Everyone
sees the blockbusters, and eventually everyone sees the Best Picture
Oscar winners. Most years have films that became culturally
significant, and most everyone sees those too. But every year there
are great movies that didn't garner much attention that should have –
not necessarily because they are “great films” but because they
are damned fine entertainment.
Below
is a list, with some brief reviews, of some of the movies released
from 2000 to 2010 that you may not have seen, but that you should
have.... they are all tremendously entertaining films.
2000
Best
Picture Oscar: Gladiator
My
Favorite Film of the Year: High Fidelity and Unbreakable
The
Great One You May Have Missed: The Way of the Gun
“Guy
Movie” warning.... if you hated “Pulp Fiction” stay away from
“The Way of the Gun”. Not that they are very much alike, but
their feel is much the same, and driven more by the characters'
reactions to the situations than by the situations themselves. My
detailed review is here:
2001
Best
Picture Oscar: A Beautiful Mind
My
Favorite Film of the Year: The Score
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Serendipity
I
guess I can pick a rom-com once a decade, can't I?
John
Cusak is Jonathon Trager, and one evening over the holidays he meets
Sara (Kate Beckinsdale) while shopping. They spend the evening in
New York City and have a wonderful time, but she is a big believer in
omens. She has him write his name and number on a $5 bill and she
writes hers in a book – they then sell the book and spend the $5
bill. If those things ever find their way back to them, they'll know
they were meant to be. Fast forward a few years and she is living
with a musician and he is engaged. But neither of them either really
got over their one evening together, and they both start the process
of looking for each other again. But with only a lost book and a
lost piece of money, how can they ever do it?
Drippy,
sappy and schlocky, “Serendipity” will have the colder part of
the audience rolling their eyes throughout. But mainly due to a
wonderful and engaging performance by John Cusak..... I'm sorry, but
this movie just works. Anyone with any small bit of heart will be
pulling for these two to find each other again.
2002
Best
Picture Oscar: Chicago
My
Favorite Film of the Year: The Pianist and Bowling for
Columbine
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Frailty
What
do you do when you're a kid and your widowed Dad comes home one day
saying he's been visited by God? Not only that, but that he is now
God's avenging angel on Earth, and that the family must now kill all
the people who are demons? Bill Paxton is the Dad, and he is certain
that this is now his lot in life, and he loves his new job. His
oldest son knows the old man has lost his mind, but he's just a kid
and doesn't know how to stop him.
I
loved this movie because it didn't try to preach or evangelize of
have any big message to convey. It was just a really good story that
the filmmakers wanted to tell, and they tell it wonderfully.
2003
Best
Picture Oscar: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Identity
If I
wanted to, I could probably come up with a great movie of John
Cusak's for every year of this decade. I've always found his to be
one of the most versatile actors around. Here he is Ed Dakota, a
limo driver who is stranded at a hotel with a dozen others during a
hellacious rain storm. One problem – the folks stranded at the
hotel are being picked off one at a time, and nobody has any idea who
the killer is..... or if anything at all is as it seems.
A
small in scale film but big on thrills, this one would have been
right at home with Alfred Hitchcock at the helm. Not exactly a movie
“you have to see”, but one that is almost sure to please any
watcher of whodunnits.
2004
Best
Picture Oscar: Million Dollar Babay
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Million Dollar Baby
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless
Mind
There
was a time when having Jim Carrey as the star of your movie
guaranteed you a $100M payday. But starting with “Eternal
Sunshine” Carrey appears to have decided to do some real acting,
and his formerly manic characterizations have been few and far
between since.
Carrey
is Joel, who just found out that his estranged girlfriend Clementine
(Kate Winslet) has had him erased from her memory. In a vengeful fit
of pique he decides to do the same thing to her and have his memories
of her purged. But once the erasing process gets underway he
realizes that she represents the best part of him and he changes his
mind. But he can't stop the process, and must try to figure out a
way to preserve his memories of her from being permanently removed.
“Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” is not your everyday film, but it
plays on your everyday feelings. As Joel relives his memories of
Clementine and then tries to hide them away, you see the evolution of
their relationship, including the fact that it never should have
ended. It is heartaching film, and doesn't quite have the ending
you'd hope for, but it is a fascinating story nonetheless.
