Posts Tagged ‘movie reviews’

Top 50 Films of the 2000’s

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

I’m still reeling from the fact that this decade is coming to a close so quickly (get it… reeling).  This list was originally going to be a top 10… which turned into a top 25… after which I finally decided on a top 50 as there were just too many great films I couldn’t bear to leave out.

 

You’ll find an eclectic mix of foreign, art-house, grindhouse, blockbusters and of course a fair share of Oscar winners/contenders.  Perhaps the biggest surprise to people may not be so much what’s on the list as what is absent from the list.

 

In constructing this list, I also came across a glaring paradox. There are a disproportionate number of higher-ranking films that were made in the first part of the decade.  The irony is that this part of the decade produced quite possibly the worst Academy Award winners and nominees of any other year I can remember.    

 

But Mike, you forgot about….

 

Brief explanation on this one; there is a very good possibility I didn’t see the movie.  I actually saw very few films between ‘06-08 – when my children were babies.  The ink is still wet here – I will likely make changes based on new information. 

 

Conversely, there is a good chance I did see it and thought it sucked – contrary to popular opinion.  I will follow this one up with an “overrated list” too.  I’ll offer up this teaser; just about anything that won or was nominated for an Oscar in 2000-2002 was utter crap. 

 

So without further ado, here is my sort of definitive list of top 50 films of this decade.

 

 

1.      Donnie Darko, 2001, Richard Kelly.  Very few films have left me thinking more than this underground classic.  A film that lacks a definable genre – the various thematic elements combine masterfully to make a truly beautiful, thought-provoking and haunting film.  Rich with metaphor, this is one to watch a few times to try and unravel.    

2.      Sideways, 2004, Alexander Payne.  Sideways is as intelligent and it is hilarious and features a wide range of emotions (particularly loneliness) with some very memorable performances.  Paul Giamatti is brilliant and solidified himself as one of the better (and more underrated) actors in Hollywood.

3.      Y Tu Mama Tambien (and your mother too), 2001, Alfonso Cuaron.  This coming-of-age Mexican masterpiece explodes with poignancy and sexual expression in the narrative about two young men embarking on a life-changing road trip.  

4.      Snatch, 2000, Guy Ritchie  Mr. Ex-Madonna scores huge in this jewel heist movie that blends some serious action, incredibly comical dialogue and a fantastic soundtrack.  Ritchie is one of the best in the business in creating some memorable characters complete with some great monologues.    

5.      Habla Con Ella (Talk to her), 2002, Pedro Almodovar.  This Spanish film is steeped in emotion.  A beautifully-acted and incredibly powerful and sobering story that is guaranteed to captivate anyone who sees it. 

6.      Slumdog Millionaire, 2008, Danny Boyle.  We waited 13 years for another masterpiece from the British director (last one was Trainspotting) and he delivers in this electrifying and ultimately mesmerizing film set to an incredible backdrop of the slums of India and capped with likely the best soundtrack of any film made this decade. 

7.      Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (Amelie), 2001.  Jean-Pierre Jeaunet. A genuine feel-good movie that will forever define Audrey Tautou’s brilliance.  

8.      Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, Michael Gondry.  The Academy isn’t ready to take Jim Carrey seriously, but this film did not go unnoticed by film critics.  A movie that forces you to think deeply to uncover the meaning of things and examine the “what if’s” of life is always a good bet. 

9.      Cidade de Deus (City of God), 2002, Fernando Meirelles.  A movie similar to Slumdog Millionaire in terms of the brutal realities of the slums comes a movie set in the slums of Rio, Brazil.  The film is packed with heart-pounding pace and often disturbing images that provide a glimpse into gang life in the streets.

10.  Star Trek, 2009, J.J. Abrams.  Even if you’ve never seen the show or like me are only partially familiar with the TV series/films, this movie is just about guaranteed to blow your mind. 

11.  Gran Torino, 2008, Clint Eastwood.  Dirty Harry meets Archie Bunker – simply awesome.

12.  Let the Right One In, 2008, Tomas Alfredsson.  This movie is beautiful and gory and endearing all at the same time.  Take note, Twilight fans – this is what a good vampire movie looks like.

