Top Ten Favorite Movies of the Decade

                                             

Throughout the decade, we've seen some tremendous highs and breathtaking lows in the world of movies. Thanks to The Avengers, we've seen superheroes dominate the box office, with their only competition being the return of Star Wars to the big screen. Amazing action movies like the Mission Impossible and John Wick franchises wowed us with thrilling fight scenes and face melting explosions. Even sci fi movies blew us away with Blade Runner 2049 and Arrival offering emotionally rich and intelligent stories. We've even seen Horror make a huge comeback, with monster hits like It and Get Out breaking records and even creepier entries such as The VVitch and Hereditary pushing the genre forward. Not to mention, we were able to experience the return of the greats like Tarantino, Fincher, Scorsese and Nolan throughout the decade as well. And luckily able to catch some smaller dramas like The Farewell and Manchester by the Sea that made us cry for days.

Even the crippling disappointments like the DC Universe imploding on itself couldn't keep us away from the movies for too long. But good Lord, some sure tried. The Last Airbender and Grown Ups started the decade off strong with a cinematic kick to the crotch, with things only getting worse from there. Not to be outdone, 50 Shades of Grey showed up a few years later to tie us up and make us regret coming to the theater, while a never ending string of bad horror movies like Truth or Dare and trash comedies like Dirty Grandpa kept us shaking our heads.

Throw in a dash of heavy controversy for movies like Joker, The Wolf of Wall Street, American Sniper, and the new Ghostbusters reboot to enrage the public and you have a well rounded decade. But nevertheless, these are the top movies I was lucky enough, or unlucky enough to catch.

Spoilers ahead!


Top 3 Biggest Surprises:

About Time (2013): Who would have thought that Rachel McAdams' 50th movie about being in love with a time traveller would be this good? Judging by the cheesy commercials and the 69% on Rotten Tomatoes, I wasn't planning on watching a tall, red headed guy use his time traveling abilities to get McAdams to fall in love with him. But luckily, going on my mom's recommendation, I checked it out when it released on video and instantly fell in love with it. It's just so sweet and well intentioned, that it's a shame this flew under the radar. Especially since it has one of the best father/son relationships of the decade as well. Also, huge points to the writer's for avoiding the overplayed romantic comedy trope of misunderstanding the person you love, breaking up with them, and eventually getting back together at the end. This couple actually faces the challenges in their lives together, which is really refreshing.

Planet of the Apes Trilogy (2011-2017): Sure, the original Planet of the Apes is a sci fi classic. But the accompanying sequels, along with the Tim Burton reboot, made this franchise a tough one to raise back from the dead. Luckily, they succeeded in creating an amazing science fiction franchise in their own right. With incredible special effects, an emotional central story, and an amazing lead performance by the king of motion capture, Andy Serkis, this trilogy proved that its franchise still had a lot of life left in it.

Creed (2015)- Speaking of franchises brought back from the dead, I couldn't believe how incredible this was when it came out. After repeatedly watching a 3,000 year old Sylvester Stallone getting back in the ring to prove that he could still punch people, we finally had a young fighter (Michael B. Jordan) that Rocky could take a back seat to and train. Even better that it was the son of his rival/best friend, Apollo Creed. Both actors compliment each other beautifully, with Rocky bringing a down to earth wisdom to his training, and Jordan bringing an energy and desperation to his role. And despite the name change, this movie proved to have just as much  heart as the original and featured exceptional direction by Ryan Coogler (the uncut shot of Creed's first fight is still electric). Also, check out Creed II, he fights Drago's son in that one!

Top 3 Biggest Disappointments:

Spectre (2015): This was a tough one. After the shining heights of Skyfall and Spectre's incredible trailer featuring the "You're a kite in a hurricane, Mr. Bond." speech, this movie took a nose dive into the mediocre mere minutes after it's fantastic opening. Filled with a bunch of "meh" action scenes, a villain with confusing motivation, and an uninterested Daniel Craig in the lead role, this Bond outing was disappointing with all the potential it held and completely mishandled.

