Friday, March 5, 2010

25 Best Movies Of The Decade: 16

"Just because she has on a funny dress doesn't mean she's a princess"

16. Enchanted(2007)

Disney has such a long long line of princesses and animated fairy tales, that it would only seem fitting that they end up mocking them, but Enchanted isn't just that. The story of Princess Giselle, your standard girly Disney princess, being forced from the storybook cartoon world of Andalasia(full of bright colors and talking animals) into the very real New York City, is both a mockery of the Disney princesses of yore and a sweet-natured tribute to all things Disney(Seriously).

Enchanted is a great film because, despite of its own tongue-in-cheek quality, is that it's also incredibly innocent in all of it. Princess Giselle's naivete, making the best of where she is, like cleaning up a house by singing a song and summoning a number of animals, all NY vermin(roaches, rats, pigeons).

Okay, bias time. I love Amy Adams. Seriously. I totally crush on her and it's partly because of Enchanted since she is unbelivably adorable in this movie. Reacting with wide-eyed innocent fascination to all her new surroundings and I just wanna go "AWWWWWWWW" in the whole thing.

If it wasn't for a film that will appear much later, Enchanted would be the cutest film on this list,

25 Best Movies Of The Decade: 17

"And Nicolas Cage...as...Fu Manchu!"

17. Grindhouse (2007)

I fucking miss old grindhouse movies(note: I am only 19). Like seriously, blaxploitation movies, women in prison films, the shockumentary mondo cinema flicks. It seems the only genres of exploitation cinema that made it out of the grindhouse cinemas of old are the Spaghetti Westerns(thanks to actors like Clint Eastwood) and the Slasher films.

That's why when Grindhouse came out, I wanted to pass out in excitement. An old-time gritty film double feature. It seemed totally authentic as if these films were fished out of some old dusty abandoned movie theater. The film was grainy and the plot was gory. The majority of the actors were character actors or people you never remember(Freddy Rodriguez, Danny Trejo, Rose McGowan, I'm looking in the direction of you guys). This was Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's giant love letter to the films that raised them.

The absolute best moments, though, come from the trailers before and between the films. Done by director friends(save for Robert Rodriguez's great "Machete"), the trailers are sneak peeks for quick faux-films and are the most uproarious bits of the entire double feature. Edgar Wright's Hammer-style "Don't," Eli Roth's '70s slasher "Thanksgiving" and Rob Zombie's horror/Nazi "Werewolf Women of tht SS" are all genuinely, hilariously enticing and are all films I would seriously want to watch.

And because I love that line about Nic Cage as Fu Manchu: