Since basically all movie theaters have been closed for a few weeks now with the coronavirus running rampant, I thought I’d take a look back at movies that were released 20 years ago, at the turn of the century in 2000. This is going to be more of a countdown post of the 88 movies I found that I have seen and were released in the 2000 calendar year. Yes, 88 movies, but based on most recent years, that is actually a relatively small number for me.
2000 has always been a special year in cinema to me as it was the year that the most cinematically perfect movie ever made (in my opinion) was released. The Best Picture nominees from that year were Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, Gladiator, Traffic, and the international film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. That year’s awards saw five films garner at least five nominations, composed of all five nominees for Best Picture. Chocolat, Erin Brockovich, and Traffic were all up for five awards, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was up for 10 awards, and eventual Best Picture winner Gladiator led the way with twelve nominations. Only three films won multiple awards that year, with both Traffic and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon winning four Oscars and Gladiator winning five. Director Steven Soderbergh also had the rare distinction of not only winning Best Director that year, but also losing, as he took home the Academy Award for directing Traffic but was also nominated for directing Erin Brockovich.
Now seeing 88 movies from one year may sound like a lot, but there are plenty notable movies from 2000 that I still have not. Some of these include Next Friday, High Fidelity, The Road to El Dorado, Love & Basketball, Hamlet, Dinosaur, Shaft, Chicken Run, Coyote Ugly, Almost Famous, Billy Elliot, Quills, The Emperor’s New Groove, Pollock, and Finding Forrester. When I revisit this list, maybe in 2025 for the 25th anniversary, some of these will have hopefully made the list and altered the rankings. For now though, here are my rankings of the movies released in 2000.
88. Whipped – Not even close to being the best comedy with Amanda Peet in it released this year
87. Bait – If you had told me after seeing this that Jamie Foxx would win an Academy Award for Best Actor in only four years, I wouldn’t have believed you
86. Lucky Numbers – One of many misfires in John Travolta’s career
85. The Ninth Gate – One of the two worst movies I’ve ever seen with Johnny Depp as the lead
84. Gossip – This unsuccessfully tried to build off of the success of Urban Legend’s format from two years prior
83. Gun Shy – Not the typical movie you would expect from Liam Neeson, with this being eight years before Taken
82. Held Up – Another little seen Jamie Foxx comedy, little seen for the right reasons
81. But I’m a Cheerleader – A coming of age comedy starring Natasha Lyonne, straight off of her roles in American Pie and Slums of Beverly Hills the previous two years
80. Eye of the Beholder – Ewan McGregor had this bomb release in between his memorable turns as Obi Wan-Kenobi in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Christian in Moulin Rouge
79. Screwed – With a comedy cast of Norm MacDonald, Dave Chappelle, and Danny DeVito, you’d expect so much more
78. Reindeer Games – Ben Affleck can be great at times, Gary Sinise is great almost always, Charlize Theron is iconic….but they couldn’t save this action movie that some people watch for a laugh at Christmas
77. Nurse Betty – Renee Zellweger, Morgan Freeman, Chris Rock, Greg Kinnear, Aaron Eckhart….but the only thing most people remember from this movie is a scene with a scalping
76. Proof of Life – Meg Ryan was known as “America’s Sweetheart” throughout the 90’s until this movie that ended up causing her divorce to Dennis Quaid
75. Loser – Jason Biggs got a lot of comedic roles in the early 2000’s based off of his success in American Pie, this one also had Mena Suvari from American Pie, but was nowhere near as memorable
74. Boys and Girls – Another Jason Biggs role with an American Pie costar (Alyson Hannigan) but in a supporting role to the leads Freddie Prinze Jr. and Claire Forlani
73. The Watcher – A year after wowing us all as Neo in The Matrix, Keanu Reeves playing a serial killer was a complete 180
72. The Tigger Movie – A family movie based around Winnie the Pooh’s famous “sidekick”
71. Down to You – Another run-of-the-mill Freddie Prinze Jr. rom-com, this time with co-stars from some of 1999’s best movies, Julia Stiles (10 Things I Hate About You) and Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions)
70. Wonder Boys – A film that was up for three Academy Awards (winning one for Best Original Song for Bob Dylan) starring future Marvel stars Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire. and Robert Downey Jr.
