M. Night Shyamalan on the left shooting Lady in the Water. Leave poor Paul Giamatti out ouf this beef with him. (c) 2006 Warner Bros.
A couple of film directors are more hated than anyone right now. These include Mel Gibson, Roman Polanski and M. Night Shyamalan. But only Shyamalan is hated because of his work.
Because of the relatively cheaply made Sixth Sense made truckloads of money back in the last millennium, Shyamalan got what most film directors can only dream of in Hollywood: total creative control. Thus, he directs, produces and writes his own films. And usually even acts a role. Too bad these talents were properly utilized only in Unbreakable. From there on, I've only seen the frankly crap Signs and The Village and I'm a better person for it. Everyone else keeps saying the films get worse and worse.
Shyamalan is hated among movie viewers mostly because with Sixth Sense and Unbreakable he had potential, which went on wasted. All the while big Hollywood studios see that it perhaps doesn't pay off to give directors control over their work. Very few directors get the chance. I hope Christopher Nolan inspires both studios and talented filmmakers to aim for the skies.
One thing in the internet which I've never quite gotten is the hate towards Brett Ratner. True, he's not a very personal director. But hey, most people in Hollywood aren't. Very, very few precentage of Hollywood's directors have any vision whatsoever. I would go on to claim this includes the celebrated X-men director Bryan Singer. Ratner hasn't made any great movies, but I haven't actually seen anything absolutely horrible from him, either (then again, I haven't seen Rush Hour 3). I'm probably the only person in the world that likes X-men 3. Of course I see that the film has some problems, that stem from too much happening at the same time. But I would blame the studio system wanting to make the sequel bigger, rather than Ratner. After all, he made from the studio constantly meddling a perfectly entertaining superhero flick (stop stoning me).
I think the problem is that audiences tend to think too auteuristic of Hollywood films. When it's obvious a director doesn't have much say in the final version of the film, one shouldn't judge the quality of the direction too harshly. After all, we have Michael Bay still making movies when someone spotted that some Jerry Bruckheimer productions were actually DIRECTED by someone. If we could've just ignored him when we had the chance...
So, don't talk about Hollywood directors unless they make something extraordinary, which only an unique vision could do. This does not include Zach Snyder. And if that same unique voice keeps making horrendous new films like M. Night, just keep ignoring him. He'll have to stop at some point when no one wants to see his shit films.
The Best Animated Films of the 2000s - Part IV of a series
Persepolis (c) 2007 2.4.7 Films
Okay, I tried not to do a list of animations, as I feel it's less of a genre, more of a film-making style. But it turned out not that many animations are actually easily divided into other genres. So here I have a whole post to just celebrate this style, which created many of the very best films of the decade.
I have already mentioned the following films in these lists:
In comedy: The Simpsons Movie Shrek
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (which had its premiere in Finland in 2000)
Team America: World Police
So that makes ten great animations that you should've checked out. Here's ten more.
The Triplets of Belleville
2003, Dir. Sylvain Chomet
It's almost like France: The Movie. We have near-wordless slapstick, film noir influences, caricatures, frog-eating, cabaret and of course the whole film revolves around bicycling. I love France, thus I also love the film. I saw it in French, but luckily it has very little dialogue in it. Also director Sylvain Chobet's animated world is cute as hell and impossible to resist. Funny, too.
Flushed Away 2006, Dir. David Bowers, Sam Fell
Aardman is every bit as good in the animation game as Pixar, but alas, unlike Pixar they can fail at the box office. It doesn't matter that this is one of the funniest animated movies of the decade packed to the rafters with good ones. It's also lovably british although the actors are major movie stars as they are won't to be in most of these cases. But besides the European sense of humour, no-one quite does action sequences like Aardman, and they have cute animated animals (snails here) in small parts to boot. Come to think of it, the film maybe plays it a bit too close to its American counterparts. It is a computer-generated movie, after all, and not claymation, where Aardman excels.
