2001 movies!

It is time for my 2001 movie list(s)! I saw WAY more movies in 2001 than I did in 2000. Lots of good movies, lots of shout outs and lots of “eh’s”. I am going to do the top 10 in alphabetical order again, but there is one exception. There is a movie that came out in 2001 that is obviously my #1, I would seriously be disrespecting this movie if I just kept it in alphabetical order. I decided that my last post was missing pictures, so I’m going to add movie posters to the top 10. So, here it is, my top 10 favorite movies of 2001:

Black Hawk Down (R)- It was supposed to be a 1 hour mission in 1993 to capture a couple subordinates in Mogadishu, Somalia, but instead, it turns into a full on blood bath with 2 black hawk helicopters crashing, 19 Americans killed and about 1,000 Somalis killed. This is based on a true story and I highly, highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

Ghost World (R)- This is a great, independent film about 2 girls who are social outcasts and just graduated high school. Thora Birch, the girl from American Beauty, and Scarlett Johansson play the girls. And they become friends with a weird guy who sells old vinyl records played by Steve Buscemi.

I Am Sam (PG-13)- I didn’t see “Dead Man Walking”, so before I saw “I Am Sam”, Sean Penn was always Spicoli or the guy that married Madonna. I was really impressed with his acting here. And now, I think he is one of the best actors working today. He is amazing in Mystic River and Milk, and I cannot wait to see him portray Larry in the “The Three Stooges”. Dakota Fanning is just as impressive. I cannot believe she was only 7 years old when she did this movie! If you haven’t seen it, see it.

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back (R)- I am a big fan of Kevin Smith movies, with the exception of “Jersey Girl”. Jay and Silent Bob are recurring characters in his movies, and they are my favorite. This is a fun, over the top, adventure movie that makes you feel like you’re watching a Bugs Bunny cartoon. If you like Kevin Smith movies, but haven’t seen it, then what is wrong with you? If you’re not familiar with Kevin Smith, you should check out some of his earlier films like “Clerks” and “Mallrats”, so you can become familiar with Jay and Silent Bob before you watch this one.

Joe Dirt (PG-13)- I love this movie! I love David Spade, I love his mullet, I love that he pulls a wagon with what he thinks is a meteor, but it’s really human waste from an airplane, I love Christopher Walken, I love how silly this movie is. This movie cracks me up, it is one of those silly, dumb comedies, and is one that Cam and I always end up watching whenever it’s on cable.

Mulholland Drive (R)- This movie is written and directed by David Lynch, so please don’t expect me to explain what this movie is about. All I will say is that it’s about a woman who gets in a car accident on Mulholland drive, loses her memory, and sneaks into another woman’s apartment. And the two of them try to solve the mystery of who she is. Sounds like it could be a kind of straight forward story, but it is by David Lynch, so there is a lot of Lynchy stuff all through it. I like a lot of his movies, but I would have to say this is my second favorite of his, “Blue Velvet” being my very favorite.

Ocean’s Eleven (PG-13)- Seriously, how could you not love this movie? The cast is amazing, I love the story, I love Brad Pitt’s outfits and the fact that he is eating in pretty much every scene. I love Carl Reiner and Elliott Gould, I love the twin brothers who constantly bicker, I don’t love Julia Roberts, but she doesn’t bug me too much in this one.

Shrek (PG)- A fun original fairy tale with lots of cameos of characters from all sorts of familiar childhood stories. I love that Mike Myers gave Shrek a somewhat Scottish accent, and it was great to be reminded that Eddie Murphy can be funny. This is my favorite DreamWorks movie.

Zoolander (PG-13)- A movie I totally thought I would hate. Before I saw this movie I was NOT a Ben Stiller fan. “Reality Bites” made me hate Ben Stiller. I hated that movie so much, and I especially hated Ben Stiller in it. Then I saw “There’s Something about Mary”, and tolerated him, then I saw “Zoolander”, and now I will see almost anything he is in. “Zoolander” is great from beginning to end. Cam and I started giggling in the first couple minutes of the movie when Derek Zoolander says his first line, “cool”, and we pretty much laughed hysterically throughout the rest of the movie. Owen Wilson is great in this movie, and Mugatu is my favorite role Will Ferrell has ever done. Plus there is a cameo by David Bowie! This is one of those movies that people either love it or hate it, and I am so glad I love it. This would have been my #1 movie of the year had the next movie not come out in 2001.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (PG-13)- A movie my sister, Emily, applauded at the end because it was finally over, and I gave it a standing ovation because it was brilliant. I read the trilogy for the first time in 7^th grade, and then 2 more times before the movies came out. So I was quite familiar with Middle Earth and everyone who lived there. I was a little skeptical when I heard movies were being made, because I just didn’t think they could pull it off and I thought they would be kind of cheesy. I had no idea who Peter Jackson was, so I wasn’t able to think “well, he directed (insert movie title), so he should do a good job”. So, I really wasn’t that interested in seeing the movies. Boy was I wrong.

