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

sort of shocked that jess is still around these parts.

He wasn't for a while and then he came back.

just 2 respond 2 some questions upthread

• art direction--maybe this is not what i mean?? but the 'look' of that movie is a+ terrific--great blue/brown/black color palette totally upset by the green/purple/white joker--chicago is beautifully shot

• in terms of 'not as smart': i guess i was just disappointed by that end speech that gordon gives--and also the relative moral simplicity of the 'convict turns out to be good-hearted' thing w/ the boats? i do think its a smart movie though.

it's all been done on the dedicated thread but the joker's escape from the prison, to name just one major plot device, would have been derided as moronic in most other superhero/action movies- and not even those aiming for a tone as 'realistic' as TDK.

it would have been derided as moronic if it had been handled moronically

maybe i'm not hating on the movie as a whole, though i don't think it made my 50 (which i didn't save tbh so am getting sketchy on at this stage)

Yeah, I can't even really remember what I voted for now, either. For all I know, Wet Hot American Summer fell outside my 40.

there are parts of TDK I remember as anonymous action movie (HK) and parts I remember fondly (joker as nurse blowing up hospital)

on the whole I was more forgiving of the film's "conservative" message than a lot of folks around here but it didn't make my ballot, or even my noms list

the fact that it placed outside the top 20 makes me very interested to see what's going on at the top, it will be either pleasantly surprising or arbitrarily frustrating or maybe both

I claimed Kung Fu Hustle as my #1 earlier, now must shamefully admit mightn't be true.

omar, any chance of mailing me back my list? :)

i thought it was a bit lame that you didn't even see maggie gyllenhaal's character CONSIDER getting an abortion.

the dirty hussy stringing along two guys all the way through was offensive enough to decent family values imo

xp lol

I'm gonna lol when me and u and everyone we know places in the top 10

I will lose so much faith in humanity if that happens.

TDK was pretty good but, apologies to my past self, I hate batman/wayne and dream of a film that wld address his character properly by not showing its morality from his creepy egomaniac retard perspective. The film felt like it should have fallen out of love w/ him properly and paint him as this nuts rich loser w/ no redeeming monologues from the Real Good Guys, but instead it kept it all safely w/in the bounds of GRITTY. It was sort of smart but also very narrow. Downey Robert & Jeff Bridges were more fun.

TDK would have been better if Batman didn't talk so gruff the whole time.

I think of Batman more as a premier league football player.

ok guys

it continues (shortly)

bring it on! (2000)

^^ #14 on my list

Let's Roll (2006)

switching it up a little stylistically, just w/the font

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v212/etienne_saint/bourneidentity-1.jpg

Identity by a long chalk - the momentum from complete anonymity to painful revelation, while having no time to think or settle was pretty good. Each subsequent one worse. Ultimatum, Waterloo bit aside, was pretty dire.

The momentum of the first had changed into headache/fight/run/headache/fight/run/headache/jump in water in several meaninglessly different locations. Those shaky camera fight scenes and car chases don't really do it for me either.

― GamalielRatsey

The Bourne Identity - A pleasant surprise. Crackingly paced and very well-crafted.

- chap

"the bourne identity." that was like an arty blockbuster (minimally arty but still) compared to "italian job." i think they both did the job well enough, but "bourne identity" actually seems to grant its characters an intelligence that made it more satisfying to me.

- amateurist

The embassy scene in The Bourne Identity was pretty much the model of how to do that kind of thing. It's also an appealing American myth: We didn't know we were built to be this killing machine, and maybe we have a good heart inside, and can actually use our power for good, etc, if knocked on the head. The car chase onward bored me, though.

- Pete Scholtes

BOURNE - C/D

#40

The Bourne Identity
Doug Liman
2002
United States
(406.5 points, 16 votes)

I liked the second Bourne more, but both were a lot of fun. Great setpieces. I love the way some of the action scenes build organically from one avoided encounter with a cop on the street.

so does this mean all 3 bourne thingys will place?

