Nine Words Or Less

Elric’s Best and Worst of 2010 (In 9 Words or Less)

IAN — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 04:43:33 +0000

Worst 9
9. Love and other drugs ( Hathaway is fantastic but the film is overwrought garbage) 5/10
8. Nightmare on Elm Street ( They cut my scenes so they can kiss my) 5/ 10
7. Wall Street 2: Money never sleeps ( The money may not have but I did. Seriously.) 4/10
6. Salt ( Finally a cold, emotionless dull Angelina film) 4/10
5. After.Life (Turd dressed in a tuxedo is still a _) 4/10
4.Grown Ups ( Excuse for Sandler and Co. to make fart jokes) 3/10
3. Wolf Man (Love Hugo Weaving’s sideburns but loathe the film) 3/10
2. Repo Men (Further proof that Jude Law isn’t a leading man) 2/10
1. Saw 3-D ( Amateur torture trash, worst of the series) 1/10

Top 9
9. Never Let Me Go – Mark Romanek ( Emotive, restrained and one spoiler away from ruining it) 7/10
8. Black Swan – Darren Aronofsky (Red Shoes, Suspiria cocktail brought to life by Portman) 7/10
7. Scott Pilgrim .vs. the World – Edgar Wright (Video Game aesthetic done right. Loved the Culkin kid.) 7/10 
6. Social Network – David Fincher (Pitch: “ David, heres a really boring idea for a film..” 8/10
5.Carlos – Olivier Assayas – ( Five hours of global terror good times) 8/10
4. Winter’s Bone- Debra Granik (Best backwoods film since deliverance had me squealing) 8/10
3. Animal Kingdom – David Michôd (Sprawling family crime drama reminiscent of American 70’s cinema) 8/10
2. Enter the Void – Gaspar Noé – (Pure cinematic masturbation. Big screen only. More please!) 8/10
1. Certified Copy – Abbas Kiarostami ( Slow, ambiguous relationship drama, Binoche shines) 10/10

Honarable Mention:
Greenberg, Piranha 3-D, Let Me In, Dogtooth, American Grindhouse.

Easy A

lucyglib — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 02:21:19 +0000

Not fluffy, but sometimes tries too hard. Enjoyable. 6/10 [Lucy Glib]

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@andyramsey ‘s Best and Worst of 2010

@andyramsey — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 01:42:12 +0000

As the year drew to a close, I took in an absolute smorgasbord of films in a desperate attempt to be able to discuss, with some intelligence, what 2010 “meant” for films. Like my good friend Oddernod, I think that 2010 swung the pendulum away from standard Hollywood schlock and actually rewarded some daring and non-traditional films with healthy box office hauls to go along with critical accolades. Among those that got caught up in that pendulum’s swing was a little British think piece you may have seen called The King’s Speech. I walked out of this film feeling like I had been cheated. Like someone wrapped up a traditional Hollywood popcorn pill in some lofty, be-accented sugar to make people think they had ingested more than the standard fare feel-good film. The more I think about it, the more I want to give a speech about how much I hated it. The performances cannot be denied. But, Jebus almighty, was that a terrible script or what.

I know I’m in the minority there, so I’ll stay in the ballpark and just say right now that I thought TRON: Legacy was pretty good. Now for the disclaimers: I saw it just last week on a huge IMAX screen in 3D and my expectations had been beaten to a bloody, digital-shatter-pulp by my friends who had been so disappointed with it. Let it not be said that there was some disappointment- I was surely disappointed. But not that it wasn’t the film I thought it would be (which is, I feel, the majority opinion here) but that I felt it wasn’t the film it could have been. Tasty little tidbits of transhumanist dogma wrapped in some sweet 3D stuff always goes down better for me than some over-written tripe (see above).

All in all, I’d say that 2010 in movies was “about” a move towards more pensive, thoughtful films. Not each of the films on my best list speak to that (though I’ll argue for the pensivity of Scott Pilgrim any day of the week), but the majority of films I saw this year made me think that mainstream filmmaking is moving in a direction of which I approve. So, there you have it Hollywood- the long-awaited Andy Ramsey seal of approval! Plus, this is the first year an animated film made my best list- and Toy Story 3 probably just missed!

