Best of the 2010s: 100 Best and 10 Worst
Every month I've been focusing on a particular genre of film and count down the 10 Best of the Decade from that genre. It's all been leading to this: The 100 Best of the Decade.
We've gone through quite the series of lists over the past year. And now, the climax. I hope it doesn't disappoint. But first... a look at the Worst of the Decade!
The Worst of the Decade
There are two ways to look at a Worst list. On the one hand there's the absolute garbage that was released. These are the films that you kind of expected to be horrible and they lived up to that expectation - and then some. On the other hand there's those films that had potential - be it due to the talent in front of the camera, the director or writer, or the premise - and they were a crushing disappointment.
We could talk about the absolute shit that were films like The Lorax, Venom, Rough Night, Fifty Shades of Grey, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted, Michael Bay's productions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Woodshock, The Canyons, or Detention. But saying those films are awful wouldn't be much of a surprise or of much interest to you, would it?
Therefore, I find it more interesting to take the second approach and present to you the films that had potential for whatever reason and absolutely failed to live up to it. Some of these were financial hits. But if financial success equaled creative success then Avatar and Jurassic World would be considered among the greatest movies ever made. So, here we go...
10. The Greatest Showman (2017)
Hugh Jackman's project with Bill Condon and Laurence Mark took 8 years to get made and released. It wasn't like there was a huge pedigree behind this project that built up hype around it. It was simply Hugh Jackman, who built a reputation as a song and dance man when he wasn't snikting bad guys on the big screen, along with a cast that eventually included Zac Efron, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Williams (?!), and Zendaya, a former Disney Channel kid and pop star on-the-rise. And it was about P.T. Barnum, which promised a bit of razzle-dazzle along with real-life drama. We got the razzle-dazzle... and that's about it. A film that overzealously jumps into its music catalogue within five minutes before you know or care about any of the characters, offers skin-deep feel-good messages about acceptance, and fails to deliver on either Barnum's story or any of its supporting characters, resulting in one of the decade's most overrated glitter-bombs. All that razzle-dazzle and superficial goodness was all it took for audiences to fall hard for it, resulting in a domestic gross of $174.3 million. But myself and over 100 critics called foul. As Steve Davis of the Austin Chronicle said, "It's a Las Vegas revue... one that will doubtlessly enthrall those moviegoers who mistake spectacle for quality."
9. The Predator (2018)
Since 1987's Predator Hollywood has had a tough time giving one of its greatest creature designs a treatment as creative as its title character and the original film. An unbearable sequel in the early '90s brought the creature to the concrete jungle - a good idea that was horrifically executed. As was the cross-over Alien vs. Predator spin-offs based on Dark Horse Comics. Robert Rodriguez produced the franchise's only worthwhile follow-up in 2010, starring a lean and crafty Adrien Brody. That was a modest success, but nobody did anything until 2018. Shane Black, supporting star and script-doctor-on-call of the original, was coming back as director and co-writer! Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) was co-writing! With a cast that included Olivia Munn, Thomas Jane, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes, Jake Busey, Yvonne Strahovski, Alfie Allen, and... Jacob Tremblay, with Boyd Holbrook in the lead role?! Maybe that last part was a red flag. This film had a few cool ideas, but was a mile away from what it should've been given the talent behind it. Parts of it were utterly ridiculous, including a subplot involving the Predator's mask and a kid (Tremblay). Instead of a triumphant return The Predator was a crushing disappointment.
8. The Hunger Games (2012)
There was a lot of hype around The Hunger Games ahead of its release. And during its release. And after its release. And after the release of every single sequel that helped spawn a trend of bland YA dystopian movies. I guess if a story about teens being forced to kill each other by the government is written by an American (Suzanne Collins) it's considered bold and original. But if a Japanese novelist came up with the idea over a decade beforehand (Battle Royale) it's forgotten and barely acknowledged. Alright, let's set aside the fact that Suzanne Collins' novel isn't exactly original. The execution failed to live up to the premise. This is a kids-killing-kids plot. There's a lot of build-up to the main event. As soon as it starts we're given headache-inducing shaky cam that side-steps the horror and weight of the premise. The film is more concerned with PG-13, butts-in-seats spectacle then actually making its audience sit with and think about what they would do in the situation or even see much of the violence. On top of it all, Katniss Everdeen, a role that sky-rocketed Jennifer Lawrence to stardom, is not the bad-ass she's often claimed to be, as she spends most of the movie running and hiding. She's not even responsible for the death of the main antagonist!
The Hunger Games is the first piece of sanitized shit I've ever seen and extraordinarily overrated.
