I posted this in the "Best Movies of 2010" thread, but I thought it'd be a good idea to post it here too.

Keep in mind, I did miss out on a ton of movies this year.

Position / Title / Rating out of 10

10.) Toy Story 3 - (7.0)
09.) How to Train Your Dragon - (7.0)
08.) Get Him to the Greek - (7.5)
07.) The Social Network - (8.0)
06.) Kick-Ass - (8.0)
05.) Shutter Island - (8.5)
04.) Hot Tub Time Machine - (8.5)
03.) Despicable Me - (9.0)
02.) Inception - (9.5)
01.) Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - (9.5)

I really want to see The Town, 127 Hours, and Harry Potter 7.1.

And my worst movie of the year vote goes to Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Merry Christmas!

I saw Tron: Legacy and it was acceptable. It's not going to be a cult classic like the original, but it's not terrible for what it is. It's just kind of forgettable. It gets caught somewhere between the corny fun of the original and an attempt to be heady sci-fi fare. I think that's my biggest complaint with the movie, it just wasn't fun. The action was well done and the visuals are a treat to look at (just skip the extra four bucks for the 3D, it's poorly implemented) but the whole tone of the film just comes off flat and when there are attempts to inject personality it feels out of place with the rest of the film.

It sucks because there is a genuinely good film in there somewhere. It just never developed right.

At 12/24/10 10:15 PM, Makeshift wrote: I posted this in the "Best Movies of 2010" thread, but I thought it'd be a good idea to post it here too.

I'm working on such a list myself, but I'd like to see True Grit, Shutter Island and The Social Network first before I publish it. I got a feeling that those three are definitely gonna be up in my top 10 list.

I got the 15th anniversary Blu-Ray of Forrest Gump for Xmas. It's pretty awesome. Has a scratch and sniff box of chocolates, a feather, timeline, probably some amazing special features too.

I wanted to do split best/worst or the year lists, but I've seen woefully few movies this year so I just mashed everything together in one big list and gave them a general rating so you get an idea of what I felt about them, 5 being average.

The Human Centipede (3)
The Expendables (3)
Iron Man 2 (3.5)
Legion (3.5)
Alice in Wonderland (4.5)
Book of Eli (5)
Tron Legacy (5)
Kick-Ass (5.5)
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (6)
Piranha 3D (6.5)
The Social Network (7)
Toy Story 3 (7.5)
Inception (7.5)

At 12/25/10 06:14 AM, Auz wrote: I'm working on such a list myself, but I'd like to see True Grit, Shutter Island and The Social Network first before I publish it. I got a feeling that those three are definitely gonna be up in my top 10 list.

Well today I saw The Social Network. Comments below might contain spoilers.

I thought it was a good, clever and interesting film. Despite the lack of action (it's mostly two hours of dialogue), it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

I gotta say though, at the end I had some serious trouble feeling sympathy for the main character, Mark Zuckenburg. In the beginning I was of course rooting for him, but the film finally portrayed him as a bit of an asshole who has no idea how to deal with business relationships and he apparently takes business issues to a personal level. Basically he's just good with programming, he (pretty much) stole other peoples ideas and was lucky enough to know the right people who could help him set up his site / business. That's the idea I got of how Facebook came to be.

Anyway, it's up in my top 10 for 2010, but it's not among my absolute favorite films of this year.

So that's one down. I saw that True Grit will come out here in February so I'll have no chance of seeing it before 2011. Shutter Island will be the only one I'd still like to see then, although I'm also interested in Tangled and Despicable Me so I might give those two a watch as well soon.

At 12/25/10 06:37 PM, Auz wrote: Well today I saw The Social Network. Comments below might contain spoilers.

I thought it was a good, clever and interesting film. Despite the lack of action (it's mostly two hours of dialogue), it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

I gotta say though, at the end I had some serious trouble feeling sympathy for the main character, Mark Zuckenburg.

I saw him as an anti-hero from the very beginning and his progression from nerdy introvert to douchebag who rode a wave of luck and good timing that ended up screwing over the few people who really cared about him seemed natural to me. Maybe I'm just the kind of guy who can be satisfied with a film even if the protagonist is irredeemable.

