Article

The Best of the Noughties

Written by Eric, Patrick, Scott

First Posted: December 24th, 2009

The first problem when writing an article about the best movies of the past decade is what to call that decade. The eighties, the nineties and now the what? The only one that seems to match the pattern is the noughties. It's not great, my spellchecker hates it, but I guess it will have to do.

It's probably true that no matter what your age, whatever decade you were a teenager in is probably the decade that you will forever be referring to when you say, "They don't make movies like that anymore." If you've never said that, just give yourself a few years and eventually you will.

Of course, what's actually true is that good movies have been made in every decade and the noughties were certainly no exception.

It's pretty rare it seems for all three of the Buffs here at ThreeMovieBuffs.com to review the same movie and even rarer for all three of us to give the same movie our highest accolade of four stars. In all of the noughties it only happened ten times. Given the disparate taste of all three of us, a movie has to be pretty special for that to happen. Out of the 1,143 movies released in the noughties that were reviewed on this site, just .8% of them were reviewed and given four stars by all three of us. In other words, a pretty rare thing.

These then are the Three Movie Buffs' picks for the Top 10 movies of the noughties in chronological order.

Monster's Ball (2001)	Will probably best be remembered as the movie that won Halle Berry the Best Actress Oscar; making her the first African-American woman to win that honor, and as one of the movies that helped push Heath Ledger onto the A-List. We all agreed that it was a powerful and moving film. "Easily one of the most powerful films I have seen in quite some time." - Patrick Nash "A remarkably honest piece of film making." - Eric Nash "A film that stays true to its tone from opening to closing credits." - Scott Nash
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)	A quirky Wes Anderson film about a dysfunctional family that is played to perfection by a great cast. Sounds like a recipe for success to us. "A sweet and gentle movie, a quirky comedy/drama with a sterling cast." - Patrick Nash "A movie that can make you laugh, feel sad and make you think." - Scott Nash "This movie's unique theme is only matched by its perfect cast. " - Eric Nash
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)	The gamble was high for Peter Jackson. Could his interpetation live up to the imagination of the generations of readers of possibly the most beloved trilogy of all time? No argument about that here. "You will be absolutely won over by this triumphant and magical motion picture." - Patrick Nash "A masterpiece of movie-making" - Scott Nash "Enter the world of Middle Earth. It's a place you will never forget." - Eric Nash
Chicago (2002)	Old-time Hollywood musicals played such a big part of our upbringing that it's a wonder only one of us is gay. So we were all quite happy to see them make a return with this Best Picture winner. "A rousing, rip-roaring, splashy, giddy, euphoric ride." - Patrick Nash "Both Catherine Zeta-Jones and Renée Zellweger have extremely good voices and play their parts to the hilt." - Scott Nash "So energetic your pulse rises just watching it." - Eric Nash
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)	Peter Jackson capped off his masterpiece with the final installment in the trilogy and walked away with a ton of awards in the process. "The greatest film trilogy ever made reaches its conclusion with The Return of the King." - Eric Nash "The Best Movie of 2003." - Scott Nash "In a world where the term classic gets tossed around more often than a frisbee at the beach on Memorial Day, Return of the King truly deserves the title." - Patrick Nash
Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003)	Gaudy, over-the-top kickass action directed by the master of violent thrill rides. We'll take two please! "Great entertainment made with orgasmic flair." - Patrick Nash "You know you are watching a movie directed by someone who makes up his own rules." - Eric Nash "If they gave out Oscars for sheer entertainment value, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2 would both deserve the top prize." - Scott Nash
The Polar Express (2004)	Sure, the animation is ground breaking, but the real magic is in the story-telling. "If you can't feel at least a spark of the old childhood Christmas magic by the end of The Polar Express, you probably never will." - Scott Nash "May help even the biggest Scrooge to hear a Christmas bell ring." - Eric Nash "Visually captures the essence, wonder, and mystery of Christmas like no other that I have seen." - Patrick Nash
The Aviator (2004)	One Hollywood legend telling the story of another. It might not have won Scorsese his long overdue Best Director Oscar, but it certainly won our admiration. "The Aviator is the best movie of the year." - Scott Nash "Hughes had an exciting life and Scorsese presents it in its entire splendor." - Eric Nash "The directing, acting, cinematography, script, costume and set design are all first rate." - Patrick Nash
Sin City (2005)	A graphic novel come to life in such a magnficently visual way that it will make your eyes cry out in ectasy. "Packaged in a stylish wrapper, with a stellar and all-star cast." - Scott Nash "With Sin City, film noir goes hardcore!" - Eric Nash "Visually Sin City is absolutely stunning." - Patrick Nash
Up (2009)	Another Pixar masterpiece. Although it's disguised as a cartoon, at heart this is a touching and very moving story. "Up is a movie for all ages, and for the ages." - Eric Nash "Other studios make cartoons. Pixar makes movies." - Scott Nash "Up is a 4 star classic." - Patrick Nash

While those are the ten movies that we all agreed were four star movies from the noughties, there were also many movies that we each thought were classics that either the others didn't see or where the others disagreed. The following are the movies we each thought should be added to the list of best movies from the past decade.

Eric's Choice

Big Fish (2003)

Tim Burton brings his distinctive visual style to this story of fathers and sons and the connection they can share.

"I was emotionally overwhelmed by this movie....I have not been this moved by a movie in years." - Eric Nash

Patrick's Choice

Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Sure, Crash might have stolen the Oscar from it, but Brokeback Mountain will be remembered for far longer for breaking ground and showing the love between two men in a way that no other mainstream film had ever dared.

"Brokeback Mountain deeply moved me with its achingly beautiful love story and by the absolutely riveting performances of its two leads." - Patrick Nash

Scott's Choice

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

British Comedy good. Zombies good. Who knew that if you combined the two you could create a comic masterpiece? Apparently Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright and Nick Frost knew, because together they created a movie that will be watched and laughed at for years to come.

"An hilarious, laugh-out-loud, movie with fully fleshed out characters, that even manages to supply a few genuine scares." - Scott Nash

And so another decade has come and gone. A decade that brought great change to the world. Amongst the war, recession and other depressing news though, Hollywood has remained a constant over this past decade as it has through every decade since it began. Providing an escape from the bad and the humdrum times. We laughed at the movies and we cried at the movies and a lot of the times we kissed 10 bucks good-bye at the movies, but now that the end of the noughties is here we can honestly say, "They won't make movies like that anymore."