Top 20 Best Films of the 2010’s

The 2010 decade should be named the year of the movies, there were some pretty good ones and for next week we’ll save it for the worst films list because wow a lot of terrible ones, but for now let’s talk about the best films of the 2010 decade. In this entry we will run down the best films of the decade and that includes animated and non-animated films so here it is the top 20 best Films of the 2010’s and they were a lot of contenders that may get sideshaft to the honorable mentions.

20. Bumblebee

Starting off this entry is the Transformers series, the first one released in 2007 directed by Michael Bay was alright the second film Revenge of the Fallen in 2009 was unbearably bad because of Michael Bay’s clichés and his choices, the third may have been a fix but the foul stench was still present as the fourth and fifth movie was average. However, Bumblebee was a welcome fix to the occasion. The movie is about the origin story of how Bumblebee came to Earth before the events of the main story of Transformers, the film overall was a welcome change of pace of course the main actors led by Hailee Steinfeld and John Cena were superbly acted and some of the action scenes were pretty good. A sequel is in production as of this writing so I’m looking forward for what that have in store and from director Travis Knight.

19. Mission Impossible: Fallout

This beat out 007’s Skyfall. Sorry Batista.

The sixth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise returned in 2018 with Fallout (no not 76 that’s its own Mission Impossible scenario) and returning was Tom Cruise and others like Adam Baldwin, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, but no Jeremy Renner due to well reasons. This film was the aftermath of the capture of the leader of the terrorist group Syndicate from Rogue Nation in this film however Ethan and friends must find stolen Plutonium. You think people would have it more secured but hey I’m not the director, but again he is still being monitored by a CIA agent. You think a guy like him after saving the world would not be monitored that much. Outside of that the film keeps upping the ante and outdoing itself so if there’s another future sequel down the line then I can’t wait to see what the seventh movie is going to bring, if not then ending on six movies is good.

18. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

This movie slightly knocked a certain contender into the honorable mentions, so you’ll know who it is.

The How to Train Your Dragon franchise has been a real interesting series of films I have seen, the first was alright the sequel I thought was much better and more ground to earth. The third movie well then. In this film after the events of the second film Hiccup and Toothless continue to seek out dragons and bring them in well do what the movie entitles. However, along the way a white dragon is found as Toothless is smitten but there is a new threat in the horizon as a Dragon Hunter and his horde of minions seek out to find Toothless and the sole reason why night furies were wiped out. A rare sequel capping off with three films rarely pulls it off but when they do it does with flying colors.

17. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

It’s been since 2005 since the last movie came out and in 2015 a franchise would return for another shot. No, it’s not Alvin and the Chipmunks but Star Wars.
Say what you will of the new Star Wars films including the very divisive eighth film but everybody was hyped for the new movie and at the time it was a decade since “Revenge of the Sith” so let’s see what this new film had in store. It was 20 years after the events of “Return of the Jedi” and between those years ahead a new threat emerged: “The First Order”. In this film Luke has disappeared and everyone is looking for him including friends and enemies as he is the last Jedi. After experiencing a massacre, a stormtrooper by the name of Finn seeks and busts a rebel fighter Poe out of jail, then meanwhile a young girl in Jakku named Rey stumbles upon BB-8 and Finn to get to the Rebels. Along the way they encounter Han Solo and Chewie at it again but also witness a new weapon called “Starkiller” so it’s a race against the clock to find Luke and stop this super weapon. Which is the Death Star 3.0. Overall as a new installment the movie introduces new characters, reuniting old ones and from here it becomes a wild ride I highly recommend being ready for the true final installment: Rise of Skywalker if you want to watch Last Jedi.

16. Purge: Election Year

The Purge film when it first came out had a intriguing idea for a plot, one day a year murder and crime is considered legal however in this one it was just stuck to one location, the second movie expanded on it and it became a plot with more deeper lore where the rich profits off eliminating the lower class, the third film of the franchise focused on something different: an election year. Yeah it came out in 2016 in the midst of well let’s just call it a rocky year about everything, anyway in this film a senator who witnessed the murder of her family and survived vows to end the annual purge however a group of politicians changes the rules of the Purge with an added stipulation of politicians of being targeted. The previous protagonist Leo who was out for revenge in the second movie is now a hired agent to protect the senator in the B plot a store owner plans to defend his store from being raided upon during the Purge since he lost his protection plan. What I like about this film and the second is how the Purge becomes some dark commentary of the rich being rich and snuffing out the weaker lower class as it can happen to anyone no matter who they were and in the case of the fourth movie ANYONE can join to cause mayhem and target others like extreme fringe groups like KKK members. My recommendation is to watch the entire trilogy and my favorite is this film.

