The scores for the films on the list are located on the site, as are a few more lists by category.
Edited By Zahveed on 1261088256
Ten Years of Metacritic - The Best (and Worst) of the Decade
Ten Years of Metacritic: The Best (and Worst) Movies of the Decade
by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
December 17, 2009
Our top movies from 2000-09
Our film staff has been collecting reviews for each week’s new theatrical releases since the fall of 1999, and, as a result, we have a nearly complete database of films from the past decade: certainly every major release from 2000-09, and virtually all minor releases, including obscure titles that barely made an appearance on the big screen.
As a result, the various lists below represent the best the decade had to offer — at least in the eyes of top professional film critics. Below, we look at the best and worst overall movies from the past ten years. On the next page, we break down the results by genre, with lists of top comedies, documentaries, blockbusters, comic book adaptations, horror films, musicals, and many other categories.
Our top overall movie: Pan’s Labyrinth
The eyes have itGuillermo del Toro’s gothic fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth may not have been the most seen movie of the past ten years (that honor goes to The Dark Knight, which led all films with over $533 million in domestic box office receipts) but it was the one most praised by critics. With a Metascore of 98, it tops our list of best-reviewed movies of the past decade.
What won’t you see on the list below? Some of the most commercially successful movies of the decade. Shrek 2 (#2 on the decade’s list of top-grossing films, and a Metascore of 75), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (#3 box office, 53), and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (#4 box office, 35) were among many box office successes that didn’t score big with critics. In fact, just two of the ten highest-grossing films of the decade appear in the Top 100 list below: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
The Best-Reviewed Movies of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Pan’s Labyrinth
2 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3 Ratatouille
4 Spirited Away
5 Hurt Locker, The
6 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
7 Sideways
8 WALL-E
9 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
10 35 Shots of Rum
11 Yi Yi (A One and a Two)
12 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
13 Class, The
14 There Will Be Blood
15 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
16 Werckmeister Harmonies
17 Moolaadé
18 Fast Runner, The
19 Triplets of Belleville, The
20 Queen, The
21 Beau Travail
22 Waltz with Bashir
23 No Country for Old Men
24 My Voyage to Italy
25 Bloody Sunday
26 Incredibles, The
27 Before Sunset
28 Almost Famous
29 American Splendor
30 Gosford Park
31 United 93
32 Capturing the Friedmans
33 Persepolis
34 Lost in Translation
35 Best of Youth, The
36 Lives of Others, The
37 Still Walking
38 House of Flying Daggers
39 Man on Wire
40 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
41 Finding Nemo
42 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
43 No End in Sight
44 Goodbye Solo
45 Letters from Iwo Jima
46 Once
47 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
48 Ghost World
49 Capote
50 Tulpan
51 Time Out
52 Away from Her
53 Chicken Run
54 Up
55 Y Tu Mamá También
56 Nobody Knows
57 L’Enfant (The Child)
58 Gomorrah
59 Fog of War, The
60 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
61 Maria Full of Grace
62 Fateless
63 Brokeback Mountain
64 Tarnation
65 Murderball
66 Grizzly Man
67 Marooned in Iraq
68 Wind Will Carry Us, The
69 Slumdog Millionaire
70 Million Dollar Baby
71 To Be and to Have
72 In the Bedroom
73 I’m Going Home
74 Ten
75 Russian Ark
76 Deliver Us from Evil
77 Beaches of Agnes, The
78 Traffic
79 Under the Sand
80 Talk to Her
81 Our Daily Bread
82 This Is England
83 Son, The
84 Sweet Sixteen
85 Departed, The
86 Ponyo
87 Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
88 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
89 Before Night Falls
90 Bourne Ultimatum, The
91 Pianist, The
92 You Can Count On Me
93 Children Underground
94 Edge of Heaven, The
95 Savages, The
96 Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, The
97 Offside
98 Los Angeles Plays Itself
99 Knocked Up
100 Turtles Can Fly
But where are the real movies?
Unless you are a cinema aficionado, you probably noticed something else about the list above: you haven’t heard of many of those movies. Indeed, a large portion of that Top 100 is occupied by foreign films and less-publicized art house films — films that played in few theaters (especially outside of Los Angeles and New York). A full 43% of the films listed above are foreign-language films, and many of those that are in English are obscure gems, like the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself (which isn’t even available on DVD) and the unconventional buddy drama Goodbye Solo.
