Author: Darren Goodhart

John Milton is a man on a mission.  He’s found that a heinous act of violence has been committed against a member of his family.  He’s on the warpath to find the man who perpetrated this act, Jonah King, the leader of a devil worship cult.  Nothing will stop Milton, but he needs help and he gets it in the form of a sexy and feisty waitress named Piper.  Piper’s about to be brutally beaten by her boyfriend, when Milton gives a hand to help her settle the score.  Their quest begins, but looming in the background is a mysterious figure known as The Accountant in his own pursuit of Milton.

That’s about as broad a description of Drive Angry 3D as I can get without filling in all of the details and getting spoilery.  If you’ve seen the trailer for this, then you know already that there is a heavy supernatural aspect as well, but I’d rather you find those full details out for yourself.

Drive Angry 3D is directed by Patrick Lussier, who prior to this has made movies like My Bloody Valentine and Dracula 2000, neither of which I’ve seen.  It’s written by Todd Farmer, who previously worked with Lussier on My Bloody Valentine and on his own was one of the writers behind Jason X (which I have seen and had quite a bit of fun with).  Farmer’s also in the movie playing Amber’s boyfriend.

While it’s nothing wholly original, there is some fun to be had here.  It’s heavily profane with ample helpings of blood, guts, bullets, sex and muscle cars.  This brings a nice “grindhouse” element to the movie, and as a fan of “grindhouse” movies, I certainly appreciated that.  As a comic book fan, it looks to me like there’s been heavy influence on this movie by something like Garth Ennis’ Preacher, and that’s not a bad thing, it just doesn’t have the chance to fully develop as what that series had, due to having to fit this big story into a small running time.  But I don’t think that’s a concern of Lussier’s or Farmer’s, they just want to get in there and have a wild, good time.  There’s nothing wrong with that as long as I have a good time too, and I did.

The story and characters are all cliches that wallow in their attitude and the atmosphere of the film.  They’re here to have fun and give us an entertaining ride and for the most part, they do.  Where this falls a bit for me is in some of the action scenes.  They’re competently done and they are fun, but they’re not as stylish and over-the-top as they could be (though don’t get me wrong, they are over-the-top, I just think they could’ve gone a little further).

It’s only late February and already I’ve seen my second movie with Nicolas Cage in it this year (the first one also being a fun genre piece, Season Of The Witch).  Cage is solid here, his character is supposed to be stoic and bad-ass, and he does that.  He won’t win too many accolades for this, but I still thought he had enough charisma to make me follow him.  Amber Heard plays Piper, and she’s terrific.  She’s keeping pace with Cage, and pretty ballsy on her own.  Billy Burke plays Jonah King and he brings a real seedy and despicable quality to the guy.  You want to see him get his in the end.

Backing them up in support, we’ve got David Morse as Webster, an old associate of Milton’s.  Morse’s purpose is more for presence as to the type of character he is and what he means to Milton.  This gets a few extra points on the cool side for putting the great Tom Atkins to work as the law enforcement leader who’s also on the hunt for Milton.  For genre fans, Atkins is one of those guys who just gives a movie a little something extra just for sheer presence alone.

The best part of the cast though is William Fichtner as The Accountant.  I’ve been a fan of Fichtner’s for quite a long time now.  Whenever I see him connected to any piece of entertainment, it always gets a little extra fun for me.  Out of all of the cast, Fichtner’s the one who just looks like he’s having the most fun on-screen.  He’s a powerful presence, gets the best lines and makes the most of any action scene that he’s in.

The 3D in Drive Angry 3D is really quite good and for being promoted as being “shot in 3D,” it should be.  Well, I wasn’t disappointed by it.  There’s plenty of depth and this does what I think a good 3D movie should do, play with it’s gimmick.  When I recently saw Sanctum, the best thing about that night was seeing the trailer for Drive Angry 3D in 3D and it really stood out (that same night, I saw the trailer for Thor in 3D as well, and while I really liked the trailer, for now, I’m going to opt to see that one in 2D when it opens, but I digress).

Drive Angry 3D won’t change anyone’s world, but it does offer up some profane, diversionary fun and it’s 3D is actually quite well done.  It could use a touch more style in it’s action sequences and had it had that, I could’ve seen this one as being something a little more special.  Still, I had a good time with it, and William Fichtner stood out to me as the film’s MVP.

Originally, this was not going to be the movie that I was intending to see this weekend.  That would’ve been Unknown with Liam Neeson.  But unexpectedly (for me, anyway), Sylvain Chomet’s newest movie, The Illusionist came here to St. Louis, and further at one of my favorite theatres in town, so I had to leap at the chance to see it.

The Illusionist is a 2010 release and something you won’t necessarily find at your local multiplex, it is an art house movie, but with absolute universal appeal.  It’s also one of the three nominated movies for Best Animated Feature Film for the 2010 Academy Awards (the other two being Toy Story 3 and How To Train Your Dragon.

Tatischeff is a stage musician whose better days are now behind him.  As this is taking place, Rock ‘N Roll music is making it’s debut and television is becoming more and more pervasive.  Tatischeff is eking out a living, playing to very small audiences.  His act is appealing to a drunken Scotsman who happens to see him performing at a wedding.  The Scotsman invites Tatischeff to come to his town to perform where he’s actually a big hit with his act.  But the biggest appeal lies with a young serving girl named Alice, who’s not just drawn to Tatischeff because of his act, but also because of great kindness that he’s shown her.

Tatischeff leaves the small village, and unexpectedly finds Alice coming with him.  Soon Tatischeff finds more work performing at a theatre in Edinburgh, where he’s also faced with not just providing for himself, but Alice as well.

