Author Topic: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon  (Read 155861 times)

1SO

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Best of the 00s: Bourne/Sin City/Monsters/Grindhouse/Bruges/Bloody Sunday
« Reply #200 on: March 06, 2010, 02:33:51 AM »
Best of the Decade Marathon Update


The Bourne Ultimatum

4th Complete Viewing
Back when I reviewed Mission: Impossible III, I was having such a good time I suggested it might be a better film than The Bourne Ultimatum.

Silly me.

This film is pure unfiltered adrenaline.  Director Paul Greengrass has perfectly orchestrated a symphony of action.  All the quiet pauses and crescendos are perfectly spaced.  he pace of this film is constantly on overdrive, only going quiet a couple of times.  Waterloo Station, the Madrid building fight and the NYC car chase are the three high points to be watched over and over again.  However, until the final denouncement, there’s a rapid pulse to the entire film.  Even the dramatics between Joan Allen and David Strathairn have rapid dramatic momentum.

This film won Oscars for Sound and Editing and boy does it deserve them.  This is the best shaky cam action movie ever, because – unlike with Supremecy – Greengrass wisely gives us some long shots within the fighting.  Rarely are we struggling to understand the geography, yet we never feel too far from all the excitement.  As for the sound, I’ll just comment that the moment when Bourne leaps the balcony and crashes through the window is my favorite thing to listen to on my 5.1 Surround.


Sin City

4th Complete Viewing, Watched individual Segments Many Times
This is possibly Robert Rodriguez’s finest film, though I’m a bit partial to From Dusk Till Dawn.  Sin City is one of the decade’s most unique creations.  A visual thrill ride with larger than life characters played by a murderer’s row of Hollywood heavyweights.  Rodriguez did right by adapting cinema to match Frank Miller’s comics rather than the other way around.

Like most people, I thought the first story – starring an Oscar-worthy Mickey Rourke - was the best, but the Clive Owen tale was my 2nd favorite.  It’s the most frivolous, but also the most fun.  I wish it had gone last, acting as a dessert following Bruce Willis’ heavy main course.

Sin City was a film geek’s dream project, but done with such great skill that even serious film critics had to take notice.



Monsters Inc.

Many, Many Viewings
Pixar.  Not much I need to say here.  I will explain that this one’s a little low for me because I find the comedy to be too manic at times.  Ever notice how much screaming Mike and Sulley do?  Very creative and I mean it as no slam on Pete Doctor when I say I’m simply a bigger fan of Andrew Stanton and Brad Bird.  The door room chase is one of the all time best Pixar scenes.


Grindhouse

4th Complete Viewing, Planet Terror: 5 Times Individually, Death Proof: 3 Times Individually
The Friday night I saw Grindhouse was one of my absolute favorite nights at the theater.  I certainly have complaints about the individual films, namely that both should have been done for Grindhouse budgets, and the total running time should have been reduced by 20-40min.  Tarantino made the better film, and Kurt Russell is at his best.  However, it’s too talky and I really hate the non-ending.  Rodriguez made the better ‘Grindhouse’ movie and I loved how he aged the print with digital effects to make it look like an old 70’s exploitation flick.  The Machete trailer rocked and ‘Thansgiving’ is the best thing Eli Roth’s ever done.  It was a flawed experiment, but for a film lover like me a wonderful night of pure cinema.  I own both DVD’s and like to watch them back-to-back with trailers.  It’s too bad this didn’t catch on.


In Bruges

4th Viewing
I wasn’t sure what to expect with In Bruges.  A Guy Ritchie film for those who hate Guy Ritchie?  What I didn’t expect was the career–best performance from Colin Farrell.  I’m a fan of Farrell, but I’m not kidding when I say this is his best, deepest and most surprising work.  The screenplay by Martin McDonagh takes some unexpected turns and offers highly-quotable dialogue throughout.  A real gem.


Bloody Sunday

2nd Viewing
This wasn’t originally part of the marathon.  I was watching it for other reasons, but the breakthrough film by Paul Greengrass captures some of the same thrilling magic of his later masterworks.  I hate the film’s constant fades to black and the accents are so thick, you need to watch it with the subtitles on.  It’s also the only time Greengrass attempts fictional drama with a couple of family scenes that go ‘clunk’.  But the recreation of fateful events is wonderfully realized.  While Greengrass would get better and more confident as a director, he’s still very effective.  And unlike United 93, the film covers some of the fallout of the tragedy with some real gripping words about dark days to follow.



My Current List...
59. The Bourne Ultimatum
60. 2046
61. The Lives of Others
62. Gangs of New York
63. Mission: Impossible III
64. Sin City
65. Monsters Inc.
66. The Royal Tenenbaums
67. Serenity
68. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
69. District 9
70. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
71. Shaun of the Dead
72. Fantastic Mr. Fox
73. Almost Famous
74. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
75. Grindhouse
76. Into The Wild
77. The Magdalene Sisters
78. In Bruges
79. Million Dollar Baby
80. Grizzly Man
81. Inglorious Basterds
82. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
83. The Dark Knight
84. The Last Kiss
85. Bloody Sunday
86. Moon
87. Sexy Beast
88. Cold Mountain
89. X-Men
90. Whale Rider
91. Super Size Me
92. Akeelah and the Bee
93. Interstella 5555
94. The Departed
95. The Mothman Prophecies
96. Dirty Pretty Things 
97. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
98. Better Luck Tomorrow
99. Hustle & Flow
100. Road to Perdition

Highly Recommended, but dropped from the list...
Blade II,Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Drumline, Infernal Affairs Joint Security Area, Lost in Translation, The Pianist, School of Rock, Spider-Man 2, Touching the Void, Versus, The Visitor, X2: X-Men United, Zoolander

Coming Up soon...
Amelie
No Country For Old Men
North Country
[REC]

« Last Edit: March 24, 2020, 08:24:13 PM by 1SO »

smirnoff

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #201 on: March 06, 2010, 07:46:46 AM »
What a great bunch of movies, 1SO! Somehow I forgot about Sin City last time I made a top 100.

