Earlier this year, some friends and I were in China. Right around the time, the Chinese government banned the Dark Knight from being distributed there (likely because of the HK accountant/villain.)
My group was literally coming off the Great Wall of China and waiting for our pickup when I said that this banning was a shame, as I thought they would be missing the best film of the decade.
My group, apparently still drunk from seeing TRUE greatness at the Wall, immediately challenged my statement. Yet no one could come up with a lot of significantly greater films to challenge DK (which everyone DID enjoy greatly).
So two questions of this thread: what are your top five or ten films of this decade (it ends soon!) and was this a weak decade for films?
The Dark Knight (Obviously. I think I’ll remember Heath’s Joker for a very long time)
Probably was a weak decade, because either my memory is crap, or there really haven’t been many memorable films - because I’m struggling to think of 2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10. Were the LotR films made in this decade? If so, I include them. at 2.
This decade has been more memorable for TV than for films.
ETA:Looking at your list middelman. I liked all those films , but for me 3-10 weren’t in the same league as LotR and DK. … Not even BB (Batman Begins)
Well, looking at the wide disparity of opinion in the thread I posted, any poll, no matter how large, is still going to come up dramatically short for a lot of people.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
City of God (2002)
The Pianist (2002)
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Children of Men (2006)
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Counterfeiters (2007)
WALL·E (2008)
The Wrestler (2008)
Honorable Mention
Spirited Away (2002)
Mystic River (2003)
Garden State (2004)
Off the top of my head and in no particular order:
Mulholland Dr.
City of God
Garden State
The Squid and the Whale
Requiem for a Dream
High Fidelity
Almost Famous
Amores Perros
Sin City
The Hangover
Wall-E
Gangs of New York
O Brother Where Art Thou
Crash
That’s what comes to mind at the moment. I’m sure there’s lots more that will come to me two seconds after I post this.
The Station Agent
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
No Country for Old Men
O Brother Where Art Thou
Brokeback Mountain
Mystic River
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
28 Days Later
High Fidelity
Into the Wild
Adaptation
Children of Men
Children of God
Elite Squad (same director as Children of God)
Let the Right One In
The Wrestler
Lilija-4-ever
In Bruges
Requiem for a Dream
Wall-E
Million Dollar Baby
Dogville
Memento
The Lives of Others
Serenity
There are only two movies on this list that aren’t depressing. Oh well.
I don’t know, compared to the list you could come up with for the '60s, '70s, or '80s this seems like an extraordinarily weak decade for movies, even though a lot of these nominees are interesting, above-average films. But if the likes of Gladiator (which was better in 1964 when it was called Fall of the Roman Empire), or The Squid and the Whale, or Apocalypto are among the best…
City of God; Amores Perros… those I can see. Maybe something like Memento or Irreversible - the ones that stretch the grammar of film… but I have a hard time accepting a lot of these others as the best of any decade. Hate to be a curmudgeon but I bet some others feel the same.
