The MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s Countdown

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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I bought the DVDs both of Kill Bill movies years ago because there was so much hype about them that it piqued my curiosity, but I hated Kill Bill: Vol. 1 so much that I gave away the DVDs without even watching the second movie.


I first saw WALL·E in the theater when it was released. At the time, I didn't have high hopes for it because I had heard that there was very little dialogue in the first 40 minutes of the movie, but I loved it so much that when it was over, I immediately went back in and watched it a second time. I bought just about every toy and gadget of Wall-E that I can find, including my favorite, a Wall-E speaker that would dance when you played music through an mp3 player. I have seen the movie numerous times and it just gets better each time. It was #1 on my list, as well as #1 on my All-Time Movies list, #1 on my Animated Movies list, and #2 on my Sci-Fi Movies list.

I still buy just about every Wall-E item I can find. My most recent purchase was this Funko Pop Movie Moments of Wall-E and Eve:




My list so far:
1. WALL·E (2008)
2. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
24. Ocean's Eleven (2001)
25. Beyond the Sea (2004)
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2022 Mofo Fantasy Football Champ
Short hint...

WARNING: spoilers below

Let's get together and do nothing
Forget about the world around us
Come sit with me and write
about this or that, about my loss
In the Mood for Love and Memento



Have seen all but one from 24-13 and the one I haven't seen is probably not that surprising to anybody who knows what kind of movies I generally avoid. I did have three from my ballot make the top 25 so far.

Oldboy was my number 18 film. This is one of them movies that leaves an impression on you after the first viewing, good or bad, that's hard to shake. I thought it was great.

Next up is QT's Kill Bill Vol. 1, which I had at number 7. Until he made Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, this was the last QT movie I REALLY liked. Why? It's 90 minutes of slicing, dicing, blood spraying, severed limbs, eye gouging, door slamming/Pussy Wagon driving bad assery and 10 minutes with Sonny Chiba. That all adds up to about 110 minutes of a good time. Along with Sin City, this is one of the most watched movies of the decade for me.

Also making my ballot at number 8 is WALL-E. I am not a fan of Pixar at all. I just don't get what makes everything they do so outstanding. Being totally honest, they usually bore the hell out of me but this was different. I went in with very low expectations and ended up watching this twice in two days I liked it so much. Maybe it was my desire for a Short Circuit 3, scratching that itch a little, I don't know but there was something about this that just hit the right spot. If this isn't my #1 Pixar it's 1b.



INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: Until Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came along, this was the QT penned film that seemed to have the most to say. Had the most heart. But exactly what it was trying to say, I don't think I'm so sure (something about how we relate to cinema). And as for the feelings, I'm not so sure I was always feeling them (the plight of Shoshanna). But it seemed that Tarantino was lifting himself out of his box of cinema for cinema's sake. His movies were becoming shaggier, more indulgent, more self important, even if I was never able to completely give him credit that he was really on point with his message. Thankfully, I don't really care about the thematic successes of a film. But I do care about filmmakers who take risks and put something out there that is willing to be misinterpreted. And IB definitely does this. It also contains probably his greatest of all characters (Landa), his most impressive moment of suspense (the opening, constructed without a single wink to the audience). And one of his more controversial but undeniably excitingly extreme. narrative elements (Nazi Hunters! Nazi scalps! I'm in!). When the films ends, with QT patting himself on the back about his masterpiece, I remember nodding and understanding why he thought this. Even though, ultimatelty, with all of these pluses, IB is the film of his that leaves me the most cold. As great as Melanie Laurent is, her storyline seems to meander in not so great ways. She is also the emotional heart of the film, but is presented to the audience at a great emotional distance. And as legendary as many treat the Who Am I game, I've always found it never hits those heights of suspense it requires to sustain its length.



Still, this is QT and I'm a fanboy. And whatever criticisms I have, I still retain a huge chunk of affection for the film. It was the beginning of his films probably being less satisfying as narratives, but so much more interesting as self indulgent hunks of cinema. His indulgences here maybe just are as interesting to me as they were in later films.


