My taste is wildly suspect. While not above watching a romantic comedy, period piece, or traditional end-of-the-year Oscar bait, in a general sense I prefer movies where things explode and where bullets outnumber words. I still consider Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Wesley Snipes to be legitimate action stars, despite the fact that the latter is in prison (I prefer to think that he is so dedicated to his craft that he’s just living out his role from Undisputed).

In this spirit, here is my Top-Ten-Movies-of-2010 list. There are a couple of award candidates present, but for the most part it’s different than the others. Mine involves more gore, farting, and revenge.

1. Piranha 3D—Hands down the best time I had at a movie in 2010. Piranha 3D is campy, gory, and ridiculous at every turn, and in my humble opinion, the best possible application of 3D technology (sorry, James Cameron). I only wish I’d seen this at the drive-in.

2. Machete—Robert Rodriguez’s throwback revenge film is the second most fun I had at the movies in 2010, for pretty much the same reasons as Piranha, minus the 3D. It is nice to see a grizzled badass like Danny Trejo finally get a proper platform.

3. Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World—Sadly, Scott Pilgrim (along with Let Me In) is a prime example that no matter how much hype there is on the internet (there was an absurd amount), and no matter how good the reviews are (they were overwhelmingly positive), film geeks alone can’t open a movie. Which is too bad because Edgar Winter’s film is nuts, inventive, and entertaining as all hell. This is destined to become a cult classic and fodder for countless midnight screenings.

4. Predators—Predators is the sequel I’ve been waiting for since John McTiernan’s 1987 original.

5. How to Train Your Dragon—How to Train Your Dragon was the most genuinely affecting movie I saw all year. And dragons are awesome, so it’s a win-win. Watching this on Blu-ray is actually even better than in theaters because you don’t have to deal with the 3D. The film still looks great, and viewing it this way allows you to focus more on the characters and story.

6. Kick-Ass—Violent and controversial, Kick-Ass is full of engaging characters, tricky moral quandaries, and a young girl murdering people with a gleeful zest. Whatever your stance, this is a movie I thoroughly enjoyed. You should also watch Defendor, a different, but equally powerful take on the whole normal-person-becoming-a-superhero thing.

7. Jackass 3D—Vile, disgusting, and juvenile, you know exactly what you’re in store for when walking into a Jackass movie. But it’s still as much fun as ever. No movie this year had more fun with 3D technology. This time around there is the added bonus that the primary players are older and more mature, some of them have families, others are newly sober, and there is a sympathetic human element that was absent before. They’re at the age where this is going to hurt, a lot, and even though they know how much pain is in store, they still go through with it. There’s a certain nobility in individuals putting themselves in harm’s way in order to entertain.

8. True Grit—In any other hands I would have little faith in a remake of a classic, but the Coen Brothers have rarely let me down, especially in recent years, and they do not disappoint with True Grit. Grim, tense, and darkly comic, a combination that the Coens handle better than anyone else, this is not a deconstruction or reinvention of the western, but a tip of the hat to a genre that has largely fallen by the wayside in recent times.

9. Inception—You knew Inception was going to be good, and it was. While not as mind-blowing and earth-shattering as a lot of people think, Christopher Nolan’s dream invasion caper is still better than all but a handful of movies released in 2010.

10. The Expendables—Far from perfect, with a mediocre plot, and absolutely atrocious editing, but I couldn’t help but be excited to see this collection of genre luminaries on screen together. My inner 80s action movie fan giggled the entire time. The Expendables is worth it for Dolph Lundgren’s part alone.

There it is. That’s my list. I also just realized that two of the titles contain the word ass. That probably means something. What movies really blew your hair back this past year?