Peter Travers Top 10 Movies of 2001 List (1 Viewer)

[BrianShort]

Updated: From Link Removed
Peter Travers' List
Lord of the Rings Tops Travers' Hollywood Top Ten
Memento Tops Indie List
"Pearl Harbor, about another sneak attack on America was crass exploitation and the year's worst movie"
Hollywood Top Ten:
1. Fellowship of the Ring: "For the first film in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson combines mythic power, personal storytelling and breathless Indiana Jones adventure to create a film that is both intimate, and epic, Damn, he's good."
2. Ali: "Michael Mann and Will Smith transcend biopic cliché's to punch their way to the bruised heart of a hero. Extraordinary."
3. The Royal Tenenbaums: "A Hurting, healing comedy about the wounds inflicted by family; confirms Wes Anderson as a world-class talent."
4. Shrek: "An ogre in love, and a new peak in animation."
5. Vanilla Sky: "Cameron Crowe directs Tom Cruise in a psychosexual thriller that busts more than a few molds."
6. Moulin Rouge: "A musical that pushes so hard it mauls you, but Aussie Baz Luhrmann creates visual wonders."
7. Black Hawk Down - " The script's speechifying can't stop Ridley Scott. The director of 'Gladiator' and 'Hannibal' brings documentary realism to a war film that salutes the soldiers felled in a botched 1993 U.S. operation in Somalia."
8. A Beautiful Mind: "Russell Crowe's searing portrait of a schizophrenic never flinches, even when Ron Howard softens the blow.
9. A.I. - Steven Spielberg tries to finish something Stanley Kubrick started. The result is a sci-fi shambles that true film fans will heatedly discuss for ages.
10. Ocean's Eleven: "Steven Soderbergh turns a B-movie heist into a class-A exercise in coolness.
INDIE TOP TEN
1. Memento: "A thriller that runs in reverse allows director Christpher Nolan, 31, to step forward with the year's most dazzling feat of cinematic originality."
2. Mulholland Drive: "Life is but an L.A. dream for David Lynch, who dreams like no one else."
3. Waking Life: "Richard Linklater's animated riff on the meaning of life goes places that "Shrek" and "Monsters, Inc." never imagined."
4. Ghost World: "Steve Buscemi as a love object for teen misfit Thora Birch is just one reason why this Terry Zwigoff film of Daniel Clowes' underground comic book cuts deep."
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch: "Songs, a sex change and a rock tour de force for writer, director and star John Cameron Mitchell."
6. Sexy Beast: "A blazing Ben Kingsley is scarier than any Soprano-stylish gangster tale."
7.In the Bedroom: "Actor turned director Todd Field brings lyrical grace to a revenge drama powered by brilliant turns by Sissy Spacek and Tom Wilkinson.
8. The Man Who Wasn't There: "The Coen brothers do film noir set in a barber shop and, o brother, did it come out looking good."
9. Gosford Park: "Playing the game of humor and homicide by his own rules, Robert Altman throws a posh party with a cast of Brit legends and serves up a full-course acting feast."
10. Amelie - "A love letter to Paris, movies and luminous new star Audrey Tautou from Jean-Pierre Jeunet."
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(original post)
Found this at www.theonering.net
http://www.theonering.net/perl/newsview/2/1007004676
1. Lord of the Rings
2. Ali
3. The Royal Tenenbaums
4. Shrek
5. Vanilla Sky
6. Moulin Rouge
7. Black Hawk Down
8. A Beautiful Mind
9. A.I.
10. Ocean's 11

 

[Seth Paxton]

Well that list is somewhat believable otherwise, based on the early word for many of those films. I forget now what Pete said about Memento but I'm surprised to see Ocean's 11 on instead of Memento.

Hmmm, well as I said in the review thread, a positive word like this from at least one pretty well respected critic and certainly a WIDELY read critic would be a huge boost to the film's success.

It's starting to feel that at the very least FOTR is going to have the sort of success that was expected for Pearl Harbor (big numbers, impressive spectacle, with some Oscar buzz).

 

[Hubert]

Why is everyone hung up on numbers? It doesn't matter. I expect it to do great. Although there is a ton of competition coming in around that time. Ocean's 11, Vanilla Sky, The Majestic, The Impostor, Jimmy Neutron, and Ali all open within 2 weeks of LOTR. So it will have some major competition. But again, I don't think it really matters what it does. It matters, but as long as you like the movie......big deal.

You'll notice I put Jimmy Neutron in there. That movie looks like the most annoying piece of crap ever created. But it will draw a lot of kids and their unfortunate parents. That's the only reason I put that in there.

Let's not worry about box office, and just enjoy the movie.

 

[Scott Calvert]

Hey Hubert, I think FOTR is going to make a lot of money. How about you?

 

[Hubert]

Probably? As long as I enjoy the hell out of it, I don't care if it makes $7. The same with any other movie. I'd prefer it to do well, but I'm not gonna obssess about it. It will do what it does.

BTW, when did they decide to move Blackhawk Down up and why? It was originally slated for a March release.

 

[Dominik Droscher]

Hubert, the studio liked the movie a lot so they decided to give it a limited release on December 28th to give it a chance at the oscar race. I read the book and hope that the movie pays respect to it.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Hubert,

It was because other limited release "event" films like Gangs of New York and The Road To Perdition were delayed until Q2-Q3 2002; the holes in the schedule are the reason this and Behind Enemy Lines have been pulled up.