2005
Best
Picture Oscar: Crash
My
Favorite Film of the Year: The 40 Year Old Virgin and
Brokeback Mountain
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Cinderella Man
The
true story of James J. Braddock (Russell Crowe), a man who lost a
promising career as a boxer to be barely scraping out an existence
for himself and his family during the great depression. Slowly he
finds his way again thanks to his manager (Paul Giamatti) and his
wife (Rene Russo) and manages to get a shot at the world heavyweight
title.
An
example of truth scripting something Hollywood would reject as
unbelievable, “Cinderella Man” is a terrific little story of a
hardworking guy finally getting a break. Is it hokey? Sure. That
doesn't mean it isn't terrific.
2006
Best
Picture Oscar: The Departed
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Idiocracy and Deep Water
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Idiocracy
Suppose
you went to sleep for 500 years and woke to find yourself in a world
where the smartest person is denser than the dumbest backwoods
hillbilly you can find today. That's what happens to Luke Wilson in
“Idiocracy”. He was supposed to be a test subject for an army
hibernation project, but he was forgotten about for centuries. As he
slept the intelligent people of the world would have one or two kids
while the nitwits would have dozens. Soon, there was nothing left
but idiots, and now the idiots rule the world.
When
I first saw this I thought it was funny, but never expected it to be
prophetic. Yet only ten or so years later, we see a racist moron in
the white house that ought to be wearing a dunce cap, so we're
already well on the way. It's a funny movie, but the implications
are actually anything but funny. Still a good watch.
2007
Best
Picture Oscar: No Country For Old Men
My
Favorite Film of the Year: No Country For Old Men
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Mr. Brooks
“Mr.
Brooks” was not exactly loved by the critics, but it was surely
loved by me – kind of a Dexter Grows Up.
Mr.
Brooks (Kevin Costner) is a very successful man. A wealthy
entrepreneur and devoted family man, nobody suspects he is actually
two people – the man they see, and also a brutally effective serial
killer. He tries to battle his killer half, but eventually he always
gives in. But during his latest kill he got careless and was
photographed. However, rather than turn him into the police, the
photographer (Dane Cook) would rather be taken along on a kill to
experience the thrill first hand.
Costner's
usually bland performances detract from most roles, but it plays
perfectly here as a man who is never quite what he is presenting
himself to be. Throw in a nice supporting performance from Demi
Moore as the detective hunting him, and another from William Hurt as
“the devil on his shoulder” and you have tidy little thriller
that moves frantically to a somewhat predictable but still satisfying
conclusion.
2008
Best
Picture Oscar: Slumdog Millionaire
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Gran Torino
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Man on Wire
Great
documentaries watch like great action movies. There is a back story,
then an objective, plans laid and finally the execution of the plan.
And “Man on Wire” is just like that.
Phillipe
Petit was one of the world's great tight-rope walkers, having
illegally installed cables to walk several landmarks, including the
towers at Notre Dame cathedral. And when the twin towers of the
World Trade Center went up in the 1970s, he saw them as a perfect
stage for the greatest daredevil walk of them all. He and his team
made meticulous plans to sneak in at night, string a wire from one
tower to the other, and Phillipe would walk them when the sun came up
– 1360 feet above the New York sidewalks.
Truly
one of the best documentaries of the decade, this is a great tale
told in great fashion. Much better than the Hollywood movie version
“The Walk” which tells the same story but not as well.
2009
Best
Picture Oscar: The Hurt Locker
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Inglorious Basterds and The
Hangover
The
Great One You May Have Missed: The Cove
Every
year in Japan there is a great “dolphin hunt” where hundred to
thousands of dolphins are captured to fulfill the world's need for
trained aquatic mammals. But what happens to the dolphins captured
but not used? The documentary “The Cove” tries to answer that
question. The location of the cove and the hunt are fiercely
protected and guarded so not outsider can see what happens there.
But through the use of hidden cameras, we get to see every aspect of
the hunt.
Not
for the tenderhearted, “The Cove” is actually a pretty important
film if you care about the other species we share this planet with.
And fascinating – the process of trying to see what happens there
plays like a heist film, and is every bit as intriguing.
