For further background on the year in film, please refer to the Some Other Movies From 2010 entry.
The following things happened in 2010:
- One of the deadliest earthquakes on record struck Haiti.
- The Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver, Canada.
- The EU suffered a sovereign debt crisis after Greece's economy collapsed.
- Protests against government corruption in Thailand led to a military crackdown there.
- The FIFA World Cup was held in South Africa.
- Instagram was launched.
- The WHO declared the H1N1 pandemic over.
- The International Space Station set a record for longest continuous human occupation of space.
- Researchers at CERN trapped antimatter for the first time in history.
- Dennis Hopper passed away.
Linked entries can be viewed in their entirety on YouTube.
Excellent
1. Remember Me
Robert Pattinson stars as the conflicted son of an overambitious father. I'd say more than that, but saying more gives the rest of the movie away. It's a great movie, and stands as proof that Pierce Brosnan is a great actor. I never saw the ending coming, and that's high praise given the number of movies I've seen lately. I have no idea what the critics (minus Roger Ebert) hated about this movie; in my opinion it's almost perfect.
2. Black Swan
I'd seen it a couple times before. I also watched The Wrestler (again) recently, and yeah, it's hard to watch one and not watch the other.
Black Swan is one of Darren Aronofsky's other great films, and I'd be hard pressed to say which is better, The Wrestler or Black Swan. In some ways both movies tell a similar story, with Black Swan being the mirror image of The Wrestler. Needless to say Natalie Portman is/was excellent as an ambitious ballerina cast in Swan Lake.
Aronofsky's next film after Mother!, The Whale, is filming now. I have to admit he kind of lost me with Noah and Mother!, but I look forward to his next movie just the same.
Some Good Ones
1. Tron: Legacy
1982's Tron was a labor of love for its director, incorporating some of the earliest CGI on record with groundbreaking visuals. It was also very much a Disney movie of its time, telling a kid-friendly adventure story that resonated with a lot of children my age. It wasn't a smashing success along the lines of Steven Spielberg's E.T., but those of us who grew up with it loved it, and it remains a piece of movie history.
The sequel? Not nearly as good, but then again that's not surprising, is it? It's too serious for its own good, and the de-aging of Jeff Bridges was an obvious mistake. This said, the sequel is still a great looking and great sounding movie which builds to a satisfying conclusion.
It could be said that 1982's Tron was The Matrix before The Matrix. Sure, there were other movies about alternate and/or virtual realities. Futureworld, Dreamscape and the Thirteenth Floor come to mind, but I think the causal link between The Matrix and Tron is easier to establish. And while The Matrix more successfully tied together the various trends in movies and pop culture which preceded it, the argument could be made that Tron was a more original movie, inspired by modes of thinking and technologies that were just emerging at the time.
If you enjoy movies like this one, a side trip into the world of science fiction might be in order. The Eden Cycle and Permutation City are great, if somewhat difficult to find examples of what the world of Tron might have morphed into, and the genre is full of countless other novels and short stories which are well worth seeking out.
Fun Fact 1: The director of Tron, Steven Lisberger, was inspired to create Tron after seeing Pong in the late 70s.
Fun Fact 2: A third Tron is still on the table. At the time of writing Jared Leto is still attached, but at the rate Disney is producing films who knows?
2. Flipped
Young love in 1950s suburbia. The "he said she said" aspect of this movie wore on me, but overall it's good. Rob Reiner directed this after The Bucket List.
3. The Karate Kid
Instead of Daniel-san it's Little Dre from Detroit, and Instead of Mr. Miyagi it's Jackie Chan. Oh, and Instead of "Wax on, wax off." it's "Take your coat off a thousand times." This reboot hits all the same notes as the 80s original, but does so in China, not California. I was ready to hate it, but it's actually not bad.
I just don't get the rules of the tournament at the end. Shouldn't Dre have been awarded another point?