What if we filtered out those limited release movies, and compiled a list of the Top 100 wide releases from the past ten years? It would look a lot like this …
The Best-Reviewed Wide-Release Films of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Pan’s Labyrinth
2 Ratatouille
3 Spirited Away
4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
5 Sideways
6 WALL-E
7 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
8 There Will Be Blood
9 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
10 Queen, The
11 No Country for Old Men
12 Incredibles, The
13 Almost Famous
14 Gosford Park
15 United 93
16 Lost in Translation
17 House of Flying Daggers
18 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
19 Finding Nemo
20 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
21 Letters from Iwo Jima
22 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
23 Capote
24 Chicken Run
25 Up
26 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
27 Brokeback Mountain
28 Slumdog Millionaire
29 Million Dollar Baby
30 In the Bedroom
31 Traffic
32 Departed, The
33 Ponyo
34 Bourne Ultimatum, The
35 Pianist, The
36 Knocked Up
37 About Schmidt
38 Atonement
39 Children of Men
40 Milk
41 Mystic River
42 Shrek
43 Volver
44 Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
45 Hero
46 Adaptation
47 Avatar
48 Fantastic Mr. Fox
49 Star Trek
50 Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
51 Up in the Air
52 Spider-Man 2
53 Drag Me to Hell
54 U2 3D
55 Kill Bill: Volume 2
56 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57 Constant Gardener, The
58 School of Rock
59 Pride & Prejudice
60 Chicago
61 Michael Clayton
62 Dark Knight,
63 Eastern Promises
64 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
65 Mighty Wind, A
66 History of Violence, A
67 Juno
68 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
69 Hot Fuzz
70 Wrestler, The
71 Hours, The
72 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
73 Hairspray
74 King Kong
75 Casino Royale
76 District 9
77 Simpsons Movie, The
78 Coraline
79 Good Night, and Good Luck
80 Little Miss Sunshine
81 Minority Report
82 Frost/Nixon
83 March of the Penguins
84 Hotel Rwanda
85 High Fidelity
86 Flags of Our Fathers
87 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
88 Iron Monkey
89 Iron Man
90 Monsters, Inc.
91 28 Weeks Later…
92 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
93 Punch-Drunk Love
94 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
95 Insomnia
96 Zodiac
97 Kung Fu Hustle
98 Aviator, The
99 Happy Feet
100 8 Mile
And now for something terrible
But enough with all the good movies. Let’s get to the important list: the worst films from the past ten years. Just over half of the 50 films below are comedies, although several others might also fall into that category if you have an open mind.
The Worst Movies of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Singing Forest, The
2 Chaos
3 Strippers
4 Vulgar
5 National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers
6 Hottie and the Nottie, The
7 Screwed
8 Miss March
9 Transylmania
10 State Property
11 Dirty Love
12 Meet the Spartans
13 Alone in the Dark
14 Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
15 Battlefield Earth
16 Whipped
17 Pinocchio
18 Date Movie
19 3 Strikes
20 King’s Ransom
21 Master of Disguise, The
22 Adventures of Pluto Nash, The
23 Slackers
24 Strange Wilderness
25 New Best Friend
26 Down To You
27 Beautiful Life, A
28 Freddy Got Fingered
29 Fascination
30 Daddy Day Camp
31 In Crowd, The
32 Dungeons & Dragons
33 Glitter
34 From Justin to Kelly
35 Sculptress, The
36 Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist
37 Rollerball
38 Dischord
39 What Love Is
40 House of the Dead
41 College
42 Disaster Movie
43 Yu-Gi-Oh!
44 Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
45 Darkness
46 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
47 Tomcats
48 Cookout, The
49 Kangaroo Jack
50 Deuces Wild
The top movies of the decade by genre
Now that we have reviewed the top overall movies of the decade, let’s look at the best films in individual categories. Click on a category name to jump to that list, or simply scroll down the page to see them all.
Comedies (Sideways)
Dramas (The Hurt Locker)
Action (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Animated (Ratatouille)
Blockbusters (Ratatouille)
Comic Book Adaptations (American Splendor)
Documentaries (My Voyage to Italy)
Family/Kids (Lassie)
Horror (The Host)
Musicals (Once)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Sports (Million Dollar Baby)
Thrillers (No Country for Old Men)
Video Game Adaptations (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)
Westerns (Brokeback Mountain)
by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
December 17, 2009
Our top movies from 2000-09
Our film staff has been collecting reviews for each week’s new theatrical releases since the fall of 1999, and, as a result, we have a nearly complete database of films from the past decade: certainly every major release from 2000-09, and virtually all minor releases, including obscure titles that barely made an appearance on the big screen.