There's a screenwriting concept called "save the cat," I forget who coined the term. The basic idea is if you show your character doing something good early on you can have him be an ass and people will still feel sympathetic towards him. Social Network took a complete opposite stance where the first scene is of Mark ruining his relationship and then insulting the one girl who accepted him as he was. After that even through all the humanizing moments I still thought he was a douche. It was an interesting way to make a film.

Still it sounds like you'd probably rate the film somewhere about where I did so I can't say our opinions are too far off even if our take on the character was a little different.

At 12/25/10 10:18 PM, Jercurpac wrote:

At 12/25/10 06:37 PM, Auz wrote: Well today I saw The Social Network. Comments below might contain spoilers.

I thought it was a good, clever and interesting film. Despite the lack of action (it's mostly two hours of dialogue), it still managed to keep me on the edge of my seat.

I gotta say though, at the end I had some serious trouble feeling sympathy for the main character, Mark Zuckenburg.

I saw him as an anti-hero from the very beginning and his progression from nerdy introvert to douchebag who rode a wave of luck and good timing that ended up screwing over the few people who really cared about him seemed natural to me. Maybe I'm just the kind of guy who can be satisfied with a film even if the protagonist is irredeemable.

There's a screenwriting concept called "save the cat," I forget who coined the term. The basic idea is if you show your character doing something good early on you can have him be an ass and people will still feel sympathetic towards him. Social Network took a complete opposite stance where the first scene is of Mark ruining his relationship and then insulting the one girl who accepted him as he was. After that even through all the humanizing moments I still thought he was a douche. It was an interesting way to make a film.

Still it sounds like you'd probably rate the film somewhere about where I did so I can't say our opinions are too far off even if our take on the character was a little different.

Well I'm not saying that I found that a bad thing. Like you said, I just thought it was an odd way to show a main character. Usually a film tries to make you cheer for him, but this film didn't really do that. I thought that in the end he might go and make up for what he did to his best friend, but the film didn't go that way (I guess that's simply not what happened IRL).

I agree with you that the way he behaves does come over as natural. You would expect a nerdy, introvert guy to be like that.

Anyway, I didn't really have a problem with Mark Zuckenburg actually being 'the bad guy' of this film. It was simply unexpected I guess.

At 12/26/10 10:27 PM, tyler2513 wrote: Some pretty good movies this year guys.

Tooth Fairy,

Didn't really care about this one too much at all, It just seems like Dwayne Johnson shouldn't be doing kiddie films IMO.

Legion,

It was pretty good, but at the same time, I was going WTF? in certain parts of the movie for some reason.

The Wolfman,

Never saw this one, so I wouldn't know if it was good or not.

Alice In Wonderland

I though it was rather meh at best, the book was the better version IMO.

How To Train Your Dragon

It was good, but not really great. I thought Despicable Me was the much better animated movie from Dreamworks this year.

Clash Of The Titans,

Not really as good as the 1981 classic, the only memborable line would be "release the Kraken", and the more times I heard that, the more I got annoyed with the movie.

Nightmare On Elm Street,

Oh, God, Not another '80s horror remake, the original was fine enough as it is, why in the hell would they remake it, {besides money}, is really beyond me.

Iron Man 2

I think this was the best summer film of 2010. As action movies based off comic books go, this one was well directed, and had enough action packed battles to keep me interested throughout the movie, and the soundtrack was excellent, {although I may be a little biased towards the soundtrack, because AC/DC is one of my favorite bands.}

At 12/26/10 10:27 PM, tyler2513 wrote: Some pretty good movies this year guys. Tooth Fairy, Legion, The Wolfman, Alice In Wonderland, How To Train Your Dragon, Clash Of The Titans, Nightmare On Elm Street, Iron Man 2 and more.

What? I keep hearing that Clash of the Titans, Tooth Fairy and The Wolfman are two of the worser movies of the year. Alice in Wonderland wasn't really among the best of this year either imo and How To Train Your Dragon was alright but nothing special.

I don't know, but if that's what you have seen this year then I think you've missed out on some of the really good ones. If you have the oppertunity, I would recommend that you at least check out Toy Story 3, The Social Network and Inception.

At 12/27/10 01:13 PM, tyler2513 wrote: In case you freaking people didn't notice I was naming top box office movies not MY personal freaking favorites.