Previously, Sylvain Chomet really impressed me with his prior animated feature, The Triplets of Belleville. Now adapting an original, but unproduced, screenplay from French filmmaker Jacques Tati, we have this latest film and it’s an absolutely beautiful experience.

I am not familiar with any of Tati’s previous films.  Thanks to Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of the new Ebert Presents At The Movies (an excellent show that if you’re reading this, you should be watching as well), I’ve now sudden interest in seeing Tati’s Playtime. In addition, The Illusionist itself makes reference to Tati’s Mon Oncle. Those two movies, along with Tati’s M. Hulot’s Holiday are all available on Netflix Instant Play and have all been added to my own queue.  So now, I’m very much looking forward to discovering Tati’s work for myself, and if The Illusionist is any indication, I expect I’m in for a fantastic time.

The animation in The Illusionist is absolutely incredible.  This is traditional hand-drawn, 2D animation (with some digital enhancement).  What’s amazing about it is the subtlety of character that’s here and just how much Chomet has going on in any given scene.  Traditionally with American animation, we’re used to one major focus in a scene, and while that is here, there is just as much attention paid to all of little background elements.

There is actually very little spoken dialogue in the film.  When it does come up, it’s not necessarily meant to be taken literally, but more as expressing a feeling behind a moment, and it works.  We’re drawn into the characters of Tatischeff, Alice and their relationship purely through the visuals, with the small bits of dialogue being more scene punctuations more than anything else.

The Illusionist is a beautiful, bittersweet film that amazed me not just due to it’s technical prowess, but also due to it’s characters and the life they live throughout the piece.  It has genuine moments of comedy (though gentle), pathos and is a fine example of the type of adult animation that we should have more of.  I was sad to see that we only had about ten people in our audience to see this film (though we were seeing this at a later show time) and this deserves to be seen by more.  Toy Story 3 was one of my favorite movies of 2010, and I expect it to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, but I wouldn’t be unhappy at all if The Illusionist came in and took that award.  Very much highly, highly recommended.

In 120 A.D., as Rome sought to expand it’s empire to the North and the West, they encountered sizable resistance from the Picts in Britain.  Seeking to take control, Rome’s Ninth Legion with 5,000 soldiers fell before the Picts, in disgrace to their country.

In the 20 years that have passed at the start of The Eagle, it’s been established that Rome had constructed a wall cutting off this region of Britain.  Now, the son of the general of the Ninth Legion, Marcus Flavius Aquila, seeks to regain his family’s honor by taking command of a small garrison near the wall. In a battle against a Pict tribe, Marcus’ troops hold back the tribe, though Marcus suffers from an injury that then has him honorably discharged from his command.

As Marcus recuperates, he manages to save the life of a Briton slave, Eska, during a gladiatorial battle.  And though Eska despises everything that Marcus stands for, he owes him his life and swears allegiance to him.  Marcus hears that the golden eagle standard that belonged to the Ninth has been seen in the possession of one of the Pict tribes, the Seals. Recovered from his injuries, Marcus seeks to take back the eagle, with Eska by his side.

That’s the basic premise of The Eagle, the new movie from director Kevin Macdonald who has previously helmed the films The Last King of Scotland and  State of Play, neither of which I’ve seen.  This is also the second recent movie to use the fall of the Ninth Legion as it’s centerpiece, the other being Neil Marshall’s last film, Centurion, but more about that later.

Overall, I thought that The Eagle wasn’t bad, but it doesn’t really do a whole lot to distinguish itself either.  It’s pace is very leisured and in some places is just a little laborious.  The film has a serviceable look to it which gets a little more impressive as we get further into Marcus’ and Eska’s journey.  The fight scenes aren’t bad, though they are tightly cut and shot close up.  They serve their purpose and nothing more.  The best part of the film is the relationship between Marcus and Eska, but even that is on the very dry side.

Channing Tatum plays Marcus and Jamie Bell plays Eska.  Both actors look terrific in their parts and they do their best with what they have here, with Bell’s intensity as the standout between the two.  Tatum does his best to garner sympathy for his character, but it doesn’t give you the rousing drive that you want out of something like this.  Still, for Tatum, this is pretty decent work.  Donald Sutherland plays Marcus’ uncle, who we see during Marcus’ recuperation period.  His performance, as is those of the other actors playing Romans, is very casual, which doesn’t quite give off the air of imperialism that you sort’ve want out of something like this.  From what I understand though, that was a decision on Kevin Macdonald’s part to sort of buck the trend of how we normally see Romans portrayed on film.  Mark Strong also briefly shows up in the movie as Guern, a former Ninth Legionnaire, who saw the futility of the Ninth’s battle and left to survive.  Strong’s almost unrecognizable when you see him, though it almost doesn’t matter as there’s not a whole lot done with him here.

The Eagle isn’t a bad movie, it’s just average.  The pieces are there to make this a rousing piece of entertainment, but it seems to me that director Macdonald is deliberately underplaying everything.  Why?  I don’t know, maybe to keep it more grounded in reality than anything else.  That may be the case, and at the same time clips The Eagle’s wings.

