One of my favorite non-starters for articles is the very bland “as you may know.” There’s no doubt in my mind that you’ve seen me use it in the past (I’m doing it again right now). So when I thought about how to begin this year’s top ten article, I wanted to begin by saying “as you may know, one of my great honors around here is to deliver my list of the ten best films of the year.” But you may not know how much of an honor that really is. In fact, it’s difficult for me to put into words how honored I feel to have anyone read this at all, let alone the scores of readers we see on a daily basis here at Film School Rejects. It’s safe to say that I speak for everyone here when I say that I am deeply honored by the opportunity just to write about film. You, the reader, offer that to us every day with your patronage. So my hope is that I can do you proud, dear reader, as I present my list of the ten best films of 2010. This year saw a great deal of personal turmoil for me, meaning some movie-watching blind spots. But some late-year scrambling has pushed my total films seen number well north of 200. And of those 200 or so eligible films, whittling it down to ten wasn’t quite as difficult as it’s been in recent years. Does that mean that [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

The week between Christmas and New Years is historically a busy one for many people as they hustle and bustle their way between stores, parties, and vacation destinations. The home video market recognizes this and responds with probably the lightest week of releases of the entire year, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some winners worth bringing home… even if it just temporarily. Titles out this week include The American, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Merantau, Twelve, and the very funny first season of the FX network’s animated spy spoof Archer.

Now that Christmas is over, those of you who partake in the getting of gifts from relatively clueless relatives may have emerged victorious with gift cards to delightfully under-stocked retail stores. What will you do with said gift cards? Will you buy something to put into that shiny new Blu-ray player you also received from Santa (I know you still believe!)?  Unfortunately for many of you, this week’s round of Blu-ray releases isn’t quite as fruitful as one would hope for the week after the big holiday. But I’m sure if you come along with me on a little journey, you might find something worthy of your time and magnetically-striped money.

If you love martial arts, but haven’t gotten a chance to see Merantau yet, today is a day to rejoice. December 28th will also be a day to rejoice, because that’s the day that Magnolia will release the film on Blu-ray and DVD for consumption in your very own home. Merantau is a shining example of what an action film can be. The fight choreography is world class, and there’s an actual story and character development to keep things fresh when fists aren’t flying (which isn’t often). Read my review to get even more excited and mark your calendars. [Kung Fu Cinema]

On Friday, May 28, actor and renowned martial artist Tony Jaa rode an elephant to a Buddhist temple in Surin, Thailand. He then shaved his head, took vows, and was officially ordained as a Buddhist monk. Anyone who has seen his most recent film Ong Bak 2 will not be surprised by this news. The guy has a thing for elephants.

This martial arts flick coming out of Indonesia is, wait for it, far better than Ong Bak. Let that sink in, and then let me explain why inside.

Luckily we had a list of the winners sent to us because we didn’t remember all the names. Or where our pants went.

The folks over at Twitch have pointed the world in the direction of a new trailer for an Indonesian martial arts film called Merantau. And it’s pretty awesome.