The Moviefone Blog

Best Movies Ever: The '00s (10-1)

Tom Johnson — 2009-12-14T18:38:00+00:00

10. 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' (2004)
During his third year at Hogwarts, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) learns that Lord Voldemort's acolyte Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped Azkaban prison with an eye toward making Harry's "Boy That Lived" moniker an overstatement. No worries, Harry's friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermoine Granger (Emma Watson) are on hand to help him sort out the shifting allegiances -- and shapes! -- in a tale where nothing is as it seems. Darker than the first two Potter films, to legions of fans the third installment of J.K. Rowlings' juggernaut may or may not be the best of the bunch; but, really, what Muggle wouldn't enjoy this.

9. 'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' (2005)
The movie that put director/writer Judd Apatow on everyone's radar (and arguably the best feature he's done to date) stars Steve Carell as a likable, action-figure-collecting nerd who's never been laid. A stock company of laugh-getters, including Jane Lynch, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Catherine Keener keep this uproarious comedy thrumming on all cylinders. Most Iconic Scene: Andy's body-wax appointment where more hair is painfully removed than the Cheyenne achieved at the Little Bighorn. Yeeooow!

8. 'The Departed' (2006)
Irish Mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) maneuvers his protégé, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), into a state trooper job with the Massachusetts police -- the perfect vantage point for an informant willing to relay back valuable intel. It isn't long before his cohorts (including Leonardo DiCaprio) begin to smell a rat, leading to more rubouts than you'll find at your neighborhood drycleaners. It doesn't get much better than Jack waxing evil; and DiCaprio, Damon and Mark Wahlberg turn in command performances. Director Martin Scorsese won a long overdue Oscar, as did the film for Best Picture.

7. 'The Incredibles' (2004)
What a concept! A wry, animated spoof of the live-action superhero genre (which is itself largely fueled by special effects). Written and directed by Pixar's Brad Bird, the movie won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature and follows the surefire square peg-in-a-round hole comic scenario. To wit: The Parr/Incredible family are ex-superheroes living a "bearded" existence out in the suburbs (Mr. Incredible is an insurance adjuster), but they spring into action -- with hilarious results -- when duty calls.

6. 'Brokeback Mountain' (2005)
In the early '60s, a pair of cowboys (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal) spend a summer together herding sheep in the "high lonesome" of Wyoming's Brokeback Mountain, where they surrender to a strong mutual attraction. The beautifully shot movie was adapted by Larry McMurtry from an Annie Proulx short story; McMurtry won Best Adapted Screenplay and director Ang Lee picked up a Best Director Oscar. Not just a "gay cowboy movie," this is a truly elegiac film about mutual attraction being a force of nature that irresistibly steamrolls everything in its path.

5. 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004)
The febrile mind of Charlie Kaufman (who won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay) is the real star of this startlingly original romantic dramedy about a couple on the outs (Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey) who undergo a procedure that erases each other from their respective memories. After becoming just déjà-vu blips to each other, they begin to realize the enormity of what they really had together, which is now lost -- or is it? The leads are wonderful in this off-kilter movie that is almost uncategorizable; particularly an anguished Carrey, who plays it straight without a rubberfaced contortion in sight.

4. 'The Dark Knight' (2008)
The best movie in the Batman canon sees the Caped Crusader (Christian Bale) squaring off against worthy nemesis the Joker. Jack Nicholson's prior take on the "malevolent master of mirth" takes a backseat to Heath Ledger's disturbing (and wry) interpretation of one of Batman's most memorable arch-fiends. Ledger won a posthumous Best Supporting Actor Oscar as the droll and disfigured criminal mastermind who's mad at the world and wants payback from Gotham City for slights (perceived and otherwise) that are way past due.

3. 'Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001)
The best film rendition by far of J.R.R. Tolkien's phantasmagorical novel of a fellowship formed and an epic quest begun to save Middle-earth from evil found a worthy champion in director Peter Jackson. The casting, look (all three 'LOTR's won Best Visual Effects Oscars), even the score (another Oscar winner) coalesced beautifully like, say, a certain golden ring forged in the fires of Mordor. More importantly, all the carefully crafted elements were carried over in the next two installments of the opus setting the stage for a "perfect storm" trilogy of excellence the likes of which hasn't been seen before or since.

2. 'City of God' (2002)
The ironically named City of God was a well-intentioned housing project built in the 1960s that, in 20 years' time, became one of the most dangerous favelas in Rio de Janeiro. This is the true story of two boys (Rocket and Li'l Zé) growing up in the slums who take divergent paths; one dreams of becoming a photographer, the other a gangster. Uncompromising in its depiction of the wanton cruelty and depravity of Rio's gangs, the movie illumines a world where civility is as rare a commodity as hope. No tacked-on, Hollywood happy endings here.

1. 'Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' (2003)
Tolkien's trilogy comes to a glorious and satisfying close with the One Ring destroyed, Aragon (Viggo Mortensen) united with Arwyn (Liv Tyler) and crowned King of Gondor, and the Hobbits rightfully hailed as heroes. Recognizing (albeit a trifle late) the significance and sublime craftsmanship of the trilogy, AMPAS didn't hold back on Oscar night. Winning 11 Oscars out of 11 nominations, including Best Picture and Director (Jackson), the movie is the first fantasy film to ever take the Academy's top honor.

<< 20-11

Best Movies Ever: The '00s (20-11)

Tom Johnson — 2009-12-14T18:38:00+00:00

20. 'Bowling for Columbine' (2002)
Activist filmmaker Michael Moore trains his biased (and persuasive) camera lens on America's love affair with firearms in this incendiary feature that won the Oscar for Best Documentary. Using the tragedy of the Columbine High School shootings as a crux, Moore (always a lightning rod for controversy) compares why guns and assault weapons are so easily available in the U.S. vis-à-vis other countries and why those nations have drastically lower murder rates. Moore posits that a culture of fear, bigotry, violence and corporate greed in the U.S. -- together with easy accessibility to firearms -- is the match to the kerosene that sets off tragedies like what happened at Columbine.

