Best Movies of the Year (2011) So Far (My Opinion)

I usually like to post this around this time just to get the idea on what movies were the best, in my opinion of course. There will be movies on this list that some of you (maybe all of you) may have not heard of, some are actually movies I’ve seen in a Film Festival (Actionfest is the only festival I’ve been too this year so far) or on Video On Demand. Of course all the movies on this list can and probably will change by the end of the year. So let’s get to the list

These movies are in no particular order (yet)

• The Adjustment Bureau: I’ll admit in the beginning I didn’t really feel like watching this movie however the more I heard about I became interested. Also have a good cast like Matt Damon and Emily Blunt also helps.
• Battle: LA: I was completely surprised at this movie although it had sci-fi elements the movie was a complete war film. Yes the movie did have some Marine recruitmentness in there and some of the scenes involving non marine characters kinda slowed the movie down but it was still pretty damn good.
• Insidious: Good horror movies are find to hard nowadays especially original ones and Insidious was one of the those movies. Yes it had elements from other but all movies do. Great cast and more importantly great scares which is hard to go for me.
• Bellflower: Although some film festival crowds know this movie it is still a great movie that I think people should watch. Not going to give much away of this but when it comes out you should watch.
• Tomorrow, When The War Began: I’ve grown more fond of movies from other countries and Australia seems to be one of those places. This movie is actually based off a series of books from “The Land From Down Under” and this movie is going to start bringing that to the big screen.
• Hanna: A movie about a female teenager assassin going through an adventure in a world she never thought she would see while also begin hunted down and kicking ass. Hanna was not just an action movie but a coming of age/art film.
• Fast Five: Despite what people think of the Fast and Furious series I still find them pretty entertaining and dumb fun. Fast Five had everything we loved about the original and the others. Cheesy lines, over the top action, and add in The Rock and you got yourself a movie.
• Thor: One of the probably the most hardest comic book characters to bring to the big screen (because of the mythology and character itself) but Kenneth Branagh and Chris Hemsworth managed to bring it. Not just a great story but a great acting and visual effects.
• X-Men: First Class: Despite the last two X-Men films not being great they managed to bring back some goodness into the iconic franchise. X-Men: First Class not only told the origin story of the team but how Professor X and Magneto came to be friends and later enemies. Micheal Fassbender did a terrific job and sure is the new leading man in Hollywood.
• Super 8: J.J Abrams is one of those directors that likes to keep things related to his movie close to the chest (Christopher Nolan of course is the other). Abrams also gave his lead character role to child actor that was never in a movie before. Also the fact that the movie is really not a creature movie and more of a character driven movie which is losing focus in movie nowadays.

So that’s my list so far. I’m not going to put the worst movies here, because let’s admit why tarnish the list of good with crappy movies. So do you agree? Disagree? Let me know and of course keep enjoying movies.

First Look at Katniss Everdeen and Bane

First look of Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games book adaptation and then of Bane played by Tom Hardy in The Dark Knight Rises. So what do you think? Like or dislike

X-Men First Class Trailer

So the moment that some of us have waited for has finally come (or at least last night Thursday). The trailer for the upcoming Marvel based superheroes has made the rounds online and has been put in the guillotine by its fans but some have praised it. I am in the praising category, I loved the trailer and look forward to it when it comes out, with a pretty good cast and a great director like Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass, Layer Cake) I can not wait for this movie.

Check out the trailer:

What do you think? like or dislike?

Want to get a inside look and get a breakdown on the trailer: http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/02/11/ign-rewind-theater-x-men-first-class-debut-trailer

Oscar Nomination Thoughts

Full List: http://www.imdb.com/features/oscars/2011/nominations

Now I won’t be doing all the nominees just the ones that main ones of the night. So let’s start this thing shall we.

Best Picture:

127 Hours

Black Swan

The Fighter

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King’s Speech

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winter’s Bone

Thoughts: All great movies (Haven’t seen King’s Speech, 127 Hours or Winter’s Bone yet) and with Social Network winning the Golden Globe for best picture it would seem unlikely that it would win here (only movie that I remember doing that is Slumdog Millionaire). Not saying Social Network isn’t a bad movie but I think it’s time another movie wins. I don’t know who will win but I have a feeling that the movie that might have the highest chances of winning are Social Network, King’s Speech, The Fighter or Black Swan.

