Top Movies of 2010 that We Missed - part 2

It's the New Year but we still have finished our lists, so here is part 2 of the Best Films of 2010 we haven't seen yet but want to...

• Vincere - (which means victory in English) This is an Italian film about Mussolini but with a personal twist. The cinematography looks fantastic and this seems to be far the best foreign movie trailer we've seen for 2010. Although the film is in Italian it looks to be fascinating and perhaps enlightening as well - most of us only know Mussolini as a clownish caricature but there must have been more to him to get as far as he did (even if he did turn out to be a bit of a jerk).
  

The secret true story about Mussolini's other wife & rise to power

• Hubble 3D - If there are two things we love - it's space and IMAX movies. Now it just so happens that your editors were present at the original launch of the Hubble Space telescope back in 1990. And guess what this was narrated by Leonardo Di Caprio, who as we've noted seemed to be in the midst of a number of the most interesting projects in Hollywood last year - so this documentary has everything going for it.
  

• Zonad - This movie looks as crazy as the title but for a comedy we figure that's a good thing. We've always believed that Ireland was a happier place than most contemporary movies portray it and perhaps this is the proof that we needed - and of course what could be funnier than Irish space aliens?
  

Take me to your nearest pub earthlings....

• Princess Kaiulani - This is a bio-epic about the heir to Hawaii's thrown right as the United States was moving to take over Hawaii at the end of the 19th century. It certainly appears to be a compelling story, shot in both Hawaii and England.
  

• The Best Worst Movie -A documentary about what has been acknowledged to be the worst film ever-made, Trolls 2, which has now become a cult classic. For folks like us who love lists, this is a must see.

• Agora - From as far as we can tell this is the story of whoever it was who burned all the books in Alexandria (Egypt, not Virginia) way back whenever and some lady who tried to stop them. As far as we know there may have been a papyrus version of People magazine - well, that's all conjecture. The lovely and talented Rachel Weisz stars in this one and given her previous role in the Mummy series this seems like a theme she's developing...

• South of the Border - Oliver Stone & Hugo Chavez; G.W. & Fox News must have really hated this movie - that's probably good reason to see it in itself. But it appears as though Oliver got a chance to talk with multiple South American presidents - giving us a unique perspective into what's happening south of the border.
  

• True Grit - What can we say, we like the Cohen Brothers and really admire Jeff Bridges (although sometimes, like in this year's Tron, he let us down a bit). A lot of people have tried to make comparisons between John Wayne's Rooster Cogburn and Jeff Bridge's character - well, we think the difference is simple - The Duke was always playing some variation of himself in his Westerns (which worked out pretty well), Jeff tends to explore his characters a bit more, become them - instead of the other way around. We're looking forward to seeing how this works out in the new True Grit. BTW - it looks as though both Josh Brolin and Matt Damon went the extra mile on this one too...
  

The Old West was full of bearded, one-eyed vigilante marshals who shot straight
and spoke funny - or so we've heard tell...

Never fear - we're not done with our lists yet - next one will be the top ten movies we watched last year but wish we hadn't...


Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

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Tron Legacy - Digital DoubleTake

We went to see Tron Legacy 3D yesterday - we were both amazed and disappointed at the same time - overall our impression was favorable but this movie certainly squandered an opportunity to become a classic.

First things first - you'll note at the beginning of the film that some of it is in 2D and some of it is 3D. We're not sure why this happened, but we're guessing that it partly had to do with Jeff Bridges animated alter-ego, Clu as well as a strategy change after Avatar's box office results last year. The film would have been better had it been filmed entirely in 3D - perhaps they'll have a chance to change that later.

The story is not a revisioning - but an actual sequel - 28 years in the making. In that time the vast majority of the personal computer, internet and mobile technology revolutions happened - so comparisons to the original film are hard to make given our hindsight. The plot seemed terribly thin throughout the movie and the actors had a hard time making the most of it. We never quite understood the references to the first Tron because quite frankly we forgot most of it and the effort to faithfully connect the two films may have been a wasted effort for most of us.

The special effects however were quite extraordinary. Not since Blade Runner have we run across a film that looked this interesting - if only it had sounded half as interesting it would have been an instant classic.

Jeff Bridges gets animated in Tron Legacy - Too bad
his acting was less animated

We like Jeff Bridges, a lot. But we were a bit confused about his performance in Tron Legacy. At times he seemed as though he were phoning it in while practicing his new John Wayne trumping western character for the soon to be release True Grit. The fact that he was playing two characters, one a computer animated version of his younger self, points to a future in Hollywood where no actor will ever grow old again and some actors may come back from beyond. That's both cool and creepy at the same time. In this film the animation was close, but still not 100% lifelike - we watched Against All Odds (from 1984) last night to make comparisons and the virtual Jeff didn't quite match the real one.

The rest of the cast was adequate, but just. It was great to see Bruce Boxleitner again - in anything - but Flynn's son was kind of boring and the cyber babes while undeniably hot were somewhat two dimensional even when they were 3D. Michael Sheen made an odd and flashy appearance which seemed reminiscent of a mix between the Matrix and David Bowie - his attempt at breathing life into the plot was ultimately unsuccessful.

We still enjoyed the movie for the sheer visual, visceral experience of it - the characters were an afterthought - the story relatively unimportant. Those who make movies ought to have some vision... (the folks who made the original Tron did to some extent but that didn't carry over this time).

We vote that the screenwriters for this Tron be "DeRezzed"

Copyright 2010, Raving Reviews

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