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Post by berkley on Nov 3, 2023 22:50:11 GMT -5
I'll look at the 2001 list later to make sure, but I believe Lynch's Mulholland Drive came out that year, so it will very likely be that one for me. Yep, it did. I mentioned it in the movies I haven’t seen in a very very long time section.
So you did. That's what I get for just looking at the pictures!
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Post by commond on Nov 4, 2023 5:33:58 GMT -5
Mulholland Drive is one of the most brilliant films ever made and the film of the decade. It's also a film I never want to see again. I'll keep the thrills of the first viewing with me for the rest of my life. Spirted Away is probably Miyazaki's best film. I love Monster's Inc. I also love Haneke's The Piano Teacher and The Son's Room. The latter was a tearjerker. Amelie was cute. The Royal Tenenbaums and Gosford Park are good films. Kurosawa's Pulse is good. I haven't watched Ghost World but I probably should since I like Clowes. My stoner friends were into Donnie Darko. Seems like a solid year to me.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 5, 2023 8:55:42 GMT -5
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
There’s a lot of great movies from 2001. If it wasn’t for The Lost Skeleton, I would probably choose Spirited Away as my favorite. But I also really like Amelie, Gosford Park, The Royal Tennenbaums, Ghost World and Training Day.
But I’ve seen The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra a bunch of times. Maybe 15 or 20 times over the years.
It’s definitely my favorite.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 5, 2023 9:43:13 GMT -5
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra There’s a lot of great movies from 2001. If it wasn’t for The Lost Skeleton, I would probably choose Spirited Away as my favorite. But I also really like Amelie, Gosford Park, The Royal Tennenbaums, Ghost World and Training Day. But I’ve seen The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra a bunch of times. Maybe 15 or 20 times over the years. It’s definitely my favorite. I do think I’ve seen that, now that it’s mentioned and I looked it up. But I only vaguely remember it. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 26, 2023 14:20:21 GMT -5
And we fall back to three weeks behind because life sucks...so on to 2002. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - I think this is maybe the most cohesive of the three LoTR rings. It's a great swashbuckler that owes as much to golden age Hollywood as it does to Tolkein. The action sequences are excellent and hold up well twenty years on when I re-watched it on the big screen. The siege at Helm's Deep is just a phenomenal achievement. The Bourne Identity - It's been a while since I've seen this. But I enjoyed it for what it was, which was a solid action thriller. I've not read Ludlum's book, so I have no basis for how it is as an adaptation. I just found it to be a fun popcorn movie. And sometimes that's more than enough. Catch Me If You Can - My research has read me to believe that the vast majority ofs This isn't a major work by Steven Spielberg, but it's a fun movie and Leonardo DiCaprio is charming and plays a fun rogue.
Spider-Man - Sam Raimi did something I didn't think would ever happen...he gave me a Spider-Man that was pretty damn close to the comics I grew up reading, complete with action, costumes and quality performances. J.K. Simmons was freakin' born to play J. Jonah Jameson. Is it a perfect superhero movie? No. It wasn't at the time and it definitely isn't in retrospect. But on the heels of X-Men, for those of us who grew up in the dark before times, it was damn good. Road to Perdition - One of those comic book movies that people forget are comic book movies. I'm still not sure if Tom Hanks was the right choice for Michael Sullivan, but Sam Mendes gives us a great adaptation of Max Allan Collins and Richard Piers Rayner's graphic novel. The cinematography in this movie is absolutely lovely and Mendes' use of rain is outstanding. This deserves the classification of neo-noir. Paul Newman gives one of his best late life performances. People sleep on this one, which is a shame. Bubba Ho-Tep - C'mon. Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis. Ossie Davis as a man who thinks he's JFK. Based on a novella by Joe R. Lansdale. An evil mummy rampaging in a retirement home. How can you not love that? Just a super fun, wacky and incredibly ingratiating film. Bruce Campbell is a damn national treasure. About a Boy - This 100% should not be a film I'd like. I don't even know how I managed to watch it...I'm sure it was my wife's choice. It's been a long time since I've seen it, but I remember really loving it. It really felt like Hugh Grant was channeling Cary Grant at his best that that the movie just transcended the horrendous ghetto that the romantic-comedy-drama has descended in to. As usual there are many films I've either not seen or not seen in far too long. Including; most foreign films; City of God; 28 Days Later; Minority Report (haven't seen in ages); The Pianist; Adaptation; Infernal Affairs; Punch Drunk Love; 25th Hour; So what's my favorite film of 2002? Tough call between Road to Perdition and Bubba Ho-Tep. On any given day, depending on my mood, it could be either. But today...I'll say Bubb Ho-Tep. And 2002 in film for those as need a look. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Nov 26, 2023 15:55:48 GMT -5
Bubba Ho-Tep is definitely my pick for that year as well.
