The MoFo Top 100 of the 2000s Countdown

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Kill Bill is a great film. Almost made my list.
Wall E is ok but shouldn't be this high. Unfortunately everyone's obsessed with Pixar movies.
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I previously wrote this about Wall-E:
Citizen Rules

WALL·E
(2008)

Director: Andrew Stanton
Writers: Andrew Stanton & Pete Docter (story)
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Sci Fi
Studio: Disney Pixar

Everyone loves WALL-E, the critics loved it! The fans loved it!..It won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film and was nominated for five other Oscars as well. WALL-E has a very high user rating of 8.4 on IMDB. But why all this love?

Myself, I was amazed at parts of the movie
. I loved certain aspects of it. I enjoyed it, it was fresh (mostly) and yet there were a few things that didn't work for me...and two aspects of the movie that I out right hated.

What did I love? and hate? and what impressed me? Keep reading.

I loved the
...opening scenes on a post apocalyptic Earth. An Earth that seemed to be filled with trash and remnants of some strange future society now vanished...except for one lone robot.

I like WALL-E the robot. He was personable and charming with his childlike curiosity over the discarded junk of a dead society. He was a bit sad too. Seemingly all alone on a planet void of life. I was glad to see his cockroach friend. Not so much so that he wouldn't be all alone, but because one lone cockroach gave a glimmer of hope that the world had not become a barren planet void of all life.
I bet you didn't think of that?



World building
...The movie did world building so well! Each frame of the film was full of detail. Even in the furthest corners of each frame I could see layers of someone's ideas that were put on the screen and yet if you blinked you'd miss them. I love the background sets of films and this movie was richly designed with animation that was a real joy to behold.

I also loved...the way the first scenes on Earth played out like an old Charlie Chaplin film with WALL-E as the little tramp exploring his world in a Chaplinesque type of way. Gosh I wish the film had went with that idea.

Hitchcock once said that the audience is always one step ahead of the film, anticipating what they will see next. I know I often image what the next scene will be like. I was disappointed when the film didn't turn out to be WALL-E going about his daily routines, finally discovering the mystery of what had happened to humanity. I suppose that would be too bleak for Disney, but oh well I can dream can't I.



What I hated it...was Eve. I hated the way the robot looked. It had no charm and looked antiseptic and rather cheaply done too. It moved like a exile from the cartoon The Power Puff Girls, which I actually like but I sure didn't like Eve.

Even worse was Eve's voice, which instantly took me out of the film as it sounded like an actresses voice and not a robot. I bought into WALL-E sounding real as he was mechanical sounding but EVE sounded like a person duping their lines in the studio.

I really didn't care
...about the romance between the two robots. That was cooked and I didn't buy it and didn't care. In fact the romance part was poorly done without much character building...lBy the time they leave Earth and head into space, I was thinking the film was a total loss.

But then it got real good!
...when they got aboard the Axiom. Hot damn! Disney has some guts to do what they did with the humans. I couldn't believe they made their social commentary and satire, so blatant. I approve too! I'm talking of course about the humans who had grown grotesquely fat in the distant future after living a sedentary, self indulgent life abroad the Axiom.


Some of my favorite scenes...Monty Python would've been proud of Disney.

Oh My God! I couldn't believe they showed these people chugging down sugary supersized drinks as they floated on their carts, because they were too fat to walk. Hey, I didn't say that, Disney did!

In one scene a portly human falls out of his cart and couldn't even get up, holly crap, that was bold of Disney! Will anybody take the social message of the film and improve their own life styles? I doubt it, but it was funny none the less.

I doubt anyone got this...but, the Axiom is not a space ship at all, it's a giant cruise ship...complete with a regenerative food buffet none the less, ha. I loved the reference to 'Gopher', I doubt the kiddies got it, but I sure did. I mean all one has to do is look at the ship and see it's a supersized cruise ship. They even had the big pool on the lido deck. So if you've ever been on a cruise you can appreciate just how priceless all that was. Loved this part of it!

But you know what else I hated?...The insidious cat-walling of the two robots saying over and over again E VAAA....WALLLL E....E VAAA... Repeat that a 100 times and I got space sick. I mean I literally got a headache over the dumbnumbdaness of it all.

