The turn of the century and cinema was changing fast. The 2000s was the start of the interconnected franchise. The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter had shown that a long series of interconnected movies that struck a chord was a licence to print money over-and-over-again. Studios realised that a people who grew up reading comic books were now shelling out to see the films, and they took them seriously not as embarrassing reads. The groundwork was laid for the Marvel franchise to begin. But there was still room for great work: wonderful autobiographical work, personal epics, social issues films and political dramas among others from all around the world were released to critical and popular acclaim.
2000
 | Almost Famous – Cameron Crowe’s autobiography of his life as a teenage journalist following a rock band around America | Director: Cameron Crowe Cast: Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup |
 | Amores Perros – a series of interconnected stories in Mexico city, all of them connected to dogs. Director’s edgy calling card | Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu Cast: Emilio Echevarría, Gael García Bernal, Goya Toledo |
 | Chocolat – vomit-inducing sugar overload, as a chocolatier arrives in a small French town and changes everyone for the better | Director: Lasse Hallström Cast: Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp |
 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – smash hit martial arts film, as warriors feud over the ownership of a legendary sword | Director: Ang Lee Cast: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi |
 | Erin Brockovich – true-life story of a brash legal aid who builds a case against a corrupt power company polluting a towns water | Director: Steven Soderbergh Cast: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart |
 | Gladiator – Best Picture winning epic: a Roman General turned gladiator, wants revenge for the death of his family | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen |
 | Love’s Labour’s Lost – Kenneth Branagh’s old-school musical version of Shakespeare, an interesting semi-failure | Director: Kenneth Branagh Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Natasha McElhone, Adrian Lester |
 | Mission: Impossible: II – only bad film in the franchise: egotistical Tom Cruise vehicle about the hunt for a virus | Director: John Woo Cast: Tom Cruise, Thandiwe Newton, Dougray Scott |
 | Rules of Engagement – dreadful, border-line racist, courtroom drama about a colonel fireing in Iranian civilians | Director: William Friedkin Cast: Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Kingsley |
 | U-571 – American sailors steal the Enigma machine so their code breakers can crack it. Didn’t go down well in the UK | Director: Jonathan Mostow Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Harvey Keitel, Bill Paxton |
 | Vertical Limit – dreadful Wages of Fears rip-off, as mountainers carry explosives up a mountain to dig out stranded friends | Director: Martin Campbell Cast: Chris O’Donnell, Bill Paxton, Scott Glenn |
2001
 | Ali – Will Smith captures The Greatest in a film that misses the fire and passion of Muhammad Ali | Director: Michael Mann Cast: Will Smith, Jon Voight, Jamie Foxx |
 | A Beautiful Mind – Best Picture winning, old-fashioned and sanitised biopic of troubled mathematician John Nash | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany |
 | Black Hawk Down – Immersive combat film, about the Battle of Mogadishu, brilliantly made, controversial for its politics | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana |
 | Donnie Darko – landmark cult film: a disturbed boys imagines a huge rabbit who may be a herald of the end of the world | Director: Richard Kelly Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Mary McDonnell |
 | Enemy at the Gates – uninspired war epic, as sniper duel during the Battle of Stalingrad | Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud Cast: Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Rachael Weisz, Ed Harris |
 | Gosford Park – a murder takes place at a country house – but the real story is the vicious class differences | Director: Robert Altman Cast: Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, Clive Owen, Alan Bates |
 | Hannibal – belated sequel, a big stupid pantomime, based on a brash and dumb book | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Gary Oldman |
 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – first, and most consciously kid-friendly, of the mighty franchise | Director: Chris Colombus Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – first, and possibly most beloved, of the series – gets everything right | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen |
 | Moulin Rouge! – brash, loud and wonderfully romantic jukebox musical, as a writer falls in love with a courtesan | Director: Baz Luhrmann Cast: Nicole Kidman, Ewan McGregor, Jim Broadbent |
 | Mulholland Dr – Lynch’s surrealist, dream-like masterpiece as two young women find love and mystery in Hollywood | Director: David Lynch Cast: Naomi Watts, Laura Harring, Justin Theroux |
2002
 | About Schmidt – a retired meek widower travels to his daughter’s wedding, and comes to realisations about his life | Director: Alexander Payne Cast: Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Hope Davis |
 | Catch Me If You Can – a young conman is pursued by a dedicated FBI Agent in this old-school caper | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken |
 | Chicago – Best Picture winning musical: its all about show not truth, as two women are tried for murder | Director: Rob Marshall Cast: Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta Jones |