Now, I also mentioned Neil Marshall’s Centurion above and I just watched that before going to see The Eagle (it’s available in high definition on Netflix Instant Play).  Now, I’m already a fan of Marshall’s, his previous films Dog Soldiers and Doomsday are just a hell of a lot of fun, and The Descent was one of my top ten favorites for 2005.  Centurion, which is very much influenced by Walter Hill’s movie, The Warriors, delivers on just about every count.  It’s beautifully shot, the action scenes are spectacular, and the performances are absolutely terrific with standout work from lead Michael Fassbender and Olga Kurylenko.  This wasn’t widely released theatrically which is a shame because it deserved to be seen on a big screen.  So basically, I offer that up as an alternative if you’re wanting to see a movie based around the fall of the Ninth Legion.  The Eagle is workmanlike and average, but Centurion soars.

Based on a true story, Sanctum tells the tale of a group of underwater cave divers as they attempt to explore one of the largest and least accessible cave settings on the planet, the Esa-ala caves in the South Pacific.  Thanks to an incredible storm coming their way, the team’s exit from the system is cut off, trapping the group of explorers and forcing them to navigate through the rest of the system to find an alternative way out.  The only question is whether they can survive the experience, now being totally cut of from the outside world and with limited supplies.

I actually like the idea of telling this sort of story, without having some sort of personified malevolent force that would be in pursuit of the team through their adventure, thinking of telling it like a dramatized National Geographic adventure.  The idea is cool, the execution on the other hand isn’t.

The main selling points of this movie are that James Cameron served as one of the producers of the film and that it was shot in 3D.  As the story unfolds, it certainly has a feel like a James Cameron film, with it’s stock group of expert characters in an impossible situation.  And if anyone could do 3D right, you’d certainly expect that from something with Cameron’s name on it.

I actually think the 3D is pretty good in the movie.  It’s not of the in-your-face variety, but more in giving real depth to it’s setting, and for the most part, Sanctum does this pretty well.

After that, well things just don’t fare too well.

From what I can tell, this is director Alister Grierson’s first major film, and while he does a nice job of initially setting up a sense of place here, it falls apart after that.  Once the event happens that traps the group, you should get a sense of just how arduous the journey is, not just by what they have to do to survive, but also by where they are and the elapsed time of their journey.  Near the start of the film, we have a nice little section shown as a computer graphic simulation which shows just how big this setting is, and I think it would’ve been nice to have somehow kept that as some sort of running piece that showed where this group was as they’re making their way through.  Instead, we just get things presented as a series of events that just happen, seemingly in real time.  In comparison, a movie like 127 Hours does a terrific job with a similar subject.  In just one setting, you get a portrayal of elapsed time and threat to the trapped Aron Ralston, and it totally captures the viewer, you feel Ralston’s journey.

It also helps that you actually like Ralston in 127 Hours, the characters in Sanctum are just stock one and two-dimensional cyphers for the most part. They run through the traditional motions, in particular with a tired father-son conflict between Frank, the leader of the expedition (he’s like the Cousteau of the cave diving world) and his son Josh, who just doesn’t want that life.  To their credit, I think actors Richard Roxburgh, who plays Frank, and Ioan Gruffudd, who plays his business partner, Carl, do their best to inject whatever life they can into their parts.  They’re just limited by a very ho-hum script.

Rhys Wakefield plays, Frank’s son Josh, and while he looks good, he has very little on-screen charisma.  He’s supposed to be our sympathetic point of view for the movie, but in the end, you just don’t care about him at all.  With a movie like this, you should be in there just rooting for this guy all the way through, much like you do with Aron Ralston in 127 Hours. Alice Parkinson plays Victoria, Carl’s fiancée and supposedly quite the explorer her own self.  As such, you would figure her to be a character with resources. As this script plays out, she devolves to being the  “girl” of this piece who in the end is more trouble than she’s worth.

One other comment about the script, this movie is rated R for language, some violence and disturbing images.  Well, I tend to think that the R Rating is more for language than anything else as this script has the tendency to drop quite a few F-bombs throughout.  Now, I’m not against that at all, and even applaud it when it’s in the hands of such guys like a David Mamet or Quentin Tarantino who know how to write profanity and make it profound in their use.  Here, while the screenwriters might argue that this is the way they really talk during one of these expeditions, it comes off more forced than anything else.  It plays like it’s from an inexperienced screenwriter who’s just wanting to make this material more adult so that he’s taken seriously, when really it’s totally unnecessary.

While it’s 3D is good, the material behind it isn’t and so the 3D is just a selling effect rather than being anything that really helps you in experiencing this journey.  I like the idea of making this sort of adventure movie, but it’s execution left me cold, filled with tedium more than anything that gives you a real sense of the danger that you should have.  I also like the idea of using a cast that’s not exactly household names (Gruffudd is the most famous here, having played Reed Richards in the two Fantastic Four movies), but that cast is wasted thanks to a script that makes the characters nothing more than placeholders rather than real people that you want to experience this journey through.

If you’re expecting a terrific journey here because of having James Cameron’s name on the project, you’re probably going to be better served by watching something like The Abyss again rather than paying the money to see Sanctum in theatres.  Already, we have an early contender for one of the most disappointing movies of 2011.

Arthur Bishop is a hit man and very, very good a what he does, with his preferred way of working making all of his hits look like natural occurrences or else the work of someone else entirely..  He takes out high-level corporate and political targets for a regular employer, one Harry McKenna, who is also his mentor.  Arthur has finished his latest job and enjoys his leisured life until one day he gets a message for a new target to take out, his mentor, Harry McKenna.

McKenna’s partner, Dean, meets face-to-face with Bishop and gives him the reasons why, all of which look indisputable to Bishop.  Bishop takes the job and when he confronts McKenna, McKenna is resigned to his fate, telling Bishop that if someone had to do it, he would have it be Bishop.

