Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
Coming into this movie I had only seen the original Planet of the Apes film, which I previously wrote about on this blog, and the 2001 remake directed by Tim Burton (Ape Lincoln!). Rise of the Planet of the Apes serves as both a reboot of the series and a prequel. It tries to have it both ways in this respect like X-Men: First Class which also came out in 2011. This is a bit confusing as Rise of the Planet of the Apes sometimes goes out of its way to tie itself into the original (mentions of the spaceship) but at other moments features new ideas and concepts from the sequels such as Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Honestly, this could've easily been its own movie not part of the POTA series, which is apparently how it was originally conceived. Although I love the original 1968 film, I never understood why this  became a franchise, other than the popularity of the first movie, which felt very stand alone.

The original POTA film implies that a nuclear war caused human civilization to end and apes to rise, but this movie has the apes become intelligent as a result of drug testing while a related epidemic takes a huge bite out of the human population. There are also a lot of callbacks to the original film. While some of these are subtle such as Caesar playing with a toy Statue of Liberty, others are more obvious like the use of the line "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!" which occasionally took me out of the movie. To be fair these references are done well and fit in naturally (except for the spaceship stuff which was tacked on) and wouldn't be noticed by people who haven't seen the original. There are also parallels to the original such as the main characters being put in captivity and hosed down. I thought these generally worked even though inverting the original film is kinda strange since that story in itself was an inversion of humans and apes. You could title this movie Planet of the Humans!

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes a bio-tech company creates a drug that allows the brain to repair itself and is intended to be a cure for Alzheimer's Disease. When testing seems to go wrong, the apes being tested on the project are all put down except for one baby who is taken in by scientist Will Rodman (James Franco). Rodman only intends to keep the chimpanzee temporarily but discovers that the ape inherited high intelligence from its mother due to the drug and decides to raise it. The ape, named Caesar, learns more as he is raised by Rodman but craves to explore the outside world.

Caesar is the main character of the movie and despite not being human, this his story. The film really shines whenever Caesar is the focus. Caesar has a fascinating character arc going from a subservient chimp living with humans to leader of the apes. Caesar communicates with the other apes using sign language which is subtitled. I thought this was a creative spin on things as it differs from the original film with talking apes while also telling the story well without a ton of dialogue at times. Andy Serkis does a great job yet again with the motion capture acting. The CGI used for the apes was very good. I usually still realized I was watching effects but this was mainly with the eyes and faces. The textures of the hair were better than I anticipated and the movements from (I assume) motion capture are very fluid.

Both Rodman and his father (played by John Lithgow who I didn't know was in this movie coming in but puts in a nice performance as usual) with Alzheimer's Disease are interesting but there isn't much to the other human characters. Freida Pinto's character doesn't have much to do other than her introduction scene at the zoo and is nothing more than James Franco's girlfriend after that. If there must be a love interest can she at least be integrated into the story more? Tom Felton, best known as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movie series, does a good job of playing a mean villain. However, we never get any motivation as to why he is a bad guy. I think the intention was that he has a shitty life and is taking it out on the apes in the primate shelter but this never actually comes across. Besides Serkis, Felton and Lithgow are the acting bright spots but don't have that much screen time. Everyone else is average at best.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is well paced. I've frequently complained of recent Hollywood blockbusters being too long but this one comes in at a sleek 105 minutes and doesn't overstay its welcome.
The movie is not without some plot problems. For example, if you had a neighbor who has Alzheimer's disease and also owns a chimp, would you leave your car keys in your unlocked vehicle which is parked on a public street? It doesn't help that this is a pivotal scene which sets up the rest of the film.
The climax is a cool action set piece on the Golden Gate Bridge. While the scene is well made and fun to watch, wouldn't it have made more sense for the apes to just get past the bridge (or find a more discreet way) to the Muir Woods as quick as possible instead of making a stand?

Despite some issues I still liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I would place Rise somewhere in the middle of the chasm between the great original film and the crappy 2001 remake. I can't say I'm excited for the sequel, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, teased in the post-credits scene, but at least it will have Gary Oldman in it.
6/10

Moneyball (2011)

Moneyball (2011)
I'm a huge baseball fan so I had read the non-fiction book Moneyball a few years before I watching the movie. I was also already familiar with the events before reading the book and am very knowledgeable about the sport. I heard about a film adaptation after I finished the book and wondered how it would be done. While I loved the book and think it's a great story, it didn't seem to lend itself to film like other real life events. Although I liked the movie version, I still feel that the best way to tell this story would be as a documentary. That said, Moneyball is a nice attempt that manages to be as good a movie as possible with the source material.
Director Bennet Miller does a solid job given the high degree of difficulty here. This is Miller's third film having previously directed the documentary The Cruise as well as Capote. As you can see, Miller is no stranger to making movies based on true events and was therefore a good choice to direct. Steven Soderbergh was originally supposed to direct Moneyball but left the project after creative disagreements. Soderbergh wanted to make the film more like a docudrama and feature interviews with the actual players. I think I would've preferred his version though I still liked the movie we ended up with.

Moneyball chronicles the 2002 Oakland A's as they try to win the World Series despite competing with 29 other teams who have more money than they do to acquire good players. The A's general manager, Billy Beane, uses sabermetrics (analysis of baseball statistics) to find players who are undervalued by other teams but will help the A's win ball games.
As a baseball fan I was able to jump right in with the terms, statistics, and even names of players. I saw the film with my Dad who liked it, though admitted that there was stuff which went over his head. For example, the movie frequently throws around the phrase "five tool player," which is even used to describe the playing career of Billy Beane, without ever explaining what those five tools are. Therefore it seems that Moneyball was made more for baseball fans than the masses.
Unlike a lot of sports movies, Moneyball focuses on the off the field business side of the sport which is a nice change of pace for the genre. Not a lot of baseball action is shown, and most of the games we see are real footage of the 2002 A's.
The acting is very good all around. Brad Pitt and the now late Phillip Seymour Hoffman put in stand out performances. This is only the second movie of his I've seen with Phillip Seymour Hoffman so I'll need to check out more of his films. Jonah Hill is fine but I don't think his performance was worthy of an Oscar nomination (which was one of this movie's six nominations despite not winning any awards).

