Gentlemen! Top 25 films of the previous decade.

[CMoon]

Excusing the technicality that the last decade should not include 2010, let's hear your votes for how this previous decade (2000-2010) faired.

My initial take is that it (like the 90's in general) were pretty abysmal, but you'll need to stretch your mind back all the way to 2000. It was a strong decade for Pixar (Nemo, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles, Ratatouille).

As mentioned in the general movie thread, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox was exceptional, but I'd also nominate his Life Aquatic (which I know doesn't appeal to everyone here.)

The best science fiction film for me was Children of Men followed by Inception (the former being considerably better). Can district 9 get honorable mention for basically being an 80's sci fi flick?

Miyazaki's output for this decade did not feel as strong (jesus, the guy is single-handedly keeping 2D animation alive), though Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo are still all very good films (I think most would argue that Castle is the weakest).

Bringing Nolan back up (just to cause grief for Skykid), I do think Dark Knight deserves mention; though I also don't think it is competing with much. One of the darker, grittier films of the decade.

As far as horror, the two films from this decade I found much interest in were both British: 28 Days Later and The Descent.

I hate comedies, though really enjoyed Tropic Thunder. Should I mention Black Dynamite...hmmm. I'll leave you guys to fill in this catagory, as I will with romantic comedies.

I know you're all gonna list Lord of the Rings as well, but this decade was the end of my appreciation for Peter Jackson's talents.

So guys, time to put on your thinking caps. I've got to be missing dozens of films since I don't go out to the theatre so much, and my netflixs cue is just filled with Dr. Who episodes (did I actually say that outloud?)

Can we actually make a list? Top 25 films? Let the heated debates commence!

[rancor]

Just throwing some out there to jog some memories, but some of my favorites included:

The Royal Tenenbaums
Memento
Amelie
O Brother Where Art Thou
Donnie Darko


Anyhow - five that you may not have considered as they were from early on in the decade.

[CMoon]

I completely forgot the Cohen brothers. I know they are both recent, but No Country for Old Men and True Grit at least should be considered.

Yes, Momento, I heard that's Skykid's favorite movie.

[Jon]

Some favorites of mine:

Pans Labyrinth
Spirited Away
Moon
Ratatouille
Amelie
Kill Bill
There Will Be Blood
Children Of Men
City Of God
Up
O Brother Where Art Thou
LOTR Trilogy (sorry CMoon )

[CMoon]

Pans Labyrinth

Speaking of del Toro, Devil's Backbone is 2001, so I'm nominating it!

LOTR Trilogy (sorry CMoon )

Actually, I think Fellowship is (at least with editing) a really good film. I made the mistake of watching the puffy versions in sequence and it is just too much. If anything these films need to be much shorter. I feel like the 11 hour or so length brings out all the weaknesses of the director(s)/cinematographers and even the actors. What is great the first couple times becomes appalling by the 20th time. There's no question this trilogy deserves discussion; it is certainly one of the most significant cinematic events of this past decade. We can't pretend like it didn't happen.

[Skykid]

Hmmm...

Hard list to make.

Kekexili Mountain Patrol
The Lives of Others
Lost in Translation
No Country for Old Men
City of Life and Death
Let the Right One In
Gladiator (this is 2000, does that count?)
The Hurt Locker
Rush Hour 2
Kung Fu Hustle
Pan's Labyrinth
Children of Men (yeah, it's a bit weak, but the visual design gave me wood.)
2046
Monster's Inc
Finding Nemo
Infernal Affairs
Tokyo Godfathers
There Will be Blood
Sympathy for Mr Vengeance
Dumplings
Old Boy
Rambo
Moon
City of God
Shaolin Soccer

[Jon]

I made the mistake of watching the puffy versions in sequence and it is just too much.

Even though he was nothing like the figure I imagined while reading the book, the Mouth of Sauron in the extended version of The Return of the King was pretty cool and definitely worth seeing at least once.

[Specineff]

Lost in Translation

Oh, God, yes. That movie was so Un-Hollywood it deserves to be in the list. Good call.

[cools]

Requiem For A Dream kthx.

[xris]

Preliminary list from me in no peticular order.
Love 'em or hate 'em, this is what I liked.. I'm also a very visual person..

Shaun of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Suicide Circle
Trick 'R Treat
Repo the Genetic Opera
City of God
Superbad
Sin City
Hellboy 2: the Golden Army
District 9
No Country For Old Men
Children of Men
The Dark Knight
Serenity
The Killing Room
Battle Royale
Lost in Translation
Splinter
The Devils Rejects
The Chronicles of Riddick
Wall E
Hard Candy
Watchmen
Chocolate
Sex Drive

Yup, all academy award winners there.. I just threw this list together quickly, but these are some of the movies that stand out to me. I'm sure there are quite a few dramas that I am over looking. I'll be back with a better list of movies that were actually good, not just tickle my nerd bone.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Phew, I'd have a hard time recalling 25 films made in the last decade I have WATCHED, let alone liked. So I liked Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, which - dare I say it - filled Star Wars' shoes. I'm just glad for all those kids who watched it, just the way I watched the legendary Star Wars trilogy back in the day. I liked that Dog Soldiers flick, but it was nothing special, just good, low profile action film. I also liked Polish film Krew z nosa (Nosebleed). Angelus wasn't awful too (spine-shivering, apocalyptic way). That's about it I guess, as far as live action feature films go. Amélie was a disappointment after Jeunet & Caro trilogy: Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children, Alien Resurrection. Not bad film by any stretch of imagination, but disappointment nonetheless.

