as hell haven't and I have no intention of ever doing so. However, I would probably have that same opinion if it were considered "good". Just not my kinda movie.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 3:32 p.m. CST
Matrix Reloaded has a great rampaging 40 minutes or so
by liesandpicturesofalsolies
Starting at the burly brawl and ending when Neo flies in to rescue Morpheus. I have that clip ripped to my computer and I put it on all the time when I'm writing.
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SO happy to see Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang this high on the list. It was on mine as well.
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Holy shit, one of the most fucked up practical jokes of all time. I think I strengthened my abs by 20% from laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe.
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The final scene were both men are still alive, marching slowly, with shuffling pained steps, toward death in the slowly emerging dawn is one of the most haunting things I've ever seen. It really feels to me like someone's final moments. Gerry, just like Van Sant's following two films, are about final days and moments. It's surreal and unnerving at the same time.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 3:58 p.m. CST
SO FAR THE ONLY MOVIE I'M SEEKING OUT FROM THESE TB'S
by BringingSexyBack
is Lesbian Masseuse Training. Color me sold.
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I never really liked The Royal Tenenbaums, but that said, the scene where Stiller places his hand on Hackman's forehead at the end in the ambulance always gets me, I probably have issues
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I clamor for any and all "lists" from any of the AICN writers, because I fucking love the discussions that spur off from them.
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films from a very talented director, Alejandro Iñárritu. The New World by the man. Hurlyburly, Before Night Falls, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Ellie Parker, You Can Count on Me, Dare I say it: Lions for Lambs, Cold Mountain, The Proposition, Bad Santa, The Yards, The Weight of Water, The Good Thief, Girl with a Pearl Earring, and for the ladies: Bridget Jones's Diary, and my boy Woody ended up having a great turn around with Match Point, Melinda and Melinda, Vicky Cristina Barcelona Cassandra's Dream. And of course The Wrestler. The Human Stain, No Country for Old Men North Country, Monster, Brokeback Mountain, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Cobb, "Angels in America" Adaptation, About a Boy, Wonder Boys, Good Night, and Good Luck. Zodiac, Pta's There Will be Blood. The Notorious Bettie Page, 25th hour, The Singing Detective, Dummy, Broken Flowers, The Royal Tenenbaums, History of Violence, Pollack, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Lost in Translation, CQ, Marie Antoinette, Swimming Pool, Far from Heaven, The Shape of Things, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Atonement Eastern Promises Burn After Reading, Possession, Nurse Betty Auto Focus State of Play, Candy, Quills, Lantana, Public Enemies, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Tailor of Panama, Miami Vice, Dawn of the Dead, Blow, Choke, In her Shoes, Walk the Line, Shopgirls, I Heart Huckabees, Sideways, Man on Fire, Phone Booth, Solaris, Thirteen, The Deep End Cast Away Tigerland Sexy Beast, Woman on Top, Vanilla Sky, The Ballad of Jack and Rose, The Matador, Harsh Times REscue Dawn, Lucky Number Slevin, Shut Up & Sing, Control, The Cooler, Thank You for Smoking, The Good Shepherd, The Queen, State and Main, Heist, The Prestige, Redbelt, Spartan, Pieces of April Friday Night Lights Antwone Fisher, Hotel Rwanda Undertow Saved, Coffee and Cigarettes Assassination Tango, City of Ghosts, Factotum, One Night at McCool's, North Country, What Planet Are You From? The Man Who Wasn't There, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Intolerable Cruelty Empire Falls Road to Perdition, The Savages Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Catch Me If You Can Junebug, Doubt Million Dollar Baby Mystic River, Shadow of the Vampire Gladiator Gosford Park In the Bedroom Ghost World The Affair of the Necklace About Schmidt Unfaithful,Master and Commander, House of Sand and Fog In America, Dirty Pretty Things Blood Diamond, Vera Drake, Collateral, Kinsey, Munich, Hustle and Flow, Syriana, The Squid and the Whale Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Half Nelson Venus, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal Children of Men, Apocalypto, Eastern Promises Away from Her The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford American Gangster Gone Baby Gone I'm Not There, Lars and the Real Girl, 3:10 to Yuma Towelhead, No End in Sight, The Reader Frozen River Revolutionary Road In Bruges Happy-Go-Lucky Breaking and Entering, Encounters at the End of the World The Fountain, Requiem for a Dream and last but not least: Ang Lee's "Hulk."
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aesthetically just CG experts showing off what they can do. Not true artful animating.<p>The Incredibles: fun and stylish, unfortunate shades of Ayn Rand, too heavily rips off early Marvel and Watchmen.
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ARE BAFFLING! That is all...
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That's an interesting choice. I'd actually have to make a real list to see if it fit in my 100 of the decade. But I did really enjoy that movie.
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"We're all whores in some way, Mr. Finklestein". Profound.
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Gerry/Elephant/Last Days and I think Paranoid Park is Gus VS's death Trilogy + 1. I'm not sure if Paranoid Park is part of it or not. He talks about it all the time. Like Woo-Park and his vengenace trilogy.
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I feel like it's not gonna be in the top 25, but it's fucking awesome!
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This film, Gerry (2002) and Last Days (2005) form Gus Van Sant's "Death Trilogy", which he edited himself. Elephant centers on death at the hands of a stranger. Gerry centers on death at the hands of one's best friend. Last Days centers on death at the hands of one's self.
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Or Dave Chapelle over City of God. Is Donnie Darko gonna be #1? Ha, I wonder. <p> Posted the first part of the 25 top animated films of the decade over here: <P> http://tiny.cc/Nj02S
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don't worry, I hear Spidey 3 will be much higher on Beaks list.
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He's going to name Jar Jar Abrams's the number one movie of the decade alright. The real boss will be pleased.
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He's going to name Jar Jar Abrams's ATINO the number one movie of the decade alright. The real boss will be pleased.
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of course
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Thanks for clarifying that, Asi!
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than The Cove, right? I enjoyed shameless cleavage bouncery as much as the next guy, but we're talking about dolphins here.
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I happen to think Open Range was the superior western. Bale forgive me but I have to be truthful.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 5:18 p.m. CST
GQ - GREAT LIST, EXCEPT YOU FORGOT 500 DAYS OF SUMMER
by BringingSexyBack
Are you not feeling well?
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I'm actually pulling titles to add to my Netflix queue. Thanks, Beaks. Honestly, I don't think I've read many of your reviews before this, but your style is economic and smart and makes me want to read more. And, you've got decent taste. Looking forward to the final 25.
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Saw it on a plane. Fell asleep. I don't get all the Zoey Daschanel love either. She's was better looking as a blonde in ELF and she's gotten chubby.
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Poster Chemicals, I enjoyed your comment "It showed just how paranoid the black community is, how powerless they are to change their situation, and how poor people blame everyone but themselves for their miserable predicament. Not only that, but the documentary pushes the idea that the levees were blown up on purpose by the government to kill black people. Yeah, Spike Lee actually believes that! But good little Leftist shitbag that he is, he never once mentions environmental groups and their political power when the levees were first being built, and how they forced the government to not build them the way they wanted, lest they would hurt some bacteria under the dirt. It's one of the facts brushed aside to promote more paranoid lies."
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Someone said it earlier -Spiderman 2 gets worse on repeated viewings. <p> I totally agree. I thought it rocked hard when I first saw it in the the theater, but after the second viewing, just went downhill. Must have been because it was so much better than the first one and expectations were lowered. Yeah.<p>
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...we've got a dittohead scumbag love connection!
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And Cloris Leachman gets nekkid too!
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http://tinyurl.com/4vt4rtawp <p> Booyah, Grandma. Booyah. </p>
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Poster Turketron_2, Elastigirl does have a great ass, along with great thighs and a wasp waist. She is hot even though she looks cartoonish. The CONAN comic type girls look hot in a non-cartoonish way, if you get meaning.
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The are probably conjoined twins sharing half a brain - there are a coupla others like that in this TB. <p> Gotta wonder
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Obviously the altitude got to your head during the viewing.
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... if you get (my) meaning.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 5:52 p.m. CST
Check out this never before seen Team America trailer!
by iamnicksaicnsn
http://tinyurl.com/4vt4rtawp <p> Now is it more clear? </p> <p> Sheesh </p>
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by Richard Linklater. I wouldn't expect it to be on anyone's decade top list, but I thought it was very good.
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Cool ideas regarding dreams and whatnot. Helped teach me how to be conscious of my dreams (I used to know the term but can't think of it right now).
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I know he hates these things but it would neat for a guy who loves everything to have to place them in a numbered order. <p> I'd also like to a see a list somewhere of the decade's best trailers. I tend to hate the spoilery trailers, but Spider-man 2 really nailed it despite telling the entire plot.
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truly one of the best examples of cinematography ever in cinema. Roger Deakins is a goddamn genius, and anyone who argues is a fool.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 6:16 p.m. CST
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
by AsimovLives
At least i agree with Mr Beaks on something: and that is that this movie is criminally underrated and it is indeed one of the top best of this past decade. It's great to love this movie.
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WAS the best western of the last decade. Much better than 3:10 to Yuma and Assassination of Jesse James. As for the best animated feature...Spirited Away & Finding Nemo... These would be my top 2 choices.
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IF SO......I am not worthy !!!!
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It's a short list. Open Range, The Proposition, 3:10 to Yuma, Appaloosa, Seraphim Falls, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. IMDB also has a few other movies tagged as westerns. They are No Country for Old Men, Brokeback Mountain, and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada. I would only nominally rate those as Westerns though. They may share similarities in plot, but they don't quite have the aesthetic required to meet my definition of a western. <BR><BR>If we're only counting the first group, TAOJJBTCRF is the obvious winner.
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Zing!
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...that even if his last 25 were to make up for many of those he missed, he would still be omitting some of the best of the decade. The only good things about this list is the talkbacks which have allowed us to discuss the best films of the decade...and other tangential topics.
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I'm thinking Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Trainspotting, Fight Club, Amelie, LOTR, Unbreakable, Pulp Fiction, Traffic, The Dark Knight, Amores Perros, prolly a few more foreign flicks and then he will put in something like Shrek or Funny People just to piss us all off.
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...has been the talkbacks. Beaks' taste is atrocious. The few great films he's put in his list so far have been in appallingly low position. Prior to this, I already gave his reviews very little credit. After this, I pretty much consider his opinion bankrupt.
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that one is in my own list.
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I do consider NO COUNTRY a legit Western, but not a classical one like the others you've listed. But that being said, JESSE JAMES is tremendous and deserves obscene amounts of praise.
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go back and revise your list.
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I think it is so funny that whenever you question the bullshit mainstream media and their lies you are somehow a conspiracy theorist who makes shit up. <p>It is FACT that the Army Corps of Engineers were NOT permitted to dig down into the seabed as far as they would have liked because it would have harmed some fucking algae or some shit. Now, had the levees been built the way the Engineers wanted, would they have still busted? Perhaps. But the media gives environmentalists a free pass on how their bullshit terror tactics have killed millions. <p>Just look at the devastation caused by them exerting political pressure to ban DDT because of some unproven, bullshit reason. Because of environmentalists, MILLIONS of people have died, yet not only do they not take responsibility, they BLAME the very people they exerted pressure on. And these are the assholes who are going to save the planet? Child please...<p>
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Ain't that right ALINO?
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Thanks for taking the time.