After the job is done, bishop visits McKenna’s gravesite and finds his son, Steve, there.  Steve is angry, wanting revenge and guilts Arthur into teaching him the tricks of his trade… and of course hi-jinks follow.

The Mechanic is a remake of a 1972 film with the same name, starring Charles Bronson and Jan Michael-Vincent.  It’s also the latest movie from director Simon West who has previously directed the pilots to such shows as The Cape and The Human Target, as well as feature films like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Con Air.  In addition, this is the second movie in the last few months from CBS Films, their previous release being the underrated crime thriller Faster with Dwayne Johnson and Billy Bob Thornton.  Between Faster and The Mechanic, CBS Films looks like it has a clear direction on the type of action movies that they want to make, being films that have more of a earnest, noir and grounded quality (though The Mechanic has it’s moments of going over the top, but nowhere ear the flavor of say a Michael Bey movie).

I’ve not seen the original film, so I don’t have that to compare to (though I do know that the original is available through Netflix Instant Play).  Based on it’s own merits though, I had a good time with The Mechanic. It’s lean run time of 98 minutes doesn’t allow for any real padding and things pretty much get to the point in every aspect.  West’s action set-ups are all very nicely constructed and while no one will win any awards for their performances in this, the cast all turn in respectable work.

Jason Statham plays Arthur Bishop and as far as I’m concerned, Statham is money in the bank for a movie like this.  it may not be too different from other parts that he’s played, but he’s good in it, and certainly convincing that he’s a dangerous presence.  Donald Sutherland plays McKenna, and though his appearance here is brief, it does the required job of providing a sure mentor figure to Bishop.  Tony Goldwyn plays Dean, and it’s a pretty two-dimensional villain part.  Goldwyn’s certainly done better in other films, but he does what this one asks of him and doesn’t fall down doing it.

The real standout for me in the cast though is Ben Foster as Steve McKenna.  I’ve been a big fan of Foster’s for a long time now and he always brings something a little special to each part he plays.  Foster carries the right tone as he starts this, being angry and impetuous and by the time he’s gone through his training in Bishop’s ways, he’s nearly Statham’s equal in being able to pull off these jobs.

The Mechanic is a fun little diversionary action film and I had a decent time with it, not necessarily to the same extent CBS Films’ previous release, Faster but a good time nonetheless.  The film is played earnestly for the most part, only getting a touch on the ridiculous side near it’s end, but that ridiculousness more brought a smile to my face than anything else.  Basically, it doesn’t really come out of left field, considering the world these guys are in, it’s just a little more over-the-top than the events that lead up to it.  Still, though, it’s a pretty good time.s

So, I’m probably running behind in comparison to others in putting together a Top 10 list of movies for 2010, but I’ve been thinking about it a bit before putting it together, so that’s my excuse and I’ll run with that…

I don’t consider myself a professional movie critic by any means. Even though I do review movies for The Trades web site and have the opportunity for press screenings, I’m not getting paid for any of this and so still have the right to pick and choose what I’m going to see throughout any given year. I do see a lot of movies theatrically throughout a given year, but I don’t see all of them. This list is culled from that. There’s a few movies that I would’ve liked to have seen this past year, but just didn’t get the opportunity. In the case of two of them, Catfish and Buried, They just didn’t play in an area here that was convenient to get to. In the case of Jean Jeunet’s Micmacs it just didn’t show here at all. Some honorable mentions before we get into the final list include Antoine Fuqua’s cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest, Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley in the highly underrated sci-fi movie Splice, and the fun as hell blend of martial arts and westerns, The Warrior’s Way. If this was a top 13 list, they would’ve filled the spots. So with that said, off we go onto the best of the year, starting with number 10…

10. Piranha 3D
For some this would be seen as a “guilty pleasure,” but I don’t feel guilty in the slightest for my enjoyment of this movie. I love exploitation films, and Piranha 3D wallows in being an exploitation film and has so much fun along the way. Director Alexandre Aja has taken the original film from the 70s and kept it’s overall structure pretty much in line, but takes advantage of a far bigger budget and the gimmick of 3D, and he knows it’s a gimmick and plays it to the hilt. Gratuitous violence and nudity abound in this fun little nature-runs-amok piece made for an irresistible combination for me.

9. Paranormal Activity 2
Last year’s Paranormal Activity was number 3 for me on my list of favorite films for 2009, and I’m happy to be able to put the sequel down on my list for 2010. This is both a sequel and prequel to the little movie that could using the same technique of “found footage” in telling the story of demonic activity. it gets expanded on in technique with more camera footage to use and ties in very closely to the first film and it’s just a fun ride from start to finish. Can’t wait to see the third…

8. Black Swan
Darren Aronofsky’s latest film is just a fantastic look into the dark side of creativity that never plays it safe and is highlighted by a terrific performance from Natalie Portman. It’s a beautiful production, and I’d expect no less from Aronofsky.

7. The Fighter
Director David O. Russell and star Mark Wahlberg tells us the moving story of boxing brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund and deliver a footnote sports history movie that’s both tremendously authentic and moving. Wahlberg has been wanting to get this on screen for quite awhile and he’s put his heart right into it. He’s terrific in the film but gets overshadowed by showier performances from Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. Kudos to Wahlberg though for being that generous an actor to do that. This one’s a big winner and literally brought a lump to my throat in it’s final fight.

6. The Book Of Eli
One of the earliest movies that I saw in the year is still one of my big favorites. The fifth movie from The Hughes Brothers tells a story of faith in a post-apocalyptic future and the efforts of one man to keep it alive. Easily one of the best looking movies I’ve seen all year with exacting composition on damn near ever shot in the film. It wouldn’t mean a thing though without the immense gravity that leads Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman bring to their respective parts.