7. The Expendables (2010)
Okay, okay... so you have this big budget action movie - the kind that recalls those "Movies for Guys Who Like Movies" of the '80s. And, in fact, this movie brings together all of the action stars of old and new - Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis with Jason Statham, Jet Li... Randy Couture, Steve Austin, and Terry Crews?! How about Steven Segal and Jean Claude Van Damme? No? ...Okay, well, they're called The Expendables, you know? So, we're guaranteed to see our favorite action heroes get bumped off while doing incredible stunts and fight choreography in epic fashion... No? They're called The Expendables, but they all live? Um... okay. Well... surely, since it's written and directed by Sylvester Stallone, who wrote several of the Rocky scripts and First Blood, it's going to have a great balance of action and character-driven pathos, right? No...? Just a thin plot revolving around an entire team to take out one dictator and an agent? ...Huh. And Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis will only have cameos? Oh, fuck this shit.
6. Sucker Punch (2011)
Director Zack Snyder had proven himself as one of the Aughts' best cinematic adapters. He debuted with the frightening update of Dawn of the Dead, made gorgeous Frank Miller's graphic novel 300, and even took on the greatest superhero graphic novel ever made, Watchmen, with a great deal of success. But could he take his extraordinary visual flair and have just as much - if not more - success with something original? Well, Sucker Punch was the answer. It has the extraordinary visuals. But nothing else about this film worked. And it was actually offensive to many. Even the Extended Edition did nothing to flesh this story out or make its concept make a lick of sense.
Sucker Punch turned out to a pubescent fantasy. It was the start to a rough decade for Snyder that would make one of Hollywood's hottest careers crash and burn.
5. The Help (2011)
This two and a half hour piece of feel-good tripe is such a perfect example of the white savior trope that it borders on offensive. It's actually appalling and disappointing that so many talented actresses participated in this overlong social justice puff piece: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain, Allison Janney, Anna Camp, Cicely Tyson, and Sissy Spacek. Everything about the script feels phony: the dialogue, character behavior - I can't claim character motivations, because most of the time they don't seem to have any and act either with 21st Century lenses or monstrously out of the blue. Here's hoping that, with movies like The Hate U Give, Blindspotting, Sorry to Bother You, and Get Out we've come a long way from superficial feel-good message movies like The Help and The Blind Side.
4. The Great Gatsby (2013)
Baz Luhrmann had wowed us in the '90s and '00s with movies like Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. He stumbled with Australia, but seemed back in fine form with The Great Gatsby, an adaptation of an aging staple of college curriculums whose last trip to the screen was stiff and stodgy. It was time for a fresh take on the classic. Baz's version was certainly fresh, as he added his typical visual flair to liven up things. But everything else felt shallow, rote, and empty. Even Leonardo DiCaprio couldn't save this seizure-inducing waste.
3. A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Ava DuVernay was one of the decade's hottest directors, particularly after bringing Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the big screen for the first time in Selma. When she decided to take on the classic children's fantasy previously adapted for the screen with horrendous results we were optimistic. Once the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Mindy Kaling, Chris Pine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Zach Galifianakis, Michael Pena, Bellamy Young, and David Oyelowo were cast then things looked pretty damn good. A young black girl was cast as the lead and things got even more exciting. Disney marketed the film like crazy - you couldn't go anywhere without seeing the trailer or poster. This was going to be one of the biggest films of the year! Instead it was an absolute disaster with occasionally questionable visual effects and a laughable climax that proved the source novel quite possibly unfilmable. After all, if the likes of Ava couldn't make it work, can anybody?
2. Chappie (2015)
Neill Blomkamp, who had debuted with the incredible District 9 a few years before was back with another sci-fi tale set in South Africa. Hugh Jackman was playing a bad guy. Sharlto Copley, working once again with Blomkamp, this time doing mo-cap and voice work as a self-aware robot. Sigourney Weaver. Dev Patel.
Chappie could have been awesome. Instead it was as though someone were to remake Short Circuit and focus on the worst elements of that film and add gore. This is a film so bad it immediately halted this promising career of what was supposed to be one of the decade's visionary directors (Copley's career hasn't exactly been on fire either since). We also haven't really seen Jackman play any villains since. All told,
Chappie represents a lot of lost opportunities.
1. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
There are so many things wrong with this film, including a title so clunky I am exhausted by just the thought of writing it out when writing about the film. Okay, let's start with the title: Batman v Superman?! Why are we able to commit to a subtitle, but too lazy to write the abbreviation 'vs.' correctly? What the hell is that? And thanks for giving us Ford v Ferrari! So, Zack Snyder had proven himself an incredible adapter of graphic novels with 300 and Watchmen, as mentioned earlier. He lost some points with Sucker Punch, but apparently original stories are not his strength, so whatever. But he was going to adapt The Dark Knight Returns, the other incredibly significant and influential superhero graphic novel of the late '80s! That was exciting! But it turned out he also wanted to put Superman on trial, set up the Justice League, plant seeds for a Darkseid invasion, adapt the Doomsday story, introduce Lex Luthor and base a lot of the plot around imported cargo. All of this was in a matter of 150 minutes (minus 10 minutes of credits). Frustratingly, absolutely nothing is given proper time. We are given the title bout in a climax that is incredibly illogical - and I'm not just referring to "Martha"! Ultimately, what we have is a lack of focus, the epitome of bloated blockbuster filmmaking - if you consider the 183 minute Extended Cut there's at least 70 minutes that could've been chopped and saved for another movie, and the decade's biggest disappointment. A disappointment so big it very nearly killed plans for future DCEU movies (Justice League put the nail in the coffin). After Snyder's vision failed, the DCEU flailed, releasing solo movies largely divorced from the BvS storyline, and without any focus or forward momentum. We don't know what direction the DCEU will go at this point, but it can only go up, up and away from here.
