Summer '10 Comes to a Close.

Wow, when did October sneak up on us? Well, seeing as how children have nestled back into schools all across the country I suppose we can officially make the call that the summer movie season is over.

2010 was kind of a sloppy year in all regards for movies. The early horror and romantic comedies that polluted our theaters in the early winters were awful, the spring date films were boring, and the big-budget action summer movies gave us little reason to leave our comfortable homes for overpriced popcorn and 3D glasses. Despite the lows there were a few noteworthy films you should have seen this summer and while there were probably some decent limited release indie films that are not on this list, don't be offended at their absence, I simply was unable to see them. With out further delay, let's get this list rolling!


"Toy Story 3"

Talk about kicking off the summer right. After the dower Memorial Day "Prince of Persia" and "Iron Man 2" I was already building myself up to withstand a tidal wave of disappointment. Luckily "Toy Story 3" burst on to the scene and salvaged what could have been an agonizing first month and a half of summer films.

"Toy Story 3" managed to perfectly wrap up one of the greatest trilogies of all time and reintroduced the world to characters we fell in love with almost 15 years ago. The movie strikes gold in almost every conceivable way and gave a perfect farewell performance to all the fans who grew up loving these characters.


"Inception"

Hype doesn't even begin to describe what was stirring around the trailers for Christopher Nolan's follow-up to the "Dark Knight". After shattering box-office records with a comic book film, people were desperately waiting to see what the surreal visionary had in store with his next project that delved into the very stuff of dreams.

Headed by an all-star cast and riding the path of a screenplay Nolan had been working on for years, the quality came through in a fantastic way. The movie was not exactly what people were expecting and to many it was probably viewed as a disappointment; but the visual artistry, the contribution of each of the actors, and the devilishly clever script that takes a five layer deep puzzle-box story and boils it down to a level that is completely accessible to the audience was incredible.

"Inception" is further proof that Nolan is a bread winner who will continue to delight us with rich character studies for years to come.


"Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World"

Take a comic book that has been revered as one of the most important achievements of the past decade, put it in the hands of the brilliant master mind auteur behind films like "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz", and package it into a perfect date stamp film that echoes the culture and style of an entire generation and you've got "Scott Pilgrim".

Despite doing poorly at the box office, this is a movie that will have legs for years to come. Critics praised the bold new directions this movie dared to take audiences and its bizarre style somehow managed to condense and package the often times misunderstood ADD generation of geek pop-culture and present it in a romantic comedy with some spectacular action scenes to boot.

Summer action films typically require ingredients such as explosions, romance, and entertaining characters to be successful. "Scott Pilgrim" did more than bring the ingredients to the table, it rearranged the whole paradigm and gave us a taste of things to come. Don't kid yourself into thinking this was a one time event; despite its failure to earn back its production costs we'll be seeing a lot of copycats down the road as creative talents try to emulate this fresh new style.


"The Town"

Remember when Ben Afleck was sort of a running joke? Remember when people would point to movies like "Gili" or "Reindeer Games" and roll their eyes pretentiously as they dismissed his ability contribute anything to the film industry. Well some of us appear to have forgotten that ol' Ben had once upon a time won an Oscar alongside his heterosexual life partner, Matt Damon, when the two of them wrote "Good Will Hunting". Some might argue it was a fluke while others shouldered the credit to Matt, but once Afleck hit the director's chair it became obvious that he was a man who understood story structure.

As a spiritual continuation to his first film "Gone Baby Gone" Ben Afleck returned to basics to give us a simple crime drama that we've all seen before but never in this way. He wasn't reinventing the wheel or anything, but he was showing a practiced hand, a hand that painstakingly gave us everything we needed from a genre that doesn't get the same adoration like it used to. Everything about this movie oozed with perfection, and if it doesn't at least get an Oscar nod for best picture it had better take home some supporting actor/actress titles because these people stole the show.