People do that...right?
Anyways, I started compiling a list of the movies that I saw in 2010, and quickly realizing that I should probably maintain a "released in 2010" standard, I went through the holy grail of information, wikipedia, and picked out all the films released this year, and the ones I saw. After about 10 minutes of scrolling through this list, I came to the realization that I haven't seen enough movies that were released this year to actually put together a top 10 list. At least not a list worth noting. Hell, I haven't even see The Social Network yet! But I have seen Splice...so...that's awesome...
Anyways, I'm just gonna give a quick little review or two of all the movies I've seen that were released this year...
Image via WikipediaCute, odd, and a bit schizophrenic, Michael Cera shows up as the first film of the year and the first of his appearances of what I saw. Oddly enough, I watched all three seasons of Arrested Development, plus 2009 movie Paper Heart. Perhaps I'm getting a little obsessive...?Anyways, this movie isn't the kind of movie normal audiences are going to get behind. It's too crazy to really find an audience. Which is why I really liked it. It went for the jugular with it's story and didn't sugar coat it, well, maybe a little.
Cera plays a kid who falls in love with a girl, who moves away, which makes Cera follow after her to be with her, meanwhile, she may be playing him like a deck of cards, or perhaps she is sincere about her feelings. To win her heart, Cera creates different personalities of himself to win her over, which lead him to bits of arson and faking his own death among other things.
Odd and quirky at times, certainly a kick back and don't think too hard about it kind of movie.
The Book of Eli: 4 1/2 out of 5
Only downfalls I had were issues with Eli's journey before the movie began and the ending. I wasn't' sure what Kunis's character was looking for at the end. Perhaps I just need to see it again.
Martin Scorsese is one of the few directors working anymore that just by name elicits a need to see his movies from his fans. Especially when he takes on a new genre, something that have been known to scare audiences away from other attempts at "trying something new". But from Taxi Driver to The Departed, Scorsese has shown that he is a master of the craft.
With Shutter Island, he provides audiences a creepy, scary movie that, for the first time since The Sixth Sense, I wanted to go back and watch just to catch everything I missed, something that even M. Night Shyamalan has difficulty getting audiences to do these days. Leonardo DiCaprio continues to give strong performances and doesn't once rest in solving the crime he was sent to the mental ward to solve. But perhaps I've said too much. Certainly a must see, unless you have no soul...then perhaps you would like...
The Crazies: 3 out of 5 stars
My biggest issue is not being sure what the biological weapon is supposed to do, other than make people crazy and give them a skin rash. It's not a great movie. I wouldn't recommend buying it, but it's worth checking out once on a quiet evening when you're out in the middle of nowhere...
Alice in Wonderland: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
What can I say. There are times when I love Tim Burton (Big Fish, Edward Scissorhands) and there are times when I hate him (Batman, Planet of the Apes). Generally combining him with Johnny Depp helps to make for a better movie, it doesn't always work. But adding Disney into the mix, leaves a person a bit *sigh*. I still don't know what to think of this vision of Alice in Wonderland. I thought it was okay. A bit darker than the original cartoon but did not play the story off talking down to the younger audiences as most kids movies seem to do there days. The CG was quite well done but suffered a bit from being on such a small screen and having a big world to fill it with. I had hoped that someone of Burtons imagination would have been able to think up a more magical world of creatures and characters to walk alongside the original characters from the story, but found that was not the case. Perhaps someone with the imagination of Guillermo del Toro or even Shane Acker would have been more to the task of creating Wonderland in a different way. I wasn't blown away by the movie, as Depp, Bonham-Carter, and the whole voice cast gave some really good performances, not to mention the girl who played Alice, who i enjoyed the whole way through. I was waiting for Depp to fall in and out of Jack Sparrow mode, and caught him once or twice, but just briefly. I desperately wanted to go back and watch the tv movie made back in the 80's about Alice in wonderland and see if it brought back any memories. Perhaps in the future Tim Burton will find his muse again that created Edward Scissorhands and we'd all be able to enjoy a little dark fantasy that made us all a little happier and dream a little more magically in younger times.
That's all I've got for the moment, but stick around for more of my Top 10 of 2010. Up next I've got:
Hot Tub Time Machine,
After.Life
Kick-Ass
Exit Through the Gift Shop
A Nightmare on Elm Street
and a recap of my Iron Man 2 review.
Stay Tuned...
H
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