PK’s 10 Fave Films For Each Of The Last 10 Years!
Jan 7, 2010 Cool Stuff
Hey, kids, It’s PK again. We are going to be posting an article a day for the next 10 covering my favorite 10 films for each of the past 10 years. Now, as with all lists of this type, you may find what you feel to be glaring omissions and selections unworthy, but this is the stuff that I really dug and I missed a lot of films in the last 10 that some folks might really love. Like CASTAWAY, for instance. Love Tom Hanks, love Roger Zemeckis, heck, I even like Alan Silvestri’s music sometimes, just never caught the film. It’s been interesting to go over the films of the last decade, it was a pretty impressive time for film-making, both sublime & deplorable, but we like to be positive around here at BellMojo, so I am going to cover the good stuff and one movie for every year that I love in spite of itself! Oh, some of these films may not have been made in the year in which they are listed, but it will be the year in which they saw wide-release in the USA. Here we go with the year 2000!
* TITAN A.E.: I really liked this animated flick. It had a well thought out story, great character design and an outstanding cast featuring Matt Damon, John Leguizamo, Bill Pullman, Nathan Lane and Ron Perlman. However, the thing that really struck me about the film was the sound! The opening sequence, when the VTOL choppers are landing, has some of the best sound-separation I’ve heard since APOCALYPSE NOW, the movie for which they created Dolby 5.1. Fun flick, well animated with a story written in part by Ben (THE TICK) Edlund and Joss (BUFFY) Whedon.
* GLADIATOR: The best film only makes the number 9 spot on the list? Wha-wha-wha? Hey, it’s a beutiful film made by a great director with a stellar cast, I ain’t talkin’ about the bully-boy from down under, who was great! Oliver Reed in his final performance, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi and, wait for it… Sven-Ole Thorson! That’s right! The man who portrayed Thulsa Doom’s giant snake-raising henchman Thorgrim, in CONAN THE BARBARIAN appears as Russel Crowe’s penultimate opponent!
* PROOF OF LIFE: This is one of those flicks that I missed in theaters and caught only last year. Boy, was I disappointed I didn’t catch this when it came out! Russell Crowe had a good year, here he is a hostage negotiator, Meg Ryan is vulnerable yet stoic wife and David Morse, a favorite of mine from wayback to ST. ELSWHERE, is spectacular as the business man being held for ransom. Good action and taught drama. Well worth seeing!
* X-MEN: Yeah, for those of you that don’t know me, I am a HUGE comic-book fan! That medium is my first love, probably one of the many reasons I am 39 and single, other than the substance abuse issues and anger mis-management, and this is one of the better films based on a comic. Might be higher on my list if I had read the book after Paul Smith left it. Yeah, I am showing my age with that last statement.
* DRUNKEN MASTER II: Like I said, wide release in the USA, and I couldn’t resist what may be Jackie Chan’s best film! Good story, great bad guys, wonderful supporting cast and it goes without saying, ridiculous fight and stunt coordination! Love the bad-guy in the suit with the bad-ass crazy foot-work! KICK-ASS!
* CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON: Maybe the perfect Kung Fu flick. You can even take your girl to this one! Featuring the legend that walks, Choy Yun Fat, and two of the toughest woman to grace the screen EVER, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Beutiful cinematography and a story that hits on just about every element of the great Kung Fu films of the past. Still remember being awestruck in the theater.
* THE EXORCIST: One of my favorite films for so many reasons! A masterpiece top to bottom made even better! Unlike other films that had added footage in their re-release, this benchmark film is improved by the “spider-walk” and subtle images that were in the original shooting script. “It isn’t a horror film. I never set out to write a horror novel; I never wanted to frighten people. It was meant to be psychological thriller. A supernatural detective story. But something happened along the way,” said author William Peter Blatty. Well, he frightened a lot of folks with this little piece of police procedural. The novel, it’s sequel and the under-sung film made from the continuation also had profound effects on me. It explores faith and the scientific method in a way that sinuously shows the validity of both reality tunnels. Blatty is one of those few authors that does something miraculous to me, he makes me contemplate returning to the faith! While Linda Blair still deserves demonic kudos for her performance in the film and Elllen Burstyn and Scott Miller are Oscar-worthy, it’s really the supporting cast that knock it out of the park! Max Von Sydow carries the weight of the world like a burnished crusading knight, Jack MacGowron is lovingly cunty as the drunken director that Regan chucks through a window, and the great Lee J. Cobb is like a lovingly mischievous confidant as Sgt. Kinderman, a role appropriately recreated as a jaded cop that has lost his faith by George C. Scott in the aforementioned EXORCIST III. (The , ahem, film the EXORCIST II:The Heretic was not recognized by Blatty and would have been forgotten, if not for producers insisting on not using the title of the novel LEGION. Kinderman remains one of my favorite movie cops ever.) And the music, sweet non-existent supreme being protect me, Mike Oldfield’s “TUBULAR BELLS” is still one the scariest scores to a film ever!
* WONDER BOYS: I was really taken by this darkly comic, almost road movie. Written by Michael Chabon and directed by Curtis Hanson, I first encountered Chabon’s work in PLAYBOY when they published “In The Black Mill” written under the pseudonym August Van Zorn, an H.P. Lovecraft like figure that lived in the hotel Michael Douglas’ Grady Tripp did as a child. I am loathe to admit I have not read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay but this film about the stolen jacket that Marilyn Monroe wore on the day that she married Joe Dimaggio is a gem!
* OH, BROTHER WHERE ART THOU?: George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Holly Hunter, Charles Durning! The Coen Brothers! That great tune and score by T-Bone Burnett! JOHN GOODMAN AS THE CYCLOPS! Nuff said.
* BEST IN SHOW: This comedy gets the blue ribbon! Porbably the best of Christopher Guests’ ensemble/improve ventures, this mockumentary story of 5 dogs and there owners entering the Mayflower Kennel Club Dog Show has some of the most uncomfortable moments in any comedy, usually involving Gerry and Cookie Fleck (Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara) and Cookies various past sexual exploits. Fred Willard is once again loathsome! Love Fred Willard.
And our cheese-tacular entry to this year’s list:
* COYOTE UGLY: The worst movie I have ever sat through twice! Great idea to leave all that musical equipment on a roof in Hell’s Kitchen! Love you, Piper!
Tags: "In The Black Mill", Adam Garcia, Alan Silvestri, Ben Edlund, Bill Pullman, Bridget Moynahan, CASTAWAY, Catherine O'Hara, Charles Durning, COYOTE UGLY, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, David Morse, Drunken Master, Ellen Burstyn, Eugene Levy, Film, Fred Willard, George C. Scott, George Clooney, Gladiator, Holly Hunter, Izabella Miko, Jackie Chan, Joe Dimaggio, JOHN GOODMAN, John Leguizamo, John Turturro, Joss Whedon, Lee J. Cobb, Linda Blair, Maria Bello, Marilyn Monroe, Matt Damon, Meg Ryan, Melanie Lynskey, Michael Bay, Michael Chabon, Michael Douglas, Mike Oldfield's "TUBULAR BELLS", Nathan Lane, Paul Smith, Piper Perabo, Proof of Life, Roger Zemeckis, Ron Perlman, Russell Crowe, Scott Miller, St. Elsewhere, T-Bone Burnett, The Coen Brothers, THE CYCLOPS, The Exorcist, Tim Blake Nelson, TITAN A.E., Tom Hanks, Tyra Banks, William Peter Blatty, Wonder Boys, X Men
