The 00s Draft: Discussion Thread - Page 28

Finally, someone drafts Park Chan-Wook that isn't Oldboy. Lady vengeance lacks the atom bomb twist, but there's moments where I hold the secret opinion it may be a stronger overall film, especially once the victims' families get involved, and especially in the Fade To White Cut, which could've been gimmicky but really adds an even greater layer of tragedy to the whole.

Still mad I ordered the trilogy set with this from Tartan and that disc was missing from the sealed package. Multiple emails and back and forths and nothing.
 

 

And arguably his best film remains unmentioned, though ultimately I prefer Oldboy slightly because it has the most of that visionary "it" quality that makes it feel iconic.

Totally off the subject of the current discussion, but I finally caught Man on Wire last night on Netflix, and that was a great pick. So much optimism, I'm not used to it. I love how it's structured a bit like a heist film.

I like Hustle and Flow. But why it's seen as superior to 8 Mile, I have no clue. I have the better film. :)  Since Elvis robbed me of The Wackness (I get the NY films!), 8 Mile is the closest too bringing me back to 1994. Everything about it feels 90's. I love teh soundtrack, and my best friend (who I met in the 90's during college) plays Wink in the film. So I have a personal connection.

 

I can't believe Borat was still on the board. Has it fallen that out of grace?

 

The Descent is an awesome pick! I totally forgot about that film. And I agree Justin, I prefer Lady Vengeance over Old Boy.

 

I think people judge it based off what Mel Gibson became. It has all the hallmarks of a great summer action film. I think it launched Heath Ledger into the mainstream after 10 Things I hate About Yougot him on Teen hearthrob lists.  You have a cast of great actors in great roles, like Jason Issacs, Tom Wilkinson, Donal Logue, Rene Auberjonois, surrounded by great character actors.  I think it got people thinking about an Australian as Wolverine, but people realized Gibson would be too expensive, so they went with Hugh Jackman.

 

Does the story shirk slavery, other than the one story of the traded conscription? Is Joely Richardson a terrible actress? Does it twist history for sake of a story? Of course. But for all that, it is a great visual film with wide vistas, glorious costumes, and pounding action.
 

 

Borat hasn't fallen very far in my estimation. Might be one of the best looks at America of the 21st Century besides being very funny.

I love Devin's line saying basically if 8 Mile is Rocky then Hustle & Flow is Raging Bull. I feel that's pretty spot on. I like 8 Mile pretty well, but I haven't seen it since it came out.
 

 

I held off on The Host because I picked Memories of Murder as my first. And, other than director (which is a big one), there are some other similarities. But I love it. I've watched it a lot. I think the monster really works, and is almost just as quirky and outrageous as the family. I think some people are bewildered by its tonal shifts. But I can't get enough of a movie like that. Heartbreaking, hilarious, beautifully shot. Pretty much like every Bong Joon-Ho movie.

8 Mile is terrific, Diva. The texture Curtis Hanson was able to bring to it really elevates it. It is a great "Rocky movie." "Lose Yourself" is one of the great pop hits of the decade. I still bust it out during Karaoke jams whenever I get the chance. I love that it actually won an Oscar. Few Oscar-winning songs this decade were worth a damn.

I am surprised Borat didn't go, though I think the film is better in concept than execution, and doesn't hold up as well as some of the other comedies.

The analogy's been made before, but, it still holds. Hustle & Flow : 8 Mile :: Raging Bull : Rocky. Thats the asshole way of saying theyre both great.

 

Fucking FINALLY someone grabs Borat. That film is ambitious as all hell and it went unmentioned. No idea how that could have happened.

 

EDIT: Or, what everyone else just said.

Borat has two unbelievably funny scenes... The bag of shit scene at the dinner party and the famous nude wrestling scene... Those two scenes nearly gave me a heart attack in the theater. I actually was holding my stomach and crouching forward. It took dexterity to keep from falling out of my seat. I really would have hurt myself if that had happened.

 

If a movie can do that to you, then it is a comedy classic. Even if it doesn't stand the test of time, as its cultural touchstones become dated - those two scenes will always be funny.

BORAT is still terrific. Its biggest problem is all the people who wanted to dazzle you with their Borat impression after it became a hit with the public. Not really the film's fault but that's my theory as to why it may have fallen out of favor.

 

That point is very nice.

So hard to choose.  Ultimately I went with the two best films remaining on the board.

Dammit. I was going to draft KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: DC a few rounds ago, and I was informed that it wouldn't count, even though it was released theatrically in a very limited way. There's at least one other poster on here that was eyeing the same film and passed for the same reason.


Robbed. Robbed I say.

Really?  What was the reasoning behind that call?  I could see not allowing the DC if someone had already taken the theatrical, but the DC seems like a valid pick.

INSIDE MAN is great. Surprised that one didn't make the official draft.

It's many pages back. I asked for a ruling on whether or not a specific cut of a film could be drafted, as long as it was released theatrically. Someone chimed in that, under Kirby's rules, it would not...only the main releases would count. Words to that effect, anyways. Someone else chimed in that they were wondering the same thing ...we pm'd and realized we were talking about the same film. Nobody else chimed in to say that we could draft it, so we took it as gospel.

On well. It's not like I lost out on a monetary prize or anything.

Before Sunset was a Round 2 pick Mcnooj.

