2010 Capsule Reviews

Inception
rating: *****
review: Christopher Nolan achieves his non-Batman trademark film with this mind-bending thriller packed with an all-star cast that helped reintroduce Tom Hardy.

Robin Hood
rating: ****
review: Dismissed as Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe rehashing their Gladiator collaboration, it feels for me like as authentic a version of the legend as we're likely to get.

I Love You, Phillip Morris
rating: ****
review: In hindsight a movie that stands as Jim Carrey's last stand as a lead actor with the ability to call his own shots, and a worthy addition to his string of surreal blending of comedy and drama, following The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Remember Me
rating: ****
review: Robert Pattinson's first stab at a lead acting performance in Hollywood is a worthy addition to the troubled youth genre, and a keen and unexpected look at 9/11.

The Other Guys
rating: ****
review: Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are a great comedic pairing (better here, perhaps than their two subsequent Daddy's Home movies), and also Adam McKay preparing for his later career.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1
rating: ****
review: The part with Harry, Ron & Hermione setting out on their own and finding the world even more bewildering than Hogwarts.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
rating: ****
review: Oliver Stone right at the tail-end of still being taken seriously, at least getting to expand on one of his own previous statements, and making the most of it.

The Losers
rating: ****
review: A great action ensemble, featuring Idris Elba, Chris Evans, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Zoe Saldana, and Jason Patric, with the kind of flair Robert Rodriguez previously brought to the movies.

True Grit
rating: ****
review: The definitive screen version of the story.

Clash of the Titans
rating: ****
review: Back when Sam Worthington was still a thing, he got to do a lot of interesting stuff, like this remake, immortalized by Liam Neeson uttering, "Release the kraken!"

Ondine
rating: ****
review: This quiet Colin Farrell drama proves you don't have to be flashy in order to do fantasy.

Somewhere
rating: ****
review: Sofia Coppola doesn't get near enough attention for the quality she consistently delivers in her movies, which cover a broad range of tones.  This is another subdued study from 2010.

Get Him to the Greek
rating: ****
review: A rare instance of a breakout character from a movie (in this case, Aldous Snow from Forgetting Sarah Marshall) getting his own spinoff.  The music's the best part! 

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
rating: ****
review: Based on the comic books, I've always described this as the geek version of (500) Days of Summer.

Valentine's Day
rating: ****
review: An ensemble romantic comedy packed with stars and memorable moments.

Cairo Time
rating: ****
review: A rare spotlight role for Alexander Siddig.

The Last Airbender
rating: ****
review: Considered emblematic of M. Night Shyamalan's fall from grace and loathed by fans of the original cartoons, it's good fun all the same.

Despicable Me
rating: ****
review: A perfect animated vehicle for Steve Carell.  Debut of the Minions!

Iron Man 2
rating: ****
review: Somewhat universally considered among the worst of the MCU movies, it's actually among my favorites, a rare reflective entry.  Plus the debut of Black Widow!

The Next Three Days
rating: ***
review: A minor Russell Crowe entry from when his career was treading water.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
rating: ***
review: A minor Woody Allen ensemble pleasure.

The A-Team
rating: ***
review: Joe Carnahan's stab at the mainstream doesn't get the full pleasure of his wild impulses.

Hereafter
rating: ***
review: Clint Eastwood's stab at artful.

Winter's Bone
rating: ***
review: Jennifer Lawrence discovered!  Otherwise a movie experience improved upon by the later Mud.

Unstoppable
rating: ***
review: Chris Pine gets upstaged by the train.

The Social Network
rating: ***
review: I'm more interested in it for the supporting performances of Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer than following the activities of a self-centered jerk.

Machete
rating: ***
review: Robert Rodriguez seizes an opportunity provided by Grindhouse, but doesn't quite hit his Desperado/Once Upon a Time in Mexico/Sin City heights.

The Fighter
rating: ***
review: Christian Bale steals the movie as the far more interesting junkie brother.

Black Swan
rating: ***
review: Darren Aronofsky tends to get carried away with his fever dreams.

Shutter Island
rating: ***
review: Sort of like a version of Christopher Nolan that leans too heavily into expected territory.

How to Train Your Dragon
rating: ***
review: I know that it's based on a series of books, but it really feels as if this one's hurt by the existence of sequels.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
rating: ***
review: This is another one that's hurt by the existence of subsequent material.

