The Decade Remembered will be my series of pieces where I will do a top ten for each year from 2000 – 2009 with it ending with the complete Top Ten of the Decade to come.  After 2000, 2001 and 2002 then is 2003:

TEN – Matchstick Men

Who Directed It? Ridley Scott

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Nicholas Cage gives an actual great performance alongside Sam Rockwell in a fun and well put together con man movie that I can’t help but love.  I think Cage’s greatest talent is whenever he’s made to play these undeniable quirky characters (e.g. The Weather Man and Lord of War) and that is what he gets to do here as a germophobic con man who’s trying to pull the final con while getting to know the daughter he never knew.

NINE – The Missing

Who Directed It? Ron Howard

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Something about a more or less detective story from the perspective of a Native American seemed appealing to me.  I know it’s a bit hilarious that Tommy Lee Jones is playing this Native American Indian/Witch Doctor but at the same time I enjoyed so much of the action/adventure set pieces along with the general theme of the film that I keep a warm place in my heart for it (or maybe it’s just that I never happened to revisit this one in my older years).

EIGHT – All the Real Girls

Who Directed It? David Gordon Green

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Here is Zooey Deschanel and Danny McBride in a true dramatic film that I really enjoyed.  How easy is it to show that it’s true love when you have a reputation for being the guy who sleeps with everything that walks, especially when the woman you love is your best friend’s younger sister who is still slightly impressionable.  I love how David Gordon Green handles a lot of the dramatic notes and the dialogue is so well done (as well in Snow Angels).  I never thought Danny McBride could play a believable character until I found this film.

SEVEN – Love Actually

Who Directed It? Richard Curtis

Did It Win Anything? 1 BAFTA Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Bill Nighy)

Why Do I Love It? This is possibly the best Christmas movie made this decade.  We’re treated to numerous different story-lines of British families making it through the holidays seeking fame, success and love most of all.  Richard Curtis brings us a funny take on a lot of Christmas cliches, like the guy who loves his best friend’s girl but never had the balls to tell her until it was too late, the secretary trying to get her older married boss and the child who’s in love and too dumb to just come out and tell the girl because he thinks he’s not ‘cool’ enough. Actually those aren’t Christmas cliches, they’re just hilarious.  Move on and enjoy.

SIX – Lost in Translation

Who Directed It? Sofia Coppola

Did It Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Writing/Original Screenplay: Sofia Coppola), 3 BAFTA Awards (Best Editing: Sarah Flack, Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Bill Murray, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Scarlett Johansson), 3 Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Bill Murray, Best Screenplay – Motion Picture: Sofia Coppola)

Why Do I Love It? If there was ever a movie about love that looked odd on paper between Scarlett Johansson (a young newlywed) and Bill Murray (a much older married man) I doubt it would have done it as interesting as this.  The film sets itself apart from the rest not only by making the relationship tip the iceberg of the line between a platonic and romantic relationship and at the same time helping out by setting our characters in one of the most far away odd lands on this earth (Tokyo, Japan).  I love it and I love more than anything else Bill Murray’s reactions to this world and the people who would come up to him as his fans asking some stupid questions.

FIVE – Kill Bill Vol. 1

Who Directed It? Quentin Tarantino

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Here is Tarantino nodding to all the classic Kung-Fu, Samurai and Western movies that he loves.  He does so through making one of the best action packed films we’ve seen all decade.  As The Bride cuts her way through the entire of Tokyo to get to her targets who hurt her the most and get her revenge we are treated to a great mish-mash of genres that just entices me.  I guess the question everyone is asking is if I have any sense by having the lack of good sense to have this movie in the top ten.  Yes it’s a fan favourite, maybe it can’t win any Oscars but it is a great film.  It is what I call a great movie because it has something for the general common movie going public to keep them engaged and even more depth for those of us who love film enough to sit down and analyze… it’s AMAZING.

FOUR – Big Fish

Who Directed It? Tim Burton

Did It Win Anyting? nope

Why Do I Love It? We’re treated to Tim Burton’s best film (in my opinion).  A story about a son trying to filter out which of those tall tales that his father used to tell him all the while about his life are true or not and discovering that just because the tale seems larger than life doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  The film has all of Burton’s style that we love while at the same time taking him out the dark and into the light.  The biggest and best part of this movie are the individual stories that we all love to hear.  Usually we wouldn’t care about how true to life they are but as we see Will try to sift through Edward’s life we begin to enjoy the great life that Edward had and the characters he met.  This movie is one that reminds me how important storytelling is to life.

THREE – Oldboy

Who Directed It? Chan-Wook Park

Did It Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? This movie has one of the most insane twists I’ve ever seen in a movie.  For all of you out there who consider yourselves connoisseurs at being able to predict what a movie is going to do I dare you to try this one on for size, report back and let me know if you got it (and be honest).  I love the way that the director makes his audience squirm from scene to scene, and for those scenes that you don’t wiggle during you will think back to them and have your heart die inside once you realize how wrong it all is.  This is definitely one of the best films of 2003 and possibly of the decade.

TWO – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Who Directed it? Peter Jackson

Did It Win Anything? 11 Academy Awards (Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Director: Peter Jackson, Best Editing: Jamie Selkirk, Best Makeup, Best Music/Original Score: Howard Shore, Best Original Song, Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Writing/Adapting Screenplay), 4 BAFTA Awards (Best Achievement in Special Visual Effects, Best Cinematography, Best Film, Best Screenplay – Adapted), 4 Golden Globes (Best Director – Motion Picture: Peter Jackson, Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Original Score, Best Original Song)

Why Do I Love It? Peter Jackson said it best when he said that the reason you make Fellowship and The Two Towers is just so you can make Return of the King.  This is one of the grandest trilogies every concieved and I’m so happy they made them because not only is it a visual feast for the eyes, but I know deep down inside I’d never have read the books.  Somehow I wonder how New Line Cinema actually decided to greenlight three films from the get go.  Since all three were made all at once the film were able to come out each a year apart and a lot of the story was told.  I know a lot of people complain about the twenty-five different endings that we’re treated to at the end of this installment but it’s still what I love about it.  It actually gives us everything we wanted, and then six months later we get the four hour cut that Mr. Jackson wanted to give us and I love that even more.  This trilogy is a must watch for all the fans of medieval fantasy stories out there.

ONE – Finding Nemo

Who Directed it? Andrew Stanton

Did it Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Animated Feature)

Why Do I Love It? Stories about father and son always seems to get me.  Here Nemo gets upset at his father who’s been overprotective of him all of his life and after trying to prove that he’s braver than the rest of school gets caught and taken far away.  Now Marlin must save his son along with Dory.  This is a touching story that looks incredible (as always when it comes from Pixar).  It’s for everyone, parents, children and anyone in-between.  If you don’t love this movie it means you are Satan himself, or at least one of his many offspring.