Top 15 Films of the New Millennium

Using reader scores, IMDB ranked their top 15 films produced since 2000. Other than “The Departed,” which along with “Mystic River,” “Crash,” “Crash,” and “Crash,” ranks in the top 5 over-rated films of ever, there’s little to quibble over. Taste is a subjective thing.

My personal Top 15 are ranked as my favorites always are — based on nothing more than re-watchability. “Rocky Balboa” might not be better written, photographed or acted than any number of films not on this list, but I’m going to watch it a helluva lot more, that’s for sure.  

1. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) – Ever since the lights came up after that first screening, like a drug this lyrical, gorgeously photographed piece of myth-making has tugged me back for another taste. This isn’t easy to admit, but I think I admire Andrew Dominik’s directorial debut even more than John Ford’s “Young Mister Lincoln” (1939), which it resembles in so many ways. Were this also a listing of the greatest performances of the new millennium, Casey Affleck’s portrayal of Robert Ford would rank #1, as well.

2. The Passion of the Christ (2004) – Easily, the purest and rawest emotional cinematic experience I’ve ever had. The Left’s bigoted, venomous attacks combined with the film’s eventual blockbuster success were almost as satisfying as the re-election of George W. Bush. (more…)

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Tags: 28 Weeks Later, 300, A.I., Amelie, Assassination of Jesse James
Posted Aug 19th 2009 at 12:12 pm in Classic Hollywood, Featured Story, Reviews, Top 5 | 207866220 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/08/19/top-15-films-of-the-new-millennium/Top+15+Films+of+the+New+Millennium2009-08-19+19%3A12%3A10John+Nolte

3-D returns in a MONSTER way! MONSTERS VS. ALIENS with $16.7M Friday & a possible $58M opening weekend!

It is an excellent weekend for Dreamworks Animation. Although the credit crunch prevented financing that would allow exhibitors to undertake the digital conversion of more of its theatres, Monsters vs. Aliens is benefiting spectacularly from the 2,075 or so standard Digital 3-D engagements and the added 143 Digital IMAX runs. The audaciously ambitious animated send-up of 50’s B-movies has used the “bleeding edge” of technology to milk an estimated $16.7M in opening day ticket sales. The which could translate to $58M or so for the 3-day weekend.

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS towers over previous 3-D releases from Hollywood

If that number holds, and, if anything, they could drift higher as family audiences flood America’s multiplexes, Monsters vs. Aliens will be the all-time third-best opening in the month of March.

(more…)

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Tags: 12 rounds, 2-d, 3-d, 3-day take, 300
Posted Mar 27th 2009 at 11:02 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 907822 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/27/estimates3-27/3-D+returns+in+a+MONSTER+way%21+MONSTERS+VS.+ALIENS+with+%2416.7M+Friday+%26amp%3B+a+possible+%2458M+opening+weekend%212009-03-28+06%3A02%3A58Steve+Mason

WATCHMEN down 24% Saturday to a likely $55.65M 3-day; Is word-of-mouth “killing the masks?”

According to studio estimates, Watchmen (Warner Bros) will finish the weekend with an estimated $55.65M. After seizing $4.5M in Thursday midnight business, there were rumblings about $29M on opening day and an opening weekend of $70M+. When the picture scored a lesser but still good $25.2M Friday, weekend estimates were revised downward. As of Saturday morning, my projection was for $57M, and Watchmen came in even lower than that.

Zack Snyder’s adaptation of Alan Moore’s densely written graphic novel tumbled 24% from Friday to Saturday. Granted, midnight shows took a lot of steam out of the movie, but that’s a pretty significant fall given that the Males 25 Plus demo – a key one for this film – were not likely part of the Thursday fanboy crowd and, despite the current unemployment rate, were working on Friday.

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 300, a.r. rachman, adam sandler
Posted Mar 8th 2009 at 11:14 am in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7521075 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/08/studioestimates/WATCHMEN+down+24%25+Saturday+to+a+likely+%2455.65M+3-day%3B+Is+word-of-mouth+%22killing+the+masks%3F%222009-03-08+19%3A14%3A15Steve+Mason

WATCHMEN with $25.2M opening day, but “ticking downward,” now targeting $57M 3-day & $145M domestic!

“Who is watching the Watchmen?” Just about everyone…or so it seems.

