I need some 2000s movie recommendations that I will actually watch!

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The Young Victoria (2009) @Siddon

Ah, a perfect film for me and my wife to watch. Both of us really enjoyed this. We had seen it once before but so long ago that I had forgotten just how good it was. I love anything set in a royal court with all the drama, power plays and manipulations going on behind the scenes. Love the glorious sets and were they glorious! Many of the interior shots were filmed inside a real castle, Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire. The dresses and costumes are period correct in fact and look regal!

The dress Victoria wears for her first meeting with her council is a copy of the actual dress Queen Victoria wore on this occasion.


I liked Emily Blunt as the young Victoria. This was her first starring role in a major movie. I haven't seen her in much but I'd like to see more of her work. Rubert Friend as Prince Albert was perfect as the loyal companion to Victoria. Both are very relatable too. In fact everyone was well cast to represent the people they played. In short, this film had it all.







Hairspray (2007) @Gideon58

Thanks to Gideon for recommending this, it's got me interested in watching John Waters' 1988 Hairspray. I can't compare the two as I haven't seen the original yet. But I bet the original version was better.

I have to say, hot damn! Michelle Pfeiffer looked great here. I believe she was 49 or 50 in this movie. She must have had some work done and in this case it was money well spent! Good to see Christopher Walken too, all he has to do is show up and he breathes life into his character. Those were my two favorite actors in the film.

The rest of the cast hardly got a word in edge wise as the movie is packed with wall to wall songs...there's a lot of musical numbers. So much so that I didn't develop any real interest or caring for the characters, as we don't learn much about them.

I think everyone was good but with so many actors and so little lines I didn't get a handle on them. Oh John Travolta as the mother was funny but with so much fat prosthetics glued to his face he seemed more like a cartoon than a person, kind of distracting really.

The movie is frantically paced and the songs are performed at a break neck speed. I can't say I remember a one of them. The film needed to take more time to build to the music numbers. It will be interesting to watch the original Hairspray and see how it compares.

Glad I watched this




[center]
Hairspray (2007) @Gideon58

[left]Thanks to Gideon for recommending this, it's got me interested in watching John Waters' 1988 Hairspray. I can't compare the two as I haven't seen the original yet. But I bet the original version was better.
I quite like both versions. The 1988 original is, for lack of a better word, grittier. It leans a bit more in that gross-out/crude Waters direction.

They both have a place in my heart. I find "Can't Stop the Beat" to be a really fun closing number. It's also packed with actors I'm really fond of, like Walken, Marsden, Queen Latifah, Pheiffer.

(And if you're wanting more WOWZA early 200s Pheiffer content, I hope you've seen Stardust!)



I quite like both versions. The 1988 original is, for lack of a better word, grittier. It leans a bit more in that gross-out/crude Waters direction.

They both have a place in my heart. I find "Can't Stop the Beat" to be a really fun closing number. It's also packed with actors I'm really fond of, like Walken, Marsden, Queen Latifah, Pheiffer.

(And if you're wanting more WOWZA early 200s Pheiffer content, I hope you've seen Stardust!)
Nope, I haven't seen Stardust, I've heard it mention from time to time...thanks I'll try to watch that before the deadline.



Nope, I haven't seen Stardust, I've heard it mention from time to time...thanks I'll try to watch that before the deadline.
Ooh, Stardust is such a fun, feel-good film. It's one that I regularly put on if I'm feeling a bit down and need something with some personality. And the cast is pretty great: Clare Danes, Michelle Pheiffer, Peter O'Toole, Mark Strong, Robert DeNiro. It's a goofy movie that knows it's a goofy movie.



Ooh, Stardust is such a fun, feel-good film. It's one that I regularly put on if I'm feeling a bit down and need something with some personality. And the cast is pretty great: Clare Danes, Michelle Pheiffer, Peter O'Toole, Mark Strong, Robert DeNiro. It's a goofy movie that knows it's a goofy movie.
Clare Danes, the best crier in Hollywood! I always like seeing her in a movie. I think I might've heard of DeNiro and O'Toole too



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
It's a bit of a quirky romcom starring George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones. As far as I can remember, it's very inoffensive, but nothing you should get out of your way to watch. If you wanna dive into the Coens, there are probably a dozen better films to go for. And since we're talking 2000s, and you already saw The Man Who Wasn't There and A Serious Man*, I would recommend Burn After Reading. Maybe it won't make it in this 2000s tournament, but it's still a hilarious, weird comedy.


* I'm assuming you've seen No Country for Old Men, but if you haven't, then that should be your priority. That one's a serious contender for #1 on this 2000s list.

