Films of 2010

So it's 2011 and I managed to uphold true blue democracy by setting my beard to the vote. But I'm not gonna talk about that, or my New Years Celebrations or my latest ideas or whatever. I'm gonna talk about the films of 2010, that I spent half my time reviewing.

(This may be a long one.)

So, the year was off to a good start with some quirky, fast-paced, kick-ass action films, Sherlock Holmes was hilarious and tense, Daybreakers was a few knocks off being truly brilliant, Book of Eli was very entertaining. Then The Road and Up In The Air took 2010 into a more questioning route, a more thoughtful direction of depression and how to cope with it. And all that was just in January, what a month to start off.

What came next was... well... The Wolfman was pretty poor, the Lovely Bones was uninspiring and The Crazies was pretty run-of-the-mill, leaving February a little disappointing. The only film from March was Shutter Island, a film I'm still mixed about given the ending. April started off terrible, with the Clash of the Titans remake (beware the threatened sequel), but was redeemed by How To Train Your Dragon and of course, Iron Man 2.

A mix in May, the Nightmare on Elm Street remake was pure rubbish, Hot Tub Time Machine and Prince of Persia did little to impress, but Robin Hood was a decent addition and of course, Four Lions was dominating the British market, deservedly so. June brought more mix, Brooklyn's Finest was fine, Bad Lieutenant was downright weird, 4.3.2.1 was surprisingly great, Wild Target sucked beyond all my fears and Get Him To The Greek didn't.

Properly into summer now. July was filled with cool, with Predators, Inception and the A-Team all in the same month. Now that was some good times! Then August followed with the surprisingly cool Piranha, the oddly let-down of Scott Pilgrim and the inexcusably terrible Expendables. September looked as if it would suck to start as well with the new Resident Evil, but Ben Affleck (of all the people) pulled it back with The Town. Cyrus was... well... I still don't know.

October, a month of nostalgia. Back To The Future was 25, Metropolis was 83... both of them reminded me why I should still respect them both for their sheer genius. Then there was Let Me In and RED, both of them were solid movies, and then of course, The Social Network, a film that nobody really saw coming, yet took us all by surprise.

End of the year and Fantasy starts to take over. The Owls of Ga'hoole was passable and good (if violent) for kids, Skyline was utter utter rubbish and Machete was hilarious (and definately not for kids!), in November. Then Unstoppable was solid, Monsters was a bit of a let down and my year was finished with good ol' Narnia. And that was forty two films.

So...

Top Five are easily:
- Inception
- The Social Network
- Four Lions
- The Road
- Iron Man 2

with Up In The Air not that far behind and 4.3.2.1 just a few inches behind that. It was a powerful year in some places, with only a few glaring let downs. I didn't get to see all the films I wanted to. Splice passed me by, as did Toy Story 3 and Kick-Ass. But I think I did pretty damn well as it was. I got me some good movies in. In case you were wondering, that adds up to:

Remakes - 8
(The WOlfman, The Crazies, Clash of the Titans, Nightmare on Elm Street, Prince of Persia, Bad Lieutenant, Piranha and Let Me In)

Sequels - 3
(Get Him To The Greek, Predators. Iron Man 2 and Resident Evil 4 are both half sequels, half adaptations)

Adaptations - 16
(Sherlock Holmes, The Road, Up In The Air, The Lovely Bones, Shutter Island, How To Train Your Dragon, The A-Team, Scott Pilgrin vs. The World, The Town, Metropolis, The Social Network, RED, Legend of the Guardians, Machete and Chronicles of Narnia, as well as the Iron Man 2/Resident Evil 4 thing).

Original (Big Question Mark next to some) - 15
(Daybreakers, Book of Eli, Four Lions, Hot Tub Time Machine, Robin Hood, Brooklyn's Finest, 4.3.2.1, Wild Target, Inception, The Expendables, Cyrus, Back To The Future, Skyline, Unstoppable and Monsters)

Worst Films of the Year:
- Clash of the Titans (Easily the worst)
- Skyline (Beyond Hope)
- The Expendables (Jesus help me)
- Wild Target (Why guys, just why?)

Think that's about as much as I can waffle about the same 42 movies... now I guess I should review another one...

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS.

Odd film to start the year off with, but I didn't get to see it before Christmas and I didn't want to miss it, especially since it seemed like a romantic comedy that I might actually be interested in. That sentence in itself should probably tell you something about me.

I mean, take a look at the list of forty-two movies I saw this year just gone and try to pick out the romantic comedies. I guarantee you it'll be a very short list. So when one that actually has some interest attached to it... well, can't really pass it up, can I? No, I can't.

So, Edward Zwick.

Zwick is the second port of call when it comes to historical epics, right behind SIR Ridely, after all. What with The Last Samurai, Glory, Blood Diamond and Defiance under his belt, as well as a host of other films. Doing this rom-com almost seems out of place for him, until you consider it. It's set in 1996, a historical period as far as we're concerned now, and it's pretty long, making it somewhat epic in scope.

And truth be told, it's nowhere near as 'romantic' as a lot of other rom-coms aim for. It's hard to watch in some places, it's based around casual sex and it's got enough cynicsm about love and life to fill a whole clone of me. It's genuinely funny in a good number of places and it's got excellent, well-rounded characters. The best of which aren't Gyllenhall and Hathaway (although they are good), it's the support guys.

Oliver Platt and Hank Azaria are probably two of the most under-rated actors on the American scene, their characters in this movie are charming, bitter, hilarious and understated. Team them up with Josh Gad's younger brother character and this movie has a hat-trick of decent male secondaries. Very few female presences apart from Hathaway, however. And the backdrop of the film is the most interesting character of all.

Late 90's. Drug Reps. Viagra.

Oh yes. This is what it's all about. The depiction of the late 90's Viagra boom is probably the most interesting part of the entire film, the sort of historical (eek, that makes me feel old) event that changed a great deal without all that many people noticing and it's documented very, very well.

So, interesting setting, great supporting characters, leads we can actually identify with and a huge wealth of detail in this movie. This isn't just a rom-com, to partake of Mark's and Spencer's advertising campaign. This is an Edward Zwick rom-com. And that says it all, as far as I'm concerned.

Next: 127 Hours.