Movies Flashback: The Last Decade

As we ring in the new year, I’m looking back to the last decade and putting together a list of memorable movies.

These movies are not necessarily the best from professional critics’ standpoint, although some certainly are. But they’re epic, revolutionary, controversial, profound, serious, witty, smart, sweet, whimsical, sleek, adventurous, or brainless fun. Whatever it was, it left an imprint in my mind long after leaving the theater.

I’ve been asked why I love movies (or TVs) so much. Because it’s such an immersive experience for me.

Where else can I be transported into different worlds – real or imaginary, past, present or future – filled with stories, characters and creatures that I may never encounter in real life? Through the lens of motion pictures, I feel magically enchanted, visually provoked, intellectually stimulated, emotionally touched, intensely scared, courageously inspired, instantly uplifted, immensely amazed and amused.

As a friendly disclaimer, for sure there are great movies left out because either I didn’t get around to watch them somehow, I honestly forgot about them, they’re purposely left out due to the imposed limit per year, or if part of the series, they may be represented in other years (although in some cases, there are certainly movies in the series with far lesser quality and not memorable). I’m also a “geek” at heart, so a number of these movies may not have the same appeal to a broader audience.

Below is a flashback to the last 10 years of memorable films: (five each year in alphabetical order)

2010 – Black Swan, Inception, Red, Shutter Island, The Social Network
2009 – 2012, Avatar, Surrogates, Up, Up in the Air
2008 – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Iron Man, Wanted
2007 – Gone Baby Gone, Live Free or Die Hard, Michael Clayton, Mr. Brooks, Stardust
2006 – 300, Blood Diamond, The Departed, The Illusionist, Superman Returns
2005 – Batman Begins, Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener, Red Eye, Sin City
2004 – The Aviator, The Bourne Supremacy, Crash, Finding Neverland, The Notebook
2003 – The Italian Job, Mystic River, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, Runaway Jury, X2
2002 – Catch Me If You Can, Equilibrium, Femme Fatale, Spiderman, Tuck Everlasting
2001 – Blow, Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone, Moulan Rouge, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Spy Kids

Do you agree?! Stay tuned for 2011!

Copyright (c) 2010. Nathalia Aryani.

Nathalia Aryani is a business manager, foreign language translator, lifestyle/travel writer and film columnist. She owns a movies blog, The MovieMaven (http://themoviemaven.posterous.com). Nathalia can be reached at indotransserv@gmail.com.

Photo from cliftonspringslibrary.blogspot.com