a decade of Best Pictures

Now that December is here, we are almost two years into a new decade! My, how time flies. It seems like no time ago that the year 2000 had arrived.

With the ending of a year, there is always the quickly approaching Oscar season. It's already been announced that Billy Crystal will be hosting next year, and that's exciting. It won't be long until the nominees are announced, as well. Hopefully it will be mid to late January. Last year was the strongest year for the Oscars, in my opinion, since 2003. Almost every movie nominated was wonderful. I can only hope next year will be half as good.

That being said, I got reflective on the last decade of Best Picture winners. I thought it would be interesting to run down the list and pick a favorite. Also, it would be interesting to start a conversation about which years were disappointments, and which ones were right on the money.

Best Picture Winners From 2000 - 2009
2009 - "The Hurt Locker"
2008 - "Slumdog Millionaire"
2007 - "No Country for Old Men"
2006 - "The Departed"
2005 - "Crash"
2004 - "Million Dollar Baby"
2003 - "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
2002 - "Chicago"
2001 - "A Beautiful Mind"
2000 - "Gladiator"

Let's start with 2000. It was a lukewarm year, honestly. Gladiator beat out Julia Roberts in Erin Brokovich (my second favorite movie next to Gladiator.) There was also a drug movie, a kung-fu movie, and a movie about chocolate. Let's move on to '01.

2001 - I agree that A Beautiful Mind is the best out of the list of nominees. However, I really loved the first Lord of the Rings movie, which was also nominated. Also, if you haven't seen In The Bedroom, I strongly recommend it. It's fantastically good. It's a somewhat obscure indie film starring Marisa Tomei and Tom Wilkinson. It's suspenseful, dramatic, and thought-provoking.

2002- Once again, LOTR makes the list. Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers might just be the best out of the trilogy. But, the powers that be voted Chicago as the winner. I do love the Chicago movie, though. Gangs of New York and the Pianist were also two sweeping, forceful cinematic masterpieces that garnered much deserved recognition. The Hours, however, is utterly terrible on almost every level. Dismal and meaningless, I pretty much hate it.

2003 -LOTR - Return of the King took home the win. Although King is a long-winded, overwrought conclusion to two superior movies, I'm ok with it winning. This is only because I view this win, and probably the Academy voters viewed this win, as an award for the entire trilogy, since they're basically all one long movie. Lost In Translation is my fav overall movie of the decade, Mystic River changed my life with its genius, Master and Commander is brilliant, and Seabiscuit was good. What a year.

2004- Million Dollar Baby? Yuck. Even though I admire Clint Eastwood as a skillful and brilliant director, The Aviator was better. I like MDB less every time I see it. Drab and depressing. The Aviator, however, is amazing. Ray and Sideways are great, too.

2005 - Horrible year for Oscar movies.I hate Crash, Capote is a drag, Brokeback Mountain simply isn't good, Munich is actually boring, and Good Night and Good Luck is self-important and mediocre.

2006 - I love the Departed. It's got a great cast, and the force of director Martin Scorsese is unmatched in Hollywood. the rest of the nominees are forgettable, unfortunately.

2007 - I love Juno, There Will Be Blood, and I'm somewhat mixed about No Country For Old Men. I suppose it was the best out of that year's nominees, but that's just okay. I've watched Michael Clayton multiple times, and it has grown on me.

2008 - Slumdog Millionaire is somewhat exciting and interesting. I love Frost/Nixon and have listed it as one of my favorite films of the 00's. Benjamin Button, Milk, and the Reader are all fairly good, too. Noticably absent from the list? Many fans thought the Dark Knight deserved to be nominated. I think they were probably right. This prompted the Academy to have 10 nominees every year to expand the field.

2009 - The Hurt Locker was a surprising win out of the 10 nominees. I would've put The Hurt Locker in the middle of the pack, probably closer to the bottom. Avatar and The Blind Side had bigger cultural impacts and were better made, Disctrict 9 was more innovative with better action, Precious was deeper and more moving, and Up was more memorable. A Serious Man and Up In The Air simply didn't deserve nominations.

So, there it is. My run down of the decade's Best Picture winners. What do you think?