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...here's Beak's list so far...to figure out what he's missing: <p> 100. BRING IT ON <p> 99. THE ICE HARVEST <p> 98. KINSEY <p> 97. WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER <p> 96. THE PIANO TEACHER <p> 95. RAISING VICTOR VARGAS <p> 94. TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY <p> 93. THE SQUID AND THE WHALE <p> 92. GONE BABY GONE <p> 91. Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN <p> 90. LAST DAYS <p> 89. ALI <p> 88. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON <p> 87. FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS <p> 86. THE WAYWARD CLOUD <p> 85. OBSERVE AND REPORT <p> 84. CHOPPER <p> 83. CODE UNKNOWN: INCOMPLETE TALES OF SEVERAL JOURNEYS <p> 82. ADAPTATION. <p> 81. DRAG ME TO HELL <p> 80. LATE MARRIAGE <p> 79. RATATOUILLE <p> 78. NOWHERE TO HIDE <p> 77. I HEART HUCKABEES <p> 76. MIAMI VICE <p> 75. THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN <p> 74. AMERICAN SPLENDOR <p> 73. THE FOUNTAIN <p> 72. UNITED 93 <p> 71. THE HOLY GIRL <p> 70. BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN <p> 69. WALL-E <p> 68. SUPERBAD <p> 67. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE <p> 66. THE CONSTANT GARDENER <p> 65. LAKE OF FIRE <p> 64. TIME OF THE WOLF <p> 63. KAIRO <p> 62. TIME OUT <p> 61. GRINDHOUSE <p> 60. THE HOST <p> 59. TSOTSI <p> 58. HERO <p> 57. BURN AFTER READING <p> 56. OLDBOY <p> 55. MUNICH <p> 54. THE PIANIST <p> 53. INTO THE WILD <p> 52. MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD <p> 51. MULHOLLAND DR.<p> 50 to 25 is above....
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Not trolling. That's my honest opinion of both.
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...as someone else mentioned, he's missing all of Christopher Nolan's films. That's 5 films right there which would include Dark Knight, Memento, The Prestige (one of my faves), possibly Batman Begins, and a very underrated film, Insomnia. Then...Requiem for a Dream is a must. That's probably my number one.....
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Heard alot about it here and with it hitting Beaks' list I figured I would give it a watch. PLEASE tell me that the subtitled version is better than the dubbed version I just saw. Take away the good effects and its Korea's version of Godzilla's Revenge.
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...TRAINING DAY...ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13...LORD OF WAR...BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS....UNBREAKABLE....THE VILLAGE (yes, THE VILLAGE, I said it)....
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I had completely forgotten that one and I thought it was an incredible film ! And in terms of your thoughts on the best western of the decade....and quoting the dude "that's just like...your opinion man"...
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...Blow...The Ring...Spider...Million Dollar Baby...Rocky Balboa...
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No matter how great the movie. Even Pan's Labyrinth would be bad dubbed.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 7:58 p.m. CST
Chakraborty "THE VILLAGE (yes, THE VILLAGE, I said it)...."
by Miyamoto_Musashi
We wish you didn't, its kind of like going on a date and randomly saying, "Yes, I have herpes, I said it".
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...Boiler Room, Quills, My Dog Skip. Yes, I cried at the end of Skip.
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About ten minutes into the movie, my friend and I each proposed what the twist of the movie would be. I said, "They're in present day" and he said "the monsters are people." and we were both right. Shitty movie.
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...The Passion of the Christ...Apocalypto...Amelie...Amores Perros...Royal Tenenbaums...Far From Heaven...Gangs of New York...Anchorman...Half Nelson...
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...is the best movie about the Bush administration.
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....The Village was the best allegory for the time we were living in..in 2004.
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It just SO kicked me in the ass.
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Not a traditional review, I suppose. But that's why I dig it.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:14 p.m. CST
The Village is one of those movies that's ahead of its time....
by Chakraborty
....where people today are pissed off because the monsters weren't real and were just guys in costumes, or because the ending was predictable....but years from now when people are looking back at America in the beginning of the 21st century and just how insane that was and how much of a fucked up leadership was in power...and then they'll watch The Village...made in 2004 during that period...and recognize it for its brilliance.
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Had to..... bad joke....although it would be much cooler to have the worst movies of the decade...being mean feels so much better !
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Arrested Development will be #1
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...Zodiac...The Orphanage...The Proposition...Rescue Dawn...The Hurt Locker...No Country For Old Men...A Serious Man...There Will Be Blood...Doubt...The Wrestler..
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I mean.... wow. I don't even know what to say, I think. lol Maybe I should re-watch it. I tend to look at Shyamalan's movies like this: The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable = brilliance. Signs and The Village = clear slippage and decline on the way to... Lady In The Water and The Happening, which = absolute piles of elephant crap. I'm really hoping The Last Airbender will restore my faith in his filmmaking ability. But I'm willing to re-watch The Village and see if it hits me in a more appealing way.
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...between the Village and the Bush administration is how people say it was awful and totally predictable. People in America should have been able to see how horrible of a leader Bush was, yet they didn't! That's the real atrocity of that time...The Village is nothing more than art representing life. Your hatred of The Village is displaced from what you really hate.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:49 p.m. CST
Chakraborty, no it sucked because it RELIED on the twist
by MattmanReturns
As do most M. Night movies.
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It didn't do anything the Twilight Zone hadn't done a hundred times before and far better.
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...that last line. Now I'm sure I was right to begin with. lol I don't equate my hatred of anything in real life with movies (nor do I displace it onto them). They're my escape. My happy place. I didn't vote for Bush, either time. And the guy made some incredibly ridiculous mistakes by hiring and trusting a bunch of his friends. But there is no way that I can equate The Village as some kind of parable on the Bush administration. Especially when it was probably being made late in the second or third year of his time in office. In fact, I refuse to do so. Just like I refuse to ever watch The Village, Lady in the Water or The happening again. Ever!
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Dec. 8, 2009, 8:58 p.m. CST
Star Wars prequels have deeper allegory than The Village
by MattmanReturns
But they sucked too.
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I can watch it today knowing full well what the twist is and completely enjoy it. M. Night fans are very divided because people go into them with high expectations, and those expectations vary. The general public at large hates Unbreakable, which is one of M. Night's finest...while Signs was a huge success...and is not a bad film apart from all the huge holes in logic. But the Village disappointed many of M. Night's fans because his films deal with supernatural topics, and this one promised the same, but turned out to be nothing more than a human drama. People felt cheated. That's why, years from now when all the smoke from hype clears and people just watch movies for what they are....The Village will find an audience...just not with you guys.
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Then a lot of fine films will not be enjoyed by you, Jaka, because many films are not happy, and rather than letting you escape, the filmmaker will force you into a reality which most of society avoids or denies. Many fine films fit that category.
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It has an audience with me! Fucking Brody haunts me to this day.
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If Amelie or Zodiac is behind something like Tropic Thunder or a shitty Asian horror, Beaks will hang!
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Sorry, but that movie, while beautifully directed, is insulting and fucking retarded. It was the complete opposite of what it said it was, and what it actually was turned out to be a story that's been told 1,000 times. Predictable and pointless. I don't mean to be a troll, but it really is one of my least favorite movies I think I have ever seen. Just my opinion, of course. <p> As for my thoughts on the rest of this list, I feel like I totally agreed with the first two parts of this list, but this one has me a little more puzzled I guess. Looking at this list, and then thinking about having only 25 spots left, leaves me with the feeling that, as always, there are too many films left out. Love the inlcusion of Brick, personally. A little tired of all the Pixar stuff. The Incredibles, imo, is probably the only one that deserves to be on the list, because of the reasons the list explains, its badass message that not everyone is special and some people want to kill you. Wall-E I'll accept because the first hour is such excellent, silent sci-fi awesomeness. The last bit lost me a little personally. If Zodiac and In Bruges aren't on the list in the end it's flawed at its core, but I feel Zodiac might not make it here. I also wonder if its too soon for The Hurt Locker to be that high, even though it was better than Black Hawk Down. There Will Be Blood has to be on it. Curious to see if he gives District 9 top 25 love, even though I will be in the minority in disagreeing if he does. I could go into why, and if someone really wants to know I'll tell, but I'll venture that no one cares. I'm sure Dark Knight will be extremely high. Casino Royale, maybe, I wonder, for reinventing Bond so fantastically. Basically, In Bruges better be way, way up there or the list fails. It's the best written film maybe ever. My favorite screenplay of all-time.
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The future is fucking awful. An okay twist packaged with an entire bizarre yet bland movie around it. The seams of M. Night's grasp on reality start to split on this movie.
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The future is fucking awful. An okay twist packaged with an entire bizarre yet bland movie around it. The seams of M. Night's grasp on reality start to split on this movie.
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The future is fucking awful. An okay twist packaged with an entire bizarre yet bland movie around it. The seams of M. Night's grasp on reality start to split on this movie.
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from Roger Ebert's hilarious and VERY correct review of The Village:<p>""The Village" is a colossal miscalculation, a movie based on a premise that cannot support it, a premise so transparent it would be laughable were the movie not so deadly solemn. It's a flimsy excuse for a plot, with characters who move below the one-dimensional and enter Flatland.<p> [,,,]Eventually the secret of Those, etc., is revealed. To call it an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It's a crummy secret, about one step up the ladder of narrative originality from It Was All a Dream. It's so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don't know the secret anymore. <p> And then keep on rewinding, and rewinding, until we're back at the beginning, and can get up from our seats and walk backward out of the theater and go down the up escalator and watch the money spring from the cash register into our pockets."<p>The Village is not an allegory for much of anything. it's Shyamalan thinking that a twist makes a goo movie. but a tiless, stupid, pointless twist makes a witless, stupid, pointless movie. it's horrible, flat out. you might think it's an allegory for the Bush administration (so, the Bush administration weren't real monsters? just pretending? to protect us from....modern...fuck it, I'm not wasting my time) but I guarantee you Shyamalan wasn't thinking any of that. he just failed at making a good film. and he's been failing worse every movie since...to but The Village on a best of list would be almost as bad as if Beaks puts Crash on there.
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Using Roger Ebert's review to bolster your claim isn't winning you any points. "I'm not wasting my time" Your short analysis of The Village is wrong...so perhaps spend more time with it. I abhorred Lady in the Water, so I have since avoided The Happening...rightfully so...but The Village is a good movie. Cuddle up with Ebert as much as you like, it doesn't change that fact.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:01 p.m. CST
Hollywood Homicide isn't as bad as the Village
by liesandpicturesofalsolies
Hollywood Homicide, at least, knew what kind of movie it was. As a movie skewering Los Angeles, I sort of enjoyed it, though I'm not gonna be picking it up on Blu-ray or anything. The Village was somber and pompous. Also, using Roger Ebert to bolster your argument does win you point win its a good argument that Ebert is making. Hope I don't triple post this.
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I win no points for grammar and spelling, though.
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Roger Ebert has seen more movies than almost anyone on the planet, and for that, he's opinion gets some weight with me. doesn't mean I agree with him all of the time, but, as I said, I very much do in this case.<p>and honestly, it's pretty "middle school debate team" to use that lame illogical argument. I quoted a review by a respected reviewer that tore a movie apart which I think deserved it. that's it.<p> and judging by the general critical reaction, I'm not exactly in the minority, am I?
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It just occurred to me maybe Jett meant to say Hitler was REVILED? Then again, he is an almighty fuckwit and maybe I shouldn't give undue credit. Just a thought... <p> And I can't tell if you're joking about Brody in The VIllage! Brody's performance haunted me too, because it was so fucking awful. Maybe it's just that he went full retard?
