Jim Aquino hosts and produces A Fistful of Soundtracks (Sundays 2-4PM on KZSC 88.1 FM in Santa Cruz), writes for Silicon Valley Community Newspapers and Metro Newspapers in San Jose and is currently trying to get VH1 to do another rapper biopic: "Pickin' Boogers: The Biz Markie Story."

Best Films

These features aren't listed in order of superiority, but they're the 10 best.

Amores Perros (Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Score: Gustavo Santaolalla)
The Devil's Backbone (Director: Guillermo del Toro, Score: Javier Navarrete)
Gosford Park (Director: Robert Altman, Score: Patrick Doyle)
In the Mood for Love (Director: Wong Kar-Wai, Score: Michael Galasso and Shigeru Umebayashi)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Director: Peter Jackson, Score: Howard Shore)
The Man Who Wasn't There (Director: Joel Coen, Score: Carter Burwell)
Mulholland Drive (Director: David Lynch, Score: Angelo Badalamenti)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Director: Wes Anderson, Score: Mark Mothersbaugh)
Shrek (Directors: Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, Score: Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell)
The Vertical Ray of the Sun (Director: Tran Anh Hung, Score: Ton That Tiet)

Also: No Man's Land, The Princess and the Warrior, Ghost World, Monsters, Inc., With a Friend Like Harry

Best film, period: Spike Jonze's four-minute video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice," starring Christopher Walken. The video encapsulates everything I love about films. Some of the best cinema these days is actually found in music videos.

Best films from 2000 that I didn't see until 2001: Yi Yi, George Washington

Best scene all year: The audition scene in Mulholland Drive

Second best scene all year: The lesbian love scene in Mulholland Drive

The moment that made me laugh the longest: That silhouette of the band camp director playing Jason Biggs' trumpet without knowing where it's been in American Pie 2

Favorite actor: Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums

Favorite actress: Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive

Favorite scene-stealer: Tony Shalhoub in The Man Who Wasn't There

Most underrated performance: Garrett Morris in Jackpot

Also underrated: The animated portion of Osmosis Jones

Favorite ending: Our Song

Most despicable villain: Raymond J. Barry in The Deep End

More attractive as an ape than as a woman: Planet of the Apes' Helena Bonham Carter

I'm looking forward to: The growth of Pinoy cinema (The Flip Side, The Debut, DJ Q-Bert's Wave Twisters)

Best movie to make you break your neck like Busta Bus: DJ Q-Bert's Wave Twisters

Best pieces of film criticism:
Kent Jones' piece on The Royal Tenenbaums in the November/December issue of Film Comment
Richard von Busack's review of Waking Life for the Metro
Matt Zoller Seitz's review of Mulholland Drive for the New York Press
Armond White's review of Planet of the Apes for the New York Press
Elvis Mitchell's review of Apes for the New York Times
L.A. Weekly critic Ernest Hardy's feature about "the jump-starting of tired racial archetypes" in movies like The Legend of Bagger Vance, The Green Mile, Finding Forrester and Save the Last Dance

Barely released films I always wanted to see but never got the chance to: Wet Hot American Summer, Donnie Darko, Ginger Snaps, Diamond Men, The Day I Became a Woman

Line of the year: "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!!!" - Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast

Best Film Scores

These scores aren't listed in order of superiority, but they're the 10 best.

Atlantis: The Lost Empire (James Newton Howard)
The Caveman's Valentine (Terence Blanchard)
In the Mood for Love (Michael Galasso and Shigeru Umebayashi)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Howard Shore)
Mulholland Drive (Angelo Badalamenti)
Ocean's Eleven (David Holmes)
The Others (Alejandro Amenábar)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Mark Mothersbaugh)
Shrek (Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell)
Waking Life (Glover Gill)

Also: The Princess and the Warrior (Pale 3), Planet of the Apes (Danny Elfman), The Man Who Wasn't There (Carter Burwell), Spy Kids (Chris Boardman, John Debney, Danny Elfman, Gavin Greenaway, Harry Gregson-Williams, Los Lobos, Heitor Pereira, Robert Rodriguez), Gosford Park (Patrick Doyle)

Best Music Videos

Now these are listed in order of superiority.