Some of the facts are changed or conflated but this seems to have been done mostly to shape a narrative out of a series of events that didn't really have one. For example, Art Howe is portrayed as a villainous figure which wasn't the case even though he didn't always get along with Billy Beane. Jonah Hill's character is a composite based on A's assistant General manager Paul DePodesta as well as other scouts and advisers on the A's. Hardcore baseball fans will notice other inaccuracies but this almost always comes with the territory of Hollywood adapting true events into movies. These changes do make sense from a storytelling perspective as they were a way to raise the stakes and add more tension.
I understand why Moneyball didn't discuss how the A's chose players to draft since the movie is only about the 2002 Oakland A's and not Billy Beane's entire tenure as their general manager. However, I still feel that this could've been included briefly as it would've paralleled nicely with Beane's story of being a top draft pick for the New York Mets in the 80s.
Moneyball has slow pacing. The movie didn't need to be over two hours long and several individual scenes could've easily been cut down or out. The editing is fine as I liked how the story scenes were inter-cut with the real footage to give the movie a the feel of docudrama at times. However, Beane's backstory should've been told straight through at the beginning since flashing back to it several times didn't add anything to the story for me.

The book shows that while the use of sabermetrics by Beane and the A's was successful, the system wasn't perfect. Both the movie and book place an emphasis on how moneyball doesn't work in small sample sizes. However, the movie doesn't get much into the fact the playoffs themselves are a small sample size. The book discusses players the A's selected in the draft only for their statistics who ended up failing in ways that regular scouting would've foreseen such as an overweight catcher who can't run and a pitcher who had an arm deformity which ultimately ended his career in the minor leagues. Moneyball implies that sabermetrics alone work while the book doesn't completely discount the old way of scouting and suggests it should be part of the moneyball process. I feel that the film would've benefited by showing that Beane and sabermetrics aren't always right.
I think most baseball fans will enjoy this movie but your mileage may vary if you are a novice to the sport. Still, even as a hardcore baseball fan there are more fun (Major League) and better (The Natural, Field of Dreams) baseball movies out there.
Fun Fact: Spike Jonze has an uncredited cameo!
7/10

Real Steel (2011)

Real Steel (2011)
As promised in my Flight write-up last week when talking about John Gatins, here is my review of Real Steel. Writer John Gatins followed up Real Steel with Flight, and his next movie will be Need for Speed which comes out next month. Director Shawn Levy got his start in TV and now mostly makes typical Hollywood fare like Night at the Museum, Date Night, and The Internship.
Although Real Steel is billed as being an adaptation of the Richard Matheson short story "Steel," I doubt it has much in common with it. I've never read the original story but I've seen the Twilight Zone version which is also titled Steel. The only similarity between the two is that they feature robots and boxing.
I didn't expect much coming into Real Steel, but was pleasantly surprised with a solid family film. Real Steel takes place in the near future where boxers have been replaced with robots. Former boxer Charlie (played by Hugh Jackman who puts in a nice performance) now uses robots to fight for him but has had bad luck and is now in a lot of debt. Charlie discovers that he has an 11 year old son and the two bond while working together on turning a robot found in the scrap heap into a champion.
Real Steel clocks in at 127 minutes which is too long for this type of movie. Several scenes went on too long and could've easily been trimmed. I've had this complaint about a decent amount of recent movies. I don't have a problem with long Hollywood blockbusters if they deserve their running time, but most movies that have followed this trend (such as Real Steel) usually do not.
Real Steel is basically Rocky with robots but at least this movie has heart and emotion, unlike the live action Transformers movies. Although Real Steel is predictable, it's still well executed for what it is (an action family movie for all ages) and the cinematography is better than expected. The visual effects are quite good and received an Oscar nomination before losing out to Hugo.
6/10

Manborg (2011)

Manborg (2011)
I don't think you are prepared for the plot of Manborg, but I'm going to throw it at you anyway. During the Hell Wars between humans and Nazi Vampires, a human solider is killed in combat by the vampire leader, Count Draculon. The soldier's body is given robotics and he returns to life as Manborg, who vows to get his revenge by defeating Count Draculon with help from the resistance. His comrades are Mina who looks like she fell in a vat of New Wave, her brother who is a gunslinger and Billy Idol look-alike, and a martial arts fighter called "Number One Man" voiced by anime voice actor Kyle Hebert.
Manborg is a pastiche, parody, and homage to 1980s action and science fiction movies. Of course there are references to The Terminator, Robocop, and Blade Runner, but Manborg is more focused on emulating the style of 80s B sci-fi flicks such as Eliminators, Robot Holocaust, Future War, The Dungeonmaster aka Ragewar, etc. As somebody who has seen those movies and had fun with them (thanks in part to MST3K!) I completely understood what they were doing. The tongue is planted firmly in cheek here and great efforts were made to capture the look and feel of these movies.
I love the above poster for Manborg. It looks like a VHS cover you would see on the shelf of a video store in the 1980s or a comic book cover circa 1990!

Manborg uses green screen to create a unique look in a way that I haven't really seen before, which is sometimes combined with stop motion animation. The art direction is inspired by 1980s neon and pastels, cyberpunk imagery, and video games. Manborg was made on a $1,000 Canadian budget and while the movie looks low budget, that number surprised me as it doesn't look THAT cheap.
If you have seen movies like Cyborg, Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe or any of the ones I mentioned earlier, you'll have fun with Manborg as a loving parody of low budget 80s sci-fi movies. Otherwise you probably won't get it. I can easily see people who have never heard of movies like Robo Vampire mistaking Manborg as an honest to goodness terrible Z grade sci-fi flick. Although I enjoyed Manborg for what it was, I couldn't help but think it would've worked better as a fake trailer, short film, or internet mini-series in the vein of "Ninja the Mission Force." Manborg is only 75 minutes long but still overstays its welcome as this sort of thing generally works better in short bursts.
I had never heard of Astron-6, the Canadian production company behind Manborg, but looked them up after I watched this movie. Astron-6 has a bunch of cool 70s and 80s homage stuff on their website, most of which is shorter than Manborg. Check them out if you are into that type of thing. They nail the clothing style and film look of the 70s and 80s. If you do watch Manborg, be sure to stick around for the fake Bio-Cop trailer shown after the movie!
5/10

The Artist (2011)

I was pretty busy the last couple of weeks and just didn't have time to get any posts out. I really want to get caught up so future posts after this one may be shorter than usual just to get them out and move on. There are a few movies I saw in December and January I still need to write about! Here is my post on the Best Picture Winner at 84th Academy Awards, The Artist.

The Artist (2011)
Back around the time of the Academy Awards I made a few posts about the Oscars and talked a little about The Artist even though I had not seen it at the time. I saw The Artist about a week after it won its five Oscars.

