Mike's Annual Best and Worst Lists
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Mike’s Eight Top-Ten Films of 2009 |
Inglorious Basterds - Quentin Tarantino’s audacious approach to the war film refuses to follow any rules and ends up being thoroughly engrossing and original.
Avatar - Despite its flaws, James Cameron’s sci-fi adventure creates a beautiful, richly detailed world that’s a joy to discover. Along with Tarantino, he reminds us what big-screen movies are all about.
An Education - The year’s best coming-of-age story. Carey Mulligan’s performance is remarkably mature and Peter Sarsgaard is equally seductive.
The Informant! - The forgotten comic drama of the year with Matt Damon’s best performance. One of those stories that would make no sense unless it were true.
Up - Pixar continues to make the most imaginative, surprising and moving stories, CGI or live action.
The Hurt Locker - Kathryn Bigelow’s emotionally cool look at a slice of the Iraq war is as understated as Tarantino’s war film is operatic.
Star Trek - J.J. Abrams’ take on a familiar franchise is fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - The latest entry in the series is darker and more complicated and still engrossing.
Honorable Mentions: The Hangover; (500) Days of Summer; Adventureland; A Single Man; District 9; Anvil, the Story of Anvil; It Might Get Loud; 9; Up in the Air.
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Mike’s Eight Top-Ten Movies of 2008 |
As usual, Max and I disagree on the overall quality of the year’s movies, and our lists could hardly be more different, but we arrive at the same conclusion.
I thought the year’s most popular picture, The Dark Knight, was too long and had too many endings. Of the more “serious” pictures, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was filled with phony Southern accents. Revolutionary Road is very good but somehow, I couldn’t become as involved with the characters as I needed to be. Clint Eastwood will probably get a Best Actor nomination for his work in Gran Torino but the whole film has problems. The Wrestler is mired in clichés at the end. That said, here are my eight top ten:
8) Iron Man – Everything I want to see in a big summer special effects movie: Good effects, solid story, excellent acting and humor.
7) Bank Job – Based-on-fact heist movie with smarts, humor, grand plot twists and a solid performance by Jason Statham. The year’s sleeper.
6) Burn After Reading – The Coen brothers at their best with the wicked story of half a dozen characters who are in way over their heads. Terrific ensemble led by George Clooney, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt.
5) Frost/Nixon – Frank Langella is going to get an Oscar nomination for his interpretation of Richard Nixon during his first public interrogation after Watergate.
4) Milk – Sean Penn is going to get an Oscar nomination for his interpretation of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official who was murdered in office. Excellent political biopic.
3) The Visitor – Richard Jenkins ought to get an Oscar nomination (and he ought to win) for his interpretation of a widower who finds himself after he meets two immigrants.
2) Wall-E – Admittedly the first half is better than the second, but Wall-E is the animated equivalent of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin, a hard-working little guy who falls for a glamorous babe and wins her.
1) Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle’s Dickensian epic about a kid who grows up in the slums of Mumbai and competes on the Indian “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” television show is the year’s best pure crowd-pleaser.
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| Mike’s Seven Top-Ten Movies of 2007 |
Unlike Max, I found 2007 to be a less than stellar year. Several of the films that made her top-ten list and the lists of most other critics and reviewers—Atonement, Into the Wild, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, No Country for Old Men—simply didn’t work for me. But I strongly recommend that you read her list of Underrated Films of 2007. Print a copy and stick it on the refrigerator for reference when the titles come out on DVD.
These are my seven top-ten theatrical releases:
7. Hairspray - Pound for pound, to use an apt metaphor, the adaptation of the Broadway adaptation of John Waters’ original is the most enjoyable movie I saw all year. I smiled a lot. Watching John Travolta and Christopher Walken dance together is worth the price of a ticket or a DVD all by itself.
6. Zodiac - O.K., after Fight Club, I’m now convinced that David Fincher is the real deal. Instead of focusing on the bloody details of the famous San Francisco murders, he’s interested in the way that people become obsessed and what that obsession does to them. He sticks closely to the facts and arrives at exactly the right ending.
5. Juno - The stars are perfectly aligned for young Ellen Page, writer Cody Diablo and director Jason Reitman in an intelligent, funny story of a pregnant teen, her family and an adoptive couple. What could have been an exercise in stereotypes is bracingly original all the way through.
4. Lars and the Real Girl - The premise—shy guy buys an anatomically correct sex doll and calls her his girlfriend—sounds creepy, but the filmmakers turn it into a genuinely sweet, slightly Woebegonian story with superb performances from Ryan Gosling and Emily Mortimer as his understanding sister-in-law.