 

Best Leading Actor:

Javier Bardem for Biutiful (2010)

Jeff Bridges for True Grit (2010)

Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network (2010)

Colin Firth for The King’s Speech (2010)

James Franco for 127 Hours (2010)

Thoughts: This one is tough considering that I can’t really pass judgment on all the actors because I haven’t seen any of them expect for Social Network and True Grit. So of the two I’ve seen I think that Bridges and Eisenberg will NOT win the award. I think it might be Colin Firth who wins because he’s been getting rave reviews for his role. Javier Bardem is also getting raves reviews for his movie. Tough choice here because then again Eisenberg can pull through.

 

Best Leading Actress:

Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole (2010)

Jennifer Lawrence for Winter’s Bone (2010)

Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010)

Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine (2010)

Thoughts: Have not seen Rabbit Hole, Winter’s bone or Blue Valentine so I’m going to go with the three I’ve seen. So between Bening or Portman I ashamed to say they might give it to Bening because they probably feel sorry for never giving her the award before. However, if she doesn’t win, I really hope Portman wins because she truly deserves it but Kidman or Williams could win.

 

Best Supporting Actor:

Christian Bale for The Fighter

John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone

Jeremy Renner for The Town

Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech

Thoughts: with Bale winning the Globes he might come around and win the Oscar too and I wouldn’t be surprised. Rush might also win just for the King’s Speech factor or even Renner because they didn’t give it to him for The Hurt Locker.

 

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams for The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech

Melissa Leo for The Fighter

Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit

Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom

Thoughts: Now I really feel strongly about this category because Hailee Steinfeld is NOT A SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN TRUE GRIT, she is the LEAD in True Grit. Despite that fact I think somebody from The Fighter will win the award, who? doesn’t matter.

 

Best Director:

Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for True Grit

David Fincher for The Social Network

Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech

David O. Russell for The Fighter

Thoughts: Fans are outraged about Christoper Nolan not be nominated but to be honest that did not really surprise me but Nolan will always be one of the directors that will probably never get nominated and make excellent movies. So who do I think will win? True choice, any one of these directors could win and to be honest I really would not mind who wins here.

The Dark Knight Rises Villains Reveled

That’s right boys and girls the last installment of Christoper Nolan’s Batman Trilogy will come to an end after The Dark Knight Rises hits theaters. Earlier today the news that many of us had been wondering, questioning, and speculating about has ended.

Warner Brothers and Nolan himself said today that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle aka Catwoman and that Tom Hardy will be playing Bane. The Catwoman character of course has been rumored since Batman Begins but it was not until the hint in The Dark Knight that fans started to get their hopes up again. Fans started to get more excited when Tom Hardy was cast and the rumors started to spread like wildfire on who he was going to play. Rumors went from The Riddler, Killer Croc, Deadshot, and the fan favorite Hugo Strange (also my favorite), but it was not to be since Mr. Hardy is going to play the “man who broke the bat” Bane.

Now I would have really liked to have Hardy play Hugo Strange but him playing Bane is very interesting. Nolan has put twists to the villains and if you know the character of Bane you know he is almost superhuman character that has enhanced powers with a drug named Venom. Now how they will put that into the movie is going to be interesting. I think Hardy will do a good job as will Anne Hathaway playing Selina Kyle which will be a potential love interest and villain. I think people may be split when it comes to Hathaway playing a beloved character such as Catwoman but I think she can pull it off. Hathaway is a good actress and behind Nolan’s direction I think she will do fairly well as Selina Kyle/Catwoman.

Other source indicate that Talia Al Ghul will also be in the movie and be played by former Bond Girl Eva Green, but that has yet to be confirmed. This would of course make sense since her father Ra’s Al Ghul was the villain in Batman Begins. It would also bring some closure to the Nolan Trilogy in a way.