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Man Jackass enjoyment is just fun. Yeah its probably the lowest form of entertainment. But compare it to any other crap say Reno 911 or Trailer Park Boys or National Lampoon shit, there is just something about it that elevates it from that junk. <P> For me though I think my love of Jackass spawns from Tom Green, he was first and paved the way for that sort of humor and Jackass ran with it. Plus its cool to see people just doing what ever they want rather then the typical sitcom style of comedy. <P> But I totally get hating it. But like I said earlier the opening and closing scenes of Jackass 1 are awesome.
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I'm glad Brick made the list! I just saw that movie for the first time recently. It's now my favorite detective movie.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:14 p.m. CST
Bad Wonka, Ebert's review doesn't explain or give any analysis o
by Chakraborty
...why The Village is bad. He only says it's bad, and says he wishes he could rewind the movie and unknow the ending because the twist is flimsy. That's hardly an in-depth analysis of the movie. He hates the movie for precisely why I claimed the general public hates that movie...because they came to expect certain things from M. Night, and they felt let down based on that, and based on what they felt the trailer promised. <p> Also, if you need the strength of other people's opinions to back up why you dislike or like a movie, then you might as well use the Box Office figures to back up why you love either New Moon or Transformers 2, because like you said, "I'm not exactly in the minority, am I?"
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He presents many facts as to why it's a bad movie, you're simply ignoring them. He criticizes the flimsy and unbelievable plot, the one-dimensional characters, and that the movie relies solely upon secrets.
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You clearly misunderstood the context of my statement. I quite enjoy, and in fact prefer, dark, disturbing, twisted and otherwise altogether unhappy films (along with nearly every other kind). My point was that MOVIES are my happy place. MOVIES are my escape. Also, I don't take the ills of the world into them looking for ways to unnecessarily draw comparisons between the two. Politics more than most of our ills. When a movie is political it's usually quite clear to me. I don't need to try and find a way to compare films that had nothing to do with it to the Bush administration. I mean really, was my statement THAT unclear? O_o Anyway, I respect your opinion, because we all got 'em. But in MY opinion, The Village is just an awful film no matter HOW I look at it. Particularly because it relied, again, on a gimmicky ending (which is very unlike the dull thud that signaled the end of the Bush administration). As I stated before, I'm hoping The Last Airbender will be a winner for Shyamalan, because it SHOULDN'T have such an ending.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:29 p.m. CST
And it's not so bad that the movie relies on its twist
by MattmanReturns
What's bad is the twist is an anti-climactic eye-roller that removes any tension upon second viewing. Unlike the twist in Sixth Sense, which actually makes the second viewing all the more fascinating.
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Because that's a big part of it. Second, quoting other sources when debating any point is as old as language itself. So you're kinda off on that point.
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I can tell there has been good dramas / good comedies / great westerns / a few incredible independent movies which were mind blowing / amazing animation / etc...Could any of you film buffs give me the best 10 horror flicks of this decade? I shall pay attention to your comments...waiting...
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Look, I'm completely on board with everyone saying the movie was deeply flawed. I agree- it's a fucking mess in some fundamental ways. I guess what hooks me is my visceral reaction to what takes place in a couple of scenes- especially the scene where Brody is in the suit, staring off angle from Ivy as she's shitting a brick in the woods. That scene just freaks me out- it's psychotic- can't explain it any other way. I don't think the twist works, but I buy into this sick fucking dude trying to kill this chick, and it gives me the willies.
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Might also make my top 100 list. Hey I liked em. And im not asian. Nor do I have an asian fetish. But i do like gravy and the anime Akira alot. Am i talking too much?
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"But I do like gravy and the anime Akria alot" lmao
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COME ON..... who are you kidding?
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Jesus I'm too old for this website...
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Apocalypto was sheer genius from the first frame to the last. The Mayan city sequence alone is one of the best things put to film(digital) in the last 25 years. Duvall is right, the film is amazing. <p><p> Open Range was also a very good film, very underrated. Easily Costner's best work, both as an actor and director. I just wish there was less Annette Bening. Her character was the only thing that seemed forced to me. And how can you not love Jimmy Russo? "We ain't ourselves yet!"
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...any lol roflmao lmao or any other combination of those letters any time I feel the need. I've been on the internet since Prodigy in 93 and those abbreviations, or whatever... I can't remember the proper term, are, and have always been, used to make clear your intentions and lessen other peoples confusion. Anybody who has a problem with them is REALLY taking this all WAY too seriously.
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After Signs, M. Night was just as one-note as he was depicted in South Park. <p>When me and some friends first saw the trailer for The Village, I turned to them and said "I bet you the Twist is that it takes place nowadays." <p> And I was right.
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...felt forced. And I dig Annette Bening, too. But that part of the story always felt way to convenient. I can't say I think Open Range is better than Dances, though. I'll put it second to Dances, easy. But not above it.
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"The ants are eating your friend".
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My needs include expressions like "cool beans" and "I'm audi 5000" so I'm afraid I might be older than you....LOL !!! :P :O) ;-$ FMFAO In any case, me no say mean things....I kid ! I kid !!! Let's all get along....
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Dec. 8, 2009, 10:58 p.m. CST
Best Robert Duvall line in Open Range: "Wake up, boys..."
by Nasty In The Pasty
"...I gotcher breakfast." [holds up bottle of chloroform]
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I'd love to read THAT list.
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Judging by your post, I'm guessing we're about the same age. Because I certainly never say audi 5000. *cough* All is good, though. You'll notice I didn't, like, throw a string of curse words at you or anything.
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OBSERVE & REPORT being among that list.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 11:09 p.m. CST
13 Great Horror Movies for the decade for that guy
by liesandpicturesofalsolies
Highly debatable, I know. High Tension Let the Right One In Drag Me To Hell Poughkeepsie Tapes if you're drunk May The Descent The New Dawn of the Dead Suicide Club 28 Days Later The Ruins The Orphanage [rec]
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I have a shitty memory, but you seem relatively new to me. In any case, you're a fucking professional- welcome to the party.
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I put horror in quotes because it's not very conventional- no torture porn, etc. It's low-key and psychological, in the spirit of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. Check it out.
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You don't need to repeat that movie are your happy place and your escape. I got it the first time. But as for your point that politics are responsible for the ills of the world and you don't like to see politics in the movies, many of the best and long-lasting films have underlying political themes. Lord of the Rings is very obviously about the corruption of power. Star Wars (the original trilogy) was about how hate and anger are the roots of evil. The Matrix was about a world blinded to the realities of society where we are being sucked dry by the machines we work for but we choose to be blinded by it in order to escape and be in our happy place...a theme you can relate to. <p> Many films have underlying political themes that the masses don't pick up on while munchie wunching on popcorn, but resonate within them. For me, The Village is a great tale about a society where the elders believed they needed to use fear to keep their people controlled and safe, a misguided message which is somewhat timeless, and for that, I think it's a great story. But other people don't like it because the trailer promised scary monsters and there were none. It's a difference of opinion I can live with, but despite the vehemence of its haters that "it fucking sucks"...there's an audience for it. And that audience is secure enough to enjoy it even though Ebert turns his nose up at them.
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Suicide Club.....that one looks messed up ! Thanks for the options !
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I've heard reviews all over the place for that movie but I'm more than willing to give it a try.
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I'm really diggin' the discussion with most of y'all in these Beaks columns myself. But honestly, I'm pretty sure I joined within the first year of the sites existence. 1999 or 2000, I think. Time has kind of become a blur for me. There are times when I've posted a lot, and times when I haven't posted for months. I've rarely really gotten deep into it like we have in these columns, though. Mostly because y'all are some tough nuts to crack and I have nothing to prove. So usually, whenever somebody went all ballistic on me I'd just exit, screen right. My normal internet stylings lean more to the bbs type of conversation. Where there can be some back and forth. It's more difficult on the main page here because these topics scroll off into non-existence, never to be seen again. Funny thing is, I'm registered in The Zone here, too. But I didn't do so until years after I joined the site, and I just don't seem to have the energy to crack those nuts, either. <br><br>Apologies for that waaaay too long response, dude.
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Ordered favourite to least favourite for me: <p> Dark Knight <p> Memento <p> Prestige <p> Batman Begins <p> Insomnia <p> Whatever order you decide to put them in, what a stellar decade for this guy.
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I am not trying to be rude, but you are clearly taking my comments completely out of context and adding ALL KINDS OF extra unintended weight to them. Kinda like you appear to do with movies. So I'm just gonna call truce on this one. Peace.
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Your complete disregard for what I actually said, along with applying your own totally out of context point of view, reminds me way too much of ThusSpakeSpymunk.... which is kinda freakin' me out.
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If you type your username into the white rectangle next to the 'sign in' then hit 'enter', your history on AICN will come up. Only problem is, they aren't in chronological order. Cheers.
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He is the top director of the decade, end of argument.
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I totally agree that Nolan has had a stellar run in the last 10 years and I really thing that Inception will turn out to be something very special next year.
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Is there a director that comes close this decade?
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Really?
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But that only shows 10 posts going back to 2007. I've posted on more than 10 topics this week? Is it broken or somethin'? 2007 might be when I joined The Zone.
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Wrong. That's not why I didn't like it. Actually, the movie delivered on a few scary moments. M.Night's always been good at building tension. My problem with the movie is its uninteresting characters and that it relies on a heavily predictable twist. And the political allegory was not lost on me. It just isn't as deep or original as you seem to think it is. It's been done a million times before. And it's been done better. Anyway, I'm done arguing about the Village. I've spent more time talking about it than I ever thought I would. I'm recalling the same bad taste in my mouth that I had when I left the theater.
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I can't think of anyone who hasn't made dreck. Even Bale, praise be his name.
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1. LOTR (trilogy) <p> 2. Oldboy <p> 3. Let the Right One In. <p> 4. Pan's Labyrinth <p> 5. Memento <p>
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Keep eating those red pills though...you're starting to have paranoid delusions about Spymunk.
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Good question. Funny enough with the big split over whether Gerry was a good movie or not I'd have to say that Matt Damon probably had the best track record of staying away from more bad movies than good ones. But that's just off the top of my head.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 11:35 p.m. CST
Mattman returns...who has done that twist a million times before
by Chakraborty
Name some films...and don't say Twilight Zone.
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...peace. : )
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I did a cursory check and it showed over 20 PAGES of posts. Scroll down to the bottom and it will have a list of pages, it goes to 10,then more.
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...I joined there on Sat Dec 30, 2006. Weird. I wonder if I could use The Archive to find anything older? I'd try, but I don't really care that much. lol I assure you I've been here for a long ass time.
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...confused. Lemme try again.
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He's made practically 20 movies since 2000, and if more than 2 or 3 of them were terrible, that's a stretch. He's definitely the biggest star of the decade in my book.
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They star in so many movies a few of them are bound to be awful and they don't have the same level of control as a director. <p> Viggo Mortesen came to mind without thinking (LOTR, Eastern Promises, History of Violence, The Road), but he has a few average ones as well.
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... "Results 1 - 10 for Jaka" when I do a search for me. When I get to the bottom of the page there's the same banner, or stripe thing, I see below this Post Talkback box, and nothing else. Kinda bummed out, because I wanted to see what an ass I used to be, or if I'd ever made a good point or anything. Heh.
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Seriously horrible. At least the Happening was amusing in a terrible way. <p> The Village is wretched. <p> I am not as confident in Christopher Nolan as I used to be. His work on Insomnia was very inferior, but Prestige is under rated, aesome movie. Don't expect to see it in the top 25, but do expect Memento and Dark Knight to make Beaks cut.
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...I am NOT getting 65 pages. lol
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Don't let your past (or lack thereof) hold you back, brother! Now, pick an actor who had the best decade.