Miyazaki's output for this decade did not feel as strong (jesus, the guy is single-handedly keeping 2D animation alive), though Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo are still all very good films (I think most would argue that Castle is the weakest).

Meh, 2D animation doesn't boil down to big budget feature films. As I stated elsewhere on these forums, 2001-2006 years were the best for TV anime in my book (thanks to the BONES output among other things, although their theatrical films sucked big time): Eureka seveN, Kino no Tabi, Windy Tales, Sunabouzu, Last Exile, Scrapped Princess, Planetes... Even if you exclude Japanese animated TV shows and OAVs, have you been keeping up with artsy animation of all sorts close enough to make grand statements about Miyazaki keeping single-handedly 2D animation alive?
Oh yes, GitS2: Innocence was rather good. The last top-notch thing by Production I.G I've seen (personally I liked Windy Tales better, but does my humble opinion matter while Miyazaki "is single-handedly keeping 2D animation alive"?). As for Miyazaki, Doubutsu Takarajima remains my favourite film he was involved with.

[ratlhead]

Hmm, good topic. Here are some of my picks, in no peticular order...

A History of Violence
Eastern Promises
Batman Begins
The Fountain
Changeling
Inception
The Prestige
Kader
Vicdan
House of Sand and Fog
Sylvia
Man on Fire
Collateral
In The Valley of Elah
Into The Wild
The Sky Crawlers
Howl's Moving Castle
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
The Final Cut
The Departed
There Will Be Blood
The Return
Wall E

[xris]

It was a really bad decade for anime.. There wern't any full length movies I really wanted to include. The closest were the two Afro Samurai movies, and Dead Leaves. I have high hopes for Redline in the future.
edit: History of Violence, and The Prestige were both great movies also.

[Acid King]

Black Dynamite deserves to be there. I can't come up with 25 but...

Cabin Fever
Team America
Eastern Promises
Way of the Gun
Shaun of the Dead
City of God
Kill Bill vol. 1
Ichi the Killer
Oldboy
Wet Hot American Summer
Slither

Probably others, I'll just have to start looking through my Netflix queue and release lists.

[freddiebamboo]

The Assassination of Jesse James
Grizzly Man
There Will Be Blood
Wall-E
Mulholland Drive
The Royal Tenenbaums
Gladiator
Donnie Darko
The Lives of Others
No Country For Old Men
Cache
Ratatouille
Waltz With Bashir
Being John Malkovich
Talk To Her
LOTR
In Bruges
A History of Violence
Oldboy
Pan's Labyrinth

[CMoon]

Yes, Grizzly Man and Shaun of the Dead. I somehow forgot about both of them.

If we're accepting TV animation (why not?), I'd put the Avatar: Last Air Bender series. Why didn't they have shit like that when I was a kid?

[emphatic]

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lost In Translation
Untitled: Almost Famous Director's cut
Amélie
Big Fish (best Tim Burton movie ever)
The Dark Night
Watchmen (Director's Cut)
Gone Baby Gone
Mulholland Drive
Stranger Than Fiction
Trailer Park Boys (not as funny as the show, but really fucking funny)
Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr. is perfect)
No Country For Old Men
Inception
Team America (Fuck yeah)
Spider-Man
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
American Psycho
The Rules Of Attraction
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (both parts as it was intended)
Paycheck (I think this might be John Woo's best Hollywood film as it doesn't have a wild-eyed Nic Cage)
Shaolin Soccer (Director's Cut with the dancing)
Stardust (way better than Kick Ass)
Undercover Brother (seen it at least 40 times)
Zodiac (still need to see the director's cut)

[Super Laydock]

Though I know I can't, I'd really like to veto "No country for old men".

It is rare that I want to leave a film in the middle of the showing but here I really wanted.
Of course I didn't but later acknowledged that I should have.

Boring, long threading & predictable. I could have done so many other nice things that night.
It's really tv film stuff that for whatever reason got extremely overrated.

[jonny5]

Surprised to see all the zombie love, but no mention of 28 days later or Tokyo Zombie.

Personally I think both these films smoke Shawn of the Dead; don't get me wrong though, that was a great film.

I might try and make a list later.....you will all be shocked to find out the top 25 films of the last decade were all asian horror and zombie flicks.

[1up]

movies that come to mind that really pulled me in:
Moon
No Country For Old Men
Donnie Darko
Primer
Shaun of the Dead
Rambo, YES Rambo, this movie is balls out rip everything to shreds awesomeness. Holy shit face all the way through
Inception
The Prestige

cant recall anything in early 2000s, will have to get back on that

[Acid King]

Surprised to see all the zombie love, but no mention of 28 days later or Tokyo Zombie.