I've only seen a few of the Coens movies with mixed results. I just watched Burn After Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou? within the last week. Burn After Reading was a little bit too strange for me, but I kind of liked O Brother, Where Art Thou?.

I might watch a few more of their movies for this countdown, but I don't have high hopes for any of them making my list.
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You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.

Hairspray (2007) @Gideon58

Thanks to Gideon for recommending this, it's got me interested in watching John Waters' 1988 Hairspray. I can't compare the two as I haven't seen the original yet. But I bet the original version was better.

I have to say, hot damn! Michelle Pfeiffer looked great here. I believe she was 49 or 50 in this movie. She must have had some work done and in this case it was money well spent! Good to see Christopher Walken too, all he has to do is show up and he breathes life into his character. Those were my two favorite actors in the film.

The rest of the cast hardly got a word in edge wise as the movie is packed with wall to wall songs...there's a lot of musical numbers. So much so that I didn't develop any real interest or caring for the characters, as we don't learn much about them.

I think everyone was good but with so many actors and so little lines I didn't get a handle on them. Oh John Travolta as the mother was funny but with so much fat prosthetics glued to his face he seemed more like a cartoon than a person, kind of distracting really.

The movie is frantically paced and the songs are performed at a break neck speed. I can't say I remember a one of them. The film needed to take more time to build to the music numbers. It will be interesting to watch the original Hairspray and see how it compares.

Glad I watched this


I've seen the original 1988 version of Hairspray, and I also saw the live version that aired on TV a few years ago, but I don't think that I ever saw the 2007 version. I'm not really a big fan of either of the versions that I've seen, but even though I highly doubt that it will make my list, I might watch this version for the countdown anyway.



"Burn After Reading" is brilliant because it can be summed up in one word - Paranoia. The story is basically centered around that word.

"On Brother, Where Art Thou" is a blend of Homer's " %The Odyssey", set in the depression era south with a bluegrass musical theme. And it works!

God, I love the Coens.




Far From Heaven (2002)
@Torgo

I liked Far From Heaven fairly well, so a good choice for me. I loved the nod to one of my favorite directors, Douglas Sirk and his classic All That Heaven Allows (1955).

At first I thought Julianne Moore would be my favorite here and Dennis Quaid would be playing himself, which isn't a bad thing. As the film progressed I wasn't sure of what type of character handle Julianne Moore had. It was like she was playing a stereotypical 1950s 'everything is peachy' housewife...and yeah I can see why that would be her acting choice. But something didn't ring true with her performance, it felt like she was doing a character skit. Usually she's pretty good, but here her portrayal felt like a send-up of a 1950s housewife.

Dennis Quaid on the other hand really impressed me with his performance of a deeply troubled gay, married man...He's both trapped in a marriage and doesn't understand why he's the way he is. There's no support system for him in the 1950s. In one scene he goes to a psychologist to get 'fixed'...and electroshock aversion therapy is mentioned as a 'cure'. In one heart breaking scene he breaks down in tears telling his wife he's never known love before. We can feel how much pain he's carried all of his life.

I wish the entire film had been focused on Quaid's character as his plight as a conflicted gay man in the 1950s was the most interesting aspect of the film. The bi-racial friendship/admiration twist of Julianne Moore and her gardener Dennis Haysbert has been done so many times before that it offered nothing new.

What was weird visually with the film is how this blue light bathed numerous scenes. Once I spotted that blue light, I focused on it and there must have been two dozen shots that used that blue light. Which I found distracting, though others might like it. I thought the sets looked over dressed and didn't look authentic to the 1950s, but then I'm picky about art set design.

Overall a cool film, one I'm really glad to have finally watched...but I still prefer Douglas Sirk.





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Rescue Dawn (2006) @Movie Max

I had this movie downloaded onto my USB stick for awhile...I knew it was a recommendation from this thread but I couldn't remember what it was...I would see the title 'Rescue Dawn' and think it must be a remake of Red Dawn. So I watched the movie and right at the start I see it's about the U.S. involvement in Laos during the 1960s, which is right up my field of movie watching. Then to my surprise I see it's directed by Werner Herzog and so I'm really interested in what will unfold in the next two hours. (Yes I have a very short term memory as I had read about Rescue Dawn when it was mentioned here, then promptly forgot what I had read about it.)

So I did like this, and no it's not an action thriller movie, thank goodness. It was filmed in Thailand which to me looks enough like Laos to be visually very impressive. I wasn't sure of some of the director's choices but overall I'd say it's a
and well worth watching.