Road to Perdition is excellent, although it's been a long time since I saw it last (like maybe 2003 or 2004). Adaptation and The Pianist are quite good, too.
And I have to give a special shout-out to My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which I've seen several times and it always makes me laugh - I particularly like the aspects that highlight the experience of growing up with immigrant parents/extended families. So much of that was relatable to me.
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Post by berkley on Nov 26, 2023 17:45:42 GMT -5
After a very quick scan, I'm leaning towards Miyazaki's Spirited Away, but I might have missed something so I'll try to go through the list more carefully later on. I looked again before clicking post: besides the already mentioned Bubba Ho-Tep, I also liked Graham Greene adaptation The Quiet American, the Frida bio-pic with Salma Hayek, the first of the Transporter series, Zhang Yimou's Hero, HK crime movie Infernal Affairs, ... Gaspard Noé's Irreversible is a tremendous piece of film-making but I don't know if I can ever watch it again due to the infamously painful scene where Monica Bellucci's character is assaulted. I also see L'Auberge espagnole, L'Homme du train, Guy Maddin's Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, 28 Days Later, Brazilian movie City of God, Bend It Like Beckham, ... a lot more than I thought was there at first glance!
edit: wait, I see that Spirited Away was a 2001 movie, it just won awards in 2002. This might leave me without a clear-cut 2002 favourite for the moment, so I'll have to look and think again.
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Post by commond on Nov 26, 2023 18:33:21 GMT -5
My favorite film from 2002 is Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, which blew me away when I saw it at the cinema. I voted it number two for the decade. It was also the last Almodovar film I remember liking as nothing he made afterwards compared to the one-two punch of All About My Mother and Talk to Her.
My number three film was Aki Kaurismaki's Man Without a Past. The fact these came out in the same year makes 2002 pretty stacked for me.
The most acclaimed film of 2002 was City of God. For some reason, I didn't vote for it either because I was being a contrarian or it didn't sway me. It's probably worth revisiting as it still has incredibly high ratings on IMDB and the like.
I quite liked the Dardenne brothers' The Son, and enjoyed most of their films from this decade. Polanski's The Pianist is also good depending on how you feel about the man himself.
I can tell you a film I hated from this year and that was Zhang Yimou's Hero. Don't get me started.
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Post by berkley on Nov 26, 2023 20:51:00 GMT -5
My favorite film from 2002 is Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, which blew me away when I saw it at the cinema. I voted it number two for the decade. It was also the last Almodovar film I remember liking as nothing he made afterwards compared to the one-two punch of All About My Mother and Talk to Her. My number three film was Aki Kaurismaki's Man Without a Past. The fact these came out in the same year makes 2002 pretty stacked for me. The most acclaimed film of 2002 was City of God. For some reason, I didn't vote for it either because I was being a contrarian or it didn't sway me. It's probably worth revisiting as it still has incredibly high ratings on IMDB and the like. I quite liked the Dardenne brothers' The Son, and enjoyed most of their films from this decade. Polanski's The Pianist is also good depending on how you feel about the man himself. I can tell you a film I hated from this year and that was Zhang Yimou's Hero. Don't get me started.
No idea if this is what you're thinking of but I remember liking Hero purely as a movie but at the same time deploring what I thought was its political message (conformity, even blind loyalty, to the unifying political authority of its time, and thus by implication of our time as well, i.e. the ruling party of modern China). But there are plenty of American films I like as films while finding their political message questionable to say the least.
