• The Fall is almost here. You know what that means? Oscar season! Yes now is the time to put aside all those fun and wacky summer films and start getting into the meat. With Ben Affleck's "The Town" hitting theaters we have our first mainstream post-summer film reaching for an award (and Ben just might get a few). With that I thought i'd mark this time down officially for all the world by doing what else? Naming the top 5 favorite films I have seen thus far in the year 2010.

    I could do a top 5 worst, but frankly we have not had a great year thus far and naming these worst would be giving more recognition then they deserve.

    Rules:
    1. Now of course i would have to have seen the movie.
    2. It has to have come out in 2010 (duh!)
    3. Its not the best, just the ones i like the most.





    5. Toy Story 3



    Now i know what you are thinking. "K aren't you a big fan of animation? Then why is Toy Story 3 only at number five!? TOY STORY 3 created by the ALL POWERFUL PIXAR!"
    To which K responds: The Toy Story franchise as well as all the Pixar films have done a lot to change the landscape for American animated films. People realized the cartoons weren't just for kids and could have intelligence, emotional depth, and subtlety. That said while the American mainstream is catching up with most of the world like Europe, or Asia we are still behind the line.
    As a child, i did not like "Toy Story" or "Toy Story 2" while the characters were "likable" by most standards there were not by mine, as low as they were. I will be honest, Toy Story and all its three-demensional ilk were the bane of my childhood. Of course growing up i came to appreciate these films for their writing, scope, and ambition with "Ratatouille" being my favorite, on the whole i find myself less and less tolerant of Pixar each year. They make great movies, but they are easily forgotten by certain irredeemable louts who want a little more salt on their steak. I am of course speaking of myself. the greatest, and that is exactly what Toy Story 3 is; A great movie, and one of the best by far so far in this year. Regardless of what other animated films come out or even make it to the U.S. this year, Toy Story 3 will win every award no matter how much my black little heart squeals at the prospect. Its simply cannot lose, they won't let it.

    That said TS3 is by far the best of the trilogy. As Andy's toys are sent to a kindergarden to be played with they find the place is awful. Now they must escape. Equal parts comedy, equal parts prison escape film. when first announced it seemed ridicules that the franchise truly needed a new sequel, but now that its here the franchise wouldn't be complete without it. Kids will love it because they haven't the proper mental capacity to discriminate class from simply not being bored. Adults will love it for it humor and strength in characters that makes everyone want to root for them to survive their ordeal. But for me it stays at number five because i simple had no one to relate to.

    B+


    4. Kick-a**



    The polar opposite of TS3, Kick-a** is wild, vulgar, shocking, gory, and funny enough to make every shouting of the obscenities we so commonly shot each day sound more original. What would happen if batman were real? Yes, he would get his a** kicked! That is the premise of the film and the comic that were written together. A young loser want to be a hero and becomes a world phenomenon as his courageous costume leads him to go out and save people. Eventually he gets mixed up with the mob, Nick Cage, and the best most badass little girl in film history.

    Chloë Moretz as Hit-Girl steals the show away from the title character Kick-a** by the virtue of being better at everything he does, including acting. Cage finally gets the super hero role he's always wanted to play, and he actually gets to be the badass we all know he could be (looking at you Ghost Rider). When i say this movie I was in a group of twelve people, the house was packed and everyone in the theater was hootin, and hollerin' none stop. That is how you see and movie, and it was the most fun i had at a theater sense The Dark Knight.

    B



    3. Splice



    This is the one im sure will throw some people off so let me say this first: "No splice is not better than the first two i put up." On that note it is a hell of a lot more impact in the mind. I just wish more people had seen it.
    A husband and wife, both experts in genetics decide to go where no one has gone before by creating a hybrid human out of their own DNA. The creature that raises from this experiment looks almost alien and begins to grow rabidly over the weeks. The creature becomes famine and beautiful but strangely gain amphibian features as well as a toxic sting, not to mention its sex drive. As time goes on the creature goes from pet, to daughter, to even mate and begging to grow increasingly violent and spiteful. WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE!!!!

    Splice is a obvious tribute to David Paul Cronenberg's sci-fi films from the the late to mid 80's. Concepts that are wacky dropped into a reality of sex. The film is haunting to the point that by the end of it you have to laugh as a defense mechanism.

    C+


    2. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World



    Edgar Wright has done it again. Turning genres all but lost like buddy cop films (Hot Fuzz), romantic comedy (Shaun of the Dead) and now comic book movies into beacons of what the genre could be at its best. Poking fun at them but reviling in the same culture. Each character breaks from their stereotype and gives a little bit more of themselves to the audience. Michael Sera gives his best ever performance (his only performance) and while being a total jerk in the beginning of the film, he grows into less of a jerk, a little less.
    When this movie's fight scenes starring Michael Sara were vastly more creative and better choreographed The Expendables (a film where most of the cast could actually fight) you know somebody is doing something right and someone else is doing something vary wrong.

    Each evil ex handles like a different video game boss and makes reference to the entire internet culture. And poo to those louts that say anyone above 30 should just give up. If you can't get by on the comedy you can on the visuals. Each performance is given with pinpoint accuracy and everyone is likable (except Michael Sara). This is a movie to see in theaters, but its a little late for that, you'll have to make do with you TV.

    A


    1. Inception



    Innovative and intelligent, engrossing and nigh unforgettable, is Inception. If Christopher Nolan didn't solidify his name to the masses with The Dark Knight, he does with Inception.
    Leonardo DiCaprio plays the the lead man, a criminal of dreams stealing and sometimes implanting ideas. As he and his team travel from dream to dreams within a dream, they manipulate and are possibly manipulated in their attempts to implant an idea into the mind of a wealthy heir to a business empire. By the end of it all the question of what is and what is not the dream haunts the mind.

    Props to Christopher Nolan for not only creating the concept of Inception but also using it to its fullest extent. The cryptic atmosphere of the film give the film an edge that makes you want to know everything about it. In the theater this K felt so inthralled that he began scouring every scene for clues or option just in case this K might become the victim of inception one day.

    It is a film that will not go forrgotten and another mark in Nolan's and James Cameron's game of CAN U TOP THIS! (Tough Nolan has already won)

    A+


    Also look out for the French film Rubber, about a psychic tire trying to kill people. It looks awesome!