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Top 100 Tuesday: 100 Best Movies of the Decade

29 December 2009 4:43 AM, PST | WeAreMovieGeeks.com | See recent WeAreMovieGeeks.com news »

We are leaving Kubrick behind and fast approaching Hyams.  If you get that reference, go grab yourself a cookie.  It is time for us to reflect back on the decade that was.  On January 1st, 2000, Disney released Fantasia 2000.  On Wednesday, December 30th, 2009, The White Ribbon is set to bow.  Between the release of these two films, thousands of films came and went, and some of them were far more memorable than others.  It was a long trek getting this list together, but here are our collective top 100 films of the past decade.

Quick Year-to-Year by the Numbers:

2009 – 11

2008 – 11

2007 – 7

2006 – 14

2005 – 12

2004 – 8

2003 – 7

2002 – 12

2001 – 10

2000 – 8

100. Million Dollar Baby (2004) – Clint Eastwood

99. Juno (2007) – Jason Reitman

98. An Education (2009) – Lone Scherfig

97. Spider-man 2 (2004) – Sam Raimi

96. Munich (2005) – Steven Spielberg

95. The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004) – Wes Anderson

94. The King Of Kong (2007) – Seth Gordon

93. Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’S Stone (2001) – Chris Columbus

92. Clerks 2 (2006) – Kevin Smith

91. Femme Fatale (2002) – Brian De Palma

90. Tasogare Seibei »

- Movie Geeks

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Vengeance (2009) Movie Review

22 December 2009 10:28 AM, PST | Beyond Hollywood | See recent Beyond Hollywood news »

Hong Kong’s crime cinema God Johnnie To goes International in “Vengeance”, a film that is at once different and yet familiar for the director. The film stars French rocker Johnny Hallyday as Costello, a French chef who journeys to Macau after a trio of Chinese hitmen fulfill a contract on the family of Costello’s daughter (Sylvie Testud). The daughter miraculously survives, but her husband and two children are not so fortunate. From her hospital bed, the daughter demands that her father avenge her, and Costello, whose life as a chef was a second act and not a first, agrees. He is not a stranger to guns and death, and indeed it is that former, long-buried life that is currently robbing him of his memory, which makes his current mission all the more urgent. Costello sets out to locate the killers, which proves difficult. Fortunately, serendipity smiles upon our »

- Nix

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Johnnie To's Vengeance review

21 December 2009 3:22 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

Johnnie To is one of the more productive directors among my list of favorites, which is a good thing as the films he's made these last five years have been of remarkable quality. His latest film Vengeance continues his winning streak and makes it clearer than ever that To effectively reinvented himself these last ten years to become a true author.

Vengeance is a little different though. His regular cast is still very much present (Anthony Wong, Suet Lam, Simon Yam), but the lead role is reserved for someone else this time. Johnny Hallyday, famed French singer and occasional actor is the main man this time, lending the film a very specific direction. A pretty daring move, but one that works well.

Hallyday's inclusion raises a pretty big language issue, as Hallyday is a native French speaker while the rest of them speaks Cantonese. Middle ground for both parties is English, »

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Now in Theaters: "Invictus" (Clint Eastwood, USA)

11 December 2009 3:17 PM, PST | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

Serge Daney once said that there were two types of filmmakers: those that believe that everything has already been filmed and they are only making variations on pre-existing ideas, and those that understand that even those variations represent something more than just images, that filmmaking isn't something limited to films; he added that morality began with the second category. Pedro Costa is the director who has taken that distinction closest to heart; Clint Eastwood, who has probably never heard of Serge Daney and doesn't need to, is the filmmaker whose work best proves it. Eastwood has taken the classical Hollywood model of filmmaking and its rules of framing and editing into the present; if Allan Dwan or John Ford were still alive and working today, their films would resemble Eastwood's. It's unfortunately more and more common (which is not to say necessary) to have to defend Eastwood, but a defense »

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Pou-soi's Accident review

9 December 2009 3:46 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

If you've been keeping track of Twitch you might remember Pou-Soi Cheang from his previous films Shamo, Dog Bite Dog or maybe even Love Battlefield. He's slowly establishing himself as one of my favorite directors, so with much anticipation I was looking forward to Accident, his latest. Cheang was nice enough not to disappoint.

Accident was made under the caring wings of Johnny To. Not only did he produce, but the film was also co-released by his very own Milkyway. Lately To's doing a really good job of turning his production company's logo into a true seal of quality. With his own recent output and a quality selection of films like Eye In The Sky I'm more and more drawn to films coming from the Milkyway stables.