Prefer Greengrass's direction (so voted Supremacy) but this had more Franka Potente and the element of surprise.

identity is such a terrific action movie but i think its the worst in the trilogy!

I voted Supremacy as well, but so low it won't make a huge difference. Can't really frown on Identity, and a great example of salvaging a troubled production.

so does this mean all 3 bourne thingys will place?

I really think they should (he said by way of trying not to directly spoilerize his ballot).

i have a strange feeling the bournes will place!

i fear the unfortunate revival of that xg@u thread will send potential traffic over there for a discussion of 50 word reviews...

i could drop it from new answers

I absolutely hate Paul Greengrass' direction. It made me dizzy watching it.

jjj i would never suggest you do that

*leaves money with envelope on desk, "gets distracted and looks away"*

guys 15 years ago xgau said bowie and john cougar were stablemates if that bores you DON'T READ IT

now make with the fucking screencaps

Really got nothing to say about the Bourne films or the prospect of three of them in the top 40.

if i had to rate them itd go something like

1 supremacy
2 identity
3 ultimatum

'he who talks loud, saying nothing'

I'd probably rank them:

1. the one I've seen most recently
2. penultimate one I've seen
3. the other one

jjj please remove da croupier's last two posts regarding the other thread. moving on.

I only saw the third one - and it felt like watching someone play a videogame. Personally, I'd rather be playing the videogame myself. Matt Damon had about as much character/personality as the little man in Pitfall for the Atari 2600, though playing Pitfall was more rewarding than the Bourne movies, because at least I got to make the guy jump over or fall into the pit of alligators myself.

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

the film is somewhere in between "great" (in parts) to mediocre/embarrassing (in other parts).

the last 30 minutes or so of the film (esp. the bar mitzvah scene) are truely great: only then did The Coen brothers took the film seriously and thoghtfully as they didnt for (most of) the rest of the movie, which is a not-so-much-inspiring take on judaism as philosophy and culture.
the comedy is vulgar on those parts because it was done while the directors didnt take their "job" seriously, and as a result - the characters,the story, the jokes are shallow, and some people would say even anti-semite (as they did).
at least they did made the effort to make the movie into something profound - a piece of art - at the last part,saving it from being their worst movie into being somewhere in the middle between their best and their worst to date.

still - some good sequences there too - the one where Gopnick is fixing the antenna on the roof is brilliant,for example.

― Zeno

Anyway, this is one of their best (like, top 4) and I'd declare it my favorite along with Raising Arizona if there wasn't some slippage into actual cruelty, as opposed to a study of gracelessness under pressure. All the roles are astoundingly well cast. And yeah, it's the most aerious American film about Judaism I can recall since Mazursky's Enemies. Key ambiguous line: "I didn't do anything."

Also, I know the guy who plays the shtetl husband in the prologue (he also did the Yiddish translation). We're in the same vintage film-comedy film buff circle.

― Dr Morbius

I loved loved loved this.

Movie's only weakness was that despite Sy Ableman's character being amusing as all get out I found it somewhat difficult to believe that Gopnik's wife would actually fall for someone that thoroughly unexciting (not to mention so completely unctuous.) But that minor stretch of credulity aside, it was pitch perfect.

― Alex in SF

New Coen Bros, A Serious Man

#39

A Serious Man
Joel and Ethan Coen
2009
United States
(416.5 points, 18 votes)

Awesome.

voted 4 dat 1

really pleasantly surprised by a serious man

they should make more films set in minnesota

i think it's Rosenbaum who takes the view that the Cohens are actually laughing at all their characters and it's a mean-spirited thing. this was pre-A Serious Man tho (maybe c. Big Lebowski?)

the view that the Cohens are actually laughing at all their characters and it's a mean-spirited thing.

we've discussed this quite a bit on other threads.