Suggestions for best movies for 2000-2009
January 3, 2010 by cloften
Filed under General Insanity, Silliness and Rants
What were the best movies of the last decades? While I am semi-open to suggestions such as Million Dollar Baby and Slumdog Millionaire, keep in mind who you are trying to lobby here and pick movie less artsy and more awesome.
Well, the decade started with “Gladiator” and ended with “Avatar” – pretty good bookends. Throw in things like the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the “Spiderman” series, “Batman Returns” and “Batman The Dark Knight” and you have a bunch of really good movies. The “Harry Potter” series was groundbreaking for its longevity – nobody has ever made that many “sequels” without the genre completely falling apart. “A Mighty Wind” was great. “300″ was pretty amazing as well as “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World.” Then you have the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series.
One of the best dramas we saw was “The Lives of Others” – a German movie I highly recommend. “The Passion of the Christ” came out this decade, along with notable movies like “The PIanist’ and, one of my favorites, “Songcatcher.” It was also a great decade for animation with movies like “The Incredibles”, “Up”, “Shrek”, “Monster’s Inc.” and “Wall-E”.
There were a ton of “name” movies that the critics raved about that I thought were totally forgettable. Anyway – these were the ones that came to mind first. I’m sure I missed a bunch of good ones.
Good work, Larry. You are a man after my own heart. I will put The Lives of Others on my Netflix queue.
Blindside!
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Hotel Rwanda
O Brother Where Art Thou
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Finding Nemo
Dark Knight (maybe)
As a Tolkien purist, I can’t argue with the Trilogy. As an action fan, I’d hate to leave off the Bourne series, especially number two, “The Bourne Supremacy.” Quite good, if you are into that sort of thing.
Can you nominate a mini-series? If so, “Band of Brothers” has to make the list, in my opinion, for any number of reasons. And on a military note, Eastwood’s “Letters From Iwo Jima” was also phenomenal, much better than “Flags of Our Fathers,” for that matter.
Other than that, I’m a little partial to “The Illusionist,” but I can’t really explain it except you just have to watch and enjoy. Yes, I know all of this reveals me to be shallow and vain, but so I am.
“3:10 to Yuma” is my favorite (modern) Western. And I hate to say it, but the new “Star Trek” by JJ Abrams is a rocking good throwback to the old days!
Jennifer, will you judge me if I told you I was waiting for the dollar movie and haven’t seen it yet?
Kevin, I like a man with diverse taste in movies. Good list.
Greg, I’m just glad that someone with such an intellectual taste in movies would be willing to read a blog as inane as cloften.com. I saw The Prestige and assumed I didn’t need to see the other one. I assume I am mistaken?
Toby, I was pleasantly surprised by Star Trek as well. I believe I will be taking some Christmas gift cards and getting that bad boy on Blu-Ray.
Yes, Charlie, “The Prestige” is the weak step-child of the magician movies. “The Illusionist” was far superior, particularly so because of Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti. Both are more than worth the rental fee (don’t tell Heidi that Jessica Biel is in it).
And I forgot my favorite sports movie of the decade: “For Love of the Game.” The older I get, the more sense it makes.
Hey, I nominate “Amazing Grace” it was awesome.