Dah-Dah-Dahna!! Da-dun-da-dun-da-dun! It’s PK’s picks for 2001!

Jan 8, 2010 Cool Stuff
Posted by admin

2001 is a date that evokes film greatness and we had some prime examples of them in this year. It also had a lot of movies that were just plain FUN! That is why there is a tie for the number 10 spot.

• SUPER TROOPERS: The scene in which they drink the syrup and wherein one of the troopers admires a billboard model say it all. Irreverent, gross and occasionally smarter than it should be, this commentary on pot smoking Vermont police officers is hilarious.

• JAY & SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK!: When Kevin Smith is on he is on! Another film that is irreverent, gross and way smarter than it should be, a lot like the wise-ass clerk behind the counter at your local convenience store. I am also a sucker for funny primates and Morris Day and The Time!

• OCEAN’S 11: George Clooney and the boys make a really great heist film from what was essentially the Rat Pack’s weekend home movies. The cast is superb, the script very funny yet taut and the direction superb! I’d really like to see Soderbergh return to a film like THE LIMEY someday, but this shows how well he can handle big name ensemble casts and the two old men in said cast, Eliot Gould and Carl Reiner, steal the film.

• SHREK:It’s cute and Eddie Murphy has his best performance since TRADING PLACES! MIke Meyers is in top form as the curmudgeonly ogre and Cameron Diaz’s Princess Fiona is a cartoon heroine in the same league as Tarna the Tarakian. Lithgow as always is wonderful and the dragon put in a hell of a performance, too! The movie isn’t dumb, either! It has layers like parfait, everybody like parfait. Oh, I very rarely can listen to ‘Hallelujah’ alone without crying.

• BLACK HAWK DOWN: This object lesson in the term military blunder is a gripping portrayal of one of the worst days in US military history. I remember watching the film with friends and being physically shaken by it. Ridley Scott delivers once again, and Ewan MacGregor and Sam Shepard show why they are two of the most lauded talents of their respective generations.

• MONSTERS INC.: “MIKE WAZOWSKI!”

• ENEMY AT THE GATES: Stalingrad, 1942. Not the best of neighborhoods. Jude Law looks as if he stepped out of a Bolshevik propaganda poster to play real life Red Army grunt turned master sniper Vassili Zaitsev. Law’s opposite number Major Erwin König (Ed Harris) lurks wraith-like in the rubble of the once great city. Joseph Fiennes is Law’s best-friend, a Soviet propaganda officer that was witness to the slaying of 5 German soldiers by the his sublimely talented comrade, whose doubts and convictions are portrayed with nail-biting brilliance. The brother in arms are both in love with Rachel Weisz, who manages ingenue like beauty, even covered in filth. And Bob Hoskins looks so right and is so dead on in his performance it’s as if he were Nikita Kruschev’s doppelganger. A great combat film about a part of World War II rarely seen by the American public and the great sacrifices made by the people of Mother Russia in the fight aginst Nazi Germany. Damn movie even has a happy ending.

• CQ:Angela Lindvall is positively enchanting as a young model/actress starring in a late 60’s French Sci Fi adventure film FIREFLY. The film’s editor, Jeremy Davies, is an aspiring director attempting to complete his own documentary while working on the trouble plagued shoot. Eventually Davies replaces the dickishly twitty Jason Schwartzman as director of the film, who had taken the reigns from mad auter Gérard Depardieu. Davies begins to be drawn into the film on which he is working, literally, by the seductively slinky future secret agent Firefly! This film is a great tribute to the 60’s Euro-SF movies made by Mario Bava and the like, skin-tight cat-suits, go-go boots and pop-art technology abounds! Really touches on the difficulties encountered as a struggling artist and the distractions that come with commercial success. Did I mention how stunning Angel Lindvall is?

• FRAILTY: Bill Paxton is one of America’s best everyman character actors, often overshadowing the rest of the cast, here he takes a great turn as both lead and freshman director yet he never tries to take the film from it’s true stars, Matt O’Leary and Jeremy Sumpter, who play Rockwellian brothers, Fenton and Adam, to Paxton’s loving widower dad. Paxton works hard for his boys, treats them with respect and teaches them to treat folks right. He’s even a church-going man, actually he kills demons disguised as the boys human neighbors for GOD. Matthew McConaughey is superb as the adult Fenton, who comes to FBI agent Powers Boothe with the belief that his brother Adam is the God’s Hand killer, a notorious axe murderer. Adam(Levi Kreis) had called just before taking is own life, and Fenton is convinced that Adam had followed in their father’s footsteps. Really well thought out occult-noir piece that has a twist ending better than many films of it’s genre. Did I mention how stunning Matthew Mc Conaughey is?

• FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING: I still have to say in retrospect, the fight with the cave troll leading to Gandalf’s confrontation of the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad-dûm is still the best fight sequence in the series! Yeah, still no Tom Bombadil, but you can understand why. Be nice if Peter would have given us some character designs, though. I mean we know what color jacket and boots the guy wears!

• SEXY BEAST: Holy Please Don’t Let Him Near Me Crap on a Stick It’s the ANTI-GANDHI! Ben Kingsley gives the performance of a career (That’s right I said it!) as a beyond ruthless English mob enforcer sent to bring safe-cracker Ray Winstone back from the good life to do a job for crime overlord Ian McShane. jeez, as if Ben wasn’t enough, you also have the man that plays Al Swearengen on your ass, who did you screw over in a previous life, Ray? There is also a hideous dream sequence rabbit that would stomp the shit out of the one in DONNIE DARKO. This is a top-notch piece of crime fiction, as good as any ever filmed!

And our cheese-tacular entry to this year’s list:

• 13 GHOSTS: Man, did that movie look nice! The story really ain’t too bad, neither! The ghost designs were creepy and the cast is really a-list! Tony Shalhoub is stalwart, F. Murray Abraham is noisome, Shannon Elizabeth is statuesque and Matthew Lillard is over-the-top twitchy! The set-design for the house was really quite impressive and the RPGer in me loves the idea of binding spells etched in glass! Some genuinely scary moments! Lots of not-so-mindless fun! Did I mention how stunning Tony Shalhoub is?

Tags: Angela Lindvall