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Way to be a hipster Mr. Carnelian, going for some artsy musical no one has ever heard of when the clear winner of best film in 2002, if not the 21st century, was Ghost Ship!
I kid of course. Chicago really was one of the best films of 2002. Though Spider-Man was pretty chill even if it's a bit cheese ball nowadays and The Two Towers was easily the best of the LotR trilogy. While there were a few great art house pieces released this year. 2002 always felt like a let down compared to 2001 for me.
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2001 - Spirited Away
2002 - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
2001 was a tough choice for me. A Beautiful Mind was a great film in 2001 but the Ghibli classic gets my vote. I mean I could've gone with LOTR for years 2001-2003 as it's my favourite film trilogy but thought I'd just stick with the best film of the three for 2002.
BTW Mr Carny, you should totally do a 'least favourites' thread to run alongside this... just to see how many times Attack of the Clones is mentioned.
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can i just resolve this thread for everyone
2000 - Commando
2001 - Commando
2002 - Commando
2003 - Commando
2004 - Commando
2005 - Commando
2006 - Commando
2007 - Commando
2008 - Commando
2009 - Commando
2010 - Commando
2011 - Commando
2012 - Commando
2013 - Commando
2014 - Commando
2015 - Commando
2016 - Commando
2017 - Commando
2018 - Commando
2019 - Commando
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2003: Return of the King
If you haven’t watched the Lord of the Rings films, go do it.
Whilst Two Towers is actually my favourite of the three, there’s no denying that Return of the King was a fine conclusion to the trilogy. Epic in every sense of the word: one of the true “Event” films of the early 21st century.
It proved as popular with critics as with audiences, cleaning up on the awards circuit. Comparisons with Avengers Endgame are easy to draw, but time will tell whether Endgame enjoys the same success come next awards season.
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2004: Howl’s Moving Castle
One of my very favourite Studio Ghibli films, this is a fine place to start for those unfamiliar with their output.
A magical tale of romance and identity set in a fantastical version of 19th century Europe. After a young woman called Sophie, a hat-maker in a chocolate-box Germanic town, has a magical encounter with a wizard, she finds herself cursed with old age by a witch. Encountering the wizard again, she finds a place in his Moving Castle, a sprawling, steampunk contraption which walks across the rolling hills of the idyllic countryside on metal legs.
Driven by emotion, the plot powers through a series of visually arresting settings, often gleefully leaving logic by the wayside. Those familiar with another director, Terry Gilliam, should have some idea what to expect. Our leads have a tendency to lurch, dreamlike, from location to location, and much like the eponymous Baron of Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen, the age of the female lead, Sophie, visibly shifts as she grows in confidence.
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There's no way in hell Endgame deserves to clean up with awards like LOTR did (and it won't). Lost in Translation, Master and Commander and City of God are all great films from 2003 as well. The LOTR trilogy has had lots of copycats since it came out (including The Hobbit) and nothing else has come close.
2004 - the wonderfully inventive Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, aka the last time Jim Carrey was a good actor.
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I figured a Lord of the Rings film would the hit the list eventually, granted I liked the first two films better than Return of the King. I think my favorite film of 2003 was easily Tim Burton's Big Fish. I didn't even really know what to expect when I went in to see it and that film still clings to me. It captured a part of his style we haven't really seen since his 80s debuts like Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Edward Scissorhands, and Beetlejuice.
Howl's Moving Castle is such a wonderful film and I find it odd that the film is rarely spoken of in more professional circles whereas it seems like every Ghibli fan I know ranks it as one of their best films.
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I think Howl's Moving Castle is one of Miyazaki's weaker films (maybe his weakest), there's some very fun supporting characters but the plot is weak and the ending is pure deus ex machina nonsense. It's like they suddenly realised they had to wrap up the film very quickly.
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Honestly the Deus ex Machina thing happens a lot in his films, I felt Spirited Away pulled the same stunt with it's ending. Of Miyazaki's personal films, I feel Ponyo is one of his weaker ones, though I still enjoyed it. Of Studio Ghibli in general, I feel Tales of Earthsea is the obvious weak link from the studio as it never felt like it really had a point while trying to do too much.
Howl for me simply had a great cast of characters and I felt that what it took from the book it was based on, it did a great job with. Howl's setting really feels like a setting taking right out of Miyazaki's imagination.
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2005: Brokeback Mountain
The second film on my list directed by Ang Lee. Like Crouching Tiger, this film also centres around a tragic romance.
There’s long been a homoerotic undercurrent in the cowboy film genre, but in this film that current comes to the surface. Ennis and Jack are two handsome “cowboys” (shepherds, technically, but let’s not quibble) irresistibly drawn to each other. Unfortunately, there’s no happy ending in store for these two in their socially conservative and homophobic society.
Desperately sad: it’s one of the few films to ever bring me to tears. Definitely worth watching, but keep the tissues handy!
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2006: Pan's Labyrinth
Ask someone to name a Guillermo del Toro film, and chances are this will be what they think of.
In this dark fairytale set in 1944 Spain, fantastical horror is mirrored by the horrors of war. Not a film for the faint of heart, as neither the potrayal of the world of fantasy into which young Ofelia is drawn nor war-torn Spain pull any punches.
The scene in which Ofelia ventures into the relam of the Pale Man - a chilling, bloodthirsty figure who sees through eyes in his hands - is a particularly memorable moment.
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2005-2006 were both busy years for me, so I didn't really watch as much as I would like.
For 2005, of the few flicks I caught that year, I would give it to Corpse Bride as my favorite. I know some people view it as inferior to The Nightmare Before Christmas, but honestly, I felt it was a spectacular film and probably the last film Tim Burton worked on in some capacity that I actively enjoyed.
As for 2006, I wholeheartedly agree with Pan's Labyrinth. It was a worthy successor to Del Toro's Devil's Backbone and frankly the combination of Spanish politics and traditional grim European folklore all framed together under a traditional fairy tale changeling story was really clever. I absolutely love Del Toro's visual design for the film and it still makes me mad that no one in the film industry wants to green light this man doing an adaption of H.P. Lovecraft's In the Mountains of Madness.
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Children of Men is probably my favourite of 2006, another great film from Alfonso Cuaron and it remains just as depressingly relevant as ever.
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2007: Hot Fuzz
"No luck catchin' them killers, then?"
Simon Pegg is the fish-out-of-water London cop relegated to seemingly sleepy rural Gloucestershire, playing opposite Nick Frost as his sweet but naive local partner. The cheerfully useless local police assure Pegg's Sergeant Angel that some kids sneaking a pint at the local is the most action he's likely to see. But things aren't what they seem...
Pegg and Frost are, as always, a great double-act, and in particularly fine form in this genuinely funny action comedy. Rarely has rural England been so well lampooned.
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Hot Fuzz - about the only film to have (SPOILER)Jim Broadbent as a villain!
2007 saw two absolute masterpieces for me in No Country for Old Men (featuring Javier Bardem's terrifying hitman with an even more terrifying haircut) and There Will Be Blood.
