The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Best Films Of 2010

Film of The Year: The Social Network (9/10)

In Brief: A film about a guy and his computer debating with lawyers in a room… who would have thought that could be so good. Fincher and a superb cast deliver without exception. Awesome film.

2. American: the Bill Hicks Story

In Brief: Fans or not, this innovative documentary charts the career of one of comedies best.

3. Toy Story 3

In Brief: One of Pixar's best movies, Toy Story 3 completes one of the movies best trilogies.

4. Monsters

In Brief: Proof that small budget doesn’t mean small film, this road movie sci-fi is a slice of movie perfection.

5. Shutter Island

In Brief: Scorsese & DiCaprio do it again. Scary. Pulpy. And just the right side of stupid. Mostly.

Bubbling under:
Sherlock Holmes; Where The Wild Things Are, Machete, The Town, Karate Kid, Ninja Assassin, The A Team, The Losers, Piranha 3-D

Films that I haven’t seen (as Of Writing This) that I really need to:

Inception; Jackass 3-D, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 1, Unstoppable, The Last Exorcism, Let Me In, Tron: Legacy
Next Time: Looking to 2011

The Final Reviews of 2010

 Also: Buried; Nightmare On Elm Street; Red

Buried

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Buried is a claustrophobic, tense, well made thriller that relishes in it’s one actor one location premise with some superb photography and some taught acting by Ryan Reynolds. Seriously though those with a fear of small places stay away. Uncomfortable but brilliant.

Best Bit: The photography by far

Rent, Borrow, Buy: Rent

IMDB Rating: 8/10

If you liked this try: Reservoir Dogs (9/10); Saw (8/10); Rear Window (8/10)


Resident Evil: Afterlife

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Surprisingly better than I expected from the fourth in the series (and return of perennial under achiever Paul WS Anderson). With a rash of above average action sequences, a thankfully brief running time and enough nods to the original games to keep the harden geek in me happy, Afterlife (or Resident Evil 3-D) held my attention admirably. If this is your bag you can do a lot worse.

Best Bit: You're landing the plane where?

Rent, Borrow, Buy: Rent

IMDB Rating: 6/10

If you liked this try: Resident Evil (4/10); Resident Evil 2 (2/10); Resident Evil 3 (6/10)

A Nightmare On Elm Street 2010

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Another bland remake of another classic horror.  Why bother? Simple… Money. Why care? Simple… you shouldn’t. Dull, unexciting and a shadow of the far superior original The Elm Street remake should have never happened. Not much else to say really…

Best Bit: I stayed awake. Just.  Although not sure why that is good...

Rent, Borrow or Buy: Borrow.

IMDB Rating: 4/10

If you liked this try: A Nightmare On Elm Street (8/10); Last House On The left 2009 (7/10); Halloween 2007 (5/10)

RED

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Get a bunch of ‘old’ film stars, add a dame with a machine gun, throw in a few B Movie actors and put Bruce Willis above the title and you have Red, a confusing at times, fun at others, action comedy thriller that isn’t consistent enough in tone to be great but has enough to recommend to make it take a step above average. Better than you have heard…

Best Bit: Helen Miren with a Machine gun.

Rent, Borrow, Buy: Rent

IMDB Rating: 6/10

If you liked this try: Spy Game (6/10); Expendables (6/10); Salt (5/10)

Skyline

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Skyline is every thing that is wrong with film making today. Great effects but piss poor plot, terrible acting and a pace that is on par with a dead snail. So bad you want to wind past, this is a real low point for 2010 cinema and should be avoided at almost all costs.

Best Bit: It’s less than 90 minutes. And I didn’t pay.

Rent, Borrow, Buy: None of the above. Shoplift maybe?

IMDB Rating: 3/10

If you liked this try: District 9 (8/10); Independence Day (5/10); V 2009 (5/10)

The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Worst Films Of 2010

Stinker Of The Year: Skyline (3/10)

In Brief: Great idea. Terrible execution. Okay FX but with it's piss poor action and a plot that meanders from one dull encounter to the next there's very little upside to watching this mess.

Avoid

2. 44 Inch Chest

In Brief: Great Fucking cast. Boring as Cu*ting hell. Far too many Fuck Fuck Fucking swear words.

3. Last Seven

In Brief: 20 of the longest minutes of my life. Wound past the rest.

4. Twilight: Eclipse

In Brief: Another boring Twilight movie. Only two to go.

5. Survival of The Dead

In Brief: So average it hurts. Romero has fallen so far it's scary. One of the worst Zombie movies ever.

Bubbling under:
Sorority Row , The Other Guys, Twilight: New Moon (I watched it this year for the first time!), Wolfman, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief, Hot tub Time Machine, Surrogates, Nightmare On Elm Street

Didn’t Bother even trying:

The Bounty Hunter, The Back Up Plan, Sex & The City 2, Grown Ups, Last Air Bender

Next Time: Best Of 2010

This Weeks Review (18th-24th Dec 2010)

Next Time: Skyline & End Of Year Review

Lost Boys: The Thirst

Phil's Quick Capsule Review:

Third times the charm for Lost Boys. After it's not so successful belated sequel 'The Tribe' this new franchise finds it stride with a funny, confident and often well made story that offers little new or groundbreaking but plenty to make it's 90 minute running time fly by. Feldman is the star and the film leaves you open to even further adventures of the Frog Brothers.

Best Bit: Corey Feldmen back to his... er... best

Rent, Borrow, Buy: Rent

IMDB Rating: 6/10

If you liked this try: Lost Boys (8/10); License To Drive (5/10); Lost Boys 2 (3/10)

This Weeks Reviews (11-17th Dec 2010)

Next Time: Lost Boys : The Thirst

Toy Story 3

Phil's Quick Cpasule Review

The Toys Are Back In Town to round up what is probably the greatest movie trilogy of all time (Yes Star Wars and Godfather take note). Mixing the usual Pixar magic with a heartwarming, emotional (yes I cried at the heart string pulling finally 10 minutes), funny and action packed story, the top notch voice cast (Michael Keaton as Ken! genius!) and a Randy Newman song or two it begs the question... can these guys make a bad film? As it stands I'd say no. Another 5 star Pixar Classic.

Best Bit: Spanish Buzz

Rent, Borrow, Buy: Buy

IMDB Rating: 9/10

If you liked this try: Toy Story (9/10); Toy Story 2 (9/10) ; Up  (9/10)