Some people love reading critics' reviews of movies, while other people hate them, but I think we can all unanimously agree that Rotten Tomatoes' aggregation of certified critics' reviews is one of the best movie resources on the web. The site's just listed the top 20 best-reviewed movies of 2010 (with a minimum of 60 reviews required), and the majority of them shouldn't be too surprising.
"Toy Story 3" took the top spot with 99 percent of the film's 247 reviews being positive. It's fitting, for once, that the top reviewed film of the year is also the highest grossing film of the year, and one of two movies in 2010 to gross over one billion dollars worldwide (the other is "Alice in Wonderland"). But what might surprise some people (especially those who didn't see it) is that another animated film, "How To Train Your Dragon," placed second on the list with 98 percent of its 156 reviews being positive. "How To Train Your Dragon" was the ninth highest grossing film of the year.
While some of the other films on the list also reached a wide audience ("The Social Network" at #4, "True Grit" at #10 and "The Town" at #11), the majority of the films embraced by critics were limited releases. At #3 was "Exit Through The Gift Show," #5 was "Restrepo," #6 "Inside Job," #7 "A Prophet" (Une Prophete) and #9 "Animal Kingdom."
Likely Oscar contender "The King's Speech" placed at #8, while "The Kids Are All Right" placed at #12, "Winter's Bone" at #13, "Blue Valentine" at #14 and "127 Hours" at #15. The only other film anticipated to snag one of the Academy Awards' 10 best picture nominations is "Inception," which didn't make the cut (it scored 87 percent fresh).
The last five films on the list are "The Tillman Story" at #16, "Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work" at #17, "The Father of My Children" (Le Pere De Mes Enfants) at #18, "Fish Tank" at #19 and "Casino Jack And The United States Of Money" at #20.
The full list, as well as trailers for most of the top 10, is below. [Just hit play on the video player, and the trailers will roll in list order... or click here to pick and choose which trailer you watch.]
1. "Toy Story 3" (99% with 247 reviews)
2. "How to Train Your Dragon" (98% with 156 reviews)
3. "Exit Through the Gift Shop" (98% with 94 reviews)
4. "The Social Network" (97% with 258 reviews)
5. "Restrepo" (97% with 101 reviews)
6. "Inside Job" (97% with 91 reviews)
7. "A Prophet" (97% with 142 reviews)
8. "The King's Speech" (96% with 142 reviews)
9. "Animal Kingdom" (96% with 108 reviews)
10. "True Grit" (95% with 173 reviews)
11. "The Town" (94% with 201 reviews)
12. "The Kids Are All Right" (94% with 192 reviews)
13. "Winter’s Bone" (94% with 142 reviews)
14. "Blue Valentine" (94% with 64 reviews)
15. "127 Hours" (93% with 146 reviews)
16. "The Tillman Story" (93% with 80 reviews)
17. "Joan Rivers: A Piece Of Work" (92% with 90 reviews)
18. "The Father of My Children" (91% with 54 reviews)
19. "Fish Tank" (90% positive with 127 reviews)
20. "Casino Jack And The United States Of Money" (90% with 60 reviews)
To compare, the top 20 highest grossing films of 2010 were "Toy Story 3," "Alice in Wonderland," "Iron Man 2," "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse," "Inception," "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1," "Despicable Me," "Shrek Forever After," "How To Train Your Dragon," "The Karate Kid," "Clash of the Titans," "Grown Ups," "Tangled," "Megamind," "The Last Airbender," "Shutter Island," "The Other Guys," "Salt," "Jackass 3-D" and "Valentine's Day." About half of those films were certified rotten by Rotten Tomatoes (more than half the reviews were negative), and more than half had IMAX and 3D (and IMAX 3D) ticket prices to boost their sales.
Do you agree with the top 20 best-reviewed films of the year? What do you think about the discrepancy between the critical bests and the box office bests?