BOT's Top 100 Films of the 2010s: The Countdown | List complete

[Rorschach]

13 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 88

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"Hey guys, you ever see that really old movie, Empire Strikes Back?"

148 points, 11 lists

directed by Anthony & Joe Russo | US | 2016

 

The Pitch: Disagreement over international oversight of the Avengers fractures them into opposing factions—one led by Steve Rogers and the other by Tony Stark.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 2

Metacritic: 75

Box Office: $1.153 billion WW

Awards: Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Butt-Kicker (Chris Evans)

BOT History: #23, Top Movies of 2016; #19, Top Comic Book Movies of All Time (2019)

Critic Opinion: "Posing serious questions about violence and vigilantism while reveling in both, Captain America: Civil War is overlong but surprisingly light on its feet. It builds upon the plotlines of previous Avengers outings, bringing together known marquee quantities and introducing the Black Panther and a new Spidey in winning fashion [...] Call it 'civil war' or call it brand extension; call it a 'cinematic universe' or a corporate behemoth—the latest Marvel extravaganza furthers the studio's cross-pollination of action franchises in a way that's sure to satisfy devotees." - Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter

BOT Sez: "The Russos and screenwriters can turn the Marvel exposition mud into wine. The film builds splendidly, kind of owning its TV-like overstuffedness and structure of jumping between situations. Bucky or Accords would've streamlined the entire thing more - Marvel wants to have its cake and eat it too, and it mostly works actually. Cements the Cap films as the cornerstone of Marvel quality." - @Gopher

Commentary: I will politely abstain from this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 87

Spoiler

 

 

"Okay then, Lynch, what *is* the worst way to die?"

149 points, 14 lists

directed by Adam Green | US | 2010

 

The Pitch: Three young skiers become stranded on a chairlift with no one to call for help.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 43

Box Office: $3.1m WW

Awards: Saturn Award for Best Horror Film (nomination)

BOT History: none

Critic Opinion: "A minimalist setup delivers maximum fright in Frozen, a nifty little chiller that balances its cold terrain with an unexpectedly warm heart." - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

BOT Sez: "With just 3 actors and pretty much a single location this kept me much more interested than many other "horror" movies. And for some reason it seemed more gripping with each viewing." - @James

Commentary: By far the most unexpected entry into the list is the survival thriller that pitted three protagonists against freezing cold, deadly altitude, and wolves. I remember watching this alone in a theater in the spring of 2010 and finding it quite chilling, but I never would have expected it to show up on so many decade lists - evidently, despite the lukewarm critical reception, this ruthlessly icy story struck a chord with BOT members. Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by the film's post-release popularity, since I heard they released a sequel last November. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 11, 2020 by Jake Gittes

[RealLyre]

Short Term 12 & Carol making this list is amazing (even if it's kinda low for the latter)

 

hopefully the Handmaiden & Portrait of a Lady on Fire are more like the top 50. 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 86

Spoiler

 

 

"What makes you think this is my first time?"

149 points, 20 lists

directed by Sam Mendes | UK, US | 2012

 

The Pitch: James Bond is up against former MI6 agent Raoul Silva, who wants to discredit and kill M as revenge for abandoning him.

 

Metacritic: 81

Box Office: $1.108 billion WW

Awards: 2 Academy Awards, out of 5 nominations; 2 BAFTA awards, out of 8 nominations

BOT History: #2, Top Movies of 2012; #6, Top Movies of 2012 - The Revisiting (2017); BOFFY for Best Cinematography

Critic Opinion: "Skyfall is pretty much all you could want from a 21st Century Bond: cool but not camp, respectful of tradition but up to the moment, serious in its thrills and relatively complex in its characters but with the sense of fun that hasn't always been evident lately." - Kim Newman, Empire

BOT Sez: "Loved it. There's a couple of slow stretches but it's my favorite of the Craig films, most importantly because it has a memorable villain. Lots of great humor, solid action scenes, and a personal touch that isn't usually present in Bond films makes this a top 3 Bond film in my book." - @MrPink

Commentary: Our first entry to have hit 20 individual lists and, not coincidentally, the film with the lowest average point score (7.45; nothing else went below 8.0) in the top 100, illustrating how, with this scoring system, it was not necessarily enough to merely be very widely liked; the film in fact spent much of the scoring process hovering between roughly #80 and #120, only definitively securing a spot when over 75% of the lists were counted. Nevertheless it is, of course, a blockbuster favorite, the film that brought to Bond a prestige air that would be there to stay and worked the 50th-anniversary angle to its full advantage, becoming the biggest hit of the 2012 holiday season and pushing the franchise into billion-dollar territory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Plain Old Tele]

Y’all jumping on Bond’s poisoned dick, smh.

