Best & Worst Movies of 2011

10 Best Movies of '11 (in order)	10 Worst Movies of '11 (in order)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes X-Men: First Class Hugo Thor Captain America: The 1st Avenger Kung Fu Panda 2 Shaolin Green Lantern Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol 13 Assassins	Twilight: Breaking Dawn 1 The Trip Season of the Witch Battle: Los Angeles Your Highness Terri Big Momma's House: Like Father Like Son Adjustment Bureau Melancholia Johnny English Reborn

Best & Worst Movies of 2010

10 Best Movies of '10 (in order)	10 Worst Movies of '10 (in order)
Kick-Ass Inception Social Network Winter's Bone Iron Man 2 Ip Man 2 Book of Eli How To Train Your Dragon Buried Scott Pilgrim vs The World	Cop Out MacGruber Skyline Killers Robin Hood The Switch When in Rome Wall Street 2 Tooth Fairy Hereafter

REVIEW: Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

STARRING: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/03/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/28/09 The Verdict OK - Wait for the DVD

Hollywood is really desperate for story ideas these days. The recent deluge of bad remakes and sequels has really been disheartening. The best movies of 2010 have been based on comic books (Kick Ass & Iron Man). Original ideas are so hard to come by that Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is based on a video game. A video game? Hasn’t that already been proven to be a recipe for disaster (Tomb Raider, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Super Mario Bros)? A video game based movie with Jake Gyllenhaal starring as the action hero? WTF? Needless to say, I was not excited as I walked into the theater to see Prince of Persia.

Set in medieval Persia, Jake stars as Dasdan, a feisty orphan boy who is taken in by the King of Persia and made a Prince. Dasdan and his two brothers lead a successful raid on the holy city of Alamut. Almut has been accused of secretly making weapons (of mass destruction I presume). When the King arrives to inspect the victory, he is murdered. Dasdan has been implicated in the crime, so he flees with Princess Tamina from Almut. His two brothers are in hot pursuit. The twist is that while Dasdan is on the run he discovers a secret that is known to the Princess. A dagger he has stolen from Almut contains some type of magic sand that allows the user to turn back time for a few seconds. Dasdan must elude his brothers, protect this dagger, find more of the magic sand and seduce the Princess, while also finding a way to prove his innocence. Sounds like a busy week…

I do give Prince of Persia credit for containing elements of everything that has proven to be successful in a summer blockbuster. There is lots of action & adventure, good special effects, a budding romance between a Prince & a Princess, comic relief in the form of Alfred Molina as a sheik they cross paths with, and a crowd pleasing ending that wraps up the entire story in a nice little bow. The audience at the screening ate it all up and cheered at the end. I’m not so easy to please. First of all, Jake Gyllenhaal is not the kind of manly charismatic lead I like to see in my action films. Either of the actors who played his brothers would have made a better lead. Jake is the kind of action star that will appeal more to women than the target male audience. The fight scenes are horribly filmed with lots of quick cutting, probably to cover the fact that Jake can’t believably fight on camera. The romance is not at all romantic. First they hate each other and bicker, but in the end they love each other. Wow, never saw that one coming. And the ending is so predictable that you see it coming a mile away. Think about it. If you were falsely accused of a murder and discovered a way to control time, how would you use it in the end? At least the movie keeps up a fast pace through it’s almost 2 hr running time. But Resident Evil will keep its crown as the best of the mediocre to bad crop of movies based on a video game. Wait for the DVD.

REVIEW: Iron Man 2

STARRING: Robert Downey Jr., Mickey Rourke View Trailer DATE SCREENED: 05/04/09 RELEASE DATE: 05/07/09 The Verdict GOOD - See it in the theater

The summer movie season of 2010 kicks off with Iron Man 2! I was never an avid reader of the Iron Man comic book, but the first film was my 2nd favorite movie of 2008. Although this is the 2nd Iron Man film it’s the 3rd film in the “Marvel Cinematic Universe” (Incredible Hulk was the 2nd). This is an exciting time for comic book film fans, as all the heroes, villains, and other characters in the “universe” know about each other and are free to appear in each other’s films. For this dream to be fully realized, Marvel needs to continue to produce good movies that make lots of money.

Robert Downey Jr. reprises his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man. The film picks up with Tony Stark enjoying his newfound celebrity at the opening of Stark Enterprises’ technology expo. It seems that Iron Man has brought about world peace, which has made him hugely popular with the people but not so popular with the government. Tony receives a subpoena to testify before a government committee. The government doesn’t believe an individual should have so much power. They unsuccessfully attempt to pressure Tony to turn over his Iron Man suit to the U.S. military. Tony refuses, claiming that even in the worst case scenario another country would be 5 years away from building an Iron Man type of suit to attack our country.

