2010 was a strange year for film. While we did have a few standout productions in multiple genres, this year was perhaps remarkable in the fact that many films failed to live up to expectations. Yes, there were some really terrible movies released this year, Skyline, Clash of the Titans, and Robin Hood are just a few.

Essentially, the only way this effects my Top Ten list is that there will be several films whose placement on this list will be hotly debated. While this is due to the relatively poor quality of this year in cinema, I also have to say that I have not yet seen many critically praised movies such as Black Swan and The Town. There is a high chance that this list will change come Oscar season.



10. The A-Team
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Probably the strangest choice on this list, The A-Team was a film that received mixed reviews and quiet a few people despised. However, much can be said about an action film that never takes itself seriously and has alot to offer in terms of creative set pieces. Whether it be a cleverly placed 3D movie gag or a midair battle involving a tank and a parachute, The A-Team is nonstop adrenaline filled entertainment. Throw in a great cast including Liam Neeson and Sharlto Copley and you have one of the most fun films of the year.

9. The Karate Kid
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Although a very different film from the original 80's family classic starring Ralph Macchio, The Karate Kid stays faithful in its delivery of quality family entertainment. Taking place in China instead of the beaches of California, the film becomes as much one about culture shock as training and personal triumph. While there is some impressive cinematography and choreography throughout the course of the film, the real star of the Karate Kid is the amazing dynamic between its two leads Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.

8. Kick Ass
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The superhero genre has quickly become one of the most defining movements in film for the 21st century. While there have been many caped crusaders to grace the screen in recent years, it is rare that a comic book film is released that feels truly new and unique, Kick Ass is that film. Made as part satire of superhero films and part action comedy, Kick Ass succeeds off its stellar cast and inventive action sequences. Perhaps most captivating and controversial is eleven year old Chloe Moretz as the violent vigilante Hit Girl.

7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
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While its script may be flawed, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World's succeeds in being endlessly inventive and visually stunning. Although much of its clever sense of humor and manic vision comes from its source material, it is hard to deny that Pilgrim is funny. What truly makes the film work though is Edgar Wright's unique visual style. Taking influence from both comic books and classic video games, the colorful world design is more inventive then almost any other film this year.

6. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
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When it was first announced that the final film in the Harry Potter series would be split into two parts, there was much debate amongst the film and fan community. Was the decision truly based on maximising the quality of the final adaptation? Or was it made simply to maximise profit? Luckily for both fans and film goers, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 is a great film as well as faithful adaptation. While there are moments that do not ring as emotional as they should, this is mostly the fault of the film's predecessors. However, with a great cast, amazing cinematography, and some moments of stellar art design Deathly Hallows Part 1 stands as the second best film in the series.

5. How To Train Your Dragon
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Dreamworks has for years been one upped by its competitor Pixar. While both studios frequently create great animated films, it is often Pixar that receives higher critical and financial success. While Dreamworks once again experienced this in 2010, the studio released one of its most successful and beloved films in years. How To Train Your Dragon is a heartwarming and empowering, if a bit familiar, tale. While its script may not be best to grace the screen this year, How To Train Your Dragon thrives off its amazing voice cast, great animation, and perhaps one of the best scores of the year. Also worthy of note is the stellar use of 3D effects, which create one of the most memorable flight sequences in modern film.

4. True Grit
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It's hard to fault the Coen Brothers. The critically adored duo churn out stellar films from year to year and 2010's remake of the 1960's western classic True Grit is no exception. Sporting a familiar but expertly executed revenge plot, True Grit is captivating throughout its two hour run. The script feels genuine and sports a few moments of witty humor. However, what truly makes the film are the stellar performances by Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld.

3. Inception
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Although not the mind bending film much of the general public claims it to be, Inception still stands as one of the best films of the year. Although filled with strong performances by numerous all star actors, Christopher Nolan is the true star of this film. Delivering both an intelligent and intricate script, as well as moments of fantastic visual design and action Nolan elevates Inception into one of the best sci-fi action films of the last decade.

2. Toy Story 3
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It is hard to find a perfect trilogy. While Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings franchise may be one of the few film series to every truly achieve this goal, Toy Story has come very close to joining its ranks. Toy Story 3 is that rare third installment that not only lives up to but exceeds expectations. Building off close to fifteen years of existence, Pixar delivers a respectful, fun, and emotionally powerful conclusion to possibly the best animated franchise of all time. Not only functioning as a stellar family film, Toy Story 3 offers a poignant and stirring study of mortality and loyalty. Toy Story 3 may very well be the most emotional film of the year, and coming from Pixar that is no surprise.