69. Woman on Top – Penelope Cruz as a chef whose husband cheats on her
68. The Gift – A town’s fortune teller (Two time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett) is called upon to assist in an investigation of a missing girl (Katie Holmes), also starring Keanu Reeves, Greg Kinnear, and Oscar winners Hilary Swank and J.K. Simmons
67. Battlefield Earth – A film based around the story of Scientology, starring Scientologist John Travolta as a 9ft tall alien
66. The 6th Day – Arnold Schwarzenegger and clones, much better on paper
65. Urban Legends: Final Cut – Sequel to the surprise hit, but couldn’t hold up to its predecessor
64. Keeping the Faith – A priest (Edward Norton) and a rabbi (Ben Stiller) fall for the same girl (Jenna Elfman)
63. The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps – The sequel to the monster hit with Eddie Murphy playing every member of his family
62. Chocolat – A Best Picture nominee during Miramax Films’ unprecedented run of consecutive years with a Best Picture nominee, a run that is believed to be aided by the wallets of founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, yes, that Harvey Weinstein
61. Big Momma’s House – Martin Lawrence’s most notorious film role other than Bad Boys, also the second of four movies on this list with Anthony Anderson in it
60. Me, Myself, & Irene – Jim Carrey in a dark comedy about a Rhode Island State Police trooper that develops an angry second personality
59. The Beach – A young Leonardo DiCaprio goes to Thailand and searches for a beach paradise from a map given to him by a man that goes by the name Daffy Duck
58. 28 Days – Sandra Bullock enters rehab after wrecking her sister’s wedding (Side note: a popular misunderstanding of this film is that it is related to the horror movies 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, which it definitely is not)
57. Men of Honor – A biopic of Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.), the U.S. Navy’s first African American diver, and his trainer Master Chief Billy Sunday (Robert De Niro)
56. Shanghai Noon – Jackie Chan tries to replicate the success of Rush Hour, but in the Wild West, and with Owen Wilson instead of Chris Tucker
55. Mission to Mars – A PG action thriller starring Tim Robbins, Gary Sinise, Connie Nielsen, and Jerry O’Connell sent on a mission to retrieve Don Cheadle on a previously failed “Mission to Mars”
54. Disney’s The Kid – Bruce Willis meets his 8 year old self
53. The Skulls – Joshua Jackson and Paul Walker get recruited to join a secret society at college
52. Supernova – A sci-fi/horror/thriller set on a medical ship in deep space, but doesn’t quite attain the status and prestige as the classics Alien and Event Horizon
51. Scream 3 – Neve Campbell reprises her role as Sidney Prescott in the third chapter of Wes Craven’s iconic horror series which introduced us all to the Ghostface killer
50. Charlie’s Angels – A hit movie based on the hit TV show from 1976-1981 that also spawned a sequel in 2003 and a failed re-imagining late last year
49. What Women Want – A tale of a chauvinistic executive that gains the ability to hear what all women are thinking, starring Oscar winners Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt as the leads, with Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and Oscar nominee Alan Alda in supporting roles
48. Gone in 60 Seconds – A remake of a movie from 26 years prior centered on a car thief that has to steal 50 cars in one night, featuring an all-star cast composed of Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Will Patton, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Olyphant, Chi McBride, Robert Duvall, and Vinnie Jones
47. Mission: Impossible 2 – The first sequel of Tom Cruise’s action franchise based on a TV show that ran from 1966-1973, Cruise is well-known to do almost all of his own stunts in these movies
46. Rules of Engagement – A colonel orders his troops to fire on civilians in this courtroom drama that reminds you at times of A Few Good Men, but not exactly the classic that AFGM was
45. Miss Congeniality – Sandra Bullock as an FBI agent that goes undercover at the 75th Annual Miss United States beauty pageant
44. Pay It Forward – A 12 year old student is assigned a task by his Social Studies teacher to come up with a plan to change the world through direct action, in this beautiful, underappreciated story
43. Gladiator – Russell Crowe won his only Oscar for his portrayal as General Maximus Decimus Meridius in this story of a Roman general whose wife and son are murdered by order of the Emperor’s corrupt son (Joaquin Phoenix in his first Oscar nomination), sent into slavery, and wants to avenge his family’s deaths. This movie also won Best Picture, which I obviously do not agree with since it is at #43 on this list
42. The Way of the Gun – Criminals, a kidnapping of a pregnant woman, a ransom, and the slowest car chase possible, what more could you ask for in this crime thriller written by the Oscar winning screenwriter of The Usual Suspects?
