Showing posts with label angelina jolie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label angelina jolie. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
10 movies I loved in 2010
So here they are. My ten favorite films from last year. Not necessarily the "best" in any objective way, but the ten I unabashedly dug the most.
Number 10
The other Leonardo DiCaprio movie that invites more than one possible interpretation. I like this one more though because though everything wasn't spelled out, it didn't need to cut away just before a crucial moment to deliver the ambiguity. We got the complete story. How we interpret it is up to us.
Number 9
Iron Man 2 got a lot of flack for not being Iron Man. And its critics are right that it isn't as tight a movie as the first one and feels like it spends a lot of time setting up The Avengers. But it was very entertaining in the process and though I never felt like Tony was actually going to die, I was engaged by the mystery of how he was going to survive. Which really, is as much as any adventure series with a recurring character can do. Besides, if nothing else, the film brought Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow and that's Top Ten worthy all by itself.
Number 8
Way too much energy gets spent on trying to figure out if this is scripted or a true documentary. It doesn't matter. It's brilliant and it's timely and it needs to be seen. I saw it spoiler-free and recommend that anyone else do the same. I'm not sure it would have the same impact if you knew what to expect.
Number 7
Like Iron Man 2, this is another one that drew heavy criticism. Mostly for not being familiar enough as a Robin Hood movie. I'm typically impatient with origin stories, but this kept my attention all the way through. I don't know that it's a great version of Robin Hood (though it had enough of those elements to keep me happy), but it's a very cool Ridley Scott medieval adventure film and I love Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
Number 6
Best seen as a romance with a spy twist rather than a spy movie with a romantic element. There's some action, but not a lot and the two leads aren't butt-kickers. I also figured out the mystery early on, but that spoiled nothing for me. I enjoyed watching to see if Depp could win Jolie over. I wanted him to.
I just read a disparaging comment about Jolie's acting in this, but I thought she did a fine job as the Mysterious European Woman. Then again, I tend to like her, so maybe I'm being lenient. I stand by the comment I made on Facebook or Twitter or someplace though: the hardest role Johnny Depp has ever had to play was Man Intimidated by Angelina Jolie. It took me a couple of scenes to get past his Johnny Deppness, but I thought he pulled it off admirably.
Number 5
Everything that The Expendables was supposed to be. Just the right amount of over-the-top without going into cheesy territory.
Number 4
I'm the only person I know who loved this movie. Maybe I was just in the mood for a fun, Arabian Nights adventure, but I don't have any of the problems with Prince of Persia that everyone else seems to.
Number 3
I can't stand Will Ferrell and I'm prejudiced against superhero parody, so I went to this somewhat begrudgingly. I was surprised to find it not only funny, but really touching. I fully expect Dreamworks to kill it with excessive sequels, but it's new enough that I haven't let that get to me yet.
Number 2
Perhaps the least controversial item on this list. Everyone loved Easy A and for good reason. It's hilarious, it's charming, Emma Stone is wonderful in it, and it transparently displays its John Hughes influence while perfectly capturing what made Hughes' movies so great.
Number 1
While it's true that the Futterwacken was anticlimactic after the build-up it got earlier in the film, I loved everything else about this movie. (Especially when I took off the dark 3D glasses and saw it a second time in 2D.) I could go over again why it's so great, but I'll save the space and instead direct you to my original review. I haven't changed my mind about any of it.
So that's it for me. What were your favorite films of last year?
Number 10
The other Leonardo DiCaprio movie that invites more than one possible interpretation. I like this one more though because though everything wasn't spelled out, it didn't need to cut away just before a crucial moment to deliver the ambiguity. We got the complete story. How we interpret it is up to us.
Number 9
Iron Man 2 got a lot of flack for not being Iron Man. And its critics are right that it isn't as tight a movie as the first one and feels like it spends a lot of time setting up The Avengers. But it was very entertaining in the process and though I never felt like Tony was actually going to die, I was engaged by the mystery of how he was going to survive. Which really, is as much as any adventure series with a recurring character can do. Besides, if nothing else, the film brought Scarlett Johannson as Black Widow and that's Top Ten worthy all by itself.
Number 8
Way too much energy gets spent on trying to figure out if this is scripted or a true documentary. It doesn't matter. It's brilliant and it's timely and it needs to be seen. I saw it spoiler-free and recommend that anyone else do the same. I'm not sure it would have the same impact if you knew what to expect.
