Open Thread: Best of 2010…

Updated on January 10, 2011 By Ken Begg 18 Comments

One of you guys, I think it was Reed, asked for a thread on what you saw and liked best in 2010. Movies, TV, old, new, whatever. Here’s an article on the best DVD releases of 2010 to get things kicked off. I have a couple of these releases; the Starcrash one is terrific, and it’s indeed great to have a gorgeous, WIDESCREEN presentation of The Green Slime after all these decades, even if it is a bare bones DVD-R.

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  • The Rev.

    I didn’t see a lot of movies this year in the theater, but I enjoyed Scott Pilgrim and Kick-Ass. I technically saw Rare Exports on the 2nd, but it came out in 2010, so I will count it. Also, it’s damn fine filmmaking and I hope everyone gets a chance to see it. The young boy playing the lead is fantastic, although he looks disturbingly like Bjork.

    I didn’t buy a lot of DVDs, and I’ve watched almost none of them. I did finally get to see the MSTing of Godzilla vs. Megalon and it was great. I saw my first Sammo Hung old-school kung-fu movie (Magnificent Butcher) as well as Heroes of the East, which were both utterly fantastic. I still have at least a dozen DVDs waiting to be watched, not counting the Ultraman series, Red Baron series, and most of Iron King as well.

    I mostly saw things for the first time thanks to our DVR: my first Tony Jaa movie, my first Hammer Frankenstein movie, some good Karloff films, Casablanca, and of course Sharktopus and Mega Piranha, among lost of other things.

    I also finally got Resident Evil 4 (only three years late!) and have been playing the hell out of it, wishing I’d gotten it much sooner.

  • BeckoningChasm

    Well, I saw some great stuff via Netflix but I don’t think any of it was 2010 vintage. “In Bruges,” “Out of Sight” (the one with Clooney), and “Ghost Town” (Ricky Gervais) were the best things I saw last year. I only went to the theatre twice, for “Avatar” (others insisted) and “True Grit” (really good film).

  • Rock Baker

    Where did you pick that Green Slime DVD-R up again? Can I find copies on Ebay?

  • Rock — It’s part of the Warners Archive collection, their made to order DVD-R wing. (Must be successful; MGM and Universal have started aping them.) They are way overpriced, but occasionally they have a decent sale. The last one was five movies for $50, including shipping, which is when I got mine. Still, the presentation is remastered and widescreen, and looks great. Anyway, just Google ‘warner archive collection.’

  • Rock Baker

    Thanks! A scope copy of The Green Slime is a dream come true!

  • P Stroud

    For me in order:

    The King’s Speech
    Inception
    Shutter Island
    Machete
    Scott Pilgrim

    “Machete” literally kicked Scott Pilgrim’s @ss. Everything else was eminently forgettable. Oh yeah, and Colin Firth deserves an Oscar barely edging out Danny Trujo. How can you not love his “rope trick”?

  • Rock Baker

    Still, $25 is a lot for only one title! At least I know its out there now, so the hunt is half over.

  • Rock — Yes! As noted, you really want to wait for a sale. That’s what I did, and I’d been waiting for this title to become available for like twenty years.

  • Gristle McThornbody

    – Best movie saw in theater: Inception
    – Best Non-2010 comedy saw on DVD: Black Dynamite (which I never would have seen without reading about it here first…thanks, Ken!)
    – Best non-2010 thriller saw on DVD: Tie, Shutter Island or The Prestige
    – Best TV: The Office
    – Best book: Drood
    – Best old book that I should have read years ago and finally got around to in 2010: Day of the Triffids
    – Best music: Mastodon, Crack the Skye
    – Best “older” music: Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, For Thy Pleasure
    – Best streamed-video TV show through Netflix: Doctor Who episode “Blink”
    – Best computer game: Fallout 3

  • Rock Baker

    Yeah, given all the years I’ve dreamed of finding it, I guess the price is fair, even without discount! Is it a good DVD-R? I’d assume so, coming from a big company like Warners, but is it really as good as a ‘real’ DVD? (As if that matters in a case like this…)

  • Rock Baker

    (…by which I mean, the movie is just so super neat-o that I’d pick it up anyway just to see it scope! Still, I’d like it to be nice, and last a while…)

  • Reed

    Woohoo! Thanks Ken. :)

    I was actually not really wanting to tie a list to what came out this year, but instead what you experienced this year regardless of the year of issuance. For me the highlight of the year was watching the Elvis movie “Stay Away Joe”. It was, in my opinion, the worst Elvis movie that I’ve ever seen, and I loves me some Elvis.

    If you’ve never seen it, well, all I can say is that I sat through it going, “Oh my God, how did this ever get made?” Elvis plays an American Indian. As does Burgess Meredith. That would be bad enough, but the Indians portrayed in the movie do nothing but drink, screw, fight, and have incredibly stupid ideas. To make things even more insulting when they have crowd scenes there are some honest to goodness Native Americans in the crowd. Oh, and Elvis’ character is a grifting sleeze ball. I don’t think my jaw came up off the floor the entire movie. You have to hear the song he sings about the impotent bull to really believe it. I think that it was, all in all, the single most offensive portrayal of a minority by a pop star that I have ever seen.

