The 2000s didn’t just usher in a new millennium. It ushered in a whole new series and style of filmmaking, as well as bring a few old genres back to prominence. The decade began with two Russell Crowe movies winning Best Picture, Denzel Washington winning a Best Actor award in 2001 and both of those actors getting together for American Gangster in 2007. The Matrix concluded its story in 2002 and 2003, and little did we know it then, but in 2005, George Lucas gave us the last Star Wars movie he would ever work on with Revenge Of The Sith.
Westerns had a bit of a resurgence with films like The Missing and No Country For Old Men. Uma Thurman and Quentin Tarantino introduces to the Bride, and Vin Diesel showed the world that diving cars really fast in and around anything and everything is as exhilarating as The Fast And The Furious films are ridiculous (but they’re all fun). Throughout the decade, little by little, more and more superhero films came out of the pipe. But in 2008 two things happened - a crime saga about Gotham City and the introduction of the MCU captivated filmgoers. Here are Top 10 Movies Of The 2000s According To IMDB.
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004) - 8.3
By 2004, moviegoers were very aware of the dramatic genius of Kate Winslet. Jim Carrey, too, only in a comedic way. When the two paired for the unconventional love story, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, it was equally unconventional. They play a couple who choose to have elective memory erasure surgery after their relationship tanked. Most of the movie features the two of them running from old memories, before they become fleeting.
Spirited Away (2001) - 8.5
Hayao Miyazaki has been churning top-notch anime films for years. His 2001 effort, Spirited Away stands the test of time as one of the best of the decade. Pixar’s John Lasseter, a fiend of Miyazaki’s convinced the Mouse House to purchase the American distribution rights (of course he did!).
The films about a girl trying to save her parents, turned into pigs by a witch, while traversing the spirit world. That’s all you need to know, anything else spoils a lot of the story.
The Pianist (2002) - 8.5
The story of Holocaust survivor, Wladyslaw Szpilman, a pianist and composer is like many survival stories, very uplifting. Adrien Brody won an Academy Award for playing Szpilman, a Jew constantly on the run for his freedom in World War II Germany. First, after aid doesn’t come and he and his family have to try and flee Warsaw, then one of the extermination camps. He was saved at one point by a German officer who would rather hear him play a song than arrest him.
Memento (2000) - 8.4
Having retrograde amnes...um...having retrogr...um...hav...that’s what life is like for one Leonard Shelby in Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Guy Pierce rocks as Shelby, a man on the hunt for the murderer of his wife and who left him with a massive head wound, causing the amnesia. He just has to remember all of the facts, which he does with an intricate series of tattoos, notes, and Polaroids.
The Departed (2006) - 8.5
For a few months, The Departed has everyone walking around using their best Boston accent. In the film that finally netted Martin Scorsese a much overdue Oscar, The Departed features as all-star cast. Matt Damon is a detective on the take for Mob boss, Frank Costello. Leonardo DiCaprio is detective undercover in Costello’s Mob. They’re both trying to find out who the rat is before it’s too late. Meanwhile Jack Nicholson is having way too much fun playing Costello, who despite being the vile big bad wolf is actually the only honest guy of the trio.
Gladiator (2000) - 8.5
Russell Crowe delivers one of the most dynamic performances you’ll ever witness as a Roman general who tries to flee in the middle of coup. Instead, his wife and son are slain, and he finds himself a slave, fighting in the competitions across the Roman Empire.
All roads lead back to the Roman Coliseum in Gladiator. Once he’s there, Maximus reveals himself to Emperor Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius; who Commodus murdered on his way to the throne.
The Prestige (2006) - 8.5
Christopher Nolan has several of the best films on this list. He was on fire during the decade. Before, after, and during the making of The Dark Knight Trilogy, he was churning out films like The Prestige. Hugh Jackman (Angier) and Christian Bale (Borden) play dueling magicians whose rivalry turns deeply personal when Angier’s wife and assistant drowns during a trick. Magic and mayhem during the end of the 19th century - there’s really not much more you could ask for.
City Of God (2002) - 8.6
From Brazil the acclaimed crime drama, City Of God tells the story of what it’s like to grow up in the favelas. One kid, Rocket wants to become a photographer, and his friend Lil Ze wants to become a kingpin. Their story is told across the backdrop of the very real problem of crime rising in Brazil throughout the sixties all the to the eighties.
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003) - 8.8
Peter Jackson and his team spent nearly half a decade painstakingly bringing JRR Tolkien’s epic tome of fantasy to the big screen. The saga was the biggest novel of the twentieth century and the film trilogy instantly became three of the biggest films of the new millennium.
Frodo and the rest of the Fellowship do all they can to stop the return of the ultimate evil to Middle-Earth. But it will cost all of them dearly over the course of their journey.
The Dark Knight (2008) - 9.0
The Dark Knight isn’t just a great superhero movie, it’s an epic crime saga about Gotham City, it’s saviors, and criminals - they just happen to have costumes. The terror escalates right from the very start of the movie as the Joker and his crew rob a bank. The entire movie is all about escalation. The escalation of the Batman in Gotham, the escalation of the criminal element, and the escalation of hope as t heads right to Hell.