Best of the Decade . . . . Movies

[EdgarDiazRocks]

AV Club came out with their list . . . . and I couldn't have disagreed more (A.I. ???), but that's what differences of opinions are for . . . .

 

I must admit for mine, I was watching a lot more movies at the beginning of the decade than the latter part (stupid life!) and I'm missing several that I'm sure would sneak in there like No Country for Old Men (it's on the DVR right now), The Assassination of Jesse James, Gone Baby Gone, and Man on Wire being the most notable that I can think of, but here's my top ten as it stands today . . . .

 

 

1. City of God

 

2. Spellbound

 

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

 

4. Yu Tu Mama Tambien

 

5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

 

6. 28 Days Later \ Shaun of the Dead

 

I can't really separate these two in my mind. To me they are the perfect bookends as homages to Dawn of the Dead, much more so than the film remake actually named Dawn of the Dead, which was just awful.

 

7. Nobody Knows

 

8. The Incredibles

 

9. Brick

 

10. King of Kong

[Godspeed]

My list also comes with the caveat that I haven't seen anything in the theaters in the last 18 months.

 

1. No Country for Old Men

 

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

 

3. Children of Men

 

4. Adaptation

 

5. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart

 

6. Walk the Line

 

7. The Departed

 

8. Almost Famous

 

9. You Can Count on Me

10. Bourne Ultimatum

 

Dead Last: Crash

 

 

EDIT: Forgot about 'You Can Count on Me', the whole reason why I made this list in the first place. Idiocracy deserves a mention, too.

[homer]

FTJ couldn't make this thread but asked me to post his #1 movie of the decade:

 

1. Glitter

[Schlitz001]

I liked the '90's much better. Here are my favorites from what I've seen and what I can remember.......

 

1. There Will Be Blood

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

3. No Country for Old Men

4. Amelie

5. Cache

6. 4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days

7. Snatch

8. Royal Tenenbaums

9. Memento

10. Bubble/Girlfriend Experience

Runners Up: Adaptation, Cinderella Man, The Lives of Others, The Wrestler, Napoleon Dynamite, Wall-E, Donnie Darko, Punch Drunk Love, City of God

[bjkrautk]

1. Gone Baby Gone

2. No Country for Old Men

3. Lord of the Rings Trilogy (not ranking them individually)

4. The Bourne Supremacy

5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

6. Walk the Line

7. Gladiator

8. Iron Man

9. Casino Royale

10.Spider-Man 2

[brewerfan82]

Mine may be more so a list of my "favorite" movies of the decade rather than the "best":

 

1. Donnie Darko

2. (500) Days of Summer

3. The 40 Year Old Virgin

4. Juno

5. The Wrestler

6. Dark Knight

7. Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

8. Sean of the Dead

9. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

10. Napoleon Dynamite

[EdgarDiazRocks]

I really like the hell out some scenes in your guys' picks while not liking the movies as a whole . . .

 

The first 4 minutes of Iron Man are fantastic and finally made me re-evaluate my opinion of Robert Downey Jr.

 

The elevated train scene in Spiderman 2 is transcendent.

 

The apartment fight in Bourne Ultimatum is right out of the train scene in From Russia with Love, and awesome.

 

And the "Tiny Dancer" scene in Almost Famous is only second to the "I've Seen it All" sequence from Dancer in the Dark for best use of music in a movie for the decade.

[Bikeage77]

In no order:

 

The Dark Knight

Let The Right One In

The Incredibles

Old Boy

Royal Tenenbaums

Kill Bill

Pursuit Of Happyness

Requiem For A Dream

No Country For Old Men

Battle Royale

 

Honorable:

Inglorious Basterds

The Wrestler

Men On Wire

King Of Kong

 

I'm sure there's probably 10 movies that weren't on that list that other people will say which will make me change my mind.

[Gobias Industries]

1) No Country for Old Men

2) There Will Be Blood

3) The Royal Tenenbaums

4) The Departed/Infernal Affairs

5) City of God

6) Snatch

7) Gone Baby Gone

8) The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

9) The 40 Year Old Virgin

10) The Dark Knight

 

Honorable: American Psycho, Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Yet to See: Inglorious Basterds

Most Overrated: Godspeed beat me to the punch, but Crash was terrible.

[MJLiverock]

A number of those listed are good movies but my top 10 has to include movies that I would watch mulitple times. I think this is the only way I can narrow down a big field. It eliminates some very good movies like No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Wrestler to name a few I struggled with on the list but eliminate on the grounds that even when on the DVR I still don't feel like watching them again but I did like them.