CHILDREN OF MEN: Great concept. Great execution. Great acting and characters. Unapologetically grim tone. I think this movie is probably above any criticism I can level at it. It is kind of a masterclass in this kind of filmmaking. I'm not in love with it, it's much too perfect for that, but I respect the hell out of it.



AMELIE: Was on my list, hopefully disproving any allegations that can be levelled at me for being a pretentious, grumpy cynic. If cinema is many to articulate all the different feelings and thoughts of living on this planet and being human, this is the candidate for whimsy and joy. It's a beautiful film, full stop. And it is also a great love letter to Paris, to mischief, to love and to filmmaking. Everything I want in a movie is here, and in this instance, I don't have to feel even worse about the plight of existence once I'm finished with it. I actually might even dance a little.


TWO TOWERS: Marvellous filmmaking. Pretty good source material. And while this trilogy has earned respect in my head, it certainly has never made its way to my heart, as it has so many others. Normally though, it is the battle scenes in these films that put me to sleep, in the instance of Two Towers though, the raid on the castle (or whatever it is) is stupendously exciting stuff. Other than this though, I don't really have much of a take away from Two Towers. Like many, it feels like it is mostly just the connective tissue to two other films.



KILL BILL VOL 1: Was on my list. Was probably number 2. Is it really the second best film of the decade...almost certainly not. But there was no other place for me to put this as the compulsive rewatchability it affords me is undeniable. I'm never not in a mood to watch this, and God knows how many times I've put it on. Is it mostly just a set up for part two, which will do most of the narrative heavy lifting? Yup and good on it. This allows it to simply express itself with a pure kineticism you almost never find in any film, like, ever. It just wants to put fists through things with its red eyes fixed on revenge. It's all I need. Well, that and a director who can distill everything this is thought to be disposable trash about film, and turn it into poetry. And that is ultimately what Kill Bill is. A poem. Even its excessive violence is beautiful, and hypnotic and hilarious. Tarantino would never defy gravity in such a way again. It's a special special movie.


WALL-E: Much like my feelings towards The Incredibles, WALL-E is a film that I think has an undeniably brilliant first half, only to be undone by its finish. As I watched it for the first time, all I wanted was for WALL-E to stay on that trash planet. I wanted the silence to continue. I wanted to just continue to contemplate the purpose of this sad robot. And then, all of a sudden I'm forced to reckon with a satire of American culture. Now, is this satire on point? Yeah, I think mostly. But its intrusion on what was basically perfection up until this point is an anchor thrown at everything that came before. It grounds what seemed a daringly mysterious experiment in near silent cinema, and starts hitting us over the head with such an obnoxiously loud point, it knocked all the love of the movie out of me. The kind of movie that I feel was overthought into irrelevance. Where some focus group must have come in and demanded all that quiet beauty lead us to a louder more brash climax to really stick in our head. Unfortunately, the satire at the end of this lodged right into mine, crashing through my skull into my brain, like a ball bearing dropped from a very immense height. Yes, noticeable, but not pleasant. Or the kind of impact I was asking for.



A system of cells interlinked
Crumbs has a way of crystalizing some of my more nebulous feelings and thoughts about various films, perhaps more so than any other person on this site. This time re: Wall-E.
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Agreed, and I think that's a talent: most people are capable of hating or praising something effusively, but trying to articulate a nuanced opinion, or one that pulls in opposite directions in different ways, is tough.



Yeah, that's how he gets to you, but...



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351 points, 24 lists
In the Mood for Love
Director

Wong Kar-wai, 2000

Starring

Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Rebecca Pan, Kelly Lai Chen

#12








366 points, 23 lists
Memento
Director

Christopher Nolan, 2000

Starring

Guy Pearce, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, Mark Boone Junior

#11






Hint breakdown...

Short hint...

