Top Ten Films of the Decade

Alright, its been quite some time since i have posted anything on this movie blog of mine, and I apologize to my one reader for that! But i figure since we just leapt into the year 2011, I might as well make a list of my top ten films of the past decade. Now top lists are always extremely difficult because my opinion might change in the middle of writing this, so lets hope for the best and get on with it.

In no particular order:

"There Will Be Blood" 2007

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, Starring Daniel Day-Lewis.

The film is about greed and corruption using the oil boom of the late 1800's as the canvas. Daniel Day-Lewis puts in an Oscar winning performance as the corrupt Daniel Plainview, a greedy and sinister oil Barron.

"No Country For Old Men" 2007

Written and Directed by The Coen Bros. Starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones.

Based on the book by Cormac McCarthy. A man stumbles across a drug deal gone wrong, and a lot of money. He steals the money and is then pursued by the murderous Anton Chigurh played intensely by Javier Bardem. Tommy Lee Jones is the old and tired police officer chasing in the wake of the violence left by Chigurh. Possibly one of the most perfectly made films from Acting to the Cinematography

"The Departed"2006

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Martin Sheen, Mark Whalberg and Alec Baldwin.

DiCaprio is an undercover cop working in the Boston mob under the paranoid Jack Nicholson, Damon is the mob informant working inside the police. When Damon is ordered by the police to find the informant and the leak, in essence being sent to find himself, and DiCaprio realizes there is an informant tensions rise in one of Scorsese's best films. it doesn't hurt that this film is set in Boston.....

"Up" 2009

Directed by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson. Starring Edward Asner, Delroy Lindo and Christopher Plummer.

This Pixar animated adventure has everything an audience has come to expect from the studio: adventure, excitement, character and heart. What sets "Up" apart from the rest though is its abundance in adventure and its extra doses of character and heart. It has a way of getting down to your emotional core and tugging at your heartstrings. the boys at Pixar are geniuses.

"Memento" 2000

Directed by Christopher Nolan starring Guy Pearce, Carry Anne-Moss and Joe Pantoliano

Christopher Nolan's big debut film has Guy Pearce in his best role as Leonard Shelby, a man who has short term memory loss, and who has been tracking down the man who killed his wife. When he finds clues he tattoo's himself so as not to forget, he takes Polaroids of people to remember them. the film is one of the more original films ever made it plays out backwards over the course of two days, in a way making you feel like the tormented Leonard, always trying to remember....

"Finding Neverland" 2004

Directed by Marc Forester, Starring Johnny Depp and Cate Winslet

This emotional film about J.M Barry and the family he meets and falls in love with, all giving him the inspiration for his newest play "Peter Pan". Johnny Depp gives my favorite performance of his has the playwright Barry, he completely becomes him. The film is poetic, beautiful and tragic. Many would disagree about it being on here, but i feel it must.

"Inglorious Basterds" 2009

Directed by Quentin Tarantino starring Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Christoph Waltz, B.J. Novak and Melanie Laurent.

Tarantino rewrites WW2 with this eccentric yet brilliant film. Brad Pitt leads a team of soldiers, their mission: to kill and torture as many Nazis as possible. Christoph Waltz puts in an amazing Oscar winning performance as the evil Hans Landa. and Melanie Laurent as a young Jewish woman who has the opportunity to assassinate Hitler. All i can say is this movie is amazing.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" 2001

Directed by Peter Jackson, Starring Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortenson, Sean Bean, Sean Astin, Cate Blanchet, Ian Holm and Ian McKellen.

While the last two films focused more on the big CGI battle scenes, the first remained more about the characters and the adventure. Relying the least on CG effects we can focus more on what is happening. And the battle at the end of the film is better than any of the large scale epic ones in the following two. It belongs on the list just because of the material its comes from and because the sheer amount of time, effort and money put into the adaptation of Tolkien's novel.

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" 2004

Directed by Michel Gondry, Starring Jim Carrey, Cate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Kirsten Dunst, David Cross and Tom Wilkinson.

A trippy surreal film about a man played by Jim Carrey who discovers that his girlfriend had her memories of him erased. He decides to do the same. The majority of the film takes place inside his memories as they are being zapped and as the good ones start to go, he realizes that he doesn't want to lose them. amazing performance by Carrey.

"127 Hours" 2010

Directed by Danny Boyle starring James Franco

This might not have made it had i not seen it just two weeks ago. If it had come out five years ago there is a chance it wouldn't be on this list. But Franco's chilling performance as Aaron Ralston, the man who had to resort to cutting of his own arm while stuck in the middle of the desert near Moab, Utah is unbelievable! The whole time you know whats coming, yet he makes it intense an emotional. Danny Boyle's best film yet.

So there you have it, as of right now, those are my picks of the last decade. Honorable mentions: "The Dark Knight" "Inception" "Crazy Heart" "In Bruges" "Revolutionary Road" "Road To Perdition" "The Road" "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" "500 Days of Summer" "Blood Diamond" "Children of Men" and "Batman Begins"

some of the worst movies of the past decade: "Transformers" "Transformers 2" "Pearl Harbor" "The Island"....okay I'm just naming Michael Bay films here...so lets make it short and just say anything he directed in the past decade makes this list. then we have "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" "Spider Man 3" both the "Pirates of the Caribbean" sequels. And really there was just too many crappy movies to list anymore!

In the following decade we can look forward to "The Hobbit" "The Dark Knight Rises" and anything else Christopher Nolan does. New Scorsese films like "Hugo Cabret" and if Spielberg will finally finish "Tintin" and "War Horse" and FINALLY start working on my long anticipated "Interstellar". And we have more waves of inept, useless 3D converted films too look forward to, so enjoy and happy new years!