With Accident Cheang leaves his more cult-oriented background and takes on a sub genre that's been gaining popularity in recent years. The Brain »

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Exclusive: Terry Gilliam Reflects on 'Parnassus'

7 December 2009 9:50 PM, PST | CinemaSpy | See recent CinemaSpy news »

Director Terry Gilliam is known for movies that take strange, wonderful and sometimes indecipherable trips deep into the recesses of the human mind. His latest film, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (read Blaine Kyllo's review of the film here), was to be just another in a string of mind-bending movies from the director who has brought us such previous brain teasers as Brazil, The Fisher King and The Brothers Grimm. But in the middle of filming, something happened that changed the direction of the film, the cast, and the director himself.

As everyone is well aware, the star of Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger, died suddenly while on a break from filming Gilliam’s movie. While the rest of the world mourned the loss of a potentially great actor, Gilliam was forced to decide how to finish a film that would now serve as a eulogy for Ledger.

CinemaSpy recently sat »

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Johnnie To’s Vengeance on Hk DVD & Blu-ray Disc

3 December 2009 12:07 AM, PST | Affenheimtheater | See recent Affenheimtheater news »

Ha! Just as expected, our French friends won’t be the only ones who will be able to enjoy Johnnie To’s Vengeance from their own couch this Christmas time. According to several online shops, Hk super distributor Mega Star will release the film on DVD and Blu-ray Disc with English subtitles on December 11th, the same day as the sweet looking French release from TF1 Video.

The back cover says the Blu-ray Disc will be locked to Region A, but this doesn’t mean much on Mega Star releases. Their latest release of Accident is also labeled as Region A but plays fine on European Blu-ray Players.

Preorder Vengeance on DVD or Blu-ray Disc from YesAsia

Update [Dec 22, 2009] I got my Bd copy today and the disc is locked to region A! 35 full resolution screen shots are available at the Asian Blu-ray Guide. »

- Ulrik

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Johnnie To's Vengeance Hits DVD December 11th.

2 December 2009 2:30 PM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

To say that the critical response to Johnnie To's (mostly) English language debut Vengeance has been mixed is to be fairly kind, honestly.  But, a weaker effort or not, To is To, which means a rabid legion of fans is waiting for their chance to lay hands on it.  Well, here's your chance.  The Hong Kong release date for both DVD and BluRay - the BluRay being Region A and therefore playable in all North American equipment - is December 11th and both are available for preorder now.

»

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Eureka! A BluRay for Fantastic Planet!

2 December 2009 9:46 AM, PST | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

Thanks go to Marten in our forum, who alerted me that British distributor Eureka will be re-releasing René Laloux' "La Planète Sauvage" aka. "Fantastic Planet" next spring in a BluRay edition as part of their "Masters Of Cinema" label. Eureka has confirmed this news.

Often have I commented on the eternal friendly battle between Criterion and Eureka Moc, and how we all benefit from it. Sometimes Criterion has the best version, sometimes Eureka Moc. But so far, Eureka Moc doesn't show the annoying blind spots that Criterion seems to have for all non-Japanese Asian movies and animation. This is very much true for their BluRay line-up so far, which included Johnny To's "Mad Detective" last year and in 2010 includes this animated classic. 

 

For me this is the best news I've heard today: I reviewed their DVD-release of "Fantastic Planet" ( click here... ) and while I was very much taken by it, »

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Golden Horse Awards: Maggie Cheung, Ang Lee, Leon Dai, Tsai Ming-liang

30 November 2009 6:07 AM, PST | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Maggie Cheung alert!

She walked the Taiwanese red carpet today in this white number to your left. She was presenting Best Picture at the Golden Horse Awards. The Golden Horse is Taiwanese in origin but it's for Chinese language films regardless of country of origin so it's very competitive now. Warlords and Lust, Caution, which both had international releases, were recent winners of Best Picture.

This year, Maggie handed the trophy to No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti which, if we ever see it in the States, might be called I Can't Live Without You or Not Without You. That's Taiwan's submission for this year's Foreign Language Film Oscar race. The film is from actor/director Leon Dai and it's about a poor man who loses his daughter once the government learns of their illegal living conditions.

