Top Ten Summer 2010 Movies

[Mr Light]

The Summer Movie Season is over! What were your favorites?

I think this was a pretty lackluster summer for movies. None of them were true four star classics for me.

1. Iron Man 2: I didn't love it, not enough action, but I guess it was the best of the summer. *shrugs*
2. Inception: great movie, though I do wish they did more with the reality altering as the trailers promised
3. A-Team: best surprise of the summer! great fun, great action, great humor.
4. Scott Pilgrim: very energetic and creative.
5. Other Guys: Hilarious! So much better than I expected.
6. Prince of Persia: a good fun dumb historical action adventure.
7. Knight and Day: it's much better than people are saying. Tom Cruise was very funny and charming in it.
8. Last Airbender: a horrible adaptation... of my all time favorite animated series. So it's magical just for that.
9. Shrek 4: I liked it better than 2 or 3 but I've never been huge on these movies.
10. Despicable Me: meh. wasn't terrible, wasn't great.

WAITING FOR DVD:
Robin Hood, MacGruber, Get Him to Greek, Killers, Jonah Hex, Toy Story 3, Grown Ups, Predators, Sorceror's Apprentice, Salt, Cats & Dogs 2, Dinner Schmucks, Expendables

 

[JacksonArcher]

I agree this was a really lackluster summer for movies. Compared to 2008 where you had Iron Man, The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, WALL*E, Get Smart, Hellboy 2, Tropic Thunder, Pineapple Express or 2009 where you had Star Trek, Drag Me to Hell, Up, Public Enemies, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Inglourious Basterds and 2010 is surprisingly lightweight.

As a result of the mediocre offerings of this past summer, I haven't checked out as many movies as I might have wanted. Regardless, here's a list of my top favorite movies of the summer that I have seen:

1. Inception -- Even though the year is not over, this not only is my favorite film of the summer but likely the year. An incredibly original, cerebral, intelligent tour de force from the genius that literally never disappoints, Christopher Nolan. Bring on Batman 3.
2. Scott Pilgrim Vs. World -- One of the most visually imaginative, inventive, and consistently hilarious films I've seen in a long while. Edgar Wright is a director, similar to Chris Nolan, that improves with every film that he does.
3. The A-Team -- I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie. Joe Carnahan delivers a relentlessly paced, well-acted, generally speaking well-put together thrill ride of a summer movie that is big, dumb but highly fun and entertaining. This is what those bloated and idiotic Transformers movies should have been.
4. Kick-Ass -- I'm not sure if I can count this as a summer movie, since it came out in April, but because my list is so sparse I'm including it anyway. The better comic-book movie this year, which is also similar to Inception and Scott Pilgrim in the fact that it is highly imaginative and deeply entertaining. A great satire on the comic-book genre.
5. The Girl Who Played With Fire -- I'm counting this even though it was released in Sweden in 2009, it was released in the US this summer so it counts for me. It's definitely a highly effective thriller that deserves all the praise it gets. I had literally no expectations but I came out impressed and entertained. I'm curious about the sequels now as well as the planned US remake.
6. Cyrus -- I had literally no expectations when I saw this movie but it was a really witty and clever comedy that is not built on slapstick or gimmicky gross-out humor but actually on genuinely awkward moments. The cast is unsurprisingly solid all across the board (John C. Reilly is dependably funny) but the real surprise here is Jonah Hill who plays a much more disturbed kind of character than I'm used to seeing from him.
7. The Other Guys -- The first 30 minutes is a wonderful cop satire (what Kevin Smith's Cop Out should have been) but quickly devolves into a generic action movie. While the action and most of the jokes that follow are effective, it quickly loses its flow that made it so great starting out.
8. Knight and Day -- A lightweight, charming little summer action film that is pretty forgettable but still enjoyable and a nice diversion for 2 hours.

If I could include all the films I've seen this year I would include Shutter Island and The Ghost Writer (which would stack up toward the top of my list) but unfortunately those films came out in February. I still have a few films I want to see from this summer (The Expendables, Predators, Toy Story 3) and I'll hopefully get around to seeing them eventually.

