I have had a chance to see a lot of movies this year, but I still haven’t seen some of the quality pictures out there - so my list may change come Oscar time.

Here is my top 10 list, in descending order:

10. “Cars” - Pixar and Disney delivered another humdinger of a computer animated tale. I thought the story was interesting and I really liked the mix of characters in Radiator Springs. The animation was amazing and the jokes were top-notch. We own this one and I’m sure this will be one of our son’s favorites in year’s to come.

9. “Slither” - It wouldn’t be a list from me without my favorite horror movie of the year and this one takes the cake. This funny little tale of a gooey and grotesque alien invasion in a rural county in America kept me laughing and squirming throughout. The performances from Nathan Fillion and Michael Rooker were terrific and everyone in the cast looked like they had some fun with this one. This was criminally underrated and is worth a viewing from those with a strong stomach who want to be thoroughly entertained.

8. “V for Vendetta” - This may not have made my list if I hadn’t seen this one again on a long flight home. It was during the second viewing where I found myself anxiously awaiting certain parts of the film. Natalie Portman was fantastic and there aren’t enough words of praise to go to Hugo Weaving. His ability to make V a character you root for while performing beneath an inflexible Guy Fawkes mask was awesome. You probably won’t find this on anyone else’s list this year, but it really is quite good.

7. “Idiocracy” - Another one you likely won’t find on anyone’s list - mainly because it unfairly only lasted one week in theaters. Mike Judge wrote and directed this biting satire of a world gone stupid. The premise is that with stupid people outbreeding intelligent people and the mass media dumbing down each generation more and more, the world will be full of complete morons 500 years from now. Luke Wilson plays an average man in the 21st century who is frozen in a military experiment and wakes up a genius in the 2500s. There are lots of big laughs and great performances. If there is justice, this movie will have a huge cult following on DVD.

6. “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby “ - This movie was funny the whole way through and Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly were terrific together. I laughed so hard that my throat hurt after the film was over and there is only one other movie this year that did that to me (“Borat” - #5). Ferrell has been in some hit and miss movies, but this one belongs in his pantheon of outstanding work. I can’t wait to own this one and watch it again and again.

5. “Borat” - Hands down one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. It may have felt wrong to laugh at parts of the movie, but I don’t care. As for the law suits that pop up against this movie every week, it makes me laugh even harder when I think back on the film. Sasha Baron Cohen captured lightning in a bottle with this movie about a foreign journalist filming a documentary in America and it definitely deserves to be on this list and the list of many others.

4. “Flags of Our Fathers” - It is now a given that when Clint Eastwood puts out a movie, it will be among the best movies of that year. “Flags of Our Fathers” was a very moving look at the Battle of Iwo Jima and the American soldiers who placed a flag at the top of Mount Suribachi. It was a story that I wasn’t familiar with and Eastwood deftly maneuvered the audience from the front to the aftermath for several of the soldiers. I am very interested to see the other film that Eastwood has partnered this movie with, “Letters from Iwo Jima,” which examines the battle from the Japanese perspective.

3. “Little Miss Sunshine” - I saw this one late, after all the hype had driven people to the theaters for months, but it completely lived up to the hype. I was completely blown away by the film’s tremendous sense of humor and heart. The Hoover family, a dysfunctional family to say the least, bands together to take Olive, a seven year old girl, to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, after the winner of a previous pageant has to bow out. The family deals with financial woes, marital problems, a suicidal uncle, a drug addicted grandparent and a sullen teen who has taken a vow of silence in this surprisingly light, dark comedy. The performances are among some of the best and most nuanced of the careers of Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell and Toni Colette and you can’t help but root for the Hoovers as they reach the pageant and heal their family.

2. “Little Children” - Hopefully, this will go to wider release and more people will get the chance to view this gem of a film. Todd Field directed another masterpiece set in the suburbs, thanks to a tremendous script by himself and Tom Perrota, author of the book “Little Children.” There is an affair at the center of this film, but the part of the movie that will blow people away is the story of a convicted sex offender moving back in with his mother upon his release from prison. Jackie Earle Haley (Kelly Leak from “The Bad News Bears”) and the actress playing his character’s mother deliver the best supporting performances of the year in this film.

1. “The Departed” - Martin Scorcese goes back to the streets with this gangland picture set in Boston. He puts together one of the best casts in the history of cinema and lets the likes of Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen loose on the screen. The story is incredibly compelling, the direction is as masterful as ever and the audience is left breathless after a whiz-bang flick filled with drama, comedy, romance and action. Let this be Marty’s year. He deserves it and this picture certainly ranks among his best.

Just for fun, here are the five worst movies of the year, in no particular order.

“Ultraviolet” - Lame movie about a woman who kicks butt as she searches for a cure to destroy a government designed disease.

“Date Move” - Terrible film that spoofed (and did a really bad job of it too) all of the big romantic comedies of the past few years.

“The Grudge 2” - A big waste of time and money, this sequel was not scary and not good in any way, shape or form.

“Just My Luck” - Lindsay Lohan is lucky, then unlucky, then lucky again. Not funny.

“The Da Vinci Code” - It has to make the list because of how big a disappointment it was to the millions of people who read the book. It was just awfully boring.

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