2000: worst crop of films in living memory

[Dutchy]

www.filmunlimited.co.uk/f...32,00.html (http://www.filmunlimited.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,412932,00.html)

I agree, the movie year 2000 just sucked.

[jjwr]

There were lots of bad movies with a sprinkling of good stuff in between, just gotta find those few good ones.

Course I'm sure Jon will be by shortly to respond with how great the box office was and how stupid we are for not realizing it.

[Jedi Master Carr]

I disagree slightly mostly because I don't think 1999 was that good the box office was helped by Star Wars which counted for 430 million in the US and for me at least the rest of the summer was terrible. This year has been about the same for me but there has been plenty of good movies
Gladiator, X-Men, Meet the Parents, Castaway, Remember the Titans, The Perfect Storm, Frequency, Erin Brockavich, The Grinch (even though critics hated it did make a lot of money), amoung others, for me at least this summer had more films that I liked compared to last summer 5 to 2. Maybe last winter was better than this winter but otherwise I think 2000's crop is not worst than last year.

[ReaperFett]

I enjoyed 2000 more than most years. MI:2, Snatch, Three Kings, Way of the Gun, Snatch, Lake Placid, Deep blue Sea, GI60S, Gladiator. Either great films, or hugely entertaining. 1999 was held together by Star Wars

[jjwr]

You mentioned Snatch twice...was it that good?

[ReaperFett]

yep, it sure is :)

[ReaperFett]

Actually, I just realised, some of this report is sheer bulls**t


Niche market movies such as Guy Ritchie's Snatch and Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot have also failed to draw in the mass audiences that cover the overheads for distributors and cinema chains.

Snatch I believe is the best performing 18 rated film ever. Billy Elliot did well too. Is that failing to draw in crowds? I dont think so

[DvdJervs]

I quite liked Snatch as well - one of the better films of 2000. :)

In case anyone is interested the Australian Film Industry is reporting that the Year 2000 boxoffice in Australia has been the worst year in almost 13 years, especially for Hollywood films. The local Australian industry, however, appears to be still growing quite rapidly and ate up more of the profits than normal, at further cost to Hollywood of course. :)

[Jedi Master Carr]

I still believe 2000 wasn't that bad of year and is no worst than 99 consider that Star Wars and the Sixth Sense produced nearly half the box office for 99. The problem this year is that there was no dominant film until recently (The Grinch) I guess there has been lack of quality art films but that is fine with me I hate that crap those films like the English Patient and others are just boring I fell asleep watching that film. I have no clue why people loved it. Still I still think there are problems I think Hollywood makes too many films especially in the peek seasons like the summer if they could cut their production I think some movies would be able to make more money, a film like X-men, or the Perfect Storm under this scenerior could make more than 200 million but I guess no hollywood exec would listen to me.

[Challah]

oh, but what a year for the art-house, independent, little known (or is it little advertised) places, though. I can count the times that i went to big, megaplex places this year on one hand.

[Darth Turbogeek]

Yes, there were a lot of bloody awful films - but there were some great ones too. Gladiator, Unbreakable, Chicken Run....

[DvdJervs]

- but there were some great ones too. Gladiator, Unbreakable, Chicken Run....
The Dish - best film this year! :)

[Itala Marzullo]

How about The Spoon?

[Darth Turbogeek]

Wha...? Oh of course. The Dish I hope you Americans get... a great little Australian comedy.

[DvdJervs]

It is indeed, even with the historical inaacuracies (for starters it wasn't Parkes that first got the images from Apollo 11, it was Honeywell some way outside of Canberra, which beat the rest of the world by 2 minutes, but it was in the middle of nowhere and probably wouldn't have made an interesting story :) - it was ripped down some years ago too).

[Jedieb]

This is a list of stinkers from Dutchy's article;

"Battlefield Earth, Red Planet, Mission to Mars, Quills, Proof of Life, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2, Gone in Sixty Seconds, Coyote Ugly, Pay it Forward, Remembering the Titans, What Lies Beneath, Autumn in New York, The Perfect Storm, The Beach, Duets, Bounce, The Sixth Day, The Next Best Thing - just a random sampling of the film industry's output this year. Forgettable? Forgotten them already, or at least trying to, say the pundits.'Every year has lousy movies,' says Rolling Stone critic Peter Travers, 'but Team 2000 launched a relentless assault."

