The Captain Jack Sparrow Award
(Best Character)
Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz) – Kick-Ass
I feel like Kick-Ass has been whipped from our collective memory of 2010 and for the life of me I can’t figure out why. It was one of my favorite movies of the year and Hit Girl was one of the keys to success. I got tremendous joy watching hoodlums and goons alike getting mercilessly beaten by a 12-year-old girl.
Runners-up:
Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) – Knight & Day
Eames (Tom Hardy) - Inception
Eli (Denzel Washington) – Book of Eli
The Guy Germaine Award
(Most Underrated Character)
Jacob (Clark Duke) – Hot Tub Time Machine
Another movie that seems to have been erased from our memory but, again, one of my favorites. All the credit for this movie goes to Rob Cordery and Darrell from The Office, and justifiably so, but I feel like Clark Duke deserves a large share of kudos for his Hurley-like contribution to the movie (solid one-liners, moved the plot along, fat).
The Serenity Award
(Most Underrated Movie)
Easy A
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| Despite what the poster would have you believe, this movie is actually good. |
Now stay with me here because I’m about to assassinate my credibility but I want to hear me out before you head over to my Facebook page and yell at me for an hour. Alright, are you calm. I enjoyed Easy A more than Black Swan. Woooooo! I said hear me out! Two points I want to make here: (1) Easy A is extremely re-watchable and is overall, a more enjoyable experience from start to finish (mainly because Ema Stone doesn’t pulling off her toenails at any point). (2) Easy A could have been one of the least successfully marketed movies in recent memory. We were led to believe that this is some sort of high school movie in the vein of 17 Again or I Love You Beth Cooper (Read: terrible). This is simply not the case. It’s probably most closely related to Mean Girls (an obvious connection that you would have thought they would have made) but, in my opinion, better.
Runner-up
Karate Kid
The Rock Award
(Best Pure Action Film)
Iron Man 2
If we’re talking movie quality here, I gotta go with The Town but if we’re talking watch cool fights and explosions (which is exactly what I’m talking about), you go with Iron Man 2. This will never be a movie where you’ll be sitting around on a Saturday one day and say, “I have to watch Iron Man 2!” But if you’re channel surfing and find it on FX, you’re probably going to stop and watch it. And that’s pretty much all you can ask from an action movie.
Runners-up:
The Town
Knight and Day
The Superbad Award
(Best Comedy of the Year)
Kick-Ass
What I liked about Kick-Ass the most, I think, was the fact that it was a fresh movie. There really has never been anything like Kick-Ass, that I can think of. I know Pineapple Express did the whole action-comedy thing, but this just felt different. I was more satisfied walking out of this movie than any other movie I say in 2010 (yes, even Inception. My brain was too busy trying to figure out what just happened).
Runners-up:
Hot Tub Time Machine
Easy A
The Braveheart Award
(Best Score)
Inception
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| Now you can say you know what Hans Zimmer looks like. You're welcome |
Hans Zimmer is my boy (yes, I know several movie composers, that’s how cool I am)! This could be his best work as it diverges from his normal scores (think Pirates or Dark Knight) and perfectly melds with the complexities of the movie itself.
Runners-up:
Social Network
True Grit
Robin Hood
The Assassination of Jesse James Award
(Best Cinematography)
Inception
This was a tough call but at the end of the day, the scene where Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fighting people in zero-gravity won out. Black Swan put up a hell of a fight though and I actually 127 Hours winning this award for awhile.
Runners-up:
Black Swan
127 Hours
The Shawshank Redemption Award
(Best Screenplay)
Social Network
Inception has a great plot and the idea behind it is mind-blowing, but Social Network has some of the best dialogue and character development in years. Admittedly, I’m a huge Aaron Sorkin fan (I think West Wing is the greatest TV show ever), so perhaps I’m a little biased, but the Academy agrees with me, so there!
Runners-up:
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Heath Ledger Memorial Award
(Best Supporting Actor)
Christian Bale – The Fighter
As the runaway winner of this award, the only thing that I’m going to say about this performance is that I’m 100% convinced that Christian Bale was on crack while making the movie. You will not be able to convince me otherwise.