3. Charlie Wilson’s War - Three stars—Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Phillip Seymour Hoffman—at the top of their game ought to be enough to separate this comedy from the pool of contemporary war movies that nobody’s going to see. It’s bright, sharp, sexy and the office scene is a brilliant set-piece.
2. Lust, Caution - The intense sexual scenes have earned Ang Lee’s film an NC-17 rating, but at heart, it’s a carefully wrought spy tale in the John LeCarré mold. Stars Tony Leung and Tang Wei are letter perfect as lovers in occupied China during World War II.
1. Michael Clayton - A multi-million dollar product liability case drives one lawyer (Tom Wilkinson) insane and forces another (George Clooney) to question everything about his life. Complicated in all the right ways with brilliant dialog, legitimate surprises and great characters. Best film of the year.
Here are my seven top-ten DVDs:
7. 6. Payback: Straight Up (1999) Apocalypto - (2006) Two from Mel Gibson. If you can put aside the recent craziness surrounding Mr. Mel, you’ll find his pre-Columbian adventure, with subtitled Mayan dialog to be weirdly fascinating. The director’s cut of Brian Helgeland’s neo-noir that stars Gibson is radically different and much darker than the 1999 theatrical release. Of particular interest for fans of the Lee Marvin cult hit Point Blank which is based on the same Donald Westlake novel.
5.Seraphim Falls - (2006) Though it was eclipsed at the box office by 3:10 to Yuma, this post-Civil War Western is almost as much fun… O.K., it’s grim bloody fun but Liam Neeson and Pierce Brosnan are terrific in an extended chase across a landscape that ranges from snowy mountains to desert wilderness.
4. That Thing You Do - (1996) The director’s cut of Tom Hanks’ debut behind the camera adds some very nice bits that were cut from the theatrical release (including a wonderful little scene with Howie Long). The period details of the mid-‘60s are spot-on and it will take you weeks to get that catchy theme song out of your head.
3. The Lives of Others - (2006) Last year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar winner may not sound like a crowd-pleaser. It’s about East German secret police surveillance, but if you give it a try, you’ll find an involving story of political, artistic and sexual intrigue.
2. Blade Runner - (1982, 1992, 2007) The four-disc set contains four different versions of Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi noir along with two discs of supplemental stuff. Is the film itself worth all the hoop-la? Absolutely. Take another look.
1.The Lookout - (2007) Scott Frank’s off-beat Midwestern mystery is equal parts caper flick and character study with a fine sense of place. Young Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jeff Daniels (who probably won’t get the Supporting Actor nomination he deserves) make unusual characters seem completely believable. |
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| Mike’s Seven Top-Ten Movies of 2006 |
Children of Men – An adventure with an unheroic hero (Clive Owen) and a grim look at a possible near future, this one has stayed with me more than any other movie of the year.
United 93 – Perhaps the most unconventional film of the year is also the best, to date, on the events of 9/11. It’s good to see that Paul Greengrass has been nominated as Best Director.
The Departed – Wildly violent, complicated and funny, this is the most entertaining movie Martin Scorsese has made in years. “And the Oscar goes to…”
The Devil Wears Prada – Who knew that Meryl Streep could turn in such a brilliantly understated comic performance? Well, we all should have known. One of my favorite comedies of the year.
Little Miss Sunshine – A terrific ensemble cast (don’t forget Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette), a sharp script, and, as Max says, a tone that’s never too cute. Sleeper of the year.
Letters from Iwo Jima – Clint Eastwood’s view of the battle from the Japanese point of view is a more straightforward war film than Flags of Our Fathers, and more moving.
The Illusionist – For sheer old-fashioned, what’s-going-to-happen-next story telling this one is hard to beat. And then there’s Paul Giamatti’s supporting work which deserved an Oscar nod.
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| Mike’s Five Bottom-Ten Movies of 2006* |
Basic Instinct 2 – Why, all these years later, would anyone think that there was anything more to say here? The result is neither sexy, dirty, nor suspenseful.
RV – Arguably the worst movie Robin Williams has made in years. When the main recurring joke is a malfunctioning emergency brake, you know you’re in trouble.
The Omen – Liev Schreiber, a fine actor, was also involved in the needless remake of The Manchurian Candidate. This one is not nearly as much cheesy fun as the original.
