79. "Borat: Cultural Learning for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"Tough call on where this lay on the list, but this felt right. Sascha Barron Cohen is one of the few continuously interesting and simultaneously daring comedians at work today. With his Borat character he lampooned the hell out of so many and exposed so many truths in American society that we attempt to keep hidden because it might ruin out image. And he made us laugh all along the way. The hope however was that we would laugh and think and somehow I doubt there was much thinking after the laughter had ended.
78. "Funny People"
The most mature of any of Judd Apatow's directed or produced works and for my money just one of the overall strongest. Adam Sandler proves that he can act for the first time since PTA's "Punch Drunk Love". Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and a slew of supporting actors kill in scene after scene of serious humor, but also show some of the true colors in people. Rarely do I see a movie where people treat others like shit so throughout and like it, but somehow these characters make you care and make you like them despite all their flaws.
77. "Layer Cake"
Directed by Matthew Vaughn (producers of 'Snatch' and director of the upcoming 'Kick-Ass') and starring future Bond Daniel Craig, 'Layer Cake' is a great crime drama that's twisty and witty and filled with the hard boiled storytelling and images that we got in older British gangster pictures. Craig's Mr. X character thinks he smarter than he is and the main issue is that so does everyone else. But he's got a great plan and philosophy about getting out while you're on top. The key to this film though is that everything comes full circle one way or another and every character is involved far more than we think.
76. "Ratatouille"
Brad Bird is one of the best writer-directors of animated fair working. "Ratatouille" is one of those hard to categorize animated movies. It's not a drama or a comedy, but it's damn entertaining and smart. Patton Oswald voices Remy the lead rat that aspires to cook like the masters, but for the fact that he is a rat cannot. Oswald is a comedian, but also is great in dramatic works and is a HUGE film buff. This was a smart choice of a film to take on for him and you really get his wit and character traits through this CGI character. Beyond that it's a beautiful looking Paris and the color pallet is gorgeous.
75. "Lost in Translation"
The little engine that could, awkward indie dramedy by Sophia Coppola. Bill Murray gives one of his best performances and the chemistry between him and Scarlett Johansson is terrific. It's funny, but never too funny and it tells it's story more from visuals and implied emotion than with language which is the real point (hench the title in a way). The only real draw back is that it inspired dozens of imitators. Most simply fell into the pit of soul less, pretentious indie dramedies. But at least the original still stands quite tall.
74. "Ocean's Eleven"
Although for most of this list I picked the series, for this I picked only the first. It's not because I didn't like the sequels, but because I felt that first film was more important on various levels and that the sequels simply followed in suit and didn't add much more than further character quirks. Steven Soderbergh might be my favorite director of the past ten years and it's because he lovingly brings us so many diverse and interesting pictures. His remake of the Rat Pack film with the ridiculously cool cast it boasts has kick started the crime caper genre again and has helped pump out tons and tons of movies wanting to be compared to this one. But no one is as cool as Clooney, Pitt and Damon. No one plays of strong and hurt as well as Roberts and few caper villians quite get into the grooves of being smart, ruthless and pissed as well as Garcia.
73. "Hot Fuzz"
Yes it's far above "Shaun of the Dead". For my money the experience coupled with the film was far more satisfying and fun. "Hot Fuzz" becomes it's own awesome buddy action, comedy while paying homage to dozens and dozens of other ones and doing it so perfectly. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost proved their bromance wasn't a fluke and Edgar Wright showed off his skills at crafting actions sequences that were both exciting and hilarious.
72. "The Fountain"*
A massively underrated science fiction drama!! Darren Aronofsky's beautiful and emotional work of art just couldn't find its way to the mass public. It was pushed back, had different productions entirely and got released on Thanksgivng 2006 along side four other, much bigger and more accessible films. However looking at it today it strikes me in a similar way as Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner". Even if you don't like the tone or the story, the visuals are so stunning and the score by Clint Mansell is so mind blowing that it commands your attention. If you've never seen this film, now is a great time to look into it.
71. "Signs"
M. Night Shyamalan's last major success without a 'but' in someone talking about it. Being a fan of the paranormal, a story like this grabs me from minute one, but what keeps me is if the tone and the pacing work. Shyamalan is terrific with those two particular items, however let's not take any praise from Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix who are trapped in this bizarre world of mystery and water fearing aliens and do great at reacting and coping. Does it have airs of pretentiousness? Sure does. But if it works, it works and 'Signs' is as effective a science fiction thriller as many of old greats. "The Fourth Kind" could have learned something from this.
70. "Spartan"
Unrelated to "300" mind you, but does involve a spartan concept. David Mamet wrote and directed this tense and highly intelligent thriller about the kidnapping of the presidents daughter and the lone soldier played by Val Kilmer sent to find her and bring down those responsible. Kilmer has had a couple of fine roles in the last tens years, but all have been in small films like this one. Derek Luke is great as well as a soldier that somewhat trained under Kilmer. He's flawed and new, but he's far from stupid. A couple of Mamet's usual suspects make appearances like Ed O'Neil and William H. Macy and you will also see a younger Kristen Bell as the kidnapped first daughter.
*film picture at the top of blog
No comments:
Post a Comment