My Decade in Crap, #30-21

Top 50 Films of the Aughties, #30-21

30. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

…aaaaand Wes Anderson is finally on the charts. I’ve always been drawn to his sensibilities as a writer – exploring family ties and failure – and as a director. You recognize his visual style right away, stocked with slow-mo shots, vintage songs, and Bill Murray. Always with the Bill Murray. Life Aquatic stars Murray as Steve Zissou, a down-on-his-luck oceanographer on a quest to destroy the mysterious Jaguar shark that ate his best friend (Seymour Cassel). The nature documentary society tries to stop him, but there just ain’t no stopping ol’ Zissou once he gets his fire up. Along with his crew, he picks up a supposed son, Ned Plimpton (Owen Wilson), and a journalist, Jane Winslett-Richardson (Cate Blanchett). They battle pirates. They find rare, beautiful creatures. They listen to David Bowie songs. Though I haven’t seen Fantastic Mr. Fox yet, there has so far been a discernible evolution of Anderson’s films from comedy (Bottle Rocket) into drama (Darjeeling Limited). Life Aquatic is when he stopped balancing the two sensibilities and started drifting towards the latter. It makes Life Aquatic his darkest film, but also one of his most rewarding.

29. Team America: World Police (2004)

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are really talented musicians, which is why every Fourth of July I put on the Team America: World Police soundtrack. Songs like “Freedom isn’t Free” and “America, Fuck Yeah” are hilarious odes to my beloved country. The film itself is pretty great too, utilizing marionettes a la Thunderbirds to act out a ridiculously cheesy action story about a American strike force that blows up a lot of stuff, complete with a gratuitous sex scene. Parker and Stone have always had a no-holds barred approach to comedy, and they’re just as willing to skewer the left here as they are the right.

28. Paris, je t'aime (2006)

I hate France so much. But dammit at all, this list still includes two French films, the first of which is this love letter to Paris, the anthology Paris, je t’aime. The Coen Brothers, Wes Craven, Sylvain Chomet, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuarón, and many more directed segments set in different areas of the city, highlighting its many wonders. It’s not a perfect film, but its myriad successes reveal a culture and city at its most beautiful through a series of personal vignettes.

27. Serenity (2005)

Serenity is the best Firefly episode. Creator Joss Whedon got burned pretty badly by Fox when they consistently fucked with his show, to the point that it seems deliberate in retrospect. Poor promotion, constant time slot switches, and just a flat out refusal to let the show grow organically killed Firefly, even though it was a space western (YES!) about bounty hunters helmed by Joss freaking Whedon. The show ended before Whedon and co. got a chance to tell much of a story, but Serenity wraps up a decent amount of those loose threads. Some angles get shortchanged – the mysterious past of Ron Glass’ preacher is never realized – but damn if Whedon doesn’t still deliver. It was great to see Nathan Fillion and his crew go out one last time, even though the film kicks the shit out of them.

26. Brian Singer's X-Men films (2000-2003)

Bryan Singer crafted the first great superhero movie of the new millennium with X-Men, and then followed it up with the even better X2. You should know the story – the world is freaked out by mutants, people with special powers like telepathy and super-strength. Professor X (Patrick Stewart) runs a school to teach mutants how to use their powers for good, while Magneto (Ian McKellan) has a more violent, separatist view between “normal” humans and mutants. Singer brought my favorite Marvel superheroes to life, teasing fans with references to the deeper Marvel universe while still streamlining the comic’s dense mythology for new fans. He also preserved the book’s cautionary tale about oppression. The comics are thought of as symbolizing racism, although X2 definitely has more of a homophobia slant to it. In short, these are excellent sci-fi/action movies that double as social commentary. The only reason they’re not in my top 10 is because of X-Men: The Last Stand, the extremely shitty trilogy capper that makes watching X2’s cliffhanger ending extremely depressing, because I know it’s only going to suck ass from there.

25. Star Trek (2009)

When the decade began, Star Wars fans had the upper hand. Sure, The Phantom Menace wasn’t that great, but it was leagues better than the Insurrection or Nemesis films that closed out the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies. And while Star Wars creator George Lucas semi-redeemed himself with Revenge of the Sith, it was J.J. Abrams who truly saved a sci-fi franchise, thanks to his 2009 spin on the original Star Trek characters. There’s still plenty of time to mess this up, but for the time being, it feels good to be a Trekkie. Or a Trekker. Or a nerd.

24. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (2009)

One of the weirdest, funniest mainstream children’s movies I’ve seen in a long time.

23. Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Thus begins my love affair with Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright, Nick Frost, and Jessica Stevenson. While the U.S. release of their seminal TV show Spaced was still a few years away, I got a taste of their pop cultural-honoring humor with Shaun of the Dead. More of an homage to George A. Romero than a parody, the film nevertheless blends horror and comedy to form the best zombie movie of the decade (although Land of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and Slither were pretty great too). This first installment in Wright and Pegg’s “Blood and Ice Cream” trilogy shows that the due genuinely loves the genres they poke fun at, a feat they would repeat to even greater success with Hot Fuzz.

22. Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 (2003-2004)

Quentin Tarantino spent some time in the wilderness after 1997’s uneven, but still good, Jackie Brown. He returned in full effect with his epic revenge tale, Kill Bill. He reunited with his muse, Uma Thurman, gave David Carradine his best role ever as the title character, and filled in the rest of the cast with solid talent. While he broke the story of the Bride’s quest to claim revenge on the assassins that tried to kill her on her wedding day up into two chapters, it’s easy to view the two as one lengthy movie, blending kung-fu, sword fighting, crime noir, and some liberally borrowed visuals into a potent action piece.

21. Inglourious Basterds (2009)

I’ve been thinking about for a few weeks, and I think I might prefer Inglorious Basterds to Kill Bill. I was on edge the entire time I watched it, whereas Kill Bill occasionally gives viewers a chance to breathe and even love the characters, especially in the second volume. Basterds rarely gives viewers any peace, as the ensemble dwindles down further and further.

TOMORROW: inappropriate humor and animated films, #20-11.