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Dec. 8, 2009, 11:44 p.m. CST
Leo DiCaprio - not a bad list for the decade, except that Don's
by Miyamoto_Musashi
Revolutionary Road (2008) <p> Body of Lies (2008) <p> Blood Diamond (2006) <p> The Departed (2006) <p> The Aviator (2004) <p> Catch Me If You Can (2002)<p> Gangs of New York (2002) <p> Don's Plum (2001) <p> The Beach (2000)
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has had a perfect decade. Although , I haven't seen "Nine." And he needs more at-bats.
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that paraphrases Woodrow Wilson's infamous review of Birth of a Nation("like writing history with lightning"), while talking up Jackass:the movie is a keeper.
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... other than Hildago, which isn't my favorite. I dig a great deal of what Paul Giamatti did in the last ten years. Errr, lemme think on that some more.
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Just checked his IMDb page. Yikes.
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on page one and what it shows underneath it. Don't know what you're doing wrong.<P>Harry Potter casting news galore! Who is Luna? Is Vera Drake ...by Jaka, Feb 2nd, 2006 02:57:15 PM. And I think Jenny is hot enough. ... er jaka the 3 leads and i think the other background character p ... www.aintitcool.com/node/22363 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next
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Poor bastard- so close!
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But for the most part, he is pretty good at picking decent films. I'd have Eastern Promises and History of Violence in my top 50 of the last decade easily.
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Ryan Gosslin?? Daniel Day Lewis has only made 3 films this decade... well.....Russell Crowe? Ralph Fiennes ? That's a tough question ! ...in terms of women...Jennifer Connelly the first half for sure ! Second half will be Rachel Weisz for the films I haven't seen yet (Agora and Lovely Bones)....
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Even though everyone wants to punch him in real life.
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Some of them could be called mediocre at best, but that's pretty good all things considered. Unless you hate the Spy Kids movies, but I've never seen them, so who knows.
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But Matt Damon was 'golden' in TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE!
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The guy owned the last half of the 90s and then *poof*
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Probably best I can't go back that far anyway. I was different person back then. I remember clearly where I worked and what I was doing when I joined, though. And it was waaaaaaaay before 2006. <br><br>More important anyway is how in the hell that Vlad post got 300 posts ahead of this one! That thread is nuts! <br><br>Yeah, Crowe isn't a bad choice for best decade. Pretty solid work by him in a solid list of films. I agree that Lewis must be disqualified, though. The man has delivered some of the best single performances ever captured on film. But he'd have to work more for me to ever give him an entire decade.
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because if it isn't, this list is faulty!
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Dec. 8, 2009, 11:55 p.m. CST
From an actor's perspective I would agree Clooney is the man
by Miyamoto_Musashi
had some mediocre efforts, but had several great ones and was in a lot of movies. <p> For the ladies, Kate Winslet has had some mediocre ones, but some pretty great roles as well.
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He seems to be improving as the decade has continued- SYRIANA, MICHAEL CLAYTON and now UP IN THE AIR- all while maintaining his status as a major box office draw. When an actor can do both, they deserve additional praise.
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I remember I saw The Usual Suspects, Se7en, and LA Confidential fairly close to each other. "This guy's goin places! He's the bee's knees!" I thought.
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faites vous parlez le français
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but he only plays if you make the playoffs
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One of the best South Park eps, ever! Near perfect, IMO.
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The post count is figure over 24 hours.
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I wouldn't call it the best, but it was a solid decade for him.
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THERE WILL BE BLOOD's Daniel Plainview could only be played by DDL. No other actor could accomplish what he did in that movie.
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A whole fucking sleeve!
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...list of films this decade. Oh Brother, The Perfect Storm, Spy Kids, Ocean's 11 (12, 13), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Solaris, Good Night and Good Luck, Syriana, The Good German, Michael Clayton, Leatherheads, Burn After Reading... I haven't seen anything after that yet. But you could also include Up In The Air, The Men Who Star At Goats and The Fantastic Mr Fox. I genuinely did not realize Clooney was working that much. Pretty impressive.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 12:04 a.m. CST
I thought Tom Cruise would be a pick out of left field
by iamnicksaicnsn
But MI:II was a bit little nudity away from being a soft-core porn disaster. John Woo is not a PG-13 kind of guy.
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For, err, American Beauty? I kid you not, that was the most full of ones self I've ever seen another human being be. It was so bad that my synapses are still scared from that mess. For me, that was when I had to take a Spacey break. I never fully returned to the fold with him, either. No worries. The Ref, Swimming With Sharks, The Usual Suspects, Se7en, LA Confidential and Midnight in the Garden Of Good and Evil and American Beauty will always be some of my favorites.
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...I hate that.
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YackBacker. ......what?!
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when you didn't pause between Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and LA Confidential. But it's a good laugh.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 12:15 a.m. CST
TYLER PERRY MAKES A STRONG CASE FOR OWNING THE 2000'S
by BringingSexyBack
As painful as it is to say.
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I think I'll be ok!
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I have never seen a Tyler Perry film. Do I need to? It's nothing personal, either. Just haven't seen 'em. Never had a desire to see Big Momma's house, either. Eddie Murphy did then best, and then over did it. I kind of lost interest after he'd played out the concept. I do dig me some Bowfinger, though.
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I guess he has the look.
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A'ight. My internets brain power is clearly at dangerously low levels. I'ma hit the shower and the get down on a Trek book I'm almost done with. Look forward to checkin' the finale with y'all tomorrow. Lateski.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 12:20 a.m. CST
BEANPOLE MEME ASIDE, KEIRA KNIGHTLEY IS SEVERELY UNDERRATED
by BringingSexyBack
I think Atonement was a fine film, but if you haven't seen The Duchess, it's worth queuing.
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I would nominate Martin Lawrence as one of the worst actors of the decade actually.
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French movie- probably one of the best foreign language films most of you haven't seen in the past 10 years. Check it out. No bullshit.
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...before you go beddie bye. I want to address something you said that I missed: <p> "Second, quoting other sources when debating any point is as old as language itself. So you're kinda off on that point." <p> Okay, quoting facts to back up an argument is normal. Quoting someone else's opinion to back up your opinion is conformity. These are opinions about movies. For someone to say, "I hate this movie cuz Ebert hates it", or something to that effect, it's idiotic, to be blunt. If a person can't form their own opinion about why they hate or like a movie without quoting Ebert to back themselves up, then their opinion is worth nothing and they might as well just post links to other people's opinions.
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I'll never tell... I think Keira Knightley is a great choice.... Tyler Perry is pretty scary...how the hell does someone make as much money as him...? he's a freaking mastermind !
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I only asked because I googled charabia and it was French for this:Definition: (informal) - gibberish, gobbledygook
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Fair enough man. Cheers.
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Black Hawk Down?<p>The Incredibles??<p>Jackass???<p>Kill Bill??????<p>I repeat, what the fuck?<p>-----------<p>MEMENTO better be on no. 1, Beaks, or else......
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Is a ripoff of the french film "le pacte de loups" made in 2001 and directed by Christophe Gans.
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Fuck you. :D
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Gladiatior, Black Hawk Down, Hannibal, Matchstick Men, Kingdom of Heaven, A Good Year, American Gangster, Body of lies. That's 8 movies in 10 years, 3 of them brilliant, 3 of them pefectly good rentals, and 2 that you wouldn't change the channel if you saw them on TV.
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you should change your name to StrawManArgument man...<p> even for an AICN talkback, you are really terrible at this. I quote Roger Ebert, you say his opinion is meaningless because he liked a movie you didn't. I say I don't like a movie because virtually everything it tried to do, in my opinion, is a failure. you start talking about some made up expectations from trailers, none of which I mentioned at all.<p>it's almost like you are just going down the list of straw man arguments from wikipedia.<p>it'd be funny if we weren't wasting way too much time talking about one of the most poorly received movies of the last decade. the most inexplicable aspect of which is that it managed to somehow cost 60 million fucking dollars. Twice the cost of District 9? how much does it cost to shove some sticks in a cape and waste the talents of like 5 great actors?
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But I think at least two of Nolan's are top 10 contenders in Dark Knight and Memento.
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Searching through my list ( http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=43791386 ), and only going off 9s and 10s (it takes something special for me to bump a film from an 8 to a 9 or 10), Nolan is the clear winner for the decade with four films (I do not care for Memento). <BR><BR>Following close behind with three films each are Ang Lee (CTHD, Brokeback, Lust Caution) and Peter Jackson (the LoTR trilogy, not sure I should count this as more than one though). <BR><BR>And finally, with two films each, I have Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Howl's), and Wong Kar-Wai (In the Mood for Love and 2046). <BR><BR>And then I have a bunch of directors who only got one film in the 9s or 10s, but several more in the 8s. The Coen Bros. come to mind. <BR><BR>(Did I include enough parenthetic expressions there?) <BR><BR>I'm also going to add another big digression to the conversation that I think can get some mileage. What do we think about best Cinematographers? I have a few quick and easy picks: Christopher Doyle, Roger Deakins, Andrew Lesnie, Wally Pfister, and Emmanuel Lubezki. And, if I may, a _television_ cinematographer: Rohn Schmidt from The Shield.
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Since my Westerns list was well-received, try this list on for size. Note, I'm including horror/suspense/thriller as a single genre here. <BR><BR>Audition, 28 Days Later, Thirst, Dawn of the Dead, Dog Soldiers, The Devil's Backbone, Gozu, The Host, I Am Legend, Izo, Let The Right One In, The Brotherhood of the Wolf, Shadow of the Vampire, The Descent, The Mist, Zombieland, Ichi the Killer, Silent Hill, Cache, Red Lights, High Tension, and Frontiers. <BR><BR>Clearly, French and Japanese horror ruled the decade (and that's just with Takashi Miike, I'm not even any of the other Japanese horror of the decade, like The Eye, or The Ring). Note the paucity of exclusively American horror. American horror has been stuck in an insipid slasher/gore horror film rut since the 1980s, and for the most part isn't even worth mentioning.
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I'm not even _including_ any of the other... <BR><BR>Sometimes the fingers just can't keep up.
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End of story. I'm sorry, his work is completely bankrupt after Lady in the Water. The subtext in LitW is that anyone who criticizes his films is an angry mean little person whose opinions don't matter and who deserves to die. Tarantino gets a huge heap of shit here for being arrogant, yet we're giving Shyamalan a pass? And after the huge "FUCK YOU" he sent us in LitW? I mean, Death Proof may have been a private little self-indulgent joke with an audience of one (Tarantino himself), but at least Tarantino didn't tell us all to fuck off while doing it.
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The great thing about him is that he gets more amazing with each movie. I can not wait until "Tree of Life." Even if it is a film that I don't like, his work captivates and mesmerizes me.
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EHH!!!! wrong. Webkit. Build your own damned browser and leave us adult Internet users alone to chat. (kidding of course)
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Unbreakable is a movie classic, everyone always cites the sixth sense, but it is Unbreakable that really puts him on the map as a film maker. <P> Its a sublime piece of work
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I'm a relative newcomer for Lubezki, I guess. It was The New World and Children of Men that cemented Lubezki as someone to watch for me.
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Im anxious to hear some other thoughts on who did as well. Eastwood had a few great ones as well but Ridleys list makes him the top contender at this point.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 7:02 a.m. CST
WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN THAT CHASE CREDIT CARD COMMERCIAL?
by BringingSexyBack
Did that selfish ho blow all the rewards points on a DRESS when they could've had a VACATION with them? And the husband was HAPPY about that?!?!
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Dec. 9, 2009, 7:05 a.m. CST
I CUT UP MY AMEX CARD BECAUSE OF SHAMALAN'S COMMERCIAL
by BringingSexyBack
Outside of myself I've never seen a more unsavory, arrogant, self-important prick ever.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 7:11 a.m. CST
I WOULD COLLAPSE TOO IF I WERE TIGER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW
by BringingSexyBack
It's like winning 5 Megaballs. The euphoria would be overwhelming.
