Friday, December 04, 2009
PERSONAL Best of the Decade Lists
In the comments to this post I would like to see your best (or worst) of the decade list in all the usual categories (Movies, TV, Music, Comics, Games, Books) and maybe some less than usual ones (single best panels? Death scenes?). The catch is I do not want you to go for any objectivity here. I want a shameless list of your personal favorites with no consideration of representing anything for anyone else -- so if your three favorite movies are the three parts of Lord of the Rings let them hold the top three slots. Let your guilty pleasures be seen with your "important cultural landmarks" -- and maybe even beat them.
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26 comments:
Best movie to watch on an airplane: Big Momma's House II.
Shows:
1) Battlestar seasons 1 & 3
2) Gossip Girl season 1
3) Alias season 2 (and 4 even though it's horrible b/c I STARE at Mia Maestro)
4) Lost - everything, even the crappy parts
5) Justice League Unlimited
I'm going to be here for hours now... I'll start with music... my taste are unabashedly mainstream so indie fans may want to turn away:
Albums (in no particular order because I don't feel like it)-
Stadium Arcadium- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Chinese Democracy-Guns N' Roses
Room On Fire- The Strokes
De Stijl, Elephant and Icky Thump- The White Stripes
Consolers of The Lonely- The Raconteurs
American Idiot- Green Day
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot- Wilco,
Extraordinary Machine- Fiona Apple
All That You Can't Leave Behind and No Line On The Horizon- U2 (does this surprise anyone?)
Magic- Bruce Springsteen (definitely his best since Born In The USA, possibly my favorite since Born To Run)
The Black & White Album- The Hives
Bitchin' and Gold Medal- The Donnas
X & Y and Viva La Vida or Death and All of His friends- Coldplay
Permission to Land- The Darkness
Living In America- The Sounds
808 & Heartbreak- Kanye West
Favorite Songs: Vertigo- U2, Jesus of Suburbia- Green Day, The Wrestler- Springsteen, Viva La Vida- Coldplay, Seven Nation Army- The White Stripes, I Believe In A Thing Called Love- The Darkness, Salute Your Salution-The Raconteurs Dani California- Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Beautiful Day- U2, Imitation of Life- REM, Hash Pipe- Weezer, Steady as She Goes- The Raconteurs, Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground- The White Stripes, Hate to Say I told You So- The Hives, Seven Days a Week- The Sounds, Original of the Species- U2Reptilia- The Strokes.... I really could go on forever on this one...
Best Concerts-
U2- Vertigo Tour, Charlotte 2005
REM- 'The Best of tour', Raleigh, 2003
Bruce Springsteen- The Magic Tour, Charlotte, 2008.
The Strokes- Charlotte, 2004
Other:
Favorite Album I'm most ashamed to admit to admit I like- A Fever You Can't Sweat Out- Panic! At The Disco.
Favorite band that has yet to live up to their potential- The Killers
Favorite album recorded while the artist was obviously under the influence of many substances and wrecked out of their mind that still had surprisingly pleasing results- America's Sweetheart- Cournety Love
Best Double Album- Stadium Arcadium (possibly my favorite double album aside from the white album)
Favorite Live Albums- REM Live and Kicking Television by Wilco
Movies-
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (Fellowship in particular filled me with a sense of childlike wonder that I hadn't felt since the original Star Wars movies), Grind House (Planet Terror, Death Proof AND all the phony trailers... I've long maintained that this is best viewed as a single entity and it was probably one of the most fun theatrical experiences I had this decade), Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill Vols. 1 & 2, Slumdog Millionaire, Wall- E, No Country for Old Men, Juno, Anchorman, Borat, Almost Famous, Spider Man 1 & 2, Iron Man, Star Trek, The Dark Knight (we've discussed it's failings here, but, ultimately, I really like it), Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (yes, the acting was horrible... but I had a blast... lightsaber fights-a-plenty!)There Will Be Blood..., Thank You For Smoking.
Best Cameo- Nicolas Cage as Fu Manchu (from the Grindhouse faux trailers)
Best allegorical use of Milkshake in a dramatic monologue (non-musical)- There Will Be Blood...
Best Reboot- Star Trek
Best Marvel Movie (non X-men or Spider-man)- Iron Man
Best Marvel Movie- Spider-man 2
Best use of a Jedi Mind Trick- Obi-Wan Kenobi from Episode II ("You Don't want to sell me death sticks", "I Don't Want To Sell You Death Sticks", "You Want To Go Home and rethink your life", "I Want to Go Home and Rethink My life"- maybe if the prequels had more moments like this people would have liked them more)
Best peformance by a classical british actor as a Wizard- Ian McKellan as Gandalf (eat it Dumbledore!)
Most intense scene involving a party game- the tavern scene from Inglorious Basterds
Moment I'm least ashamed to admit I got choked up over- "I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you!" Sam from Return of the King.