Okay, that’s the top 10! I think it is a pretty good mix of movies. But, now it is time for the shout outs, or movies I liked, but not enough to make the top 10, and they are in no particular order:

Monsters Inc (G)- I like Pixar movies and I like monsters, so this is a no brainer. I also really liked the casting of John Goodman and Billy Crystal.

Planet of the Apes (R)- I will probably get some crap for this, but I really liked this movie! In fact, it almost made my top 10, it was a toss up between this and Shrek, and Shrek won barely. I like the looks of Tim Burton movies and I thought the gorilla army was terrifying.

A Beautiful Mind (PG-13)- I didn’t see this movie until about a year ago. My brother Matt spoke so highly of it that I had to watch it. I really liked it. I totally got caught up in the story.

Hannibal (R)- I had a really hard time watching someone else play Clarice. This movie would have made my “eh” list if not for 2 things. First, watching someone eat their own brain was awesome. Second, for months after we saw this movie, my friend, Doug, and I would answer the phone “Hello Clarice” every time we called each other. And we called each other a lot and it made us both giggle every single time. It’s making me giggle right now just thinking about it.

Ali (R)- I just really like biographical movies. And I thought Will Smith did a great job.

Moulin Rouge (PG-13)- I saw this movie twice. The first time, it was the movie they played on a flight I was on. I didn’t get the headphones, so I watched it with no sound, and that was very amusing. Then I saw it with sound and enjoyed it a lot.

Gosford Park (R)- Directed by Robert Altman, whom I think is my favorite director. Wait no, Woody Allen is my favorite. I don’t know, maybe it’s a tie. This is a fun murder mystery movie that is very Robert Altmany. Like always, there is a big ensemble cast and lots of quirky characters. Not my favorite Altman movie, but it’s not the worst either.

Saving Silverman (PG-13)- Two words: Neil Diamond. Not only is Neil in the movie, but the guys in the movie are in a Neil Diamond cover band, and have a Neil Diamond shrine at their house that includes one of Neil’s sequined shirts

That’s it for the shout outs. Next is the list of movies I saw and either hated or was just “eh”:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (PG)- Eh

Rush Hour 2 (PG-13)- Hated

The Mummy Returns (PG-13)- Hated- What happened to you Brendan Fraser? You had such promise in the early 90’s.

Jurassic Park III (PG-13)- Hated

American Pie 2 (R)- Hated- Please don’t think I saw this in the theater or rented this. Caught it on cable.

The Fast and the Furious (PG-13)- Hated

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (PG-13)- Hated

Training Day (R)- Eh

Shallow Hal (PG-13)- Eh

The Mexican (R)- Eh

Rat Race (PG-13)- Eh

A Knight’s Tale (PG-13)-Eh

The Royal Tenenbaums (R)- Eh- Oh how I wanted to like this movie! I loved Rushmore, and have loved every other Wes Anderson movie, but just one just didn’t do it for me.

Serendipity (PG-13)- Eh

13 Ghosts (R)- Eh

Bandits (PG-13)- Eh- Sorry Em!

Monster’s Ball (R)- Hated- I had heard really good things about this movie and I hated it! I am convinced that people liked it so much for two things: Halle Berry’s boobs.

Curse of the Jade Scorpion (PG-13)- Eh- I don’t love all Woody Allen movies. And Elizabeth Berkley? Seriously? She gets to say she was in a Woody Allen movie?

And that’s it for the hates and eh’s. Now for the list of movies that I meant to see, forgot about, and am reminded of them from doing this list so I will definitely check them out:

Iris (R)- Based on the life of one of my favorite authors Iris Murdoch.

Life as a House (R)- I heard great things about this movie when it was in the theaters. And it has Kevin Kline, I like him a lot.

The Others (PG-13)- I heard this is actually kind of creepy. I like creepy.

Amelie (R)- I’ve heard lots of good things about this movie. I have always meant to watch it.

The Majestic (PG)- I remember this looked pretty good when it came out. I could be totally wrong.

