Our top 10's of 2000 - Time to throw down (1 Viewer)

[Andy Kellman]

01. Ghost Dog
02. Traffic
03. Almost Famous
04. The Virgin Suicides
05. Wonder Boys
06. American Psycho
07. The Contender
08. Erin Brockovich
09. Time Code
10. State and Main
There are a couple biggies that I've yet to see, but I think this is pretty solid. I don't think it was such a bad year for US cinema, but perhaps that's because I can't weigh them against the foreign films that are being praised. '99 seemingly had more to offer, but '00 was still pretty good.
Though it doesn't qualify, Blood Simple was the best film I saw this year. I caught the re-release with my wife and was rather knocked out. Only the Coens could make me laugh at a newspaper hitting a screen door and a bugzapper going off.

 

[Rich Malloy]

1. Dancer in the Dark
2. Yi-Yi
3. In the Mood for Love
4. You Can Count on Me
5. Wonder Boys
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. Chicken Run
8. High Fidelity
9. Almost Famous
10. Traffic
(Edited 7/31/01... and hopefully for the last time!)
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"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."

Al's DVD Collection
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[Edited last by Al Brown on July 31, 2001 at 03:52 PM]

 

[Jodee]

1. Traffic
2. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
3. The Contender
4. Virgin Suicides
5. Almost Famous
6. Erin Brockovich
7. Best in Show
8. Wonder Boys
9. State and Main
10. Chocolat
Still haven't seen: Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon, House of Mirth (I love Edith Wharton!), Requiem for a Dream, or Finding Forrester. But except for the last 2, this list is pretty firm.
I also must gove props to Blood Simple, the re-release of the year!!!
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[Mike Kelly]

Aaron, sounds like you are an Enzian Theater goer like I am. Unfortunately for me it's a 120 mile round trip.
1. You Can Count on Me
2, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. Traffic
5. Croupier
6. Gladiator
7. O Brother Where Art Thou?
8. Almost Famous
9. Dancer in the Dark
10. Judy Berlin
Not seen: Wonder Boys and The House of Mirth that could impact, and a few others that I don't believe would impact my list.

 

[Seth Paxton]

BTW, I'm almost ready to post my Best of 1999. Where'd that thread go?

Don't worry Darren, I plan to keep this around for most of this year at least. I think we will find it just as interesting to look at come the end of 2001 and we want to go back and look at what we thought. And that will allow people like you to get to see some of these flicks.
As for criticizing lists, that's basically forbidden here and not needed. The whole point is for people to put up what THEY enjoyed the most. The purpose of that is to A put other "Movies" discussions in perspective, ala an equipment list when discussing disc quality and B to simply learn to appreciate how film lovers tastes can very. Maybe something you panned might warrant a second look with some other mindset about it.
The "throw down" title simply means that rather than trash other people's (famous) lists, like Ebert, we would be putting our own lists up. That way when you go into someone else's thread and trash their tastes someone can fairly refer back to your list here, and if one doesn't exist here then maybe that says you are unwilling to put your money where your mouth is.
Despite the fact that in another thread I (very jokingly) said I had half a mind to kill someone who put Mission to Mars at #2 for the year, everyone is welcome to do that very thing here.
The only exceptions might be VERY friendly jabbings or sincere questions about the makeup of the lists. This is not a witch hunt. I want people to feel comfortable in putting up their lists here.
That is also why I fully promote coming back and modifying your list (with a blurb to alert us to a change we might like to take note of). I was completely promoting the EXACT thing that Darren did which is to list the top 10 films you have seen even if some of that list wouldn't normally be on there.
Honestly, I have been surprised by some choices, but I figure there must be something to those choices for someone to put them up there. Not to mention that other members might trust US more than other reviewers and look at the sum total of our lists for some ideas of good films they may have missed (like a Yi Yi). If YOU liked it put it on there, we can trash the film in some other thread, this place is just about the variety of tastes here at HTF.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Anyway, enough of that unpleasant sidebar on my part.
Just came back from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and I was damn impressed. Love, action, adventure, laughs, tears, oohs and ahhs. It might not be Raiders or Star Wars, but you know I think it is in the ballpark. A great adventure/love story that follows many of the traditions of great western adventure.
I'm not sure how many of those ideals are common in eastern films, but to me only the language and martial arts defined it as being anything other than part of the great line of western adventure movies.
I'll stop, there's a thread for that talk. Here it goes to #1 for me. Snatch tomorrow.
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"We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live."
I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, I just want to thank FOX for Say Anything on DVD.
Thank Peter for listening to us.

 

[Eric Howell]

BTW, I'm almost ready to post my Best of 1999. Where'd that thread go?

well, unfortunately that thread joined the choir Invisible along with most of the other posts from early 2000.

I actually saved the results of that thread, but my stupid hard drive crashed. Grumble, grumble.
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My:Hardware LDs DVDs Top Tens

 

[Brook K]

I've got to say I'm a bit surprised by your list, Al. I just got nothing out of Tao of Steve.
It does make me wish even harder that Yi Yi would come to town but it wouldn't surprise me if it never does. The last month our art houses have been showing the same things as the multiplexes, CTHD, Traffic, Chocolat, etc.
Did you ever see Requiem? I never saw your thoughts on it on the forum.
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[Jay W]

Updated 01/20/01, with more movies I have seen and updated the Top 10 (provisionally).

