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2003: Big Fish

Nowadays, when Tim Burton makes a movie, it's a relatively predictable choice. Of course Tim Burton is going to direct a remake of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and of course Johnny Depp is going to star as Willy Wonka. Of course Tim Burton is directing a new version of Alice in Wonderland, and of course Johnny Depp is going to be the Mad Hatter. Of course they'll team up to do Sweeney Todd. And so on. Most people feel Burton's career has leveled off from its previous awesomeness, but in 2003, he delivered a heartfelt, emotional, yet quirky examination of a father-son relationship, with his adaptation of Big Fish. For the most part, Big Fish was not only unlike most Burton films in being brightly colored and more upbeat than previous films, but the main cast was unlike any he'd worked with. The film stars Billy Crudup, Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, and future Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard. Sure, Helena Bonham Carter shows up here, but that's just nitpicking.

The story, which weaves in tall tales about a young man growing up in the South and meeting his true love, is ostensibly about an embittered young man whose father is slowly dying and his attempts to construct a real paternal relationship. Crudup is the young man, Finney is his father as an old man, and McGregor is his father as the young man. The cast is uniformly excellent, but it's Burton's unique talent for creating indelible images coupled with some truly moving sequences that makes Big Fish a captivating experience. Are there other movies that make you cry while showing you visuals such as a circus frozen in time, Danny DeVito as a ringleader, or conjoined Siamese twins in the Korean War? I think not, folks. Big Fish definitely deserves a second chance from most viewers.

2004: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events
This may be the most inexplicable choice on my list, if only because this movie managed to be relatively successful, despite not have any sequels. Based on the famous series of books by Daniel Handler, under the pessimistic pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events is a quirky and extremely funny film about what happens to a trio of siblings who become orphans after their parents die in a mysterious fire. They're turned over to their closest relative (in a manner of speaking), Count Olaf (Jim Carrey, in, what I would argue, his funniest performance). Olaf is a transparently evil actor who wants the children to be under his care only so he can get the fortune their parents left behind. The kids, all gifted with unusual talents, get wise to his game and run to other, kind-hearted relatives; however, Olaf disguises himself in such a way to fool these relatives, all to get money.

Though Carrey is the star here, playing (kind of) three roles, the ensemble cast is most impressive: Meryl Streep, Billy Connolly, Cedric the Entertainer, Craig Ferguson, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Coolidge, Luis Guzman, Timothy Spall, Catherine O'Hara, and the voice of Jude Law (as Snicket). I'm not particularly sure why A Series of Unfortunate Events didn't become more successful, but its stylish production design, slick direction (by Brad Silberling, who does his best work here), memorably low-key score by Thomas Newman, and many other technical attributes all helped the movie stand out. The film was an adaptation of the first three books in the series; though there won't be any follow-ups, the movie that we were given is one of the best non-Pixar family films of the past decade. If you haven't yet seen this movie, give it a try; if you've seen it, try it again.

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