A Decade of Cinema: 2000-2009

[W]

I think Elf is this decade's Christmas film and for that reason, I don't see any way that it's wrong in the discussion.

[Buscemi]

No, this decade's Christmas film is Bad Santa.

[NSpan]

I think Elf is this decade's Christmas film and for that reason, I don't see any way that it's wrong in the discussion.

Exactly. I think it's totally deserving of being ranked as a classic Christmas movie--and should be watched annually in conjunction with A Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Chronicles of Narnia: LWW, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, and Die Hard.

[W]

No, this decade's Christmas film is Bad Santa.

Between Elf and Bad Santa, the one with the biggest possibility of being watched traditionally every Christmas is?

[Buscemi]

Watchability factor: Elf (because it's a kids' movie). Pure greatness factor: Bad Santa.

By the way, why doesn't Bad Santa appear on TV every Christmas? It would be prime material for IFC and Comedy Central (the only two networks I can think of that could air it uncut).

Also a must for Christmas: Gremlins.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Bad Santa comes on alot around this time of the year on Comedy Central and more specifically, the Secret Stash.

And Elf is so overrated, it's embarrassing. It has its moments, but damn, everyone acts like anything Will Ferrell made before Bewitched is pure gold. This and Old School have to be two of the most overrated movies of all-time.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

NSpan - Elf??!!?? ...........really?! ugh. Also surprised not to see Pan's Labyrinth on there.

For the best of the decade I am going with (in no particular order):
Dark Knight
40 Year Old Virgin
Wall-E
Amelie
The Departed
City of god
Up
Anchorman
Gran Torino
Hotel Rwanda
Be Here to Love me
Gosford Park
There Will Be Blood
Kill Bill 1
Kill Bill 2
Children of Men
Benjamin Button
Harry Potter (just gonna say all together, throughout the decade)
Catch Me if You Can
Royal Tenenbaums
Almost Famous
Inglorious Basterds

Alyson, what is Be Here To Love Me? It's the only film in this thread I don't recognize.

[W]

Bad Santa comes on alot around this time of the year on Comedy Central and more specifically, the Secret Stash.

And Elf is so overrated, it's embarrassing. It has its moments, but damn, everyone acts like anything Will Ferrell made before Bewitched is pure gold. This and Old School have to be two of the most overrated movies of all-time.

Seriously, it's a Ferrell film everyone can watch. He's imaginative and child-like (in a good way). Most of the cast in the New York scenes suck (except Faizon, Dinklage, and Kage), but Will more than makes up for it. The ending is super sappy, but it's that type of a Christmas movie. And it has lines out the wazoo.

- You stink. You smell like beef and cheese! You don't smell like Santa.
- Second, there are, like, thirty Ray's Pizzas. They all claim to be the original. But the real one's on 11th. And if you see a sign that says "Peep Show", that doesn't mean that they're letting you look at the new toys before Christmas.
- There's no singing in the North Pole.
- SANTA! OH MY GOD! SANTA'S COMING! I KNOW HIM! I KNOW HIM!
- I thought maybe we could make ginger bread houses, and eat cookie dough, and go ice skating, and maybe even hold hands.
- First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle.
- You did it! Congratulations! World's best cup of coffee! Great job, everybody! It's great to be here.
- I'm a cotton-headed ninny-muggins.
- I'm sorry I ruined your lives, and crammed eleven cookies into the VCR.
- He's an *angry* elf!
- It's just like Santa's workshop! Except it smells like mushrooms... and everyone looks like they wanna hurt me...

and maybe my favorite (I want to hear of someone actually using it at a store somewhere):

- It's just nice to meet another human that shares my affinity for elf culture.

And Old School... Well, to me, he's made 3 great films where he's had second billing (or third if there are two co-stars): Elf, Anchorman, and Old School. Then comes Talledega Nights, Step Brothers, Stranger than Fiction, and Zoolander (no particular order). The rest aren't very good (haven't seen Semi Pro/Blades and are assuming they're bad): Kicking and Screaming, LOTL, Bewitched, Kicking... Old School and Anchorman really helped to shape comedy as well.

[numbersix]

Grindhouse was two very good movies released as one... who cares what the budget was? do numbers like that really have any bearing on whether or not the work is any GOOD?

True, but the budget wouldn't have been an issue if Grindhouse was any good in the first place. Which it wasn't. It was two films that had about 10 minutes of content each stretched out for far too long. Rodriguez's one grows tiresome far too quickly. And I never thought Tarantino could be boring, but he sure proved me wrong.

and anyone who disliked the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for ideological (or "political") reasons REALLY needs to lighten up... people criticizing Narnia solely for its positive "message" are about as loony as the nutjobs who banned Harry Potter for embracing "witchcraft"... opposite ends of the spectrum, obviously, but equally nutters IMO...

Haha. I'm not criticising it for its "positive" message, I'm criticising it for its old-fashion-ness, such as having the female characters particularly weak (As far as I recall, the only contribution to the plot was crying). And its religious intentions, which are pretty damn transparent. I think the story could have been revised without losing authenticity, but the makers of it played it safe. And safe it was, for even on a purely "entertaining" basis, I found the action to be weak and forgettable.

[NSpan]

and anyone who disliked the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for ideological (or "political") reasons REALLY needs to lighten up... people criticizing Narnia solely for its positive "message" are about as loony as the nutjobs who banned Harry Potter for embracing "witchcraft"... opposite ends of the spectrum, obviously, but equally nutters IMO...