Glitter (PG-13)- Hee hee, just kidding. I was just making sure you were still awake. And in case you’ve spent almost 10 years trying to get the image out of your head. Here is a picture of the movie poster for Glitter.

You’re welcome.

And finally, the list of movies that I have no intention of seeing, no matter how much you argue how good they are:

The Princess Diaries

Legally Blonde

Artificial Intelligence: AI

Bridget Jones’ Diary

The Wedding Planner

The Animal

Riding in Cars with Boys- The movie title alone does it for me. I don’t know or care what it’s about.

Well, that’s it for 2001! Tell me what you think, and stay tuned for 2002!

My 10 favorite movies of 2000 and other lists

If you know me, one thing you likely know about me is that I love movies. If you don’t know me, and for some reason you are reading this, then I’m telling you, I really like movies. I’ve always loved movies. I was raised by parents who love movies. My parents see a movie in the theater almost every weekend. We had a VCR when they first came out, (luckily my Dad didn’t decide that Beta was the way to go), and we had an extensive and ever-growing VHS collection. I have 6 siblings, and I feel confident stating that all 7 of us are movie junkies. I’m not going to go on about this, just visit http://thekidswereallwright.blogspot.com and poke around and see how much we like movies.

So, being the movie nerd that I am, I listen to a couple of podcasts that are about movies. I like to hear what other people think of a movie and why. One of the podcasts I listen to is called Filmspotting. The 2 hosts, Adam and Matty, always start by critiquing one new release, and then, they spend the rest of the time talking about non new release movies. I really appreciate this because a lot of times they bring up movies I’ve never heard of, or that I meant to see but forgot. One of the things they have been doing is counting down their top 5 favorite movies from different years. I think the most recent one I heard was top 5 of 1996. And this inspired me to kind of do the same.

I have decided to do a top 10 list of my favorite movies for the “oughts”, or beginning with the year 2000 and going year by year to 2009. I don’t want to start with 2009 because that was too recent, and there are movies that came out that I haven’t seen yet.

I'm going to just list them in alphabetical order, rather than 1 through 10. It is really difficult to rank them in order of how much I liked them. And I am only going to briefly go into why I like these movies so much. So, here we go, my 10 favorite movies of 2000:

American Psycho (R)- This was my first introduction to Christian Bale (sorry I missed Newsies and Empire of the Sun), and I thought he was great as Patrick Bateman. I’m always interested in characters that live double lives. Patrick Bateman is a bank executive by day and serial killer by night. He is truly a psychopath, he feels absolutely nothing for anybody, but he loves Huey Lewis and the News. Do I recommend this movie? Only to people who like the Showtime show Dexter.

Best In Show (PG-13)- Probably on everyone’s top 10 for 2000. Great ensemble cast, directed by Christopher Guest, with lots of doggies. How could I not like this movie?!?

Cast Away (PG-13)- Gotta love a movie where one actor can carry the entire movie and make you cry when a volleyball floats away. This is one of those movies I almost always end up watching when it’s on cable.

Drowning Mona (PG-13)- A fun, quirky, murder mystery set in a town where everyone drives a Yugo. Bette Midler plays the murder victim and her husband and son don’t care that she’s dead. Danny de Vito plays the sheriff trying to solve the case. Bette Midler is great, and I really like dark comedies like this, and the fact everyone in town drives a Yugo, is one of those little touches that I love in movies like this.

High Fidelity (R)- A movie I didn’t really like right away, it really had to grow on me. And it is now on my top 10 for the year. I love John Cusack, I love his top 5 lists, Jack Black is great (he is kind of hit and miss with me), I like the guy who also works at the record store, there are a lot of things to like about this movie. Not your typical romantic comedy, and that’s a good thing, because I tend to not like romantic comedies.

Memento (R)- I love it when a movie like this comes out and just blows my mind. It is extremely difficult to explain what this movie is about, but I’ll try. The main character, Leonard, looses his short term memory; he cannot keep new memories any more. His last memory is of his wife being murdered. So everyday he wakes up and tries to solve his wife’s murder. Everyday he writes notes and tattoos himself with new clues, so he has to go over them everyday and start new. Part of the story moves forward, and part of it moves backwards. I love it! And it introduced me to director, Christopher Nolan (thank you sir for The Prestige, Batman Begins and Dark Knight, all will appear on future lists.)

