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IMDb’s Top 25 Movies Of The Decade

By Tambay, on December 27th, 2009

imdb-logoAs compiled by SlashFilm… IMDB’s top 25 films of the decade, as voted by IMDb’s millions of users. And as SlashFilm noted, it might be easy for any of us to immediately dismiss this list as nothing but fanboy and fangirl contributions, however, this is definitely the largest sampling of opinions of all the other best of lists that we’ve seen so far, and will ever see… until some other site comes along that trumps IMDb in terms of user numbers.

So, here they are, accompanied by the year of release and number of votes received. They are ranked based on a combination of total votes and overall rating (which I didn’t include). So there are films that have more votes than others before them, but rank lower on the list due to their overall rating:

1. The Dark Knight (2008) 410,450
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) 329,852
3. City of God (2002) 148,073
4. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) 355,929
5. Avatar (2009) 69,101
6. Memento (2000) 245,089
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) 298,750
8. WALL·E (2008) 155,314
9. Amélie (2001) 163,472
10. The Departed (2006) 234,372
11. The Pianist (2002) 118,831
12. Spirited Away (2001) 89,403
13. The Lives of Others (2006) 64,311
14. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) 198,424
15. Requiem for a Dream (2000) 166,343
16. Inglourious Basterds (2009) 111,441
17. Up (2009) 68,206
18. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) 135,834
19. The Prestige (2006) 178,413
20. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) 149,605
21. Downfall (2004) 73,214
22. Gran Torino (2008) 101,124
23. Sin City (2005) 233,043
24. District 9 (2009)101,868
25. Batman Begins (2005) 246,001

Some quick observations:

- Christopher Nolan is obviously a favorite, because he has 4 films in the top 25!

- Gran Torino was one of the worst films I saw last year, and I’m puzzled as to how it made it on this list.

- Nice to see City Of God at number 3.

- I thought Up was just alright, as was Slumdog, but I guess I can understand the attraction to both films.

- I actually had to look up Downfall, and realized that while I haven’t actually watched it, I’ve seen the various parodies that use clips from it that have been all over YouTube in the last year or so.

- District 9? I’m vomiting.

- Overall, despite it being a mostly homogeneous list of films, with Hollywood blockbusters dominating, it’s nice to see a few “smaller,” more “artsy” films on the list, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Requiem For A Dream, as well as foreign titles like The Lives Of Others, Amelie and Pan’s Labyrinth.

Thoughts? Also, what’s missing that should be on this list but isn’t?

December 27th, 2009 | Category: Lists

11 comments to IMDb’s Top 25 Movies Of The Decade

  • theyounglion
    December 27th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

    2046
    Dirty Pretty Things
    The Twilight Samurai
    Before Sunset

  • Taisha
    December 27th, 2009 at 1:11 pm

    Lists like these suck! If we begin with Dark Knight and Lord of the Rings, I can’t even get to Up! But I digress.
    My categories based on the above list:
    Intriguing Concept: Memento
    Animation: WALL-E
    Fantasy: Pan’s Labyrinth
    Coming of Age: City of God
    Blockbuster: Toss up: Batman Begins/Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
    Best overall: The Prestige

    @theyounglion – I loveeeee Dirty Pretty Things – would have made my Intriguing Concept list for sure.

    And another indie that I loved: The Orphanage
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0464141/

  • Zeus
    December 27th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

    Great list! Especially the top ten.

  • Harlepolis
    December 27th, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    *YAWN!*
    I enjoyed only two films from that whole list.

  • Quentin Strum
    December 27th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    Gran Torino was a-hell-of-a-whole lot better than Medicine for Melancholy…lol.

  • AccidentalVisitor
    December 27th, 2009 at 5:28 pm

    Maybe I have to check out Prestige because I can’t believe its that good.

    Gran Torino is a very good film but doesn’t belong in any top 25. But since Clint’s character was so un-PC in dishing it out to minorities you know it was going to do superbly on IMDB (just like the so-so American History X).

  • Sis. Naomi
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:15 pm

    I want to say as well the list is not good but I haven’t seen most of these movies.

    The Prestige – loved this movie, great twist. Speaking of great twists, “The Orphan” and “The Uninvited” (both 2009) were all that.
    “The Departed”, just watched again, very well acted, “The Pianist”, deserved Oscar. After putting it off for years, I watched “Big Fish” (2003)and OMG, fantastic movie.
    Animation: UP and Wall-E (really liked both)
    My indie film pick is “500 Days of Summer”.
    Obvious for me, Seven Pounds & Cadillac Records should have been on here, even The Family that Preys should have gotten more recognition than some of these others films, it was actually good.

    • AccidentalVisitor
      December 28th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

      The twist in Orphan isn’t really enough to amke the rest of the film worthy.

      The Departed is a remake with white guys because Americans can’t accept seeing such a film with Asians in the lead (“Infernal Affairs”).

      Seven Pounds tries too hard.

      Cadillac Records is phony history compressed into a 90 minute story. It even makes up a love story involving Etta James and the Chess guy simply because we all know the lead white male must have the hottest woman (women) in a film and Beyonce fit that description. Besides to make the least interesting character the main character of the movie (assuredly because he was white) is another huge strike against it. It doesn’t even belong in the top 200 films of the decade.

  • Sis. Naomi
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:19 pm

    Also, how could I forget one of my favorites this decade, “Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and another Indie: “The Waitress”. Thanks

  • dave
    August 13th, 2010 at 6:57 am

    “children of men” should be in the middle of the list.