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So now, given the chance to present your own arguments why you dislike The Village, it's because it cost 60 million to make? You're the one who seems to be going to wikipedia for his opinions, my friend...projection... <p> I'm simply seeing if anyone can give rational reasons for why they hate The Village, and all I've heard are the same arguments about not liking the twist ending and that it's predictable and the story being flat, but not really giving any depth to the arguments. <p> I've heard people say the exact same things about Shyamalan's other movies including Sixth Sense: "Yo, I was in the theater with my buddy, and he looked at me after the movie started and was like 'Bruce Willis is a ghost yo', and then we started making out. Fuck Shamalamadingdong yo...he fucking sucks dude. Fucking hack." <p>
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Dec. 9, 2009, 7:43 a.m. CST
CHAKRA - YOU NEED TO STOP ASSOCIATING WITH PEOPLE WHO SAY "YO"
by BringingSexyBack
in real life. Online, it's okay.
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With the exception of Hannibal, he hasn't made a bad movie this decade. Body of Lies could have been directed by anyone, but it was an OK movie. And I enjoyed American Gangster more than most.
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... muthafucka. Good going so far, my man.
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- oh LAWD! I have gone on at least four fucking hilarious rants on that bitch. Where is that man's dick?
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While you're at it...don't forget Citizen Kane.
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Uh, Goodfellas? As in Scorsese? As in DeNiro, Pesci, and Liotta? Uhh, that was a 1990 film. 1990. That's nineteen years ago. This is a best-of list for the _decade_. That word has a special meaning. See, the "dec" in that word means ten. As in, ten years. A period of ten years. Last time I checked, ten was less than nineteen.
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... abuse me at will, I am so very drunk. What a blunder... time for bed.
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Rhurah, you or someone were asking me about this the other day... <p> I put up the first part of the list here: <P> http://tiny.cc/Nj02S <P> Also, HOD, did you see Dog Eat Dog yet (not to be confused with the more brutal Dog Bite Dog asian film). It's a Columbian movie. Very good.
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Haven't checked last night's posts. I'm just jumping in the pool right here.
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this list can fuck off!!!
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Actually, I enjoyed Hannibal. But I didn't think it was great. Certainly not up to SOTL. I wonder what reactions would have been had Scott stuck with the ending from Harris' book (wherein a drugged Clarisse lives with and learns to love Hannibal, attends opera with him, eats brains, etc)
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with starling too...i find her hotter...
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I thought it was unfortunate Jodie didn't want to do the sequel--for a great movie like SOTL, I think people (like me) wanted consistency in the follow-up. I was able to get past it. But (as attractive as Moore is) there was something sexy Jodie brought to Clarisse. hell, I like Jodie anyway and would give her every inch of my love.
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hows it going?
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I wasn't really waiting for the animation list (where's the foreign film list, dammit!), but ok, this looks interesting. Hrm. The Fantastic Mr. Fox is awesome. Loved it so much. Bleh to all the Pixar and Pixar clones. Waltz with Bashir, awesome. That made it on my list too. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and The Place Promised in Our Early Days are new to me, and are going on my "find a torrent now" list. Oh, also, Tokyo Godfathers. I just acquired that one, but haven't watched it yet. I love Paprika and Millennium Actress though, so I imagine I'll enjoy this one. <BR><BR>As far as the top ten goes...I imagine three of the top ten will be Miyazaki, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo. Persepolis better make it in there too. Along with the other two Satoshi Kon films, I'm betting that's probably six of your top ten.
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Still hoping "Stomp the Yard" makes the top ten.
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Just to piss youse guys off. Okay? here we go: <p> 1: Transformers Return of the Fallen. Because you never can have enough of Big Robots Hitting each other. <p>2: Transformers. Because Big Robots are your friends and Mikey Bay knows it best. <p> 3: Good Night and Good Luck: George Clooney directs, too. It's great. <p> 4: The Pianist. Yeah fuck you too. Polanski made a great film here. <p> 5: In Bruges. The midget is worth the price of admission right there, that and the fat American idiots. <p> 6: Michael Clayton. Another winner for Clooney. Go figger. <p> 7: Master and Commander. That's awfully good too. They need to make more. <p> 8: Monsters Inc. Best Pixar flick. Period. <p> 9: Fog of War-w/ Robert MacNamara. You should see this. <p> 10: Return of the King. I will give this a nod though the other 2 are really good, and the last 40 mins of it aren't necessary Period. But Sir Petey Jax made a winner here. <p> Three Nods for Fun flicks--THE ABRAMS TREK, Iron Man and Revenge of the Sith.
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but seeing as how unjust this list is, White Chicks probably will be below it.
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I didn't hate Hannibal but unfortunately it was hindered by bits of silliness from the book. Take the Italian inspector. I never understand the logic of one guy thinking he can outwit a criminal mastermind/psychotic genius so he decides to go at it alone. It's just a horrible plot device and one of the reasons I hated The Dark Knight because Nolan hashes it out with the Joker interrogation room scene. You just don't try to apprehend Hannibal Lecter alone. Call for backup. Lots and lots of backup. I'd rather tip a guy off and have him get away then wind up with my intestines on the plaza floor.
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I'm a little annoyed right now. Got a new computer at work, so insisted the tech guy give me some time to put some of my files on a zip drive. Some of these include AIBN files. I had a review of "Dawn of the Dead" 2004 ready to go, but I LOST it. The computer is gone; it's gone forever and I'll have to rewrite it should I really wanna post it. AuRRGH! It was good, too. Dang.
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and Harry get to work on yours
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Because M. Knight writes dialogue like a child. It is laughable at times as in the dinner scene in Signs when Mel goes off to his kids and pretty much every scene in The Village. I'm glad that his overratgedness has finally cougtht up wth him and he has been exposed for the Hack he is (The Happening anyone.)
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enjoys all the links / files he finds in my cache :)
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of people who like crappy movies.
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because not only will Stomp the yard be at the top, but Meet the Spartans and Epic Movie are sure to be there, right next to Jumper
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itll be a troll massaacre..<P>valkyrie needs food badly.<P>valkyrie is about to die.<P>speaking of arcade games, i was able to play LETHAL ENFORCERS over the weekend..that takes me back.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 10:13 a.m. CST
Abom - surely Beaks has filled the first three parts
by Miyamoto_Musashi
with enough crap/average movies, that right now he is trying to work out how to fit 50 movies into 25 spots, i.e. <p> "1. LOTR Trilogy - thats an easy one. <p> 2. Nolan Films (Memento, Dark Knight, Prestige) - if they have a go at me on that one I will comment that at least I didn't include Star Trek and that Asimov guy will takeover the TB and distract them all...."
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Dec. 9, 2009, 10:17 a.m. CST
Has Meet the Parents made it to any of these lists yet?
by Asimov_Lives
Definitely one of the funniest movies of the decade. Jay Roach has a much better understanding of film comedy than the overrated Judd Appatow and it is hands down the best DeNiro performance of the decade (unfortunately).
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I mean, more work to do. Sorry fellow Professionals, I'll be AWOL for this one.
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Great film, that one.
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We're all here, most of us are drunk and nobody is wearing pants. Carry on!
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Dec. 9, 2009, 10:32 a.m. CST
on a serious note Asi, do you think it will be something other t
by Miyamoto_Musashi
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Don't do it!!!
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May be more true to the source than STINO. Just wondering.
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I know you're all pornhounds.
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I have it at #8. Just a breathtakingly good, honest, and real film. And I say this as someone who found BEFORE SUNRISE close to insufferable.
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Haven't seen it. Can't say I'm a pornhound, although I would have included "Lesbian Massuese Training" on my decade best had porn been eligible for that.
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Yack have you started your holiday shopping yet? I found something I know you'll enjoy.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 10:52 a.m. CST
HERE'S A TOP QUOTE OF THE DECADE FROM LESBIAN HOMEWORK SESSION
by BringingSexyBack
Naughty girl: "What's so weird?" <P> Good girl (through nervous laughter): "The fact that we're supposed to be studying and you have your hands on my boobs"
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Dec. 9, 2009, 10:53 a.m. CST
This decade of porn didn't have any masterpieces like the last d
by Miyamoto_Musashi
Who can forget that cinematic masterpiece that was Edward Penis Hands
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No seriously, it was. Pretty accurate to the source material as well.
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Except better, because it got Zooey and JGL.
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You strike me as a man with sensitive taste, so I'll give you one hint: tribadism. Merry Christmas, buddy!
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Favorite quotes from "Lesbian Massausse Training:"<p> Brunette (rubbing Blonde's inner thighs and hey nanny-nanoo): Did you know you have muscles here, too?<p> Blonde (purring): No, I didn't--but that feels AWFULLY good.
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you're cracking me up
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Let's get Abom into the action and make it a Kris Kringle thang. What say?
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the miracle of lipstick bis who can't get enough
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Kris Kringle this year is swapping porn 'links'. I say 'links' because we obviously can't post real links, but stuff we can easily Google. I got Yackster, and he got me. Let's make this a new AICN tradition.
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Dirty Pretty Things, Serenity, Love Actually, Children of Men, American Gangster, 2012, that one about the Tsunami, Inside Man, Red Belt. Way to go, mate
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of choad
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Yeah, Ejiofor had a breakout decade- definitely a guy with another great decade ahead of him.
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Even though that was Cheadle's show, Ejiofor was excellent in it too.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 12:02 p.m. CST
Yack, he;s one of the few that is good in everything
by Col. Tigh-Fighter
even if theyre not the best films in the world. And what fucking range<p> Kinky Boots to American Ganster via Serenity. He's rapidly becoming a reason just any film he's in. The new Denzil, before Denzil stopped caring.
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I dont understand why it gets so much crap talk...it was great IM me on yahoo shortpagirl
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You sexy geeky thang you.
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Woooooow! I TOTALLY forgot about that film. Easily in my top five of the last decade. There was a period where I watched that film every couple weeks for at least a year.
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First of all, as I said before, quoting other people, articles, books and even movies when having a discussion and/or debate is as old as language itself. And it's not just "facts" as you proclaimed. As "proof" of that, since you seem to love to apply them to movies where they don't belong, take a look at politicians. You really think everything those guy say when giving a speech or having a debate is "fact"? If so, you need to do some more learnin', and quickly. <br><br>Next, whether you like it or not, a purely visceral and/or emotional response to a movie of, "I didn't like it because I thought it sucked" is as valid as the most overly wordy response the best critic on Earth could come up with. Because that's how the individual watching the film felt. You don't have to agree, but it's really not your place to tell them they're wrong either. If that's what they felt, or what they thought, then that's their opinion. Period.<br><br> However, I think your reading comprehension is extremely lacking. You took what I thought were very clear statements from me and twisting them into something completely different. Adding what you WANTED them to mean, convoluting what I said to the point that I just sat here going, "what?!". I thought maybe I was missing something. Like, maybe I wasn't clear enough. But then I see your demand for some other talkbackers to give actual reasons for their dislike of The Village. When they did, you repeatedly twisted their words into something else as well.<br><br> The story is weak.<br><br> The story has been told before.<br><br> The story is predictable.<br><br> It's a terrible use of some incredible actors.<br><br> The performances are wooden and stiff.<br><br> The twist end was completely predictable.<br><br> The twist end was straight up stupid.<br><br> We're tired of Shyamalan's twist endings.<br><br> Dude, what part of that do you not understand? Whether you like it or not, those are all perfectly valid reasons for not liking the film. Really, they are. I'm not sure what it is you're out to prove, but in case you haven't noticed, A) we don't agree, and B) these talkbacks - mostly, for once - have just been about DISCUSSING film. Most of the time the bashing and pigheadedness has been put to the side in favor of just discussing films. We aren't trying to PROVE anything. So please, unbunch your panties and give The Village a rest. We've all read what you think about it several times already. We're just going to have to agree that we have differing opinions and let it go.<br><br>Now where is my dang coffee...
