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If French producer - director Luc Besson worked in Hollywood, he’d have won his Irving G.Thalberg Award by now. That particular Oscar, presented to “creative producers whose bodies of work reflect a consistently high quality of motion picture production” previously went to Darryl F. Zanuck, David O. Selznick,Walt Disney, Arthur Freed, Cecil B. DeMille, William Wyler, Albert R. Broccoli, Steven Spielberg, Billy Wilder, George Lucas, Clint Eastwood and Dino De Laurentis and—hear me now—Besson is in their class. Over the past two decades, attentive moviegoers witnessed Besson refine and revolutionize the action film. Those who saw La Femme Nikita, The Professional, The Fifth Element, the Transporter series, Ong Bak, Unleashed, District B-13 and Revolver know it. His impact could also be seen in War, Crank and Hitman—all innovative, intelligent and sleek.

Who Else But Armond White wrote:Transporter 3 BETTER THAN The Dark Knight Olivier Megaton, Jason Statham and Luc Besson reinvent the action movie as kinetic art, but impressionable teenagers mistook Chris Nolan’s nihilistic graphic novel for kool fun.

Cadillac Records BETTER THAN Synecdoche, New York Darnell Martin treats Black American history as R&B and her sizzling cast (Jeffrey Wright, Beyoncé, Eamonn Walker, Columbus Short, Mos Def, Cedric the Entertainer) salutes pop music legends. Charlie Kaufman’s Actors Studio cast merely imitated Fellini’s 8 1/2 like amateurs.

armond wrote: Hitman—all innovative, intelligent and sleek.

ebert wrote:Headquarters also tells Mills he has 96 hours to rescue his daughter before she meets a fate worse than death, followed by death.

John Doe wrote: I am surprised Armond could take Spielberg's dick out of his mouth long enough to write this list.

Twilight BETTER THAN Let the Right One In

domino harvey wrote:Oh my God, did we all forget to discuss his Better Than- 2008 List?

domino harvey wrote:Oh my God, did we all forget to discuss his Better Than- 2008 List?

Barmy wrote:Toback is one of America's greatest filmmakers.

Barmy wrote:Does Armond like him? He seems like an anti-Spielberg to me.

1. George Washington (d: David Gordon Green)
2. L'Humanité (d: Bruno Dumont)
3. Time Regained (d: Raul Ruiz)
4. The House Of Mirth (d: Terence Davies)
5. Orphans (d: Peter Mullan)
6. Black And White (d: James Toback)
7. Mission To Mars (d: Brian De Palma)
8. The Little Thief (d: Erick Zonca)
9. Trixie (d: Alan Rudolph)
10. Pola X (d: Leos Carax)

tavernier wrote: 7. Mission To Mars (d: Brian De Palma)

You are such a useless and worthless writer, Armond. Everything has to be either/or, doesn't it? You have to create battles where none exist because you're so obviously a complete sociopath, a misanthrope, desperate for attention, so weak and pitiful and cowardly that you're prone to lashing outwards contemptuously at phantom strawmen like "hipster critics" and the like. You even create critical bashings and the ignoring of films you decide to enjoy (I use "decide" intentionally here); you create the fiction that certain films are completely beloved and others completely hated, all merely as a means to tell people, "Dammit I'm the only one who knows the truth." Your sickness is the same that I've seen in conspiracy theorists and lonely old creeps, where you want to be on the outside standing in, passing judgment, your every opinion and turn of phrase an exercise in complete disingenuousness. Nothing you say has a basis in the reality or experience of watching a film and yet your critical dishonesty is transparent to everyone else and likely opaque to yourself. I worry about you.