Read on for my top 5 favorite movies of 2010, my honorable mentions, and...the big stinkers of 2010. I'd love to hear your least/favorite movies of the year, or any year!
My Top 5 Overall Favorite Movies:
1.) Date Night – Starring Steve Carell, this movie already had a leg-up in my mind, as I adore him, and want to be friends. While The Office is one of my favorite shows, I like Carell even better when he plays the “everyman” in movies. He’s not the best looking guy around, or the most athletic, but he is the most believable, at least to me. (See: Dan In Real Life, Crazy Stupid Love). Couple him with his female counterpart Tina Fey, throw in Marky Mark’s abs, and you’ve got the perfect cast. Loved the light-hearted tone of this movie, and its brief runtime. My favorite scene: the book club, where Carrel is attempting to commiserate with a menstruating Middle Eastern teen as she plods through the desert in exile. Laughed so hard I snorted.
2.) The Fighter – While this stars the aforementioned Marky Mark and his abs, the absolute star of this movie was Christian Bale. His transformation into Dicky Ecklund’s strung-out, washed up boxer is mesmerizing. I honestly couldn’t quit watching him. I’ve always been a sucker for underdog movies, so that, combined with the “local boy makes good” storyline had me hooked. JBB and I saw The Fighter, Black Swan, and the King’s Speech all in one day – while I loved them all, The Fighter was my clear winner. Bonus points for Amy Adams as the spirited bartender who doesn’t take anyone’s crap – bar patrons, or Marky Mark’s. (And you KNOW those abs wouldn’t be easy to resist).
3.) Made in Dagenham – JBB and I went to this one when we were in the mood for a movie, and there just wasn’t much out to see. I love, love, love time period movies, and once I read the description, we were headed to the independent theater in no time to catch it. A true story, set in working-class, factory-town Dagenham, England in the 1960s, it follows Rita O’Grady (played by Sally Hawkins) as she, reluctantly at first, but then vehemently, becomes the spokeswoman for equal pay and rights for women at the Ford factory in Dagenham. Absolutely empowering; I think this should be mandatory viewing for all middle school girls.
4.) Winter’s Bone – The title couldn’t be more perfect for this movie. The gray, somber tones throughout the movie, and the dark, chilling images and dialogue actually made you feel cold. The movie follows a pre Hunger Games Jennifer Lawrence as a teen girl tracking down her deadbeat dad so the bank doesn’t reclaim their home. The movie is set in the modern-day Ozarks, a place apparently riddled by poverty and drug abuse, in particular meth. I had a hard time watching this, as the whole time I kept thinking, “there are actually people who live like that; who have to grow up in that squalor.” Heartbreaking.
5.) Leap Year – The polar opposite of Winter’s Bone! A lighthearted chick flick, as a Bostonian “career girl” Amy Adams follows her fiancé to Ireland in the hopes to get him to finally propose, following Irish lore that Leap Day has more proposals than any other time of the year. Once in Ireland, many misunderstandings and silly adventures occur, and Amy’s character realizes her fiancé just might not by the “guy for her”. (Don’t worry, she finds her real true love by the end. And marries him on an Irish cliff. Sigh.)
Honorable Mention (or, next 5 favorites…)1.) The Kids Are All Right
2.) Morning Glory
3.) Secretariat
4.) Easy A
5.) The King’s Speech
Worst 5 Movies (or, I’m really mad I paid $10 for this, but at least the snacks were good…)
2.) Morning Glory
3.) Secretariat
4.) Easy A
5.) The King’s Speech
Worst 5 Movies (or, I’m really mad I paid $10 for this, but at least the snacks were good…)
1.) Just Wright - Really, this is my own fault for going to a movie about a pro basketball player and an athletic trainer, starring Queen Latifah and rapper Common. Shame on me.
2.) Eat, Pray, Love – I should have known when I couldn’t get through the book, that I wouldn’t like the movie. But it starred Julia Roberts! So, l rounded up 10 of my girlfriends, and then we all proceeded to half fall asleep, half talk through almost three hours of Julia Roberts eating and meditating. And this is from someone who loves to eat. The love part wasn’t nearly long enough.
3.) Sex and the City 2 – BOMB! As I like to do, I got uber excited, Fandango’d my tickets, and rounded up my book club to view it on opening night. Overly long, COMPLETELY out of touch with the present-day economy, and self-indulgent.
4.) Why Did I Get Married Too – Starring Janet Jackson. All I need to say.
5.) Remember Me – I really, really don’t know why I saw this. I think I probably didn’t know how to say no to a friend who invited me. Stars Robert Pattinson from Twilight, who I can’t stand because I think he looks dirty and in dire need of sunlight, a haircut, and a shower. So, him for two hours, plus gratuitous exploitation of 9/11 – a real stinker.
