Movie Muse

As the summer comes to a close, it’s reflection time. On the eve of my plunging into five days or so of Fall Preview 2010, which will bring you all you need to know about movies between now and the weekend before Thanksgiving, it’s only fitting to bid adieu to the summer, perhaps the most heavily scrutinized of all the movie seasons. This list will award the best films of each genre (according to what I’ve seen and popular/critical reception) as well as the biggest disappointments — and there were plenty of those. I will also highlight the best talents in this summer’s films.

There’s no secret that Summer 2010 paled in comparison to Summer 2009. I gave out numerous honorable mentions in my days upon days of summer superlatives last August. This year was easy enough to condense to one post. Let’s begin. Read the rest of this entry »

You can’t always count on a summer to deliver the best blockbusters; that was the case with Summer 2010. You can, however, usually count on a small crop of actors to offer performances that will either put them on the map or jettison them into the big-time. Last year, I gave you a list that panned out pretty well as it was based on future projects. This included Zoe Saldana (“Star Trek”), Sam Worthington (hadn’t yet starred in “Avatar”), Zach Galifianakis (in just about every comedy project these days), Ken Jeong and Bradley Cooper. Read the rest of this entry »

There weren’t a lot of Surprises at Comic Con this year. Other than Disney’s announcement of a Guillermo Del Toro-helmed “Haunted Mansion” and Marvel’s aside about rights to “The Punisher” being back in the company’s hands, there weren’t a whole lot of breaking news items.

But it doesn’t mean Comic Con ’10 was a wash. There were plenty of films that debuted in Hall H that make for a very promising end of the year and start to 2011.  There were some we’d never heard of or seen anything from and others we’ve been waiting to glimpse for a long time. Below is a list of ten movies that upped their excitement factor with presentations at this year’s Con. Read the rest of this entry »

They’re known as the movies you have to see twice, or sometimes more affectionately as the movies after which you say “I don’t know what the $%*# just I just saw.” For now, I’ll call them mind-benders: films that are so enigmatic and intricately woven that wow you at the end, even if you have no idea what happened. Considering that tomorrow’s “Inception” should be one of those films,  I thought I’d share with you my Top 10. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone’s fascinated with the bad guy. There’s the allure of being a villain, but there’s also been an effort in movies lately (especially in the world of comic supervillains) to complicate the supervillain, perhaps even make us feel bad for him or her. There are some who simply epitomize evil and have no motive but chaos (The Joker) and those who might have been good but the world scarred them in a way that can never be reversed.

Then there are those villains who are the Wile E. Coyotes of the group, the ones who we root for because we resonate with them on some kind of deeper level. Try as he might, for example, the Wile E. Coyote could never catch the Roadrunner and would never feel the satisfaction of accomplishment we all long for. This Friday’s animated film “Despicable Me” has one such villain as the main character, Gru, voiced by Steve Carrell. This winter’s “Megamind” will also focus on the bad guy. As such, I’ve identified 10 movie supervillains that whether completely or just in part, earned a little of our sympathy. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing is for certain when it comes to Adam Sandler: love him or hate him, he makes movies that make money. You either jive with the immature goofy humor that changed the comedy landscape in the mid-’90s, or you find his movies pretty detestable. So for this week’s edition of “The Good, The Bad, The Ugly,” nothing could be more fitting on the eve of his new film Grown Ups than sorting through the highlights and lowlights of a pretty impressive comedy career.
Read the rest of this entry »

If you’ve followed Hollywood trends this year, you’ve already noticed the inordinate amount of movies centered around an action team. It’s not just “The A-Team” which comes out Friday, but last April’s “The Losers” and this August’s “The Expendables,” which boasts Sylvester Stallone, Mickey Rourke, Jason Statham and Jet Li among others.

As a result, I wanted to go back and find the movies that started the trend or made a solid contribution to the “genre.” The following rankings are based on the best action teams, not necessarily the quality of the films though that certainly plays some kind of inherent part in the process. I primarily thought about this list in terms of which team I’d most want to be part of.

Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday Night Live was such a tour-de-force for comedy that in the late 1970s, the sketch comedy show took its exploits to the silver screen. In the 30 years since “Blues Brothers” became the first great comedy of the ’80s, SNL has tried again and again to turn a profit on some relatively low-budget films.

With the ability to see which sketches work on their late-night show as a trial-run, it’s interesting to note that they’ve had a good degree of failure, especially in the ’90s, which presumably is what prompted them to call it quits in 2000.

