25. Shaun of the Dead

24. Gladiator

23. Sideways

22. In Bruges

21. Lost in Translation

20. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

19. Mulholland Drive

18. Gosford Park

17. O Brother Where Art Thou

16. There Will Be Blood

Next Wednesday I’ll continue with numbers 10-6, and then the following Wednesday with 5-1.

Let’s get right to it…

15. SNATCH – 2001

"Don't go to England..."

I wrote about this one already as part of my top 100 Countdown. In fact several of these upcoming films made that list.

In the case of “Snatch” I think you have a film that is a) highly enjoyable b) highly stylized, and c) highly influential. The fact that Director Guy Ritchie was able to pull off all three at the same time merits inclusion on any “best of” decade list. This film is nothing more than a showpiece for a director with a particular style at the top of his game.

“Snatch” doesn’t contain anything that will alter the way you relate to the environment around you. There are no elements of plot, style, or action that will cause you to question reality as you know it. You’re not going to walk away from “Snatch” feeling anything except entertained. That I feel it’s perfect at what it does is why it’s here.

Many films try, and fail, to manage a cast of characters this large. Ritchie not only manages them, he makes them all unique, and gives them all entertaining personas that he lets shine through their interactions. A convoluted narrative is actually braided together in a way that makes the final product look much neater than the collected strands. The soundtrack choices sizzle, and actors deliver enjoyable performances all the way around. Personally, I don’t think Brad Pitt has ever been better than he is here, as a gypsy-like Pikey traveler with a talent for bare knuckle boxing and a hot-headed zest for doing the wrong thing.

To me other highly-stylized films like 300, Sin City, and Kill Bill don’t merit inclusion over “Snatch.” In “Snatch” the stylish elements enhance the characterizations, humor, and entertainment value of the film instead of overshadowing it. There’s a fine line between style for entertainment’s sake and style for style’s sake. In “Snatch”, Ritchie boldy stands with one leg on each side of that line and does a dance. Not a second of the film feels wasted. None of the interactions or plot lines don’t raise the overall entertainment level of the film. There are other films even on this list that are landmark films in some respects, but landmark films with warts. “Snatch” has really only one flaw: the lack of any female characters of merit.  But everything Ritchie does try succeeds. Everything he does enlivens and enhances the film’s entertainment value. It’s a rare film where nothing falls flat, and nothing falls flat in “Snatch”. In fact things soar, and that’s why it checks in at number 15.

14. BORAT – 2006

This is another one I wrote about as part of my top 100 Countdown.  The only thing reflection has done is enhance my view of it.

I don’t think there was better filmed satire in the last 10 years. “Thank You for Smoking” is close, and “Shaun of the Dead” is on this list not for being a satire, but for twisting the knob just so, to the point that something wonderful comes into focus between satire, romantic comedy, and horror film.

But as pure comedic satire, nothing matches the levels that Sascha Baron Cohen gets to with “Borat”. That he was able to do so gradually, via improvisation, to create an emerging thru line of satire about the way Americans of various stripes treat outsiders, is honestly nothing short of genius.

This film is dripping: with vulgarity, with humor, and with true cinematic genius. There’s really no satire in two fully nude men fighting in a hotel room and into the halls and ballrooms, but when I first saw it I laughed until I got so dizzy I was worried I was going to pass out.  There’s no genius in a Jew taking subtle potshots at Eastern European Anti-Semitism, but they come off as hilarious when he brings them up in conversation. And there’s no vulgarity in a hilarious pre-rodeo national anthem, but there’s true satirical comedy.

I previously wrote that Cohen is a modern day Groucho Marx, and that’s what he reminds me of. His go to reaction in interactions is to find comedy, just like Groucho’s was. But Cohen does it not through witticisms, but through satire. His go to way of finding comedy is instead to think of how to turn it so that it’s a send up of reality. It’s both creatively amazing and comedically genius. It’s not so much that he has a satiric wit, it’s that he’s able to transform all of his interactions, even mundane ones, into satiric statements about the United States.

VERY NICE!

Cohen inhabits every aspect of a character in ways most actors won’t be able to on their best day. And he does so as a comedian – with gangly gait and stick-straight posture when “on camera”. And the results are the stuff of legend. A vulgar, often-immature, but generally-genius legend. He never has to say anything about Americans, we do it for him in our interactions with him.

