I voted for too hard to choose....

I love Memento's story, but I feel the direction is rather pedestrian

Love Following's direction, but the story does fall a little flat

The Prestige is right in between, good story, decent direction, great acting

Insomnia is good, but the original is better

Now here is where things get dicey. I hated Batman Begins the first time I saw it. I thought Nolan had everything in place for a great film, but the story sucked. After seeing it about 100 times on cable, I still stand behind my decision. But the story is not nearly as bad as I initially thought.

TDK was a miss for me. I saw it opening night and it did not live up to the hype. The direction was flawless with a ton of amazing visuals. But again the story just didn't grab me at all. I also thought Ledger's performance was very good, but not to the level everyone made it out to be...I thought Gary Oldman was better. I think my uncle (who I saw it with) nailed it when he said, "It wasn't an entertaining movie". Again though, if I see it 100 times my opinion may change (and yes for those wondering I do plan on buying the DVD, I still thought it was good but not fantastic).

I'm in agreement with Wendersfan here. I don't agree with his views on Nolan's movies but he doesn't like them and thats his opinion. But all he was doing was picking the best poll choice that made sense to him. Choosing "they all suck" is just as a shallow of a choice as choosing "they're all awesome*".

I think the party to blame here it he creator of the poll (sorry Abe).

*I know its not a poll option, but it usually is for a lot of polls we do. That's what she said.

Then the hype it failed to live up to was bullshit if you saw it opening night. Now if you saw it a week later and said it failed to live up to the hype, that's one thing but it was bullshit pre-release(no one has seen it) hype it failed to live up to which is something else altogether. You are only to blame for buying into the pre-release hype machine.

the dark knight

Damn dude that is a little vicious don't you think?

I admit I bought into it like everyone else. I am a big Batman fan, I love all the comics, the 60's TV show, the animated series...the list goes on. I was disappointed with Batman Begins and figured I would give TDK the benefit of the doubt. The trailer looked awesome, Ledger seemed perfect as the Joker...it looked like the making of something epic. Then all the reviews come in and everyone seems to love it. Why not I said?

My uncle offered to take myself, my brother, my cousin, and my brother's girlfriend. Since I don't get to see my uncle and he is a Batman fan too, it was a no-brainer.

After it was over, I was just let with a sour taste. It was good, but I wasn't entertained and it simply did not live up to the pedestal everyone put it on. It was a 3.5 out of 5 for me...not the 5 star I thought it would be.

But I did only see it once and I am more than willing to give it another go in December when the DVD arrives.

With each repeat viewing I like 'The Prestige' more and more.

That's a great film.

I think it may be a fundamental flaw in my psyche, but for whatever reason I really enjoy watching two rivals engage in escalating levels or cruelty and double-crossing. Whether it's Sleuth, War of the Roses or even Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, I'm always hooked. The Prestige was especially nasty in that regard.

I wasn't directing it at anyone (other than the last sentence) but overall it was meant to be a generalization. Rereading it, it does sound harsh, but that's not how I meant it. Plus as I was typing I didn't feel I was getting my point across. I apologize.

I just think buying into pre-release buzz like, for example, "Heath being Oscar worthy" before anyone's even seen a frame of film is bound to set up for a letdown. Buying into that early nonsense is fruitless.

There are only two movies that I've watched twice in the same weekend and the Prestige is one of them.

memento for me. after TDK, i like insomnia, batman begins, following, and the prestige in that order.

Sorry, Memento sucked. I absolutely could not get into that movie at all. Guy Pierce might have been ok to some but I thought he was terrible in that movie.

That was his character.

It's cool, I misunderstood what you were posting. No biggie.

I do agree with you though....I didn't buy into any of the hype before anyone saw it. It was when the reviews were coming out the week of is when I started to get excited.

Also, I did see that IMAX piece (the opening scene) way before the film came out, and that was enough to make me want to see it. But in the end, it just didn't meet my expectations. So when the DVD comes out it will be what, 5 months or so since I had seen it. There is a very good chance I might like it the second time around.

The Dark Knight

Runner Ups:

The Prestige
Memento
Batman Begins

Glad to see The Following is doing so well in this poll.

Batman Begins has only 8 votes, yet if this poll was done last year it would be leading.

Interesting math, considering that Memento has six times the votes of Batman Begins.

The Dark Knight is his best film. As for which one I enjoy most, it's a toss-up between TDK and Memento. Since I only saw TDK once I'll have to wait for the DVD to make my mind up.

All those votes for The Dark Knight would go to Batman Begins.

Not all the votes:

A year ago, Memento would've been solidly in first place, with Batman Begins a distant second.

You were probably just confused by the story. Watch it again.

Memento. Might just be the best of this decade, if not then definitely a spot in my top 10

I like the way you think. I'd put it second behind Almost Famous for the '00 decade, and both came out in 2000.

Memento was released in the US in 2001.

God, I kept bringing this up in the Best of 2000 poll. IMDB lists Memento as a 2000 film, but it really isn't. It played some festivals in 2000 while trying to find a distributor. It was released nationwide in March 2001 and was nominated for two Oscars that year (Original Screenplay and Editing -- yes I know the story was adapted from Nolan's brother's short story but that's where they put it).

The bottom line is I agree with you -- Almost Famous was the best film of 2000 and Memento was the best of 2001. I couldn't make any headway in that poll, though.