Club 50 Wrap Up: 2010

Years Completed:
2003 | 2010

I'm about 83% of the way through my Club 50 project so these are going to become far more frequent. I finished 2003 a few weeks back and I was surprised to see that 2010 was soon to follow.

Unlike 2003, I don't have as uniform a love of 2010. There were fewer movies that I'd consider a favorite. It was a year of "yeah, I guess I liked that too" movies. Since I'm going a year at a time, I don't have the exact numbers for every year, but it was striking to see eight of the ten movies nominated for best picture (True Grit, The Fighter, The Town, Toy Story 3, Black Swan, The King's Speech, The Social Network, and Inception) were all in the top 50 grossing movies. For an award that leans toward the art house, that's impressive. The 3D craze was sweeping the nation (Alice in Wonderland, Clash of the Titans) and animation was a sure bet (Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me, and three others made the top ten). Many franchises started winding down. Some for the better (Twilight: Eclipse, Harry Potter 7), some for the worse (Sex and the City 2, Voyage of the Dawn Treader). Oh, and let's not forget all the franchise non-starters (The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Prince of Persia, The Last Airbender).

To wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows of the year's top 50 box office earners.

First Seen: Alice in Wonderland

I'll always remember this as the movie where a guy tried to pick a fight with me. As far as I can tell, I was making a lot of side comments to friends (I thought quietly). After the movie was over, a guy in front of me who was not on a very good date from the look of it, turned around and said he was going to kick the ass of whoever kept talking the whole time. Of course, there was never a 'shhh' or head turn the whole movie, so it's not like I knew he was getting annoyed. Luckily, the confusion of it all kept things from ending in blows. What I'm trying to say is that the movie was not interesting enough to talk about it.

Last Seen: Diary of a Wimpy Kid

It was a cute movie, but I can totally understand why I waited until the end to see it. And, hey, Chloe Grace Moretz.

Happiest Surprise: How to Train Your Dragon

You have to love a movie that was #1 in the box office on it's first and fifth weekend. That's what we call a sleeper. Dreamworks Animation was mainly known as the Shrek studio up to that point. There were minor box office hits like Madagascar as well, but they hit a high mark here with this oddly named story about a boy and his dragon. Not just the joke machine that people were used to from Dreamworks, this is the first movie of theirs that matched or exceeded with Pixar was doing.

Biggest Disappointment: Grown Ups

I never wanted to give up on Adam Sandler movies. He just came off Funny People which I loved him in the year before. He collected some of his friends as he'd done successfully many times before and churned out what managed to be the death knell for his man-child days. Not quite an adult comedy. Not quite a family movie. No real plot. It looked way too much like I was watching him go on vacation and very little effort went into making anything that resembled a movie. What bothers me is that I didn't expect to be this underwhelmed, so maybe that's on me.

Looked Better Then: Alice in Wonderland

This made $1 billion worldwide. Let that sink in for a minute. Fresh off the success of Avatar, people were in a frenzy for 3-D movies. Johnny Depp was still box office gold and his Tim Burton collaborations were highly regarded. Alice in Wonderland was a familiar and beloved property that people were curious to see in live action. This was a perfect storm for inflated box office totals. That movie released now would be lucky to make half the money it did then. It is now, perhaps the most forgettable movie in the billion dollar club.

Looks Better Now: Tangled

This is a tough category because to be a top 50 grossing movie in a year, it obviously did alright, so how does a movie look much better? Isn't $200 million enough? Well, it helps to be seen as the first high in the new Disney Renaissance*. Hell, it even have a rest area themed after it at Disney World. Tangled, you have arrived.

*The Princess and the Frog and Bolt were successes, but not at this level.

Favorite: Inception

I'm a Chris Nolan fanboy. I'll admit it. The only reason I wasn't blown away by Interstellar was because The Dark Knight trilogy and Inception set such a high bar. Great cast, striking visuals, killer ending. This is why Nolan is the director I'd most trust with a $100 million budget.

2nd Favorite: Toy Story 3

It's weird. A lot of people are eager to undersell this movie. All three Toy Story movies have their strengths and there's totally valid arguments for this to not be your favorite of the three. That should never undercut that this completed one of the best trilogies ever*. It was a big tear jerker and the last truly great Pixar movie (not to imply that there won't be more).

*Ok, they have announced a fourth, but until I hear about the story for the fourth, I must assume it is more of a new beginning that a continuation (Think, Pirates of the Caribbean 4).

3rd Favorite: Date Night

Tina Fey and Steve Carrell as a married couple on a date night adventure for the ages. This is more of a success in casting than script but it stuck with me more than most movies in this group of 50.

Honorable Mention

 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Was this a transparent attempt to milk even more money out of the franchise? Sure. Did they still make an entertaining movie out of it that didn't feel like a delay before getting to the good stuff? Absolutely!

Paranormal Activity 2

I'm a sucker for this franchise. After the surprise of the first movie, this almost went too big or the white people in it were almost too rich and able to film every corner of the house. Still, I'm a sucker for the gimmick.

Least Favorite: Sex and the City 2

It had to beat out a Twlight movie and The Last Airbender, but it did it. I can't think of a movie that movie thoroughly insulted my senses more than this movie. In fact, it may even be an all-time least favorite.