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 26, 2023 21:22:16 GMT -5
My favorite film from 2002 is Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, which blew me away when I saw it at the cinema. I voted it number two for the decade. It was also the last Almodovar film I remember liking as nothing he made afterwards compared to the one-two punch of All About My Mother and Talk to Her. Volver and The Skin I Live In are both GREAT MOVIES! I’ve seen Volver quite a few times and it always delivers. The Skin I Live In is like somebody dared Almodovar to make something like a low-budget Bela Lugosi mad-scientist movie. And he outdid himself! With Antonio Banderas as Bela Lugosi. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 26, 2023 21:28:08 GMT -5
My favorite movie of 2002 is Francois Ozon’s 8 Women, also known as 8 femmes.
It was my favorite French film ever until I saw Eyes Without a Face.
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Post by berkley on Nov 27, 2023 0:20:40 GMT -5
My favorite film from 2002 is Pedro Almodovar's Talk to Her, which blew me away when I saw it at the cinema. I voted it number two for the decade. It was also the last Almodovar film I remember liking as nothing he made afterwards compared to the one-two punch of All About My Mother and Talk to Her. Volver and The Skin I Live In are both GREAT MOVIES! I’ve seen Volver quite a few times and it always delivers. The Skin I Live In is like somebody dared Almodovar to make something like a low-budget Bela Lugosi mad-scientist movie. And he outdid himself! With Antonio Banderas as Bela Lugosi. I liked his last one quite a lot, Parallel Mothers. The one before that, Pain and Glory, I thought was only OK. I've only recently started to watch a few of his earlier movies. So far, I've seen Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down and High Heels - the first I thought was well made and entertaining but sent a really bad message; the second was more interesting and I liked it better all round. I should get to Women on the Verge soon.
What about his other 1990s films between High Heels and All About My Mother? There's Kika, Flower of My Secret, and Live Flesh - any comments on those are welcome since they would be the next up if I continue going through the '90s as I have been doing lately.
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Post by berkley on Nov 27, 2023 0:27:27 GMT -5
My favorite movie of 2002 is Francois Ozon’s 8 Women, also known as 8 femmes. It was my favorite French film ever until I saw Eyes Without a Face. I forgot that one. I saw it at the time and liked it but my overall impression was that he didn't quite succeed in capturing the kind of breezy comedy feeling I thought he was going for, if I remember. But I could be projecting backwards a bit because that's how I felt about his last one, The Crime is Mine - which I would still recommend, even so. I think my favourite of the 3 or 4 I've seen so far of his was Frantz (2016), with Paula Beer - a drama rather than a comedy, whether that's a coincidence or not. |
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Post by Hoosier X on Nov 27, 2023 0:30:41 GMT -5
I’ve seen all of Almodovar’s films, and I tend to prefer his early movies, with only a few of the later ones standing out for me very much. My favorites are Pepi, Luci, Bom; What Have I Done to Deserve This?; Dark Habits; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Volver; The Skin I Live In.
My favorite is Women on the Verge. I saw it on a big screen when it first came out. Twice. I’ve seen it quite a few times since then. It’s my favorite Spanish film.
Except for The Flower of My Secret, I like all his films, but these are the ones I like best.
I seem to like I’m So Excited better than most people
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Post by berkley on Nov 27, 2023 0:43:23 GMT -5
I’ve seen all of Almodovar’s films, and I tend to prefer his early movies, with only a few of the later ones standing out for me very much. My favorites are Pepi, Luci, Bom; What Have I Done to Deserve This?; Dark Habits; Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; Volver; The Skin I Live In. My favorite is Women on the Verge. I saw it on a big screen when it first came out. Twice. I’ve seen it quite a few times since then. It’s my favorite Spanish film. Except for The Flower of My Secret, I like all his films, but these are the ones I like best. I seem to like I’m So Excited better than most people
I'll probably come back to the earlier 1980s movies later just because of where I am in my other movie-watching. But I'm hoping to get through the 1990s relatively fast and then move into the 2000s.
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