January 5, 2011

2010: CLASSICS, RUNNER-UPS and THE WORST

We're almost at my list if favourite films from 2010, I promise. I wanted to aim for a pretty big wrap-up of the year, but I didn't want to dump it all in one massive post. I'm putting the finishing touches on my final picks for 2010 and that'll be coming in the next couple of days. In the meantime, here's the runner-ups for my favourites: films that were very, very good and that I responded to but that, for whatever reason, won't be among my favourites. I was also lucky enough to see a stack of Classic films at the movies this year and I've got a quick rundown of my favourites from that. And, of course, my picks for the worst of the year; the cinematic atrocities that were perpetrated upon me.

THE RUNNER-UPS

The Wolfman
Toy Story 3
Bronson
Boy
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Inside Job
Paperheart
I Killed My Mother
Cell 211
Lebanon
A Prophet
Cyrus
I Am Love
Buried
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
The Town
Easy A
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

THE CLASSICS

Ghostbusters
Once Upon A Time in the West
Enter the Dragon
Badlands
Touch of Evil
Some Like It Hot

THE WORST (oh gods! The horror! The cinematic horror!)
I think I managed to steer clear of the majority of the cinematic stinkers this year. And that’s what trailers and advance reviews are for surely? So you know what to avoid, as much as what you want to see. However, the following were films I did see this year whether willingly or unwillingly.* 

Birdemic: Shock and Terror
Quite possibly the worst film I’ve ever seen, period. It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s so bad it’s physically painful. Children armed with a handycam could’ve (and have) done better than this. Fuck the world that there is a sequel being made.

Prince of Persia
The Hollywood entry for this year. A shame, as I held out real hope for this; with the budget and creative people behind it it could’ve been the first video-game film that was actually good. Instead it was stupid and stunningly dull.

Splice
This is not a film I expected to have on this list. In fact, if you’d asked me at the start of the year I may have predicted it ending up in the Favourite Films list. To me, it just seemed so misjudged and poorly handled it quickly slipped from crime against nature horror into laughable farce. 

Ne Change Rien
The only reason I saw this film at all was because I had to usher it at the film festival. Tedious art wank. 

Melody for a Street Organ
Also another Film Festival usher entry. This was boring and long and obvious and tedious and just so fucking infuriating I just wanted the two central kids to hurry up an die, as surely that was where this was all heading.

*four of these five were films I caught at the Film Festival. Take from that what you will.

2 comments:

  1. THANK YOU! I so agree about Splice! I was excited to see it - and then it tripped so badly in the penultimate scene that I got pissed off. All of the film leading up to that point was hilariously awesome. Then... no.

    Also, do you think that you are harder on 'Prince of Persia' because you were looking forward to it? If you had no expectations of it being good, maybe it wouldn't have been as much of a let-down.

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  2. Mmm... I think Splice tripped up waaaay before the penultimate scene. And I so wanted to enjoy it!

    I wouldn't say I was looking forward to Prince of Persia, more that I expected something better. Not grand, moving cinema. Just something that wasn't, you know, dogshit.

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