2010: The best movies of the decade

Now that the reveiry is over and we are into the second week of a new decade, let’s take a moment to ponder the best films from the opening years of the new century. 

Our top 10 of the past 10 years (in no particular order):
Ratatouille
The Lord of the Rings trilogy (sure, it’s three movies, so sue me)
Brokeback Mountain
WALL-E
The Class
There Will Be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Million Dollar Baby
Shrek
Chicken Run

Animated films took an unprecedented four of the top 10 spots, which reflects that the evolution of the genre was one of the major trends of the decade. Only two of the 10 actually won a Best Picture Oscar.

There would be no peace at home if “Chicken Run” didn’t make the list, because it is the all-time favorite of one of my resident Scottish terriers, Duncan.

Aside from his noisy influence (he goes bananas at any screening of “Chicken Run”), I would have included it anyway.

The runners-up, again in no particular order:
Slumdog Millionaire
Traffic
The Departed
The Bourne Ultimatum
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Gosford Park
Mystic River
The Dark Knight
Finding Nemo
The Pianist

Let’s look at the decade in film through some other categories. (These are the kinds of lists that come in handy when you’re thinking about what movie to rent, download or buy.)

Best comedies
This is the genre that most often divides us. What is a guffaw to some is a groaner to others.  I’d put “Sideways” at the top, but I was also especially amused by  “A Mighty Wind.”

Sideways
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Knocked Up
About Schmidt
Up in the Air
The Hangover
A Mighty Wind
Juno
Little Miss Sunshine
Adventureland

The runners-up:
High Fidelity
The Royal Tenenbaums
Waitress
School of Rock
The 40-Year-Old Virgin

Best dramas
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Brokeback Mountain
The Hurt Locker
Gosford Park
The Queen
Letters From Iwo Jima
United 93
Million Dollar Baby
Traffic

The runners-up:
The Departed
The Pianist
You Can Count on Me
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Dark Knight
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero
House of Flying Daggers
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Best family movies
A tough, perhaps silly, genre to try. It depends on your family, doesn’t it?

Lassie
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Akeelah and the Bee
Spy Kids
Where the Wild Things Are

Pet peeve: Did  anyone notice how sadistic “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was? I still can’t get over what they did to that lion.

Best horror movies
Not a favorite genre. None of them scared me, but these were at least tolerable:

The Host
Drag Me to Hell
28 Weeks Later
Hellboy
The Others
Orphan  (evil kids are always scary).

Let’s stop there before we get embarrassed.

Best musicals
Were there enough to even make a list? Best of the lot  was “Chicago,” followed  by “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”  Near the top, perhaps more imaginative than “Chicago,” is “Moulin Rouge!” Included more out of desperation than enthusiasm: “Dreamgirls” and “Hairspray.” Among the more original was the little “Once,” which  even had a plot.

Best sports movies
These proved that not every sports movie had to end with a cliched big game in which the underdogs win (although, surely, most did).

Million Dollar Baby
Seabiscuit
Cinderella Man (which got a dirty deal at the box office)
The Wrestler
The Rookie
Friday Night Lights

Best Western
Precious little to choose from in the genre that once was the epitome of what America meant to the world. What happened to Westerns? Our theory: They were talked to death by television series that didn’t have budgets for cattle stampedes or Indian attacks.  Our one choice: “3:10 to Yuma,” one of the few remakes that was as good as its original. 

One of the worst snoozer Westerns : “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.”

Worst movies
Battlefield Earth
Pinocchio (2002)
The Adventures of Pluto Nash
Freddy Got Fingered
Daddy Day Camp
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
The Master of Disguise (Dana Carvey)
Deuces Wild
Tomcats
Kangaroo Jack

Most overrated
Here’s where we really get into trouble:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Amelie
City of God
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Lost in Translation

Box office champ
"The Dark Knight" took in just over $1 billion – and it also got good reviews. The fact that it wasn’t nominated for an Oscar is largely believed to be a major reason the Academy agreed to revive the 10-nomination expansion for 2009 films.
It has, however, already been eclipsed by “Avatar,” which broke the $1 billion mark in just 17 days and has pulled in an estimated $1.07 billion. Safe to say, it’ll be the box office champ for 2010, if not the next decade.
We enter a new decade with bloodshot eyes and the reassurance that, yes, there are worthwhile movies around. You just have to shop carefully.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com