5. 127 Hours
Director Danny Boyle tells us the true story of Aron Ralston and his harrowing struggle to stay alive over a five day period while being trapped in a narrow canyon crevasse. Boyle’s direction is kinetic and exciting and still never loses sight of it’s main focus, being the perseverance of one man’s spirit to stay alive. For my money, James Franco gave this year’s best single performance as Ralston and I hope he gets recognized for it.

4. The Social Network
Director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin tell us the story of the origin of Facebook, and give us a tale of ambition that’s right for the time. The amazing thing is that they’ve made this compelling with nary a sympathetic character in sight. You’ve got a talented young cast here with Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake and Armie Hammer, and for the most part, you’ll probably hate them all the way through, but the story itself carries the day. I cannot wait to see this again (and hopefully will within the next day).

3. The Town
Masterful work from director and star Ben Affleck, who tells us the story of criminal Doug MacRay and trying to get out of a life that’s the only thing he knows. Affleck’s action scenes are as thrilling as they come, but they’re balanced out with the right quiet moments in between. Affleck is terrific here in front of the camera, but doesn’t hog the spotlight and the ensemble cast he has around him is just awesome, including Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively and my favorite of the bunch, Jon Hamm. Don’t miss this one…

2. Toy Story 3
Pixar Studios continues the story of Cowboy Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang and they do it with comedy, action, adventure, romance and sentiment. And it’s all in the state of the art when it comes to computer animation and cinematic techniques. You’ve got a spot-on voice cast and a story that goes from broad comedy to genuine pathos that can bring a tear to the eye. Pixar can do no wrong as far as I’m concerned.

And finally…

1. Inception
Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to The Dark Knight, is this terrifically conceived story/idea of dream invasion and the implanting of an idea into a specific target. What you get is a summer movie that has all the right action beats but gives you plenty to think about as well, all within the trappings of a classic caper film. Everything is spot-on in this, with stand-outs in production design, editing, a killer score from Hans Zimmer, and an ensemble cast that’s thoroughly convicted to getting it right. That cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, and Marion Cotilliard all at the top of their games. This one demands repeat viewings with it’s many layers of depth and it’s captivating ideas, and for me, it’s the best movie and movie experience of 2010.

Now onto the worst, and maybe worst isn’t quite the right word, let’s just say disappointing instead. As I said above, I don’t see everything that’s out there and I expect that if I saw a Katherine Heigl romantic comedy or Kevin Smith’s Cop Out I’d probably have some new leaders here. So here’s five that I was most disappointed by:

5. Legion
This story of God having had it with the way that humans have run the world and wanting to start it all over is more concerned with looking cool than giving anything to us that has any sort of real thought behind it.

4. Jonah Hex
This adaptation of DC Comics’ biggest western character is a choppy mess that’s more concerned with blowing things up than mining the real mythos behind Jonah Hex, much less give us a good solid western.

3. The Last Airbender
M. Night Shymalan’s adaptation of the Nickelodeon cartoon series misses the boat entirely and loses all of the fun of the TV series, with boring characterizations, a disjointed story and action sequences that have no affinity for doing them right. Thank goodness I didn’t see it in 3D…

2. Robin Hood
Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe try to give us a new and edgier origin to a classic character that’s over-bloated and full of political angst, and loses all of the fun that should be part and parcel to Robin Hood.

1. Tron: Legacy
This long-awaited sequel to Disney’s original 1982 movie Tron was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. There’s nothing wrong with doing a deconstructed, darker vision of a classic franchise when it’s done right. Part of doing it right means keeping true to it’s source in some aspects and imbedding it with the right amount of humanity- Christopher Nolan has done this with his reinvention of Batman for the big screen and it’s been done on television by Ron Moore with Battlestar Galactica. Both succeed in big ways, because even though they are darker and edgier, they’re also still fun, loaded with humanity and not embarrassed by their sources. Tron: Legacy feels to me like the writers certainly loved the original as kids, but now they’re embarrassed by parts of that that they probably see as too corny for today’s audiences. They seek to rectify that situation and in the process lose all of the sense of fun and wonder that was in the original. Add to this a cliched-as-can-be lead character, a tired father-son story and lackluster 3D and you get something, that to me, was just totally soulless. This actually would’ve tied with Robin Hood but the thing that pushed it over the edge was it’s poor 3D, and really there was no excuse for that at all. From what I’m reading around the interwebs though, I’m a minority on this one, but still I’ll stand by it.

That’s it, even with the disappointments, 2010 was still a pretty good year at the movies as far as I was concerned. I look forward to seeing many in my top 10 (or top 13) again and again in the future. Here’s hoping that 2011 delivers the right stuff as well…

Behmen and his companion Felson are Knights fighting for the Church during the Crusades. After ten years of battling for the Church, they turn their backs on the cause once they’ve been lead into killing innocents. Now on their own and returning to their homeland, they discover it to riddled by the plague which is believed to have been caused by sorcery. Behmen and Felson get drafted into taking the source of this black magic, a young girl believed to be a witch, to a remote abbey, where monks will perform a ritual to end the plague. All’s not quite as it seems though…

That’s the nutshell premise to Season Of The Witch from director Dominic Sena and stars Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman. Like his last movie, Whiteout, I believe Season Of The Witch has been held from theatrical release for awhile, which usually doesn’t bode well for the film. I thought the trailer looked pretty decent though and was interested enough to give it a shot. I’m glad I did, I thought this was a lot of fun.

