Top films of 2010, let's poll!  As per Angela's subtle request I've upped the answer total to ten spots.  Those of you who found that many quality films for the year can top 'em out, otherwise fewer is just fine.

Here's that handy dandy list of 2010 movie releases to help think back:
http://www.film-releases.com/film-relea … on=showall

And here is the handy dandy list of movie discussion threads at STC from the year, courtesy of Angela:
- The Book of Eli
- Shutter Island
- The Secret of Kells
- Alice In Wonderland
- How To Train Your Dragon
- Clash of the Titans
- Iron Man 2
- Date Night
- Kick-Ass
- Shrek Forever After
- Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
- The A-Team
- The Karate Kid
- Toy Story 3
- Knight and Day
- The Last Airbender
- Despicable Me
- The Sorcerer's Apprentice
- Inception
- Salt
- The Other Guys
- Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
- The Expendables
- The Town
- The Social Network
- Megamind
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Tangled
- The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- Tron Legacy
- True Grit

1. True Grit
2. Inception
3. Toy Story 3
4. Shutter Island
5. How To Train Your Dragon

It's hard to pick a favorite between True Grit and Inception... Inception does some amazing things visually but I love the dialog and good old-fashioned storytelling in True Grit.

Toy Story 3 almost lived up to its exceedingly high reputation; as with earlier installments it doesn't tug at my heartstrings as much as my animated favorites but nonetheless it's delightful from start to finish and stunning visually.  How To Train Your Dragon I found a bit over-hyped, with the direction and acting sometimes short of the top tier and the artistic design not always to my personal taste, but it's a fun film to be sure and I won't be surprised if a second viewing turns out more favorably.

Shutter Island is hardly the type of film I usually gravitate towards but was solidly crafted through and through.

Promising films from the year that I've yet to see:
-Kick-Ass
-The Karate Kid
-Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World
-The Town
-The Social Network
-Black Swan
-The Fighter

Best movies from previous years seen this year:
-500 Days of Summer
-Frost/Nixon
-The Hangover

And lastly the films that didn't make the cut, in descending order of quality:
Iron Man 2 (matches the excellent original in some areas but falls well short in others), The A-Team, Despicable Me (both fun movies but not top-ten material), Knight and Day, Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Salt, Tron: Legacy

My Top Five:

1: Toy Story 3 - Perfection. Nothing more need be said.
2: How To Train Your Dragon - Wonderful entertainment with a solid message and a rousing John Powell score.
3: Inception - Mindbending. Still haven't figured it all out.
4: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I - A well-acted beginning to what will be an epic movie when finished.
5: Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World - What can I say? This movie was made for geeks like us.

The Worst Movie of the Year:

1: The Last Airbender: Shyamalan's latest disaster. Badly acted, directed, and written. Sleep clinics undoubtedly keep a copy of this movie close at hand.

Films that didn't make the cut: Shutter Island (a gigantic bore), Iron Man 2 (okay but not even remotely close to the original), Letters to Juliet (a pleasing romantic comedy which isn't Top 5 material).

Still want to see: The Social Network, Let Me In, Dear John (Channing Tatum is hot. I make no excuses), Kick-Ass, The Town.

1. Devil
2. The Housemaid
3. Inception
4. Predators
5. Machete
6. Skyline
7. Splice
8. Faster

I wasn't in a good mood on the day I saw Devil, since a girl had told me to go to hell. It was simply a coincidence that I decided to watch Devil. My expectations were low, but my mood kept getting better and better as the story progressed. The ending shocked me twice, so I was really pleased. Plus, the cinematography at the beginning was unsettling.

The Housemaid is a notable Korean release. It's a remake of a notable 1960s film, so it's pretty popular over there. I only watched a few Korean movies this year, but this one was by far the best (the rest were stinkers). Still need to see "Moss", "Poetry", and "Ha Ha Ha", so my opinion might change.

Inception, Predators, and Machete were all great fun.

Skyline was made outside of Hollywood and it was intriguing. You are told nothing about the aliens. You don't even get theories from scientists or government officials. They don't hold your hand in this movie.

Splice was great at first, but turned into junk.

I only saw Faster because I had a girl with me (different one), so I had to pick something. It was pretty bad.

Edit: I also saw Clash of the Titans. Since I forgot to put it on my list, that ought to give you an idea of how highly I thought of it. I also still need to see "Road".

1. Inception

Not much else to say. Two movies I liked last year but just one this year.

Refresh my memory.  Basterds, and.....?

Moon!

Right.  Dunno how I overlooked your post in the '09 poll.  o_O

Did you ever catch Doctor Parnassus?

Inception hands down for me.

I allowed myself to be discouraged from viewing it by generally poor reviews.

1. The Social Network
2. Scott Pilgrim

I saw a bunch of other stuff in theaters this year, but those two are the only ones worth nominating, IMO.