Tron Legacy
rating: ***
review: All brilliant style that overpowers the story.

The Town
rating: ***
review: I appreciate how it revived Ben Affleck's career, but I guess I just ended up caring more about his brother Casey's Boston crime drama, Gone Baby Gone.

The Warrior's Way
rating: ***
review: I like to think of it as a kind of Pirates of the Caribbean in the old west, with a random South Korean inserted instead of Jack Sparrow.

Devil
rating: ***
review: M. Night Shyamalan's comeback bid actually kind of began with this, which he executive produced. 

Death at a Funeral
rating: ***
review: Hilarious ensemble comedy. 

Cop Out
rating: ***
review: I don't care if Kevin Smith hated making it, I loved watching it.

The Bounty Hunter
rating: ***
review: Hollywood in its early attempts at what to do with Gerard Butler post-300, in an unlikely romantic comedy that just made critics wary of Butler's manly persona uncomfortable (the stupid twats).

The Book of Eli
rating: ***
review: Here's an example of a twist ending that kind of diminishes the impact of the movie as a whole; learning that Denzel Washington was blind from the start would've made it much more interesting.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
rating: ***
review: I wish Disney were still trying to do stuff like this (obviously an attempt to capture some of the Harry Potter magic) and not just buying everyone else's stuff.  It gave Nicolas Cage something interesting to do that didn't make him look nuts.

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
rating: ***
review: It's basically Gemma Arterton's movie.

The Wolfman
rating: ***
review: I think they overthought what was a dynamite concept in and of itself: Benicio del Toro in the iconic horror role.

Megamind
rating: ***
review: This is what Despicable Me looks like if it played too close to convention.

RED
rating: ***
review: Kind of wastes the premise and cast.

Salt
rating: ***
review: Kind of wastes an interesting character by throwing Angelina Jolie into having to deny allegations; Atomic Blonde later did this a lot better.

Alice in Wonderland
rating: ***
review: Overwhelming spectacle.

Shrek Forever After
rating: ***
review: The series had officially overstayed its welcome.

Jonah Hex
rating: ***
review: I'm a big Josh Brolin fan, so would probably watch it again for that reason alone.  Probably missing the right balance for an odd comic book character like this.

Takers
rating: ***
review: Idris Elba's other action ensemble would've benefited from leaning more heavily on Paul Walker's Fast & Furious past (and future).

Tangled
rating: ***
review: Disney just before it figured out the Frozen formula.

Gulliver's Travels
rating: ***
review: The Jack Black version, which is a Jack Black version.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
rating: The one where Jacob is a creep again because Edward came back.

Knight & Day
rating: **
review: Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz both seem like they weren't quite ready to make this one.

Skyline
rating: **
review: A kind of minor Independence Day.

Predators
rating: **
review: I'm not hugely sure why this is an ongoing franchise.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed
rating: **
review: It's a shame Gemma Arterton had to make stuff like this at the same time her Hollywood career was taking off.

Toy Story 3
rating: *
review: I know that this one's kind of universally beloved, but I find it to be a pointless rehash

The King's Speech
rating: *
review: A shameless act of Oscars pandering.

Stone
rating: *
review: A career low for Edward Norton.

Green Zone
rating: *
review: A career low for Matt Damon, Hollywood thinking it had defined the Iraq War.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
rating: *
review: I'm not hugely sure why this feel-bad series of books happened, or why the movies happened.

Redbox! (a look ahead)

Here's what I've got ahead in Redbox movies:

• Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) - Bridesmaids had the effect of instantly making a new star out of Melissa McCarthy, who seized the opportunity with a string of big hits.  It's also given her the chance to make stuff like this, which I'm glad to see happened. 
• Once Upon a Deadpool (2018) - The family-friendly cut of Deadpool 2; I was pleased to find a DVD release of it (stores stock the Blu-ray version).  Glad this happened, too.
• The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) - A second US movie finally happened.  I was annoyed that Rooney Mara didn't get to reprise the role, but then I'm also a reader who's enjoyed the post-Larsson books.  Lisbeth Salander's cultural impact seems to have dimmed considerably, but I still treasure her.  So, I'm glad this movie happened, too.
• The Magnificent Seven (2016) I remember being underwhelmed by it in theaters, but am still interested enough to give it another chance.  Even if seems to have been conceived as a mainstream Hollywood version of a Quentin Tarantino movie (which has also happened with Murder on the Orient Express, which echoes The Hateful Eight), which in this case is Django Unchained, it still gives Denzel Washington one of his more interesting recent roles (he and Liam Neeson seem to be going after stock movies a little too often these days), and it's got Chris Pratt in a featured role as well, and that's too interesting a career for me to ignore.
• Mary Queen of Scots (2018) It's got Margot Robbie, and Saoirse Ronan, who finally interested critics with a movie (Lady Bird) I have no interest in, of course.  Being a fan of Yorgos Lanthimos fan, I've already seen the other 2018 women-in-a-historical-setting-are-rivals movie The Favourite.  Figure this one will be less quirky (which is not a dig against Favourite; it's good quirky!).
• The Sisters Brothers (2018) I begin to understand how cult movies happen, in that they have to be ignored initially.  So I'm glad I'm attuned to movies with that kind of potential, like this.  I also happen to have a thing for westerns, thanks to my dad, so I'm always on the lookout. 
• Skyscraper (2018) - Being a pro wrestling fan, I was happy to see Dwayne Johnson's movie career happen, and for it to subsequently become a rousing success.  I don't try to see all of his material, but I like to watch the ones where he's doing something interesting.  This one, for instance, features (for him) a more grounded character.

Redbox!

My obsession the past few years has been getting cheap movies from Redbox.  I did the same sort of thing from actual video rental stores when they still existed, so I'm glad Redbox has continued the tradition.  Sometimes I buy movies just because they're cheap and look interesting.  Here's a look at some that I bought in recent months (and have gotten around to watching):

• Annihilation (2018) - This was a much-buzzed-about movie last year that I found less interesting than others, notable mostly for its female cast than for the cheap horror thrills that pad out the story.  It's like the B-movie version of Arrival.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) - Unlike a lot of MCU fans, I consider Ant-Man a huge highlight of the series.  This was one of the two entries released between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame (meant to write up something about Captain Marvel but I've been a bad blogger lately), and it's got just about everything going for it.  One of my favorite MCU movies.
• Darkest Hour (2017) - Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill isn't the only reason to watch this, but the sheer audacity of Churchill's existence itself, in an age that still wants us to believe personality trumps policy (or indeed has anything at all to do with it).  To watch British officials try and weasel their way out of WWII (which in hindsight is unthinkable) is itself worthy of documenting. 
• I Kill Giants (2017) - Based on a comic book (basically the reason the girl wears those rabbit ears), this is a low-impact version of the brilliant A Monster Calls.
• Passengers (2016) - You can always tell when there's a push against a movie, and there was a massive push against Passengers, I think mostly to try and derail Chris Pratt's popularity at the box office (this is an era that seems hell-bent on destroying the idea of movie stars).  I don't give a shit what people say about it (the whole notion that it's unintentionally creepy can only be defended by people who haven't actually seen it), it's a good movie.
• Paul, Apostle of Christ (2018) - The hook of this one was that it was Jim Caviezel's return to biblical filmmaking (following, of course, The Passion of the Christ, needlessly dismissed as controversial despite being a seminal work of movie art), depicting the early Christian era.  I confess to not having properly watched this one yet.
• Teen Titans Go! to the Movies (2018) Unlike the increasingly spastic cartoon series from which it derives, the movie mostly restrains itself as one long in-joke that's a fine commentary on our superhero-saturated movie era.
• Terminal (2018) - I got this one mostly because I've become interested in Margot Robbie's career but also because it's a rare recent film appearance of Mike Myers (who's indeed, based on an incomplete viewing, an expected highlight). 
• Woman Walks Ahead (2017) - What has continuously confounded me is how Jessica Chastain can be the best actress of her generation and be so consistently overlooked.  She gives yet another compelling performance in this one, a historical drama based on true events (any disputes about its accuracy only serves to confirm the maxim that ought to exist about not taking all your historical facts from movies), an unexpected relationship between a widow and Sitting Bull.  Sam Rockwell, also always worth following, provides a fine supporting role.
• The Yellow Birds (2017) - An Iraq War drama with some of the best young actors working today (Alden Erhenreich, Tye Sheridan, Jack Huston), deserves to be considered among the classics of its genre.