MY TOP 10:
1. 50/50 - Summer release kills award chances of year’s best film.
2. Margin Call – If only it knew how to end…same could be said of sluggish economy.
3. The Guard – The Irish may be funnier than the Brits
4. Fast Five – The Rock was the right choice
5. Warrior – I’m a sucker for boxing and fight movies. Intense, well-acted.
6. X Men: First Class – Nazis were the right choice.
7. Battle: Los Angeles – Movie reviewers carped about how this was a mindless action flick with no spark or art. Under the hood is a parable about the burden of command. Critics have never led, thus the meaning is lost on them. The lesson is – people should live and write on the side. When you write for a living, you never live, and by-the-by, you never write anything worthwhile about living. Hence why writers write about writers; they don’t know anything else, and they certainly don’t know how to live.
8. Attack the Block - While Steven Speilberg was busy lending his name to another “reunite the family” homage to the 80’s version of himself, here specifically Close Encounters, someone in England was making an alien invasion flick with something meaningful and funny in it. A decade from now, Super 8 will be another over-hyped Spielberg project that fizzled and was forgotten. Attack the Block will be a cult classic.
9. The Artist – It’s 15 minutes too long in the sad part and 15 minutes too short in the happy part.
10. The Adventures of Tintin – Spielberg at his best. I never grew up with Tin Tin, I was beat tired when I went to the theater for this, but I have to admit, it knocked it out of the park.
AND THE NEXT 5:
11. Scre4m – A lesson in why it’s worthwhile to let a franchise breath a bit. As good as the first.
12. Bridesmaids – Not as funny as everyone remembers, but still funny. I’d been waiting for Kristin Wiig to blow up ever since she stole all of her scenes in Knocked Up.
13. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – It felt rushed to kill Moriarty already but whatever.
14. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – Some great set pieces around a silly plot
15. Rise of the Planet of the Apes – The bar was so low.