Glass (2019): I know I shouldn't have had had high hopes for a Shyamalan movie. But with Split  being a surprise hit in 2016, telling the story of a group of girls being abducted by a man with several personalities, eventually leading to the surprise ending revealing a shared universe with Unbreakable, my hopes were high. Shyamalan had created a thoughtful, street level trilogy about people who may or may not have superpowers, how could he mess it up? Turns out, he definitely can. I won't lie, despite the clunky dialogue and exposition that goes along with all Shyamalan movies, I was really liking it.

By trapping the three leads of the past few movies in an insane asylum and trying to make them believe that they weren't actually superhuman, made for a very interesting watch...until that dud of an ending. Why introduce a secret organization of villains with only 10 minutes to go in your trilogy? Why get them to kill all of your most interesting characters for no reason? Why expose the new villain (that we just found out about) with a Youtube video by the victims' families? Oh Shyamalan, it's like you want us to stay angry at you.

Dc Universe (Batman v. Superman, Suicide Squad) (2016): So while Star Wars fans have been screaming that they're not happy with the last few installments, it's hard to say that it's worse than the pile of garbage that DC was shoving out in 2016. While I enjoy Batman V. Superman for the crazy, dour interpretation of its characters and some of its action scenes, I definitely understand why people hate it so much and why they think its an insult to the characters legacy. As for Suicide Squad, I'm still shocked that that mess of a movie was actually released to theaters, for actual, living, breathing people to watch. Despite promising trailers, Suicide Squad is the shining example of too much meddling from a studio, bad directing, poor casting, incomprehensible editing, and horrendous writing. Luckily, DC seems to be on the right track now with movies like Wonderwoman and Shazaam garnering positive praise, but Dear God, what a steep learning curve.

Top 3 Honorable Mentions

Drive (2011)- I owe it to the 2011 film student version of Drew to put this movie somewhere on here. While it may come across as pretentious and slow to most people that come across it, this arthouse action movie was all I could ask for when it first came out. Not only was Ryan Gosling awesome as a stuntman by day/ getaway driver by night (complete with a cool scorpion jacket) but the movie also featured a killer 80's inspired synth sound track, tense action scenes and amazing direction by Nicolas Wending Refn. It was dark, violent and like nothing my 18 year old eyes had seen before. I loved it. Totally worth my friends hating me for dragging them to see it.

IT: Part One (2017)- Had to include a horror movie on here somewhere. While we had some great horror movies this decade, my favorite of the bunch is the first chapter of IT. Having just read the book a year or two before it's release, I had high hopes for this Stephen King adaptation. Luckily, I was thrilled by how good this turned out to be. Bill Skarsgard did an amazing job terrorizing the children of Derry as Pennywise the Clown, bringing a very creepy, yet darkly entertaining interpretation to the screen. And to match him was a great group of child actors to portray The Losers Club, a group of kids determined to stop the murderous demon clown at all costs. IT is filled with great scares, but what makes this movie stand above it's competition is the heart and chemistry shared between the "Losers" in the moments between the fights with Pennywise and the bullies that torment them. It brings to life all the best things about King's book, making it a scary yet surprisingly moving  experience.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)- Who would have thought that the director of Happy Feet still had it in him to helm another Mad Max movie? Let alone pull off one of the best action movies of the decade. With Tom Hardy as the titular character and Charlize Theron's Furiosa (the badass protector of 5 highly coveted women from across the wasteland) leading the charge, this 2 hour chase movie is an action fan's dream. From the frantic editing, incredible car chases and unbelievable stunts, Fury Road not only lives up to its classic predecessor, The Road Warrior, but blows it off the road. Every second spent with Max and Furiosa as they attempt to escape the clutches of the movie's villain, Immortan Joe, and get his rescued wives to safety, is an absolute blast and is in question for the best action movie of all time.

