Armchair Commentary

John Casey Presents: So you want to be a deadly spy?

Chuck's John Casey (Adam Baldwin) tells us what it takes to be a deadly spy in an Amazon-exclusive clip. --David

Best Director, 2000-2009: Clint Eastwood

Who is the greatest director of the last 10 years? It certainly could have been Martin Scorsese, who finally won his Oscar for the terrific film The Departed but also was nominated for The Aviator and Gangs of New York. It could be the Coen brothers, who churned out No Country for Old Men, A Serious Man, and O Brother Where Art Thou? And you could certainly make a case for Peter Jackson, he of the One Saga to Rule Them All.

But... we must give our pick for Best Director to... an actor. That's right: Clint Eastwood directed eight films in 10 years. All of them were very good to excellent, and the only exceptions to that high bar--Blood Work and Flags of Our Fathers--were still far from bad. At age 79, he enjoyed some of the best reviews of his directing and acting careers in the past decade (did we mention he also composes the score?). Here's his list from the past decade, in chronological order:

2000: Space Cowboys--Silly premise, yes. Enjoyable and watchable? Totally.

2002: Blood Work--More of a standard whodunnit, very similar to his 1999 film True Crime.

2003: Mystic River--This adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel netted Oscars for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins. Also, don't miss Laura Linney as a stone-cold Lady MacBeth type.

2004: Million Dollar Baby--Best Picture of the year, and an acting nod for Clint to boot.

2006: Flags of Our Fathers--filmed back-to-back with Letters From Iwo Jima, this was the first released but less well-received.

2006: Letters From Iwo Jima--A stunning saga of the World War II battle from the perspective of the Japanese.

2008: Changeling--A harrowing tale of a kidnapping in the '20s netted an Oscar nod for Angelina Jolie.

2008: Gran Torino--Unjustly overlooked at the Oscars, this tale of a friendship between a bigoted vet and a Hmong family next door is more than just "Dirty Harry as an old man," as many have described it.

2009: Invictus--Based on the true story of Nelson Mandela's interest in the national rugby team to unite the apartheid-torn South Africa.

Do you agree? Whose 00's resume looks more impressive than this? --Ellen

Best Actress, 2000-2009: Your Thoughts?

As we looked at the Best Actors of 2000-2009, we had an even harder time determining the best leading actresses of the last 10 years. Even with the dearth of female leading roles, some elite members not only achieved new artistic heights but mass appeal as well. The hard part is, it really only came down to three actresses for us: Kate Winslet, Meryl Streep, and Cate Blanchett (everyone else had a few misses for every strong film). So here are our nominations for Best Leading Actress, 2000-2009. Voice acting and cameos not included, wins/losses are a carefully calculated formula of box office and overall critical reception--or, just a gut feeling.

Kate Winslet

Wins: Revolutionary Road, The Reader, Finding Neverland, Iris, Little Children, Eternal Sunshine, Quills

On the fence: The Holiday, Romance & Cigarettes

Losses: All the King's Men, Enigma, The Life of David Gale

Meryl Streep

Wins: Doubt, The Devil Wears Prada, Mamma Mia, Julie & Julia, The Hours, Adaptation, It's Complicated, A Prarie Home Companion

On the Fence: The Manchurian Candidate, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

Losses: Lions for Lambs, Evening, Rendition, Prime

Cate Blanchett

Wins: The Aviator, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, I’m Not There, Notes on a Scandal, Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, Veronica Guerin, Bandits, The Gift

On the Fence: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Little Fish, The Life Acquatic With Steve Zissou, The Missing, Coffee and Cigarettes, Heaven, Charlotte Gray

Losses: The Good German, The Shipping News, The Man Who Cried

Laura Linney

Wins: The Savages, The Squid and the Whale, Kinsey, P.S., Love Actually, Mystic River, The House of Mirth, You Can Count on me, Breach

On the Fence:  The Nanny Diaries, Driving Lessons

Losses: The Other Man, Man of the Year, The Hottest State, Jindabyne, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Life of David Gale, The Mothman Prophecies

Julianne Moore

Wins: A Single Man, The Hours, Far From heaven, I’m Not There, Hannibal, Children of Men

On the Fence: Blindness, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio

Losses: Savage Grace, Next, Freedomland, Trust the Man, The Forgotten, Laws of Attraction, Marie and Bruce, The Shipping News, World Traveler, Evolution, The Ladies Man

Also-rans: Reese Witherspoon, Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, Juliette Binoche.