1. Fatboy Slim, "Weapon of Choice" (Director: Spike Jonze)
2. R.E.M. "Imitation of Life" (Director: Garth Jennings)
3. Captain Harlock creator Leiji Matsumoto's series of videos for Daft Punk: "One More Time," "Aerodynamic," "Digital Love" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"
4. Cake, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" (Director: John McCrea)
5. Gorillaz, "Clint Eastwood" (Director: Jamie Hewlett)
6. Kenna, "Hell Bent" (Director: Mark Osborne)
7. Busta Rhymes, "Break Ya Neck" (Director: Hype Williams)
8. Aaliyah, "We Need a Resolution" (Director: Paul Hunter)
9. DMX, "Who We Be" (Director: Joseph Kahn)
10. Weezer, "Island in the Sun" (Director: Spike Jonze)

Best Television

These shows aren't listed in order of superiority, but they're the 10 best.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Futurama
The Job
Samurai Jack
Scrubs
The Sopranos
The Tick
TV Funhouse
24
Undeclared

Also: Ed, The Bernie Mac Show, Justice League, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Angel, Late Show with David Letterman, Thieves, Farscape, The Simpsons

Favorite rerun (tie):
NewsRadio
SCTV episodes after Conan

Favorite rerun trend: Fox's fully loaded DVDs of entire seasons of The X-Files, The Simpsons and Buffy

Least favorite rerun trend: Well-chosen pop songs getting replaced by generic music because the syndicator lost the rights to the original songs (WKRP, Wiseguy, Crime Story)

Old shows that I miss and want to see again on DVD: Sledge Hammer! and Police Squad! (why does Pink Lady and Jeff get the DVD treatment while these two hilarious, ahead-of-their-time shows don't?)

Best comeback: Buffy

Best TV-movie: Boycott

Favorite show to bash: Boston Public

Best new show to inspire a "Homoeroticism, Yay!" forum at MightyBigTV.com: Smallville

Best main title sequence: Six Feet Under

Best theme music (tie):
Thomas Newman's theme from Six Feet Under
The theme from Grosse Pointe, Tom Jones and Mousse T.'s "Sex Bomb (Peppermint Disco Mix)"

Funniest use of an '80s modern rock tune: The Scrubs episode in which people in the hospital can't stop singing Erasure's "A Little Respect"

Let's all beware: NBC's overly earnest, Enya-scored promos for Friends, yet another reason why the NBC marketing department is evil

Favorite celebrity impression (tie):
Darrell Hammond's Dan Rather on SNL ("Carl, go down to the basement. Mabel, get in here, take your clothes off and put these shoes on. Also, the hat. Now put one leg up on that chair, arch your back and listen to this 'cause it's a humdinger.")
Rachel Dratch's Anne "Weakest Link" Robinson on SNL

Lamest series title: UC: Undercover (The "UC" in the title makes the show sound like 21 Jump Street Goes to the University. What's next? CSU: Crime Scene Unit?)

Best way that a series worked Sept. 11 into its storylines: The Thanksgiving episode of Ed, which referred to the country's post-Sept. 11 depression without ever once mentioning the attacks

Worst way that a series worked Sept. 11 into its storylines: Charlotte Ross' awkward reference to "the World Trade Center attacks" on the season premiere of NYPD Blue

Jim Aquino
January 4, 2002

Click here for Jim's favorites of 2000.

Playing on Fistful in January:

Cowboy Bebop (Victor)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Reprise)
Ocean's Eleven (Warner Sunset/Warner Bros.)
Eee-O 11: The Best of the Rat Pack (Capitol)
The Royal Tenenbaums (Hollywood)
Mulholland Drive (Milan)
Shrek (Varese Sarabande)

See previous "Intros"

December 2001: On the 2001 Fistful Christmas Special

November 2001: On the 2001 Fistful Halloween Special

October 2001: On Sept. 11, Asian American Comedy Night and the Enterprise theme song

September 2001: On the deaths of Pauline Kael, Manuel Ticsay (an uncle) and Aaliyah

August 2001: On the Fistful episode "Fistful on the Run"

July 2001: On new Fistful IDs and the Fistful episode "Up, Up and Away"

June 2001: On Fistful's fourth anniversary