Top Ten Favorite Movies of the Decade

10. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)

"You 'member Star Wars?"
"Yeahhhh I 'member!"
                     - 'Member Berries (South Park)

This was one of the easiest entries on here for me. Yes, I know the franchise is in a tail spin and that the fans have gone from disgruntled, to being so furious with The Last Jedi that they seem to be foaming at the mouth. No matter who you talk to, nobody is 100% happy with how things have turned out with the franchise. Especially with the trilogy's final installment, The Rise of Skywalker, being disappointing at best and something of a disaster at worst.

BUT, forgetting all of that and going back to me sitting in the theater in December of 2015, I could not have been more excited for this new trilogy to begin. Star Wars has and always will be my first love when it comes to movies (my family has reminded me on numerous occasions how many times I watched the originals as a kid.) So I was ecstatic to be able to attend the midnight screening with a packed house that was just as excited as I was to see it. THIS WAS A BIG DEAL. Millions of Youtube views for the trailers, endless strings of new toys being sold, new video games, even the Star Wars brand being put on bananas?!? The hype for The Force Awakens was insane.

So much was riding on this not being a disaster and luckily...it was pretty damn good.

Even after I get past the nostalgic parts, this movie is such a good time to watch. It's a typical Star Wars story, the Dark Side has risen again (along with a new Death Star) and we need our best heroes to stop it. But luckily, with Rey, Finn, Po, and Kylo Ren being great characters, they breathe a lot of life into this already energetic reboot of the series. Although fans have critiques of Awakens' story, saying it resembles A New Hope's too much, it's still engaging and does exactly what it sets out to do, which is remind the audience why we liked this galaxy far, far away in the first place. Not to mention the action scenes are incredible, including a lightsaber fight at the end that is one of the best in the series.

 The Force Awakens is still one of my favorite memories in a movie theater. And I'm not sure if I'll ever feel the amount of excitement at the movies again like I did that night. So wherever this franchise goes moving forward, I'll always fondly look back on that night and the feeling that something I had loved for so long was finally worth being excited about again.

9. Avengers: Infinity War (2018)/ Endgame (2019)

Cheating a little bit with this one, but seeing as the two movies are not only one long, epic story but that also wrap up the over a decade long run with the Marvel Universe, I'm thinking it's a good exception. It's hard to squeeze all of my thoughts about these movies into a few paragraphs, but I think I should start by saying how shocked I am that any of this actually worked out, let alone to have worked out this well. The thought of introducing these superheroes in their own films to ultimately get them all together in an "Avengers" movie sounded insane. Then 2012 came around and The Avengers were a huge success. Smashing the box office and leading to movies in the Marvel Universe getting bigger and bigger, with an ever expanding cast of characters and plots that it would make the original Avenger's outing seem quaint by comparison.

But the thought on everyone's mind as the universe grew, was Thanos. The big, purple, bald guy that kept creeping in at the end of every movie to promise that he would indeed be showing up at some point to kick everyone's ass. Could he possibly be worth the wait? Could all of the lore about the Infinity Stones actually be pulled off? Yeah, sure they had pulled those "smaller" Avengers' movies off, but surely the one where everyone came together to fight Thanos couldn't possibly work out.

Well it did and it was amazing. Thanos proved to be an intimidating and strangely charismatic villain with a devastating, genocidal plan that he believed in. He not only showed that he and his followers were worthy adversaries to the Avengers, but that he also possessed a shocking amount of depth as he destroyed the universe, losing people he cared for along the way. Both movies also juggled all the characters and storylines really well, giving everyone their own memorable moments. The ending of Infinity War was heartbreaking as we watched our heroes lose to Thanos and fist-pumpingly awesome as we watched them return at the end of Endgame, ready for a final showdown. It's everything we could have asked for from these two movies, proving they deserve to be two of the top grossing films of all time.

