Early"classics"of the 21st century!?

[November Rain]

it probably came out before they were born

 

[redhawk23]

^You're scaring me.

outside of this place, i don't see people talking about the dark knight anymore though, with or without ledger

On a day to day basis what movies do people talk about?

I'd like to nominate Children of Men.

Also I don't know if it will ever be considered a classic, but Zodiac's reputation has only grown with time.

 

[childeroland]

Just a small sampling:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
No Country for Old Men
Mulholland Drive
Pan's Labyrinth
Malick's The Tree of Life and The New World
Black Swan (maybe)
All of Pixar's films since Monsters Inc. except Cars and Cars 2.
The Triplets of Belleville
Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress and Paprika
Ang Lee's Lust, Caution
All of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films since 2001
Wong Kar Wai's 2046
Maybe The Prestige and Nolan's Batman films
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence and Ghost in the Shell: Solid State Society
Lee Chang-dong's great Secret Sunshine and Poetry
All Zhang Yimou's films after 2001 (except maybe Curse of the Golden Flower).
Apichatpong Weerasethkul's Uncle Boonmee and Syndrome and the Century
Park Chan-wook's Vengeance trilogy
Ringu
Noroi: The Curse
Kim Ji-woon's great A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life
Red Cliff.
Let the Right One In and the American remake.
Miyazaki's work from Spirited Away (2001) onward.
The great Yuriy Norshteyn's (unfinished) The Overcoat. Still incomplete, but he did exhibit 20 minutes of it in 2004, so I'm counting it.
Coraline
Naqoyqatsi
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong remake.
Encounters at the Far End of the World and maybe The White Diamond
Casino Royale
[FONT=verdana,helvetica,arial]Last Life in the Universe[/FONT]
The Return (the 2003 Russian film, not the Sarah Michelle Gellar thriller)

 

[DACrowe]

I think there is a clear distinction between cult classic and just a regular classic. A regular classic would be like the films I listed earlier (Gladiator, LOTR, Harry Potter, Moulin Rouge!, Brokeback Mountain, The Social Network, etc.).

However, movies there are films that are very well-regarded and remembered by a small circle of people who love these relatively obscure movies. They develop reputations. Thus they're less Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Jaws and The Godfather and they're more Detour, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Rocky Horror Picture Show and Blade Runner.

A few films that I do think will be cult classics:

-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
-Kick-Ass
-Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
-Children of Men
-Shaun of the Dead
-28 Days Later
-Let the Right One In/Let Me In

These movies will never be strongly remembered by the mainstream or fondly discussed in AFI specials and studio retrospectives.

BTW....those saying TDK is just a fanboy thing, I watched a Warner Brothers retrospective the last month (an hour was devoted to every 20 years of the studio) and TDK got in the final hour along with Goodfellas, Unforgiven, LA Confidential, Eyes Wide Shut, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, The Matrix, Harry Potter and The Departed.

I think that movie has some staying power.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I know it is predictable I will throw this movie into the discussion, but just because there was some discussion as to whether any superhero film will ever be considered a 'classic' film....if *any* superhero film will *ever* enter the public regard as being an all time classic, it should be Unbreakable.

I still think it's the best sh movie ever made, and Grant Morrison, in his book 'Supergods', also regards it as the best film of the genre so far.

 

[November Rain]

^You're scaring me.



On a day to day basis what movies do people talk about?

I'd like to nominate Children of Men.

Also I don't know if it will ever be considered a classic, but Zodiac's reputation has only grown with time.

they talk about city of god and brokeback mountain from this category.

and other yucky stuff that i try to turn my ears off to

 

[Speedball]

the Transformers films
Alice in Wonderland
The Twilight saga
the Kung Fu Panda films
The Polar Express
the Fast and Furious films
The Ring films
National Treasure

Sorry... but no.
As much as I like some of these films, I see many of these being forgotten in the next 50 years.
There's already talk of rebooting Transformers.
And I think all nerds, geeks, or whatever you want to call them will make people forget the Twilight "saga" after it's finished.
There will be another Alice in Wonderland movie in the next ten years, there will probably be one in each decade.