41. The Virgin Suicides – Sofia Coppola’s feature length directing debut takes on the famous novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. Typically Coppolla’s films run slow, which this one can at times, but this story of the five Lisbon sisters, their religious parents, and the boys that obsess over them is one that should be seen
40. Frequency – A son is able to talk to his father who passed away 30 years before, through an old ham radio, and tries to save him from his death before it happens
39. Shadow of the Vampire – Willem Dafoe as Max Shreck, the actor who played the role of Graf Orlok in the infamous film Nosferatu, in a movie about the making of Nosferatu and the belief that maybe Orlok was so good in his role because he was a vampire in real life. Dafoe was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance and would have won in most years, but not up against Benicio Del Toro in Traffic this year
38. What Lies Beneath – Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer in their primes as a married couple in a film reminiscent of Hitchcock that poses the question: is the house haunted or is she just losing her mind?
37. Return to Me – David Duchovny falls in love with the woman who received his late wife’s heart in a transplant
36. Boiler Room – Giovanni Ribisi as an investment broker that finds out the job isn’t exactly all it’s cracked up to be, with a supporting cast including Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Scott Caan, Jamie Kennedy, Tom Everett Scott, and Ben Affleck
35. Scary Movie – A spoof of Scream that ended up over-performing expectations at the box office and spawned four sequels
34. Whatever It Takes – A modern day telling of Cyrano de Bergerac set in high school
33. The Whole Nine Yards – A dentist (Matthew Perry) realizes that his new neighbor (Bruce Willis) is a former contract killer that was given amnesty for ratting out the mob
32. How the Grinch Stole Christmas – Jim Carrey as the Grinch in a live-action version of the famed Dr. Seuss story, ended up being the #1 movie at the domestic box office for 2000
31. Snow Day – An unexpected snowfall in upstate New York closes schools for the day while a brother and sister try to make the most of it, she tries to hijack the town’s plow which would cause the next day to be another snow day while he tries to get the most popular girl in high school to fall for him
30. Dracula 2000 – Gerard Butler as Dracula with a supporting cast including Christopher Plummer, Jennifer Esposito, Omar Epps, Sean Patrick Thomas, Danny Masterson, Shane West, and Nathan Fillion, that should be convincing enough
29. Center Stage – 12 teenagers are enrolled at the American Ballet Academy in a film that takes on competitive nature, romance, and even showcases the struggles with bulimia, also Zoe Saldana’s first movie role
28. The Replacements – Pro football is on strike so the owners hire “scabs”, replacement players, with Keanu Reeves, Orlando Jones, and Jon Favreau crossing the picket lines and taking the field for their coach, Gene Hackman
27. Remember the Titans – One of Denzel Washington’s most memorable performances in a based on actual events football movie that is more about racial integration, costarring Will Patton, Donald Faison, Ethan Suplee, Kip Pardue, Hayden Panettiere, Kate Bosworth, and Ryan Gosling
26. American Psycho – Christian Bale was warned early on that playing the role of Patrick Bateman in the film adaptation of the famous novel would be “career suicide” as he was trying to transition into a leading actor, his performance did the complete opposite of that as he is now an Oscar winning actor with four nominations under his belt to date and one of the most sought after talents out there
25. Meet the Parents – Ben Stiller has to meet his girlfriend’s parents before popping the question, but he wasn’t expecting her father (Robert De Niro) to be a retired CIA operative. The success of this film spawned two sequels while also introducing us to the phrase “circle of trust”
24. Cast Away – Tom Hanks as a FedEx executive that survives a plane crash and ends up living on an island by himself trying to survive and find a way back to civilization. Most of this film is literally just Hanks on the island with his new friend “Wilson”, a volleyball, in a role that honestly should have made him the first actor to win a third Best Actor Oscar, but the award ultimately went to Crowe in Gladiator
23. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – The fifth foreign language film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, the highest grossing international film in US history (with second place still less than half of this), the first of three Best Director nominations for Ang Lee (ironically the only one he has lost), the accolades are almost endless for Lee’s visually beautiful story of a young Chinese warrior that steals the famous sword Green Destiny
22. Erin Brockovich – Julia Roberts finally won an Oscar for her portayal of the real life single mother turned legal assistant that ended up being the catalyst in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in our country’s history
21. Bedazzled – Brendan Fraser sells his soul to the devil (Elizabeth Hurley) in exchange for seven wishes in this remake of a Dudley Moore film from 33 years prior
20. Little Nicky – Adam Sandler as the son of the Devil sent back to Earth to retrieve his two brothers causing chaos
19. Hollow Man – Kevin Bacon as the leader of a team experimenting with invisibility who volunteers to be the human test subject, causing him mental instability when it cannot be reversed
18. Pitch Black – A space transport gets caught in a meteor storm and crash lands on a planet that has three suns, a planet inhabited by flesh-eating aliens that only come out in the dark, and the planet is about to be engulfed in darkness by a month long total eclipse that happens every 22 years, starring Vin Diesel as a convict with surgically-enhanced eyes that let him see in the dark to lead the survivors
17. X-Men – The first film in the highly successful franchise that introduced us to Stan Lee’s world of mutants and, for most of us, Hugh Jackman
16. Bring It On – Who would have predicted that a simple movie about cheerleaders finding out that their former captain stole their cheers from an inner city squad would be #1 at the box office its first three weekends of release and spawn five sequels?
