Gentlemen! Top 25 films of the previous decade.

[RGC]

.

[Dale]

Fuck this is hard. In no order horror comes to mind first.

Pontypool
Inside
American Physco
Frailty
REC
Martys
Antichrist
Brick
Inception
Paprika
Tokyo Godfathers
Kung Pow Enter The Fist
City Of Violence
Flash Point
Ip Man
The Hangover
Moon
Eastern Promises
Muholand Drive
Capote
Black Dynamite
Ong Bak2
Tom Young Goon
The Black Dahlia
Mr Brooks
Paranormal Activity
The Dark Knight
Oldboy
Attack The Gas Station
Taladega Nights
Running Scared
Survive Style 5+

That wasn't hard at all I loved this decade of movies(more then 25 hmm).

[Obiwanshinobi]

There's no year 0 in Gregorian calendar and if you count decades (and centuries) beginning with the year 1, the last year of each ends with a 0.

Only no one counts decades like that so the point is moot.

Historians do. Only ignorants believe that 21st century (and its first decade) began with the year 2000. It began with the year 2001 (the hint is in the last digit being 1).

[genecyst]

i liked v movie couse it's always nice to see house of parliament burning...obviously it's not one of the best movie ever but it has a nice message on it even if V never mention the word "anarchy".

no country for old men have a lot of good promises but don't leave anything to the viewer. a lot of banal thoughts put in the mess and acted in a drama way to give them importance.
I mean, it's very well made, i like its photography, direction and montage but it lacks a good script at all.
I expected a lot more with its pretentious premises.

[Shocky]

Oh god, this is gonna be hard.. so much to choose from. And I haven't still seen some of the last important films of 2010 like Endhiran or Bangkok Knockout...

A Serbian Film
Antichrist
300
It Is Fine. Everything Is Fine!
Battle Royale

Borat
Ong-Bak
Suicide Circle
Ichi the Killer
Kill Bill vol. 1

Doomsday
Hostel 1+2
Martyrs
Tokyo Gore Police
Ju-On: The Grudge

Tropa de elite
Rambo
Piranha 3D
Shaolin Soccer
Uzumaki

Winter's Bone
Zwartboek
Life Is Hot In Cracktown
Taken
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust

That's it. Must have forgotten something essential... maybe I'll register with another name and list more

[Battletoad]

The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Sin City
Saw
Amélie
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (yeah I loved it besides the computer graphics and some dialogues...)

And I'll throw in Lost which is a TV series but was awesome as long as it lasted. Well admittedly, the last season was a bit weak.

[Skykid]

i liked v movie couse it's always nice to see house of parliament burning...obviously it's not one of the best movie ever but it has a nice message on it even if V never mention the word "anarchy".

Have you ever read the graphic novel on which it's based?

As for No Country it has a superb script, performances, and is a directorial masterclass in how to make a thriller. It's a very good film indeed, the masses were right (for once.)

[genecyst]

yes i've read a lot of moore novels, and i think the movie is a sort of semplification for the masses of the meanings of the novel. instead a movie like watchmen has nothing to do with the meaning of the novel even recreating a lot of scenes exactly identical to the comic book.
i mean, i know v for vendetta isn't perfect and isn't an incredible movie, but being an hollywood creation it has a lot more of what i expect from. so i promote it.
...and the parliament blow up!!!!


i continue thinking no country for old men is only an incredibly well made package for carrying nothing.
i mean they got a great characters like the sheriff which take a really small part in the movie and instead follow a lot josh brolin story that result quite unrelevant only to rise up a bit of tension.
i think it's really bad focused on giving the viewer the idea of "no country for old men".
i wish to see a lot more "old men" speaking in this movie instead of focusing in the escape-shot-kill-money sort of movie.

