Big Mike's Top Films of the Decade, Part 3

10. About A Boy (2002)

Hugh Grant gives his finest, his favorite and his most natural performance in About A Boy, a film that could have fallen into more than a dozen movie clichés, but instead becomes something very touching by belying it’s story with relatable characters in real situations. A strong British cast and a director who insisted on keeping it British-based like the novel by Nick Horby, combine to make a film would shun conventional wisdom and become a new type of film in the romantic comedy genre. Divorce, suicide and drug use may have been slightly more taboo in 2002, (no rhyme intended) but Will, Marcus, Fiona, Ellie, Rachel and Ali manage to come together and carve out a life for themselves amongst their unique island chain that more closely resembles the familial units of today that perhaps any other movie before or since it.

9. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

Very few romantic comedies actually get to be funny, touching and realistic all at once which makes Forgetting Sarah Marshall so unforgettable (pun intended.). With a great script and leading turn from Jason Segal made his Peter Brenner such a lovable character, you sympathized with him instantly. But, the performances of the other Kristen Bell, Mila Kunis and Russell Brand made a much more profound story of people caught up in each other’s love lives, where nobody is the villain and even our hero needs to work on himself. It’s a very personal and moving film beneath the full frontal male nudity and puppet musicals, Forgetting Sarah Marshall stands as one of the best pure romantic comedies of all time.

8. Iron Man (2008)

The second best comic book movie on this list, for being able to do what The Dark Knight did better. By making Tony Stark a human character with very real flaws and setting the story in a world we recognize, director Jon Favreau blew the lid off of the summer last year for Marvel comics, die hard comic geeks, mainstream audiences, rival studios and oh yea, a little actor named Robert Downey Jr. Although he never really left, Iron Man was his overhand right knockout punch of a comeback that solidified him not only as one of our most talented actors, but a bonafide movie star.

7. Amelie (2001)

Exaggeration aside, it is extremely difficult NOT to fall in love with Audrey Tautou’s Amelie and her fabulous destiny. A romantic fantasy of a movie with a look that goes hand in hand with the main character, Amelie was a movie that made casual moviegoers take a second look at foreign films, but honestly, I just fall to pieces every time that I watch it. Even though the outcome is predictable enough after the first viewing, you fall in love with Amelie and hope for her to find love and find herself all over again.

6. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Combining zombies, British romantic comedies and a fast paced visual style that matched the tone of the picture; Shaun of the Dead was a bit of fried gold in a genre that had long gone stale.Action comedies had died off in the early Nineties, along with horror films, but here was a movie that never took itself too seriously, but was dead on (pun intended) as both a great film and a loving homage to it’s numerous influences. Scary, hilarious and touching, the movie and its creators managed to achieve what many movies fail to even aspire to become and that’s why you find it on most lists for this decade.

5. The Aviator (2004)

The second Scorsese movie on the list already, but it was probably a more personal film than even Gangs of New York. The story of Howard Hughes follows him from a young film director to aviation pioneer and shows us his relentless drive for perfection, the toll it takes on his personal life and what it means to struggle and fight for your vision. Sound familiar? Scorsese also seamlessly weaves in brilliant performances from everyone in the cast including DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda and Alec Baldwin while shooting the film not only in period, but also in the cinematic style of the period from two-strip color film to dazzling Technicolor. One of his many underrated masterpieces, in the end, it might hold up better than a lot of his other films.

4. The Prestige (2006)

This might have been the movie I watched the most times in this decade, if for no other reason than I was determined to discover the secret of Borden’s trick. But, that’s not important in hindsight, because The Prestige is an amazing film that is not only a meditation on cinema itself, but plays with the very idea of entertainers, audiences and the relationship between the two of them. A lot of people talk about seeing something new every time they watch a movie, but The Prestige is a film in which it’s actually true. Chris Nolan made this movie in between both Batman films and matures so nicely as a director, it’s exciting to think about what he will bring in the 10’s with Inception and a third Batman film.

3. Children of Men (2006)

Though Children of Men certainly has its detractors, the movie has made several best of the 00’s lists and for good reason. Coming of the critical success of his installment of Harry Potter, director Alfonso Cuaron co-wrote and directed the science fiction story of a future where humankind is going extinct and made an amazing movie by focusing on the simple plotline of ‘get the girl to the boat.’ Clive Owen gives probably his best performance as Theo, a disillusioned former revolutionary, who becomes the reluctant hero that might just save mankind. But, the movie just pulls you into the story with a stark vision of the future that every day looks more and more likely and combines it with very simple characters trying to change the world and make a new future.

2. The Departed (2006)

The first of a few Scorsese movies on this list, The Departed is unique on the 2000’s because it is the one film that is really Scorsese in his comfort zone. A cop and robbers story set against the backdrop of Boston and Irish Americans (yes, it is important to note that.) he goes back to theGoodfellas style of directing and pulls out all the tricks, winning himself his Academy Award at long last. But, for me the film is all about the performances of the two leads, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. That both were ignored in the award season that year is more criminal that anything else in the movie. Even when you can start to sense every twist and turn in the story, Leo and Matty keep you on edge and manage to make you fearful for both of their lives, never knowing which one you really want to side with. And isn’t that a great theme for the film?