    I looked it up on IMDB, and some people thought the movie was funny. I normally do not champion other peoples’ causes (I have enough to fight for on my own, thank you very much), but this movie offended the hell out of me. Which is good, because I needed less hell.

    And my album of the year: Accept’s “Blood of the Nations”. Good old school German metal. It’s 80’s songs with modern “wall of guitar” production. I can’t get enough of it.

  • Rock: It’s pretty spiffy. Certainly I’ve never seen it look at good. But if you wait until you get a package of films, the archives offers other titles like From Hell It Came.

  • Reed: Wait, are you saying it’s worse than CHANGE OF HABIT?! That’s a bold claim, my friend.

  • Elizabeth

    PIRANHA 3-D 4EVA

  • Toby Clark

    Inception, The Social Network, Scott Pilgrim, Toy Story 3, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and Tomorrow When the War Began (see this, if at all possible) were my favourite movies of the year. Predators, Edge of Darkness and Iron Man 2 get honorable mentions.

    On TV, the highlights were Flashforward, V, Doctor Who and the final of Lost. Neighbours has long since jumped the shark.

    Too many DVDs to list, but I have to recommend the DC Animated Original Movies: Superman: Doomsday; Justice League: The New Frontier; Green Lantern: First Flight; Superman/Batman: Public Enemies; and Wonder Woman. There’s a few others that I plan on buying if JB Hi-Fi ever lowers the price to something reasonable.

    I also got around to watching The Prestige and Insomnia, which cemented Christopher Nolan’s position as my favourite director, although David Fincher remains a close second. Watchmen and V For Vendetta were also great and prompted me to buy the books.

    A good year for video games, since I discovered Telltale Games. Loved the Sam and Max series, especially the mind-blowing The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, and I’m enjoying Poker Night at the Inventory and the new Back to the Future game.

  • Gamera

    Guess I’m a little late here but still…

    I’ll second (or third or whatever we’re up to) on ‘The Green Slime’. The video transfer is crystal clear, absolutely gorgeous. I picked up ‘Wild, Wild, Planet’ which is almost as good. Both movies are completely bat-guano crazy- in the best possible sense. I wish I’d seen these when I was ten years old! The other movie in the ‘series’: ‘War of the Planets’ is pretty forgettable. It’s a dull, plodding alien possessing people theme that’s been done about fifty zillion times on Trek and other series. Skip it.

    On other DVD news picked up the complete series of ‘The A-Team’. Dang if it makes me feel like a kid again.

    Saw four movies this year:

    The ‘Clash of the Titans’ remake. 2.5 stars out of five. Best thing I can say is it was- ok. Didn’t love it, didn’t hate it- just a so-so movie. The original is so much better. The new film’s CGI monsters were all pretty much forgettable and the shaky-cam and jump-cutting ruined the movie for me.

    The ‘Expendables’. Three out of five stars. Great hell for leather action movie but again the shaky-cam and jump cutting wrecked it for me. Fantastic David versus Goliath fight between Jet Lee and Dolph Lungren that I had trouble following because of the awful intrusive camera work.

    ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ 4.5 out of 5 stars. Great movie! Only real flaw is they had to add an over-all plot of collecting five magical swords to defeat some sort of green mist. No explanation given of what the heck the mist was or how tossing five pig-stickers (even though magical!) on a table should defeat it. Geeesssshhh, even the worst D&D DM would come up with some explanation. Still great character arch with Eustace and as much as I gripe about CGI I loved Reepicheep. Best CGI character ever!!!

    ‘TRON: Legacy’ 4.5 out of 5 stars. Was expecting a train wreck of a movie but WOW. First off I wonder why the heck do people keep calling this a remake??? The whole frelling movie they make reference to the events of the first film. It’s like calling ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ a remake of ‘Star Wars’. Am wondering though how many other sequels have been done 30 years after the original??? Still this is the first movie in years I’ve seen twice at the theater. Would have given it five stars but 1). CLU’s plan doesn’t make a shred of sense. 2). Sam Flynn comes off as none too bright and a bit of a jerk.

    Can recommend on the gaming front: ‘Fallout: New Vegas’. Good as Fallout 3 was I swear ‘New Vegas’ though based on the same game engine has a far, far, better plot. I love how the streets of Vegas are patrolled by a group called ‘The Kings’ based off a pre-war rock and roll legend. And the good guy (mostly) faction is the ‘New California Republic’ or ‘NCR’ whose flag looks like California’s current flag except that the bear is now a two-headed mutant one!!!

    Also ‘Mass Effect 2’. Great game and one of the coolest SF settings I’ve seen in years. I’ve heard rumors of a movie based on the series and it sounds like a cool idea.

  • The Rev.

    While I still prefer the first one, and haven’t seen the second, I did really enjoy Voyage of the Dawn Treader despite the sword/mist plot tacked on (although it gave Eustace more to do, and a better chance to redeem himself because MAN he was obnoxious–kudos to the kid playing him). Reepicheep is indeed great, and I loved him; however, every time Aslan shows up, I get a little chill down my spine. The incredible care they put into his design and animation, combined with McGregor’s dead-perfect tones, pretty much make him my favorite CGI character. Only Gollum can match him, in my opinion.