Best Films of The 2000's

Sin City takes the 05 crown. i need a mod to put up the next poll Jan-Mar 06 the films that made it where...

V For Vendetta
Inside Man
Brick
Running Scared
16 Blocks
Thank You For Smoking
Night Watch
Hostel
Slither
Grandma's Boy

Thank You For Smoking wins Jan-Mar 06. as usual i need a mod to put up the next poll the films that qualifed for Apr-Jun poll are

Lucky Number Slevin
United 93
Cars
Dead Man's Shoes
Superman Returns
Hard Candy
An Inconvient Truth

Tranny why don't you run off the films with 3 or more rather than just hand it to Thank You for Smoking?

yeah lets go for it have a runoff between V,Brick and Thank You For Smoking.

im calling it V For Vendetta takes the crown. can an admin put the new poll up the movies for the next poll are listed here in the forum

1 more vote for either Lucky Number Slevin or United 93 takes the poll

I took the liberty of cleaning up the poll and running off the top three tranny. Hope you don't mind.

no problem geez i appreciate it.

I hoped Dead Man's Shoes would have put up a better fight, one of own personal favourites, but it looks like Slevin is running away with this one. Had more seen DMS, I'm sure it would have been a LOT closer.

The only one of these I have seen is Slevin, though I stopped it about 20 min into it, because it was fucking horrible. Just another action flick trying to be witty, and coming off as...well, just trying. Therefore, I must abstain from this poll...

Thank you, frendo. Someone else who realizes that Lucky Number Slevin was a piece of shit. I actually had to sit through it in theatres and that was a pretty agonizing ordeal.

I think that the people who call it great simply don't know what a great film really is. Great films don't steal from other, much better films of the same genre without offering anything new, feature actors who are there simply for the paychecks or long, boring scenes of people talking about James Bond films. And that certainly don't star Josh Hartnett in the lead.

I guess I don't know what a great film is. And I guess Shryke doesn't either. Or anyone else who has voted for it in this poll.

You thought Transformers was great. That alone makes you one not to trust on film.

Absolutely. So did millions of other people. Just because you don't like a film doesn't mean it isn't good. Its your opinion, not a fact.

Geezer, you need to go to the library and start checking out some real movies. Some Kurosawa, Truffaut, Renoir, the best filmmakers are out their needing to be discovered. Once you do, you'll look at Transformers or Lucky Number Slevin again and realize that they really are pieces of shit. They're nothing but frat boy movies and frat boys never go anywhere in life.

So what do you want: a world of great films and filmmakers or the trash heap of big, loud and absolutely dumb?

Again, that is your opinion. What a great film is to you is not what a great film is to me. Who are you to tell me what I can and can not enjoy? Does that make any sense? Personally, I think a lot of films you like are pieces of shit. Do you really think that you saying "Transformers and Lucky Number Slevin are pieces of shit" is going to change my opinion? Like I'm suddenly going to have a revelation and say "wow, ya know what he's right, I hated those movies. I can't remember being remotely entertained now that someone told me I shouldn't have been." Is this making any sense? What entertains you and what entertains me are totally different things. Neither of us are right and neither of us are wrong. I could go on and on about how the Godfather is an over-hyped boring piece of shit, but many would say that is blasphemy. This argument will never have an end, it will never have a winner and no one will ever be right. There are no facts when it comes to entertainment. There are only emotional reactions one feels while experiencing the what is on screen in front of them. When I watch these movies, they entertain me. They keep me happy. I don't think "Oh there goes Michael Bay blowing shit up again, why can't he make a film about the internal struggle of the giant fucking robots and their growing process on this funny thing we called life" If anyone did that, it would be complete shit, in my opinion. Transformers was perfect for exactly what it was supposed to be. Michael Bay is very good at what he does. You may not like it, but obviously you are in the minority when the film makes over 300 million dollars. You can have your Truffaut and Renoir. I'll take my giant bad-ass robot fights. And I'll be damn proud of it too.

I would just like to come in on you, Geez, about one point. If arguing about films was that pointless and futile, then these boards would be a lot quieter (and in fact, you already DID argue about why you thought the Godfather was over-rated). Film as an artform (and it is, even the blockbusters) is about interpretation, and while it's subjective, we all share certain impressions that help us judge a movie. Plus, you're assuming that once you see a movie your initial impression is (A) right and (B) never subject to change. Which simply isn't true. Films we think we like we end up becoming boring (this happens to me after seeing many blockbusters because the big explosions are predictable) and we forget about them, or films we may not have enjoyed on first impression suddenly make sense and become favourites. Or often I can be mildly moved by something at first until I realise how manipulative it is (e.g. the score).

BUT... I don't think we should have a world of just Truffaut and Renoir wannabees. By god, the word would become a grim place. We do need big, bright, explosive flicks. My only argument is that they're currently not being done right (fortunately Iron Man and TDK seem to be changing things for the better)- I haven't seen Transformers because in theory I couldn't watch 2+ hours of Michael Bay, but who knows, maybe it does work?

My Problems With Transformers:

-it's at least fifty minutes too long
-it's not like the cartoon
-the military subplot could have been ditched completely
-Megan Fox can't act her way out of a paper bag and her character could have been ditched completely
-Bumblebee isn't a Volkswagen
-not enough Soundwave
-the script was bad
-the pacing was bad
-too much product placement

Have they wanted to make a perfect adaptation, it should have been either a short yet faithful adaptation of the series shot entirely on sets with blue/green screens or a live-action remake of Transformers: The Movie. Meanwhile, I guess I'll just watch the original (and good) version again with Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy and Judd Nelson.

What I loved about Transformers:
- It was one of the most fun theater experiences I've ever had
- It is never bad to look at Megan Fox
- Giant robot fights!
- Awesome Cars and planes
- Good humor thrown in
- Perfect casting of Shia Leboef
- I liked the military subplot.
- Optimus Prime was badass.
- If Bumblebee was a volkswagon, it would have been gay, volkswagon's are for chicks.
- I don't give a shit about product placement
- It wasn't cheesy, it tried to follow its own story and separate itself from what was cool in the 1980s, while making a thoroughly enjoyable plot
- EXPLOSIONS!

I agree with you six. Pretty much wholeheartedly. I just took offense to basically being called legally retarded for my opinions on certain films.

Buscemi wrote:You thought Transformers was great. That alone makes you one not to trust on film.

im pretty sure you liked The Love Guru and that movie sucked donkey balls. Transformers was fantastic it is one of the best movie going experiences ive had in years. It was damn near perfect. I also loved Slevin and it won this poll so clearly me and geez arent alone on this one.

I forgot about that. Argument over!

So geezer when this is complete, do you want to do a "Best Films Of The 1990's" list? I really think that could be a great series.

I think six pretty much hit the nail on the head with this one. Boussh, I am a great advocate of Kurosawa and Renoir, but I also happen to enjoy Transformers. I thought it was the one time Bay had actually made a movie about explosions entertaining. Yes, he didn't stick to the original theme of the cartoon, but whoever said he was making an interpretation of it. He was just taking the brand and making a blockbuster out of it. Yes, I would have preferred Bumble Bee to be a VW, but it didn't affect my viewing pleasure.

However, I do agree that Megan Fox cannot act. Her beauty is no excuse to have her in the movie as a starring role. Man, we constantly berate Paris Hilton as a [supposedly] pretty actress who can't act, why can't we do the same with Megan Fox. She was probably one of the only things that annoyed me about Transformers. The action, story and some of the special effects were amazing, it was finally a blockbuster which had the quality to match its takings, unlike the previous films of the year (Spidey 3, Shrek 3, POTC 3).

In the end quality is what marks a good movie. It does not have to be an art house classic, or a foreign language introspective drama. As long as it has a mark of quality in what it is aiming to achieve, then I will probably enjoy it. Kurosawa was able to achieve it by the bucketload, and the more audiences see his and his contempories movies, the better. However, it seems Bay finally found that mark of quality with Transformers, maybe it was Spielberg's involvement, maybe he just finally found a balance of story and explosions, but it was an enjoyable film, and one which sits happily on my shelf alongside The Seven Samurai, Ikuru and The Grand Illusion.

While I did find Transformers entertaining enough to watch once (but only once, to be honest...), the copious amount of product placement did bother me quite a bit. It was just like watching a commercial at times (most obvious is when Bumblebee changes from old to new, then the actors get in and smile at each other, with manipulative "action" music in the background...) which actually switch it's purpose from art to basic commerce, thereby degrading the art form (and yes, movies should be an art form, even the action ones). It did suck as a movie, but was an entertaining, yet overlong, commercial. And that's all it really was, was a long, big budgeted commercial that was highly entertaining to many people. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, it's just what it is.

It was a bit troublesome that the only transformer that died was the "black" one, who's conveniently named Jazz to get the point across. I like to think people are smart enough to see the inherent racism in that...but I may be wrong.

Buscemi wrote:I forgot about that. Argument over!

So geezer when this is complete, do you want to do a "Best Films Of The 1990's" list? I really think that could be a great series.

I agree Buscemi yeah i will start up a Best Films Of The 1990's after this concludes.

transformers2 wrote:

Buscemi wrote:You thought Transformers was great. That alone makes you one not to trust on film.

im pretty sure you liked The Love Guru and that movie sucked donkey balls. Transformers was fantastic it is one of the best movie going experiences ive had in years. It was damn near perfect. I also loved Slevin and it won this poll so clearly me and geez arent alone on this one.

I was the deciding vote for Slevin not because I consider it to be a great movie or one of the best movie going experiences of my life, but because of the 3 movies I had to choose between, it was the one I liked the best. And really, folks, that's all this poll is. It has nothing to do with what films are "great" and which are total pieces of crap. It all comes down to a question of "Of all of the movies listed above, which one did I enjoy/like the most?" Kurosawa and Renoir don't really enter into the discussion nor does the worthwhile existence of Michael Bay (He does blow things up real good). It just comes down to which of the movies listed above you would choose over the others. Since "Better" is such a subjective term, there is almost no way to quantify which movie is better than another. There are also quite a few other intangibles that go into your enjoyment of a movie such as what was going on in your life that day (I'm pretty sure you see a movie on the day you get fired or your wife leaves you - I'll never be able to watch Rumble in the Bronx again - you won't have good things to say about it) or the theater was really loud and people wouldn't shut up. You can discuss Jump Cuts and CGI effects all you want but they are all just a part of the whole package.

We're all among friends here so let's appreciate that not everyone will have the same cinematical taste that we do.