Last year, instead of doing the traditional "Top 10 of the Year" list, I talked a little bit about every movie that I saw that year in chronological release date order. Well, it's that time of the year again! Before we start, I'd like to mention that this is going by US limited or major releases, since some of these came out last year in foreign markets or at film festivals.

January

Daybreakers: Finally, a new vampire movie where the vampires are killed by sunlight! This was a fun little movie from The Spierig Brothers that has subtle messages, some fine performances and pretty interesting world building. Seriously, the level of detail in this vampire ruled society is pretty spectacular, considering it had a relatively tight budget for a Hollywood movie. There are some issues (such as some lame bat jump scares and overuse of some effects involving blood and burning vampires), but I still enjoyed it for what it was. 3.5/5

Youth In Revolt: I'm not the biggest Michael Cera fan. I thought he did some great work in Superbad, Juno and even his early small role in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but he hasn't really impressed me over the past few years. Then this film came along and turned me back into a Cera fan. In this film, he seems to be celebrating and mocking his usual persona with his character's split personalities in a way that cracked me up constantly. Outside of his fantastic work, the film has a great supporting cast and some surprisingly dark plot twists, though the film has some very out of place animated sequences and a very underwhelming ending. Stay tuned for more Cera praise in Part 2... 4/5

Book Of Eli: Let's put this on front street; I'm not a very Christian man. However, despite my beliefs, I found this film's message about faith to be far more spiritual and universal then some critics let on. All that deep stuff aside, the film has badass action scenes, nuanced performances from Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman & gorgeous production design. I did dislike that the Hughes Brothers went for the dark cinematography at times due to a lack of visibility during certain scenes, but they did a fantastic job at making a seemingly generic premise feel fresh. 4.5/5

February

From Paris With Love: Not much to say about this. John Travolta was consistently entertaining and the action scenes were good, but the film has a boringly cliche plot, poorly chopped editing and one of the blandest male leads in the form of Jonathan Rhys Meyers (who I have liked in films like Match Point). Don't waste your time.1.5/5

Shutter Island: This one was a bit disappointing. I love Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio has done some of his best work under him, but this just didn't hit the greatness level I was hoping for. Don't get me wrong, the movie isn't bad at all; Scorsese shoots some damn creepy imagery and the actors (especially DiCaprio) do a great job. However, the script just isn't that well crafted. The story felt too predictable and the hallucinations (while well shot) easily give way too much away far too early. 3/5

The Ghost Writer: Roman Polanski really knows how to make a paranoid mystery film. There are so many intense scenes of people simply sifting through files, which is a credit to the way Polanski builds up tension and the talents of the cast (especially Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Olivia Williams). The political drama and mystery elements work so well... up until the ending. The conclusion itself works fine, but a decision the main character makes within that ending felt so out of left field and stupid, even if it did lead to a great final shot. 3.5/5

Cop Out: Kevin Smith responded to the critical bashing of his latest film via Twitter by saying that it wasn't an ambitious film and he didn't see why critics were bashing it so hard and having such high expectations. My expectations for his buddy cop movie were simple; the film would be humorous throughout, the action would be somewhat above average and the two leads would have some chemistry. I only chuckled at bits that were few and far between, the action was mediocre at best and, worst of all, Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan had no chemistry at all. I'm a fan of Smith and I'm very interested to see what he does with his next film Red State, but this ended up fitting into one of the worst categories for a movie; the unfunny comedy. 1/5

The Crazies: Horror remakes haven't been that great lately (we'll explore that again later), but this one was a good little surprise. Much like Zack Snyder's 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead, The Crazies is respectful to the original while adding in its own fast paced action in a gruesome and entertaining way. The car wash scene is possibly one of the most authentically scary scenes of the year and the crazies make up is zombie-like, but distinctive enough to seem fresh. I did have a problem with a few too many jump scares and the score that tries to scare you, but this is otherwise a damn fun horror flick. 4/5

Defendor: I already did a pretty lengthy review of this back in August, but I'll just say this; even though this isn't the best "Average Guy Becomes Low Budget Superhero" film that came out this year, I still really loved how unique this film was and the risks it took. Great cast, a gritty look and a surprisingly touching ending. 4.5/5

