Year In Review: The 10 Best Movies Of 2010
The Premise: In this nearly perfect buddy cop spoof movie, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg play a pair desk-bound cops looking for action and who do the paperwork for celeb cop partners played by Samuel L. Jackson and Dwayne Johnson.
The Payoff: Hilarious scene after hilarious scene. All the cliché moments of buddy cop action movie are present and accounted for including the screaming captain and an explosion, which sends our heroes flying skyward. From the Ceelo Green and Eva Mendes (who also co-starred as Ferrell’s wife in the film) song, Pimps Don’t Lie to seeing the funniest comedic actor in movies return to goofball form Will Farrell, The Other Guys is worth repeated look this year and beyond.
10) Movies Of Year: The Other Guys
9) Movies Of Year: The Kids Are Alright
The Premise: A long married lesbian couple played by Annette Benning and Julianne Moore already skidding toward a mid-life crisis is thrown for a tailspin when their two children seek out their birth father (each woman gave birth to one child using the same anonymous donor.)
The Payoff: Amazingly acted by Benning and Moore, The Kids Are Alright is a film that centers is on a lesbian marriage but isn’t about one specifically. It’s about the challenges of the marriage institution in modern times. And it’s about people in love and the crazy choices we make for love. Who can’t relate to that? Great performances by Mark Ruffalo and America’s Top Model alum Ya Ya DaCosta make this dramedy well worth your while regardless of your race or sexual preference.
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8) Movies Of Year: Despicable Me/Toy Story 3 (Tie)
The Premise: Toy Story 3—Young Andy is off to college in this chapter and his toys have the choice of either going to the attic, a day care or the trash. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen reprise their voice roles. Despicable Me—Steve Carrell voices a character that is out to be the baddest villain of all time.
The Payoff: Animation in general has been kicked up a notch because most of it is offered in 3D these days. And the stories are really not just for kiddies anymore— there is really always something entertaining in the mix for adults of all ages.
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7) Movies Of Year: Twilight Saga The Eclipse
The Premise: In the third installment of the Twilight series, adolescent vampire lust runs wild. It’s Team Edward (Robert Pattinson) versus Team Jacob (Taylor Lautner) and Bella Swan’s (Kristen Stewart) virginity is on the line.
The Payoff: If you have no idea what I’m talking about you’re in the minority. Because people who follow the Twilight books and movies can rejoice because with the big box office bucks this franchise banks, it ain’t going nowhere anytime soon. Action, adventure, love, lust, blood and Lautner’s abs are abound in this chapter.
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6) Movies Of Year: Karate Kid
The Premise: A redux of the 1984 of the Ralph Macchio vehicle of the same name, except in the 2.0 version Jaden Smith stars as a young outcast who relocates to China with his mom played Taraji P. Henson. And Jackie Chan portrays the martial arts expert who helps him defend himself against daily beat downs from bullies.
The Payoff: Karate Kid opened up number one its first week in theaters drop kicking all the competition and now there’s serious talk that a sequel will be in the works. It’s a feel good kiddie revenge movie that works on several levels that the whole family can enjoy. And after tugging at our heartstrings in 2006 Pursuit of Happyness, we’ve all officially just been served. With Karate Kid Jaden just proved that another bankable Smith box office star has officially been born.
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5) Movies Of Year: The Town
The Premise: Ben Affleck plays the head of a bank robbing family who haunts a town by stealing its cash. One of their jobs gets dicey when a member of the crew played by The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner takes a hostage played by Rebecca Hall. The hostage is released unharmed but since the trio all live in the same town, the stakes are raised if the crew will be found out for their crimes when two of trio befriends each other.
The Payoff: Affleck, who also served as director of The Town is responsible for the nail biting suspense and great shoot em up bank robber vs. cops scenes that make this film an enjoyable ride. And strong performances from actors like Mad Men’s Jon Hamm and Gossip Girl's Blake Lively make heading to this town worth the trip.
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4) Movies Of Year: Takers
The Premise: Another band of merry thieves played by Idris Elba, Paul Walker, Michael Ealy, Chris Brown and Hayden Christensen attempt an armored car heist that they were tipped off about by a dubious and former member of their crew, portrayed by Tip T.I. Harris who just got released from jail. Matt Dillon and Jay Hernandez play the cops hot on their trails.
The Payoff: A slick, fun and sometimes funny multiculti casted heist film that has an all-star cast that delivers the goods (serving up action, suspense, dramatic moments and story twists) all in impeccably dressed designer suits. Many critics dismissed Takers but this entertaining hopped up version of Heat crossed with Ocean’s Eleven for a new generation had the last laugh. Another summer crowd pleaser, Takers closed out the summer by opening number one its first week in theaters.
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3) Movies Of Year: The Social Network
The Premise: After going on a really bad date a socially awkward college student named Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) goes home and creates the genesis for what becomes the social networking juggernaut Facebook.
The Payoff: The Social Network could have been a boring ultra cerebral story that goes way over your head, but with amazing direction by David Fincher, a brilliant script by Aaron Sorkin, and strong performances by Eisenberg and Justin Timberlake the movie lets you in and makes you as much apart of the action as being a Facebook user. And with the billion ‘friends’ who troll it several times a day around the world, weren’t we all clamoring for some short version of how Facebook came to be?
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2) Movies Of Year: For Colored Girls
The Premise: Seven women in various stages of life and love all converge with each other in either their personal and professional lives and encounter life-changing experiences. Based on the Tony award winning by Ntzoke Shange For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow was Enuf.
The Payoff: The all-star and severly underused in Hollywood black actress cast of Thandie Newton, Janet Jackson, Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Whoopi Goldberg and Phylicia Rashad make this movie moment completely worthwhile. And while for some this controversial movie adaptation directed by Tyler Perry was too down-trodden and joyless, had negative portrayals of black men and others found the switch from poetry monologues to Perry’s modern dialogue to jarring, For Colored Girls remains the media mogul’s best directorial effort to date.
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1) Movies Of Year: Inception
The Premise: Leonardo DiCaprio plays a man who enters the minds of other men to steal their ideas. But then DiCaprio’s chararacter is hired by a billionaire, portrayed by Ken Watanabe to do the opposite of what he usually does; implant an idea inside a rival man’s head to make him believe it was his own.
The Payoff: Inception is cut from the same cloth as the mind-bending cult classic, The Matrix. The premise sounds simple enough but the when you’re infiltrating someone’s dreamscape the worlds between dream and real time can be blurred. Buildings lean, streets curl and characters float in the process. If you think you might get lost, don’t worry it’s on DVD so you can always rewind. But just know this: Inception was written and directed by Christopher Nolan, who wrote and directed the brilliant Memento, the impressive Batman Begins and dazzling The Dark Knight, so you know its got to be good.
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