Top 100 of the 00's: 26 to 49: Almost There!

26) Brick
"Maybe I'll just sit here and bleed at you."

The noir had a brief resurgence in the 00's and this is one of the finest selections of it. Setting a basic noir in High School was perhaps one of the smartest moves I've seen a director/writer make in a long time. The mystery is also pretty good too.

27) Requiem for a Dream
"I'm somebody now, Harry. Everybody likes me. Soon, millions of people will see me and they'll all like me. I'll tell them about you, and your father, how good he was to us. Remember? It's a reason to get up in the morning. It's a reason to lose weight, to fit in the red dress. It's a reason to smile. It makes tomorrow all right. What have I got Harry, hm? Why should I even make the bed, or wash the dishes? I do them, but why should I? I'm alone. Your father's gone, you're gone. I got no one to care for. What have I got, Harry? I'm lonely. I'm old."

Thinking about doing drugs? Well, when you're done with this film, you'll not only never want to take drugs but...yeah, that's about it. No one comes home happy after watching this.

28) Kingdom of Heaven: The Director's Cut
"To kill an infidel, the Pope has said, is not murder. It is the path to Heaven."

Butchered by Fox on its initial release in order to get more screenings per day, it's a marvel to see the film that was supposed to be. Part critique of certain wars waged today and part historical look into religious fanaticism, the film is not a glorious war epic like "Troy." It's a long look at the costs of war and what it makes out of people.

29) The 40-Year Old Virgin
"I hope you have a big trunk because I'm puttin' my bike in it."

The film that rewrote how most comedies are made today and it's 2 hours long. Yet, for 2 hours, I'm laughing throughout it. It also proved another thing about making a great comedy: it comes from the heart.

30) The Royal Tenenbaums
"Let's shag ass."

A tragi-comedy made the only way Wes Andersen knows how. Quirky but grounded enough in reality so that we can relate to the people in the film.

31) A Very Long Engagement
"If I don't break the peel, Manech is alive."

I'm completely in the minority here saying that this is better than "Amelie" but eh. I don't really need to justify it. It combined two things I love: quirky French direction and historical dramas.

32) The Pianist
"I was cold."

After "Schindler's List", there really wasn't a Holocaust film that could top it. Then came this. Combining Roman Polanski's experience and a strong story of survival, this film shows how one man can survive one of the worst periods in human civilization and still come out of it a human-being.

33) The Proposition
"I will civilize this land."

Aussies really know how to make the post-apocalypse even if this takes place way before then. Taking place on the border of civilization and oblivion, this, kind of like "The Pianist", is an evaluation of humanity.

34) Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
"This is every shade of wrong."

A post-modern riff on both noirs and action films, this film, marking the grand return of Robert Downey Jr. to our hearts, breaks down all the walls possible. 4th walls, cliches, and everything is disposed of here. It is perhaps the most cynical, meta-critique of Hollywood films since "The Purple Rose of Cairo."

35) Batman Begins
"Bats frighten me. It's time my enemies shared my dread."

This is the reason why we have good superhero films. By making one of the most critically reviled franchises and bringing it back from oblivion, this film proved that anything can be restarted back from zero. Sure the action sequences make little sense sometimes but, by the end, it feels like the return of a great American icon.

36) Superbad
"I'm assuming you all have guns and crack!"

If there was a film to ever have one of the most accurate looks into being in High School, "Superbad" is it. Like "40 Year Old Virgin", this is another Apatow classic that places more on heart and characters instead of cheap fart jokes.

37) X2
"When will these people learn how to fly?"

An enjoyable romp and, by far, is the best Marvel film to come to the screen. Even if the first and third installments were mediocre at best, this one at least had enough exciting action sequences and character turns to justify its existence.

38) Adaptation
"Hey, I think I should play me."

Charlie Kaufman can do no wrong. That's all that needs to be said.

39) Jesus Camp

Perhaps the scariest film of all time, this documentary shows how the youth of America can be brainwashed with far-right wing thinking. What's scarier about this film is that it isn't edited to give this camp a bad image. Even the head agreed when this film was released that it accurately represented them.

40) The Prestige
"Now you're looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you're not really looking. You don't really want to work it out. You want to be fooled."

Like Charlie Kaufman, the Nolans can do no wrong. A dark film where all the pieces matter, "The Prestige" is one of those films where your sympathies shift widely throughout the film. Once you like someone, the next minute you hate them. These shifts would've been maddening under less-capable hands but, under the Nolans, it works.

41) No Country for Old Men
"Stand still, please."

Cormac McCarthy is a hard writer to adapt. Much of the brilliance of his works comes from his words. When the Coens chose to adapt this, it only meant something brilliant. They didn't disappoint.

42) Shaun of the Dead/ Hot Fuzz
"Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?"

Tied for a reason. Edgar Wright has made a new genre with these two films. They're parodies but not spoofs. These send up a genre but, in the end, they have the same heart as a film by Apatow.

43) Minority Report
"Mr. Marks, by mandate of the District of Columbia Precrime Division, I'm placing you under arrest for the future murder of Sarah Marks and Donald Dubin that was to take place today, April 22 at 0800 hours and four minutes."

A great mystery and a great adaptation of the sci-fi master: Philip K. Dick. It's amazing to think it took so long to put this together. Like any great sci-fi film, it asks hard questions. When is it right to arrest someone? How are we so sure that someone is prone to become a danger to society?

44) The Wrestler
"I just want to tell you, I'm the one who was supposed to take care of everything. I'm the one who was supposed to make everything okay for everybody. It just didn't work out like that. And I left. I left you. You never did anything wrong. I used to try to forget about you. I used to try to pretend that you didn't exist, but I can't. You're my girl. You're my little girl. And now, I'm an old broken down piece of meat... and I'm alone. And I deserve to be all alone. I just don't want you to hate me."

Just read that quote and you'll see why I love this film as much as you enjoyed reading.

45) Catch Me If You Can
"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream. The first mouse quickly gave up and drowned. The second mouse, wouldn't quit. He struggled so hard that eventually he churned that cream into butter and crawled out. Gentlemen, as of this moment, I am that second mouse."

A brilliant caper that is even more brilliant knowing that a great deal of it actually happens.

46) Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
"First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the pirate's code to apply and you're not. And thirdly, the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner."

This film came out of nowhere. Seriously, if you remember the trailers, it looked like a joke. Then Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush came on the screen. This is how magic happens, folks. Sometimes Transformers is right. There is more than meets the eye. Or aye if you want to speak in pirate.

47) Kill Bill
"I am finished doing what I swore an oath to God 28 years ago to never do again. I've created, "something that kills people." And in that purpose, I was a success. I've done this because, philosophically, I am sympathetic to your aim. I can tell you with no ego, this is my finest sword. If on your journey, you should encounter God, God will be cut."

Just pure fun. Watching both movies over again is a blast every time. Sometimes films really don't have to say something incredibly profound to be completely memorable and enjoyable.

48) AI
"My brain is falling out."

Underrated is one word for it. Technically Kubrick's last gift to the world as envisioned by Spielberg, AI is more than just the "robot wants to be human" story. Yeah, it has that too but it really questions what makes humanity human. As opposed to "The Bicentennial Man", it lingers more on the questions of what love is and if the human race is really worth saving.

49) American Psycho
"Do you like Huey Lewis?"

It's scary to think that this film could've been easily made again in the late 00's and set then and it wouldn't really make any difference. It's a long, hard look at the cost of what a profit-driven society creates.