Sunday, March 14, 2010

Dean's Top 10

Hello people, Dean here. You’ve probably heard my name whispered around campfires and read all about the conspiracy theories which doubt my existence. But I assure you I exist and I am here to deliver my top 10 movies of the year. Enjoy!

10. Fantastic Mr Fox
I’ve never been the biggest Wes Anderson fan but this movie sucked me in completely. The quirky humour, the nostalgic animation style and the brilliant voice cast all worked together to make this one of my unexpected favourites of the year.

9. Up
I never cry in movies. Ever. Maybe because I’m super macho or maybe it’s because I’m a heartless robot, either way, nothing gets by my invincible barrier of non-emotion. So it came as somewhat of a surprise when I was blubbering like a schoolgirl within the first 10 minutes of UP. After delivering this emotional sucker punch, UP went on to be both heart-warming and hilarious all the while featuring rich characters and beautiful visuals.

8. The Hurt Locker
Intense. That’s the one word which sums The Hurt Locker up nicely. Broken down, the film is basically one intense situation after another with very little down time in between. The movie genuinely puts you in amongst the action and makes you feel every moment of dread and confusion these soldiers feel. Did I mention it was intense?

7. Coraline
While UP may have warmed my heart, Coraline connected with my love for all things dark and creepy. For what is essentially a kid’s movie, Coraline is one dark puppy. It’s not often you see a ‘kids’ movie which features an Easter egg hunt for the eyes of dead children. Damn that sounds messed up.
Wildly imaginative and sometimes disturbing, Coraline was my favourite animated film of the year hands down.
This is so the kind of movie I’m going to be taking my kids to see one day.


6. Watchmen
Greatest. Credit. Sequence. EVAR!
Now with that out of the way, Watchmen was an amazing experience. A deep and intellectual superhero film, which focused on, the flawed characters rather than epic set pieces. It manages to remain mostly faithful to the brilliant original source material while omitting very little from it.

5. District 9
Nothing says good times quite like exploding bodies; well that’s what I took away from District 9 anyway. Imaginative and exciting, District 9 contains a far more interesting and engaging story within its first 5 minutes than most movies have to offer over their entire running time.

4. Pontypool
Now here’s an awesome little flick I urge everyone to seek out. A sort-of-but-not-really-zombie-film set entirely within the confines of a small town’s radio station. To say anything else would take away from the surprises it has in store so all I’ll say is that this is one of the most unusual and original films I’ve seen for a long while. Check it out!

3. Zombieland
Here’s a simple equation I came up with; Zombieland = Good Time. It’s that simple.
Zombieland entertained the pants off me (literally) and left me with a big goofy grin plastered to my face from start to finish.

2. Drag Me To Hell
Sam Raimi’s return to horror was well worth the wait. I’m not going to lie, I had my doubts going in, but they were soon swept aside. Featuring some of the craziest and most memorable scenes in any movie I saw all year, Drag Me To Hell is straight up fun. Subtlety goes out the window early on as the film launches a full frontal attack of craziness to keep you entertained. The amount of times I blurted out ‘WHAT?’ while laughing my ass off is beyond me. After all, this is a movie which features a talking goat and a river dancing ghost in the same scene.

1. Inglourious Basterds
It’s not often a film not only lives up to your expectations but actually surpasses them, but that was exactly what I experienced with Basterds. The 2 ½ hour run time flew by and I loved every moment of it. My only complaint, now I have to wait who knows how long until Tarantino makes his next film (sad face).

7 comments:

  1. Yes!!!! Nice writing Dean, and nice list!

    Nice.

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  2. Dean's the Tarantino of list writing. Such perfect little reviews.

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  3. awesome, you've got me wanting to see Pontypool. It's good to see some watchmen love. A good round out to the top ten week.

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  4. I thought watchmen was a 2008 film...Probably would have knocked WTWTA off my list.

    Anyways cool list Dean. Probably one of the few that doesn't feature Avatar. Was that or Paranormal activity close to ur ten?

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  5. Yeah the were both nearly chosen at some point. I never thought Avatar was going to make it until it came time to write my list out. It would definitely be an honourable mention.
    Paranormal was was an amazing cinema experience but there were just too many other movies I loved. Another honourable mention then.
    Anywho, thanks for the kind words peeps!

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  6. El That dude was rude LocoMarch 17, 2010 at 1:51 AM

    Woh, that dude was rude. Funny though, perfect timing I thought, from all the comments and then especially the comment right before it, thanking everyone for being so nice. Oh, quite funny indeed. What a chap, that old anonymous.

    Anywho, very nice work my friend Dean. You are a great writer and a top bloke. Your comments were not only very well written and in great respect of the films, giving the reader images and smiles of a film even if they were yet to see it. On top of all that they were quite hilariously written, and very witty.

    Overall I think this was a tremendous blog. It has surprisingly and very quickly risen to the top of my Blog out of 10 list, and taken first place. I hope in the future there will be more writers like Dean Burr. - Luke Bovino, El Magazine Loco.

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