Some people criticize the film as being narrow in its portrayal of Americans in that (they claim) Cohen sought out the ripest targets and let them run wild. But some of my favorite sequences in the film have naught to do with any political or social message, and instead just let human interactions rule the day. A hotel clerk being forced to read a message to a possibly-distraught Borat about his wife and a bear, a driving instructor having difficulty trying to explain that Americans might drive differently that those from other cultures. Etiquitte instructors and feminist scholars, humorists and news anchors, easy targets in their own right, but still presenting a fairly hilarious overall (not narrow) view of how different Americans relate to foreigners. Trying to hug a stranger in a big city, and watching that stranger run away screaming in primal fear? Now that’s funny, and is in no way related to finding an easy target for ridicule.

Cohen has also taken shots for his portrayal of Khazatstan. But if the situation were reversed, and he gallivanted across Europe as a broadly stereotypical American to see how Europeans reacted to the stereotype, he wouldn’t be accused of digging on America.  (also I just wrote the sequel to Borat) The Kazak Borat exists simply as a stage on which the Americans play the comedy. And it’s probably the best and the brightest pure comedy of the last 10 years. Man, it’s filthy though. But ain’t that America?

13. THE DARK KNIGHT – 2008

There’s this I wrote about The Dark Knight (warning, here be spoilers) when I first saw it.

Then there’s this from my Top 100 list.

I find that I don’t have much more to say. I think this is the best superhero movie of all time.  I think it’s also one of the best action movies of all time. It is pitch perfect in capturing the ultimate paradox at the center of Batman: that only a man driven by darkness could go as far as he does in the ways that he does to do the things that he does.

I find Christian Bale to be mostly-pedestrian as Bruce Wayne in this film—he’s given the right things to say but he says them in a kind of bored and offhanded way. There’s not enough darkness in his Wayne, but there’s plenty of darkness in the film, so it more than makes up for his performance, which isn’t so much weak, it’s just, not strong. He’s better than he is in this film, hell, he was better as Wayne/Batman in “Batman Begins”.

Fortunately, everything else in this film is outstanding. I think what I like best is how the film spins on a series of paradoxes, with the ultimate message that the line between “good” and “evil” in the modern city is blurred to near-confusion. It’s both a defense and criticism of vigilantism. It’s highly-literate but also highly-entertaining. And it contains one of cinema’s legendary villainous performances.

Really, read what I already wrote if you want to know more of my thoughts on this one…

12. SPIRITED AWAY – 2001

This is a riser on my list. I had only seen it once when I compiled my Top 100 List several months ago. But in preparing this list I decided to give 10 or so films another look to see what I thought of their staying power and if, on additional viewings, they’d merit consideration. Some of these films I’d not seen since release, and so they were not fresh on my mind.

“Spirited Away” is one of two films that I watched that merited more consideration on a second viewing. And I’ve concluded that not only does it merit consideration, it actually earns its spot in the top 15 films of the last decade, and a breath away from the top 10. Coincidentally, the other film is just ahead at number 11. And there’s only one Animated film I’ve ever felt is better, look for it between numbers 10 and 6 on this list…

“Spirited Away” is filled with undeniable qualities. I could watch it for days on end. The characters and sequences are honestly and truly timeless. I think I’ve found I prefer the English dubbed version because it seems slightly off, and the voice acting isn’t the typical over-the-top American Animated film voice acting. It only adds to the sense of detachment and wonder that you don’t have to hear Jack Black trying to be funny, or recognize some big star trotting out something for the kiddies.

In Japan, the childrens have no noses.

The little girl’s voice is slightly annoying, sure, but you can’t help but feel bad for her, and before long you’re seeing the film through her eyes completely, which has the dual effect of making you feel like a child, and making your feel FOR this child.

This is a film of indelible beauty and ageless grace, like an ancient river. It’s of no coincidence that rivers figure so heavily into the plot, and it’s no simple feat that creator Hayao Miyazaki is able to capture those feelings in word, thought, deed, and picture on screen. There’s a moment, midway through the film when the heroine has just gone through a major ordeal and finally gets some credit and a chance to rest, that she looks out over a flooded plain that has engulfed her reality. A train passes by. The hue in the sky slightly changes. The soundtrack under the image warms the soul. It’s a breathtaking moment, perhaps THE breathtaking moment, in a film filled with them.

It’s a film of morals and messages, but one that doesn’t beat you over the head with them in any way. The morals and messages are not tightly wrapped up like an Aesop’s fable—the film’s messages have some of the same abiding themes as those enduring fables, just updated with modern issues, and with effervescent  charm instead of on-the-nose presentation.