 

Most on my list are here because they represent the best of a certain genre or classification of film I liked. In many cases other movies may have followed or lead the way but I liked these the best.

 

1. LOTR Trilogy - - I loved these books as a kid and have read them many times since grade school. They said the movies could never be done and yet Peter Jackson was given the money, freedom, and time to do them right.

 

2. Royal Tenenbaums - - great cast and eclectic story that launched Wes Anderson's unique movies into the mainstream.

 

3. Dark Knight - - I like the super hero movies from Spider Man to X-Men but this one took it all to a whole new level.

 

4. Snatch - - Guy Ritchies' best and along with 1999's Fight Club (also a favorite) made me actually like Brad Pitt.

 

5. Oh Brother Where Art Thou - - favorite Cohen brothers film... I end up watching it whenever I run across it on TV.

 

6. Syrianna - - best of the George Clooney Section Eight Films (although I will admit not having seen Good Night Good Luck yet) I am an economist and history buff so this fell right in my wheel house. I had to watch it 2x just to really take it all in.

 

7. Slumdog Millionaire - - All around great story and film making withoout being pretentious or slow like so many Best Picture movies.

 

8. Gangs of New York - - favorite Leo/Scorsese movie even over the Departed

 

9. Juno - - fantastic characters and well acted storyline. Picked it over Little Miss Sunshine, Napolean Dynamite, Memento, Donnie Darko in that cheaper independent area.

 

10. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy - - tough call over the 40 Year Old Virgin in the comedic world of Judd Apatow but the movie is like Caddyshack to me. So many great lines and wardrobe and Wil Ferrell's best.

 

A few other movies I really liked but didn't make the list - - Pirates of the Carribean, Blow, Matrix Reloaded, Borat, Almost Famous and Big Fish.

 

I looked over the AVN list and was pleasantly reminded of New World, which I watched once and was taken with the great ability to convey the story without a lot of spoken dialogue.

 

I have seen most of the movies on the list and there were a few that made it that I absolutely hated or thought were so vastly overhyped they just didn't seem good.

 

History of Violence was slow and really not interesting, watched it with another couple and everyone hated it.

Kill Bill - - just never hooked me

Man Who Wasn't There -- pretentiousness and boring at its best

 

 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind makes a lot of lists I see and I remember I liked it the first time but I thought it was very slow and depressing. My wife loves it but I always seem to fall asleep when I try to watch it again.

[fondybrewfan]

I don't watch a ton of movies but I did love Slumdog Millionnaire. I also loved Seven Pounds.

 

When my wife and I were just starting dating, we went and saw Jeepers Creepers. That was probably the worst movie of the decade and I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to make a sequel.

[chadomac]

The Girlfriend Experience? Really? Best of the last 10 years? My girlfriend and I couldn't make it more than 20 minutes before turning it off and sending it back to Netflix. Girlfriend Experience, more like the BOREfriend Experience!

[chadomac]

Oh, also, these would be in my top 10 but I don't really remember what came out in the past 10 years, I'm just picking my favorites from your lists...

 

Eternal Sunshine

The Departed

Almost Famous

Donnie Darko

Vanilla Sky

The Dark Knight

Slumdog Millionare

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Requiem For A Dream

The LOTR Movies

 

Also, I saw No Country way too late and it had been overhyped to me. I liked it but didn't think it was that great. For some reason Slumdog lived up to the hype even though it was a similar situation for me and the timing in which I saw it.

[Schlitz001]

The Girlfriend Experience? Really? Best of the last 10 years? My girlfriend and I couldn't make it more than 20 minutes before turning it off and sending it back to Netflix. Girlfriend Experience, more like the BOREfriend Experience!

You're not the only one. I tried to show this to several other people and they thanked me for wasting their time. The Girlfriend Experience and Bubble are both arthouse films by Steven Soderbergh where he takes people who normally aren't actors and places them in very real life stories. Watching these films you feel sort of like you are getting an in depth look into another persons private life. They leave it up to the viewer on how to interpret the characters and whether to like them or hate them. Most hollywood movies are very structured with a hero and a villain, a plot, a climax, an end. Soderbergh shows in these movies that you don't need obvious devices to engage the audience.