4. Blue Valentine
Damn this movie's depressing. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star as a married couple in and out of love. Critics loved it, and both Gosling and Williams were nominated for multiple awards, but I found it hard to get through. Derek Cianfrance, the director, would direct Gosling again in The Place Beyond the Pines, a movie I liked a lot better.
5. Undisputed III: Redemption
Lovers? I dunno, Scott Adkins and "Turbo" are standing pretty close together at the end there. Perhaps there was something to that.
Undisputed III is surprisingly good. The fight choreography is solid, and the story, about a Russian-sponsored MMA tournament inside a prison, is fairly believable. I haven't seen Undisputed II, but it shares the same director and I wouldn't mind checking it out.
6. Love and Other Drugs
This movie will make you realize why Josh Gad is in so many films. He's got a bit part in this slightly depressing rom-com, but he does a lot with what little screen time he's given. The rest of the movie? Eh, it's just OK. Jake Gyllenhall stars as a man working for a pharmaceutical company, with Anne Hathaway as a woman with more than just intimacy issues.
This could have been a much better movie if they'd turned the focus away from the romantic relationship. Big Pharma, Parkinson's disease, capitalism... it was all too much for the story they were trying to tell.
Some Bad Ones
1. Resident Evil: Afterlife
Milla Jovovich and her hot friends put their gym memberships to good use as they battle zombies. It's equal parts The Matrix and Dawn of the Dead, and not nearly as good as either of those movies. If you like people posing with guns this film's for you, if not there's not much to say in its favor. I did think the hammer zombie was cool, and the soundtrack is on point.
2. Easy A
Emma Stone pretends to be a WHORE for inexplicable reasons. She was game enough for the role, but this movie tries very hard to be Mean Girls and just isn't. Critics liked it, but it gets real implausible real fast.
3. Saw VII: The Final Chapter
Bad acting, unsympathetic characters and a completely uninteresting story. By this point who cared? Those looking for gore might find something to like in it, but by 2010 we'd seen a lot of this already - hooks and chains that rip people apart, collars that snap your jaw off, sharp objects set to pierce flesh after a timer reaches zero - none of it's particularly shocking.
Predictable Fact: OF COURSE it wasn't the final chapter. Whoever is responsible for the Saw movies (a couple of which I actually like) went on to release Jigsaw in 2017 and Spiral in 2021.
4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Nicolas Cage, in concert with Disney, attempts to do for wizardry what he did for obscure American artifacts. It doesn't quite work, and Jay Baruchel is really hard to identify with as his apprentice.
Fun Fact: The room awash with water isn't just a nod to Disney's Fantasia, but also to Goethe's famous poem.
Idle Speculation: If someone could come up with a unique, comprehensive system of magic a story (or screenplay) would almost write itself. What's missing from a lot of these movies is the backstory, and if someone took the time to think through the magical aspect the rest would probably flow quite naturally. An "anti-physics" which would challenge our understanding of the natural world? It would be a difficult task, but a task well worth attempting.
So Ridiculous I Kind of Enjoyed It
1. Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam
Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers join a cast of non-ethnic characters in their battle against the nefarious Camp Star. Setting this movie at Crystal Lake would have made it 1000% better, but we take what we're given...
2. Step Up 3D
The story makes no sense and I'd like to punch one of the dancers in the face. And yet, what am I to do? It's so consistently stupid I can't turn it off, and here we are at the end, at the climactic dance battle, and I'm still watching it. Why do I do this to myself? Why? Why? Why?
Y'all Need Jesus...
1. The Encounter*
Several strangers visit a small diner in... Nevada? And there they encounter... JESUS. Praise his name!
Fun Fact: Gary Daniels, who plays "Nick" in this movie, played Kenshiro in the 1995 live action adaptation of the manga Fist of the North Star. He also played "Bryan Fury" in 2009's Tekken.
Related Entries:
*Wikipedia says this movie came out in 2011, not 2010.
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