Those are my picks for the worst! What do you think? What are your picks for the worst of the decade?
And now we end the series with the big one...
The 100 Best of the Decade
One thing I learned from creating this list 10 years ago is it can be really hard to accomplish this in such a way that has absolute perspective and zero regrets years later. There are a handful of picks in my list from the 2000s that I regret adding and some I would rank differently. So, all of that is to say this is incredibly difficult. I spent all of 2019 carefully organizing this list towards absolution to the best of my ability.
What was taken into consideration? Movies that were included in my annual Best of the Year lists, movies that were included in my Best of the 2010s series, and movies that are so iconic or popular that when you think about the decade they inevitably come to mind - all were taken into consideration when crafting this major undertaking.
Don't be surprised if your picks are on the list, but not where you'd rank them. There are a handful of highly-praised films that I didn't think were actually that great that did not make the list. In any case, it will be interesting to look back on this list in 2-5 years and see if there's any new regrets. For now, enjoy - and have fun exploring those you've never seen before!
100. Frozen (2013)
99. Blue is the Warmest Color (2013)
98. The Descendants (2011)
97. The King’s Speech (2010)
96. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
95. Moneyball (2011)
94. The Handmaiden (2016)
93. It Follows (2014)
92. Spy (2015)
91. Sorry to Bother You (2018)
90. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
89. A Star is Born (2018)
88. Raw (2017)
87. The Martian (2015)
86. Before Midnight (2013)
85. 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)
84. Wild (2014)
83. John Wick (2014)
82. Easy A (2010)
81. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
80. The Nice Guys (2016)
79. Snowpiercer (2013)
78. Wonder Woman (2017)
77. 127 Hours (2010)
76. Meek’s Cutoff (2011)
75. Looper (2012)
74. The Avengers (2012)
73. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
72. Crazy Rich Asians (2018)
71. Bridesmaids (2011)
70. Whiplash (2014)
69. What We Do in the Shadows (2015)
68. Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
67. Captain America: Civil War (2016)
66. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)
65. The Lobster (2016)
64. A Quiet Place (2018)
63. Ex Machina (2015)
62. Hugo (2011)
60. Booksmart (2019)
59. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
58. True Grit (2010)
57. A Ghost Story (2017)
56. The Big Sick (2017)
55. Black Panther (2018)
54. The Witch (2016)
53. La La Land (2016)
52. Logan (2017)
51. 21 Jump Street (2012)
50. Cabin in the Woods (2012)
49. Skyfall (2012)
48. Gone Girl (2014)
47. Timbuktu (2015)
46. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)
45. Hanna (2011)
44. How to Train Your Dragon (2010)
43. Birdman (2014)
42. A Separation (2011)
41. Black Swan (2010)
40. Winter’s Bone (2010)
39. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
38. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)
37. Creed (2015)
36. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
35. The LEGO Movie (2014)
34. Spotlight (2015)
33. 13 Assassins (2011)
32. Gravity (2013)
31. Melancholia (2011)
30. Parasite (2019)
29. The Big Short (2015)
28. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
27. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
26. Room (2015)
25. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
24. Harry Potter &the Deathly Hallows (2010/’11)
23. Marriage Story (2019)
22. Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)
21. The Conjuring (2013)
20. Minding the Gap (2018)
19. Get Out (2017)
18. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
17. BlacKKKlansman (2018)
16. Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
15. Toy Story 3 (2010)
14. Lady Bird (2017)
13. Moonlight (2016)
12. Sicario (2015)
11. Moana (2016)
10. Inside Out (2015)
9. The Act of Killing (2013)
8. Boyhood (2014)
7. Under the Skin (2014)
6. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
5. Arrival (2016)
4. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
3. Inception (2010)
2. Her (2013)
1. The Social Network (2010)
Honorable Mentions:
Personal Shopper (2017),
Eighth Grade (2018),
Lincoln (2012),
The End of the Tour (2015),
Joker (2019)
Those are my picks for the 100 Best Movies of the Decade! What are your thoughts? What do you feel absolutely should've been included, but weren't? What are your picks for the 10 Best?
That's it! It's finally over! I hope you enjoyed the Best of the 2010s series. What was your favorite list? I welcome any feedback or discussion about the overall project or its particulars.
Be sure to also check out the corresponding episodes of The Movie Lovers!
Thanks for reading! Until next decade!