Firewall – Harrison Ford must be hoping that they start work on Indiana Jones 4 very soon. He certainly doesn’t need another turkey like this forgettable flop.
Big Momma’s House 2 – Admittedly, nobody expected anything from this dishwater sequel, but Martin Lawrence in fat drag was even less entertaining than I expected.
*There are other movies that probably belong on this list. Little Man was every bit as loathsome as it appeared to be in the endless previews. The same goes for The Wicker Man and Lady in the Water, but I caught those on DVD and, because life is short, bailed on them so quickly that I really can’t count them.
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Mike’s 7 Top-Ten films of 2005
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King Kong
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
Good Night and Good Luck
Capote |
Jarhead
The Squid and the Whale
Munich |
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Honorable Mentions |
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Match Point
Walk the Line
The Upside of Anger
Crash
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The 40 Year Old Virgin
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Lord of War
Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Wallace and Gromit
Syriana
Batman Begins |
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Mike’s Best Documentaries of 2005
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Grizzly Man
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
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Bob Dylan: No Direction Home
March of the Penguins |
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Mike’s 11 Bottom-Ten Films of 2005
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Be Cool
Miss Congeniality 2
Beauty Shop
Sahara
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Bewitched |
Stealth
The Island
Fantastic Four
Broken Flowers
Aeon Flux |
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Mike’s 9 Top-Ten Movies of 2004
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1. Million Dollar Baby
1. Kill Bill Vol. 2
1. Sideways
2. A Very Long Engagement
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
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4. Hero
5. Shrek 2
6. The Incredibles
7. Garden State
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Cellular
The Bourne Supremacy
Collateral
50 First Dates
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Shaun of the Dead
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Dawn of the Dead
Miracle
The Dreamers
The Aviator
Friday Nights Lights
Kindsey
Maria Full of Grace
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Mike’s 12 Worst Movies of 2004
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1. Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow
2. Birth
3. Passion of the Christ
4. Alexander
5. Open Water
6. Cat Woman
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7. The Chronicles of Riddick
8. The Stepford Wives
9. The Ladykillers
10. Envy
11. Closers
12. Ocean's Twelve |
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Mike’s 11 Top-Ten Movies of 2003
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1. The Station Agent
2. House of Sand and Fog
3. Master and Commander:
The Far Side of the World
4. American Splendor
5. Mystic River
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6. Seabiscuit
7. In America
8. The Cooler
9. Capturing the Friedmans
10. School of Rock
11. The Swimming Pool
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Biggest Disappointments of 2003
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Lost in Translation
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Human Stain
Big Fish
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Absolute Disasters of 2003
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The Matrix 2 & 3
Gigli
Bad Boys 2
In the Cut
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle
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Once Upon a Time in America
Once Upon a Time in the West
Adventures of Robin Hood
Casablanca Special Edition |
Looney Tunes Golden Collection
Three Colors (Red, White, Blue)
West Side Story Special Edition
Indiana Jones trilogy |
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Mike's 13 Top-Ten of 2002
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1. Road to Perdition
The Year's best film is far more ambitious, controlled and moving.
2. Barbershop
The year's funniest comedy marks the arrival of producer/star Ice Cube.
3. 24 Hour Party People
Curious reworking of Citizen Kane (sort of) set un the world of British music & clubs.
4.Y Tu Mama Tamvien
Striking Mexican road / sex / political comedy / drama.
5. Brotherhood of the Wolf
Your basic 18th century French political conspiracy martial arts horror special efx.
6. Gangs of New York
Martin Scorsese's historical epic is likely to win him an Oscar.
7. Spirited Away
Hands down, the year's best animation from Japan. |
8. Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Terrific documentary about the Funk Brothers.
9. One Hour Photo
The finest acting Robin Williams has done.
10. Undisputed
Walter Hill/Ving Rhames/Wesley Snipes boxing/prison drama. Sleeper of the year.
11. Frailty
Bill Paxton's brilliant directorial debut.
12. Insomnia
The 2nd best Robin Williams movie of the year. Directed by Christopher Nolan.
13. About a Boy
Hugh Grant proves that he really can act in a remarkably moving comedy/drama. |
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Mike's 11 Top-Ten of 2001
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Enemy at the Gates
Memento
Amores Perros
With a Friend Like Harry
Shrek
Ghost World |
Deep End
Go Tigers!
Training Day
Donnie Darko
Ocean's Eleven |
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Croupier
Gladiator
X-Men
What Lies Beneath |
Space Cowboys
Traffic
Erin Brockovich |
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