13.  Ghost World, 2001, Terry Zwigoff.  Wonderful film about alienation – intelligent and allegorical.

14.  C.R.A.Z.Y, 2005, Jean-Marc Vallee.  Time to give Canada some love here in this brilliant film that takes place over 2 decades about growing up trying to fit in.

15.  The Incredibles, 2004, Brad Bird, My top-ranking animated feature that is fun through and through.  

16.  Inglorius Basterds, 2009, Quentin Tarantino.  QT puts his signature on this epic film which features one of the best performances I’ve ever seen in a movie - Austrian actor Christoph Waltz.

17.  El laberinto del fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth), 2006, Guillermo del Toro.  A wonderful adult fairy tale.

18.  Kill Bill Volume I, 2004.  Quentin Tarantino.  Samurai girls, comical violence, memorable characters and quotes -  another day at the office for QT.

19.  The Others, 2001, Alejandro Amenabar.  Suspenseful, eerie and excellent.

20.  Gladiator, 2000, Ridley Scott.  This decades “Braveheart”. 

21.  Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001, Peter Jackson.  I know, I know – a film that is likely to be in the top 3 wasn’t as good as everybody thinks it was (in my opinion) but is good enough to be in the top 25.

22.  Million Dollar Baby, 2004, Clint Eastwood.  “Girly tough ain’t enough” for a top 10 but a wonderful film none-the-less. 

23.  Okuribito, 2008, Yojiro Takita.  A very moving and beautiful Japanese film.

24.  The Hangover, 2009, Todd Phillips, An outrageous and yet very intelligent comedy – one of the funniest I’ve seen.

25.  Napolean Dynamite, 2004, Jared Hess.  Original, funny - John Heder’s signature role.

26.  No Country for old men, 2007, Joel and Ethan Cohen.  Still have nightmares about Anton Shigurh.

27.  Dark Knight, 2008, Christopher Nolan.  Batman done right.

28.  Crash, 2004, Paul Haggis.  Second Canadian film on the list – very, very good film. 

29.  Love Actually, 2003, Richard Curtis.  One of the better warm-and-fuzzies.    

30.  Monsoon Wedding, 2001, Mira Nair.  Skip the Greek wedding and go Indian.

31.  Bowling for Columbine, 2001, Michael Moore.  Political views aside, this is a fantastic documentary. 

32.  Mystic River, 2003, Clint Eastwood.  Should have won best picture.  Dang hobbits. 

33.  Shrek, 2001, Andrew Adamson.  Delightful for both kids and adults. 

34.  Catch me if you can, 2002, Steven Spielberg.  Spielberg makes a rare appearance in this decade.  DiCaprio and Scorsese were bombs together – this film is very good.   

35.  Kill Bill Volume II, 2004, Quentin Tarantino.  A good sequel is rare but if anyone can pull it off it’s Tarantino. 

36.  Hotel Rwanda, 2004, Terry George.  Finally Don Cheadle gets his due in a lead role of a feature film. 

37.  About a boy, 2002, Weitz Brothers.  Funny and endearing.

38.  Oh Brother Where art Though?, 2000, Joel/Ethan Cohen. 

39.  In her Shoes, 2005, Curtis Hanson.  Surprisingly good, despite Cameron Diaz.

40.  Bigger, Stronger, Faster, 2008, Chris Bell.  One of the better docu’s of the decade.

41.  Etre et Avoir (To be and to Have), 2002, Nicholas Philibert Touching French documentary about a retiring teacher.

42.  Me, Myself and Irene, 2000, Farrelly Brothers.  One of the funniest movies ever made. 

43.  Cold Mountain, 2003, Anthony Minghella.  Great performances make up for craptacular ending. 

44.  Click, 2006, Frank Coraci.  A thought-provoking movie… with fart jokes.

45.  The life of David Gale, 2003, Alan Parker.  Kevin Spacey’s best of this decade. 

46.  Spellbound, 2002, Jeffery Blitz.  Riveting documentary on spelling bee’s.

47.  Garden State, 2004, Zach Braff.  I’m lukewarm on Zach Braff but he did well with this one.

48.  Lost in Translation, 2003, Sofia Coppola.  A little on the slow side but ultimately poignant.  

49.  Juno, 2007, Jason Reitman.  Very smart film with and with all due respect to the young Canadian leads, the JK Simmons and Alison Janney are the glue behind this one.