15. 12 Years a Slave

True story biopics were all the rage in this decade, and this was no exception.
“12 Years a Slave” focused on the story of Solomon Northup a African American man who was abducted and taken into slavery and put through 12 years of his life working on a plantation. America just like this country Canada with the treatment of the indigenous people, has a dark history of slavery that was brought upon by European traders in the 16th and 17th centuries and talking about them would open a hornet’s nest so I’m going to brief but long story short it ended up as much as you expect a rough trial of twelve years of being a slave before being let go and rejoining his family, as this movie served slavery is no good no matter how much someone thinks it’s a good idea to bring it back. Looking at you Kanye.

14. The Conjuring

Hey, another horror film making the list.

The Conjuring series are films based on the stories of two paranormal investigators of Ed and Lorraine Warren as this first installment focused on was the Perron family being haunted by a demon in the state of Rhode Island by a music box. The movie does have its terrifying moments even though the second has that but some dumb moments that personally made me to like this film. Hey at least its better than The Nun, at least we can agree on that can we? If you want to be scared, then this movie is for you.

13. The Revenant

The film that finally gave Leonardo DiCaprio is Oscar. It took him like what five or six tries to do so?

The Revenant was a cult hit ranking up many awards including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor by Tom Hardy and Best Director for y Alejandro González Iñárritu. The movie is about a Hugh Glass a frontiersman guiding fur trappers through the tough American landscape in 1823. I could talk a lot about the movie, but I’ll let you decide because the movie is such a great treat to see and so much epic moments and the atmosphere proved to be a good setting.

12. Django Unchained

Time for Quintin Tarentino to step into the limelight.

Django Unchained was released in 2012 and well who saw this movie come out of left field so fast? The movie is about a man named Django Freeman looking for some much-needed payback from his time being a slave. So, he becomes an outlaw to free slaves from plantation owners as since it’s a Tarentino film like some of his previous films the action and some parts of the movie is going to look pretty darn graphic but also the perfect chemistry between Jamie Foxx and Leonardo DiCaprio’s characters. But if you’re a fan of that then you’ll enjoy Django. Will there be a sequel? Who knows what Tarentino wants he’s on the same level of films with Guillermo Del Toro lot of films released but some cancelled projects on the side.

11. Detective Pikachu

Finally, a video game movie that is not terrible. Eat it Pixels.

Detective Pikachu was released as of this year and people were worried this movie was going to be terrible however with a strange turn of luck, they made this movie good. The movie starts out based from the Nintendo 3DS title from the same name but with a twist a former trainer who is now just a salesman, thank goodness he didn’t turn into that one who needs bloody coffee to investigate the disappearance of his father along the way he meets up with a talking Pikachu voiced by Ryan Reynolds with another notch in his belt as both have to work together with two different dynamics with one goal in mind. Detective Pikachu had mixed reactions but the majority turned out positive with the acting and action scenes, not to mention making the Pokemon come to real life during the film, can’t wait for the sequel for the new installment, let’s cross our fingers for Sonic because after the redesign I really hope it becomes good and it looks promising.

10. Get Out

I already spoke off Get Out in my lookback of best 2017 films so I’ll be brief, in this film a man starring Daniel Kaluuya visits his girlfriend to see her family however along the way he stumbles upon a disturbing secret that makes him very skeptic towards her family. This is the directorial debut of Jordan Peele and outside of being a comedian this guy does a good job for a first time director, and with his other film “Us” being successful with some of the same psychological elements and themes along with the reboot success of the “Twilight Zone” Jordan Peele should consider being a director.

9. Lincoln

The true story of America’s actual famous President.

This biopic released in 2012 was about Abraham Lincoln and how he would become one of America’s historical Presidents. Being a Steven Spielberg film he would nail each moment of Lincoln’s life balancing whenever to end slavery during the last days of the Civil War when the defeat of the Confederate south was about to fall before passing the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the United States Constitution and preventing his own son who was wee close to joining the war. Its one of those movies that really makes you look back to then and now to our time how much has changed.

8. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Who knew a bomb would become its success.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World when it came out in 2010 as a failure at the box office however it became a hit to audiences and its portrayal mix of video games and music. The movie stars Michael Cera trying to rescue his girlfriend from seven evil musicians who once dated her. Guess that sounds like me in my teen years. The movie has grown a cult following years later and its easy to see why with its video game references and mix of music. So, thumbs up Pilgrim.

7. Avengers: End Game

I was stuck in deciding which Marvel movie was my favorite and End Game served to be what was my favorite. The movie spent an entire decade building up the purple meme lord of snapping fingers Thanos to where the majority of the Marvel heroes disappeared and some left remained to fight Thanos on their own and it leads up to one giant confrontation with the fate of the word in the balance and what a way to end on. I felt like after this what can there be done to even top that? The movie grossed in a billion dollars and knocking Titanic from its top spot of highest grossing movies of all time.