O Brother, Where Art Thou? (PG-13)- All you really need to tell me is “It’s a Coen Brothers movie” and I’m there. This is a particular favorite. George Clooney is so funny; it’s great to see him have fun with a role like this. And John Tuturro and the guy that plays Delmar are so great. This is such a great interpretation of Homer’s “The Odyssey” that has the Coen Brother’s unique style all through it.


Shadow of the Vampire (R)- John Malkovich is one of those actors that I will see anything he is in (okay, I just checked his IMDB page and he is in pre-production for Transformers 3, so I might skip that one). Put him in a vampire movie acting alongside Willem Defoe and I’m there opening night. This movie is about the filming of the 1922 silent movie “Nosferatu”. Willem Defoe is so creepy, he totally transforms into Count Orlock. If you like vampire movies and haven’t seen this one, you should check it out.

The Virgin Suicides (R)- I can’t really pinpoint what I like so much about this movie, but I really, really like this movie. James Woods and Kathleen Turner play the parents of 5 teenage daughters. The parents are very strict and religious and keep their daughters very sheltered from the outside world. A group of boys in the neighborhood become obsessed with the girls and try secret ways of communicating with them. I don’t want to say much more in case someone reading this hasn’t seen it and wants to. Not that my lame synopsis of the movie makes for a great recommendation, but I do recommend it. If you like movies set in the 70’s, you might like this.

And finally…..

X-Men (PG-13)- It’s probably best that this movie ended up in this spot alphabetically, because I probably would have chosen it as my #1 movie of 2000. It would have barely beat out American Psycho and O Brother. In my very early 20’s I worked the graveyard shift at a 7-11. Between about 1am and 5am, I literally had nothing to do except help the occasional customer. So, I spent a lot of my time reading magazines and comic books that we carried. I especially liked the X-Men series. (A lot of people don’t know that little tidbit about my history, so I just totally outed myself as a geek!) Anyway, I looked forward to this movie for about 2 years, and when it finally came out, it exceeded my expectations and made the inner geek in me squeal with delight. (That last part was really cheesy and lame, but I’m leaving it in!)

So there is the top 10, but I’m not finished yet! I couldn’t leave it at that without adding some honorable mentions. Movies I liked, but not enough to make the top 10 are:

Pollock (R)- Ed Harris portrays the artist Jackson Pollock. I really like biographical movies, especially about people I like and/or admire.

Dude, Where’s My Car? (PG-13)- One of those dumb comedies that I’m sometimes in the mood for. Plus it provided Cam and I one of our favorite lines “No and then!”

Final Destination (R)- Really lame story line, but I’ve grown quite fond of the Final Destination movies and the weird ways they kill people off.

Cecil B Demented (R)- I love John Waters movies. This would have made my top 10 if Melanie Griffith wasn’t so bad in it that I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas (PG)- Jim Carrey is a bit over the top as usual, but this is a favorite childhood book of mine, and I really loved the whole set design for Whoville.

My Dog Skip (PG)- I’m a sucker for boy and his dog movies.

Meet the Parents (PG-13)- Parts of this movie makes me laugh, but most of it just makes me feel really uncomfortable watching the situations Ben Stiller gets in.

But, wait! There’s more! I like to be very thorough, so here is a list of movies that I saw and either hated or was just kind of “eh”:

Little Nicky (PG-13)- Hated
Pay it Forward (PG-13)- Eh
Reindeer Games (R)- Eh
The Cell (R)- Hated
The Perfect Storm (PG-13)- Eh
Traffic (R)- Hated
Almost Famous (R)- Eh
Gladiator (R)- Eh
Me, Myself & Irene (R)- Hated

I’m still not finished. The next list are movies I totally meant to see, but never got around to it, then forgot about them until I started researching for this blog, so now I’ll make sure to watch them:

Chocolat (PG-13)
Dancer in the Dark (R)
Snatch (R)-my brother-in-law, Rob, will be disappointed in me.
The Patriot (R)
The Wonder Boys (R)-my sister, Emily, will be disappointed in me.
Requiem for a Dream (R)
Chicken Run (couldn’t find the rating)

And finally! This final list of movies are movies that did well in the box office and/or got a lot of buzz that I did not see, have no interest in seeing, and no matter how well you argue how good the movie is, you will not be able to talk me into seeing them:

Mission Impossible 2
What Women Want
Erin Brokovich
Charlie’s Angels
Miss Congeniality
Coyote Ugly
The Legend of Bagger Vance
Nurse Betty


Well, there it is; my movie breakdown of the year 2000. Perhaps my top 10 will change a bit after watching the movies I meant to see. In a couple of weeks I’ll breakdown 2001.