Article by Cameron Spink

5. Shutter Island

Thrillers dominated this year and this was the most suspenseful of the lot. This movie really touches on the human spirit and what it can endure or forget. Not dissimilar to Inception but this is probably DiCarpio's career-defining performance.

4. The Town

For some reason Ben Affleck makes a better director than he does actor and this movie really shows his abilities as he paints a bleak world of drugs, robberies and death and yet there is a great amount of hope that spurs this story on. After all, we are not defined by our surroundings and our past but what we decide to do moment by moment.

3. How To Train Your Dragon

Animated movies seem to have a better strike rate than others of being really good movies. Having said that How To Train Your Dragon is one out of the box and a very family-friendly movie and deserves all of its $493.2 million that it brought in at the box office. It has an underlying message of acceptance to those who are different to us and was simply the movie that can lay claims to being the most fun.

2. Animal Kingdom

This Australian gem was released to critical acclaim. The story roughly follows what actually happened in the late 1980s in the Melbourne gangland scene and is beautifully directed by David Michôd. While the trailer may have come across as corny this movie reaches great heights and breaks the convention of having the climax in the latter part of the movie.

1. Inception

Inception is a movie of the finest quality. Not only does it have stunning cinematography, an epic score, emotional character development and an intriguing storyline but it mixes all these ingredients into a movie that stands alone in the thriller genre. One can't help being awed by the majesty of each world unfolding in high definition.