10. The Princess and the Frog [Cinema Review] - Disney's return to hand-drawn animation was a big success for me, resulting in probably the best traditional Disney since The Lion King. The songs are toe-tapping, if not particularly catchy, and the characters are enormously endearing. Best of all though is the artwork - a sumptuous, romanticised recreation of jazz-era New Orleans.
9. The American - This is the first of two films on this list that I watched on a plane and I don't feel such conditions give you a true impression of a film - hence the lack of a review - but I do know that I was gripped by The American throughout. Its Day of the Jackal-esque examination of the minutiae of an assassin's life is absorbing in its moral conflictions, while the thoughtful pacing is an ideal match for the material.
8. Green Zone [Blu-ray Review] - Underrated much? Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon's first collaboration that isn't Bourne was a film with just as much energy and thrilling action. It may not have as much to say about the Iraq war as it might promise to, but as a compelling thriller with a real-world canvas, it further reinforces Greengrass's reputation as amongst the best in the business.
7. The Ghost - Who knows how Roman Polanski's career would have gone had he been available to work in America for the last thirty years. What we do know is that he has still been able to crank out a few works of a master in his European exile. The Pianist is one; Frantic, perhaps, another - and The Ghost certainly belongs in that category. In tone and feel it's surprisingly close to Polanski's Chinatown, keeping you in its vice-grip until the inevitably unforeseen end. Its great achievement is the atmosphere of dread that is built up despite not much actually occurring to justify it, and confirms Polanski as one of the greatest purveyors of such unease since Hitchcock.
6. The Lovely Bones [Blu-ray Review] - Call me a Peter Jackson apologist, but I was a complete sucker for The Lovely Bones. I don't find its representation of "the in-between" (a limbo of sorts) completely convincing, and there's one CGI-overload montage that is utterly cringemaking, but nevertheless the film emphatically won me over. The two main performances - Saoirse Ronan and Stanley Tucci - are both exceptional, and Jackson shows a directorial flair that sometimes had got lost amidst the spectacle of prior efforts.
5. Toy Story 3 [Cinema Review] - Full disclosure time: Toy Story 3 is a brilliant film - faultless, perhaps - but I still feel a slight emotional disconnect with CG animation as opposed to their best hand-drawn brethren or live action. It's a rare CG film (such as The Incredibles) that really manages to worm its way into my most-watched pile. As such, this film that I rated 5 stars finds itself ranked below some others that I, in general, found more faults with. Toy Story 3 remains an incredible achievement though, besting the first sequel by some margin and sometimes touching quality of the original.
4. The Social Network - The other film on this list that I enjoyed at 36,000 feet, I can't be completely sure of The Social Network's ranking here before I watch it again, but I love the typically Sorkinese dialect spoken by the characters, and the intricacy and tempo of the editing. David Fincher's presence at the reigns is as low-key as I can remember it in a film, but that is an observation rather than a criticism. It's a film of people talking and typing, and as such it's incredible just how much drama and excitement the Fincher/Sorkin dream team inject into the potentially mundane.
3. Unstoppable [Cinema Review] - Unexpected. Undemanding. Unapologetic. Unstoppable is the ultimate edge-of-seat nailbiter. Yes, I enjoyed it that much. (Going by its Rotten Tomatoes score - 86% - I'm not the only one.)
2. Inception [Cinema Review] - I was harsh to Inception on release - probably due to a combination of expectation and befuddlement - but on repeat viewings the film that everyone else has been raving about has emerged for me. That's viewings, plural - since I've had it on Blu-ray this has proved to be a film that has kept calling me back for more, and I just can't get enough. It's certainly a visual and aural tour de force (Hans Zimmer's best score in years, perhaps ever), and, though the script can be clunky and too verbose, the momentum generated by the editing, music, and sheer bravado pulls it through. It also helps that the plot becomes slightly clearer on repeat viewings, albeit still impenetrable on occasion.
1. The King's Speech [Joel's Cinema Review] - The problem with Top 10 lists from a UK perspective is that a lot of the Oscar hopefuls, often some of the best films of the year, come out here in January or February, having reached US cinemas a couple of months earlier. That means that UK lists can look a year out of date. The King's Speech was released on Jan 7 on these shores, but I saw it on December 31 in Australia - therefore, I'm putting it on the 2010 list. It's an absolute masterpiece, and will be a deserved winner of the Best Picture Oscar should it achieve that, as it looks destined to. Basically it's a two-hander between Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush; the former of which looks set to take home the gold man, but arguably it's the latter who brings most warmth, humour and humanity. Meanwhile the supporting players are superb too, notably Helena Bonham Carter as the future Queen Mum and Guy Pearce as Edward VIII (only Timothy Spall as a caricature of Winston Churchill strikes a bum note). For a film with a relatively small budget, director Tom Hooper - who impressed me a lot with HBO's John Adams and Brian Clough biopic The Damned United - brings a commendable sense of period and even some scale. It's impeccable craftmanship, and completely undeserving of any barbs pointed at stuffy British heritage cinema. Majestic.
Honourable Mentions
The Town, Clash of the Titans, The Expendables, Kick-Ass, Iron Man 2, Edge of Darkness, The Last Station, Robin Hood, Shutter Island, Tron: Legacy, A Single Man.
2010, over and out.
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