Nothing else to add except that I'm enjoying your marathon.

Clovis8

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #202 on: March 06, 2010, 10:53:53 AM »
Nice 1SO, I totally agree on Bourne. The third film is the greatest action movie ever made imo (yes better than T2 or Die Hard) and together the three are among the best trilogies.

It makes me so sad it is getting rebooted already with a new director and new cast :(

FLYmeatwad

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #203 on: March 06, 2010, 11:09:59 AM »
Sin City is fantastic. Grindhouse is just as great, I think it ranks considerably higher on my Top 100 than Sin City. Though I've only seen it once, and that was opening night at the late show. I refuse to watch that film unless it is in its entirety.

I detest Akeelah and the Bee.

ferris

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #204 on: March 06, 2010, 11:40:15 PM »
It sounded like you'd given a negative review of Monster's Inc until I saw where it was placed in your rankings.  I had to read your review again!  I love this film.  The first hour of this is so creative and every beat is perfect.  And yeah that door scene is pretty cool.

Good work on In Bruges too.

It's fun following along on your marathon and it's always great to see one I had in mine as well.  I'm a little less enthusiastic about Bourne, but no doubt I can appreciate the craftmanship.  That is an astounding directoral feat.

I've got to watch Sin City one of these days
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1SO

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #205 on: March 07, 2010, 12:58:46 AM »
It's fun following along on your marathon and it's always great to see one I had in mine as well.  

I should thank you as well.  You reminded me about Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring.  I'll be rewatching it this week.

1SO

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Best of the 00s: No Country For Old Men
« Reply #206 on: March 07, 2010, 01:06:10 AM »
Best of the Decade Marathon Update

No Country For Old Men

3rd Viewing
Back in ’07 when I first saw No Country For Old Men, I felt that the film was near perfect for so long.  Then the final half-hour, it makes a sudden left turn in narrative drive, going from cat and mouse chase picture to a mythic meditation on the nature of evil.  It left me dissatisfied then, but I thought it would grow on me.

Well, it hasn’t.  I get what the story is going for and I really like what it has to say, but I can’t help but feel like there’s a better way to get there.

Until then though, this film is perhaps the decade’s most unrelentingly intense thriller, filled to the brim with wonderful Coen Bros touches, like the scuff marks of the struggling police officer, the peanut wrapper slowly uncrumpling (“Call it… Friend-o.”), many great hotel confrontations and a damn persistent dog.  This Best Picture winner revolves around little more than three men and a bag of money.  Yet within that framework much is said about the desperate and harsh world we live in.  Fargo with a pitch-black heart.

One thing I forgot about the film was its great use of quiet.  I don’t even remember a score, just a sound mix so low you can hear the breathing or keys jangling or the echo of the air vent. Seeing this so soon after Bourne Ultimatum makes me realize how great 2007 was for Cinematic Sound.  (We also had Hot Fuzz and Ratatouille.)

The technical qualities in general are outstanding, even for the Coens, who show very little of the self-indulgence that usually overloads their films with quirk.  They’re very disciplined here.

Javier Bardim plays one of the decade’s great villains, and what I find interesting in the performance is Bardim is playing an ultimate badass, a mythic presence… a Boogeyman.  But, aside from the haircut, there’s nothing about him that sticks out.  He just IS, and there’s not a damn thing you can do about it.


My Current List...
58. The Bourne Ultimatum
59. 2046
60. The Lives of Others
61. Gangs of New York
62. Mission: Impossible III
63. Sin City
64. Monsters Inc.
65. The Royal Tenenbaums
66. Serenity
67. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
68. No Country For Old Men
69. District 9
70. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
71. Shaun of the Dead
72. Fantastic Mr. Fox
73. Almost Famous
74. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
75. Grindhouse
76. Into The Wild
77. The Magdalene Sisters
78. In Bruges
79. Million Dollar Baby
80. Grizzly Man
81. Inglorious Basterds
82. The 40-Year-Old Virgin
83. The Dark Knight
84. The Last Kiss
85. Bloody Sunday
86. Moon
87. Sexy Beast
88. Cold Mountain
89. X-Men
90. Whale Rider
91. Super Size Me
92. Akeelah and the Bee
93. Interstella 5555
94. The Departed
95. The Mothman Prophecies
96. Dirty Pretty Things 
97. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
98. Better Luck Tomorrow
99. Hustle & Flow
100. Road to Perdition

Highly Recommended, but dropped from the list...
Blade II,Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Drumline, Infernal Affairs Joint Security Area, Lost in Translation, The Pianist, School of Rock, Spider-Man 2, Touching the Void, Versus, The Visitor, X2: X-Men United, Zoolander

Coming Up soon...
Amelie
North Country
[REC]
« Last Edit: March 24, 2020, 08:24:47 PM by 1SO »

FroHam X

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #207 on: March 07, 2010, 09:32:54 AM »
Pff. No Country is perfect from start to end.
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Sam the Cinema Snob

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #208 on: March 07, 2010, 09:36:14 AM »
I agree with 1SO, the film really teeters off in that last quarter and I liked that section even less the second time around.

FroHam X

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Re: 1SO vs. the 00s: Best of the Decade Marathon
« Reply #209 on: March 07, 2010, 09:44:25 AM »
Yeah, I just love that part of the film more and more every time I see it. I know that's it's a complete reversal of style from visceral to cerebral, but I love that about it.
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