These are the worst films of 2010. Just click on the link to see why...
20. Robin Hood
19. Brooklyn's Finest
18. Legion
17. Alice in Wonderland
16. The Last Airbender
15. Charlie St. Cloud
14. The Expendables
13. Leap Year
12. Jonah Hex
11. The American
10. The Bounty Hunter
9. A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)
8. You Again
7. Cop Out
6. The Warrior's Way
5. Skyline
4. When In Rome
3. Vampires Suck
2. MacGruber
1. Resident Evil: Afterlife
The King's Speech
Being British and set in the 1920's the film is rather dry. Even the quirky nature of Rush's character, while seemingly defiant, is still very proper, but when paired with the stern, strict, royal Duke of York, Rush's character comes off as a circus clown. This is a testament to both performances.
The King's Speech really is a "buddy cop" movie at it's core. When I see a movie that has two distinctly different personalities reluctantly trying to work together for a common goal, that movie automatically gets places in the "buddy cop" genre. I hate "buddy cop" movies, but this one is classy, heartfelt, and, well true, which helps a little too.
While The King's Speech may not be for everyone, the story is wonderful and the relationship between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush is what propels the movie forward. The ability of the film makers to elevate one of my least favorite film genres and make a british period piece is what ultimately lands The King's Speech in my top 20 films of the year.
Winter's Bone
There is so little plot in Winter's Bone that it can be summed up in one sentence: An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact. With this little amount story, the film relies heavily on the performances of it's cast. This cast delivers.
This movie belongs to actors Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes. Lawrence is able to convey hope in a world that seems to have none and Hawkes embodies exactly how I would envision what a mountain man drug dealer would be.
Winter's Bone brought me into a world that I'd heard about, but then quickly dismissed as an exaggeration of how it used to be. This is an eye opening film about poverty in our country. Anyone affected by the Bush tax cuts should be required to move to this region and see how people in the United States of America are being forced o live, or, at a minimum, see Winter's Bone.
The Fighter
The Fighter is a success because of Christian Bale with really strong support from Amy Adams and Melissa Leo. The movie was well made, but the writing and direction were just average and Mark Wahlberg was only at his best (which isn't necessarily a compliment), but Bale, Adams, and Leo were exceptional.
The story, which I thought would be the same typical underdog sports story, actually has a little something extra with the unintentional sabotage of Mickey Ward's career by his immediate family (specifically his mother and brother). Some of the worst things have been done with the best intentions and Dickie Ecklund and Alice Ward were just too self-involved to really be on Mickey Wards side.
The Fighter is a remarkable film and is sure to make a few appearances this awards season.
Black Swan
Beautiful and haunting, Black Swan is a powerful film that explores the physical, emotional and mental sacrifices an artist will make for his/her art.
Natalie Portman is amazing in this. I honestly never thought I'd see the day when I'd hear someone refer to her as Academy Award winner Natalie Portman, but not only will she definitely be nominated, she is almost certain to win. Her character's (Nina) obsession with perfection slowly destroys her and Portman's portrayal of Nina's downfall is absolutely breathtaking. Add to that her apparent background in ballet and you get the most memorable performance of the year.
Black Swan is a horror movie for snobs. It's very slowly paced, but is sufficiently creepy. The entire cast is perfect and Darren Aronofsky's direction is spot on. If dark psychological thrillers that mess with your head as much as it messes with the characters is your thing, do not wait another day to see Black Swan.
True Grit
My recommendation of True Grit is based almost entirely around the fact that I really don't enjoy westerns. The fact is that I just don't find them enjoyable as a genre. The color palette is filled with drab tan and brown colors, everyone talks with a southern accent, and action scenes are difficult to make exciting because of the lack of technology (horses and 6 shooters are no sports cars and machine guns).
When I like a western, and it's rare (I can only think of 3 others and one of them doesn't count), it has more to do with the actor's performances and the characters they portray. If the characters aren't intriguing I won't care about anything that's going on. In this case I was really impressed by Hailee Steinfeld's portrayal of 14 year-old Mattie Ross. I enjoyed her character's persistence and her ability to take charge of a situation and control the older characters in the movie. Obviously this would have been impossible without the great writing that she was reading from, but it was her job to convince me believe that this young girl was capable of doing the things she was doing. She convinced me.
Jeff Bridges was good although I couldn't understand most of his drunken, southern, old man, raspy dialect, and Matt Damon was fine too although it really was a strange role for him. Josh Brolin's character was weird and I'm not sure he was the best choice for the role.
I haven't seen the original and I have no desire to. True Grit (2010) was enough for me and since I actually kinda liked it even though I hate westerns, it was probably a very, very good film.
Tangled
Tangled, Disney's interpretation of Rapunzel, is a fun, colorful and entertaining addition to the holiday season. It's very girly and may not appeal to young boys, despite the suave, witty and adventurous swashbuckling male lead, who is actually going to appeal more to moms than he would to a young male demographic.
This is a princess movie through and through, and I have to say, it's about time Disney went back to their Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty roots. Other than The Princess and the Frog (which I really didn't like) the studio had abandoned their classic tendencies and relied heavily on Pixar or individual "talent" (Miley Cyrus, Jonas Brothers, Lindsey Lohan) to rake in the dough for them. While Tangled may not have appealed to me personally, it's success will, hopefully, encourage them to produce more titles like Aladdin, and The Lion King.
Tangled's one flaw is that it might be too quirky for it's own good. Movies like the aforementioned classics take place in a specific time period and region of the world and the characters act appropriately. Tangled is a cartoon and the characters "act" like they're in a cartoon instead of a medieval kingdom; making this movie lighter and cuter than the animated stories from the 1990's.
You should absolutely take the time to check out Tangled. It's beautifully animated and a fun story.
Tron: Legacy 3D
... I wanted so bad for this movie to exceed my dismally low expectations and sadly, it was only able to meet them.
Aside from the special effects, Tron: Legacy has very little to offer other that a cool score written by Daft Punk. The performances are either over-epically serious or sickeningly cutesy-cute. Why Disney would put this tent-pole holiday release into the hands of a first time director is mind-blowing, but I'm really not 100% sure that it would have been all that much better in the hands of a seasoned director, anyway.
I think the biggest disappointment is probably special effects related. While the movie was stunning to look at, there was never any huge special effects climax or overly impressive stunt to "wow" the audience beyond the pretty standard effects that fill the movie. The visual effects are just a stagnant aspect of the movie that you'll take for granted by the 30 minute mark.
The story was both overly complicated and irritatingly unoriginal and while the effects were enough to keep me engaged for the length of the movie, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that anyone spend money to see Tron: Legacy unless you are only looking for eye-candy and your standards for what qualifies as eye-candy is on the low side.
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