50 Best Movies Since 2010 Part 5

10) X-Men: First Class (2011) - English


Written by Sheldon Turner, Bryan Singer, Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon and Jennifer Lawrence

9) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2010) - Swedish


Written by Stieg Larsson, Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg
Directed by Niels Arden Oplev
Starring Michael Nyqvist and Noomi Rapace

8) The Fighter (2011) - English


Written by Keith Dorrington, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson and Scott Silver
Directed by David O. Russell
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams and Melissa Leo

7) Kick-Ass (2010) - English


Written by Mark Millar, Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman
Directed by Matthew Vaughn
Starring Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloe Grace Moretz, Mark Strong and Nicolas Cage

6) Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) - English


Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Directed by Joe Johnston
Starring Chris Evans, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci

5) Toy Story 3 (2010) - English


Written by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich and Michael Arndt
Directed by Lee Unkrich
Starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Blake Clark, Estelle Harris and Jodi Benson

4) 13 Assassins (2011) - Japanese


Written by Shoichiro Ikemiya and Daisuke Tengan
Directed by Takashi Miike
Starring Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yusuke Iseya, Goro Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura and Mikijiro Hira

3) Hugo (2011) - English


Written by Brian Selznick and John Logan
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Asa Butterfield, Ben Kingsley, Chloe Grace Moretz, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helen McCrory, Richard Griffiths, Frances de la Tour, Ray Winstone, Emily Mortimer, Jude Law and Christopher Lee

2) Inception (2010) - English


Written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Starring Leonard DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger and Michael Caine

1) The Avengers (2012) - English


Written by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon
Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L. Jackson

50 Best Movies Since 2010 Part 4

20) Reign Of Assassins (2010) - Mandarin


Written by Su Chao-pin
Directed by Su Chao-pin and John Woo
Starring Michelle Yeoh, Jung Woo-sung, Wang Xueqi, Barbie Hsu, Shawn Yue, Kelly Lin, Guo Xiaodong and Jiang Yiyan

Note: This movie has not been released outside of China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The Weinstein Company and Lionsgate Pictures have had the rights to release the movie in the US and UK since before production was completed, but despite the involvement of John Woo and Michelle Yeoh have for some reason not to do anything with it. It is available to watch on Youtube, though, and I suggest you do so.

19) The Muppets (2012) - English


Written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller
Directed by James Bobin
Starring Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper and Rashida Jones

18) Source Code (2011) - English


Written by Ben Ripley
Directed by Duncan Jones
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright

17) The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest (2010) - Swedish


Written by Stieg Larsson, Ulf Rydberg and Jonas Frykberg
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Nyqvist

16) Aftershock (2010) - Mandarin


Written and directed by Feng Xiaogang
Starring Zhang Jingchu, Chen Daoming, Lu Yi, Xu Fan, Zhang Guoqiang and Li Chen

15) Salt (2010) - English


Written by Kurt Wimmer
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Daniel Olbrychski and August Diehl

14) The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) - English


Written by Stieg Larsson and Steven Zaillian
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara

13) Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows (2011) - English


Written by Kieran and Michele Mulroney
Directed by Guy Ritchie
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Noomi Rapace, Jared Harris, Stephen Fry, Kelly Reilly and Rachel McAdams

12) Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World (2010) - English


Written by Bryan Lee O'Malley, Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall
Directed by Edgar Wright
Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman

11) Iron Man 2 (2010) - English


Written by Justin Theroux
Directed by Jon Favreau
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson and Mickey Rourke

50 Best Movies Since 2010 Part 3

30) Ponyo (2010) - Japanese/English
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Starring Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Tomoko Yamaguchi, George Tokoro and Kazushige Nagashima, or Noah Cyrus, Frankie Jonas, Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett

29) Bodyguards And Assassins (2010) - Cantonese/Mandarin

Written by Chun Tin-nam, James Yuen, Chan Wai, Guo Junli, Wu Bing and Joyce Chan
Directed by Teddy Chan
Starring Donnie Yen, Nicholas Tse, Leon Lai, Wang Xueqi, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Hu Jun, Eric Tsang, Simon Yam, Li Yuchun, Mengke Bateer, Fan Bingbing, Zhou Yun, Wang Po-chieh and Cung Le

28) Let Me In (2010) - English

Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist and Matt Reeves
Directed by Matt Reeves
Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins

27) Attack The Block (2011) - English

Written and directed by Joe Cornish
Starring Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Franz Drameh, Leeon Jones, Simon Howard, Luke Treadaway, Jumayn Hunter and Nick Frost

26) True Grit (2011) - English

Written by Charles Portis, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Starring Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin, Barry Pepper and Hailee Steinfeld

25) How To Train Your Dragon (2010) - English

Written by Cressida Cowell, Will Davies, Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders
Directed by Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
Starring Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, T.J. Miller and Kristen Wiig

24) Easy A (2010) - English

Written by Bert V. Royal
Directed by Will Gluck
Starring Emma Stone, Penn Badgley, Amanda Bynes, Cam Gigandet, Thomas Haden Church, Patricia Clarkson, Lisa Kudrow, Malcolm McDowell, Alyson Michalka and Stanley Tucci

