Film Strip

Last week, a coworker and I were on the subject of movies, and he posed the question, “What are your top five movies from the last five years?”

My immediate follow-up was of course, “Five years back from today, or do you mean 2006 – 2010?” 🙂

“2006 – 2010.”

I said I needed a few minutes to gather my thoughts, and look up what came out in that time span, before I would get back to him. I of course checked my Rating History on IMDB. For those of you who do not know what the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) is, then you are missing out on winning any movie trivia contest ever. But on IMDB, you can rate movies from 1 – 10, and it saves those ratings on a big list in your profile (free to register and they never e-mail you stuff or sell your e-mail).

I had ten movies that I rated 10 over that time span, and about twenty more that I rated 9. Some surprised me with their ratings, but considering I usually rate the movie right after I watch it, my ratings don’t account for a movie holding up over time. That is, until I go back and realize the folly of my ways and update a few ratings.

I fiddled with a ranking system for these thirty-or-so movies, and knowing that what I like best might change from day to day, I decided on the following as my Top Five Movies From The Last Five Years.

1. Toy Story 3
2. WALL*E
3. No Country For Old Men
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Up

Now, I will say before you make too many quick judgements that I debated going back and forth between which movies entertained me the most and which movies were the best cinematic films, and I couldn’t decided and ultimately made an arbitrary list.

Looking back, of these movies, I’ve only seen Toy Story 3, No Country For Old Men, and There Will Be Blood one time each. WALL*E I’ve seen twice, and Up I’ve seen five or six times, once with the Director Commentary. So using that as a barometer, they may not be my favorite movies because I’ve watch Superbad at least eight times and I’ve watched Star Trek three time in the last three weeks. But that just means I like those movies, despite their flaws, and I’m not putting them up in my arbitrary definition of “Top” at this time.

In the past five years I can remember only one Oscar Race where I was on the edge of my seat, and that was between No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood. These are such fantastic movies. Do I want to watch them every day? No. But I can still deem them great. Schindler’s List is an amazing movie, but I can only bring myself to watch it once every few years because of how powerful it is. Therefore, multiple watches does not make is “Top.”

But here’s the issue I wanted to highlight. My coworker’s biggest problem with my ranking was that I had three Pixar movies in my Top Five. He didn’t necessarily argue with Toy Story 3, but he did have problems with WALL*E and Up. Those who know me or have read my older blog posts know that my inclusion of three Pixar movies in my Top Five is not unusual. In my opinion, Pixar consistently creates the best movies out there. Hands down, no question.

There’s a reason Up and Toy Story 3 were nominated for Best Picture, and sooner or later a Pixar movie is going to win.

Well, it turns out this guy had not seen WALL*E or Up and had no basis for discounting them. I often forget that not everyone is a kid at heart like me, and people don’t all rush out to see the latest “kids” movies. (At least the ones that look good.)

Long story short, I stand by my decision to include three Pixar movies in my Top Five Movies of the Last Five Years. I personally admit to shedding a few tears at the end of Toy Story 3 (thankfully behind my hug 3D glasses), and I will fight anyone who challenges my doing so (with words, not fisticuffs).