The (Now-Overrated) ILX Top 100 Films of the 2000s Poll Results

i actually like two towers best of the lotr movies, because without being weighed down by throat-clearing or endless farewells, it just does action-action-action.

Note to self: Do not see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

I liked The Diving Bell as a book, found it ever so slightly dull in realization.

I'm guessing this will change over by the time we get to the upper third, but this list at this point seems refreshingly non-auteurist.

great movie, I think. I love the parts filmed from his point of view

Eric otm

I don't really understand ppl who can't make themselves watch the LOTR movies. I know they're lolfantasy and that I'm predisposed to that sort of thing but I really did think the did an excellent job of distilling 98% of what made the books so great and expressing that same sense of scope and wonder via film.

I can't remember which LOTR installments I saw. I think it was 1 & 2. They kind of run together in my mind. H&KGTWC is a pretty solid comedy, but if H&KEFGB places, I will be outraged.

harold and kumar is the first one i voted for i think

yeahhh I don't think that's much of a risk
xp

There's an ITR thread with 15,000 posts on it

Whoa. Also: "try glasgow more" has 7,400, and "Chicago: This Is Grand" has 6,800.

I made myself watch the LoTR movies, I got some good sleep during two of them. If you keep the sound relatively low, they're pretty lulling.

didn't see Diving Bell, but I like it

i actually like two towers best of the lotr movies, because without being weighed down by throat-clearing or endless farewells, it just does action-action-action.

otm

did not vote for any of them tho. they're well-made comic books and i'll be happy (or at least willing) to watch them again with my kids sometime, but that's about all i can say for them.

if I made a list of 40 books I'd probably put a well-made comic book on it.

I don't think Jackson's movies get Lord of the Rings right at all, or at least what I personally like about those books.

A strange and gorgeous film. Not at all the sappy inspirational tale that someone else might have generated using the same material.

When people say "well-made comic book" I don't think it's a slander against comic books, rather an expression that it's something that doesn't transcend the genre.

I don't really understand ppl who can't make themselves watch the LOTR movies.

I saw the first one in the theater. Was kind of into the Hobbit mythology at the beginning, but then about halfway through, it became a series of endless scenes with characters marching someplace or doing battle with this or that, and I found it hard to stay interested.

I really did think the did an excellent job of distilling 98% of what made the books

That's why I can't make myself watch the movies.

rather an expression that it's something that doesn't transcend the genre.

why do you hate genres

LOTR movies are awesome and fun, and i don't really care for fantasy

like, why are genres bad and why is "transcending" them desirable

x-post

xp - maybe it would be better to say "medium" as opposed to "genre"?

i like some genres just fine, but if someone suggests a movie in a genre I don't have much affection for, man that movie better transcend the hell out of it!

I always thought the Diving Bell would be better as a super-realistic version of the publishing world where dude is put through 80 rounds of rewrites and edits until he loses it, furiously blinks "fuck you" and the movie ends.

I saw the first one in the theater. Was kind of into the Hobbit mythology at the beginning, but then about halfway through, it became a series of endless scenes with characters marching someplace or doing battle with this or that, and I found it hard to stay interested.

yeah I seriously bet 80% of the audience who hadn't read the books would have a difficult time explaining the plot of the film(s) they just saw beyond "he has to destroy the ring, also, gollum is evil...also there are lots of big battles"

*watch out for orcs

xp - maybe it would be better to say "medium" as opposed to "genre"?

either way you're insulting the medium... do people praise films for "transcending" the genre of film?

It had been 20 years since I'd read the books when I saw the films - and pretty much I would have explained the plot as "he has to destroy the ring, also, gollum is evil ... also there are lots of big battles and they march around a lot, plus elves that are supposed to be hot that are just kinda goofy looking"

like "wow, 2001 was an amazing movie - so amazing it made me forget I was watching something as lame as a movie"

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if the source is video, i dont see the problem with using it for the home video transfer.

