The Dark Knight is overrated. The only reason it's number 1 is because of rabid, drooling, obsessed fanboys who rallied together to cast votes on IMDB's website.

TDK is a good movie, but it's NOT a masterpiece film.

Fanboys have a very large base and they can make or break a movie. They do NOT represent what the whoel American public feel about movies.

Just my opinion.

E.C.'s Top 13: 2000 - August 2009

13. "The Departed" (2006)
12. "Iron Man" (2008)
11. "No Country for Old Men (2007)
10. "Facing the Giants" (2006)
9. "Pan's Labyrith" (2006)
8. "Zoolander" (2001)
7. "King Kong" (2005)
6. "The Dark Knight" (2008)
5. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002)
4. "The 40 Year Old Virgin" (2005)
3. "13 Going on 30" (2004)
2. "How To Loose a Guy in 10 Days" (2003)
1. "Spiderman" (2002)

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

This is actually a pretty good list, I'm shocked. All the films on here are relatively smart, intelligent, well made fare.

This begs the question, then, why the hell are we in the state we're in, cinematically. Obviously the masses, or at those who read and respond to IMDB surveys, have relatively decent taste.... I mean, I don't see Transformers 2 anywhere on this list, y'know?

i definitely agree with Deaf. Dark night was an enjoyable movie.. but #1? Heath Ledger was amazing, but i'm curious how much of the hype of his passing influenced the ratings.

Some of the plot bothered me. the not too climactic ending with the boats and the new amazing technology of seeing everything everywhere with cell phones was too last minute for me.

Besides Wall-e i think its a good list.

I liked The Pianist, but it wouldn't rank that high on my list.

And The Return of the King was entirely too long to be that good.

Spurred on by the anti-Dark Knight sentiments presented here and E.C.'s list, I decided to go through this decades wide release listings year by year on Wikipedia and see what my top 15 would look like.

Additionally, my kids are napping and there's nothing on TV so.. :D

Mostly I was curious if there WAS a better film thus far this decade than The Dark Knight, at least in my opinion. (Again, we're talking WIDE RELEASE AMERICAN/HOLLYWOOD films here.)

For me? Not really. Many, I'm sure, would point to Peter Jackson's RINGS movies, justifiably so. For me? Too much CG battlefield stuff that I found anti-climatic and dramatically shaky. Not to detract, overall, though, they are probably the best presentation of those books we could ever hope for.

So, my Top 15, in order, for the 2000's thus far...

15. Napoleon Dynamite
14. A.I.
13. Bubba Ho-Tep
12. Ghost World
11. Million Dollar Baby
10. Hustle and Flow
9. Zodiac
8. Punch Drunk Love
7. Adaptation
6. I (heart) Huckabees
5. Wall-E
4. Ratatouille
3. There Will Be Blood
2. Up
1. The Dark Knight

These were all movies that happened to grab me at some gut and/or spiritual level and pummel the shit outta' me.

And The Dark Knight did just that. It floored me that a popcorn Hollywood film had the nards to make such a pertinent statement of where we are today as a culture. Batman and his various incarnations have always been a sort of mirror of where we are as a society.

When I left The Dark Knight, I turned to my wife and said, "shit, are things THIS bad?!"

Anyway, if this denigrates me as a rabid, drooling, obsessed fanboy, so be it.

Jeff,

That was an odd reaction to TDK; a reflexion of where we are a society. I like you personally, Jeff, but I don't agree with that sentiment. I don't think TDK was even a vague attempt at reflecting ANYTHING in society today. It was just entertainment; a fine re-invention of Batman by someone with a plan...
TDK could have EASILY failed. With "Batman" 1989 on my brain I thought it would. BUT Christopher Nolan had a plan, and gosh-darn it if that plan didn't work beautifully.

Making your own list is the only way to go. Gives people an insight as to where your tastes and preferences lie. And it adds more fuel to fire, giving people more to talk/bitch about.

- E.C. Henry

THE DEPARTED has no business being on such a list. It's watchable, but there's not a great bone in its body.

I'm not really surprised by any of the films showing up on this list, though I think most of the really great stuff from this decade has been left off, just because it isn't as popular as some of the blockbusters that appear here.

My list? Listed in alphabetical order:

2046

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND

GOSFORD PARK

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD

PAN'S LABYRINTH

RUSSIAN ARK

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

No The Royal Tenenbaums for anybody? Or Oldboy? I think a lot has been left off. We've had a pretty good decade of films, despite where we find ourselves today. I don't trust IMDB or it's users.

Wow, this list SO does not represent my Top 15. How in the world can a comic book movie be taken that seriously? Was the list compiled by 12 year-olds? What a joke.

Anyways, my take, in no particular order:

Minority Report
Panic Room
There Will Be Blood
Insomnia
Syriana
Blood Diamond
American Gangster
The Others
Memento
Children of Men
War of the Worlds
Collateral
Borat
Training Day
The Constant Gardener

I'm surprised people are complaining about The Dark Knight and no one's mentioned the fact that three of the 15 slots are taken up with fucking Lord of the Rings. And I'm not a hater - I love the book and thought the movies were quite good but THE BEST movies? Imdb always skews to newer, bigger films. This list is shit.