2001: A Movie Odyssey (The Ten Best Films of the Year)
Mar 04 '02 (Updated Nov 05 '02)
The Bottom Line These ten films are proof enough that 2001 was actually a good year (overall, anyway) for movies.
Last year proved to be a fun year at the movies. Many wild celluloid memories spring to mind... two potheads from Jersey busting up the filming of Good Will Hunting 2: Hunting Season... a fashion-savvy blonde sending in her videotaped application essay to Harvard... an eerie scene involving a desolate Times Square in New York... and then there were the quotes...
King Kong ain't got nothing on me! (Training Day)
What the f*!% is the Internet? (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
I believe in love. Love is like oxygen. Love is a many splendored thing. Love lifts us up where we belong. All you need is love. (Moulin Rouge)
Eat me. (Shrek)
Well, anyway, you get the idea. I had a tough time picking my top ten list. I even left out some movies that I really enjoyed because they just didn't make the cut. As usual, I have a few questionable choices, but I stand by them nonetheless.
Here are the top ten films of 2001 in alphabetical order:
1) A Beautiful Mind
Certainly a strong candidate for the Best Picture Oscar this year, Ron Howard's film follows the life of mathematical genius John Nash (played perfectly by the arrogant, but damn-talented, Russell Crowe) as he copes with his social awkwardness in an effort to find love. He also struggles with trying to keep his mind in check as he searches for a truly original idea that will set him apart from his intellectual peers. This film has it all... suspense, comedy, drama, romance and even Jennifer Connelly (my vote for Best Support ing Actress at the Oscars). Crowe keeps us guessing as to what he's going to do next and Howard deftly directs this story so we can't always predict what will happen next. This was one of only two films that I awarded five stars for the year.
2) Artificial Intelligence
A lot of critics and fans took potshots at this film, claiming that Steven Spielberg turned Stanley Kubrick's dark film about a robot boy programmed to love humans into a nostalgic modern-day Pinocchio tale. The truth is, Spielberg stayed very true to Kubrick's vision and the mixture of the two brilliant, yet polarized, directors makes for a truly unforgettable film. Haley Joel Osment is so good that it's scary and Jude Law casts a memorable impression with a wonderful role. Between the outrageous special effects and the hard-core drama, a lot of tough questions are raised. Does artificial intelligence constitute life? What does it say about mankind if a robot can love a human, but a human cannot love it back? Though the film is a long, sometimes uneven ride, the journey AND final destination are both well worth the effort.
3) Bridget Jones' Diary
Renee Zellwegger is charming, hilarious and inspiring as the foul-mouthed, chain-smoking, heavy drinking title character who is often seen battling the dating pool, her bathroom scale and her own verbal ineptitude. She manages to say the worst things at the exact wrong time, yet it's hard not to fall for her anyway. She gets some laugh support by Hugh Grant and Colin Firth who inhabit their roles beautifully. This film is worth watching more than once... the first time for sheer laughter, and another time just to catch all the details you may have missed in the initial viewing.
4) From Hell
This was one of the few films that completely caught me by surprise this year. I was expecting a standard Jack the Ripper tale told with the usual genre conventions, but the directors (the Hughes brothers) found an original story full of interesting surprises and theories. Johnny Depp is flawless as an opium-addicted investigator who has periodic psychic visions. As he tries to keep streetwalkers safe from a heinous serial killer, he discovers a world of secrets, politics and conspiracies that have been long hidden by the English aristocracy. Fiction or not, there are some clever ideas in the story that make an old familiar tale seem fresh and exciting.
5) Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Peter Jackson single-handedly proved that only true fans of long-loved mythical tales should ever dare to try to bring them to light in movie theaters worldwide. His inspired direction can be seen on every frame of this fantastic film, which earned all five stars on the rating scale. Every aspect of this film is amazing. The actors are perfectly suited for their roles, especially Ian McKellan, who played the wizard Gandalf with such grace and aplomb that he will be remembered as this generation's "Obi-Wan Kenobi." Outstanding special effects... a good strong score... humor, suspense and wit.... LOTR is a refreshingly genuine work of art that will indelibly leave its mark on your mind for a long time to come.
6) Memento
While the story for Memento is quite good, it's the way in which the story is told that is truly remarkable. Writer/director Christopher Nolan experiments with storytelling structure by offering up the world's most unreliable narrator. Guy Pearce shines as Leonard, a man with a short-term memory loss problem who forgets everything that has just happened 15 minutes earlier. He resorts to body tattoos and personal notes to keep himself informed as he searches for the identity of his wife's killer. The problem is, he keeps forgetting who to trust. Riveting, chilling and mind-twisting, the context of the film constantly changes because the story is told in reverse. You may know how the story ends at the beginning of the film, but the harrowing journey is finding out where Leonard has already been.
7) Moulin Rouge
A spectacular spectacular, this overwhelming carnival of sights and sounds is obnoxious, outrageous and original. While Nicole Kidman and Ewan MacGregor provide beautiful singing voices and a wonderful emotional rapport, this film blossoms with its details... the production design, the costumes, the dance steps, etc. Director Baz Luhrman presents a touching, hilarious and occasionally poignant love story that shamelessly (or, ingeniously, depending on your point of view) lifts lyrics from modern day pop songs, even though the setting of the film is in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. Love it or hate it, this film is filled with passion and panache and every single second of footage reflects plenty of hard work and a healthy dose of inspiration.
8) Ocean's Eleven
The most fun I had at the movies all year was Steven Soderbergh's light and breezy throwback to old heist films -- Ocean's Eleven, a remake that doesn't really resemble its predecessor. A host of stars, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy Garcia, Julia Roberts and Bernie Mac, to name only a few, provide a lot of high wattage charisma to a script that substitutes style and laughs in place of a few gaping plot holes. It may not always be believable, but that isn't the point. The fun comes from watching a complicated scheme unravel one scene at a time. Full of wit, humor and slick music, this film rolls by very quickly and is never boring, not even for a second.
9) Shrek
An ugly green ogre named Shrek (voiced by Mike Myers) is the unlikely hero in this twisted look at fairy tales. The evil Lord Farquaad (John Lithgow) has decided to evict various fairy tale characters from his kingdom, leaving them nowhere to go but Shrek's swamp. To reclaim his peace and quiet, Shrek agrees to rescue Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz) from the clutches of a dragon so that Farquaad can marry her and become genuine royalty. Speaking of genuine royalties, this film was a monster hit at the box office -- not because of a good PR campaign -- but because word-of-mouth said it was the funniest film of the year. Eddie Murphy's turn as a chatterbox donkey who won't leave Shrek alone is his best performance since Beverly Hills Cop. It didn't hurt that the ground-breaking animation was absolutely eye-popping, either.
10) Vanilla Sky
I didn't see the original, Abre Los Ojos, but most people who did seemed to hate Cameron Crowe's remake that follows a character played by Tom Cruise who is wealthy, arrogant and a bit insensitive. His world is turned upside down when he meets a potential soulmate played by Penelope Cruz. First, a jealous lover tries to kill Cruise, but he survives a car crash and ends up permanently scarred on his face. Then, things get really weird. To reveal more plot details would be unfair to the film, which is a breathless experience from beginning to end. Some twists and turns make absolute no sense, as the mystery is impenetrable to some degree, but the fun comes from the journey, not the final destination. Crowe uses pop culture references in a cool, unique way to enhance the movie on a whole different level.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Montepenny
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Chris Pollay
Location: Phoenix, AZ
Reviews written: 163
Trusted by: 264 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.