Your Top 5 Movies of the 2000s.. so far?

[Yannick Hagman]

I think Juno needs an honourable mention somewhere; I'd certainly opt for it over Little Miss Sunshine which felt like an unbearably long setup to a single joke at times.

I found Juno a bit boring. But definitely more off-key than comedy. More on the line of garden state, which I also didn't like that much.

 

[J Davis]

The Departed (Hong Kong Version)

I agree with Thomas, Infernal Affairs ... it's the only version
(allthough I like Scorsese, can't say I enjoyed remakes like The Departed)

 

[David Collard]

Arguably there's been a little renaissance in filmmaking. Even Steven Spielberg resurrected himself with such films like "A.I." and "Catch me if You Can".

Two my personal favorites include "The New World" and "V for Vendetta".

 

[Jaime Vallés]

Saving Private Ryan was 1998. Yeah, time flies.

Oh wow. I can't believe that movie came out 11 years ago!!! Time does fly.

I guess I'd replace it in my list with either:

Children of Men or... Galaxy Quest

:sifone:

 

[Harva Raj]

LOTR Trilogy
Harry Potter (Series)
Spiderman Trilogy
The Matrix (Reloded & Revolutions)
Transformers


Honorable Mentions

Batman (Begins & Dark Knight)
The Sixth Sense

 

[Wesley Scoggins]

Top 5 of 2000's.

1. Spirited Away
2. The Life Aquatic
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Brick
5. Amelie

Runners up
1. Ratatouille
2. Slumdog Millionaire
3. Tony Takitani
4. Lost in Translation
5. A Snake of June

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

For the record I think that trilogies etc. should not count as one film especially not Harry Potter.
after all when is the last time a trilogy or series (with the exception of Television) won an oscar or other award.

 

[Rakesh Jacob]

Ok I've been thinking about it and there are too many to just list 5. So I decided to go by which films really left a mark on my psyche:

1) What the Bleep Do We Know: Yeah not really "all that" as far as filmmaking but was a huge influence in my personal growth. It came at a time when/where I was at a crossroads and had a hard time reconciling religion, spirituality and the nature of the known Universe.

2) The Matrix Reloaded: Had me very intrigued in it's obvious subtexts. One of the few films I've watched multiple times. I really wanted to know what the Wachowskys were trying to tell me! And of course the great disappointment that was Revolutions... pissed me off. But as a moment in time, the time I spent watching Reloaded and trying to understand the Architect and the Oracle on a deeper, personal level, is what stays with me.

3) The Bourne Ultimatum: Visceral to the max! This movie influenced my filmmaking technique more than any other. Not that I need to have vomit inducing camera movements constantly in my work but that "implied" visuals and good sound fx are really the basis to pull off a good action sequence; and I didn't need a big budget to do action, just some well planned and motivated camera moves with good sound design. As a matter of fact, the less you show and the more you imply and leave up the imagination is sometimes a better sell.

4) The Dark Knight: I'll be honest, I did not want to see this movie. I thought the GREAT Ledger performance thing was all just a bunch of hype trying to exploit the poor bastard's death for ticket sales. When I saw it... OMFG! I don't think I'm qualified or experienced or knowledgeable enough to say "best performance ever" but it IS my favorite performance ever!

5) Code 46: To me the subtle way in which the concept was handled was just amazing! And I thought it was so very poetic and beautiful in its execution.

 

[Craig W. Bickerstaff]

4) The Dark Knight: I'll be honest, I did not want to see this movie. I thought the GREAT Ledger performance thing was all just a bunch of hype trying to exploit the poor bastard's death for ticket sales. When I saw it... OMFG! I don't think I'm qualified or experienced or knowledgeable enough to say "best performance ever" but it IS my favorite performance ever!

I'd hate to be critical about this, but your summary of The Dark Knight is what really annoys me about all the Dark Knight praise, that people rave about how great the film is and seem to base it entirely on Heath's performance as the Joker!
No one seems to give a shit about the rise and fall of Dent or alfred's story of vigilante in the jungle... Bruce's story and conflicts with his role as batman.
People rave and rave about Joker but forget that he's really just a counterpoint to the batman which is what makes his character compelling in the first place!

 

[Rakesh Jacob]

I'd hate to be critical about this, but your summary of The Dark Knight is what really annoys me about all the Dark Knight praise, that people rave about how great the film is and seem to base it entirely on Heath's performance as the Joker!
No one seems to give a shit about the rise and fall of Dent or alfred's story of vigilante in the jungle... Bruce's story and conflicts with his role as batman.
People rave and rave about Joker but forget that he's really just a counterpoint to the batman which is what makes his character compelling in the first place!

Sorry to annoy you, just what I felt, I'll try to feel things less annoying to your sensabilities next time... I guess...:head_explode:
But honestly, Bale got on my mutha----- nerves as "The Batman." I really couldnt wait for the Joker to get on screen. I wish the movie was about him LOL, in a lot of ways it was. Dent's story line was well played, but over shadowed; Alfred was brilliantly played and very solid but I wouldnt expect anything less from Caine. For me it wasn't a great film, it was a very good film with a freaking amazing performance that I was not expecting caus I thought it was all hype.