Haha. I'm not criticising it for its "positive" message, I'm criticising it for its old-fashion-ness, such as having the female character particularly weak. And its religious intentions, which are pretty damn transparent. As far as I recall, their only contribution to the plot was crying. I think the story could have been revised without losing authenticity, but the makers of it played it safe. And safe it was, for even on a purely "entertaining" basis, I found the action to be weak and forgettable

you sound a bit like Boosh here--maybe they should have given Lucy a machine-gun, a cigar, and some slick one-liners, eh?

dude, it's a classic children's story written by a brilliant and articulate Christian Apologist--an academic... it was his active (and, obviously, intentional) attempt to streamline Christian themes into an accessible format for kids... "transparency" isn't even an issue here.. C.S. Lewis is a great theologian--if you want to read a high-level philosophical approach to religion, check out his non-fiction stuff... unfortunately, those books don't translate to film quite so well..

i suppose you could make an argument for Susan being bland (then again, so is Peter... probably even moreso)... but i don't know if "weak" is an appropriate description... all of the children take major initiative throughout the story.. Lucy, most of all.. in fact, it's Edmund who is portrayed as weak--his little sister clearly outshines him in terms of courage and bravery.. sure, the 8-year old female protagonist doesn't ever heft a broadsword--but she certainly makes up for that through other actions.. honestly, if you went into The Chronicles of Narnia expecting Braveheart, your disappointment is your own fault.. if anything, the action is greatly inflated as is... (probably due to the studio's demand to recreate the atmosphere of Peter Jackson's war-centric LotR adaptations)

i'm certainly not saying that it was a flawless film, but most of your complaints don't really hold water.. nothing about the story needs "updating"--and i'd dread to see the result product of a director who felt otherwise...

[NSpan]

Alyson, what is Be Here To Love Me? It's the only film in this thread I don't recognize.

i'm sure aly has more to say about it, but it's an amazing documentary about Texas singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt... truly unforgettable stuff.. 93% on RT.. see it!

[numbersix]

you sound a bit like Boosh here--maybe they should have given Lucy a machine-gun, a cigar, and some slick one-liners, eh?

Oh NSpan, you do know how to hurt me!

dude, it's a classic children's story written by a brilliant and articulate Christian Apologist--an academic... it was his active (and, obviously, intentional) attempt to streamline Christian themes into an accessible format for kids... "transparency" isn't even an issue here.. C.S. Lewis is a great theologian--if you want to read a high-level philosophical approach to religion, check out his non-fiction stuff... unfortunately, those books don't translate to film quite so well..

Well although I wasn't aware of Lewis's intentions, that doesn't mean I have to like his intent, transparent or not.

i suppose you could make an argument for Susan being bland (then again, so is Peter... probably even moreso)... but i don't know if "weak" is an appropriate description... all of the children take major initiative throughout the story.. Lucy, most of all.. in fact, it's Edmund who is portrayed as weak--his little sister clearly outshines him in terms of courage and bravery.. sure, the 8-year old female protagonist doesn't ever heft a broadsword--but she certainly makes up for that through other actions.. honestly, if you went into The Chronicles of Narnia expecting Braveheart, your disappointment is your own fault.. if anything, the action is greatly inflated as is... (probably due to the studio's demand to recreate the atmosphere of Peter Jackson's war-centric LotR adaptations)

i'm certainly not saying that it was a flawless film, but most of your complaints don't really hold water.. nothing about the story needs "updating"--and i'd dread to see the result product of a director who felt otherwise...

It's not just that Susan is bland, she's almost pointless in the film. At least Peter has some sort of role. And although Lucy has morals, she's still very passive in her role, rather like a typical bleeding-heart wife figure.

I'm not expecting Braveheart, whatever that means, but I've no interest in a film where most of the lead characters are uninteresting (Edmund is the only interesting one!), and I don't think you'd be destroying the essence of the story if you had Susan and Lucy defend themselves rather than be damsels in distress (e.g. the scene where they're attacked by wolves).

Out of curiosity, what did you like about the film?

[numbersix]

i thought The Science of Sleep was fantastic... that, along with Eternal Sunshine, blow away Spike Jonze's entire filmography... SoS was quite hectic (as it needs to be), but the story never broke free from Gondry's control... (as is par for the course with Jonze--or Kaufman--behind the camera)

While there's no need to debate whether Gondry or Jonze is better (although that said, I think Gondry's music videos are far better, but Being John Malkovich is better than anything Gondry has directed so far), I had the complete opposite response to Science of Sleep. I felt it was a film that never had control in the first place! Where's the control in the overlong dream-live cardboard-cutout sequences of giant hands and imaginary TV shows and dancing horses? It's the most convoluted love story I've ever seen, and to be honest it felt like Gondry was just using an opportunity to experiment with some odd sequences and tie them together with a flimsy story. And Gainsbourg was like a plank.

[Buscemi]

Edmund was a dick.

[alyson]

Alyson, what is Be Here To Love Me? It's the only film in this thread I don't recognize.

i'm sure aly has more to say about it, but it's an amazing documentary about Texas singer/songwriter Townes Van Zandt... truly unforgettable stuff.. 93% on RT.. see it!

It's tremendous, probably one of the best documentary biographies I have seen (I did also really like Gonzo, but I might have been a little biased). Going into the film, I had almost no clue who Townes Van Zandt was, but the movie was still amazingly impactful (is that a word?). One of those films that you leave the theatre just thinking "wow." and not really being able to wrap your head around much else until you see it again.



Regarding Elf - I have tried several times to watch it and have never been able to make it through to the end, its just terrible IMO - I actually like most Will Ferrell movies but I found him completely insufferable in this. I love most of the cast (especially Ed Asner, but we'll not get into that now) but I think it all came together in this ridiculous farce pretending to be a heartfelt Christmas movie - I felt neither moved nor inclined to laugh, just annoyed and a little sad. Grinch moment over.