[MrPink]

Wow dumbass me was a fool. Casino Royale was Craig’s best, dumbass 2012 MrPink

[WrathOfHan]

These are unfortunate entries.

[The Panda]

I knew things were going to well once Carol popped up.  It seems we are in the franchise vomit section from now on, boys!

Edited April 12, 2020 by The Panda

[Jake Gittes]

Number 85

Spoiler

 

 

"I always think... ape better than human. I see now... how much like them we are."

156 points, 15 lists

directed by Matt Reeves | US | 2014

 

The Pitch: 10 years after the events of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, human survivors and genetically evolved apes find themselves on the edge of armed conflict.

 

Top 12 Placements: 3

Metacritic: 79

Box Office: $710m WW

Awards: Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects; 8 Saturn Award nominations

BOT History: #11, Top Movies of 2014; #48, Top 100 Films of the 21st Century (2015); BOFFY nominations for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor

Critic Opinion: "This is a film in which apes ride horses and shoot machine guns, sure, but also one that creates and deftly navigates a delicate political situation with strong parallels to real-world global hotspots, particularly the seemingly endless conflict in Israel and Palestine, where every step toward peace keeps getting dragged back by bloodshed. (That Dawn finds this in a story inspired by Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, the last and least of the original series, makes it even more of an achievement.)" - Keith Phipps, The Dissolve

BOT Sez: "The film is tense, smart, action-packed, sometimes heartwarming, and well-made. I think the beginning is the strongest part of the film as it sets up this beautiful contrast between the apes (who are evolving) and humans (who are decaying). However, even though the film portrays the humans in a worse light than the apes, it also makes sure to show that both sides have their moral shortcomings. Both sides are too distrustful of the other (admittedly for good reasons), which leads to petty conflicts. And each side has members who are willing to lie/cheat in order to help their side gain an advantage in the conflict. The result is something admirable: a film that isn't ready to just feed you a simple tale of good guys vs. bad guys." - @Dark Jedi Master 007

Commentary: The Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy gets representation on the list with its middle chapter, which saw director Matt Reeves replacing Rupert Wyatt and taking the series in a darker and tenser direction, making a remarkably serious-minded classicist tentpole that managed to deliver on spectacle even as its story kept the audiences rooting for there to be less action instead of more. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cap]

3 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 89

  Hide contents

 

 

"And I should have said "No" to you but I never say "No". And it's selfish because... because I just take everything and I don't know anything. And I don't know what I want. How could I when all I ever do is say "Yes" to everything?"

147 points, 14 lists

directed by Todd Haynes | UK, US | 2015

 

The Pitch: In the 1950s New York, a romance develops between a department store salesgirl and aspiring photographer and a wealthy older woman going through a divorce.

 

Metacritic: 94

Box Office: $42m WW

Awards: Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress (Rooney Mara); 6 Academy Award nominations; 9 BAFTA nominations, including Best Film

BOT History: 2 BOFFY nominations, including Best Actress (Mara)

Critic Opinion: "A serious melodrama about the geometry of desire, a dreamy example of heightened reality that fully engages emotions despite the exact calculations with which it's been made... 'Carol's' lush but controlled visual look is completely intoxicating. This is filmmaking done by masters, an experience to savor." - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

"The romance between Carol and department store sales clerk Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara) is predicated on accepting that there are real, non-negotiable consequences, both legal and social, for maintaining a non-hetero relationship of any kind; the film has no interest in dramatizing historical wrongs of the ’50s by offering characters opportunities to fight back, thereby vindicating present-day viewers for knowing better. How are a relationship’s opening stages negotiated when public life is a near-impossibility? How can feelings blossom under these circumstances? The answer: tersely, euphemistically (custody disputes frame the question of Carol’s fitness as a parent in terms of moral inquiry rather than homophobia), and by elision." - Vadim Rizov, Filmmaker Magazine

BOT Sez: " Blanchett is one of the great actors or our generation but imo, she is upstaged a little bit by Mara, who imo is the true strength of the film.  Her transformation from a nervous, unsure, hesitant and insecure girl into the confident and strong woman that she becomes, is really an amazing journey." - @baumer

"Probably the closest any period piece of recent years has come to matching the tone and character work of Mad Men, taking a story that could have been wildly melodramatic on screen and playing it subtly and without clichés and hysterics - but also with some expertly placed moments where the emotion breaks through, and it's all the more powerful because we'd seen the characters hold it back before. Mara's performance is in contention for the best of last year, and Blanchett's ethereal quality is perfect for the character who should be believably larger-than-life." - @Jake Gittes

Commentary: Following Safe, Far from Heaven and his great 2011 miniseries Mildred Pierce, Todd Haynes scored another female-centric triumph with this adaptation of a 1952 Patricia Highsmith novel about a lesbian relationship. Maintaining a careful distance rather than going for melodrama in the negative sense of that word, the film was a bigger hit with critics and cinephiles than in theaters (where it underperformed) and with Academy members (who somewhat controversially failed to nominate it for Best Picture and Director), but its standing among those who fell under its spell has remained strong in the years since its release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No reference to the greatest meme of the decade? 
 

