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12-26-2001, 09:55 AM
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#32 of 235 
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Member
Join Date: Aug 2001
Local Time: 10:14 PM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 7,674
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As a mostly recreational moviegoer, my viewing was limited, so take my choices as you will. I won't have 10 of either, but I know what I like...
Favorite Films of 2001:
1) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
2) Moulin Rouge
3) Black Hawk Down
4) Vanilla Sky
5) Monster's Inc
I have YET to see Mulholland Drive (I am not a big Lynch fan, but with the raves, I will see it), A Beautiful Mind, Amelie, etc., etc.
I have seen AI and Memento, but I did not feel strongly enough about them to include them.
Worst Films...I did not see the legendary: Freddy Got Fingered, Joe Dirt, Scary Movie 2...
Tomb Raider
3000 Miles to Graceland
Jurassic Park III
Best Movie (not released this year) that I saw for the first time:
The Godfather I and II
I ejected III about an hour in, sorry.
Dumb Comments:
I thought 2001 was a good year. Any of my top 3 would have been better than my favorite film of 2000 ( Almost Famous). I think the dearth of quality primarily existed during the summer months, excepting MR. As a strong proponent of summer movies, I was burned quite frequently this year. Studios (Universal is on my **** list with their sequels) seemed satisfied with 1st weekend grosses, and in most cases, the hype dominated the finished product. A disturbing trend that does not portend well for follow-up summers (although I have great hope for the coming summer - well, for Ep. II and Spider-Man). Moulin Rouge was the very rare exception, and atypical of the crap we were being fed. The year ended very strong however. I saw 2 of my top 4 in a 3 day span, also buying the DVD of #2 in between. I am eagerly awaiting BHD and ABM as well.
Why my choices?
Monsters, Inc was thoroughly charming. Elegant, simple, and wonderful. I laughed less than when I saw Shrek, but smiled throughout!
Vanilla Sky is a tough one. It worked or it didn't, as evidenced by it's MANY critics. But it worked for me. A powerful movie that reached me on many levels. Beautiful to look at, interesting to watch, and in the end, worth the journey. Cameron Diaz is tremendous in this as well.
Black Hawk Down is not easy to watch. I knew what was coming, and in many ways, that made it more painful. From the moment Pvt. Blackburn (Orlando Bloom) falls out of the helo until the very end was honest and gut-wrenching. Besides the absolute technical brilliance of Ridley Scott, the actors understood their roles in the tale to tell. A rare thing in Hollywood when the actors step back, and endeavor to project the story, not their role. That is the one thing this movie really needed to effectively work. It was a testament to the heart and soul of the men who protect and FOLLOW orders, and their story knows no country (IMO). War movies don't have to be anti-war. That's a no-brainer, and the soldiers who do the fighting know that more than any auteur. The films just have to be honest.
Moulin Rouge was an explosion of color and sound. I can't even begin to express how wonderful an experience this film was. Baz delivered again, and in complete contrast to summer fare, viewers could see firsthand what passion and dedication looked like on screen, when the director/actors/crew care more about the movie than their paychecks.
And finally, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. I am not sure how I can convey what I feel about this movie. Every good word I spoke about MR applies here. This is filmmaking and storytelling expertly combined. I owned the trilogy for 2 decades, but didn't read it until this fall. PJ surpassed almost every expectation I could have had. For the first time since I was a child, I forgot I was a moviegoer and felt like I was there. The sets, costumes, effects, lighting, miniatures, etc all exist solely to serve the story, and what a story it is! The power of this film is in the acting and direction. The best part is that there are two more coming.
As for bad, aren't the titles enough. Why waste time discussing them?