 

[Cüneyt Kaya]

memento:
yes well, what should i say. simply great


aviator:
i love the movie, but you have to read the script once, superb


gladiator:
russel and joaquin rule


oldboy:
visually awesome

there will be blood

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

1) What the Bleep Do We Know: Yeah not really "all that" as far as filmmaking but was a huge influence in my personal growth. It came at a time when/where I was at a crossroads and had a hard time reconciling religion, spirituality and the nature of the known Universe.

Just to avoid any confusion. There is no actual science in WTBDWK. You get about as much science out of the movie as watching an episode of Doctor Who. If not less since it's actually presented as real.

I hope it inspired you to do some research into real physics and science. Religion and Science can be reconciled. But Science and that film cannot.

 

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Hmmmm... I'm sure I'm going to miss my favorite but I'll take a stab.


LOTR
Munich
Ratatoulli
Amelie
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Only seen it once, so it might not hold up to multiple viewings.)

So many more though which just come in under the line also in no particular order:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Constant Gardner
Zoolander (I think I've seen that movie like a bazillion times.)
The Fountain
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men
Letters From Iwo Jima
Requiem for a Dream (although a bit exploitative)
Gladiator
Sin City (For fundamentally changing the scope of a live action film aesthetically.)

Film which I evidently need to see and have been convinced by this thread: The New World.

 

[Jason Murphy]

It's of course very difficult to limit to a top five, but if I were to make a list right now, it might go something like this (in no order):

In the Mood for Love (2000, Wong Kar-wai)

- Incredibly beautiful movie, with great performances from Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, not to mention Chris Doyle and Lee Ping-Bin.

The Intruder (2004, Claire Denis)

- An aging man living alone in a cabin on the Franco-Swiss border gets a black-market heart transplant, buys a boat and travels to Tahiti in search of his long-estranged son. Beautiful and elliptical, and has stuck with me perhaps more than any narrative feature of the decade. It also has a kickass score by Stuart Staples, of Tindersticks fame.

The God of Day Had Gone Down Upon Him (2000, Stan Brakhage)

- A stunning landscape (or perhaps, more accurately, seascape) film shot by Brakhage in the Pacific NW. Gorgeous 16mm Kodachrome work. Along with Jonas Mekas' As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty... and Nathaniel Dorsky's Threnody & Song and Solitude it's one of the great cinematic meditations on mortality from the avant-garde.

Syndromes and a Century (2006, Apitchatpong Weerasethakul)

- Kind of indescribable. A wonderful Thai movie set both in a rural clinic and a hyper-modern urban hospital, it is ostensibly a retelling of how the director's parents met, but is so much more strange, hypnotic and beautiful than that brief description would suggest.

Three Times (2005, Hou Hsiao-hsien)

- Hou is still probably my favorite living filmmaker, and this film is as good an introduction to his work as you'll ever see. Three love stories set in three separate time periods (each period more fully explored by Hou in an earlier film), each with the same two actors (Shu Qi and Chang Chen). Gorgeous cinematography, and a stunning final section.

Of course there are a host of other movies that are equally deserving, including...

Eureka (2000, Shinji Aoyama)
Platform and The World (2000, 2004, Jia Zhangke)
Distance (2001, Hirokazu Kore-eda)
Yi Yi (2000, Edward Yang)
The Captive (2000, Chantal Akerman)
Devils on the Doorstep (2000, Jiang Wen)
Solaris (2002, Steven Soderbergh)
Spider (2002, David Cronenberg)
Punch Drunk Love (2002, PT Anderson)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000, Bela Tarr)
Millennium Mambo, Cafe Lumiere and Flight of the Red Balloon (2000, 2004, 2007, Hou Hsiao-hsien)
The Visitation, Winter, Sarabande (2002, 2008, 2008, Nathaniel Dorsky)
Pitcher of Colored Light (2007, Robert Beavers)
No Country for Old Men (2007, Coen Bros.)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007, Andrew Dominik)
There Will Be Blood (2007, PT Anderson)
Zodiac (2007, David Fincher)
Elephant and Paranoid Park (2003, 2007, Gus Van Sant)
Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch)
The New World (2006, Terence Malick)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004, Michel Gondry)
Innocence (2004, Mamoru Oshii)
Spirited Away (2002, Hayao Miyazaki)

etc.

Also, were I willing to consider it one film, The Wire would be in my top 5 in an instant.

 

[Rakesh Jacob]

Just to avoid any confusion. There is no actual science in WTBDWK. You get about as much science out of the movie as watching an episode of Doctor Who. If not less since it's actually presented as real.

I hope it inspired you to do some research into real physics and science. Religion and Science can be reconciled. But Science and that film cannot.

LOL I agree... now, but at the time it set me on the right path. In retrospect, it's a slightly less obnoxious version of the secret I'm obviously no particle physicist by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm a lot happier, yeah me!!!

 

[Tom Lowe]

Good post, Murphy.

You can always be counted on to contribute great information.