The Worst Movies of 2010

I have more than 10 but here are the ones that should never have made it past the pitch meeting:

1) The Bounty Hunter
Jennifer you are a TV star not a movie star. PLEASE go back to TV!

2) Wolfman
Why was this made???

3)Cop Out
Not everybody black from Saturday Night Live can be Eddie Murphy.

4) Wall St. 2
Gorden Gecko a nice guy???? Shades of Godfather 3.

5) Killers
Did Ashton peep the Tom Cruise script for Knight & Day?

6) When In Rome
The sixties are over and Doris Day is near death, why try to recreate chemistry that is long gone?

7) The Back Up Plan
Now we know why J-Lo is on American Idol.

8) The American
Clooney, you tried, now go back to being what the audience wants you to be. The Cary Grant of our time not a Foreign film star.

9) Iron Man 2
God this story sucked, and we all spent our shekels on it.

10) Piranha 3D
Need I say more?

Top Ten Movies of 2010

This was a very, very poor year for movies but here are my Top Ten:

1) Social Network
The Citizen Kane of this generation. It will stand up to the test of time as a classic.

2) Inception
Not a remake but the most original action movie of the last decade.

3) Black Swan
Thank God for Natalie Portman and her awesome talents.

4) The Kings Speech
Everything about this movie is "A" List.

5) Shutter Island
Mesmerizing and thought provoking, Martin and Leo's best picture to date.

6) Toy Story 3
If you didn't cry then you are SOFT.

7)Kick Ass
Best surprise action movie of the year.

8) Colored Girls
All the critics were wrong. Tyler Perry's best movie to date.

9) Joan Rivers A Piece of Work
The only Oscar worthy Documentary next to Client 9.

10) The Town
Affleck nailed it.

Fast Five - Official Trailer [HD]

Black Swan

Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer in an Oscar worthy performance. We have seen Natalie grow up on the screen from The Professional to Star Wars so you would think that you would know what kind of performance to expect from her. But in Black Swan she raises the bar and shows why she is one of the best female actresses on the screen today.
The story is a about a ballet dancer who wins the lead in "Swan Lake" Babara Hershey, who's talents has been missing from the screen for years, stars as her mother and does an excellent job.
The movie is a study in madness and is one of my favorite movies of the year.
Black Swan is why I fell in love with the movie experience. Every few years a movie comes out that is not predictable and that takes viewers to a place they have not visited before where they are taken on a journey for 2 hours.

Verdict:
MUST SEE! One of the best movies of 2010. Natalie Portman will win the Oscar, sorry Annette Bening but The Kids Are Alright was just alright.

Tron: Legacy 3D - imax -DBox - etc.

The original Tron was light years ahead in special effects back in 1982. It was never a box office blockbuster but it did become a cult favorite. I never liked the story which was not engaging enough for me and I found it boring.
Tron: Legacy is a dazzling, awesome movie to watch but once again I was not very captivated by the story. Legacy bring back (2) Jeff Bridges, one that is present day Jeff and one that is a computer version of his young self. This special cinema plastic surgery effect was used earlier this year on Bruce Willis in the flop movie Surrogates.
Legacy is about Jeff Bridges's son who goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed.
Some theaters are showing this movie with a new creation called DBox where your seat moves in sync with the action scenes. This movie is also in 3D and IMAX. Why? because there is not much of a story and if your eyes are not dazzled and your seat is not moving you will fall asleep.
Based on this movie the future of cinema looks like actors will always stay young and you will not need much of a story due to the mechanics that will keep you engaged.

Verdict:
Like a bright shiny apple that looks good on the outside but full of worms on the inside.

True Grit

Whatever you do, do not rent the original version of this movie prior to seeing this remake. I made that mistake and I was disappointed with the Coen Brothers version. With the Coen Brothers you expect great movies and surprises due to their unconventional approach to making movies like their great movie No Country For Old Men. No surprises here.
True Grit is the story about a tough U.S. Marshal who helps a stubborn young woman track down her father's murderer.
Oscar winner Jeff Bridges is a great actor but he is not John Wayne. When you do a remake of a classic and you are repeating the same lines that The Duke said in the original it comes off lame.
Matt Damon who plays a Texas Ranger is funny and comes off as a nitwit.
Josh Brolin is wasted as the killer that is being tracked.
The only bright spot is Hailee Steinfeld who plays the young girl seeking her father's killer.

Verdict:
I am not even a fan of John Wayne but after seeing Jeff Bridges try on his role you can see why The Duke was great. Skip this movie rent the original.

Thor Movie Trailer 1 - Official HD

Battle Los Angeles | trailer #1 US (2011)

The Kings Speech

The Kings Speech is based on the true story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. Colin Firth, who I liked in Love Actually, plays the King and shows that he will win the Oscar for his performance. Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush is also excellent as the speech therapist. Director Tom Hooper does a great job of capturing the mood of post war England. He also keeps the story simple so that people who are not history buffs will be able to enjoy the movie.
I was on line to see this movie and several people in front of me were paying to see it again.

Verdict:
Believe the hype and go see two of the Best Actors, Firth and Rush, at the top of their game. Firth will win the Oscar and I will be seeing this again.

The Fighter

The best thing about The Fighter is that Mark Wahlberg is starting to show how good an actor he really is. After critical praise for Boogie Nights, Marky Mark stared in various flops (who could forget The Happening?) The Other Guys made money but he played a straight man. With The Fighter Marky Mark shows heart and embraces this true story of Micky Ward.
There are also other great performances and everyone is talking about Christian Bale who is good in the movie however Melissa Leo is outstanding as Micky Ward's mom.
The story is about the early years of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward and his brother who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.
This is a modern day Rocky movie with Amy Adams as fiery Adrian.