Mary And Max 2009, Dir. Adam Elliot
This is one of those quirky films few people outside film festival crowds ever get the chance to see. But if you get the chance, I would urge you to see it. The audience at last year's Helsinki International Film Festival loved it and so did I. It's an Australian claymation film about a little girl who becomes a pen pal with a mentally ill, morbidly obese New Yorker. It treats life as a series of pretty unfortunate events, the film is mostly black and white, and it's certainly not for too young children. But in the end, it is a funny, uplifting, a little sad story about unlikely (platonic) friendships that last forever. Nice, although one might think it makes fun of mental illnesses.
Persepolis 2007, Directors: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
Traditional animation is, alas, quite rare on this list. But clearly the greatest masterpiecethat art created this decade, is this film. Based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, it is smart enough to adapt only the parts that are suited for cinema. Satrapi has added a great deal of good stuff to the film too. The black and white movie follows her story from the rebellious punk rock childhood in ever-more religious Iran, to her blossoming adulthood (which may be even darker times) in France. Funny, thought-provoking, a little sad and always intelligent, this is one for the ages. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
2008, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
I'll have to have at least one anime here, to balance things out. And wow, I still have one Miyazaki film left (Hayao, not Goro). Cuteness overload! The pure Miyazaki charm doesn't fail this time, either. The story of the Little Mermaid made at least ten years younger makes the princess of the sea wreack all sorts of havock on land. And how Miyazaki pictures this havock! Giant waves, flooded villages, and of course, the underwater world crawlinmg with life. Nothing ever made by a computer can even come close to its magnificence.
Ratatouille 2007, Dir. Brad Bird
Pixar on top form once again. This is the film after the dire Cars, that started the studio's new reneissance. The old buddy formula gets weird from here on, as here it's a puppet master rat controlling a bumbling youngster, both on their way to become great chefs. As it usually is in American animations, this one has a little too much of "believe in your dreams" messages. However, it does come with a twist this time. It is encouraged this time to follow your skills along with your heart, as Linguini shouldn't clearly be a chef. Also charming, particularly in the few second's silent flashback to the childhood of Anton Ego, which explains everything there is to know about the character. Brad Bird's best film. The Spongebob SquarePants Movie
2004, Dir. Stephen Hillenburg
One TV-spurned film I just can't resist is this SpongeBob one. Maybe I'm a retard or a pothead or immature, but I just find his escapades funny. Plus, in finnish, he's named like my name! The plot doesn't matter that much in this, as it's mostly just weird set-pieces of Spongebob's adventures across the sea. But it's got a live-action cameo from a very sea-worthy actor, an actually pretty threatening villain (not talking about Plankton here) and heaps of hilarity. Good for hung-over mornings.
Terkel in Trouble 2004,Directors: Stefan Fjeldmark, Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen, Thorbjørn Christoffersen
(I apologize for the bad english dubbing)
As the finnish animations of this decade were good in only copying better ones (Niko), or to contain political caricatures and to just be a very moronic farce (Keisarin salaisuus), leave it to the danish to get Scandinavia on the list.The anarchistic film is crude, and very slapstick-heavy. And of course hilarious, as forks are shoved to eyes, sledgehammers used on crotchs and babies ears bitten off. The film deals with a prepubcescent boy going to summer camp. He feels guilty of getting a fat girl to commit suicide, and as if things aren't bad enough already, someone is trying to kill him, too. All the characters are created and voiced by the same person, comedian Anders Matthesen. And they are pretty great characters, too. My favorite is the constantly drunk and violent sailor-uncle. Up 2009, Directors: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson
One more of Pixar's greatest, a bar, which has constantly been raised. It is a pure fairy-tale, even though it has humans as its main characters. That's why one mustn't be nit-picky about the story's plot-holes and Deus ex machinas. Even though it is unusual for Pixar to have as many. Still, you simply must love a movie with as plenty of laugh-out-loud moments (The Road Runner-homaging works nicely) and as much heart. The highlight in this is most touching montage in any film ever since Battleship Potemkin. And maybe even better than that. Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit
2005, Directors: Steve Box, Nick Park
I just love these characters. I was worried that the longer length and the American producer would harm the british charm of the classic W&G adventures. But I was clearly wrong. aardman can't do wrong. This is a wildly hilarious send-up of Hammer horror films. As always, Wallace's machines create the problem, this time creating the titular beast eating the townsfolk's prized vegetables. It's up to Wallace and Gromit (mostly Gromit) to stop this. This is just a brilliant gag-filled comedy, mixing slapstic, situation comedy, little background gags, and humour you can only do in animation. All the while never underestimating anyone in the audience, whatever their age. Cracking!
