My Favorite 15 Movies of the 2000s

The period from January 1, 2000 to today represents an unusual era in my personal moviegoing history. First off, when the decade began, I was probably seeing more movies (both rentals and first run moves in the theater) than any other time in my life. Movies were the locus of my entertainment. This changed a little bit when I started spending more time outdoors after we moved to Minnesota in 2001 but the birth of my daughter in 2006 really cemented it. I could count on my fingers the number of movies I've seen in the theater since 2006. So I started the decade watching 2-3 movies a week and end it seeing 1-2 a month.

The birth of my daughter had another effect on my movie watching: I watch more kids movies than ever before. Seriously, I watch more kids movies now than when I was a kid. Probably because kids movies when I was a kid stunk. Kids movies today are much better than kids movies when I was a kid. In fact, the list you're about to read demonstrates how good I think the kids movies of today are.

Also, I should mention that Netflix entered my life this past decade. It too transformed my moviewatching. With no pressure to return the movies on time, I held on to them longer, reducing the total number of movies I saw. Sometimes I even sent/send them back partially or totally unwatched. The dawn of streaming movies on Netflix has put my movie viewing on the upswing lately.

So, while movies no longer hold the top spot in my entertainment repertoire, they still mean a lot to me and when I see a good movie, I get excited and want to tell people about it. You can click on the movie's title to view a trailer for the movie. And, fair warning, I cheated a bit. You'll see what I mean. Now, in alphabetical order...

My Favorite 15 Movies of the Decade


City of God

Children of Men

The Constant Gardener

Finding Nemo

The Incredibles

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Moulin Rouge

The New World

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl

The Royal Tenenbaums

Sideways

Spirited Away

There Will Be Blood

Whale Rider

Y Tu Mamá También

Note: Three directors,Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men,Y Tu Mamá También,) Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings,) and Fernando Meirelles (City of God, The Constant Gardener) have more than one movie on my list.