R2D2's Ultimate Top 10 Countdown Of The 2000s #4 - Sci-Fi/Fantasy.

[For the last 10 days of the decade, I'm doing a Top 10 list a day, all culminating into an ultimate post of Top 10 lists. We have previously seen Top 10 Comedies, Dramas, and Animation. Now we're moving on.]

Top 10 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Films of the 2000s

Nothing says Christmas like aliens, dystopian futures, wizards, and elves. I'm not saying Sci-Fi and Fantasy are the same thing. I just didn't have enough of either/or to make two separate lists. So why not put them together? Most people do that anyway. But I have to say, this was one of the toughest to put into a list format. But let's get to it.

10. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001 - 2003)

To not include this on the 'fantasy' list would be near blasphemous. There's really not much to say about these films. Between the visuals, the characters, the story, the Oscar wins... it's the definition of epic. I tried watching all 3 extended editions back-to-back once. I got through the first two and gave up... but I plan on attempting it sometime again in the future. Who would have thought three movies "about people walking... even the trees walk in these movies" (as Clerks II puts it) would be so entertaining?

9. Equilibrium (2002)

It's essentially 1984 and Farenheit 451 rolled together and dipped into an action movie. And it's really all about the action. Kurt Wimmer has a fantastic, action-packed imagination. The action is even arguably up there with The Matrix, but without the slo-mo. And then there's Christian Bale... back before people started obsessing over him (and before every one of his movies had a "Batman" voice).

8. Pandorum (2009)

One of my favorite films of the year, Pandorum gave us a classic space Sci-Fi film that we hadn't had in a while. It's also the third film on my list (and not my last) thus far with Ben Foster in it. Similar (but better than, in my opinion) the film Event Horizon, at least in feel/tone, Pandorum has a couple guys wake up from cryo-sleep completely disoriented and with some memory loss. They also seem to be two of the only guys left. They had been on a journey to a new planet when something happened... and that something quickly starts coming around the corner to kill them. It wasn't without its flaws, but it was still pretty dang good.

7. Avatar (2009)

The primary reason this made the list was its outstanding visuals. Yes, the story is nothing to shout over. But the visuals are. And the imagination of the film, ironically taking place on the planet "Pandora," is astounding. From the flora and fauna to the whole mythos of the film, it was just imaginative and fantastic.

6. Star Trek (2009)

J.J. Abrams' re-envisioning of the series was a risk, but it worked out. With enough to please the past fans, but keeping it fresh enough not to alienate newcomers, Star Trek found a middle ground that appeased everybody. It was funny and dramatic, and the special effects were fantastic. And it had Simon Pegg. It quickly found itself in my top sci-fi list of all time from the day I saw it.

5. Minority Report (2002)

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I could have sworn this got only so-so reviews when it came out, but then later started being loved (or maybe I just read the wrong bunch of reviews). But I always loved this movie. I loved the concept, the visuals... everything. But I'm a fan of Philip K. Dick films, as they're always entertaining. And this one in particular was helmed by Stephen Spielberg, so that makes it twice as good. I remember it really stood out to me, as it was one of the first films I'd seen that had a specific color tint throughout (silvery-blue). But anyway, it's a pretty good sci-fi thriller, which is why it made my list.

4. Pitch Black (2000)

Remember when I said Titan A.E. was one of the earliest films on my list? Well, this one beats it, originally released in February of 2000. This is the film that introduced one of my favorite film characters, Richard B. Riddick. It's also one of my favorite Vin Diesel films... and probably his best film to date. Its follow up, Chronicles of Riddick, was a bit of a let down, as it completely changed the tone and scope... but since a third film has been announced (and not only that, but announced as going back to a tone and scope of Pitch Black), I'm pretty excited once again. Thankfully, the sequel wasn't able to destroy my love for this film. A great sci-fi/horror film.

3. The Harry Potter Series, 1-6 (2001-2009)

There are still a couple movies to go (as the final book is being split into two films), but the bulk of the series has finished, and it's quite an achievement. Of course, there have been some downfalls (the third and fourth film, in my opinion). But even the worst movies of the series have outstanding moments (the visuals and overall tone of the third, and the graveyard scene of the fourth). For the most part, the series has been faithful to the books, either nearly page-for-page (the first two) or in spirit (the 5th and 6th). It has every top British actor, and because of that, some of the greatest casting for any film ever. Overall, it's a fantastic series, and the final films are promising to blow the rest of the series out of the water.

