Well, Memento counts as this year, right? Other than that, it's all been crap.

1. Conrad Hall
2. Tim Burton (not counting Apes, which was basically just a studio driven project)
3. Henry Selick

once in a while something magnificent will pop up...but only once in a while.

"Superman I and II"(1978/1980)
"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"(1969)
!!!!

Hehe, I'm only joking.
Of course we've had a great movie in this year "2001: A Space Oddyssey"

See John, they're still producing great movies for DVD release! Gae NP (Greensleeves:A celebration of English music)

- Tailor of Panama
- Swordfish

Very effective score, though I didn't buy the album.

"Planet of the Apes" was fun but forgettable.

"Jeepers Creepers" was a nice unconventional change of pace from usual horror flicks.

"Final Fantasy" was an entertaining Elliot Goldenthal music video. (The best score of the summer, I think.)

"Ghosts of Mars" was a hoot, me being a Carpenter fan.

But overall, nothing outstanding.

Oh well.

Clayton

SHREK!

I cannot understand WHY everyone loves it, but nobody considers it as a work of art.

Entertaining films as fluff: Mummy Returns, JPIII

Lighthearted films with a touch of sharp comedic imagination: Shrek, Cats & Dogs

My favorite film of the year thus far is Final Fantasy (Memento would have been it, but is has been concluded I can't have my way!)

What feels missing for me this year is that one epic film...perhaps Windtalkers (I saw the full trailer last night..wow.)

Every year should have one great historical epic...sadly nothing so far. And while LOTR will shoot to the top of my list for this year...it's not quite the same.

James - I've seen 'The Dish' and thought it was good but not great. The score is unashamedly Horner.

quote:

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Originally posted by Quill:
What feels missing for me this year is that one epic film...perhaps Windtalkers (I saw the full trailer last night..wow.)

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I just saw the preview last night saying November. Tarnation!

"New" (and good) -

MEMENTO - ('nuff said already)

MOULIN ROUGE - I suppose if you're in a bad mood when you walk in to see this you could mistake it for a "mess", but it's nothing of the sort. Prep yourself - watch STRICTLY BALLROOM and the Claire Danes ROMEO & JULIET first, then you'll know more what you're in for. This movie is a joyride.

WAKING LIFE - Which is NOT rotoscoped. This is animation. I haven't seen SLACKER, but I'm told it's an animated SLACKER. Well, it works. The animation is dazzling, and yes, quite dreamy. That's why it works - if the film had been left in live-action form, it would have been pretty bad, but the enhancement of the dreamlike quality via the stylings of 30 different animators makes the in-your-face-philosophising fit perfectly - dream dialogue doesn't feel real.

Other good things -

THE MAN WHO WASN'T THERE will work for anyone who loves old film noir. It's in B&W, but more important is that the cinematography is deliberately wonderful. Few film noirs were actually filmed this well - it matches our best memories better than the films themselves.

HAPPY ACCIDENTS looks like THE WEDDING SINGER but it's much, much better. A very atypically intelligent (religion slurs aside - that's getting old. Lazy gimmick) romantic comedy with a sci-fi element comperable to what K-PAX looks like. Never dull, all the way to the end.

AMORES PERROS - A Tarantino-esque film with a younger cast and made in Mexico. Thoroughly engeging.

CROUCHING TIGER... - Yes, over-hyped, yes, technically 2000 (I saw it last August I think), but also - yes, really that good.

What about regular movies?

A.I. - A delightfully uncomfortable, and thoughtful (if you'll let it be so) movie about the nature of humanity, the right to life, etc. Thematically a companion piece to BLADERUNNER. It'll be better thought of 10 years from now.

APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX - Better than the original (from the perspective of one who does not have the original memorized). Works as a whole film more coherently than did the shorter version, the Kurtz compound is no longer a weak link in the chain (as much due to all of the additions as to those in that specific section), sound is equal to that of the 70mm prints, and the color is better than it was in 1979 thanks to dye-transfer prints.

Good 'B' movies?

The most subjective of all groups of movies, for me the best were:

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS - Delivered what GONE IN GO SECONDS promised last year, namely an unyieldingly fast pace. Plot wasn't as stupid as it could have been, and with rare exceptions the dialogue wasn't dumb either (it was never great, but often in 'B' movies it's just mercilessly stupid). Sometimes turned left when you expected it to turn right.

JURASSIC PARK III - Flame away if you like, but if you went in thinking "This is about a group of stupid people on Dinosaur Island", you got your fill. This movie delivered what I wanted from the first two - lots of dinosaurs. None of these three movies are terribly smart films, so the abject idiocy of this one wasn't a big problem for me, but what worked was my not having to wait for 20 minutes of pretend plot between brief encounters with a succession of species.