And yeah, I can’t say it enough, it’s a gorgeous film in every way. Pan’s Labyrinth is a similar film, which is close to meriting consideration on this list. But Pan’s Labyrinth is more taut, waaay darker and more violent, and less beautiful as a result. It has a sense of wonder, but that sense of wonder is forever affected by a cloud of doom and despair that hangs low over the whole piece. Sometimes it’s ok to just be swept away into a fantasy world, and not be so heavily drained by the world around you.

“Spirited Away” in contrast to “Pan’s Labyrinth”, takes place in a world tinged by both the fear AND the goodness of the power of magic, and our heroine’s own spirit here is the biggest light in the film. “Pan’s Labyrinth” is mostly depressing. “Spirited Away” is almost entirely uplifting, even in it’s darkest moments. Part of that is the beauty of the score, part of it is the beauty of the image, and the rest of it is due to a timeless story, in the hands of a true master. One of the best films of any decade, and possibly the greatest animated film of all time.

11. THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS – 2001

Another film I’d rank among the best of all time, this is quite simply Director Wes Anderson’s masterpiece.

Anderson is one of the true auteurs in Modern American Cinema. He visualizes his entire project from script to screen, including editing, song choices, set dressing, and specific emotions and reactions from actors. He’s a movie megalomaniac, but luckily he has fantastic vision and creativity. He understands how to create greatness without copying it like, say, a Quentin Tarantino.

Never before, or since, has Anderson’s talent been on display like it is in this film, which concerns the decades-long quirky interactions between a family of child prodigies and childish parents. Anderson understood that the rich backstory of the characters, much of which would not make it to the screen, was heavily influential on how they characters acted now. So instead of having hours of flashbacks, their backgrounds are revealed in snippets, and take shape in the design and makeup of their childhood dress and bedrooms. This is a fantastically rewarding film visually. Every picture hung on a wall, every outfit, every decoration on the set, says something about one of the characters. More thought was put into this film than the entire series of “Saw” movies plus the entire television run of “Two and a Half Men” plus all of “Twilight” and both “Transformers” movies. Combined.

Particularly with this film, Anderson is able to capture both complete insanity, and something close to real humanity. Hell, maybe the two aren’t that far apart. The actors are nearly all at the top of their games, Gene Hackman, in particular, delivers what I honestly feel is the performance of his career. The music of the film is fantastic, providing both a soundtrack to the film and THE soundtrack to these crazy characters’ lives.

Look at that Old Grizzly...

Anderson has a way of making the offhand seem hilarious (like Gene Hackman calling Danny Glover “Coltrane” or “Old Grizzly”) and making the mundane seem entirely depressing. He has a touch, and never is it more evident in this film. Others of his films, like “Rushmore”, feature characters that fail to strike a balance between quirkiness and likeability. Here, even the most outrageously emotionally-offensive characters, like Gene Hackman’s or Owen Wilson’s, invite moments or entire films of sympathy.

This is a film about a wholly-dysfunctional family struggling, after all those years, to find function. How they find it, if they find it, and why they do are don’t make this one emotionally powerful and pitch perfect.

In case you missed it, here are numbers 25-21

25. Shaun of the Dead

24. Gladiator

23. Sideways

22. In Bruges

21. Lost in Translation.

• If you’re new to the party, what I write is just my thoughts on why I feel each particular film deserves merit and inclusion on this list. Anything I write is essentially spoiler free, so if you haven’t seen the films, feel free to read.
• In case you missed it, my friend Andrew Brenner is counting his list down as well. Give it a look.
• Number 15-11 will be posted next Wednesday, with the top 10 following the two Wednesdays after.

Without further ado…

20. THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY – 2001-2003

It’s my list, and I make the rules around here, so I’m counting the Lord of the Rings Trilogy as one for the purposes of this list.

And really, while “Return of the King” is probably the best stand-alone film of the bunch, it’s not nearly the film it is without the two films before it. Each of the three films is a technical marvel, masterpieces one and all. Each contains its own moments of awesomeness, and each has its memorable sequences and characters. But together they represent perhaps cinema’s greatest epic tale.

Director Peter Jackson faced the unenviable task of adapting perhaps the single most beloved literary series of the 20^th century. And in the face of that task, he produced greatness. It took a special kind of hubris and daring to undertake these films; the same kind of pride and ego that often is required to produce greatness. Luckily Jackson was as sensitive to the subject matter as he was sure he could direct it. Also he kind of looks me if I were a child molester.

Show me on the statue where he touched you...

None of these films had even a hundred million dollar budget. That’s astonishing to me. Yes, 100 million is an astronomical number in almost any circle, but in the world of film, it’s not significant. 2009’s “GI Joe: Rise of the Cobra” (I had to check to make sure that wasn’t a porno with a parody title) checked in with a 175 million dollar budget. 2009’s woeful “Land of the Lost” budgeted in at 100 million. Sure 2009 money isn’t the same as 2003 money, but the return on investment in the Lord of the Rings films is one of the more amazing successes in film history.