One thing that I really like about this is it’s pulp sensibility. What happens through this movie seems to me the sort of stuff that wouldn’t be uncommon to something written by Robert E. Howard or Fritz Leiber (isn’t it about time a movie about Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser was made?) and it was cool to see something like this embrace that. There’s also a lot in common here with classic Hammer films (this is like a Hammer film with a big budget) and I just find it refreshing to see a current movie embrace that sort of thing.

I like the look of the film and it’s use of CGI near it’s end. From what I’ve seen on some other comments written about this, others find these effects to be marring, but from my own sensibility, they look totally fitting.

Cage and Perlman make a great team. They having fun with the parts but not going overboard to make it parody, in fact it might just be one of the most straight-up performances I’ve seen from Cage in awhile. they’re backed up with some solid support from actors Stephen Campbell Moore, Ulrich Thomsen, Stephen Graham and Claire Foy as the witch they’re transporting. And mentioning Hammer films earlier, it’s nice to see Christopher Lee in a small role in the film. Now no one will win any awards for this, it’s just not that sort of film, but still it’s fun work and the actors do their best to commit to it.

The only criticism that I have with the movie is that it tips it’s hat a little too early to what is really going on. It’s a little difficult to explain that without going into full spoilers, and I want to avoid that. There’s a definite direction though that this is going in from the start and I think this might’ve been better served if that direction had been milked for all it’s worth right up to it’s end. Now the film does make up for that with another couple of twists by it’s end, but still, I think it’s impact could’ve been greater if it had done what I described.

Even with that criticism, I still had a great time with this. It’s diversionary fun with a classic pulp, B-movie style that fully embraces that style. My expectations were low going into this and that no doubt helped to make Season Of The Witch a pleasant surprise.

The Fighter is based around the true story of boxer brothers Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund, and Micky Ward’s rise to take the Light Welterweight world title. Dicky Eklund came to fame over a fight that he had with Sugar Ray Leonard, in which he stood toe to toe with Leonard and claims that he actually knocked him down (and by the tape of the fight, that’s indeed how it looks). Dicky’s been known as “The Pride of Lowell” (Lowell, Massachusetts) since then though his career never quite recovered and he’s fallen into a life of crime and crack addiction. Micky worships his brother and wants to follow in his footsteps. He manages to get some stepping stone fights that show his talent, but also have him outclassed with little chance to win. Most of this is due to his mother, Alice, who also acts as his manager. After one fight which comes close to just destroying him and his career, Micky is ready to pack it all in, but thanks to some inspiration from his new girlfriend Charlene, Micky gets the drive to go again. There’s just one catch: He has to get there by not working with either his mother or brother.

The Fighter is the newest movie from director David O. Russell (Three Kings, I Heart Huckabees) and it’s a winner. There’s a lot here that’s conventional to this type of sports movie, but it’s driving center, the idea of Micky having to turn his back and a family that cares for him deeply but leads him down a wrong path is very fresh. Micky’s still devoted to his family though and wants to bring them back into his circle, but under his conditions and not theirs.

Russell tells their story well, following both brothers as they find their way to their own forms of redemption. One of my favorite ways in which he does this is when any of the boxing sequences come on. They’re filmed in a way that looks just like they were being filmed for television broadcast and Russell dodges all of the cliches, especially not falling prey to using swelling music to emphasize a scene. but technique is a minor part of the film, the real focus is on character and performances.

Mark Wahlberg has been trying to get this made for years and has kept himself in terrific shape over time, just in case he ever got the chance to finally tell this story which has obviously struck an emotional chord for him. Wahlberg plays Micky Ward, and compared to his mother and brother, Micky’s on the quiet side. He’s certainly determined and his passion for the sport, for succeeding at the sport, and for being true to his family all come through- even when he has to turn his back on his family. I’ve been a fan of his ever since Boogie Nights, and his development since then has been steady and sure. He’s extremely good here, and his work in the ring is as authentic as it can get.

He’s overshadowed though by terrific performances from Christian Bale as Dicky and Melissa Leo as Alice, but it’s no failing on Wahlberg’s part. These are the real characters they play, and in a nice move from Russell, when the end credits roll, we get a little clip of the real Micky and Dicky. This little clip shows us just how much Wahlberg and Bale nailed their parts and it’s a real nice capper to the film. I’ve been a big fan of Christian Bale since the beginning and here he delivers another winning performance that just adds to the sheer diversity of parts that he’s played. He desperately wants the limelight back in his life and carries a bravura and charisma that at least puts him back in the center of things in his own little world. While he might first seem somewhat cartoonish in comparison to Micky, as Dicky’s story develops you do see that there’s much, much more to the man and thanks to Christian Bale, you do give a damn by the films end. The chemistry between him and Wahlberg is outstanding and with one scene in the film’s final fight you get a connection between the brothers that will just bring a lump to the throat.

Melissa Leo was almost unrecognizable to me when I first saw her in the film. She’s always had an earthier appearance in everything else that I’ve seen her in, and he she changes her look significantly. Her Alice is bossy and dominating, and again like Bale, is almost cartoonish on first appearance. But again, as the story develops, we see much, much more to this woman and Leo shines in the part.

Amy Adams plays Charlene, and it’s a tough part. There’s nothing glamorous about her by any means. Even though she helps Micky get on the right path, she’s just as much a loser in her own right, but knows how to stand up for herself. It’s a pretty raw and real bit of work from her, and she excels. Veteran character actor Jack McGee plays Micky’s father George Ward, and though he doesn’t get the showiness that every one else has, there’s a big heart there and it comes through in every scene he’s in.

