Honorable Mentions and Final Thoughts

Maybe it's anticlimactic to have another post, but there were just too many movies that didn't make my list. Some that didn't even cross my mind until after I had already decided on my top 10. While I am sticking to my original decisions, these are some movies that just missed the cut.

I'd also like to thank everyone who has humored me by reading this page and dealing with its occasional snobby style. I am certainly done for a while(at least months) but if I get a non-sarcastic suggestion that I should work on this site again I will take it to heart.

Ok, here are ten runner-ups. To avoid any interpretation that this is in any order of favorites, I'll list them in alphabetical order:

Almost Famous- I expected this movie to be about how awesome it would be to follow a rock band in the 70's. And it is. I didn't expect it to show the importance of having a home to go back to. There are so many memorable scenes, such as "I am a golden god" and singing "Tiny Dancer" in the bus.

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan-Yes, "Da Ali G Show" is still superior. I also don't believe that Borat is far better than Bruno, as many critics do. But if you're making a list of the biggest movies of the decade, this is definitely one that was one of the funniest as well having one of the biggest cultural effects. Remember how long people were doing Borat impressions for? Hopefully, Sacha Baron Cohen will move on from those characters and put his talent somewhere else in this new decade.

The Departed- I remember seeing Matt Damon sending information via text message without looking at his phone and thinking "This is what a 21st century gangster movie is." And even with the legendary Jack Nicholson, as well as Mark Wahlberg's Oscar nominated performance, I was wowed the most by Leonardo DiCaprio. For me, he became an incredible actor and stopped being a pretty boy the day I saw this movie.

Kill Bill: Volume 2- Yes, I am considering this a separate movie from Kill Bill Vol. 1 even though I considered Grindhouse one movie. It doesn't matter what Tarantino intended; if you release it in theaters as two movies, it's two movies. Deal with it. This is definitely the better part of the saga with its superior dialog and plot( Vol. 1 was fun but sillier with its anime and the Crazy 88's). I made myself a "no director twice" rule for my top ten list, which prevented this and Aronofsky's The Wrestler from making this list. Actually, if I did a top 25 list and I didn't have my ridiculous rule, I'd probably also put Inglorious Basterds down. The 00's may have even been better for Tarantino than the 90's. He just can't make a movie that's less than excellent, can he?

Minority Report- When people think of Spielberg they probably don't think of Minority Report, but they probably should. This is one of the greatest sci-fi as well as suspense movies of the decade. You think that the entire movie is about one event, but around halfway through it turns it around. Many futuristic movies use the invented technology for show, but the plot of Minority Report is designed around it.

Pixar movies- Fine, call it a cop-out. I felt as though I needed to mention the greatest film studio of the last decade, but I couldn't single out any specific movie for this list. But my favorites of the decade, in order of their release, are Monsters, Inc., Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up. The first half-hour of both WALL-E and Up specifically stick out as some of the greatest storytelling I've ever seen in animation.

Sideways- A perfect example of a mature love story. All of the performances are excellent and you can't help but root for Giamatti even though his character is probably not what you might call a good person. Also, it's just a great movie about wine and wine country.

Slumdog Millionaire- I cannot recall a movie this decade that had more of a public consensus of its right to be called Best Picture of the Year than Slumdog Millionaire. It was the one that everyone got behind, because no one could make a case for anything against it. Even with its corny dance ending, Slumdog was one of those inspirational movies that swept up the world and could not be stopped.

Spiderman- I know that many people prefer Spiderman 2. And I know that X-Men and Blade came before it. But this was the movie that started the genre of the decade. Superhero movies. It was the first one that I can recall which started the obsession with having the biggest opening weekend. An entire Entourage episode(which also referenced the aforementioned Almost Famous) was about the fake James Cameron version of Aquaman "beating Spidey". And it still holds up as one of the better comic book movies out there, despite the patriotic post-911 changed ending.

There Will Be Blood- Daniel Day-Lewis's role as Daniel Plainview might be the most acclaimed performance of the decade. But P.T. Anderson's film-making skills should not be forgotten, nor should the score, the setting, or Paul Dano's performance as Eli Sunday. The "I'll drink your milkshake" line became a meme, but there are so many other memorable quotes like "I am a false prophet! God is a superstition!" and "A bastard from a basket." Its slow pace may be why it never had commercial success, but it's definitely one of the greatest movies of the decade.

#1 Requiem for a Dream

Sometimes the simple mention of a certain movie can bring immediate images to your head. However, with Requiem for a Dream, despite the many incredible things that can be experienced with the eyes, the first thing that enters my head is the music. It is so memorable that it has been used dozens of times since, such as in a trailer for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. But I don't care about how many times it's been ripped off. Just the thought of the string music that plays softly throughout the film until its eruption in the conclusion literally manages to give me goosebumps. That's how powerful this movie is.

Requiem for a Dream is about addiction. The characters all go through the physical addiction of drugs in order to attain the most basic human addictions; like love, money and fame. In that way Requiem for a Dream isn't simply an anti-drug movie, but almost an anti-aspiration movie. Not that people shouldn't go after their goals, but that they can't be delusional.

It's a very fine line to make a film with a moral that doesn't come off as preachy. Yet I think this movie attains this because the protagonists aren't bad people. Worse yet, they're scarily relatable. The movie doesn't come off as fake. It's just a man, his best friend, his girlfriend and mom all trying to make it(whatever "it" is) in Coney Island.


There really is not much that needs to be said about the plot. Not that it isn't an incredible story. Its beauty is in the fact that there's just so little to talk about. It's just like any Shakespearean tragedy. Every character wants to be powerful or loved, but their tragic flaws will stop them.

Jared Leto is Harry Goldfarb and his best friend Tyrone is played by Marlon Wayans. Harry and Tyrone are junkies who are trying to deal their way out of their addictions. The very good looking Jennifer Connelly plays Marion, who eventually has to deal her own body. All of their performances are incredible, which is something that is expected from Leto and Connelly but surprising from a Wayans brother.

Yet the most tragic character is Sara Goldfarb played by Ellen Burstyn. Burstyn's performance has got to be one of the greatest that I have ever seen from an actress. Her character's drugs of choice are diet pills. This isn't something that is given to her off the street. It's sold to her in an infomercial starring that guy who always plays the bad guy in early Adam Sandler movies. By her doctor that ignores her pleas for help when she freaks out in his office. And by her friends and a world that encourages her to destroy her mind for her body.

Sara's addiction is perhaps the most educational simply because it's legal. It is not based off of the channels that kids are told to avoid. It comes from inside the system. They should show movies like this in place of something like Thirteen in schools. But they never would.

Darren Aronofsky is a film-making god. Even if the plot of his movies, such as The Fountain, can be really convoluted, you cannot deny how masterful this man is at creating the world he is looking for. If a character is doing a drug that makes them hyper, Aronofsky recreates that sensation with fast, zoomed-in cuts, along with a perfectly timed background soundtrack. His pacing is so wonderful that you can tell how the shots in the movie change along with the characters; whether it's Sara having a hallucination or Harry and Marion being strung out. The camera, music and characters all seem to spin in the same direction.

All of these aspects lead the story to a place that may seem extreme, but is befitting for each character. It is not a spoiler to suggest that the characters never succeed in their goals. Merriam-Webster dictionary says that a requiem is a "musical composition in honor of the dead". The very title states that the characters aspirations are dead before they began. Stillborn. The dream never had a shot. And this movie is the song for its funeral.