― brews before HOOS (s1ocki), Thursday, February 4, 2010 1:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i mean i guess it comes down to your preference for a 24p fake-film look but it doesn't sound like it was a technical screwup

― brews before HOOS (s1ocki), Thursday, February 4, 2010 1:08 PM (1 hour ago)

well, the frame rate was off, which caused a discernible speedup of people's movements and threw off the rhythm of the film. plus, you wouldn't have known it was shot on video from watching the film in a theatre, there was a lot of praise for the cinematography at the time.

like "wow, 2001 was an amazing movie - so amazing it made me forget I was watching something as lame as a movie"

actually pretty otm...

Mathieu Amalric's general appeal is stomping around being obnoxious, couldn't bring myself to watch him in bed for 2 hours.

'do people praise films for "transcending" the genre of film?'

ad copy for event movies do. "this isn't just a movie, but an EXPERIENCE"

LOTR movies are awesome and fun, and i don't really care for fantasy

^ this

so, yeah I think they transcend their genre

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/teamamerica_800.jpg

Yeah, confusion over the film's contradictions seems to me to be it's most salient benefit. But at the same time, they could've delved into the contradictions a whole lot more and the film would've been stronger for it. For instance, the fact that most of those actors have, y'know, actually played the Team America roles at various points in their real careers (which is a much more interesting hypocrisy, especially if we're supposed to believe that this movie is a satire of the Bruckheimer propogandae) is never really delved into at all, aside from Helen Hunt weilding a sword and purring "I've done a few action movies."

― Eric H.

Just saw this for the first time last night (July 4th AMERICA FUCK YEAH - seemed appropriate) after many misgivings and hemmin and hawin, but a friend insisted. Overall - great looking sets/funny puppets, pretty funny songs, fairly shitty script, completely loathsome politics. The Kim Jong Il thing, for example, is a funny concept - the lonely dictator wandering around his palace - but the inexplicable weirdly racist voice almost ruins it, its so unnecessary and distracting... I find much of Stone/Parker's ouevre does this to me, there are lots of funny ideas, often well executed, but then there's these subtexts and underlying ideas that are really obnoxious and stupid.

Plus they run a non-union shop. Fuck that shit.

― Shakey Mo Collier

It's a shame though, for at least the 1st half the straight faced use of blockbuster action devices applied to current symbols of "terrorism" gave the film an energized sense of danger. The opening sequence of the little boy walking into a shadowy terrorist had a weirdly fun sense of manifesting peoples worst fears w/r/t terrorism. The exploding titles credit sequence that preceded this was also a nice gesture of mocking such spectacle while respecting the fun power of the form.

― theodore fogelsanger

#79

Team America: World Police
Trey Parker
2004
United States
(237.5 points, 8 votes)

kinda interested in watching m&c now - had written it off as a russell crowe garbage and nvr really even tht about watching it. always meant 2 see diving bell but something abt that blonde chick's face made me not want to watch it. also i think mb overly art-directed. will probably nvr watch lotr or almost famous.

lol morbz

ad copy for event movies do. "this isn't just a movie, but an EXPERIENCE"

taking ad copy literally = lolz

I'm pretty sure Mel Gibson's street team was out there hyping Passion as more than a movie also. Like it's not enough to just be a good movie about torture, but a necessary component for spiritual communion.

interesting 2 stats nerds: team america has the highest points/vote so far

that is a high per vote avg 4 team america wow xp

Team America was weak tea. Must be a few libertarians around.

Team America is so boring.

yeah that's almost an average of #10

xp Shakey - I don't see how that's necessarily insulting the medium - "as lame as a movie," "only a comic book" - it's that different media have different formal properties. What makes a compelling comic book doesn't necessarily make for a compelling movie, and vice versa. Like - what if they made a movie of one of your favorite comic books that was basically just shots of the book and someone off-screen turning the pages with voice-over narration by one person reading in different voices, and a slightly distorted-sounding home stereo playing in the background? Most people would think that that would not make for a good movie, but it would - theoretically - replicate the experience of reading the comic book.

i never saw team america looked pretty dumm

I forgot I used to actually have intelligent thoughts about movies and would post them on ILX. Thanks for the reminder, omar.

is there a sword n sorcery fantasy film that "transcended the genre" better than LOTR?

please to name

this is the last film with a single digit # of votes

gotta run for awhile, be back later for 71-78...

best thing about Team America was the "montage" song. definitely a filmic device that I've grown to hate, and well-parodied.

but yeah, MOVIE SO RACIST