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Rank - avg rating - title (year) - total ratings
1. 8.8 The Dark Knight (2008) 489,357
2. 8.8 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 381,650
3. 8.7 City of God (2002) 176,589
4. 8.7 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 404,782
5. 8.6 Memento (2000) 289,119
6. 8.6 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) 342,196
7. 8.5 Amélie (2001) 191,011
8. 8.5 Spirited Away (2001) 107,784
9. 8.5 The Lives of Others (2006) 80,100
10. 8.5 WALL·E (2008) 195,338
11. 8.5 The Pianist (2002) 142,329
12. 8.5 The Departed (2006) 278,638
13. 8.4 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 230,936
14. 8.4 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 195,094
15. 8.4 Pan's Labyrinth (2006) 163,521
16. 8.4 The Prestige (2006) 221,585
17. 8.4 Downfall (2004) 87,057
18. 8.3 Inglourious Basterds (2009) 196,498
19. 8.3 Up (2009) 124,195
20. 8.3 Gran Torino (2008) 140,395
21. 8.3 Oldboy (2003) 103,617
22. 8.3 Gladiator (2000) 294,021
23. 8.3 The Best of Youth (2003) 8,237
24. 8.3 Sin City (2005) 266,992
25. 8.3 Hotel Rwanda (2004) 97,153
26. 8.3 Batman Begins (2005) 283,046
27. 8.3 Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 188,407
28. 8.2 No Country for Old Men (2007) 208,571
29. 8.2 The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) 23,248
30. 8.2 Mary and Max (2009) 15,040
31. 8.2 Snatch. (2000) 183,330
32. 8.2 District 9 (2009) 165,384
33. 8.2 Donnie Darko (2001) 220,537
34. 8.2 Into the Wild (2007) 108,204
35. 8.2 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 244,026
36. 8.2 There Will Be Blood (2007) 138,101
37. 8.2 Avatar (2009) 284,203
38. 8.2 Swades (2004) 6,674
39. 8.2 Million Dollar Baby (2004) 149,534
40. 8.2 My Sassy Girl (2001) 14,632
41. 8.2 Amores Perros (2000) 64,037
42. 8.2 The Wrestler (2008) 100,685
43. 8.1 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) 155,148
44. 8.1 Finding Nemo (2003) 175,294
45. 8.1 Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War (2004) 16,576
46. 8.1 Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003) 19,074
47. 8.1 Ip Man (2008) 16,596
48. 8.1 Rang De Basanti (2006) 12,854
49. 8.1 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) 33,425
50. 8.1 Departures (2008) 10,408
Lord of the Rings - Return is vitually tied for the top spot.. it was #2 on my list as well (and really could be #1, it's a tossup), but was certainly the most ambitious and successful film achievement of the decade..
my #1, Hero, was China's top-grossing film of all time, deservedly.. Zhang Yimou's eye-popping action film also had a great story, and was immediately 'to the point' at under 100 minutes..
City of God is #7 on my list, and could really be 3rd also.. an amazing Brazilian film, director Fernando Mierelles, who got an Oscar nomination for this, has gone on to direct The Constant Gardner in English..
Memento is also very unique and worthy. Christopher Nolan's film takes a man with short-term memory loss searching for his wife's killer in a story that goes backwards. A newer edition of the dvd has an 'easter egg' that will play the film in reverse order, or in chronologically correct sequence for the mind-impaired and less adventurous film fans.
The Lives of Others, a brilliant espionage film, is one of just 5 to win both the Academy Award and the British Academy award for foreign language film. The secret police in East Germany spies on a subversive writer of popular plays.
WALL-E is my favorite animated film of all time now, is also a terrific science fiction story, with NO bad guys or evil, further proof (like 2001) this is possible (remember we later found that HAL in 2001 was pre-programmed to complete the mission at all costs, which it did, as the mission was the tranformation of Bowman into a spiritual entity, who is still around in 2010)
Requiem for a Dream was also one of my favorites. Requiem should have won 3-4 Oscars, especially Ellen Burstyn's acting, and also Jennifer Connally's supporting performance, both jaw-dropping and almost too much to bear in this film about addiction.
Eternal Sunshine was one of my favorite stories, an Oscar® winner for Charles Kaufman's quirky screenplay about the ability to erase just portions of one's memory, like the failed romances, as Kate Winslet does (along with changing her hair color in every scene). Fans will also like his Being John Malkovich (which allows visitors to a tiny office's hole in the wall to enter the brain of actor John Malkovich), and Synecdoche, New York (in which a playwright builds a near life-size set of Manhattan to perform a realistic play of his life, down to having an actor play him directing this play); but fans probably will not enjoy The Science of Sleep, which is less fully realized.
Other good ones were Batman Begins, Gran Torino, Downfall, The Prestige, The Best of Youth (Italy), The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina), Million Dollar Baby, Bourne Ultimatum, The Departed, Oldboy (Korea), Finding Nemo, and Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.. and Spring (Korea) I think Amelie (France), Amores Perros (Mexico), District 9, Pan's Labyrinth (Spain), and especially Up, are all overrated. Amores is the best of these but features some horrible scenes of violence that are not for the squeamish. Amelie is clever and inventive but I prefer Jean-Pierre Jeunet's other films, Micmacs and A Very Long Engagement, which aren't as lighthearted.
