My favorite (and least favorite!) movies of the decade
So I've been reading all of these lists of the so called "Best movies of the decade." I decided I'd join in, so here's my top 10 movies of the decade, followed by the top 10 worst movies of the decade. I used www.metacritic.com as a reference, but these are all my own opinion (you'll really understand that when you see my number 1 choice!)
Honorable Mention - Wall-E and Up. They never cease to amaze me with the technology and the heart they are able to put in the Pixar movies, and they're BEAUTIFUL on blu-ray.
10. High Fidelity - Now, I didn't see this movie when it first came out, as that was in 2000 and I was still in high school/not able to watch R rated movies. I love pretty much anything John Cusack related, but this movie is the tops for me as far as he goes. Jack Black is also hilarious in this as well, and it probably speaks to me the most as a music major.
9. Ocean's Eleven - I'm a big fan of con artist thrillers, and this one is no exception. I love how witty it is, and how, even though the second was a little silly, this whole trilogy was smart, fun, and kept you guessing.
8. Juno - I took my Dad and Step-mom to see this movie in the theaters, and it made my dad teary and both of them laugh like crazy. Full of heart and full of realism, it was definitely one of the best.
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - Husband and I both really love this movie. It's Jim Carrey's best role in my opinion, and Kate Winslet is one of my favorite actresses. She doesn't disappoint in this contemporary love story.
6. Sweeney Todd - Again, great actors (Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter) and a great story that my high school music teacher always raved about. I love how Tim Burton made everything so dark and still so nuanced. We watch this at least every six months, more for the organ music in the beginning than anything else I think.
5. Forgetting Sarah Marshall - I love Judd Apatow movies, and it was hard to pick just one as my favorite. A close second was Knocked Up and a close third 40 Year old Virgin. I know Apatow just produced this one, but it's so hilarious with so much heart that it's at the top for my go to comedies. Plus Jason Segal singing about vampire muppets can't be beat.
4. The Departed - My favorite genre of movies is mobster movies, and this one is amazing! I will admit, I've had a thing for Leonardo DiCaprio since Titanic, and he's just one of the brilliant pieces of this Scorese flick. I have never been to a movie where everyone seemed to hold their breath the whole way through until this one.
3. The Dark Knight - My husband is a HUGE Batman fan, and this is our all time Batman movie. We've even got posters of it in our media room! Christian Bale is incredible (although the husky Batman voice gets to me on rewatches) and Heath Ledger gives the performance of his career (sadly, of course.) I especially love that most of the stunts are actually done, instead of CGI based.
2. Kill Bill: Volume 2 - I am a die hard Quentin Tarentino fan, as most of my friends can tell you. We also have a Pulp Fiction poster in our media room, and my dad got me a framed poster signed by the entire cast for my recent birthday. I like Kill Bill: Volume 1 as well, but this movie has all the backstory and heart that the first one lacks (on purpose, I know.) Uma Thurman punching her way out of a coffin just can't be beat.
1. Love Actually - Now I know, this is purely a sentimental choice. 80% of the music from my wedding was taken from this movie, including the theme, which I walked down the aisle to. It's the movie Ryan and I watch every Christmas, and while I'm not much of a romantic comedy fan, the BEST love based movie I've ever seen. Every time I watch it I find something new that I love about it.
And now for my 5 worst movies of the decade:
5. Hostel - I'm not a huge horror fan, I lean more toward the suspense/thriller side than the torture/gory side. I watched Hostel while house-sitting, figuring that if it got too scary I'd just turn it off. It was never scary, just really, REALLY, gory with a lot of random nudity and blood. Lame.
4. Mission to Mars - I got this movie for 3$ from Walmart, I think. I usually love how awesomely bad disaster movies are, but this one we couldn't even make it through at a party where no one was paying that much attention.
3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Ryan and I went to see this in theaters...because we thought it'd be like the first one, cute, kinda funny, and with a decent story line. Instead, we sat through 3 hours of big robots running into each other. It got to the point where you couldn't tell which robot was which, making it look like big piles of trash were colliding. Not my scene.
2. Open Water - A past boyfriend and I rented this one night, thinking it looked interesting. Needless to say, we fastfowarded after about 20 minutes just to watch the people die because we were that bored by it.
1. The Happening - I've stood by M. Night Shyamalan through movies other people thought were horrible...Lady in the Water comes to mind. In this movie, he had the leads running from the WIND to get away from the "plant killers." My husband kept trying to convince me it was a B movie and therefore still good...but B movies usually have some wit, or humor, or SOMETHING other than watching people come up with inventive ways to kill themselves for 2 hours. I wanted to walk out (we also saw this in theaters) but didn't...and I'd like that 2 hours of my life back, please.
So there you have it! Thoughts? Additions/Deletions? It's been a great decade for movies and I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with in the next 10 years. We were going to see Avatar this weekend but forgot that it's the weekend before Christmas and that one million people would be at the mall, so we scrapped that idea. We are seeing Sherlock Holmes this week at some point, which I'm excited for!
Love,
Jesi
December 21, 2009 at 3:24 PM
So where is the Muppet Christmas Carol?
December 21, 2009 at 5:19 PM
It's the Top 10 movies of this decade! Muppet Christmas Carol came out in 1992. It is one of my favorites though, don't worry Mom!