The Mexican sunk under the weight of star power. When it was released you had the biggest male movie star AND the biggest female movie star AND the biggest television star of the time. All in a fairly small film. I think people were expecting one thing, and once they heard it wasn't what they thought, they pretty much stayed away. I find the thing pretty charming, myself.

 

 

Brokeback is a huge snub.  It's a great film, a great reinterpretation of the classic American male archetype, a great example of Ang Lee as an auteur who can move to different eras and genres, yet still remain true to his central interest about the effects of repression.

But it is so gay.

Oh, man, Equilibrium got drafted???

 

TERRIBLE movie. TERRIBLE.

Wut!?  Weird.  How did I miss that?

 

... I'll be right back.

Dickson just emptied out my B-list some. Both of those films deserved a spot way, way earlier. Especially Road To Perdition.

 

To this day, not nearly enough people have seen Stardust.

In a right and perfect world, Stardust would be the Princess Bride of the 2000s.

I LOOOOVE Stardust.  I think it's still Vaughn's best film.

STARDUST is a 2000s film that makes me want to see Robert DeNiro do more comedy.

HE DID.

 

Unless that's a comment on those films being war crimes equivalent to orphanage fires on Christmas Eve, in which case, LULZ.

STARDUST was on my.list for today. Love it.

I still don't get Stardust, and I don't even know if I get Matthew Vaughn. I can't explain it. He makes me feel like an idiot. I just don't get the appeal. His movies are kinda sorta jokey, but not really funny, they're loaded with special effects that are rarely convincing, and most performances in them are pretty dull.

 

I thought Layer Cake was alright, and it's cool that it's heavily indebted to seventies-era British crime pictures, but it's really a pale shadow of all of them. Disappointed he went from that to studio gun-for-hire.

I'm actually frustrated by Matthew Vaughn at times.  Sometimes I don't know why I click or not click with some of his movies.  Stardust is so sloppy, but it ends up becoming a shaggy charm that I fell in love with.  Kick-Ass was kinda fun, but in the end I was left pretty cold by it.

Because he's better than Guy Ritchie.  That's his main claim to fame.

nooj, are you mad at me? Are you mad at me, nooj? Because all I did was tell you the truth about Brokeback Mountain not being drafted. I...TOLD...the...truth!

 

Love Capote, too. Probably my favorite biopic of recent memory.

The Mexican is a movie I went out of my way to avoid while it was in theaters. It just didn't appeal to me at all.

 

Months later, a friend of mine brought it over. I was like: Fuck no. I'm not watching that. He goes: Trust me. It's really good.

 

Me: Okay, fine. You did bring that six pack though, right?

 

And so, we watched it.

 

It was a lot of fun. I was wrong.

The latter, ironic reading is the one intended.

 

I like STARDUST, but I'm not in love with it as some are. Vaughn, in general, seems to be a director that's very good at individual pieces of films that don't easily fit together into an organic whole.

 

Also; here's the very best thing about Brokeback: Heath Ledger. I think, with his performance as the Joker, his work here has gotten overshadowed, but at least in Nolan's film, he had the benefit of makeup. It remains an astonishing thing that he plays Ennis from a teenager to an old man with very little makeup, and remains believable from start to finish. That last scene is all the more powerful for it. I wish more films would trust the audience to suspend their disbelief like that.

It's definitely miles better than the Joker.  It's one of the finest performances of the decade.  Ennis is the best thing about Brokeback because the movie ingeniously uses him as a way of taking the idea of the laconic American loner and reimagine him as a man afraid to act, as opposed to a man of action.  It totally undercuts the image of American masculinity.

Theyre on par, just on opposite sides of the spectrum. Either way, both those films, Heath Ledger just completely disappears. He's got a couple more roles I'd be more than happy to see here, too. Guy really was the goods.

The Joker was almost all tics and vocal tricks.  It was a fun, showy performance, but didn't have the level depth Brokeback required. (And considering that the Joker made a joke out of any attempt to understand his motivations, I would say the role almost required a lack of depth.)

Yeah, Brokeback is a huge omission.  One of the best (and certainly most tragic) love stories of the decade.  

 

The absolute biggest snub (to me) still hasn't been mentioned yet.  I know to many people it's considered a "lesser sister", but it might have been my #1 pick had I not gone all comedy.  

Just as long as it's not considered "the other sister."

So are we sticking to the time-slots, or is it at will? I was never clear about that.

I almost picked "the sister" today. But Borat has that perfect blend of humor and social commentary that I just hits my sweet spot. I also tried not to get to serious this draft. Little Children has something serious to say, but it's presented in a fun, comical way.

 

ETA: I've never even heard of Stardust.

 

Inside Job is a fun heist flick. But it doesn't feel very Spike Lee to me.

 

God, I hate Irreversible so much. I was psyched that it didn't make the list... until now. Ugh. Just ugh.

I think I know of the sister you speak, and I almost drafted it round 5 and then again today. I didn't know it was thought that little of.

 

A handful of comedies I greatly enjoy are still sitting on the sidelines, too.

I'm assuming that if a full group has gone, the next can go, like in the main draft.

Then nooj went way early. Whatever. Don't see how order matters at this point.

Well, since order doesn't seem to matter anymore...

For my money, STEP BROTHERS is the funniest film of the decade. It hit all the right notes for me from beginning to end, and it totally holds up to repeat viewings.

THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO is not a great film, but it's solidly entertaining and is much better than it should have been. We watch it once a year.