 | The Count of Monte Cristo – a man, wrongly imprisoned for years, vows revenge on the friend who betrayed him | Director: Kevin Reynolds Cast: Jim Caviezel, Guy Pearce, Dagmara Dominczyk |
 | Die Another Day – Brosnan’s swansong which starts daringly but swiftly descends into sub-Moore nonsense | Director: Lee Tamahori Cast: Pierce Brosnan, Halle Berry, Toby Stephens |
 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – second, slightly darker, entry in the franchise | Director: Chris Colombus Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | The Hours – high-brow, rather self-important, Woolf biopic, and musing on her Mrs Dalloway in multiple time periods | Director: Stephen Daldry Cast: Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – the War of the Ring begins as Jackson expertly juggles multiple storylines | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis |
 | Minority Report – dark sci-fi noir: a police force arresting people for crimes they are yet to commit. Flunks the ending | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Tom Cruise, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton |
 | The Pianist – hugely moving Holocaust drama as a Polish pianist survives the Ghetto | Director: Roman Polanski Cast: Adrien Brody, Emilia Fox, Thomas Kreschmann |
 | Star Trek: Nemesis – franchise-killing bomb, as Picard takes on a clone of his younger self | Director: Stuart Baird Cast: Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Tom Hardy |
 | Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones – possibly even worse than the first one, a tone-deaf love story | Director: George Lucas Cast: Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christiensen, Natalie Portman |
 | The Sum of All Fears – decent attempted franchise relaunch as Jack Ryan scrambles to prevent a nuclear war | Director: Phil Alden Robinson Cast: Ben Affleck, Morgan Freeman, Liev Schreiber |
 | The Time Machine – disastrously awful version, made worse by being directed by Wells’ Great-Grandson | Director: Simon Wells Cast: Guy Pearce, Samantha Mumba, Jeremy Irons |
2003
 | City of God – set in Rio de Janerio; kids have little to choose than which gang to join in this episodic, influential, electric film | Director: Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino |
 | Cold Mountain – in the Civil War, a man deserts to return to his love in this slightly distant epic, too polished to be moving | Director: Anthony Minghella Cast: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger |
 | The Core – hilariously silly sci-fi: scientists must drill to the centre of the Earth to start the earth rotating again | Director: Jon Amiel Cast: Hilary Swank, Aaron Eckhart, Stanley Tucci |
 | The Last Samurai – self-important drama, as a civil war vet joins a Samurai revolt in Japan, becoming… the last Samurai | Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Timothy Spall |
 | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – epic conclusion, won Best Picture and every other award in sight | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen |
 | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World – a personal fav, a Napoleonic naval captain pursues a French ship | Director: Peter Weir Cast: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, James D’Arcy |
 | The Matrix Reloaded – pretentious and (whisper it) rather dull sequel that took all the faux-philosophy way too far | Director: The Wachowskis Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne |
 | The Matrix Revolutions – if you thought the above was bad… two films that near killed the franchise stone dead | Director: The Wachowskis Cast: Keanu Reeves, Carrie Anne Moss, Laurence Fishburne |
 | School of Rock – enjoyable comedy, as a slacker musician pretends to be teacher and forms a band with the students | Director: Richard Linklater Cast: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White |
2004
 | The Alamo – faintly revisionist history, a notorious flop as it seemed, contrary to the poster, people had forgotten | Director: John Lee Hancock Cast: Dennis Quaid, Billy Bob Thornton, Jason Patric |
 | The Aviator – gorgeous homage to old-school Hollywood, a biopic of Howard Hughes, focusing on his passion and OCD | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale |
 | Collateral – a hitman hires a taxi driver to escort him from hit-to-hit and they strike up an odd near friendship | Director: Michael Mann Cast: Tom Cruise, Jamie Foxx, Jada Pinkett Smith |
 | The Day After Tomorrow – ecological disaster devastates the world in this epic disaster movie | Director: Roland Emmerich Cast: Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum |
 | Downfall – the last days of Hitler in shocking detail, in the definitive Hitler film, the first German film about the dictator | Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel Cast: Bruno Ganz, Alexandra Maria Lara, Ulrich Matthes |
 | Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – a man his his memory wiped of his ex – but changes his mind during the procedure | Director: Michel Gondry Cast: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood |
 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Cuarón completely changes the franchise, in its best entry | Director: Alfonso Cuarón Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | Hellboy – colourful, fun and gently dark comic-book about a demon who fights on our side | Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, John Hurt |