 

[Laderlappen]

Teenagers and preteenagers(girls especially) go completely crazy about something or someone, but only for a little while. After a while they'll go tired of the movie/actor they worship, and move on to someone else. Before Twillight they were into High School Musical and Zac Efron. They will forget about Twillight very quickly. Getting into their 20's wont help Twillight either.

 

[Wesley Dodds]

I think Moon's gonna be delighting stoned college kids for some decaces to come...

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

In terms of straight out comedy movies, I think 'Superbad' will be the only one so far this century that will gain 'classic' status, that is like the only genuinely funny comedy film that has been made since 'Groundhog Day'.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I think Moon's gonna be delighting stoned college kids for some decaces to come...

I have not seen that one yet, so it's a good one for the high? I think i'll wait until I go back on the drugs for that one...I can see it now...sitting alone in a darkened room, with a bag of grass, crying my eyes out, my only company my bodyguards(who hate me as well), who won't let me go to the 24hr garage in the middle of the night stoned...

haha lookin forward to it!

 

[TX85]

Do people really not know that The Matrix came out in 1999?

I keep remembering the first one coming out in'00 or '01 for some reason,But oh well..I still think the trilogy will become bigger over time!!

 

[jmc]

First Matrix might, not the sequels though. Sequels have it much harder in order to be deemed classics. Like I'd classify Raider of the Lost Arc as a classic but not the subsequent Indy films even though they're both enjoyable to watch. It's only the odd Godfather 2 or Empire that manages to make it to the list.

 

[DACrowe]

I know it is predictable I will throw this movie into the discussion, but just because there was some discussion as to whether any superhero film will ever be considered a 'classic' film....if *any* superhero film will *ever* enter the public regard as being an all time classic, it should be Unbreakable.

I still think it's the best sh movie ever made, and Grant Morrison, in his book 'Supergods', also regards it as the best film of the genre so far.

I can respect your opinion for loving Unbreakable, but its at best a cult classic. It just doesn't have mainstream appeal beyond fan culture. The Dark Knight is already a classic and I suppose maybe, maybe the first two Raimi Spider-Man movies. I doubt the others will be revisited 20-30 years down the line, in my estimation.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

I can respect your opinion for loving Unbreakable, but its at best a cult classic. It just doesn't have mainstream appeal beyond fan culture. The Dark Knight is already a classic and I suppose maybe, maybe the first two Raimi Spider-Man movies. I doubt the others will be revisited 20-30 years down the line, in my estimation.

The thing about Unbreakable is, that a lot of people and critics hated it, or felt embarressed by it, because it took superheroes so seriously, ie like a kitchen sink drama, as opposed to having folk in unrealistic costumes and all the rest of the usual tropes.

But once, if, we enter an age of science fiction come science fact, and there really are superheroes out there, maybe that film will be treated like the John the Baptist of superhero culture, that saw what was coming.

edit: and you know, it won't be superhero culture so much like we know it nowadays, a niche thing, that'll be part of day to day ordinary life, which is a notion that movie brought to the screen for the first, and so far, only time.

That was the way I was looking at it I suppose.

 

[Thundarr]

A lot of films that people consider"a classic"now did poor at the box office/got very mixed reviews and it was only with time that they became"cult hits"and people started to praise them as being awesome-amazing even today!

This is very true. The Wizard Of Oz was a box office flop and didn't become a major hit until after it came out on video. Likewise, The Princess Bride, while a critcal success, did only marginally well at the box office and didn't truly become successful until after it came out on video.

 

[dude stannis]

These are my votes for the genuine classics;

Children of Men
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Pan's Labrynth
Inception
The Prestige
A Bittersweet Life
Black Hawk Down

 

[Silvermoth]

This is very true. The Wizard Of Oz was a box office flop and didn't become a major hit until after it came out on video. Likewise, The Princess Bride, while a critcal success, did only marginally well at the box office and didn't truly become successful until after it came out on video.