It turns out Tony is wrong about the 5 years. While Tony’s corporate rival Justin Hammer’s (Sam Rockwell) weapons company is nowhere near perfecting their own military iron man suits, our main villain Ivan (Mickey Rourke) is in Russia with his own crude suit he built in order to settle a long standing personal grudge with Tony’s dad. Ivan soon shows up at a car race in Monaco, as Whiplash, for a showdown with Iron Man. Iron Man emerges victorious and Whiplash is captured. He doesn’t stay in prison for long, as Justin Hammer breaks him out of prison in order to have him fix his nonworking army of iron man suits.

While Whiplash is working on modifying suits into unmanned drones, Tony Stark deals with his personal issues. It seems the device used to power his Iron Man suit is also causing damage to his heart. As Tony works to find a new power source that won’t kill him he is contacted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) of the government agency S.H.I.E.L.D. They want him to be a part of their “Avengers Initiative” and can help him find a new safe power source.

The subplots don’t end there. At the end of a drunken birthday party, Tony’s good friend Rhodey (Don Cheadle) steals one of the older Iron Man suits and delivers it to the military and Justin Hammer. They outfit the suit with new software and weapons. Tony also attempts to rekindle his romance with Pepper Potts, who is now CEO of Stark Enterprises, while at the same time flirting with his new assistant Natalie (Scarlett Johansson) who turns out to be S.H.I.E.L.D. agent The Black Widow.

All of these plotlines lead to a huge showdown in Flushing Meadow NY between Iron Man & Rhodey, now dubbed War Machine in his suit, against an army of remote controlled iron man like drones & Whiplash.

Although I don’t think Iron Man 2 is as good as its predecessor, it should be good enough to satisfy the audience and generate enough money to keep the series going. There is too much plot and not enough action to be a great movie. I understand they had to set up S.H.I.E.L.D., as it will be a big part of the overall cinematic universe. But once you add that plotline into the movie, you have to cut out some of the other characters and subplots in order to deliver more action set pieces. On the positive side, the two main action sequences are great. And Robert Downey once again does a great job as Tony Stark. He’s extremely arrogant and funny, just as in the first one. The entire cast is good and the special effects are top notch.

A great comic book movie also needs a great villain. You can see that Whiplash had the potential to be that great villain, but we don’t see enough of him being a badass in the movie. There just isn’t enough time to build him up thanks to all the subplots. He’s a good villain, but not great.

All the elements are there for Iron Man 2 to be a great film, but in the end we only get a good movie. It is good enough to keep my excitement level up for all the upcoming films in the Marvel Universe (Thor, Captain America, & Avengers). I can’t wait to see how it all unfolds. Make sure you see this in the theater and wait for the final scene after the credits.

Best & Worst Movies of 2009

10 Best Movies of '09 (in order)	10 Worst Movies of '09 (in order)
District 9 Avatar Watchmen Star Trek Ip Man Drag Me To Hell Sin Nombre (500) Days of Summer Ong Bak 2 Taken	The Fourth Kind Pink Panther 2 Bruno Humpday Tetro Inkheart Post Grad New In Town 17 Again The Spy Next Door

REVIEW: The Fourth Kind

STARRING: Milla Jovovich View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 11/13/09 DATE SCREENED: 10/20/09 The Verdict SUCKS - Don't Waste Your Time

For those of you that don’t know, there are supposedly four classifications of alien encounters. The First Kind is a UFO sighting. The Second Kind is collecting evidence of the UFO. The Third Kind is contact with Extra Terrestrials. The Fourth Kind is alien abduction. The film The Fourth Kind claims to be based on “actual case studies” that “prove” alien abductions. Let me make this clear right way – there is no such thing as actual case studies that prove alien abductions. But I was curious to see if the film was well done enough to convince people in the audience that there is such footage. Some people actually believe Paranormal Activity is real footage, and that has led that film to become a huge hit.

The Fourth Kind centers on Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich), a psychologist in the small town of Nome, Alaska. It seems this town’s residents have disappeared under mysterious circumstances since back in the ‘60s. In the present day, Dr. Tyler begins to see a string of traumatized patients who being to detail similar incidents of alien abduction while under hypnosis. Throughout the film we see dramatizations mixed with “actual archival footage”. This means we see interviews with the “real” Dr. Abigail Tyler and footage of her patients interspersed with interviews of Milla as Dr. Tyler and other actors playing her patients. Eventually Dr. Tyler herself is on the couch with her own alien abduction story to tell.