So all in all, I’m happy that we at least got news on who is going to play the villains in the movie but also disappointed because Dr. Hugo Strange is not going to be in the movie. What are your thoughts about this casting news.

Award Show Winners

So originally this was suppose to be a video announcing the winners but do to stuff happening around me, I was not able to the video. So I turned to the next best thing…the other part of the internet, the blogosphere. Anyway, for those of you how are aware I posted polls for you the people to vote for how YOU thought was the best actor, actress, director, supporting actor/actress blah blah blah. So without further ado let us begin this “Award” show.

If you were one of the people that voted you know there was a long list of nominees, so what I’m going to do is list the winner and the people/fights/etc you voted for.

Best Animated Movie

Winner: Toy Story 3

Tangled

How To Train Your Dragon

Despicable Me

Thoughts: not really a surprise here really, Toy Story 3 was the best animated movie this year in my opinion. Tangled was the runner up and was probably would have been the best if Toy Story did not come out.

Best Comic Book

Winner: TIE…Ironman 2 & RED

Kick-Ass

Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Thoughts: If I had to break the tie I would pick RED, don’t get me wrong I didn’t hate the others movies and unlike many people out there I did not hate Iron Man 2 either. I personally think RED and Scott Pilgrim vs The World were the best comic book movie in my mind this year with Kick-Ass very close behind.

Best Horror

Winner: The Crazies

Paranormal Activity 2

A Nightmare on Elm St.

My Soul to Take

Thoughts: okay first of all…Who voted for Nightmare on Elm St.? never mind. I was very surprised that The Crazies won because PA2 and The Crazies were always tied until the very end. Nonetheless, I loved The Crazies and PA2 and in my mind the two are equally tied for best horror.

Best Villain

Winners: Gabriel/Possessed – Legion & Freddy Kruger – A Nightmare on Elm St.

The Crazies – The Crazies

Ivan Vanko (Whiplash)/Justin Hammer – Iron Man 2

Predators – Predators

The League of Evil X’s – Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Horvath – Sorcerers Apprentice

Clu 2.0 – Tron Legacy

Thoughts: very surprised here by the way but I did like, and I use like very very loosely, the new Freddy Kruger but not that much. I did like Gabriel in Legion but I really feel like he should have been in it more. If I had to pick somebody for best villain it would be somebody that didn’t make the list and Raul ‘Dolor’ Quinones played by Marko Zaror. Maybe even Clu 2.0 because he was badass.

Best Fight

Winner: Gabriel vs Micheal – Legion

Arthur vs Projections (Zero Gravity) – Inception

Hit Girl vs Drug Dealers – Kick-Ass

Iron Man 2/War Machine vs Hammer Drones – Iron Man 2

Scott vs The League of Evil X’s – Scott Pilgrim vs The World

Thoughts: REALLY surprised here folks. Zero Gravity fight in Inception was ahead for a long time and then out of nowhere Legion came ahead. I did enjoy the fight scene in Legion but Zero Gravity fight scene in a hotel hallway takes my cake.

Best Actor

Winner: Leonardo DiCaprio – Shutter Island/Inception

Shia Labeouf – Wall St. Money Never Sleeps

Ethan Hawke – Daybreakers

Jeff Bridges – True Grit

Logan Lerman – Percy Jackson & The Olympians

Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network

Ryan Reynolds – Buried

Ben Affleck – The Town

Micheal Nyquist – Millennium Trilogy

Timothy Olyphant – The Crazies

Thoughts: props to Leo because he managed to give two great performances in two great movies. I have to say if I had to pick it would be hard, since there was alot of great performance this year and it would be hard to pick just one. I loved Leo in both movies so thank you for making that hard decision for me.

Best Supporting Actress

Winners: Willa Holland/Kate Walsh for Legion & Marion Cotillard for Inception

Scarlett Johansson – Iron Man 2

Mila Kunis – Black Swan

Mia Wasikowska – The Kids are Alright

Michelle Rodriquez – Machete

Thoughts: I agree Marion Cotillard in Inception was fantastic and while many people didn’t like Legion (I really starting to hate the comparison to Terminator) Willa Holland actually surprised me. I thought her character was going to be a bitch but turns out she was one that you wanted to see make it.