1. How To Train Your Dragon
2. Inception
3. Kick-Ass
4. Toy Story 3
5. Tangled
6. The Town
7. The Karate Kid
8. Megamind
9. True Grit
10. The A-Team

You may peruse the talky, detailed breakdown here.

Plenty of animated works released this year, and for every painfully average title like Shrek Forever After and Alpha and Omega, there was an exceptionally amazing one to offset it.  It's not often that each of the three major studios (Pixar, DreamWorks, and Disney) manage to nail a winner in the same year, but they've done just that with Toy Story 3, How To Train Your Dragon, and Tangled respectively.  The Secret of Kells also deserves honorary mention for its refreshing throwback to the artful splendor of 2D animation.

Remakes and adaptations were hit or miss.  They ranged from excellent (The Karate Kid, True Grit), to good (The A-Team), to lukewarm (Clash of the Titans), to downright dreadful (Alice In Wonderland, The Last Airbender).  Those last two are most certainly deserving of the Razzie Awards.

I had high hopes for Iron Man 2, but I was more let down than impressed.  Thankfully, Kick-Ass picked up the slack when it came to satisfying my superhero fix.  I watched Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World again, and I stand by my initial impressions: it suffers from a horribly sluggish beginning, but hits its stride once The League of Evil Exes make their appearance.  It's a kinetically charged powerhouse from that point on.

Crime heist films were in top form, as Inception and The Town illustrated.  I enjoyed Takers to some degree as well.  Between Knight and Day, The Other Guys, and Date Night, The Other Guys wins for best action comedy.  Salt gets my vote for best action thriller after Inception.

Films that I'll need to play catch-up on?  The Ghost Writer, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Ip Man 2, Splice, Winter's Bone, Predators, Paranormal Activity 2, Due Date, Unstoppable, The Fighter, and Black Swan.

Hmmm...I have seen so many movies this year.  So, in no particular order, here are some of the ones that stood out a bit more than the rest:

Black Swan
Kick-Ass
How to Train Your Dragon
Flipped
Inception
The Social Network
Shutter Island
Cyrus
Easy A

1. Tron Legacy

That's all. Haven't seen many films this year and the others I saw weren't all that great (like Saw 3D - well, what did I expect?). Tron Legacy, on the other hand, blew me away. Loved the world, loved the characters, loved the action, loved the music, loved the father/son/son(ish) story.

I went to see it again tonight and loved it even more.

Your parochialism is both impressive and irritating.

1. Inception
2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
3. How To Train Your Dragon
4. The Secret of Kells
5. Toy Story 3
6. Kick-Ass
7. Tron Legacy
8. Tangled
9. Shutter Island
10. Legend of the Guardians: the Owls of Ga'Hoole

I managed to see quite a few movies this year, but these were the ones that really stuck with me. Sadly, there were some others I really enjoyed that just didn't quite make the cut. There are also several that I really wanted to see that I missed out on: The A-Team, The Book of Eli, Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Devil, The Expendables, Machete, Predators, The Secret of Kells, and Skyline.

I'm hoping to catch up on some of the ones I missed via Netflix. :3

EDIT: Ok, I feel silly. I just finished watching The Secret of Kells and it was awesome! Even though it pains me, I must revise my list. I guess, after some very hard thought, the new list would look something like this:

RE-EDIT: And now my answers are updated! Thanks, Adam!

Clicking on the "Answer Poll" link will bring up your previous answers so you can revise them for the results as well if you like.

Glancing at people's listing of faves, I'm a tad disappointed that there weren't more topic discussions on a couple of movies.  I would have loved to see what more people thought of Shutter Island, Kick-Ass, and Tangled, for instance.

I was waiting to see if anyone would place How To Train Your Dragon over Toy Story 3.  *high five* :)

Cool! Thanks for the help.

Whoohoo! Both films were absolutely excellent, but I think DreamWorks finally found their place. They've been trying hard to compete with Pixar and, while they've been improving, they never quite measured up. How to Train Your Dragon really stuck with me though. It was just a really, really great film from start to end. I'm even excited about the sequel!

It was hard for me to put Toy Story 3 at 5th, but I think it had some real competition this year and I'm proud to stick by my list. Despite a few disappointments, this really was a great year for movies!

Curious as to when the poll results will be tallied, seeing as how the voting ended on the 10th? 

Ditto for the Game Soundtracks.

Top poll results out of 24 unique answers submitted, as calculated by Soundtrack Central's automated poll system.  In parentheses are the percentage of respondents who selected that answer and the average ranking it was given.

1. Inception (71%, 1.8)
2. How To Train Your Dragon (43%, 3)
3. Toy Story 3 (43%, 4)
4. Tron Legacy (29%, 4)
5. Kick-Ass (29%, 4.5)
6. True Grit (29%, 5)
7. Shutter Island (29%, 6.5)
7. Tangled (29%, 6.5)

Inception was pretty much a shoe-in for number one, but I'm thrilled that How To Train Your Dragon ranked so high here.  It's probably too much of a pipe dream to hope that Dragon goes home with the Oscars' Best Picture award, but I see I'm not alone in wanting it to win.

