10) Finding Nemo
It should be no surprise to anyone to find a Pixar film on this list. If the 2000’s belong to anyone, it’s Pixar. John Lasseter’s studio evolved from a technological revolution to the premier movie production studio of the last decade, culminating in Pixar’s purchase by Disney and Lasseter’s positioning as Disney’s Chief Creative Officer. Finding Nemo was the turning point. Pre-Nemo Pixar films were beautiful, technological achievements, with cute, funny and entertaining stories that offered glimpses of what animation could become. Finding Nemo, however, is a work of art. An epic story, full of heart, endearing characters and some of the most gorgeous visuals, all combined to rock the movie world to its core. The fact that computer animation could be used only as a means to tell a story instead of a fun and gimmicky way to entertain kids was incomprehensible to most studios and viewers. But by the end of Finding Nemo, when you’ve forgotten you’re watching talking fish that come from a computer and you’re rejoicing in the reunion of father and son, you’re experiencing the changing of an entire industry. Continue reading →

10) Hulk
In a decade when superhero movies ruled the box office, Hulk was the worst. The really sad part is that Hulk was supposed to be the cure for the modern superhero movie, adding a layer of depth and artistry rarely seen in the genre. It had a respectable, though not spectacular, cast in Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly and Nick Nolte, but where Hulk really stood out was its director. Ang Lee is an Oscar winning director with films like Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in his resume, and it was quite the coup for Hulk to get someone of his caliber. Even the best director, however, couldn’t have saved this film. The tedious and nonsensical script, the amazingly plastic special effects and the absurd 3^rd act combine to doom this movie despite what I can only assume were the sincere efforts of the cast and crew. From a script standpoint, the hero is boring and uninteresting, the military are ridiculously stupid, and the Nick Nolte character is an absolute mess. The effects, wildly hyped pre-release, are passable during night scenes, but the biggest action sequence takes place in the desert in bright sunlight. The Hulk looks rubbery and toy-like at the best of times, and looks worse the more dirt he gets on him. It’s embarrassing when your star creature looks like something you could find in a Wal-Mart bargain bin. As for the final act, I haven’t a clue what was going on. Nick Nolte turned into a giant electrical monster for no apparent reason, but the Hulk somehow stops him. Yay? What was the point? An expensive mess, it still managed to have a sequel that I mercifully skipped. If that’s not Hollywood, I don’t know what is. Continue reading →

The 2000s were an interesting decade for movies. Animation became a dominant creative force, with Pixar leading the way. Big budget, action adventure spectacles reached the peak of their critical success, and then began to fade in favor of simpler fare. Cheaply made comedies and horrors are now all the rage. And independent films are no longer independent but “indie” and are manufactured by the studios to make people feel like they’re seeing something from outside the system. Oh, and the professional movie critic has become an endangered species.With all that in mind I offer part 1 of my list of the best films of the 2000s. (For this list I am counting any series of films as one film, since I generally view movies in terms of the overarching storyline rather than as individual films.) Continue reading →

I do my best not to see bad movies. If you look at my average ratings for the films I see, they tend to be pretty high. That’s not me being too soft in my reviews, it’s just that I’m fairly selective in what I see (and getting more selective as time goes by). However, that doesn’t mean that I haven’t seen some real stinkers in the last 10 years. It’s probably a good thing, because it makes me appreciate the good ones more, but it’s hard to feel good about seeing a crap film when you’ve spent 9 dollars on the ticket and 2 hours of your life you can’t get back. Bad movies, for me, tend to fall into three categories: generally awful movies, disappointments, and overhyped/overrated films. So without further ado, here’s part one of my worst movies of the decade list, numbers 16-11. I’m only counting movies I actually saw in the theaters, so there’s no Gigli or Jackass or Napoleon Dynamite, as much as I’d like to include them. Continue reading →