15. U-571 – Set in WWII, American submariners board and hijack a German U-boat in an attempt to take their Enigma machine, starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, and Jon Bon Jovi, yes, that Jon Bon Jovi
14. Final Destination – Death has a plan for all of us, in a specific order. So when a teenager dozes off after boarding a plane for his class trip to France and sees that the plane is going to explode, he goes into a frenzy causing him and a few others to get off the plane, which ends up exploding, as he had seen, after takeoff. Death comes back for them in the order they were supposed to die in a surprise horror hit that gave us four sequels so far with a fifth currently in development
13. The Cell – This classic psychological thriller literally puts Jennifer Lopez in the mind of a serial killer (Vincent D’Onofrio) as the FBI needs to find out where his latest victim is being held before she dies
12. Unbreakable – 131 passengers on board a train from New York City to Philadelphia derails and 130 of them die, everyone but David Dunn (Bruce Willis), who doesn’t even have a scratch on him. Director M. Night Shyamalan unexpectedly made a trilogy out of this with sequels released in 2017 and 2019
11. The Perfect Storm – Swordfishermen from Gloucester, Massachusetts go further out to sea than they usually do and make the big catch, but between them and Massachusetts is a convergence of two powerful weather fronts AND a hurricane, “The Perfect Storm”. This based on actual events story starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C Reilly, William Fichtner, John Hawkes, and Diane Lane opened in theaters in late June and was still making money at the box office in early December
10. Snatch – A priceless stolen diamond is being sought after by a Russian gangster, angry bookies, incompetent robbers, boxing promoters, and “maybe” Jewish jewelers. Arguably director Guy Ritchie’s greatest film featuring an incredible cast including Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, Brad Pitt (with such a spot-on, incoherent accent that the DVD came out with an option for Pikey subtitles, only for when he spoke), Rade Serbedzija, and introduced most of us to Vinnie Jones and Jason Statham
9. The Patriot – Mel Gibson plays Benjamin Martin, a veteran of the French and Indian War who just wants to go about the rest of his life peacefully. His oldest son Gabriel, played by Heath Ledger (who was actually considering quitting acting before being cast in this role), wants to fight for the Colonies in the American Revolution, against his father’s wishes. Jason Isaacs plays British Colonel William Tavington, who is undoubtedly one of the most memorable villains in cinematic history. This all-star cast also includes Joely Richardson, Chris Cooper, Tcheky Karyo, Tom Wilkinson, Donal Logue, and Adam Baldwin in a film that is vaguely reminiscent, obviously with a different setting, of Mel Gibson’s Best Picture winner Braveheart from five years before
8. O Brother, Where Art Thou? – A comedy directed and written by Ethan and Joel Coen, on a screenplay adapting the story of Homer’s The Odyssey but set in the deep south in the 1930s. George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, and Holly Hunter star in this classic telling of the famed epic poem which was nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography)
7. Thirteen Days – Most of us know part of the story, some of us know most of the story, but how many people actually know the whole story of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Set in October 1962, this film details the most intense thirteen days of the Cold War, which could have ultimately created a chain of events that would have led to the beginning of World War III
6. Dude, Where’s My Car? – Potheads Jesse and Chester (played hilariously by Ashton Kutcher and Seann William Scott, respectively) just woke up from a night of major partying but have no recollection of what happened. A call from their girlfriends (Jennifer Garner and Marla Sokoloff as The Twins) reminds them that their one year anniversary is today. The gifts must be in the car but….Dude, Where’s My Car? The boys must backtrack throughout the day to figure out the incredible sequence of events from the night before and ultimately where their car is. The success of this stoner comedy opened the door for Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle four years later, which also surprisingly gave us two sequels
5. Here on Earth – A tearjerker that tends to be forgotten about when the phrase “tragic love story” gets thrown around. Kelley (Chris Klein) and Jasper (Josh Hartnett) are from different worlds (Kelley goes to a rich, private school while Jasper is a local in town) and get into a car race after Kelley brags about his brand new Benz which ultimately ends up leaving the local diner Mable’s Table, where Jasper’s girlfriend Samantha (Leelee Sobieski) works, in ruins. To teach them a lesson, the judge sentences them to help rebuild the diner, while Kelley has to stay with Jasper’s family, as his mother is the owner
4. Road Trip – Four friends at college need to retrieve a video tape of one of them cheating on his girlfriend, a tape that was mailed to her by accident. 1,800 miles in three days, can it be done? Yes, but it’s more difficult when the unexpected happens, and continues to happen. Josh (Breckin Meyer), E.L. (Seann William Scott), Rubin (Paulo Costanzo), and Kyle (DJ Qualls) are on this mission and leave Barry (Tom Green) behind to tend to and feed Mitch, a pet snake. Road Trip reunites Seann William Scott, Andy Dick, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, three costars from Dude, Where’s My Car?
