JOSH MILLER'S TOP 15 OF 2010

That's quite a list. I've only seen nine of yours. I'm going to have to keep an eye out for the rest.

There's no accounting for taste, especially when it comes to humor. That being said, Hot Tub Time Machine is pretty horrible. Good picks on the rest, though.

I'm already wishing I'd done PIRANHA as my junk food pick. Not cause I regret HTTM (laughed my ass off), but because I realized I have no horror movies on my list and that makes me sad. I guess BLACK SWAN will have to be my horror movie.

HTTM did nothing for me, either, but it's nice to see some different names on one of these lists. I'm dying to see Dogtooth.

There has got to be a way I can get my eyes and/or hands on The Illusionist before February, dammit.

Having said that, I'm not sure if I'm horrified or overjoyed at How To Train Your Dragon and a Sylvain Chomet film ranking over Black Swan.

Inception didn't even made your top 15 films of 2010 list? Do you really dislike it so much that you'd rank HTTM over it?

I'm starting to feel like I'm going to be the only human on Earth who will have MACHETE in his top 10. I liked it more than the other big B movies this year, PIRANHA and THE EXPENDABLES.

Also, I liked HOT TUB TIME MACHINE, I got your back Josh. (Although top 10? No way buddy you're on your own there.)

He put it at #15, man.

Nice to see a list with some unexpected entries.

I agree, i love left field picks.

Lovely list. Keep it up. I foresee great things from you in 2011 (?)

Forget Inception for a minute, where the hell is Winter's Bone?

I now realize my #15 "junk food" slot was maybe not as self-explanatory as I thought. I consider that slot somewhat separate from the rest of the list; a way to give a shout out to something trashy I really enjoyed that would otherwise never find its way on a year end list. I do not think HTTM is a better made film than INCEPTION.

I vote overjoyed!

And I liked WINTER'S BONE a lot. 15 movies sounds like a lot, yet I was amazed at how many films I had to leave out.

What a strange top 15 list. Inception is a better film than that.

I'm just stunned that there are apparently people out there who believe Toy Story 3 is better than How to Train Your Dragon.

I'm stunned that people are putting lackluster animated films above better live-action films.

It was a disappointing year, but there were still far better releases.

Your horrible taste is already fairly well documented, Troy, no need to remind us.

I think TS3 smokes Dragon profoundly. I also think Kung Fu Panda smokes Dragon profoundly. The Internet love for it is the only thing that got me to see Dragon and I don't even come close to understanding the appeal, beyond whoa, it's badass that the lead gets crippled. It's a nice kids movie.

I'm horrified that people have tastes that actually differ than mine. Horrified! I'd much rather have top lists that contain actual surprises than get just a random allocation of the same five films from everyone.

Dragon succeeds partly because of expectations, much as I found TS3 slightly disappointing because it's not as good as the second film. Dragon is a solidly crafted story, one of the best kids films in years, in my humble. Toy Story 3 is really good, but in my oh so humble opinion, nowhere as good as Toy Story 2. That Toy Story 3 sets up a possible Toy Story 4 - that it reboots the franchise - makes it less interesting to me artistically.

I agree completely that Dragon was better than TS3, by the way. Not by much though, probably due to lowered expectations and they were still both excellent in their own right.

On the Filmjunk podcast someone said that there was always something creepy about Andy and that they could imagine him growing up to be Patrick Bateman. They could see him in college fucking girls up the ass while checking out his biceps in the mirror.

Personally, I was never transported by Toy Story 2, so maybe that's it, but I thought the depth of characterization, the layered thematic writing, the action movie pacing, and the excellent jokes were all better in part 3, and I think that it's the best Pixar film to date, save those directed by Brad Bird.

As to the Andy stuff, the creepiness thing always struck me as an awfully disingenuous argument, and one that told me a lot about the person making the point. One of the main page write ups said something about how Andy would probably grow up into the type of person that works at Pixar, and that makes a hell of a lot more sense than Patrick Bateman. Besides, I really never gave a shit about Andy's character beyond his toy Godhood.

I really don't mean to pick a fight about Dragon, because I'm clearly in the minority (at least on Chud), but I compared with the wide variety of things TS3 has to offer, I just don't see what Dragon's big great sell is, other than cool flying scenes and whoa, mildly dark ending. It's a lot of the same easy morals you see in lots of kids movies: believe in yourself and don't judge a book by it's cover. Again, I'm not calling people out here, as lots of people really do feel this way. It just missed me completely.

Fun Read. And Thank you for not including The Ghost Writer, a movie that many seem to think belongs in such places.

Interesting choices Josh. Nice to see a "non-traditional list". I can get some people's frustration, but really, I don't need more people validating my love for Inception or telling me to see the same set of movies that I still need to catch, so good on you.

Indeed a good list and actually one that I can see my own taste reflected in.. I really don't care for rankings, anyways- can't we just go with 'a number of movies that stood out for me this year', and be done with the endless bickering of 'but that one was #9 spot and omg you really don't think it was better than that one that was on #10 do you!?'. Same with music, actually.

But I'm stoked you had 'The Illusionist' on there- really such a heartwarming treat, I urge everybody to seek it out.

My thoughts exactly. I gave a lot of thought to which films I wanted on my list, but significantly less thought to their actual ordering. Alphabetical would have been my preferred format (though less fun obviously). I fully respect any complaints that _____ wasn't on my list, but complaints that I put ______ two spots above ______ seems silly to me.

And I think HOW TO DRAIN YOUR DRAGON is a great example of simple storytelling. TOY STORY 3 was the work of masters, but it did not feel like a masterpiece to me. There was a lot of retreadding of emotional beats and ideas from the previous two films. I never agreed with Devin's sentiment that there was no reason to make the film (because there is no "reason" to make any film), but that was nonetheless how it struck me emotionally. I thought HTTYD better told its story. That said, I have no doubt TS3 will beat the pants off HTTYD3.

I have several friends who don't consider the Toy Story films all that highly in the Pixar canon. They treat it with indifference. You could tell them all the ways that those two films are amazing and they would agree with you while at the same time not really agreeing with you. Those very friends really liked (to loved) Toy Story 3 when they finally saw it on video (after skipping it in theaters out of disinterest).

As much as I ragged on the film a bit in its own thread, Toy Story 3 is an entertainment machine. It just works.

Mr Miller, I LOVE that you have How to Train Your Dragon in there.

I loved HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON. It was definitely on my list of top films of this year. Awesome, just awesome.

Also: the way he asks "Are you raping?!?"

I nearly choked to death laughing.

I gotta thank Josh for The Wild Hunt recommendation. That was a fucking surprising movie. And that's putting it mildly.  

Glad to have been of service. Great weird movie.

I love watching movies where you actually can't tell what is going to happen in the next scene. It could be Napoleon Dynamite. It could be Heart Of Darkness. It could be Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless mind. It could be an actual Viking movie. 

I hope the film finds some kind of release, because I think every Chewer owes it to themselves to watch THE WILD HUNT. Even if people don't love it like we do, no one will be sorry they watched it.