The brand new film adaptation of the classic graphic comic Watchmen is a hit of monstrous proportions on its opening weekend, but not everyone loves it. In fact, not only is there a prominent character named Rohrschach (played by Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley), the film itself is serving as a Rohrschach Test for critics, fanboys and the broader public.

The Zack Snyder-directed $120M epic started with $4.5M in Thursday midnight business which is outstanding. There was no way for Watchmen to approach the $18.5M midnight start for lat summer’s The Dark Knight. First off, it is March and not the middle of summer blockbuster season. Kids have school. People are working. These are not the lazy days of July when it is easier for many to see a movie at midnight on Thursday, and hit the office late on Friday. The other factor is the movie’s rating. This is an R-rated movie, not PG-13 like The Dark Knight. (more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 300, a.r. rahman, academy awards
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 10:32 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7469826 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/06/estimates-7/WATCHMEN+with+%2425.2M+opening+day%2C+but+%22ticking+downward%2C%22+now+targeting+%2457M+3-day+%26amp%3B+%24145M+domestic%212009-03-07+06%3A32%3A56Steve+Mason

Review: Watchmen

In Christopher Nolan’s “Dark Knight” there’s a scene which plays out on separate ferry boats where a group of hardened prisoners and a group of everyday citizens are told they must blow the other up in order to survive. The choice both sides make to sacrifice themselves is a rare (for Hollywood, at least) look at the worthy side of our human nature. Zack Snyder’s mostly successful adaptation of Alan Moore’s classic graphic novel “Watchmen,” is a much harsher judge of humanity. In the “Watchmen” world both groups would have eagerly blown the others up and maybe done so with glee. This begs the question: at our very worst are we worth saving? This theme drives “Watchmen” along with an examination of how far one should go in order to save us – and burning a village to save a village doesn’t begin to cover it.

Because this theme is both timeless and universal, the story setting in a kind of alt-universe America, circa 1985, where Richard Nixon’s into his fifth term and the Cold War still rages, isn’t a disadvantage. In fact, by removing itself from our world this allows ideas to be explored outside of the purely political. If “Watchmen” has a political point I missed it, and while its dark view of humanity might be unfair it’s a necessary and compelling way to ask and answer the questions of human worth. “Watchmen’s” world may be nihilistic, but the ideas are not. (more…)

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Tags: 300, Nixon, watchmen, Watchmen review, Zack Snyder
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 4:56 pm in Featured Story, Reviews | 74334117 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjmnolte/2009/03/06/review-watchmen/Review%3A+Watchmen2009-03-07+00%3A56%3A15John+Nolte

Watchmen: Lots to Like, Little to Love

I don’t judge movies by their source material, so I won’t judge “Watchmen” by the amazing graphic novel from which it comes. When we pay our 12 bucks to see a movie, nobody hands us a book to go along with it, so the moral contract between consumer and story-teller is that the story has to hold up on its own.

“Watchmen” works as a dark, post-modern, revisionist middle finger to the icons of our optimistic past. The plot isn’t its strong suit, the characters are what make “Watchmen” an impressive experience. Dr. Manhattan is a being who lost his unique electric field in a lab accident. He didn’t keep his hair, but he kept his blue penis, which is useful in revealing that he’s not Jewish. A Materialist god, Dr. Manhattan is losing his grasp on what it means to be human, even as he gains the ability to see life one molecule at a time. (more…)

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Tags: 300, abortion, alan moore, bush, Carter
Posted Mar 6th 2009 at 4:07 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Politics, Reviews | 7424242 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/03/06/watchmen-has-lots-to-like-little-to-love/Watchmen%3A+Lots+to+Like%2C+Little+to+Love2009-03-07+00%3A07%3A01Doug+TenNapel

It will take more than WATCHMEN writer Moore’s curse to keep Zack Snyder’s adaptation from topping $60M!

Watchmen (Warner Bros) has followed a long and winding road, passing through the hands of some remarkable directors like Terry Gilliam (The Fisher King), Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler) and Paul Greengrass (United 93), before landing in the lap of the mastermind behind 2004’s stunning re-imagining of Dawn of the Dead and 2007’s March blockbuster 300. From the moment that the first trailer for Zack Snyder’s $120M comic book adaptation made its debut at midnight screenings of The Dark Knight in July, this has been a sure-fire mega-hit. Now, the big screen version of the 1986 graphic novel will be unleashed on Friday.