19. 'Casino Royale' (2006)
Finally, the longest-running action movie franchise in filmdom found a successor worthy of filling Sean Connery's formal wear as James Bond. Daniel Craig's 007 -- while still a smoldering he-man -- is a tad less self-assured but, in the process, infinitely more human. Gone are the cardboard cutouts of Bond as invincible superhero. Craig's "shower" scene where he comforts the luscious Eva Green after she witnessed him killing the usual gaggle of hired assassins achieves a level pathos unheard of in a Bond film. It all makes for a viewing experience where you'll be shaken and stirred.

18. 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000)
Ang Lee directs this lyrically beautiful movie (which was a surprise international hit) starring Chow-Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Ziyi Zhang about the quest for a magical jade sword. Based on the fourth novel in five-book series, known in China as the 'Crane-Iron Pentalogy,' the movie is fairly saturated with color and features some of the dreamiest martial arts wire-fu you'll find this side of the Yangtze River. Four Oscars include Best Foreign Film and a richly deserved statuette to Timmy Yip for Art Direction.

17. 'Finding Nemo' (2003)
A widowed, overprotective clownfish (voiced by Albert Brooks) living on the Great Barrier Reef loses his son, Nemo, to a fishing boat and so begins an epic journey toward reunification in this hit written and directed by Disney animation grandee Andrew Stanton. (The film won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.) The deft ballet between laughter and tears -- a Disney/Pixar specialty -- propels the story forward like driftwood caught in the Gulf Stream. Catch of the Day: Ellen DeGeneres' hysterical turn as Dory, a regal tan with short-term memory loss and the attention span of a modern-day teen.

16. 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008)
Last year's biggest feel-good hit about an underdog everyone could root for was more Bollywood than Hollywood. A slum-dwelling Mumbai teenager (Dev Patel) makes it on India's most popular game show ('Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?'), and through judicious flashbacks we learn how he came upon all the hard-won knowledge that propels him forward to the final question. Starring a talented cast of Indian actors, including Freida Pinto and Anil Kapoor, the English-Hindi co-production won eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director (Danny Boyle) and Adapted Screenplay.

15. 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004)
British slacker/appliance salesman Shaun (Simon Pegg) has hit bottom. His girlfriend dumped him, he gets no respect from co-workers and his job is a dead end. But just when he resolves to turn that frown upside down, zombies arise and begin feasting on the flesh of the living. An unlikely hit on both sides of the pond, this wry pastiche of romantic comedies and zombie-themed flicks (a self-styled "RomZomCom") hilariously sends up the conventions of both genres at the same time managing to pay tribute to the legacy of horror paved by George Romero et al.

14. 'Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers' (2002)
In the second installment of filmdom's greatest "road movie," Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) and Samwise Gamgee (Sean Astin) continue their heroic plod toward the fires of Mordor and their self-appointed task of destroying the One Ring. Meanwhile, the other fellowship members and their foes and friends battle and declaim and, in the process, raise the stakes for the final confrontation to come. A special shout-out (or gurgle/gawp) to Andy Serkis as the reviled Gollum for a performance throughout the three movies that indelibly combines Machiavellian cunning with reptilian sliminess.

13. 'Memento' (2000)
Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce) is on the hunt for the man he thinks raped and killed his wife in this intricate jigsaw of a psychological thriller. Trouble is, Leonard has anterograde amnesia and can't retain short-term memories, so, as a coping mechanism, he's developed a system of notes, Polaroids and tattoos. The real artistry is how the narrative (two of them, actually) unfolds: One is in color and reverse chronological order; the other is in black and white and chronological. As each sequence begins, viewers are unaware of the preceding events, giving audiences a sense of Leonard's bewilderment. Christopher Nolan directs and co-wrote the screenplay (nominated for an Oscar) with his brother Jonathan from one of Jonathan's short stories.

12. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' (2007)
The action genre's favorite amnesiac is back in the best of the Jason Bourne trilogy of movies. Bourne (Matt Damon) is lured out of hiding by a rogue CIA operation and must dodge a new band of assassins intent on punching his clock -- permanently. Think a harder hitting James Bond for a new millennium; less winky-winky and with a higher quotient of bludgeoning body blows. What really makes this entry hum is the fantastic (and Oscar-winning) editing, which packs its own visceral punch.

11. 'No Country for Old Men' (2007)
This Best Picture Oscar winner continues Joel and Ethan Coen's (Best Director winners) predilection for stories weighted in fate and chance circumstance. As stark and arid as the West Texas landscape in which it's set, 'Men' tells the story of a "local" (Josh Brolin) who runs across $2 million from a drug deal gone awry. Soon a contract killer (Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Javier Bardem) is on his trail in a lethal game of cat and mouse. Adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel, the movie also won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but it's Bardem's portrayal of an unpredictable psychopath (with a page-boy haircut, no less) that truly vexes.

<< 30-21 10-1 >>

Best Movies Ever: The '00s (30-21)

Tom Johnson — 2009-12-14T18:38:00+00:00

30. 'Pan's Labyrinth' (2006)
Written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, this parable/fairytale set in 1944 in post-Civil War Spain focuses on young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and the fantasy world she creates as a coping mechanism to survive the harsh reality that surrounds her, including her army captain stepfather (Sergi Lopez), who brutalizes the girl and her timid mother (Maribel Verdu). Won Oscars for Best Make Up and Best Art Direction for the wonderful menagerie of fairies, fauns and giant frogs that exist in the labyrinth of Ofelia's mind.