This time, I had to include some films bubbling just under the list. Man, this decade's animated films were good.
Chicken Run
The Emperor's New Groove
Finding Nemo
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Kingdom of the Cats
Andrew Garfield was just selected to play Peter Parker and his alter-ego, The Amazing Spider-Man. The future movie will feature Parker still in high school and will be directed by (500) Days of Summer's Marc Webb. I have been surprised how much the whole of internet has been s opposed to this whole project. One reason must be that beloved director of the previous three, Sam Raimi, was so suddenly given the sack while developing Part 4.
As I am a huge nerd, I have spent way too much time thinking about the next Spider-Man movie. It's the one franchise I know through and through (although I have tried to catch up with the Marvel universe - I refuse to go to the 90's). Although I have planned out pretty good sequels in my head (Harry Osborn helps create The Scorpion in 3, Kraven hunts the Lizard in 4), I have been pretty easy to please with Sam Raimi's films. Yes, even the treequel. I recognize however, that none of them are perfect Spider-Man movies.
First, Tobey Maguire wasn't probably the best possible actor to play Spider-Man. He's just too serious and part of Spidey's charm is that he hides his nervousness with constant insulting and joking. And while Kirsten Dunst was okay as MJ, the girl next door, she was a far cry (gettit?) from the strong bombshell of the comics. She would've been better as Gwen Stacy, Spidey's great love who was killed by the Green Goblin. But we never got to see that tragic turning point on the big screen because Gobby was disposed in the first movie already.
I recognize the reason Marvel has suddenly decided to reboot the franchise not even 10 years old. Raimi was moving too fast with Spidey's life story. Rumours had been circling around that the fourth movie would've circled around Parker's wedding to Mary Jane Watson . As most people who love Spider-Man are either teenagers or can relate to him as a teenager, this makes him a bit too old for our tastes. Marriage drama isn't as interesting to the focus group as teenage love woes. Marvel recently rebooted the character in comic books from a married teacher to a college student via him having to make a deal with the devil. Let's be glad in the land of movies we can just start fresh without having to resort to that sort of plot gimmicks.
What I especially liked in Raimi's films is his knack for creating symphatetic villains. Although the Vulture isn't one of my favorite villains I would've loved to see what he and John Malkovich would've gotten out of the character. In fact, as a huge fan of Con Air, I would love to still see Malkovich as Webb's film's villain.
There has been some fear over the choosing of Webb as the film's director as he hasn't showed his action chops. Brother, I got news for you. In a production this big in Hollywood it has no importance whatsoever how good a director can direct action. They will hire the best fight choreographers, CGI artists, cinematographers etc. anyway. What is needed is an understanding of the characters, the skill to create believable romances, and a sense of humour. And Webb proved he has all of these in (500) Days of Summer. I also approve the casting decision of Garfield. I liked him in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, although he didn't actually get much to work with there.
However, there are a couple of worrying things, too. I don't know where the "gritty" reboot rumour originates but I hope it is just a rumour. Darkness doesn't fit to a movie about a guy in tights who shoots webbing at people made of sand and mad scientists. The other worrying part about the film is that James Cameron is a consultant in the film. I hope that only means him giving tips to Webb of how to use the 3D film camera. He obviously doesn't know anything about believable romances and the Spider-Man script he wrote in the 90's is reportedly laughably bad. His script has Spider-Man shouting to Electro "I'm gonna kill you, you motherfucker!" Hardly kid's movie stuff.
Finally, I won't believe we will be given anything that has already been made good. So I'm guessing no origins or Uncle Ben in the next one. They didn't go all the way to the start in the other Marvel reboot, the Incredible Hulk either, remember. So here's putting my hope to Webb. You will do whatever a spider can.
M. Night Shyamalan on the left shooting Lady in the Water. Leave poor Paul Giamatti out ouf this beef with him. (c) 2006 Warner Bros. 