 

[Seth Paxton]

Just saw Snatch. Pretty good but not quite as tight a film/script as Lock, Stock... It's tough to fairly judge this film since it's characters, actors, story, style are so familiar from seeing L,S,&2SB 2 or 3 times this last year.
I think if this was Ritchie's first film, it would have had a much bigger impact on me. Never-the-less, it's his second and a little less smoothly interwoven. Although as I've thought about it, it seems to me that this story was much more linear in character lines than circular (many characters are not with us through the whole film, they come and definately go.

Lock/Stock sort of brought everyone together at once almost.
Anyway, it's makes my top 10 for sure and I recommend seeing it. Cast Away & Shadow of Vamp are the last 2 films I have to see in the theater, unless I catch a rerelease of Wonder Boys. Like Brook, it might be awhile for me to see Yi Yi, but you guys have my curiousity peaked.
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"We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live."
I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, I just want to thank FOX for Say Anything on DVD.
Thank Peter for listening to us.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Finally rounded out a Top 10 list. Does Snatch count as a 2000 release? Even though I enjoyed Snatch (the movie), I can't see putting it on my Top 10 list due to a lack of good character development (though I scored it better then Finding Forrester mainly on entertainment value, which wound up in 10th place on the list, go figure).
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[Jay W]

Pat, yep I think Snatch counts as it had an original 2000 release. I for one really enjoyed it, watched it with the regular group of folks who all loved it (this rarely happens!). Breaks into my Top 10, though I still have a few I want to see before I seal the list.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Okay, Seth, you asked for it and now you got it. Well, still, in my own way. Just look for Charlie Chaplin on the first page of this thread. But as you can see, there are still a lot of movies that I need to see. For now, you get a snapshot.
~Edwin
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[JohanK]

My top 10:
1 - Gladiator
2 - The Cell
3 - Titan AE
4 - X-Men
5 - U-571
6 - MI2
7 - Patriot
8 - Frequency
9 - Shanghai Noon
10 - Pitch Black
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[Seth Paxton]

Edwin, finally sacked up.

As you can tell from my list, I think you still have some real treats ahead of you. Tastes vary though, so no money-back guarantees.
A word of advice, if you rent Requiem make sure to have something like You Can Count on Me or Oh Brother on deck behind it. Great film but a depressing subject.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

A word of advice, if you rent Requiem make sure to have something like You Can Count on Me or Oh Brother on deck behind it. Great film but a depressing subject.

Don't worry, Seth. I am all set for it. I made it through Leaving Las Vegas without a problem.
~Edwin

 

[Rich Malloy]

I've got to say I'm a bit surprised by your list, Al. I just got nothing out of Tao of Steve.

I liked it quite a bit, but I wouldn't go to the mat for it (it only made #9 on my list!). After seeing some movies I've missed up till now (O Brother, State and Main, Shadow of the Vampire, etc.), it might well get knocked off the list entirely.
BTW (and this might have surprised you even more), if the last 15-20 minutes of Cast Away (and that goddawful music that kept swelling up once he returned) had been completely excised from the movie, it would've ended up quite high on the list.
But I haven't seen anything this year that touched Dancer in the Dark. For me, there's one truly great film of 2000... and then there's everything else.
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"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."

Al's DVD Collection
Al's Criterion Collection

 

[Seth Paxton]

I made it through Leaving Las Vegas without a problem.

Worse. Really. Like Seven without the happy ending.

Hopefully this will get you so ready for depression that the ending won't bum you out so much.
In fact my only rag on this film is that the last act seems unnecessarily cruel on some characters. I wanted to say "OK, I get it, please no more." But it makes an impression. Not a spoiler because if you know it's a bummer and know what the characters are dealing with, then you know it's headed bad.
Beautiful, powerful film though, Burstyn is amazing.
And everybody, not just Edwin. I know that we won't see many of these till much later this year on DVD, so it's ok if your top 10 is Xmen, Grinch, Charlies Angels, and Scary Movie because that's all you saw.
Now if it's because those are really your top 4 after seeing everything...it's welcome too. But try not to stand near me at the next meet.

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"We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live."
I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, I just want to thank FOX for Say Anything on DVD.
Thank Peter for listening to us.

 

[Justin Spike]

I don't even know if Snatch is eligible, but here goes:
1. Snatch
2. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samarai
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
5. Traffic
6. Beautiful People
I didn't see much else in the last year that was worthwhile to me, but I didn't see many films to begin with.

 

[Matt Stone]

Alright...I finally get a chance to pump out the ol' top 10...here we go
1. Traffic
2. Wonder Boys
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. Oh Brother, Where Art Though?
5. Almost Famous
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. You Can Count on Me
8. American Psycho
9. High Fidelity
10. Ghost Dog
Honorable Mentions:
Chuck and Buck
Shadow of the Vampire
Finding Forrester
Billy Elliot
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