I didn't really care about the bad robots vs the good robots
...or the Captain vs the AutoPilot, nor did I care that they went back to Earth. I was actually hoping they would stay in space, cause Earth seemed better off without the Humans.

++



Critics




Critics thoughts on our #14, Kill Bill Vol. 1...



It currently has an 85% Certified Fresh Tomatometer score among critics, and a 8.1/10 score on IMDb (with 1,100,000 votes).

Roger Ebert gave it ★★★★ and said:
"Kill Bill, Volume 1 shows Quentin Tarantino so effortlessly and brilliantly in command of his technique that he reminds me of a virtuoso violinist racing through 'Flight of the Bumble Bee' -- or maybe an accordion prodigy setting a speed record for 'Lady of Spain'. I mean that as a sincere compliment. The movie is not about anything at all except the skill and humor of its making. It's kind of brilliant."
Meanwhile Jonathan Rosenbaum, of the Chicago Reader, said:
"Even more gory and adolescent than its models, which explains both the fun and the unpleasantness of this globe-trotting romp."
As for our MoFo reviewers, @seanc said:
"Tarantino starts Kill Bill with a simple narrative but immerses us in his world with precision. His non-linear story telling is distracting in the hands of other directors. Somehow when we come to the end of a Tarantino film we can't see the story being told any other way. That is because he knows at what point we need to know details better than we do. He realizes if he tells the story straight forward we will lose interest, the intrigue will be gone."
And @meatwadsprite said:
"Tarantino's weakest writing of his career, paraded by fantastic music and amazing action set pieces. It teases you with the allure of a great film and disappoints when you explore further... In paying tribute to older films, Tarantino made his first poor film. A classic example of a film less than the sum of it's parts - a handful of great scenes do not make a complete great film."



Welcome to the human race...
One vote. Kill Bill Vol. 1 was my #16 - paired with Vol. 2 at #15 just to emphasise how much I think of them as one film. That being said, I obviously consider this the lesser half - though it does have what may well be the best part of either film with its House of Blue Leave third act, I ultimately feel like it has to tread water on setup just enough to slow things down while Vol. 2 is free to form a more cohesive conclusion to the Bride's journey (though some of that setup is pretty good, such as O-Ren's backstory or everything involving Hattori Hanzo). As for WALL-E, despite the fact that I've managed to avoid voting for any Pixar in this countdown for one reason or another (be it overexposure or simply not liking it much in the first place), this is the only one that I think I genuinely would've added to my list if only I either hadn't forgotten or made a last-minute decision not to include it. Not sure how I'd rank them all, but it may well be my favourite of theirs.

Anyway, while we're at it, I've seen 86/88 of the films announced so far (Werckmeister Harmonies and Pride and Prejudice being the exceptions).
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That woman deserves two spots on this countdown...and we deserve to die.

I’m now 3/3 for Pixars that made my list.



Critics




Critics thoughts on our #13, WALL-E...



It currently has a 95% Certified Fresh Tomatometer score among critics, and a 8.4/10 score on IMDb (with 1,100,000 votes).

Roger Ebert gave it ★★★½ and said:
"Pixar’s WALL-E succeeds at being three things at once: an enthralling animated film, a visual wonderment and a decent science-fiction story... That it works largely without spoken dialogue is all the more astonishing; it can easily cross language barriers, which is all the better, considering that it tells a planetary story."
Meanwhile Stephanie Zacharek, of Salon.com, said:
"The picture feels weirdly, and disappointingly, disjointed, something that starts out as poetry and ends as product."
As for our MoFo reviewers, @ahwell said:
"I like Wall-E because it has great characters, a touching story, and a beautiful ending. The themes for me more have to do with love and sacrifice than the world and the environment. At its core, it's a robot love story. Which... Well, I love that."
And @DalekbusterScreen5 said:
"Wall-E is a film that definitely disappointed me when I saw it at the cinema. The first twenty minutes are good with their clear homage to 1920s silent cinema but once we find out what happened to the human race it starts to go downhill. The animation is stunning though and eight years on is still yet to be beaten."



Ahh, WALL-E...

