IMDB’s User Rating system primarily exists for two well-known purposes:
1) To really love movies that are popular college dorm posters.
2) To launch typo-filled rants against every movie that isn’t Fight Club.
So when I came across the link for IMDB’s 15 Top Rated Films Of The New Millennium, I was expecting something that would make me at least 8/15ths angry, but to my internetty surprise, the list is truly (disappointingly) solid.
Here’s a quick rundown of the list along with my brief, boringly content reactions to each selection — feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments:
15) Requiem for a Dream (Cool)
14) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Undislikable Film)
13) Spirited Away (Undislikable Film)
12) The Pianist (Never saw it; because I have so little to complain about on this list, I will assume it is TERRIBLE. NUMBER TWELVE????? WTF!!!!! GAYYYY)
11) The Lives of Others (Ending dragged but otherwise awesome, and definitely one of the coolest opening sequences I’ve ever seen)
Top 10 After the Jump:
10) The Departed (About 10-15 stupid minutes — “Gimmie Shelter” opening, guy dying on couch, final shot — but otherwise, again, awesome. Super watchable.)
9) Amélie (Undislikable Film)
8) WALL·E (Undislikable Film)
7) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Pretty fun movie, but 7th greatest film of the last nine years? Ehh…)
6) Memento (2000) (Typical “everyone who saw it liked it then everyone who saw it after that thought it was overrated cause of the first people” movie, like Sideways, but again, a cool movie. And it really broke Christopher Nolan to Hollywood, so I have no problems thanking it for that.)
5) Up (Undislikable Film. I’ve made my thoughts on this movie quite clear)
4) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) (Probably my favorite of the three, if only because of the initial astonishment-factor. Do we really need all three of them on the list, though?)
3) City of God (Undislikable Film)
2) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Three LOTR movies in the Top 7? What are these, Beatles albums? I enjoyed all three movies, and I understand that these films were landmark achievements, but the last four and a half days (ballpark) of Return of the King were frickin’ excruciating. The opening-night crowd at my theater laughed loudly multiple times when the camera faded to white as through it were going to cut to credits, only to then turn into more movie happening. Is that the mark of the second-greatest film of the last decade? Ionknow.)
1) The Dark Knight (Sigh – probably also would’ve been my #1 choice, all things considered. Seen it close to ten times now and it keeps getting better. Er, wait, no, that’s boring — I meant, OMG IMDB MOR LIKE IMDGAY U STUPID MOVIEZZ!!!!!)
Obviously there’s another hundred films I could have thrown on my own personal Top 15 of the past millennium (The Squid And The Whale, Man On Wire, Encounters At The End Of The World, tons more), but in terms of a populist, “movies everyone rightfully loves” list, this is a pretty solid 15. Though I’m surprised the IMDB users didn’t somehow sneak Se7en in there as a write-in candidate.
Thoughts on the list? Agreements / disagreements? Glaring omissions? Leave ‘em in the comments.