These films would not have been the success they were if they weren’t so perfectly helmed. In Jackson’s hands, New Zealand becomes the most beautiful country in the world—the stuff of fantasy. It’s possible no film series has ever done more for one nation’s economy than what LOTR did and does for New Zealand. And the casting for this series sparked much debate for decades; it seems Jackson and the team behind these films could not have chosen more successfully on almost every count.

It’s hard to lump the three together and then highlight memorable sequences, and if you’ve seen them you know what they are.  But it’s important to note that these films succeed just as much for quiet, haunting, mystical moments like when the Fellowship finds shelter at Elven realm of Lothlórien, as they do for amped up intensity like the rain-soaked battle of Helm’s Deep.

It’s just simply impossible to make a Best Films of 2000-2009 list and not include these films, even if they aren’t your particular fancy. Yes they’re nerdy. Yes they’re long. Yes they require a near 10 hour commitment to take in. But they’re also beautiful, impeccably well made, and eminently memorable.  It’s 10 hours well spent.

19. MULHOLLAND DRIVE – 2001

Oh then there’s this film. Then there’s this ridiculous, mind-bending, semi-lucid dream of a salvia trip-waking nightmare of a haunting film. David Lynch. That’s about all that needs to be said. But this film is Director David Lynch THIS CLOSE to making perfect sense. That’s a cinematic rarity on par with finding the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

And that’s what Lynch’s films, especially this one, are about really. Films like this stimulate more than they entertain, they challenge more than they reward. But that stimulating IS their entertainment. The challenge IS their reward. And this film is incredibly stimulating and challenging, but grasping at its meaning can be incredibly rewarding. And in its many disjointed scenes of puzzlement and confusion, there’s plenty of entertainment.

Lynch, the man behind the suspenseful TV smash “Twin Peaks” initially conceived and shot half of this film as a television pilot. Then when television execs gave it the thumbs down, he shot a few more scenes and added somewhat related material, and put it all together.  The result is probably the best Film Noir from the 2000-2009 years, set where such things belong, Los Angeles. And because this is LA, we’ve get a tale of mixed up film projects, failing dreams, and bizarre characters who belong mostly to the land of nightmares.

(This is not a Stephen Hawking cameo, you've been misinformed.)

This film luxuriates in the land of nightmares and dreamscapes. You know when you’re dreaming, and you’re one place, and then inexplicably you’re somewhere else? Or when one person in your dream becomes another with little explanation above the subconscious? That’s where this film lives. That’s what it is. It’s a series of dreams that almost make sense on first viewing, that may make sense on deeper analysis, and for which the pursuit of meaning can be like tilting at windmills.

And this film is mesmerizing because it contains all stages and types of dreams—complete nonsense, shocking nightmares, puzzling moments, and the kind of half-lucidity experienced and remembered from waking dreams. The tagline, “A Love Story in the City of Dreams” is both completely accurate and puzzlingly confusing.

This film works because Lynch is unabashed in what he’s doing. Nothing is half-sold.  There are no cop outs. And because of that, puzzle pieces not meant to interlink fully still produce vivid images. The best thing about films like this is trying to unravel them, and this one is so wonderfully twisted it’s probably Lynch’s best, and nearly unrivaled in the last decade.

18. GOSFORD PARK – 2001

Robert Altman was an American master, and this is his last great masterpiece. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a commentary on British Society from the early 20^thcentury, it’s the textbook ensemble film that’s as much a character study as a tableaux of archetypes.

It’s the classic British murder mystery in the model of Agatha Christie—a cast of characters gather at a country house and one of them turns up dead. Everyone is a suspect. But because of how well made and impossibly well acted this film is, everyone seems to have a motive, and you can’t really begrudge any of them for it. It’s as joyous as a murder mystery about stuffy British people can get, and it’s everything Altman’s best films are.

It’s so well-done, and so meticulous, that it simply must be seen more than once. Things can get lost the first time you see it, interactions, little details like the shots of guns, knives, poison, spilled bloody marys, etc that linger 2-3 seconds longer than they usually would. Dialogue that’s not ironic on first viewing becomes wickedly so the second time around.

