The Year in Review: Movies!

I'm sure I've confessed before to being a huge movie fan. Despite being incredibly cheap thrifty with my spending in other categories, I will fork over increasingly big bucks to go to the theater. I figure I've earned the indulgence since going to the movies may be the only time I really relax and focus on just one thing. Even when watching movies at home I tend to multitask and as a result I rarely enjoy the movie half as much as I would if I'd seen it in the theater.

Yesterday I received my Best & Worst of 2010 Entertainment Weekly issue and I decided I should do my own Year-in-Review. I thought I'd start with movies, and next week feature books, television, and possibly music.

To start this project I turned to a website that listed all movies released this year. I must say I was rather shocked at how many movies I have seen in the past eleven months. I didn't write them all down, but I'd guess it was somewhere between 25-35. That's a lot of cash and a lot of sitting.

Without further ado, here is my Movies Year-in-Review (keep in mind this reflects only the movies I've actually seen):

Best 2010 Movies:

1. The Town - They don't make 'em like this anymore. Action, drama, heart. Outstanding writing, memorable acting. Ben Affleck definitely got his groove back with this one.
2. The Social Network - The more hype a book or movie gets, the less likely I am to think "it's all that." This was one of the few that lived up to the buzz. Jessie Eisenberg was more than convincing in the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
3. The Kids Are All Right - Annette Benning, Julianne Moore, and one of my favorite actors, Mark Ruffalo...unless you're against gay marriage, what's not to like?
4. How to Train Your Dragon - In a year of great "kids movies," this was my favorite. I actually blogged about it back in April.
5. Megamind - Perhaps because I went into it with no expectations, I loved this one. I consider it an unlikely story of redemption with a whole lot of humor.
6. Red - For action, laughs, and an all-star cast, check out this fun flick about three former black ops agents with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, and Morgan Freeman. You get the sense they had a blast (literally) making it.
7. Toy Story 3 - I would move it up on the list, but some characters were kind of creepy, like that doll head and pink bear. And it also makes me feel guilty for tossing my kids' toys, and I don't need that extra guilt.
8. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows, Part I - I know I'm going to catch grief for not ranking this one higher, but no matter how good the Harry Potter movies are they just can't hold a candle to the books which are my all-time favorite reads.
9. Remember Me - Okay, the critics really disagree with me on this one which one EW writer listed among the five worst of the year. I'm not even an over-the-top Twilight/Robert Pattison fan, but I thought this melancholy movie was pretty good. But then again, maybe I just needed a good cry.
10. The Other Guys tied with Grown Ups and Dinner for Schmucks - Each of these movies works depending on the viewer's state of mind. I saw them at the right time, in the right mood, and found them each laugh-worthy. If I watched them again, it's possible I would think they're completely stupid. The Other Guys has Mark Wahlberg. That automatically makes it among the best movies of the year.

NOTE: although it actually released in November 2009, I must add to my list The Secret in Their Eyes. Rob and I saw this subtitled Argentinian picture at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute. It was a riveting, suspenseful film that reminded us a bit of The Usual Suspects. It won the 20009 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. On a side note, I highly recommend becoming a member of the BMFI if you're a fan of independent and foreign films. Members only pay $5.00 a ticket and they have lots of cool programming and classes, not to mention their annual Sound of Music sing-along (Dec. 22)!


Worst 2010 Movies:

1. When in Rome - Started to watch this with my mom and sister. It takes a lot for me walk away from a chick flick, but I could tell this one was going nowhere. My sister stuck it out and confirmed that in fact, it never did get any better. What a waste of Josh Duhamel's hotness.
2. Death at a Funeral - Speaking of a waste, how do you put Chris Rock and Martin Lawrence together and get something so unfunny?
3. Ramona & Beezus - In a year of great kid flicks, this clunker really stood out. I just couldn't buy Beezus as a 9-year-old. If she was nine, my Abby must be 25 in terms of maturity.
4. Morning Glory - A good cast was wasted on a story line that tried to do too much and was never believable.
5. The Back-up Plan - I'm a sucker for chick flicks, but I just never felt the slightest chemistry between J-Lo and the no-name guy who played her romantic interest.
6. Greenberg - I hate to typecast him, but Ben Stiller should only play funny. This was not funny and thus it was not good.
7. Iron Man 2 - Just watched this last night. Tried to keep up with witty banter that moved too quickly for my increasingly slow brain. Went to bed in the last five minutes of it, that's how engaging it was(n't).
8. Shutter Island - The critics liked this. I didn't. But to be fair, I generally don't like these kind of mind-game creepy movies. And it even had my "favoritist" guy...Mark Ruffalo. Mark, stick with rom-coms like 13 Going on 30 and Just Like Heaven.
9. The Bounty Hunter - Yea, yea, whatever. Forgettable.
10. The Switch - I guess if I had Jennifer Aniston's great hair and legs, I wouldn't bother trying to do anything with depth or range either. Looking good is its own reward.
    

Finally, the year still holds potential for these movies which either I haven't yet seen or haven't released:

• The Fighter
• Company Men
• I Love You Phillip Morris
• The King's Speech (Colin Firth is the man!)
• Tangled
• How Do You Know
• Gulliver's Travels

Alright, you're turn. What have you seen this year that you recommend or want to warn us to stay away from?