No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (2009) from Taiwan

Winners

Best Picture: No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti

Best Director: Leon Dai, »

- NATHANIEL R

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Tiff 2009 Day 5: Soi Cheang's Accident

30 November 2009 1:32 AM, PST | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

A title that received tremendous buzz from Venice, I came into Soi Cheang's Accident (produced by Johnnie To) not knowing much, and though the intro sequence is well plotted, this tale of a team of assassins covering up their tracks in a picture perfect manner, falls in the trappings of a screenplay that attempt to get too creative and too witty in its smallish shell. - A title that received tremendous buzz from Venice, I came into Soi Cheang's Accident (produced by Johnnie To) not knowing much, and though the intro sequence is well plotted, this tale of a team of assassins covering up their tracks in a picture perfect manner, falls in the trappings of a screenplay that attempt to get too creative and too witty in its smallish shell. Hong Kong cinema fans will discover a new addition to the stable, but the chilled nature of »

- Ioncinema.com Staff

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Accident (Louis Koo, Richie Ren) Hong Kong Movie Review

14 November 2009 5:31 PM, PST | AsianMoviePulse | See recent AsianMoviePulse news »

Accident is the latest film from director Pou-Soi Cheang (Shamo, Dog Bit Dog, and Love Battlefield) and producer Johnnie To (Mad Detective, Election, Ptu) via To’s Milkyway Images production. It tells the story of a crack team of assassins led by Brains (Louis Koo) who instead of forcefully killing their foe, instead come up with elaborate plans to make the murders look like every day accidents. Each ‘accident’ is painstakingly put together with every minor detail taking care of. It’s this attention to detail which quickly grabs the viewers’ attention from the very opening scene. »

- Tiger33

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Johnnie To produced Accident hits DVD & Blu-ray Disc in November

3 November 2009 3:17 AM, PST | Affenheimtheater | See recent Affenheimtheater news »

When it comes to quick and export-friendly home video release of recent domestic blockbusters, nobody beats our friends from Hong Kong. See the Johnnie To produced and Pou-Soi Cheang directed thriller Accident (Yi ngoi). The film had it’s theatrical release in Hong Kong on September 17th and not even two months later (November 11th) it will be available on DVD and Blu-ray Disc including English subtitles. Most of Mega Star’s Blu-ray Disc releases have been reported as region free, so there’s really no reason not to preorder this while we wait for an English subtitled release of Johnnie To’s Vengeance…

Preorder Accident on DVD or Blu-ray Disc from YesAsia »

- Ulrik

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Soi Cheang’s Accident on English subbed DVD

3 November 2009 1:07 AM, PST | 24framespersecond.net | See recent 24FramesPerSecond news »

Hong Kong director Soi Cheang’s (better known for his ultra violent cult films ‘Dog Bite Dog’ and ‘Shamo’) latest work, the psychologically thriller Accident, is up to order on English subtitled DVD. Produced by Johnnie To - and hailed as one of the best dramas to come out of Hk this year- Accident stars Louis Koo, and Richie Ren, in a Cat and Mouse battle for survival. Synopsis: A self-styled “accident choreographer,” the Brain is a professional hitman who kills his victims by trapping them in well crafted “accidents” that look like unfortunate mishaps but are in fact perfectly staged acts of crime. Perennially plagued with guilt, he is also suspicious and morbid by nature. The recent avalanche of memories of his lost wife does not make things any easier. After one mission accidentally goes wrong, causing the life of one of his men, the Brain is convinced that »

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Johnnie To’s Vengance: French DVD & Blu-ray Disc in December

27 October 2009 12:17 PM, PDT | Affenheimtheater | See recent Affenheimtheater news »

Sometimes, but just sometimes it must be great to live in a film-loving nation like France, because our friendly south-western neighbors were not only the first that could see Johnnie To’s Vengeance on the big screen back in May, but will also be the first to get a DVD and Blu-ray Disc release. On December 11th, TF1 Video will release the film in three flavors, a standard one disc edition, a two disc collector’s edition and of a Blu-ray Disc edition in a nice looking steelbook.

Sadly none of these releases will included English subtitles and TF1 Video also has the bad habit to enforce the French subtitles when the original (mostly english in Vengeance) language track is selected. But since Vengeance opened in Hong Kong on August 20th, I bet English friendly Hk DVD and Blu-ray Disc releases will pop up by the end of the year as well. »

- Ulrik

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Mvff '09: Sparrow

15 October 2009 10:54 AM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

Sparrow is a weird little movie. It's an obvious pet project by director Johnnie To that moves in its own breezy rhythm, no doubt an aftereffect of its lax shooting style. Over a period of three years, To and his tight crew—which includes usual faces like Simon Yam and Lam Ka Tung—would shoot scenes for Sparrow in-between their big projects. It's obvious that it's not one of To's best, but it's a very loose and fun film nonetheless.