1. Moon (2009) - 48th
.
6. Shaun of the Dead (2004) - 20th
.
8. Sin City (2005) - 47th
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) - 15th
.
11. Million Dollar Baby (2004) - 57th
.
13. Cast Away (2000) - 69th
14. WALL·E (2008) - 13th
.
20. Unbreakable (2000) - 62nd
21. Gladiator (2000) - 40th
.
22. Watchmen (2009) - 87th
23. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - 63rd
.
25. Inglourious Basterds (2009) - 18th



I had Kill Bill vol. 2 on the list and prefer that over the first. Didn't want to include both either.

I had Wall-E at #17. Very beautiful and well-made. Pixar took some chances with this one and for me it payed off.



Awards




Now to the awards received by Kill Bill Vol. 1...

  • Empire Award for Best Director (Quentin Tarantino) and Best Actress (Uma Thurman)
  • Gold Derby Award for Film Editing (Sally Menke)
  • International Cinephile Society Award for Best Actress (Thurman)
  • Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film and Best Actress (Thurman)

Among many others.

As for WALL-E, it won...

  • Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film
  • BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film
  • Saturn Award for Best Animated Film
  • Awards Circuit Community Award for Best Animated Feature of the Decade
  • Golden Globe for Best Animated Film



I won't reiterate my feelings about Tarantino here. Wall-E is fine, but always felt to me like a movie-length response to this well-know Ikea commercial:

For those who like to read more lengthy quibbles, my friend Noah wrote about Wall-E back when it came out.



Society ennobler, last seen in Medici's Florence
Wow, for the first time, both films of the reveal were on my ballot.

Kill Bill Vol. 1 was my #19. Saw it in the theater back then. I also have the DVDs of the two parts. Seen them multiple times, mostly Part One.
I thought, it will be shame not to include at least one Tarantino on my list and for the 2000's, I think this is the obvious choice.
Beautifully shot, a bit overdosed story featuring colorful characters which is usual for Quentin.
The scene in the sushi bar presenting the squabble between Hattori Hanzō and his employee is absolute cult. I can't stop watching this over and over again.


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WALL-E - saw it for the first time about four years ago and instantly loved it. The first half of the movie is outstanding. I agree with the opinions that the story in the second half went down a bit.
I gave it only 2 pts at #24 on my ballot because I was sure it will be well supported.
Anyway



_____________
my stats

Top 100 seen 50/88.
(seen one pointers 3/38 • seen 101-110: 5/10)
--
My list:
...
3. Amélie [#16.]
4. Snatch [#71.]
5. The Royal Tenenbaums [#35.]
...
8. Sideways [#39.]
9. Amores perros [#81.]
10. The Wrestler [#54.]
...
12. The Pianist [#31.]
14. The Man Who Wasn't There [#84.]
19. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 [#14.]
...
24. WALL·E [#13.]
...

--

Not on my ballot Top 100 movies I'd support:  
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Have seen so far: 30 - Kill Bill Volume 1 - Not a bad movie, I wouldn't say it's one of my favorite movies in the 2000s though.
Have not seen so far: 62
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Kind of interesting that five spots on the countdown get taken up by just two movies. (I'm not trying to argue that they aren't actually separate movies, but I wonder what might have made it if Kill Bill and Lord of the Rings hadn't been released in separate installments...)

Anyway, Two Towers is the second of the very well realised but sometimes a bit cheesy Lord of the Rings movies and I didn't vote for it. I still don't see why they discarded the actually quite dramatic ending of the book for some wandering. Good battle scenes.

Amelie struck me as a bit too quirky and insincere when I saw it, but maybe I ought to give it another chance.

Kill Bill I absolutely hated. Wiggle your big toe. Ugh.

I didn't really feel the charm of WALL-E.



I like Kill Bill Vol. 1 quite a bit, but I prefer Vol. 2 by a considerable margin. Neither of these films made my ballot though.

Wall-E starts out great, but lost me somewhat in the second act as it abandoned the sense of mystery and silence for some satire that was fine, I guess, but didn't grab me as much.
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WALL-E is top top top Pixar and got some voter points from me at #8. Kill Bill Vol 1 is an excellent movie, would have made a personal top 100 of the decade, and Tarantino's best of the decade...but another true fact: Vol 1 and 2 are basically one film.

3. Yi Yi (2000)
4. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
5. City of God (2002)
6. Caché (2005)
8. WALL·E (2008)
9. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005)
17. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
22. The Aviator (2004)
25. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
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