[Skykid]

yes i've read a lot of moore novels, and i think the movie is a sort of semplification for the masses of the meanings of the novel. instead a movie like watchmen has nothing to do with the meaning of the novel even recreating a lot of scenes exactly identical to the comic book.
i mean, i know v for vendetta isn't perfect and isn't an incredible movie, but being an hollywood creation it has a lot more of what i expect from. so i promote it.
...and the parliament blow up!!!!

I would have assumed anyone who read the graphic novel would consider the film a disgusting mockery of a fine work. I did, and so did Jonathan Ross on his movie show. I can't believe I ignored his 1 star rating, but being that he's a comic fan I should have trusted his good word and saved my money.

i continue thinking no country for old men is only an incredibly well made package for carrying nothing.
i mean they got a great characters like the sheriff which take a really small part in the movie and instead follow a lot josh brolin story that result quite unrelevant only to rise up a bit of tension.
i think it's really bad focused on giving the viewer the idea of "no country for old men".
i wish to see a lot more "old men" speaking in this movie instead of focusing in the escape-shot-kill-money sort of movie.

Movies don't always need to be in a familiar structure to work. No Country certainly wasn't, and I know that rubbed some folks up the wrong way. But like a lot of Coen Bros movies, it was all about the title. It deserves a repeat viewing, honestly - once you know what not to expect at the ending, you can appreciate its finer points a lot more.

[GaijinPunch]

i can't understand why so many people liked no country for old men...

-Recreation of Texas of the early 80's: Check
-Action: Check
-Cohen Brother's patented goofy accents: Check
-Biggest bad ass in movie history: Check

Hope I won't get lambasted for adding Walk the Line to my list.

Also awesome. Totally forgot about this one.

As for No Country it has a superb script, performances, and is a directorial masterclass in how to make a thriller. It's a very good film indeed, the masses were right (for once.)

Other than Return of the King, this is the one time I really agreed w/ the Best Picture win. The movie builds intensity with almost no substance. There's like 11 minutes of music in the whole movie. I guess that's why I like Breaking Bad so much. It's the same "less is more" intensity.

[CMoon]

Regarding No Country for Old Men; it's really impossible for me to distance the book from the film. Unlike a lot of movies, No country for Old Men is a very tight adaptation of the book, and the only changes I can think of are really minor and without much if any significance. Most of the complaints shared here about the movie really feel like they are more about the source material. Nothing wrong with that, and I'm not going to suggest you should read the book if you didn't like the film, but if you find yourself reading McCarthy at some point, it might be worth giving this film another chance. He's a great author, but with unusual pacing and structure.

[genecyst]

a lot of people tell me to read mccarthy and i'm quite sure i'll like this book.
ive got his "on the road" around home somewhere but unfortunately i've just seen the movie and my interest is gone.
both stories are quite curious and interesting but they suffer on a movie adaptation because the characters demand to drag deeply inside themself as a movie usually can't (if the director isn't tarkovsky). both of them seems a lot incomplete to me.

by the way i've seen no country for old men three times couse i usually like Coens and i were really disappointed about how they grow as directors and how much the movie didn't speak to me anyway.
i'm sorry... but simply i didn't like it...

[CMoon]

Well I would agree (at least I think you are saying this) that making an adaptation of The Road is a tough call. I ended up enjoying the movie, but reading the book I thought there is no way to do this. If someone had asked me to make The Road I would have filmed it in black and white, then thrown the canisters of film in a lake for 3 years. As far as No Country for Old Men, I think you are wrong in thinking it is too introspective. The movie is a VERY CLOSE reading of the book and actually I'm waiting for someone to accuse the movie of being too close. I don't think it is introspective the way that The Road is, and I think what it is trying to say is mostly right on the surface: The the US has always been a brutal country. That characters like Chigur have always been around--this is a sort of bridge to his early major work, Blood Meridian.

As much as I can tell though, I suspect you just aren't a fan of McCarthy. I doubt this has much to do with the Cohen brothers at all, as I think No Country for Old Men is about as good an adaptation as you can manage.

P.S.--I should add, I don't think No Country for Old Men is McCarthy's best work by any means. Reading it on the heels of The Road and Blood Meridian was a bit dissapointing, though still pretty good.