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Takes on new meaning in an AICN Talkback. Sadly, I think it's often missed. .... coffeeeeee.... mmmmm.....
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Chakraborty was kind enough to compile the first two installments into a list, and I added the most recent 25. I compared that to my list and checked the status of the films I rated as 10s or 9s. In my list, I have 18 films rated as a 10, and 28 films as a 9, for a total of 46 films. <BR><BR>So far, Beaks has included 10 films I have rated a 9 or 10 in his list. They are (Beaks' position, my score): <BR><BR>Master and Commander (#52, 10) <BR> The Pianist (#54, 10) <BR> Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (#88, 10) <BR> Audition (#44, 9) <BR> Brokeback Mountain (#70, 9) <BR> City of God (#38, 9) <BR> Pan's Labyrinth (#37, 9) <BR> Inglourious Basterds (#47, 9) <BR> Oldboy (#56, 9) <BR> The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (#35, 9) <BR><BR>Now, as I said, I have 46 films rated a 10 or 9, so, it's possible that any of the 9s above rated higher than 18 are plausible (if I were to do hard rankings). The three 10s ranked above though have absolutely unbelievably high placement. <BR><BR>From my 9s and 10s, these films are not ranked so far: 2046 <BR> Children of Men <BR> The Lives of Others <BR> Good Night and Good Luck <BR> Amelie <BR> Lost in Translation <BR> No Country for Old Men <BR> Lust Caution <BR> Spirited Away <BR> Serenity <BR> The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara <BR> The Lord of the Rings Trilogy <BR> There Will Be Blood <BR> Batman Begins <BR> Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring <BR> Downfall <BR> District 9 <BR> Eastern Promises <BR> Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind <BR> In the Mood for Love <BR> Howl's Moving Castle <BR> Hotel Rwanda <BR> In Bruges <BR> Insomnia <BR> The Hidden Blade <BR> The Sea Inside <BR> The Dark Knight <BR> The Departed <BR> The Dreamers <BR> The Prestige <BR> Traffic <BR> X2 <BR><BR> That's a total of 32 (technically 34, the LotR _trilogy_) films that have to fit in 25 places. Even if we knew that Beaks wasn't going to include some absolute pieces of shit in his last 25 spots, there's no way he could fit all of those films in the remaining spots in his list. And that's not even considering the 81 films I have scored as an 8 that could arguably be upgraded to a 9.
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"Now, as I said, I have 46 films rated a 10 or 9, so, it's possible that any of the 9s above rated higher than 18 are plausible (if I were to do hard rankings)." That should say that the rankings are plausible if the film is a 9 and ranked between 18 and 46 (inclusive).
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Adaptation (#82, 9)
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"The Road" would have made a lot of best-of lists,had people waited until Dec 2010 to compile them, and if only they'd give the movie a wide release. I still haven't seen it
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Fucking hell. Tell me about it. There's only one theater in Atlanta that's playing it, and I don't have transportation there.
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last night. And damn, that was a decent flick. The rotunda shootout was pretty fucking cool, I must say. And I like the ending too: "Grazie".<p>And I like Clive in that role: by no means an action star per se, just some dude trying to get to the bottom of the shitstorm, trying to do what's right. Fucking fed up with getting denied putting down the bad guys. Good stuff.
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http://tinyurl.com/yhu9p6a Enjoy buddy!
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Funny People. AWFUL. Three hours of my life gone.
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..for The Road. It's in about 10 theaters within a 30-45 minute radius from my house. A couple of them five minutes away. I bet you could all see The Blindside on multiple screens, though! : ) ehhhh, sorry
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Displacing Stomp the Yard
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thats a film that just makes me feel good...to move out from the city and just slow down...
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The majority of what I've heard about that film pretty much amounts to "don't bother".
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I didn't even realize it had come out, but a friend of mine saw it last week. He said it was ok, but nothing spectacular. I don't know if the studio is trying to hide it since it's a disappointment (sure haven't promoted it much) or trying to build word of mouth (which doesn't seem to be working). <p> Ok, I must admit that I like Shortbus. I have watched it three times. Not on my best list, but I did enjoy it. <p> My favorite horror movie of the decade is Session 9, a little-seen gem from Brad Anderson starring David Caruso. It is awesome! I watch it all the time, filmed in an actual abandoned mental hospital and totally creepy...plus I never saw the twist coming (though it is so obvious when you already know what it is). Second favorite this decade is Paranormal Activity, because it did scare me. Not the greatest movie, but achieved it's goal of scariness. Third, and sure to be flamed, I found Blair Witch 2, Book of Shadows, to be very interesting (although there is no book of shadows).
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...to pepole discussing movies. I've I was having a discussion with someone in a bar with someone about movies and they were to claim to hate a particular movie...and when asked to explain why...they were to remove an article by Roger Ebert from their pocket and start reading his review...I would think they were a fuckwit who can't express their own opinions. <p> So you and others who hate The Village boil it down to you hate the twist ending, the dialogue, and now you claim...the acting. The problem with these things is that the majority of Night's films have twist endings and were written in the same manner, and these people tend to love some of his other films which have the same formula. So I guess I was looking for an intelligent articulation of where this film failed and his others succeeded. My curiosity is satisfied that there aren't any capable explanations from people here. <p> And Jaka, this seemed like the place to discuss such things. Go back to your happy place and your red pills. Put some Xanax in that coffee.
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And Judd Apatow's Gotta Feed Her.
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"The story is weak. The story has been told before. The story is predictable. It's a terrible use of some incredible actors. The performances are wooden and stiff. The twist end was completely predictable. The twist end was straight up stupid. We're tired of Shyamalan's twist endings." <p> This could be re-worded as "I don't like the story, acting, or ending." Be less simplistic, too.
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Look 'em up. lol The acting was always a complaint - read the talkback. Many of us expressed our frustration at Shyamalan's EARLY films being great and the latter ones being a rehash of concept, construct and execution - read the talkback. And it's you who seems to think the film is great because it's a analogy of the Bush administration. That's your reasoning for why it's GOOD? Come on, dude. I'm glad you dig it - most people don't. And it's time for the blue pill now. TTFN. : )
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This is the most polite flame war I've ever witnessed. Hats off, gents. I'm sending this TB link to the Queen of England- she will likely approve.
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Panties bunched much? I was giving a list of the reasons MANY people had given for not liking this film. All of which you seemed to be overlooking in your repeated demands for somebody to give you a reason for not liking the film. Really, I think you just want people to pat you on the back and tell you how intelligent your ridiculous equation with the then two year old Bush administration is. Not gonna happen. Not ever. You're a hoot, though. lol
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lol It's not even close to a flame way, because I don't participate in flame wars. It COULD have been a good debate if Chak would actually process what anybody else has been saying. We all get his points, I'm still not sure he gets ours.
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NOBODY HATED THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THEN! He had some of the highest approval ratings in the history of our country. Ya know? Geeeeeez.
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Its brilliant opening and stunning visuals were overshadowed by old, tired jokes, missing plot elements and the mistreatment of the villain. I mean, here was a guy who was falsely accused of fabricating a hoax who lost everything and spent the rest of his life trying to acquit himself, and yet we're not supposed to have sympathy for him? The movie was a C+ at best.
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That shootout in the Guggenheim is indeed aces. I can't see that movie not making my ten best of the year list.
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Worst movie of the decade. Absolutely derivative, lazy, and morally bankrupt storytelling. I would rank it up there with SIGNS as one of the worst movies that some people inexplicably love. But I shouldn't be surprised, since Beaks was also suckered by I HEART HUCKABEES. KKBB is really one of those 'with me or against me' type films for me. If you love that movie, then I am against you. Nice to see Ghost World, Spidey 2, Memories of Murder. Other films that deserve to be counted among the best: Election, The Two Towers, Eastern Promises, Trick R Treat, Spirited Away, Grizzly Man, Stranger Than Fiction. If 'Benjamin Button' shows up on Beaks' list, I will put my fist through my monitor.
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http://www.complex.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/minka-kelly-01110903.jpg
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Dec. 9, 2009, 3:09 p.m. CST
I'M DUSTING OFF THE OLD "THIS IS AN OUTRAGE" SUBJECT LINE
by BringingSexyBack
to prepare for Part 4. I'm hoping against hope I don't have to use it.
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I knew that sumbitch was up to no good. And I was right.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 3:20 p.m. CST
The Village is the Equivalent of the present teabaggers, birther
by GQtaste
Equivalent of the present teabaggers, birthers, aka, right wing motherfuckers! It just dawned on me after reading some of you guys thoughts and I had an epiphany. M. was way ahead of his time w/ the “fucking white people” line. It’s the perfect description of the right wing nuts presently. Sadly just wanting to be the party of NO and be obstructionist b/c they don’t want the donkeys to actually help this country.
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Just an exceptionally well-written, well-acted movie. Enjoyed the hell out of it. Not only a great Clooney performance, but Swinton and Wilkinson fucking deliver. The script got upstaged bu JUNO at the Oscars. I feel like this film is getting overlooked by every "best of the decade" list.
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City of God, Children of Men, Munich, The Good Shepard, Good Night and Good Luck, Y Tu Mama Tambien, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil's Backbone, The Host, The Incredibles, Amorres Perros, There Will Be Blood, The Pianist, Lost in Translation, The Iron Giant(1999), The Chronicles of Riddick, No Country for Old Men, LOTR, Gran Torino, Master & Commander, Gladiator, Plus whatever else was comparably good that I forgot. (Tied with City of God for me is a little 1995 french film called La Haine, so I can't include it here.) ((I would also like to include any episode of Mad Men, if I could))
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How could I forget Michael Clayton!!! Thanks Frat Boy
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It got upstaged by JUNO?<p> That's like your dick being upstaged by a hermaphrodite's.
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"Dave Chappelle's Block party, better than City of God." They should just put that shit on the re-release DVD/BLU case.
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...I'm not looking for any recognition. You've got some warped ideas about talkbacks. All I did was list some movies I thought should be on the top 100 list, I listed many, one of which was The Village. After doing so, many people responded that "The Village sucks!" and that claiming to like The Village is like "claiming to have herpes". <p> So I gave a reasoned and articulate response of why I like The Village, and some people (you) took issue with it. I tried to make a discussion of it to see if I could get articulate answers, but to no avail. Move on now, Jaka. You've got some issues. <p> And as for this statement of yours: "NOBODY HATED THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION THEN! He had some of the highest approval ratings in the history of our country. Ya know? Geeeeeez." With statement, I am convinced that an intelligent conversation with you is an impossibility. I'll be happy to eat some blue viagra as long as you keep taking your red prozacs.
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...it made me want to try to be more civil.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 3:58 p.m. CST
And Freckles Girl....good to see one or two people like the Vill
by Chakraborty
...but as for sharing your yahoo IM on talkbacks...I don't know...you do realize you're going to be flooded with messages about Frodo and Avatar, and whether you own a Princess Leia costume, right?
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Lesbian teachers: http://tinyurl.com/ykv7hh5
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But the images that this will cause you to imagine in your head will not be safe for work. Fuck the janitor for breaking up the session...
