2010: Movies

I don't follow new music enough to say anything. I bought four albums all year: Eminem, Kanye, Ben Folds/Nick Hornby, and the Treme soundtrack. All great -- Kanye's the best, but you've probably heard that everywhere -- but nothing new, per se.

Ditto books. I read seven books that I can remember, two of which that are new. Team of Rivals took me about six months of sporadic reading and then I relatively burned through the Stieg Larsson trilogy and the Hunger Games trilogy. Again, all good, except for maybe The Girl Who Played With Fire.

TV will take a bit longer, so I'll just go with movies tonight. I saw a total of two movies in the theaters after mid-August, but I tried to see a bunch before that. Some lists based on what I saw, which I'm sure will change as I see more of the Oscar movies.

Best Scene:

• 3. The Last 30 Minutes of The Expendables -- Okay, not really, but it was freaking awesome.
• 2. Andy Gives Up His Childhood, Toy Story 3 -- One of the great tearjerker scenes in recent memory.
• 1. The Turning Room, Inception -- An amazing special effect; you could tell it wasn't CGI but it still looked as stupendous as almost anything in Avatar.

Biggest Disappointment:

• 3. The Social Network -- I saw it after all of the huge hype and it may win Best Picture, but I just don't think it was "Best Picture good." Some all-time moments but a lot of flaws, glaring ones if you've read the book.
• 2. The Losers -- An awful, awful movie, but you'd think it would be a lot more entertaining with its cast (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Chris Evans, Jason Patric). Nope.
• 1. The End of Iron Man 2 -- Okay, so they have this huge fight with tons of unbeatable robots and then he just presses a button and shoots a super laser that kills all of the bad guys? Then, he beats the ultimate villain by crossing the streams? Iron Man 2 ripped off its ending from Ghostbusters. Shameful.

Best Acting:

• 3. Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass -- She's 13. Seriously. And awesome.
• 2. Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network -- He really was quite good. I remember a few years ago when Adventureland came out and I thought Eisenberg was the guy you cast when Michael Cera wasn't available. But then came the perfection of Zombieland and I hit the turning point on him.
• 1. Jeff Bridges, True Grit -- He may not be getting award mentions because people take him for granted. He acts better in moments in this film where he is silent and moving one eye than most actors ever will with a great script.

Worst Movie:

• 3. Little Fockers -- I didn't see it, but you know it belongs here.
• 2. The Losers -- This movie is seeing for one thing and one thing alone: Jason Patric's acting. It's a clinic. I've never felt more uncomfortable watching someone butcher the art of cinema than any time that he was on the screen.
• 1. Robin Hood -- I almost walked out forty-five minutes into the movie, but thankfully it got merely boring after that. Those first forty-five minutes, though? Oh. My. God.

Best Movie:

• 5. Kick-Ass -- Slick, fun, and even Nicolas Cage was great in it.
• 4. True Grit -- You know I love the Coen Brothers.
• 3. The Social Network -- It was flawed, but the good parts were brilliant.
• 2. Inception -- I actually have it saved on Amazon VOD to re-watch because I feel like I was able to nitpick the hell out of it after the initial amazement.
• 1. Toy Story 3 -- Inception is great and I can totally understand why people have it as #1, but any movie that can stir the mix of strong, strong emotions that this one can? You don't find that too often.