[KindGrind]

While I enjoyed No Country for Old Men, calling it the best picture of 2007 is certainly a bit of a stretch for me. It had great characters, great photography and direction for sure, but I understand genecyst that says it's a good movie that left him bleh. I felt exactly like that upon watching it, too, and not only because of the ending. The movie promises a lot (great setting, bad guy, etc) and delivers little. -I have the phrase "empty shell" in mind, but I realize this is quite harsh- The bad haircuts and funky weapons are nice distractions and all, don't get me wrong. The movie was indeed good entertainment overall, but it just wasn't "it" for me. Maybe I ought to watch it again, I've only watched it twice. Or maybe the movie was overhyped (critics raved about it) and I was expecting more, a new, different cinematic experience... and was disappointed I did not get that. I think I'll watch again this week, as I own the blu-ray. I cannot comment on the book, haven't read it.

On The Road; loved the book. A lot. Overall, I like what they did with the movie. I too wondered about the possible use of b&w for this movie, but I thought that brown-ish was an even better choice. I had problems with the casting, Theron, for example, didn't convince me at all. There is one thing that annoyed me particularly about the whole thing though. I feel they overemphasized the suicidal nature of the survivors at the beginning, and repeated it several times throughout the movie. I mean, explaining that putting a bullet in your brains instead of being eaten was a pretty good deal, is necessary. But then, over and over, you see the father explaining to his kid exactly what he has to do, and how he has to do it, etc. The scenes are present in the book, too, but the book being meatier(!), it just works a lot better. As a viewer I felt like: "Alright, we get it, get over it". While I would definitely read the book again and recommend it to people, I'm not sure I'll watch the movie again. Truth is, it's too damn depressing... which, in a way, tells me it has succeeded.

Saw Tell No One on a list above. Superb movie, had forgotten about that one.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Well, I sure as hell am not a fan of McCarthy. I've read All the Pretty Horses (lured by that song; silly me, eh?), and what the fuck was that? Poor man's Faulkner or what? I'm not a fan of Faulkner too, but that novel really crossed the line of poorness.
P.S. Blimey, Wikipedia just told me the book was adapted into a film starring Matt Damon, no less. Need I say more?

[CMoon]

All the pretty horses is McCarthy for girls.

Anyway, maybe my point is being misunderstood. I'm not trying to say that getting a 'blah' feeling out of Old Country for Old Men is wrong or that you're missing anything. What I'm trying to say is that is coming from the source material; I think the Cohen brothers' adaptation is about as good as film adaptations get. As much as I love McCarthy, I'd say the fault lies with him.

[louisg]

Just popped in to say that these are the ones that come to mind as the movies that I completely enjoyed:

Star Trek (best Star Trek movie ever, and it captured what made the original show so great!)
Paprika (only because Paranoia Agent isn't a feature film )
The Fast and the Furious (underrated imo as a movie with an incredible plot arc and momentum, and also a semi-guilty pleasure. it's easy not to take it seriously, but underneath the teenage-aimed goofiness is an excellent movie)
Moon (one of the best sci fi movies I've seen and maybe my favorite 'serious' sci fi flick. It's like Solaris or 2001 without the pretentiousness)
Millennium Actress
No Country For Old Men
Infernal Affairs 1 & 2 (1 was the best crime movie I've seen in a very long time, and way better than the POS Hollywood version with the happy mainland ending)
One Nite in Mongkok
There Will Be Blood
True Grit (pretty late, but I enjoyed it. It was much better imo than any other post-70s western I've seen)
The Royal Tenenbaums

I'd almost name Inception, but I've only seen it once and I'm not sure how well it'll hold up. I feel like there must be a crime movie or something that I'm missing.

[RGC]

.

[louisg]

Infernal Affairs 1 & 2 (1 was the best crime movie I've seen in a very long time, and way better than the POS Hollywood version with the happy mainland ending)

The happy ending being that bit where everyone got killed?!