29. 'Wedding Crashers' (2005)
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are best buddies who work together but whose true calling is crashing weddings for all the casual sex they can handle. But Wilson's days of nailing "sure things" are numbered when he meets Claire Cleary (Rachel McAdams), the adorable and unavailable daughter of a U.S. Senator (Christopher Walken). Will Ferrell registers in a key cameo performance, but Isla Fisher steals the film as Claire's freakazoid sister Gloria, who has a thing for Vaughn. And that's no mean achievement in a film brimming with standout comedy performances, including a randy turn by Jane Seymour as Sen. Cleary's prowling wife.

28. '28 Days Later' (2002)
In London, militant animal-rights activists set free some quarantined chimps infected with a "rage virus." One of the granola crunchers gets bitten, setting off a pandemic that turns victims into blood-spewing zombies called "the infected." The city soon becomes engulfed (and depopulated) in this truly terrifying movie, which stars Cillian Murphy, and makes effective use of steady-cams and speeded-up film during the blistering chase sequences.

27. 'Y-Tu Mama Tambien' (2001)
Two Mexican teens, Tenoch (Diego Luna) and Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal), hook up with a beautiful older woman (the radiant Maribel Verdu) and together embark on an epic road trip. Along the way, the boys get a crash course in amour, friendship and what makes each other tick -- especially sexually. Alfonso Cuaron's frank look at the raw, uninhibited youth culture in Mexico (as well as the great social divide between the upper and lower classes) shocked some in the U.S. Nonetheless, the compelling story, beautiful characterizations and overarching theme of self-discovery remain wondrous and universal whether north or south of the border.

26. 'Iron Man' (2008)
After being taken prisoner in Afghanistan, engineering genius and billionaire weapons manufacturer Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) develops, well, the ultimate amazing technicolor dreamcoat (this one of armor and with a vast array of ordnance and countermeasures), and along the way recalibrates himself as a superhero. Based on the Marvel comic-book character created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, 'Iron Man' succeeds on Downey's irrepressible performance. Great news for fans of the comic and film: Downey, director Jon Favreau and company will reunite for the sequel, due out in 2010.

25. 'The Squid and the Whale' (2005)
Noah Baumbach wrote and directed this insightful, autobiographical little indie about a Brooklyn youth, Walt Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg), and his little brother trying to come to terms with the messy split of their egghead/academician parents. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are fine as parental units who define dysfunction but it's Eisenberg (with his proven genius at portraying man-children who live mostly in the cerebrum) who's the one to watch.

24. 'Spider-Man 2' (2004)
In the much anticipated sequel to the 2002 blockbuster, a reluctant Peter Parker/Spidey (Tobey Maguire) dons his superhero togs again and squares off against Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina). Kirsten Dunst reprises her role as our favorite web-crawler's best gal pal, the ever-faithful Mary Jane Watson. And James Franco hits just the right brooding tone as Harry Osborn, Pete's clueless best friend who inadvertently causes Spidey and Doc Ock to square off in a battle royal, with MJ as bait. The film won the Best Special Effects Oscar.

23. 'Michael Clayton' (2007)
George Clooney (looking hang-dog) is the eponymous "fixer" for a high-end Manhattan legal firm in this satisfying crime thriller that was a big hit, both with audiences and critics. Tilda Swinton won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar as a tightly wound Lady Macbeth-like general counsel who tries to get the drop on Clayton, with disastrous results (for her). It was also the late, lamented Sydney Pollack's second-to-last film as an actor (he also produced the movie) before his untimely death from cancer in 2008.

22. 'Donnie Darko' (2001)
Mentally ill teenager Donnie Darko (Jake Gyllenhaal) has a doomsday dream one night in bed, follows a six-foot rabbit named Frank out onto the street in front of his house, and misses being crushed by the dropped engine of an airliner. And then the movie gets weird. Filled with time-shifts, seeming illusions and enough paradoxes (think 'Harvey' for inpatients) to keep a Freudian free-associating and couchbound for years, the film has achieved cult status among a hardcore of true believers who particularly groove to Richard Kelly's "director's cut" version.

21. 'Up' (2009)
In order to fulfill a promise he made to his wife before she died -- to see Paradise Falls in South America -- gruff septuagenarian balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) ties hundreds of helium balloons to his house and begins to float southward (soon realizing he has a pubescent stowaway on board). Another winner from the geniuses at Pixar (this one written and directed by Pete Docter), 'Up' seamlessly wends beguiling pictorials to a finely crafted story that offsets sentiment with just the right amount of laughs. Case in point: The wordless flashback sequence showing the arc of Carl's happy married life will thaw the heart of the most implacable cold fish.

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Best 2000s Movies: Top 40 Films of the Decade

Tom Johnson — 2009-12-14T18:38:00+00:00

As the motion picture industry begins its second 100 years, we take stock of the good and the bad. Escapist fare like musicals ('Chicago') may be a rare occurrence these days, while weightier films ('Bowling for Columbine,' 'Children of Men,' 'City of God') reflecting these uncertain times, proliferate.

Perhaps the best example of the wondrous evolution of film is the array of excellent animated movies ('Up,' 'Shrek,' 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles') on display in this first decade of the new millennium. 'Toons have blossomed full flower and attract hordes of moviegoers into theaters.

But whatever your taste in film -- from action movies and comedies to documentaries and indies -- here's looking forward to the long march of a new century filled with glorious flicks. As the motion picture industry begins its second 100 years, we take stock of the good and the bad. Escapist fare like musicals ('Chicago') may be a rare occurrence these days, while weightier films ('Bowling for Columbine,' 'Children of Men,' 'City of God') reflecting these uncertain times, proliferate.

Perhaps the best example of the wondrous evolution of film is the array of excellent animated movies ('Up,' 'Shrek,' 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles') on display in this first decade of the new millennium. 'Toons have blossomed full flower and attract hordes of moviegoers into theaters.

