Top Ten... Movies of 2010

	#10 - The King's Speech By no means should this have won best picture, but it is certainly a good movie. One award that was certainly well deserved was Colin Firth's best actor Oscar. He is magnificent here. He never plays anything bigger than he has to. I wish the same could be said for Geoffrey Rush. I'm surprised there was any scenery left after he got done chewing it.
	#9 - 127 Hours This is one of those movies that gets you all gung ho about changing your life, living it to the fullest, etc. Carpe Diem and all that. Of course, that stuff is easier said than done, and you never change a thing. Still a good movie though. I have always liked James Franco, but never thought he was a particularly skilled actor. I was wrong. Danny Boyle's frenetic shooting style really suited this material.
	#8 - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One David Yates really seemed to get the hang of this whole Harry Potter thing as the series went on. His "Order of the Phoenix" was probably my least favorite entry in the entire series. "Half-Blood Prince" was good, and this one is very good. The stakes are very high at this point in the series, and this movie really emphasizes that. The whole cast is great, thought the absence of Alan Rickman in this movie is definitely felt.
	#7 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I'm a big fan of the "Millennium Trilogy" book series, and this movie really does the series justice. Noomi Rapace is marvelous as Lisbeth Salander. It shocked me when I found out that she doesn't actually look and act that way in real life. Michael Nyqvist is very good as Mikael Blomkvist, but is completely overshadowed by Rapace's performance. The sequels ended up being kinda "meh", but this trilogy starter really does the job.
	#6 - Toy Story 3 I've been a Pixar fan ever since the original Toy Story. There have been some great Pixar films, but nothing can touch Woody and Buzz for me. This was a GREAT way to end these character's stories. I have to admit, I got a bit verklempt at the end of this movie. I mean, uh, I had something in my eye!
	#5 - Kick-Ass What a breath of fresh air this movie was! The tone was perfect. All of the performances were great, but two stand out. Chloe-Grace Moretz was amazing as Hit Girl, and Nicolas Cage was an absolute riot as Big Daddy. His Adam West impersonation had me rolling! I really hope the planned sequel comes to fruition.
	#4 - Inception Christopher Nolan has done it again. He has made a popular, mainstream movie that requires ACTUAL THINKING. It gives me hope for our species when a movie like this makes almost $300 million domestic. Tom Hardy and Joseph Gordon-Levitt completely steal this movie. The one thing that didn't really work for me was Ellen Page's character. She may as well have been named "Basil Exposition", as her sole reason for existing was to have the plot explained to her (and us). Otherwise, a great movie!
	#3 - Social Network David Fincher might be the best director out there. I mean, who thought a movie about Facebook could be so damn riveting? Aaron Sorkin's witty script comes to life in the hands of this great director and equally great cast. Jesse Eisenberg somehow makes me root for a character with no apparent redeeming qualities. His little rant about giving the lawyers the least amount of attention possible made me want to stand up and cheer!
	#2 - Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Between this and Kick-Ass, comic book movies took on new life in 2010. I don't think I stopped smiling once during this entire movie. I'm not as big a fan as some of director Edgar Wright's previous movies (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), but he nails this adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel series (which I actually own).
	#1 - The Town Even as a fan of Kevin Smith movies, I never cared much for Ben Affleck as an actor. But man, can he direct! He follows Gone Baby Gone with the equally brilliant The Town. He is such a good director, he even coaxes a good acting performance out of himself, which I though impossible. Rebecca Hall and Jeremy Renner both light up the screen. The climactic shootout rivals Heat for the greatest shootout ever put to celluloid. I just wish Jon Hamm had been given a little more to do.