Best Supporting Actor

Winner: Joseph Gordon-Levitt/Tom Hardy – Inception

William Defoe – Daybreakers

Mark Ruffalo/Ben Kingsley – Shutter Island

Micheal Douglas – Wall St. Money Never Sleeps

Rupert Grunt – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1

Sean William Scott – Cop Out

Nicolas Cage – Sorcerer’s Apprentice

Jeremy Renner/Jon Hamm – The Town

Thoughts: Clear in my mind that the winners deserved it, loved Tom Hardy in the movie and Levitt is always good. However I’m very surprised that nobody voted for future Spider-Man himself Andrew Garfield and Armie Hammer for the Social Network or Christian Bale for The Fighter (then again I’m surprised people voted so there you go haha).

Best Actress

Winner: Noomi Rapace – Millennium Trilogy

Emma Watson – Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows Part 1

Ashley Bell – The Last Exorcism

Olivia Wilde – Tron Legacy

Hailee Steinfield – True Grit

Ellen Page – Inception

Natalie Portman – Black Swan

Thoughts: glad to see Rapace has gotten attention from moviegoers because she is truly a great actress and she’s going to be in the sequel to Sherlock Holmes. However, if we only did American movie I believe Portman for her Black Swan performance would have won BUT Steinfield performance in True Grit really surprised me and she arguably wins my best actress but if I had to pick I would pick Portman for American movies. I am in NO WAY putting down Rapace win.

Best Director

Winner: Christopher Nolan – Inception

Niels Adren Oplev – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan

Martin Scorsese – Shutter Island

Rodrigo Cortes – Buried

Ben Affleck – The Town

David Yates – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

Thoughts: Well not really a surprise is it since people have been saying Nolan is possible the best director out there right now. Nolan has always given us movies that have made us think or that has simply taken the movie world to a new level and Inception is no different. Another name that I’m surprised is not on this list is David Fincher for The Social Network. However, I have reached another tie in my mind as Nolan and Aronofsky take the best director for me this year.

Well that’s was my first award show. I wanted to thank everybody that voted because without you this could have been disastrous. Also want to thank the people that spread the word and made this possible. So again thank you for voting and hopefully this comes again this year in 2011

Highest number of votes: Noomi Rapace (8), Toy Story 3 (7), Nolan (6)

My Best (Favorite) Movies of 2010

It’s that time of the year boys and girls. The time when moviegoer have to decided what there favorite movie or movies of the year are. This year we got to see great movies from high paced action, thriller crime drama, mind twisting and animated movies five years in the making. I have to be honest this list was harder than others years since there have been many great movies that came out. Now without figure ado lets get this list started.

First I’ll list the Honorable Mentions:

- Edge of Darkness

- Clash of the Titans

-  From Paris with Love

- The Losers

- Iron Man 2

- Splice

- Green Zone

- Predators

- The Expendables

- Operation Endgame

- 14 Blades

- Raging Phoenix

- Vengeance

- Mandrill

- Takers

- The American

- Little Big Soldier

- It’s Kind of a Funny Story

- Daybreakers

- Harry Brown

- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1

- The Girl that Played with Fire/The Girl that Kicked the Hornets Nest

phew long list right, sorry about that but I couldn’t go without naming these movies. So Let’s move on to the actual list of my best movies of the year. Remember these are MY best movie and in no way is suppose to say all the movies you saw sucked, this is just the movie I felt were better in my opinion

I’m separate the movies into two parts the best and then the top 10. First movies will not be in order

1) The Crazies: While it is a remake of a George A. Romero film, I ended up loving the movie. Not a zombie movies even thought there is an infection turning people to kill one another. The movie bought a fresh and not so fresh sense for horror movie.

2) Undisputed 3: Redemption: the first undisputed movie was released in theaters and was so so but the following sequels have gotten more of a cult fan following with high octave action sequences and a pretty damn good director and Scott Adkins and upcoming action star Marko Zaror, this movie is definitely one of my favorite action movies this year and of all time.