But whatever your taste in film -- from action movies and comedies to documentaries and indies -- here's looking forward to the long march of a new century filled with glorious flicks.

40. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl' (2003)
Who'd have thought a cheesy Disneyland ride could ever be co-opted into a mega-hit movie (with no end of sequels in sight). Johnny Depp's heavily mascaraed, mincing take as pirate blackguard Capt. Jack Sparrow is a delicious hoot as he helps young Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) track down the love of his life (Keira Knightly), who's being held for ransom by some of Sparrow's motley confederates. The first (and best) movie of the franchise strikes just the right balance between heroic swashbuckling and tongue-in-cheek slapschtick.

39. 'Shrek' (2001)
DreamWorks won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and birthed a huge hit (and franchise) with this film -- billed as the greatest fairytale never told -- of a green ogre (voiced by Mike Myers) who sets out on a picaresque journey to save a princess (Cameron Diaz) and get his swamp back. You gotta love the sand of the creative team that came up with Lord Farquaad as the name for the loathsome conniver and Shrek's nemesis -- an inspired circumvention of the censors if ever there was one.

38. 'Children of Men' (2006)
In the not-so-distant Orwellian future, it seems that no children have been born in many years -- effectively dooming the human race to premature extinction. Director Alfonso Cuaron has invented a stark, dystopian future populated by despairing masses that are driven by warring sects and the "threat" of unbridled illegal immigration. Best Scene: The long tracking shot of Clive Owen leading the mother with "miracle" baby in tow through a building that's being torn apart during a massive firefight between revolutionaries hunkered down inside and government troops taking aim from outside. It's like something you'd see broadcast on CNN ... or Al Jazeera.

37. 'An Inconvenient Truth' (2006)
Davis Guggenheim directs this riveting documentary based on Al Gore's long-running dog-and-pony slideshow presentation about global warming that he's given -- by last count -- more than 1,000 times. The film, spearheaded by producers Laurie David and Lawrence Bender, has been credited with raising awareness around the world of climate change and, in the process, reinvigorating the entire environmental movement. Winner of the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that the notoriety of 'Truth' led directly to Gore winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

36. 'Borat' (2006)
British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen built a hilarious mockumentary around the fictitious "sixth most popular journalist in Kazakhstan" (a staple character on his 'Da Ali G Show'). Borat (sexist, homophobic, anti-Semitic and totally clueless) records his experiences meeting (and offending) average Americans culminating in his encounter with "dream girl" Pamela Anderson. The conceit, which grounds itself in shock humor, is brilliantly simplistic but can really only work once ('Bruno,' anyone?). Regardless, attention must be paid to Cohen, who'd do anything -- and we mean anything! -- to satisfy his warped comedy muse.

35. 'The Wrestler' (2008)
Mickey Rourke portrays has-been pro wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a former big attraction who's reduced to brawling in high school gyms for crappy minimums. In the comeback performance of his career (and for which he earned an Oscar nod), Rourke piteously plumbs the soul of Randy, who can barely walk upright after a career of carnage but who wants nothing more than to entertain fans who remember him from his glory days. It's as if every career reversal and bad decision Rourke ever experienced has been transferred to the screen in a performance that's both fearless and redemptive. Directed by Darren Aronofsky and co-starring a fine Marisa Tomei.

34. 'Sideways' (2004)
There's nary a hiccup in this closely observed dramedy about two buddies, Miles and Jack (Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church), who take a northern California road trip to sample some nice wines and play some golf before Jack gets hitched. The cast is splendid, including Giamatti as a failed novelist who clings fervently to one last hope at getting published; and Virginia Madsen's never been better, shucking her usual femme fatale role to play a waitress who might just be the best thing that ever happened to Miles ... if he can just get out of his own way. Won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.

33. 'Chicago' (2002)
Bob Fosse's visionary brilliance comes to the screen largely intact thanks to devoted acolyte Rob Marshall, who directs this Oscar winner for Best Picture. Husband killers Velma Kelly (Catherina Zeta-Jones, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar) and Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) beat their respective raps and then turn their notoriety into a vaudeville act. This musical, with a first-rate score by John Kander and Fred Ebb and a central thesis of stardom at any price and any fame (even infamy) a thing to be desired, was fully 20 years ahead of its time when it debuted on Broadway in the mid-1970s.

32. 'Eastern Promises' (2007)
Stoic heartthrob Viggo Mortensen is at his immutable best as Nikolai Luzhin, the Russian-born driver to one of London's biggest organized crime families. His body covered with tats that illustrate key moments in his criminal rise, Nikolai is one dude not to be messed with. Nonetheless, at his core, the character knows enough to do the right thing when it really matters. Most Wince-Inducing Scene: the steam-room bloodbath that features more slicin' and dicin' than a Martha Stewart kitchen tutorial. Directed by David Cronenberg; the perfect man for any job requiring immoderate bloodletting.

31. 'X-Men' (2000)
Bryan Singer directed this superior adaptation from the 1960's Marvel Comics universe about a group of misunderstood mutants (each with a defining superpower) who just want to peacefully coexist with humans. Yeah, right! A stellar cast including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellan, Halle Barry, Anna Paquin and Rebecca Romijn breathed life into fanboy favorite characters like Wolverine, Rogue and Magneto, and in doing so jumpstarted superhero films as a viable genre and a box office moneymaker.

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Best '30s Movies (10-1)

Tom Johnson — 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

10. 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' (1937)
Disney's musicalized version of the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale is a heady mixture of goofus comedy (the dwarfs' incessant bumbling), suspense (the evil queen's machinations), romance (the prince and Snow White's cuddly moments together) and tunes ('Whistle While You Work,' 'Some Day My Prince Will Come,' 'Heigh-Ho'). In the long and storied history of Disney, few films had more naysayers that had to gulp their words than this one. Recognizing the movie's instant significance and growing worldwide acclaim, AMPAS gave Walt an honorary Oscar in 1939. Factoid: MGM dancer Marge Champion was the real-life model for Snow White and spent grueling hours posing for Disney animators.

