Alright people its time for the terrible truth. Some people call me a film buff, others call me a nerdist, a comedian, and an all around goofball; however the one thing I am not is a critic.
To define a critic, in my case a film critic, is an individual who states his opinion in order to influence others in to go seeing a movie. These people while there insights may be, well, insightful are usually on the payroll of a major corporation, who spends hundreds of millions to boost their revenue sales, not saying it’s a bad thing, “it’s just business”. My point is merely to educate and well explain, what I think, while making you create your own opinion. I want a reaction, tell me I am why I am wrong, state what you think.
Towards the beginning of this year, people who I know, who are as passionate about film/ cinema/ and the behemoth blockbuster posted top ten lists of what they considered their favorite, well written, best movies of the past year. While I felt like stating my likes and dislikes, I waited some time to post my true opinion of this past year, 2010.
There are two sections which I will include which will be entitled; Truth and Opinion. The truth will be my rant and realities of the film market while the opinion portion, well will be my opinion. Keep in mind though, I am a blockbuster fan, I believe in its power (a term in later articles I publish will be entitled “The Spectacle”, where in my best rational I will try to explain it to my knowledge). To give you a taste: Transformers, while poorly written, cheezed to the max (yes I spelled it with a Z), contained the formula of what is awesome, and do not deny, the power of the awesome. Giant f***in robots, one of the most beautiful women in the world, and enough explosions to make you soil your pants, light your eyes up, and create the action in the downstairs for the men in the audience. Come on people lighten up, the point of watching a movie is to have fun.
Truth
Here are the top ten movies of 2010
- Toy Story 3
- Alice in Wonderland
- Iron Man 2
- The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1.
- Inception
- Despicable Me
- Shrek Forever After
- How to Train Your Dragon
- Tangled
Now some of you may be scratching your head, others may be going “well that makes sense.” However the truth is and no matter your opinion, you can not deny it, these are the best movies because of one reason. Not because of your money, but more importantly, your time.
Everyone works; movies are a past time to us, something we do when we are bored, when we are sad, and when we need to get out of the house. We see them after watching movie trailers on TV, trailers before the movies, and gigantic billboards hundreds of feet in size, and opinions or buzz from friends and family.
The point is, a person may have all the intention of seeing a movie, but in reality, movies rise and fall by the money we as people spend on them. The people who made this list took their time, spent the 8-16$ dollar price of admission, popcorn, candy, and my personal favorite “The Icee” and sat down for an hour to two hours to enjoy. Last year made it even more valuable because lets face it, a lot of people lost a lot of money, good people who work three jobs to support their kids and feed their families.
To explain the mood of the ten I will write a paragraph, a fragmented paragraph that will be borderline tangent, but still dictate the mood of how we as people felt last year and in general, the mood of our lives.
We wanted to experience our inner child but we are stuck tumbling down our weird rabbit hole. The compensation is to cloak ourselves in the armor of technology praying that will save us. One side wants to see the lighter side of a beautiful, dark world, while believing in the power of magic and what our dreams can do for our soul. Sometimes we want our own minion; despite the fact we are not trying to be cruel. Yet while we feel ugly at times we believe things can work out in the end. Our opinion is that things which may appear bad, can sometimes give us great hope, while thanking Disney for giving us another classic cartoon.
As deep as this all may be, you wrote this, not me.
“”””Rating system based on
10: The most sacred rating, only going to several films including Gone With the Wind; Saving Private Ryan; Titanic; Life is Beautiful (Class: Epic Beautiful, Bordeline Sublime)
9: E.T; Ghost busters I & II; Fight Club; The Empire Strikes Back (Class: Classic Iconic)
8: Social Network; The Last Samurai; Vanilla Sky (Class: Fringe movies “made me think”)
7: Liar, Liar; When Harry Met Sally; Sleepless in Seattle (Class: Heartfelt, Aww! Movies)
6. Star Wars (this might get some comments,lol); Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Class: Mind Candy)
5: Transformers, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Dodgeball (Class: I love it! But still dumb)
4 to 1 Represent the decline into lack of attention, I put you on while I want something in the background, to put it slightly I can’t even get distracted you, and I’m ADHD. This is why, your not getting a rating.”””””””””
Opinion- My Personal Top 5 of 2010 ( Based on if I had every movie in front of me from 2010, what would I watch first!)
1. The Social Network (32)- my rating (8.75)
I considered this a great film, generation defining, and heartfelt. I almost put it as a 9, but it didn’t really shake my world. Afterwards I didn’t want to buy a DeLorean, but I did somehow convince the childish part of myself that if I really, really tried I could hack the Harvard internet directory and make something of myself while I was wasted. However, I just hopped back on Facecrack, “cough, cough”, I’m sorry Facebook.
2. Inception (6)- my rating (6.3)
Over rated, yes! Amazingly awesome and still a freaking two on my book, hell frickin yeah!
I rate it as two because for Oh My God, not OMG sakes, it was a sign of relief. Thank god, finally a well written, high box office smash hit, beautiful cinematography piece of Candy. In the theatres, I wanted to scream hell yeah like I was in a monster truck rally, it kind of fell apart when I watched it on my 20” Magnavox w/ the built in DVD Player.
3. Black Swan (27) my rating (8.3)
I ain’t going to kid around, Aronofsky used to creep me out. I was perturbed by Requiem for a Dream and Pi. Then he made this film called the Wrestler, a point of view shot strictly from a masculine sense. Then he made Black Swan, a movie shot from the strict feminine. It was beautiful elegant, erotic, and grand. I loved it.
4. Hot Tub Time Machine (66) my rating (7)
You always need a good comedy, something ridiculous and over the top to go wait a minute, I can not breathe. During my first viewing of this movie, I made a claim that if they go back in time, and the Cleveland Browns win the Superbowl, I will consider the greatest movie of all time. Needless to say it didn’t happen, but if it did, Gone with the Wind and Saving Private move over.
5. Toy Story 3 (1) my rating (8.9)
There are some movies, which are classic, movies that you saw which defined you. For me the best movies I have ever watched have been with my Father. I personally consider his opinions on what movies are as the movie Bible, and gave me belief in the Fall Asleep system (I’ll get into this later). With him I saw the Sandlot, Jumanji, Hook, Cast Away, and Toy Story. He somehow just knew the movies which could move your soul and shape who you are. This movie was a classic, heartfelt, and moving. However I can not truly rate it a 9 because it is not the original.
So people comment on this, let me know what you, what I should change, and for God Sake disagree with me. It’s part of having an opinion. I want to launch my blog but I will only do it by popular demand.
Look forward to my note about the top 10 movies you should see!
Warmest regards,
Michael J.
The following is a work of Michael J. Royer, any person wishing to steal this article shall be pursued to the full extent of the law, and will not allowed to eat cookies and drink the Kool Aid when the Comet comes by. Seriously people this is mine...
