See how many you have seen. I am also interested in what you make of their top 5 and if you disagree, then which films would you include that they do not? KSH.
(London) Times: The 100 Best Films of the Decade
Posted in * Culture-Watch, Movies & Television
Having seen 25 on the list , I consider only 6 of the 25 worthwhile. As for artistic criteria, “wildly offensive” or “cutely rude” don’t quite cut it.
Good grief! I’ve never heard of most of the 100.
I have seen three. One of those I thought was awful.
This is very much a critics list, and that of an effete and pretentious over-intellectualised elite, hence the preponderence of inaccessible and broadly unwatchable works from abroad. Hertzog at number 4 – I ask you! My list would just have reworked the order and cut 50%+ of the material.
Like those above, I have not seen most of these. I would’ve included 3:10 to Yuma which was both an enjoyable movie performance and an interesting story of honor.
Whoops, I hit the return key too soon –
One film that was on the list may have been among the top choices for the decade was Das Leben der Anderen – The Lives of Others. This German film is worth tracking down on Netflix – you’ll have to watch it with the subtitles on, but the performances are wonderful and the story will remain with you.
My own top choice for the naughties – The Incredibles.
Team America in the Top 5? Bourne Supremacy/ Ultimatum in the top 5? You gotta be kidding me.
Unfortunately I’ve seen a chunk of the movies on that list and I’m not the better for having watched them. I also know most of the others by reputation. This is a good list of movies to avoid.
Although- Capturing the Friedmans was quite good (and worth watching), Donnie Darko was amusing (but nowhere near great) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance really did make a good point, although you have to wade through a lot of blood and guts to get there.
Remembering the panning Team America received at the time, I was surprised to see it on the list at all, let alone in the top 5. That makes it the only one on the top 5 I saw. And regardless of how rude or offensive we think it might be, can we not at least be thankful that this movie which cast Michael Moore as the villain placed higher than the cheap gimmick that was Bowling for Columbine?
That said, I will agree with William Sulik that top spot does indeed belong to the Incredibles. My dad had happened to visit for Thanksgiving the year this one came out and we decided to go see it. There was not a single child in the theater. Not even teenagers.
I’ve seen 35 of the 100 — not bad considering I have small children and don’t get to the theater much.
I appreciate that they included some comedies like “Anchorman” and animated movies like “Monsters Inc” and “Finding Nemo” which deserve to be in the bottom-half of any top-100 list. But I am astonished to find “Borat” and “Team America” rated so high. “Borat” was a brave and risk-taking film, and quite funny and offensive, but didn’t deserve to be ranked so high. Very interesting choices.
Oh, and I never heard of that movie ranked #1.
I’ve seen two and would not watch either of them again. I don’t often go to a movie theatre. I wait until a promising movie comes out as a video and if I find it relaxing to watch, purchase and watch
when I have down time in the evening and need to let go of the mind stuff that keeps me awake. Watching something relatively mindless, but still lovely and interesting, helps me sleep. Frances Scott
3. Pageantmaster…
What he said.
Some of those foreign films should not be casually dismissed, and lists like this are useful in pointing out that wonderful movies can come out of places other than Hollywood. Of those listed here, “Volver” I found to be a particular gem.
Dittos to 3. Pageantmaster
I cant say I have an overall favorite, but “Gran Torino” would be close, which was not listed. Neither was “Letters from Iwo Jima” which has left a profound mark on my psyche.
#11 Scott K – Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Volver’ is, as you say, excellent and would make it into my list.
I didn’t count how many I’ve seen but surprisingly quite a few. I haven’t seen any of the top 5, though. Considering the type of films the critics usually hail, I’m surprised “The Kite Runner” didn’t make the top 100! Geez, I’d think it would make the top 20! FAB film.
And, being an Alan Rickman fan, I’d think that “Something the Lord Made” would be recognized, too. That’s another of my faves. “Crash” should have polled much higher, too, IMO.
I’ve seen nine;three of them were the animated ones and one was the Lord of the Rings. I have to say, though, that I haven’t heard of most of them… and I’m probably better off!
We just viewed #39 which had been well reviewed but after we watched, we felt cheated. Most of the others on the list are not of interest except one in Persian and many would be down right offensive. I would agree with Pageantmaster in Comment #3, and it occurs to me that moviemaking has lost a lot of it’s attractions for me. It mostly has become a waste of resources.
I’ve only caught two on the list:
#42 The Incredibles
#34 Finding Nemo
That is either testimony to my very busy life or pointing to the fact that I need to get out more. Not that many of the descriptions given on each film made me more apt to see them.
#50 Rings, of course.
#43 Dark Knight: I turned it off and sent it back without watching the rest of it, it was so awful.
None of the rest.
A pretty wretched list that, if truly representative of the “best films of the decade” explains a lot of the mess our culture is in. At least a dozen were simply hackneyed progressive propaganda films. And a good half of the remainder were “life is bleakly ugly and we’re going to revel in that.”
leaving to one side issues of syntax and usage, I think it possible, perhaps likely, that there were not 100 “best” films of the decade. A more interesting list would be the best 100 (or 50 or 25) films of the past Century.