WATCHMEN writer Alan Moore has reportedly placed a curse on the movie

The original comic was written by Alan Moore and the lead artist was Dave Gibbons. The collaborators have radically different views of Snyder’s film adaptation.The latter has publicly expressed confidence in Snyder. Gibbons reveals to Wired magazine that at one point Joel Silver owned the film rights to Watchmen and that the producer was insistent that Arnold Schwarzenegger should play Dr. Manhattan. (That would have potentially been an unintentional disaster movie.)

(more…)

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Tags: 2-d, 3-d, 300, academy awards, adam sandler
Posted Mar 4th 2009 at 11:23 pm in Entertainment, Featured Story, Steve Mason's Box Office | 7299852 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smason/2009/03/04/watchmen-tracking/It+will+take+more+than+WATCHMEN+writer+Moore%27s+curse+to+keep+Zack+Snyder%27s+adaptation+from+topping+%2460M%212009-03-05+07%3A23%3A11Steve+Mason

…And One More Thing About That Top 25 List

Maybe something in me hates a list…but I’ve been reading with equal parts horror, amusement, and genuine interest as the Big Hollywood community discusses and debates National Review’s top 25 picks for “The Best Conservative Movies.”

I can’t help but focus on the horror right now, call me twisted. Ben Shapiro, did you really suggest that the concept that “art ennobles” is a “liberal cliche”? If this is what “conservatives” actually believe, is it any wonder that liberals consistently make better films? I cannot fathom why anyone would cede such a broad truism to the “liberal” cause. Go ahead and give them Mom and apple pie while you’re at it. (more…)

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Tags: 300, Lean on Me, Lives of Others, NRO Best Conservative Films, Remember the Titans
Posted Feb 17th 2009 at 2:02 pm in Entertainment, Political Humor | 5347882 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mflynn/2009/02/17/53478/...And+One+More+Thing+About+That+Top+25+List2009-02-17+22%3A02%3A27Maura+Flynn

Holy Terror, Batman

Part One:

In 2006, I had a minor low pressure area in my brain and conceived a P.R. campaign directed against Islamo-fascism which I posted on Nate Tabor’s “The Conservative Voice.”  The results were swift and devastating.  Like any other branch of the entertainment industry, liberalism is the default position of most comic book creators and fans.

Liberalism has a long and honorable history in comics, nowhere more apparent than in the groundbreaking Green Lantern/Green Arrow comics by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams which dealt with drug addiction, the trial of the Chicago Seven, corporate pollution and overpopulation. In “Death Be My Destiny,” O’Neil posited a planet called Maltus where over-population was out of control. Denny was channeling the Reverend Thomas Malthus, a nineteenth-century Brit who predicted a Paul Erlich-like doom. In “The Population Bomb” Erlich predicted: “In the 1970s and 1980s . . . hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.” (more…)

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Tags: 300, Badger, Chicago Seven, Comic Books, Dark Horse
Posted Jan 29th 2009 at 12:51 pm in Entertainment, Media Criticism, Politics | 2859758 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mbaron/2009/01/29/schadenfreude-in-the-kultursmog-mike-baron/Holy+Terror%2C+Batman2009-01-29+20%3A51%3A49Mike+Baron

Make a Bigger Pie

Box-office attendance continues to trend lower and lower each year. It’s on such a downward trajectory you’d think it might be tied to the crashing Republican brand we keep hearing about. But I think the opposite is the case. From an ideology standpoint, the political mono-think of Tinseltown is failing over half the largest audience demographic, and they don’t care.

I hear the excuses from the can-don’ts. People get their entertainment from their phones and YouTubes now. But I sure as hell didn’t watch “Iron Man” on my phone, I have no interest in watching “Gran Torino” on my computer and I won’t be waiting three months for the BluRay to come out. My friends said I had to see those movies today! Yesterday! Do whatever it takes to go see it! (more…)

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Tags: 300, box office, Che, Gran Turino, Iron Man
Posted Jan 28th 2009 at 12:20 pm in Entertainment, Media Criticism, Politics | 3183055 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/dtennapel/2009/01/28/make-a-bigger-pie/Make+a+Bigger+Pie2009-01-28+20%3A20%3A43Doug+TenNapel