Best (no particular order):
The Dark Knight - A summer blockbuster with GOOD WRITING. Jesus Mary and Joseph! In fact, the only aspect of TDK that surpassed its masterful script was the performances of every actor onscreen. Yes, Heath Ledger is the one everyone always talks about, and they should; it was an astonishingly excellent, deep, fresh portrayal of a character who, frankly, had started to ferment a little.
American Psycho - A great book turned into a better movie. Long considered unfilmable, this movie combined pacing and extremely effective, well-placed suspense to create a consistently unsettling tone while constantly adding depth to an already fascinating character. More fascinating than Patrick Bateman himself, though, was seeing how he, as an obsessive, schizofrenic, narcissistic psychopath blended in almost seamlessly with the other yuppies. I've never seen subtle horror used like it was in this movie. Beyond that, it was a brilliant satire of the 1980's yuppie culture, and yuppie culture in general. The whole movie even felt like it was filmed in the 80's, from its music to the camera techniques used for each scene, a brilliantly deliberate decision by the director.
Pulp Fiction - What should I say? It's a spectacular movie. Every character is deep and interesting. Every plot twist is thoroughly exciting. There is no climax, rising action or dénouement in Pulp Fiction, and yet it ends at an extremely satisfying point in an extremely satisfying way.
Kill Bill 1 & 2 - I'm counting them as 1 movie. Quentin Tarentino did what he does best: took an old, B-grade movie genre and freshened it up, combining old ideas, premises and characters with his own unique, brilliantly stylish and clever writing.
Fight Club - Mindfuck at its very best mixed with intriguing social satire and philosophical exploration. Why would you not want to see it?
Christ that's a hard list to put together.
Worst (no particular order):
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - The worst part about this movie wasn't the terrible writing. It wasn't that a large percent of the audience only went to see it for Megan Fox. It wasn't that Shia Lebouf was in it. It wasn't the introduction of all the shallow, pointless characters for their own sake. It wasn't the plot points that didn't make sense, the "Robot Heaven" thing, the racism, or the fact that it was driven ENTIRELY by special effects that were too clusterfuck-y to be enjoyed by anyone below the age of 50. It was that people went to see it. Some people even try to defend it. The tragedy of this movie is that it is by far the most successful SHIT movie ever made.
Meet the Spartans - POP CULTURE REFERENCE! POP CULTURE REFERENCE! TOILET HUMOR! "WACKY" SLAPSTICK HUMOR! POP CULTURE REFERENCE! GET IT? IT'S FUNNY BECAUSE THEY'RE ALL OUT OF CONTEXT!
Resident Evil - Resident Evil has never had a class- A story. It doesn't compare to Silent Hill or Shadow of the Colossus. Resident Evil's story is good the way Tarentino is good: it's a celebration of the old, the cliche, but nonetheless FUN stories that, despite their age and relative stagnation, still manage to be interesting and FUN. In fact, there's tons, literally TONS of potential for some truly excellent writing, character development, and plot progression. Trouble is, Capcom doesn't take the series seriously anymore, though it still insists that gamers take it seriously. This is why they let Paul W.S. Anderson write a script for it. Anderson's made some decent movies. He directed Event Horizon and the FIRST Mortal Kombat, for fuck's sake. Thing is, though, Mortal Kombat never had much of a story, so there was lots of room for creative freedom. He actually said in the commentary for RE: Extinction that he thinks, "people don't want to see just more of the same story and characters; they can play the games for that." No, Paul. That's EXACTLY why people want to see this movie, to see the game translated into FILM. Besides, your response to "people want to see something new" is to make a shitty, over the top action blockbuster with a bloated budget and terrible actors, with a script that only REMOTELY correlates to the games by using one or two names and settings? Furthermore, George A. Romero WROTE A SCRIPT FOR A RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE. They turned down a script written by the god of Zombie movies for the tripe we all know and hate, because "they liked Anderson's script better." The world really has gone insane.
The Final Sacrifice - Really, has anyone seen this movie?
Kazaam - Tagging a celebrity to a shitty movie with a stupid premise does not make up for the movie and writing being shitty. It cheapens them. It makes it not only of poor quality, but shallow and gaudy.
