| Title |
Year |
Rating |
Rank |
Review |
| Aviator | 2004 | 97 | 1 | - An extraordinary biopic. DiCaprio, Blanchett, Scorcese, even Baldwin -- they're all marvelous! |
| Hurt Locker, The | 2008 | 96 | 2 | - What Platoon was to Vietnam, Hurt Locker is to Iraq. Beautifully done. Keeps you fully engrossed and never falls into the temptation of giving you a political perspective on the war. |
| Million Dollar Baby | 2004 | 94 | 3 | - The characters are a little formulaic, but the acting gets better as the movie progresses and, like Maggie Fitzgerald on Frankie Dunn, 'Million Dollar Baby' grows on you to the point where you love it. |
| In the Bedroom | 2001 | 93 | 4 | - 'In The Bedroom', as a title, decieves its viewers. Because the movie doesn't take place in the bedroom, it takes place in the heart. |
| Departed, The | 2006 | 92 | 5 | - Scorcese at his best. There's a reason this one put him over the top. A near-perfect film! |
| Insider, The | 1999 | 92 | 5 | - A corporate/political thriller of the highest order. This is the kind of film that reminds us how awesome movies can be. |
| Michael Clayton | 2007 | 91 | 7 | - When you draw up a big-business thriller and execute it flawlessly, very little proves to be more worth your two hours. |
| Erin Brockovich | 2000 | 90 | 8 | - Every once in a while a movie comes a long with a character so expertly crafted that the story around her is guaranteed to succeed. Erin Brockovich is one of those characters. |
| Gladiator | 2000 | 90 | 8 | - It's an action flick, it's an epic. It's one very awesome movie. |
| Inglourious Basterds | 2009 | 90 | 8 | - Tarantino takes history and puts it through a blender with the top off. The end result is a red, frothy, delicious, and splattered on the walls. |
| Little Miss Sunshine | 2006 | 89 | 11 | - It's an oddball, dark, and indiecomedy all rolled into a strangely heartwarming package. |
| Master and Commander | 2003 | 89 | 11 | - A backwards adventure of sorts: it throws you directly into the action and then slows down in the second half. |
| No Country for Old Men | 2007 | 89 | 11 | - The slow-building thriller relies on brilliant cinematography and flawless performances to deliver all the tension. |
| Traffic | 2000 | 87 | 14 | - A massive drug and crime saga. Very few movies have tried to be as broad in scope and achieve so much with it. |
| Sixth Sense, The | 1999 | 85 | 15 | - The final plot twist (you KNOW the one I'm talking about) goes right up there with Vader telling Luke who his father is. |
| Good Night, and Good Luck. | 2005 | 84 | 16 | - A beautifully cinematic docudrama, but it lacks the emotional heft needed to take it to the next level. |
| Green Mile, The | 1999 | 84 | 16 | - A fantastic story, but without any context as to what's really behind the curtains, you can only invest so much of yourself into it. |
| Hours, The | 2002 | 84 | 16 | - You could probably watch this film a dozen times and still not pick up on every parrallel interwoven between the three stories. |
| Up in the Air | 2009 | 84 | 16 | - The career-versus-love rom-com has been done a thousand times over, but Up in the Air somehow remains a refreshing addition. |
| District 9 | 2009 | 82 | 20 | - Down-to-earth and realistic in its approach while also fully-engrossing as a science fiction story. The fact that this movie came out of an often overlooked genre to be nominated for Best Film is not a mistake. |
| Gangs of New York | 2002 | 82 | 20 | - What stops it from being truly great are a few peculiar and unfortunate directorial choices. Given the simpleness of the times, you can't help but to feel that the film, at times, is overproduced. |
| Munich | 2005 | 82 | 20 | - Besides one ludicrous scene at the end of the movie, everything is done with decent taste. The real interesting aspect is the conversations it begins about issues that still exist today. |
| Mystic River | 2003 | 82 | 20 | - You may feel as though you need to start taking anti-depressants as the end credits roll up, but it'll be worth it. |
| Precious | 2009 | 82 | 20 | - I can't recall one single movie that places the viewer so deeply into a toxic environment as 'Precious' does. But it needs to, to point out to us how the ending is a happy one. |
| Blind Side, The | 2009 | 81 | 25 | - Not a tour de force in the sports genre, but holds its own in entertainment value. |
| Lord of the Rings: Return of the King | 2003 | 81 | 25 | - Epic in nearly every way...including runtime. |
| Crash | 2004 | 80 | 27 | - A tough, raw story about the gaps in social statuses, racism, and the fears we admit to no one. |
| Letters from Iwo Jima | 2006 | 80 | 27 | - The film's one critical fault is that, at times, the battle of Iwo Jima ACTUALLY feels like 36 days....or more. |
| Lord of the Rings: Two Towers | 2002 | 80 | 27 | - Some say this is the weakest of the trilogy, I say it's markedly better than the first. |
| Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring | 2001 | 77 | 30 | - The visuals in Peter Jackson's first installment of this epic are breathtaking, but the film could've shed 30-60 minutes and been just as good or better. |
| Juno | 2007 | 76 | 31 | - It's obvious concepts aside, 'Juno' is enjoyable. |
| Sideways | 2004 | 74 | 32 | - I'll say this: it's a GOOD wine movie. But there are better. Much better. |
| Up | 2009 | 74 | 32 | - A cute little story about friendship and the need to both accept and resist change and different times. |
| A Beautiful Mind | 2001 | 72 | 34 | - Anyone whose ever battled mental illness or known someone who has will not be able to forget this movie. |
| Avatar | 2009 | 72 | 34 | - A little overrated. It's worth a watch, but the runtime and countless slow moments will have you checking your watch. |
| Frost/Nixon | 2008 | 72 | 34 | - Tells the a part of the Watergate story often forgotten. Frank Langella plays a convincing Nixon. |
| Chicago | 2002 | 69 | 37 | - It's not a musical just for the sake of being a musical, and that's a welcomed surprise. |
| Reader, The | 2008 | 69 | 37 | - Very little emotionally about the film is identifiable. Either these characters represent a different species entirely or the film missed its mark. |
| A Serious Man | 2009 | 65 | 39 | - For a movie so deeply embedded in Jewish social culture, the Coen brothers sure like the concepts of karma a lot more. |
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | 2003 | 63 | 40 | - One of the most iconic action films ever. The downside? That's all it was. If you didn't read the subtitles, you really didn't miss much. |
| Babel | 2006 | 62 | 41 | - A cautionary tale about the dangers stateside and abroad. Ultimately leaves you with a queasy feeling about the world we live in. |
| American Beauty | 1999 | 55 | 42 | - 'American Beauty' likes to think of itself as Ricky Fitts, but it's much more Angela Hayes than it realizes. |
| Lost in Translation | 2003 | 55 | 42 | - You feel like the makings of a better movie are there -- somwhere -- but, as the title suggests, gets somehow lost in translation. |
| Slumdog Millionaire | 2008 | 55 | 42 | - Boyle's high-adrenaline, psychedellic vision for the film gets in the way of what would have otherwise been a fairly impressive script. |
| There Will Be Blood | 2007 | 54 | 45 | - The first dialogue does not come until 15 minutes in, and by then someone has died and someone has cried. That probably says more about the movie than I ever could. |
| Moulin Rouge! | 2001 | 46 | 46 | - Neurotic and inconsistent. |
| Gosford Park | 2001 | 42 | 47 | - Flawlessly acted but painfully drab. |