As a result, the various lists below represent the best the decade had to offer — at least in the eyes of top professional film critics. Below, we look at the best and worst overall movies from the past ten years. On the next page, we break down the results by genre, with lists of top comedies, documentaries, blockbusters, comic book adaptations, horror films, musicals, and many other categories.
Our top overall movie: Pan’s Labyrinth
The eyes have itGuillermo del Toro’s gothic fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth may not have been the most seen movie of the past ten years (that honor goes to The Dark Knight, which led all films with over $533 million in domestic box office receipts) but it was the one most praised by critics. With a Metascore of 98, it tops our list of best-reviewed movies of the past decade.
What won’t you see on the list below? Some of the most commercially successful movies of the decade. Shrek 2 (#2 on the decade’s list of top-grossing films, and a Metascore of 75), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (#3 box office, 53), and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (#4 box office, 35) were among many box office successes that didn’t score big with critics. In fact, just two of the ten highest-grossing films of the decade appear in the Top 100 list below: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
The Best-Reviewed Movies of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Pan’s Labyrinth
2 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
3 Ratatouille
4 Spirited Away
5 Hurt Locker, The
6 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
7 Sideways
8 WALL-E
9 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
10 35 Shots of Rum
11 Yi Yi (A One and a Two)
12 Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The
13 Class, The
14 There Will Be Blood
15 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
16 Werckmeister Harmonies
17 Moolaadé
18 Fast Runner, The
19 Triplets of Belleville, The
20 Queen, The
21 Beau Travail
22 Waltz with Bashir
23 No Country for Old Men
24 My Voyage to Italy
25 Bloody Sunday
26 Incredibles, The
27 Before Sunset
28 Almost Famous
29 American Splendor
30 Gosford Park
31 United 93
32 Capturing the Friedmans
33 Persepolis
34 Lost in Translation
35 Best of Youth, The
36 Lives of Others, The
37 Still Walking
38 House of Flying Daggers
39 Man on Wire
40 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
41 Finding Nemo
42 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
43 No End in Sight
44 Goodbye Solo
45 Letters from Iwo Jima
46 Once
47 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
48 Ghost World
49 Capote
50 Tulpan
51 Time Out
52 Away from Her
53 Chicken Run
54 Up
55 Y Tu Mamá También
56 Nobody Knows
57 L’Enfant (The Child)
58 Gomorrah
59 Fog of War, The
60 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
61 Maria Full of Grace
62 Fateless
63 Brokeback Mountain
64 Tarnation
65 Murderball
66 Grizzly Man
67 Marooned in Iraq
68 Wind Will Carry Us, The
69 Slumdog Millionaire
70 Million Dollar Baby
71 To Be and to Have
72 In the Bedroom
73 I’m Going Home
74 Ten
75 Russian Ark
76 Deliver Us from Evil
77 Beaches of Agnes, The
78 Traffic
79 Under the Sand
80 Talk to Her
81 Our Daily Bread
82 This Is England
83 Son, The
84 Sweet Sixteen
85 Departed, The
86 Ponyo
87 Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film
88 Flight of the Red Balloon, The
89 Before Night Falls
90 Bourne Ultimatum, The
91 Pianist, The
92 You Can Count On Me
93 Children Underground
94 Edge of Heaven, The
95 Savages, The
96 Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition, The
97 Offside
98 Los Angeles Plays Itself
99 Knocked Up
100 Turtles Can Fly
But where are the real movies?
Unless you are a cinema aficionado, you probably noticed something else about the list above: you haven’t heard of many of those movies. Indeed, a large portion of that Top 100 is occupied by foreign films and less-publicized art house films — films that played in few theaters (especially outside of Los Angeles and New York). A full 43% of the films listed above are foreign-language films, and many of those that are in English are obscure gems, like the documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself (which isn’t even available on DVD) and the unconventional buddy drama Goodbye Solo.