Hmm.

 

Also. If #88 means the other two are making the lists, yay. If it means only one other is, ya’ll picked the wrong 2/3.  We we see. -holds up opera glasses-

[Jake Gittes]

8 minutes ago, Cap said:

No reference to the greatest meme of the decade? 

Which is...? (honest question)

[Jake Gittes]

Number 84

Spoiler

 

 

"You know what I hate about fucking banking? It reduces people to numbers. Here's a number - every 1% unemployment goes up, 40,000 people die, did you know that?"

156 points, 18 lists

directed by Adam McKay | US | 2015

 

The Pitch: The 2007-08 financial crisis, explained.

 

Top 12 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 81

Box Office: $133m WW

Awards: Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, out of 5 nominations

BOT History: #9, Top Movies of 2015; 8 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "There’s an unmistakable, scathing sense of outrage behind the whole endeavor, and it’s impossible not to admire McKay’s reckless willingness to do everything short of jumping through flaming hoops on a motorcycle while reading aloud from Keynes if that’s what it takes to get people to finally pay attention." - Andrew Barker, Variety

BOT Sez: "I loved Adam McKay's style, it was tight, claustrophobic, and the editing was very tight.  My favorite film, from an editing stand point, of the year.  The ensemble is fantastic, and it's material that any other director (who didn't know what they were doing) could have easily made it all become disjointed and confusing (even to those who understand the jargon).  He always kept the film moving, which for some might be a problem with how much information is packed into it, however that worked great for me.  There were hilarious moments, there were insightful moments, and there were moments where your stomach shrunk in horror of the fact that this actually happened (like the film continually reminds you)." - @The Panda

"Every person needs to watch this film. Makes you wonder if 2008 was just a warning shot of much worse to come. The system is every bit as corrupt as it's ever been and we have way too much debt in numerous industries (student loans, oil exploration, still in housing, and on and on). Too Big To Fail is still in place even though the banks should have been split up to help lower the risk of crashing the entire economy." - @redfirebird2008

Commentary: The film that marked Adam McKay's transition from pure comedy that occassionally had a strong political (sub)text to channeling his outrage over recent American history into awards-attracting star vehicles. Acclaimed upon release for its remarkably unconventional stylistic approach and energy, it may no longer be as surprising and invigorating as it was back then, but it remains liked enough to have found its way onto the list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cap]

2 minutes ago, Jake Gittes said:

Which is...? (honest question)

 

Jake Harold, they’re lesbians.

[Jake Gittes]

2 minutes ago, Cap said:

 

Jake Harold, they’re lesbians.

Ah. To my shame I'd forgotten this.

[SLAM!]

2 hours ago, Jake Gittes said:

Number 87

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"Okay then, Lynch, what *is* the worst way to die?"

149 points, 14 lists

directed by Adam Green | US | 2010

 

The Pitch: Three young skiers become stranded on a chairlift with no one to call for help.

 

Top 5 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 43

Box Office: $3.1m WW

Awards: Saturn Award for Best Horror Film (nomination)

BOT History: none

Critic Opinion: "A minimalist setup delivers maximum fright in Frozen, a nifty little chiller that balances its cold terrain with an unexpectedly warm heart." - Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times

BOT Sez: "With just 3 actors and pretty much a single location this kept me much more interested than many other "horror" movies. And for some reason it seemed more gripping with each viewing." - @James

Commentary: By far the most unexpected entry into the list is the survival thriller that pitted three protagonists against freezing cold, deadly altitude, and wolves. I remember watching this alone in a theater in the spring of 2010 and finding it quite chilling, but I never would have expected it to show up on so many decade lists - evidently, despite the lukewarm critical reception, this ruthlessly icy story struck a chord with BOT members. Then again, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised by the film's post-release popularity, since I heard they released a sequel last November. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But what about the animated classic?! 😥

[Cap]

11 minutes ago, SLAM! said:

 

But what about the animated classic?! 😥

I won’t lie, I was like is this a joke one? Did we get the wrong Frozen? 😂

[CoolioD1]

did i accidentally just stumble on the cheat code?

 

Spoiler

 

[Jake Gittes]

Number 83

Spoiler

 

 

"Our mission is simple. We go in, and we take him out."

157 points, 14 lists

directed by Gareth Evans | Indonesia | 2011

 

The Pitch: In the slums of Jakarta, an elite S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a high-rise run by a ruthless drug lord.