March

Alice In Wonderland: Tim Burton is a guy I just can't hate. True, he has made some lame films over the past few years, but every once in awhile he'll make a movie that reminds me of my childhood to when I was inspired by stuff like Beetlejuice or Ed Wood. Alice in Wonderland isn't one of those movies, but it did fit firmly into my mediocre expectations. It had some gorgeous visual effects, a few good performances and one of Danny Elfman's better scores of the last ten years, but it missed the charm of Lewis Carrol's concept and tried to run an unconventional non-plot driven story through the Tim Burton plot generator. Oh, and it had break dancing. From Johnny Depp. In drunken clown make up. Ugh. 3/5

Brooklyn's Finest: This one was a huge disappointment. You have such a strong cast and an Academy Award nominated director (who admittingly hasn't done much worth noting since his nomination) in a gritty crime drama and this is what we get? I'm not going to pull down everyone with this ship; Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes have some intriguing scenes that are the film's brightest spots, but all that can't quite make up for Ethan Hawke's over acting, Ellen Barkin chewing up scenery and Richard Gere being really miscast. Also, the film is way too over dramatic at points, especially at the climax. 1.5/5

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: This Swedish film came on my radar after it was announced that David Fincher would be directing an American remake. Having seen it, this seems like his territory. The film feels like a Swedish Fincher film, with a dark flare for cinematography, a murder mystery and some generally fucked up subject matter. The discovery of this movie is Noomi Rapace as the title character. She plays if off perfectly, with all her subtle nauces and badass exterior hiding a very broken woman inside. Even if the well developed mystery leads to a slightly underwhelming conclusion, the film well worth the sit just to see Rapace in action. 4.5/5

Hot Tub Time Machine: I'd definetly say this is the best straight comedy of the whole year. The four leads have perfect chemistry, with Rob Cordry being a real standout. That dude deserves way more credit. Occasionally the film indulges into some really unnecessary gross out jokes and didn't have the most developed characters, but it makes up for it on pure irreverent humor at its raunchiest. 4/5

How To Train Your Dragon: If Dreamworks has to make shitty sequels to its earlier films, I hope they at least keep up this recent pattern of doing a sequel, then doing a good movie (don't ask me where Megamind fits in that pattern). Director Chris Sanders managed to recreate that same "kid takes in an unlikely pet" magic he used brilliantly in Lilo And Stitch here with the scenes between Hiccup and the dragon Toothless. I'm not a dog person, but I fell in love with the Toothless character and his cute little dog like mannerisms that the animators managed to flawlessly convey despite the limited facial spectrum. Plus, the scenes where he and the other dragons flew were some of the best 3D flying scenes I've seen since Avatar. The voice cast is also top notch, with Jay Barucehel, Gerard Butler, America Ferrera and Craig Ferguson being standouts. I did think some of the overtly comedic lines were lamely thrown in and obviously ADRed, but its a small complaint for what I'm sure will end up being an animated classic... though I'm sure Dreamworks will probably kill it one sequel at a time. 4.5/5

April

Kick-Ass: A movie that lived up to its title in so many ways. I found the first ten minutes of the film to be a bit contrived and expositiony (especially the seemingly forced sex jokes & narration). However, once the title character manages to get in costume, this thing becomes such a high energy satirical look at the modern superhero. The satire was there for the taking yet didn't seem too obvious; the costumes evoke the over the top flashiness of Joel Schumacher's Batman films, the score reminded me of Danny Elfman's Batman score at points and Nicholas Cage's excellent Adam West impression was just one genius element of what I found to be his big comeback performance. Speaking of the cast, the obvious star to see shine is Chloe Moretz, who plays a foul mouthed and violent character flawlessly without making it seem contrived whatsoever. Director Matthew Vaughn has a knack for action choreography and colorful cinematography, especially when it comes to the various hues of the costumes and blood. Plus, no matter how hyper real this film gets, it speaks to the kid in everyone who wants to be that badass superhero... and dashes that hope with hilariously harsh gore. 4.5/5