The Artist is basically a mix of Sunset Blvd., Singing in the Rain, and A Star is Born. While its probably not fair to compare it to those films since The Artist is a far more recent movie, I actually liked it more than Singing in the Rain. While I enjoyed that movie, I could never shake the feeling that I was watching a 1950s musical. With The Artist I often forgot I was watching a movie made in 2011. And to quickly touch on the other two movies I mentioned Sunset Blvd. is one of my favorite movies ever. I actually haven't seen any film version of A Star is Born yet.

The Artist got a lot of hype in the months leading up to the Oscar and of course after it won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Actor in a leading role, Best Original Score, and Best Costume Design. However, like anything that gets a lot of buzz, I was worried that it would not be as good as advertised. I was glad that although this is a silent film, its not just a gimmick but works perfectly with the story. Will The Artist be well remembered 10, 20, 30 years from now? Who knows, but I'm guessing it won't be one of the more well-known Best Picture winners. However, I think it will still stand out as a silent movie made in this era. I would be surprised if the success of The Artist causes more black and white films, let alone silent movies, to be made. But it would be awesome if we get more really good movies about film history.

The Artist is a silent film, but as I said before the style works very well and it never feels forced. If you have never seen a silent movie I don't think you will have trouble getting through the movie as its accessible to everyone.

The dog (Uggie) in this movie is simply fantastic. Uggie the dog was so good in fact that he won the Palm Dog Award for best canine actor at the Cannes Film Festival! I didn't even know there was an award like this until now, but Uggie certainly deserved it. I just wish he could've had an honorary Oscar!

While the basic story in The Artist has been told many times before (a famous celebrity loses his/her popularity and tries desperately to stay relevant despite continued failures), The Artist puts a new spin on this tale by the way it chooses to tell its story. Obviously this is a silent film, but we have a lot of imagery and symbolism focused on talking and speaking including an incredible dream sequence. There is also a nice scene with some great camerawork in which our main character, silent film actor George Valentin (played by Jean Dujardin), bumps into rising star Peppy Miller (played by Berenice Bejo who is underrated in this film) on a staircase. Valentin is going down and Peppy is going up, which is exactly what is happening with their acting careers.
I won't give away the ending but I'll just say that it is satisfying and a perfect fit.

Although The Artist is about Hollywood and making movies in the 1920s and 1930s, it does not use real names of studios/movies/actors. However, there is a cool scene where George Valentin, is watching one of his movies. The footage he is watching is from The Mask of Zorro (1920) starring Douglas Fairbanks with spliced in close-ups of Jean Dujardin.

The two leads were pretty much unknown to American audiences before The Artist won some Oscars, but this movies does feature some actors most people will recognize such as John Goodman and James Cromwell who are both great in supporting roles. Goodman shines as a fat cat Hollywood producer who is shifting his studio to the production of sound films. Goodman is perfectly cast as he is an actor who does a great job with facial expressions, physical humor, and has great comedic timing. While James Cromwell is a very different actor than John Goodman, he also puts in a nice performance as George Valentin's chauffeur, and perhaps only true friend. Cromwell, like the rest of the cast, have no problem with the lack of dialogue which I think is a testament to the directing and acting in this movie as I doubt most of them have done something like this before. There is even a brief cameo by Malcolm McDowell!

Here is an odd piece of trivia I noticed. The Artist and Hugo each won five Academy Awards this year. Both of them featured an actor who plays a significant role in the movie Borat! Ken Davitian (Azamat in Borat) has a small role as the owner of a pawn shop in The Artist. Meanwhile Borat himself, Sacha Baron Cohen, played the Station Inspector in Hugo.

It's debatable if The Artist should have won the Oscar for Best Picture (I didn't see all the movies nominated this year but personally would have picked The Tree of Life and the Oscars are always controversial no matter what they pick) but regardless The Artist is still a great and enjoyable movie.
9/10

I now have seven more posts to catch-up until I'm finally back on track. Each post is a wrap-up featuring three movies so that is still 21 movies to go! Six of these seven posts are a random grouping of movies while the last one will be on three films by a certain director.

Two 2011 movies

Back in January of this year I made a post featuring 2011 movies I still want to see. Since then I have seen four movies from that year, three of which were on my list (I didn't want to see Season of the Witch which I discussed earlier this month in my Four Bad Movies post, haha). In this post I'll talk about two movies. The other 2011 movie I saw was Oscar Best Picture winner The Artist which will get its own post.

Attack the Block (2011)
This British science fiction/horror movie had been on my radar since I first heard about it last summer so I'm glad I finally got a chance to see it. Attack the Block is about a group of teenagers who defend their South London home from alien attacks. As others have pointed, out shouldn't it be called Defend the Block?

The accents and area of Britain aren't the most universal, but I didn't really have any problems understanding what the characters were saying and at the very least got the general gist of it. While I wouldn't consider Attack the Block to be a comedy, it does have some humor which keeps the tone from getting too serious.

The kids in the gang are anti-heroes. We grow to like them as the movie progresses as we find out more about their situations and who they really are. The idea of teens fighting back against aliens/monsters harkens back to 50s Sci-Fi movies like The Blob and The Giant Gila Monster.

The acting isn't great overall but these are young actors who don't have a lot of experience. John Boyega did good job as Moses, the leader of the group, who resembles a young Denzel Washington. Jodie Whittaker put in a nice performance as a nurse named Sam who is a resident of the Block.
The best way I can describe the design of aliens is a cross between the xenomorphs of the Alien series and the white apes of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom book series. I quite liked the look of the aliens which are a solid mix of practical effects and CGI that works very well. I'd like to see more Hollywood movies go this route and incorporate practical effects along with CGI. Although Attack the Block had a low budget by Hollywood standards, it wasn't real cheap to make as it had an estimated $13 million (US Dollars) budget.

Another movie that I thought of while watching Attack the Block was Super 8, which also came out in 2011. Both movies involve kids and an alien threat but approach their stories in very different ways.
This is the first movie by director Joe Cornish and a nice debut. I'm already looking forward to his next film! Cornish did a good job with a low budget but maybe he'll have more to work with next time.
7/10

Hobo with a Shotgun (2011)
After Grindhouse came out in 2007 (a movie I still need to see) there was a contest for people to make their own fake trailers for grindhouse movies. The winner of the contest was a trailer called Hobo with a Shotgun which got made into its own movie!

