Best of the Decade From Around the Web

Best of the Decade from Around the Horn

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (37)

Now that you’ve all had plenty of opportunity now to bitch, bellyache, moan, complain and, in some cases, file criminal charges against our best films of the decade list, we’ll now give a chance to compare and either refile your complaints/criminal charges or at least temper your anger in light of the other Ten Best of the Decade.

Let’s start with ours, to refresh your memories:

10. The Royal Tenenbaums
9. Memento
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
7. Brokeback Mountain
6. No Country For Old Men
5. Shaun of the Dead
4. There Will Be Blood
3. The Dark Knight
2. Children of Men
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Here is iMDB’s Ten Best of the Decade, which is generated by user votes:

10. The Departed
9. Amelie
8. Wall*E
7. The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers
6. Memento
5. Avatar
4. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring
3. City of God
2. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
1.The Dark Knight

No shortage of LoTR love in that list. And Avatar is based only on 70,000 votes and will likely fall in a few months, but still … Avatar?

Flickchart is also a user-generated top ten list, and it’s similarly geek-heavy:

10. Wall-E
9. Memento
8. No Country for Old Men
7. The Departed
6. Kill Bill, Vol. 1
5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. Batman Begins
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
1. The Dark Knight

Metacritic’s Top Ten was also based on user reviews. Here are their best reviewed (wide releases) of the decade:

1. Pan’s Labyrinth
2. Ratatouille
3. Spirited Away
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
5. Sideways
6. WALL-E
7. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
8. There Will Be Blood
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
10. The Queen

Here’s Rotten Tomatoes, which are based on Tomatometer critic reviews:

1. Man On Wire
2. Up
3. The Wrestler
4. Finding Nemo
5. The Hurt Locker
6. Let the Right One In
7. Spellbound
8. Chicken Run
9. Murderball
10. The Fog of War

Here’s the AV Club’s, which I really like:

10. Children of Men
9. The New World
8. Capturing the Friedman’s
7. Kill Bill Vol. 1
6. Spirited Away
5. Memento
4. No Country for Old Men
3. There Will Be Blood
2. 25th Hour
1 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

And finally, here’s EW’s Owen Gleiberman’s, which I really don’t like:

10. Casino Royale
9. Lilya-4-Ever
8. Munich
7. Requiem for a Dream
6. Moulin Rouge!
5. Chuck and Buck
4. Gladiator
3. The Century of the Self
2. Sideways
1. Far from Heaven

I’ll leave it to you folks to make some sweeping generalities about all of these lists.

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Comments

IT'S ALL SHIT

How's that?

Posted by: Ian at December 28, 2009 10:05 AM

This is the suckiest bunch of sucks that ever sucked.

Posted by: Skewicide Blonde at December 28, 2009 10:11 AM

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA love how those idiots at IMDB fell for the Avatar hype. Wondering how Sideways slipped on the Metacritic list though. There's an overrated piece if I ever saw one, I'd forgotten it existed (not that it was bad, just don't think it has any business being on such a list).

Posted by: BarbadoSlim at December 28, 2009 10:12 AM

I like the Metacritics one although I'm not sure how The Queen made it in there. It was a decent film but that's about it. Pan's Labyrinth and Spirited Away were truly amazing movies. No one gave any love to The Family Friend though. Pity.

What I disagree with in these lists is giving Lord of the Rings seperate entries. I know they are technically three films but it would make sense to list them as one. At one point they were released as a trilogy at the cinema. I should know. I spent about ten hours at the cinema. They should be listed as one entry leaving space for others.

Posted by: barf at December 28, 2009 10:15 AM

You could take every list, kick out the duplicate entries and be very much entertained for a very long time.
It's all so subjective. What it comes down to is that every site, every critic is going to have a different take on the ten best and it is to our benefit to weigh all of them into our decisions as what we will watch.
Pajiba's list is no less valid than imdb's or more accurate than EW's. They're all good to great movies that can be enjoyed by most anyone who loves movies.

Posted by: Spender at December 28, 2009 10:15 AM

Sideways?

Now I need to pop a bottle of good wine, thankyouverymuch..

And I don't even like wine!

Posted by: Magiel at December 28, 2009 10:17 AM

The AV Club pretty much nailed it on the head, but I still contend that Pajiba knocked it out of the park.

