The 25 Best Movies I Saw In 2010

Following up on my The 25 Worst Movies I Saw In 2010 blog, here is a list of my favorite films from last year! You will be surprised along the way, I promise! Here we go...

25. The Other Guys

From the trailer I suspected this would be a perfect mix of 80's cop buddy movie and self-aware inside jokes on the police movie genre, with a great exaggerated performance by Mark Wahlberg and a surprisingly subdued Will Ferrell. What I got was... Exactly that! This was the FUNNIEST film I saw in 2010!

24. The Disappearance of Alice Creed

I love a film that makes me think "I could have done that, if only I had that one great idea." Director J Blakeson did have a great idea, and he made a tight thriller that mostly takes place in one room and only features three actors. Plus, it ends with a great twist you realize you should have know from the very first moment.

23. Zombieland

Such a great simple premise! Four great characters, played by four actors I love! Fun and games for the whole family... We've seen a million different zombie movies, but they're rarely this much fun!

22. The Losers

So this is basically poor man's The A-Team, but where its big-budget Hollywood counterpart landed with a dud, this ridiculous little action fest pulled all the right punches. Full of crazy OTT action scenes and funny characters. It even had some emotional moments that actually worked!

21. Legion

Angels and demons? A fight to save humanity? Dennis Quaid? I love it! Sign me up! An awful lot of people hated on this... I really don't know why.

20. Sherlock Holmes

This was everything I had hoped for... And then a tiny bit more. Of course, Jeremy Brett is THE Sherlock Holmes, but for an updated, modern version this one sure hit the spot. The sequel is going to be epic!

19. Lake Mungo

There were two pleasant surprises in Lionsgate's After Dark Horrorfest, Volume 4 series. This faux documentary was one of them. The story deals with a family whose daughter goes missing, only to reappear as a ghostly image in the background of family photos. Damn, it freaked me out!

18. Hidden

The second good surprise from After Dark Horrorfest, Volume 4 was this Norwegian thriller. Beautifully shot, scary as hell, and with a great David Lynch mood.

17. Pandorum

Any kind of Science Fiction movie is a good movie, but it's hard to be original these days. Pandorum takes equal parts Alien and Event Horizon, and combines it with the the great setup "what if you woke up alone on a spaceship, and couldn't remember how you got there?"

16. Easy A

This modern take on The Scarlet Letter - you know, the Demi Moore movie - actually manages to be both funny and socially relevant, without losing sight of its fairytale roots. Charming and irresistible, both the movie and star Emma Stone.

15. Rec 2

The sequel to the Spanish faux documentary, POV zombie movie turns up the heat, and even though it can't match the insane scary experience of the first film, it comes damn close. Some great twists, some great new ideas, and more insane Spanish zombie madness!

14. Daybreakers

Vampires are everywhere these days, yet this film managed a fresh, original take. What if the vampires had taken over the world and humans were almost extinct? A great story and the film is a visual feast! Plus, Ethan Hawk is such a cool and charming bastard in the lead.

13. Dogtooth

Without a doubt the most freaky, weird, out-of-control, unbelievable film of the year. What the EFFING hell is going on here?! Seriously! The film follows a family, where the parents have kept their children protected from the world. It's in Greek, but don't hold that against it. This is truly mind-boggling stuff.

12. An American Affair

I was so surprised by this little gem. A very different and slightly controversial coming of age story, tied together with important historic events. A young boy becomes fascinated by the sultry, lonely woman living across the street. Little does he know how much her life is about to change... She's JFKs mistress, and the year is 1963.

11. Triangle

One of those "the less you know, the better"-films, but trust me, this little thriller had an original story and a great mystery. Don't miss it. I can't wait to watch it again!

10. The Social Network

I wasn't swept away by this film, but I respect everything about it. A great, relevant story. Good casting. Great dialogue. The film looks good too. Only reason it's not higher on the list is that it just didn't get to me on an emotional level.

