The Guardian have published their random selection of a 100 films of the past 20 years. It certainly isn’t definitive. There’s only about a dozen the average cinema-goer would have had multiplex or streaming access to. That’s roughly the same amount that overlap with my own personal choices here. I reckon there are a lot more here the unpaid, amateur blockbuster fan will agree with, than not. Though their number one (There Will Be Blood – a great film) probably fell out of the list by only a few places. My own controversial preferences are here; only one Marvel Studios film, Moneyball in pole position, my love of unwieldy, much maligned, ambitious, adult blockbusters become mainstays from entry 38 onwards. Only 5 are from non-English speaking countries though that is very much my bad, though equally I am surprised there isn’t more horror. Happy disagreeing – just please remember about 50 of the best films ever were released in 1999 which is why X, Y and Z are ineligible for this list!
- Moneyball
- No Country For Old Men
- Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2
- Dunkirk
- Toy Story 3
- The Fighter
- Zodiac
- Kill List
- The Bourne Supremacy
- Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
- The Bourne Identity
- Mystic River
- The Mist
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Phantom Thread
- La La Land
- Memento
- Amelie
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
- The Dark Knight
- Whiplash
- The Prestige
- 25th Hour
- Gran Turino
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Inception
- Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
- A Prophet
- High Fidelity
- Children Of Men
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- Sightseers
- Drive
- Green Room
- Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
- The Social Network
- Black Swan
- Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
- Bad Santa
- The Illusionist
- Battle of the Sexes
- Ghost in the Shell
- Whip It!
- Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
- Brokeback Mountain
- Quantum of Solace
- American Psycho
- Dragged Across Concrete
- The Guard
- Captain Philips
- City of God
- The Martian
- Only God Forgives
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers
- The Old Man and the Gun
- The Avengers: Infinity War
- The Jungle Book
- Casino Royale
- Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
- Inside Man
- A.I. Artificial Intelligence
- Factotum
- The Conjuring
- X-Men: Days of Future Past
- 28 Days Later
- Unbreakable
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes
- Prometheus
- Best in Show
- The Wolf of Wall Street
- Comedian
- Punch Drunk Love
- Dredd
- Gone Baby Gone
- Frozen
- Way of the Gun
- Spider-Man: Into the Spidey-Verse
- Nine Queens
- X-Men
- Sexy Beast
- Django Unchained
- A Bittersweet Life
- Crimson Peak
- The Cabin in the Woods
- The Lives of Others
- Birdman
- The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
- Ali
- Atonement
- Moonrise Kingdom
- The Spectacular Now
- Miami Vice
- X-Men 2
- In Bruges
- Donnie Darko
- It Follows
- Open Range
- Star Wars: The Force Awakens
- Seabiscuit
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