Take care and see you in 2002,
Chuck
P.S. I reserve the right the edit my words  Edited to include comments from Black Hawk Down |
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12-26-2001, 10:11 AM
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#33 of 235
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Member
Join Date: Mar 1999
Local Time: 04:14 AM
Local Date: 10-14-2008
Posts: 1,267
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Movies I liked very much in 2001:
[list=1][*]Moulin Rouge[*]A.I.[*]Lord of The Rings[*]Blow[*]Thirteen Days (might have been a 2000 film)[*]Shrek[*]The Pledge[/list=1]
Movies I haven't seen yet but that I expect will be on the list:
Memento
Amelié
A Perfect Mind
The Princess & The Warrior
Black Hawk Down
The Shipping News
Harry Potter
My movies
The Price of freedom is eternal vigilance - Thomas Jefferson
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12-26-2001, 10:21 AM
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#34 of 235
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2001
Local Time: 02:14 AM
Local Date: 10-14-2008
Posts: 497
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Top 10 Films of 2001: (comments to follow)
1. In the Bedroom
2. Memento
3. Amores Perros
4. Amelie
5. Bully
6. Mullholland Drive
7. The Man Who Wasn't There
8. Sexy Beast
9. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10. Oceans Eleven
Honorable Mention (11-20, in alphabetical order)
The Anniversary Party
The Center of the World
The Deep End
The Dish
Enemy at the Gates
Ghost World
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
L.I.E.
Moulin Rouge
My First Mister
The Bottom 10:
1. Jeepers Creepers
2. Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
3. Josie and the Pussycats
4. A.I. Artifical Intelligence
5. The Wedding Planner
6. Swordfish
7. Riding in Cars with Boys
8. Training Day
9. Hannibal
10. The Caveman's Valentine
Number of 2001 Films Seen: 72
Notible Films missed or not seen yet: Ali, A Beautiful Mind, Black Hawk Down, Gosford Park, In the Mood for Love, Iris, The Others, The Royal Tenenbaums, Series 7, The Shipping News, The Taste of Others.
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12-26-2001, 02:44 PM
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#35 of 235
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2000
Local Time: 07:14 PM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 1,855
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Updated 04/12/02
Top ten so far (one week in LA/NY, Academy criteria):
1. Memento
2. Moulin Rouge
3. Monster's Ball
4. Gosford Park
5. In the Bedroom
6. Vanilla Sky
7. Amores Perros
8. Amelie
9. A Beautiful Mind
10. The Dish
The best of the rest in order:
Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone, Donnie Darko, The Center of the World, The Score, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shrek, Monsters Inc., The Man Who Wasn't There, Mulholland Drive, Wit, Sexy Beast, Ghost World, Things Behind The Sun, The Deep End, Ocean's Eleven, Blow, Bandits, 61*, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, From Hell, K-PAX, Heist, Enemy At The Gates, 15 Minutes, Fellowship of the Ring, American Pie 2, Hannibal, Training Day, The Others, A.I., The Pledge, Sweet November
Yet to see are:
Black Hawk Down
Diamond Men
Focus
The Golden Bowl
Happy Accidents
Innocence
Lost and Delirious
The Man Who Cried
No Man's Land
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Shipping News
Tape
Waking Life
Rob
"That suits me down to the ground."
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12-26-2001, 09:24 PM
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#36 of 235
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Adam_S
Member
Location: Marina del Rey, CA
Join Date: Feb 2001
Local Time: 07:14 PM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 5,031
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(edited 12/30/2001 to reflect viewing of A beautiful mind)
(edited 01/17/2001 to reflect viewing of The Royal Tennenbaums)- A.I. - Passionate and Daring, A.I. pushed the boundaries of cinema's ability to tell stories. Not only did it challenge audiences with it's existensialist ideas and seemingly disjointed storytelling, it took the science fiction film in new, overwhelmingly positive directions. Spielberg is at the top of his game with A.I., it takes him in a new artistic, and more mature direction, which bodes well for film audiences of the future. Masterfully directed, and beautifully acted, A.I. is one of the most significant films made in years, it is too bad that most critics are so self-absorbed in their own elitism to ever actually open their eyes and find true cinematic art when it is blatently in their face.
