I mentioned yesterday that I would be traveling today. I think I mentioned it… If I didn’t, I spent most of the day today driving home from a week of much needed vacation. Now that I’m home, I find that I really don’t have time to watch this week’s movie as planned. So I figured I’d go ahead and get the next post in the favorite movies by year series. If you want the previous two decades…

• 1980s
• 1990s

And now, welcome to a new millennium…

2000: The Whole Nine Yards

What if Chandler Bing had been a dentist trapped in a loveless marriage to a Canadian woman who wishes he was dead? You’d basically get The Whole Nine Yards. If you’re into dark comedies that tie a lot of loose threads into a tidy bow in the end, this is the movie for you.

Honorable Mentions: Gladiator, The Patriot, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?

2001: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

The very first Harry Potter adaptation was so spot on compared to the book. No movie can ever include every single detail found in the book it’s based on. But the imagery presented in Sorcerer’s Stone is so close to what I imagined when I read the book… I mean, great job, Chris Columbus.

Honorable Mentions: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, A Knight’s Tale, and Ocean’s Eleven

2002: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Okay… Didn’t see this coming. Two in row, huh? Look, this one isn’t as good as the first. And it’s based on my least favorite of the book series. But that doesn’t make it a bad movie, right? I mean, it’s high up on my Flickchart list for a reason. But this is one I probably wouldn’t have picked as my 2002 favorite if I’d been sifting through an actual list of 2002 movies.

Honorable Mentions: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, A Walk to Remember, and Road to Perdition

2003: The Last Samurai

This is one that I absolutely loved when I first saw it in the theater. At this point, it’s been a while since I watched it, but I remember being impressed by the action scenes. More than Tom Cruise’s performance, I was most impressed with Ken Watanabe.

Honorable Mentions: Elf, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, and Identity

2004: National Treasure

When we had not had an Indiana Jones movie in 15 years, this filled in quite nicely. And turns out it was better than the fourth Indiana Jones installment we would eventually get. Sure it’s Nicolas Cage and it makes very little sense for him to tell the bad guy he won’t steal the Declaration of Independence and then does it anyway to keep it from the bad guy’s hands. But it sure is a fun ride.

Honorable Mentions: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Spider-Man 2, and Spanglish

2005: Batman Begins

Okay… We’ve seen Batman’s origin story about eight too many times. But Christopher Nolan did it in such a way that it makes the audience believe that Batman could exist in the real world.

Honorable Mentions: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and Hitch

2006: Casino Royale

James Bond gets a little more grounded after so many movies with ridiculous gadgets and parasailing on a tsunami. And he had to when audiences have embraced characters like Jason Bourne. I remember being a little skeptical when Daniel Craig was announced as the new Bond, but he has been fantastic in the role.

Honorable Mentions: The Departed, The Sentinel, and The Pursuit of Happyness

2007: Across the Universe

I believe the term is “jukebox musical…” This takes the songs of The Beatles and tells a coherent story. So many of the covers performed in this movie are beautiful and, honestly, I could watch this thing for the songs alone.

Honorable Mentions: The Bourne Ultimatum, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I Am Legend

2008: The Dark Knight

Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to Batman Begins gave us the greatest Joker portrayal in cinematic history. Come at me, Joaquin Phoenix. Arguably the best superhero film of all time.

Honorable Mentions: Iron Man, Wall-E, and Four Christmases

2009: Star Trek

This one might be controversial. J.J. Abrams coming along and rebooting the Star Trek franchise for the big screen was a risky move. But Paramount needed to do something to inject new life into things after the disappointment that was Star Trek: Nemesis. So they introduced an alternate timeline in which we could explore the lives of the original crew at the beginning of their Starfleet careers. Personally, I thought they did an excellent job. Let’s just not discuss the sequel… okay?

Honorable Mentions: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hangover, and Zombieland

All right… That’s part three. I’ll come back on Thursday and wrap things up with the 2010s. What were your favorite movies from the 2000s? Let me know your thoughts down in the comments!