Gosselin Park

In fact every time I watch this film I realize more how outstandingly and mind-blowingly well made it is. It can be initially confusing with this madhouse of people and all of their stories, but by the end, we know enough about them all to form opinions and see beneath the surface. Altman is completely at home with a disparate cast and myriad storylines. It’s where he buttered his bread for decades. And this is among his top three, along with “Nashville” and “M.A.S.H.” He transcends beyond genre material, never bound and instead inspired by conventions. By the time a bumbling British inspector arrives sucking on a pipe with his own musical theme, you recognize how pitch perfect this film is.

There are so many excellent actors here giving excellent performances it’s difficult to single out which among them deserves praise above the rest. Really this film is a collection of transcendent actors romping through enjoyable material. Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith are especially brilliant, though, but nothing less should be expected of such talented performers.

Nothing in this film is life-changing or even especially memorable, but it is probably the tightest and most well-made film on the list. It’s paced and cut masterfully. The script, and like Altman does at the top of his form, weaves these characters and their stories together so well it truly is tapestry on film, as though this film were made on a loom with 45 different crazy kinds of thread and still ended up art that made sense. It exists as a comedy, a mystery, a drama, and even rises to the level of parody on numerous occasions. Give a genius the right material, a camera, and this cast, and a masterpiece results. Winner of the “Actual Best Movie” award at the Academy Awards (otherwise known as Best Original Screenplay) in 2002, and nominated for several other Oscars, and yet probably still underrated as a film.

17. O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? – 2000

If “Gosford Park” is a tapestry or crazy threads all woven together, than “O Brother Where Art Thou” is like moving history. It’s withered in sepia, cast in the current tones of times gone by, and its story is timeless to the point of being based on “The Odyssey” for crying out loud.

So much of what O Brother covers is the stuff of legend, but for us, the 20’s and 30’s South is recent enough legend that we have a picture of it in our heads. This film gives life to that picture in so perfect a way that it is destined to be MORE memorable than the source material on which it is based—the stories, photos, and songs of the Depression era South. Like characters based on Babyface Nelson and Robert Johnson, the stories are a little muddled, but the details remain.

And it’s the Coen Brothers, which means it’s quirky and hilarious. Wait, here I am in the third paragraph and I haven’t even mentioned the part of the film that rises above the rest—the incredible sountrack. This is a soundtrack you can give to people who “hate” country music and watch as they find enjoyment in it. This is a soundtrack that was so successful it inspired a tour by the musicians whose music is featured. This is a soundtrack that captures the important part music plays in capturing the memories of a certain time and a certain place.

WE THOUGHT YOU WAS A TOAD!!!!

The set pieces are among the Coen Brothers most memorable, which is to say they are some of the most memorable in the last 25 years of American cinema. Dancing Klansmen calling back to the guards in the Wizard of Oz. Haunting Sirens bathing on rocks and singing our heroes to a hypnotized sleep. John Goodman deliciously over the top as a Bible-selling Cyclops. And all of this captured beautifully on a negative specifically-colored by the Coen Brothers to have that aged look and feel.

The film is definitely a series of vignettes that come together under the guise of a treasure hunt set in the South. But the undercurrent running throughout is these are all tales we can imagine happening at that time and place. Like “The Odyssey” these may be a collection of tales that have been passed along orally, otherwise unrelated but for our heroes, but ultimately fantastic when brought together.

And the music is another line that runs throughout, in some ways as a Greek chorus reflecting on the action and driving the plot, and in others as filler so right that you can’t imagine the film without it.

Forever quotable, affirmatively funny, and absolutely enjoyable. It may sum up and survive a time and an era more than actual history, which is yet another way it’s both like the “Odyssey” and deserving of praise.

16. THERE WILL BE BLOOD – 2007

OK, this one is at number 16 for many reasons I’ll expand on momentarily, but I have to admit the ending drives it higher than it would otherwise be. I am absolutely in love with the ending of this film. I think it might be dissatisfying or even anger-inducing or downright depressing to some of you, but I really love it. It’s the only way the film could end and the whole film is driving toward such a conclusion. I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t seen it. But the last words, and they way they are spoken, are EPIC!

In the hands of another actor, the lead character, oil man Daniel Plainview, just simply would not be who he is. Make no mistake about it, this film is a showroom floor for the Daniel Day Lewis 2007 model. And he’s so convincing, so vulnerable and yet steeled, so mad and yet calculating, that he wins the day, the week, the year, hell, almost the decade. He earned an Oscar for this but that’s only because the Oscar was the highest award he could earn. If they gave a Nobel Prize for acting, this performance would merit it.

I love the title of this film. It makes me think that any time oil is at stake, well, There Will Be Blood. In that sense, and with the elements of religious fervor clashing with the oil expansion as they do in this film, it’s not even that thinly-veiled a reference. But that doesn’t mean it’s ineffective.