TV: Number 1 has to be Lost or the Wire - impossible to choose. Number 3: The UK Office (NOT the US version). 4 & 5, in any order: Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Sopranos. I only do top 5's, but the T list would probably be consistent, no matter what.
My musical tastes will probably be meaningless to anyone on this blog, but I'd probably go with: Dying Fetus - Destroy the Opposition; Cryptopsy - And Then You'll Beg; Down II; Down - Over The Under; Type O Negative - Life is Killing Me. The music list would probably change week to week, but it would probably still make me sound like a misanthrope of some sort. I swear I'm a very easygoing guy.
Movies: Jesus, this one's hard. Fight Club, Rocky Balboa (the only Rocky movie to measure up to the first, which is my favorite of movie, ever), Mystic River, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation. This would also change week to week.
TV-
Arrested Development, The Office, Scrubs, 30 Rock, Robot Chicken, Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, My Name Is Earl, Chapelle Show.
Comics-
All Star Superman, The Ultimates 1 & 2, Astonishing X-men, X-factor (what I've read of it... really should pick up some more volumes of that) All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, The Dark Knight Strikes Again.
Best single issue of a comic- All Star Superman 10
Comic I am least ashamed to admit I got choked up while reading- All Star Superman 10
It's staggering to realize just how much pop culture I've absorbed in the last ten years, simply because it was the first decade during which I had a normal job that let me buy a whole bunch of unnecessary sh*t.
Wow, this will take some thought.
Films:
The Prestige
The Fountain
X-Men 2
The Dark Knight
House of Flying Daggers
Dark Water (the original)
Looks like Hugh Jackman is my man of the decade!
TV:
Deadwood
Arrested Development
Futurama
The West Wing (the three Sorkin seasons from the 00's)
Avatar: The Last Airbender (although I only discovered this this year - it's amazing!)
Comics:
New X-Men
Astonishing X-Men (Whedon only thanks)
All Star Superman
The Ultimates
NYX (the MIddleton issues)
The Men I Wish I Was:
Daniel Craig's James Bond
Bradley Whitford's Joshua Lyman
Ryan Reynolds Hannibal King
George Clooney's Danny Ocean
Matt Perry's Matt Albie
Women I wish I could be with-
1. Natalie Portman as Sam in Garden State
2. Tina Fey as Liz Lemon
3. Jenna Fischer as Pam
Characters I most want to hug:
Juno
Samwise Gamgee
Anikin Skywalker (because maybe if Obi-wan had given him more of these he wouldn't have turned out so bad)
Scotty's little alien buddy from Star Trek.
Best use of a foreign phrase spoken with a foreign accent- 'Bonjourno' Inglorious Basterds
Best Posthumously released album- American V: A Hundred Highways- Johnny Cash
Best Use of a song in a trailer- Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" for Where The Wild Things Are
I'll come back with lists - but had to get this off my chest:
Most critically acclaimed album that I never bought because the marketing campaign totally backfired for me:
Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - saw an ad (maybe in The Big Takeover mag), comparing it to a mix of Talking Heads' Remain in Light, Paul Simon's Graceland and Beck's Odelay. Having had all of those since they came out, I would just throw them in the CD player and hit shuffle...
Marc,
Actually, it's more like a cross between REM's Document, Hotel California and Pet Sounds, with a little Daydream Nation thrown in for good measure...
Scott - four more albums I own (2 of which - Daydream Nation and Hotel California - I adore)...YHF stays on the shelf...or the iTunes server in this case...
I think we should do an entire post describing things by how they're a combination of other things...
Top Five Hour-Long shows:
Alias
The West Wing
House
Gilmore Girls
Smallville
Top Five Books or Comics:
Wigfield, by Stephen Colbert, Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello
Beds Are Burning, by Mark Dodshon
How to Read Superhero Comics and Why, by Geoff Klock
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume II
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier
Top Ten Movies:
Amelie
Hulk (Ang Lee)
School of Rock
The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
Sky High
Mission: Impossible 3
The Darjeeling Limited
Cloverfield
Star Trek
Top Ten Funny Shows:
Home Movies
Sealab 2021
Clone High
The Fairly Odd Parents
Creature Comforts (British version)
Lucy, Daughter of the Devil
Word Girl
Scrubs
Arrested Development
Flight of the Conchords
Top Ten Albums:
Midnight Oil, “Capricornia”
Bruce Springsteen, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions”
Fiona Apple, “Extraordinary Machine”
Ray Davies, “Other People’s Lives”
The Gothic Archies, “The Tragic Treasury”
Kelli Rae Powell, “The Scandalous Accounts of My Youth”
The Undertones, “Get What You Want”
Venus Hum, “Big Beautiful Sky”
Yann Tiersen, “L’Absente”
David Byrne, “Grown Backwards”
Entertainment Merchant of the Decade:
JJ Abrams
I forgot Books!