Best I can do right now.

quote:

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Originally posted by LemonsAreIcky:
I don't even know why this is here. I was really upset to see it, because we should all know that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was the best film to come out this year, if not the best ever

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Yup!

Scott

NP: Casper (also known as LemonsAreIcky...lol)

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
it seems all anyone wants is to see something they've never seen before, and once they have, ta-daah! that was it for the summer. If you like your films small, indie, and noirish, and you want to polish them as the only Really Good Movie you've seen all summer because you had the "good taste" to see a movie that only had only 1/10th the audience draw of Pearl Harbor, swell.
But it sounds more like you're trying to say something about yourself than about the summer films and filmmakers busting their butts to serve up a really good product to the audiences--that they're already sure are going to be picked apart by the jackals and vultures of the oh-so-refined entertainment critical media.

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Um, yeah, take a pill, Lancelot.

This talking points "What to say when someone applauds art films" response represents some really lazy thinking. It's fine if you don't like certain types of films. It's very fine if you don't like snobbishness, no one should. But it's not fine for you to attribute to someone else motives you are so clearly not qualified to apply.

Not that you have an explanation coming, but for the sake of others, in my case, I run an art theater. It just happens that I see about an equal number of those films as I do Hollywood ones. I see almost everything that gets released nationally, and I don't feel the need to disqualify anything from a list of potential "really good films" just because others might not have bothered with them. That doesn't change the fact that they are the best films I've seen, as Hollywood's been pretty mediocre this year and last.

Pearl Harbor wasn't bad because it was expensive, it was bad because it was inept - it didn't even deliver what it promised, i.e. a rich visual representation of the titular attack. Memento wasn't good because it was cheap or independent, it was great because it had all of those qualities expected of any good film - and then some.

"Art films" can suck as much as Hollywood films. They can be mediocre as well (House of Mirth, Hedwig and Tao of Steve come to mind) but they aren't separate from the general category "films" when that's under discussion. If you have a problem with snobbishness, consider your own before going after what you perceive in others.

1. My Merriam-Webster defines "snideness" as "slyly disparaging". This whole post smacks of snideness. Don't single me out on that account because I respond opposingly in kind.
For a more accurate title, Mr. Winfrey could have chosen "When am I going to see a really good film this year?", but the implication is that somehow we are all subjected to what one consideres to be the dreck of Hollywood.

But, why does one keep seeing movies when all one seems to see is movies that one deems to be bad--seems to be a useless ponderance. (If you only like Baskin Robbins ice cream, then why are you complaining that Edy's can't make ice cream like Baskin Robbins? If the local Baskin Robbins closes, well, then find yourself another after-dinner treat, or make your own ice cream. But don't assume that because someone else is enjoying Edy's ice cream that they somehow are under less refined" tastes.

2. Unwarranted? What constitutes "unwarranted" on this board? Who decides that? (Rhetorical question) I know what's unwarranted, and the truth is I put up with more of what's considered "unwarranted" here significantly more than I spend my hours trying to figure out what offends people here. Because, honestly, this whole manner of post offends me--I think this whole post is unwarranted. But I'm not here to decide or even to argue that this post should cease to exist. It's a forum for open discussion, and while I didn't start this post, I just tried to participate it from one statistically unpopular point of view.

I'm not here to open up this nagging debate again, though Pearl Harbor was good for plenty of reasons. If your negatives opinions outweigh your positives opinions, fine. Though I expect that many of the critics of that film had made up their minds about the result long before they saw the film. Such is the same for any large scale production. What can be done about this? Nothing--this isn't George Orwell, we can't arrest you for thinking a movie is going to be bad. What I tire of is the expecations of films to somehow return to what they were 30, 40, 50 years ago. As much as I regret it, Hitchcock and his contemporaries have been placed to rest in the history books. No one can ever replace them--only succeed them. (Not every building constructed since the Notre Dame cathedral can be or even should be as intricate or grand.)

quote:

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Originally posted by Lancelot:
My comments, my arguements-- weren't directed personally at you, though I do admit to reading your nth commendation of "Memento" as the impetus for my response... Unwarranted? What constitutes "unwarranted" on this board? Who decides that? ...It's a forum for open discussion... Pearl Harbor... I expect that many of the critics of that film had made up their minds about the result long before they saw the film. ... What I tire of is the expecations of films to somehow return to what they were 30, 40, 50 years ago.[quote edited by Lorient on 10-12-2001]

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Thanks for clarifying the direction of your comments, and for the mia culpa about bouncing off my referencing Memento. It was pretty obvious.