Don't get all pissy. They way you wrote it made it seem like those were your favorite movies of the year. Nothing in your post referenced the fact that you were naming the highest grossing films. Learn to express your thoughts better. Then you can earn the right to get angry when people don't understand you.

At 12/27/10 01:36 PM, Jercurpac wrote:

At 12/27/10 01:13 PM, tyler2513 wrote: In case you freaking people didn't notice I was naming top box office movies not MY personal freaking favorites.

Don't get all pissy. They way you wrote it made it seem like those were your favorite movies of the year. Nothing in your post referenced the fact that you were naming the highest grossing films.

And Inception and Toy Story 3 ARE two of the highest grossing films of the year, along with Harry Potter 7, Shrek, Twilight Eclipse and Despicable Me. You only mentioned four out of the top 10 grossing films of 2010, so how am I supposed to know that you are talking about them? Indeed you made it seem like you thought those were 'the good ones'.

Anyway, sorry if I offended you. I merely wanted to give some recommendations.

I join, My favorites, are , The science of sleep Lars and a real girl The dark knight Akira Pan's labyrinth,

Finally got around to seeing Inception after getting the limited edition set for Christmas, the one that looks like the metal case from the film with the dream machine or whatever it's called in it, and comes with the spinning top and an instruction manual for using the machine.

Great, not as great as I was expecting. After hearing complaints about how it was too hard to understand, I was hoping for something a bit more challenging, but it wasn't difficult to follow at all. I guess "hard to follow" just means "doesn't assume audience is retarded". Still, stands as a perfect example of how to do a big, popular blockbuster. Exciting, plenty of explosions and car chases, but never resorts to having characters step forward and explain the plot and never uses any of the other clichés that plague films by the likes of Michael Bay.

8/10.

I finally got around to seeing Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father after Netflix had been vehemently suggesting it to me and I'm glad it did. It's one of the best documentaries I've ever seen. It's a very personal story by filmmaker who decides to travel the country learning more about one of his childhood friends after he was murdered. Then the woman who more than likely committed the crime runs to her hometown in Newfoundland and announces that she's pregnant with his child. It the becomes a letter to his son so that he might no the father that was taken away from him as well as the story of his grandparents as they leave their home behind, move to Newfoundland, and attempt to get custody of the child from this woman and get her extradited to US as she's allowed to walk the streets free.

You really get a sense of how Andrew was able to touch the lives of everyone around him and by the end of the film it's almost impossible not to be outraged about the events that occur, but at the same time the film is heartwarming, at times funny. before becoming sad enough to make you cry. That's why it's so effective, because it hits every level of human emotion. In the end it's about good people persevering and finding purpose after terrible things happen to them. I can't recommend it enough.

Time Bandits

A fun early film from Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. It's about a child who gets mixed up with a group of dwarfs who travel time stealing from historical figures with a map of the holes in space time that they stole from God. It's a children's film at heart, but at the same time it's somewhat dark and twisted so it should hold anyone's interest. One of its biggest strength is that it doesn't talk down to kids and some of the morals are kind of dismal. The world can be cruel and confusing and sometimes there really is no reason why. Also, be prepared for one of the most uncharacteristic and out-of-left-field endings to a children's film (or any film really) ever.

At the same time a lot of what it wants to say is muddled. Something about technology being bad, Some points on good and evil and freewill. Can't fault it though for having loftier goals than the average children's film and it's fun to watch the dwarfs travel to increasingly fantastical places.

just saw the japanese film Ran... Great, great movie...

I'm abit of a film nerd myself, never clocked this thread before though.

Recently watch the life aquatic, it's quite an arty indie film not to my usual taste but it's worth a watch if you've got time ;)

I've just seen Shutter Island.

I think it's a good psychological thriller and one of the best films of the year in my opinion. Although I could see that some twist was coming at the end, I didn't quite expect that it would go the way it did. Definitely one worth checking out.

Now that I've seen both Shutter Island and The Social Network, I'm ready to tell my top 10 favorite films for this year (out of all the ones I've seen):

01) Inception
02) Scott Pilgrim vs The World
03) Kick-Ass
04) Shutter Island
05) Machete
06) The Social Network
07) Toy Story 3
08) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1
09) Sherlock Holmes
10) How To Train Your Dragon

I know Sherlock Holmes is technically 2009, but it first premiered on 24 December 09 and came out in 2010 in many countries. Thus I think it's fair to include it. Also, I did not really feel like including How To Train Your Dragon, but I have only seen 15 new films this year and none of the remaining ones I considered better than HTTYD.

