Favorite Films of the Decade

This is incomplete and not in the least bit scientific. Just off the top of my head, movies that socked me in the gut and sucked me in.

Primer
NCFOM
Children of Men
Fog of War
The Wrestler
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Requiem for a Dream
The Constant Gardener
Talk To Her
Watchmen
The Incredibles
Southland Tales - Not on the whole. This is about the most imperfect movie ever made, but I cannot shake very large chunks of it. It's like 42% the way to greatness...
 
Last edited:
Adventureland
AI: Artificial Intelligence
Best In Show
Catch Me If You Can
City of God
The Dark Knight
The Departed
District 9
Dogtown and Z Boys
Iron Man
Kill Bill volume 1
No Country For Old Men
Open Water
Open Water 2: Adrift. :grin:
Snatch
Star Trek
Superbad
There Will Be Blood
The Wrestler

And the #1 movie of the decade? GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra. :kali:
Thank you.
 
VGurcu said:
... I couldnt pass the campfire scene in Gerry & gave up...
Click to expand...

Gerry is a brilliant film because the choices which were made to tell the story force the viewer to experience (as closely as a film can) what the characters are experiencing i.e., the slow (and slowing) passage of time, the austere beauty of the desert, the yawning irritability, the dawning realization of mortality, etc.

As an aside, I do believe that one needs to be prepared and ready to experience a film. You must be "in the mood". Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't.
 
Not in order, but here is a few I can think of at the moment.

The Air I breathe
Layer Cake
The invention of Lying
The boat that Rocked
City Island
Flash of Genius
Worlds Greatest dad
Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
How To Lose Friends & Alienate People
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Horton Hears a who
The Visitor
Gangs of New York
The Pursuit Of Happyness.
Lucky Number Slevin
The Nines
Assassination.Of.A.High.School.President
Hot Rod
RocknRolla
August Rush
Into the Wild
Thumbsucker
The Spiderwick Chronicles
In Bruges
The HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy
Idiocracy
 
You guys keep reminding me of films I'd forgotten how much I loved.
Layer Cake
Lucky Number Slevin go straight to the list...
 
I choose my favorites based on the desert island scenario. Were I trapped with only ten or fifteen movies of this decade to watch forever...these would be them:

The Dark Knight
SNATCH
Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Layer Cake
District 9
O'Brother Where Art Thou
The Departed
Casino Royale
All PIXAR films of the decade
Kill Bill VOL. 1

And a few films I haven't seen, like AVATAR (holding out for my son to come home from grandparent's), The Hurt Locker, MOON, and Inglorious Basterds.
 
Last edited:
Children of Men (action/technical achievement)
Slumdog (touching... inspirational?)
No Country (retro artsy... "reality drama"... what oscars are all about)

If we're talking desert island movie only Children stays on the list... and the rest of the list gets less sophisticated. I watch a movie a couple times for story... a few times for story + acting talent... a half-dozen times for story + acting talent + action... and after that the only movies that I can watch over and over have interesting social situations with characters that I'd want to hang out with... like The Dude.
 
As for defining what I think a great movie is, I can't do that. While you can certainly look at my list and identify commonalities, you can't look at any film with those traits and say "Zak Forsman will like this" because it is so heavily execution dependent.
Click to expand...
I see no difficulty defining it for myself; to me a great movie is one that is capable of:
-Increasing my awareness to the topic/story it's dealing with.
-Connecting beyond logic/intelligence.
As you said it is also about the rhythm, sometimes it resonates, sometimes not.
Having said that I know Zak Forsman will like Hou's 'Flight of the Red Balloon' ;)

Gerry is a brilliant film because the choices which were made to tell the story force the viewer to experience (as closely as a film can) what the characters are experiencing i.e., the slow (and slowing) passage of time, the austere beauty of the desert, the yawning irritability, the dawning realization of mortality, etc.

As an aside, I do believe that one needs to be prepared and ready to experience a film. You must be "in the mood". Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don't.
Click to expand...

Jordan, I have Tarr's films for that purpose, u see i have no problem watching cows leaving a stable for 12 minutes, but Mat Dillon & dawning realization??? i guess i'll give it one more chance without passing any further judgment...
And yes, there is a time for everyone to truly enjoy a movie.
 
stephenmick said:
Caffesse's out of wifi range, but he gave me his top 5 to share…

1. Postal (2007)
2. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)
3. Alone in the Dark (2005)
4. Rampage (2009)
5. BloodRayne II: Deliverance (2007)
Click to expand...

Yeah... that sounds like me.
Come on, everyone knows 'White Chicks' would be my #1.
:)

Alright - in an effort to clean up Mick's mess, I'll have to post a list at somepoint soon... not now...but soon
 
This will inevitably get edited as I remember more films, but for now:

1. No Country For Old Men
2. The New World
3. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
4. The Life Aquatic
5. Half Nelson
6. There Will Be Blood
7. Ne le dis a personne (Tell No One) *Rent this now!*
8. The Dark Knight
9. Man On Wire
10. Syriana
11. The Squid and the Whale
12. Million Dollar Baby
13. Solaris
14. Adaptation
15. The Proposition
16. Royal Tenenbaums
17. Once
18. The Wrestler
19. No Direction Home
20a. Fantastic Mr. Fox
20b. The Puffy Chair
20c. The Notebook
20d. Lars and the Real Girl
 
Last edited:
Haven't had time to make a list, but I was thinking on what was the most stylistically influential film of the decade, and while I couldn't settle on one film, I settled on the technique that I think defines this decade. The 80's gave us MTV style cutting. The 90's gave us CGI. The 00's gave us hand held shaky cam. While Spielberg sort of started shaky cam's mainstream adoption in 97 with Private Ryan, it didn't really take hold until the 2000's with Lord of the Rings, and then Greengrass's Bourne Movies and Michael Bay's spastic epics. Now it's standard issue for action films to have a certain amount of shaky cam, and it's crept into dramas as well.
 