3) Tucker and Dale vs Evil: While it is kind of unfair to put this on the list since it has not been released out in theaters or DVD just yet. This movie did an excellent job putting horror and comedy and making it work without turning it cheesy or dumb. Look out for this is when it comes out.

4) The Square: this movie was one of the perfect drama thrillers this year. Coming from Australia this movie does a good job explain what can happen when we get a tad bit greedy. Great performance and a slick sense of throwing the viewer off this movie had to be on my list

5) Paranormal Activity 2: when I heard this was being made I was sad because with most perfect movies like the first which in my opinion was a fresh take on horror movies this one proved me wrong. PA2 might have been better than the first in some ways because the movie was different and actually explain many questions that we had about the first. A perfect example that we don’t need blood, gore, or nudity to have a good horror movie.

6) Tangled: In what was probably the best Disney animated movie in a long time, Tangled did bring me back to some childhood memories of watching old Disney movies like Lion King. Tangled was damn good and if another certain animated movie had not come out this year it would have got my best animated movie.

7) REC 2: in a sequel to one of my favorite horror movies in a long time REC 2 reminded me why I loved the first one so much and gave me some more scared. Done in the same fashion as the first and many movies before it like Cloverfield and Blair Witch, this movies just gives me another reason to hate the dark and looking through my camera in video mode.

8) Scott Pilgrim vs The World: based off a comic book of the same name, Scott Pilgrim bought a fresh sense of action and video game references into a movie that bought many action sequences. While the movie at times felt kinda of slow I still ended up liking the movie to put it on my list.

9) Kick-Ass: another comic book movie Kick Ass bring a sense of what would if people tried to be super heroes for real. The movie was really violent which is rare in some comic book movies now since many are in PG-13. The movie did of course bring controversy because of Chloe Moretz performance as Hit Girl (and now a trend of comparing everybody to Hit Girl) with her swearing.

10) RED: yet another comic book movie on my list but this one takes my best comic book movie of the year because of the star power and the way the movie was made to add comedy and action and make a movie good. All in all this movie was really a fun action movie

11) The A-Team: A movie based off a popular tv show can go either way, like Miami Vice, however this movie worked. The movie had everything, drama, tad bit of romance, comedy and lots of action. While some say it was over the top, I thought it worked well.

12) Shutter Island: considering that this was supposed to realized in 2009, the wait was pretty worth it. With a great cast that includes Leo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese at the helm this one was a a truly great film. Suspense, drama, and a twist, nothing more could have been asked.

Now on to my Top 15 Movies of 2010:

15) Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

14 ) Merantau

13) Tron Legacy

12) Machete

11) Red Hill

10) True Grit

9) Easy A

8) The Town

7) Buried

6) The Fighter

5) Toy Story 3

4) The Social Network

3) The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

2) Inception

1) Black Swan

Surprised at my list? So was I anyway, that is my list so feel free to tell me what your best movies of the year for 2010 were. Let’s hope 2011 will bring a good year of movies again.

Batman 3 get’s a title “The Dark Knight Rises” but loses Riddler

Christopher Nolan the man that bought the hit movie Inception this year has now started to say what is happening in the world of Batman. Nolan known for keeping his projects close to the chest did an interview recently and stated the next Batman movie would be called “The Dark Knight Rises” you might be asking yourself why that title? Well we don’t know. Nonetheless, I am still going to see the movie and I trust Nolan with anything he does which leads to my next point. Nolan also said that the villain in the movie will NOT be the long gestured and rumored The Riddler which has come sadden some people.

While the Riddler would have been nice to see on the big screen done right, that’s right I’m talking to YOU BATMAN AND ROBIN. However, I do trust Nolan with whom ever he puts in the villain position. Personally seeing Tom Hardy playing Hugo Strange would be pretty cool or even Black Mask. Nolan is also reportedly looking for a female lead which could mean a new love interest or female villain. Maybe the other long gestured rumored villain Catwoman or Talia Al Ghu.

 

Thoughts