26 Dec 2009 by Chris     1 Comment     Posted under: Entertainment

My 5 favourite movies of the decade (finally)

At last, you get to discover if it was worth the wait. Frankly, no, it wasn’t. If you missed numbers 10 to 6 yesterday, they were here.

5. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

(Peter Jackson, 2002)

My favourite of the three, if only because of the astonishingly unsettling scene where everyone was waiting before the Battle of Helms Deep. Brrr… Sauron’s forces increase. His allies grow. The Ringwraiths return in an even more frightening form. Saruman’s army of Uruk Hai is ready to launch an assault against Aragorn and the people of Rohan. Yet, the Fellowship is broken and Boromir is dead. For the little hope that is left, Frodo and Sam march on into Mordor, unprotected. A number of new allies join with Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin and Merry. And they must defend Rohan and attack Isengard. Yet, while all this is going on, Sauron’s troops mass toward the City of Gondor, for the War of the Ring is about to begin. IMDb summary

4. Wall-E

(Andrew Stanton, 2008)

Yeah, I know, the second half’s not as good as the first, but it’s still a masterpiece. In a distant, but not so unrealistic future, where mankind has abandoned earth because it has become covered with trash from products sold by the powerful multi-national Buy N Large corporation, WALL-E, a garbage collecting robot has been left to clean up the mess. One day, Eve, a sleek (and dangerous) reconnaissance robot, is sent to Earth to find proof that life is once again sustainable. WALL-E falls in love with Eve. IMDb summary

3. Moulin Rouge!

(Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

I came out of the cinema like I’d just been hit on the head with a brick. Weird and quite wonderful. The soundtrack shouldn’t work, but it most certainly does. The year is 1899, and Christian, a young English writer, has come to Paris to follow the Bohemian revolution taking hold of the city’s drug and prostitute infested underworld. And nowhere is the thrill of the underworld more alive than at the Moulin Rouge, a night club where the rich and poor men alike come to be entertained by the dancers, but things take a wicked turn for Christian as he starts a deadly love affair with the star courtesan of the club, Satine. IMDb summary

2. School of Rock

(Richard Linklater, 2003)

This made me laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Which is just what comedies are supposed to do. The film that Jack Black was born to make. Down and out rock star Dewey Finn (Black) gets fired from his band, and he faces a mountain of debts and depression. He takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his attitude and hijinx have a powerful effect on his students. IMDb summary

1. High Fidelity

(Stephen Frears, 2000)

The odd thing is, I’m not a particular fan of Jack Black, who’s done some dire stuff, so it’s odd that he features in both of my top two films of the decade. But he’s great in this, again, as is John Cusack. A Nick Hornby novel transported to Chicago sounds like a recipe for disaster, so massive respect to them all for pulling it off. Watched it again the other day to check it’s still great. It is. High Fidelity follows the ‘mid-life’ crisis of Rob, a thirty-something record-store owner who must face the undeniable facts – he’s growing up. In a hilarious homage to the music scene, Rob and the wacky, offbeat clerks that inhabit his store expound on the intricacies of life and song all the while trying to succeed in their adult relationships. Are they listening to pop music because they are miserable? Or are they miserable because they listen to pop music? IMDb summary

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