Re Focus: 1: Inception 2: The Fighter 3: The Town 4: Toy Story 3 5: The Social Network I haven't seen True Grit or Black Swan yet but I'm sure they will make this list as well.
Revised and final: 1) The King's Speech 2) Black Swan 3) True Grit 4) Inception 5) Toy Story 3 6) 127 Hours 7) The Town 8) The Social Network I can only name about eight because no other films really deserve to be on a list for great movies. It simply sucked that much this year.
My top 5: 1) The Fighter 2) True Grit 3) Inception 4) The Social Network 5) And...I can't think of a 5th I'd even put on this list. Guess 2010 was pretty awful for movies. The 4 above were all pretty special in their own way though. I have to see it again before I say this for sure, but The Fighter might be my favorite sports movie ever.
I would like to add the "Men Who Hate Women" trilogy. It was good filmmaking (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, etc.).
Totally agree. If you go read the back story about the movies and the guy who wrote the books (The Milllennium Trilogy), it's pretty damn interesting. Basically, the author saw a young girl get gang raped when he was 15, and never got over it or forgave himself for not doing anything, and this was the driving force of the novels. And they are pretty graphic and violent. He died in 2004 partway through a 4th novel, and then the first three novels were made into movies. Most successful Swedish movies ever, too. I highly recommend you watch the original Swedish movies, with the English subtitles, and not the American remakes. In the same way that Anne Parillaud totally made the original subtitled version of La Femme Nikita, Noomi Rapace is a Swedish actress that totally makes the original Swedish release of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
David Fincher will direct the American remakes, since they're SO FUCKING NECESSARY. Fuck everything and everyone. I'm sick of that shit.
The Millennium Trilogy is the biggest thing to come from Sweden since ABBA. Imagine if Americans had said: ABBA is cool, but we think Dancing Queen would sound way better if these 4 sung it.
Even worse, the Swedes decided a teen band should come around in the 90s as an ABBA tribute band, hence the A-Teens. FOCUS: I haven't seen a ton of movies this year, so the ones I have seen are only the ones that I really wanted to see. Inception Social Network The Expendables All three were excellent with the Expendables being ridiculous and over the top just as expected along with plenty of terrible one liners.
There is no bigger action junkie on this board than me, but "The Expendables" was a major disappointment, and I'm surprised more people on this board didn't post reviews warning about it. The draw was supposed to be cool, over-the-top action, and instead, all we got was a bunch of lazy-ass smash cuts where we can't follow the action, and cheap, throwaway scenes and choreography. A bait-and-switch if I ever saw one. Anyways, I've thought about it, and there are definitely some films from 2010 that I have yet to watch and might change my opinion of the year; True Grit Restrepo 127 Hours The Social Network Winter's Bone Secretariat (any good?) The King's Speech (looks kind of bad, but I'm mildly intrigued)
True Grit is a solid movie, definitely worth a watch but not amazing. Social Network is a movie that...well, its plot is odd. There isn't so much an arc as there is just a constant forward motion, which makes it seem sort of documentaryish but not quite, as it's supposedly "fiction." Ish. Worth a watch too, Sorkin delivers, but again not amazing. The only one on your yet to see list I want to is 127 Hours, I've heard good things and it's Danny Boyle but nothing's a guarantee. Also, the Expendables was expendable. I made that awful pun in the review thread, but it had so much potential and didn't live up to it at all.
I'm actually going to watch True Grit within the hour. Maybe ill write a review after I get back, since our review thread seems to be suffering lately.
Well, I was swayed a bit in my opinion by Toy Story 3. Seriously, that movie manages to contain some great adult bonuses while remaining true to the spirit of a children's movie. It's got a reference to Cool Hand Luke, of all things. Just a damn charming movie.
I think you're forgetting a little band called "Ace of Base". What, have been living on fucking Jupiter the last 20 years?!?!?! They hand Led Zeppelin their ass then cornhole it too. It is a Beautiful Life, indeed. Seriously, Rapace should be nominated for an Oscar for her Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. She was magnetic in a most believable performance as a broken wing who has more reason to hate men than just about any character I can think of. I sincerely hope this isn't the last we see of her over here. A fearless actress.
I just watched it last night. I had high hopes for it because I love a good feel good sports movie. It's meh, it accomplishes what it sets out to do but not very strongly. We all know how the real Secretariat fucking dominated in the real Triple Crown. So any of the drama they put in feels really forced, even if the women owner did face some real life hardships. Yet still it was kind of hard to really get behind her since her hardships were managing a multimillion dollar inheritance that included one of the best race horses of all time. They also threw in a little anti-war subplot for one of her daughters that feels totally out of place in the film, these people just can't help themselves. Diane Lane is fine as an ultra smart rah-rah poster child for strong independent womym. John Malcovich plays an alright eccentric trainer. The rest of the supporting cast is largely forgettable. Kevin "pussy whipped E" Connelly shows up as a sports reporter and for the rest of the movie you just wish every horse would kick him in the face until it turned to jello. Beautifully shot. It probably looks fantastic on a 1080p flat screen. Some decent surround sound would help too. 6.5/10