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

have to agree. SoS really is the absolute pits. i had to switch it off about an hour in.

yeah sorry gukbe, got to add to the chorus here. despite tht and despite myself, I did really enjoy be kind rewind so go figure

Have liked all of Gondry's features (didnt see the Chappelle one yet).

I am not putting down YCCOM in any way; I LIKE it. However, to be in the top 40 of an entire decade requires more filmic qualities. ie, most narrative films imitate novels and plays, and this one (written & directed by a playwright) certainly does.

I reserve the right to break this rule of course.

ppl who go to movies blazed, I don't particularly need to hear what you thought of anything...

got it grandpa

You'd have heard the same from me when I was 19. You DO comprehend how the impression something made on yr altered consciousness tells me nothing about it, right?

also milo, Killer of Sheep is a totally cinematic experience. I can't count it as an '00s film, no matter its distribution history, cuz I saw it in the early '90s, but I'd put it in the top 20 if I did.

I watched "Freddie Got Fingered" stoned with some friends a few weeks ago, because one of them said that it's a good movie to watch while high. He was right, in the sense that I never ever would've managed to watch it all the way through without the weed. So sometimes an altered consciousness makes all the difference.

cozen, Edward Yang made long (4 hours sometimes), slow movies which would bore the pants off 99% of filmgoers. Yi Yi is his Die Hard by comparison; that's all I meant.

hated it at the time for Spielbergizing the ending

OK, this is the last time I'm noting that Kubrick devised the ending of A.I. And ending with David at the bottom of the sea -- wtf, really?

also, how is the ACTUAL ending SPIELBERGIZED [sic]? Sure is sunny and beatific, isn't it? You make no sense.

apols, morbs

do you have a link to ur official eod list?

silence of sleep is (i think) the only movie i walked out of this decade. fuck yr whimsy, gondry.

SCIENCE, even. jeez.

Science of Sleep was a beguiling little film, a love story that, somewhere in amongst its homespun flights of fancy, managed, for me, to hit correctly the frustration of trying to make a relationship work when, for whatever reason, there is a difficulty in communication between the two of you. One person doesn't 'get' the other, and things become strained.
The Gael García Bernal character is, I admit, a bit of a petulant kidult, and the whimsy is over-egged at times, but there was still plenty that chimed with me.

You DO comprehend how the impression something made on yr altered consciousness tells me nothing about it, right?

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Saturday, February 6, 2010 7:56 AM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

all consciousness is altered maaaan

I'm no fan of Science of Sleep ftr. It is most definitely not a good film. But to call it dogshit is to overstate the case. The Gondry-needs-a-screenwriter cliché is well worn but true. It's an unfocused mess, and the main guy is a manchild as stated above. While I appreciate there are fleeting moments of honesty (the bar scene, as cringeworthy as it is, is good), it is too much whimsy etc... Still, some of the visuals were nice, and that's enough to raise it up from the level of dogshit or a total waste.

i really wanted to like 'be kind rewind', and i think i did manage to convince myself i'd liked it for a bit, but in the end i think the problem was not, oddly for gondry, the script, but the uh "odd couple" lameness of jack black and mos def. super-annoying dillwad who hasn't been funny since, i don't know, 'heat vision and jack'?, meets the incredible charisma-less man.

yeah Mos Def should not be in movies imo, or at least never comedies. still can't believe they put him in Hitchhiker's Guide.

i understood that movie a lot better when i realized days after watching it jack blacks character was supposed to be actually insane not just some guy trying way to hard to be wacky ala jack black

OK, this is the last time I'm noting that Kubrick devised the ending of A.I. And ending with David at the bottom of the sea -- wtf, really?

I dunno, it struck me as perfect 70s type bleakout ending a la two lane blacktop, also would make perfect sense if you were high dude

yeah that was totally the most spielbergian ending ever, agreed

Two more from my ballot in this last batch: Ratatouille and Kung Fu Hustle. Six total so far.

I've had six also: Master & Commander, A.I., Minority Report, In Bruges, LotR 1, Sexy Beast.

i started to watch Wet Hot American Summer tonight thanks to this thread but turned it off because it was not funny

SoS really is the absolute pits. i had to switch it off about an hour in.

Dudes, I have legit ADD and I've only ever stopped halfway through a handful of movies in my lifetime. A movie ain't that much of a time commitment, and sometimes they get better as they go on. Just sayin'.

Finally finished reading this thread after not having internet for a week. Thanks a lot for doing this btw, it makes for great reading.

I think I'm at 9/45 for now (Dogville, Memories of Murder, 28DL, Triplets of Belleville, Elephant, Kings and Queen, The Host and Brick). I'm quite angry at myself because having looked over my ballot, I realised I didn't vote for any Weerasethakul movies (would have voted for Syndromes and a Century ... I'm guessing it won't place and wouldn't have anyways had I voted for it) even though I got quoted for one of his.

I think Science of Sleep gets away with the manchildness because the Gael Garcia Bernal character is really a jerk with no interpersonal skills. Be Kind Rewind, on the other hand, sat much much more poorly with me because it seems like a touching tribute to the unique creativity of, uh, Michel Gondry.

