Daniel's Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2010

I’ve put together a few of my favorites from what is now last year. I felt like too many films completely failed to meet their potential this year (exemplified by such  inane, lackluster summer blockbusters) so I’ve named a few who I feel not only met but surpassed my expectations. It’s an eclectic mix, as I feel these lists should be but each are entirely wholesome, worthwhile films. Unfortunately I missed a few.Rabbit Hole, 127 Hours, The King’s Speechare just the tip of the iceberg, but thankfully they aren’t going anywhere. So here, in no particular order, are some of my cinematic highlights of 2010:

Inception– Christopher Nolan’s latest outing is intelligent, original and almost perfectly executed. Impossible to omit on any best of list and refreshingly rewarding, especially compared to the summer’s other, rather lackluster offerings. With a breakout performance from Tom Hardy and DiCaprio on top form,Inceptionlead by example.

Machete– Robert Rodriguez’sMacheteoverflows with politics, tits and explosive“mexploitation” but if you quit complaining long enough to get on board you’ll discover one hell of a (hydraulic enhanced) ride, an undeniably enjoyable film rounded out by a strong, improbable cast.

Toy Story 3– Surely, there could have been no finer farewell to Woody, Buzz and the millions of fans who have followed the series? Not only isToy Story 3a fitting tribute to the franchise, but it’s an excellent film in its own right, packed with the Pixar/John Lasseter hallmarks that have made the series so great– with Michael Keaton to boot!

Monsters– A film that came out of nowhere, shot with a minimal crew and budget around Central America. A personal highlight of the year that marks an impressive talent in British newcomer writer/director/producer Gareth Edwards. Monsters is a film that won’t make many best of lists this year but a truly fantastic independent film that will inspire filmmakers for years to come.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World– Perhaps another film that will be unfortunately omitted from many top 10 lists this year. A great piece of film making that unabashedly wears its video game references on it’s sleeve. Stylistically refreshing and bursting with ingenuity, Edgar Wright’s film is perhaps a little lacking on character, but it makes up for that with energetic fight scenes, flaming swords and showers of gold coins.

The Town– Benny’s follow up toGone Baby Gonetakes us down the dirty streets of Charlestown, the bank robbery capital of the world. His brother Casey is out and Ben is in, joined by the likes of Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Rebecca Hall, the late Pete Postlethwaite and an impeccable Jeremy Renner. The cast is superb andThe Townplays like an exercise in precision film making. Affleck’s sophomore effort showcases his directorial talents, effortlessly sculpting a nail-biting, high-octane thriller around an excellent script and his pitch perfect cast.

Cyrus– The Duplass brothers’Cyrusis a strange little film that pitches John C Reilly against Jonah Hill as both vie for Marisa Tomei’s attention, the former’s lover and the latter’s mother. It made my top 10 purely on the strength of its fizzing cast and the undeniable joy that it was to watch them in action. Though Catherine Keener deserves a mention as Reilly’s ex-wife and confidant. It’s not the most in-your-face comedy of the year, but a regular diamond-in-the-rough. Not to be missed!

The American– Not the action packed assassin’s tale that the trailer would have you believe but all the better for it. Anton Corbijn’s feature follow-up toControlis a beautifully shot adaptation of Martin Booth’s novelA Very Private Gentleman. Clooney’s restrained performance is a welcome change to his usual charm, showcasing his talents beyond his signature smile and magnetism. Visually striking and slow burning,The Americanis slightly“different” but a fine film nonetheless.

Kick Ass– You can’t argue with Nicolas Cage dressed to the hilt in Batman-esque armor, sporting an adhesive handlebar mustache. If that’s not enough then you’d be struggling to find fault with Jane Goldman’s script or Matthew Vaugn’s direction. Although I’ll be the first to admit Kick Ass is at times a little whiney between Cage’s excellent return to form, Mark Strong’s mob boss or Chloe Moretz’s Hit-Girl Kick-Ass is pure and simple fun, entertainment at its best.

Black Swan/The Fighter/True Grit– I’d have to split my last spot between Aronofsky’sBlack Swan, Russell’sThe Fighterand the Coen brothers’True Grit. All of which I saw too close to the end of the year to factor into my list, but each are fantastic  and worth a mention. (A total cop-out, I know.)

LEAST FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2010

There are also a few immensely poor cinematic offerings this year that I couldn’t resist the opportunity to bash one last time, here are my worst films of 2010– with luck they will spawn no sequels, prequels or spin-offs and we will never hear from them again!