Posted by: Jeremy Feist at December 28, 2009 10:21 AM

I would've liked to see Amelie in more lists. That story never fails to move me.

Also, no Slumdog?

Posted by: Bizarro Sofía at December 28, 2009 10:37 AM

oh yeah, there were definitely two up there that previously just slipped my mind, but I would add to my top ten list: Amelie and Murderball.

Posted by: ami at December 28, 2009 10:38 AM

I got frustrated enough with these lists, Pajiba and beyond, to go back on my blogging word and post my own Top 10 of the Decade, which is just as shitty, pretentious, and self-stroking as every other list out there, only with more showtunes and foreign people.

I'm closest to Metacritic in that they picked two of the same films as me: The Queen and There Will Be Blood (love them both very much). For general style, I appreciate AV Club's list. And for reminding me of documentaries I loved, I also enjoy Rotten Tomatoes list (Murderball? Fog of War? Spellbound? Man on Wire? How did I forget to include one of them on my list?). I also instantly disregard any list claiming The Dark Knight or Eternal Sunshine... is the best film of the decade. Or lists containing Gladiator.

Posted by: Robert at December 28, 2009 10:39 AM

A just liked the Top List of Clint from Moviehole.

He made a top 50.

Posted by: Magiel at December 28, 2009 10:42 AM

Well, look at that: "Murderball" and "Spellbound" and "Man on Wire" and "Capturing the Friedmans," while we have no docs on any list, and haven't even done a Best Docs of the Aughts list, unless I missed it, and I don't think I did.

Posted by: , at December 28, 2009 10:54 AM

Spender,
You goddamned sonofabitch. Don't you go validating Owen "That EW Bastard" Gleiberman around here. Next thing you know, Michael Bay will be able to pee standing up, Rainbow Killer won't reek of unfiltered Camels and soul-crippling insecurity, and Dustin won't sleep naked in an old Ab Chair Deluxe he bought on Ebay from "RR4Realz" who claimed his new "big-tittied wife" loved his "blasted-to-shit abs" attained by a 45 minute per day workout "only rocking the jockstrap."

Posted by: Kballs at December 28, 2009 10:54 AM

STILL can't believe none of you/these knuckleheads put Oldboy on their list(s). I'm hoping it was down to simple forgetfulness rather than you genuinely thinking the aforementioned were actually better.

Someone give me a GOOD argument as to why it shouldn't be included...(and it contained one of the top five performances of the decade from Choi Min Sik. Fact.)

Posted by: boogs at December 28, 2009 11:06 AM

Nerve.com has a pretty decent top 20 list (Link) with a lot of overlap with the Pajiba list:

20. WALL-E (2008)
19. The Departed (2006)
18. 24 Hour Party People (2002)
17. The Queen (2006)
16. I’m Not There (2007)
15. Y Tu Mama Tambien (2002)
14. Spirited Away (2002)
13. The New World (2005)
12. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
11. Children of Men (2006)
10. Almost Famous (2000)
9. Lost In Translation (2003)
8. No Country For Old Men (2007)
7. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
6. Sideways (2004)
5. O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
4. Mulholland Drive (2001)
3. Ghost World (2001)
2. There Will Be Blood (2007)
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Posted by: Yossarian at December 28, 2009 11:18 AM

Pan's Labyrinth was my #1, so cheers to the Metacritic list.

Posted by: sansho1 at December 28, 2009 11:27 AM

Also, if you still want more Best of the Aughts circle jerking, Slate.com has created "The Aught-omatic" (Link) which compiles several 'best of the decade' lists from various sources. You can search by highest average rating, what appears on the most lists, or various other criteria.

It's interesting to see the films that received a consensus of high ratings (obvious ones like Eternal Sunshine, No Country For Old Men, There Will be Blood as well as surprises like Before Sunset or Yi Yi) and to look for stragglers at the end that only made one or two lists (Waking Life, Junebug, Pirates of the Caribbean, Russian Ark)

Posted by: Yossarian at December 28, 2009 11:29 AM

As for previous decades (from a list I made years ago):

pre-1930 -- Metropolis
1930s -- Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
1940s -- Casablanca
1950s -- On The Waterfront
1960s -- Dr. Strangelove
1970s -- The Godfather, Part II
1980s -- Manon of the Spring
1990s -- Magnolia

There you go, in answer to a question not asked....

