I thought I should list some movies that have inspired, entertained, and impressed me this decade, so here you go (in no particular order):

 

The Dark Knight

IMDb rating: 8.9/10

 Year: 2009

Genre: Action thriller

Actors: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gary Oldman, Morgan Freeman (more)

Story Outline: Batman (Bale) is back to fight crime, this time it is the Joker that makes hell for both him, Gordon (Oldman), and Harvey Dent (Eckhart). As the Joker manages to increase his allies by contacting the mafia, things just seems to get worse and worse, and as the move rolls on, the Joker turns everyone up against each other.

Personal Comment: The movie has a great story, a lot of action and include some of the best pictures of 2009. It is an honest movie that doesn’t glorify Batman in anyway, his limits and weaknesses being clearly displayed through the movie. Many scenes, including the entrance scene, is shot in IMAX, which is one of the highest quality cameras you can get. It is the first time this camera has been used for action pictures, as it has such a short focal point, thus the movie is very impressively captured.

WALL·E

IMDb rating: 8.6/10

 Genre: Animation

 Year: 2008

Voices: Ben Burtt, Elissa Knight, Jeff Garlin, Fred Willard, John Ratzenberger, Kathy Najimy (more)

Story Outline: The Earth is covered in dirt and the humans have escaped the planet to be able to survive, leaving a series of robots called WALL-Es behind to take care of all the garbage, hoping that one day they may return back. Hundreds of years have passed, and the Earth still doesn’t seem like a safe place. There is only one WALL-E left working. One day another robot arrives on Earth, to change the history of both humans, the Earth and WALL-E.

Personal Comment: The movie is incredibly cute, and it is amazing how much feeling they have managed to put into the robots. The pictures are great and even though it might seem like a children’s movie, it brings up a very important political issue: What to do with all the waste we produce? First of all a great family movie, but everyone should see it!

Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain

IMDb rating: 8.6/10

 Genre: Drama (?)

 Year: 2001

Actors: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Clotilde Mollet (more)

Story Outline: Amelie is a quite special girl living in Paris. She grew up under a strict care from her parents, because her father thought she had a heart disease, and when she finally moved out, she had no friends or anything, but seemed to be used to it and didn’t care much until she met the Glassman, who had stayed inside his apartment alone for so long he could barely touch anything without breaking a bone. A mystical man always crouching by the photo booths collecting the paper pieces from underneath one day lost his book where he had glued together ripped pictures of people. Amelie tries to hunt him down to get him back his book, coming up with a billion ways to tease the ripped-photo-collecting man she somehow has fallen in love with.

Personal Comment: The movie is more of a cultural movie, all in French with a background narrator commenting during the movie. The colours are mostly green/red and happy piano music is played in the background. The movie is simply beautiful, a realy feel-good movie. I belie it’s not something for everyone, but I think most people who can take listening to French should watch it!

Up

IMDb rating: 8.4/10

 Genre: 3D Animation

 Year: 2009

Voices: Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Jordan Nagain, Bob Peterson (more)

Story Outline: Carl Fredricksen is now an old widower who never managed to fulfill the dreams of his life. As the government decides that he is too old to take care of himself anymore, they want to take him away from his home and place him in a home for elders. Carl still has one more thing to do before he gives in though, and makes a giant bouquet of balloons that he places on his roof to fly away and go to Africa to fulfill his dreams. Only when it is too late does he discover that the annoying neighbour boy scout was on his balcony when he left and that he will be stuck with him for the whole journey.

Personal Comment: The funniness of this movie simply amuses me. It is a very easy-to-watch movie, with no deep meaning to care about, as far as I see. Just watch and enjoy! And oh, 3D is awesome!

Sin City

IMDb rating: 8.4/10

 Genre: Action/Comic

 Year: 2005

Actors: Jessica Alba, Devon Aoki, Alexis Bledel, Powers Boothe, Cara D. Briggs, Jude Ciccolella, Jeffrey J. Dashnaw (more)

Story Outline: All I will tell you is this: The violent stories of three different people in Basin City.

Personal Comment: This is a really strange movie full of sexy women and macho guys! The lighting and colouring of this movie is quite special and makes it very comic-like. I guess the movie is quite boy-ish, and not all girls would like it, but I do simply because it is so artistic!

District 9

IMDb rating: 8.3/10

 Genre: Science fiction

 Year: 2009

Actors: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike, Elizabeth Mkandawie, John Summer, William Allen Young (more)

Story Outline: A ship full of aliens stops above Johannesburg, South Africa, and doesn’t seem like it is planning to leave. The humans detect that something has fallen out of the ship and understand that maybe they are not able to leave. They break into the ship and get the aliens down to the earth, giving them a ghetto-like area to live in.

Personal Comment: From a political view, the movie starts by telling us a story close to the story of the the ghettos, this time it is the Africans that don’t want to welcome anything new to the neighbourhood, thus the tagline “You are not welcome here”. We are presented to a mixture of love, drama and action, through one of the best-looking movies of the decade. The aliens are very realistic and seem to be inspired by insects. This movie should be watched in 1080p (blu-ray) to get the full effect of the great images.

 

Other movies you should watch:

Click the images to see more info on IMDb. 

 

 

Which movies did you enjoy from the last decade?