Although Hobo with a Shotgun is a sleazy exploitation movie, there is suprisingly little nudity and sex in the movie with the main exception being one scene of topless women beating up a guy hanging from a ceiling!
I was blown away by the great performance by Rutger Hauer. Hauer is always great but I wasn't expecting great acting in a movie titled Hobo with a Shotgun! The unnamed Hobo an unknown who comes to a corrupt town looking for a new life but only finds crime, desperation, and murder. The Hobo is basically Batman or The Punisher but homeless and dirt poor. I am glad we are never given the hobo's back story as it would have ruined the mystery behind the character. Hauer holds the movie together and without him as the lead it would not have been as good or perhaps turned into a spoof. Hauer takes the character very seriously and against all odds makes it work. I had already seen the trailer for this movie before I watched it so i knew his monologue in the hospital but it was still fantastic. His role is where the movie really shines. The other actors in the movie aren't very good. Now I'm pretty sure they are supposed to be over the top because this is a throwback to exploitation movies, but (unlike the original fake trailer) Hauer plays it straight so I'm not sure what to think.

Unlike the similar movie Machete, Hobo doesn't have much fun in its approach and is brutal with a depressing tone even though both movies are doing a lot of the same things. When there is humor in Hobo its very dark humor. I haven't seen that many grindhouse movies so I don't know if that is what I should be expecting or not. Despite the violence and gore, most of the kills aren't very creative or interesting ( with one or two exceptions) and its gets repetitive fast. I am fine with intense violence but was more turned off by how grim things were with very little to lighten the mood. The makers of Hobo with a Shotgun seemed to have set out to make a dirty trashy little picture, and they certainly succeeded in doing just that. Exploitation and Grindhouse covers a lot of material and this is in the more extreme territory of stuff like Anthropophagus and Cannibal Holocaust (though not a cannibal movie but in terms of violence, gore, and tone).

"The Plague" were interesting villains.They basically served the Boba Fett type role of unknown badasses with cool costumes who get called upon by the big bad (the Drake) when he can't defeat the hero to seal the deal. There is a bizarre scene in their hideout where they have a squid creature in their box. It doesn't make any sense and is never explained. Perhaps this is a reference to something from a grindhouse movie that went straight over my head. Or maybe its there to show that this doesn't take place in our universe? But if that is the case I figured that one out long before I saw the octopus/tentacles/Cthulhu. Perhaps it was just meant to be random and funny but if so it just didn't fit in with the bleak tone.

Overall I still feel that the original trailer (and even the real trailer for this movie) works better as a short than as a full-length movie. The first trailer made for the contest was more tongue-in-cheek and humorous than the movie we actually got. While I liked this movie and it was decently made, it's not something I plan on watching again. I know that the point of the movie was to not hold anything and I give credit to Hobo with a Shotgun for making this type of movie with no apologies. Although the movie had a limited theatrical release I think it will gain a bit of a cult following. Hobo with a Shotgun certainly isn't for everyone and it went unrated in the US. If you can get past the violence and gore, are into grindhouse and exploitation flicks, or are a huge Rutger Hauer fan will probably like it. Otherwise this movie probably won't be your cup of tea, or should I say bag of blood in this case.

Similarly to Hobo with a Shotgun, Machete was based on a fake trailer in Grindhouse. Although I liked Machete better, I feel that Hobo with a Shotgun was closer to an original grindhouse film (or perhaps a Troma film as some people have mentioned though I have yet to see any of those) as it was set in 70s/80s, had a much lower budget, and didn't have celebrity cameos. That said, I haven't seen that many old school grindhouse/exploitation movies so I'm not really sure how close it is. Although its not directly related, my favorite movie along the lines of these is Black Dynamite. I wrote about it earlier on this blog but I loved how it was able to be a blaxploitation movie that looked like it was made in the 70s as well as being a parody and loving homage to them at the same time.
6/10

As I alluded to earlier my next post (after a special blogathon post) will be on The Artist. After that I will be doing a series of wrap-up post that feature three movies a piece. Most of these are randomly grouped just so I can catch up on the remaining movies I have seen since December. And in case you were wondering, one of these wrap-up will feature my thoughts on Machete!

Four Bad Movies

Season of the Witch (2011)
Guess what, I finally saw a bad movie from 2011!
Season of the Witch was actually worse than I expected. The movie is not over the top bad but just boring and unexciting. The plot is sort of like The Seventh Seal as an action movie since we have a returning crusader and his partner who must transport a suspected witch to a monastery. I'm not going to get into how historical the movie is as even though it tries to be accurate in some ways overall the movie is pure fantasy and not really trying to be historically accurate.
Nicolas Cage was alright but he is an actor who seems to be only as good as the material he is working with. When he has a good script and director he can be great (Adaptation). But when that doesn't happen the results can be disastrous (The Wicker Man). Now one could argue that actors generally do better when the writing and directing are good and worse when its not, but Cage seems to take this to the extreme.   
Ron Perlman was fun but his character, the partner of the knight played by Cage, simply doesn't have much to do.
While I'm not an expert on cinematic techniques, there appear some obvious day for night scenes that have a bluish tint. Other times its way too dark and hard to see what is going on. I would expect this from a low budget non-Hollywood movie but Season of the Witch had a $40 million budget! I guess all the money went to the salaries of Cage and Perlman. It certainly didn't go to the CGI which looks pretty bad for a mainstream 2011 movie. 
Season of the Witch isn't that bad, but there are a lot of movies worse than it which are a lot more fun to watch. For example, see some of the movies below!
3/10