The one where the bad guy gets killed (yaaaaay!), as opposed to continuing working in the police force and unable to come clean. The remake misses the entire point of the movie, and pretty much any intelligent themes that were present in the original disappear (including more complex character relationships).

[RGC]

.

[louisg]

I can't dispute the latter point because I haven't seen Infernal Affairs, but I still wouldn't call the departed's ending happy based on what I didn't see happen. The remake has to stand alone, and it does so very well in my view. The only very slight issue I have with it is Nicholson, but that's barely worth a mention.

Yeah, it's an alright popcorn flick. But, it's a lot more formulaic and cliched than the source material, which is kind of saying a lot considering how much of a glammed-out Hong Kong pop movie the first was. Seeing the Hollywood version is kind of like seeing Blade Runner after reading Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Blade Runner might not be a bad movie despite its issues, but it reduces the book-- which posed a lot of interesting moral questions-- into an action flick about evil androids and people being thrown through glass windows in slow motion.

[emphatic]

I loved Infernal Affairs (haven't seen the second or third yet) and IMO, The Departed is the best "western version" of an Asian movie I've seen since Verbinski's The Ring (that's even better than the original IMO). I also think that Nicholson's part is way to OTT, especially that thing at the skinflix theatre. Also, I had a hard time keeping all the players apart in Infernal Affairs. People forget why Hollywood keep forcing their Stars upon us, sometimes it's because it's just easier to keep track of who's playing what character.

[CMoon]

No Country for Old Men is about as good an adaptation as you can manage.

Blaming the book for the film not being as good as it could is just a silly argument. Cohen bros chose to adapt it, so it's their bag, and bad if it failed to deliver as a film. Not that I'm saying it did, I need to watch it again, but you get the point.

You're gonna have to help me out here. If you didn't like the story, and the film is a very tight, sometimes word for word adaptation of the book, isn't blaming the book (where the story came from) appropriate? I don't want to put words in your mouth, but I'm now confused what you didn't like about the movie--I thought it was a problem with the story.

[CMoon]

Double post:

I don't know why more of you aren't mentioning True Grit. If it's because you haven't seen it yet, y'all got some work to do this weekend.

[genecyst]

just made a marathon with pontypool, the mist and true grit.
i've got to include pontypool in my list, it's really a good take on zombie and viral-marketing. thanks to the guys who posted it here.
true grit has some blurred characters and a speedy ending but it's not bad at all.

[Skykid]

Infernal Affairs 1 & 2 (1 was the best crime movie I've seen in a very long time, and way better than the POS Hollywood version with the happy mainland ending)

The happy ending being that bit where everyone got killed?!

The one where the bad guy gets killed (yaaaaay!), as opposed to continuing working in the police force and unable to come clean. The remake misses the entire point of the movie, and pretty much any intelligent themes that were present in the original disappear (including more complex character relationships).

Infernal Affairs is better than The Departed. It tells the same story better in roughly half the time.
That said, I'd agree TD is the best adaptation of an Asian film in the west I've seen, I liked it a lot.

[Dale]

just made a marathon with pontypool, the mist and true grit.
i've got to include pontypool in my list, it's really a good take on zombie and viral-marketing. thanks to the guys who posted it here.
true grit has some blurred characters and a speedy ending but it's not bad at all.

No prob bro, I still can't get some of the serial dialogue out of my head from that film.

[RGC]

.

[Stormwatch]

Star Trek (best Star Trek movie ever, and it captured what made the original show so great!)

Except for the countless plot holes and contrived coincidences. Sure, it looked very kinetic and exciting, but the writing was abysmal. If they had done a pure "Starfleet Academy" movie without the time travel and altered reality crap, it would have been a thousand times better.

[KindGrind]

@rgc

I hold City of God in very high regard. It imo ranks among the very best of the last decade. Share your impressions once you see it!

As much as I love Moon, it was better the first time for me, too.