I drink it up!!!

The film reminds me of Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown”, which I will spoil as earning a spot on my top 10 films of all time, in that it uncovers, reveals, and either embellishes or undersells what pseudo-modern America was like before parts of it were tapped and expanded. It captures a time when parts of this country were still very unsettled, still ripe for snatching and manipulation, and still invitations for manipulators to ply their trade to the tune of millions of dollars.

It owes to “Chinatown” sure, but it also owes to “Citizen Kane” among other fantastic American films, in many of its sequences, events, and characters. The evolution, or is it de-evolution, of Daniel Plainview, is fascinating stuff to watch. As I said, without spoiling the end of the film, upon reflection it’s easy to see that’s where this film, this character, were always headed. It’s a performance at the same time pure, and nuanced, passionate, yet strikingly cool-heeled.

DDL is not the only actor bringing his A game in this one. Paul Dano comes out of nowhere to be an incredible foil to DDL’s Plainview, playing two roles (or is it one?) one of which sets the story in motion, the other of which drives it right off of the rails. The supporting roles are both authentic, and memorable. This is just a fantastically acted and directed film. Also, the musical score, by a member of Radiohead, is all at once chilling, beautiful, haunting, and, especially the sting at the end of the film, incredibly scene setting/stealing. One of the two best films of 2007, the other to be revealed shortly. Stay tuned!

• These are nothing but what I feel the best films are from 2000-2009. The films I feel are the most relevant, lasting, entertaining, and valuable films of the last ten years. What I think is merely the funniest film of the last 10 years is probably not on this list. The film I’ve watched more than any from the last 10 years might not be on this list. But these represent what I feel the BEST 25 films of the last 10 years are.
• Andrew Brenner should be counting his down too. Definitely check his out. He has taste, ours just doesn’t always overlap. Check his out as well if you are so inclined.
• We (as in Andrew and I) will be counting down five each Wednesday, with the final five on Wednesday Dec 30, 2009.
• I still plan to return to my countdown of my top 100 favorites of all time at some point in the next decade. Be on the lookout.
• These posts are written with the intent to preserve the key aspects of the story of the films as spoiler-free if you’ve not seen them. Feel free to read if you haven’t.

Without further adieu…

25. SHAUN OF THE DEAD – 2004

Here the cast is, each with their own interpretation of what a zombie walk looks like.

This one isn’t world-changing, life-changing, or anything much more than fun. But it’s very smart. It’s parody without being directly on the nose, and before you know it you’re wrapped up in a flick that is both a romantic comedy and a zombie movie. And despite the pitfalls that could come with such a setup, it’s not silly. Although, there’s a pun right there in the title. What’s not to love?

If you aren’t familiar with the charm of Simon Pegg, this is a perfect introduction. Pegg, with his Director Edgar Wright, wrote this film along with 2007’s entertaining “Hot Fuzz” as the first film in their “Blood and Ice Cream” trilogy. Blood and Ice cream is a complex reference to the famed Three Colors trilogy of Polish Director Krzysztof Kieślowski. If pardoy comic films referencing an acclaimed art-house series of foreign films seems odd, well, it’s just because Pegg and Wright are just that smart. They know film conventions better than Las Vegas knows actual conventions. And in this film, every trick of the trade is on display.

Yes, the subject of this parody is zombie films, but it’s also wrapped up in a fairly traditional romantic comedy, with entertaining and rewarding technical factors that should please fans of film, not just fans of popcorn movies. This is the rare, intelligent comedy that also features gore and scatological humor.

Is it a zombie movie? An action movie? A love story? A comedy? Yes, it is all of these things. The fact is it’s not a bad example of any of them.  It’s really well above average in all of these categories which makes for an excellent overall film. There are sequences that are truly, laugh-out-loud funny. There are sequences that are truly memorable. They really put a lot of thought into this film, it will reward you for watching it, I promise.

24. GLADIATOR – 2000

IS THIS NOT WHY YOU ARE HERE?!?!?

I’ll admit, this one makes this list for mostly visceral reasons. It’s been called “Rocky on downers” and its washed-out style is purposefully bleak.  And if you choose to view this film through that lens, the film can feel that way as well. But I choose to view it as a story of redemption and expectations. And viewed through that lens, the movies looks anything but bleak. Some call it the worst Best Picture winner of all time, I’m wondering if those people saw “Titanic”.