Double Dragon (1994)
Double Dragon is stupid as hell but at the end of the day its watchable and fun. I enjoyed seeing this movie a lot more than Season of Witch even though that is a better movie.
The best way to describe Double Dragon is that it is along the lines of Surf Ninjas or the 3 Ninjas series but for a slightly older audience.
This movie is based on the video game of the same name which was a beat 'em up fighting game. Just because something is popular and good in its own medium doesn't mean it will make a good film. The concept just doesn't really work as a movie even though it was a fun game. I did like how the actual arcade game showed up in the movie. That *that* fourth wall!
Our main character is Jimmy Lee (played by Mark Dacascos, a dead ringer for Brandon Lee) who along with his brother Billy Lee must stop an evil ruler named Koga Shuko (played by Robert Patrick) from gaining the other half of a talisman that will allow him to rule the world. While I love Robert Patrick for his role as the T-1000 and in two awesome episodes the 1990s Outer Limits series, he is just plain silly here and feels like a 60s Batman villain.
Alyssa Milano is better known for her work on Television but plays the female lead here. The only other movie I had seen her in is Commando as Arnold Schwarzenegger's daughter! Oddly enough, like Robert Patrick she was also in an episode of The Outer Limits.
There are cameos for Vanna White and Andy Dick who appear as themselves. I'm not sure why, but this movie was so ridiculous it worked.
I was shocked to see that Paul Dini had a writing credit for the story. Now maybe he only he didn't have much to do with the final screenplay or was paid by the studio to simply deliver this dreck, but I couldn't believe that this was the same guy who won Emmy Awards for the writing on Batman: The Animated Series and Tiny Toon Adventures. I re-watched his shows Batman:TAS and Batman Beyond recently and they hold up very well as are surprisingly dark and adult for kids shows.
Double Dragon was a box office failure which shouldn't be a surprise. Still, if you need a fun bad movie to watch with a group of friends, this would be a fine choice.
3/10

Yongary, Monster from the Deep (1967)
Yongary is essentially the South Korean Godzilla. He looks a lot like Godzilla, with one of the main differences being the horns on his head. Yongary is considered to be a Kaiju film (Japanese for "strange beast" but often translated into English as "monster").
Although Yongary is a pretty bad movie, it is somewhat amusing. Yongary dances after all!
The kid who tries to befriend Yongary is pretty damn annoying but I expected that since I think these movies were meant for children and to sell toys.
The original Korean version of Yongary is lost and the film that exists is the dubbed American version. While my initial reaction to this news was "no big loss," I truly think it is a shame when any film is lost regardless of quality. Maybe a copy of the original version will turn up someday, although I'd like to see London After Midnight first!
Yongary was re-made by South Korea as Reptilian in 1999.
2/10

Wing Commander (1999)
I had actually seen this before but watched it again with some friends who enjoy bad cinema.
Wing Commander is probably one of the few movies based on a video game in which the game actually had better actors! John Rhys-Davies, Malcom McDowell, and Mark Hamill all provided voices in the games. That said, there are actually some talented actors I like in this movie such as Jurgen Prochnow and David Warner even though they just aren't given much to work with. Here is a weird piece of trivia concerning the cast: Prochnow and Warner were also both in the film In the Mouth of Madness while Wing Commander also features Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Freddy (Freddy Prinze Jr.) from the first two live action Scooby-Doo movies. There must have been a 2 for 1 sale on actors in the 90s!
Simon MacCorkindale, known for his TV work such as in the cult show Maninmal, has a small role as "Flight Boss."
Wing Commander was one of three movies that had Phantom Menace trailer attached to it and there are stories of people buying a ticket to the movie and leaving after the trailer. Today we have trailers for movie trailers on the internet. Oh how things have changed in less than 15 years!
Although this is a bad movie I'll give it credit for actually trying with its characterizations even though it ultimately fails. For example, there is a sub-plot that Prinze's character is discriminated against because he is a "pilgrim" but after awhile its just forgotten about. Wing Commander feels like Star Wars meets Starship Troopers with a World War II vibe. Although this sounds cool in theory, it doesn't work out and is a bit of a mess. There is plenty of action but its surprisingly boring. The alien bad guys (a race called the Kilrathi) are not shown until late in the movie. While this is usually a good tactic in film, the silly appearance of the Kilrathi who are basically cat people with Fu Manchu mustaches is a terrible pay-off. After all the build-up throughout the movie I just laughed when I finally saw the Kilthrai.
The director of Wing Commander was Chris Roberts, who also directed the video games. I guess the producers chose Roberts because he knew the material and to give credibility to the fans. I think this was part of the problem as directing a video game is a lot different than directing a film and Roberts hasn't directed anything since.
Like Double Dragon this is a watchable, fun bad movie. I never played the games so I can't say how close it is to the series though.
3/10

This post will have a sequel featuring four more bad movies.

Two Short Films

Both of these shorts feature either Buster Keaton or a character that looks like Buster Keaton!

Cops (1922)
Although Cops is now ninety years old it has aged surprisingly well. Some of the gags such as the bars in opening and the scene where Buster buys a horse totally caught me off guard and had me laughing. This is pretty impressive for such an old film since different generations often have different types of humor and jokes can get old very quickly.
Besides the aforementioned gags, the physical comedy is also very good. This is even more amazing considering the fact that Buster Keaton performed all of his own stunts.
Cops is a great short from Buster Keaton and a reminder that I need to seek out more of his work.
You can watch it on YouTube here.
9/10

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won this year's Oscar for Best Animated Short Film. Our main character Morris Lessmore is a Buster Keaton look-alike who runs a library after his hometown is destroyed by a hurricane. The company that created this short is from Louisiana and there are references to Hurricane Katrina.
The film concerns the themes of collective memory, preservation of the past, and film history while always being entertaining and never too preachy.
Although I still think that The Ballad of Nessie short shown before Winnie the Pooh (2011) should have been nominated for the Oscar in this category, I am glad that The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore won. To be fair though I didn't see any of the other shorts nominated for the category this year.
You can watch it on YouTube here.
8/10

In my next post we'll be back to feature length films as I still have plenty of movies I've seen in the last few months to write about.

The 84th Academy Awards

I did a long post going through all of the Oscar nominations here so I'll keep this fairly brief and not get into every single category.

First of all I didn't get to see most of the 84th Academy Awards. I had work and by the time I got home I was only able to see the awards for Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Picture. This means I didn't really see the show so I won't comment on that. I did see the entire show last year and I'll just say I'm glad Billy Crystal was the host and not Anne Hathaway and James Franco!

The Artist and Hugo were the big winners this year. Both are movies about cinema. The Artist won five awards including Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Picture. Hugo also won five awards including Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.

I didn't watch many 2011 films so I wasn't too surprised that the only movie to win an Oscar this year that I had seen was The Muppets! "Man or Muppet" certainly deserved to win Best Original Song. However, only one other song ("Real in Rio" from Rio) was nominated so it didn't have much competition.

I was a little surprised that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 didn't win any of the categories it was nominated for. I figured that the Academy would throw the series a bone in its final installment like they did for Lord of the Rings. I still think the Harry Potter series deserves a special achievement award for making a series of eight films with (mostly) the same actors and no true clunker.