 

#1 Placements: 1

Top 12 Placements: 1

Metacritic: 73

Box Office: $9.3m WW

Awards: Dublin International Film Festival award for Best Film; TIFF's Midnight Madness - People's Choice Award

BOT History: none

Critic Opinion: "The fights themselves are beautifully choreographed, but they’re also fast and desperate. The people don’t seem like martial artists showcasing their technique on screen; they seem like people trying very hard not to get killed. The blows are grisly, but they’re also fast and intricate. There’s a lot of countering, and also a lot of picking guys up and swinging them into walls. When people get kicked in the face and knocked down, they don’t just lie around moaning; they get back up again and try to keep fighting. The best fighters seem superhuman, but they also get injured and bloodied. [...] The Raid came absolutely out of nowhere and blew people’s minds. I saw it at an action-movie festival, where a scene like that final Mad Dog fight drew a long, loud, sustained applause from the crowd even though nobody involved in the movie was there to hear it." - Tom Breihan, The AV Club

BOT Sez: "Amazing film. The action was wall-to-wall and mind-blogging [sic] in how they accomplished some of it. Never have I seen choreography so impressive. The use of sound was also freaking brilliant. The drones, the beats, even the silence. Expertly done.I will be buying this movie on day one. It felt like an instant action classic. It makes Die Hard seem like a slow-burn movie now. Just wow. PLUS the crowd I saw it with was amazing. It was like a sporting event or something. The amount of cheers, applause, and "OHH!" that-had-to-hurt reactions were so great to participate in and be around. It really elevated the experience. Pure entertainment. Glorious action cinema. A+" - @ravon80

Commentary: The countdown moves on from apes and the financial crisis to dudes owning the ever-loving shit out of each other in the decade's purest action movie. I wouldn't have necessarily expected this to make the top 100, given that it was a box office flop in initial release and has remained more of a cult film, but it was a consistent, and consistently high, presence on folks' lists from the start, accompanied half the time by its much more expansive 2014 sequel (which wound up placing at #119, with 109 points).

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jake Gittes]

15 minutes ago, CoolioD1 said:

did i accidentally just stumble on the cheat code?

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Hah, thanks for warning me in time.

[Jake Gittes]

Number 82

Spoiler

 

 

"But Hulk like real fire. Like... raging fire. Thor like smouldering fire."

158 points, 15 lists

directed by Taika Waititi | US | 2017

 

The Pitch: Thor must escape the planet Sakaar to return to Asgard and stop the goddess of death Hela from destroying the world. Tbh they both would have probably done better just hanging out with Jeff Goldblum the whole time or something.

 

Top 12 Placements: 3

Metacritic: 74

Box Office: $854m WW

Awards: 3 Critics' Choice Awards nominations; 8 Empire Award nominations

BOT History: #17, Top Comic Book Movies of All Time (2019); 2 BOFFY nominations

Critic Opinion: "The greatest trick this studio wants to pull, at this point, is to make more of the same feel either exhilaratingly fresh, or sufficiently retro-inflected to qualify as a nostalgia trip. As both, Thor: Ragnarok counts as some kind of double peak." - Robbie Collin, The Telegraph

"Odin, for his part, comes to understand the extent of his wrongdoing in his twilight years, and speaks to Thor from beyond the grave: “Asgard is not a place. It never was. It is a people,” not unlike Waititi’s own Pasifika ancestors, who carried their culture with them not by land but by sea. “Ragnarok,” the end of the world as the characters know it, is inevitable. Their kingdom was built on a foundation of lies, and those lies continue to fuel death, destruction, and suffering all across the realms, both as a far-reaching consequence of their universal meddling and in the form of the embodiment of Death itself. The suffering shall continue unless this system of cosmic control is completely burned to the ground. Suddenly, even this funniest of Marvel films starts to have stakes that feel real and consequential." - Siddhant Adlakha, The Village Voice

BOT Sez: "I loved the hell out of this movie. Seriously, it's nice every once in a while to have a Marvel movie (Hell, to have a modern blockbuster in general) solely concerned with telling a fun story and having a fun time. It doesn't take itself too seriously, yet ends up feeling all the more secure in its own identity for it. Plus it finally feels like Marvel has a good handle on where Thor fits in the MCU and how to utilize him best moving forward." - @rukaio101

Commentary: The MCU makes its second appearance of the day with the movie that, following in the footsteps the Guardians of the Galaxy films, introduced some much-needed irreverence to its solo franchise, and presaged Black Panther with its political bent. Both came courtesy of Taika Waititi, who successfully carried his sensibility over into blockbuster filmmaking, the result becoming by far the most popular Thor movie among both audiences and critics.