8 Best Movies of 2001

Here's the much anticipated best movies of 2001 showdown...

Sean:

Good lord. Talk about your dregs. This was a bad year for film. Many of the movies that were nominated for or won Academy Awards I did not see or I did not think were noteworthy. I was never going to see Gosford Park or Moulin Rouge, and I thoughts the Lord of the Rings movies were idealized fluff that were far too long. With the benefit of hindsight, Lord of the Rings would have made a great miniseries in the same vein as Game of Thrones. But perhaps you needed a Lord of the Ring to make a Game of Thrones (and GOT is way too violent and sexualized for a major cinema release). 

However, there were a couple of films that stood out, with my nomination for best movie of the year at the end.

Enemy at the Gates- A pretty standard action flick. The fact this is even listed here shows the lack of depth of quality film making as well as my general ignorance of the movies that came out this year.

Zoolander- A movie that I remember seeing previews for and thinking it would be awful. However, this was in reality a very funny movie to watch. This film developed a cult following which quickly bloomed into a full on cultural sensation, which sadly ruined many of the funny lines of the movie. 

Mulholland Drive- David Lynch. He sucks. Stupid movie that went nowhere.

Spy Game- This was an even better action flick than enemy at the gates, adding the element of spycraft and espionage, and casting Brad Pitt and Robert Redford in the two leading roles. A very enjoyable movie to watch. Blackhawk Down also falls under this heading.

I would write about Vanilla Sky here, but I think you will have enough to say about that movie for the both of us.

Oceans Eleven was the start of the ensemble cast movies, at least in my recent memory. Clearly they have been going on for a while before this, but this movie kicked off a flood of movies that followed it. 

I think the best movie of 2001 was Training Day. Denzel Washington up until this point had mostly if not always played the upstanding black character in a movie. However, in Training Day, he turned heel, playing the role of a dirty cop who would do whatever it took to get the results he wanted. He won an Oscar for his acting and the film did an excellent job, at least to my uninformed eyes and brain, conveying a little of what it was like to be a cop in an inner city.

Marty:

Wow, you are right.  2001 was a horrible year for film. Trash on trash on trash.  

Quick overview of the nominees...

Gosford Park: the token English film that is always nominated

Moulin Rouge: well made musical  but is still a musical.  The right way to see a musical is go to the actual show.¹

Lord of the Rings movies I don't think I have ever been able to stay awake for any of the trilogy.² Game of Thrones is so much better than Lord of the rings.  

A Beautiful Mind: the best of the nominees.  A solid and entertaining movie. Just not the best of the year.  

In the Bedroom: don't remember anything about this movie. I'd imagine it is depressing cause that's what the Oscars do.  

Other movie wise, you left out Ali.  Very solid biopic and Will Smith is awesome as Ali. He should have won over Denzel in Training Day.  

Speaking of Training Day, movie is really sweet to watch. Denzel is awesome in the heel role. I'd say it is the second best movie of the year. However, as you alluded to, Vanilla Sky was the best movie of 2001.  I'm sure this will be my lowest rated film of the year choice but haters always gonna hate.³  Vanilla Sky is an intense, thriller  with great performances that really makes you think about life and what makes life worth living. I've seriously thought about what I would do if I was given the option of either living out my life or instead entering into a lucid dream where I could relive my life over and over.  Would I always make the same choices in life? Or would my life by vastly different due to random events that I have no control over? Or would I end up exactly where I am because my choices will always be my choice? Or if I relived part of my life that had less heartache would I be better off?  I'm not sure how everything would end up, but I''m sure that it would be interesting to have the option to find out. Like the tech support dude says, "There are no guarantees, but remember: Even in the future, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour."  

So at the end of the day Vanilla Sky beats out Training Day because the film had something bigger to say than just a classic good cop vs. bad cop story.  

Sean:

You are right that "A Beautiful Mind" is the best of those nominees, and I didn't even see it. British period pieces can all go hang, if you ask me. You are spot on with Vanilla Sky. I think the acting in Training Day was better than the acting in Vanilla Sky, but the underlying message of the movie in Vanilla Sky was the best of all the movies made in 2001. Training Day isn't a movie that you would walk out of and discuss what things meant and what they did not. Vanilla Sky was. VS had you pondering existential questions and I wonder how much better it would have been with a better actor than Tom Cruise⁴ in the main role. That's interesting that you think Ali should have won. I saw it in theaters and I walked away unimpressed. I thought ALI was too long, boring, and just not an enjoyable movie to watch. Will Smith is made for a big budget action movie⁵ or a helpful black man role.⁶ Him in a biopic just doesn't work for me. 

Don't get me started on Peter Jackson. How do you make 3 movies out of a 333 page kids book? I guess the Twilight people know a thing or two about that. I would imagine people rated VS low because they were either confused about it or they did not like the ending, which is not really a happy one. I think this wraps up 2001, so it's onto 2002.

Marty:

By the way there was literally no chance that I would give you the last word on a discussion that involves the greatness that is Will Smith.  Will Smith transformed himself in Ali.  The film itself was so-so but Will Smith's performance as Ali was top-notch, which is why he should have won.  He's the biggest movie star in the world and almost every movie he makes is entertaining as hell because of him, which in my opinion is underrated.  Take I am Legend for example.  The entire film is basically him talking to himself or his dog.  There are only a few other actors who could have pulled that off.  Tom Hanks does that in Castaway and he gets an Oscar nomination, but Will Smith gets nothing.  Should he push himself more? Yes.  Was he wrong in turning down the role in Django? Maybe, but if he doesn't want to say the n-word over and over then that's his call.   But seriously, you know exactly what you are going to get when you go to a Will Smith movie: charm, charisma and entertainment.  

¹  Peter Jackson is such a 1 trick pony.  His other movies like King Kong have been unspectacular at best. And his newest trilogy is a poor man's Lord of the Rings.  Seriously, 3 movies for the Hobbit.  That is insane.  I think Peter Jackson would make Green Ham and Eggs a trilogy if he had a chance.

²   Yes a bit pretentious, but of course I'm going to say since I just ordered season tickets for Broadway musicals.  Who is fancy now?

³  The film is 40% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and a 6.8 on IMDB.

⁴  At this point, Tom Cruise had just finished his divorce from Nicole Kidman phase, so he was throwing himself into his work, with little to no attention to his craft; See also Liam Neeson after the late passing of his wife.

⁵  I Am Legend, ID4, Hancock, Wild Wild West, MIB, Bad Boy, Bad Boys 2

⁶  Legend of Bagger Vance, Hitch, Pursuit of Happyness