Goodbye to 2010, and Mostly Good Riddance. The Good Stuff’s Coming in 2011

2010 has left me with a wonderful fiancee, friends, and family.  Co-workers who actually make work fun.  A dog who doesn’t chew things up or pee in the house.  A stomach and auxiliary liver that allow me periodically to eat and drink mightily without consequence.  (Excess in moderation, friends!)  Not bragging, I promise.  Just reflecting on a privileged, though materially modest (we prefer it that way), existence.  Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do this time of year?  Maybe this should have been my Thanksgiving post.

What 2010 didn’t leave us, however, was great cultural offerings.  Were I forced to give a thumbs up or down to 2010 as a whole, it has more in the “Con” column, especially when it comes to movies (here’s that somewhat premature, but mostly accurate, Thanksgiving piece).  Yes, there are exceptions, just like every year, but Hollywood needs to try a little harder to unearth—i.e. take some risks on—some fresh ideas.  While there might be nothing completely new under the sun, give something relatively original a shot.  See how well Inception did?  A movie so high-concept that it shattered families and friendships (“you didn’t like it?  How is that possible?  You just didn’t understand it!”) pulled in over $800,000,000.  So if it’s money the studios are concerned about—and it is—I hope producers realize that a great script, director, and actors can give a great ROI.  And if it can’t be original, at least make it worth the remake/reboot/re-whatever (Predators and Tron, if The Geek is to be believed).

For 2011, it looks like small indie sci-fi and horror flicks will fill the “original idea” niche again, but the big-budget stuff looks pretty good.  Next year has everything from Battle: Los Angeles to the extremely detailed and faithful The Thing prequel (well, probably: the release date has been delayed) to Hanna to Super 8 to a movie for every super-hero named “Green” something—and that’s just the first half of the year.  As you may know, I won’t allow myself to get excited about a movie ever again after the epic letdown that was Terminator Salvation, so I’m not actually looking forward to any of these movies.  I’m just saying that if there was a year to be excited about, 2011 could be it, and not least because of UK basketball’s insane incoming class.

Let’s stomach the rest of 2010, first because Tron: Legacy, Black Swan, and True Grit closed it out solidly.  Secondly, 2010 and 2011 are so close that they’re probably boyz.  Most of all, though, in just 6 days, we’ll enter a year that has promised to give us…this.

From all of us here at The Brown Tweed Society, we hope everyone had a great holiday, and has a happy New Year.