Movies of the Decade

It's January 2010. That means that the first decade of the 21 century just finished. So no better way to start this blog then with the best movies of the past decade







1.Inglourious Basterds (Tarantino, 2009)







This is a great movie. Its dialog is great like in any Tarantino-movie. But this one is probably also the best acted and the best looking movie of his. It is satirical of war movies, but it's main point is simply to entertain. I find it wonderful that Tarantino was not stopped by history. Movies don't need to be accurate, or realistic to be good. No movie can be completly accurate or realistic and if we want that we'd better read an encyclopedia. We just have to believe that what happens to the characters in the movie can really happen to the characters in the movie. Like Tarantino himself said about this movie:"This did not really happen, but if my characters really existed it could have happened' . For now this is enough about this movie, but someday Ill write a bigger analysis of it.



2.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)



This is also a movie which is absloutley original, though that's not very schocking considering it was written by Charlie Kaufman (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich). But unlike with Kaufman's other movies here we care for the characters too. Kate Winslet is always a great actress, but this movie has Jim Carrey's best performance. The most important thing about the movie is its structure though. I think that if this movie was told in any other way, it wouldn't be as good as it is now. Even the subplot exists just so we can believe more in the main plot.



3.Moulin Rouge (Luhrmann, 2001)

This movie has got some flaws. Its editing is a bit too frenetic and the ending is a bit cliched. But that doesn't matter much. The movie is so energetic and the use of contemporary songs in 19th cenury France is brilliant. Some great examples are the Elephant Love Medley and Roxanne's tango.

4.Collateral (Mann, 2004)

Apart from the fact that this is a well acted and very thrilling movie, it has also brilliant cinematography. Los Angeles is shot beautifully and almost becomes a character of its own.

5.Juno (Reitman, 2007)

Jason Reitman is one of the great emerging directors of the past decade and has already made better movies than his father. This movie is one of the few great romantic comedies. Diablo Cody got a lot of credit for her screenplay, but this movie probably would not have been as good without Jason Reitman and Ellen Page. Some people who criticize this movie claim that no one talks like the people here. That's true, but doesn't matter. We wouldn't need to go to movies if people there talked like everybody.




6.Match Point (Allen,2005)

Woody Allen and Quentin Tarantino are my favorite directors. This is his best movie of the past decade, though I enjoyed Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Whatever Works and Anything Else too. Match Point has a great story with some philosophic undertones.

7.Gangs of New York (Scorsese, 2002)

I am not a big fan of Martin Scorsese, though I haven't seen his classics yet. But this movie bursts with energy from the great opening scene on. It might have some flaws, but it is so ambitious that they are forgiven. Of course Daniel Day-Lewis acts brilliantly

8.High Fidelity (Frears, 2000)


9.Catch Me If You Can (Spielberg, 2002)

I don't have much to say about these two movies, except that they are both incredibly entertaining

10.Gone Baby Gone (Affleck, 2007)

This is a thriller, and a character study which at the end asks some ethical questions too. That last part is not really strong, but the rest of the movie is brilliant. Ben Affleck is not the greatest actor, ( though not as bad as some make him up to be ) but he proves with this, and of course Good Will Hunting that he can tell a great story.

Now, this weren't the only movies I liked a lot this decade. Here are others witch deserve to be mentioned in no particular order:

-Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven (great crime movie of 2001. Many of its stars would became the most important actors of the last decade)

-Ridley Scott's American Gangster : American Gangster was exactly the movie I expected it and hoped it would be.

-Quentin Tarantino's Kil Bill 1&2: Style over substance of course, but great style. Kill Bill 1 is made like a classic musical, but instead of singing the characters start fighting. Kill Bill 2 is a lot better and the final showdown between Uma Thurman and David Carradine is brilliant.

-Steven Spielberg's The Terminal: Unfortunately Tom Hanks isn't a very interesting actor any more and seems to play in movies which take as little risks as possible. This is an exception.

-Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight: It is certainly not one of the best movies ever made, but it creates great tension and the Joker is played brilliantly by Heath Ledger.

-Gore Verbinski's Pirates of the Carribean: The best trilogy of the decade. It's very entertaining and Jack Sparrow is one of the greatest characters of this decade.

-Richard Curtis' Love Actually: A surprisingly good movie. It are not a series of cliched love stories, but it is about wish fulfillment. What we see happenning in the movie could just as well happen in its characters' dreams. The best examples are when the Brittish president stands up for his country and when the horny Englishman goes to the USA to meet girls because he hopes they like his accent and that is exactly what happens to him.

-Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking: The movie satirizes both the smoking industry and its detractors.

-Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby: A simple movie with great performances and a great story.

-Woody Allen's Whatever Works and Anything Else: Anything Else was the first Woody Allen- movie I ever saw and Whatever Works is actually a very entertaining and funny movie with a great Larry David and a lot of the themes that Allen explored troughout his work.

-Judd Apatow's Knocked Up: I am not really a fan of his other movies, but this one is very funny.

-Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums: I can't really explain why I like this movie a lot. Nor can I explain why I don't like any of Anderson's other movies

-Neil Burger's The Illusionist and John Curran's The Painted Veil: Two movies with great performances by Edward Norton and good stories

-Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye Lenin! and Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Das Leben der Anderen: One movie which remembers the good times of East Germany. The other one reminds us that it wasn't so good there

Martin Mcdonagh's In Bruges: The movie is probably indebted to Tarantino, but is very good. It has got a great story, great performances,great scenes, but the ending ruins a lot.

-David Cronenberg's A History of Violence: Great thriller/character study

-George Clooney's Good Night and Good Luck: Great journalism drama which criticizes not only senator McCarthy, but also contemporary journalism and politics.

The Coens' Intelorable Cruelty and No Country for Old Men: One is funny, the other one pretty grim, but both are pretty good.

Peter Weir's Master and Commander: A movie with a lot of thrilling action that also makes some points about the clash between science and war/politics. Peter Weir is one of the most underrated directors.

Andrew Niccol's Lord of War: The movie is fun, but it's best part is one of the best opening sequences i've ever seen.

Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road: It's similar like, but better than American Beauty, mostly because its satire is more biting, while its characters are more likeable

And many more...

There are of course some movies which I didn't like and consider very overrated:

-Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy is atmiteddly very well made, but is incredibly boring

-Paul Haggis' Crash is inrcedibly simpleminded. That movie discusses racism like we did in elementary school. Apart from that it is also pretty badly made

-Marc Forster's Quantum of Solace and Finding Neverland: Quantum of Solace wanted to make James Bond more realistic. That is not what makes James Bond interesting. Casino Royale started it, but that was pretty well made. Quantum of Solace was so badly edited during, especially the fighting scenes that you couldn't see what was happenning. Finding Neverland was not only boring, it also managed to make Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet and Dustin Hoffman boring.

Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition:This didn't need to be such a bad movie. The material was interesing, but it seemed they paid more attention to the costumes and cinematography then at the story.

and more..

I hope to write more about all of these and other movies when I see them some time again.