- Fellowship of the Ring - Peter Jackson and this series of films may well revolutionize hollywood, but they probably won't. Most likely the only lesson that hollywood will learn is that fantasy properties can be lucrative, and we'll suddenly be deluged by bad adaptations of Earthsea, Terry Brooks, and Robert Jordan. However that doesn't detract from the fact that Jackson has delivered a new epic of sweeping scale, vision and potency that hasn't been seen since the golden age of epics in the fifties. He also delivers one of the most concise and brilliantly realized adaptations of all time, bringing extrodinary sincerity and deftness to Tolkiien's massive world. The acting is spectacular, the battle sequences a delight, and the whole film is simply a joy to experience. This is the type of film that made us love film in the first place.
- Vanilla Sky - Cameron Crowe delivers us a slam bang film that screws with your mind and practically forces you to watch it again. Vanilla Sky has an out of this world ending that blows away Sixth Sense and the Crying Game, it will make you completely reevaluate the entire film. An incrediblly wonderful surreal film, you exit feeling like Slavador Dali and MC Eshcer helped to write the screenplay and oversaw the production. A fantastic piece.
- The Royal Tennenbaums - Absolutely fantastic, Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson delivered another absolutely brilliant comedy in the vien of their previous efforts, but still completely different. The film feels steeped in literature be it children's (Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankwiler) or more adult fare (the Glass family) it feels like this was adapted from a classic novel. Be sure to see this film as a comedy first, not a drama (ie don't make the American Beauty mistake thinking it is a drama), because this film is supposed to make you laugh. There is so much going on in the frame that is absolutely wonderful, be it a closet full of classic seventies issue board games or the absurdist paintings on Eli's walls, you'll be beset by the giggles throughout the entire film. Wonderfully, wonderfully accomplished, I can't wait to have this on dvd (please let it be criterion).
- Monsters Inc. - Pixar are simply gods of classic animation. Which is odd since their animation is bleeding edge cgi, but with all of thier films you forget the eye candy and fall in love with the story and characters. That is why pixar creates such monsterous successes and is continually outdoing disney's traditionally animated fare. Pixar embodies the spirit of the classic animation, their stories are told with sincerity, wit, and a polished class. (the class being that they can tell a wonderful story that appeals to all ages without panderign to solely kids or adults with cheap directed jokes coughshrekcough). MI completely outclasses any other animate fare released this year, in characterization, animation, and pure unbridaled storytelling. And just to rub it in, they constantly create shorts that are easily worthy of classic silly symphony toons.
- A Beautiful Mind - Very straightforward character film, that is beautifully acted and directed with an invisble hand. Russell Crowe is phenomenal as Dr. John Nash, a schizophrenic math genius at princeton, his preformance is nothign short of extrodinary, by rights he should win the oscar this year (since Haley Joel Osment won't be nominated, unforutnately, because he deserves it). jenifer connelly is marvelous as his wife. The thing that sticks out in my mind, is how family centric this film is. It has no nudity, little swearing or adult language, yet they content is still intense enough to warrent a pg13, but what I'm getting at is how wonderful it is to see a wife love her husband so much as to stay with him, even when it was painful for her. definitly one of the best this year.
- Moulin Rouge - Lovely eye candy, lovely voices, lovely soundtrack, a lovely musical. Luhrman slammed us with this modern musical on speed, it's trippy and psycheldic, and unbridaled fun, but it does work infinitely better in the theater, and it's enjoyment increases proportionally with the increase in the quality of your video and sound set up. Moulin Rouge worked for me infinitely better in the tehater where the rapid fire cuts and wacko imagry washes over you creating an sensory experience, but it pales greatly and the gaudiness becomes aparent watching it on a medium sized tv with no sound system. Still it is wonderfully acted and sung, a marvelous tragedy, and moving film.
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back - Kevin Smith delivers the ultimate road trip movie, it manages to be intelligent and ludicrously goofy simultaneously. but like most all his other films, you really should see this film with a bunch of your buddies.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - A faiyhful adaptation brought to us by Columbus, occasionally there is visual flare and the acting is spotty, often times the kids stand beside their fellow actors with blank expressions when they are not speaking, and suddenly become animated whenever it is their turn to speak (either that or Daniel Radcliffe was underplaying his role extremely well). The film is also marred by the on and off visual effects, but is saved by the magnificent adult preformances and rupert grint and emma watson. Absolutley fun, and a straightforward adaptation of a wonderful book.
