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Best movie of the decade?
posted by
HowardBHaas
on
December 30, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Here’s a list that totals the other lists. What’s your favorite?
Which movie is the best of the decade? The Onion’s A.V. Club has anointed Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Time Out New York liked Spotless Mind, too, ranking it third, but gave its No. 1 spot to David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. The New Yorker’s Richard Brody didn’t put either of these movies on his heady list. He gives the brass ring to Jean-Luc Godard’s Eloge de l'amour (In Praise of Love). Long live the Nouvelle Vague!
So the question remains: Which movie is the best of the decade? Is there any consensus among the accumulating lists? To find out, we collected all of the rankings we could find and synthesized the results using a simple scoring system: Movies got 50 points for being the No. 1 pick on a list, 49 points for a No. 2 nod, and so on, down to one point for a No. 50 slot. (Brody, who only chose 26 movies, still received 50 points for his top pick.)
Comments (26)
Well, for me personally, 2 that were on the list, “United 93” because it happened not far from some family of ours, and “Finding Nemo.” One that was not on the list, but I found to be very good was “Cars.”
I’d also vote for “Mulholland Drive”.
I happen to think Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Dark Knight are the best of this decade.
A movies that is missing from the list is perhaps my favorite: “Ray”
For “trilogy” I’d vote for “Bourne"
My favorite animated is "The Incredibles”
My favorite foreign language movie would be “The Lives of Others”
My choice for the single best movie of the past decade is, without question, SIDEWAYS.
…and in case you’re interested…
1990s – PULP FICTION
1980s – DO THE RIGHT THING
1970s – THE GODFATHER
1960s – 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
1950s – BEN-HUR
1940s – CASABLANCA
1930s – GONE WITH THE WIND
1920s – METROPOLIS
1910s – BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN
Taste is purely subjective, of course, but some of the selections on this list were downright ridiculous. I don’t consider The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, Kill Bill & Eternal Sunshine to be among the best films of the decade, sorry.
For me, The Pianist is hands-down the masterpiece of the decade.
Happy-Go-Lucky, United 93, The Queen, The Departed, Doubt, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, Milk, & The Counterfeiters are some of my honorable mentions.
Man on Wire, The Kid Stays in the Picture & Los Angeles Plays Itself were great documentaries.
I think The Dark Knight is the best film of the decade based on a property. Best original film? Avatar.
My top 20 films of the decade:
1 Star Wars Episode 3
2 Star Trek (2009)
3 Across the Universe
4 Untitled (Almost Famous)
5 Spiderman 3
6 Adventureland
7 Spiderman 2
8 Star Wars Episode 2
9 The Dark Knight
10 Spiderman
11 Bend it like Beckham
12 The Boat that Rocked! (Pirate Radio)
13 Thirteen
14 Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
15 Juno
16 Saved
17 Sex and the City the movie
18 Crazy/beautiful
19 Fanboys
20 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
HM Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
HM Clerks 2
HM Levity
HM Mamma Mia
HM Polar Express
HM School of Rock
I have a list of 50 on my blog at johnjfink.blogspot.com. But here’s my top 10:
1.-Syndromes and a Century (2006)
2.-The Piano Teacher (2001)
3.-Wendy & Lucy (2008)
4.-Touch The Sound (2004)
5.-Vera Drake (2004)
6.-Talk to Her (2002)
7.-Three Times (2005)
8.-Sommers Town (2009)
9.-Untitled/Almost Famous (2000)
10.-Goodbye Dragon Inn (2003)
As for the decade – I saw an average of 4.6 movies a week, 2428 movies in total, in theaters from Jan 1, 2000 to tomorrow night when I plan to see yet another movie named Nine.
John J. Impressive stats. Cheers. Well done. Always dreamed of doing that. Respect and agree with your top 10 of the decade as well.
Best film of decade was Pan’s Labyrinth.
John J, your blog is insightful, well-informed, and an interesting read.
You also reminded me of some very good movies I had already forgotten about, like Vera Drake, Wendy & Lucy, Chop Shop & Ghost World.
Great work!