The cast is near-perfect for this film, Russell Crowe went from flabby, uptight middle aged man pushed to the brink in “The Insider” to epic badass bound for revenge here. Say what you will about the guy, but the man can act. He plays Maximus the General as a man oozing natural leadership qualities.  When faced with true adversity, those same qualities carry him through. He’s an animal in some ways, and fully human in others. This role won him a Best Actor Oscar because he plays pushed to the brink just as well with anger, sadness, and quiet acceptance.

Joaquin Phoenix is also perfect as the perennially disappointing and perpetually conniving Commodus. He inspires a lot of hatred, but you can’t help but see him as truly pathetic as well. And as his father the Emperor, Richard Harris is what Richard Harris does so well—loveable, sweet, kind, and caring. You don’t even think about all the horrors perpetuated in the name of Rome under his rule because he is such a sweet old man, thus making his son all the more disappointing and evil for his actions. But the film doesn’t just drop each of the main players into archetypal roles—Harris is quick to admit his failures as a father, Maximus knows the beast within and is able to tame it from time to time, but also kills with a lusty fire in his eyes when he feels like it. These aren’t one-dimensional characters in bedsheets and armor vamping around with the traditional British/Roman accent. The fact that they aren’t owes largely to the talent of the actors playing the characters.

The film also features a who’s whom of aging British actors playing their roles with aplomb—Oliver Reed in his last on-screen performance, Derek Jacobi, David Hemmings, et al. And Djimon Hounsou, unfortunately following his excellent performance in “Amistad” as, yet again, a slave fighting for freedom. Historical Dramas, like history, are fairly unkind to those with darker skin.  But Houston and the British vets all add nuance to characters that would otherwise be merely typical.

You’ve probably seen this one, and if you have it’s one of those love it or hate it kinds of movies. It isn’t historically accurate, nor does it claim to be. And there are more-advanced and better films from an Effects standpoint. But for it’s breadth of production, fantastic cast, entertaining story, and visceral inspiration, there are few films that are its equal from the last decade.

23. SIDEWAYS – 2004

These men are not irresponsibly drunk, yet.

Well this one is mostly depressing. But it’s also often incredibly enjoyable, sometimes lively, sweet, and even a little charming.

Those sentences describe this film, but they may as well be words used by the main character to describe a wine. And they may was well be used by a viewer to describe the main character. Such is the wonderfully complex nature of wine, the character, and this film.

Titles are important to a film, and this one is called Sideways for what I can only gather are myriad reasons. One, it’s ostensibly about a bachelor party trip to California wine country in which things go, well, sideways. Two, it refers to how important titling a glass sideways is when evaluating particular vintages of wine. Three, it’s in reference to where the main character is going in life. Certainly not forward, and not back (there isn’t much further back he can go) but sideways. Just completely off the tracks.

Paul Giamatti is a wonderful actor, and never before or since has he played a character that is more human. He plays a man with several unlikable characteristics (including visiting his mother just so he can steal money from her) and yet he plays him in such a human way you can’t help but pity him and wish him well.

His character, for good and bad, is revealed in many ways, from a sequence in which he takes his time reading on the toilet only to proclaim that the reason for his delay was traffic, to hilarious rants and actions involving wine he perceives to be below his palette. That he’s the “hero”, the moral center, in this film is but one of the ways in which it leaves a lasting impact. It also does a masterful job of developing three other ensemble roles, including two for women (a somewhat-rare feat in modern cinema) as three dimensional humans, warts and all.  We laugh with them, we question their decisions, we cry with them and for them. This is another smart film, especially writing wise. The characters make decisions that don’t make logical sense, but make absolute sense with what we know about them.

This movie never fails to make me laugh, and it never fails to make me sad and cringe in emotion, and it never fails to make me just a little happy too. Some people would say the same about wine, I guess.

22. IN BRUGES -  2008

An F-Bomb is likely no more than 10 words away.

Another admission, “In Bruges” is on the list mainly because it is eerily reminiscent of one of my all-time favorite films, Nicholas Roeg’s horror masterpiece “Don’t Look Now”. “In Bruges” is not a horror film, per se, which is to say it’s not a film in the horror genre, but it’s absolutely a film about the horrors of facing up to your actions and the horror that can emerge when true self-analysis is undertaken.

It’s a movie about two hitmen, one a rookie one a veteran, sent for some Rest and Relaxation to Bruges, Belgium after a botched job in Ireland. Bruges is, as one of them points out like a tour guide, “the best-preserved medieval city in Belgium!” And other than awesome things to look at (and this movie will most likely make you want to go to Bruges) there isn’t much else to say about Bruges. It’s…well it’s almost like purgatory. And that’s the way the film treats it, like a character unto itself, where these men are sent without intent to repent for their sins, but a place that can’t help but inspire the sort of self-analysis that leads to that. In Bruges they have little to do other than sit in their hotel, meet odd characters, and fester in their own self-pity.

