Signs of Bad Movie Times

National Review ^ | 7/30/25 | Armond White

[DallasBiff]

The recently published New York Times list of “The 100 Best Films of the 21st Century” is that paper’s most significant cultural diktat since the 1619 Project, and it’s equally fallacious. Compiled from votes by more than 500 influential filmmakers, actors, and other film-industry “professionals,” these Times rankings pretend to reflect the films that have left a significant artistic, cultural, or emotional impact since January 1, 2000.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: hollywood; movies; nationalreview; newyork; newyorkcity; newyorkslimes; newyorktimes; woke

[BradyLS]

I’ve only seen a few scenes from it on youtube. I’m convinced I would enjoy it.

[BradyLS]

Best Tool goes to Joe Biden. They used that guy for everything.

[MayflowerMadam]

“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”

I LOL every time I see that title.

Back in the day here on FR there was a thread of suggested book titles for Clinton memoirs. The best one, IMO, was “Crouching Intern, Hidden Cigar”.

[UnwashedPeasant]

For comparison, here are the top English-language movies (with at least 25,000 user ratings) since 1/1/2000 as rated by users on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=feature&release_date=2000-01-01,2026-12-31&num_votes=25000,&languages=en&sort=user_rating,desc

[Stosh]

Lists are always fun, and of course are usually a matter of taste (for which there is little or no accounting). I do however enjoy seeing what others think are gross misplacements in such lists.

I haven’t seen a lot of the flics on this list, but based on the ones I have seen:

Ones I rate significantly higher:

06. No Country For Old Men (Joel & Ethan Coen)
39. Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig)
41. Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
48. The Lives of Others (Florian Donnersmarck)
83. Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel & Ethan Coen)

Ones I’d rate a good bit lower:

01. Parasite (Bong Joon Ho)
14. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
17. Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee)
53. Borat (Larry Charles)
55. Inception (Christopher Nolan)

[Stosh]

I was amused by the ranking for “Mulholland Drive” on your second list (#170 !) - some people get David Lynch - others, not so much.

[GSWarrior]

I’ve seen six of the films listed. I should get out more.

[rlmorel]

Well. I never watched it, but I can guess. When I started reading this thread, I didn’t realize it was the New York Times list.

That explained it for me!

[Theophilus]

I think Churchill was nude in a scene, coming down stairs, but you couldn't see him. He was historically known to give dictation from his bath tub.

But I get what you are saying. The movie was decent.

[Varda]

07. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)
Love this movie.

34. WALL-E Andrew Stanton)
73. Ratatouille (Brad Bird)
These aren’t particularly good
The Incredibles is the best Pixar
50. Up! (Pete Docter)
2nd best Pixar

57. Best in Show (Christopher Guest)
overall funny but the homosexual propaganda ruins it

87. The Fellowship of the Ring (Peter Jackson)
The best of the trio but it sets up Frodo as a failure for some reason only
Jackson knows.

89. Interstellar (Christopher Nolan)
Love this movie

[freepertoo]

Rocky.

[MikelTackNailer]

I got SO abused for saying the “Boondock Saints” movies were great on the JoBlo site. They didn’t get that the director was bucking as many tropes as possible by zagging at every point the average director would zig - except unlike “Momento” he wasn’t demanding that the viewer mentally tack it back together to get any sense out of it.

He was shooting for ‘Entertainment’, not ‘Arty Pretentiousness’.

And where the hell is “The Outlaw Josey Wales” on that list? It’s not for eating...it’s for looking through.

[Varsity Flight]

Signs of the AntiChrist ✖️

[Tired of Taxes]

I agree these were great movies:

- Black Hawk Down
- Lord of the Rings films

My first thought was this movie, and I see the NR article mentions it:

- War of the Worlds (with Tom Cruise)

Cruise’s “Mission Impossible” films should be on the list, too.

I also agree with NR about “A.I. Artificial Intelligence.”

I would add:

- Catch Me If You Can

And plenty of other good films not on the list.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I’m not at all a movie buff - have only seen a select few in the theater in the last 20 years, don’t own discs, don’t stream, etc., so I’m no judge, but I haven’t even heard of most of their top 10 and the only one on the list I’ve seen is Fellowship of the Ring. Am I depraved on account of I’m deprived?

[linMcHlp]

Thumbs UP

- movies with Mel Gibson, Clint Eastwood
- some movies with Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, Russell Crowe, Tom Cruise

Thumbs DOWN

- movies with Robert DeNiro, and other communists; homosexual/transvestite themes; girl powers (girl 5 ft 2 inches tall throws 6 ft tall mil. vets 8 ft across a room and up against a wall)
- movies produced by communists (Hollywood esp.)