I am happy that Christopher Plummer finally won his first Oscar! His role in The Beginners got him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. I would have been happy if any of the other nominees for this category won except for Jonah Hill. To be fair I haven't seen Moneyball yet, but it would be a travesty if he had won an Oscar and Plummer, von Sydow, Nolte, and Branagh had not.

Meryl Streep won her third Oscar and first in almost thirty years. Streep went twelve straight nominations without a win until her performance in The Iron Lady. I wish she won for her role in Adaptation but at least she has won multiple Academy Awards, something not many actors and actresses can say.

I'm glad that Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Transformers: Dark of the Moon did not win any awards! I thought that Rise of the Planet of the Apes would win Best Visual Effects but it lost to Hugo. Brad Pitt and Gary Oldman didn't win, but I have a feeling they will both be nominated again very soon. I can't believe that this year was Gary Oldman's first Oscar nomination! I hope both these actors are able to win an Academy Award someday.

I was disappointed that The Tree of Life did not win any of the three awards it was nominated for. I didn't think it would win Best Picture or that Terrence Malick would win Best Director but I thought it had a good shot at Best Cinematography. For me this was like 2010 when District 9 was nominated for four Oscars but didn't win any of them. I was disappointed but not surprised that both film ended up winless in their respective years.

The Artist won both Best Director and Best Picture. As soon as the film won Best Director I knew it would win Best Picture. Over 70% of movies that have won Best Picture also win Best Director.
While I want to see The Artist and think it is something I will like, I do have two issues with the Academy giving it Best Picture. That does not mean I don't think it deserves to win Best Picture. I honestly can't really say since I haven't seen it or most of the other Best Picture nominations yet.
First, I hope that it didn't win just because it was a throw-back to the days of silent cinema but because it is a great film. A Star is Born (several versions, I actually haven't seen any yet), Sunset Blvd (1950) and Singin' in the Rain (1952) dealt with similar subject matter even though they weren't made as silent films. Sunset Blvd won three Oscars but none of the big awards other than Best Writing. Singin' in the Rain only got two nominations and didn't win either of them. Sure these weren't silent films themselves, but its possible the Academy might be trying to right some wrongs here. Or maybe the Academy wanted this to win so people would be more interested in silent film. While I think making the general public more aware about film history and silent film is great (of course I do, that is what my Tales from the Archives posts are all about!) giving a film an award it doesn't deserve is not the way of doing it. I'm not saying The Artist didn't deserve to win, I just hope that the Academy gave it Best Picture because they truly felt it was the best film from 2011 and not just for political reasons.

My second point isn't really about The Artist. When I first heard about The Artist I thought that a silent movie being made in this day and age was a great idea. But when I found out it was going to be filmed in Black & White and set in past I was a bit disappointed even though I still wanted to see it. I was hoping for a true modern silent film. A film with no dialogue but filmed in color like any movie of today's world, set in the present, and with no intertitles. I feel that this type of movie would be even more bold and daring than making a 1920s type silent movie that is a period piece. If there is a movie that exists like the one I described I'd love to see it. If not somebody should make it! And although I haven't seen Mel Brooks' Silent Movie (1976), that doesn't count since it was made over 35 years ago and it is more of a parody. I have heard that The Thief (1952) starring Ray Milland is one of the few films made in the post-silent era with synchronized sound that has no dialogue. This is still not quite what I'm looking for since its 60 years old and in Black & White. The Thief is pretty obscure and I only heard of it while researching this post. If there are any movies that fit the criteria I am looking for please let me know. I am sure there are some out there that I, and most people, are simply not aware of.

I must give credit where its due and congratulate The Artist for winning Best Picture while being a silent film in 2012. Even if its status as a silent film may have helped it win with the Academy, it is still quite an accomplishment in today's world. I can't wait to see it!

Switching gears a bit, the Razzie nominations were announced Saturday (February 25th). For those who don't know, the Golden Raspberry Awards were founded in 1981 to celebrate the worst in cinema. The Adam Sandler vehicle Jack and Jill received a record twelve Razzie nominations! Somehow The Smurfs did not get any nominations, probably because of Jack and Jill. The 32nd Razzie Awards ceremony will be on April 1st and I'll make a post about it when the time comes.

2012 Oscar Nominations

The nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards were announced today (January 24). While I have had some issues with the Oscars over the years like most people, I take the Academy with a grain of salt and just try to have fun with the whole thing. Although I haven't seen all these movies I am going to plow through all the nominations and give my opinions. Let's see where I agree with the Academy and which movies I feel got snubbed!

Motion Picture of the Year nominees:
The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

The only movie I've seen out of these nominees is The Tree of Life, which was my pick for best film of 2011. All the other nominees were on my 2011 movies I want to see list except The Help and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was shocked that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was nominated for Best Picture since it was getting mediocre reviews at best. I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago and simply had no desire to see it. Sadly I think the only reason it was nominated is because it deals with 9/11. Again, I haven't seen this movie so I really can't judge it but there were plenty of other movies that were better received by audiences and critics but did not get nominated for Best Picture.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:
Demian Bichir for A Better Life
George Clooney for The Descendants
Jean Dujardin for The Artist
Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Brad Pitt for Moneyball

I haven't seen any of these movies yet so I'm just going to talk about the actors I am familiar with. Gary Oldman is one of the most versatile actors of our time so I'm glad he got nominated. If he doesn't win an Oscar this year I would love to see him win sometime in the future. I thought Brad Pitt was great in The Tree of Life but I guess the Academy didn't want to nominate him for more than two movies in one year. Brad Pitt has never won an Oscar despite previously being nominated for Twelve Monkeys and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis for The Help
Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady
Michele Williams for My Week with Marilyn

I haven't seen any of these movies and am not too familiar with some of these actresses. This is Meryl Streep's 17th Oscar nomination but she has only won two Oscars and hasn't had a win in almost thirty years. I thought Streep was great in Adaptation (2002) and she certainly deserves to win another Oscar.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
Jonah Hill for Moneyball
Nick Nolte for Warrior
Christopher Plummer for Beginners
Max Van Sydow for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Yet again I haven't seen any of these movies which makes sense since I only saw eleven movies from 2011 so far. The nomination for Jonah Hill seems odd; either he put in a great performance or the Academy just loved Moneyball!
As unbelievable as it sounds, Kenneth Branagh, Christopher Plummer, and Max Van Sydow have never won an Oscar. I'd love to see one of these three win it, especially Plummer or Van Sydow since they are both in their early 80s and this could be their last chance to win an Oscar. If you want to see Plummer and Van Sydow acting together check out the 1984 movie Dreamscape!

