Best shoot outs of the decade...

I'm not a fan of John Singleton's Four Brothers. I think it's a mean and ugly movie that lionizes vigilante murder, with four foster brothers committing wholesale slaughter to avenge their pacifistic foster-mother without seeing the irony of their actions. But the film does contain a second-act climax that is easily one of the two most impressive gun battle of the 2000s. It's wonderfully staged, hair-trigger intense, and frighteningly real, both in the outcome and the acting of the participants. Unlike most action movie gun fights, the heroes of Four Brothers are absolutely terrified the entire time because, like most of us, they've never been in a shoot-out before. Their expressions of panic, confusion, and white-hot fear escalate a top-notch action scene into a thoroughly compelling dramatic moment. Along with the blistering second-act climax of Shaft, I'd argue that no American filmmaker crafts street-level gun battles as well as Mr. Singleton.

Yes, Kyle in the comments section below was right. I completely forgot about the 2003 climax of Open Range. Kevin Costner's Open Range is arguably the best western of the last ten years. It also contains a fifteen-minute action climax that is truly one of the best western gun battles in cinema history. Long, sprawling, and expertly staged, this action scene also generates plenty of suspense due to the sheer amount of 'good guys' and innocent bystanders in peril at all times. We don't know if the movie is going to have a happy ending or a downer climax, so every moment is tense as our heros and their friends are in constant jeopardy. I still love the gunfight in Four Brothers (itself a remake of John Wayne's The Sons of Katie Elder), but I must concede that Open Range has a superior shoot-out. As for my neglecting to mention it, I can only blame amnesia.

Two others that deserve mention, if only because the decade was so lacking in epic shoot-outs (blame Columbine I suppose):

The International - The movie is a confusing muddle and this scene lacks any real emotional impact, but it's an impressive display of action editing in an otherwise low-key political thriller.

Way of the Gun - The actual gunplay isn't all that impressive by itself, but there are pathos galore at the end of this underrated crime drama. But more interesting is the opening action scene, which subverts action cliche by A) having the entire shoot-out take place offscreen with only the noises and screams being heard and B) having our antiheroes murder several innocent bystanders and allowing the camera to linger on their corpses and their grieving relatives for dramatic effect.

Scott Mendelson

Best (and most fraudulent) trailer of the decade...

Rememeber our first glimpse of Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins? With little fanfare, Disney had dropped this fascinating trailer into our laps, promising a duel between two 19th century magicians. One, Hugh Jackman, was a virtuous illusionist. The other, Christian Bale, seemed to enjoy playing with darker magic. Was he an evil magician? What was his astounding lightning-filled trick that Jackman proclaimed was 'the greatest magic trick I've ever seen'? Was Bale a genuine dark wizard, fooling the audience into thinking that it was all an illusion while possessing real magic? The stage was set for a battle royale between good magic and evil magic. No so much...

Of course, if you've seen the film, you know that the trailer to The Prestige is in itself an illusion. It sells a pat good vs. evil story using editing that is so clever it may qualify as magic. Nearly every scene is in the film and every piece of onscreen text is accurate. But the narrative that the 155-second preview spins is a blatant falsehood . It is also the most exciting trailer I saw all decade, the rare preview that presented a movie that I knew nothing about and instantly made it tops on my must-see list. The film itself is a much murkier and far more complicated puzzle that is a wholly original kind of masterpiece. The Prestige is one of my favorite films of the last ten years, and the initial trailer, while itself a slight of hand, is my pick for the best trailer of the decade.

Scott Mendelson

If Crash really is the worst film you saw in the last 10 years, then I envy you.

I'm not the first person to notice this, but there seems to be a chorus brewing calling Paul Haggis's Crash the 'worst film of the decade'. Really? Worst film in all of the 2000s? Worse than Catwoman or One Missed Call? It seems like this is a case of several film bloggers saying 'look at me... I picked an Oscar-winning movie as the worst picture of the decade!' But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's an honest choice on their part. Heck, my pick for the worst movie of the decade (Enchanted) is one that is generally popular but whose philosophies I find abhorrent. The articles linked to basically condemn the movie because it's not an accurate reflection of all race relations in all of Los Angeles. But that's not necessarily a fair comparison to make.

Movie decade in review poll (courtesy of Hot Blog's Crow T. Robot)

Hot Blog commenter 'Crow T Robot' posted a great little poll regarding the decade in film. Since I'm filling it out in Poland's blog, I thought I'd share my answers with you as well.

And the best action scene of the decade is...

For a full twenty-three minutes, George Lucas throws at us everything we could ever want in a Star Wars film. A claustrophobic and suspenseful massive spaceship dog fight. Jedi masters running, jumping, and slashing at everything in their path. A terrific and plot-driven light-saber fight smack-dab in the middle. A fiery crash-landing to freedom. All that, plus successful comic-relief from R2D2 (his fire trick brought the house down at our midnight showing), dialogue that actually sounds authentic and snappy, and a chemistry between Obi-Wan and Anakin that actually feels genuine. It's as if, knowing full-well what darkness and despair the audience was about to go through, Lucas made sure that the prologue was as much sheer Star Wars fun as he could possibly manage... one last time. I know it's heresy, but Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is actually my favorite Star Wars film of them all (relax nerds, The Empire Strikes Back is second). And that gloriously gonzo go-for-broke first reel and a half is a big part of why.

Scott Mendelson

And my favorite film of the decade is...

A full list will come later in the month. Granted, by some fluke if Avatar or Sherlock Holmes end up being my absolute favorite film of this decade, then some revisions may be in order, but let's presume that they just end up being really, really good. As I look at my list of favorites over the 2000s, I find it filled with movies that were warm and celebrated unexpected goodness, good deeds in a weary world to quote a famous chocolate maker. There was certainly a place for masterpieces of cynicism and despair (Frailty, The Prestige, The Pledge), but I found myself more impressed by those films that could wring emotion out of light rather than darkness. Be it the unwavering friendship of Sam as his friend Frodo descends into madness on their quest to dispose of a cursed ring, young Akeelah remembering all of the people in her life that helped her train for the spelling bee, or Penny Lane tricking Russell Hammond into visiting the home of the young journalist he betrayed so that he might make amends, the moments that stood out were the ones that celebrated surprising decency.

Best sword fight of the decade - Shanghai Knights

Since the decade is just a few months away from closing, we might as well start tabulating the highs (and possibly lows) of the 2000s. I certainly won't start tabulating the best and worst films until the year has closed, but I stand relatively certain that there won't be a better sword fight than this one. Shanghai Knights is Jackie Chan's best film and one of the best adventure pictures of the decade. It has everything that you'd want in such a film - fantastic action scenes, colorful heroes, intelligent and comedic supporting characters (the film's funniest line is given to Thomas Fisher's Artie Doyle), and larger-than-life villains played by real actors. The film climaxes exactly as it should, with an epic sword duel between Jackie Chan and Aidan Gillen inside Big Ben. While I prefer the uncut, longer version of this duel (as seen in the deleted scenes reel of the DVD), the theatrical variation is plenty great. The only sword fight that comes close is the climactic lava-planet showdown in Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but I still prefer this old-fashioned metal-clanging variation. While the Pirates of the Caribbean series and The Legend of Zorro had impressive duels, this one outshines them all with a dash of real-world plausibility (you can tell they really did all of the incredible sword-fighting in-camera) and genuine emotion. If you don't believe me, check out the clip above (go to 5:10, or just watch the whole thing and enjoy the Jackie Chan vs. Donnie Yen fight as well).

Scott Mendelson