But then after the movie was over I read this at IMDB:
Herzog's film is starkly at odds with Dieter Dengler's own book "Escape From Laos," and Dengler's statements in the documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997) , when it comes to the character of Gene DeBruin. The real Gene DeBruin (played in the movie by Jeremy Davies ) was spoken of highly by Dengler: He described DeBruin as a strong leader and peacemaker when differences threatened their escape plan. Phisit Indradat - the last living survivor of the camp - called DeBruin "The finest man I have ever met." He believes that Dengler would be appalled by Rescue Dawn (2006), had he lived to see it, because of the character assassination of Gene Deburin. Indradat had high praise for the filming location but otherwise he said it technically showed a great lack of research.

Indradat and DeBruin's family repeatedly tried to reach out to Herzog in pre-production to get a balanced representation of the events, but no one could reach him. Key events in "Rescue Dawn" that present Dengler as the mastermind, were in fact the work of DeBruin, who spent 2.5 years in the prison before Dengler arrived. He and fellow prisoners spent that time formulating an escape plane and storing rice in bamboo tubes in preparation. In the movie version, DeBruin is not only against any escape, but it is Dengler who comes up with the idea to store rice in the tubes (and DeBruin who tries to eat it beforehand).

According to Dieter Dengler it was DeBruin who got the important nail, long before Dengler even arrived. And DeBruin was part of the attack on the guards, not a no-show like in the film. Debruin chose to stay back and care for a sick POW, who was not able to escape with the others through the jungle. This heroic, selfless act lead ultimately to his death. Herzog's screenplay and Davies' performance made basically a 'movie villain' out of the real-life hero DeBruin, but still used his real name in a movie, that claims to be based on fact. Herzog apparently regretted this misrepresentation later.



So now I'm not sure what to rate the film at? Still I'm glad to have watched it
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Rescue Dawn (2006) @Movie Max

I had this movie downloaded onto my USB stick for awhile...I knew it was a recommendation from this thread but I couldn't remember what it was...I would see the title 'Rescue Dawn' and think it must be a remake of Red Dawn. So I watched the movie and right at the start I see it's about the U.S. involvement in Laos during the 1960s, which is right up my field of movie watching. Then to my surprise I see it's directed by Werner Herzog and so I'm really interested in what will unfold in the next two hours. (Yes I have a very short term memory as I had read about Rescue Dawn when it was mentioned here, then promptly forgot what I had read about it.)

So I did like this, and no it's not an action thriller movie, thank goodness. It was filmed in Thailand which to me looks enough like Laos to be visually very impressive. I wasn't sure of some of the director's choices but overall I'd say it's a
and well worth watching.

But then after the movie was over I read this at IMDB:

So now I'm not sure what to rate the film at? Still I'm glad to have watched it
This was my first Herzog film, and although I had other issues with the film, the real-life aspects you quoted further tainted the experience for me. I'm all for filmmakers taking liberties, but there has to be a line when you're using real names and families are still alive.
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Frequency (2000) @gbgoodies

I've never seen the Aurora Borealis, but I would sure like to. It's those lights in the sky that allow a son (Jim Caviezel) to talk to his long gone father (Dennis Quad) 30 years into the past.

I see that this movie is rated pretty highly at IMDB so a lot of people must like it. I didn't care for it much myself, BUT I do appreciate the recommendation Thanks GBG

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I have 6 more of your guys 2000s decade movie recommendations to watch. So I'm not taking anymore recs right now...

BUT when I finish watching those 6 films, I will then reopen this up and do something different!



The Count of Monte Cristo is pretty fun. It takes a lot of liberties with the original novel, but I actually don't mind one or two of the changes.



The Count of Monte Cristo is pretty fun. It takes a lot of liberties with the original novel, but I actually don't mind one or two of the changes.
I've not read the novel so I won't have that to compare it to. I'm glad to hear it's fun. Oddly enough it also stars Jim Caviezel. I hadn't seen much of his work, just his two big pictures and then that one with Denzel Washington, I forget what it's called.



I've not read the novel so I won't have that to compare it to. I'm glad to hear it's fun. Oddly enough it also stars Jim Caviezel. I hadn't seen much of his work, just his two big pictures and then that one with Denzel Washington, I forget what it's called.
He's been in a quite few things I've enjoyed (Highwaymen and the excellent series Person of Interest), but he's also gone a bit wacky in the last few years. He's been helping spread a conspiracy theory that the Jewish elite are harvesting organs from children to make an anti-aging drug and that's, you know, a pretty gross and bigoted thing to put out there!