2010
Best
Picture Oscar: The King's Speech
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Hot Tub Time Machine and True
Grit
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Buried
There
are rare movies with only one person in them, and rarer still are
ones that don't suck. I can only think of one other one off the top
of my head (“All is Lost” - 2013). But the best of them is
“Buried”, which takes place entirely inside a coffin and
featuring a dizzyingly wonderful performance from Ryan Reynolds.
Reynolds
is Paul, a contracted truck driver in Iraq. He wakes at the start of
the film to find himself buried alive with a cell phone, and he is
informed through it that he is to call his employers to pay a ransom
to rescue him. He makes plenty of calls on the cell, trying to save
himself before he runs out of air, but also taking care of personal
business in case he never sees daylight again.
Hard
as it is to believe, a 7 foot by 3 foot by 2 foot movie set can work
for a great film. Add in Reynolds' career performance and a script
loaded with great dialogue, and you get “Buried”, the most
claustrophobic thriller of all time.
2011
Best
Picture Oscar: The Artist
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Moneyball
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Fright Night
When
I was 15 years old I saw the original “Fright Night” at the
theatre …. twice. Chris Sarandon as the vampire and Roddy McDowell
as the vampire killer was one of the original kitsch horror-comedies.
And the remake, while not quite measuring up to the original, is
just as much fun.
Charlie
Brewster (Anton Yelchin) has a new neighbour (Colin Farrell). But
Charlie becomes convinced that the neighbour is a vampire. What do
you need to kill a vampire? A vampire killer (David Tennant) of
course. Full of tongue-in-cheek and dry wit, this is a worthy
remake, just different enough from the original to stand on its own
merits.
2012
Best
Picture Oscar: Argo
My
Favorite Film of the Year: The Imposter and Searching for
Sugarman
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Searching for Sugarman
Yeah,
I know..... another documentary.
Rodriguez
was a folk-rock artist of the late 60s that just never hit. The
record company believed he was the next Bob Dylan, and they had him
record a couple of albums that did nothing on the charts so they let
him go. As far as the music scene went, he was never seen or heard
from again. But unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Rodriguez's
records outsold every other artist in the small nation of South
Africa, where he and his “disappearance” were the stuff of
legend. So eventually a couple of sleuthing South African music
lovers decide to try to find him and bring him to a nation where he
was bigger than Elvis ever dreamed of being.....
You
may never see another true story that warms your heart like
“Searching for Sugarman”. The desire to see what became of the man,
and for him to find the glory that he had earned but never
experienced keep you enthralled. A great movie.
2013
Best
Picture Oscar: 12 Years a Slave
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Blue Ruin and About Time
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Blue Ruin and About Time
How
could I possibly choose between these two classics? Neither of them
made a cent at the American box office and both are among my favorite
films ever. In Blue Ruin, a homeless man named Dwight Evans finds
out his parents' murderer is being released from prison, and he
decides to exact vengeance. But he is hopeless, helpless and going
up against people far out of his league. Detailed review:
And
“About Time” is a film that at first seems to be lighthearted and
funny, then does a 180 to have a second half that will tear your very
heart out. And it conveys a message that we would all be better off
if we paid attention to. Again, my detailed review is here:
2014
Best
Picture Oscar: Birdman
My
Favorite Film of the Year: John Wick
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Nightcrawler
Jake
Gyllenhall gives the performance of his life as a paparazzi
photographer that can't wait for events to happen, so he makes them
happen so he can get the scoop. His character, Lou Bloom, still
gives me the creeps. My detailed review of “Nightcrawler” is
here:
http://greatbigcmovies.blogspot.ca/2015/02/nightcrawler-2014.html
2015
Best
Picture Oscar: Spotlight
My
Favorite Film of the Year: Room and Brooklyn
The
Great One You May Have Missed: Room
It
seems impossible to me that this film only made $14M in domestic box
office – I thought it was easily the best movie of the year. Brie
Larson and Jacob Tremblay both give career-making performances as a
mother and son held hostage for years in a backyard shed. Their plan
to escape and find their place in society is a riveting, fascinating
journey. My detailed review is here:
http://greatbigcmovies.blogspot.ca/2016/01/room-2015.html
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