2011 - Track Your Films

Happy New Year, everybody. New year - new thread. Here’s hoping that 2011 is a better year for film than 2010.



You can post your top tens of 2010 first, if you want, and then start your 2011 lists.



My top ten of 2010 (I might have to edit this post at the end of January when I’ve seen the last films of the year in their Australian release):



10. The Killer Inside Me

9. Toy Story 3: the only CG films that have ever lived up to their hype in my mind.

8. Greenberg: love Baumbach and Stiller plays such an incredible arsehole in this film.

7. Animal Kingdom: Australian films don’t often get into my top ten. Welcome exception.

6. The King’s Speech: looks to be a straight Oscar-bait drama, but so much more than that. So much heart.

5. Inception: carried with it a lot of hype and I almost didn’t include it on my list, but at the end of the day it was definitely one of the strongest films to come out of the studio system this year.

4. Winter’s Bone: Amazing regional US film. The kind that indie filmmakers aren’t making as much as they used to just ten years ago. Great performances by a bunch of talented character actors, but especially by John Hawkes.

3. You Don’t Know Jack: who’d have thought a HBO telemovie would make it onto my top ten this year? Levinson on top form, great performances all-round and a structure similar to Forman’s People vs Larry Flynt.

2. The Social Network: amazing script and excellent performance by Garfield in particular.

1. The Kids Are All Right: so much to like. Nice to see a lesbian film about family. It’s rare to say the least.



EDIT: Saw some other films and made changes.

Sweet, new year, new list. And why the fuck ain’t Scott Pilgrim on your list Angel?! You Don’t Know Jack was a cool mention, thought it was pretty good.



6. The Last Exorcism

5. Shutter Island

4. Greenberg

3. True Grit

2. The Ghost Writier

  1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World



    I couldn’t in good conciounce (?) list any other movies from 2010. Yet to see The Social Network and now Animal Kingdom.

The Social Network 6/10

OK to watch if you are really bored



Toy Story 4/10

I don’t like Pixar movies. They are bland, not funny and irritating. Disney and Ghibli both own them, big time. first time I’ve watched this. Never seen any of the 3 until today.



THE BEST OF 2010

(I haven’t seen a lot of 2010 movies yet, like 17 of QT’s top 20 I haven’t even seen)



Nr. 1: Kick-Ass 10/10

Nr.2: Step Up 3D 10/10

Nr. 3: Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World 9,5/10

Nr. 4: Machete 9/10

Nr. 5: Piranha 8/10



2010 was a TERRIBLE year for movies. there should really not be a 8/10 on Nr. 5…



disappointment of the year: Takeshi Kitano’s OUTRAGE (have to watch again before rating :frowning: ) also a disappointment: SOMEWHERE

[quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”]Sweet, new year, new list. And why the fuck ain’t Scott Pilgrim on your list Angel?! You Don’t Know Jack was a cool mention, thought it was pretty good.



6. The Last Exorcism

5. Shutter Island

4. Greenberg

3. True Grit

2. The Ghost Writier

  1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World



    I couldn’t in good conciounce (?) list any other movies from 2010. Yet to see The Social Network and now Animal Kingdom.[/quote]

Scott Pilgrim is #15 at the moment. I liked it, but clearly not as much as everybody else did. That might change though.



I know what you mean about making a list now. Films that haven’t been released in Australia yet: Black Swan, Rabbit Hole, True Grit, 127 Hours, The Fighter.



And then I missed The American and The Ghost Writer earlier this year. Going to see Blue Valentine today probably. The Town is at #11, but I really want to see the 4 hour cut before I make a proper decision.



I feel like I can’t make a real list until mid-February.

amazingly I didnt see any movies last year :o

The Social Network - 2/5



Okay, what the fuck. I must be on a different wave length as every critic in the usa because both Inception and now The Social Network appear to be the critical darlings of the year, and I don’t understand why.



Inception was mediocre, and The Social Network was mind numbingly boring. The story was paper thin. The dialogue was pretty good but fucking hell just because they say things in an interesting way doesn’t mean what they have to say is interesting.



Somebody please explain this to me. Why is this movie supposed to be so fucking good?

[quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”]The Social Network - 2/5



Okay, what the fuck. I must be on a different wave length as every critic in the usa because both Inception and now The Social Network appear to be the critical darlings of the year, and I don’t understand why.



Inception was mediocre, and The Social Network was mind numbingly boring. The story was paper thin. The dialogue was pretty good but fucking hell just because they say things in an interesting way doesn’t mean what they have to say is interesting.



Somebody please explain this to me. Why is this movie supposed to be so fucking good?[/quote]

Interestingly, the critical opinion has been rather simple. The critics like it because it is greatly entertaining. That’s my opinion too. It’s almost a thriller, crafted out of Harvard and the business world. It’s a curious portrait. The comparisons to Citizen Kane are, perhaps, in a craft sense, an overstatement, but in a structural/thematic sense, it’s a similar film.



I’m surprised you didn’t like it and yet liked Greenberg. That film got a tremendous amount of shit. I loved Greenberg too, but a lot less goes on in that film than in The Social Network.

[quote=“Ordell Rodriguez”]The Social Network - 2/5



Okay, what the fuck. I must be on a different wave length as every critic in the usa because both Inception and now The Social Network appear to be the critical darlings of the year, and I don’t understand why.



Inception was mediocre, and The Social Network was mind numbingly boring. The story was paper thin. The dialogue was pretty good but fucking hell just because they say things in an interesting way doesn’t mean what they have to say is interesting.



