The Best and Greatest - Part One

This time of year seems to be popular for "best" and "greatest" lists, doubly so because it's not only the end of a year, but the end of a decade.  (OK, it's not really the end of the decade, but everyone seems to think it is, so I'll just go with the flow.  

Here then are some of my "best" and "greatest" from the 2000s.   Disagree at your own peril.  


Best Film - The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The best film is actually three films, Peter Jackson's magnificent The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  From the completely believable, CGI-rendered Smeagol, to the sweeping New Zealand (I mean, Middle Earth) vistas, to the action-packed battle scenes, these films were game-changers in every sense of the term.  What other film series can you sit down and actually watch for twelve-plus hours and not get bored?  Add to the fact that now Tolkein nerds have something to talk about with girls who swoon over Orlando Bloom. 

Best Film Character - Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow

This was a tough one.  I was very, very tempted to give the props to Keith Ledger as The Joker.  After all, that was an incredible performance in an incredible film.  But there's something about Cap'n Jack that gets under one's skin.  Maybe it's because even though he is a scoudrel, he is also (as Elizabeth puts it) a good man.  He wants to be selfish, but is bad at it, he has a rum-soaked heart of gold, and he is the most clever pirate on the Spanish Main. 

Best Television Series - Battlestar Galactica

You could argue this point.  You'd be wrong. Ron Moore's reboot of the campy 1970's sci-fi franchise was brilliant in it's inception, brilliant in it's execution, and flawless in it's resolution.  OK, maybe not flawless, but deeply satisfying nonetheless. It was dark, it was depressing, it was cold, it was mystifying, it was compelling, it was... all that and more. Which made the finale all the more of a relief.  Plus, it had some of the best sci-fi fanboy eyecandy anyone has ever seen.  The fact that it was labeled as "sci-fi" hampered it from getting the props it so deserved, but at the end of the day it blew away Lost and 24 and everything else.  So say we all!!     Which leads to...

Best Television Character - Edward James Olmos as Admiral William "Husker" Adama

This is not your father's Adama - no Alpo commercials for this guy.   Eddie Olmos has more acting chops in his little finger than Lorne Greene had on the whole Ponderosa.  Jim Kirk would cry like a little girl if Adama stared him down. Jack Bauer would, too.  This dude survived the extermination of his entire civilization, the death of one son, the betrayal of another, a nuclear wasteland, the entire Cylon race and two slugs in the chest, and still had the stones to yell "Hit it!" and fly the Galactica in to the side of the Cylon colony.  Muy Macho!

So, weigh in your opinions.   More to come...