Film of the decade (thus far)?

Driver 8

Any nominations?

Memento
Million Dollar Baby
The Departed
Brokeback Mountain
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Requiem for a Dream
Road to Perdition
Batman Begins
Finding Nemo
Zodiac
Gangs of New York (not really, just for Daniel Day Lewis' performance)
Gladiator

Conor108

Sunshine - what a movie:D

qwertplaywert

TBH none of those movies even come close to the movie of the decade[thus far ] .Batman Begins is the best on that list and while not a great movie, still a very very good one
I personally would be stuck between the likes of Serenity,Children of Men,Donnie Darko and Waitress

Driver 8

I was a little underwhelmed by Sunhine.

Serenity was great fun, Donnie Darko and Children of Men were both very strong, I've yet to see Waitress...

Karl Hungus

There's no such thing.

The beauty of film is that it's an artform, it can't be measured or calculated, because a good film can mean something different for the person who's viewing it, and it can affect people in different ways.

Driver 8

That's a very philosophical way of looking at it...

I'd like to add-

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Mystic River

Vokes

Karl Hungus wrote:

There's no such thing.

The beauty of film is that it's an artform, it can't be measured or calculated, because a good film can mean something different for the person who's viewing it, and it can affect people in different ways.

I couldn't have put it better myself. The perfect answer really.

*Thread dies*

MrJoeSoap

Eternal Sunshine and Donnie Darko are my two favourites thus far.

Driver 8

Can I save it from said death if we were to consider it instead as "Your favourite film(s) of the decade thus far?"

MooseJam

bill and ted's bogus journey

The Freeman

toss between lotr's and gladiator imo


but then again departed is so damn cool:cool:

s8n

OldBoy
Stranger than Fiction

Dont be at yourself

There's no such thing.

The beauty of film is that it's an artform, it can't be measured or calculated, because a good film can mean something different for the person who's viewing it, and it can affect people in different ways.

Surely this goes without saying. If a definitive 'best film of the decade' existed, the question would not need to be asked.

Anyway, I'd narrow my choice down to:

Pan's Labyrinth
Memento
Snatch
The Prestige
Oldboy
Gladiator
Zodiac

Very hard to choose a single movie, and even harder to know which ones will stand the test of time.

The Denouncer

Pans Labrinth
Blew me away, absolutely amazing.

sme

i would agree with mr. mod.
i think that there is a huge difference between deciding whats a great film and your favourite film.

such as Pan's Labyrinth or Million Dollar Baby, i would consider these great movies, but i wouldn't watch them every week. for a film like that i would turn to talladega nights or 40 year old virgin.

S.M.B.

Mulholland Drive would top my list easily.

Fysh

Driver 8 wrote:

Can I save it from said death if we were to consider it instead as "Your favourite film(s) of the decade thus far?"

Probably not, because that's directly in breach of the charter...If the thread actually led to discussion and dissection of why a particular film is or is not worthy of being considered that highly then yes, but since mostly you just get lists of people's favourite films, it's hardly something worth reading. (I think I saw "Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey" mentioned in the thread somewhere, which serves to show the standard of response you can expect).

Attempting a serious reply to your question, though : for me it'd have to be either Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter...and Spring or 16 Years Of Alcohol.

Spring Summer Autumn Winter and Spring probably takes it, in fact. It's a beautifully-shot film which makes fantastic use of its location (a remote lake surrounded by mountains, that is in actuality part of a nature reserve in Korea I think). The film's themes are explored without resorting to overly talky scenes - there is instead some very deft characterisation performed through physical acting, which is combined with showing how the characters explore and respond to their environment to really bring in their surroundings as a cast member.

16 Years Of Alcohol is an altogether different affair. It's no less excellently shot, with a fantastic introduction that serves as both homage and reference to A Clockwork Orange, a film whose themes and character progressions are to some extent mirrored in 16 Years Of Alcohol. The difference is that here we are presented with a character whose honesty and charm are disarmingly engaging, and which make the film's instances of bloody violence all the more shocking. It could be summed up as an exploration of the film's opening line - "Sometimes, for some people, things don't work out as you might have hoped" - but it's much more than that, and much more rewarding for it.

User45701

Karl Hungus wrote:

There's no such thing.

The beauty of film is that it's an artform, it can't be measured or calculated, because a good film can mean something different for the person who's viewing it, and it can affect people in different ways.