I think 2010 has generally been a good year for films, better than the past few years in my opinion. I've seen plenty of new and refreshing ideas and also some greatly entertaining action flicks, like Machete and Kick-Ass. Hopefully 2011 will be just as good :)

I just got done watching two very different movies

First I watched Shrek 4, I forget the full title. Anyway I actually ended up really enjoying this movie, a lot more than maybe even i expected. It wasn't as funny as Shrek 2 but it had more laughs than maybe 3. For me though, the action sequences in this film really stood out for me. The other Shrek films had good ones too but the ones in this outing were even better. Plus I teared up a little at the end, so what!?

The second film I watched was The Passion of Joan of Arc. This was actually my first time ever watching a silent film as it was recommended to me. Overall it was a very interesting and good experienced for me and my watching of films. It was very unique to me to see these performances unfold as they did in absolute silence. It's an emotionally powerful film but I didn't move me to sadness as much as it made me feel proud to be of faith, it almost made me feel reaffirmed in my personal beliefs, so in that sense it actually was uplifting.

At 12/24/10 08:50 PM, Sense-Offender wrote: I watch a lot of foreign movies, but I don't feel like movies from my country are generally better or worse. I just like what I like.

I'm somewhat the same. I don't really try to analyse myself because I suck at analysis. I imagine I'm far more exposed to poorer English language films than I am poorer world cinema. But I've been far less disappointed with foreign films. Besides Lady Vengeance I can't think of another. And in the last couple of years foreign films make up about 70% of the films I watch.

I thought they were all good, though Oldboy is clearly the best.

Of course. Oldboy is outstanding.

I stayed away from Visitor Q because I just had the feeling I would get nothing out of it except discomfort. But are you saying you didn't like Battle Royale? That movie is awesome!

It's a bit gross but its not that bad. It's quite amusing. And yeah Battle Royale is great, but there is still massive amounts of violence in all the Asian films I've seen. It's just become a bit tiring. I'd like to see something different.

Volcano High? Is that a musical? I never saw it because I thought it looked bad.

Putting some keywords into google gave me 'The Happiness of the Katakuris'. It's that.

South Korea, Japan, and China have put out a lot of great movies. Actually, Japan has been putting out great movies since the 50s.

That reminds me, I need to see The Seven Samurai.

I just saw that yesterday. It was fantastic. I didn't recognize Michael Keaton's voice as Ken. The voice of that chick from the Daily Show was unmistakable, though. Did you notice Totoro? That was a neat visual reference.

I don't know what Totoro is :(.

At 12/24/10 09:29 PM, EclecticEnnui wrote: I've yet to see the Vengeance trilogy, although the reception for Lady Vengeance has been generally positive.

Everyones different I suppose. In mine Oldboy is way better than Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, which in turn is way better than Lady Vengeance. But as I've said, I was getting bored with image I've now got of Asian cinema so I may be being unfair.

At 12/27/10 01:13 PM, tyler2513 wrote: Dude Toy Story 3's my favorite animated movie of all time next to Toy Story 2.

Toy Story 2 didn't do anything special for me. It was an alright addition to the series but I don't think it's anyway near as good as either 1 or 3. Neither in terms of significance or just quality in general.

And Wall-E is on New Years Day on BBC1 :D. Yes! Can't wait to see it again. WOOORRRRR-LEEEEEEEEEE. EEEEE-VVVAAAA.

I'm going to see TRON: Legacy tonight. I was supposed to see it a week ago, but... didn't.

At 12/30/10 09:47 PM, EclecticEnnui wrote: I'm probably seeing the Coen's True Grit, tomorrow. One last film for the year.

I really wish I went to see that instead of Tron, because Tron kind of sucked. It wasn't terrible, but the dialog was just so bad. The only thing that really appealed to me were the visuals and some action sequences.