Posted by: sansho1 at December 28, 2009 11:35 AM

I take it no one saw Hunger.

Posted by: TSF at December 28, 2009 11:59 AM

Look, I loved The Departed, but a "best of the decade" contender it is not.

Posted by: Melody at December 28, 2009 11:59 AM

Owen Gleiberman is a clown!

Posted by: jaf at December 28, 2009 12:15 PM

Seriously. Oldboy. C'mon, now.

Posted by: boogs at December 28, 2009 12:30 PM

What the hell is "Lilya-4-ever"? I mean, EW sucks ass but that is an odd list.

The moral I think we can take from this is, Your Favorite Movie Sucks.

Posted by: TylerDFC at December 28, 2009 12:38 PM

Lists, shmists, boogs, can't we just be happy that the OldBoy remake was killed?

Posted by: branded at December 28, 2009 12:45 PM

Shhh, branded. It's like Candyman - if you say it too many times, it comes back to life. Let us speak no more of the Sholdshmoy shreshmake.

Posted by: TK at December 28, 2009 12:48 PM

Oldboy was completely and utterly predictable. Fact. I knew within 5 minutes pretty much exactly what was going to happen for the rest of the movie.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverpuppet at December 28, 2009 12:51 PM

Ha Ha Ha, Beav. That's a funny joke.

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at December 28, 2009 1:11 PM

You cannot honestly tell me that within 6 seconds of Mi-do appearing, you did not know EXACTLY what was going to happen there.

Posted by: Anna von Beaverpuppet at December 28, 2009 1:22 PM

At least people have heard of Oldboy by now. I'm still carrying the banner (opening the gates and seizing the day) for Noriko's Dinner Table. Much more disturbing and inexplicable with none of the fishy aftertaste.

Posted by: Robert at December 28, 2009 1:23 PM

That header picture just reminds me of how much I love Pan's Labyrinth. I could easily place it at number one.

Posted by: Cindy at December 28, 2009 2:27 PM

Slapdash lists deserve sweeping generalities: Both parties invest a similar amount of time with the final product.

Sweeping like a Roland Emmerich film.

Posted by: Recondite at December 28, 2009 2:37 PM

Come on, people, where's the love for The Lives of Others???

Posted by: Ray Ray at December 28, 2009 10:32 PM

The best movie of the decade for me would be the one I've watched the most and that has to be Stardust hands down. Fuck all the specialist critics.

Posted by: Candy at December 28, 2009 11:41 PM

I'm amazed by the amount of Pan's Labyrinth shoutouts popping up all over the show.. Not that it's a bad film, overall.. but I really couldn't buy into the fantasy scenes. You know how in some movies dream sequences totally suck you in? And you go with the flow? I couldn't do that with Pan's.. every time it got fantastic I was just waiting for her to snap out of it. Very frustrating.. The realistic scenes with Cpt Vidal were much more interesting.
And I'm a sucker for pretty movies. The Fall anyone? There's a winner. Actually I've just realised that those films have a quite lot in common.. and yet, The Fall is one of my favourites ever, but I'll probably never revisit Pan's again.
Odd.

Posted by: The Only New Zealander at December 29, 2009 10:03 AM

Good call, The Only New Zealander...The Fall was the tits. I would even go so far as to say that the trailer for The Fall was the best trailer of the decade.

Posted by: boogs at December 29, 2009 12:08 PM

Lilya-4-Ever is a Russian movie about a girl in Moscow who is basically completely abandoned by her parents and everyone else at 16 and what she has to do to survive completely on her own. It's filmed in this really gritty way and uses a lot of dream-like imagery. I will warn you that it's good in that oh-my-God-that-movie-was-great-but-I-never-want-to-see-it-again way. It's pretty brutal, honestly, in many of the ways Requiem for a Dream is. Quite a bit of drug use and sexual assault.

I liked it, but I don't know if I'd put it in the top 10 for the decade. That feels like a snotty "look how well versed in obscure foreign films I am and you aren't" pick.

Posted by: lumenatrix at December 29, 2009 3:08 PM

Why can't the lists be ordered the same freaking way?
All I want to do is have the numbers be 10-1 or 1-10 but not both in the same post!

Posted by: Arib at December 31, 2009 7:23 AM

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Best of the Decade from Around the Horn

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