Ive always held a simmilar view, i would consider TV/Movies to be the most popular art form because more people are into tv than art

For me its

detailed charactors,
good dialog, great music,
inter-personal relations between charactors that increases the realism

Driver 8

Alright, I'm starting to see this forum is more Sight and Sound than Empire, more IFI than Cineworld

Which is grand, I'll bear it in mind as regards how I phrase topics like this in the future *nods*

Theboinkmaster

Anyone else think the standard of film the past decade has been utter shiite when compared to the 90s and 80s?

Not many I can say I thought were great although I loved The Incredibles

Fysh

Theboinkmaster wrote:

Anyone else think the standard of film the past decade has been utter shiite when compared to the 90s and 80s?

The area "film" encompasses so many genres, financial markets, geographical regions and releases as to make such a blanket statement meaningless.

What kind of films are you talking about? And, more importantly, what qualities are you comparing? Bear in mind that given the timespan involved it's likely that a lot of people here had completely different expectations of films in the 80's and early 90's than they do now. It's not exactly fair to say "when I was 5 I enjoyed the Goonies, but there's no kids films out these days that I enjoy as much as that"...

The Bollox

Fysh wrote:

It's not exactly fair to say "when I was 5 I enjoyed the Goonies, but there's no kids films out these days that I enjoy as much as that"...

I first watched The Goonies when I was 16 / 17 and I love it. much much more then any other childrens film I saw when I was younger

johnny_ultimate

The Bollox wrote:

I first watched The Goonies when I was 16 / 17 and I love it. much much more then any other childrens film I saw when I was younger

A valid point. I watched My Neighbour Totoro for the first time last year and it instantly became my favourite 'children's film' (of course, that genre grouping is a spectacularly vague and restrictive one). I also didn't really get the appeal of the Goonies as a young lad, but when I watched it again last year, I adored it for it's sense of scale, adventure and fun.

I suppose for me my personal film of the decade would be Eternal Sunshine, simply because I felt it advanced the artform tremendously - technically it excelled in every area, an original and effective structure, and pretty much redefined a stale and clichéd genre (the romance film). However, that's just my opinion, and everyone else is sure to have their own, and all valid.

Fysh

The Bollox wrote:

I first watched The Goonies when I was 16 / 17 and I love it. much much more then any other childrens film I saw when I was younger

Not really my point though - what I was getting at is, if you talk about movies from the 80's & 90's you'll have a lot of people who formed their initial opinions on those movies back when they first saw them, when they may have had completely different ideas on what constitutes a good film.

Unless you state what type of films you're discussing in the comparison, and the basis for what you will consider a "good" film, you run the risk of a load of people making nostalgia based claims about how much better the films were back then. Which is really no better than talking about the good old days back when young people had manners, or how the youth of today are all little bastards, or whatever.

So is anyone else going to back up why they nominated the films they did, or am I the only one in this thread who thinks that it's worth doing?

Edited to add:

No sooner to I post asking if anyone else will explain their choice of nomination than I find Johnny_ultimate's already done it. D'oh!

Wacker

Thanks a lot Fysh, up until your first post, I was happy to say that I had seen every film mentioned by people here and thus I would be able to give a really informed answer. But then you had to go and ruin it all by being ultra-alt on me. CAN'T I GET TO FEEL SMART EVEN ONCE?!?!?


Anyway, now that I've gotten that out of my system, I'm fairly sure that the LOTR trilogy will be the movies that this decade is best remembered for in twenty or so years.
My personal favourite thus far is the oft mentioned Eternal Sunshine, as it combines amazing quirkiness and some gorgeous cinematography (remember the shots of the frozen lake?) with the most realistic depiction of a relationship I have ever seen in a movie.
Regarding Boinkmaster's point, I don't think this decade has produced as many classics as the 90s thus far, but the 80s wasn't a great decade for movies, in my opinion. Sure, there are plenty of classics, but not as many as you'd expect a decade to produce.

Nolanger

Why are all the best films of the decade in English?

Karl Hungus

Nolanger wrote:

Why are all the best films of the decade in English?

Because we're all racist.

Fysh

Karl Hungus wrote:

Because we're all racist.

Damned straight! Bloody foreigners with their heathen lingo and original ideas about how to make filmic entertainment. I won't have it, I tell you, I WON'T!

Heh.

(Seriously, that joke is at least 10 times funnier coming from Karl "Prophet of Asian Cinema" Hungus than from anyone else...)

Pepe LeFrits

Karl Hungus wrote:

There's no such thing.

The beauty of film is that it's an artform, it can't be measured or calculated, because a good film can mean something different for the person who's viewing it, and it can affect people in different ways.

