Top 50, last part

[whiteblade]

This is the end. The only end, my friend

Comments

[gildeddawn]

I have got to disagree on The Prestige being so far up the list. Don't get me wrong; I like it, but it's not #2 of the decade. Prettily shot, well-acted, interesting, yes, but it's precisely the clumsiness of the foreshadowing that's problematic. The hinting is less hinting and more "So, here's the plot..." Especially by the time one gets to the end. The last scene, with the "reveal" of the tanks, is reason enough to drop it several places down the list, in my opinion.

V for Vendetta is certainly a better movie.

[whiteblade]

I don't think the reveal of the tanks at the end is supposed to be a reveal. I think it's supposed to be more of a statement on how dedicated Angier was to upstaging Borden, whatever the mental and physical cost; the emphasis (as I see it) is on how many tanks there are. Note how they make a big point of walking all the way down the line during the dialogue between Angier and Cutter, and panning across the room after the confrontation.

As for the clumsiness of the foreshadowing earlier in the movie, well, for one I didn't find it to be clumsy, and for two, in the source material you realize the truth about Borden on roughly page 40 of 350. So maybe that's what Nolan was going for and I was just particularly dense the first time I watched it?

If you haven't read the novel, you ought to, by the way. It's like the movie, only with zombies. (Well, a zombie.)

[anonymous]

Are you planning on listing any ‘honorable mentions’? Several films are conspicuously absent from your list. Most notably:

Sunshine
300
Constantine
Watchmen
Pan’s Labyrinth
Collateral
District 9
1408
Hellboy
High Fidelity
Unbreakable

Mind you, these are movies we both hold in high regard. Others that probably would’ve made my Top 50 include:

The Rules of Attraction
Saved!
Hot Fuzz
The Descent
Gattica
The Libertine
Children of Men
Juno

- Justify

[whiteblade]

Oh, very well. My list of almost-rans