In theory it is a good idea to creep people out with this idea of mixing spooky "actual footage" into a movie. But in this case the execution is horrible. There is not one thing in this movie that convinced me it could be real. The very first interview with the “real” pale & lifeless Dr. Tyler felt like I was watching an actress. The “archival footage” of people under hypnosis goes way too far and becomes too dramatic to be authentic. As I sat there in the theater, bored out of my mind, I wondered to myself if anyone in the theater was actually buying into any of this. My question was answered when during one of the more ridiculous segments of “actual footage” of a guy floating, someone yelled out "this is bull s@#$". After another ridiculous scene people started laughing. You’d have to be pretty stupid to believe any of the “real footage”. This will not go down alongside Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity as that rare scary movie that people believed could be real. The trailer is creepier than the entire movie. This movie really sucks… don’t waste your time.

REVIEW: District 9

STARRING: Sharlto Copley View Trailer RELEASE DATE: 08/14/09 DATE SCREENED: 08/05/09 The Verdict GREAT - See it opening weekend

The summer movie season got off to a good start with Wolverine and Star Trek but quickly fizzled. I was intrigued by the trailer for District 9, which does what a good trailer is supposed to do. It only gives you a taste of what the movie is going to be about, instead of giving away parts of the best scenes. Although I was intrigued, after the disappointment I’ve experienced this summer I wasn’t about to get my hopes up too high. After all, District 9 didn’t have any known actors and only a $30 million budget (GI Joe cost $175 million). The only thing the movie had going for it on paper was producer Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings). It turns out that District 9 has a lot more going for it than what you see on paper. I left the theater excited by having seen a great movie that exceeded all my expectations.

28 years prior to the beginning of the film, a giant disabled alien spaceship ends up floating right above Johannesburg South Africa. The aliens on board are sick and transferred to the surface. The aliens are forced to live in a slum called District 9, while the world argues over what to do with them.

In the present day, the aliens live in poverty with Nigerian gangs. They exchange alien technology/goods for cat food and sneak out of the District to steal from others. The South African population refers to them by the racist term of “prawns”. Scientist have been working unsuccessfully to figure out how to use the alien technology, including their weapons. A private company, MNU, is hired to remove the aliens from their slum to a more remote prison like location. By law they must give the aliens 24 hr notice. While serving notice, the lead MNU field agent, Wikus van der Merwe, is infected with an alien virus while examining an alien device. This infection begins to slowly transform him into one of the aliens. Doctors discover that this transformation allows him to fire alien weapons which are activated by DNA. This makes his body a valuable possession to the military, and permission is granted to kill Wikus and harvest his body parts. Of course, this does not sit well with Wikus, and he manages to escape. He runs to District 9 to find the owner of the device that infected him to seek a cure. The owner is an alien who has been named Christopher Johnson. It turns out Christopher has spent the last 28 years working on an escape plan, but needs the device that infected Wikus to finally execute the plan. The device is now locked up tight at MNU headquarters. Wikus agrees to help get the device back, in exchange for a cure.

Wikus steals some alien weaponry that was being hoarded by a Nigerian gang, and then the film kicks into overdrive. Wikus and his new alien friend Christopher attack MNU headquarters to retrieve the device, which it turns out is fuel. Then they must fend off an all out military assault, and a Nigerian gang assault, when they get back to District 9. What was a serious character driven film turns into a kick-ass action movie for the final act. But all the action has a purpose and I really cared about who was going to live and who was going to die. District 9 brilliantly draws you into the story and makes you care about the characters before blowing you away with the action.

The film has much more going for it than just a famous producer. Most important, it has a great script. It attempts to realistically portray what might happen if about a million aliens ended up stranded on Earth. We see how being forced to live on Earth in poverty with no human education has led to deep rooted racism against what is actually a brilliant alien race. College students could write papers on the parallels between this film and apartheid.

The film also has Sharlto Copley playing Wikus going for it. He shows us that he is a great actor, even though this is his very first role. His character is well fleshed out, as we see how he relates to his wife and how he is forced to question his racist beliefs about the “prawns”. Although the aliens are mostly special effects, the relationship between Christopher and his son felt very real.

The special effects are seamless. I don’t know how they managed such stellar special effects on a $30 million budget. The final battle is more intense and well done than what I have seen in movies that cost 5 or 6 times as much.

District 9 is a great movie that needs to be seen opening weekend. It’s rare for a movie to exceed my expectations like this one has. It’s probably the best film I’ve seen all year, and should be a contender come Oscar time.