My love for films has grown even bigger in 2010 with all the great variety of films released and some huge movies that would even make it into my top 10 of all time. However I am talking about my favourite 10 movies of 2010 in this blog in my Top 10 Movies of 2010. I hope you enjoy.
10. Shutter Island
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Emily Mortimer, Mark Ruffalo
- Release Date: 12th March 2010
Martin Scorsese’s latest blockbuster for 2010 was Shutter Island, which gave us some great horror and psychological thrills as well as a great ending that may give you a bit of a surprise.
Shutter Island is about a U.S. Marshall, Teddy Daniels, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, who is assigned to investigate a disappearance of a patient from a mental hospital. He has wanting an assignment on the Island for a while but as soon as he begins his investigation, he feels that he has been brought there for reasons other than what he has been told. Fearing he is part of a twisted plot by hospital doctors, he begins to lose his sanity and doubt his memory and his partner.
The film has some great plot twists throughout which is then all trumped by the ending that although I managed to guess throughout the film, still did not disappoint and it is a great example of a very good psychological thriller, that Scorsese fans will love.
9. The Road
- Directors: John Hillcoat
- Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, Kodi Smit-McPhee
- Release Date: 8th January 2010
All the way back at the very beginning of 2010, I saw a film that made me decide to start reviewing movies myself. This film was The Road.
The Road is set in a post-apocalyptic America and is the story of a father and son surviving by any means, with only one pistol to defend themselves with against the cannibalistic gangs that patrol the roads. With the pistol and a rusted shopping trolley full of scavenged food, they begin their travel down to the south, which they hope to be warmer, although they do not know what, if anything, awaits them their.
This film just had me in awe after leaving the cinema. The film was made brilliantly and I really felt for both the characters and wished for them to survive.
It is a film I would definitely recommend and is a fantastic and a fresh vision on a post-apocalyptic world.
8. Due Date
- Director: Todd Phillips
- Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan
- Release Date: 5th November 2010
After the hugely successful comedy, The Hangover in 2009, it was going to take something to beat it for director Todd Phillips in 2010. Unfortunately but maybe not surprisingly, Due Date does not beat The Hangover, but it is still a funny film that makes it into my top 10 of 2010.
Due Date is the story of Peter Highman, played by Robert Downey Jr., and his wife who are expecting a baby, but being all the way in Atlanta and his wife at home in LA and after an unfortunate incident with aspiring actor, Ethan Tremblay, played by the hilarious Zach Galifianakis, the pair end up on the “no fly” list, and are forced to hitch a ride together in order to get Peter back in time to see his wife give birth.
Very much like his character role in The Hangover, Galifianakis plays the idiot character Ethan brilliantly, and Downey Jr.’s character Peter doesn’t know what he is getting himself into traveling over 2000 miles with his new “buddy”.
The film has some fantastic laugh out loud moments and some where you don’t know whether to be shocked or laugh, such as a brilliant moment where an awkward conversation about Peter’s father leaving him ends up with Ethan harshly laughing in hysterics.
Overall this was a good comedy to go and see for a few great laugh out loud’s and some more great stupidness from Galifinakis who I can’t wait to see again in The Hangover: Part Two in 2011.
7. City Island
- Director: Raymond De Felitta
- Starring: Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, Steven Strait
- Release Date: 23rd July 2010
This relatively unknown film scooped under my radar until recently, when my dad sat me down to watch this film he called “fantastic” and “hilarious”.
City Island is the story of the Rizzo’s family from City Island, Bronx New York. The family are a bit dysfunctional to say the least, with each of them having their own secrets and ambitions that they do not dare to reveal to each other. When a young ex-con is brought home and into the family by the father Vince Rizzo, played by Andy Garcia, it disrupts the family further and the web of lies grows and grows.
The film starts off a bit slow but stay with it, as before you know it you will be hooked in to the amazingly well written plot and script, which comes to a conclusion at the end of the film that is one of the best scenes from any film I’ve seen not just 2010.
The cast is superb and the actors and actresses all give performances that make the film deserve more credit then maybe it has got so far. Definitely give this film a watch if you can, you’ll be glad you have watched it.
6. Get Him To The Greek
- Director: Nicholas Stoller
- Starring: Russel Brand, Jonah Hill, Elisabeth Moss
- Release Date: 25th June 2010
This kind of follow up to Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Get Him To The Greek sees Russell Brand reprise his role as British rocker Aldous Snow and the story of Jonah Hill’s character Aaron Green, a life long fan of Aldous, travelling to London to pick up the rocker and bring him back to L.A. to perform a concert that is taking place in 72 hours time.
Seems like no problem at all, but Aldous Snow’s drugs, booze and constant delaying of leaving see’s the duo in many funny scenarios and makes Aaron’s task of getting him to the concert a lot more difficult than what he may have thought.
This film is just so random at times that it is absolutely hilarious if you love that kind of comedy. It definitely wins the award of the best soundtrack of the year, with some of Snow’s greatest hits including titles such as “African Child(Trapped In Me)”, “Furry Walls” and “Bangers, Beans and Mash” being just a few amazingly written and performed songs that are superb to listen to watching the film and just listening to the CD.
It is funny to see Russell Brand act because he is just being himself in front of a camera and it is kind of funny to watch him in all these big Hollywood films because he is just being normal.
I didn’t see Forgetting Sarah Marshall before seeing this movie but after seeing both films now you really don’t need to watch it, in fact Get Him To The Greek is so much better in my opinion, so I’d recommend just watching this great comedy of 2010.
5. Saw 3D
- Director: Kevin Greutert
- Starring: Tobin Bell, Costas Mandylor, Betsy Russel
- Release Date: 29th October 2010
Being a huge fan of the horror franchise, I was sad when I heard this would be the last film of the Saw series but I suppose making seven films and releasing them each and every Halloween wasn’t bad going.