1. The Social Network
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Facebook, the movie. The idea seemed ridiculous. It had to be a corporate money grab, something along Ridley Scott's reported Monopoly adaptation. The end result was a film that took America's critic associations by storm. David Fincher's The Social Network is not only a clever and stirring look at the rise of a corporate empire, but a captivating legal thriller and character drama. Driven by Aaron Sorkin's brilliant script filled with snappy and intelligent dialogue, The Social Network pulls the viewer and refuses to let go. Creating a thrilling atmosphere without a single gun shot or death is a feat in and of its own. Even with incredible direction and a fantastic screenplay, The Social Network continues to succeed in its impeccable cast. Jesse Eisenberg plays the brilliant and possibly socially impaired Mark Zuckerberg with a deadpan sense of ego and humor. Eisenberg is contrasted by Andrew Garfield's Eduardo Saverin, the sympathetic and human counterpart to Zuckerberg's digital machine. Even Justin Timberlake delivers portraying the reckless, but enthralling inventor of Napster Sean Parker. The Social Network excels on all fronts delivering not only the best film of the year but a clever commentary on the digital age that is certain to last for years.

Despite critical acclaim and positive audience reactions, this year's comic book action comedy Kick Ass failed to meet expectations at the box office when initially released. Just barely breaking even, it appeared that plans for a sequel film to the Mark Millar comic book film had been scrapped.

However, yesterday Millar announced on Radio 5 that plans for a sequel will in fact move forward. Due mostly to surprisingly high DVD sales, Kick Ass 2 will begin pre production later this year with a plot based off the upcoming sequel comic, Kick Ass 2: Balls to the Wall.

Although he has already become a big name in Hollywood, X-men: First Class will be Matthew Vaughn's first studio funded production. Accustomed to such self funded productions such as Kick Ass, Vaughn has been feeling the pressure when it comes to adapting a well loved franchise for a big named studio. The upcoming X-men prequel has already undergone several rewrites and drafts since it began production last year.


However, with most of the film casted and shooting to begin later this year. Vaughn never expected another rewrite to come so late in the game. According to Hero Complex, this latest roadblock came to Vaughn's attention last weekend after viewing Christopher Nolan's Inception. While the Kick Ass director openly expressed his love for the supernatural dreamscape thriller, he was also forced to remove almost twelve pages of script and storyboard from First Class. This lost sequence was in fact going to be a dreamspace combat sequence between Charles Xavier's mutants and a rival faction. These scenes, which were to feature spinning rooms and physics bending combat, were labeled as being to similar to the already popular Inception, and thus scrapped.


Despite this Vuaghn remains optimistic about his upcoming edition to the X-men franchise. In fact, in an enthusiastic discussion with IGN.com, he compared his latest attempt at adapting Stan Lee's beloved franchise to the highly successful JJ Abrams 2009 Star Trek reboot. "Obviously [Abrams] couldn't make everyone happy with that one, but he did a pretty good job," Vaughn said. "He made a fantastically exciting reinvention of that world, with those great characters. And I think there will be comparisons a little bit with X-Men: First Class. It's very similar, in a way. But we're doing some cool stuff in this movie, some really cool stuff that you haven't seen before."


Vaughn also hinted that the setting for the story, written by Bryan Singer, is also something he is excited for, seeing as it deals with recent world events.

Although the cast has been expansive in terms of actors and character, X-men First Class has yet to pull any true surprises. While it is great to see such favorites as Magneto and Beast among the list of mutants, director Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass) has yet to pull the rug out from under our legs. That is until today.

According to Straight2DVD, actress Erica Hosseini recently auditioned for the role of Willow, an obscure mutant from the 2099 spinoff series (most famous through its series Spider-man 2099, which appears in the upcoming Shattered Dimensions game) : "I was auditioning for a role named Willow -- hopefully I don't get in trouble for blabbing details on the off-chance that I get it. It's a role similar to Mystique from what I understand. Potentially lots of body paint, so that would be really fun."

So what does this mean for the series? Honestly, I have no idea. Willow is too obscure for a hoax, which adds legitimacy to this statement.

Does Kick Ass kick ass? Or does it just sort of drop one of those wimpy little kicks at your shin? The answer is somewhere in between, but a little closer to the ass kicking one.


Based on the critically acclaimed comic series by Mark Millar, Kick Ass tells the story of Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson), a lonely geek, who asks the question that defines the film: "Why don't people try to be superheroes?" With good intentions and fanboy dreams of success, Dave buys a wetsuit and pair of batons and becomes the masked vigilante, Kick Ass. After initial attempts and failures, Kick Ass becomes an Internet star, and inspires superheroes across the planet. Dave soon finds that he's not alone in the superhero business. Its not long before he encounters the mysterious Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and Hit Girl(Chloe Grace Moretz). However, their acts of heroism and violence soon attract the attention of some rather dangerous people including crime boss Frank D'Amico(Mark Strong) and his son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse). Kick Ass soon finds himself in the midst of gangwar, and way over his head.