On Friday, SNL — now with a completely new cast since its last effort “The Ladies Man” — makes a big-screen comeback with “MacGruber.” Spoofing TV’s MacGyver, MacGruber’s an oddball action hero who refuses to use traditional weaponry. Film festival debuts have given somewhat positive feedback, but time will tell if this is the beginning of another era for SNL at the movies. Read the rest of this entry »

At some point, every movie-watcher grows really tired of the horror film or thriller where a mysterious or overpowering killer knocks off one main character at a time and then only two survive long enough to make it to the final showdown and usually one of them is a minority. See, at least a dozen movies just popped into your head.

Yet the formula has withstood the test of time, and what began with “Jaws” in the ’70s  and evolved into the slasher movie has become a staple of cinema. The terrifying Freddy Kreuger, who stars in Friday’s remake of the tremendously successful Wes Craven slasher “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” is an example of a successful execution of the formula. It’s sequels? Maybe not so much. But rather than dwell on all the terrible head-shaking examples of slasher films, why not try something a bit different?

That’s why I’ve created this list of ten movies that actually would’ve been way better had they been conceived as slasher films. I’d love to hear some of your ideas, but here are some solid ones I came up with. You can tell that I took this half seriously and half jokingly, which I think is fair. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I began a list of ten great comedian and comedienne collaborations (or just plain dynamite romantic comedy couples). With Steve Carrell and Tina Fey starring for the first time in Date Night, two comedic actors who have single-handedly keeping NBC’s primetime television afloat, I thought it was warranted.

If you didn’t read part one, it’s here.

While the first five catered a bit more to famous rom com couples, the top five feature one-time duos and frequent co-stars who could do it all: comedy, romance, drama and most of all, created memorable characters. Many are Oscar winner  who have some of the best reputations in Hollywood history. Read the rest of this entry »

Two of the most popular movie and NBC television comedians Steve Carell (The Office) and Tina Fey (30 Rock) are joining forces for the first time in Friday’s Date Night, from Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum). Of all possible date comedy duos, none could be more promising. This is not Jennifer Anniston and Gerard Butler or Katherine Heigl and Ashton Kutcher we’re talking about. These are two of the best in the business from the likes of Saturday Night Live and Chicago’s Second City.

So it got me thinking about some of the other great male/female comedian duos over the years be they one-time films, frequent collaborations or just two hallmark names colliding for one otherwise unmemorable film. I’ve broken this list in half, so you’ll need to check back tomorrow for the rest (and my weekend preview of Date Night) Read the rest of this entry »

For some reason, one of my favorite plot devices of all time is time travel, or really any film that messes with the framework of time.  Even a film that tells the story in non-traditional chronological order such as Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind get extra props for time manipulation.

With Hot Tub Time Machine hitting theaters tomorrow, I’m jumping at the excuse to put together a list of my favorite time travel movies. Ooh … I can feel you getting excited already. Once again, can’t claim to have seen every time travel movie, but I have seen all of these for sure. Read the rest of this entry »

My first thought as Valentine’s Day was approaching would be to rank romance films or something like that, but screw romance. That’s boring. So I decided to change things up a bit and choose a number of films that from my own watching experience or just what I’ve heard about them, would be an awful movie to watch on Valentine’s Day, especially if you’re looking for a good movie for you and that special someone. Read the rest of this entry »

Seeing what kind of messed-up half-thuggish hair and facial hair John Travolta is wearing in his next film is like following public appearances of Lady Gaga to see what bizarre outfit she’s concocted next, only Gaga can manage to pull it off at times. But seriously, middle-aged Vinny Barbarino has tried and done everything to “change his image” for a Hollywood and general public that has been unsympathetic.

It seems that ever since John went balls-out and took on dreadlocks for turn-of-the-century monstrosity that was Battlefield Earth, that he’s never really revived his career. Nearly every film he’s been in has been mediocre. Enough to get work, yes, but enough to get respect? Eh. So I’ve poured through the best and worst of Johnny T in honor of the next film that appears to continue the cycle of hair — which is now none – From Paris with Love. Read the rest of this entry »

There are only a few bona fide ass-kickers working in Hollywood and Denzel Washington is quite possibly atop that list. He’s played every badass role you’ve ever seen in a film: hardened criminal, cop, homicide detective, soldier, athlete – you name it.

Truth is, the man is intimidating. If he ever got mad at me for any reason I would acquiesce to his every demand and probably start crying. I’m sure some Hollywood paparazzo who crossed the line with Denzel one day is telling a shrink about it every Tuesday at 6 pm.

His starring role in post-apocalyptic action thriller The Book of Eli, which opens tomorrow, appears to be – if nothing else – a celebration of all the ass Denzel Washington has ever kicked and is capable of ever kicking. In honor of that, I’ve tried my best to assemble the 10 most badass Denzel Washington performances. I’m far from seeing all his movies, but I stuck in a few he probably was quite a badass in. As for The Book of Eli, we’ll just have to see where that lands on the list starting tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »