G-S-T Top 10 – Best Films of the Decade (Round 2)

Hey All, this is the last minute contribution from Rob, your friendly neighborhood foreign correspondent chiming in with my thoughts from downtown Yokohama, Japan.

In the end, the 2000’s may be most notable for two things, “comic book movies” and “re-movies“.  We’ve definitely run the gamut of superheroes and gone from the A tier hero’s, the D tier wannabe’s in comic book movies and with Re-movies being the remakes/reboots/rehashes of more things than should be legally done in the space of 10 years.  With that said, mine is going to be a rather predictable list, but stopping to think of what I liked over the last ten years (and there are some hard hard choices), I realize that my favorite movies end up leaning towards action rather than anything involving anything more than minimum to moderate thinking.  But you like what you like, right?

Having gotten used to a 14 hour flight every time I go back and forth between the states and Japan, I thought of the movies I would want to make it the perfect flight.  No, I can’t sleep on planes, and if I had these movies I certainly wouldn’t have to worry about it.  Without further ado.

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1.     The Dark Knight (2008) – While Batman Begins may have rebooted the Bat, the Dark Knight portrayed perfectly the story and concepts of the Dark Knight that we’ve all grown up with, without going overboard on the “comic book” front.  An obviously wonderful performance by Heath Ledger helps, and perhaps has closed the door on future potential Joker actors.

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2.     Star Trek (2009) – This is the epitome of a reboot done the right way.  There is simply nothing else that can be said.  A feel good story that captures the essence of Star Trek, while updating it for the 2000’s, and allowing the franchise to boldly go where no one has gone before.

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3.     Transformers (2007) – Pure candy to those who grew up with the show in the 80’s.  This is a movie that I have actually watched over and over on an international flight.  Not much to think about, but Optimus Prime still gives me shivers of boyish joy when giving his orders to “Roll Out”

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4.     WALL·E (2008) – While I know a lot of people would go for Up as the choice Pixar movie of the decade, I found Wall-E to be much better in story, and conveying to us how lonely robot’s really get, without having to rely on young kids and talking dogs as plot devices.

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5.     Snatch. (2000) – A shout out to Guy Ritchie here, and my former roommate Marc as well for getting me into Brit films.  The influence of both of them land this British style dramatic comedy on my list.

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6.     Casino Royale (2006) – There was a lot of doubt going in to see Daniel Craig as the venerable James 007 Bond, but those doubts were laid to rest by an awesome performance.  Going with more realism this time around with the gadgetry help portray Bond as less of a superman agent and more of a real person.

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7.     Iron Man (2008) – I went into this thinking, great, yet another comic book movie and came out a die hard Robert Downey Jr. fan.  Downey nailed the role, and went on to prove that comic book movies can rock when done right.

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8.     Slumdog Millionaire (2008) – An enthralling story with superb cinematography and a catchy bollywood dance song, what can go wrong.  A movie that goes to show that there is more to movies than Hollywood.

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9.     Casshern (2004) – A Japanese movie that brings the Hollywood style to an old animated series.  Very stylish, with an interesting message that somewhat gets lost in the visuals, but that’s forgiven due to the fact that Casshern kicks ass.  Pick up the Japanese version as it’s a rare release with English subtitles, and the US release has 24(!) minutes cut.

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10.  Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) – While others would perhaps go with Spirited Away as Miyazaki’s best in the 2000’s, this one holds high for a heartwarming story, and excellent soundtrack, which stand out in my mind as one of the best Studio Ghibli movies of recent time.