1. The Dark Knight (2008)

What can I say about this movie a year after its release that I haven’t said over and over again on this blog? Forget about the Academy Awards, the billion-dollar box office, the brilliant performances of Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Aaron Eckhart, and the amazing talent of Chris Nolan as director and writer, the IMAX images, the breathtaking action sequences and the horrifying realistic themes of the film. The Dark Knight is just pure entertainment, a crime story, a comic book movie, and a political and social commentary and hands down one of the most fantastic movies I’ve ever seen in my life. I said it that morning after I walked out of the theatre and I will stand by it for the next several decades.

Study the Seventies

Yesterday I posted a review of Mark Harris’ book, Pictures at a Revolution, about the film industry at the end of the Sixties. With so many changes going on both the world and Hollywood, the five films nominated for Best Picture in 1968 propelled American films forward into the Seventies, one of the most exciting decades in cinema. It’s my theorem that the great decades come every twenty years. The Thirties, the Fifties, the Seventies and the Nineties all have me looking forward to new movies in a few years time. Isn’t it interesting that forty years after those films, The Dark Knight is changing how we think about comic book movies, summer blockbusters and 70mm prints? But I digress…

I got Seventies on the brain so here are a few quick lists for those of you unfamiliar with the extraordinary films of that time. I’m talking about the teenagers who populate IMDB message boards and whose top ten lists include no films A) in black and white, B) older than fifty years OR C) more than two Tarantino films. So, here come some of my thoughts, in no particular order at all. Sorry, no pictures. If you’re not willing to read it all, sadly, this information is probably just what you need.

Top Five Movies from the 70’s

1. The Godfather/The Godfather Part II (1972/1974)

Sorry, but if Dark Knight reminds of us anything, it’s that these two films both stand the test of time and are almost always talked about as a pair. Brando, Pacino, DeNiro and Coppola, along with Gordon Willis, Nina Rota and many others created one of the consummate American myths.

2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

For anyone who has ever wanted to fight the system, Jack Nicholson fights for you in this movie. Whether he’s absconding mental patients for a fishing trip or watching a baseball game on a television set that isn’t even turned on, he has never been better, except in…

3. Chinatown (1974)

What can you say about this movie except that it’s like Mary Poppins. Practically perfect in everyway. Direction, acting, writing, camerawork, everything in this movie works together to achieve something that they just can’t seem to make anymore.

4. Taxi Driver (1976)

In the year of the Bicentennial, nobody had ever seen a film like this before and I don’t think we have since. Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader and Robert DeNiro collaborate to tell a very disturbing, very involving story of alienation that grows more important every time I watch it.

5. French Connection (1971)

When does an action movie win Best Picture? When it is the precursor to all modern action cop films. Billy Freidkin directs Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider with shaky hand held cams, brutally realistic dialogue and yes, one of the greatest car chases ever.

My Five Favorite Movies from the 70’s

1. Young Frankenstein (1974)

My favorite Mel Brooks film, I can watch it over and over again. Plus, Gene Hackman is in it! “Sedagive?!”

2. Star Wars (1977)

Yes, the second one is the best, but we never would have had it without the first film. And who doesn’t want to leave home and join the Rebellion?

3. Alien (1979)

This film took science fiction in a different direction from the previous movie on this list and we are all better for it. And Ridley Scott gave us Sigourney Weaver in her underwear. Thank you, Sir Ridley.

4. A Clockwork Orange (1971)

I may be slightly disturbed for wanting to watch this movie over and over, but in my formative high school years, this film grabbed me with its style, then bashed me over the head with its message. I think I am better for it.

5. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Huh. Same thing goes for this one.

Top Five Films from the 70’s You Might Not Have Seen, But You Really Should.

1. The Conversation (1974)

Don’t want to go too much into this one, but Coppola + Hackman= Awesome.

2. Five Easy Pieces (1970)

Jack Nicholson is great again as Jack Nicholson, but he’s given so much great stuff to do in this script and turns in an ‘anti-Jack performance’ like we would not see again for thirty years.

3. The Last Detail (1973)

Another great Nicholson film, showing us how great he really was. Featuring a young Randy Quaid, it doesn’t really matter. Jack spits out Robert Towne’s profanity with such venom, he might pull out that horse cock and go upside your fucking head! “I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker!”

4. Mean Streets (1973)

The good thing about this film is that it’s one of those that even if you haven’t seen it, you probably have. Martin Scorsese’s first film with Robert DeNiro and second with Harvey Keitel, it works as a matter displacement device and puts you in Marty’s neighborhood of Little Italy with Johnny Boy, pool halls and The Rolling Stones.

5. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Another one of those ‘they-don’t-make-‘em-like-they-used-to’ films, every aspect of this film is excellent. It is an American masterpiece in the European style and universal in its appeal and endurance.

Five Films that Could Not Have Happened Without the 70’s

1. Boogie Nights (1997)

2. Jackie Brown (1997)

3. The Ice Storm (1997)

4. Zodiac (2007)

5. (tie) A Decade Under the Influence (2003) AND Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003)

Best Actor to Come Out of the 70’s

Gene Hackman – You need only look at the dreck of the past two decades produced by his counterparts DeNiro, Nicholson and Hoffman to see that when Hackman was in danger of succumbing to the same pitfalls, he stopped making movies.

Best Actor Who Never Made it out of the 70’s

John Cazale – He only made five films, including Dog Day Afternoon and Deer Hunter, before he passed away in 1978 from cancer.

Best Director to Come Out of the 70’s

Martin Scorsese – Fuck Spielberg, Marty is still the money. Robert Altman said before he died, “When’s the last time you got excited for a movie? Besides the newest Scorsese film?”

Best Director Who Never Really Made it out of the 70’s

Peter Bogdanovich - I love this man and his ascots. Probably known now for his work on The Sopranos, Peter is an accomplished writer, director and actor who never really rebounded from his failures as well as others. Luckily for us, he still does all three of those things very well.

What do you think readers? Give me some of your opinions.

Ever Dance With the Devil in the Pale Moonlight?

I remember getting out of the car, walking up to the theatre and in front of the ticket window was the Batmobile. Not the old 60’s version, but the new, sleek, jet-black Batmobile. I didn’t know the word when I was eight, but that car was sexy. And now, as I watch Batman again, almost twenty years later, I realize the word isn’t sexy; it’s stylized.

I’m not going to dwell on the shortcomings of the film or turn this into an “Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Tim Burton’s Batman” blog, but I can only talk about my memories of the movie as a kid and how I look at it now. It is one of those great movies like Temple of Doom, which should be for kids, but is decidedly not. There are plenty of campy touches especially in the sound effects with punches that sound hollow and bullets that whiz by like in an old western. But, Tim Burton being Tim Burton fought tooth and nail with the studio to make a much darker version of the Caped Crusader. From someone who admittedly never reads comic books, but was inspired by The Killing Joke, his film strikes a fine line between the personal and the professional.

Apparently, there was a huge outcry against the casting of Michael Keaton in the movie. The internet did not exist then and I don’t really remember any of it, but I can understand why people were suspicious and also, why they were satisfied. His is great as Bruce Wayne, but in all of the movies, I’ve never seen anything as compelling as Keaton trying to tell Kim Basinger that he is Batman. He captures the true essence of Wayne in the scene, wrestling with his dual identity and who he can let into his world. There wasn’t as much of that even in Begins. I have always been a big Keaton fan and to me, Batman may not always be Keaton, but Keaton will always be Batman.

"My life is really... complex."

One cannot talk about the film without talking about Jack. The Oscar winner goes over the top for this role, playing off his public persona and previous performances. But enough about Jack Palance, Jack Nicholson is the star of the film, as expressly written in his contract giving him top billing and a huge percentage of the film’s gross profit, approximately sixty million dollars. He chews through the scenery, has the best lines in the script and did I mention he made sixty million dollars off this movie? He was the definitive Joker character, but even Mark Hamill in the cartoon was better than Nicholson’s incarnation.

"Love that Joker!"

I really loved Kim Basinger in the movie and especially Robert Wuhl, as the more intrepid reporter Frank Knox. That they never brought back his character is another shortcoming of the series, right up there with not bringing back Billy Dee Williams, opting for a different three named actor to flesh out that role.

The final climax is one which never was really topped, not even in Begins. Everyone knew that Bale could beat Neeson, but in this movie, Batman is in mortal danger and having already saved the city, fights for himself. Instead, he would go on in other movies to always save someone else or, (I can’t believe I’m typing this) save Gotham City from freezing. Batman is bloodied, beat up and about to exact revenge on the man who (allegedly) killed his parents. It never got that personal again for Batman until Begins. Even in Forever, they really missed out on the parallels between Dick Grayson and Bruce that forged a real relationship and trust between the two that doesn’t exist in the film. They tried to make a big deal out of family in the fourth film, but it felt false and forced, all alliteration aside.

My thoughts kept returning to The Dark Knight though and I was struck by how many themes in this film are to be revisited in the new one. Of course, there is the obvious comparison’s between Nicholson and Ledger’s performances, but I think we can lay those to rest now. I’m talking about issues like corruption, organized crime, a love triangle and the city’s ambivalence towards Batman. Plus, you add in beefed up roles for both Alfred and Gordon, toss in secondary characters like Lucius Fox, Scarecrow, the Gordon kids, Mike Engel and more, it’s no wonder the film is almost three hours long.

As I watch the film again, I’m filled with a sense of nostalgia. It’s feeling that has permeated me lately with the impending release of The Dark Knight. Because Batman is timeless, the movies make me feel like a kid again, only this time, I’m going into it a much wiser and older kid. I can’t wait.