Enough of the intro, let’s got to the 9s! I’m not good at putting things in order, so let’s just say there’s no particular order here except maybe the top 3.

Andy’s best of 2010:

9. Blue Valentine
8. How To Train Your Dragon
7. 127 Hours
6. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
5. The Fighter
4. Inception
3. Black Swan
2. The Social Network
1. True Grit

Honorable Mention: Rabbit Hole

Andy’s worst of 2010:

9. Shutter Island
8. Hot Tub Time Machine
7. Get Him To the Greek
6. Splice
5. Iron Man 2
4. The Town
3. Frozen
2. Predators
1. Machete

All of the movies on the worst list represent a particular brand of “worstness” in the form of possibility disparity with the actual. There are 9 ideas there that could have made 9 awesome (or, at least, entertaining) films and all 9 of them were just plain bad. I loved Sarah Marshall, Iron Man and Predator in both concept and execution. Their follow-ups this year left me seriously wanting. I couldn’t believe that anyone whose opinion I respected thought The Town was anything more than a pretty good heist scene surrounded on all sides by Heat-wannabe Boston BS. The positive ink spilled praising Frozen applauds the sense of tension, but I found no tension in the repetition (and if you name your production company after Jaws, you’re asking to be berated by me). And the potential of Machete was so vast- the target so big- that the total airball of the final product was truly shocking.

Bear in mind that this is just the best and worst of what I actually saw. I didn’t see The Last Airbender because I’d rather airbend my eyeballs out of their sockets than see another Shyamalan film. Then again, I somehow missed both Catfish and Winter’s Bone and I don’t doubt that I would have strong opinions (one way or the other) about both. And I have yet to see Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go, which I’ve already decided is the best movie ever made just from thinking about what it might be. And the similarly-titled remake Let Me In was probably worth seeing but I slept on it. We had plans to see Biutiful but bailed at the last second- seeing it atop some top 10 lists makes me think I’m probably missing something. And the 100 people who told me I should see Monsters can stop- I promise I’ll see it eventually.

Films that I saw but are missing from my lists include the affable-yet-forgettable Easy A and the overdone Kick-Ass which simply just didn’t sit right with me. As a comic book movie, it’s one of the best. But when your company is the likes of the Spider Man and X-Men films, that’s nothing of which to be proud. Youth In Revolt was far less memorable than the book I read in college and Dinner for Schmucks missed every opportunity for a good joke in favor of more in-your-face stupidity. The latter gets a worst list honorable mention pass based solely on its pedigree.

I spared The King’s Speech from my worst list mostly because it just wasn’t as bad as some of the others. But I’m prepared to take a beating on the opinion if you’d like to challenge me in the comments. Or, better yet, someone get me excited about 2011!

Oddernod’s Best & Worst of 2010

oddernod — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:08:19 +0000

2010 may go down as the year the good films actually made some bank, and the normally reliable summer blockbusters were mostly just busts. A-Team, Prince of Persia, and scores of sequels were wiped out by movies with sub $100M budgets.

Christopher Nolan used his Batman momentum to get the shine on sci-fi fever dream Inception in a way he never was able to for The Prestige, to the tune of $800+ million. In the month of The Dude, who would’ve thought True Grit would pass up Tron:Legacy in box office? Black Swan outgrossing normally bankable dreck like Yogi Bear?

The other big story was animation: Toy Story 3 took the top slot of the year, 5 of the Top 10 were animated films, and Despicable Me was the biggest surprise of them all. Universal aggressively marketed it and found an audience, raking in $500+M worldwide – all on a less than $70M budget. Dreamworks punched out an ungodly THREE animated films in one year, totalling $1.5B in box office but more importantly creating a truly heartfelt classic in How To Train Your Dragon.

With that in mind, here’s my BEST of 2010.

