My top 10 favorite movies of the 2000s

This is not a list of the 10 best films of the decade, but simply a list of my favorite films. I don’t get to see every movie that comes out (although I do see a lot) so it’s possible that in the future I may see a movie made in the 2000s and it’ll end up cracking this list. But for now, out of the thousands of movies I saw in the last decade, these are my favorites.

#10 - The Wrestler (2008)
All the other films on my list were big blockbusters (except maybe for A.I. which did well, but underperformed at the box office). The Wrestler was a small, almost criminally overlooked film that should have gotten a better response from mainstream audience. Unfortunately, wrestling will never get a fair shake and it's a shame, because Mickey Rourke's performance was tremendous. He got robbed of an Oscar (losing to Sean Penn's Harvey Milk) for no good reason other than he's a little out there.

#9 - The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese finally wins an Oscar and it was well deserved for this mob story that took it to another level. Filled with amazing performances from Leonardo Dicaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and even Mark Wahlberg, this may not be Scorsese's best film, but it was his most commercially appealing one.

#8 - Borat (2006)
Who knew that a small British TV character could be so damn funny? Out of all the movies I've ever seen in my life, this may be the most jaw droppingly funny. Sasha Baron Cohen's send-up of American morals and values completely destroyed the line between real and fake. Cohen was willing to do anything to get a laugh and it worked.

#7 - AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
Steven Spielberg's beautifully directed piece about a robot who feels all too human. The movie was originally supposed to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, but upon his death, Spielberg took over. It was one of those films that people either loved or hated, but I was entranced the whole way through. It may not be Spielberg's best film, but to me, it was his most touching.

#6 - Finding Nemo (2003)
Pixar has a way of making movies so amazing you kind of forget they're animated. Nemo was one of those films. Both sweet and extremely funny (especially Ellen DeGeneres' forgetful Dory) I don't know of anyone who doesn't love this movie. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

#5 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
I love all Harry Potter films, but Prisoner of Azkaban was by far the best of the bunch. For me, it's the best story and with Alfonso Cuaron directing, it was also the best looking. The Potter films may be the best cast films ever, and this film introduced Gary Oldman's Sirius Black into the mix as Harry's Godfather, a character who would leave a huge impression on Harry even after his passing.

#4 - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)
Probably the movie that was the most fun to watch out of all the ones I have on my list. Johnny Depp's wonderfully wacky take on Captain Jack Sparrow was eye-opening, because who knew he could be so fun? After crashing the party with Curse of the Black Pearl, Depp and company took it to another level with Dead Man's Chest. This movie has one of my two favorite film scenes of all time, where Depp, Orlando Bloom and Jack Davenport engaged in a tremendous swordfight, while Keira Knightly is battling demons of her own.

#3 - Brokeback Mountain (2005)
Quite simply, it might be the best film of the decade (even if I liked a couple of other ones a little more). Robbed of a Best Picture Oscar by Crash, Brokeback was, at its heart, a love story beyond all love stories. Heath Ledger, robbed of a Best Actor Oscar by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote, gave the performance of a lifetime (no disrespect to The Joker). And the final image of the movie, with Ledger's Ennis del Mar staring at a shirt and a postcard, with the beautiful score in the background, broke my heart and left me haunted for days.

#2 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
The entire trilogy is astounding. As a Harry Potter fan, when the Fellowship of the Ring came out, I wanted it to tank, since I didn't want another fantasy film based on a bestselling book to take anything away from my beloved Potter, but within the first few minutes, I was hooked. Return of the King was my favorite of the three films simply because you got to see Frodo finish his quest and live happily ever after.

#1 - Wall-E (2008)
For years if someone asked me what my favorite movie was, my immediate response was Braveheart. Later, I added LOTR: Return of the King to that answer. Now, Wall-E may very well top them both. This is PIxar's second film on my list and easily their best of all-time. I was mesmerized from the moment the movie started and it never let me go. For a movie that had little dialogue and featured an abandoned robot, it was the sweetest and most beautiful love story I've seen. Words can’t describe how much I love Wall-E.


And these are the 10 worst films I saw in the last decade (in no particular order):
Eye of the Beholder (2000)
The Watcher (2000)
Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 (2000)
Freddy Got Fingered (2001)
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
Dominion: A Prequel to the Exorcist (2005)
Ask the Dust (2006)
Black Christmas (2006)
Norbit (2007)
I Know Who Killed Me (2007)