The Fighter is a terrific footnote sports history movie (and when I use the term “footnote” it’s not meant in any sort of derogatory way at all, it’s just that this story isn’t something that’s anywhere near as well known as other sports stories told in the past). There’s a big heart in this film that comes to huge life thanks to Mark Wahlberg’s efforts to get this on-screen, his performance, Russell’s first rate direction and a supporting cast that’s about as good as it gets. I’m a little late getting to see this one as it’s already been in theatres for the past two weeks, but I’m certainly glad I did see it. Don’t miss this if you get the chance.

14-year old Mattie Ross is a determined young girl. Being the most educated member of her family, she’s come to put her father’s affairs in order following his tragic cold-blooded murder at the hands of outlaw Tom Chaney. The most important thing on her mind though is finding and bringing Chaney to justice and she finds little help with the sheriff. She is determined though and using money from her father’s estate, she hires a roguish U.S. Marshal to aid her. That Marshal, being one Rueben “Rooster” Cogburn, has been described as one of the toughest in the business, though his drunken demeanor doesn’t exactly inspire the greatest of faith in Mattie. Mattie has one stipulation though, she wants to accompany Cogburn on his quest and make sure the job gets done, much to Cogburn’s chagrin. They’re unexpectedly joined by a Texas Ranger, LaBeouf, who’s also in pursuit of Chaney for crimes committed in Texas. So the three set off to find the outlaw, and get more than they bargain for in the process.

True Grit is a remake of the movie by the same name and it’s also the newest movie from the Coen Brothers. Honestly, I’ve never seen the Henry Hathaway original starring John Wayne, though I certainly know about it, it’s just one of those things that have slipped between the cracks. But knowing this was coming and further knowing it was Coen Brothers re-uniting with Jeff Bridges, certainly had me eager to see it. And it didn’t disappoint at all, though I don’t think it’s quite as strong as other Coen Brothers films, it’s still plenty entertaining.

One of the biggest standouts for me in the film is it’s unique dialogue style, it’s combination of being authentic to it’s time, yet still feeling heavily, theatrically written. It doesn’t quite sound natural to the ear, but it’s right for this story and for it’s characters. While it’s certainly very well made, and looks terrific, the real star here is the dialogue and the performances.

Jeff Bridges plays Rooster Cogburn and while there’s a somewhat cartoonish aspect to what he’s doing here, it works quite well and his character is full of authority. Matt Damon has a bit of a tougher part as LaBoeuf, he’s serving as support, and so is put into a position of taking more of a back seat to Bridges, and also has to come off as being a bit less than what Cogburn is. Damon certainly does that well, but still feels like a guy who is in control of what he’s doing, just without the same level of experience that Cogburn has. Josh Brolin plays Tom Chaney. Chaney’s a driving force for the characters in the film, but when we’re finally introduced to him, he doesn’t necessarily come off as the character that he’s built up to be. Brolin plays the character as simple, and for the brief time that he’s in the movie, he does a great job.

But the cast standouts to me are Barry Pepper and Hailee Steinfeld. Barry Pepper plays Lucky Ned Pepper, the leader of an outlaw gang and the boss to Tom Chaney. Pepper’s introduced late in the movie, but certainly makes his mark. As I said, I hadn’t seen the original movie, so I’d not even knew about Robert Duvall being in it, and yet the one person that Barry Pepper made me think of right away was Robert Duvall. It’s brief work, but considerable smarts behind it. Hailee Steinfeld plays Mattie Ross, and this young lady commands the screen whenever she’s in a scene with her as the force of the scene and further she certainly holds her own with Bridges and Damon. She’s terrific and I’d expect this girl to a big star soon.

True Grit is great work. Very much a dialogue and character driven film that makes it’s few action sequences really stand out when they happen. While this doesn’t quite stand out for me as other recent Coen Brothers movies like No Country For Old Men or Burn After Reading, it’s still an entertaining time in it’s own right. It’s great to see a western like this again. Very much recommended.

In 1982, a former employee for a huge conglomerate named ENCOM, one Kevin Flynn, with the help of two current employees, invaded ENCOM so that Flynn could get into the computer system and retrieve data. That data proved without a doubt that Kevin Flynn created some popular video games and that ENCOM had stolen those games and thus all of the amazing profits those games had generated. With the data, Flynn then took control of ENCOM for the betterment of all. But how he got that data was interesting- he was digitally transported within a cyber world and forced to fight the system in a video game fashion. That world held an interest for him that developed…

Flynn married and had a son, Sam, who after the death of his mother, Flynn raised on his own (with the help of grandparents). Flynn’s intrigue with the digital world still held with him and he was about to embark on a master plan for an integration of both which he thought would be for the betterment of all. Starting that plan, he says goodbye to his son one night and mysteriously disappears in 1989.

It’s the present day, Sam Flynn has grown up and wants nothing to do with ENCOM, other than embarrass the company at whatever opportunity he gets. Kevin Flynn’s old friend Alan Bradley, who helped him in 1982, receives a mysterious page that he passes on to Sam that comes from the old arcade that Kevin Flynn used to run. This has Sam curious and he returns to the arcade in hopes of finding out what happened to his father. And like his father before him, gets transported into the digital world to undergo a new adventure… and in the process, find his father.

When Tron first came out in 1982, it was something that was brand new for both Disney and movies- it explored the idea of digitally creating a world that traditionally would’ve been done wither with miniatures and elaborate sets. It’s story is simplistic (though viewed with hindsight is actually a lot more revealing) and it was truly an amazing thing to see, with it’s own brand of charm. I loved the first movie right from the moment that I saw it, and I still think it’s a lot of fun to watch.

