I’m making a list and checking it twice. Yep, it’s that time again, when you can look back on another year of celluloid output and try and decide which movies were your favourites. Pointless, perhaps, because to truly compile an accurate Top Ten you’d have to have seen every movie made this year. Which I obviously didn’t. I need to sleep and leave the flat from time to time, after all.
So, to give this post an accurate title, here are my Top Ten Movies of 2010 that I’ve Actually Seen. All films are considered according to UK release dates. Enjoy!
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10. The Town
Ben Affleck continues to impress from behind the camera with this, his second movie. A tale of a group of bank robbers in Boston’s Charlestown, The Town is grounded with great performances, particularly from Jeremy Renner. And while it lacks the emotional punch of Affleck’s debut, Gone Baby Gone, he still produces a gripping tale of friendship, betrayal and the desire to leave it all behind.
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9. The Last Exorcism
Slated by many on release, The Last Exorcism proved to be one of the year’s most divisive movies. Those expecting a hand-held, mockumentary version of The Exorcist were disappointed when it turned out to be something a little more complex. What really makes the movie stand out, however, are the two exceptional central performances from relative unknowns Patrick Fabian and Ashley Bell.
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8. Winter’s Bone
Hardly the most cheerful viewing, but Debra Granik’s second movie has a warm heart at the core of its bleak atmosphere. Jennifer Lawrence, onscreen for every minute of the movie, is remarkable as the 17-year-old Ree, holding her family together while searching for her drug-dealing father amid the broken lives of a small community in the Ozarks, Missouri.
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7. Four Lions
Television satirist Chris Morris turns to the big screen for his tale of a group of incredibly inept British Jihadists, planning a suicide attack on the London Marathon and bickering incessantly amongst themselves. Morris spent three years researching the project and produces a funny and cutting comedy which proves that sometimes mockery is the best response.
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6. Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright took on his first Hollywood gig with this adaptation of the comic books. Michael Cera is the titular ‘hero’, battling the seven Evil Exes of his new girlfriend. Wright injects the movie with the same hip energy he brought to TV show Spaced. Decide for yourself how much of the action takes place in reality or just in the fevered imagination of Pilgrim.
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5. Toy Story 3
Pixar does it again, rounding off their Toy Story saga after 15 years with this funny, bittersweet third instalment. Choosing the perfect story to end on, we see what happens to toys when their owners grow up and they are forced to retire. Features one of the year’s best villains in Lotso Huggin’ Bear and a great turn from Timothy Dalton as Mr Pricklepants. Inspired, whether you saw it in 3D or not.
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4. The Social Network
Who would have thought that a movie about the creation of Facebook could be so entertaining? I’ll never doubt David Fincher’s choices again. The director paces the story expertly, cutting between the origins of the site and the resulting legal challenges for credit, and the young cast are superb. You may want to give Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker a slap after seeing this.
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3. Kick-Ass
Another comic book adaptation from another British director. Matthew Vaughn brings an anarchic energy to the story of naive teenager Dave Lizewski’s adventures as a costumed vigilante. Aaron Johnson is engaging as Lizewski/Kick-Ass, but it is the father and daughter combo of Nicholas Cage’s Big Daddy and Chloë Moretz’s Hit Girl that really make this memorable. Pure genius.
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2. Inception
The Dark Knight was always going to be a tough act to follow, but Christopher Nolan couldn’t have done a better job than this imaginative, layered and visually stunning piece of cinema. Dreams within dreams, folding environments, trains rushing down main streets and another impressive performance from Leonardo DiCaprio. So, was he dreaming at the end or not?
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1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Niels Arden Oplev’s adaptation of the first book in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium trilogy is quite simply one of the best thrillers to have come along in years. Made in Sweden under the title of the book, Men Who Hate Women, the movie was renamed for international release. Noomi Rapace gives the performance of the year as the haunted, complex anti-heroine Lisbeth Salander.
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And the worst…
The Expendables
Promised much but delivered nothing. The Expendables brought together all the big names of action movies from the last 30 years and embarrassed them. And us. Two hours spent watching them play bingo in a retirement home would have been more entertaining. One of the worst screenplays in living memory, with awful dialogue, crappy action scenes and Jason bloody Statham. Unbelievably shite.
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