The film is incredibly well-written and directed in his first foray into film by popular Irish playwright and director Martin McDonagh. It’s clear he came from the stage, the film plays in long silences and limited set-pieces, and thrives on the inter-personal interaction between the hitmen (played wonderfully on both accounts by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell) and the characters that pop up in such a places as Bruges. That such an accomplished actor as Ralph Fiennes plays a bit part as the boss who sends the hitmen to Bruges speaks to the quality of the director.

There’s definitely some existential dialogue in the film, and then there’s definitely some truly funny dialogue as well (Colin Farrell, in particular, can’t stand Bruges or anything in it, including himself, which often makes for quite humorous and memorable interactions). It reminds me of “Don’t Look Now” which uses back alley canals and doorways to create remarkable suspense and horror in Venice, in that it uses the looming medieval churches and expansive squares in Bruges to play on those existential feelings and ennui over the human condition. The film is titled “In Bruges” because the story is truly about what for these characters, at this time in their lives, being in Bruges means, and what affect it has on them. Bruges is as much a character as they are, the place defines them directly, and indirectly. It’s a fantastic bit of writing and filmmaking.

Unlike art house films that would be more obtuse with plot, character, action, etc, this film is entertaining and rewarding to watch. The music is great, the acting is top notch, and it’s shot incredibly well. There are other films on this list where the setting plays as much a part as the characters, but I am not sure there are any this well-layered and affecting.

21. LOST IN TRANSLATION – 2003

"I think I left the stove on..."

The previous films on this list have, in various ways, confronted elements of the human condition. None of them does it in as real a way as “Lost in Translation” does. If “Gladiator” is a near-cartoon, this one is a near-documentary.

Director Sophia Coppola is famous for being, well, related to famous. And seemingly terribly miscast in “The Godfather Part III” (though my feelings are it wasn’t the mistake others feel it is, more on that…probably never.). But here, as a director, she excels by not getting in the way of the characters and their story. By letting them luxuriate in the open, twist in the wind, and marinate in their emotions. There’s a famous shot in “Taxi Driver” where Robert DeNiro’s character is on the phone having an incredibly cringe-inducing conversation. The camera pans away from the conversation–it’s too much for even the audience in a legendarily-violent film to bear. “Lost in Translation” features several such moments, and the camera stays right on the characters. Right on the withered face of Bill Murray, who is playing a character that is so little a stretch from what he appears as an actor that it’s hard to tell where the lines of reality and fiction are drawn. There are more lines in on his aging-comic withered face than there are drawn between what is real to him, and reality for his character.

That’s only one of the reasons “Lost In Translation” works so wonderfully. This film accurately captures what it feels like to feel lost and alone, and at the same time welcomed in the presence of someone feeling the same way. It’s two people without a net running across a tightrope hand in hand; two people without a paddle laughing, and using their arms to swim upstream. Like in “In Bruges” the milieu, here Tokyo, plays an important role. 25 story dinosaurs run across buildings. Endless mazes of pachinko machines hum and ring behind every turn. Adventures aren’t sought, they just happen in the everyday. And two ships passing in the night stop and dance together. And it’s lovely, absolutely lovely, with touches of sadness, grief, boredom, and depression.

It’s filmed impeccably. It’s acted superbly. It’s not terribly funny, but contains moments of comic genius (it is Bill Murray after all). Nothing happens, and yet everything happens, and our characters take as it finds them. Enough cannot be said about Bill Murray’s Oscar-Nominated performance here. He’s playing a funny guy who is just too tired and sad to be funny, and yet he can’t hide the twinkle that pops up in his eyes from time to time. In another film, you just know this character would’ve undergone some cut and dried transformation, so that the smoldering comic genius you catch hints of here would become a conflagration of hilarity. But real life isn’t nearly as cut and dried as cinema would have it. And neither is this film.

If you’ve seen it, you”ll no doubt remember the moment the picture here captures. I love that the film leaves it to speculate on what might have been said there, and I suspect each of us has our own interpretation, based on who we are and what we’ve encountered. I suspect that interpretation, like this film, can change depending on when we set out to determining it, based on where we are in life. Books can do that–affect us in different ways depending on when we read them. Only the best films can have that kind of  lasting impact. This one does.

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph – Blank family tree – Free family tree charts

YouTube – Danny Boy.

PITCH OFF!

YouTube – Billy Mays calls out Vince on the Adam Corolla Show.

YouTube – M. Ward Chinese Translation.