Criticker Top of 20 of 2009

[theficionado]

http://www.criticker.com/blog/index.php ... one-11-20/

Thoughts so far?

Sad to see Where the Wild Things Are, definitely one of my two favorite films this year, arrive so early. Frankly, surprised to see The Hurt Locker blow its wad so early, too... thought everybody LOVED that movie.

I remain oblivious to the charms of Zombieland, the only truly bad film appearing thus far.

Here's hoping #1 belongs to Basterds or the Coens.

By the way, mpowell, would love to see one of these for the whole decade.

[Stewball]

Thoughts so far?

Waitin' for the other shoe to drop....yesterday.

(Tyson has to be a fluke.)

[omgfridge]

1) The White Ribbon – Avg Tier 8.33
2) Up in the Air – Avg Tier 8.29
3) Inglourious Basterds – Avg Tier 8.27
4) Up – Avg Tier 8.02
5) A Serious Man – Avg Tier 8.01
6) Avatar – Avg Tier 7.75
7) Fantastic Mr. Fox – Avg Tier 7.68
8) Moon – Avg Tier 7.65
9) The Damned United – Avg Tier 7.62
10) District 9 – Avg Tier 7.58
11) In the Loop – Avg Tier 7.56
12) The Hurt Locker – Avg Tier 7.47
13) Where the Wild Things Are – Avg Tier 7.41
14) (500) Days of Summer – Avg Tier 7.37
15) Star Trek – Avg Tier 7.36
16) Anvil! The Story of Anvil – Avg Tier 7.23
17) Coraline – Avg Tier 7.05
18) Zombieland – Avg Tier 7.02
19) An Education – Avg Tier 6.98
20) Tyson – Avg Tier 6.86

[PeaceAnarchy]

I wonder if the list has a minimum number of votes required.
http://www.criticker.com/film/Mary_and_Max/ has an avg rating of 8.3 or so
http://www.criticker.com/film/It_Might_Get_Loud/ had 7.74 in the DVD report last week.

[Pickpocket]

12) The Hurt Locker – Avg Tier 7.47
14) (500) Days of Summer – Avg Tier 7.37
15) Star Trek – Avg Tier 7.36
17) Coraline – Avg Tier 7.05
18) Zombieland – Avg Tier 7.02
19) An Education – Avg Tier 6.98

god no

[Stewball]

I'm happy to see 2-4 up (haw) there, disappointed that (500) is so low (I'll take Pickpocket's negative note as an overall positive recommendation, especially since he left Tyson alone), I have my own issues with Avatar and thought the rest of the second 5 were average at best and should not have been anywhere near the top 10--especially District 9.

As for The White Ribbon, first, I don't know how very many people in the US have seen it. It's only playing in 3 theaters here so far, unless we have a lot of Euros here (which would explain a lot). I can't think of a movie I'd rather not see than one with subtitles, call me bigoted but it is too much of a barrier for absorbing a movie. Trying to watch the movie and read the subs at the same time makes me miss a lot. (The innovative way that Slumdog Millionaire presented them for the Hindi parts ought to be picked up by other moviemakers. It kept your eyes near the action instead of down at the bottom of the screen.)

As for the movie itself, there were a lot of "slow"/"too long"/"boring parts"/"pretentious" comments which are all red flags for me. Then there was this in djross' review, who is not even in my top 1000 TCI's, but he seemed to put the right words together to convince me this was going to be the way I felt about it as well. "As with Funny Games, an elaborate apparatus is created to deliver a very small (and possibly not very genuine) lesson, but at least the earlier film was a genuinely tense experience."

With all this, someone would have to hit the male equivalent of my G spot to get me to go see this in a theater (whenever it comes here), much less to convince me that it should be anywhere near being Criticker's Number 1 film--especially since I believe it will go down considerably when it does open here.

On a side note, I guess I don't understand how an average tier ranking is calculated. How can a movie with an average tier of 6.86 (Tyson) get in the top 20? How come they aren't shown on a movie's page somewhere, or am I just not seeing it?

*passes the soap box*

[frederic_g54]

Trying to watch the movie and read the subs at the same time makes me miss a lot.

This seems to be the real issue here, won't even waste time trying to recommend the film, although

djross, who is not even in my top 1000 TCI's

Not being in your top 1000 TCI's implies you two have rather different tastes i.e. there's a chance you might like it.

...though the same can be said for the both of us i.e. there's a chance you might hate it.

At the end of the day, you have yet to see one of Haneke's films, might as well give this one a watch.

[prowler]

I can't think of a movie I'd rather not see than one with subtitles, call me bigoted but it is too much of a barrier for absorbing a movie. Trying to watch the movie and read the subs at the same time makes me miss a lot. (The innovative way that Slumdog Millionaire presented them for the Hindi parts ought to be picked up by other moviemakers. It kept your eyes near the action instead of down at the bottom of the screen.)

haha you're missing out on a lot of amazing cinema. yeah the slumdog method was pretty cool, but it wouldn't work for movies with real dialogue. oh and it's not a filmmaker's job to subtitle his film for you

[Pickpocket]

I'm happy to see 2-4 up (haw) there, disappointed that (500) is so low (I'll take Pickpocket's negative note as an overall positive recommendation, especially since he left Tyson alone), I have my own issues with Avatar and thought the rest of the second 5 were average at best and should not have been anywhere near the top 10--especially District 9.

Left Tyson alone cause I didn't see it, but you go ahead and take it as a positive recommendation. 500 was just an average romance film with some really bad writing, really not worth all the hype it has been getting.

I can't think of a movie I'd rather not see than one with subtitles

wow, sucks to be you. You really are missing out on some great films.

[ShogunRua]

The only movies on the top 20 that I seriously take issue with is "Invictus",

Oddly enough, a Bill Simmons article had a good review of it.

(The words "cliched" and "predictable" were beaten to death and quartered when it came to the film.)

as well as "Star Wars", an absolute garbage action film with gigantic plot holes, painfully bad humor, and boring, lousy fights.

Simply awful. One eye-rolling, cliche, and stereotypical scene and character after another. No ingenuity whatsoever. The speeches and scenes about "love" and "feelings" made me laugh;they would have sounded trite and pathetic 50 years ago. On top of this,there are thousands of plot holes,continuity errors,and overuse of deus ex machina;from Kirk escaping from that giant monster, to fire being made on an ice planet,to Kirk randomly meeting Scotty,who allows him to get back on the ship.Dreadful.

Still, 18 out of those 20 films I either haven't seen, thought were decent, or were good/great. That's more accurate than the Oscars, at least.