Romanticism of the south is all well and good, but DGG does it for a south that doesn't exist and probably never did.

don't understand this comment. not that dgg doesn't romanticize, or at least poeticize, but one reason i like his southern movies is exactly that they show a very familiar south to me: small grubby cities, fading industry, half-empty main streets, overgrown junkyards, all of that stuff that never registers in hollywood's rare dixie forays.

all these abrevs are really confusing me btw

by the ... win?

on the moon

Goddamn The Host and Together for having generic enough names for me to completely overlook them when compiling my ballot.

oh damn i totally missed Ratatouille being in the list, so that's one from my ballot so far

OK, this is the last time I'm noting that Kubrick devised the ending of A.I. And ending with David at the bottom of the sea -- wtf, really?

I dunno, it struck me as perfect 70s type bleakout ending a la two lane blacktop, also would make perfect sense if you were high dude

It would've been cheaply bleak, sure, but it would not have matched the total, desperate bleakness of the real ending. If you think it was a happily-ever-after that David got to spend just one more day with the mother he was forever programmed to worship, possibly dooming her soul to obliteration in the process, and then suicidally shutting his now irrevocably solipsistic (i.e. finally human) CMS down completely, then I can only expect John Williams' warm music score deafened you to the extreme tonal dischord Spielberg was working with between the presentation of that final scene and the actual content.

That last scene is chilling, but it is told through David's (i.e. Spielberg's) contented eyes.

yeah, i guess. i did read the rosenbaum thing on it too and, i mean, i agree with him, those themes are all there and everything, but ... i don't know, it's all kind of pro forma sci-fi stuff, you know? there are a gazillion stories and books about robots and artificial intelligence that all grapple with the same basic themes of what it means to be human and yadda yadda. (see also blade runner, obviously.) i didn't feel like spielberg really brought a lot to the table on that front. and the contrast between the kubrick and spielberg vibes in the movie is interesting, but i'm more on the doesn't-quite-work side of that debate than the two-great-tastes side. (two directors, one cup.)

(i still like the movie and would like to see it again, which is more than i can say for munich.)

Sure, I grant there are probably about six dozen Ray Bradbury short stories that probably delve into similar territory, but I can't think of many films. (Blade Runner not a comparison point, imo.)

Again, it really isn't the tale but how it's told. I've seen very few Hollywood epics that engage in such a strong dissociation between what they're telling and how.

And I also consider it a mistake to dwell too much on the Kubrickian influence. He gave the movie away. What ended up on the screen is no longer his.

Can I also say I am one of those johnny come latelys who discovered Armond White in the aftermath of A.I.? And that his sensitive, astute pair of reviews on the movie were strong enough to make me pay attention to him throughout most of the rest of the decade, despite rapidly mounting evidence that he's not sane?

there's a similar dissociation in munich, but my problem there (and to some degree in a.i.) is i honestly can't tell how much spielberg's in control of that. with him i often feel like there's this unresolved tension between his instincts as an entertainer and this desire to grapple with Important Themes, which i tend to find more off-putting than engrossing and i think tends to shortchange both ends of the equation.

Yes, he clearly should be making his important movies with Al Gore and Powerpoint.

i like that he keeps trying and the results can be interesting, but afaic (and allowing for great moments in several of the movies) he hasn't made a "masterpiece" since raiders.

Yeah, I guess if the verdict is still out on on Spielberg being in control of his apparatus even now ... then I guess his riskier, increasingly conflicted '00s movies were never going to be an easy sell in the first place.

i just don't see the evidence that he is in control. he goes off-key way too often, and some of his movies (like minority report) feel full of editing-room patch jobs to me where he's trying to make pieces add up but can't find his way through. totally respect his skills, but seriously question his vision (or whatever you'd call it -- the clarity of his ideas and ability to carry them through).

That conflict has made him a much more interesting artist imo.

xpost Yep, what I said. If you weren't already digging on his technique before, the fractured fable quality of his best '00s work is only apt to increase the antipathy.

(i.e. If you think he's a great entertainer but iffy at best as a thinker)

You'd have heard the same from me when I was 19. You DO comprehend how the impression something made on yr altered consciousness tells me nothing about it, right?

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Saturday, February 6, 2010 7:56 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i think you're missing the point of when i said "i was too blazed to understand what was going on" - that was not me claiming any sort of special insight

like i said, i've never seen any good case for s.s. as a "thinker." attributing the gap between what he attempts and what he delivers to some kind of deliberate bifurcation of form and content is a very generous way of grading him, but i guess i don't feel like the billionaire machinist of jurassic park and kingdom of the crystal skull particularly needs my generosity.

Am I the only person who liked Polanski's The Pianist? I can't remember it being mentioned in either thread.

yes

tipsy and Gubke both OTM re: Spielberg. And, again, I say this as someone who really likes most of his movies (the last decade included). Even WOTW, which I think was ultimately a failure, had an amazing first half. Dude's got amazing skills, but maybe he needs an amazing collaborator to really put those skills to their best use.

there's always at least one misstep (usually owing to his gross [in the 'amount' sense of the word] sentimentality) in every spielberg movie that takes me out of his world, which suggests either a LACK of control on his part or a difference of opinion in what we both want out of a film or both.