Best Picture #: 77 Original Release Date: December 15, 2004 Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 12 minutes Director: Clint Eastwood Quick Impressions: Back in 2004, I was a huge fan of Katharine Hepburn (and that hasn’t changed) and Cate Blanchett (and that hasn’t changed, either). The Aviator may not have …
Best Picture: # 76Original Release Date: December 17, 2003Rating: PG-13Runtime: 3 hours, 21 minutesDirector: Peter Jackson Quick Impressions:“One does not simply walk into Mordor.” Everyone knows that. Similarly, one does not simply watch The Return of the King. You can’t start there. The Lord of the Rings is one story. …
Best Picture: # 75 Original Release Date: December 27, 2002 Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 1 hour, 53 minutes Director: Rob Marshall Quick Impressions:As we picked up coffee after school the other day, my daughter and I came up with what we first thought was a hysterical joke. What if someone made …
Best Picture: #74 Original Release Date: December 21, 2001 Rating: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hours, 15 minutes Director: Ron Howard Quick Impressions: When A Beautiful Mind first came out, it reminded me of events in my own life and filled me with a visceral revulsion. I didn’t like the movie. It …
Best Picture: #73 Original Release Date: May 5, 2000 Rating: R Runtime: 2 hours, 35 minutes Director: Ridley Scott Quick Impressions:While we were watching our favorite scene in Gladiator (in which Falco ever-so-slowly tells Commodus about the wiles of a certain sea snake), my daughter exclaimed in shock, “You know, …
Best Picture: #72 Original Release Date: October 1, 1999 Rating: R Runtime: 2 hours, 2 minutes Director: Sam Mendes Quick Impressions: Here’s some good advice. If you’re feeling bad about yourself as a parent, watch American Beauty. One of my most time-intensive hobbies is ruminating over my inadequacies as a …
Best Picture: #71 Original Release Date: December 11, 1998 Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 3 minutes Director: John Madden Quick Impressions: The summer before my senior year of high school, I decided that Queen Elizabeth I must have written at least some of Shakespeare’s plays herself. Why? I think the real …
Best Picture: #70Original Release Date: December 19, 1997 Rating: PG-13Runtime: 3 hours, 14 minutes Director: James Cameron Quick Impressions: When Titanic first came out, all of my younger sister’s friends thought of nothing else. It was the talk of the middle school. Everyone she knew ceaselessly vied to prove their …
Best Picture: #69Original Release Date: December 6, 1996Rating: RRuntime: 2 hours, 42 minutesDirector: Anthony Minghella Quick Impressions:My senior year of high school I asked myself in shock and dismay, “Why are Billy Crystal, Tom Cruise, and Lauren Bacall the only people I recognize at the Academy Awards this year?” (In …
Best Picture: # 68 Original Release Date: May 24, 1995 Rating: R Runtime: 2 hours, 58 minutes Director: Mel Gibson Quick Impressions: Back in the summer of 1995, not even Mel Gibson spent as much time thinking about Braveheart as my younger sister. She was ten, and Braveheart quickly became …