Batutta said:
Haven't had time to make a list, but I was thinking on what was the most stylistically influential film of the decade, and while I couldn't settle on one film, I settled on the technique that I think defines this decade. The 80's gave us MTV style cutting. The 90's gave us CGI. The 00's gave us hand held shaky cam. While Spielberg sort of started shaky cam's mainstream adoption in 97 with Private Ryan, it didn't really take hold until the 2000's with Lord of the Rings, and then Greengrass's Bourne Movies and Michael Bay's spastic epics. Now it's standard issue for action films to have a certain amount of shaky cam, and it's crept into dramas as well.
Click to expand...

I've been thinking the same thing for a while now. Everyone's doing it--from Action to Mumblecore, and even episodic television. Some directors of note doin' the hand-held thing this decade: Aronofsky, Baumbach, Cuaron, Dardenne Bros, Gondry, Jonze, Linklater (with two animated hand-held movies), Mann...I started doing an alphabetical thing but I haven't slept at all and I'm having trouble thinking of anything outside of my own (humble) DVD collection. But hey, now people can just add to my list. Now everyone is a part of this side-discussion!
 
I attempted to make a comprehensive best-of-the-decade list, but I just can't narrow it down to anything short enough that wouldn't be nauseating and overly time consuming for others to read through. So I'll list some favorites by alphabetical order (approx. 1-4 selections per letter).

Also, a few are technically from 1999, but I put 'em in there anyways. :eek:

A
Avatar
Amelie
Apocalypto
A Scanner Darkly

B
Bourne Trilogy
Big Fish
Batman Begins
Black Hawk Down

C
Children of Men
Collateral
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Catch Me If You Can

D
District 9
Downfall
The Descent
The Dark Knight
Dog Soldiers

E
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Elf
Eyes Wide Shut

F
The Fountain
Fight Club
Fast Food Nation

G
Gladiator
The Good German
Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence

H
Hot Fuzz
Howl's Moving Castle
Hero

I
Inglorious Basterds
The Incredibles
The Italian Job
Idiocracy

J
For the life of me I can't think of anything starting with "J".

K
Kill Bill (vol. 1 + 2)
Kingdom of Heaven
King Kong
Kontroll

L
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Let The Right One In
The Last Minute

M
The Mist
The Matrix
Minority Report
Matchstick Men
Micheal Clayton
Memento
Mullholland Drive
Moon

N
The New World
Noi

O
O' Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Others
One Hour Photo

P
The Pianist
Pitch Black
Persepolis
The Prestige
The Pursuit of Happyness
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The Princess and the Warrior

Q
Again, can't think of any that start with "Q".

R
Requiem for a Dream
Road to Perdition
The Ring

S
Sexy Beast
Serenity
Shaun of the Dead
Shaolin Soccer
Signs
The Sixth Sense
Stay
Sunshine
Sicko
Sideways

T
There Will Be Blood
Taken

U
Unbreakable

V
Valkyrie

W
Waking Life
Walk the Line
We Own the Night

X - Y - Z
I can't think of anything for X,Y, or Z either.

# films
300
25th Hour
28 Days Later
28 Weeks Later

Okay, so it's still a little long for a best of list, but better than the mega list I had before.
 
Last edited:
^ The Matrix, Fight Club, etc. aren't part of the decade. They were from 1999.
The thread is for films from 2000-2010
 
As far as drama goes, these are the classics:
Into the wild (2008)
There will be blood (2008)
House of Sand (2006, Brasil)
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..and Spring (2004, Kim-Ki-Duk. Even Ebert recognized it)
I am not there (2008, Nope I aint Bob Dylan fan, but Haynes is genius...)

Sci-fiction/Drama:
Children of Man (2007, we need to analyze why this title is almost in everyone's list)
Blindness (2009, most misunderstood movie of all time. Fernando Meirelles' City of God was great, but this one is superior)

Special Recognition
Yoji Yamada Samurai Trilogy (This is what 'dignity' is all about)
Twilight Samurai (2004)
Love & Honor (2008)
Hidden Blade (2006)

This decade was really rich with Docs:
Why we Fight (2006)
The Net (2006: Unabomber, the interNET, CIA, LSD, Darpa = one of a kind)
Rivers &Tides (2004, Thomas Riedelsheimer is gifted, 'Touch the Sound' is great too)
Touching the Void (2003, survival anyone?)

There should be more; from Haneke, Dardenne Bros, some Russian films etc but as as someone mentioned I wanted to keep it simple from my collection...

Note: Guilty pleasures
Son of Rambow(2008), Gangster No. 1 (2002), V for Vendetta(2008), Let the Right One In(2008), Orphanage(2007), Requiem for a dream(2001) of course many films from Mexican 3 Amigos (Alfonso Cuaron, Guillermo Del Toro, Alejandro Inarritu) and anything from Pedro Almodovar
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top