The franchise needed to end at some point and in my opinion they ended it brilliantly and in 3D. Overall the 3D factor was maybe a little unnecessary but it still doesn’t change the fact that the film overall was a very good saw movie.
This film saw a survivor of one of jigsaws deadly traps, Bobby Dagen, set up his own help classes for fellow survivors. However Bobby has a secret of his own that winds up getting him thrown into some more elaborate tests to save himself and his loved ones.
I have to say they really went all out for the traps in this final instalment and they really are probably my favourite set of saw traps in the whole series. Especially the trap set in the car in the garage, which for those of you that haven’t seen yet, I would watch the film just to see that bit.
The series comes to a nice close, with a lot of the questions from previous films answered and a lot of revelations brings a lot more twists to this clever and gory franchise, which I will definitely miss.
4. The Social Network
- Director: David Fincher
- Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake
- Release Date: 15th October 2010
When rumours started going round of a Facebook movie, people thought what is the world coming to when a website is getting it’s own film. Being the dominating presence it is on the World Wide Web, you wouldn’t have thought the site would need any more publicity, but The Social Network movie was made to publicise how creator Mark Zuckerberg controversially thought up and made Facebook.
I was interested in this story as I am currently studying a digital media course where I have specialised in Web Design and Development, so learning how the most popular social networking site was thought up and created is something I was looking forward to seeing.
However I was not expecting it to be a very good film and that was something that was a pleasant surprise.
Jessie Eisenberg plays the role of Zuckerberg brilliantly and showed off how the world imagines the arrogant creator is. In fact all the actors in the film done a pretty good job portraying the characters they were playing and the story was also told in a way that kept myself and other viewers hooked and interested throughout the length of the movie.
3. Kick-Ass
- Director: Matthew Vaughn
- Starring: Aaron Johnson, Nicholas Cage, Chloe Moretz
- Release Date: 26th March 2010
I think surprise of the year in terms of films for me was just how good Kick-Ass was. From the trailer I thought it was a ridiculous idea and the film looked childish and something that just wasn’t going to be my cup of tea at all.
Then one night I thought I might as well watch it and was kind of blown away by how brilliant and how adult themed the movie was. I never realised it was a 15 before seeing it and was still expecting a kids movie when I sat down to watch it but then as soon as Hit-Girl, played by Chloe Moretz, comes on the scene as a young super hero and starts really kicking ass and saying some things that you wouldn’t like your grandma to hear, then I thought this film may be a lot better than I first thought.
The film is about a boy who wonders why no one has ever become a super hero in real life and decides even though he has no super powers or training that he was going to become one himself, creating the hero “Kick-Ass”. As he begins fighting crime he gains a few enemies and see’s the risks involved being a true super hero.
Chloe Moretz really did make the film for me with her attitude and lines making her seem so much older than what she is portraying. Not only that though, but the action in the film is also top notch, with even a lot of very gory scenes included which were a tad squeamish to say the least.
I’d recommend Kick-Ass to anyone who wants to see a good comedy with a lot of gore, action and violence.
2. Toy Story 3
- Director: Lee Unkrich
- Starring: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Ned Beatty
- Release Date: 19th July 2010
Now here’s a film that like many others I could not wait to see.
Being a 90’s child, I grew up watching the legendary Toy Story and Toy Story 2 many times over and over, as the amazing animation and incredible story told to us by the Disney Pixar team was something you never get tired of.
In 2010, 15 years after the first films release, Woody, Buzz and most of the gang were back, in what is in my opinion, their greatest film to date.
Toy Story 3 sees Andy all grown up and leaving for College and a little misplacement of Andy’s old favourite toys sees them donated to a day care center, and it’s up to the hero sheriff Woody to convince the toys to go back to Andy and see him off before he leaves.
Something that this film excels in a lot more than the previous two films is its comedy factor and this is definitely helped by an amazing new character, who has an odd connection to Barbie, Ken.
Toy Story 3 made all my childhood memories come flooding back and it is a really amazing movie that will have you fighting the tears away at least once throughout. Pixar know how to tug on our heart strings and with Toy Story 3 as yet another example of that, they also hardly ever fail to make a really good film.
1. Inception
- Director: Christopher Nolan
- Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
- Release Date: 16th July 2010
For most people who have seen Inception, the first words to come out their mouths as the credits begin to roll is “What?” For me my first word was just “WOW”.
It’s fair to say the hype was huge for Christopher Nolan’s new film after the amazing Dark Knight. I saw so many behind the scenes videos and so many interviews, which explained the story behind Inception and the amazing special effects through the film, which when you see how it was made, it actually blows you away when you see it come to life in the film.
Inception is the story of a world where your dreams can be invaded and Leonardo DiCaprio and his team can steal all the secrets in your subconscious. However to perform inception, instead of stealing an idea from a dream you are planting an idea into someone’s head by making the dream of thinking it up.
Confused already? Well you may need to watch it twice to fully understand the movie, but I really enjoyed being puzzled and left wondering about the ending and what is real and not real.
Everything in the film from it’s amazing special effects and intense brilliant storyline to the absolutely quality soundtrack and mind boggling concepts makes Inception my favourite film of 2010 and another modern classic film by Christopher Nolan.
The Dark Knight Rises in 2012 is definitely one film I cannot wait to see!
Other Notable Movies
- Harry Potter and the Deathy Hallows: Part One
- Iron Man 2
- How To Train Your Dragon
- The Other Guys
- The Experiment
Can you think of any movies that deserve a place in my top 10 or can recommend any movies for me to watch from 2010? Please comment and let me know 🙂
Thank you for reading my Top 10 Movies of 2010. I hope you enjoyed it.