Top 10 Favorite Movies of the 2000s

 Top 10 Favorite Movies of the 2000s

We are continuing going through each of the different decades and sharing my 10 favorites movies of that decade. With December being such a busy month, I wasn’t able to finish it. But today here are my 10 favorite movies of the 2000s! 

10. Iron Man: This was the movie that started the MCU, and the MCU is my favorite movie franchise of all time. So I had to include this movie on the list. This movie gave us Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, and it’s one of those casting choices that it’s hard to imagine anyone else being as good as he is. It is perfect casting. Downey has great chemistry with Terrance Howard’s Rhodey that obviously only lasted in this movie. And I think the dynamic between Stark and Rhodes is at it’s best in this movie. Jon Favreau also did a great job of setting the tone for the MCU. Prior to this comic book movies had a difficult time setting the tone for that movie and were all over the place. And Favreu did it where the drama worked and it didn’t feel like mellow drama, but also mixed it with really funny humor. There is some great Iron Man action inside of this movie. So put the pieces together with the casting, the tone, and the action this is one of the great MCU and the 2000s movies. 

9. The Bourne Ultimatum: I have been re-watching all of the Bourne movies, and I should have a ranking in January. But my favorite of the bunch is the third one. And this movie does so many things so well. I love that thriller chase at the train station with the reporter in the opening of the movie. I wish that the franchise had more of those sequences, because that is my favorite sequence in any of these movies. It does a nice job of closing out the original trilogy with ending these plot threads that started in Identity and ended with this movie. I’ve heard some people on the internet say that they didn’t like the third act because it got very talky. I’ve always really enjoyed it because it was interesting, if it wasn’t interesting then I probably wouldn’t care about it. But it gave us information that we didn’t know about Jason Bourne prior to this, so I thought this movie really worked on a whole bunch of different levels. I think the action is really cool, so all in all a great movie and a great Bourne movie. 

8. Monsters Inc.: For me this is one of the most quotable and entertaining Pixar movies for me. The duo with Mike and Sulley is fantastic and one of the best duos in any movie ever. Then Boo gets introduced and get’s even better. And the villains with Randall and Mr. Waternoose are some of the most fun and interesting Pixar villains. But it takes this familiar concept of monsters under the bed and flips it on its head where the monsters are working for the electrical company, trying to power the city, pay the bills, and they are nice guys. Some of the animation in this movie is fantastic, back when it came out the way that Sully’s fur moved in the snow was jaw dropping and was something that had never really been done before. Most of the Pixar movies, I don’t really want a sequel to. Monsters Inc. is the Pixar that I want another adventure with these characters. I think the world that was built, gives them the opportunity to have a trilogy of movies. And I’m pretty excited for the Disney show coming out for that reason. So Pixar made another fantastic movie with Monsters Inc., and is one of my favorites. 

7. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: This was a movie that I talked about in my favorite casts blog post. And I stand by what I said, the cast in this movie is fantastic. Johnny Depp gives one of the most fun movie performances of all time. Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly, and Geoffery Rush are also great in this movie. And this is a movie that once Jack Sparrow shows up in the movie, the movie is just a non-stop fun adventure. There are so many of these big action scenes with two boats, that is so dynamic and fun. They build this world that you want to go and visit, where the sequels ranged in quality a good bit. I always enjoyed going back to that world, and I think it came down to this movie. I think the element that pulls everything together is the fantastic score by Hans Zimmer that is so larger than life and memorable. This is my personal favorite of the Pirates movies, by a good bit. It’s watchable, has a great cast, and a great score. This is a movie that I love. 

6. Batman Begins: The first movie in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. And for a while, this was my least favorite of the trilogy. But after re-watching it, I thought it was amazing. And I still need to watch The Dark Knight Rises, so I don’t know what will come out on the bottom. This is a movie that I think has a great cast inside of it. Christian Bale is my personal favorite Batman and I think that he just captures the character so well. He’s a great Bruce Wayne and a great Batman. Liam Nesson is a great actor so he as Ra's al Ghul is such a cool casting and character. Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine do a great job as the people that help Batman in this movie. Freeman and Caine add some nice touches of humor in the movie that I forgot about before I re-watched this movie. And this is the definitely origin story for Batman, and maybe my favorite superhero origin story movie of all time. We see the origin story take place over the course of the first act of the movie, the second act is him learning to be Batman, and the third act is where we see him take on the villain. This movie is structured very nicely. And once again, the score from Hans Zimmer for this and the entire trilogy is fantastic. 

