I'm back and here goes. Where were we? Right.
12. The Book of El: In a post-apocalyptic world, a lone hero, Eli (Denzel Washington), guards the Book of Eli, which provides knowledge that could redeem society. The despot (Gary Oldman) of a small, makeshift town plans to take possession of the book.
Let's see, Denzel, who I like just made a movie called The Taking of Pelham 123 which I didn't like. Which is not something I ever thought I'd say about a Denzel Washington movie. But let's see if he makes up for it. Gary Oldman is a favorite any day.
13. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
To this I can say, YAY!! As you'd know from my previous post on Narnia, I'm a huge C.S.Lewis & Narnia fan. And I loved Prince Caspian. I don't quite know why the film had crappy box office returns but I'm really hoping they make all 7 Chronicles. This one is something I'm eagerly waiting for.
14. Shrek Forever After
Who doesn't love Shrek? I know it's movie four so people are probably starting to get a wee bit tired of it but I think they still have one good one left in 'em.
15. Sex and the City 2
I know it's sacrilege for a guy to admit he likes Sex and the City but I'm going to say it. I like it! It's funny, the chemistry between the characters hasn't gotten old after 6 seasons. But after this movie, please stop. You can't keep milking it just cause it made sense once. And yes, botox is your friend.
16. Tron Legacy
Okay, so I don't remember the original Tron movie cause I was 2 when it came out. But I do remember seeing those ridiculously cool tron bikes and stuff when I was a little older thinking, "Nice!" Well, it's 27 years later and time for a sequel. Look for it at the end of 2010.
17. Twilight Saga: Eclipse
I think I'll let media overkill do the job for me here. I don't care to see Robert "Sunken-eyes" Pattinson or Kristin "My life is going to end if I don't kiss Edward" Stewart. I can't go 10 feet without Twilight this or Twilight that. But unfortunately, screaming teen girls being a huge demographic, they will make all 4 movies pretty much back to back.
18. Alice in Wonderland
Now, this is a movie I'd give an arm to see. Tim Burton, the genius dark director is back to take what is, in actuality, not a childrens novel at all and subject it to his even more twisted vision. It is going to be AWESOME. Burton has with him, the usual suspects, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny Elfman and Depp. And just when you think Johnny Depp can't pull any more avatars out of his hat, he gives us...
19. Inception
If you loved The Dark Knight and I did, Christopher Nolan is back with the most underrated actor of his generation, Leo DiCaprio in a weird sci-fi thriller. I saw the trailer, didn't understand a goddamn thing but I can't wait to watch it.
20. The Expendables
Okay, this is just testosterone overkill. Sly Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, alongside upstarts Jet Li and Jason Statham, for a story about a crack team of mercenaries sent on a mission to terminate a South American warlord. I am weeping tears of joy.
21. The A Team
Does anyone remember The A Team. I thought they were cool with that cool van and Mr.T. I thought he was the biggest black man I'd ever seen in my life. Well, I was 8 when I first saw them. Here is your first official look at Bradley Cooper as Lt. Templeton "Faceman" Peck, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson as Sgt. "B.A." Baracus, Sharlto Copley as Capt. "Howling Mad" Murdock, and Liam Neeson as John "Hannibal" Smith in the Joe Carnahan-directed The A-Team.
22. Toy Story 3
I thought they were cute. Maybe they still are. Might download this one.
23. Shutter Island
My favorite actor-director combo is back. Leo DiCap-Martin Scorsese. Come on!
The Gangs of New York, The Departed, The Aviator and now a horror! I CAN'T WAIT! Look at that poster. :D
24. Robin Hood
Where has Russel Crowe gone? I haven't seen him since... oh wait. He's in England. In tights. Beating up bad guys. Generating Oscar buzz before it even begins.
25. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
"We know it's the last part and we know it has to end. No? JKR won't write another? Damn it! How do we make this last just a little long... wait a minute! I'll just make the last part into last part- part 1 and last part - part 2. mehehehe."
26. Iron Man 2
Tony Stark is back. :)
Mickey Rourke is the cybernetically enhanced villain Whiplash and Scarlett Johansson appears as Black Widow, a Russian assassin who may also be joining Gwyneth Paltrow as potential love interest. Don Cheadle replaces Terence Howard as Colonel James ‘Rhodey’ Rhodes, who later becomes Iron Man’s heavily armed back up, War Machine.
That's going to be my Super-hero pick of the year.
If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a huge movie buff. I love movies. I watch almost every kind out there, be it comedy, action, thrillers, horror, romance, foreign films, anything. It must however, be noted, that I rarely if ever watch Hindi movies. Nothing against Bollywood except to say that 90% OF THE MOVIES SUCK. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it. I do make the occasional exception like A Wednesday which I thought was a stellar piece of acting from both Naseruddin Shah and Anupam Kher. I loved that one.
Now, back to the topic at hand. Movies in 2010. Here’s a list I got from timesonline.com and I’m going to comment about just the ones I find interesting.
1. Avatar: First off, I know it's a 2009 movie and shouldn't feature in the list but DAMN, what awesome visuals. It's got Sam Worthington (Terminator: Salvation) and the movie honestly looks brilliant. Well, at least the scenes involving the planet Pandora do. I can't wait.
2. Clash of the Titans: So, here's Sam Worthington again! This time as Perseus looking to lay some serious pain on Hades. I'm a huge Greek Mythology fan, so I'm going to love this.
3. The Green Hornet: Okay, so Seth Rogen as the Green Hornet? Really? I don't know. This can either be really good or really bad. I'm really out to lunch on this one. I guess we'll have to wait.