Jonah Hex– Jonah Hex is perhaps one of the strangest films of 2010. The cast alone signals the potential: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Michael Fassbender are all big names capable of great things. They even tossed Megan Fox into the mix.  All directed by Jimmy Hayward’s (Horton Hears a Who!), whose experiences working as an animator onFinding NemoorMonsters Inc.perhaps hadn’t fully prepared him for his live-action debut.  We are faced with truly peculiar work, a film that seems to be based entirely around its own trailer. Jonah Hex revolves around the odd flaccid explosive shootout, plenty of grizzly scar close ups, jokes about thoroughly searching Megan Fox’s corset and a whole lot of entirely forgettable filler.  Brolin does what he can beneath his extensive prosthetics, but it isn’t enough.  Jonah Hex fell flat on its scarred face into the dirt, where it belongs, an entirely deserved box office bomb.

The Last Airbender–The genius behindThe HappeningandLady In the Waterreturns to the big screen with this adaptation of a Nickelodeon franchise.  M. Night Shyamalan, in what almost seems like a deliberate attempt to further his downward spiral, decides to take a beloved animated series with a worldwide fan base and $150 million dollars down with him.  The result is by far one of the worst films of the year, if not the decade. The Last Airbender’s grueling 103-minute runtime plays out like a prolonged bad joke. The butt of the joke is up for debate, though. Was it the unfortunate cinema-goers who contributed to its $131 million dollar gross or M. Night himself who has potentially slammed the inevitable final nail in his filmmaking coffin?The Last Airbenderis completely and utterly terrible, a runt among runts and an abhorrent disgrace.

Death Race 2: Frankenstein Lives– This entirely unnecessary prequel explores the origins of the masked Frankenstein– originally modeled by David Carradine inDeath Race 2000way back in 1975.  A bearded Sean Bean, a suited Ving Rhames and a shirtless ‘Jewish-Mexican’ Danny Trejo are all equally appalling in their supporting roles – perhaps an ill-conceived casting attempt to lend the project some B-list Hollywood credibility.  The script is pathetic, the acting below par, the plot is riddled with holes and the action –- perhaps the only draw for perspective DVD shoppers— is unfortunately lackluster. Death Race 2was never going to be the next big thing, but that is no excuse for shoddy filmmaking, the likes of which haven’t been seen since, well, Paul W.S. Anderson’sDeath Race. Unsurprisingly, the straight-to-DVD sequel is an absolute, unflinching pile of Shyamalan.

Resident Evil: Afterlife– It is difficult to imagine what prompted Paul W.S. Anderson’s return to the Resident Evil series, besides maybe money. After bringing us the first installment back in 2002, Anderson, like any up-and-coming film director, moved on to bigger and“better” things. He honed and refined his art and brought us elegant and delicate cultural artifacts likeAVP: Alien vs. Predator, the aforementionedDeath Raceand the TV movie“Drift.” After finding such success outside the franchise, it must have been the desire to work in three dimensions that brought Anderson back amongst the ranks of the undead alongside his lovely wife, Milla Jovovich.

Nevertheless, the prodigal son returned, bringing with him a vision of several grand set pieces, a few characters and very little else. He neatly wraps up the matter of the Alice clones in the first few minutes with a large bomb– perhaps Anderson’s most revered plot device. Then we follow the remaining and presumably original (not that it matters) Alice in her quest to relocate her ragtag group of survivors and continue their search for sanctuary. What follows is a whole lot of filler sandwiched between the odd bout ofslow-motion ass kicking, which does, for what it’s worth, look decent. While the earlier films might have been about avoiding marauding plagues of zombies, Anderson ups the ante by pitting his crew against a 10-foot, hooded, hammer-wielding giant, leaving the threat of zombies out in the cold. While the fight scene between said giant and a dripping Ali Larter and Jovovich is arguably the film’s highpoint, by removing the threat of zombies Anderson has removed all palpable tension from the film and left the non-action sequences flat and a little bit boring. Perhaps the only positive thing aboutAfterlifeis the long-awaited inclusion of the character Chris Redfield, portrayed by“Prison Break” actor Wentworth Miller, who ironically spends much of his screen time behind bars.Afterlifefaithfully continues the Resident Evil tradition, staying true to the franchise as another indulgent vanity project not at all worth 97 minutes of your time.

Legion– Scott Stewart’s debut feature film is unfathomably terrible. Given the premise— an out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race when God loses faith in humankind— perhaps it isn’t hard to see why.“Unlikely” is the right word, though. While this is another film which was never destined for mass appreciation, it could have, in the right hands, found a cult following, or maybe I’m the only one that sees potential in an angel showing up at a truck stop loaded with guns and ready to do battle. It could have even been some good old-fashioned action packed fun, instead of this limp offering that falls at every hurdle and never quite takes off. The C-list cast fails to evokeeven a hint of emotion.Legionleaves audiences wondering what exactly just happened and why in the world Bettany and Stewart are inexplicably returning for another supernatural outing in 2011 with the vampire hunting escapadePriest.

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