Review of the Year - 2010

New films watched – 62

At the cinema – 32

At home – 30

 

Average score – 7.25

 

Best Films of the Year

At the cinema:

1^st Inception

2^nd The Hurt Locker

3^rd The Social Network

 

At home:

1^st The Lives of Others

2^nd In the Loop

3^rd Gran Torino

 

Films that let the side down:

At the cinema:

1^st Salt

2^nd Eat Pray Love

3^rd She’s Out of My League

 

At home:

1^st Lesbian Vampire Killers

2^nd Horsemen

3^rd Public Enemies

 

(I have just realised that I watched all three of those cinematic let downs with the same friend. 
Oh dear.

To be fair though, I did also see two of the top three with that same person.)

 

Looking at the list of disappointing films on that list there are a couple of things I should note: 1 – I don’t like traditionally ‘girly’ films.  2 – At least with Eat Pray Love I knew that the reviews had been bad and would never have watched it had the film we wanted to see been available.  Sometimes I go to the cinema knowing that a film is bound to be terrible but there is a part of me that wants to see just how bad it can get.

 

So just how bad can it get?  Well, I watched one film this year that truly lowered the bar, the standard and, indeed, the tone.  Step forward Lesbian Vampire Killers.  A film I reviewed as “an insult to lesbians, vampires and killers everywhere”.  It got a whopping 2/10 from me. 

Meanwhile Salt was by far the worst thing that I saw at the cinema.  It was laughably bad, insultingly stupid and the point where (MINOR SPOILER) Angelina Jolie disguised herself as a man (END MINOR SPOILER) was just ridiculous.  There came a point about halfway through the film where someone reading their iPhone (something that generally irritates me to the point of rage) became more entertaining.

 

As foreign films went it was a good year for Scandinavian films with A Somewhat Gentle Man, Let the Right One in, Super Brother and Rare Exports all scoring well.  A Somewhat Gentle Man was my favourite film at the London Film Festival and I thought Let the Right One in was a touching adaptation of a book I had really enjoyed (and, I will admit, been terrified by).

 

There are still a number of 2010 films that I need to catch up with:

Another Year

Monsters

Catfish

Of Gods and Men

Then we’re into 2011 releases and the best thing about January?  Oscar-bait season!   Bring on The King’s Speech, Black Swan, 127 Hours, Never Let Me Go, True Grit…..

 

I can’t wait!

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

“They’re defrosting him”

My friend Chris: not big on Christmas.  Proper bah-humbuggy in fact.  So as his this-is-not-a-Christmas-present-I-just-chose-this-time-of-year-to-thank-you-for-your-friendship gift I surprised him with a trip to see Rare Exports as a fairly anti-Christmas treat.

The set-up is as follows:

Santa is not who you think he is.  He is far keener on punishing the naughty children than in rewarding the good.  A young boy, Pietari, gets it into his head that the man behind the myth is about to be released from his mountain prison and sets about protecting his house and trying to persuade the locals that he is not just a kid with an excellent imagination.

I was expecting a horror movie but instead it is much more of a kid’s adventure story.  Pietari is the leader of the crusade against Santa and his story is very much the centre of the film.  The plot is fairly simple (taken from two YouTube shorts: Rare Exports Inc and The Official Rare Exports Inc Safety Instructions) and even at 83 minutes it feels a bit lightweight for the length but, that being said, there are many element of this film that made it a very enjoyable watch.  The richness of the cinematography makes every close-up/slow motion shot/extended zoom worth watching and the lighting is used to great effect in the frozen wilds of Finland.  The score is also excellent with soaring boy sopranos and lush strings playing off against fairly sparse scoring elsewhere.  The film is very comedic – almost every moment I expected to be frightening turned out to be a lead up to a witty punch line – and the script is played beautifully by the small cast.  Onni Tommila as Pietari has one of the cutest faces I have ever seen and he gives an excellent performance as the little boy facing his fears.

A bit lightweight but enjoyable and witty – 7/10