Michael Phillips and A.O. Scott have begun a 10-week countdown of the best movies of the decade and have chosen Minority Report and Million Dollar Baby, respectively, at #10. I'm squarely in the Phillips camp on this one, feeling that MDB is perfectly OK for a while until the overwrought, cliched third act while Minority Report is on my own 10 Best of Decade list (I'm working on a top 100 post, but will probably have to go with 50). Phillips also gets huge props for taking it to MDB in the embedded video after the jump. Here's a link.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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4 comments:
Thanks for posting - I hadn't seen this. I haven't seen MDB, based on my posture of yawning at Clint - but given my love of Gran Torino and my recent reconsideration of Unforgiven, I'll give this one a look. As for Minority Report - I saw it in the theater, but its been 7 years and I owe it another chance (a chance that AI won't ever get).
F redbox. My blockbuster is closed for good.
I gave AI another look a couple of months ago and it's a B at best. I'll admit that Minority Report drags a bit toward the end, but that first 100 minutes or so is exhilarating - the best visuals of the decade combined with superb acting (how did Samantha Morton not get nominated?) and a thought-provoking premise.
MDB completely falls apart at the end (the scene with Maggie's family is one of the worst ever), but there is some great stuff early on (absolutely love Clint moving his shoes under the coffee table like a boxer while watching a match. And the lighting and cinematography is pretty great.) But Morgan Freeman is still playing Red from Shawshank. And Jay Baruchel as the mentally challenged guy - the horror! The horror!
I love Clint and Million Dollar Baby is one of my least favorite of his films this decade. I like Morgan better than you do, Doc, in this one, and I enjoy Clint's relationship with his priest. It's a beautiful movie, but I hate, hate, hate the end. My love for Minority Report is already well documented. The ending is problematic, but for a big budget, blockbuster, sci-fi, film with noir pieces, it does about as good as can be expected. And Tom Cruise is great.
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