What if we filtered out those limited release movies, and compiled a list of the Top 100 wide releases from the past ten years? It would look a lot like this …
The Best-Reviewed Wide-Release Films of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Pan’s Labyrinth
2 Ratatouille
3 Spirited Away
4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The
5 Sideways
6 WALL-E
7 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
8 There Will Be Blood
9 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The
10 Queen, The
11 No Country for Old Men
12 Incredibles, The
13 Almost Famous
14 Gosford Park
15 United 93
16 Lost in Translation
17 House of Flying Daggers
18 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
19 Finding Nemo
20 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
21 Letters from Iwo Jima
22 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The
23 Capote
24 Chicken Run
25 Up
26 Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
27 Brokeback Mountain
28 Slumdog Millionaire
29 Million Dollar Baby
30 In the Bedroom
31 Traffic
32 Departed, The
33 Ponyo
34 Bourne Ultimatum, The
35 Pianist, The
36 Knocked Up
37 About Schmidt
38 Atonement
39 Children of Men
40 Milk
41 Mystic River
42 Shrek
43 Volver
44 Dave Chappelle’s Block Party
45 Hero
46 Adaptation
47 Avatar
48 Fantastic Mr. Fox
49 Star Trek
50 Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride
51 Up in the Air
52 Spider-Man 2
53 Drag Me to Hell
54 U2 3D
55 Kill Bill: Volume 2
56 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
57 Constant Gardener, The
58 School of Rock
59 Pride & Prejudice
60 Chicago
61 Michael Clayton
62 Dark Knight,
63 Eastern Promises
64 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
65 Mighty Wind, A
66 History of Violence, A
67 Juno
68 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
69 Hot Fuzz
70 Wrestler, The
71 Hours, The
72 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
73 Hairspray
74 King Kong
75 Casino Royale
76 District 9
77 Simpsons Movie, The
78 Coraline
79 Good Night, and Good Luck
80 Little Miss Sunshine
81 Minority Report
82 Frost/Nixon
83 March of the Penguins
84 Hotel Rwanda
85 High Fidelity
86 Flags of Our Fathers
87 Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
88 Iron Monkey
89 Iron Man
90 Monsters, Inc.
91 28 Weeks Later…
92 Hellboy II: The Golden Army
93 Punch-Drunk Love
94 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
95 Insomnia
96 Zodiac
97 Kung Fu Hustle
98 Aviator, The
99 Happy Feet
100 8 Mile
And now for something terrible
But enough with all the good movies. Let’s get to the important list: the worst films from the past ten years. Just over half of the 50 films below are comedies, although several others might also fall into that category if you have an open mind.
The Worst Movies of the Decade, 2000-09
1 Singing Forest, The
2 Chaos
3 Strippers
4 Vulgar
5 National Lampoon’s Gold Diggers
6 Hottie and the Nottie, The
7 Screwed
8 Miss March
9 Transylmania
10 State Property
11 Dirty Love
12 Meet the Spartans
13 Alone in the Dark
14 Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2
15 Battlefield Earth
16 Whipped
17 Pinocchio
18 Date Movie
19 3 Strikes
20 King’s Ransom
21 Master of Disguise, The
22 Adventures of Pluto Nash, The
23 Slackers
24 Strange Wilderness
25 New Best Friend
26 Down To You
27 Beautiful Life, A
28 Freddy Got Fingered
29 Fascination
30 Daddy Day Camp
31 In Crowd, The
32 Dungeons & Dragons
33 Glitter
34 From Justin to Kelly
35 Sculptress, The
36 Kung Pow!: Enter the Fist
37 Rollerball
38 Dischord
39 What Love Is
40 House of the Dead
41 College
42 Disaster Movie
43 Yu-Gi-Oh!
44 Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2
45 Darkness
46 In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
47 Tomcats
48 Cookout, The
49 Kangaroo Jack
50 Deuces Wild
The top movies of the decade by genre
Now that we have reviewed the top overall movies of the decade, let’s look at the best films in individual categories. Click on a category name to jump to that list, or simply scroll down the page to see them all.
Comedies (Sideways)
Dramas (The Hurt Locker)
Action (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Animated (Ratatouille)
Blockbusters (Ratatouille)
Comic Book Adaptations (American Splendor)
Documentaries (My Voyage to Italy)
Family/Kids (Lassie)
Horror (The Host)
Musicals (Once)
Sci-Fi/Fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth)
Sports (Million Dollar Baby)
Thrillers (No Country for Old Men)
Video Game Adaptations (Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within)
Westerns (Brokeback Mountain)
"It's the least most of us can do, but less of us will do more."