- Memento - Trippy, great screenplay, great preformance, forces teh audience to think and become involved in the story. It's a real crime no studio gave this wide distribution, I think with a little advertising and decent distribution the film could have done wonderfully.
- (bumped from top ten by Royal Tennenbaums Spy Kids - someone else has said it better than I could, so i'll reiterate their main idea, "this reminds you of when saturday morning cartoons told the most important stories in the world"
- (bumped off top ten by A beautiful Mind) Shrek - Fun to watch, and to rewatch (I have a little sister, and guess what she got for christmas), but it was hurt for me because there were jokes tailored specifically at kids for them to laugh, and separated jokes tailored specifically at adults for them to laugh. however Shrek deserves it's spot on this list if only for the magnificent sequence set to the song "Hallelujah" which I consider to be one of the top sequences/scenes in any film this year. Shrek has other merits, the animation is top notch and voice acting terrific, but I enjoyed the more classic monsters Inc. much more.
biggest disapointments- Pearl Harbor - I hated the historical inaccuracies and especially the portrayals of FDR and Japanese, Ebert said it best about this film.
- Hearts in Atlantis - Take a dark stephen king coming of age story and make it a happy and nostalgic coming of age story while ruthlessly excising every element that made it a King story in the first place. The possibility of this film was to be as good if not better than "Stand By Me" and instead we end up with a run of the mill flick
- Ocean's Eleven - so much potential, yet so much emptiness, O11 was simply vapid, there was no tension, no fear, and no reason to actually like the theives, by the time it was nearly over, I was hoping there'd be some twist where the thieves actually got caught and had to spend life in prison, something at least to make it interesting
- Planet of the Apes - what can i say I didn't like the ending, and the story was comletely predictable, the apes looked wonderful, but the film had none of the soul or subtext of the original (and it's much better to have the apes think of humans as ugly than falling in love with them)
- Hannibal - should never have been made, still it is suspenseful and exciting, but too inlove with the gore adn shock value. What made SOTL so intense was what they hinted at and didn't show you, Hannibal dind't bother hinting they just loudly showed as much as they could.
- Blow - Scorsese light and completely forgettable
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits within - really if it weren't for the voice acting this could have been better, but the animation really needed another coupel eyars befroe it got there. I still enjoyed it which is why it is at the bottom of this list
- Jurassic Park III - lots of fun, but they couldn't take the extra step and actually have someone you care about die (one of the continuing problems of the trilogy). The TRex is much more cool, and I had problems with eight weeks alone for a 11 year old kid (who then becomes completely helpless and a bumbling fool after appearing pretty cool rescuing dr grant)
- The Mummy Returns - nonstop action, great lines, lackluster plot, still pretty fun, though by no means great cinema, it's relegated to this list because of the scorpion king as found in the end battle and the kid bringing mom back.
- Atlantis: The lost Empire - Kind of fun, pleasantly a different step for disney, but a step away from their roots. The film ultimately never comes together to click and make a genuinely memorable film.
Last edited by Adam_S : 12-26-2007 at 03:25 PM.
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12-26-2001, 10:58 PM
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#37 of 235
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Member
Join Date: Nov 2001
Local Time: 06:14 PM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 390
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1. MOULIN ROUGE
2. WAKING LIFE
3. MEMENTO
4. THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE
5. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
6. HARRY POTTER AND THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE
7. MONSTERS, INC.
8. THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING
9. OCEAN'S ELEVEN
10. THE CURSE OF THE JADE SCORPION
I feel embarrassed to say that I have yet to see "Mulholland Drive", but I will ASAP.
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12-27-2001, 12:45 AM
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#38 of 235
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Member
Join Date: Nov 1998
Local Time: 09:14 PM
Local Date: 10-13-2008
Posts: 12,185
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God Bless is it great to see Ghost of Mars party crashing that list of #1's. 
It's like Dangerfield at the country club in Caddyshack. |
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