Number 7
Like Iron Man 2, this is another one that drew heavy criticism. Mostly for not being familiar enough as a Robin Hood movie. I'm typically impatient with origin stories, but this kept my attention all the way through. I don't know that it's a great version of Robin Hood (though it had enough of those elements to keep me happy), but it's a very cool Ridley Scott medieval adventure film and I love Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
Number 6
Best seen as a romance with a spy twist rather than a spy movie with a romantic element. There's some action, but not a lot and the two leads aren't butt-kickers. I also figured out the mystery early on, but that spoiled nothing for me. I enjoyed watching to see if Depp could win Jolie over. I wanted him to.
I just read a disparaging comment about Jolie's acting in this, but I thought she did a fine job as the Mysterious European Woman. Then again, I tend to like her, so maybe I'm being lenient. I stand by the comment I made on Facebook or Twitter or someplace though: the hardest role Johnny Depp has ever had to play was Man Intimidated by Angelina Jolie. It took me a couple of scenes to get past his Johnny Deppness, but I thought he pulled it off admirably.
Number 5
Everything that The Expendables was supposed to be. Just the right amount of over-the-top without going into cheesy territory.
Number 4
I'm the only person I know who loved this movie. Maybe I was just in the mood for a fun, Arabian Nights adventure, but I don't have any of the problems with Prince of Persia that everyone else seems to.
Number 3
I can't stand Will Ferrell and I'm prejudiced against superhero parody, so I went to this somewhat begrudgingly. I was surprised to find it not only funny, but really touching. I fully expect Dreamworks to kill it with excessive sequels, but it's new enough that I haven't let that get to me yet.
Number 2
Perhaps the least controversial item on this list. Everyone loved Easy A and for good reason. It's hilarious, it's charming, Emma Stone is wonderful in it, and it transparently displays its John Hughes influence while perfectly capturing what made Hughes' movies so great.
Number 1
While it's true that the Futterwacken was anticlimactic after the build-up it got earlier in the film, I loved everything else about this movie. (Especially when I took off the dark 3D glasses and saw it a second time in 2D.) I could go over again why it's so great, but I'll save the space and instead direct you to my original review. I haven't changed my mind about any of it.
So that's it for me. What were your favorite films of last year?
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
10 movies I could take or leave in 2010
The movies in today's list are ones that I generally liked, but wasn't able to get really excited about for various reasons.
Number 30
I like Thomas Haden Church and Elisabeth Shue and the premise of Don McKay grabbed me. Church plays a lonely, high school janitor who gets an unexpected letter from his own high school sweetheart (Shue) asking him to come home. She's dying and wants a second chance at their relationship before she goes. When he gets there though, he finds his true love surrounded by a creepy caregiver, an even creepier doctor, and an awful aura of Something's Not Right Here. It's a great setup and while the movie's focusing on Don and his loneliness and teasing the mystery, it's good stuff. Unfortunately, once it reveals what's going on, the movie gets a bit nuts and hard to connect to.
Number 29
It's Green Zone's marketers fault that I was in the mood for another Bourne movie when I saw this, but even had I been fully on board with the different tone, the preachiness of the film would've been enough to keep me from fully embracing it. I really like the character of Freddy (Khalid Abdalla) though and the perspective he gives to the differences between American and person-on-the-street Iraqi interests in that country. That alone made the movie worthwhile for me.
Number 28
When this was first announced, I was thrilled. The original Wolf Man
is one of my favorite Universal monster movies and I thought it was a great idea to remake it with new effects as long as they kept the story intact. Especially with an actor as great as Benicio Del Toro playing Larry Talbot.
Then came the reports of multiple directors and mid-shooting rewrites and re-shoots and re-edits and the whole thing sounded like a complete mess. And after that came the trailer with the Wolf Man tearing through London and all sorts of other things that didn't belong in a faithful remake and I gave up hope of ever enjoying the film.
To my surprise, it wasn't awful. It wasn't the loving homage to the original that I'd hoped for, but taken as its own thing, it held together and wasn't the complete train wreck that I'd come to fear.
Number 27
Not a great or original movie, but exactly what it needed to be: a fun warm-up act to The A-Team.
