AFI's picks 2002's best films
 

The American Film Institute has honored Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" and Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" as two of the 10 best movies of 2002.

The list included a number of movies that have yet to be widely released, including the dark comedy "About Schmidt," starring Jack Nicholson, and "The Hours," which stars Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.

The AFI also honored the Hugh Grant comedy "About a Boy" and the big-screen musical "Chicago," starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere.

Rounding off the list were "Adaptation," "Antwone Fisher," "The Quiet American" and "Frida." Last year, the institute recognized the first film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Fellowship of the Ring," as its movie of the year.

What!? Where's CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, FAR FROM HEAVEN, MINORITY REPORT & ROAD TO PERDITION on that list (just to mention a few)? And how the heck did "About a Boy" get on there??? Even "Frida" is quite a surprise!

Glad to see About a Boy on that list--great, underappreciated (and not formulaic!) romantic comedy

"About a Boy" made the list because it's a great film (IMO). And deserves to be on it.

Where is Spirited Away???

I get tired of these lists only praising films that are comming out in the last 10 days of the year. These lists start looking suspiciously like corporate shilling and advertisements when 8 out of the 10 top films are films that will be released within days of the publishing date. What about the films that came out last February?

AFI = American Film Institute

Yeah!

Why don't they promote great films like "Disney's snow dogs", "Colateral damages", "Queen of the damned", "Enough", "Master of disguise", "The country bears" and let's not forget "Scooby-doo".

Is that jury rigged or what?

If that is meant to be funny, it's not! If you're suggesting that I have commercial tastes then you must not read this forum much.

You know there actually were other movies that came out during other parts of the year besides this weekend and next weekend that were actually good. But thanks for contributing...

My picks, for the record:

1. The Kid Stays in the Picture
2. Punch Drunk Love
3. Hell House
4. Star Wars Ep. II
5. Dogtown and Z-Boys
6. Shiri
7. K-19
8. Bourne Identity
9. Far From Heaven
10.Jackass: The Movie

They release movies in February?

Well! While we're picking nits....

Dogtown and Z-Boys came out last year. But Shiri -- that's a Korean film from 1999. We're talking American movies from 2002.

Good Lord Pants, guilty pleasures aside, you would actually put #10 down as one of the year's best!?? Was this year THAT bad? ;)

Where's Swimfan and A.I.?

:)

Alright, no "A.I." cheap shots. Not only was it released last year, it made many Top 10 year end critics lists.

"Swimfan"? Have at it.

I think they got most of the good ones except they seem to have missed the bandwagon on Far from Heaven.


Considering there is zero overlap between the AFI list and yours, you might just have to ignore them, or wait for some of the films on their list to come out...

AFI is always dependable... :)

Where's Enough on that list? That film had audiences cheering on their feet! It's always a bunch of lame art films nobody goes to see. Most people would rather see JLo kick ass than read subtitles.

From the Top 100 list by the AFI:

Lawrence Of Arabia
The Bridge On The River Kwai
Dr. Strangelove
A Clockwork Orange
The Third Man

American? Oops.

-matt

We Were Soldiers was my favorite this year

Yeah, a lot of people have taken them to task for including those films. However, I could argue that Dr. Strangelove is an American film (predominantly American cast, American-born director, American funded). Gangs of New York was filmed in Italy; does that make it an Italian film?

Like Johnathan Rosenbaum I call the film by when it played in my city. Z-boys may have premiered at Sundance last year, but it played the Newport Film Fest and was theatrically released in 2002.

As for Shiri, it didn't play theatrically in this country untill 2002. What should I do if I want to honor it? Build a time machine? It got its first theatrical release in the US (and in my town) in 2002, therefore it is eligable for my best of 2002 list.

Also, I posted my list as a point of reference for what kind of movies I like, not as an alternative to the AFI list. They can pick whichever movies they like, but sometimes I wonder if they put these films on their list just to rub it in :)

Those were all produced by American studios which qualifies them as American films - except for The Third Man, which I'm pretty sure is NOT on AFI's 100 list.

edit - sorry, 3rd Man's in there (#57), therefore, it must have had an American company producing it.

You couldn't be more wrong. Bridge and Lawrence were both produced by indie British producer Sam Spiegel. They were only distributed by Columbia. If that makes them American then Das Boot is american because it was released by Columbia too.

Also, the 3rd Man was on the AFI list.

Yup your right, A.I. was my pick for best film of last year.

And I am glad the About a Boy is on the list that is a woderful film.

It's quite common knowledge that studios will release their serious award contenders during the last couple of weeks in December in order to qualify for consideration. Makes sense, then, that several films released this time of year would make any "Best Of" list.