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...the Inaritu, or I'm dismissing Beaks for life.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 4:54 p.m. CST
Yawn lets see the inevitable Dark Knight in the top 10
by TakingScorpiosCalls
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Goatfucking Anal Molesting Bastard Lepers of Almada. Nice going.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 5:34 p.m. CST
"I don't participate in flame wars." Jaka sniffed..
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
...as his left pinkie finger was perfectly extended perpendicular to the tea cup he was holding, and his right hand gathered his skirts and he fled from the wicked, wicked barbarians into the night in search of a warm place to tinkle.
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Asimovlives!
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Dec. 9, 2009, 6:07 p.m. CST
YACK - I HAD TO DOUBLE-CHECK THE URL ON THAT ARTICLE
by BringingSexyBack
I could've sworn it was one of Abom's. That's great - life is stranger than Abom's fiction now?
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Jaka!
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Nice remake of FINGERS. But I prefer the directors previous film READ MY LIPS. Have you seen it?
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I really promised myself I Wasn't going to waste any more time arguing about The Village, but I just want to point out that on my side I have virtually every talkbacker but you, most major reviewers, and majority consensus on every aggregate online.<p>and you have a dopey semi-literate 12 year old who put her IM name in an AICN talkback.<p>don't you think, given that, the onus should be on you to prove why the movie is worthwhile, rather than whining to all of us that we haven't adequately explain why it's terrible?<p>to me, if a movie is interesting, but ultimately doens't work for me, there will usually be a host of nuanced points to be made on either side. but when, to ME, a movie fails on virtually every level: pacing, story, writing, plot...what is there left to say? how specific can I be? I wouldn't care of the twist was pretty phony and predictable, if the rest of the movie had something to say, but other than the labored and overwrought parable about "ruling by manufactured fear" that you've mentioned Ad nauseam, there was no "there" there. the whole movie was a head fake and a wink to the twist. and so when the twist was ridiculous, predictable, and uninteresting, there was nothing left to hold on to. <p>I quotes Ebert's review because it absolutely articulated just what I felt when I was leaving the theater, not because I'm unable to articulate my own points. that argument is really, truly pathetic. if you think that citing respected professionals to back up your point is a sign of critical weakness, you are very confused.<p>so now, honestly, I am TRULY done talking about this terrible film. have fun with your jailbait IM friend...
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I think he turned them in after they told no he couldn't join and no, he couldn't watch.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 6:53 p.m. CST
The Village: My four cents -why I liked it - I think
by Hey_Kobe_Tell_Me_How_My_Ass_Tastes
Let me get the expected - 'I can't stand most shia-im-a-lyin films' out of the way. Sixth Sense was dynamite. Unbreakable, was good, but way to over rated. Signs was just meh. <p>The Village (and I aint seen any of his other ones), when I walked out of the theater I wanted my money back! I felt robbed man, robbed! <p> But looking back on it - after threatening the ticket taker and running from the cops, I realized I hated the ending more than I hated the rest of the movie. <p> Night tricked me again into thinking that he had more up his sleeve than he really did. Just like if people are really honest about Unbreakable, when they first heard about it no one thought it was about comic books and an invulnerable dude. But all the trickeration just served to lessen the impact of the movie. It would have been truly great if he just made a straight forward movie without his 'trickie' shit, but back to The Village. I liked the atmosphere he created. I liked the sense of paranoia and 'something is out there' feeling. I liked most of the characters. But he fucked the film with the ending. He truly fucked it. What the fuck is my point anyway? Fuck, I still want my money back! <p> But it aint a terrible movie, just has a fucked up ending.
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Beautiful score. Also, it works better if you already know "the twist" and look at it as a portrait of a society ruled by fear. Or, as a commentary on Bush's post 9/11 America.
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Your approach to liking movies is apparently the equivalent of finding popularity in high school. You feel the constant need to back up your opinions by showing that other people ("professionals" as you call them) share your opinion. You then said that you're not in the minority based on this talkback, so again, you need the strength of numbers to back up your opinion that the movie sucks without giving intelligent discussion. <p> Then, you criticize my opinion because the people on my side consist of "a dopey semi-literate 12 year old who put her IM name in an AICN talkback", as you called her. <p> Wow, you're such a conformist. You have such a weak belief in yourself and your opinions that rather than discuss the merits and flaws of a movie, you need to amass a group of people to prove that your opinion is worthwhile that a certain movie sucks. Truly pathetic.
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Fuckin laid the wood on BMW
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...who insisted that box office determines which movies are good...because the majority of people support those movies, hence, they are the best movies, in his opinion. He said it's like holding an election, and the movies which sell the most tickets get the most votes, and are the best.
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I've been to the theatre maybe 10 times in the past six weeks. I watch about as much TV as most people. And I have not seen so much as one TV spot or a trailer(teaser or full-length)for this movie... and it opens in 2 days. It couldn't BE more under the radar.<P>Yeah, obviously movie geeks know it's on the way, but the average person probably doesn't have a clue. What gives? Bueller? Anyone?
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But I'll snag a copy of it post haste. Thanks for the heads up, my cinema sherpa.
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From what I gather, the studio is not happy with the literary ending of the movie and they've abandoned marketing it as a result. Way to go, Hollywood- not enough Megan Fox in it for ya, eh?
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I liked the story better when Stephen King told it in THE DEAD ZONE. King explored the burden of having an extraordinary ability to touch someone and feel their sins much better than Shyamalan managed (he couched it in comic book terms, but in the end, UNBREAKABLE is really all about someone facing their own destiny a la DEAD ZONE). And what the book did better than UNBREAKABLE was show the tragedy of having such a gift- what the Greeks would recognize as mythology and we would call a morality play. UNBREAKABLE is vastly overrated, it's nothing new, it has its moments, but it misses the most important aspects of its premise to make us think it something (a superhero story) which it is not.
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...and from Beaks's list I just watched City of God. Seems like everyone was on the same page with this one, an incredible film. Fourth film from his lists (supported by talkback acclaim) that I have watched in the last week. So far 3 excellent films and 1 clunker. Much more appealing than the usual cable retreads. Cant wait for the last piece of the puzzle.
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...that was a good analysis of why you both like and dislike The Village.
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No movie is ever anything "new".
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But some ideas are more blatant riffs on other material than others. Shyamalan was making his second major movie at that point, and by golly was he borrowing! Some argue SIXTH SENSE was a pilfer job too-- I am not privy to those facts to I will not comment on that issue. How you be?
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I was supposed to work tomorrow through saturday on a commercial. Got cut for tomorrow and saturday, so I'm only working friday now. Last week I was holding 3 days for a commercial and got cut then too. So, what was a proposed $1400 paycheck from the combined jobs has now become a $200 paycheck. Not too happy about that. <p> But it gives me time to work on other stuff I need to focus on and I get to catch up on sleep. So that's a bonus. How about yourself?
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The father-son relationship. Gets me every time I watch it.<P>I didnt like The Village too much on the first viewing, but my wife thinks it's his best movie, and she has brought me around a little.
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that you promised by Wednesday morning at the latest?
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I rather liked that one.
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Working on a real bitch of a case right now- a collection action where the defendant is withholding a ton of money and my client wants to repossess the equipment he sold them. It fucking sucks in terms of logistics- far more time consuming than me simply picking up my 10% check in attorney's fees. Oh well! Nothing works out as we would like it, right?
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Shyamalan excels at the relationships between kids and adults and the father-son material in UNBREAKABLE was the best part of that movie. Spot-on call.
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..as I'm likely to ever get here earlier. I'm going back to ignoring attention seeking trolls whose arguments and writing style resemble VERY CLOSELY previously banned attention seeking trolls. Peace to everybody else, though. I'm gonna cut out of this talkback and wait for the final installment. Of which my logic is telling me The Dark Knight will more than likely be number one.
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Learning that the film and TV business just fucks you in the ass. <P> *Sniff* My little man has grown up.
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That if someone shows a gun in a piece of art, it better go off or be fired later on. <P> Well, in UNBREAKABLE they suggest that Bruce Willis is bullet proof and have his son pull a gun on him. They should of had him get shot in the end so we, the audience, can see that he truly is bullet proof and unbreakable. <P> It is a simple rule - foreshadow and then deliver - but M. Night failed in delivering.
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The main girl's best friend is ridiculously hot- Olivia Bonamy. Wowzers. So far this movie is excellent. Thanks again for the heads-up
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By the way, you see this Lohan pic yet?<p>http://thesuperficial.com/2009/12/bfm_enlarged/enlarged-lindsay_lohan_topless_in_muse.php?bfm_index=1
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Saw the link over at AIBN, <P> If you have a link to photos of Lohan with Ryder, send them my way.
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Any tips?
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Any tips from a seasoned pro like yourself?
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Boy, that'd be half a dream come true.
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And for the record, the director of those films, Jacques Audiard, is the guy I personally pick to replace Nolan on the Batman series when they are done. Both actually have very similar careers and visual style, especially Nolan's early films (Following, Memento and Insomnia) and I think he could step right in and take over without missing a beat for the die hard Nolanverse Batman fans.
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I'm far from a big shot, so obviously I must be doing something wrong. Maybe you should ask JettL, are resident movie mogul.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 11:26 p.m. CST
Okay Conti. I'll just insert lots of sex when it gets boring.
by DVader
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I love the angles being played- just a dastardly twist on character types. And you're right, Audiard's cinema verite is very very similar to Nolan's, particularly the use of natural lighting in all of these scenes. This is a keeper.
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And if you like those movies, you should try and track down a copy of Série noire, a 1979 adaptation of Jim Thompson's "A Hell of a Woman", directed by a criminally (see what I did there) neglected Alain Corneau. <p> Yes, I am a French film snob.
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Dec. 9, 2009, 11:32 p.m. CST
Actually, DVader, the one piece of advice I can give you
by Continentalop
Is that start the treatment off with a bang, make sure it is visual, and end it with a bang. <P> And even more importantly, practice your pitch. I mean, seriously, practice your pitch and rehearse it. Tape record yourself, write it out and rewrite it out, and make it the most exciting and dramatic five minute story you can. And give them a hook so they feel compelled to want to read the treatment and/or script.
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I've seen maybe 15 or so films covering the last 50 years, so I am completely in your debt here.
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I'm not a complete French snob. Lots of there films i can't stand. But give me a French crime movie and I am in fucking heaven. <p> The French named Film Noir for us, so they must know something about that shit.
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since the 1970s. Sure, a few good ones snuck through since then, but for the most part this country has fallen out of love with the criminal element. There's no romance to these stories lately. Look at the difference between GOODFELLAS and THE DEPARTED- from the same fucking director and one is pure bliss and the other feels like a prostate exam.
