Best and Worst Movies So Far This Decade

The following lists count movies released prior to Independence Day this year.

The Best (in order of personal significance; although I enjoyed Babies, Toy Story 3 and Winter's Bone, I wouldn't call any of them favorites; I still look forward to watching Exit Through the Gift Shop, Fish Tank, and Oceans)

1. Edge of Darkness (January 29) People who don't watch Mel Gibson movies because of his tirades need to learn to separate. If you miss all the mature, meaningful dialogue of '30s screwballs, or want more of the adult exchanges you heard in the recent Inglorious Basterds and State of Play, you owe it to yourself to watch this.

2. How to Train Your Dragon (March 26) The ONLY thing I didn't like was Gerard Butler. I was a little concerned because even though I knew Hollywood would ensure a happy ending, I wasn't sure how it was going to happen - I was THAT tense.

3. Collapse (June 15 on DVD) Because it just screened in New York and at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, I'm counting it for this year. Here are the REAL "inconvenient truths."

4. District 13: Ultimatum (February 5) I don't know if I'll go so far as to say it's better than its predecessor, but driving a car through an office building takes the purpose of parkour to a whole new level.

5. Knight and Day (June 25) People who don't watch Tom Cruise movies because of his tirades need to learn to separate. Want to see a James Bond movie turned on its ear, where the character is an actual gentleman and the calmness under pressure is shown for the insanity it really is?

The Worst (in order of offensiveness; keep in mind that I kinda liked Best Worst Movie, Human Centipede and The Wolfman; call me a masochist, but I still look forward to watching Frozen, The Last Song and Sex and the City 2)

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street (April 30) In the original, Freddy's motive was to get revenge on the parents for killing him, and I could get behind that. In this remake, he wants revenge on the kids for telling on him, and that's overkill. Wasn't it enough that he molested them in life? Anyway, it's definitely not horror. It's more like a Lifetime movie about pedophilia.

2. A Prophet (February 26) I went into this expecting Goodfellas, but what I got felt twice as long (and Goodfellas is a LONG movie) and half as interesting.

3. The Losers (April 23) Having an accent in and of itself doesn't make a villain. Being mean in and of itself isn't funny.

4. Jonah Hex (June 18) The way the first 15 minutes were edited, you'd think you were watching a trailer.

5. Diary of a Wimpy Kid (March 19) As much as I laughed at the books, I worry about them teaching kids to be sore losers. Just because the movie went against the ending in the book doesn't make the main character a better person. Also, what was up with bringing that girl character in from nowhere? She added nothing. Lastly, when the movie shouldn't have been cinematic, it was, and when it should've been, it wasn't.