WARNING: spoilers below

Let's get together and do nothing (the couple from ITMFL spends time together and yet...)
Forget about the world around us (forgetting = amnesia, or short term memory loss)
Come sit with me and write (the couple from ITMFL spend time writing)
about this or that, about my loss (while Lenny writes on himself about the loss of his wife)



Seen both, voted for ONE...

Memento was my #6. This is a film that blew my mind back when I first saw it, not only for its inventive storytelling technique, but because of the tragedy of its story. I remember seeing it 2 or 3 times on the same day and still being mesmerized by it. The small cast is perfect and the film is rewarded by multiple watches. Nolan might have gotten bigger budgets, but he has never done a better film.

I saw In the Mood for Love for the first time a couple of years ago and I loved it. Strongly considered it for my list, but left it out. I knew it would make it, though.


This is where we are...

Seen: 73/90

My ballot:  



Yay - In The Mood For Love is another that made my personal ballot, beautifully vibrant and such a marvellous watch imo. Memento is great and was also briefly in with a shot but cutting it from my ballot wasn't that hard of a decision for me, glad to see it turn up although I'm somewhat surprised it made it quite this high.

Seen: 62/90 (Own: 43/90)



Faildictions (millennial edition v1.01):
26. Superbad (2007)
25. Memento (2000) [11]
24. Road To Perdition (2002)
23. The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002) [15]
22. Shrek (2001)
21. Requiem For A Dream (2000) [26]
20. Oldboy (2003) [22]
19. Inglourious Basterds (2009) [18]
18. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
17. City Of God (2002) [25]
16. In The Mood For Love (2000) [12]
15. O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000) [21]
14. Children Of Men (2006) [17]
13. Amélie (2001) [16]
12. Zodiac (2007)
11. WALL·E (2008) [13]
10. The Departed (2006) [19]
9. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001)
8. Shaun Of The Dead (2004) [20]
7. Mulholland Drive (2001)
6. Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
5. There Will Be Blood (2007)
4. The Dark Knight (2008)
3. Spirited Away (2001)
2. The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (2003)
1. No Country For Old Men (2007)

Eighteen down, eight to go - this is where it gets tough...



Welcome to the human race...
Well, we finally reached a point where both films got my vote. In the Mood for Love was my #1. Admittedly a bit of a shaky choice that could've swapped around with anything else in my top 5 on a different day, but in the moment choosing Wong Kar-wai's lavish period melodrama simply felt like the right choice. The more I think about it right now, the more I'm convinced that choosing this exquisitely-visualised realisation of its protagonists' subdued emotions was the right call - I'm even considering revisiting it at some point in the immediate future just to be sure. Memento, on the other hand, was my #14. I'm basically ambivalent on Nolan as a whole but he's done at least two or three films that genuinely work for me, chief among them being his reverse-order revenge story that makes simple but effective use of his preoccupation with time displacement before he ended up taking it to bigger but arguably lesser extremes as his career progressed.
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In The Mood For Love was my #6. Just a beautiful film that I watched for the second time pretty close to submitting my list. Think it would have still been high, but that viewing cemented it as a favorite. I just love everything about it. The vibe f melancholy mixed with hopeful is just my jam in every way.

Memento is a cool flick. Been a while but I have seen it a couple times and it’s really well done. 4/5 for me but not on my list.
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Going into the home stretch and really see only two more off my ballot in the final ten.


My Ballot:  



Have seen so far: 51/ 91
Put on list for future viewing: 13
My list that ended up on the cutting room floor (dammit!): 6
Put on "meh" list : 21
Zero chance of ever watching: 14
1 Ptrs: seen 8



Lol, I just thought the same thing about my #5. I guess I just forgot to place that one when I was arranging the list. Because it's definitely not top 5- worthy. Also my 2 & 3 have no shot at this point. My top 5 is a mess.
The #5 I referenced here was Memento. Great film and I'm not ashamed for having it on my list by any means, but I was just surprised to learn that I'd had it so high on my ballot. I wouldn't describe it as my fifth favorite of the decade. But here we are.
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