 

I love both of these films and I'm kind of shocked that they didn't at least get more critical acclaim, but I can understand why people don't like them. Soderbergh is due to release 4 (I think) more of these types of films and I can't wait.

[PlayerHader]

#1 No Country for Old Men

 

In no particular order-

 

There Will Be Blood

The Departed

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

The Wrestler

Gladiator

Juno

[tigerbrew]

The best 10 movies of this decade for me off the top of my head, in no particular order:

V for Vendetta
Kingdom of Heaven
Matrix Reloaded
Matrix Revolutions
Master and Commander - The Far Side of the World
The Da Vinci Code
Angels and Demons
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

300

I'm also very keen to watch the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie later this month, hope it's a good one.

[RayKingsForemanGrill]

I don't even know where to start, but let's try a top 10 list, in no particular order:

 

No Country for Old Men

There Will be Blood

The Road

Gladiator

Shotgun Stories

4 Months, 3 weeks, 2 days

The Assassination of JEsse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Cinderella Man

The Hurt Locker

Narc

[RyDogg66]

Im not going to make a list because I missed out on the second half of the decade once I had kids, but I will toss out a nominee.

 

Revolutionary Road.

 

When taken as a whole and considering the original novel by Richard Yates, the screenplay that was very much true to the book, the direction by Sam Memdes, the incredible acting by DiCaprio and especially Winslet, and finally the score by Thomas Newman which is fantastic - not to mention the lasting effects of the film itself. It was as powerful and resonating as any film Ive seen. Yes, it was mostly character driven and it doenst have the escapism factor that most movies give you - hell at one point my wife whispered to me that Frank and April's fighting so real it felt like a fight we might have had before.

 

Im not saying it needs to be on a top 10 list but it should just be recognized.

[MJLiverock]

Tigerbrew's list reminded me about Kingdom of Heaven. I really like that movie as well. I also saw 300 which I know a lot of people really liked but it was another one that just never really hooked me. I watched it, thought some of the scenes were cool but just never got into it. I liked Troy even more than 300.

 

The Da Vinci code reminds me of a question for anyone who liked the movie or books. Was the whole concept Dan Brown wrote about totally new to you or had you heard these theories before? I ask because years ago co worker recommended the book to me as the most mind blowing book I would read. I thought it was good, he makes a good story out of it but she was shocked when I told her I had heard his base theory before and had read other books that layed out a similar case. She thought Dan Brown came up with the whole Mary Magdallen thing on his own. To me the book just fell into the that sort of Clive Cussler, James Rollins genre of action adventure set against a plausible yet fanciful historic or scientific backdrop. Which I like but I just wasn't blow away by the concept.

[RobertR]

Like I'm not going to reply to a movie list.

 

1. City of God

2. Mulholland Dr.

3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

4. Downfall

5. No Country for Old Men

6. American Splendor

7. Memento

8. Grizzly Man

9. The Incredibles

10. Lord of the Rings (If I have to pick one I'll go with Fellowship)

 

Other Notables, in no specific order:

 

Bloody Sunday

There Will Be Blood

Zodiac

Requiem for a Dream

Man on Wire

Pan's Labyrinth

The Lives of Others

Children of Men

Y Tu Mama Tambien

Adaptation

The Dark Knight

Black Hawk Down

Brick

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Gosford Park

The Aviator

Once

Before Sunset

Shaun of the Dead

 

Still need to see:

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Memories of Murder

Oldboy

Letters from Iwo Jima

Most of this year's best, by reputation

 

I'm a little slower at catching movies than I used to be. Still, there's a lot out there if you look.

 

Robert

[thebruce44]

Wow, do I not want to follow Robert on this one. This is my list as of right now in no particular order. It will probably change in 10 minutes though. Stuff I haven't seen on here so far is in bold.

 

The Departed

The Prestige

Gladiator

Kingdom of Heaven

Hotel Rwanda

Snatch

American Psycho

The Incredibles

The 40 Year Old Virgin

Children Of Men

[RobertR]

While I'm at it, a shoutout to two movies that aren't exactly new, but we first got a chance to experience in America in their current form.

 

The Big Red One: The Reconstruction

Army of Shadows

 

Robert

[homer]

I won't put mine in order but here's my list of 10 off the top of my head:

 

Memento

LOTR

The Lives of Others

City of God

Borat

The Hurt Locker

Best in Show

Road to Perdition

The Incredibles

Grizzly Man

King of Kong

Once

The Wrestler

 

 

OK, more than 10...