50.  Casino Royale, 2006, Martin Campbell.  I’m coming around to the idea of Daniel Craig as Bond – this is the best bond film in many years. 

Honourable Mentions;

 

Babel, Royal Tannenbaums, Life as a House, The Boys and Girl from County Clare, Iron Man, Batman Begins, High Fidelity, The Tao of Steve, Blame it on Fidel, After the Wedding, The Departed, Munich, Ray, Closer, A love song for Bobby Long.

 

What is your top picks for this decade?

 

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Random Rants VI: A movie review, , the exercise everybody should be doing, Gwyn still popping off.

Sunday, July 19th, 2009
  1. db-bigger-stronger1It was long overdue but I finally penned a review for Bigger, Stronger, Faster for diet blog.  In short, it is a brilliantly made documentary that examines the cultural obsession of performance enhancement, aesthetics and the desire to either be or watch larger than life.  The film circles around the lives of 3 brothers who started lifting weights so they could emulate their heroes such as; Hulk Hogan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.  Read my review here.  
  2. Anyone else tired of hearing authors telling us that “not all fat is bad” like they’ve just discovered penicillin?   
  3. More dietary stupidity from Gwyn:  Another say, another stupid dietary strategy from Gwyneth Paltrow.  I admit, I break Gwyn off quite a bit, but she puts it right on the tee for me.  If I want advice about riding your parents coattails to fame, score a sensitive British rock star or how to pick the right fruit to name your child after – Gwyn’s the girl.  But please, Gwynny – for the love of Pete stop doling out dietary advice.   Here’s the latest detox plan.
  4. The exercise everybody should be doing:  Wall slides or wall angels.  This exercise has a multitude of application – particularly for those who do a lot of sitting.  The most prominent postural deviation in the upper body include a head forward/chin-jutting and rounded shoulders.  Wall slides help target these trouble spots by simultaneously strengthening the muscles that are weak whilst stretching out the tight muscles that are contributing to the “Neolithic” posture.  Here’s a short video clip (not mine). Wall slides 
  5. Have you lost weight?  Beware of “phantom fat”:  Read about it here.
  6. Picking your spots:  A crucial way to reaching your body fat and health goals is to have the right mindset.  Part of that means “picking your spots” whereby you look ahead to your day and seize those opportunities to exercise, shop, cook or just relax.  If you train yourself to consistently think this way, you will be successful.
  7. Don’t wait until fall!  It is tempting to just “take the summer off:” your body composition goals.  Afterall, you have barbecues, vacations and other long weekends to attend – most of which involve copious amounts of food and in some cases adult beverages.  Re-train your brain to enjoy responsibly.  Take the opportunities of warmer weather to get in more walks, bikes, hikes park workouts and sports.  Use this opportunity to shop at farmers markets and enjoy the bounty of the in-season produce. 

 

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Random Rants III: Do it anyway, Terminator, Hate mail and Ben Stiller is still not funny

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

  1. Do it anyway:  As a coach I have the pleasure of working with some fantastic people.  A distance coaching client who is training for the fire department physical test emailed me today on his progress.  He writes; 

     “After only 5 hours sleep (and that’s being generous) when I arrived I just did not feel like running, let alone doing some HIIT (high intensity interval training). But I pushed through that and forced my self to at least get out there and do some running. Well even during my warm-up run I kept thinking to myself “do I really want to be doing this?” Haha. Even my dog was hanging back and looking at me like she just wanted to lay down. I managed to force myself to begin the sprinting figuring I’d just see how it went. Funny thing happened at that point. I just kept doing the intervals and killing them. I ended up doing 14 sets of sprints all with only 30sec rest in between. Once I had broken through the mental block and weariness that I was feeling, I ended up having one of my better HIIT sessions ever.”