9. Don't Look Back

This taught French thriller has Sophie Marceau losing control as her life seems to change around her. First it's simply a matter of furniture moving around, but suddenly her husband looks different too. The Americans would have let the thriller aspect run away with the film, the French keep it honest and real.

8. Knight and Day

I'm not going to apologize for this! I had a BLAST watching Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz flirt their way through this modern Cary Grant-esque romantic comedy. Such a charming and delightful film.

7. Winter's Bone

This tight little detective story - I guess you could call it a film noir - will chill you to the core of your soul. Young Jennifer Lawrence is a revelation in the lead, as is veteran actor John Hawkes in a key supporting role. Such a solid film.

6. How to Train Your Dragon

I wasn't completely sold on this, based on the previews, and truthfully I only checked it out because it was starting to get some Oscar buzz. What a treat! Beautifully designed, a heartwarming story, and just damn funny. Love the fact that the dragon behaves almost like a cat! I love cats.

5. Cargo

Like I said, a good science fiction movie is hard to come by these days. Most big Hollywood sci-fi films cost so much money that they dumb down the story to maximize the number of butts in the seats. This low-budget Swiss movie didn't. It's a smart, challenging story, the designs are great, and the mood is incredible!

4. Despicable Me

Yeah, I'll admit it: I cried. Just a little bit. If you're not touched by this film, your heart must be a cold, black, little stone. I expected to see a silly animated film, I didn't expect to be moved so much.

3. Unthinkable

The film deals with a captured terrorist who knows the location of several bombs, set to go off in a few days. How much would you do to get him to talk? How much would you let others do? The ethical questions and the thrills of the story are equally exhilarating. No film experience this year had me screaming and yelling louder at the screen (be it cinema or TV) than this one.

2. The Expendables

Sly, we love you! You brought back the 80's, the 90's and the 00's in one freakin' film. You brought back all the beautiful forgotten action stars. You made a freakin' kick-ass action movie with heart. And you did it all by yourself. We salute you, Sir. You're one of a kind.

1. Inception

Man... I don't know what to say. This film impressed me so much on every level. One of the best films I've seen in the last 10 years. Incredible. Outstanding. Glorious. Damn, now I have to see it again!

FINAL THOUGHTS

So I guess that wraps up my wrap-up of 2010. Now your time has come 2011. Do your worst!

The 25 Worst Movies I Saw In 2010

Here we go! First post of 2011 should, of course, be a nostalgic look back at 2010. More precisely we're dealing with the 25 worst films I saw last year. Without further ado... Here they are:

25. The A-Team

This should have worked. It had great casting and a great action-director at the helm, but somehow the story got in the way. Too long, too boring, too complex. It shouldn't be possible to mess up such a simple premise, but they did.

24. The Box

The first half hour is pretty solid, but slowly the madness creeps into the story. And then it gets weird. And then it just gets f**ked up. Turns out, Donnie Darko was a fluke. Richard Kelly apparently can't direct a movie to save his life.

23. The Wolfman

Another no-brainer. Meaning a big, loud, boring, stupid Hollywood film, with no brains. If you can't improve on an almost 70 year old film, maybe you should just stay in bed.

22. Splice

This film was brought down by a too limited scope and a complete refusal to address the ethical ramifications inherent in its story. Plus, they revealed way too much of the creature up front.

21. The Book of Eli

How do they manage to spend $80 million dollars on a film that takes place in a desert and on barren dirt roads? This is just dull and profoundly stupid, and that's even before you get to the big reveal, which is even more stupid than you can imagine.

20. Bad Lieutenant 2

Crazy can be fun, crazy can be good, but sometimes crazy is just an incoherent mess. This movie is that kind of crazy, but behind all the out-of-control German antics, this is still a story we've seen a million times before. And better. For an out of control cop on the edge... Check out Romeo is Bleeding.

19. Hot Tub Time Machine

Easily one of the biggest disappointments of the year. The concept seemed fun, but John Cusack looks bored, it's nowhere near as clever as other classic time travel films, and there's no emotional core we can hang on to.

