Top 50, 2000s

It wasn’t a bad decade, cinematically speaking. It can’t be held up to the 30s, 40s or 70s, but was certainly better than much of the 80s and 90s.

There was a lesson not learned from Vietnam about the public appetite for war movies (especially anti-war movies) while a war was still ongoing, with Iraq and Blackwater-esque films flopping one after another — and then one won Best Picture in spite of it all.

Blockbusters got dumber and more expensive to make, but ended up making more money in spite of it.

Animation grew up a little, but will remain a children’s genre in spite of it, thanks to...