BEST
5. The Social Network
Of course this movie had to be on the list! With a ground breaking opening week, grossing almost €200million to date, The Social Network stars Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook. It tells the story of his rise and the troubles that follow being the world’s youngest billionaire. Also starring, Justin Timberlake and rising star Andrew Garfield, The Social Network is tipped for Oscar glory after receiving countless Golden Globe nominations.
4. Toy Story 3
A perfect ending to a beautiful trilogy, Toy Story 3 gave us some closure on the adventures of Andy and his beloved toys. It answered the often wondered matter of what would happen when he eventually became too old to play with toys. Some of us here in the @rcade grew up with Andy, and it was definitely a bittersweet moment to bid farewell to many of the characters.
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1)
It’s the beginning of the end for another franchise we grew up with. Deathly Hallows Part 1 deals with the first half of JK Rowling’s much loved final novel in the series about The Boy Who Lived. We watched as Harry hunted horcruxes amidst a magical war between the forces of good and the evil Lord Voldemort. Though less action packed than its predecessors, this instalment left us waiting for the true finale with baited breath.
2. Inception
We must admit, we struggled terribly to pick between our top two but ultimately decided that Inception comes in an extremely close first and a half… or second to be technical. The psychological thriller which comes to us from the mind of Chris Nolan left us questioning our dreams and various subconscious states for months and had everyone reaching for their respective totems. If you haven’t seen it, rent it IMMEDIATELY and watch repeatedly until you’re a believer.
1. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
And so we reach our number one movie of 2010. With everything from romance and action to humour and awesome special effects, Scott Pilgrim really was THE movie to see this year. It bothers us to no end that it didn’t reach half as many people as it deserved to, which is why we are making it our mission to spread the word! If you haven’t watched Scott kick ass through Ramona’s seven evil exes, you are definitely missing out. The movie leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy, and who doesn’t love that?!
Honourable mentions:
Easy A
Kick Ass
The Town
How to train your Dragon
WORST
5. The Last Airbender
It pains us to have to say this, considering how much we were looking forward to it all last year, but The Last Airbender really, really sucked. Coming from M. Night Shyamalan, the movie is based on the first series of the TV show Avatar, not to be confused with James Cameron’s big blue adventure. Putting aside the obvious racial connotations, the casting was just abysmal, and it did not leave us looking forward to the next two instalments. Hopefully though, they might turn it around!
4. Robin Hood
Considering how well things turned out the last time Russel Crowe teamed up with Ridley Scott for Gladiator, we had serious high hopes for this movie. However, Robin Hood clearly lost his merriness in favour of some pies. What could have been a star studded action packed tale, seemed to dither on at a sleepy pace with little redeeming factors save a glorious backdrop. Even Cate Blanchett couldn’t save this all round disappointing feature.
3. The Last Exorcism
A mockumentary about a washed up exorcist who’s lost his faith doesn’t sound like it makes for an interesting watch now does it? Well, that’s what The Last Exorcism is, and no, it isn’t really a good movie at all. Despite some cheap scares and a promising premise of the ‘next Blair Witch’, it fails to deliver at all. A host of questionable acting and an unnecessary slew of twist upon twist made it feel like we’d been cheated out of a good movie after a bunch of sweet talk.
2. Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
It would appear that a Hollywood trend of bad movies happening to good actors emerged in 2010. Pierce Brosnan, Uma Thurman and Sean Bean all seemed to think that it was a good idea to sign up for this movie based on a much loved children’s book. I guess it made sense looking at the success of Harry Potter? Not all books translate well to the screen though and Percy Jackson is a prime example. The story was lost in favour of special effects and takes itself way too seriously to be considered anything other than cringe worthy.
1. Piranha 3D
You know those movies that are so bad, they’re actually kind of entertaining? That’s the standard of bad that Piranha 3D reached for us. Supposedly a remake of a classic B-movie horror, there’s something laughable about a movie that has so many boobs, it borders on porn. An ensemble cast including many new young Hollywood faces couldn’t save this movie from itself. The story of an earthquake unleashing a school of man-eating prehistoric fish is so cheesy it left us feeling a little bit dirty, in the most amusing way possible.
Dishonourable Mentions
Grown Ups
Clash of the Titans
A Nightmare On Elm Street