6. Isle of Dogs

Stop motion in this decade had improved and gave us some good classics in this year but the true winner of all of them was this film by Wes Anderson the director of his previous animated film Fantastic Mr. Fox released in 2009. In this film four stray dogs meet with a runaway boy who is seeking his lost dog and he is the distant nephew to a mayor who has been mistreating dogs to the point of being shipped into an island living in rough shape and wants to eliminate them entirely. What I think about the movie hasn’t changed since seeing it last year it’s still one of 2018’s best films with a well written script, characters and story to make it interesting.

5. Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller returns to the chair with this movie that became one of 2015’s second best films behind the Revenant. In this film Max is sent to assist a woman escaping the rule of Immortan Joe along with wives who are well “owned” by him. Each chase scene is like a Mario Kart race circuit from hell that Nintendo would be like “right on boys”. A film that spent years under production turmoil and it really shows it still has that many mileage to run on The acting in this film can be corny but balances out the corny factor with good action scenes and epic moments. Not to mention points to the coolest character ever.

4. Inception

Not forgetting Nolan are we? Of course not.

Inception is one of those films that continues to mess with the audience in what each turn brings for Leonardo DiCaprio is he in is all the things in his head? What is real and what is not? Inception sure became a jump after Nolan directed the Dark Knight films, it was universally praised after release with its acting, visuals, score of each music and of course the ending is an infamous one that is still up to debate that has opened a treasure trove of theories than Five Night’s at Freddy’s.

3. Zootopia

I have a lot to say about Zootopia an animated film that is smarty written and clever at the same time. In this film a rabbit wants to be cop but is pushed back constantly until she is assigned a case of missing animals so along with a sly fox both uncover the mystery and something else. This movie serves as a smart allegory to sexism and of course the topic of racism with herbivores and carnivores and coming from Disney of all things I still regard this movie as one of my favorites from 2016 no matter how much a dumpster fire the year was and I highly recommend this film to watch.

2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Sony you’re going to get off easy this week, in the next issue not so much.

So that being said Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse had a lot running, especially with the reputation of Sony Animation and their animated films but I was pleased how the results went and I love this new animation style they went into the film like a hybrid of a CGI and 2D animation which is amazing and feels like a comic book. It may also serve as few last appearances of the legendary Stan Lee ,but his legacy is forever established through comics and film. Excelsior.

And now here is what I like to call the Honorable Mentions, and this is the example of movies that got sideshafted into here so… don’t kill me internet:
Frozen
Inside Out
Kong: Skull Island
Godzilla (2014)
The Lego Movies
The Dark Knight Rises – I enjoyed this movie, even though the unfortunate tragic events that unfolded in Aurora would hover over this movie like a shadow.
Kung Fu Panda 2 – This was the movie that got bounced by How to Train your Dragon. Sooo… oops.
Captain Marvel
Captain America
Black Panther
Gravity
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Deadpool 1 + 2
Coco
Kubo and the Two Strings
The Book of Life
Paranorman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Moonlight
Predators (2010)
Dunkirk – Some may hate it because there is like 50/50 in speaking roles and silence, but I enjoyed it.
Pokemon: The Movie: I Choose You and The Power of Us
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 1 + 2
Snowpiercer
Jungle Book remake (2016)
Machete
The Expendables – the story did have some problems, but the action scenes were pretty good, not to mention seeing so many action stars in one movie? Cha, winning!
The Incredibles 2
The Blair Witch (2016)
Klaus – a recent animated Netlfix movie.
Grave Encounters
Rio
Sharknado films – Their dumb but enjoyably dumb for what it’s worth

1. Toy Story 3

Yep I picked this movie over Toy Story 4. Please don’t kill me.

Why I have picked this? We all thought this was going to be the end of the road for Woody and the gang and it felt emotional in some sort, of course it’s Andy going to college and the debate of his old toys the ending leaving them behind with Bonnie after playing with his toys causing the world record of the most sad five minutes of your life, I’m not kidding. Say what you will of Disney and its business practices, history with films having questionable racism and the growing Monopoly to own everything to the point of leaving everyone to pick a side when Disney and Pixar tell a story right they do it well. The acting was well done, animation, top notch and the songs even though its Randy Newman some say he is a bland, uninspired signer and some the best songwriter ever are catchy. Here it is the best film of the 2010 decade.

Join me next time when I dine into the absolute worst films of the decade, oh boy this is going to be fun I can’t wait to get into them.