Top 5 Worst Movies of 2010

5. Vanishing on 7th Street

This movie just annoyed me. The characters were extremely stupid, the acting was bad, and the story was actually really good. If someone had just written it a little better and had gotten better actors, it would have been such an interesting movie. Instead, we get a fairly pretentious bad movie who thinks it's hot stuff. In reality? It's not.

4. Shrek Forever After

Just plain and simply, it's a rehash of the past three movies. The Shrek series just does the whole "fairytale" parody again and again and again. The first was good, the second was average, and the third and fourth were terrible. The whole movie just feels unoriginal in it's own series and it was entirely unnecissary. I honestly thought that there wouldn't be another Shrek after the third one.

3. Alice in Wonderland

Why couldn't we go back to the classic Lewis Carrol story? Couldn't we have had a nice adaptation of the original story? I would have really liked to see that from Tim Burton, but no. Instead, we got a quasi-sequel to the original Disney version. That doesn't mean it's an adaptation of Through the Looking Glass though. Instead we get something that tries to be new. The only problem is that new isn't exactly the best thing for Alice in Wonderland. Taking risks isn't needed, as the source material is already good enough. You don't need to change it and when you do, it doesn't work.

2. Clash of the Titans

I'm glad I didn't see it in "post-production" 3D, because this may have been #1 if I did. Sam Worthington was not cast right. He seems too young and too much like a frat boy to really be Perseus. I haven't seen the original movie in such a long time, but this movie is just terrible in it's own right.

1. Legion

I don't even know how it's possible to make such a bad movie. Throughout it seems like the filmmakers were intentionally trying to make a bad movie. Not even a "movie so bad it's good", but a movie so terrible that it makes me cringe. This is quite possibly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. I laughed at some of the lines and acting in this movie (it was atrocious) and the plot was not believable at all. If God really did want all of humanity wiped out, why would he send angels? Isn't he, you know, GOD? He can do whatever he wants! Why is he doing this long, drawn-out plan that is destined to fail? Because Hollywood said so, I guess.


Now that I've gotten those out of my system, let's move on to the good movies.

Sundance 2011

Hey, quick update about things.

1. I'm going to several Sundance movies this year. They are:

The Troll Hunter
Animation Showcase
Shorts Showcase IV
Another Earth
The Oregonian

I might go see some others, but this is the so far definite list. I'll have at least a short review of each one up after I see them.

2. I do have a Top 5 Worst and Top 5 Favorite movies of 2010 coming up. I've been working on it, so it'll be out soon.

3. Chocolate won the poll, so apparently people like chocolate. That's my favorite too. :)

Black Swan review

Black Swan
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel


This is definitely going on my top 10 movies of the year list (I'll post a list shortly after New Years). 


Before I start, I need to say something. I need to be a little more organized with my reviews, so I'm going to try a little more orderly version of reviewing. I'll start it off with this one.


Story:

Black Swan is about Nina (Portman), a ballerina who has recently been cast in a new production of Swan Lake. Nina is a controlled, perfectionist, goodie-two-shoes girl who is perfect to play the light half of the swan queen, the White Swan. She is not, however, dark enough to play the Black Swan half of the role. We are also introduced to Lily (Kunis), who is the literal Black Swan to Nina's White Swan.

This version of Swan Lake involves a girl, who gets turned into a swan, falls in love for a prince. However, the prince falls for the dark twin of the White Swan, the Black Swan. The White Swan, distressed at her lover's decision, kills herself.

The story/plot is interesting. It almost parallels the story of Swan Lake which is interesting to see. The dark, intense parts of the story are usual to Aronofsky, who is known for dark psychological thrillers.


Acting:

Natalie Portman gives a fantastic job at this. Her fragile, controlled character is so hard to watch after going through this tragic and sometimes frightening metamorphesis into the Black Swan that she needs to be. She just seems to command the screen with her presence. Portman should definitely get an Oscar for her performance.

Mila Kunis did a pretty good job as well as the "black swan"-ish antithesis to Nina. She's wild, fun, but dangerous. She did a good job portraying the role, but it was highly overshadowed by Portman's performance.