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9. 'Of Mice and Men' (1939)
John Steinbeck's greatest novel is brilliantly adapted to the screen with Burgess Meredith and Lon Chaney Jr. in the leads as George and Lennie, two California migrant ranch hands (the brains and the brawn, respectively) trying to stay alive during the Depression while avoiding a bullying foreman who has it in for Lennie. Chaney particularly registers as the mentally retarded gentle giant who just wants to raise rabbits; a portrayal a world away from his better known Wolf Man and Mummy roles. "Dean of American composers" Aaron Copland provides the evocative score.

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8. 'Duck Soup' (1933)
It's the Paramount-era Marx Brothers at their craziest before they hiked it across town to MGM and came under the ameliorating influence of studio wunderkind Irving Thalberg. Groucho's "Rufus T. Firefly," prime minister of fictional Freedonia, in this inspired insanity that was "discovered" in the '70s by college kids who interpreted all the antic mayhem as a premeditated antiwar satire. (Groucho declares war on neighboring Sylvania for a perceived slight. Think Iraq with a laugh track.) Includes the classic "mirror sequence" and Margaret Dumont in strict perseverance mode as Groucho's long-suffering straightwoman.

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7. 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' (1939)
In an era of flip-flopping politicians who seem to act solely in service of political expediency, it's only in the annals of history (and movies) that we find leadership that really measures up. And no one's done it better on the big screen than Jimmy Stewart as junior Senator Jefferson Smith; a trusting soul who travels to D.C. only to see his idealistic hopes crushed by the graft of special interest money men. Smith's one-man filibuster ranks among Frank Capra's most stirring movie moments. Won the Oscar for Best Original Story.

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6. 'The Public Enemy' (1931)
Among Warner Bros. Studios' deep roster of '30s tough guys, none was more iconic than James Cagney. Here he plays Prohibition-era hoodlum Tom Powers, who works his way up the mobster ranks in Chicago and makes plenty of "hey-hey" before the chickens come home to roost (including giving his girlfriend, played by Mae Clark, a breakfast grapefruit in the kisser). The ending, with a mummified Tom "dropped off" and propped up against his front door while his adoring mother cluelessly plumps bed pillows in anticipation of his arrival home from the hospital still sends shivers.

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5. 'Bride of Frankenstein ' (1935)
The monster's back ... and this time he's got a girl. Boris Karloff reprises his most famous role as Dr. Frankenstein's laboratory creation with Elsa Lanchester matching him shriek for grunt as his "manufactured" bride. Director James Whale deftly juxtaposes whimsy with horror and pathos, and the movie is immeasurably aided by composer Fran Waxman's moody leitmotifs, as well as John Mescall's cinematography, which makes effective use of what he termed "Rembrandt lighting." Not until "The Godfather: Part II" 40 years later would audiences witness something like this: a sequel that was an improvement on a classic original.

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4. 'It Happened One Night' (1934)
Claudette Colbert stars in this, the grandpappy of all rom-com road movies, as a pampered rich girl who skips out on her controlling father and meets "everyman" newspaper reporter Clark Gable on the open road during the height of the Depression. The film was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director -- Frank Capra, Actor, Actress and Screenplay). If that's not enough, sales of undershirts plummeted across the U.S. when Gable stripped off his shirt to reveal nothing but buff pecs.

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3. 'City Lights' (1931)
Charlie Chaplin in full "Little Tramp" regalia falls in love with a blind girl (Virginia Cherrill) selling flowers on the street who mistakes him for a millionaire. Undeterred, the tramp manages to pay for an operation that restores sight to the girl. The last scene, with Chaplin hopeful, embarrassed and yearning looking at the girl (now crestfallen) as she takes the measure of the man who she thought was her knight errant is, well, devastating. Probably the greatest silent film (outside of some Keystone, Essanay and Mutual comedy two-reelers) that Chaplin ever made.

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2. 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939)
More than a musical or even a movie, 'Oz' has become a rite of passage; a cherished icon of the very best of our pop-cultural patrimony. The cast (Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, Jack Haley, Frank Morgan and Margaret Hamilton) are so spot-on that each became forever associated with their individual characters (much to the chagrin of some, like Lahr). No matter, the movie is pure joy from the first sepia-toned Kansas scenes and the burst of Technicolor when Judy opens the farmhouse door onto the menagerie that is Oz to her final teary goodbye to her companions. Winner of the Best Song Oscar ('Over the Rainbow') which, over the years, became inextricably linked with the Garland mythos.

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1. 'Gone With the Wind' (1939)
Author Margaret Mitchell's classic romantic page-turner of the Civil War became the most entertaining soap opera ever to hit the big screen. Featuring largely unknown English actress Vivian Leigh in the universally coveted role of coltish heroine Scarlett O'Hara and Clark Gable -- everyone's unanimous choice -- as Rhett Butler, the movie still stands as one of the greatest achievements of storytelling on film. From the first strains of Max Steiner's soaring score to Rhett's "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" exit, the film pulsates with iconic scenes and lines. Ten Oscars include Best Picture, Director (Victor Fleming), Actress (Leigh), Supporting Actress (Hattie McDaniel, the first black actor to ever receive a statuette) and Screenplay.

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<< 20-11

Morris Dickstein on '30s Movies: Screwball Brilliance and What Happened in 1939

Best '30s Movies (20-11)

Tom Johnson — 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

20. 'Swing Time' (1936)
With its wonderful mix of tap numbers and ballroom routines, all set to a shimmering score by Jerome Kern, and a couple of first-rate comical second bananas (Victor Moore and Helen Broderick), 'Swing Time' is probably the best-realized movie in the entire Fred & Ginger canon. Astaire and Rogers have never been more engaging and insouciant than in 'Pick Yourself Up' or lighter than air than in the lilting 'Waltz in Swing Time.' And Fred's 'Bojangles of Harlem' number, where he hoofs with three silhouetted shadows of himself (preceded by an inventive "line dance" with some leggy chorines), was light-years ahead of its time cinematically.

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19. 'Modern Times' (1936)
In his last silent comedy (albeit with sound effects), Charlie Chaplin rages against the machine as a human cog in a giant, soulless assembly line that evokes themes from Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis.' The movie comments on the desperate lengths people had to go to survive during the Depression, often sacrificing individuality and even identity in favor of modern economies of scale. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, appears as an orphan girl on the run from police. A man of many talents, writer/director Chaplin also composed the score which includes 'Smile,' a tune famously covered by Nat King Cole, among others.

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18. 'King Kong' (1933)
We all know the big lug is putty in Fay Wray's miniscule hands, and that he falls (both figuratively and literally) in a big way for the blonde bombshell's elfin charms. Kong's cinematic debut in 1933 was a groundbreaking event. Although the clunky stop-motion animation of the big ape swatting planes atop a Manhattan skyscraper may seem archaic now, it held movie audiences spellbound 76 years ago, making it truly the progenitor of all outsized monster movies to come.

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17. 'The Thin Man' (1934)
Urbane William Powell as Nick Charles meets his distaff match in Nora (Myrna Loy). They're a married couple (retired detective and heiress, respectively) who solve crimes as effortlessly as they mix martinis. About the only thing out of Nick and Nora's comfort zone is their precocious, unpredictable yet beloved wire-haired fox terrier, Asta. Based on the mystery novel by Dashiell Hammett, 'The Thin Man' was the first of six installments starring Powell and Loy as filmdom's wittiest crime-solvers. Factoid: The 'Thin Man' of the title is not Nick Charles but the name of the prime suspect in the film.

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16. 'Grand Hotel' (1932)
More star power is on display than in the heavens in MGM's ambitious mounting of a film (one of the first) that weaves together various stories and characters into a rich narrative tapestry. Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Joan Crawford and Lewis Stone star as denizens of Berlin's luxurious Grand Hotel. The film, which was adapted from a play based on a book, became, years later, a hit musical on Broadway. Quotable Quotes: This is the one where Garbo emotes, "I want to be alone."

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15. 'Frankenstein' (1931)
Universal Studios ushered in the Golden Age of horror with this brilliantly directed (by James Whale) adaptation of the immortal Mary Shelley tale of science gone terribly awry. Lurching through the role of a lifetime, Boris Karloff became indelibly associated with the misunderstood monster. As such, he delivered a touching performance filled with pathos that was at the opposite end of the spectrum from Jack Pierce's chilling makeup; a visage that would set the iconic mold for all future pretenders to the Frankenstein's monster throne. Which just leaves us to say: "It's Alive!"

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14. 'Mutiny on the Bounty' (1935)
A vast ye maties! A huge hit in its day (and winner of the Best Picture Oscar), 'Bounty' chronicles the real-life mutiny led by Fletcher Christian (Clark Gable) against the puritanical Captain Bligh (Charles Laughton in full ogre mode). Neither of its two remakes -- with Marlon Brando, then Mel Gibson in the Christian role -- approached the critical and popular success of this version. The film (which Gable considered his favorite) was just another in a series of stepping-stones that resulted in the actor being crowned the king of Hollywood.

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13. 'M' (1931)
German Director Fritz Lang's first sound film is a knockout, with Peter Lorre absolutely chilling as Hans Beckert, a serial killer and pedophile who preys on children in 1930s Berlin, all the while whistling 'In the Hall of the Mountain King' from Grieg's 'Peer Gynt.' Although the polizei are on the case, it isn't long before the underworld decides to root out the killer themselves (his murders and the attendant publicity are bad for business). Lang's avowed favorite among all the films he directed, 'M' marked Lorre's first starring role and was a big reason he was typecast as a villain for years afterwards.

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12. 'Bringing Up Baby' (1938)
Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn are a top-notch screwball duo in this comedy trifle directed by Howard Hawks about a nerdy paleontologist (Grant) who is wooed by a crackpot socialite (Hepburn) while both try to corral an escaped pet leopard (the titular "Baby") who's loose in the wilds of Connecticut. Grant and Hepburn would pair up two more times in the next couple of years in equally beguiling comedies ('Holiday' and 'The Philadelphia Story'), proving that their comic chemistry was deft indeed.

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11. 'Wuthering Heights' (1939)
Emily Bronte's first (and only) novel, with its overarching themes of thwarted love and class division in Victorian England, makes it to the screen mostly intact. Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier as ill-fated lovers Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff still make schoolgirls' hearts flutter at "what might have been," and Gregg Toland's fog-shrouded cinematography (which won an Oscar) works wonders in setting the appropriate moody scene. William Wyler directs from an angsty screenplay by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur; on sabbatical from their usual rapid-fire comedy milieu.

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<< 30-21 10-1 >>

Morris Dickstein on '30s Movies: Screwball Brilliance and What Happened in 1939

Best '30s Movies (30-21)

Tom Johnson — 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

30. 'Hunchback of Notre Dame' (1939)
Charles Laughton commands the screen in perhaps his best role, as Quasimodo the disfigured bell-ringer of Notre Dame Cathedral and literature's original 'Elephant Man.' In heroic fashion he risks all to save the woman of his dreams, gypsy girl Esmeralda (Maureen O'Hara), from the evil clutches of the Parisian constabulary. This adaptation of Victor Hugo's timeless novel takes liberties with the original ending (Esmeralda and Quasimodo die in the book), but, nonetheless, is the default version that most other film versions have copied.