Kick Ass is a strange little film. It truly excels in some areas, but finds itself floundering in others, which is strangely like the novel its based on. Kick Ass gets so many things right, but really misses the mark on others.


The acting in Kick Ass is superb throughout. There is hardly a bad performance in the entire cast. Even some of the extras are standouts. Johnson is a capable and likable hero, despite his obvious flaws. Mintz-Plasse is perfectly awkward and uncomfortable as D'Amico's son and feels oddly genuine, something that the comic character never really achieved. However, every performance in the film is eclipsed by the duo of Cage and Moretz. The chemistry between these actors is perfect and is many ways the highlight of the film. Cage is the best he's been in years, and plays a truly demented father that can be considered almost as villainous as the crime lords he fights. The real star of the entire film though is Moretz as Hit Girl. Moretz commands attention and provides for most of the films laughs as the bad mouthed and overly violent preteen vigilante.


Kick Ass really excels when showing its frantic and over the top action sequences. Whether its the almost embarrassing fights between Kick Ass and gang leaders or the over the top badass violence of Hit Girl or Big Daddy, the film never fails to convey the necessary emotion. Most of all the action scenes are fun. They never drag, and contrary to some other reviews, are not overly violent. The film version of Kick Ass succeeds where the novel did not. Director Matthew Vaughn manages to convey the necessary level of violence and action of the comic without feeling like your being bludgeoned over the head by it. Millar's comic action, though exciting and gory, grew tiresome and even sloppy. Vaughn's never does so. Even in the final act where the action is played as much for laughs as for plot, Vaughn never fails to deliver.


Vaughn also never fails to tell a joke. The film is filled with laughs from beginning to end. Jokes are funny, but most importantly well delivered. They do not feel forced or tired, but rather feel incredibly natural. Even when the tone of the film takes a rather annoying turn in the second half, the humor stays consistent.


The real problem in Kick Ass is the oddly uneven script. What many do not realize is that the film version and the graphic novel were actually a joint venture, and were made simultaneously to one another. Despite this, Kick Ass takes several liberties in adapting Millar's tale to the big screen. Some major plot elements are changed, mostly to make the films plot more cohesive and cinematic. There are some changes made to the backstories of the characters that actually work better in the film than in the comic. We also get further exposition on Mintz-Plasse's character . The real problems come when addressing some of the satire and parody presented in the original comic. The original Kick Ass graphic novel told a consistent, if not always sucessful, satire of superhero cliche. The film starts out with this in mind, but eventually devolves into a standard superhero film. Despite this change in tone, the film still remains fun and entertaining, but it feels as if the writers lost the goal they were shooting for in the earlier portions of the film. However, most disappointingly Kick Ass actually falls for some of the cliches it is parodying. One of the things I liked about the original graphic novel was the realistic and pessimistic approach given to the books love interest. The film takes a completely different route, and it feels off kilter with the rest of the story. While the love story actually seems to work, it just feels out of place with the goal of the story. There is also a rather cliched scene at the end that is incredibly over the top and poorly executed. Things also wrap up a little too nicely at the end, something the novel avoided.


Overall, Kick Ass is an enjoyable and entertaining dark super hero comedy. While flawed and frustrating at times, it still succeeds in creating an above average film. While it may not define the superhero genre for years to come, it will certainly remain as one of the better films that have been churned out in recent years.


(Note: In the end, I am giving this film the same score I gave the novel. Despite this when comparing the two, I prefer the film. )


Score: B+

This week was the famous SXSW, a film festival for the fantastic, and unique. While we got new information regarding the Predators film, and Kick Ass (Look for more about those later/in our latest podcast), the biggest news (atleast for me) was regarding the new independent film Monsters. Monsters is described by Vertigo films as: "Six years ago previously, a NASA probe returning to earth with samples of an alien life form, crashed over Central America. Soon after, new life forms began to appear, and half of Mexico was quarantined as an "INFECTED ZONE. Today, the American and Mexican military still struggle to contain "the creatures"... The story begins when a US journalist agrees to escort a shaken American tourist through the infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border."




Although the idea brings to mind such films as Cloverfield and District 9, reviews for Monsters have been overwhelmingly positive. The film was also recently picked up by Magnet Releasing. We have yet to here about a DVD or theatrical release, but regardless, I'm excited.

Clip:

As the title suggests the new trailer for Kick-Ass has just been released:



Personally it looks awesome and gorey at the same time, but only time will tell.

Lu~kun!