I'm hot and cold with Travers, whose reviews used to be so sharp and seem kind of embarrassing these days (particularly when he uses gangsta-and-tough-guy slang to get his point across). But his taste is usually decent, though I'm surprised not to see more indie films like The Deep End and Amélie and Mulholland Drive -- which he praised to the stars -- on the list. I know Ali is still in the mixing stages, so I'm curious if this list is for real.

Regardless, it sure does wonders for the LOTR hype-- hype that's much deserved for once!

 

[Hubert]

Well, I've never been big on Peter Travers either. Believe it or not, I tend to agree with a lot of Ron's reviews.

 

[BrianShort]

Well I'm not so sure about the legitimacey of this list anymore. I don't know, maybe Peter changed his mind, but if you read his review of Moulin Rouge, it seems pretty negative by the end, though in the middle, you can't really tell.

Brian

 

[Mark Palermo]

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Travers didn't particularly like AI at first either.

 

[Craig S]

I really doubt that this list is legitimate. It's not seeing LotR at the top that gives me pause (hell, he had Titanic at the top of his 1997 list), but the rest of it. Not one independent film. Anyone who reads Travers regularly knows he champions the smaller films. Mark is right - I can't believe at least some of the films he mentioned aren't on this list.
Even more damning, look at the source. The OneRing post mentions a fax from Disney with this list. Why the hell would Disney be pushing this list? They have nothing to do with Rolling Stone, or with New Line (an AOL/Time Warner company), who would presumably want to trumpet this news.
Go to Rolling Stone's website. Nothing there about this. They do have Travers' rave review of In The Bedroom, another film I feel would be more likely to end up on his Top Ten then some of the ones that are there.
The more I think about it, the more this smells of a hoax.

 

[BrianShort]

Garth over at Dark Horizons posted the list, and mentioned that Travers has a seperate list for independent films. Is that the case?
quick update: Ok, there is an article at Daily Variety saying "Early indications are good, with Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers rating the pic as the best of the year"... so that puts at least a bit of credibility back into part of the list. The full article is at www.variety.com or if you aren't a subscriber, like me, you can read it here: Link Removed
Brian

 

[David Oliver]

Has he seen all these movies already? I know reviewers get to see movies before the general public, but a lot of these are still weeks away? If he has, then he has seen a lot of these recently (LOTR, Vanilla Sky, Royal Tenenbaums, Ali) of course meaning they are fresh in his mind and I think probably biasing his opinion.

Personally, it is going to take a helluva movie to knock Memento off my top spot.

 

[Craig S]

Brian, the variety article does restore some credibility to this list. I can't recall if Travers has done separate lists for studio & indie films in the past - I'll have to check my back issues for last year's lists.
Travers has been especially hard on studio pictures this year. His reviews on Moulin Rouge and A.I. were mixed, but given how he's slagged most everything out of Hollywood in 2001 those two films came out much better than most, so it's conceivable they would be on a Travers Top Ten studio list.
Don't get me wrong - I would love this to be true. I just tend to cast a skeptical eye on just about everything on the Internet.

 

[Richard_D_Ramirez]

I personally thought "Blackhawk Down" was moved up in release because of Washington's recent encouragement of Hollywood to produce "patriotic" films...

BTW, who the heck is this Peter Travers guy? If he has such influence, why isn't he a household name like Ebert? Should I even care?

Is Memento not on his list since the film was orginally released in 2000?

8^B

 

[Rich Malloy]

Peter Travers is a household name in the world of film critics - mostly because Rolling Stone is a high-profile publication - but he's certainly not very highly respected. He's at least several tiers down from the likes of Jonathan Rosenbaum, Stanley Kauffmann, Andrew Sarris, etc., and just a few clicks away from your basic Mainstream Publication Quote-Whore.

(Ok, that's a bit harsh. He's better than that... but not by much.)

 

[MickeS]

who the heck is this Peter Travers guy? If he has such influence, why isn't he a household name like Ebert?

Because he doesn't have a TV-show. I'd say Peter Travers is a household name... at least for households that knows names of movie critics.
/Mike

 

[Hubert]

That's exactly right. I think Peter Travers is a pretty good critic. Siskel was my favorite, but Travers is certainly a credible critic, who writes for a very popular magazine.

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

Here's Travers' Top 10 lists for the 2000 and 1999:

2000:

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (d: Ang Lee)

Almost Famous (d: Cameron Crowe)

Gladiator (d: Ridley Scott)

Traffic (d: Steven Soderbergh)

Billy Elliot (d: Stephen Daldry)

Croupier (d: Mike Hodges)

You Can Count On Me (d: Kenneth Lonergan)

The House Of Mirth (d: Terence Davies)

State And Main (d: David Mamet)

Best In Show (d: Christopher Guest)

Requiem For A Dream (d: Darren Aronofsky)

1999:

American Beauty (d: Mendes)

Topsy-Turvy (d: Leigh)

Being John Malkovich (d: Jonze)

The Insider (d: Mann)

Magnolia (d: Anderson)

Three Kings (d: Russell)

Boys Don't Cry (d: Peirce)

The Straight Story (d: Lynch)

The Winslow Boy (d: Mamet)

The Sixth Sense (d: Shyamalan)

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Travers is most likely a long lead critic, meaning that he is given the opportunity to see things further in advance than others because of his deadline. Like him or not, his name is relatively familiar, and I think he also pops up on CNN's entertainment show (or at least he used to).

As for his reviews, well, they've gone downhill for quite awhile now, IMO. Often it seems he's writing in ways in attempts to appear hip rather than actually provide good criticism. As for the "quote whore" accusation, he has a tendency to write in terms good for being quoted in ads or posters. (His A Knight's Tale review comes to mind, although it certainly wasn't the only one that he claimed was the "biggest" (or something to that effect) film of the summer.)