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 , 2002, 2003 ,2004 and now 2005:

TEN – Cinderella Man

Who Directed it? Ron Howard

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Paul Giamatti and Russell Crowe deliver great performances again.  I’m a huge fan of sports films, they’re most of the time very formulaic but at the same time so wonderful to enjoy and this is no different.  When last did you find a movie that you liked Renee Zellweger in it?  I respond with this.  She was still believable here and the story plays out wonderfully.

NINE – Walk The Line

Who Directed it? James Mangold

Did it Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Reese Witherspoon), 2 BAFTA Awards (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Reese Witherspoon, Best Sound), 3 Golden Globes (Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Joaquin Pheonix, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Reese Witherspoon)

Why do I Love It? I think this was the movie which proved me right for thinking that Joaquin Pheonix was a great actor.  I still cry inside about this whole retirement thing craziness that I still hope sometimes soon he’ll pop out saying “I got ya” and we go back to enjoying his films.  As a fan of John Cash’s music I couldn’t help but watch this movie and be connected to hear all the songs being played before me on the big screen.

EIGHT – Hustle & Flow

Who Directed it? Craig Brewer

Did it Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: 3 6 Mafia “It’s Hard out there for a Pimp”)

Why Do I Love It? This movie was a great because it brought the story of the guy down on his luck looking to turn things around and legitimize himself through his music with a new sound and setting that was so intriguing that you couldn’t help but watch it.  Terrence Howard gives his best performance of his career that I doubt he’ll repeat anytime soon.  Also as hialrious as it was for me to watch 3 6 Mafia to perform this song at the Academy Awards it is a great song and I love it, the recording session scene will stay with me for a long while to come.

SEVEN – Sin City

Who Directed it? Robert Rodriguez & Frank Miller

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? This was my introduction to the mind of Frank Miller and this is the reason why he needs to keep his thoughts on paper and not on the screen.  I loved this movie because Robert Rodriguez knew how to bring Miller’s ideas to life on screen (unfortunately Miller thought this was an open invitation so he went and did The Spirit a few years later and just copied the look Rodriguez showed him as if that is the only way to make a comic book adaptation for film).  This movie is best described as three tales that occur in Sin City which involve awesome cars, great fights, hot women and manly men.  It’s one of the top five comic book adaptations this decade and I can’t hate on this movie at all.

SIX – Capote

Who Directed It? Bennett Miller

Did it Win Anything? 1 Academy Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Phillip Seymour Hoffman), 1 BAFTA Award (Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Phillip Seymour Hoffman), 1 Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Phillip Seymour Hoffman)

Why Do I Love It? I love drama and I love it even more when I get performances like this.  At first I must admit I giggled at Hoffman doing the Capote voice which felt more like an impression than a representation of the man.  However, as the film continued on I realised how real this character was and loved the film for it.  The story itself is enough to make most people cringe and knowing that it is true makes it even worse.  Just imagine that if you were born fifty years earlier you would be reading about this in the paper as opposed to seeing it on screen.

FIVE – Munich

Who Directed It? Steven Spielberg

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love it? Some people think that I’m lying when I tell them that Eric Bana is a verifiable great actor.  I loved this movie because not only was it minimalized throughout but it looked wonderful.  Everyone loved revenge films, what happens when an entire country wants revenge?  Lots of people get blown up.  Bana and his crack team track down and kill the people who attacked the Isrealies at the 1972 Munich Olympics.  Spielberg always makes some of the most gorgeous movies with some of the best placed shots and it is no different here.  I will always remember the kill where Bana and Craig shoot the man by the elevator and him falling over and the milk bottle breaking with the milk dripping outwards from his body and how gorgeous it just looked there on screen.  WOW is all I say about this man and he has the resume to prove it.

FOUR – The Descent

Who Directed it? Neil Marshall

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Like last year’s Cloverfield this movie takes a simple plot and follows it completely.  Imagine that you and your friends all decided to go running around through some caves.  However, a few hours in something goes wrong and you all get trapped inside only to find out that you’re in the wrong cave and eventually you find out that you’re not alone down there.  This movie is dark and frightening.  It is one of those movies that you have to experience with the lights out in the middle of the night when there is no other noises to distract you from the drips of water off the roof of the cave onto your helmet.

THREE – A History of Violence

Who Directed it? David Cronenberg

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Viggo Mortenson is down right freaky in this movie.  How could you imagine this average middle of nowhere family man to be the hero of the hour when he’s needed and then a day later becomes the man that the Chicago mafia has been looking for for years.  I love how Viggo and Ed Harris as well as Maria Bello interact from scene to scene throughout the film.  A sense of tension is built up from second to second and then eventually the cat is let out of the bag and the shit hits the fan and it does in a way that plays out beautifully in Cronenberg’s hands.

TWO – Jarhead

Who Directed it? Sam Mendes

Did it Win Anything? nope

Why Do I Love It? Somehow being able to make me feel exactly how useless a soldier feels during war at times while sitting on stand by is enough for me to fall in love.  Jaimie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal give brilliant performances in a movie that should’ve won more and gotten more attention.  If you love war/soldier films check this one out for sure.

ONE – Brokeback Mountain

Who Directed it? Ang Lee

Did it Win Anything? 3 Academy Awards (Best Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee, Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures/Original Score, Best Writing/Adapted Screenplay: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana), 3 BAFTA Awards (Best Film, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Jake Gyllenhaal, Best Screenplay – Adapted: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana), 4 Golden Globes (Best Director – Motion Picture: Ang Lee, Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Original Song – Motion Picture,  Best Screenplay – Motion Picture: Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana)

Why Do I Love It? Brilliant acting and brilliant directing along with a great story about forbidden love makes one of the best films of the decade.  Heath Ledger as well as Jake Gyllenhaal have the arduous task of making us wonder as to whether this is a thing of opportunity or true love and then when we figure out that it is they have the even bigger task of showing us how it affects their marriages and their personal lives having to have to hide it from the world due to its lack of acceptance for people like themselves.