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29. 'Ninotchka' (1939)
The famed Ernst Lubitsch directorial "touch" is on full display in Greta Garbo's penultimate film before she permanently retired from the screen and became almost as famous a recluse as she had been an actress. Garbo plays the title character, an apparatchik who is sent to Paris to retrieve three wayward Russian envoys who've become seduced by the West and gone AWOL. It isn't long before Ninotchka herself falls prey to the beauty of the City of Light as shown to her by a charming expatriate Count (Melvyn Douglas). The film, which was among the first to criticize (satirize, really) the Soviet system, later became a popular stage and then film musical starring Fred Astaire in the Douglas role with Cyd Charisse as a dancing Ninotchka.

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28. 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' (1938)
Lightning struck twice when the cast of 'Captain Blood' reunited three years later to invigorate this folkloric tale of everyone's favorite wealth-redistributing Anglo-Saxon and his band of merry men. Errol Flynn is, hands down, the most photogenic bandit Sherwood Forest ever concealed, with Olivia De Havilland fetching as Maid Marian. Throw in Basil Rathbone -- hissable as Robin's archenemy Sir Guy of Gisbourne -- and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Oscar-winning score, and you have rollicking fun that even Little John couldn't shake a stick at.

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27. 'The Lady Vanishes' (1938)
Travelers on a trans-European train are perplexed when an elderly governess (Dame May Whitty) seemingly vanishes into thin air. Michael Redgrave, Margaret Lockwood and Paul Lukas co-star in one of Alfred Hitchcock's better earlier efforts. And well that is was; Hollywood-bound Hitch needed a big hit to establish his credibility Stateside, as his previous three films -- all made in Britain -- were consecutive flops.

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26. 'Stagecoach' (1939)
Although Thomas Mitchell walked off with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a boozy doctor, director John Ford turned John Wayne (as "The Ringo Kid") into a household name and archetypal Western hero in this, the Duke's breakout role. Claire Trevor, Andy Devine and John Carradine are other stagecoach passengers trying to make it to safety during an Apache uprising, and they'll fare better with gunslinger Ringo on board. Duke and Pappy would go on to make a series of seminal Westerns together but at a price: Their co-dependent relationship, an alternating hot-and-cold friendship that lasted for decades, could flummox the most probing psychoanalyst.

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25. 'The Invisible Man' (1933)
This adaptation (forget all others) of H.G. Wells' classic novel about a mad scientist run amok under the cloak of invisibility ranks as an all-time great in the annals of film horror. Claude Rains is deliciously malevolent as Dr. Jack Griffin (or at least his disembodied voice is, since Rains is bandaged through most of the film). Comely Gloria Stuart (the elderly Rose from 'Titanic') co-stars in a movie brilliantly directed by Universal Studios' horror maestro, James Whale.

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24. 'The Four Feathers' (1939)
Honor's at stake when a British army officer (John Clements) who's just resigned his commission is branded a coward -- given a white feather -- by his three friends and fellow officers on the eve of a military campaign into the Sudan. Ralph Richardson co-stars (as one of the chiding officers) in a movie where courage triumphs, evil is vanquished and everyone keeps a stiff upper lip. Produced by Alexander Korda and directed by his brother Zoltan.

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23. 'Stage Door' (1937)
Rich society girl Terry Randall (Katharine Hepburn) goes incognito and tries to make it on Broadway without dropping names or finessing family connections. Gregory La Cava directs and Ginger Rogers co-stars along with Eve Arden and Lucille Ball in this adaptation of the George Kaufman/Edna Ferber hit of young theater hopefuls sharing their ups and downs in a cramped boarding house. This one contains the classic line (for Hepburn impersonators, especially): "The calla lilies are in bloom ..."

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22. 'Dracula' (1931)
Bela Lugosi, um, cut his teeth on this role as Transylvania's most famous nightcrawler, and in so doing spawned what has become (especially recently) a cottage industry of movies and TV shows devoted to all things that suck ... blood. But the definitive version of Bram Stoker's vampire tale continues to be this film, with Lugosi fangtastic as the Count. Factoid: a Spanish-language version of the movie was filmed simultaneously on the same sets (at night but sans Bela), and some horror aficionados consider it to be superior.

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21. 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (1930)
The first (and perhaps best) anti-war film ever made, has Lew Ayres and his school buddies enlisting (after prodding from their jingoistic teacher) to fight for the Kaiser in World War I. It isn't long before utter disillusionment begins to set in. The futility and absurd contradiction of battle is encapsulated in a scene when Ayres' character mortally wounds a French soldier and then tries desperately to save his life in a bombed-out crater in No-Man's Land. Adapted from the novel by Erich Maria Remarque, the film won Oscars for Best Picture and Director (Lewis Milestone).

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<< 40-31 20-11 >>

Morris Dickstein on '30s Movies: Screwball Brilliance and What Happened in 1939

Best '30s Movies

Tom Johnson — 2009-11-19T06:00:00+00:00

Some theorize that the greatest art is born out of uncertainty and hardship. If that's the case, the 1930s certainly measure up. The Great Depression and World War II were austere bookends to a tumultuous decade, and the types of films released three-quarters of a century ago reflect that.

Musical escapism ('Swing Time,' '42nd Street') and screwball comedies ('Bringing Up Baby,' 'My Man Godfrey,' 'The Awful Truth') jollied theatergoers out of their torpor during the darkest days of '30s. For adrenaline junkies who counted thrills and chills as a boost, Universal Studios began its classic series of horror films ('Frankenstein,' 'Bride of Frankenstein,' 'Dracula' and 'The Invisible Man'). Finally, during the last year of the decade, nine seminal movies, including 'Gone With the Wind' and 'The Wizard of Oz' unspooled before audiences suffused with nostalgia about a world that was soon to change forever. Some theorize that the greatest art is born out of uncertainty and hardship. If that's the case, the 1930s certainly measure up. The Great Depression and World War II were austere bookends to a tumultuous decade, and the types of films released three-quarters of a century ago reflect that.