And despite the fact that we're unfortunately moving forward in the Marvel Universe without Captain America, Iron Man, and the actors behind the masks, it was a great send off to the two leaders of the Avengers, and a satisfying end to the Infinity Saga.



8. Arrival (2016)

Denis Villeneuve is easily my favorite director to come out of this decade. From his claustrophobic, intense thrillers like Prisoners and Sicario, to his psychological, David Lynch-ian inspired outings like Enemy, he proved he has endless potential behind the camera and I can't wait to see what his future looks like.

That leads us to Arrival, the Amy Adams led sci fi story about a linguist that makes a desperate attempt to communicate with aliens that have just arrived on earth, before all out war is declared on them. So while the plot of this movie sounds like it could easily lean into Independence Day territory, where the aliens start wiping us out and we try to make one last stand, Arrival thankfully heads in the opposite direction. Amy Adams' character, Louise, as well as the movie, is focused solely on communication. It's a nice change of pace, where most big budget science fiction movies are about intergalactic conflict and explosive action, this movie decides to tone things down and focus on a quiet, thoughtful story about trying to talk our way through and comprehend things that we don't understand. Not only does it make for an engaging viewing experience, but in the age where people spend their days screaming at each other over literally anything, it comes across as extremely topical as well. But aside from the way this movie chooses to show its themes, it also has an emotional story at its core that is heartbreaking, but leaves you with a strangely hopeful feeling as you discover what Louise's future holds after her interaction with the aliens.


7. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

I'll be honest, it took me multiple tries to get into the original Blade Runner. From it's slow moving scenes, oppressive atmosphere, and Harrison Ford's unmotivated narration, it was always a challenge not to give up and take a nap. But finally, after seeing The Final Cut, I saw how brilliant it actually was and fell in love with it. It's world was just so fully realized, with it's neon soaked city and multi cultural inhabitants, complete with futuristic technology and robots walking around. On top of that, the philosophical story of a man hunting human-looking robots who just wanted to live out their remaining days in peace, convinced me that it was the sci fi masterpiece people always claimed it was.

So I was thrilled that Denis Villenueve (yep, he's on here back to back) was able to pull off the impossible and make a sequel that lived up to the original. This time around, Ryan Gosling plays the role of Officer K, a blade runner who tries to uncover a 30 year old mystery surrounding the retired Blade Runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), and attempts to track him down. Despite the 2 hour and 44 minute run time, Blade Runner 2049 is always an easy choice for me to watch when I'm wanting to watch a great sci fi movie. Thanks to some incredible special effects, great sets, and Academy Award winning cinematography from Roger Deakins, 2049 effortlessly continues the look and feel of the original. Vilenueve seems to know this world inside and out, and consistently keeps the story enthralling as he guides the characters, both new and old, through it.

6. Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018)

The Mission Impossible franchise (as well as Tom Cruise) made an incredible come back this decade.  While the franchise and its star took a few hits last decade, thanks to Cruise's real life issues and some meh sequels, it thankfully recovered, giving us some of the decade's greatest action movies. And judging by the amazing action/thriller entries we received throughout the 2010's, that's saying a lot! But out of the competition both inside and outside of the series, I had to go with Mission Impossible: Fallout.

The sixth entry in the franchise finds Ethan Hunt and his team yet again fighting a terrorist organization hellbent on destroying the world. It's a typical set up but the way this movie goes about executing its story and action scenes is what puts it in a different league from the rest. Fallout plays  as a greatest hits of all this decade had to offer in the action arena. From the hard hitting, close quarters combat taken from The Raid and John Wick movies, great villains to compete with James Bond, amazing set pieces inspired by its own franchise, and topped off by the hilariously insane Tom Cruise doing his own stunts, Fallout is a perfect mix of everything that came before it.

