The 100 Best Movies of the Decade 2000-2009 Revealed by IntenseExperiences.com

(PRWEB) January 4, 2010 -- The popular website IntenseExperiences.com has revealed the 100 best movies of the decade. In what may be remembered as the decade of the animated feature film, nine animated movies made the 100 best movies of 2000-2009 list, including five by Pixar studios, and the movie in the #1 spot, Spirited Away, by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki.

Spirited Away is an allegorical coming-of-age adventure that follows a young girl in a world inhabited by spirits and monsters, many drawn from Japanese mythology, and it has often been compared to Alice in Wonderland. Originally released in Japan in 2001, it became the highest grossing film in Japanese history. The film was released in the United States in 2002, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and has grossed nearly $300 million worldwide to date.

With five films in the 100 best movies of the decade (http://www.intenseexperiences.com/100-best-movies-of-the-decade.html) list, Clint Eastwood would take the title of director of the decade. This includes Flags of Our Fathers (#89), Gran Torino (#50), Million Dollar Baby (#48) which won the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Achievement in Directing, Mystic River (#26), and Letters from Iwo Jima (#8).

Nine documentaries also made the best movies of the decade list. This includes Man on Wire (#16), about the fiery tightrope walker Phillipe Petite who in 1974 illegally walked a wire rigged between the two World Trade Center towers, and Grizzly Man (#6), about nature-lover Timothy Treadwell whose overzealousness for bears ended in very tragic results in 2003.

2007 and 2001 had the most entries in the best movies of the decade, with fourteen each. Seven films from the last year of the decade, 2009, made the list, including Up (#30), District 9 (#28), and Avatar (#22).

Brian Vaszily, the founder of IntenseExperiences.com, says the criteria for choosing the 100 best movies of the decade included the usual components such as acting, direction, cinematography, scriptwriting, and editing, but the primary criteria was the overall ability of the movie to "nudge or fully sweep you toward greater awareness of the joy, mystery and wonder of being alive."

Vaszily says, "The movies that made this list, particularly those in the top ten, are the movies you need to see again and again." He adds that any kind of list like this is of course subjective, and the main point of such lists is to both to recommend great movies to others and to prompt enjoyable discussion and debate over one of our favorite modern pastimes.

The top five movies in the 100 best movies list are:

1)    Spirited Away (2001)

2)    The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003)

3)    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2002)

4)    Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

5)    No Country for Old Men (2007)

For the full list of 100, see the Best Movies of the Decade at http://www.intenseexperiences.com/100-best-movies-of-the-decade.html .

IntenseExperiences.com provides readers engaging insights and experiences in areas ranging from the arts to spirituality to travel that can transform their lives in positive ways. Founder Brian Vaszily is available for interviews and commentary via the contact information in this release or via the Contact Us area at www.IntenseExperiences.com.

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