The MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s Countdown

Catch Me If You Can just missed my list, but I'm still glad it got in. I think A.I. may be his best work of that decade, but Catch is his most fun one.

I'd encourage anyone who liked it to seek out Chameleon Street, which is from '89 and is also about a real-life identity-altering con man, William Douglas Street, Jr.

Seen: 18/30

Watch-list:


Catch Me If You Can, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, American Psycho and Watchmen are all somewhere on my 00's top 100 but didn’t make my ballot this time, Snatch is my #24.

Ballot: 2/25

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Stats: Pit Stop #3

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Yayy!! we're on the third pit stop (70), so here are our stats so far:

Decade Breakdown

• 2000 = 6
• 2001 = 6
• 2002 = 2
• 2003 = 1
• 2004 = 1
• 2005 = 8
• 2006 = 0
• 2007 = 3
• 2008 = 1
• 2009 = 2

What happened with 2006???

Anyway, we still have no repeating directors, so no breakdown. But again, let's see if we can continue the genre breakdown:

• Musical = 1
• Biopic drama = 2
• Romantic drama = 3
• Horror = 3
• Coming of age = 2
• Thriller = 4
• Drama/mystery = 1
• Comedy drama = 3
• Action comedy = 1
• Epic, war drama = 1
• Psychological drama = 1
• Animated drama = 1
• Animated comedy = 1
• Superhero action = 2
• Crime = 2
• Western/Neo-western = 1
• Science fiction = 1

Also, 11 of the 30 films are foreign, and we got our second animated film of the countdown.

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Believe it or not but my fave part of Catch Me If You Can is the awesome opening credits. I really like the whole cat-and-mouse movie although it was hard to believe what I was watching could be real even if if was!
The main thing I remember about Snatch is how crazy Brad Pitt is and how it gave me flashbacks to Fight Club. I think Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a tad better.
No votes.

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Critics

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Critics thoughts on our #72, Catch Me If You Can...



It currently has a 96% Certified Fresh Tomatometer score among critics, and a 8.1/10 score on IMDb (with 904,000 votes).

Roger Ebert gave it ★★★ and said:

"This is not a major Spielberg film, although it is an effortlessly watchable one. Spielberg and his writer, Jeff Nathanson, working from the memoir by the real Frank Abagnale Jr. and Stan Redding, don't force matters or plumb for deep significance. The story is a good story, directly told, and such meaning as it has comes from the irony that the only person who completely appreciates Abagnale's accomplishments is the man trying to arrest him. "

Meanwhile Charles Taylor, of Salon.com, said:

"Though Catch Me If You Can isn't badly made, the fun slowly leaks out of the movie ... [It] is well-enough made and highly watchable, but it lacks the one thing that would put some swing in its step and some swagger in its attitude: a sense of jazz."

As for our MoFo reviewers, @Gideon58 said:

"The story doesn't really surprise as it begins with the ending and flashes back but what it does do more than anything else is entertain, from opening to closing credits. Bouquets to Spielberg, DiCaprio, and everyone else involved in bringing this richly entertaining story to the silver screen."

And @Iroquois said:

"Catch Me If You Can is a very middle-of-the-road film that has some okay performances and the odd clever moment but is generally stretched a bit too thin and doesn't bring all that much to the table."

Critics

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Critics thoughts on our #71, Snatch...



It currently has a 74% Fresh Tomatometer score among critics, and a 8.2/10 score on IMDb (with 820,000 votes).

Roger Ebert gave it ★★ and said:

"I don't want Ritchie to 'grow'. I don't care if he returns to the kind of material that worked for him the first time around. I just want him to get organized, to find the through line, to figure out why we would want to see the movie for more than its technique."

Meanwhile Wally Hammond, of Time Out, said:

"Ritchie's follow-up to Lock, Stock is an even more craftily concocted underworld entertainment, helped no end by the casting of Pitt."

As for our MoFo reviewers, @Daniel M said:

"Snatch is a highly enjoyable and fun film, filled with an excellent cast and bizarre plot with many twists and turns. If you haven't seen Lock, Stock... then I think you'll enjoy it more as the plot twists and humour will seem more fresh. Snatch is an upgrade on Lock, Stock... where Ritchie gets to have fun upgrading each aspect of his films to get the most out of his extremely fun and extremely funny style. When you sit back, relax and watch this film then you don’t get much better for entertainment value."

Trailers

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If you don't mind, I'd like to add something about actors.

Still no repeat in the leads but there are some other noticeable and important reiterations:

• Christian Bale (#79*, #99)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman (#73, #90)
• Frances McDormand (#84, #90)
• Willem Dafoe (#79, #98)

*(bold means leading part)

Quite possible someone is missed.

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
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Not at all, man. Party is for all! Thanks



EDIT: Robert Downey Jr. was in #83 and #76, as a lead in both.

My invaluable rubbish stats contribution...

Thus far of the 30 fillums revealed:

• 25 contain at least one 'e' in the title.
• 2 of those actually only have an 'é'
• 5 have no type of 'e' at all
• 25 + 2 + 5 = 32

Sorry but I was brought up to never attend a party empty-handed.

Catch Me If You Can is really good. Would have voted for it if it hadn't slipped my mind. Oh, well.

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Look, Dr. Lesh, we don't care about the disturbances, the pounding and the flashing, the screaming, the music. We just want you to find our little girl.

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble, buuuut most of Catch Me If You Can is completely fictional. Ironically, Frank Abagnale's biggest con appears to be convincing people that he was a successful con artist, when really he's just a fabulist. Anyway, that was probably the reason I had such a hard time getting into the movie--I just never bought what it was selling.

At the same time, I don't think the story being "really true" or not necessarily matters. If you think the ride was fun, it was fun! I just prefer something like Baron Munchausen, where the tales are over-the-top outlandish, as opposed to plausibly outlandish. But that's me.

• #71. Snatch - This was my first Guy Ritchie movie. What a cult!
I saw it during the Kinomania Film Festival, Sofia in the autumn of 2000 and a month later again, when the film was released in the theaters. Since then, it is among the most re-watched movies for me - I see it every two or three years.

Yes, it is #4 on my ballot.
Also, Snatch is #11 in MoFo 2000 Film Chart.

R.I.P. Dennis Farina

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• #72. Catch Me If You Can - pleasant, entertaining movie. I saw it back then in the theater and couple more times through the years. It is often on the TV channels around here. It would probably be my #52 of the 2000's.

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stats
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Seen 13/30.
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My list:
#4. Snatch [#71.]
#9. Amores perros [#81.]
#14. The Man Who Wasn't There [#84.]

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(seen one pointers 3/38)

For what it's worth, Abagnale himself has said that he wasn't "a consultant on the film. I've never met nor spoken to Steven Spielberg and I have not read the script. I prefer not to." But yeah, there seems to be a lot of recent articles and books questioning the overall accuracy of Abagnale's claims, even the fact that he worked for the FBI.

But what about titles with more than one 'e'?

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Hey, I had to leave room for others to bring something to the party

I haven't seen Punch Drunk Love. I liked Monsters Inc, but I think it lacks that something that the best Pixar movies have.

I liked both Catch Me if You Can and Snatch. Not enough for either one to make my list.

Snatch and Catch me if you can are fun but nowhere near my top 25.

Yeah that's totally a Saul Bass vibe.