How They Rank: At the Theater 2010

Here they are, all 52 movies I watched in the theater in 2010, with my thoughts on my top 5 and bottom 5 for the year.

1. Toy Story 3 (viewed 6/15/10):  It’s rare for the third installment of a franchise to be a winner, but Toy Story 3 definitely is. Where else are you going to find toys getting existential trying to figure out what happens when their owner grows up.

2. Youth in Revolt (viewed 2/3/10): Proving once and for all that Michael Cera isn’t just George Michael Bluth.

3. True Grit (viewed 12/23/10): My pick for this year’s Oscar winner. The Coens hit a home run here.

4. The Fighter (viewed 12/29/10): Weeks after seeing The Fighter, I’m still thinking about it. I’m looking forward to seeing this again.

5. Iron Man 2 (viewed 5/13/10): Action movie sequels don’t have to suck. Sometimes they’re just as good as the original.

6. The Town (viewed 10/4/10)

7. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (viewed 8/9/10)
8. Inception (viewed 7/17/10)
9. The King’s Speech (viewed 12/21/10)
10. Winter’s Bone (viewed 12/21/10)
11. Today’s Special (viewed 12/14/10)
12. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (viewed 11/20/10)
13. Exit Through the Gift Shop (viewed 5/31/10)
14. The Social Network (viewed 10/10/10)
15. The Fantastic Mr. Fox (viewed 1/12/10)
16. Inside Job (viewed 12/21/10)
17. Sherlock Holmes (viewed 1/7/10)
18. Easy A (viewed 9/14/10)
19. Mega Mind 3D (viewed 12/3/10)
20. Despicable Me (viewed 7/21/10)
21. Black Swan (viewed 11/18/10)
22. Tangled (viewed 12/31/10)
23. Unstoppable (viewed 12/16/10)
24. 127 Hours (viewed 11/29/10)
25. It’s Kind of a Funny Story (viewed 10/7/10)
26. Love and Other Drugs (viewed 12/7/10)
27. Red (viewed 11/8/10)
28. How to Train Your Dragon 3D (viewed 4/15/10)
29. Kick-Ass (viewed 4/27/10)
30. Fair Game (12/17/10)
31. Hot Tub Time Machine (viewed 3/15/10)
32. Up in the Air (viewed 1/21/10)
33. The Ghost Writer (viewed 3/25/10)
34. An Education (viewed 2/10/10)
35. Due Date (viewed 12/8/10)
36. Cyrus (viewed 7/5/10)
37. Oceans (viewed 7/20/10)
38. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (viewed 1/26/10)
39. The Last Station (viewed 2/18/10)
40. Grease Sing-A-Long (viewed 7/16/10)
41. Snowmen (viewed 5/1/10)
42. Letters to Juliet (viewed 6/22/10)
43. Paper Man (viewed 5/1/10)
44. Date Night (viewed 5/6/10)
45. Little Fockers (viewed 12/13/10)
46. Tron: Legacy 3D (viewed 12/30/10)
47. Alice in Wonderland (viewed 3/8/10)
48. A Single Man (viewed 3/5/10): See The King’s Speech instead to get your Colin Firth fix.

49. How Do You Know (viewed 12/21/10): Not even the combined cuteness of Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd could save this one. This was the weakest link of Super Tuesday.

50. Mademoiselle Chambon (viewed 7/2/10): I’m amazed I didn’t fall asleep during this boring French adultery film.

51. Greenberg (viewed 4/10/10): I wasn’t ready for a movie this bad only two days after Remember Me.

52. Remember Me (viewed 4/8/10):  The Wackness of 2010.

On The Couch #20: The Incredible Hulk

The main reason I wanted to watch The Incredible Hulk is because Iron Man 2 was so good. I remembered hearing that Robert Downey Jr. made a cameo in this movie as Tony Stark, so I took this out from Netflix as a sort-of Iron Man 1.5. Tony Stark is in the movie; unfortunately he’s not in his Hulkbuster armor.

This would have made for one half of an awesome all-CGI fight scene.

I’m not sure if this is a reboot or a sequel to Ang Lee’s 2003 Hulk movie. The cast and director are completely different. What’s good about it is that The Incredible Hulk covers the Hulk’s origin in the opening credits, so you don’t have to sit through Ang Lee’s snoozer before watching this.