Verdict:
Very good performance movie. Decent boxing movie. See it for the two people who will be nominated for Oscars: My Prediction Melissa Leo and Christian Bale.

Unstoppable

I didn't think that this movie was going to be any better than a classic movie called Runaway Train with Eric Roberts. Nor did I think action maestro Tony Scott and Denzel Washington could improve on their last train movie The Taking of The Pelham. I was wrong on both counts. Unstoppable is a solid movie with performances and action that you expect from action movies but never get. The movie is based on a true story about an unmanned, half-mile-long freight train that ends up barreling toward a city. Denzel Washington plays a veteran engineer that tries to stop the train with Chris Pine, (Capt. Kirk from Star Trek) who plays a young conductor.
As always Director Scott makes you care about the characters while he keeps the action going.
The only improvement would have been to give Denzel's daughters more depth.

Verdict:
A hit movie that has been overlooked by everyone including myself. This movie must be seen on the big screen.

Fair Game

Its hard to view Fair Game and see it as a starring role for Naomi Watts when Sean Penn takes over the movie.
This is a true story about a female CIA agent Valerie Plane, played by Naomi Watts,
who is revealed by White House officials allegedly out to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, played by Sean Penn, after he wrote a 2003 New York Times op-ed piece saying that the Bush administration had manipulated intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion of Iraq.
If you didn't follow this story when it took place you will have to pay close attention to what is going on otherwise you will be lost in what is happenning on screen.
I will be surprised if Naomi gets a nomination from this because she was able to hold her own with Penn in the movie 21 Grams. In this movie the audience just waits to see what Penn will do next. You become more intrigued with the charcter of her husband, who was out of work while his wife went on Secret Missions.
The movie was directed by Doug Liman who did Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Verdict:
Don't confuse this movie with the Billy Baldwin and Cindy Crawford stinker with the same name that came out in the 90's. In fact don't even try to rent that movie because you will not be able to get through it. See this film for Penn’s performance.

The Next Three Days

Russell Crowe returns in a movie that portrays him as a working stiff who wants to rescue his wife out of jail. Surprisingly Crowe, after staring in a number of flops other than Robin Hood, shows his enormous talents in this small "B" movie. Prison Break movies have been done before (see Charles Bronson in Breakout) there has also been a television series on breaking out of prison. Crowe takes the road Liam Neesom did in the hit movie Taken by making a small film that may connect with a massive audience. In fact Liam has a brief cameo in the movie.
Olivia Wilde, who is everywhere these days, is also in the movie in a limited capacity. Not sure if she is talanted but she is in Tron so jury is still out on her skils.
Two time Academy Award winner Director Paul Haggis tries to keep the audience guessing during the movie's slow takeoff. By the end of the movie you hope that Crowe succeeds because you have already invested 2 hrs.

Verdict:
Not as good as Taken. Slow start but fine finish.

Faster

Finally the Rock keeps his mouth shut. I guess after the failure of Tooth Fairy Dwayne decided to take another path. The path of other action stars Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, etc.THE LESS YOU SAY THE MORE THE AUDIENCE WILL BE INTRIGUED BY YOUR CHARACTER. Great choice.
The story is about an ex-con who sets out to avenge his brother's death after they were double-crossed during a heist years ago.
Billy Bob Thorton returns back to the screen as a cop who is on drugs and near retirement. He decides to track down The Rock?? Billy is good in this role and shows just how much better he is than most actors on the screen with him.
Director George Tillman Jr., who directed Notorious, knows how to make an action movie.
People I reviewed this movie with said they loved the movie but they were shocked that Dwayne Johnson was not cracking jokes.
The Rock would be wise to continue with this character.

Verdict:
Testosterone action flick with plenty of violence. I am going to see it again.

Love and Other Drugs

This is one of the few new movies that takes on a serious subject, and it's not LOVE. The movie is about a woman named Maggie, played by Anne Hathaway,who has a disease. She meets Jake Gyllenhaal's chracter, who is a ladies man that is in pharmaceutical sales.
Without giving away too much more about the movie I found the movie to be PURE and down to earth.
Director Edward Zwick is not looking to give the audience what they expect from love stories he gives you a chance to learn and care about the main chracters. Jake Gyllenhaal is now developing into a great talent and he does a good job of emersing himself into a shallow, callous chracter. Anne Hathway continues to nail the chracters that she portrays. Remember how she showed a flash of brilliance as Jake's wife in Brokeback Mountian.
This movie is not an Oscar contender but she score at the Golden Globes.

Verdict:
Go see it. Well done.

Burlesque

Well you heard all the reviews about this movie and the majority of them have not been good.
I was surprised that this movie was better than I thought it would be.
The story is about a small-town girl who ventures to Los Angeles and finds her place in a neo-burlesque club run by a former dancer. The movie gives no background information about Christina's character and the story is very thin.
The pros of this movie is Christina's singing numbers, and the supporting cast. Alan Cumming who is excellent in the TV show the Good Wife plays Alexis. Also Stanley Tucci who is excellent in every role plays a supporting character for Christina.
Cher looks like she can barely move and she talks with slur which is very pronounced. I was enjoying the movie right up until Cher decided to do a solo number. That's when the movie went South. I guess that was the deal Cher worked out to star in the movie. You got to give her props. At 65 yrs old she stars in Las Vegas the same time that she has a movie out.

Verdict:
It's not THAT bad. It's a very long Christina Aguilera video. Think a poor man's Purple Rain.