2. MirrorMask (2005)

For those of you who know me, not only excluding Harry Potter from the fantasy top spot, but putting over it a relatively unknown film is so preposterous that you'd have to see it to believe it. In other words, that says a lot about this particular film. If ever there was a film that was to delve into the realm of imagination and show it for its pure absurdity and craziness, it's this one. MirrorMask comes from the mind of Neil Gaiman and is about a young girl fed up with her life working in a family circus. But then her mother gets really sick and ends up in the hospital. Similar to the girl in Pan's Labyrinth, she takes refuge in her imagination, and you can never quite figure out whether the events of the movie are real or not. It's pretty much left up to you. But she ends up in a world different than her own, one with an evil queen and fantastic creatures, all drawn in her own style... very similar to the drawings she has all over her walls.

In fact, I find this movie so imaginative that whenever I have writer's block for my fiction, I pop in this movie, and it almost always helps. It's funny, quirky, insanely creative, and an all-around bizarre time. I wasn't sure whether or not I liked it the first time I saw it, but come that second time, I adored it. Fun note, the girl who plays the main character in this movie is sisters with the girl who played Katie Bell in the 6th Harry Potter film (always fun to tie films back to HP).

1. V For Vendetta (2005)

A holiday movie if there ever was one... just not for Christmas. It brought people everywhere to celebrate Guy Fawkes day AKA The Fifth of November. Produced by the Wachowskis (The Matrix) and directed by James McTeigue (also known for the recent Ninja Assassin), V For Vendetta is brutal, honest, metaphorical, heartbreaking, mysterious, thrilling... and probably a hundred other adjectives. I think, overall, the best adjectives would be "beautiful" and "powerful." And who doesn't wanna pop this guy in come November 5th?

End Note: For those curious, Sunshine barely missed my list. While I really like the movie, that last third still irks me too much for me to put it on the list. But it probably would have made #11 had there been more.

Top 10 Guilty Pleasure Movies.

I haven’t done one of these in forever. And, funnily enough, I’ve also done a completely separate type of post (though just one) based around guilty pleasure movies. But good ol’ Jason at Invasion of the B-Movies is running a Blog-A-Thon about guilty pleasure movies and has asked all those willing to write up our top 10 guilty pleasure movies.

But I wanted to do this a little bit differently, to give it a little more personality. First, let us define a guilty pleasure movie. Typically, these movies are either really bad, but you can’t help to love them, or they’re entertaining, but you’d never admit to owning them out of embarrassment. There are numerous reasons a movie can be seen as bad or embarrassing, but I wanted to focus on just one of those traits in this top 10: specific actors or actresses. How many times have you talked to a friend or co-worker about a movie you enjoy or a movie coming out, and their response is along the lines of “Oh… doesn’t that have Jessica Alba/Ben Affleck/whoever in it? Eff that.” Specific actors or actresses can immediately turn somebody away from even fathoming the film… but there are some rare instances where said actors/actresses can pull off a really good film (at least in your own eyes). However, you’re too embarrassed to even bring up the film because it has this or that person in it. Well, this top 10 list is a tribute to those kinds of guilty pleasures… by listing my top 10 of said types.

10. The Guyver.

Faulty Actor: Mark Hamill.

Reason of Love: Has anybody really seen any of Mark Hamill’s movies outside of Star Wars? Now… has anybody who actually has actually enjoyed them (outside his wonderful cameo appearance in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)? The Guyver was a cheesy live-action version of an anime where Mark Hamill was the biggest name in the movie (and wasn’t the lead). It had an off-the-wall story (as most anime does). It had bad acting. It had monsters as men in suits—done the wrong way. I haven’t seen this movie in ages, but I remember always enjoying it (even though I knew it was terrible). Its tone is actually pretty dark if you can get over its cheesiness, so that’s something…

9. The Transporter

Faulty Actor: Jason Statham.

Reason of Love: If you ask anybody their favorite films of all time, I bet the majority of the people will not list one movie with Jason Statham (at least not a movie in which he was the lead). He’s a cool dude, and his action is always awesome, which is why I love this movie. It’s brainless in its story, and its action is over-the-top, but that’s what makes it so darned awesome. How can you not love the oil-slick fight? Plus, the movie was written and produced by my favorite writer/director, Luc Besson.

8. School for Scoundrels.

Faulty Actor: Jon Heder.