18. Valentine's Day

Ashton Kutcher is a dick, and if you hire him, you're a dick too. Jamie Foxx is also a dick. As is Patrick Dempsey. Jennifer Garner is just awkward. Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift seem incapable of pretending that they are human. I could go on. All the stories in this ensemble drama are bad, and I just HATE almost everyone in the entire cast.

17. The Lovely Bones

To be blunt: Peter Jackson isn't smart enough to direct a film like this. Saoirse Ronan is heartbreakingly talented, but Jackson's heavy-handed touch ruins the delicate material, often resulting in unintentionally funny moments.

16. Jennifer's Body

On paper this looks unbeatable, but somebody forgot to think this through to the end. The story is a mess, Megan Fox isn't sexy enough, and all the characters are unlikeable. Plus, when the paparazzi shots of Megan Fox are ten times more raunchy than the actual footage that ended up in the film, you've got problems.

15. Ninja Assassin

A typical Western approach to making an Asian movie. Badly shot fights, uninspired bad guys, miscast hero. Watch Crying Freeman instead. THAT's how it's done.

14. Fantastic Mr. Fox

I just hate everything about this film. The story, the look, the voice talent, the direction, the look, the direction and the direction. I can't watch Wes Anderson movies. I can't even get past the posters. The guy just pisses me off.

13. The Prince of Persia

Lazy big budget Hollywood film. The story is shit. The effects are laughable. And there's no chemistry between the leads.

12. Clash of the Titans

Lazy big budget Hollywood film. The story is shit. The effects are laughable. And there's no chemistry between the leads.

11. Jonah Hex

Lazy big budget Hollywood film. The story is shit. The effects are laughable. And there's no chemistry between the leads. Oh, but this time the studio realized this, so they fired the director, reshot the ending and ended up with an incoherent mess, barely an hour long.

10. The Last Airbender

M. Night Shamalaman is a dick. Yeah, I know a lot of people were impressed with The Sixth Sense, but I found it tedious. However, we can all agree that the rest of his films are utter shit. Actually this one is slightly less shitty than that abomination The Happening. But it's still shit.

9. Resident Evil: Afterlife

I've already railed against this film here on this very blog. Read the full review here.

8. Alice in Wonderland

God, this film is ugly! Ugly and annoying. And stupid. I wish it would go away and die. Plus, the CGI is AWFUL.... Everything looks uncomfortable and weird.

7. The Final

My expectations aren't that great, when it comes to low budget horror films, but this one managed to disappoint anyway. The one thing I never expected to get from a sleazy slasher such as this: Talk. Talk, talk, talk. And then more talk.

6. Piranha (3D)

Bargain basement ripoff of Jaws. Could have worked, but this film is just too nasty and gruesome to be fun. Watching people be mutilated, while they're screaming and bleeding to death is not proper entertainment. No matter how twisted you are. To top that off, the effects are really lousy.

5. Skyline

If you just look at the effects this looks like a $100 million big budget film. If you look at the acting and the story it looks like a student film made on some kind of school for mentally challenged children. Who don't speak English.

4. I'm Still Here

This film is awful. It's badly edited, it often seems fake, and some of the scenes are excruciating to watch, but the worst part? There's no point. The film makers have NO idea what they want to say, or why.

3. Cop Out

Another film I've already shot down on this blog. Read the full review here.

2. The Blackout

This is the film that makes Skyline look like Citizen Kane. That's all I got.

1. Couples Retreat

What a bloody awful, stupid, and useless film. This isn't just bad, this makes me ANGRY. There are a few talented comedians here, and a few hot girls, but it's not like there's some sort of missed opportunity here. A better script wouldn't have saved it. This film just shouldn't have been made. Period. Uninspired Hollywood dreck of the worst kind.

FINAL THOUGHTS

And there you have it, my Bottom 25 of 2010. Stay tuned for the Top 25.