Edward Norton is great as the yoga practicing, always-trying-to-keep-his-cool Bruce Banner.

Old school Hulk fans will be happy that Lou Ferrigno makes a cameo appearence as an easily-bought-off-with-pizza security guard.

Who wears short shorts? Hulk wears short shorts!

Bruce Banner’s love interest Betty dates the dad from Mordern Family. What is it with this guy? He looks like Eddie Munster all grown up, yet in fictional worlds he lands Liv Tyler and Julie Bowen? I don’t get it.

I wonder if he keeps in touch with cousin Marilyn.

Maybe it’s just because I watched hours and hours of Lost the day before, but I thought Michael Emerson would have been the perfect guy to play Betty’s boyfriend instead. He’s snarky, he’s swarmy, he’s the perfect other guy. Later in the movie, I thought Michael Emerson would make a much better Mr. Blue than the guy they cast. Okay, I want to replace two people with Ben from Lost. This may be a sign that I have been watching too much Lost lately.

Tim Roth plays the big bad guy. He must be happy that there is a Mr. Blue and a Mr. Green in this movie. It’s like an unofficial tie-in to Reservior Dogs. Mr. Blue and Mr. Green aren’t bank robbers, but they are scientists who are working outside the law, which is almost the same, right?

“Why am I Mr. Green?”
“Because you’re irradiated, alright?”

Hey Freaks and Geeks fans, Bill is in this movie! He’s the guy eating pizza in the computer lab. Blink and you’ll miss him. All of his lines landed on the cutting room floor. It’s too bad, because it’s the funniest scenes not in the movie.

If you don’t have time to sit through the two-hour movie, you can watch all the deleted scenes instead. There are so many of them that they become a 20-minute cinematic Cliff’s Notes.

If you didn’t see The Incredible Hulk because you found The Hulk as boring as I did, rent this movie. It’s good.

At The Theater #19: Iron Man 2

Going into Iron Man 2, I was feeling a little worried. People were telling me that it wasn’t as good as the first one, that there were too many characters and that it was all just a long commercial for an eventual Avengers movie. Having now seen it, they were wrong on all three counts. Iron Man 2 is an awesome movie.

It’s full of energy. It starts at 10 and just keeps going.

In one way, Iron Man 2 is better than Iron Man. I’m talking about the decision to replace Terrence Howard with Don Cheadle as James “Rhodey” Rhodes.

I really don’t understand why Terrence Howard would not do everything in his power to come back for this sequel. From what I’ve heard, he was the highest paid actor in Iron Man, more than Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Bridges, all because he was the first actor signed to the film. Going into the sequel, he was scheduled for a major pay cut because when you’re in a cast with Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow and Scarlett Johansson, you’re bound to become number three or four on the pay scale.

One early 90s outfit that still looks cool today.

Instead of taking the pay cut and getting in on what may be the biggest movie of 2010 (sorry Twilight fans, I see Iron Man 2 doing better than Eclipse), not to mention getting his own armor in this one, the super-badass War Machine armor, Terrence Howard left to make…Fighting.

I don’t remember this movie either.
I’ve never been a big fan of Terrence Howard, and Don Cheadle is awesome in everything he does, so when I first heard this news, I thought “Upgrade!”

As soon as Rhodey appeared on screen in the fully tricked out War Machine armor, I think I audibly said “Awesome.”
Luckily they didn’t cast their 3rd choice.

Has anyone seen the poster below for Iron Man 2? I’ve been told by multiple people that it’s modeled after a Star Wars poster. Sure, the boot jet looks like a lightsaber, but I can’t think of any Star Wars poster that looks like this. Does anyone know what Star Wars poster this looks like? Or is just a thematic thing?

Star Wars?

Like the first movie, there’s a bonus scene at the end of the credits that you should definitely stick around for. All I can say is that it is definitely a great time to be a comics fan going to the movies these days.

In the credits, Iron Man co-creator Stan Lee is credited as himself, but I swore he was called Larry King in his cameo appearance.

Since we’re on the topic of superhero movies, please go to Netflix and save The Crimson Mask to your queue. My friend Elias Plagianos is the writer and director. It’s played in a bunch of film festivals and won over 30 awards. The Crimson Mask is due out on DVD at the end of this month and Netflix requires a certain number of people to save it to their queue before they’ll order copies of it. If it makes it into Netflix, you’ll see a review of it here. Thanks.