The MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s Countdown

Two from my list have showed up since I last checked in, suprisingly few that I've seen though. I have only seen 7

My List
11. Caché (2005)
21. Battle Royale (2000)
25. Bellamy (2009. (1 pointer)

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Snatch is a very fun movie

I really enjoyed Catch Me If You Can. The true story on which the film was based was appealing enough, so the movie treatment hardly had to exaggerate. Dicaprio did seem a tad young for a couple of the masquerades, but he did a nice job of acting. Hanks was believable in his role.

I thought Snatch was a riot, especially Brad Pitt's part as "One Punch" Mickey O'Neil. The picture was full of interesting characters, most of them laugh-out-loud funny. Alan Ford managed to be intimidating and humorous at the same time.

One could argue that its predecessor, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was the superior film, but here the off beat situation and gags continued. Jason Stratham was the perfect middleman. His interplay with sidekick Stephen Graham always seemed fresh.

Time for a head scratching clue!

Since some of you brought up the opening credits of Catch Me If You Can, here are a couple of articles about it...

The story behind "Catch Me"'s retro opening credits

Art of the Title: Catch Me If You Can

It's a really memorable sequence.

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Awards

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Now to the awards received by Catch Me If You Can...

• BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Walken)
• SAG Award for Best Supporting Actor (Walken)
• British Animation Award for Best Film/TV Graphics (main title)
• Golden Schmoes Awards for Best Line of the Year ("Knock, knock. Who's there? Go f*ck yourself.")
• Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack (John Williams)

Among many others.

As for Snatch, it won...

• Empire Award for Best British Director (Guy Ritchie)
• Empire Award for Best British Actor (Vinnie Jones)
• Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing, Foreign Feature
• National Board of Review Special Recognition for excellence in filmmaking

It's early, man. I just sat here

There are already 18 new additions that didn't make the millennium list (which I'm kind of basing this list as a reboot).

Nice! It'd be neat to mix that with the data that @Holden Pike has posted about how films performed then vs. now.

Snatch was my #20. It deserves to be here. It is t particularly deep, nor innovative, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s a fun ride with creative casting.

Come at me…..

I mean, they're both decent and expected them to make it. I'll give the edge to Catch Me if You Can. How many can we expect from Senor Spielbergo? Munich, AI, and Minority Report? They're all better than Catch Me if You Can. How about big upset Crystal Skull for the win? Damn you naysayers!

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Okay, just finished "Snatch" per this countdown. Enjoyable in a british Tarantino sense with some good laughs. If I could submit a top fifty, this would be on it.

I now want some pork...

Trivia

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Catch Me If You Can



Did you know that...

• David Fincher, Gore Verbinski, Lasse Hallström, Miloš Forman, and Cameron Crowe were all either attached or considered before executive producer Spielberg decided to direct the film himself? Those are 5 totally different films right there.
• while Verbinski was attached, James Gandolfini was cast as Hanratty, while Ed Harris and Chloë Sevigny were cast as Mr. Abagnale and Brenda Strong?
• numerous investigations have put into doubt most of the claims of Abagnale's autobiography? The most notable is Alan Logan's book, The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth, While We Can, in which he attempts to prove that many of Abagnale's claims are either exaggerations or plain lies.
• the real Frank Abagnale, Jr. plays the French officer that arrests "Frank" on Christmas Eve, 1967?

Trivia

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Snatch



Did you know that...

• Brad Pitt's character and speech was inspired by critics complaints about the accents in Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels? Ritche's intention was to have a character that not only couldn't be understood by the audience but by the characters in the movie.
• Brad Pitt was a fan of Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels? He approached Ritchie and asked him for a role. Some sources say Ritchie agreed, and then wrote the role of Mickey for him, while others say he gave him that role when he saw Pitt was unable to master a London accent.
• the role of Brick Top was originally offered to Sean Connery? He liked the script and was curious to see Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, so producer Matthew Vaughn arranged a screening. After the film finished, Connery said "That is a good film... and you're not going to be able to afford me."
• there was a TV series based on the film that ran from 2017 to 2018, produced and starring Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley)?

If anyone's curious, here's an article about Logan's book and theories.

Is Catch Me If You Can a true story? This book suggests it isn't

Hint, hint!...

Oldboy and Adaptation?

Snatch... Uuuuggghhh... Hell yes. What a random ride that was. The hilarious thing about this movie is that it uses its countless cgaracters in this completely manic story about the search for one freakin' rock and it all goes to hell in so many ways. I was gripped the whole way through. The story was about the diamond, not the characters. So heavy character development is not needed.

100.

Sent-In Ballot:
#20. Iron Man (83)

Post-Ballot:
#12. Snatch
#18. Slumdog Millionaire (not placed but it made my new 25)
#22. Iron Man (83)

Seen 18/30

I rewatched Catch Me If You Can for this countdown, and it was on my potential list for a while, but it didn't make my final list. It would probably be somewhere around #35ish if I had continued to rank the movies on my list.

I watched Snatch for this countdown because it was recommended by a friend. (It should be noted that he's the type of person who recommends movies based on his taste, not based on the taste of the person that he's recommending it to.) With the exception of Dennis Farina, most of the accents were so strong that I had a hard time understanding what most people were saying. (It reminded me of a thread here recently where people were discussing if a movie could be understood with the sound turned off and no subtitles.) I think I got the gist of the movie, but it didn't have much of a chance at making my list anyway.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

No clue, longshot; There Will Be Blood (way too early I know)

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I watched The Devil's Rejects last night, and I've seen the latest two reveals - one of them was on my list.

72. Catch Me If You Can : I read the book long before I saw the movie. The adaptation really seemed to hark back to films from the 1960s (love the opening credits) in style, taking us back to it's setting. So many films that depict things that have happened in the past don't do that. This has the advantage of being a real Steven Spielberg film, with the score from John Williams and Kaminski behind the camera. I have to say, I remember the book much more vividly - the one thing that stuck with me and this film was the trailer unfortunately. I'm going to give it another watch. Great cast. Incredible story (the real Frank Abagnale may have embellished his unbelievable tale - he was, after all, a con-man. But then again, truth is stranger than fiction.) You know, sometimes when you read the book first it kinda spoils a movie - and it was that way with me and this. Perhaps approaching it today I'll come at it from a fresh angle.

71. Snatch : This was on and off and on the bottom rungs of my list, and in the end I couldn't go without what I think is the best of the many modern crime capers that came on the scene around this time. It was one of the most light-hearted, and yet at the same time managed to be one of the more brutal and violent. That said, it's never mean-spirited. With Snatch Guy Ritchie managed to converge his many different plot-strands (and there are many) in a way that doesn't confuse - and give us standout moments from some of our favourite actors : Brad Pitt and Benicio Del Toro as 'Franky Four Fingers' are especially memorable. I found it to be very funny, and consistently so, with two likeable anchors played by Jason Statham and Stephen Graham who seem to be always on the brink of being murdered by the abominable 'Brick Top'. I always have one hell of a lot of fun watching this. The music suits me very much. The script is excellent. I love Snatch. It was #23 on my list.

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Films I've seen : 21
Films that have been on my radar : 5
Films I've never even heard of : 4

Films from my list : 4

#71 - My #23 - Snatch (2000)
#78 - My #13 - The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - (2005)
#84 - My #21 - The Man Who Wasn't There (2001)
One pointer - World's Greatest Dad (2009)

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