Scraping the Barrel

1. Shrek

Mike Myers plays the lovable title character with a heartwarming balance of sympathy and realism. Eddie Murphy, as Donkey, fills the film with quips-a-plenty. Their journey to rescue no-nonsense Princess Fiona from a fire-breathing dragon is filled with crude humor and clever wisecracks that belie the film's PG-rating.

By poking fun at traditional fairy tales, Shrek provides unexpected plot twists and a fresh take on the importance of inner beauty -- something that should appeal to viewers of all ages.

2. Apocalypse Now Redux
Tagging on 50 minutes of unreleased footage, director Francis Ford Coppola revisits the madness of Vietnam.

The film's most enthralling images -- helicopters blaring across napalm-coated treelines and Martin Sheen's face rising from the waters -- reminded an audience blinded by modern cinematic fluff what revolutionary filmmaking was all about.

3. Memento
Christopher Nolan's dark thriller wound its way through countless plot twists, making "Memento" a mind-bending and alluringly original film. One can not deny Guy Pearce's brilliant performance as Leonard, who has lost his short-term memory but is driven to avenge his wife's murder all the same.

4. Harry Potter
For those of us who have been hiding under rocks and haven't read the Harry Potter series, this movie is still a must see. Boasting amazing visual effects and complex, realistic characters, the film is a call to action to crawl out from under the rock, buy books and prepare for the sequel.

5. Mullholland Dr.
The film's puzzling plot, though decipherable, is secondary to its fantastic sequences of sublime horror. You're not sure what's real, but as Lynch profoundly argues, nothing is unreal.

6. Moulin Rouge
Potentially an embarassing flop, director Baz Luhrmann swirls together a formulaic love story and untrained singers to form a film that literally sings. The mesmerizing tango scene set to the Police's "Roxanne" is worth the price of admission alone.

7. The Man Who Wasn't There
This ode to film noir puts Billy Bob Thorton in a role so quiet, his cigarette smoke is the only evidence of his existence -- only the Coen brothers' directing crafted this bizarre loser into a memorable person.

8. Waking Life
Richard Linklater struts his intellectual stuff in "Waking Life," basically a series of monologues centered on the blend of dreaming and waking. Characters explore human connection to make the viewer stop -- rewind ... replay. Perfectly complementing the surreal journey is clever wordplay juxtaposed with animation, poking fun at the characters while elaborating upon the sentiments expressed.

9t. Snatch
Director Guy Ritchie brought in the big guns for this film, including a gritty Benecio Del Toro and an unintelligible Brad Pitt for a manic assemblage of multiple plots -- and one of this year's most darkly indulgent films.

9t. Bridget Jones's Diary
The title might be grammatically incorrect, but this film is Rene Zellweger's comic tour-de-force breakthrough. AbFab worthy and heartfelt simultaneously, "Diary" is a shining exception to romantic comedy's otherwise lackluster rule.

10. Monsters, Inc.
Featuring talented voice-overs by John Goodman and Billy Crystal, Pixar pumped out another refreshing hit. Their hilarious dialogue coupled with the impressive realistic animation make provides what's been missing in theaters lately -- good clean fun.