And as a point of interest, here's Rotten Tomatoes' Top 100 listing of the best rated films of 2010.

The critics and I parted ways in 1988 when Hell Comes To Frogtown was not recognised as the masterpiece it is.

It's not a great sign for me and movies that I have only seen one and a bit of the STC top ten movies.

Looks like the Academy Awards nominations are up.  Anyone want to make some predictions and/or personal votes?

First, I am both relieved and delighted that "How To Train Your Dragon" got nominated for Best Original Score - and I'm praying like crazy that Powell takes home the Oscar.  If Reznor's and Ross's "The Social Network" wins, as it has for the Critics Choice and Golden Globe, then that's confirmation enough for me that there's no god on earth.

Best Original Screenplay should go to Nolan for "Inception", and while I do think Inception was the better film overall, I'm actually hoping "Toy Story 3" wins Best Picture.  The first animation in Oscar history to earn the big win?  Heck yeah.  But if the recent awards ceremonies are any indication, it'll almost certainly go to "The Social Network".  Conversely, if Toy Story 3 gets Best Picture, then I'm hoping that "How To Train Your Dragon" earns the Best Animated Feature.

I'm not much in a position to make a decisive prediction here, seeing as how I've only seen "True Grit" and "The Social Network" for Best Actor, but to me, Bridges trumps Eisenberg by a country mile.  Ditto for Best Actress; I've only seen "Black Swan", but Portman is definitely my fave of the year.

Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects..... all of them "Inception", hands down.

Best Animated Short goes to Pixar's "Day and Night" for its ingenious blend of 2D and 3D animation.  And Best Original Song?  Tangled's "I See the Light".

I guess that certifies me an agnostic, because I was more impressed with the score for The Social Network than for Dragon.  That's in the context of the film - I've only heard Dragon in album form once and Social Network not yet at all.  Dragon certainly had some rousing moments as I remember but also predictable, whereas Social Network did something more unique working with the technology theme while enhancing the drama.

Those are just initial impressions from single viewings though.

Similar position here.  It's hard to imagine anyone beating Bridges' performance in True Grit, though I'd love to see James Franco in "127 Hours" and Colin Firth in "The King's Speech".

I tried a few more from IMBD's top of 2010 list, and I was very impressed with "Rabbit Hole".

They managed to present a difficult issue from many viewpoints without ever being judgmental (saying that there's only 1 way to deal with it), because it's different for everyone. A great job showing that even the Timing of how quickly or slowly each person processes and moves through the stages is different, and how that affects relationships.

It's amazing the film managed to remain very neutral and transparent, quite an accomplishment with an issue like this.

So did anyone watch the Oscars last night?  Here are the list of winners, here and here.

I was disappointed that my wish list for the three most crucial categories (Best Picture, Best Original Score, and Best Animated Feature) weren't fulfilled.  On the other hand, I'm pleased that Inception went home with Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects.  Portman definitely deserved Best Actress, and after seeing "The Fighter" recently, I'm inclined to give the nod to Melissa Leo for Best Supporting Actress.  She was really great in that.

Funny that around this time last year, I was "pro" Randy Newman for his work on The Princess and the Frog.  This year, I can't disagree more with their decision to go with the incredibly rote "We Belong Together" for Best Song.  And after watching the gorgeous Mandy Moore/Zachary Levi duet, I'm more convinced than ever it should have gone to "I See the Light".

I thought it was the worst Oscar broadcast I've ever seen. Franco and Hathaway were dangerously out of their depth, the acceptance speeches were an endless list of "thank yous" (even more so than usual) and the winners were largely predictable.

And it goes without saying that the best score winner is yet another Oscar travesty. This should have been Desplat's win (especially considering how "The King's Speech" won most of the major categories).

I watched it.  On the one hand, I was slightly disappointed that Social Network didn't win best picture, but on the other hand, I don't really care that much, so whatever.  As for the show itself, it couldn't have been more obvious that Franco didn't want to be there, but I liked Hathaway.  The lowlight of the night was Christian Bale's win.  It's no secret that I don't like Christian Bale, and his snub of his own wife on national television does nothing to improve my opinion of him.  I hope she she beats him with his undeserved Oscar.  As for Randy Newman, this Family Guy sketch sums up my feelings about him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWpIMFEe2ds.

Well, there's some debate as to what exactly happened there.  Was he just so caught up in the emotive moment that he actually forgot her name?  Or was it even his intent to call her by name to begin with, and simply wanted to go with "wonderful wife"?

I'm not really into stuff like the Oscars or other award ceremonies so it goes without saying that I didn't watch. That said, the list of winners seems rather disappointing overall. Portman makes sense as does some of Inception's wins, but many of the others seem like the usual Hollywood BS. I suppose that's not really unexpected though.

He made the "trying to remember" finger snapping motion in the air and then the camera switched to her expectant face, so it seemed pretty clear to me.