Released in 2010

True Grit (2010)

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Them men wanted a decent burial, they should have got themselves killed in summer.

Remakes of John Wayne movies are a rare thing. Stagecoach was remade twice, but never with memorable results. The Sons of Katie Elder was kinda/sorta remade as the Mark Wahlberg film Four Brothers, but the modern-day gang parable was barely recognizable next to the source material.

True Grit

In True Grit, Jeff Bridges would be stepping into the iconic role that earned Wayne his Best Actor Oscar and the only character that I can recall that Wayne actually played twice. It was a ballsy move for an actor now permanently identified with “The Dude,” the memorable slacker from The Big Lebowski. Fortunately for Bridges, the Coen Brothers, also writer/directors for Lebowski, had the actor’s back.

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Director:  | Released:  | 110 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

The Fighter (2010)

Monday, June 6th, 2011

You really think your family’s lookin’ out for you?

I think we’re wasting money on all the “Just Say No” programs we think are going to keep kids off drugs. Two hours with someone like Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) should convince anyone that drugs are a one-way ticket to nowhere. The first time we see him in The Fighter, the ex-boxer is living for two things: his rose-colored memories of the time he knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard and his next vial of crack.

The Fighter

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Director:  | Released:  | 116 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I (2010)

Thursday, June 2nd, 2011

You may be the Chosen One, mate, but this is a whole lot bigger than that.

The last Harry Potter movie (the Half-Blood Prince) was the first one to leave me genuinely cold when it was over. The first part of the film seemed to fritter about with various pieces of business until finally getting down to brass tacks in the last 30 minutes or so. I had to wonder if the connective tissue between these scenes was more apparent in the printed word and just didn’t translate readily to the screen.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

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Director:  | Released:  | 146 min. | Rated:  | Genres:  | Franchise: 

How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Friday, May 20th, 2011

What are you gonna do about it?

Ehhh… probably something stupid.

Good, but you’ve already done that.

Dreamworks Animation has always labored in the considerable shadow of Pixar. With the exception of the original Shrek, their output has had its merits but they have never matched the relentless consistency of Disney’s seemingly unstoppable CG animation house. I don’t know if they have turned that corner, but with How to Train Your Dragon, they have finally produced a film that belongs in the same league as The Incredibles and WALL-E. (more…)

Director:  | Released:  | 98 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

The King’s Speech (2010)

Monday, May 16th, 2011

In the past all a King had to do was look respectable in uniform and not fall off his horse.

A truly excellent movie always manages to boil its story down to the essentials. It’s the mediocre ones that fumble around trying to figure out what they’re about. I won’t say what the bad ones do, but it often involves some hand lotion and a back issue of National Geographic.

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Director:  | Released:  | 118 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

The Social Network (2010)

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Creation myths need a Devil.

When I started this website, Facebook was just starting to be a blip on everyone’s radar. At that time, anyone stepping into the arena we call social networking was seen as MySpace’s prison bitch. If you need to be reminded about what MySpace is, you can Google it. It used to be big.

Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network

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Director:  | Released:  | 120 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

TRON: Legacy (2010)

Friday, May 6th, 2011

This can’t be good.

The original TRON was most impressive as a demonstration of technology that was, for the most part, still lingering just over the horizon. It was more of a demo reel with a plot, fondly remembered by the geeks who were wowed by its then-revolutionary visuals and couldn’t be bothered by the lack of an engaging story.

Tron: Legacy

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Director:  | Released:  | 125 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

The Town (2010)

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

We’ll never get 24 hour surveillance unless one of these idiots converts to Islam.

Let me be up front and say that Ben Affleck isn’t my favorite actor, especially when he’s not working for Kevin Smith. Somehow, he often seems out of his depth when he tries to stretch himself too far beyond that Good Will Hunting earnestness. Only two features into his directorial career, however, I’m quickly becoming a fan of his work behind the camera. We’ll see how he does when he moves outside the comfort zone of the Boston crime story, but maybe he shouldn’t bother. John Ford stuck mostly to westerns, and he did all right.

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Director:  | Released:  | 125 min. | Rated:  | Genres: 

Robin Hood (2010)

Thursday, April 28th, 2011

If you thought it was hard getting wages from him when he was alive, try getting wages from a dead king.

It’s hard to believe that Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe have been going steady for than a decade, and if this movie is any sign, the relationship might be going a bit stale.

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Director:  | Released:  | 140 min. | Rated:  | Genres: