Best Films of the 21st Century

[Enrique]

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I love Lost in Translation and find the LOTR flicks a hoax. Often terrifically, epicly flaccid, I can see these easily being surpassed in the future. I feel these are very much a wonder of their time, not of all time. These will last until someone comes up with the money to do them again. And that money will be less and less as technology advances. I don't think I've been more disappointed in films in the last 20 years than these, besides any Matrix but the first. I find it hard to imagine that these movies would be more well regarded if their author weren't so subject to cult-like worship and if the technology and scope of the flicks weren't so compelling at the time of their production. I'm confident time will bear me out that the direction in these films was unexceptional and the raves for them were very firmly fixed in their time.

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I disagree completely. The three movies are excellent. It is more than just technology. I don't think Peter Jackson's cult could have had that much impact, the love for the movies came from all over the place.
Also, I don't think that the fact that the books are famous is the reason that they are where they are. Many people hadn't heard of the story before. The trilogy was a hit everywhere. For example, it was a hit in LatinAmerica, and I don't think Tolkien was read that much in LatinAmerica (at least not before the epic success of the movies). Another thing to point out is that Harry Potter is a much more popular book and yet the movies don't get the critical acclaim that LOTR gets.
You may not like it, you have your reasons, but I have to disagree with the "time will tell". I think this will be remembered for many years. It will be shown to future generations alongside Star Wars as the best fantasy trilogies.

[Dominic]

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Uhhhh...Aren't we kind of forgetting Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon and Spiderman 2? Sorry if they aren't boring or vapid, but they are great movies by any standards. Just in case you think I am some kind of action movie junkie, my favorite movie
is 'The Grapes of Wrath'.

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I did consider Crouching Tiger, but I think the Spiderman movies are just not very good.

[Dominic]

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4. Sex and Lucia, Julio Medam, 2001

Forget the fact that star Paz Vega is absolutely luminous (and often naked) in this gem of a Spanish film, Sex and Lucia is a pure masterpiece of high-definition digital video-making. If you have any doubts that HD is the future of film making, just take a look at this gloriously beautiful film. It's that good. Medam has a novelist's way of spinning a yarn: we go back and forth in time, following "real" characters and "fictional" ones without knowing which is which...it's sexy, romantic and funny...what more could you want from a movie?



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Sex and Lucia was pretty. Otherwise an utter disappointment. I'm confident this will appear on virtually nobody's list of bests, if not now, then almost immediately.

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blarg, what was disappointing to you? I'm absolutely gaga over this movie, as well as his earlier Lovers of the Arctic Circle. I just love his whole passionate, over-the-top dream narratives about fate!

[NozeCandy]

They've been mentioned, but Capote and Lives of Others were both phenomenal and would be near the top of my top 10. Lives of Others especially. Agree with Lost in Translation.

My list would probably be some combination of the following:

Capote
Lives of Others
Lost in Translation
Eternal Sunshine
Memento
Million Dollar Baby
Mystic River
Almost Famous
21 Grams
The Departed

[diebitter]

I feel I should contribute, but I genuinely haven't seen that many films from this century [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[mrbaseball]

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I did consider Crouching Tiger, but I think the Spiderman movies are just not very good.

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Okay. I have a serious question? I loved Spiderman 1 and 2 and thought they were terrific entertainment and well done (haven't seen 3 yet). I have avoided Crouching Tiger because I suspect strongly I wouldn't like it.

Why is it that film geeks, uh, er, I mean film afficianados pretty much hate on anything the general public likes and get hard ons for foreign obscurities that 99 out of 100 people would consider torture to sit through? Personally I hate foreign movies and subtitles in general because I can't focus on the visuals. I also think that movies of the past 10 or 20 years aren't all that great as a whole as whizbang special effects have taken over. I like the older stuff. Gimme the 40's through the 70's. I love classic Hollywood. But I do watch a wide variety of movies and like a lot of them. I turn a lot of them off very early on as well [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[bernie]

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Aren't we kind of forgetting Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon

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I got this one ready to go. I haven't seen it yet.

However, it does remind me of a flick that I really, really dig:

Memoirs of a Geisha.

b

[frinxor]

There's a lot of great films already listed.
I'm kind of suprised I havent seen these 3 mentioned in this thread yet, that would be in my top 5:

Gladiator
Downfall (Untergang, Der)
The Pianist

[LetsGetItOn]

40 year old virgin (only comedy better IMO is dumb and dumber)
The Pianist (When I started watching this I was tired from playing basketball all day and it was 4 am and it was the last movie on ondemand that I didn't watch. I was laying back in bed and was barely paying attention, by the end I was sitting indian style on the floor just such a great film)
Saw (Woah a horror movie that doesn't suck)
Spiderman 1&2
Batman Begins (Woah a batman movie that doesn't suck)
The Weatherman (severely underrated)

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

oldboy
sympathay for mr vengeance
amores perros
y u tambien

come to mind