Musical escapism ('Swing Time,' '42nd Street') and screwball comedies ('Bringing Up Baby,' 'My Man Godfrey,' 'The Awful Truth') jollied theatergoers out of their torpor during the darkest days of '30s. For adrenaline junkies who counted thrills and chills as a boost, Universal Studios began its classic series of horror films ('Frankenstein,' 'Bride of Frankenstein,' 'Dracula' and 'The Invisible Man'). Finally, during the last year of the decade, nine seminal movies, including 'Gone With the Wind' and 'The Wizard of Oz' unspooled before audiences suffused with nostalgia about a world that was soon to change forever.

40. '42nd Street' (1933)
The ultimate backstage musical sees an ailing Broadway impresario (Warner Baxter) trying to put on what could be his last show. But when his star twists her ankle, what's a producer to do? Enter tap-happy Ruby Keeler -- serendipitously -- from stage left. The Harry Warren/Al Dubin score contains such standards as the title tune, 'You're Getting to Be a Habit With Me' and 'Shuffle Off to Buffalo.' And although the plot creaks with corniness, the melodies (even 75 years later) remain evergreen inspiring as they did a real hit Broadway musical version of the film in the 1980s.

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39. 'The Blue Angel' (1930)
Marlene Dietrich vamps it up and croons her signature song ('Falling in Love Again') as Lola Lola, a cabaret performer who mesmerizes a respected teacher (Emil Jannings) into throwing his life away for her. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, the film had a tough time with censors in the U.S. (it was banned in soon-to-be Nazi Germany) cementing as it did Dietrich's status as one of sound film's first bona fide vixens.

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38. 'You Can't Take It with You' (1938)
Despite winning Best Picture and Director (Frank Capra) Oscars, this adaptation of the George S. Kaufman/Moss Hart Broadway comedy hasn't traveled well through the decades. The zaniness of the eccentric Sycamore clan headed by Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) seems a bit forced and less endearing with the passage of time, especially vis-à-vis Capra's more classic '30s efforts (see 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and 'It Happened One Night'). Still, even this "Capra-corn" is buoyed by a bright cast that includes James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold and a very young, pirouetting Ann Miller.

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37. 'I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang' (1932)
Paul Muni plays a decorated World War I veteran who is wrongly convicted and forced to labor on a Southern chain gang before he can make his escape to Chicago. Trouble is; he can't outrun his past. The movie caused many viewers to question the U.S. penal system and led to some reforms. And the film's final scene, with a broken Muni backing furtively away into the darkness while telling how he survives ("I steal") is as chilling to view now as it was more than 70 years ago.

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36. 'Captain Blood' (1935)
Errol Flynn as a wronged Irish doctor (Peter Blood) is deported to the Caribbean but escapes and becomes a privateer in this quintessential swashbuckler that was also the actor's breakout role into major stardom. Olivia De Havilland is radiant as Flynn's object of affection and Basil Rathbone strikes just the right duplicitous pose as Flynn's onetime partner in crime who becomes his sworn enemy. Flynn's and Rathbone's swordplay (both men were accomplished fencers) is the film's highpoint.

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35. 'Little Women' (1933)
Director (actresses a specialty) George Cukor helmed this adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic Civil War-era novel of the tight-knit March sisters coming of age under the gentle tutelage of their mother Marmee (Spring Byington). Katharine Hepburn is fine -- a case of typecasting, really -- as independent-minded Jo, with Joan Bennett as Amy and Edna May Oliver wonderfully brittle as Aunt March. Remade a few times and with a decided feminist slant in 1994.

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34. 'Les Miserables' (1935)
Long before the hit Broadway musical, there was this definitive film version of Victor Hugo's immortal novel about one man's obsession and justice miscarried to an illogical extreme. After serving a decade in prison for swiping a loaf of bread, Jean Valjean (Frederic March) breaks his parole and is relentlessly pursued -- for another 10 years -- by Inspector Javert (Charles Laughton) who enthusiastically subscribes to the "two strikes and you're out" brand of justice.

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33. 'My Man Godfrey' (1936)
During the height of the Depression, a dizzy New York socialite (Carole Lombard) hires a vagrant named Godfrey (William Powell), whom she meets at the city dump, to be the family butler. Lombard and Powell -- both screwball comedy veterans -- are hysterical in a movie that takes the idle rich to task (Godfrey refuses to romance his beguiled employer, feeling that such a relationship isn't appropriate and might imperil their employer-employee compact). The film, directed by Gregory La Cava, was nominated for Oscars in all major categories (except Best Picture) but didn't win a single statuette.

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32. 'Dodsworth' (1936)
When his frivolous wife Fran (Ruth Chatterton) refuses to act her age and begins an affair during a trip to Europe, retired automobile industry executive Sam Dodsworth (Walter Huston) begins to despair -- until he meets a woman (Mary Astor) who embodies all the steadfast traits his wife lacks. The film, directed by William Wyler from Sinclair Lewis's novel, is a small masterpiece of the deep price marital strife exacts, particularly when a "second chance" presents itself.

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31. 'The Awful Truth' (1937)
Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are New York City high society types, married and suspicious of each other's fidelity. No sooner do they start divorce proceedings (they split custody of their dog!) than they begin to undermine each other's early stabs at dating -- proving that you can't have it both ways, at least in vintage screwball comedies. Directed with considerable elan by Leo McCarey, who won an Oscar.

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30-21 >>

Morris Dickstein on '30s Movies: Screwball Brilliance and What Happened in 1939

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