Somebody please explain this to me. Why is this movie supposed to be so fucking good?[/quote]

THANK YOU. Both Inception and The Social Network are just OK movies, and not great at all. I just don’t get the praise, especially in the case of The Social Network.

Unstoppable 9/10



Pure minimalist blue-collar action. A distinct lack of CGI makes it the action throwback that Expendables wanted to be.

[quote=“Col. Crazy Kenneth”]
THANK YOU. Both Inception and The Social Network are just OK movies, and not great at all. I just don’t get the praise, especially in the case of The Social Network.[/quote]

Inception is definitely a bit overrated. It went from not being in my top ten to being in my top ten to just being in my top twenty for pretty much that reason. I feel the same way about Scott Pilgrim though. It’s hard to divorce how I felt about the film from the ridiculous hype surrounding it. But if I look at Inception straight up and ignore the hype, I had a great time.

Knight and Day 8/10

Good fun! Much of what James Bond should be, but isn’t anymore.



Touch of Evil 5/10

Mediocre, but watchable.



The Big Heat 7/10

Liked it!

[quote=“Col. Crazy Kenneth”]Knight and Day 8/10

Good fun! Much of what James Bond should be, but isn’t anymore.
[/quote]

I totally agree. Not about the James Bond thing necessarily, but about Knight and Day being a good film. It wasn’t well-received, but I thought it was a great action film that didn’t take itself too seriously.



Along with From Paris With Love and Unstoppable, it’s one of my favourite action films of the year.

i have yet to see those two!



Predators 4/10

phew, what a tedious piece of shit.

Zodiac (2007) [re-watch] 10/10



The more times I watch this film, the more I feel like it’s Fincher’s masterpiece. So perfect in so many ways. I’ve still seen Fight Club and Se7en more times, and I have a soft spot for Benjamin Button; but this film just blows me away.

By the way, Ordell, just a post-script to The Social Network discussion we were having prior to the film’s release (I thought it would be better to include it here cause this is the only thread that people are posting in at the moment):



I know you are really against digital (except for those times when it is done for a particular aesthetic reason), but Fincher birthed his 2-hour film from 286 hours of footage. That start scene in the bar had 99 takes itself.



As cynical as you are, you got to admit that 286 hours on celluloid is just not viable.



That’s pretty much why Fincher uses digital.

Oh yeah. I’ve said that before. If Fincher used film, it’d just be a massive waist of celluloid, and they’d probably still be shooting the freakin’ movie. :laugh: :laugh:

[quote=“Sgt. Geoi Donowitz”]Oh yeah. I’ve said that before. If Fincher used film, it’d just be a massive waist of celluloid, and they’d probably still be shooting the freakin’ movie. :laugh: :laugh:[/quote]

I started to think how much Kubrick wasted film back in the days. :slight_smile: He was a perfectionist as we all know.

[quote=“jonitapani”][quote=“Sgt. Geoi Donowitz”]Oh yeah. I’ve said that before. If Fincher used film, it’d just be a massive waist of celluloid, and they’d probably still be shooting the freakin’ movie. :laugh: :laugh:[/quote]

I started to think how much Kubrick wasted film back in the days. :slight_smile: He was a perfectionist as we all know.[/quote]

Yeh, but he had real oldschool working actors to work with. Maybe it wasn’t so difficult to get the desired shot back then.

Toy Story 3: 4/10



I don’t know what’s happening in the brain of Mr. Tarantino, this movie sucked. And to think i watched this AND the two previous equally crappy movies because of him, oh god.

I don’t understand you, Kenneth. You are like this Archives’ Armond White. I could have guessed you wouldn’t like Social Network, but not liking Toy Story surprises me.



I sincerely hate CG films. I’m trying to be more tolerant and I’m even considering going to see Tangled, but I’ve never seen a CG film that is as good as the praise it receives, with one exception. The Toy Story films.



Up! was Corliss’ highlight of Cannes and Happy Feet rode the wave of hype on its release. Wall-E was alright. The pattern I was getting was that great CGI films were only average when compared to great live action films.



What I find so endearing in the Toy Story films is how they deftly balance children’s entertainment with emotional resonance and adult themes. Unlike most CG films that have subtle “adult” jokes hidden beneath very childish humour, Toy Story seems to be a trilogy of films aimed mostly at adults.



The resonant themes of nostalgia and coming-of-age are ones that no child will understand. Children are incapable of understanding nostalgia and that’s why I believe the films only get better as you age.



I love traditional animation, but Toy Story is the only CGI film that has ever made me feel the way I do about a great live action film or a great Disney animation.

I take the Armond White remark as a compliment, since he is an incredibly intelligent man who can tell you exactly why he did or did not like a movie, and constantly provides good analysis. If you however watned to imply that I am a contrarian just for the fun of it, you would be wrong.



I love animation in movies and I have nothing against a CGI movie.



The Toy Story movies are for kids and teens. then to not completely piss of adults who were dragged along they throw in one or two adult jokes in each movie, like "Uh oh, rocket envy!"



The Toy Story movies are bland, superficial, standardized Hollywood dreck for the young masses to consume (much like AVATAR). the emotions put in are forced, they are almost completely devoid of humour. Hollywood has always thought, and still thinks, movies have to be VERY dumbed down to please a young audience.



Old Disney animated movies and Studio Ghibli, that’s where the magic happens: Incedibly well made, well written, full of emotion, drama, humour, thrills and feel-good stuff.



With he exception of Finding Nemo, i disliked or hated every PIXAR film I have seen. Happy Feet was okay, btw.