You can tell it's a To film by its quartet of male anti-heroes. Simon Yam plays Kei, the leader of a quartet of "sparrows" (Hong Kong slang for pickpockets). A beautiful woman (the luminous Kelly Lin) from mainland China enters all their lives separately, and soon they are tangled in a dangerous game against the woman's husband, an old and powerful gang boss. A pretty lady wants to escape a »

- Arya Ponto

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Mill Valley Film Festival '09: Honorary Guests and Must-Sees

8 October 2009 1:48 PM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

The Mill Valley Film Festival opens tonight, filling the next 10 days with some of the most anticipated films of the rest of the year, as well as a selection of international films making its way to the Bay Area. In addition, the festival will also host the awarding of talents such as Woody Harrelson, Clive Owen, Uma Thurman, Jason Reitman and screen legend Anna Karina.

We'll have reviews coming in for the festival soon, but for the moment, here's a brief preview of what to look for.

Clive Owen gets a spotlight for bringing his latest work, the patriarchal drama The Boys Are Back, which opens the festival tonight. Owen plays a father who has to raise his two sons on his own after his wife's sudden death. As part of the program is a screening of Owen's breakout role in the gambling thriller Croupier.

Paired with fatherhood is Motherhood, »

- Arya Ponto

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Tere Kya Hoga Johnny to Premiere at Liff

2 October 2009 12:20 PM, PDT | Bollyspice | See recent Bollyspice news »

Sudhir Mishra's Tere Kya Hoga Johnny/Ride The Wave Johnny will premiere at the London International Film Festival on October 13th and is scheduled for release in India on November 28th. The film stars Neil Nitin Mukesh, Soha Ali Khan and Shahana Goswami. Compared in style to Wong Kar-Wai's In The Mood For Love, the film is a visual feast and Soha Ali Khan a revelation as a girl whose life is running out of control. Neil Nitin Mukesh also establishes himself in the movie as one of the most magnetic of new wave Indian stars. The producers will be making the most of the opportunity by setting up camp in London.

The Festival also features Gulaal, perhaps one of the most under-rated and under-promoted movies of the year. Anurag Kahyap's political thriller about radical student politics stars Kk Menon and Piyush Mishra and starts its run on Saturday, »

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Now on Netflix: The Asian Movies Arrive

1 October 2009 1:40 AM, PDT | JustPressPlay.net | See recent JustPressPlay news »

Netflix has added an impressive list of new films to their InstantWatch feature again this week. Quite a number of them are great titles from various Asian countries that I'm glad to see made accessible to Us viewers. Some of them are modern classics that need no introduction to cineastes, but others are pleasant surprises.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man

One of my favorite movies of all time, Tetsuo is Japanese cyberpunk at its most definitive. The first feature film by the great Shinya Tsukamoto, Tetsuo is the highly allegorical—and illogical—story of a businessman whose body slowly morphs into machine against his will, after he accidentally runs over a metal fetishist. Perverse, daring and brimming with energy, Tetsuo is one of the coolest things Japanese cult cinema has to offer.

Watch it now

Tokyo!

An anthology series, Tokyo! stands out for being directed by three famous directors (Michel Gondry, »

- Arya Ponto

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DVD Round Up, Sept. 29, 2009: ‘Deadgirl,’ ‘Nightwatching,’ ‘Next Day Air’

29 September 2009 9:29 AM, PDT | HollywoodChicago.com | See recent HollywoodChicago.com news »

Chicago – Horror, action, drama, and comedy - HollywoodChicago.com’s DVD Round-Up has it all. Where else can you read about the latest from internationally acclaimed auteur Peter Greenaway and the newest Mos Def comedy in one column? These are the recently released titles that you might have missed when you last updated your Netflix queue. See if any of them grab you enough to deal with “Very Long Wait”.

All four titles - “Deadgirl,” “Next Day Air,” “Nightwatching,” and “Triangle” - were released on September 15th, 2009.

“Deadgirl”

Photo credit: Mpi Synopsis: “Daringly original and genre-busting, Deadgirl is an odyssey into the soul of our alienated youth that takes the conventions of the horror and coming-of-age movies and turns them on their heads.

When high school misfits Rickie and Jt decide to ditch school and find themselves lost in the crumbling facility of a nearby abandoned hospital, they come face-to-face »

- adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

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2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2000

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