Fiction-
Rant and Haunted- Chuck Palahniuk
Jpod and Girlfriend in a Coma- Douglas Coupland
The Graveyard Book and American Gods- Neil Gaiman
The Adventures of Cavalier and Clay- Michael Chabon
Non-fiction/other:
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs and Killing Yourself To Live- Chuck Klosterman
Armageddon In Retrospect- Kurt Vonnegut
America: The Book- Jon Stewart and the Daily show writers.
Misquoting Jesus
Comic Book Nation- Bradford Wright
The Year of Living Biblically- AJ Jacobs
Planet Simpson: How a Cartoon Masterpiece Shaped a Generation- Chris Turner
Killing Bono- Neil McCormick
How to Read Superhero Comics and Why- The author's name escapes me at the moment....
Jason,
Good Call on the Seeger Sessions album! Add that to my list as well! His best release this decade apart from Magic...and it has been quite the productive decade for the boss... 5 albums (considering he only did 3 albums of new material in the 90s this is pretty impressive)
More Miscelaneous stuff-
Most Education Mindless Entertainment- Mythbusters
Best 80s rock band doing covers of songs from their youth in order to get 'back to their roots' (there were more of these than you might think)- Yeah!- Def Leppard
Best SNL digital Short- Natalie's Rap
Thanks, Scott! I don't know if I'd have thought of it if you hadn't brought Springsteen up in the first place. But when I bought that CD it was in heavy rotation for a good long while. I still drag it out (which is to say, cue it up on the iPod) when I need something upbeat and catchy to listen to.
In the pleasant but forgettable comedies category:
Best trailer moment that didn't make it to the final movie: Justin Long's "nose and lips!" from Dodgeball
Best incredulous "Whaaat?!": Sean William Scott in Role Models
Best last minute-save of some mediocre riffing: Jonah Hill's "I feel terriboo" Russell Brand impersonation in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Shee - 2000 seems like another planet. This has been my favourite decade, easy.
In no particular order:
The Wire
Omega The Unknown
Dubstep (2003-2006)
Frankenstein on a motorbike quoting Milton
Kelis
The Spirit of Terrorism
Grime (2003-)
London
Ennis’s Punisher Max run
Peanuts reprints
Marina Hyde’s Lost In Showbiz column in The Guardian
Album: Om – Variations on a Theme
Geoff - Look forward to yours, always interesting. Also be interesting to see some kind of aggregator for all the people here......
Albums:
my top 12 in no particular order
Animal Collective - Feels
Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
Explosions in the Sky - All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
TV On the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Ghost - Hypnotic Underworld
Arcade Fire - Funeral
DJ Shadow - The Private Press
Third Eye Foundation - I Poo Poo On Your Juju
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water
Radiohead: Amnesiac
Best of the 00's:
Movies (no particular order):
The Dark Knight Returns
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
Mulholland Drive
The Prestige
Casino Royale
Kill Bill (vols 1&2)
Let the Right One In
Lost in Translation
Zodiac
Television:
The Wire
Lost
Curb Your Enthusiasm (especially the last few seasons)
The Office (UK version)
Veronica Mars
Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job!
Arrested Development
Summer Heights High
Battlestar Galactica (first miniseries and seasons one & three)
and the guiltiest admission of all... the first 6 episodes of the O.C. (absolutely brilliant)
Music:
Radiohead's Kid A
The Strokes Is This It? (what a shock!)
Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse (after spending the first two months hating it)
Wilco's Summerteeth
P.J. Harvey's Stories From the City, Stories from the Sea
Interpol's Antics
Kanye West 808's & Heartbreaks
The Killers Hot Fuss (I don't know why I'm usually embarrassed to admit this since I like to think I "outgrew" this album but it does have some the greatest hooks in the last twenty years (my opinion))
Vampire Weekend self-titled
Nellie McKay's Get Away From Me
and Deerhunter's Microcastle has to be mentioned in order to make it an even 11.
Best Songs of the 00's:
Beck's "Guess I'm Doing Fine" is always good to hear when you felt you've been wronged or just want to go off somewhere and feel sorry for yourself.
Kayne West's "Paranoid"
The Killer's "On Top"
Bright Eyes' "Road to Joy"
Starsailor's "Good Souls" is a song I've always liked and embarrassed to admit. It does have that unabashed importance to it but I do love the highs it builds towards; I'm just glad the filmmakers of Pay It Forward or Michael (John Travolta angel movie) never got their grubby hands on it.
Stephen Malkmus' "Vanessa from Queens"
The Strokes' "The End Has No End"
Wolfmother "White Unicorn" is a big testosterone mash-up that everytime I hear it I feel like I have do push-ups or something. It's great!
