You know, I don’t really feel the need to rank things but since everyone else is doing their top 10 movies of the decade, I thought I should at least enter my contrarian views into the rankings. I stuck to 10 this time, so no one can get me on breaking the rules. I had to edge out Moulin Rouge and Requiem for a Dream. I guess they came out so early in the decade, they haven’t stuck with me as much.
Fred's Decade of Faves
10. Saw – Truly a great film and with five sequels, a massive achievement for a decade of film, particularly because each sequel is above average, if not also great in its own right.
9. Grindhouse – A massively effective achievement in film that should exist in its original form.
8. Walk Hard – This is the only film I’ve watched five times as a grown-up. It’s so good I didn’t even realize it when I first saw it. It’s profound not just in spoofing the musical biopic, but in life and music in general.
7. Snakes on a Plane – However the hype failed, this movie needs to exist. High concept should be what Hollywood strives to deliver, but more importantly, carry it out, which Snakes doesn’t really get credit for doing.
6. The Notebook – This movie rips your heart out, stomps it on the ground and puts it back in. We know exactly what the film is doing to us yet we willingly allow it.
5. Jackass: Number Two – Pure creativity out of nothing but sheer imagination.
3. Spider-Man – I still love Spider-Man 3 and stand by it. It was exactly what I wanted in the resolution of the trilogy, but Spidey 1 is perfect storytelling.
2. The Dark Knight – The perfect blockbuster. This also justifies my omission of Lord of the Rings, because while I respect the achievement of that, I just don’t relate to the story of magical creatures throwing a ring into a volcano. I liked King Kong better anyway, but since Dark Knight did the blockbuster perfectly, I don’t really have to explain it.
1. About a Boy – The perfect guy movie, in disguise as a “chick flick” so everyone’s happy. It’s outrageous in Hugh Grants A-hole-ery but not so overtly that it’s vulgar. It’s as profound as it is hilarious too, with the message that sometimes just being there is more important than anything else. In a flaky world, I hope that gets through to some people.
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