Gollum features somewhere. Where?
Part 2 of the top 10 films of the decade will run the numbers from 5 down to the number one. So far, we've had Bourne Ultimatum, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, No Country For Old Men, The Departed and Wall-E. So, who's in at number 5? Well, if you hold your horses you'll find out.
5 - Gladiator
There you go, that wasn't too long a wait. Gladiator made Russell Crowe into a household name as the Roman general who is cast out, sold as a slave and subsequently works his way up as a gladiator to become the strongest contender in Rome. It features one of the best opening sequences of recent times, it features one of the most memorable speeches in recent times and it features Oliver Reed in his last ever role. Ridley Scott did his 'epic' thing that he likes to do where he makes a film really epic. Joaquin Phoenix played a really bad man and Russell Crowe even fights some tigers. I don't think you need any more good reasons to like it, you should just know it's good.
4 - Avatar
There's going to be a bit of a pattern coming in the final segment, so to save you from it, I'll stop using the word 'epic' and we'll just assume that the top five are all epic. Avatar broke all the records ever made, it got the highest-grossing movie ever, most use of the colour blue, nicest forestry, most lighty flowers and the biggest smile ever recorded on a directors face. Avatar missed out on the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars as it went to James Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for Hurt Locker. It's hard to imagine that he minded, after he created the world of Pandora and immersed the world in the film with the best use of 3D this side of anything. It might not have been overly original, it might not have hidden the secret plotline incredibly well, but it looked abso-bloody-amazing and had audiences thoroughly captured for the full 2 and a half hour running time.
3 - City of God
City of God is a Brazilian film by director Fernando Meirelles, it depicts the rise of organised crime in the City of God district of Rio de Janeiro and has drawn comparisons to Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas. It depicts a realistic view of Rio de Janeiro's slum districts and features mostly amateur actors. This stands as the only world cinema film on the top 10 list, but rightfully stands amongst the rest of the films here. It's hard-hitting, entertaining and very strong. It won a number of the Best Foreign Language awards during 2003, although wasn't nominated for an Oscar in that category. You need to see this film and of the films on here, this is the most likely one that you may have missed.
2 - The Dark Knight
It's about Batman. It's got Heath Ledger as The Joker. It destroyed the box office in the summer of 2008. Christopher Nolan managed to follow-up Batman Begins with this blinding superhero movie, the first in the rebooted franchise kept the attention solely on Batman but with the sequel he introduced his most popular enemy, The Joker. Before release, Heath Ledger died of an accidental drug overdose and this was presented as his final fully finished film. He certainly went out on a bang, jumping straight to the top of the Best Villain lists, as the menacing, anarchic Joker. Christian Bale continued to be a brilliant Bruce Wayne and Christopher Nolan continued to do the 'superhero movie' his own way, treating this as a heist/thriller with a man in a suit over anything else. The film is firmly seated in reality and tries to show a vigilante in a setting that isn't out of the ordinary. As the fans say, "In Nolan We Trust".
1 - Lord of the Rings
At number one, it just has to be the Lord of the Rings trilogy. There's no point splitting the three up because they are all one story. It's also just too hard to choose one. The spine-tingling moment as you see the full Fellowship coming over the hill as the signature motif kicks in in the first film, or as they fight off hordes of orcs in the forest, or Gandalf yelling "you shall not pass" at Balrog. It could be the second film, with the battle of Helms Deep or it could be the final battles in Return of the King as they protect Gondor, or as they fight towards the gates of Mordor. You can't just choose one, you need them all, like a greedy child at Christmas. Peter Jackson, although managing to clock in at 3 hours a piece managed to turn Tolkien's books into a reality, creating one of the best adaptations of recent times and the Return of the King being only the third film ever to equal the record of 11 Oscar wins alongside Titanic and Ben-Hur. It may be three hours of your time per film, but you'll just say "why did I never watch this before now?" rather than "I just lost three hours of my life". It's epic. Sorry, I had to. It was necessary.
FemaleFirst - James Butlin
Tagged in Batman Lord of the Rings