Who else would you add to the list? --Ellen

"Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace" YouTube review

Ten years after the movie's 1999 release, a YouTube critic called RedLetterMedia has created a seven-part review of Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace.  It's quirky, but surprisingly watchable.  Part 1 is below.  (Warning: spoilers and language.) --David

Best Actor, 2000-2009: Your Thoughts?

Forget Oscars. Forget box office. Which leading actor and actress had the best batting average of the last 10 years? The most consistent body of work, the highest good-to-bad, one-for-me, one-for-them ratio? In this case, one or two totally awesome movies does not a contender make if they filled the rest of the years with total dreck (that's you, Hilary Swank). Also, we're focusing on leading actors and actresses vs. more supporting/character actors/scene stealers (the John C. Reillys and Alan Rickmans of the world) because so much more weight and expectation is carried on a lead. (Plus, supporting actors do a lot of dreck too.)

So here are our nominations for Best Leading Actor, 2000-2009 (Best Actress and Director to come in later posts). Voice acting and cameos not included, wins/losses are a carefully calculated formula of box office and overall critical reception--or, just a gut feeling.

Johnny Depp (*Amazon Movies staff pick)

Wins: Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Sweeney Todd, Finding Neverland, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Before Night Falls, Blow, Chocolat

On the fence: Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, From Hell, Public Enemies

Losses: The Libertine, Secret Window, Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Christian Bale

Wins: Batman Begins/Dark Knight, The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, I’m Not There, Rescue Dawn, The New World, The Machinist, American Psycho, Shaft

On the fence: Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation, Harsh Times

Losses: Equilibrium, Reign of Fire, Laurel Canyon, Captain Corelli's Mandolin

George Clooney

Wins: Up in the Air, Syriana, Ocean’s 11 and 13, Michael Clayton, Good Night and Good Luck, O Brother Where Art Thou , The Perfect Storm

On the fence: Intolerable Cruelty, Leatherheads, Ocean's 12, Burn After Reading

Losses: The Men Who Stare at Goats, The Good German, Solaris, Welcome to Collinwood

Philip Seymour Hoffman

Wins: Almost Famous, Capote, M:I-3, The Savages, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Charlie Wilson’s War, Doubt, The 25th Hour, Punch-Drunk Love, State and Main

On the fence: Synecdoche, NY, Pirate Radio, Cold Mountain, Owning Mahowny, Red Dragon, Love Liza

Losses: Along Came Polly

Leonardo DiCaprio

Wins: Revolutionary Road, Body of Lies, Blood Diamond, The Departed, The Aviator, Gangs of New York, Catch Me if You Can

Losses: The Beach

Sean Penn

Wins: Milk, Mystic River, The Assassination of Richard Nixon, 21 Grams, I Am Sam, Before Night Falls

On the fence: The Interpreter, Up at the Villa

Losses: All the King’s Men, It's All About Love, The Weight of Water

Who else would you add to the list? --Ellen

Holiday greetings from "Big Love"

Holiday greetings from the Juniper Creek folks of HBO's Big Love. --David

Ten Years of Terror: The Best Horror Films of 2000-2009

Editor's note: We asked one of our movie reviewers, Paul Gaita, to list his picks for the top 10 horror films for 2000-2009. Most had theatrical releases, and a few only released on DVD.

Selecting horror films from any decade is a daunting task; so much of them is wrapped in the visceral elements of childhood fears and obsessions, which tends to make for close guardianship and fierce debate among those who follow and admire the genre. Horror is also a deeply fragmented genre, with countless subdivisions that hew along lines of decade, country, filmmaker, amount (or lack) of violence and suspense, and so on. So in picking the best horror films from a decade, one also has to choose a path to follow - is it the elaborately grisly "torture-porn" of the Saw series and its spin-offs, or the army of living dead pictures that sprung up in the wake of George Romero's ever-expanding zombie universe? Is it the last remnants of the slasher film, or the low-fi chills of the independent market? The movies that follow here are built on a two-fold foundation: they advanced the genre, either through inventiveness or extremity of vision, and they delivered genuine scares. Both criteria seem obvious when talking about horror, but when you look at the vast collection of films gathered under that umbrella for the last ten years, one sees that they're harder to summon up than imagined.