Reason of Love: School for Scoundrels… AKA Jon Heder going from dork to badass. Wait… did I just use Jon Heder (you know, Napoleon Dynamite) and badass in the same sentence? I believe I did. Well, I don’t know about that, but he can pull off equal amounts of jerk and nice guy to make the movie believable. I enjoyed the story (both the normal story and the love story/triangle), as well as the seemingly triple-twist thing there at the end. The two guys (Heder and Thornton) were continually messing with and conning each other that by the end of the movie, you didn’t know who was telling the truth anymore. Overall, though, I thought the movie was funny in its little ways, bringing out good performances all around.

7. Paycheck.

Faulty Actor: Ben Affleck.

Reason of Love: Yet another actor who everybody loves to hate on… but this movie, based on a selection from the almost never-ending pot of Philip K. Dick stories, is done really well, and co-stars the vastly underrated actor, Paul Giamatti (as well as recently made more-famous Aaron Eckhart). I love movies based on Philip K. Dick stories anyway, but this one just had a really cool idea. A guy who reverse engineers things and then has his memory of it erased finds himself on a hit list, then discovers that he left himself miniscule objects as clues and helpful artifacts to stay alive and figure out what exactly he just finished building.

6. Speed.

Faulty Actor: Keanu Reeves.

Reason of Love: Whoa! Even without its highly improbable moments (bus jumping huge gap), a movie that takes place primarily on a bus has a ton of action and is adrenaline pumped. There’s really not much more to say about the movie, really. I mean, who hasn’t seen it by now?

5. Pitch Black.

Faulty Actor: Vin Diesel.

Reason of Love: Quite similar to Jason Statham, we have a bald action hero who typically makes so-so movies. But Pitch Black is one of his earlier ventures, before he became a huge name (AKA before The Fast and the Furious), and it has one of his coolest characters ever, Richard B. Riddick. He’s one of my favorite sci-fi anti-heroes ever. The movie has a very suspending-the-disbelief story (crash landing on an alien planet that has dangerous nocturnal alien monsters hours before a super-long total eclipse with a man who has eyes that allows him to see in the dark)… but it’s just so cool. Unfortunately, its sequel, Chronicles of Riddick, took the story in an entirely new direction and tone, ending with a cliffhanger and set-up for a couple more movies that most likely aren’t going to be made.

4. Idle Hands.

Faulty Actor: Jessica Alba.

Reason of Love: Okay, so she’s not the main character, but his love interest. Still, I’ve actually had somebody refuse to watch the movie simply because she was associated to it. I think that’s reason enough to add this to the list. Add on the immensely popular Seth Green, the vastly underrated Elden Henson, the sexy Vivica A. Fox, and one of the biggest could-have-been-but-wasn’t actors out there, Devon Sawa, then you’ve got… well, one bizarre cast. It’s a horror-comedy about a guy whose hand gets possessed by the devil (and thus has an occultist bounty hunter-type woman after him), and he kills his two best friends, who then come back from the dead to just hang out and party. It’s weird, but it’s fun. And who doesn’t like the scene at the end with Jessica Alba getting her dress accidentally ripped off while she’s tied down to the top of a car?

3. Heavyweights.

Faulty Actor: Ben Stiller.

Reason of Love: It’s a well-known fact that Ben Stiller is running out of steam as of late, and not a lot of people are really enjoying his work much anymore (Tropic Thunder is hopefully going to rejuvenate his career). But back in the day, he made some pretty fun movies, and this was one of them. He’s the villain of the movie, a workout-a-holic who takes over a fun fat camp and makes everybody feel like losers, then proceeds to starve, humiliate, and destroy them (not physically…). It’s campy (no pun intended), and not a whole lot of people probably remember it, but it will always have a place in my heart!

2. Good Burger.

Faulty Actor: Sinbad (or Kenan or Kel).

Reason of Love: Um… it’s Good Burger, one of the greatest things to come out of Nickelodeon (or All That) in a long time. That’s really all there is to it. I’m a dude, he’s a dude, she’s a dude, we’re all dudes, hey!

1. Surf Ninjas.

Faulty Actor: Rob Schneider (or Tone Loc).

Reason of Love: It’s so over-the-top that it basically makes fun of itself for you. But to spare myself typing it all up again, this was the movie I’ve already discussed as a guilty pleasure movie in the past. The post can be found here.

Runners-up (not all of them fall under the faulty actor thing… just guilty pleasure movies in general): Step Up 2 The Streets, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, Face/Off, Newsies, The Hills Have Eyes (remake), The Faculty, My Boyfriend’s Back, Any Disney Animated Musical. And the one movie that NEARLY made this Top 10 was The Butterfly Effect, but I think too many people really like that movie for it to be considered a guilty pleasure.