New Years eve already? If the TV schedules are anything to go by, it must be that special time that you reflect on your favourite things of 2010. My gaming joys and disappointments have been covered over at This Is My Joystick so we will start with the films that I enjoyed most from the last 12 months.

I’m hoping to be catching up with Winters Bone, Rabbit Hole, The Town, Black Swan, Exit Through the Gift shop and the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo over the next few weeks but as I have been a little lazy they won’t make my 2010 list I’m afraid, although I suspect a few of them should actually be on there.

On the low budget side of things I really enjoyed Monsters, Buried and Catfish for different reasons. Upon originally watching them there were a few moments that I would admit to fidgeting a little but some films live with you long after you have seen them and all three of these fit this description.

Only Chris Morris of Brass Eye fame could have gotten away with making this film, but it had me howling like a loon and lines such as “Rubber dinghy rapids” will be repeated for many years to come. Despite the incredibly sensitive subject matter, the film amazingly also manages to be intelligent, thought provoking as well as amusing which is an achievement  on its own.

In recent years my former acting heroes Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have rested on their laurels somewhat by taking the quick big pay cheque in return for churning out the usual Hollywood drivel. George Clooney and Leonardo Dicaprio however continue to step forward and make films that little bit different and Shutter Island, Inception and yes I will be brave enough to say Up in the Air were all very enjoyable.

2010 seemed to be the year of Facebook so probably quite appropriate that The Social Network was one of the most talked about movies, I had a few issues with the whole “A man with an idea changes the world, living the American Dream” schmaltz as the reality is the idea was stolen by a guy that was bloody good at coding. If you or I had a similar idea we too would probably get fleeced by the code loving geek. That said it showed an intriguing insight into the man who brought the world together but ironically has isolated himself. However the creepiest of course was the low budget documentary Catfish which shows just how far social networking has taken over our lives and sometimes with quite tragic results.

However the inner geek inside of me was overwhelmed with Scott Pilgrim Vs The World and Kick Ass, especially as we are living in times where everything has been seen and done before many times over, but these films offered a unique cinema experience. In Kick Ass, the Jet Pack scene with Elvis singing American trilogy has to be both seen and heard to be believed. Just when I thought I had seen it all, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World came along and blew me away completely which is a treat on both your eyes and your ears.

As a man that quickly tires of big budget Hollywood mainstream rubbish you have seen many times before like every Jennifer Aniston movie, I am quite happy to report that actually 2010 had a bumper crop of quirky and imaginative titles to keep me very happy.