Damnit! I thought I could pick an argument here, but then I realised it wasn't you but someone else who was advocating the opposite on the music board recently.

Back to semi-comatose for me...

menoscemo

Hard to remember films so I checked through my imdb account vote history and the only two films this decade with a 10/10 rating are:
Memento (2000) and
Sin City (2005)

menoscemo

Nolanger wrote:

Why are all the best films of the decade in English?

Hey two of my 10/10 films are life is beautiful and bicyle thieves they just aren't this decade. I guess there haven't been any absolute classic foreing films this decade (Yet)

Driver 8

City of God
Infernal Affairs
The Lives of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Volver

all rather good non-english speaking films

mewso

Yes indeed it's an artform as Karl said yet people love discussing these things. Magazines love making lists because people love reading them, agreeing or moaning about them. See Q's list of the 10 most perfect songs ever for the most laughable recent example.
Despite this over the years the things that stand out for me are the film events as it were. Again probably different for everybody but those films where suddenly a mate is booking tickets in Savoy 1 for you and 10 others mates you haven't seen in months to go see because of it's significance. The Phantom Menace was one such event (all be it a terribly dissappointing one) but taking this into consideration seeing Lord of the Rings brought to the screen in such grand fashion in Savoy 1 will remain with me long beyond the next 10 years. Better to mention that I think than compile a list of movies.

Laserface

Sin City & Mulholland Drive...probably

stevejazzx

i'd go for as my favorites

lord of the rings
memento
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
sideways
lost in translation
anchorman
amelie..(hated the the very long enagement)
incredibles/finding nemo
kill bill 1&2
the assination of richard nixon (very underrated)
city of god
bourne movies
babel

Eamo71

Little Miss Sunshine

Spider-Man 2 the best blockbuster

missingtime

The Lives of Others.
Possibly the best (movie) experience I've had in the cinema in years. A really really excellent film.

Theboinkmaster

Eamo71 wrote:

Little Miss Sunshine

Spider-Man 2 the best blockbuster

Spidey 2 best blockbuster please tell me you're joking

It was complete pants and is easily beat by LOTR trilogy, Harry Potter films, Batman Begins, Star Wars Episode III, Gladiator etc

sme

this thread seems to have broken down into two elements:

1. people who are posting their favourite films of the past seven years and,

2. people who are discussing what makes a good film and whether such a thing can exist for the collective or just for the individual.....

probably says alot about the people posting here?

not trying to get off topic or anything/{

Dont be at yourself

1. People who are attempting to answer the question

2. People who are muddying the waters by stating the obvious - that films are personal, and the answer to the question is going to opinion, not fact.

RoyalMarine

legally blonde 2.


/gets coat.

galactus

Has to be LotR trilogy for me. Memento and one or two others have been mentioned but overall its been a very poor decade for movies, methinks.

"Best TV show of the 00s" is a different question - which shows that writers have more latitude in that medium (or more likely the producers are more willing to take risks).

Rabidlamb

The Two Towers.

youcancallmeal

Has to be This Is England for me. Its has it all. Great acting, good direction, a stunning soundtrack and to top it all off that nostalgic feeling you get if you were born in the 80's.

Requiem for a dream and Sunshine also get honorable mentions

CiDeRmAn

The Departed,
28 days later
and
Unleashed, best english language Jet Li movie, awesome stuff.

Best TV of the '00s?
Battlestar Galactica, Heroes... Maybe
But has to be Firefly, complete genius, packed more good storytelling into half a season than Startrek has done since DS9.

ryanairzer

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

legally blonde 2.


/gets coat.

Gay doggies FTW!

I suspect the film of the noughties will come out in 2009.

Bubs101

Alien Vs. Predator

,8,1

Anyone else think the standard of film the past decade has been utter shiite when compared to the 90s and 80s?

Yep, I think so!

Films like Spiderman, The Incredible Hulk, King Kong I find are utter trash. Formulaic and shallow, they get massive budgets, massive marketing and (most depressing of all) massive box office sales! A lot of energy has gone in the LoTR francise also - all that fantasy stuff just doesn't do it for me.

9/11 did terrible things for the film industry. People are afraid to say anything of importance.

A few standout films are:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Vanilla Sky
A Beautiful Mind

tuppence

Crash-Thoughtfully explored the complexities of the race debate.
Gladiator, Great blockbuster and haunting soundtrack.
Bridget Jones' Diary-Great comedy. Never liked Hugh Grant before this!

afatbollix

for me sin city.

BOHSBOHS

BATTLE ROYALE

...thats it