Out of the 176 movies we watched in 2010, 27 (15%) could be classified as action/adventure/superhero movies, and 15 could be (8.5%) classified as thriller/mystery.  About half of the ones we rated 5 stars were actually over-the-top unrealistic comedic action movies like Machete, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass, Bitch Slap, and The A-Team.  Over-the-top ridiculous action is better — action movies were never really realistic to begin with, so why pretend?

We watched two adaptations (1996, 2009) of The Phantom. Guess which one was way better?

Read past the jump for the lists of individual movies, separated by rating.Click a movie title to be taken to its review. If you reached a dead page, that means the review hasn’t come out yet, but is already written. I write years ahead in my blog, so sometimes there is a backlog.

First we will do action/adventure/superhero then, below, thriller/mystery.

********** ACTION/ADVENTURE/SUPERHERO: **********

***** 5-star:

A-Team, The (2010) – Wayyyyy better than we all thought. (Watched with TwoBeans.)
Bitch Slap (2009) – hot girls! they sample the grape stomping lady’s injured groans!
Eyeborgs — see THRILLER/HORROR, though it devolved into an action movie
Ghost Rider – why do people have a problem with this? He was badass!
Kick-Ass (2010) – so DARK for what was almost a superhero spoof
Machete (2010) – also a comedy, Machete probably wins the most badass character award
Phantom, The (2009)  – orders of magnitude better than the 1996 movie, even though this was only made for TV
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) – also a comedy, and maybe our movie of the year

**** 4-star (high):

Iron Man 2 (2010)
Predators (2010) aka Predator 3 – Awesome! Much like Predator 1.

**** 4-star:

2012 (2009) – actually had some amazingly over-the-top action sequences
Date Night — see COMEDY, though it had some action/thriller type stuff going on
Defendor — see COMEDY, but since he thought he was a Superhero, I also consider it Superhero genre
Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time – I maybe should have filed this under fantasy? Way better than I expected.

**** 4-star (low):

Machine Girl, The (2008) (Japan) – hilariously over-the-top
National Treasure 1 (2004) – history… made interesting?!?

*** 3-star (high):

Resident Evil 4: Afterlife (2010) – these just aren’t as good as they used to be
Salt (2010) – don’t watch the bad theatrical ending
St. Trinian’s 2: The Legond Of Fritton’s Gold (2009) – girl power hilarity, maybe should have crosslisted in comedy too

*** 3-star:

Knight And Day (2010) – Tom Cruise + Cameraon Diaz in a movie that isn’t Vanilla Sky
National Treasure 2: Book Of Secrets (2007) – not as good as original
Phantom, The (1996) – the 2000 made-for-TV one was better!
Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl (2009) (Japan) – ridiculously bad, Machine Girl is better

*** 2-star:

In Bruges – listed under COMEDY/DRAMA. So boring. So boring. So boring. So boring.

********** THRILLER OR MYSTERY: **********

********** THRILLER OR MYSTERY: **********

********** THRILLER OR MYSTERY: **********

***** 5-star:

Eyeborgs – amazing techno-political commentary devolves into action flick but still too good to discount
Vanilla Sky (2001) – great mindfuck
Triangle (2009) – even greater mindfuck, time loops done MORBIDLY

**** 4-star (high):

Splice — listed under SCI-FI

**** 4-star:

Bound (1996) – worth it for the lesbianism, but who would want a finger that was just in a sink drain in their vagina?
Daybreakers (2009) – UNIQUE vampires
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 3: The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest – good ending to the trilogy
Hard Candy (2006) – pedophiles beware!
Memories Of Murder (2003) (Korea) – not as good as I’d hoped, but still
Sherlock Holmes (2009) – Downey nailed it, as usual
Thirst aka Bakjwi (2009) (Korea) – not as good as I’d hoped, but still better than Let The Right One In

**** 4-star (low):

Curdled — listed under COMEDY/DRAMA, but it’s a thriller too, what with being besieged by a serial killer
Higurashi MOVIE #2 – Shrill Cries: Reshuffle aka Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni: Chikai (2009) (Japan) – live-action anime adaptation, better than the 1st movie

*** 3-star:

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo 2: The Girl Who Played With Fire (2009) (Sweden) – the middle of this trilogy was the weakest link
Higurashi MOVIE #1: Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni aka Shrill Cries Of Summer aka When Cicadas Cry – live-action anime adaptation, sequel was better

Mood: annoyed
Music: L7 – Broomstic