Sorry about the time between posts. My connection has been funky. Comcast sucks.
10. 300
Although a poor translation of the comic book, they got enough right about a fantastic comic book to deserve listing. Just skip the pointless scenes with the Queen and this movie will be great. I had long said that all Hollywood needed to do was make a movie about a single battle. Unfortunately someone decided that the movie needed a strong female lead for the ladies who watched the movie. No offense, but the strong silent queen was much better in the comic.
9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The only “serious” Carey film worth watching this decade. One of the issues for me is my love of Montauk LI, which plays a key part in the movie. I also always tend to think the grass is greener on the other side and screwing up relationships. I could see this happening to me too. Also, Elijah Wood is great in one of his many small quirky roles outside of the LoTR Trilogy.
8. Pirates of the Caribbean
The first one was an instant classic. If/When I do a ten worst movies the other two deserve to be on that list. Its amazing that Disney allowed the movie to be lead by a Homoerotic pirate. Unfortunately had this movie not had a scene stealing Johnny Depp we wouldn’t have to be tortured in other movies by the amazingly dull Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom.
7. The Motorcycle Diaries
A must see movie and a must read book. The early life of Che as he takes a trip around South America with a close friend. He could have lived the rest of his life as a doctor in the middle/upper class of South America. Instead this journey opened his eyes to all that was wrong in South America and the differences between the haves and have nots. Gael Bernal also turned in an incredible performance.
6. Shaun Of The Dead
For a Zombie Comedy movie, it has a large number of touching moments and some of the best characters in a zombie movie since Night Of The Dead. In all the Zombie movies there always seems to be a character that is dumb as shit but no one will admit it or say anything. In this movie everyone fucks up and people will call them on it. I also love when Ed asks for a Quid (basically a quarter in the US) while in the bar and no one asks him what its for.
5. There Will Be Blood
Originally based on Upton Sinclair’s “Oil”, Paul Thomas Anderson ended up taking it in a different direction. Paul Dano and Daniel Day Lewis give two of the most powerful performances and play great off of each other. The great line of “I Drink Your Milkshake” is from this movie.
4. The Departed
This was a close toss up between The Departed and There Will Be Blood. Departed just has too many great showings from great actors for this to be ranked much lower. After I saw Being Gilbert Grape and Romeo + Juliet I told my friends that Leo would be the next great actor. Then thanks to Titanic I got ridiculed to no end. Mark Wahlberg also needs to do more movies like this, smaller more intense parts, instead of his wooden emotionless starring roles.
3. The Wrestler
This movie was robbed at the Academy Awards. If anyone but Mickey Rourke had given the same performance they would have won. But the Academy feared letting Mickey near a mic. That this wasn’t nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Song (as much as I hate Springsteen) was a complete mockery. It also helps that one of the wrestlers is a personal favorite of mine, Necro Butcher. This movie is so true of these older stars, the only thing is reality is sadder. Most of them are showing up in Gyms that can hold 100-200 people and have only 20-30 people in the crowd.
2. Fahrenheit 9/11
Micheal Moore’s best documentary of the decade. I believe it actually set records for profit. That Bush is not under trial for war crimes or murder is a joke. In the leadup to this movie the NY Post and Fox News went insane trying to discredit Moore to the point of calling him a Nazi. In a great example of irony Fox News and the NY Post called him a modern day Joseph Goebbels, who is famous for being the head of propaganda of the Nazi State. It still amazes me that after so many people saw this movie, Bush got re-elected.
1. Sin City
This is how you convert a comic to a movie. You take the comic and make it the story board. As great as “That Yellow Bastard” and “The Big Fat Kill” are, its “The Hard Goodbye” with Mickey Rourke as Marv that takes the cake. Almost perfectly translated from comic to movie, and there’s no one but Mickey that could have played Marv. THG also has the best line of the movie,
Most people think Marv is crazy. He just had the rotten luck of being born in the wrong century. He’d be right at home on some ancient battlefield swinging an axe into somebody’s face. Or in a Roman arena, taking his sword to other gladiators like him. They would’ve tossed him girls like Nancy back then.
That line resonates with too many people I know. Also kudos to Bruce Willis, who continues taking roles of older characters and playing them with quite a high level of dignity. The best I can say about The Big Fat Kill (since I’m not a Clive Owen fan) is that Miho steals the story without saying a word.
Honorable Mention
In No Particular Order
The Hangover: A Classic comedy that just makes you laugh. Hollywood can’t manage that too often
District 9: Its between this and Serenity for best Sci-Fi space film. I can’t recommend it enough after seeing it a few days ago.
Return Of The King: Finally the LoTR film that stops talking and just has battles. After sitting through far too much BS in Fellowship and only one great scene in The Two Towers (Last March of The Ents) this was what we were waiting for.
Borat: People were actually rolling in the rows laughing when I saw this in theaters. Although it ends up here cause you don’t know what was scripted and edited and what wasn’t.
I might follow this up with the ten worst films.
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