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:
Berenice Bejo for The Artist
Jessica Chastain for The Help
Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer for The Help

I haven't seen any of these films yet, big surprise, right? I thought Jessica Chastain was fantastic as the mother to Brad Pitt's father in The Tree of Life. I just wish that Chastain was nominated for that movie instead. It is interesting that both Chastain and Pitt were in The Tree of Life but got nominated for other films.
I haven't seen Bridesmaids yet but it is strange to see an acting nomination for a straight-up comedy film. I'm not against it, but where were these nominations for actors in comedies in previous years?

Best Achievement in Directing:
Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist
Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life
Alexander Payne for The Descendants
Martin Scorsese for Hugo

I hope Terrence Malick wins, but he has got some amazing competition in Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese. I've heard great things about The Artist and The Descendants so I think this category is wide open and it should be interesting to see who the winner is.


Best Writing, Screenplay written directly for the Screen:
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Margin Call
Midnight in Paris
A Separation

Here is where things get really interesting. We have a silent film, an R-rated comedy and an Iranian film all nominated for best screenwriting! The Artist has been getting great buzz and I had a feeling the Academy would show it some love so I'm not too surprised to see it here. However, I bet many people will be confused as to why a silent film with no dialogue is being nominated for best screenplay! A story can be told without dialogue and although I haven't seen The Artist yet I think its great to see it nominated here.
I haven't seen Bridesmaids yet but I have no idea what the Academy sees in this. I mean, where were the nominations for The Hangover or other great comedies of the past few decades? Is the Academy changing things up or was this just a weak year? I've heard very good things about A Separation but I'm surprised to see it on the list just because it is a foreign film. Maybe I'm wrong it but it seems unusual for foreign films to be nominated for categories other than Best Foreign Language Film. I think that this is a good thing and would like to see this trend continue. But as I said earlier, is this the Academy changing or was this such a weak year for films that they felt the need to go in a different directions with some of these nominations? I had not even heard of Margin Call until now. I also think that Source Code should have been nominated but I can't say I'm surprised it isn't on this list.


Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: 
The Descendants
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy

I haven't seen any of these movies before but I have read the book Moneyball was based on. I loved the book so hopefully the movie will be good too. I am curious to see how the material was adapted as the book is non-fiction and takes a look at the business and statistical side of baseball.

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year:
A Cat in Paris
Chico & Rita
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

I am gravely disappointed that Winnie the Pooh was not even nominated for an Oscar in this category. I would love to see an explanation for this. Is it because it was only 63 minutes long? I sure hope not because Winnie the Pooh was a great traditionally animated film and it is a shame to see it snubbed like this.

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:
Bullhead (Belgium)
Footnote (Israel)
In Darkness (Poland)
Monsieur Lazhar (Canada) 
A Separation (Iran)

The only film on this list I have even heard of is A Separation. I gotta see more foreign films!

Best Achievement in Cinematography:
The Artist
The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I hope that The Tree of Life wins this category. I think that of its three nominations this is the one that it is most likely to win.

Best Achievement in Editing:
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Moneyball

As you can see the Academy loved these films as they all got multiple nominations. I'm a little surprised and disappointed that The Tree of Life didn't get a nomination here.

Best Achievement in Art Direction:
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
War Horse

The Harry Potter series is no stranger to this category as Deathly Hallows: Part I, Goblet of Fire, and Sorcerer's Stone were all nominated for Art Direction. I don't think Harry Potter will be able to win it this year either as it faces some stiff competition.

Best Achievement in Costume Design:
Anonymous
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
W.E.

I had never heard of W.E. before. It turns out that it is a movie directed and co-written by Madonna! Well at least the costumes are good I guess...

Best Achievement in Makeup:
Albert Nobbs
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
The Iron Lady

I think that the Harry Potter series will finally have won its first Oscar with a win in this category! And is it too late to make the "Is the Iron Lady part of the Avengers" joke?

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score:
The Adventures of Tintin
The Artist
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
War Horse

I haven't seen any of these movies yet. I'm not surprised since none of the 2011 movies I saw had memorable scores. If I had to choose a favorite score of the movies I saw I guess I would pick Alan Silvestri's score for Captain America.


Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song:
The Muppets - "Man or a Muppet"
Rio - "Real in Rio"


I figured that the song "Star Spangled Man" from Captain America would not be nominated, but I'm still upset because it not only deserved the nomination but to win outright. "Star Spangled Man" is a great, catchy song in the style of 1940s Irving Berlin tunes. The use of the song to deal with the propaganda side of Captain America was wonderful and I am glad the movie addressed this aspect of the character. The song's lyrics were written by David Zippel (two Oscar nominations) and the music was written by Alan Menken (eight Oscar wins and many more nominations) who both worked on the music of the Disney Renaissance films. The song even has a strong pedigree so what went wrong here? Does the Academy think comic book movies can't have great songs? There were only two songs nominated, would it really have killed the Academy to at least nominate "Star Spangled Man"?
On a more positive note I'm glad to see a song from the The Muppets get an Oscar nomination, especially "Man or a Muppet" as it was my favorite new song in the movie. Since "Star Spangled Man" is out I'm rooting for "Man or a Muppet" all the way!

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Moneyball
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

The sound categories tend be to the time when the Academy throws a bone to genre films. That isn't the case here (other than Transformers) and all these films got several nominations. I would have liked to see a little more diversity here.

Best Achievement in Sound Editing:
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse

This category is the only nomination for Drive. I haven't seen it yet but it only has one nomination while Transformers has three. That doesn't sound fair to me!

Best Achievement in Visual Effects:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Real Steel
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

How The Tree of Life did not get nominated here is beyond me. Terrence Malick got Douglass Trumbull to work on visual effects on a movie for the first time since Blade Runner (1982) and the results were magnificent. Adding fuel to the fire is that couple of CGI fests got nominated instead.
I've heard that the special effects for Rise of the Planet of the Apes were groundbreaking. I'll be content as long as Real Steel and Transformers: Dark of the Moon don't win!

Best Short Film, Animated:
Dimanche
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

Although I haven't seen any of these shorts, I have seen a short which fits the criteria that I feel should have been nominated. The traditionally animated short film (5 minutes) The Ballad of Nessie was shown in theaters before Winnie the Pooh. The Ballad of Nessie was a nice throw-back to the 1960s style of Disney animation and story telling. It was the perfect appetizer for Winnie the Pooh and it is quite sad to see the Academy ignoring Disney when they make great traditionally animated films.

