As 2020’s cinematic releases continue to be pushed back into 2021, I thought now would be a good time to take a retrospective look back at my 50 favourite films from the last decade, in case anyone’s looking for some inspiration of what to watch.

To prevent the Top Fifty from becoming completely swamped with (let’s be honest) Marvel films, I’ve introduced the rule that only one film from a franchise can appear in the Top Fifty (subject to a few special cases). I should also stress that these are my favourite Top Fifty films from the 2010s, not necessarily the “best” (whatever that means).

So without further ado, here are numbers 50 to 41 in my Top Fifty Films of the 2010s:

50) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012): If I’m honest, this is probably only on my list because I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and this prequel trilogy is a nice companion piece to that. And although The Hobbit trilogy never quite recaptures the magic of the first trilogy, it’s still nice to spend time in Peter Jackson’s vision of Middle Earth, and to flesh out some of the backstory to The Lord of the Rings.

49) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013): My favourite Martin Scorsese film of the 2010s, The Wolf of Wall Street expertly combines the black comedy of this tale of amoral excess, with the social commentary on what Jordan Belfort says about the American Dream. Leonardo DiCaprio is key to making Belfort appear charming enough to explain why so many fell under his spell, while also showing that he’s ultimately an irredeemably selfish conman underneath it all.

48) Edge of Tomorrow (2014): This is one of my favourite “original” sci-fi movies from the 2010s (another that didn’t make my Top Fifty is Oblivion, also starring Tom Cruise). Co-written by the extremely talented Christopher McQuarrie, Edge of Tomorrow takes what could have been an unimaginative elevator pitch (“Groundhog Day meets Aliens!”) and turns it into something so much more – with Cruise playing against type as a cowardly and selfish PR man, and Emily Blunt making a real impression as McQuarrie’s prototype for a female co-lead who is never simply a love interest or a damsel in distress (later developed further with Ilsa Faust in the Mission: Impossible films). All that, and it also has one of the last big screen performances from the late, great Bill Paxton.

47) Jurassic World (2015): Although its 2018 sequel opened to mixed reviews, it’s important to remember just how much fun the first Jurassic World movie was. After the dire Jurassic Park 3, I really had no desire to ever see another Jurassic movie, but Jurassic World completely won me over, with its fun blend of nostalgia for the original film and interesting explorations of new themes like commercialism and consumerism – as well as it finally delivering on the original film’s promise of a full-scale disaster at a working theme park.

46) The Raid 2 (2014): Although it was 2011’s The Raid that put writer/director Gareth Evans and star Iko Uwais on the map, its 2014 sequel is actually my favourite film in the series. The epic sequel clocks in at two and a half hours and has a far more satisfying and slow-build plot compared to the non-stop action of the first film (and you can see the seeds of Gareth Evans’ TV show Gangs of London in this sequel’s tale of shifting underworld alliances) – but it also delivers some of the best action scenes I have ever seen on film. The final half an hour has to be seen to be believed, and the epic 7-minute knife fight between Iko Uwais’ Rama and Cecep Arif Rahman’s assassin is the best martial arts fight I’ve seen in decades.

45) Baby Driver (2017): Edgar Wright’s fifth film as a director takes a familiar crime thriller concept and does something entirely new with it, creating a modern masterpiece that balances humour, tension, old school stunt driving, and a foot-tapping rock soundtrack to great effect. The result is one of the most original and joyous cinematic experiences of the decade, with Jamie Foxx and Jon Hamm in particular standing out in the supporting cast.

44) The LEGO Movie (2014): As much as I enjoyed the sequel and the Lego Batman spin-off, the original Lego Movie is still the best in the series. Writer/directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord took a concept that – let’s be honest – sounded like an awful merchandising promotion (remember when the Battleship board-game got made into a movie?!) and created one of the funniest, most creative and heart-warming films of the decade, packed full of hilarious supporting characters and laugh-out-loud moments.

43) War for the Planet of the Apes (2017): Each film in the rebooted Planet of the Apes series improved on the last, and this final chapter was an absolute triumph. Shifting the focus fully away from the human characters to Caesar means that Andy Serkis’ motion-capture performance carries the film as it explores several thought-provoking themes, with both sides in the war having to confront their own internal darkness, as they struggle to find a balance between morality and necessity, and between personal emotion and the greater good of their species.

42) Paddington (2014): An argument could be made that Paddington 2 is just as good, if not better, than the original – but I think you have to give the original credit for being so unexpectedly delightful. I can’t say I was particularly excited about the prospect of film version of Paddington Bear, and the early buzz about dodgy CGI and the recasting of Colin Firth as the voice of Paddington did not bode well – but the end result was just pure celluloid happiness. Funny, touching and uplifting, it was genuinely enough to restore your faith in the fundamental decency of people. One of the greatest feel-good films of all time.

41) 21 Jump Street (2012): Directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s second entry in my Top Fifty is (in some ways) similar to The LEGO Movie, as 21 Jump Street also took an awful-sounding concept (a reboot of a dated 80’s TV show) and turned it into something special – in this case, an affectionate deconstruction of the buddy-cop genre. Channing Tatum’s comic talents were a revelation, while Jonah Hill also co-wrote the story. The supporting cast is a who’s who of comedy talent, and the end result is a film that works as both a hilarious meta-comedy and an enjoyable buddy-cop action flick. (The 2014 sequel is just as good, as an ultra-meta deconstruction of action sequels and, surprisingly, rom-coms).