    The lesson:  Some days you just don’t feel like you “have it”.  It is all too easy in these moments to say “ta heck with it”.  It’s in these critical moments where you need to tell yourself “I’m going to do it anyway”.  Know what?  You may not have a great workout, but you may also have a surprisingly awesome one.  Either way you will benefit from it.

     

     

     

     

2.   Terminator Salvation is awesome!  That makes 2 fantasticdb-t4 action movies in a row (Star Trek 2 weeks ago).  After the lukewarm reviews, I wasn’t sure but this movie did not disappoint.  It was disheartening though to hear that “Museum” beat it out at the box office – are you freaking kidding me?  Memo to movie-going public.  Ben Stiller is not funny and his movies are crap (excluding one’s where the Ferrelly bros are involved).

 

 

3.  Speaking of summer blockbusters, I always enjoy watching the trailers of the upcoming features but (digression warning) whoever is responsible for putting regular commercials in movie theatres should be shot… digression over… here are some thoughts on some of the upcoming flicks;

The Hangover:  If the trailer is any indication, this movie looks hilarious!

Inglourious Basterds:  Tarantino is hit and miss with me.  I don’t know if I’ll have the stomach for this one.

Year One:  With due respect to Canadian kid Michael Cera.  He is the new Jon Heder read: 1 movie wonder.  Jon Heder was memorable as Napolean Dynamite and has pretty much been craptacular in everything he’s done since then.  Ditto with Michael Cera – excellent in Juno but it’s been downhill ever since. 

Other notables:  Tranformers II – haven’t seen part I (I know, I suck).  GI Joe:  Looks like a bastardized futuristic version of the series – not interested.  Sherlock Holmes:  Robert Downey Jr. is hard not to like – I may see it just based on him alone.

    

4.  Hate Mail:  It seems some people get their feathers ruffled when their sacred cows are questioned.  The extreme low carbers are particularly sensitive to any criticism levied at Gary Taubes – author of the popular “Good Calories, Bad Calories.  This is evidenced by a few not-so-nice messages in my inbox and a great deal of flack in some health forums. 

In brief, Taubes wrote a pretty big book that challenges conventional dietary wisdom.  In many levels it is a very impressive book in terms of its historical accounts and the variety of sources Taubes was able to tap into. 

Alas, the book contents isn’t infallible as most of Taubes’ adherents would have you believe.  Here is a mercifully short synopsis of his contentions with my counterpoints.

Lipid hypothesis (ie. Fat causes heart disease) is a myth with no evidence to support it.  On this I agree – the evidence of saturated fat being a direct cause of heart disease doesn’t have much in the way of scientific support. 

Insulin Hypothesis:  Insulin is the key regulator of body fat.  Insulin spikes cause the body to store fat, the body cannot store fat without it and carbs cause insulin elevations therefore carbs make you fat.  There are some partial truths in there but this theory is a little myopic and far from fullproof as there are many factors involved with process of fat accumulation.

Calories have nothing to do with fat loss or gain.  Oh bother… Taubes cherry picked some studies to support his conclusions here.  There are many tightly controlled studies that show calories DO matter (which isn’t to say they are the sole factor). 

(and here’s my favourite) Exercise has nothing to do with fat loss.  The problem with this statement is that Taubes has never (to my knowledge) clarified what he means by “exercise”.  Because he refuses to clarify, I am left to believe that Taubes thinks that high intensity intervals combined with full body strength training is as useless for fat loss as walking on the treadmill at 2mph.  Alas, being vague is a common tactic to give one loopholes.  So either Taubes a) thinks that all exercise is the same and none of it has any impact on fat loss whatsoever (which makes him an idiot) or b) Taubes does concede the difference in body composition effects of varying types/intensities of exercise (which makes him a liar).

     

5.  New Toy:  I finally broke down and purchased a TRX – a suspension system that you can hand from overhead bars and doors alike.  If you aren’t into working out at a gym and need something portable and light weight to give you numerous options for full body functional work – the TRX system is a good choice.  They go for about 160.00 CAD – well worth it if you use it.  Go to www.fitnessanywhere.com to find out more. 

   

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