3. Romeo Must Die – A modern-day telling of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but instead of the Montagues and Capulets, we have the Sings and O’Days, two rival gang families. The Sings are a Chinese family, while the O’Days are African-American. These two rival families are trying to buy, mostly by force, all of the waterfront properties in Oakland to sell them to a white businessman planning to bring a new NFL franchise there. Jet Li stars as Han (our version of Romeo) while singer Aaliyah stars as Trish (Juliet). Costars in this action/martial arts crime thriller include Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong, Delroy Lindo, D.B. Woodside, Anthony Anderson, and rapper DMX. Aaliyah’s #1 hit song “Try Again”, to me, is one of the best soundtrack songs of all-time, and I’ve included the music video below for your enjoyment. Not-so-fun fact: Romeo Must Die was Aaliyah’s acting debut, but also the only movie of hers that would be released before her tragic death in a plane crash in the Bahamas in August of the next year
2. Requiem for a Dream – You’ve definitely heard of the name Darren Aronofsky, the director of this look into the world of drug addiction. Aronofsky has shockingly only directed seven feature length movies as of the time of this post (in chronological order: Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, Noah, and mother!) and odds are that you’ve seen more than one of them. This tale of addiction to heroin, cocaine, and speed doesn’t focus on the drugs themselves, but focuses more on the addiction aspect. This film pits three eventual Oscar winners together (Ellen Burstyn who was also nominated for her role here, Jared Leto, and Jennifer Connelly) along with Marlon Wayans as the main characters. Requiem for a Dream is one of those movies that when you plan to watch it, you need to give yourself extra time afterwards just to wind down from it (other movies like this would be Aronofsky’s mother! from 2017, the 2008 French horror film Martyrs and a pair of Gaspar Noe’s films Irreversible and Climax)
1. Traffic – In my opinion, the most cinematically perfect movie ever made. No flaws, perfect storytelling. Traffic has three intertwining stories centered around America’s war on drugs. One story follows the newly appointed drug czar of the United States (Michael Douglas) and his daughter (Erika Christensen) who is addicted to heroin. Another story follows a pregnant wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones) who finds out that her husband (Steven Bauer) hasn’t been truthful about his business and is actually a drug lord for the Obregon brothers in the US. The third storyline takes place mostly in Mexico (in Spanish, so be prepared for subtitles, if that bothers you) and follows a police officer (Benicio Del Toro) and his partner (Jacob Vargas) who get hired by General Salazar (Milian) to capture the hitman Francisco Flores (Clifton Collins Jr) who works for the Tijuana Cartel, headed by the aforementioned Obregon brothers. This was director Steven Soderbergh’s first time pulling double duty as cinematographer for his own film using the pseudonym Peter Andrews, which he has done for all of his movies ever since. Traffic was nominated for five Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director for Steven Soderbergh, Best Supporting Actor for Benicio Del Toro, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing) winning every single one except for Best Picture?!? This is my main point in calling Traffic my generation’s Citizen Kane. Citizen Kane is highly regarded as the greatest movie ever made, but also lost Best Picture for 1941 to How Green Was My Valley.
In all sincerity, thank you to every one who followed this countdown as it unfolded and also those who decided to wait until the end just to see the whole list at once. My next project will be inspired by this year’s Best Picture winner, Bong Joon Ho’s masterpiece Parasite. Yes, Parasite was an incredible story, but was it the best film of the decade?
Zackman at the Movies 