 | The Incredibles – a family of superheroes have to hide their powers, after superheroes are banned. Superb action comedy | Director: Brad Bird Cast: Craig T Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L Jackson |
 | King Arthur – average Arthurian epic, with miscast leads and the knights as Roman cavalry | Director: Antoine Fuqua Cast: Clive Owen, Keira Knightley, Ioan Gruffudd |
 | Million Dollar Baby – Best Picture winning sucker punch (literally) as a woman dreams of becoming a boxing champ | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Clint Eastwood, Hilary Swank, Morgan Freeman |
 | The Motorcycle Diaries – a young Che Guevara motorbikes over South America with a friend and becomes political | Director: Walter Salles Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Rodrigo de le Serna, Mia Maestro |
 | Troy – revisionist Trojan war epic. One of those epic films I have a real soft spot for | Director: Wolfgang Petersen Cast: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom |
 | Vera Drake – a 1950s abortionist is arrested in this superb social issues drama, possibly Leigh’s best film | Director: Mike Leigh Cast: Imelda Staunton, Phil Davis, Peter Wight |
2005
 | Batman Begins – Batman goes back to basics in the first of Nolan’s extraordinary, genre redefining trilogy | Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Michael Caine |
 | Capote – austere biopic of Truman Capote, focusing on his writing of In Cold Blood | Director: Bennett Miller Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Chris Cooper |
 | The Constant Gardener – superb, emotional Le Carré film: a diplomat investigates his wife’s murder in Kenya | Director: Fernando Meirelles Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Bill Nighy, Danny Huston |
 | Crash – infamous Best Picture winner: racial tensions divide ordinary people in Los Angeles | Director: Paul Haggis Cast: Sandra Bullock, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle |
 | Good Night, and Good Luck – earnest and liberal film as Edward R Murrow reports against McCarthyism | Director: George Clooney Cast: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jnr |
 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Harry and friends face the return of Lord Voldemort | Director: Mike Newell Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint |
 | A History of Violence – superb, complex thriller: a man’s defence of his diner leads to secrets about his past emerging | Director: David Cronenberg Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt, Ed Harris |
 | King Kong – Jackson cashes in his chips to make the film of his dreams, an affectionate and romantic remake | Director: Peter Jackson Cast: Adrien Brody, Naomi Watts, Jack Black |
 | Match Point – Allen’s tone-deaf London-based drama about a social climbing tennis coach | Director: Woody Allen Cast: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Scarlett Johansson |
 | Memoirs of a Geisha – lush but totally empty romantic drama that takes a tourist’s eye to Japan | Director: Rob Marshall Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Ken Watanabe, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh |
 | Munich – Israel sends assassins to wipe out Black September in this noble attempt to engage with terrorism | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, Ciarán Hinds |
 | Pride and Prejudice – decent but sometimes rather obvious adaptation of Austen | Director: Joe Wright Cast: Keira Knightley, Matthew MacFadyen, Donald Sutherland |
 | The Proposition – dark and violent Aussie western: a man is forced to hunt down his brother, a ruthless killer | Director: John Hillcoat Cast: Guy Pearce, Danny Huston, Ray Winstone, Emily Watson |
 | Red Eye – on an overnight flight, a sinister man orders a woman to do everything he says – or her father dies | Director: Wes Craven Cast: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox |
 | Syriana – dense political drama about the corruption of the international oil industry | Director: Stephen Gaghan Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wright |
 | Walk the Line – heartfelt Johnny Cash biopic | Director: James Mangold Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Reece Witherspoon |
2006
 | Amazing Grace – earnest, Sunday-afternoonish William Wilberforce biopic | Director: Michael Apted Cast: Ioan Gruffudd, Romola Garai, Benedict Cumberbatch |
 | Apocalypto – a man runs for his life in the Aztec empire, in this epic chase movie, unique for being in Mayan | Director: Mel Gibson Cast: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernández, Jonathan Brewer |
 | Blood Diamond – a father searches for his kidnapped son – but others are interested in the priceless diamond he carries | Director: Edward Zwick Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Djimon Hounsou, Jennifer Connelly |
 | Children of Men – fantastic dystopian sci-fi: in a future where humanity is infertile, a pregnant woman is in danger | Director: Alfonso Cuarón Cast: Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine |
 | The Da Vinci Code – crap film version of a crap book that was a sensation at the time. Conspiracy about Jesus | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Tom Hanks, Audrey Tautou, Ian McKellen |
 | The Departed – Best Picture winning crime thriller: the robbers have a mole with the cops and vice versa. | Director: Martin Scorsese Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson |
 | The Devil Wears Prada – a tyrannical editor at a fashion magazine terrorises her staff | Director: David Frankel Cast: Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt |
 | The Good Shepherd – strange mix of fact and fiction, in this clumsy history of the CIA | Director: Robert De Niro Cast: Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro |
 | The Illusionist – an Austro-Hungarian mystic unearths political tensions in the Empire | Director: Neil Berger Cast: Ed Norton, Paul Giamatti, Jessica Biel |
 | The Last King of Scotland – Idi Amin takes a Scottish doctor under his wing, who slowly realises Amin is a monster | Director: Kevin MacDonald Cast: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington |
 | Mission: Impossible: III – exciting return to form, as Hunt hunts down a arms dealer with a secret weapon | Director: JJ Abrams Cast: Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan |
 | Notes on a Scandal – a teacher has an affair with a student – putting her in the power of a woman obsessed with her | Director: Richard Eyre Cast: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett, Bill Nighy |
 | Poseidon – predictable remake that adds nothing to the original | Director: Wolfgang Petersen Cast: Josh Lucas, Kurt Russell, Emmy Rossum |
 | The Queen – the crown hangs in the balance in the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana | Director: Stephen Frears Cast: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell |
 | Thank You For Smoking – a corporate lobbyist is a mouthpiece for the smoking industry | Director: Jason Reitman Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Katie Holmes, Maria Bello |
 | The Wind That Shakes the Barley – Loach mourns the loss of the Socialist Republic of Ireland in the 1920s | Director: Ken Loach Cast: Cillian Murphy, Pádraic Delaney, Liam Cunningham |
2007
 | American Gangster – in 1970s Harlem, a secretive Black gangster takes over the drugs trade, while a cop tries to identify him | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor |
 | Atonement – a couple are denied happiness after a series of misunderstandings at a house party | Director: Joe Wright Cast: Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Saoirse Ronan |
 | Beowulf – motion-capture retelling of the legend, gory but surprisingly thoughtful | Director: Robert Zemeckis Cast: Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie |
 | Charlie Wilson’s War – a congressman wins secret funding for Afghan rebels against the USSR | Director: Mike Nichols Cast: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman |
 | Control – beautifully made and heart-rending biopic of Joy Division lead singer Ian Curtis | Director: Anton Corbijn Cast: Sam Riley, Alexandra Maria Lara, Samantha Morton |
 | Eastern Promises – chilling fairytale as a midwife’s hunt for a babies family leads to the dark criminal underbelly of London | Director: David Cronenberg Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel |
 | Elizabeth: The Golden Age – belated sequel, more conventional than the first, that tackles the Spanish Armada | Director: Shekhar Kapur Cast: Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush |
 | Enchanted – delightfully affectionate live-action Disney spoof, as a princess falls from her fairy-tale world into ours | Director: Kevin Lima Cast: Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden |
 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – very well adapted from a sprawling novel, Yates’ first film in the series | Director: David Yates Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass – disastrous attempt to turn Philip Pullman into cheap Potter/Tolkien hybrid | Director: Chris Weitz Cast: Dakota Blue Richards, Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig |
 | I Am Legend – after a deadly plague, only Will Smith survives in a world full of monsters | Director: Francis Lawrence Cast: Will Smith |
 | Mr Brooks – a respectable businessman is driven to acts of murder by his imaginary friend | Director: Bruce A Evans Cast: Kevin Costner, William Hurt, Demi Moore |
 | Nightwatching – a dramatic exploration of the Rembrandt painting, part bizarre conspiracy theory, part art lecture | Director: Peter Greenaway Cast: Martin Freeman, Eva Birthistle, Johdi May |
 | No Country for Old Men – Best Picture winning nihilistic thriller; a man finds a suitcase of money, chased by a ruthless hitman | Director: The Coen Brothers Cast: Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones |
 | Stardust – charming romantic fantasia, as a young man protects a women who is literally a fallen star | Director: Matthew Vaughan Cast: Charlie Cox, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer |
 | Sunshine – a space mission to restart the sun’s care with a nuclear bomb is mankind’s last chance to escape extinction | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Cillian Murphy, Rose Byrne, Chris Evans |
 | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street – bloody Sondheim adaptation of the serial killing barber | Director: Tim Burton Cast: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman |
 | There Will Be Blood – one of the greatest film of the decade, a ruthless oil man will sacrifice anything for fortune | Director: Paul Thomas Anderson Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Paul Dano, Kevin J O’Connor |
 | Zodiac – three men hunt for the Zodiac Killer in Fincher’s masterful true-crime thriller about the dangers of obsession | Director: David Fincher Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jnr |
2008
 | Body of Lies – in an Middle East, a CIA agent battles terrorists… and the political incompetence of his handlers at Langley | Director: Ridley Scott Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong |
 | Brideshead Revisited – terrible version of Waugh’s classic, that turns it into a bog-standard romantic plot-boiler | Director: Julian Jarrold Cast: Matthew Goode, Hayley Atwell, Ben Whishaw |
 | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – a man grows old backwards in this whimsical shaggy dog story | Director: David Fincher Cast: Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Taraji P. Henson |
 | The Dark Knight – possibly greatest ever comic book movie, exciting, intelligent and thrilling as Batman takes on the Joker | Director: Christopher Nolan Cast: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Gary Oldman |
 | Doubt – stagy, but very well acted, play adaptation; in the 1950s a nun suspects the priest at her school to be an abuser | Director: John Patrick Shanley Cast: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams |
 | Frost/Nixon – very well made play adaptation about David Frost’s famous interviews with Richard Nixon | Director: Ron Howard Cast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon |
 | Good – an intellectual joins the Nazi party because he feels he must – and becomes more and more corrupted | Director: Vincente Amorim Cast: Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs, Jodie Whittaker |
 | Hancock – misfiring satire, about a drunken superhero who is coached to change into a hero we can respect | Director: Peter Berg Cast: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman |
 | Hellboy II: The Golden Army – fantasy tinged sequel, even more personal, as Hellboy tries to stop an army | Director: Guillermo del Toro Cast: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones |
 | In Bruges – superb black comedy as two hitmen hide out in Bruges after a job gone wrong | Director: Martin McDonagh Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes |
 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull – fatally flawed Indy film that I’m not sure its makers wanted to make | Director: Steven Spielberg Cast: Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf, Cate Blanchett |
 | Milk – van Sant’s heartfelt (if traditional) biopic rightly places gay-rights pioneer Harvey Milk back in the public consciousness | Director: Gus van Sant Cast: Sean Penn, James Franco, Josh Brolin |
 | The Reader – dreadful, tasteless drama about a former concentration guard who seduces a young boy to read to her | Director: Stephen Daldry Cast: Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross |
 | Slumdog Millionaire – Best Picture winner; in India a young man competes in a quiz show: his difficult life gives him the answers | Director: Danny Boyle Cast: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Madhur Mittel |
2009
 | Avatar – James Cameron’s huge hit with small cultural impact: a man sides with his adopted culture on a rich alien world | Director: James Cameron Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver |
 | The Blind Side – sentimental family drama: a rich white woman adopts a struggling Black teenager with a gift for football | Director: John Lee Hancock Cast: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron |
 | An Education – coming-of-age drama as a teenager flirts with abandoning university for an affair with an older man | Director: Lone Scherfig Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina |
 | Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – Harry faces terrible dangers as Voldemort’s plans are slowly revealed | Director: David Yates Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson |
 | The Hurt Locker – Best Picture winning Iraq war drama, about a bomb disposal expert addicted to the rush from combat | Director: Kathryn Bigelow Cast: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty |
 | The International – an Interpol agent investigates corrupt business practices. 70s style thriller, a guilty pleasure of mine | Director: Tom Twyker Cast: Clive Owen, Naomi Watts, Armin Mueller-Stahl |
 | Invictus – Mandela brings South Africa together by uniting the country behind the Rugby team at the 1995 World Cup | Director: Clint Eastwood Cast: Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon |
 | Public Enemies – hyper-realistic biopic of John Dillinger and the FBI agent tracking him down | Director: Michael Mann Cast: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard |
 | Sherlock Holmes – all-action Sherlock Holmes version, gothic buddy-movie with Holmes using his skills to win fights | Director: Guy Ritchie Cast: Robert Downey Jnr, Jude Law, Rachel McAdams |
 | A Single Man – a grieving gay academic plans to end his life in this heartfelt emotional film. | Director: Tom Ford Cast: Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Nicholas Hoult |
 | Solomon Kane – in the 1600s a mercenary is cursed by the Devil and tries to save his soul by fighting for good | Director: Michael J Bassett Cast: James Purefoy, Max von Sydow, Rachel Hurd Wood |
 | Up in the Air – a consultant who flies across America, firing people for downsizing companies, questions his choices | Director: Jason Reitman Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick |
 | Watchmen – reverent graphic novel adaptation that captures the visuals but not the depth | Director: Zach Snyder Cast: Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode |
 | The White Ribbon – chilling parable: a village in 1900s Germany faces a series of outrages possibly carried out by children | Director: Micheal Haneke Cast: Christian Friedel, Ernst Jacobi, Burghart Klaußner |
 | The Young Victoria – affectionate costume drama on the romance between Victoria and Albert | Director: Jean-Marc Vallée Cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany |
Movie Musings 