Whitest Boy Alive's "Done with You"
Vampire Weekend's "Bryn"
Finally, Comic Books (no particular order):
All Star Batman and Robin
The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke (my possible fav of the decade)
The Ultimates 1
Walking Dead
All Star Superman
Kick Ass (I'm sorry but I loved every ridiculous over the top issue)
Gotham Central (the greatest HBO series that never was)
Matt Fraction's current run on Invicible Iron Man
Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men
Brian K. Vaughn's run on Runaways (which almost reads like a satire on Marvel's lack of committment to having any real legacy characters)
MOVIES
1. Inland Empire - see... both idiosyncratic and pretentious at the same time. This was the most challenging and rewarding film I saw all decade, and I still think about it almost every day, almost as much as I think of This is Spinal Tap, which is saying a lot.
2. Mulholland Drive - These lists always have a terrible arbitrariness of internal rules. I won't, for instance, consider putting more than one Pixar on, but putting both David Lynch films is somehow OK. This is simply an awesome movie that comes in second only do to the sheer ambition of Empire.
3. Star Wars Episodes II and III - I know this is likely an unpopular opinion, but I thought, as creative endeavors, that this had it all over Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter as movies. I don't think an evenhanded assessment on these films was ever even possible, but they were very enjoyable and out right thrilling at times and even their missteps were arguable or overblown. I get as appalled as the next guy over the way Lucas seems to operate, but I think the films themselves are tainted by everyones thoughts about such context but are creatively strong and very entertaining. So there
4. Almost Famous - I probably don't have to defend this one. I have a soft spot for just about every facet of this.
5. Spider-man 2 and X-Men 2 - I know, cheating again. These are the high water mark of the superhero surge. Ultimately Spider-man is the better of the two, but It's hard to remember back before X-Men 3 ruined all the promise the second movies ending suggested.
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – Obviously I like oneiric movies (see choices 1 and 2) and this is just a fully realized heartfelt one.
7. Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou – my favorite Wes Anderson by a mile. The Bowie didn’t hurt. One of the best credits music sequences ever.
8. Kill Bill – I like Quentin, and haven’t seen Basterds yet, so, this makes the cut.
9. The Incredibles – Here’s the time to admit that my rank order kind of goes off the rails after the first 2… this should probably go higher.
10. The Bourne Identity – really good action movie, and I didn’t really dig the shaky cam thing from the last two as much. I’m more or less a Liman fan, and thought Go was one of the most underrated films of the last decade.
Honorable Mention
No Country for Old Men would have been 11.
There were many really good films that I wouldn’t quite reach for “best,” including:
Punch Drunk Love
Gone Baby Gone
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
Pan’s Labyrinth
Lord of the Rings, especially the Felolowship of the Ring (just cause I compared it disfavorably to Star Wars doesn’t mean I didn’t like it)
The Harry Potters, especially Prisoner of Azkaban (ditto)
I am a huge Superhero fan, and only some sense of “I can’t include everything” kept me from putting The Dark Knight on the list. That movie was incredibly good in so many ways, even though it seemed like it was edited by a drunk 4 year old. I also felt a balance of good feeling for Watchmen, although some ambivalence did creep in there due to a couple of “autistic auteur” kind of choices by the director. Iron Man rocked, of course, but come on… it kind of felt a bit half baked at times. Lots of good comic movies during the decade, though. Ghost World, Hellboy, Batman Begins, etc. Looking forward to Scott Pilgrim.
Some other categories for fun:
Best Insanely off the Rails movie – Southland Tales. I’d rather watch this than any old merely good movie any day, even if just to watch Justin Timberlake pour beer on his head while dancing to All These Things That I Have Done.
Best New Filmmaker Deserving of Anyone Having Heard of Them – Rian Johnson. Brick was a really eye-catching debut. The Brothers Bloom was pretty cool too.
Todd,
As much as I love Star Wars and did, in fact, enjoy episode III, The Lord of the Rings movies were MUCH better. ESPECIALLY when it comes to acting, the story is sort of a cheat as it was based on an already great story, but I think the condensing and realization of the story as a film was far more satisfying than the books.
Are you guys over 30 yet? Once you're over 30, you'll realize that both trilogies are crap.
I'm just going to work the "old man" routine till it's dead.
"Good grief, it's a running gag!"
What was I saying? Oh yeah, grow up, you two.
Jason,
I'm over 30, in fact, I think I'm older than you (32)... still love both... if I'm ever too old for them then I've probably grown too old to enjoy much of anything :)
If you are saying that I am too old to enjoy anything ...
... then you're probably right.
Honestly, though, it's not as bad as it sounds at first!
By the way, ya gotta give Todd props for going with a genuine dark-horse opinion: The Star Wars prequels over Lord of the Rings? That's hardcore.
(Personally I am all about the Pirates as favorite trilogy of the decade.)
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