Two Year Anniversary

Hard to believe that it has been two years. In some ways I feel like I've been writing for much, much longer. Maybe that is because I've written 700 reviews now. I can definitely say that I watch movies differently now that I'm a blogger. Maybe this is good, maybe not. It forces me to pay attention more, it motivates me to plow through the bad films, and it makes me think about what I did and didn't like about the films while watching them. The downside is that I feel that all movies start at a 10/10, and that I have to criticize them all negatively. It is hard to say, "Hey, this movie is a 6/10 and nothing was really wrong with it." So feeling like I'm bashing films all the time is hard, especially since I like a lot of films, and definitely enjoyed everything I gave an 8 or more.

So what was the best of the year? Well these are the best NEW films I've seen in the last year. New meaning that they are less than two years old and I watched them in the last 365 days. Don't be too concerned with the order, I hate saying a film was 5th or 6th best when they were both excellent and completely different.

Last year's Top 20: http://thelarsenfilmreview.blogspot.com/2010/10/one-year-anniversary-best-of-year.html
All links will take you to my reviews of these films.

1. Inception
2. The Social Network
3. Harry Potter 8
4. Inside Job
5. The King's Speech
6. GasLand
7. Waiting for 'Superman'
8. You Don't Know Jack
9. Fish Tank
10. Bridesmaids
11. Animal Kingdom
12. In a Better World
13. X-Men: First Class
14. Coco Before Chanel
15. Black Swan
16. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
17. Toy Story 3
18. The Next Three Days
19. 127 Hours
20. Country Strong

Honorable Mention [Worth watching if you are a fan of the Foo Fighters]:
Foo Fighters: Back and Forth

Worst 10 of the Year:
1. A Christmas Carol
2. The Expendables
3. Hobo with a Shotgun
4. Il Divo
5. The Tempest
6. Babies
7. Synecdoche, New York
8. Jonah Hex
9. Uncle Boonme
10. I am Love

Look for my Top 100 Action films sometime in the next month!

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One Year Anniversary: Best of the Year

It has now been a full year of blogging. With 334 blog posts, 1300 unique visitors, and 2600 page loads it has not been a bad year for an amateur film writer.

The site will be adding a new feature this year, starting with How To Train Your Dragon. There is now a 2nd rating on kids/animated films. I call it the KSF, or Kid's Scare Factor. The rating will be on a 5 point scale. 1 being along the lines of Elmo, Sesame Street, Mickey Mouse, and Dora. 5 being on the scale of Bambi's mother dying. It is hard to know what a kid will be afraid of, but as my daughter gets old enough to watch television I want to remind myself through this blog of what I might need to skip through.

Below are the best and worst of the year, the hyperlinks will take you directly to the blog posts. Enjoy!

Best of the Year:
1. The Blind Side
2. Star Trek*
3. Avatar
4. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
5. Food, Inc.
6. The Girl Who Played with Fire
7. The Proposal
8. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
9. Shutter Island
10. How To Train Your Dragon
11. A Prophet
12. Extraordinary Measures
13. The Cove
14. Up in the Air
15. Mary and Max
16. Moon
17. The Soloist
18. The Informant!
19. The Princess and the Frog
20. The Secret in Their Eyes

Worst of the Year
1. Leap Year
2. Jennifer's Body
3. The Milk of Sorrow
4. From Paris with Love
5. Gamer
6. The Back-up Plan
7. Hot Tub Time Machine
8. Pirate Radio
9. Land of the Lost
10. Old Dogs

(* on Star Trek because I watched it the week I started the LFR but did not write a review, the link is to the short blurb on the LFR 100)

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