Top flicks of the Noughties - 2006

An Inconvenient Truth
It took a US Vice President to make a documentary to show the rest of the world the path that we are currently on. Dismiss the science if you will, but I think we all know it's gonna get awful hot around here soon...

Apocalypto
Directed by Mel Gibson (don't let that put you off) Apocalypto tells the story of a Mayan civilisation on the verge of being discovered by the western world. Brilliant to watch, quite violent in parts.

Borat
I still can't get some of those scenes out of my head. Niiiiice.

Casino Royale
Such a scandal - casting a blonde as James Bond. Daniel Craig filled the part quite nicely (and those budgie smugglers too).

Crank
Wow. Jason Statham. Really cool editing. Wow.

Da Vinci Code
I put this here with an internal battle going on in my brain. The movie was pretty ordinary. Ron Howard tried his little hat off to make us relate to a couple of one dimensional characters. That's just how they were written in the book. I do like the interest it created in people questioning the bible and the propaganda that the church has fed it's flock for the past two thousand years.

The Departed
Martin Scorsese finally won an Oscar! One of the biggest casts since man invented the cast. Great twist! Ooops, did I say too much?

The Devil Wears Prada
Most of us in the world are blissfully unaware of what goes on behind the doors of most fashion magazines. Our only glimpse has been from watching Ugly Betty on telly. Meryl Streep just oozes bitch in her soft spoken portrayal of a chick who knows that your bum always looks big in that. Great performance from Emily Blunt!

Happy Feet
Aussie director George Miller makes a hard hitting documentary about the secret lives of dancing penguins. Fascinating.

The Illusionist
Two movies out at the same time about magicians and stuff. This was the one with Edward Norton chasing after Jessica Biel.

Inside Man
Spike Lee directs Jodie Foster and Denzel Washington in a bank heist flick that isn't exactly all that it seems. I thought there were a few scenes involving crowds outside the bank that seemed a bit amateur. An odd thing to remember but that is what stuck with me!

Jesus Camp
Lock up your children! Probably the most scary movie I've ever seen. It's a documentary about a bunch of kids who go to Jesus Camp. Let's all learn to be intolerant and ignorant and hug cardboard cut-outs of George W Bush. I got chills, they're multiplying.

Little Miss Sunshine
Super-cool feel good movie about a dysfunctional family who learns how to get functional while taking daughter Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Michael Arndt picked up an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Lucky Number Slevin (aka The Wrong Man)
I'm always weary about movies that change their name in different countries... but this one was quite a surprise. Nice new twist on the case-of-mistaken-identity plot line and Josh Hartnett spends a lot of time in a towel.

Marie Antoinette
Directed by Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation) this movie is not your usual bonnet drama. Marie Antoinette was a teenager when she became Queen of France and this flick takes us on a journey of what any teenager would do given that much money and power all at once, throw wicked parties and buy lots and lots of pairs of lovely shoes. Jason Schwartzman is perfect as Louis XVI. Beautifully shot and a quirky but well-fitting soundtrack.

Pan's Labyrinth
It took me a little while to see this one, I missed it at the cinema and I really wish I saw it there. Del Toro creates these magical, dark worlds that are both frightening and mesmerising. Set in Spain, WW2 it follows Ofelia as she discovers an anti-fairy tale world with nightmarish creatures as we get sucked into it with her.

Perfume
I read about this movie a while before it was made. Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer by Patrick Susskind just happens to be my favourite book. And with such a title bestowed upon a few hundred pages I was so worried that they'd do something horrible to it transferring it on to the screen. But, thankfully, they didn't. Ben Whishaw captured the essence of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille perfectly, and director Tom Tykwer even managed to cast two of the biggest noses in Hollywood, Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman. For a story so focused on the sense of smell and our world not yet having invented Smell-O-Vision (cases for and against Smell-O-Vision are both equally compelling), Tykwer did a fantastic job showing us the foul streets of France and letting us have a glimpse of the world of one very obsessed killer.

The Prestige
The other movie about magic and stuff. This was the one that had Hugh Jackman and David Bowie playing genius Nikolai Tesla. Directed by Chris Nolan and co-written by him and bro John. Nice job chaps.

The Pursuit of Happyness
Heart-string-pulling true story about the lengths a father would go to to protect his son, even when he has nothing. Literally a rags to riches tale. Wil Smith is almost out-performed by his son Jaden. A lovely flick.

The Queen
Helen Mirren plays the Queen and possibly does a better job than the real one. Michael Sheen should also take over being Tony Blair.

Saw 3
I think this was the last full Saw movie I watched. Much the same as the others. There should be a place where we can go and buy a Saw movie franchise, like buying your own McDonald's, and make our own Saw movies. I'm sure the formula is pretty easy to follow. Make some traps, kill some people, get an old dude to speak slowly.

Scoop
Woody Allen and Scarlet Johansen again in a tale about ghosts, love and a killer who looks an awful lot like Hugh Jackman who also puts on a pair of budgie smugglers.

Snakes on a Plane
The movie that started off other movies like 'Sharks on a Train' Spiders on a Bus' 'Octopus on a Transit Lane'. Just one big Samuel L Jackson fest (the 'L' stands for mother fucker).

Stranger Than Fiction
Get inside Wil Ferrel's head and you'll find Emma Thompson. Brilliant screenplay about Robert McKee's biggest pet hate - the voice over!!

Superman Returns
He sure did. In a nice suit and with good hair. I got goosebumps just listening to the opening music...

Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby
Joined at the hip funny buddies Wil Ferrel and John C Reilly take us around and around and around and around the world of car racing. Shake and Bake.

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
Those guys are musical geniuses! (see below) But the legend of the rent was way past due...

Thank You For Smoking
Hot dang I loved this movie so, so much. Directed by Jason Reitman (who also directed Juno and Jennifer's Body, both Diablo Cody's scripts) TYFS is about one of the worlds most despicable people in the world, the spokesperson for a cigarette company and boy do we love him. Aaron Eckhart could talk a nun into a strip joint with her sister. Fantastic.

Tristram Shandy
A movie about the making of a movie about a book that could never be made into a movie... Steve Coogan and an all star cast take us behind the scenes of this seeming monstrosity of a film. Great scene with him going into a huge uterus and being born! Laughs-a-plenty.

X-Men 3
What? Still no Alan Cumming???

Zodiac
Double wow. I'm currently reading the book Zodiac written by Robert Graysmith. In the movie, he is played by Jake Gyllenhaal, the cartoonist for the San Fransisco Chronicle who wrote the definitive book about the Zodiac killings that paralysed the US for years. This is not your typical David Fincher/serial killer movie like Se7en. This movie is about obsession. The obsession of catching a guy who we well know will never be caught in the movie and who has still not being caught or even identified. An obsession that tears apart relationships and puts people in mortal danger. I think this is Gyllenhaal's best movie and having Robert Downey Jnr as wacked out reporter Paul Avery is just the icing on the cake. There's an interview from Jeff Goldsmith and screenwriter James Vanderbilt here. If you haven't seen this movie yet, do it now!