Best Short Film, Live Action:
Pentecost
Raju
The Shore
Time Freak
Tuba Atlantic

I haven't seen any of these short films and I doubt that most people have. Time Freak is a sci-fi/comedy short about time travel, so it sounds like something I would enjoy if I ever get the chance to see it.

Best Documentary, Features:
Hell and Back Again
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Pina
Undefeated

While I am somebody who likes all genres of film, documentaries would probably be the type of film I watch the least. I like documentaries, especially those on historical events, I just don't really seek them out to watch. So like most people out there I didn't know anything about these documentaries until I looked them up now while writing this post. Undefeated is about a high school football team so I would probably like it. Pina was directed by filmmaker Wim Wenders and is a tribute to German dance teacher, performer, and choreographer Pina Bausch.

Best Documentary, Short Subjects:
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement
God is the Bigger Elvis
Incident in New Baghdad
Saving Face
The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

After looking up some information on these documentaries they all sound quite interesting. God is the Bigger Elvis is about actress Dolores Hart who co-starred in some Elvis Presley movies before leaving Hollywood to become a Benedictine nun.

Well there you have it, my first (and hopefully not last!) Oscars post! Overall I don't think the Academy did any worse than usual as there always are snubs. The 84th Academy Awards will take place Sunday February 26th so be I'll make a follow-up to this post in about a month. I also plan on doing a post or two about the Razzie awards!

I still have a lot of catching up to do and I'm not sure when my next post will be as I've gotten busy with my job and grad school work. Don't worry though, future posts will be forthcoming, just at a slower pace until I get back on schedule.

2011 films I still want to see

Although box office revenues were down in 2011, it seems to have been a good year when it comes down to the quality of films released. So far I have only see eleven 2011 films (how appropriate!) but there are many that I still want to see. Here is my list (in no particular order) with some brief reasons for why I want to see these movies.

Another Earth
An independent science fiction movie that focuses on the characters and story instead of CGI and explosions? Count me in! Another Earth could be this year's Moon.

A Separation
A Separation is an Iranian film. It has gotten a lot of buzz and could be this year's Oscar winner for best foreign language film.

Attack the Block
Alien invasion films have been popular since the 1950s, but like the recent District 9 this one has a new spin on the genre as it is about a gang of teenagers defending their London home from an extraterrestrial invasion.

Moneyball
As a baseball fan I loved the book this movie is based on. That said, I'm not sure how this story will translate to film since its about the business behind the sport, but it has been well received by audiences and critics.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I never read the books but both the Swedish and American films have gotten a lot of attention.

Warrior
Tom Hardy warms up for his role as Bane!

Contagion
The only Soderbergh movie I've seen so far is Ocean's Eleven which I quite liked. Contagion seems like a good thriller that I'll check out when I get the chance.


Drive
This movie came out of nowhere to get critical acclaim and has shown up on tons of 2011 best of lists.

The Future
Although this indie movie hasn't gotten as consistently good reviews as others have this year, I thought the trailer looked interesting and want to give it a shot if/when I get the chance.

The Mill and the Cross
Rutger Hauer and beautiful art, need I say more?

Melancholia
I've never seen a Lars von Trier film before but this one seems interesting and got a solid amount of attention.


A Dangerous Method
I love David Cronenberg but before I see this I should probably see at least one of his newer non-horror/sci-fi movies (starting with Spider).

50/50
This movie looked like it could be a funny and well-written comedy-drama. It is loosely based on a true story. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the main character, a man in his 20s who gets a rare form of cancer.

Hugo
Hugo hasn't done well at the box office considering its large budget. However, the film has gotten great reviews and the visuals look stunning. When one thinks of family films Martin Scorsese does not come to mind but it seems like he made a very good film regardless of genre!

Take Shelter
Like The Future, this is another little film which had fascinating trailer that made me want to see it.

The Skin I Live In
The Skin I Live In was nominated for a Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival before eventually losing out to The Tree of Life. This Spanish film stars Antonio Banderas and is about a plastic surgeon haunted by his past.

The Descendants
I'm not a big George Clooney fan but this film has gotten a very positive response from critics.

Midnight in Paris
I should probably watch more Woody Allen movies before I get to this one but I heard Midnight in Paris was very good so I'll see it eventually.

The Artist
Some might view a silent film made in 2011 as gimmicky but I thought the trailer was great and it seems to work well here.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I haven't read the book but any movie featuring John Hurt and Gary Oldman is a must-see for me! Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, and Benedict Cumberbatch are also in the cast.

Hobo with a Shotgun
Based on a fake trailer made for a Grindhouse contest, Hobo with a Shotgun stars Rutger Hauer as the title character. I haven't seen Grindhouse yet (other than the fake trailers which are on YouTube) but I really liked similar movies Black Dynamite and Machete.


Rise of the Planet of the Apes
I was pretty surprised to hear the praise this movie got, not to mention it performed better at the box office than I expected. I want to re-watch the original again before I see this one. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a clunky title (why not Rise of the Apes? People wouldn't think its a Planet of the Apes movie?) but as long as its better than Tim Burton's version I'll be happy!

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
I enjoyed the first movie of this "reboot" series even though its basically Sherlock Holmes for people who don't like Sherlock Holmes. I didn't like the villain of the first one so I'm glad they went with Moriarty this time around. Plus we get Stephen Fry as Mycroft Holmes!

In Time
In Time was written and directed by Andrew Niccol, the same mastermind behind one of my favorite movies, Gattaca (1997). While this one probably isn't as good as Gattaca, I still want to see it as well as other Andrew Niccol films.

Cowboys and Aliens
I have the comic that this movie is based on but haven't read it yet. Some time after I read it I'll watch the movie. It got mixed reviews and did not do as well as expected at the box office but I gotta see any movie with Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Sam Rockwell together!

Sucker Punch
Even though this movie has gotten negative reviews I want to see it because I really liked director Zack Snyder's work on 300 and Watchmen. This movie is his first not based on pre-existing material. Considering the poor reception Sucker Punch has received Snyder probably won't be allowed to direct original material anymore. I'm kinda curious to see how bad Sucker Punch is. Hopefully Snyder's Superman movie (Man of Steel coming in 2013) will fare better.

Let me know if there are any 2011 movies I should add to this list! Tomorrow's post will be about 2012 films I am looking forward to.