My only problem with this list is that there are some pretty good movies lumped in there. Pay It Forward, Remembering The Titans, What Lies Beneath, and THE PERFECT STORM. I'm not saying these are all classics, but many were audience and critcal favorites. Some like TPS were BOTH. Then again, I only saw about 4 movies all year so what do I know? :(

[Doc Milo]

I have you beat, Jedieb. The last movie I went to see in theaters was . . . . (fanfare) "The Phantom Menace."

(1999, I only saw The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, and TPM) :)

Well, from this year's crop, I think I have only seen one movie -- and that was on DVD: "The Patriot." Now that I've seen it on DVD, I kind of wish I saw it in the theater.

Oh, well. Since I enjoyed it, and it was the only movie I saw from the 2000 crop, I'll be rooting for it to win all the awards on those shows I refuse to watch ;)

[JonathanLB]

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the year, but 2000 was one of the best movie years in living memory. Easily the strongest year in the last decade. I don't see how you could NOT think it was at least a good year.

Almost Famous, Gladiator, Remember the Titans, Finding Forrester, The Patriot, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Legend of Bagger Vance, X-Men, Mission: Impossible 2, Traffic, Thirteen Days, U-571, Romeo Must Die, The Perfect Storm, The 6th Day, Charlie's Angels, Proof of Life, Cast Away, and The Art of War, to name JUST the 3.5 star movies and above.

That's an incredible number of good films, and you know what? I even missed some movies that I'll have to go see later. 1999 didn't have even close to that many very good movies, and there were only several 4 star movies.

I gave 10 four star ratings in 2000, and I gave 3 in 1999 (Matrix, TPM, and Fight Club). I think that's it, anyway, can't remember any more...

[Darth Turbogeek]

I agree that 200 was a good year for movies - just I have a different list of moives. The low point for me is MI:2 (Gawd, the horror), high point Gladiator.

It was just another year for Holloywood. Plenty of turkeys, some gold.

I do have to say, some of the movies in Dutchy's list... well, I'ld rather eat my arm than watch some of them.

[Dutchy]

What movies from 1999 did you actually SEE? You only watched TPM tenthousand times and hardly anything else.

As for 2000, there's still a lot I have to see, but nevertheless all reports say that 2000 was a disappointing year for movie. You actually are one of the very few who think it's not.

[ReaperFett]

reports are full of @#%$. They just copy the last one. THey DAREN'T say different. I am sick of them making some lame excuse for dislike it, ending up contradicting them self(M:I2: No storyline, no point. Enter the Dragon: No storyline, but who cares. I CARE!) or, even worse, showing a lack of knowledge in ANYTHING (M:I2 ripped of the Matrix? And this person called himself an EXPERT on films? Jeez!)

Few reports are ever right in my opinion. Noone would say a year is 'quite good'. It has to be best or worst, to get eaders to read their little piece, to get money from ads. To be quite honest, I wish some 'critics' should start pulling their finger out, and being inventive themselves, no bandwagon hopping

[Jedi Master Carr]

I have to agree with you there Reaper I think many times they like to draw the readers attention by saying how bad this year was when really this year was no worse than last. Look at the Box office this year made more money than last year. I'm not sure about attendance figures, though, I read that going into the last month they were behind but I thought I heard that The Grinch, Castaway, and What Women want all helped to equal last years attendence numbers in the United States. I have no clue about outside the US, I haven't really read any information about attendance or box office numbers world wide recently but I still think that 2000 was just a good of a year as 1999 was for movies.

[Jedieb]

I just think it's funny when someone who has only been following the BO for a few years says ANY year is the best or worst ever. It might be the worst you've ever seen, but if you've only been following moives for a few years you don't have much to compare a year to do you?

[ReaperFett]

it is better than the 1875 movie year. Can't think of a decent film from then :)