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10. 'Hostel: Part II' Eli Roth has a psychotically morose imagination, but that's something anyone could tell after watching his brutal torture-themed "Hostel" and its sequel, produced by Quentin Tarantino and released this year. These movies are sick and twisted on a whole different level; the only thing that could compare is the gruesome gore fest of the "Saw" series, but even that doesn't seem to cut the cake anymore, as this latest installment adds a sexual element into the mix, making the macabe "horror" flicks a bit more deviant.
The story picks up right where the original left off, with the leading man, having escaped and now in hiding, going downstairs for a midnight snack after waking from a nightmare, only to have his head removed. Flash over to Europe, where the maniacal sport is still going on.
Basically, extremely rich (and, therefore, wacko) individuals pay exorbitant sums of money for the right to mangle and torture innocent victims to death who are collected via a local hostel. This time around, the victims-in-question are a group of women tourists, and the death scenes are so bad you won't be able to look away.
I think that's the reason movies like this are so successful in today's culture. Although there is something in old-time horror flicks that really scares you without all the blood and guts, nowadays people would rather be shocked out of their minds by gore, so "Hostel: Part II" makes the list.
- Jacob Payne 9. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' You know that phenomenon known as "pwning" in which a person shows his ultimate skills by making someone look foolish (by killing, embarrassing, etc.)? If there's a cinematic example of that, it's without a doubt "The Bourne Ultimatum," the third installment in the high-powered secret agent identity-crisis series based on the books by Robert Ludlum.
In this offering, Jason Bourne (played surprisingly well by Matt Damon) is brought out of hiding once more by a London reporter researching an updated version of the Treadstone project, the training program that simultaneously created and destroyed Bourne's character. He must race against time to uncover his past while at the same time avoiding governmental efforts to get rid of him once and for all.
There hasn't been a trilogy this good in quite some time, and Bourne is portrayed as a real man's James Bond: a smart and capable yet altogether human and vulnerable character searching for meaning. The film's blockbuster leanings are balanced by an intelligence rarely seen in mainstream money hogs, and the fun comes in discovering elements of the story as Bourne discovers them. There's no preconceived notion of what's going on: It's about a man's race to discover who he is, and secret agent or not, that's something we can all relate to.
- Robert Rich 8. 'Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem' First and foremost, forget "American Gangster."
How good can a '70s period piece be when you can spot The RZA's Wu-Tang tattoo on screen?
Secondly, I'm sick of Peter Travers and Owen Gleiberman and A.O. Scott and pundits whose best-of lists are annually chocked with films the general public won't be able to see until well into the following calendar year. It's just arrogant - an excuse to name drop by starting articles with, "When 'Pan's Labyrinth' premiered at Cannes..."
I haven't seen this vehicle. I've just seen the gory red-band trailer. It's awesome.
As kids we played the arcade game, bought the action figures and dreamed of the day Hollywood would arbitrarily settle these eternal debates. But unlike The Human Torch versus Michael Jordan or Beast versus Ultimate Warrior - hypothetical cage matches we'd outgrow - this idea had legs.
Still, when 2004 arrived, no one was satisfied. "AVP" was rated PG-13 and, more importantly, failed to crown a clear-cut victor.
Picking up where its soft, pointless, Sci-Fi Channel predecessor left off, "Requiem" begins with the "Predalien" (whatever hatched out of the dead Predator at the end of the first movie) killing a bunch of Predators, subsequently causing a) their space ship to crash land in rural Colorado and b) an outbreak of Aliens to bestow havok and carnage to any sentient beings they encounter.
And who can stop this? A Predator. A super, bottom-of-the-ninth-closing, clean-up Predator.
The cornerstones are in place for a classic. The tagline ("In space, no one can hear you scream. On earth, it won't matter") is an excuse to place a Predator where he shines best (in the woods) and bushels of nobody actors for the sacrifice. This isn't torture porn; this is a warm, appreciated, tongue-in-cheek excuse to revive and reinvigorate a pair of sentimental franchises, a fun-for-the-whole-family return to the iconic monsters that captured our imaginations. And I can't wait to take my little brother to see it Christmas Day.
- Ramon Ramirez 7. 'Away from Her' This is the most impressive directorial debut that I've seen in years. What feels like a mature work from an old master actually comes from 28-year-old actress Sarah Polley. She also amazingly wrote the screenplay (based on the Alice Munro short story, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain") and assembled a terrific cast headlined by rarely seen screen legend Julie Christie and veterans Gordon Pinsent and Olympia Dukakis. Although ostensibly an "old people's movie," there's plenty of appeal for all adults, especially cinephiles.
The movie is a poetic examination of the relationship and lives of an elderly married couple that encounters the complications of Alzheimer's disease. There are implications that Grant (Pinsent) was once unfaithful, and Fiona (Christie), the Alzheimer's victim, falls in love with a fellow hospice resident.
The movie is about taking life moment-by-moment and learning to do the right thing for a loved one even at the cost of one's own happiness. That that sounds trite, but there's nothing easy (or common) about the decision to commit a spouse to an Alzheimer's hospice, nor is it easy to watch that person's mind and memory deteriorate and become increasingly alienated as a result. But hardest of all is seeing a lover develop an intimate relationship with another person in one's stead, not out of malice, neglect or poor morals, but because, as Fiona tells Grant, "(The other man) doesn't confuse me."
Few movies exist that examine the implications of the disease, and the synthesis between this aspect of the story and the love story is simply sublime, brilliant and perfect. There's no denying that this is one of the most accomplished and powerful movies of the year.
- Fei Meng 6. ' Knocked Up' The thought of waking up pregnant with the baby of a jobless stoner - an illegal alien from Canada, no less - is scary, but it's pretty funny to see it happen to someone else. Hilarious, actually. It's safe to say that "Knocked Up" will make you laugh so hard you'll cry - and then run home to double up on your birth control, of course.
Writer and director Judd Apatow has made several other blockbuster comedies to brag about, but until now, each has been either a slew of totally pointless Will Ferrell one-liners or spoiled by a gag-me-with-a-spoon cheesy ending.
"Knocked Up" finds a happy medium between the two, making it Apatow's crowning achievement. Granted, it's a bit sappy, but it's funny enough to cover that up. And it's informational, to boot: Now we all know how pink eye gets spread! In fact, probably the only thing keeping this movie from being number one on our list is the wildly inappropriate (and graphic) labor scene that spoiled everyone's appetite for days.
- Cate Smithson
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