: BEST MOVIE OF THE 21st CENTURY: DECADE ONE/YEAR TWO - 2001

[GothamAlleys]

Hmmmm...probably AI for me, althought there were other entertaining movies that year too. I gotta admit tho, I have never seen any LOFR yet!

_________

largest James Cameron site online - www.JamesCameronOnline.com

 

[JRPJCDJC]

By the way, you are aware that there are more Mandarin-speaking people in the world than English-speakers, right?

The total number of people who have some knowledge of English is about the same or greater.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

The total number of people who have some knowledge of English is about the same or greater.

My God.

 

[JRPJCDJC]

You did. You just didn't single them out. You won't watch them because they're in their native language. You essentially demand that as a prerequisite for them to be any good they must be presented in English.

I demanded nothing. I basically stated that if it's wanted to be shown to more people it'll be remade and translated and if it's not... well, it must not be worth showing off. If it's a remarkable story with remarkable characters and remarkable everything but... it's in subtitles? It should be remade then, or at least properly dubbed.

 

[JRPJCDJC]

My God.

What? It is.

 

[kedrell]

The moving image is universal. The language is secondary.

Gotta disagree there. With the exception of films like Fantasia, you can't divorce one from the other. Otherwise you're not getting the film as it was intended to be experienced. I don't care for foreign language movies much myself. I don't think they suck because they are foreign. It's just that I will never be able to experience them as they were meant to be because I don't speak those languages. Subtitles and dubbing are poor substitutes, IMO.

 

[Laderlappen]

I don't need to. I know enough to know that Corky Romano is bigger than Ghost World. Who knows, twenty years from now Ghost World may be known as a true classic - but I wouldn't hang on to that hope if I were you.



It's not xenophobic. I don't not like foriegn films because they are foreign, I simply would rather, 9.9999 times out of 10, see a film in my native language and unfortunately for your arguement - most people agree. Language aside, people don't want to see foreign films - that's the bottomline.

Now if I said I hated these films because they were Spanish or German or Italian then that would be xenophobic. A good film should be universal in it's dialogue and English is the most widepread language.

It isnt. The title of the thread isnt 'biggest movie of the year' anyway. Maybe I should start a thread called 'biggest movie of the year' and ignore films like Lord of the Rings because it doesnt have any robots in it.

 

[JRPJCDJC]

It isnt. The title of the thread isnt 'biggest movie of the year' anyway. Maybe I should start a thread called 'biggest movie of the year' and ignore films like Lord of the Rings because it doesnt have any robots in it.

By 'biggest' I mean it effected more people. It it's effecting more people it's bigger, it's brighter, it's stronger, it's greater - it's best.

Let's take 'diseases' as an example. Make a poll for 'BEST DISEASE OF THE 20TH CENTURY.' Are these disease necessarily good? Hell no, but in terms of just diseases - one has to be known as the best disease ever.

Corky Romano is like a disease. It's spreading all over and you can't deny it's significance and in a poll about best disease ever Corky Romano might win.

 

[Figs]

By 'biggest' I mean it effected more people. It it's effecting more people it's bigger, it's brighter, it's stronger, it's greater - it's best.

Let's take 'diseases' as an example. Make a poll for 'BEST DISEASE OF THE 20TH CENTURY.' Are these disease necessarily good? Hell no, but in terms of just diseases - one has to be known as the best disease ever.

Corky Romano is like a disease. It's spreading all over and you can't deny it's significance and in a poll about best disease ever Corky Romano might win.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong but did Corky Romano even do that well in the theatre??

If not, that also has an influence on how 'known' it is. So if it did horrible in theatres and had bad word of mouth or wasn't even worth mentioning I don't see how it affected a large number of people.

 

[Laderlappen]

effected more people? Corky Romano? You mean in a bad way right?

The rest, I have no idea what you're trying to say. Disease?

 

[Asteroid-Man]

LOTR! Fantastic!

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

By 'biggest' I mean it effected more people. It it's effecting more people it's bigger, it's brighter, it's stronger, it's greater - it's best.

Let's take 'diseases' as an example. Make a poll for 'BEST DISEASE OF THE 20TH CENTURY.' Are these disease necessarily good? Hell no, but in terms of just diseases - one has to be known as the best disease ever.

Corky Romano is like a disease. It's spreading all over and you can't deny it's significance and in a poll about best disease ever Corky Romano might win.

I'm just flabbergasted. I honestly cannot believe that somebody has strewn those words into a series of sentences in order to convey those ideas.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

effected more people? Corky Romano? You mean in a bad way right?

The rest, I have no idea what you're trying to say. Disease?

He's arguing that the whatever effects something the most is the best. Therefore because Corky Romano is known of by more people (how he came to this conclusion is dubious) that it is therefore better than Ghost World.

 

[JRPJCDJC]

He's arguing that the whatever effects something the most is the best. Therefore because Corky Romano is known of by more people (how he came to this conclusion is dubious) that it is therefore better than Ghost World.

Ugh... what's better? The fountain that quenches the thirst of ten or the one that quenches the thirst of 1,000?

 

[Max J Power]

The truth is no joke friend.

It's like WWE wrestling. You can say what you want about it being fake or scripted but the truth is, those guys are the best wrestlers on the planet because their names are shining the brightest amongst all others in that profession. Same with movies. A movie may stink at the box office and get horrible critics reviews but - everyone knows the name Waterworld.

But stardom is not necessarily an indicator of talent. Any discerning wrestling fan will tell you that while Hulk Hogan is probably the most famous wrestler of all time, he was actually awful at in-ring work.

Movies are the same way. The ability to draw money is not the same as artistic merit, which is largely what defines good filmmaking.

