The 2000s were a great time for movies. Directors like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, and James Cameron were doing some of their best work, and some of the movies from that time period are now considered classics. Films likeInglourious Basterds,The Departed, andAvatarwill live on forever. Many of the movies made in the 2000s contained fantastic acting, special effects, and edgy humor, and those elements made put them on the cutting edge of film history.
While it’s difficult to explain exactly what makes a movie over the top, there are many films that contain exaggerated scenes that make them so unbelievable or nonsensical that they have to be considered overblown. Tarantino is known for excessive gore, for instance, while Cameron is known for doing meticulous research and making his movies as realistic as possible. These movies from the 2000s pushed movie-making to the limit and contain very over-the-top characteristics.
19Kill Bill Vol. 1
Kill Bill Vol. 1is one of the most interesting, extreme, and violent movies to ever hit the big screen. Directed by Quentin Tarantino, the movie focuses on The Bride, a character who is left for dead in a church by the assassin squad she used to work for. Hellbent on revenge, The Bridge fights through the pain to find Bill (David Carradine), who ordered the hit on her. Along the way, she realizes that she has a daughter and wants to save her from Bill’s evil ways.
When the movie came out in 2003, Tarantino was already known for his over-the-top films full of violence, outrageous gore, and unbelievable characters. His movies, likeReservoir Dogs,Pulp Fiction, andJackie Brown,had already shown audiences that he had a creative but twisted mind. TheKill Billmovies took his style to new heights, shedding more blood and vengeance than ever before.
Oldboyis another revenge movie that uses excessive blood and guts to elicit a reaction from the viewer. Dae-su Oh (Choi Min-Sik) is an alcoholic loser who is bailed out from jail by his friend, only to be kidnapped in the street moments later. He’s held captive, drugged, and abused for 15 years, not knowing his captors or what they intend to do to him. When Dae-su is suddenly released, he wants revenge and seeks to find the bad guys that kept him locked away.
Although it doesn’t feature any Hollywood stars,Oldboyis a foreign filmknown around the world for its shock value. Dae-Su doesn’t hold back when it comes to punishing those who get in his way. Blood flies everywhere and director Park Chan-wook has no shame in showing viewers the goriest images imaginable.Oldboyis considered one of the best South Korean movies ever, and it currently holds an impressive 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Gerard Butler stars as Leonidas, the King of Sparta, in Zack Snyder’s epic historical movie300. When the Persian army led by King Xeres invades Sparta, Leonidas leads his soldiers into battle without any restraint. Xeres sends a messenger convoy to request the Spartans give in, and Leonidas responds by kicking the messenger into a bottomless pit. The Spartans are greatly outnumbered but have more heart and tenacity than the Persians.
300is over-the-top because of its amazing production design. The movie is designed to look like a dark comic since it’s based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name. With a unique mix of color palettes and tones,300has an interesting look that hasn’t been replicated on film since its release in 2006. Gerard Butler is fantastic as Leonidas, and the whole movie is a great if not overblown, historical action drama.
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16The Cove
The Coveis a documentary unlike any you’ve seen before. Every year, a brutal ritual takes place in the ocean off the coast of Taiji, Japan. The government allows local fishermen to capture wild dolphins, slaughtering the unwanted ones and separating some from their parents along the way. Activist Ric O’Barry, who trained dolphins for the popular TV showFlippertakes on a dangerous mission: to capture footage of the practice taking place in an effort to end it for good.
The Coveis like a tense spy movie; you never know what’s coming next. O’Barry and the film crew go undercover, pretending to be naive tourists in order to get the footage they want. The documentary dives even deeper, explaining that illegal dolphin meat often ends up in local stores labeled as other fish. The film is shocking, revealing, and unbelievable. It uncovers an over-the-top world that’s real but too far-fetched to believe.
15Requiem for a Dream
When talking about the best movies of the 2000s,Requiem for a Dreamoften enters into the conversation. It’s the movie that helpedJared Leto break through and become a Hollywood star. Leto plays a drug addict named Harry who hears about a huge score happening late at night. He takes his buddy along and the two plan to buy drugs onsite. Something goes awry, however, and gunshots ring out. This results in Harry becoming more desperate to get drugs, and things end up horrifically for him in the end.