Tokyo Zombie was good, but I think 28 Days Later is a bit overrated. The first half in the city was great, the second half in the country with the military, not so great.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Rambo, YES Rambo, this movie is balls out rip everything to shreds awesomeness. Holy shit face all the way through

While I think you have made some statements I don't quite agree with in the past, at least there is no Pan's Labyrinth, Amélie and Lost in Translation on your list, so I guess I'm gonna watch Rambo pretty soon, for you see, I liked First Blood rather a lot.

[CMoon]

Surprised to see all the zombie love, but no mention of 28 days later

Why don't you read hard?

[KindGrind]

Nice, I love making top lists and I absolutely love cinema, so here we go.

While the 1990's weren't exactly amazing, my favourite movie ever came out in that decade... Three Colors: Blue.

It is true that the 2000s so far haven't been that great, but some movies do stand out of the lot. Here are some that'd make my top 15 of the last decade, in no particular order except for #1 and #2. Here we go.

1- There Will be Blood
2- Requiem for a Dream
3- Amores Perros
4- Werckmeister Harmonies
5- Dogville
6- City of God
7- Pan's Labyrinth
8- Mulholland Drive
9- Lady Vengeance
10- Amélie
11- Before Sunset
12- The White Ribbon
13- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
14- Spirited Away
15- The Royal Tenenmaums
16- The Fountain
17- Moon
19- Caché
19- Donnie Darko
20- Oldboy
21- Touching the Void
22- Once
23- The Experiment
24- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
25- Sideways

I absolutely loved these. Some would make it to my top 25 ever movies; the first four, for example. Side note, I notice only Haneke, Aronofsky and Park Chan Wook have two movies in my top 25, the rest belong to 19 different directors. More than half (13) are foreign.

Honorable mentions: Secretary (barely doesn't make it), The New World, Lost in Translation, The 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada, The Hurt Locker, An Education, LOTR trilogy, Batman Begins, Kill Bill vol.2, The Prestige, You Can Count on Me, Brick, The Fall, Grizzly Man, Y tu mamá también, Heaven, Sunshine, (500) Days of Summer, Memento.

[CMoon]

This is a preliminary survey of the Shmup's favorite movies of the last decade. For brevity I've avoided every film that only had one vote. I also (unfortunately) did not count those posts which talked a lot about various films but didn't really say whether they were nominating the film or not--sorry guys!)

Films with two votes:

Black Dynamite
District 9
Eastern Promises
Eternal Sunshine
Finding Nemo
Gladiator
Grizzly Man
Howl's Moving Castle
Monster's Inc.
Moon
O Brother Where Art Thou
Oldboy
Requiem for a dream
Team America
The Lives of Others
Watchmen

Films with three votes:

Donnie Darko
History of Violence
Kill Bill
Lord of the Rings
Mullholland Drive
Ratatouille
Royal Tenenbaums
Spirited Away
The Prestige
Wall E

Films with four votes:

Amelie
Children of Men
City of God
Dark Knight
Lost in Translation
Pan's Labyrinth
Shaun of the Dead

Films with five votes:

Inception
There will be Blood

The only film with six votes:

No Country for Old Men

Probably not even slightly useful, but look what boredom and excel open in a second window can do!

[Skykid]

collated votes

Don't bother doing this yet, I keep thinking of new things to update my list. I think some might fall off the bottom.

[CMoon]

I know its too early. I just wanted people to see where it was going. I agree, there's gotta be some amazing shit from the early 2000's I've totally forgotten about. Why can I only remember the dumb shit like Star Wars???

[xris]

Mo' movies! You know, just to help jog everybodies memory, and stuff I like/surpized hasn't been mentioned.
Last Samurai
A Scanner Darkly
Lock Stock and Two Smokin' Barrels
Snatch
The Hunted
Event Horizon
Training Day
Street Thief
King of Kong
Orgasmo
The Other Guys
Taken
Gangs of New York
Shutter Island
Machine Girl
Inglorious Basterds
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek
Scott Pilgrim (added with edit, per post after mine!)

I'm sure I'll have more.. Now, random comments.. Tokyo Zombie kinda sucked, I'd go with something more like X Cross or Uzumaki as far as Japanese stuff went this decade, there were better zombie movies from them, Bio Zombie, Junk, Stacy.. I thought Ichi the Killer was older, the first time I saw that was in the theater actually. More zombie flicks, yes I would agree! Just didn't want to fill up a list with them; Resident Evil; Degeneration (can't wait for the sequel!), Dance of the Dead, Zombie Land, Slither, Flight of the Living Dead, Land of the dead, Diary of the Dead, Planet Terror.
28 Days Later sucks!
edit #2 For an honorable mention in the animated tv catagory I only have one vote Invader Zim!

[dunpeal2064]

Requiem for a Dream and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind both get my vote.

I really liked Scott Pilgrim too, but that could just be me. Don't know how well it was received generally

[Rob]

I don't follow movies as much as I do music and games, so I'll just throw out a few that haven't been mentioned yet:

The Man Who Wasn't There -- one of the Coen's best.
Memories of Murder
Mysterious Skin -- slightly prefer the less serious Araki movies, but this is his most acclaimed.
The Wrestler