The Best Movies of the Decade

I sat down with a reasonably comprehensive list of the decade's movies to attempt to narrow it down to a top ten. I started by trying to select three or four movies from each year that I'd have considered and about the time I hit 2006 I realised this was a pointless, impossible excersise. A decade is about the same amount of time I've been seriously watching movies. The list I ended up with was almost 50 movies long. Keep in mind that in a top ten of the decade, if one year gets two movies, another year gets none at all. I cheated a little by choosing a top ten in no order and then a seperate overall winner, which is actually three movies.

Almost Famous

Gladiator
Requiem For a Dream
Lost in Translation
Cold Mountain
A History of Violence
Sin City
Children of Men
Little Children
Hot Fuzz

The overall winner is The Lord of the Rings, which it almost seems unfair to compare any other movie to.
 
My incredibly long runner up list:
 
A Beautiful Mind
Mulholland Drive
The Royal Tenenbaums
Amelie
Snatch
8 Mile
Adaptation
Bowling for Columbine
Catch Me if You Can
The Pianist
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
Donnie Darko
Kill Bill
Master and Commander
Downfall
Munich
Million Dollar Baby
Blood Diamond
Casino Royale
The Departed
Pan's Labyrinth
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
Notes on a Scandal
There Will Be Blood
The Dark Knight
The Orphanage
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
WALL-E
The Wrestler
The Boat that Rocked
Watchmen
Inglourious Basterds 
Up in the Air

Here are my 10 favorites.
 
1. Let the right one in
2. City of god
3. Amores Perros
4. Last life in the universe
5. Yi Yi
6. Oldboy
7. Adam's apples
8. Kairo
9. Y tu mama tambien
10. A Serious man

Hot Fuzz? Really?

In no order.
 
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Little Miss Sunshine
Lost In Translation
Once
The Dark Knight
Ratatouille 
Children of Men
Spirited Away
Oldboy
The 40 year Old Virgin
 
....There are so much more.

whats the point? you listed too many fucking movies that im not gonna go through, everyone's gonna list 10-30 movies which the next person wont read, but will surely double.. just another pointless BEST OF list thread where most of us dont agree with each other and will be like "whaaaa? dat movie sucks" since humans have opinions and they naturally feel like opposing opinions are shite

28 days later is my best film of the decade. 
 
And I agree with Ahmad_Metallic, this thread is just going to descend into a flaming ball of nerd rage.

Also, you'll get people who come in saying that they think the decade ends at the end of 2010.   -_-  
 
I can't believe some people think that. 
 
Very nice list though, I still have some movies there that I want to see.

Some good stuff on there, though I obviously disagree with some of them. Little Children, Lost in Translation and Children of Men are all really good and make my runner-up list. Half dozen of your runner-ups make my top ten but hey, to each his own.

Lord of the rings 
Transformers 
The Dark Knight
 
DVDBESTONLINE

28 Days Later... 
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 
The Foot Fist Way 
Visioneers 
Adaptation 
 
That's my narrowed down list

Lord of the rings 
Transformers 
The Dark Knight
 
DVDBESTONLINE

Those are some fine movies you got listed there, man. I've been trying to put together some sort of mental list myself for what I believe to be the best film of the decade. I didn't have too much luck with a whole list, and found that there's still quite a few big movies from this decade that I should see before finalizing my decision, but for now, my runner-up is Gladiator. My choice for best movie of the decade goes to.... Slumdog Millionaire. I love it. I think it's brilliant, stylish, and beautiful. This is a movie that transcends film. It's bigger than the movies.
 
I would like to note that I was totally impressed with Avatar, and it could end up among the top or even at the top eventually. I'll need to see it again a couple times before I can decide. Regardless, even if I end up concluding that it's a better movie, it probably still won't be my favorite of the decade, which goes to Slumdog. Additionally, I think this has been a pretty weak decade for movies, but maybe we just had it too good in the 90s.

broke back mountain is my #1
 
then my second would be REC

I vote Amelie, Cinderella Man, & a few more I can't think of at the moment.

I award this decade to The Lord of the Rings, they really do count as a single movie really...
 
Last decade would probably go to The Matrix.

Gladiator, really?

Hot Fuzz was an epic movie.

Hmm. Pan's Labyrinth. Or Let the Right One In. Or something else foreign. There have been so many good foreign films that I was exposed to this decade.

I love Hot Fuzz, don't get me wrong, but there's no way I could honestly put it up there with some of the other films that have come out this decade.      
 
@mikeeegeee: I fucking love Let the Right One In. What a great film.

I agree with your list, replace 8 Mile with Let the Right One In and its set.