Requiem for a Dreamalso contains a great side plot about Harry’s mother, an elderly woman confined to her home who watches game shows all day. She pictures herself as the star of the shows, winning money and flirting with the host to the adoration of the audience. The detailed hallucination scenes and grotesque ending makeRequiem for a Dreaman over-the-top depiction of desperation in America.
14Let the Right One In
Let the Right One Inis a Swedish horror romantic comedy based on the novel of the same name. The film is set in the early ’80s and is centered around Oskar (Kare Hedebrant), a boy who’s constantly bullied at school. He spends his free time plotting revenge against his peers, reading about murders in the newspaper, and cutting out articles of the ones he likes. When a new girl moves in next door, Oskar soon realizes she may be even more sinister than he is.
Let the Right OneIn doesn’t shy away from blood and contains some pretty gory scenes. Most of the movie’s sequences were shot using live special effects. Director Thomas Alfredson used CGI sparingly in the movie, with one cat attack scene using a combination of real cats, CGI, and stuffed animals.Let the Right OneIn is dark and disturbing with unthinkable, over-the-top themes.
13Super Size Me
Super Size Meis a groundbreaking documentary that was released in 2004. Director Morgan Spurlock sets out to prove that fast food is insanely unhealthy by eating nothing but McDonald’s three times a day for 30 days. He measures the results and soon becomes lethargic, gains weight, and feels terrible most of the time. He also interviews food experts, doctors, and McDonald’s enthusiasts about the effect burgers and fries have on human lives.
The movie is extreme because nobody should attempt to replicate Spurlocks’s diet. Even he admits in the movie he is sick of eating McDonald’s by the end. The movie also includes over-the-top footage of animal processing plants and explains the extremes that food companies go to to produce cheap, fast food.
12Idiocracy
Average citizen Joe Bowers (Luke Wilson) becomes the smartest man in the world in Mike Judge’s seminal 2006 comedyIdiocracy. TheBeavis And Butt-Headcreator takes it to the extreme and shows the world what life would be like in the future if everyone was dumber. In the movie, Joe is frozen in time and he wakes up in an unimaginable future where nobody knows how to use their brains. As a result, Joe is the smartest person in the world because he knows the simplest things - like that plants need water to grow.
Idiocracypictures a world where society is so dumbed down that even doctors are regular people. Justin Long plays a dimwitted doctor, while Terry Crews plays the President of the United States, but he’s basically just a strong guy who likes guns and monster trucks. Idiocracy is wildly exaggerated, making it one of thefunniest sci-fi comedies out there.
11The Hangover
Speaking of over-the-top comedies,The Hangoveris easily one of the most ridiculous comedy movies ever made. After a night of heavy drinking in Las Vegas, friends Phil (Bradley Cooper), Stu (Ed Helms), and Alan (Zach Galifianakis) wake up in a trashed hotel room. Stu is missing a tooth, Alan finds a baby, and there’s a tiger in the bathroom for some reason. The worst part is the group is missing their friend Doug, who was with them the night before but is now nowhere to be seen.
As the friends retrace their steps from the night before, they find out it’s even worse than they imagined. Stu spontaneously got married while the tiger was actually taken from none other than retired heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The scenes with excessive partying, drug use, and insane antics makeThe Hangoverone of the most over-the-top films of the 2000s.
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10Grizzly Man
Grizzly Manis a fantastic 2005 documentary about Timothy Treadwell. For 13 summers, Treadwell lived in the Alaskan wildness with wild grizzly bears, documenting his adventures on film. Treadwell amassed almost 100 hours of footage on his own, which director Werner Herzog combined with interviews to create a fascinating movie about his subject and his furry friends. The extreme part ofGrizzly Manis that Treadwell is completely unafraid of the creatures, often getting close to them, cuddling them, and treating them like his own pets.
Unfortunately, Treadwell’s adventures caught up to him. He was attacked by a hungry grizzly bear in October 2003 and died of his injuries. Still,Grizzly Manis an interesting portrait of a man who was both obsessed with fame and obsessed with doing what he could to protect the bears he loved.Grizzly Manpremiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and currently holds an impressive 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