 

[Evil Twin]

Here's a mind blower. Some people that are voting in this poll may understand Chinese. Or Spanish (yeah, in America). Or French. Or German. Or Japanese. Or Italian. And, some might not be bothered one bit by subtitles.

If the next poll doesn't include Y Tu Mama Tambien and City of God, then this is a massive failure of a poll. Hero, Infernal Affairs, and Talk To Her should also be strongly considered.

And, is IMDB or Ebert or, etc. definitive? No. But it's a lot more scientific than just pulling "facts" out of one's ass. I'll say this again, "I never heard of these movies" say alot more about "I" than it does about some of these movies.

 

[Evil Twin]

Ugh... what's better? The fountain that quenches the thirst of ten or the one that quenches the thirst of 1,000?

So, your argument is that McDonald's is the "best" restaurant in the world.

 

[Laderlappen]

Ugh... what's better? The fountain that quenches the thirst of ten or the one that quenches the thirst of 1,000?

And I thought Mullholland Drive was a mind fook.

 

[Episode29]

Here's a mind blower. Some people that are voting in this poll may understand Chinese. Or Spanish (yeah, in America). Or French. Or German. Or Japanese. Or Italian. And, some might not be bothered one bit by subtitles.

If the next poll doesn't include Y Tu Mama Tambien and City of God, then this is a massive failure of a poll. Hero, Infernal Affairs, and Talk To Her should also be strongly considered.

And, is IMDB or Ebert or, etc. definitive? No. But it's a lot more scientific than just pulling "facts" out of one's ass. I'll say this again, "I never heard of these movies" say alot more about "I" than it does about some of these movies.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

The total number of people who have some knowledge of English is about the same or greater.

That's just flat out incorrect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

 

[kedrell]

That's just flat out incorrect.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

Leaving aside the fact that you are using Wikipedia

the same site offers this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language#Geographical_distribution

Approximately 375 million people speak English as their first language. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. However, when combining native and non-native speakers it is probably the most commonly spoken language in the world, though possibly second to a combination of the Chinese languages (depending on whether or not distinctions in the latter are classified as "languages" or "dialects)". Estimates that include second language speakers vary greatly from 470 million to over a billion depending on how literacy or mastery is defined and measured

Conclusion: It's not an open and shut case that Mandarin Chinese has more speakers than English.

 

[Evil Twin]

Just to be constructive, for the 2002 poll, here would be my first draft of 39 films plus OTHER, for consideration.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2. Spider-Man
3. City of God
4. Minority Report
5. Catch Me If You Can
6. The Pianist
7. Y Tu Mama Tambien
8. The Bourne Identity
9. Talk to Her
10. Hero
11. Gangs of New York
12. 28 Days Later
13. Chicago
14. Bowling for Columbine
15. Road to Perdition
16. Adaptation
17. About Schmidt
18. Punch Drunk Love
19. 25th Hour
20. Frida
21. Whale Rider
22. In America
23. Infernal Affairs
24. Irreversible
25. Insomnia
26. Blade II
27. Red Dragon
28. 8 Mile
29. About a Boy
30. Bend it Like Beckham
31. The Count of Monte Cristo
32. Signs
33. Ice Age
34. The Hours
35. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
36. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
37. The Ring
38. Secretary
39. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones


Needs another cut or two at it, but I feel fairly good about the top 20 to 25. And I don't mind filling the bottom of the list with some higher profile films. I don't see the point of filling the list with things that are neither incredibly popular nor critically acclaimed. FWIW, I've seen 33 of the films on the list.

Edit: Notable films that I'm still mulling include Equilbrium, Panic Room, Lilo & Stitch, One Hour Photo, Solaris, Far From Heaven (which I really need to strongly reconsider), Narc, Bubba Ho-Tep, Phone Booth, We Were Soldiers, Dirty Pretty Things, and Spellbound.

 

[Laderlappen]

Just to be constructive, for the 2002 poll, here would be my first draft of 39 films plus OTHER, for consideration.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2. Spider-Man
3. City of God
4. Minority Report
5. Catch Me If You Can
6. The Pianist
7. Y Tu Mama Tambien
8. The Bourne Identity
9. Talk to Her
10. Hero
11. Gangs of New York
12. 28 Days Later
13. Chicago
14. Bowling for Columbine
15. Road to Perdition
16. Adaptation
17. About Schmidt
18. Punch Drunk Love
19. 25th Hour
20. Frida
21. Whale Rider
22. In America
23. Infernal Affairs
24. Irreversible
25. Insomnia
26. Blade II
27. Red Dragon
28. 8 Mile
29. About a Boy
30. Bend it Like Beckham
31. The Count of Monte Cristo
32. Signs
33. Ice Age
34. The Hours
35. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
36. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
37. The Ring
38. Secretary
39. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones


Needs another cut or two at it, but I feel fairly good about the top 20 to 25. And I don't mind filling the bottom of the list with some higher profile films. I don't see the point of filling the list with things that are neither incredibly popular nor critically acclaimed. FWIW, I've seen 33 of the films on the list.

Edit: Notable films that I'm still mulling include Equilbrium, Panic Room, Lilo & Stitch, One Hour Photo, Solaris, Far From Heaven (which I really need to strongly reconsider), Narc, Bubba Ho-Tep, Phone Booth, We Were Soldiers, Dirty Pretty Things, and Spellbound.

Wow. This is how it should look like.

 

[Evil Twin]

Wow. This is how it should look like.

Thanks. Hopefully it's the start of a process. No doubt my list has its flaws, but I can defend everything on it on artistic merit or because I think someone would vote for them on this board. Arguably, City of God and Whale Rider are 2003 films, according to the Academy, which would be reasons to move them to another list and substitute others in.

 

[Bunker]

Evil Twin should make the next thread.