Other than the amazing action set pieces and cool stunts, it wouldn't be nearly as good without the chemistry between its cast. While Tom Cruise still makes a great leading man, his supporting cast including Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Penn, and Ving Rhames often lighten the tension and make the scenes of exposition and set up engaging and funny. And with Henry Cavill and Solomon Lanes making for interesting and formidable villains, it rounds out the cast perfectly.

If you happen to have missed out on the Mission Impossible movies this decade, you really need to check them out. They're big, dumb, fun movies whose creators went above and beyond to make them as entertaining as humanly possible. I urge you to accept this mission.

5. Inception (2010)

Christopher Nolan had a tough job following up The Dark Knight at the start of the decade, not to mention that his next movie would be a passion project for him, having spent more than 10 years perfecting the script on his original idea. And wow did this movie pay off. While The Dark Knight is amazing and his other movies including Memento, Interstellar, Dunkirk and The Prestige prove how great of a filmmaker Nolan is, Inception still my favorite of his.

The idea of a heist movie taking place in somebody's dreams blew my mind back in 2010 and still gets me to drop everything to re-watch it 10 years later. Yes, it can be confusing, yes, I've heard that there are multiple plot holes, but the movie is so entertaining that I just don't care. Leonardo DiCaprio and a supporting cast including Tom Hardy, Ellen Page, Marion Cotillard,  Joseph Gordon Levitt, and a few other Nolan favorites, are a blast to watch as they descend through the levels of their target's mind in order to plant an idea that could shape the future their world. Thanks to inventive, exciting set pieces like a fight in a revolving, zero gravity hotel hallway, an exploding mountain base, and a high speed car chase cut short by a runaway train, it firmly established itself as a surreal action masterpiece from the start. All of this is made all the better by an emotional central story and an amazing cliff hanger of an ending.

4. The Town (2010)

Is it just me or is Boston mainly inhabited by gangsters, bank robbers and Red Sox fans? At least that's how it comes across in movies...

Anyway, The Town, written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, tells the story of a bank robber as he tries to form a relationship with the hostage of a bank he recently held up, while trying to escape from his life as a career criminal and the city he's always called home.

But not before one last job.

I love heist movies. Nothing like the thrill of following a crew throughout the movie while they carefully and painfully plan a job, all for it to blow up in their faces near the end, leading to a final stand against the cops. While Heat is still the king of heist movies, thanks to Michael Mann's methodical direction and a legendary cast led by Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, The Town is still my favorite.

 As with the best heist movies, even though you're waiting for the big heist at the end, you start to care about the central characters, and whether or not they can achieve their goal and get out unharmed. And thanks to Ben Affleck's  dedication in front of and behind the camera, this movie succeeds gracefully. The characters feel so real and gritty, especially Jeremy Renner as Jem, Doug McCray's life long (but definitely insane) friend and fellow bank robber. And the layout of Charlestown feels authentic to the real life setting, especially during the chase scenes, as the robbers fly past civilians and weave their way through the streets, trying to outrun the cops.

Also, when the story reaches its climax while Affleck's crew is trying to rob Fenway Park, leading to a massive shoot out with the FBI, it solidifies itself as one of the best heist movies ever put to screen.

The Town paved the way for Ben Affleck's comeback, leading him to winning an Oscar for Argo, and to living everyone's dream of becoming Batman. Ultimately, this is his crowning achievement to me, this movie has stuck with me for ten years now, and I always look forward to revisiting it.

3. Logan (2017)

"You know Logan, this is what life looks like. A home, people who love each other. A safe place. You should take a moment and feel it."- Charles Xavier (Logan)

Anndddd here come the tears. It's wild to think that Hugh Jackman stuck with this character for the better part of two decades, but luckily, despite the ups and downs of the X-Men series, he stuck the landing in this brutal, yet heart felt final outing as Wolverine.