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since you love these straw man arguments and logical fallacies, let me explain to which ones you're using. I'll list them in quotation marks so you can look them up if you like. <p> for example, I mentioned that the majority opinion, in a variety of ways, was in line with my opinion, and that your opinion is in the minority. I mentioned this SPECIFICALLY to show that because of this, the onus should be on you to explain your point further. I mean, if everyone agrees the sky is blue, and you say it's yellow, you are clearly asserting something that is outlandish, and therefore the burden of explanation should fall on your shoulders. this is a much more even example, of course, but the point stands. THAT is why I mentioned those things, not because I believe that, in and of itself, it makes my opinion more valid. either you missed that point completely, or you chose to ignore it in favor of more "ad hominem" attacks on me. <p> continuously complaining and asking for the people who disagree to bear the burden of proof is called the "fallacy of demanding negative proof". "prove to me the sky isn't yellow!" "well, it...isn't. I mean look at it, it's blue!" "but you can't PROVE to me it's not yellow" etc. etc. <p> "Your approach to liking movies is apparently the equivalent of finding popularity in high school." <p> this is obviously an "Ad hominem attack", where you go after me rather than my point. but more specifically it is known as the "fallacy of appeal to ridicule". you make a corollary first, and regardless of it's validity, it's meant to associate your opponent with something ridiculous. so that people pay attention to the object being compared, and not the analogy itself. <p> "You feel the constant need to back up your opinions by showing that other people ("professionals" as you call them) share your opinion. You then said that you're not in the minority based on this talkback, so again, you need the strength of numbers to back up your opinion that the movie sucks without giving intelligent discussion." <p> I explained how you either missed the point of what I wrote, or ignored it, but this is also an example of a fallacy called "false attribution". that is, of course, only if you purposely ignored my point. I think you just didn't read it carefully enough. <p> "Then, you criticize my opinion because the people on my side consist of "a dopey semi-literate 12 year old who put her IM name in an AICN talkback", as you called her." <p> well, first off, let me welcome into the glorious folds of your intellectual powerhouse the Kobe Bryant Ass guy. you've got a real brain trust going. (that was an ad hominem attack by me! see how fun it can be?) <p> "Wow, you're such a conformist. You have such a weak belief in yourself and your opinions that rather than discuss the merits and flaws of a movie, you need to amass a group of people to prove that your opinion is worthwhile that a certain movie sucks. Truly pathetic." <p> that's basically just a rehash of the previous paragraph, only with more personal attacks. I told you a lot about not only what I thought was wrong with the movie, and why I found it difficult (and useless) to get into specifics when there is almost nothing I DID like about the film, and I felt it to be a failure on almost every level. But of course, you latched on to the part of my comment that you apparently didn't even follow. which is a shame. <p> more specifically, I like the ridiculous conformist angle. a few things: one, you are obviously new here if you think I'm a conformist. ask around. two: this is called "appeal to motive", where you attempt to discredit my opinion by implying erroneously that my reason for my opinion is of a false derivation. (I'm wrong because the only reason I don't like The Village is to conform with everyone else). this is clearly not true. I don't give a shit what other people think, EXCEPT inasmuch as who should bear the burden of proof in an argument. (I mean, if someone had the stones to say The Shawshank Redemption was a bad movie, and then told everyone else to prove why it was so good, wouldn't that seem a little ridiculous? since 99% of the people who watch it think it's a masterpiece, clearly the one guy who hates it should explain himself first, yeah?) you've said, fairly briefly, why you like The Village. we've said, just as briefly, why we don't like it. yet you are the one begging for more specifics. you see my point? <p> "This reminds me of a guy I went to school with who insisted that box office determines which movies are good...because the majority of people support those movies, hence, they are the best movies, in his opinion. He said it's like holding an election, and the movies which sell the most tickets get the most votes, and are the best." <p> Of course, I never said anything like this. in fact, the opposite is true, if I believed this, the fact that the movie made $270 million dollars would be a bit of a contradiction, wouldn't it? in actuality, almost all of the highest grossing pictures recently (transformers, twilight, etc.) have been complete crap in my opinion. <p> but more importantly, this is a PERFECT example of one of my favorite logical fallacies (employed often by Fox news) called an "association fallacy". clearly, I have nothing to do with this moron from your school, and yet by using the phrase "this reminds me of..." you are likening me to him, in order to further call into question my motives. truly, nothing could be further from the truth than the ridiculous assertion that I equate box office with substance, but through this logical fallacy, you can imply that, without actually stating it. see why Fox News is so effective? "Swine flu is an epidemic in this country. Now, I'm not saying this is Obama's fault, but did we have swine flu when Bush was in office? no we did not...it's interesting to me to note that." did he say Obama caused Swine Flu? nope. did he imply that? well, barely...but that's the beauty of the "association fallacy"....no accountability. <p> most people would give up on you by now, but I'm waiting for a project to render from Final Cut, so I figured, since you like to argue online so much, I'd teach you how to do it a little better.
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If I want to read that much shit, I buy a book.<p>So, try to keep your postings SHORT, you FUCKING MORONS.
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I assume you've seen 'Le gout des autres'? I think it's a strong contender for a spot in the top 100. Apparently not many people on this TB have seen it. A refreshing romantic comedy that doesn’t insult the intelligence of the audience for once.
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No one wants to read all that...especially since the guy has lost all credibility.
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That was a very good deconstruction of an argument, one of the best I have read on here this year. You deserve mention in my most notable top 30 TB'ers of the year for that - whether I agree with everything you wrote or not. <p> It wuz perty!
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Damn you!
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Bad Willie - you and others on here may want to ditch citing the use of 'straw man' argument - whether it is legit or not - it has become too much of a cliche on this site - and it has lost it's effectiveness (if it really had any to begin with). <p> Bengali Surname - Amoebas are known as the most fair of all of the one -celled organisms - except when it comes the the thieving, back-stabbing, fine assed popcorn kernel stealing, well hung, paramecium's!
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Okay, my first instinct was right, don't read BadMrWonka's post...to anyone considering doing so...it's a whole lot of FAP FAP FAP. <p> One thing mentioned, though, was that I haven't explained in depth why I like The Village, so here's why. I mentioned the political allegory, but apart from the very timely underlying themes, I think it's a beautifully crafted film. Visually and tonally, I like what the film accomplishes, and it paints a nice picture of this small community living in the woods in modern day America, and does so in a very modest and solemn way. If you picture this film done by some of the other film makers out there, it would be completely different, lacking human elements, and focusing more on the "monsters" trying to make it a horror movie...but Night perfectly blends the balance between a human drama filled with suspense and tension. <p> The twist, which many people hated, I enjoyed, and whether or not it was predictable doesn't matter to me. I can watch the film knowing the ending and still enjoy the human drama, AND the fear manufactured by the village elders. <p> I like the acting. People are saying the acting sucked, but I enjoyed the performances, particularly Bryce Dallas Howard, and thought this was her breakout performance, and I totally bought the romance between Joaquin and her. I could see why he, or anyone in the village, would fall for a blind girl like the character she portrayed because of her strength and spirit. The performance I liked least was Adrien Brody as the murderous retard, but I'm not sure if it's the performance or the character that I hate. When he fell in that pit and was bleeding to death, I was very pleased, and wanted that murderous retard to suffer. But I thought it presented an interesting angle, because even in a society where people are raised and bred to be non-violent, they cannot take into account mental illness or retardation, where such teachings fail, and so does their utopia. <p> And ultimately, I didn't find the concept of this village existing and living in the way they do in modern-day times to be that far-fetched, because look at the Hamish...they are essentially the same as the community in this film. I even liked the little things like how the people of the village were told to remove anything the color red because it attracts the creatures. It created a visual symbolism, but it also mirrored the silly attitudes and pre-cautions taken in America post 9/11. I liked the acting, concepts and themes, visuals, music, and the overall film.
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Dec. 10, 2009, 8:31 a.m. CST
I forgot the mention the score by James Newton Howard....
by Chakraborty
Understated and beautiful.
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Someone mentioned that in a post in this TB. You know that movie defines disappointment. Christensen was ok in it, I liked the cast and the idea behind the movie. But god the execution was awful. it was like an hour and a half long trailer, not much happened, and the ned? OMFG that sucked. He lets the guy who is TRYING TO KILL HIM go, I understand why he did it, but does he really think that letting that guy go is going to convince him that all jumpers are good people? He should have wasted him, it's called self defense. It ended and I was like "That's it?" I realize that they wanted to start a franchise, but christ, make a complete fucking movie before you even think about more, that's what Jumper was, half a fucking movie.
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Sign me up. God I find everything post Sixth Sense insufferable.
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DVader I just followed that Lindsay Lohan link... hahahahaha<p> It was like the PG-13 version of Madonna's sex book! Hilariously bad attempt to be edgy... Lohan and effeminate boy on bed with random plate of food. Hahaha.<p> The stylist is the art worlds version of Uwe Boll.
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HOD, you didn't like M Night's oscar-worthy performance as the 'homestead farmer' in SIGNS?<p> He nailed that part man. The suits wanted to cast a middle-aged white hick but M Night stuck to his guns. He knew he was born to play that part. Yeah, he nailed it.
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Remember that? Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha!
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The world where M. Night is considered a decent or even competent director of films.
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She looks like she's 60. Cocaine is a helluva drug.
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Dec. 10, 2009, 12:32 p.m. CST
As Xiphos says, M. Night crawled up his own ass
by Hawaiian Organ Donor
He's an even bigger douche than Polanski.
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Everybody loved 6th Sense. Unbreakable was way less popular, but I found it very interesting. <p> Signs was very popular, but was when Night's Douchiness came into view, as well as his penchant for stupid "twists" and a high level of corniness. My least favorite of his films. <p> The Village does look nice, but I felt like he failed his actors (although I haven't liked any of Bryce's work since either). The story is as hackneyes as the acting and the twist is redonkulous. Although no dumber than Aliens allergic to water in Signs. While I feel the Village is terrible, I prefer it to Signs because at least it's slightly interesting. <p> The Happening I like. It shows MNS has completely gone bonkers. Unlike his boring bad work, it is so absurd that it becomes entertaining. Look! There's a message here! The Trees are angry! The whole movie is hilarious! Wahlberg and Co. crank the acting hambone to overload. Total train wreck. <p> Never saw Lady in the Water, word on it was just too off-putting. But I wouldn't write off seeing another of his flicks, depending on the topic he wants to make. a. point. about. to. all. the. dumb. populace.
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I've seen 34 of the 75 so far; 14 are on my own top 80 list, and of the other 20 about half just missed and about half I thought were very good but not great.<br><br> Well more than 25 of my tentative top 40 haven't appeared yet, in fact there are 32: (in rough order) The Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko, Memento, The Fall, The Prestige, Primer, Once, Spirited Away, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Hotel Rwanda, Angels in America, Lars and the Real Girl, The Lives of Others, Sideways, Monster, Watchmen, Amelie, Talk to Her, A Christmas Tale, Punch-Drunk Love, Secretary, Spring Summer Fall Winter ... and Spring, Let the Right One In, Milk, School of Rock, No Country for Old Men, In Bruges, Half Nelson, Minority Report, Revolutionary Road, the Hurt Locker, Almost Famous, and Moulin Rouge! (the overlap being Kill Bill, Before Sunset, Spiderman 2, The Assasination of Jesse James, Pan's Labyrinth, Up, and Brokeback Mountain).<br><br> Not enough overlap in tastes to be super helpful but it's a thoughtful list nevertheless. I'll be curious to see which of the aforementioned weren't on your radar screen.
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What a shame. look at her in Mean Girls...hot and extremely fuckable, and now she looks like a skanky crack whore. Doesn't help that her mother doesn't lift a finger to help her. My g/f works in a store where Dina Lohan shops occasionally, and she says she's nice most of the time but has this air of arrogance about her, like some undeserved sense of entitlement, like "Look I'm Dina Lohan". If she worried about her daughter as much as she worries about being famous, maybe Lindsay wouldn't be two steps away from doing porn.
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A world where a lack of a girlfriend causes you to turn your sexual frustration into rage towards J.J. Abrams, and a lack of meds causes you to believe that this gives you some sort of purpose. <p> As for M. Night, he's a good filmmaker who has made some bad films. Unlike you and most of the AICN talkbackers, I don't live in a world of absolutes...and M. Night's films are not really a part of my world.
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Lots of OMFG's and whatnot. Verrrry eeeenteresting.
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Lohan is an adult now. The damage is done. At this point it isn't up to her parents, both of which seem like POSs, to help her get her life in order. Also, I'm sure that