Best movie of the decade? THE DARK KNIGHT
Others mention:
“Superman Lives"
"Star Wars-Episode III:Revenge of the Sith"
"Star Trek” (2009)
“The Departed"
"Juno"
"Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull"
"The entire Spider-Man trilogy"
"Ray"
"Million Dollar Baby"
"Precious"
"Dreamgirls”-Beyonce made have been the star,but it was Jennifer Hudson that stole the show and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
“The Last King of Scotland"
"There Will Be Blood"
"No Country For Old Men"
"Pan’s Labyrinth"
"Milk"
"Gone Baby Gone"
"United 93"
"The Queen"
"Mulholland Drive"
"The Lord of the Rings” trilogy
“King Kong” (2005)
“Munich” (Steven Spielburg)
“Letter from my Fathers” (Clint Eastwood)
“The Hurt Locker"
"The Polar Express"
"Disney’s A Christmas Carol"
"Crash"
"The Incredibles"
"Finding Nemo”
“Cars"
"The Princess and the Frog"
"Shrek"
"Chicago”-the musical
“Magnolia"
"Frost/Nixon”
Oh yeah, I forgot “Monster’s Ball” that came out in 2002. The movie to gave Halle Berry the Oscar that year for Best Actress. Halle Berry made history that year becoming the first African-American female to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
“Training Day”, “The Hurricane”-Denzel Washington
“The Pursuit of Happiness”-Will Smith
“Kill Bill:Chapters I and II” from Quentin Tarantino
“Inglorious Basterds"
"Mr. and Mrs. Smith”
why do we need to create a best of anything. sure there’s a list, i have mine, but there’s not one single movie that is THE ONE. different technologies evolve over time so why keep quantifying for the sake of quantifying.
Zodiac.
We have one more year left in the decade.
My favorite films, so far:
A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Hero (2002)
Minority Report (2002)
Master & Commander (2002)
Good Night & Good Luck (2005)
Thank You for Smoking (2006)
Diving Bell & the Butterfly (2007)
Dark Knight (2008)
Up (2009)
Others may come to mind later…
JSA
Wall-E was my favorite of the decade.
Memento
Requiem For A Dream
Banchick Wang (The Foul King 2000 Korea)
Traffic
Yi Yi (A One and a Two 2000 Taiwan)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
Russian Ark (Russkiy Kovcheg) (2002)
Nine Queens (Nueve reinas) (2000)
Donnie Darko (2001)
American Chai
None of these are my favorite films by a long shot, but the ones that came out this past decade that I considered worth seeing are as follows, in no particular order:
Shrek III
Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
Zodiac
Up
Dark Knight
Munich
Mystic River
Gone, Baby Gone
The Departed
Million-Dollar Baby
Gran Torino
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Pan’s Labyrinth
Oh, and I also might add the following:
The Bader-Meinholf Complex
One Day in September.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
March of the Penguins
The Greening of Southie
The Good Shephard
Monument Avenue
Southie
Fantasia 2000 (not quite as good as the original “Fantasia”, but it was OK)
Volmer
Nice work naming The Good Shepherd, One Day in September and Monument Ave. I thought those were 3 excellent underrated films.
some more gems of the 2000s I thought deserved mentioning…
In the Loop
Steve Buscemi’s Interview
Paul Verhoeven’s Black Book
Hotel Rwanda
Little Miss Sunshine
Whale Rider
About Schmidt
The Royal Tenenbaums
Amelie
George Washington
In the Bedroom
Flags of Our Fathers/Letters from Iwo Jima
Hot Fuzz
Shaun of the Dead
Monsoon Wedding
Best Male Performances of the 2000s – –
Adrien Brody, The Pianist
Daniel Day-Lewis, There May Be Blood
Don Cheadle, Hotel Rwanda
Bruno Ganz, Downfall
Jamie Foxx, Ray
Best Female Performances of the 2000s – –
Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Imelda Staunton, Vera Drake
Julie Christie, Away From Her
Charlize Theron, Monster
Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration
Kudos to you for naming “The Pianist” and “There Will Be Blood”, McGinty.
I will also add “The Pianist”, “Defiance”, and “The Counterfeiters” to my list.
Boy oh boy these lists certainly are subjective, aren’t they? No offense to anyone, but some decidedly pedestrian films made some people’s lists…and once again we see how films elicit different responses.
It’s interesting that so many print reviewers seem to have forgotten about the Lord of the Rings trilogy; I could never get through Tolkien’s books but the films taken as a whole are a spellbinding epic, the defining one of the decade, that demands to be seen in a cinema.
It was a very good decade for both mainstream and independent film.
And interesting how many people rate The Departed so highly, which just seemed overwrought and sloppy to me. Check out the HK film it was adapted from, Infernal Affairs, for some sequences of true brilliance that were not translated in anywhere near as rivetting a fashion.
1960 “2001” hands down.
1970 “NETWORK” and “ALL THE PRESIDENTS MEN” a very close second.
1980 “THE VERDICT” nothing can touch Newman in this effort.
1990 and beyond movies basically stink with remakes and Great actors,Gone.