5. Ocean’s Eleven: Actually, another movie that I talked about in my favorite cast's post. And I re-watched this movie about 2-3 weeks ago, and I never get tired of this movie. I’ve seen this movie about 5-7 times, and every time I watch it I still love it. This was the pick of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Julia Roberts career, and Matt Damon was getting to the A-list that he is now. Before that he was known for Mr. Ripley and Good Will Hunting. But besides the cast, this is a movie that is so entertaining and stylized. When we first meet Linus, the movie rewinds and in slow motion we see that he picked the pocket of the guy's wallet. Little moments like that happen in the movie. It’s also a very funny movie, where the dynamic between certain characters is great. And this is somewhat the movie that changed the trajectory for the heist genre moving forward, and heist films are compared to this movie. And so much of this movie improvised from the cast. The scene where Clooney and Pitt are waiting for the elevator in the beginning of the movie, the actors came up with that scene. So, this is a movie that I love, and had to make the list. 

4. The Departed: This movie goes back and forth with Goodfellas as my favorite Scorsese movies. Which are the only ones that I’ve seen. I love the tension of this movie. The tension keeps on building and building in the movie that once that third act hits, you are wondering what is going to happen. The cast here is just fantastic. Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Whalberg are the four stand-outs. It’s fun to see Whalberg do something different from his normally comedy thing. And Leo gives a performance that you need a world class actor to give, and Leo convinces you in this movie. Matt Damon is one of my top 3 favorite actors of all time, and he plays the villain in this movie. And of the movies I’ve seen he’s always been the hero, and never the villain. And something that I wasn’t expecting going into this movie was how great the soundtrack for this movie is. I’m a big fan of the “Shipping of to Boston” song and the fact that this song is used a couple times and it fits the tone of this movie. This was the only movie that Scorsese has one an Oscar for, and his direction I think might be a little bit better than Goodfellas. But all in all, a fantastic movie. 

3. Remember the Titans: If you haven’t seen this movie it’s based on a true story and tells the story for an all black school football team blending with an all white football team. And the problems that happen with that. This is my personal favorite sports movie of all time, that brings out all of the emotions that you want to feel in this type of movie. The movie can actually be very funny with its character moments and interactions. I watched this movie in 7th grade in my leadership class, and it had been about 2 years since I watched it, and I forgot how many jokes are in this movie. But it’s a movie that can also have some nice and heartfelt emotions going on with the characters, and the dynamics with the team learning to work together. It stars Denzel Washington as Coach Boone and he can play the strict coach and the fun coach very well. I mean it is Denzel Washington, so you know he is going to be great in this movie. You have a young Ryan Gosling and he was only in his early 20s at this point. Donald Faison is another football player. And Will Patton is the other coach inside of the movie who is very unsure of the situation with Coach Boone coming to coach the team. The movie does follow the standard sports template, but that doesn’t really bother me because I’m having so much fun with this movie. 

2. The Incredibles: Depending on the day, this is my favorite animated movie of all time. There is really a three way tie between this, The Lion King, and The LEGO Movie. But what I love about this movie is that it is an original superhero movie. You look at so many of the superhero movies these days and they are adapted from comic books. And Pixar told an original story with original characters and made it exciting, fun, and vibrant. It tells a unique story of heroes that went into hiding, not because they wanted to. But, because of society and Mr. Incredible is wanting to come back and be a hero once again. Brad Bird is great with staging action whether it is with animated or live action movies and here this is some of the best action in any animated movie ever. It’s so vibrant, dynamic, exciting, and you can see everything that is going. The fantastic score from Michael Giacchino helps pull the movie together. Plus, this movie is filled with fantastic lines like “We’ll get there when we get there!” or “when everyone’s super...no one would be”. This movie is pretty INCREDIBlE...anyone...no? Ok...I’ll show myself out. 

1. Battlefield Earth: This masterpiece starring John Travolta and Forest Whittaker, is done beautifully with great character designs and performances by the actors...just kidding, I actually haven’t seen it. But, given the terrible reviews 3% on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m hoping I never will. 

1. The Dark Knight: This masterpiece of a comic book movie is told with great direction from Christopher Nolan and great performances. Heath Ledger of course gives one of the greatest and most iconic performances in any movie ever, and it’s a shame that we never got to see more of the Joker in this universe due to untimely death of Mr. Ledger. But Christian Bale, Aaron Eckhaart, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine also do a pretty great job in this movie. But beyond that this is a movie that would still be just as amazing if it didn’t have anything to do with Batman or the DC Universe. And it was a force of chaos inside of a city with the same type of themes and plot points. And that is what makes this movie so great is that Christopher Nolan created a story that is complex and intriguing. One of the main reasons for that is the fact that Nolan took inspiration from crime films from the 80s and 90s, and not from other comic book movies. Hans Zimmer's score is fantastic and fits each tone of the scene that it plays in. So there are so many comic book movies that I love, this is easily one of the best. So it EASILY is my favorite movie of the 2000s. 

That is my 10 favorite movies of the 2000s. What are some of your favorites? In February, I will share my top 10 favorite movies of the 2010s.