Exit Through the Gift Shop: Art (as every art teacher will tell you) is subjective. However, there's a difference between art I can respect yet just not like and art that is clearly mass produced bullshit that is way over hyped in order to fool hipsters into thinking that its worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Banksy explores the nature of street art and the art scene itself in what is one of the most original, entertaining and thought provoking documentaries I've ever seen. I wasn't the biggest street art scene fan before watching this, but I was so intrigued by the struggles these talented artists had to go through and thus extremely pissed off (in the best way possible) by the poseur antics of the film's subject "Mr. Brainwash". There is a high amount of speculation as to whether or not this is in fact a documentary or mockumentary. I'll say this; the weirdness of this story isn't weird enough to the point of unbelievability and, if it is fake, its one of the most authentic mockumentaries I've ever seen. 4.5/5

A Nightmare On Elm Street: Remember when I talked about a really good horror remake back in February? Well let's balance that out with a shitty one! I actually did a marathon of the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise back in April and with the exception of the abysmal Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, this is the worst film of the series. It has characters that are blander than the 1980s stock characters of the original's sequels, some of the worst CGI I've seen in a long while and the waste of a damn good choice for Freddy in the form of Jackie Earle Hayley. He had a few chances to shine, but there were too many lame jump scares in between for him to even make this watchable. 1/5

Harry Brown: Michael Caine takes the Gran Torino route and does a better job than Eastwood! Caine is the main strength of this incredible film, with his solemn relatability and a return to the brooding depth he exuded in classics like Get Carter. Caine is so great that he makes other elements that would be rather silly (such as the over the top London hoodlums) into believable and legitimately scary threats. No matter how much shlock he makes for cash, I'm glad Caine will occasionally step in and do a film we all can be glad to see him in like this one. 4.5/5

May

Iron Man 2: 2008's Iron Man was a surprising sucess. Who knew that the guy responsible for Elf and Zathura could turn out such an action packed and incredibly well crafted superhero flick? With its sequel, it appeared that Faverau was way more focused on the action rather than the crafting. Don't get me wrong; the film made for a fun summer blockbuster, but it did lack the simplistic yet exhilarating feel of the first film. Robert Downey Jr. is still fun as Tony Stark, many of the newcomers (particularly Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson) are nice little additions and the climax finally rectified the first film's lack of a satisfying final confrontation. However, this is still loaded with scenes that lasted far too long (ie The DJ Scene), convoluted sound mixing that drowned out dialogue (ie the race track scene) and the damn Avengers buildup that killed the film's pacing. Thanks, Pirate Captain Samuel L. Jackson. 3.5/5

Robin Hood: Ridley Scott is a man who knows how to set up his atmosphere... yet sometimes he forgets about setting up interesting scenes, dialogue or characters. I never thought I'd find a Robin Hood film boring, but this had so many plot threads and scenes that went nowhere and just wasted time. Russell Crowe has become the Johnny Depp to Scott's Tim Burton, but his Robin Hood is so uninteresting with his emotionless tone of voice and his half-assed Braveheart-esque rallying speeches. A few actors here did work for me (particularly Cate Blanchett) and the film did have a nice authentic setting, but this was just a big disappointment overall. 2/5

MacGruber: The ads were right; this is the funniest SNL movie since Wayne's World... though when your competition includes Coneheads and Blues Brothers 2000 , that isn't saying much. MacGruber fits nicely into what I like to call "a bipolar comedy"; half the jokes made me genuinely laugh while the other half was excruciatingly unfunny. Will Forte isn't that great a lead, but he has some nice support from Kristen Wiig, Ryan Phillipe and Val Kilmer. Also, the film actually had some nice cinematography at times, a rare achievment for a comedy. While it does feature endless amounts of awful gross out jokes and painful running gags, this is still worth the watch for some of its few glimmers of comedic genius... and I emphasis few. 2.5/5

June

Get Him to the Greek: 2008's Forgetting Sarah Marshall was one of my favorite movies of that year (settle down, Leon); it had some hilarious situations that seemed organic to its characters who weren't the lame stereotypes of raunchy romantic comedies of its ilk. This 2010 spin-off film lacks that emotional grounding. The scenes involving Russell Brand and Rose Byrne tried to have that emotional connection, but felt very shoehorned in and killed the film's pacing dead. That being said, the film still has plenty of humor to make up for it, especially with the wildly edited & fast paced club sequences and Sean "P. Diddy/Puff Daddy/Puffy/Sean John/Diddy/Coco Puffs" Combs as Jonah Hill's hot tempered boss. 3.5/5

