This production also gets my vote for one of the best screenplays of the decade. The script by writing team Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio is unbelievably tight, clever and masterfully laced with heightened dialog. It is a rare big budget film that makes one find pleasure in the spoken word.

Both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley established long-term careers from their presence in the film. Their stars were rising but their attractive coupling made them into household names. The real standout was Johnny Depp as the wobbly voiced Jack Sparrow. Depp created an iconic role melding the typical pirate imagry with a hazy eyed bravado based on Keith Richard's druggy persona.

The subsequent films in the series may have drained some of the fun from this original outing, but it still stands as a remarkable piece of pop cinema. Its so good it will make you forget you're watching a commercial for an amusement park ride.




A Russian teen dies in childbirth in a London hospital. The dying girl leaves behind her baby and a diary written in her native tongue. Anna (Naomi Watts), a midwife, finds the name of a local restaurateur in the diary. Anna takes the diary to the restaurant to have its owner Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl) translate its contents. He does so.

Semyon is a powerful Russian mob boss and the teen was one of his prostitutes. Along with his son Kirill (Vincent Cassel), Semyon had raped the doomed girl. As the crime is brought to life, Semyon's driver, Nikolai Luzhin (Viggo Mortensen) begins to ascend the mob's food chain. It isn't long before Nikolai discovers the truth of his partners and is forced to choose between his best interests or helping Anna find some sense of justice.

Sure its dark and depressing, but it is enthralling.

David Cronenberg has broken away from his cheesy past (The Fly, The Dead Zone, eXistenZ) and has created a couple of somber, intelligent films (both on this list).

Caution: Strong sexual content, violence, language, full-frontal nudity




Sometimes style makes the movie.

Guy Ritchie managed to create this fun crime romp just before he imploded into releasing hollow, detached crud. Leaning on his talent for tying multiple narrative strings into a tight little bow, Ritchie works an ensemble of London criminals and criminal wannabes off one another leading to a frenzied final act.

Ritchie's script is hectic but combined with his visual flair, makes for an exciting film.

The cast includes Jason Statham, Brad Pitt, Dennis Farina, Denicio Del Toro, Vinnie Jones and Stephen Graham.

Caution: Violence, language




Ethan and Joel Coen effectively have three kinds of movies, the dark crime flick (No Country for Old Men, Blood Simple, Miller's Crossing), the self-aware unapproachable flick (Intolerable Cruelty, Burn After Reading, Barton Fink) and then they have their wild goofy movies (Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski). This one rests in the third category.

The Coens revamp Homer's The Odyssey into a sprawling tale of criminals surviving in 1930's America. Evertt, Pete and Delmar (George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson) escape from prison and make their way across the woods, swamps and small towns of the South. On their way, the three debate faith, God and the meaning of life. They also run from the police, find Robert Johnson, cut a popular album, run from the Klan, a cyclops Bible salesman and are seduced by sirens. Oh, and Pete is turned into a horny toad.

There are competing elements that push me to recommend this movie. The soundtrack is stellar - perhaps the best of the decade. Tim Blake Nelson's performance is likewise notable. The Coen's depict a fresh look at our American past with obvious affection. Even Clooney, who generally just acts like George Clooney wearing different clothes, gives an honest to God performance that proves the man can indeed act.




With a run time that is almost three hours, Martin Scorsese's biopic of Howard Hughes is a bit long in the tooth. John Logan's script has its slow points and seems to get unfocused at times. Logan does capture his larger-than-life subject however. Hughes led as big of a life as a man can and shoehorning his amazing tale even into three hours had to be a challenge. Logan gives us an approachable character even though Hughes did not appear to be that welcoming of a figure.

Leonardo DiCaprio is not the first actor to leap to mind when one thinks of who could pull this role off. When I heard he had been cast, I kept thinking of the miscasting of Anthony Hopkins in Oliver Stone's Nixon. Why not just get Kirk Cameron to play the role? How about Eddie Murphy? Pretty boy DiCaprio? Doesn't he have some teenage bubble gum movie to make? I was wrong, Scorsese was right. DiCaprio nailed the role masterfully. Where he failed to overcome Daniel Day-Lewis' overwhelming performance in Gangs of New York, DiCaprio commands this production and gives the best work of his career to this point.

This is not a perfect film. Its not even Scorsese's best picture. It is a solid biopic however and definitely worth seeing at least once.

Cautions: Nudity, sexual situations

Labels: list, miscellaneous, The Top 50 Movies of the 2000's