What I called unwarranted wasn't your post itself, or your right to participate - even adversely. What I found uncalled for was your characterization of the previous opinion-giver, rather than of the opinions themselves. You implied a dishonest elitism - it was that which was unwarranted, in my view. Had you dissed each and every film I listed, I would have applauded, or engaged in some hearty debate with no such charge included - those things were out in the open, free to be evaluated by all. My motives for mentioning those films were not so clairified, and were not available for such comment (I know, not directed at me "personally", yadda yadda, but someone's motives were referenced, and only I had just listed a bunch of small, indie, noir-ish films).

(Along with The Fast and the Furious, mind you)

You're talking with someone who's in greater anticipation of the Phantom Menace DVD than those for The Godfather and Citizen Kane (though I WILL get those others). The movies I listed above were not the ones I appreciated the most, they're the ones I enjoyed the most. Fun. Eye-candy. And yes, smart is more fun than dumb.

As to Pearl Harbor, I can mention a phenomenon with some critics, one of whom I saw the film with. Right after the film ended, immediately after leaving the seat, this guy's view was mostly positive. He was looking at a 3 1/2 star review (out of 5). A day and a half later, his 2 star review appeared in the paper. I guess many critics had this reaction. They left the theaters telling themselves "It wasn't so bad at ALL!" and by the time they got to their word processors, they were instead thinking, "Yeah, but it wasn't so good either." I personally didn't hate the film, I was just disappointed. The only part that had to work for me was the 40 minute attack, and I found it wanting. That's all.

I'm mystified though. Which is it,

"What I tire of is the expecations of films to somehow return to what they were 30, 40, 50 years ago."
or
"...it seems all anyone wants is to see something they've never seen before, and once they have, ta-daah! that was it for the summer"

Ok, I'll try not to go on and on too much...

to clarify:

"What I tire of is the expecations of films to somehow return to what they were 30, 40, 50 years ago."

...is a comment directed at thos who are critical of (oh, for a "random example") Pearl Harbor, claiming that Tora, Tora, Tora is the ultimate Pearl Harbor film. Did future filmmakers somehow lose the right to make additional Pearl Harbor films after Jerry Goldsmith put the finishing touches on the War in the Pacific Docudrama? (The answer is "no", though the question is rhetorical....)

It seems all anyone wants is to see something they've never seen before, and once they have, ta-daah! that was it for the summer"

Though, critics and fans clinging to their DVDs of Lawrence of Arabia in one hand, will with the other, give a thumbs down to Pearl Harbor or Planet of the Apes, and give a thumbs up to films such as Memento merely because it was a unique method of telling a story. I give it full respect for it's deft execution, however, to me, it was a particular type of story, and not one that is easily comparable to something on the scale of something such as The Mummy Returns....

A little challenging, perhaps, even for myself. As a student of mythology, I look for the universality of every story, finding the common themes which link our cultural stories and our storytelling methods. But, (to use yet another metaphor, borrowed, in part, from Bruce Lee) I think many people have one jar by which they measure the content and shape of the water. If the water does not fill the jar, they find the problem with the water, rather than with the jar.

I wax bizzarre philosophical....

Wax on, wax off.

I, too, am in anticipation of the Phantom Menace moreso than most other featured DVDs this fall (with the possible exception of The Sopranos 2nd Season next month...) But not for the reason that I'm a slobbering Star Wars fanatic--no, if it all possible, I try to underplay the term "fan"...there's something about "fanaticism" that implies a blind, unwavering devotion, and the truth is that I don't--or at least I try not to--have a blind approach to things of the world, particularly involving films, music, and/or any fusion of the two. But Star Wars has always been a keenly smart story, in a way that most people (including fans) don't wholly acknowledge or appreciate.

There have been plenty of good movies out there this year. You just have to keep a look out for them, and be open to different things. I'm no art-house snob -- I enjoy a good blockbuster as much as the next person -- but some of the good movies are hard to find. I've come up with a list (quite a lengthy one, actually) of some of the really-good to excellent films I've seen so far this year. I present them here in no particular order; some of them I saw at film festivals, and some of them are Canadian or foriegn and haven't been released in the US yet, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

The Pledge; Ghost World; Momento; Shrek; Amelie; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Panic; In the Mood for Love; The Caveman's Valetine; Bridget Jones's Diary; The Gleaners and I; The Claim; Moulin Rouge; A.I.; Gangster No. 1; Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within; Lost and Delirious; The Score; Ginger Snaps; The Others; waydowntown; Apocolypse Now Redux; Our Lady of the Assassins; The Tar Angel; In the Bedroom; Bully; Baran; Joy Ride; and Mulholland Drive.