Number 26
Much much better than Predator 2 or either AVP movie. For a while there, I was thinking that I'd like it as much as the original, but a couple of things ruined that. Laurence Fishburne's character doesn't make a lot of sense, for one, but his actions are 100x more logical than the "twist" ending.
Number 25
A really fine noir movie about a man who'll do whatever it takes - however dark - to achieve his goals. The only reason it's not higher on the list is that Mel Gibson skeeves me out.
Number 24
I've already written about my major problems with Dawn Treader. But it is an adaptation of my favorite Narnia book and for the things that it does copy accurately from the novel, I can't dislike it. Still, it's a major disappointment to have it this far down the list.
Number 23
This was a very good first two-thirds of a story. Angelina Jolie is my favorite action hero right now, I just wish the movie had an ending. I understand that the Blu-Ray release
has some additional scenes that help with that, but that's cheating.
Number 22
I had a lot of fun at this movie, but it wasn't as epically full of epic epicness as the poster promised. Unless of course "epic" just means "good" as often seems the case, but I've promised myself not to use it that way. Anyway, it could've used more.
Number 21
This was actually three different movies, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I wish it would've been just one movie though. Or three episodes of a TV show. I think I would've enjoyed that more.
Number 30
I like Thomas Haden Church and Elisabeth Shue and the premise of Don McKay grabbed me. Church plays a lonely, high school janitor who gets an unexpected letter from his own high school sweetheart (Shue) asking him to come home. She's dying and wants a second chance at their relationship before she goes. When he gets there though, he finds his true love surrounded by a creepy caregiver, an even creepier doctor, and an awful aura of Something's Not Right Here. It's a great setup and while the movie's focusing on Don and his loneliness and teasing the mystery, it's good stuff. Unfortunately, once it reveals what's going on, the movie gets a bit nuts and hard to connect to.
Number 29
It's Green Zone's marketers fault that I was in the mood for another Bourne movie when I saw this, but even had I been fully on board with the different tone, the preachiness of the film would've been enough to keep me from fully embracing it. I really like the character of Freddy (Khalid Abdalla) though and the perspective he gives to the differences between American and person-on-the-street Iraqi interests in that country. That alone made the movie worthwhile for me.
Number 28
When this was first announced, I was thrilled. The original Wolf Man
is one of my favorite Universal monster movies and I thought it was a great idea to remake it with new effects as long as they kept the story intact. Especially with an actor as great as Benicio Del Toro playing Larry Talbot.Then came the reports of multiple directors and mid-shooting rewrites and re-shoots and re-edits and the whole thing sounded like a complete mess. And after that came the trailer with the Wolf Man tearing through London and all sorts of other things that didn't belong in a faithful remake and I gave up hope of ever enjoying the film.
To my surprise, it wasn't awful. It wasn't the loving homage to the original that I'd hoped for, but taken as its own thing, it held together and wasn't the complete train wreck that I'd come to fear.
Number 27
Not a great or original movie, but exactly what it needed to be: a fun warm-up act to The A-Team.
Number 26
Much much better than Predator 2 or either AVP movie. For a while there, I was thinking that I'd like it as much as the original, but a couple of things ruined that. Laurence Fishburne's character doesn't make a lot of sense, for one, but his actions are 100x more logical than the "twist" ending.
Number 25
A really fine noir movie about a man who'll do whatever it takes - however dark - to achieve his goals. The only reason it's not higher on the list is that Mel Gibson skeeves me out.
Number 24
I've already written about my major problems with Dawn Treader. But it is an adaptation of my favorite Narnia book and for the things that it does copy accurately from the novel, I can't dislike it. Still, it's a major disappointment to have it this far down the list.
Number 23
This was a very good first two-thirds of a story. Angelina Jolie is my favorite action hero right now, I just wish the movie had an ending. I understand that the Blu-Ray release
has some additional scenes that help with that, but that's cheating.Number 22
I had a lot of fun at this movie, but it wasn't as epically full of epic epicness as the poster promised. Unless of course "epic" just means "good" as often seems the case, but I've promised myself not to use it that way. Anyway, it could've used more.
Number 21
This was actually three different movies, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I wish it would've been just one movie though. Or three episodes of a TV show. I think I would've enjoyed that more.
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