4. Resident Evil: Afterlife: To be honest, I'm bored of Resident Evil. There's a virus, T- or G- or whatever, it gets out of control. First in 2002, then 2004, then 2007 and like clockwork in 2010. I wonder what the story will be this time. :|
5. A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas: Okay, I'm a Kal Penn fan, but why would he do this?? He's in the Obama administration as the Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Does he really need another Harold and Kumar, especially after Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay which was the unfunniest movie since since Epic Movie.
6. Highlander: Again, a fan of the Highlander TV show with Adrian Paul. I then watched the Christopher Lambert movies which were AWFUL. Each one worse than the last. Now, as with Star Trek they're doing a reboot. Let's see if it'll work. I hope it does. The concept is kinda cool.
7. Legion: First off, check out the poster. How cool does that look. Anything that has fantasy/horror with Angels and stuff is good with me. Now, a brief of the plot:
"After God loses faith in humanity, the archangel Michael (Paul Bettany) is the only one standing between mankind and the apocalypse. This time using angels as the act of Biblical judgment, God's wrath descends on Earth to exterminate the world's population. In a desperate, last-chance gambit, Michael leads a group of strangers to a small, New Mexico diner to protect a young waitress who may be pregnant with Christ in his second coming."
Again, a fan of Paul Bettany who I haven't seen in a while now.
8. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: Whoa! I was just doing an image search for the poster to this movie, thinking to myself, Jake Gyllenhaal? Really? But check this out. The dude has buffed up! I'm a big fan of the videogame and I have yet to play The Two Thrones but this is EXACTLY how the Prince looks in the game. Love it.
9. The Wolfman: I've seen the trailers and I'm not terribly excited by this one. I loved the classic 1924 and 1941 versions. But Benicio Del Toro's version doesn't seem to bring anything new to this, I feel. Let's see. It is a remake after all. I'll hold judgement on this one.
10. Gulliver's Travels: Jack Black is back as Gulliver. :) Enough said.
11. Predators: Okay, so I didn't hate the AVP movies but that's because I wasn't going in with any expectations. This is a Robert Rodriguez movie. The story involves a group of the toughest humans alive abducted and taken to the home planet of the invisible super-hunters. Pursued through the strange alien jungle they are picked off one by one until only one survives. I think there's a rumored cameo from original Predator star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
I know I’m always slightly late in my movie reviews but unlike regular movie critics who in their boring “prompt” way review and critique a movie right after its release, I tend to take my time and do it at liesure when I happen to see a movie on TV. :)
For instance, last night, after coming home from a hard day’s work, I turned on HBO and there was I am Legend. The fact that the movie boasts a cast of 2 for almost 80% of its running time is something that I love. If you’ve read my previous post on Benjamin Button, then you’d know that I’m a fan of movies with quiet, yet strong performances. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’d watch a Megan Fox-filled-Autobot-beat-Decepticon-stopping the end of the world movie in a heartbeat. But these types of movies (Legend and Benjamin Button) are the movies that move you. I don’t feel the hairs on my arm raise watching Shia yell at Optimus.
To give you a little bit of history about the concept behind I am Legend, we need to go back to the book that spawned the movies. To quote Wiki, “I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction/horror novel by American writer Richard Matheson. It was influential in the development of the vampire genre as well as the zombie genre, in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease, and in exploring the notion of vampirism as a disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and as I Am Legend in 2007…”
At first, before I’d known this, I’d loved the movie but wondered what the title was about. To know this, you have to understand the book. The Robert Neville of the novel isn’t a scientist; he’s just a normal man who happened to survive. And the survivors in the book are vampires, instead of zombies. In the novel, he sets about hunting and killing as many of these vampires as he can find, considering it his human right to try and destroy this new scourge that took mankind. But unlike the movie, the vampires of the novel aren’t soulless, bloodthirsty creatures who kill for the hell of it. They are still essentially human inside and come to terms with their new vampirism and consider it a part of life. They then go about rebuilding society as a vampire society. And Neville, in his crusade against all things vampiric, is the monster. He’s the odd one out in the world where the new “normal” is to be a vampire. The hunters then go after the “monster” to kill the thing that is hunting them. The irony is not lost on Neville and before he dies, he laughs and says, “[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend."
Now, the movie tried to incorporate its own interpretation of “Legend” and they did this in an alternate ending that was shot for the 2007 movie. In this ending, the movie deviates during the last few minutes where the Darkseeker leader doesn’t keep running mindlessly into the glass wall. When Robert Neville keeps yelling that he can cure them all because the Darkseeker woman is now visibly human again, the leader walks up to the glass and with his hands, smudges the figure of a butterfly. At this, Neville looks at the now cured Darkseeker lady and sees a butterfly tattoo on her shoulder (or arm, I forget). He then realizes that the leader and this woman are a couple and that he’s being hunted for their version of love. He then wheels the table out where the woman is lying and the leader and the other seekers take her and leave them alone. The leader looks at the wall of pictures where Neville’s failed experiments are and then Neville realizes that to them, he is the monster and not vice-versa. He then takes Anna and Ethan and escapes to Vermont
While this was not the chosen ending, which would have been the happier one (which is why I’m guessing it didn’t get picked for the movie, for seeming too optimistic), this ending is, however, the one that resonated most with the title. Here, Neville realizes the nature of the beast that is now him.
I must say though, that Will Smith was excellent (yet again) in this movie. His expressions and sorrow made you feel the weight of grief that’s on his shoulders. Also, being a die-hard dog lover, I absolutely adored Sam and his role in the film and shed a tear (yes, yes, I cry during some movies) when he died.
Also, I thought having New York , rather than Los Angeles New York
It makes you kind of wonder what you would do if you were ever in the same situation. Would you find the will to live on knowing that you are the last human on the face of the planet? I don’t know if I would. I thought that if the world was empty, I’d travel till I found my perfect place and live out my days there in whatever fashion I could.
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