Runners-up:
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Matt Damon – True Grit
Ben Kingsley – Shutter Island
The Cate Blanchett Award
(Best Supporting Actress)
Helena Bohman Carter – The King’s Speech
This was another tough category to pick. Leo got the Oscar, which I could definitely see, but I went with Carter. Now that I’m trying to explain it I really can’t. There was something about her performance that was just so believable and perfect for the movie that it just feels like the right selection (a technique that I advise the Academy to employ in the future; maybe the best movies will actually win Best Picture for once).
Runners-up:
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Marion Cotillard – Inception
Mila Kunis – Black Swan
The Vivien Leigh Memorial Award
(Best Actress)
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
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| Finally, being snubbed thrice for the Star Wars prequels has been made right. |
There was no one even remotely close to her performance so I’m going to take this opportunity to do a quick rant on Black Swan. I know that our main character was descending into madness, and as such, I know that there needs to be bizarre scenes to drive that point home. But leaving the theater, I couldn’t help feeling that the movie was, at times, weird for the sake of being weird. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the movie and thought it was extremely well-made, but come one, were we maybe trying a little too hard to be artsy?
Runner-up:
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
The Marlon Brando Memorial Award
(Best Actor)
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
I almost gave this to Eisenberg but on the third watching of Social Network I noticed that, while he was great throughout, there wasn’t really that scene where his acting chops came out. Now, I know what you’re going to say: “What about deposition scene where he tells of the lawyer?” Last week I would have agreed with you, but this weekend I gave it that third watch and the success of that scene is predicated on the way it is shot and written. Eisenberg is great in the scene, but wasn’t carried by his performance. Now Colin Firth, on the other hand, carries much of The King’s Speech. On top of that he has an outstanding scene in Geoffrey Rush’s office which was unparalleled this year.
Runners-up
Jesse Eisenberg – Social Network
James Franco – 127 Hours
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
The Godfather Award
(Best Made Movie)
Inception
I’m going to talk more about the greatness of Inception in a second, but I’m going to use this space to rail on the Academy.
The King’s Speech? Really? In five, ten years, you’re telling me that we’re going to look back on 2010 and The King’s Speech is going to be the first movie we think of? Don’t get me wrong, The King’s Speech is a great movie with some outstanding acting performances, but there is a movie like The King’s Speech made every two or three years (wait, famous people have struggles to overcome too?). The correct choice was Inception, but with the Academy’s well-publicized stick up their butt when it comes to popular movies, I think Social Network was a more deserving winner. A unique story about an anti-social person creating the most social platform ever created. The story of the creation of the most popular website on the planet that no one knew about (I know it was based on a book but, honestly, who reads these days?). Does the Academy give any points for creativity these days?
Runners-up:
Social Network
The King’s Speech
The Fighter
Black Swan
The Sting Award
(Favorite Movie)
Inception
This was the first addition to my Top 5 favorite movies in over 10 years. It was indescribably good and only gets better each time you watch it. What I particularly like about it is that there are two perfectly acceptable explanations (although my explanation is better) for the movie and each time you re-watch it, you find more evidence to support your theory. Once I’m done with my adventures watching Lost, look for a post from me breaking down Inception.
Runners-up:
Social Network
Kick Ass
The King’s Speech
I’ll close with my top ten favorite movies of the year:
1) Inception
2) Social Network
3) Kick Ass
4) The King’s Speech
5) Iron Man 2
6) The Town
7) Book of Eli
8) Hot Tub Time Machine
9) Easy A
10) Black Swan
Receiving Votes
The Fighter
True Grit
Shutter Island
Megamind
127 Hours
Unstoppable
Toy Story 3
How to Train a Dragon
Tangled
Karate Kid
Red
Unranked
Nowhere Boy
Salt
It’s Kind of a Funny Story
Shrek 3
Alice in Wonderland
Receiving Negative Votes
Robin Hood
Predators
Splice