The Descent (2005)/ Dog Soldiers (2002) – two from Neil Marshall, a still largely unsung force in the genre. The former is a claustrophobic creature feature that pits female spelunkers against cave-dwelling monsters; the second is a rollicking action-chiller that sets werewolf films on their furry ears.

Ju-On: The Grudge - The best of Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s seven-film series (including his 2004 American remake) that operate on the simplest of premises – a house, cursed by familial violence, is a deathtrap for all who pass through its doors. Shimizu’s subtle direction, driven more by sound and angle than effects, delivers maximum frights.

[REC] (2007)/ Quarantine (2008) – The former is a Spanish-made outbreak horror that is the best use of the increasingly tired POV/”shaky-cam” aesthetic; the latter is the American remake, which manages to reproduce its heartstopping rollercoaster momentum.

The Host (2006) – Bong Joon-ho’s extraordinary hybrid of giant monster movie, political commentary and dysfunctional family drama manages to satisfy each of its parts without sacrificing the whole.

Shaun of the Dead (2004) – This admirably loopy tribute/parody of the zombie subgenre proved that horror and comedy could co-exist in the same project; it also served as global introduction to the talents of UK director Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Spaced) and stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)/ 28 Days Later (2002) – The zombie/virus subgenre got supercharged by this kinetic duo. The sprinting plague victims of the latter, directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), directly influenced the souped-up undead in Zack (Watchmen) Snyder’s comic book-styled revision of the George Romero classic.

Let the Right One In (2008) – The horrors of childhood are filtered through the prism of the ultimate outsider – the vampire – in this mood-steeped Swedish adaptation of the best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

May (2002)/ Ginger Snaps (2000) – Two stellar indie horror efforts that take the rare stance of placing the focus squarely on the transformations – both literal and figurative – of their female protagonists. The former is a disturbing story of slow-building insanity fueled by unrequited love; the latter imagines lycanthropy as the ultimate by-product of the change from adolescence to womanhood.

High Tension (2003)/ Martyrs (2008)/ Inside (2007) / Frontier(s) (2008) – What do the French know about extreme horror that Americans don’t? Quite a lot, as this quartet of blood-soaked, taboo-breaking films illustrate. High Tension earned the widest release, but the others are worth seeking out (with considerable warning) for those who like their thresholds challenged.

Planet Terror (2007)/ Feast (2006) – while many directors proclaimed their love for ‘70s-era horror and exploitation, few could bring that gonzo vibe to their own work (Rob Zombie, ahem); however, Robert Rodriguez’s alien-zombie-action grossout and John Gulager’s lunatic mashup of The Alamo, John Carpenter’s The Thing and a Kevin Smith comedy managed to reproduce the hormonally charged drive-in aesthetic for 21st audiences. -- Paul Gaita

Paul Gaita is a freelance writer who has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, MTV, L.A. Weekly and many other publications and web sites; his horror-related credits include Fangoria, Shock Cinema and the legendary Sleazoid Express.

What's your holiday movie or TV tradition?

One movie we always try to find time for during the holiday season is Eloise at Christmastime, a made-for-TV Disney movie about a precocious kid who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York. Before that sets off your Suite Life of Zack and Cody alarm bells, Eloise at Christmastime is based on the book by Kay Thompson and has a great cast that includes Sofia Vassilieva in the title role, the ever-endearing Julie Andrews as Nanny, and Sara Topham and Gavin Creel as two of Eloise's friends that the 6-year-old tries to unite.  This scenario could be annoying or cloying or both, but the movie strikes a nice balance and delivers a good message.  There's a great musical number too.

