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

CK not CF

i liked synechdoche but i have a weakness for big movies (and books) that have Important Things to say about Art and Life

how high will Eternal Sunshine place I wonder (if Synechdoche made it than I assume ET - which is definitely superior - will too...)

Oh geez - back to Far From Heaven

Whoever said it was/felt like an academic exercise, I agreed with - though I really appreciated it and this movie was one I voted for. When it came out, the first thing I thought was that it was Haynes' tribute to "MCM 66: Cinematic Coding and Narrativity" - one of the intro classes in the MCM department at Brown (called Semiotics back when Todd Haynes took it), because All that Heaven Allows was on the syllabus and we spent a lot of time discussing it.

It was also really beautiful visually, and I felt the manneredness of the performances worked with the concept of the film.

That is the worst film by miles to appear on this list so far. What is it even doing here?

IIRC ESotSM came in #2 in the 2000-2004 poll.

haha which movie u talking about?

how high will Eternal Sunshine place I wonder (if Synechdoche made it than I assume ET - which is definitely superior - will too...)

― The Tommy Westphall Universe Hypothesis (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, February 5, 2010 2:12 PM (19 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

im thinking #2

mcm is the weirdest department <3

I wouldn't be surprised if Eternal Sunshine came in at #1

Above The Transporter 2? No way.

eternal sunshine + mulholland are the inevitable top two imo

no clue about #3-5

Sunshine beating Drive for the #1 slot would be a travesty.

Little Miss Sunshine, I mean.

sarahel did you 'major' in mcm btw?

I know Elephant as the only movie Mike D'Angelo gave a 0 out of 100.

good times

xpost
lol. ES is a movie that I wansn't really into when I saw it, but I'm eager to revisit it

apart from park chan-wook stuff, the only korean movie i can bring to mind from this decade is Take Care of My Cat, which i remember as really charming but don't actually remember too well. besides the green planet, am i missing lots of awesome stuff?

― men lie, women lie, hips don't (zvookster), Friday, 5 February 2010 02:19 (16 hours ago)

someday I'll start my rolling korean film review thread

xp - daria - yes I did - and it was a fellow MCM major and member of Brown Film Society that told me that I had to see Synecdoce, New York which I opined plenty about in the thread about that movie.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/artificial-intelligence-ai-jude-law.jpg

at the end of spielberg's "artificial intelligence," the movie goes from being pretty good or nearly great into being a goddamned masterpiece.

― Eric H.

if the rest of the movie had been as good as the last portions, i think it could've really cleaned some clocks.

the earlier sections were better as the short story the movie was based upon.

― msp

Just because he wasn't breathing behind the camera doesn't mean his vision isn't stamped on the film (in a quite dominant way too). I've said this before millions of times (including somewhere on ILX I'm sure) but there are moments in that film that Spielberg could never have created and moments Kubrick could never have created. Thus I sleep VERY well at night stating that A.I.: Artificial Intelligence is the best film by BOTH directors (unless Spielberg turns into Mizoguchi in his remaining time here).

- Kevin John Bozelka

#66

A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Steven Spielberg
2001
United States
(274 points, 17 votes)

Pro: It is amazing.
Con: My pullquote.

synecdouche is 100% concept, 5-10% execution... would have liked to actually care about i don't know the story or the characters in the 2nd act rather than just introduce a new complicated twist and then waste it by introducing another twist just as forgettable as the one from 5 minutes previous. total rush job by the third act that was convenient as everybody (incl the filmmakers apprently) couldn't wait for it to end. Easily the worst movie on this list that i spent $10 on.

Amazing film.

xpost- oh wicked, i had no idea. i took a grad seminar there, so i know the place. off to read the other thread.

i saw ai as the third leg of a self curated tripple feature following pootietang and the fast and the furious at the battery park cinema on a v hot day - its sucked - who the fuck are you people

had A.I. 26th. Most terrifying Abandoned by Mother scene ever. Maybe Jude Law's best performance. A caliber of imaginative world-making no other pop filmmaker can approach.

Saw 2x in theaters in '01; bought the DVD a few years ago and haven't watched it yet...

and i usually luuuv ott retardo future bullshit

"It’s crap. Science fiction has to be logical, and it’s full of lapses in logic." Dunno if I agree with Aldiss that sci-fi HAS to be logical but all the nonsense in AI is definitely a negative.

One third of the way through, one of my votes shows up. (AI = my #39)

AI is ridiculous. had more endings than The Return of the King iirc.

I don't remember anything about AI, in fact I think it is one of the rare films that sent me to sleep in the cinema. Have no inclination to ever watch it again.

You guys are getting me excited to rescr**n this.

had more endings than The Return of the King iirc.

Really not Kubrick's fault that you don't know what an ending is.

(and the script treatment Kubrick developed was essentially intact)

is rescr**n like "F star star"?

A.I. kind of fell apart toward the end, but the simultaneous creepiness and poignance of the scenes with the robot-boy David were worth it. Agree with Morbius that the child abandonment scene was terrifying and heartbreaking. I think this movie speaks to anyone who felt out of place as a child

couldn't care less that kubrick's script treatment was intact. it didn't make the film any less awful.

I prefer to consider this fable/fantasy not SF, as with E.T.

Actually, my blurb up there pretty much sums it up. It's above average Spielbergian futurism up until David makes it to flooded out NYC. At which point, the movie turns into one of the smartest, most philosophical mass market movies of the decade, a pitch that crescendos all the way up to the mother. fucking. credits.

admittedly up til the abandonment scene the thing is pretty damn amazing.

another movie I'm looking forward to seeing again

Not to derail the thread, but, jeez, what a decade Spielberg's had, with this, War of the Worlds and Munich.

Gattaca is still Jude Law's best performance though. Cold-bloodied posh-boys is the one thing he can do well.

jed, I just meant some ppl's instinctive reaction is to think Spielberg ruuuuuuined Kubrick's masterful vision

and if only The Terminal had a different lead actor in it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/Kung_fu_hustle_010138_.jpg

It has the beauty of a Zang Yimou film and the inspired lunacy of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Wonderful, I laughed my arse off.

― chap

Definitely top five of the year material. I want this guy to make two films a year until i die, please.

The visual flourishes were so dead on; personal fave was the cat shadow leaping then dividing in two perfect halves.

― Forksclovetofu

Put this in my top 20 of the decade. Forgot the Beast going all bullfrog in the last fight.

Chow supposedly in pre-prod with sequel.

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius)

Have we had a thread about Kung-Fu Hustle yet?

#65

Kung Fu Hustle
Stephen Chow
2004
Hong Kong
(278.5 points, 16 votes, 1 first place)

wow, you guys are puttin all the good stuff in the 60s huh

I felt worse for robot chris rock than robot sixth sense kid.

I find that any film with the "too many endings" problem is more tolerable on the second viewing

haven't gone back to watch AI again, but I remember thinking it would've been great if it ended with the boy in the pod staring at the blue lady

I didn't vote for it, but it is my favorite speilberg besides jaws, prolly cause the kubrick pessimism cramps spielberg's natural instincts for audience pandering

1 first place? did El Tomboto vote?

morbs, i'm baffled by the love the film gets but it's one of those ones where i admire how wildly opinions diverge on it. like people have the exact opposite take on the film, where it starts to get truly great/ completely loses it.