If this were a poll,

[shoju]

My English Teacher's Definition (and the one that I most find myself applying)

a Utopia is a sublime, perfect place where society works blissfully and perfectly. People are happy, things get done, there is no crime and possibly no illness. It is, the perfect place to live.

By contrast, a Dystopia, is the very opposite. Sometimes it tries to mimic a Utopia, but upon further inspection, the reader finds that this place is dreadfully oppressive / Apocolyptic / Uptopian only in shallow surface appearance.

It works best with examples (these are personal choices as "good ones"):

• 1984
  
• Brave new World
  
• Animal Farm
  
• Logan's Run
  
• THX-1138
  
• V for Vendetta
  
• Jennifer Government
  
• The Matrix (they even reference it in the first movie, by talking about the first matrix and it's utter failure... I hesitate to call the series good, but the first film was great)
  
• Equalibrium
  
• Gattaca
  
• Metropolis (freaking amazing)
  
• The running Man
  
• Dark City
  
• Blade Runner
  
• 12 monkeys
  
• Planet of the Apes
  

At one time I was trying to put together a website about dystopoias, mainly just as a fun project. Sadly, I never got around to it.