I just thought I should lay my top 10 here, for you guys to criticize and what not. Also these are only movies I have seen this year, It would have probably changed if I had seen some others, like the town, but here we go anyhow

10. Megamind- a kid's movie, I know, but the voice actors of this movie is what places it higher than the movies that didn't make the cut

9. Due date- a pretty good comedy, with some moments where you will be questioning your exsistance on this earth and if you are meant to be the chosen one or not, but whatever

8. Iron Man 2- it does what it's supposed to do, follow the original. of course it's not going to be as good as the orginal, but it's good throughout with a drunk Robert Downy Jr.

7. get him to the greek- Jonah Hill and Russel Brand should make a comedy every year now. plus the music is really funny and enjoyable.

6. kick-ass- a dark comedy action flick that isn't afraid to kill someone off

5. The social Network- the film that defines this generation, and i am surprised how good te actors were

4. Inception- basically the matrix fused with the dark knight, but what bothered me was I didn't care much for the characters

3. Scott pilgrim VS. the world- this is everything a film should be, funny, great effects, awesome characters, a fab soundtrack, a terrific video game, a terrific video game soundtrack, tons of bonus features on the DVD, but was it successful? nope. It's sad

2. True Grit- along with scott pilgrim, this has characters that you really care about. characters that you hope don't die, but might die anyway.

1. Toy story 3- If you hate this film you are just a terrible person. This film makes grown men cry, pixar defiantly knows what they are doing.

I watched Predators. pretty cool.

At 12/29/10 12:10 AM, Jercurpac wrote: Time Bandits

love that movie.

At 12/29/10 12:02 PM, BenjaminTibbetts wrote: just saw the japanese film Ran... Great, great movie...

very good movie

At 12/29/10 10:49 PM, EclecticEnnui wrote: Maybe. I dunno. I don't watch much violent Asian films. In the last five years, I think I've seen one a year, on average. The last I saw was Thirst, which is engrossing and well made.

Thirst was made by the same guy. It's good, but I think Oldboy is much better. Joint Security Area is pretty good, too.

At 12/30/10 09:47 PM, EclecticEnnui wrote: I'm probably seeing the Coen's True Grit, tomorrow. One last film for the year.

I must see this movie.

I want to make a top ten list, but I still haven't seen 127 Hours or The King's Speech. Oh well, here I go.

10) Machete
9) Kick-Ass
8) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
7) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
6) Toy Story 3
5) The Town
4) True Grit
3) Inception
2) The Social Network
1) Black Swan

At 1/4/11 06:36 AM, Ptero wrote: I want to make a top ten list, but I still haven't seen 127 Hours or The King's Speech. Oh well, here I go.

Shit, I forgot The Fighter. I'll add that in at 5.

Just got back from seeing 127 hours, and all I can say is that it was absolutely amazing.

The film is the story of a climber (Aron Ralston) and adventureman, who goes out in Utah and is climbing a crevice and a rock falls on his hand and he's stuck and can't get out and is there for 127 hours before he eventually cuts his own arm off and escapes and is rescued.

Danny Boyle directed this piece perfectly, as expected it had some beautiful and clever camera shots (the water tube) and most of all the special efffects for the amputation scene were very very well done, I don't cringe in horror films or at gore effects but I remember during the ambutation scene sitting back and looking in horror.

I really hope James Franco wins an Oscar for his performance, it was really moving and performed brilliantly, absolutely nothing negative to say about this film.

Finally got around to seeing Shutter Island, I'm trying to see if I can have a more proper favorites list by the time the Oscars roll around. I probably can't say anything that hasn't already been said here about this excellent film. Even though it's pretty easy to see what the plot twist is there's still enough pieces of the puzzle missing that my attention never waned. It's also probably the most visually inventive movie of the year, there's enough minor visual cues hidden among the major ones that it easily trumps Inception for me as the "I need to go back and try to find everything I missed."

I saw True Grit the other day, just an all-around fantastic film. From the very first shot it's captures these beautifully sparse landscapes that are in themselves a character in the film. The acting is just top-notch throughout even the smallest characters just explode from the screen with life from the first line they deliver. Few filmmakers can capture slices of America with the care and affection that the Coen Brothers do. There's a delicate balance of wide-eyed innocence and hardened brutality that works prefectly.

I haven't seen the original or read the novel that both are based on so I can't really compare, but this is definitely in contention for the best film of the year in my mind.