9. Frozen
8. Never Let Me Go
7. Toy Story 3
6. Shutter Island
5. Tangled
4. Monsters
3. Black Swan
2. How To Train Your Dragon
1. Scott Pilgrim

Runners up: Get Low, Art of the Steal, Social Network

WORST of 2010

9. Alice In Wonderland
8. Book of Eli
7. Repo Men
6. Catfish
5. Skyline
4. Splice
3. TRON Legacy
2. The Wolfman
1. The Last Airbender

IAN’s Best and Worst of 2010

IAN — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 07:36:02 +0000

In looking back over 2010 I found myself surprised by several things: how few movies I had hated, how many movies I had just not bothered to see (because they looked so terrible), and how few movies I had actually loved. I could posit theories as to why 2010 was such a lackluster year, but you’re not here to read lots of words, you’re here for short things, because you have very little patience, which is great. So first I’ll give you my top nine then I’ll give you my bottom eight.

BEST of 2010

9. I Am Love
8. Monsters
7. 127 Hours
6. Social Network
5. Inception
4. Get Low
3. Black Swan
2. The King’s Speech
1. Winter’s Bone

Runners up: True Grit, Scott Pilgrim, Tangled

WORST of 2010

8. The Ghost Writer
7. Salt
6. Iron Man 2
5. Legion
4. Hot Tub Time Machine
3. Daybreakers
2. Youth in Revolt
1. Robin Hood

You’ll notice that there are only eight worst movies, that is because at this juncture I can’t afford to see movies that look super bad, so it’s only movies that I give a chance and turn out terrible that I see. You’ll also notice that several of my worst movies are movies that a lot of other people liked (i.e. The Ghost Writer). Feel free to comment with your thoughts.

Maybe I just wasn’t the target demographic for that Ghost Writer. Maybe I was just pissed by bad trailers making the movie seem like something it wasn’t so I was in the wrong mood, like how the trailer for Cyrus made it look like a comedy, which it wasn’t. That said, Iron Man 2 was boring as hell, Legion was just terrible, Hot Tub Time Machine was nothing but predictable clichés, Youth in Revolt was just pedantic boring overly-self-aware garbage, and Robin Hood didn’t have any actual character motivation or genuine believability. That was probably among the meanest sentences I’ve written all year, sorry! The crazy thing is that I like Ridley Scott, and Chinatown is one of my favorite movies of all time. Maybe I just had really high expectations.

For full disclosure purposes there are a few movies I have yet to see that I wish to, some of them are shocking that I haven’t seen them yet (and I am very ashamed don’t worry.) These are: Marwencol, I love you Phillip Morris, Rare Exports, TRON: Legacy, Blue Valentine, Biutiful, MegaMind, Buried, Let Me In, Enter the Void, The Town, Catfish, I’m Still Here, Mesrine, Machete, Animal Kingdom, Dinner for Schmucks, Winnebago Man, The Kids are All Right, Splice, OSS 117: Lost in Rio, and The Square.

Likewise, there are a fair number of movies that look so bad I probably won’t see them until this site starts doing well enough that I’m paid to do it, these are: Skyline, Burlesque, Yogi Bear, Little Fockers, Saw 3D, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Devil, Eat, Pray, Love, Knight and Day, Marmaduke, The Wolfman, and a bunch more that aren’t even worth listing because they’re obvious.

So that’s 2010 in review, from my point of view anyways. What about you? I’d love to see your best and worst of the year, post them in the comments!

Toy Story 3

IAN — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:37:24 +0000

Not Pixar’s best, still solid. Death acceptance was incredible! 8/10 [IAN]

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Winter’s Bone

IAN — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:30:42 +0000

Among my favorites of 2010. An excellent noir mystery! 10/10 [IAN]

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True Grit (2010)

lucyglib — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 22:33:29 +0000

Fine holiday fun. Yeehaw. 9/10 [Lucy Glib]

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Santa Sangre

IAN — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 23:20:49 +0000

Incredible! Jodorowsky redefines classic themes in psycho-horror setting. 10/10 [IAN]

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