All of the rest of the supporting cast did okay. They did what they were supposed to and they did it well. Everyone brought their A-game to the table and it showed. But like I said, Natalie Portman just outshined everyone.

Directing:


Aronofsky does such a good job with everything. It's almost like he's directing his own ballet. He gives us extremely disturbing views into the cracked mind of this character. We don't really know if she's crazy or not, but she certainly becomes paranoid. Regardless, the direction seems nearly flawless, except for a few camera shots which just didn't cut it for me.

Overall:


I really, really enjoyed this movie. It was dark, intense, well-acted, well-everything'd.

5/5 stars

127 Hours review

127 Hours
Directed by Danny Boyle
Starring James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara

I really liked this movie. If you can see it, go see it.


Basically, 127 Hours is about Aron Ralston, who got his arm pinned under a boulder in 2003 in Utah. He eventually had to cut his own arm off with a blunt knife. He got really famous, wrote a book, became a motivational speaker, and is still hiking and climbing to this very day.

James Franco delivers some of the best acting I've seen in a good long while. It's so refreshing to see such good acting after seeing Chronicles of Narnia. He gives a believable performance of someone stuck under a boulder and yet somehow gives it a twist. Instead of screaming and stuff the instant that the boulder landed on his arm, he just stared at it like he couldn't believe what just happened. He had been hiking so much that he would have never expected that. It gives a moment of shining actual realism instead of movie realism.

There isn't much else I can say about it. It's heart-pounding even though you know how the end turns out, it's intriguing even though most people knew about this story when it first happened, and it's well acted, well shot, well orchestrated, and well everythingd. Quite a perfect movie, I'd say.

Final Verdict:


5/5 stars

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treder review

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treder
Directed by Michael Apted
Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Will Poulter


What I liked:

• I liked the adventuring of this movie. It serves as a diversion to the formula of the past two movies.
• I liked some of the acting. Will Poulter was especially good. 
• It was a good family movie.
• It was just pure fun.

What I didn't like:

• I did not like some of the acting. At times it felt forced and annoying, to say the least.
• I did not like the random "tests of faith" that most (if not all) the main characters had to go through. They also felt contrived and put in there in the last second. 
• I did not like how they included bizzare plot elements from the previous movies. Why did the White Witch need to be in this movie again?
• Finally, I absolutely HATED the annalogies. This is the exact reason why I cannot get through the books. "I have another name in your world." Really? You really needed Aslan to say that? Can't you  possibly show Aslan without shoving the Jesus-lion down my throat? This is probably why the White Witch was in here. She was in here to represent the Devil. That was the only reason. She wasn't even in the book! Even some of my highly Mormon friends agreed that it was too alligorical. 

Besides the overly used alligorical, most of these flaws are ones you can easily overlook. It's a decent movie, although if I had the choice to see it again I would refuse the offer.

Final Verdict:

3/5 stars

Megamind review

Megamind
Directed by Tom McGrath
Produced by Dreamworks Animation
Starring: Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill


Megamind is the lastest Dreamworks Animated movie, following the tired Shrek 4. Megamind is about a blue, giant headed alien who is a super villain, Megamind (voiced by Will Ferrell). He has an archenemy named Metro Man (voiced by Brad Pitt), protector of Metro City. There's a reporter love interest, Roxanne Ritchi (voiced by Tina Fey) and an side-kick-esque character (voiced by Jonah Hill).

Truthfully, I'm surprised to say it, I really liked it. When I saw the trailers, it looked a little stupid which is why I'm surprised. It's not necessarily the most original and it doesn't have the best jokes, but it was entertaining enough. The visuals are really good for a CGI film and the final battle is just spectacular. Most of the jokes are good, especially some of the sneakier jokes.

All in all, a decent movie. It's even worth watching without kids!

3.5/5 stars

Bed of Nails

Oh! I almost forgot!

I laid down on a bed of nails a couple weeks ago. It was pretty scary.