Splice: Let me say this; no matter what I say about this film, I really appreciate it for taking some huge risks, even if a few of them didn't pan out. As its been stated countless times elsewhere, this is very reminiscent of David Cronenberg's horror films, especially his 1986 The Fly remake. The gore is graphic, but the writing, performances and seamless special effects turn the film into something more than a B movie. Speaking of performances, the leads (Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley) work well together, but the real stand out is Delphine Chaneac who plays their genetic mutation Dren. Her ability to create a three dimensional character based on body language and gurgles is nothing short of an astounding achievement. However, the film seems to really falter once it comes to the script's weird twists and turns (especially a disturbing sex scene and a horror cliche ridden ending), which is a shame given how incredible the film is otherwise. 3.5/5

The Karate Kid: The best kind of film experience is the surprise; the ones that you dread upon initial announcement, but end up really enjoying by the end. This remake of the 1984 classic had everything going against it; Jaden "annoying punk from The Day the Earth Stood Still '08" Smith playing the lead, Jackie "I Ruined My Career By Traveling West" Chan replacing the ingenious Pat Morita and a seemingly lame modern edge to the film's tone. Who would have known that the film managed to do what every remake should do; take the themes of the original and add in some interesting new stuff. Smith shows traces of his father's charm, Chan delivers his best performances since he went Hollywood, the love story is well developed and the fight choreography is pretty badass. While the Chinese bully kids did seem way too over the top evil, they never pulled down the film that much. 4/5

Winter's Bone: Yet another film this year that gives us an engaging new face. The lead girl in this dark drama about crystal meth addicted hicks in The Ozarks of middle America is played by Jennifer Lawrence, who delivers a powerful and sympathetic role that seems tragically real and has so much depth for a young performer. The film itself has a gritty authentic look to it that might just have some autobiographical aspects to it. The depiction of middle American poverty shows a side of the poor and degenerate that is rarely explored in films and I respect it for shining a light on such a sad situation. 4/5

Toy Story 3: What else does anyone have to say about this? I could wax on about how great the story is, how well developed these characters have become and other truthful praises the will give Pixar the blow job it rightly deserves. Instead, I'll throw out a personal reflection. I've grown up with the Toy Story films to the point where I'm in the same position as Andy; heading off to college and trying to leave childhood behind. That's where the movie hits me the hardest, having to say goodbye to the characters I've loved since I was in diapers and continued to love all the way through to adulthood, to the point where I appreciate it on a near spiritual level. That may seem over dramatic, but I can't speak enough about how much these films mean to me and how I want to pass them on to my own (non-existent as of this writing) children someday. 5/5

Grown Ups: Adam Sandler is a complex guy; at first he was loved for his days on SNL and his early successes in film like Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. Then he got his own production company and his shit started getting stale... unless it was a romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore, a more dramatic turn in films like Punch Drunk Love or the occasional off the wall Madison production that does something different like You Don't Mess With the Zohan or Funny People. Yet, despite all this, I found his most recent turn at the usual schlock to be quite fun. Why? I think its just the chemistry he has with co-stars, which is clearly seen in the scenes where Sandler and his buds (most notabley Chris Rock and David Spade) simply sit around and shoot the shit with each other or their wives and kids. It's only when the gross-out jokes and over the top slapstick barges in (which is unfortunately frequent) that the film falls flat on its ass. 3/5

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: Finally, a somewhat tolerable Twilight movie! The first two alternated between being sluggishly boring and the best kind of unintentional comedy. Here, there are a few legitimately good elements that make the film interesting in a non-ironic sense. I think this has a lot to do with director David Slade (who has previously bashed the Twilight concept before back tracking), who adds intentional humor ("Does he ever wear a shirt?"), some well shot and choreographed action scenes, flashback scenes that give side characters somewhat compelling back story and a dialogue scene between Edward and Jacob that adds some dimension to their characters (though the latter two points could be credited to screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg). However, the majority of the cast is still gruelingly bad, the good actors (Dakota Fanning & Anna Kendrick) are wasted, the abstinence message is still way too hammered in and the Bella Swan character is still the worst female protagonist of recent history, with her indecisive nature and selfish cares that focus way too much on which supernatural boy toy she wants to play with than on the army of werewolves and vampires that are potentially sacrificing their lives to fight a war she started! What a bitch! 2/5
 

Well, there's Part 1. Look out for Part 2 soon... please? I need the attention.