Back in the day, while working for the Howard Stern show, Stuttering John Melendez used to go to various celebrity functions and get interviews with celebrities with of course that Howard Stern spin to them. Once he got a hold of Billy Crystal at one of these and Crystal knew he was being set up and tells Stuttering John that what he was doing was neither fun or funny…

… and that’s the same thing with Tron: Legacy, it’s neither fun or funny. After seeing this film, I was immediately in the mind of what I thought earlier in the year of Ridley Scott’s new take on Robin Hood which I thought deconstructed the idea of Robin Hood to the extent that it sucked all the fun and life right out of the concept in order to make it darker and more real. And that’s just what director Joseph Kosinski and the writers of Tron: Legacy have done.

I didn’t set out to hate this thing, far from it. Once seeing the original trailers and hearing that Disney was making this, I couldn’t wait to see it. If there was any sort movie from the past that could be updated now, Tron was it, especially considering the ideas of the original and the huge advances in technology. And here it was, three quarters of the way through and I was just about ready to walk out.

Where to start? Well, let’s just go for the throat first with the 3D aspect of the film. It’s just awful. The way this is shot, nothing other than a couple of scenes takes advantage of it, and then it’s not in any sort of way that’s captivating or exciting (say that movies like Resident Evil: Afterlife or Piranha 3D did). We had a trailer at the start of this for a film coming out called Born To Be Wild– a traditional nature based film, that just amazed me with it’s use of 3D and how striking and depth-filled that it was. Tron: Legacy should be milking this effect for all it’s worth, and yet it never really pops. And while the visual effects are indeed impressive in this film, their dark tone still manages to keep it all somewhat flat. If you have to see this, save yourself the extra money that you’d spend on the 3D side and see the 2D version, you won’t be missing anything at all.

But I could forgive that more if there was just something that was fun here. A big thing in comic books right now is deconstruction and making everything darker and thus a little more edgy. The way this is written, it feels like it was approached by writers that while they liked and were inspired by the original (much like comic book writers), they’re also embarrassed by aspects about it and decided that they had to do something to make it edgier and thus cooler. They get into long and tedious explanations of why Kevin Flynn has returned to this world that’s just more technobabble than anything else. Now again, I might be able to forgive that if there was some sort of fun aspect here. Some sort of sense of wonder about this world. With the original movie, we had this terrific scene where Kevin Flynn gets digitized the first time and is transported to this world and it’s just exhilarating. Here, it just happens- no fantastic fast paced journey, no sense of awe into entering into something new and exciting. Sam Flynn just shows up. Now I’m sure that the correlation with that is just how fast technology is today, and I get that, but it’s hardly fun or exciting. Some of this could’ve worked better if the film was faster paced, but we have some passages here that are just excruciatingly slow, trying to give this some unnecessary weight.

I’m not nearly as concerned with having total explanations as to the whole nature of The Grid and how it all works. I’ve noticed that that’s been a hang-up with other critics. I’m actually willing to just accept this as it is, or as it was in the original- this stylized fairy tale world in a digital realm, with the film being more science fantasy than traditional science fiction. Explanations to make this more real, at least to me would eliminate a lot of the charm of the original, so that’s one critical aspect that doesn’t really bother me. I’m more bothered that none of the characters are engaging on any sort of level.

Our main character, Sam Flynn, is pretty much a walking cliche. I’m sure that Garrett Hedlund is probably a pretty nice guy and he’s been decent in other things that I’ve seen, but he doesn’t bring anything here at all, though I’m more than willing to chalk that up more to the director and writer rather than Hedlund. Sam is angry, but he’s super-cool, being a daring motorcyclist and willing to stick it to the man by sabotaging the release of ENCOM’s newest product. He’s also got a touch of Batman inside of him as well, being willing to escape from ENCOM by climbing to the top of the building and jumping off landing below by parachute. On top of that, he’s got his own super-cool little hideaway, that’s both seedy and modern, something he could only have by benefitting from the wealth he’s obtained. All that he’s missing are some sort of tribal tattoos… that would certainly complete the cliche.

Jeff Bridges reprises his role as Kevin Flynn and we get to see him in three different stages- one as a younger Flynn, one as his digital creation, the program Clu and finally at his current age. I think the technology used to make him look younger is amazing. I’ve heard some thought of it as a little creepy and artificial, well that’s true, but for Clu, that works. Finally though, we have the current Flynn, and I guess just by his presence here, Bridges lends some sort of gravity to the whole thing. It’s just a shame that the writers seem like all that they’ve seen with Bridges is the original Tron and The Big Lebowski making him almost as much of a cliche as his son. I guess I’ll have to wait until next week for True Grit to see if the Coen Brothers can take him further, and I hope they will.

The only other member of the cast worth mentioning for me anyway is Bruce Boxleitner returning as Alan Bradley. He’s also reprising his role of Tron, using the same de-aging process used with Bridges, but that’s just used for some brief flashback sequences. He’s probably my favorite member of the whole cast. His scenes as Bradley are brief, but pivotal. I wish more had been done with Tron as a character here, but that would’ve gotten in the way of their tired father-and-son story.

I thought that a movie was going to have to work extra hard to beat Robin Hood as the worst movie I’ve seen this year, and ding, ding, it looks like we have a new winner. Tron: Legacy certainly does have some impressive visual effects, but it all gets hampered with a soulless approach, cliched characters and lackluster 3D. I really wanted to enjoy this, I truly did. Instead I was pissed off at the end of it, just stunned that all of the fun had been sucked out of it.