This is definitely another nostalgia entry. I can still remember going with my parents to see the first X-Men in 2000 and wishing I'd find out I was a mutant like the characters in the movie. The real life implications of having laser beams shoot out of my eyes or having metallic claws possibly hindering my social life weren't much of a concern to me at the time. All I knew was it was really cool.

The stand out to me in every movie though, was Wolverine. He had awesome metal claws, a cool hair cut, could heal from any wound, AND could ride a motorcycle....what couldn't this guy do??

But as I got older, I started to realize what Logan shows again and again: Being Wolverine is not a good time. From outliving all of your friends because you're basically immortal, being hunted down because you're seen as freak, to always being burdened with having to defend people that need your help, the movie shows that the life of Logan has been a living nightmare. And Hugh Jackman sells the hell out of this. He's so weary and beat up in this movie, always barely escaping from one threat to another, but always doing his best to protect the ones he loves. And with Patrick Stewart by his side in his last run as Professor X, desperately trying to guide Logan and the new addition of Wolverine's daughter into being better people and enjoying the small moments in life, it makes for some really emotional moments throughout.

Speaking of emotional moments, the ending scene of Logan's funeral is so deeply respectful to the character that we've all loved for so long, that it's a headache inducing event not to cry at the end.

So while we've had some fantastic superhero movies this decade, none have come close (other than Endgame) to ending our ride with a long running comic book character this gracefully.

2. Whiplash (2014)

"Were you rushing or were you dragging?"
                                                    -Terrence Fletcher (Whiplash)

Who would have thought that one of the best villains of the decade would come from a small indie drama about Jazz music? Nonetheless J.K. Simmons' Fletcher, is up there with Doctor Sleep's Rose the Hat, Marvel's Kilmonger and Thanos, along with Silva from Skyfall.

Whiplash shows the struggle between an aspiring drummer and his ultra strict music teacher, it displaying two amazing performances from J.K. Simmons and Miles Teller, all the while showing how far some are willing to go in order to prove themselves and make their dreams come true. The back and forth between the two, both inside and outside of Fletcher's classroom, is hard to watch without being on the edge of your seat. There's a palpable tension as Simmons tries to break Teller, with his goal being to either make his student the best musician he can be, or get him to break and drop out. All of this is paired with a great Jazz fueled soundtrack, a thrilling last act, and great direction from Damien Chazelle.

Chances are, this small release slipped through the cracks of your movie list in 2014, but it's one of the most fascinating explorations of masculinity, mental health, and the consequences of following your passions that this decade had to offer.


1. Warrior (2011)

This film is about two estranged brothers who join a high stakes MMA tournament, in the hopes of winning prize money that they both desperately need, leading to an emotional final fight between the both of them. While Warrior can easily be mistaken for a fighting movie that's just about TOUGH GUYS BEING TOUGH, it proved to be a thoughtful movie focused on family, trauma, grief and redemption, but without sacrificing the kick ass fight scenes that feature amazing cinematography and sound design.

As with all great Rocky clones, the fight between the main characters is never just about the fight, but all it represents. And with the rich backstories that both brothers have to offer, it's a tough decision trying to decide who to root for more. Neither are antagonists, just desperate guys with noble intentions. The decision is made even harder when both actors (Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy) kill it in their roles. Edgerton's likability makes it so easy to root for him, coming in as an underdog to fighting world, having retired to raise a family and become a teacher, while Hardy presents an intense energy as a damaged guy whose never recovered from his childhood, made all the worse by his traumatic time spent in the marines. And with Nick Nolte acting as their recovering alcoholic father,  near the end as all of their stories come together, Warrior proves to be one of the most well acted and emotional films of the decade.

Movies like Warrior don't come along often and when they do I fall for them completely.
They're the reason I keep going to the movies, chasing the feeling of complete immersion and excitement that only the best of the best can bring. Warrior is easily my favorite movie of the decade because of these reasons, and it will be hard for the next decade to top it, even though I'll be eagerly waiting to see if it will.



Sources: IMdB for quotes and stills from the movies