Oh yeah. Fight club was like that too.

At its time, the supermen films stood alone and not as part of a collection, plus they deviated abit from the comics and therefore stood on their own as its own entity.

While at this moment, the superhero thing is a larger piece of the whole so their impact is far more restricted and thus less classical.

take in point, i would consider a classic to be something that in 30 years time, they tried to do a remake of and our generation would go 'no way, there's no way they can do that'.

and we have film franchises like batman, spiderman, hulk,punisher, x-men (to a certain extent) whom have already pushed the reboot button making their original outings, less classical. I would put the newer superman film in that category in there as well with respect to superman returns (which i saw as more of a re-envision of the first film).

I think you're definition of a classic is a bit narrow. For one thing, forget the reboot/sequel thing. Just because something is rebooted doesn't mean all the DVD's and whatever of the last movie cease to exist.

Secondly, The movie "Terminator" remains a classic even though the last two terminator movies have been pretty rotten which leads me to my last point.

A classic is something that resonates with people, which they always remember and which a huge majority of people know about. Take for example if I were to mimic the sound of a lightsabre to a random person from the West. Could they identify the sound? Yes!

A classic is something that's so influential it pops up in other things, comics, video games etc even Family Guy and people get it.

By that logic, Spiderman can be considered a classic because of the famous kiss scene and because it resonates with people years on.

 

[November Rain]

In terms of straight out comedy movies, I think 'Superbad' will be the only one so far this century that will gain 'classic' status, that is like the only genuinely funny comedy film that has been made since 'Groundhog Day'.

sorry there but napoleon dynamte pwns superbad in the classic respect

 

[November Rain]

I think you're definition of a classic is a bit narrow. For one thing, forget the reboot/sequel thing. Just because something is rebooted doesn't mean all the DVD's and whatever of the last movie cease to exist.

Secondly, The movie "Terminator" remains a classic even though the last two terminator movies have been pretty rotten which leads me to my last point.

A classic is something that resonates with people, which they always remember and which a huge majority of people know about. Take for example if I were to mimic the sound of a lightsabre to a random person from the West. Could they identify the sound? Yes!

A classic is something that's so influential it pops up in other things, comics, video games etc even Family Guy and people get it.

By that logic, Spiderman can be considered a classic because of the famous kiss scene and because it resonates with people years on.

i never mentioned anything about forgetting anything after a reboot, i was simply stating that a quick reboot degrades the long term standing that film made, making it less likely to stand the test of time, since the studios want it to glossed over to make wave for a newer interpretation.

it's like the iphone is a classic piece of engineering but if one was to describe the one that has made the classic piece, it would probably be the most recent one, since its hard for consumers to look back at something in good light when they have an updated one in their hands, which does more.

the last two terminator films weren't done in quick sucesssion to the first or second and it actually helps define my classic film structure as many felt there was no way they should do a third after the second film and so on and so forth.

ah, but i think you can have classic/iconic scenes in non classical movies. the upside down kiss is one of these.

 

[Jackasscoley15]

It frightens me that people are actually listing Transformers.

 

[November Rain]

it's only a matter of time before catwoman is mentioned

 

[Speedball]

It frightens me that people are actually listing Transformers.

As much as I love those movies, I still know they're terribly acted and have a weak story. But I don't care, sometimes I just wanna see some **** explode!
But are they classics, no, especially not when they're already talking about rebooting them.

 

[darkseid26]

Tree of Life. I hope.
Midnight In Paris. I'd put it in my top Woody Allen films.

 

[TX85]

It frightens me that people are actually listing Transformers.

I ain't a fan But it's big with the casuals,Kids who are into it right now may consider them classics at a King Kong(30's)level when their older and then they share it with their kids and they get into them and so on!!