Of course there are many other movies and TV specials without which the holidays would not be the holidays.  Just a few of my favorites:

• A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas!: Two absolute classics that I associate together for whatever reason.  How many decades have I been watching these?
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and The Little Drummer Boy: Three others that all seem like part of a whole, I guess because of their similar Rankin-Bass stop-motion style.  Frosty the Snowman is a different style of animation, but it belongs with this group as well
• It's a Wonderful Life: This one still gets me every time!
• Raymond Briggs' The Snowman: Sort of a refined British version of Frosty, it's an utterly charming special that's wordless except for the song "Walking in the Air," which is becoming a Christmas standard.
• Holiday Inn: I know a lot of people prefer White Christmas, but I like this black-and-white musical vehicle for Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire (WC was Bing's semi-remake years later).

What do you have to watch every year?  A Christmas Story?  The Year Without a Santa Claus?  Miracle on 34th Street?  Christmas Vacation? The Santa Clause?  The list goes on... --David

Trailer Park: "Sex and the City 2"

Here's the trailer for Sex and the City 2, the next movie based on the hit HBO series, opening in theaters May 28. --David

Best Movies of the Decade

Editor's note: We asked one of our reviewers, Robert Horton, to give us his picks for the best films of the decade. Robert has been a film critic in Seattle for 25 years, writing for The Herald (Everett, Wash.), KUOW-FM, and the Seattle Channel.

"Best films of the decade" is such a grand concept it seems to place an undue amount of gravity on the process: this ten-spot had better be weighty indeed, right? A certain heaviosity required, no? But great movies are about lightness, too, so I feel fine about including films that wonderfully balanced dark and light, seriousness and humor, gravity and lift. Here are ten best of the decade 2000-2009, until somebody asks me again tomorrow.

1. Moolaadé (2004). The final film from Africa's greatest director, Ousmane Sembene, this one perfectly embodies the sense of balance I'm talking about: on one hand its subject is grave--the still-existing practice of female genital mutilation in African communities--but on the other, the film is infused with folk humor and a rich, mellow wisdom. It's also poised between a completely modern sophistication and ancient modes of storytelling. It seems to have the whole world in it.

2. Punch-Drunk Love (2002). Paul Thomas Anderson's story of a button-down man (Adam Sandler) unleashed is one of those films that pull off a strange trick: you can never predict what's going to happen from one moment to the next, and yet by the time you reach the ending it all seems absolutely inevitable that it had to unfold exactly this way.

3. Birth (2004). When Jonathan Glazer's movie opened (and then closed a week later), I had the feeling nobody else had seen it. Since then, it has slowly found its appreciators, a process that has been one of the nicer critical movements of the decade. A fine performance by Nicole Kidman commits completely to this particular l'amour fou.

4. The Fast Runner, aka Atanarjuat (2001). Not quite like anything else, this low-budget Inuit epic by Zacharias Kunuk is much more than an ethnographic study (though it's pretty cool as that): it's got the epic sweep of a David Lean picture.

5. Kings and Queen (2005). A wild ride from director Arnaud Desplechin, shifting hot-and-cold tones and storylines at a moment's notice, and featuring nimble performances by Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Devos.

6. A Prairie Home Companion (2006). Somehow this warm look at community and performance turned into exactly the right way for Robert Altman to leave the stage: a funny exercise that left behind traces of melancholy.

7. Before Sunset (2004). Catching up after almost a decade with the characters from Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, we find them decidedly older but still willing to talk their way through a city--an enchanted Paris, caught here in a two-person moment of clarity and connection.

8. No Country for Old Men (2007). The Coens are on an exciting cinematic journey of late; this film has all the gorgeous movie-making skills of old Hollywood combined with a distinctly modern way of telling a story.

9. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2006). A spellbinding trip through a long night of ill health, rendered in what seemed like real time by director Cristi Puiu.

10. Cast Away (2000). Could never get this movie out of my head: what appears to be a shipwreck picture from a populist director (Robert Zemeckis) turns into a kind of rebuke to audiences about how they should be watching movies (hint: slow down). Tom Hanks is splendid, too.

And there should be room for Million Dollar Baby, The Duchess of Langeais, Yi Yi, In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Drive, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Va savoir, Syndromes and a Century, Napoleon Dynamite, Sideways, Japon…but you gotta stop somewhere. Maybe next time.