 

[Mr Light]

Omigawd! I found someone else who likes Knight and Day! Of course I think the problem is people didn't SEE the film they just prejudged it because Cruise was in it.

 

[DarKush]

1. Kick-Ass: This movie surprised the heck out of me. It was the best Batman-Robin duo I've seen on screen live-action or animated, since the Adam West show. It had action, humor, solid acting. I really thought Mark Strong made for a great, unvarnished villain too.
2. The A-Team: Another movie I had zero expectations for, and was prepared to judge harshly. Even though not as good as the TV show, the actors did manage to create their own chemistry and made the film work. I'm a little disappointed that the box office doesn't reflect how good the film was.
3. The Expendables: The casting put this movie pretty high on my list, though I felt most of the acting and storyline were weak. But the action was pretty good. The star power was awesome and this movie had swagger.
4. Salt: Angelina pulled off this role pretty well. It was hard hitting at times and had a relentless pace, a very good summer action film.
5. Inception: Weighty, ambitious film, though it was a bit slow. I actually fell asleep in the middle, but I give Nolan credit for trying to have something to say. Plus when there was action, it was pretty intense. The cast was good too.
6. The Losers: A solid action film, with better chemistry among the cast than the Expendables. However, the lighter tone (in comparison to the comic) didn't quite work for me.
7. Iron Man 2: The most disappointing film of the summer for me. A waste of time and talent, though the FX were good, the action passable, and the references to the Avengers was good. I also liked Black Widow.
8. Predators: Another disappointment, though it had solid action, however I didn't care much for the additions to the Predator lore, and the characters didn't grab me. I give Rodriguez, etc., credit for trying to take Predator back to its R-rated roots but the end result seemed pointless to me.
9. Splice: An icky sci-fi horror film, with good FX, acting, and story. Perhaps overlooked, I wonder if it will gain cult status.
10. Jonah Hex: Okay, I was running out of options. It was down to Hex and Clash of the Titans, so I went with Hex. Because Hex didn't turn out to be as bad as many critics were saying it was, and Clash was lame.

 

[Wynterhawk]

Saw: Inception, The Losers, Kick-Ass, Predators, Iron Man 2. Inception was the best, better than expected followed by Kick-Ass. Highly disappointed with The Losers since I'd loved the comic so much. Bleh to the rest.

 

[tomalak301]

I only saw 6 movies this summer so I'll do top 3:

Toy Story 3: Awesome Awesome movie. I was skeptical when I heard they were going to make a third one, but it worked so well and made for a great trilogy. I'm convinced now Pixar can really do no wrong.

Inception: Awfully Creative and mind bending. Shows you don't need 3D to have some great graphics (Like the 0 gravity thing was really a mind blowing experience) and the story was great too.

The Other Guys: Typical of Will Farrell. It was fun, had some funny moments, but I still liked Talladega Nights and Anchorman better.

 

[clint g]

I didn't watch too many movies this summer but my list would go like this

1-Inception
2-Kick-Ass
3-Iron Man 2

 

[Owain Taggart]

Didn't see many movies this summer.

1. Inception
2. Ironman 2
3. Robin Hood

 

[Harvey]

In the theatre this summer I've caught the following new releases...

Inception (B+)
Iron Man 2 (B+)
Predators (B-)
The A-Team (C+)
The Karate Kid (C-)
The Losers (D+)
The Other Guys (B+)
Toy Story 3 (B+)

Of those, Inception was the best, I think. The Karate Kid and The Losers were the worst. Notably, nothing this summer has blown me away to warrant an A-grade, at least nothing released this year.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Didn't see many movies this summer.

1. Inception
2. Ironman 2
3. Robin Hood

I saw even fewer, only 1 and 2. Both worth watching in a theater but wouldn't make my Top 100 or anything...

 

[Starbreaker]

Knight and Day [A]
Splice [A-]
Iron Man 2 [B-]

That's it... not a lot of extra cash this summer.