23) The Girl Who Played With Fire (2010) - Swedish

Written by Stieg Larsson and Ulf Rydberg
Directed by Daniel Alfredson
Starring Michael Nyquist and Noomi Rapace

22) Machete (2010) - English

Written by Robert and Alvaro Rodriguez
Directed by Robert Rodriguez and Ethan Maniquis
Starring Danny Trejo, Robert DeNiro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan and Don Johnson

21) The Lovely Bones (2010) - English

Written by Alice Sebold, Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens
Directed by Peter Jackson
Starring Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci and Michael Imperioli

50 Best Movies Since 2010 Part 2

40) Never Let Me Go (2011) - English

Written by Kazuo Ishiguro and Alex Garland
Directed by Mark Romanek
Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightlet

39) Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011) - English

Written by Jonathan Aibel, Glenn Berger, Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Charlie Kaufman
Directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Starring Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu, David Cross, James Hong, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, Dennis Haysbert, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Victor Garber

38) The Social Network (2010) - English

Written by Ben Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin
Directed by David Fincher
Starring Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones and Rooney Mara

37) Thor (2011) - English

Written by J. Michael Stracynski, Mark Protosevich, Ashley Edward Miller, Zack Stentz and Don Payne
Directed by Kenneth Branagh
Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgard, Rene Russo, Kat Dennings and Idris Elba

36) Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grand Master (2010) - Cantonese/Mandarin

Written by Edmond Wong
Directed by Wilson Yip
Starring Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, Lynn Hung and Huang Xiaoming

35) The Warrior's Way (2010) - English

Written and directed by Sngmoo Lee
Starring Jang Dong Gun, Geoffrey Rush, Kate Bosworth and Danny Huston

34) Tron: Legacy (2010) - English

Written by Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal
Directed Joseph Kosinski
Starring Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner

33) Four Lions (2010) - English

Written by Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain and Simon Blackwell
Directed by Chris Morris
Starring Riz Ahmed, Kayvan Novak, Nigel Lindsay, Adeel Akhtar, Arsher Ali and Preeya Kalidas

32) Whip It (2010) - English

Written by Shauna Cross
Directed by Drew Barrymore
Starring Ellen Page, Alia Shawkat, Marcia Gay Harden, Kristen Wiig, Drew Barrymore, Juliette Lewis, Jimmy Fallon and Daniel Stern

31) The Help (2011) - English

Written by Kathryn Stockett and Tate Taylor
Directed by Tate Taylor
Starring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain

50 Best Movies Since 2010 Part 1

50) Black Swan (2011) - English

Written by Andres Heinz, Mark Heyman and John McLaughlin
Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey and Winona Ryder

49) Shaolin (2011) - Cantonese/Mandarin

Written by Alan Yuen
Directed by Benny Chan
Starring Andy Lau, Nicholas Tse, Wu Jing and Jackie Chan

48) City Of Life And Death (2010) - Mandarin, English, German and Japanese

Written and directed by Lu Chuan
Starring Liu Ye, Gao Yuanyuan, Fan Wei, Qin Lan, Nakaizumi Hideo, Jiang Yiyan, Yao Di and John Paisley

47) Tangled (2011) - English

Written by Dan Fogelman
Directed by Nathan Greno and Byron Howard
Starring Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy

46) Scream 4 (2011) - English

Written by Kevin Williamson
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere

45) Batman: Under The Red Hood (2010) - English

Written by Judd Winick
Directed by Brandon Vietti
Starring Bruce Greenwood, Jensen Ackles, John DiMaggio, Neil Patrick Harris, Jason Isaacs and Wade Williams

44) Shutter Island (2010) - English

Written by Dennis Lehane, Laeta Kalogridis and Steven Knight
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo diCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson and Max von Sydow

43) Little Big Soldier (2010) - Mandarin

Written by Jackie Chan
Directed by Ding Sheng
Starring Jackie Chan, Leehom Wang, Steve Yoo, Lin Peng, Wu Yue and Xiao Dongmei

42) The Town (2010) - English

Written by Chuck Hogan, Ben Affleck, Peter Craig and Aaron Stockard
Directed by Ben Affleck
Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Hamm, Rebecca Hall, Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner, Pete Postlethwaite and Chris Cooper

41) The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec (2010) - French

Written and directed by Luc Besson
Starring Louise Bourgoin, Mathieu Amalric, Giles Lellouche and Jean-Paul Rouve

The Avengers (They've Finally Assembled!)

I've spent all day trying to think of a way of reviewing this movie whilst simultaneously doing it justice and not giving any spoilers. I decided to just write and see what happens. I'll try to avoid spoilers, but can't promise some won't just slip through...



Directed by Joss Whedon
Written by Zak Penn and Joss Whedon

Cast
Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk
Lou Ferrigno as the voice of The Hulk
Chris Hemsworth as Thor
Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Tom Hiddleston as Loki
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
Cobie Smulders as Maria Hill
Clark Gregg as Phil Coulson
Stellan Skarsgard as Erik Selvig
Gwyneth Paltrow as Virginia "Pepper" Potts
Paul Bettany as the voice of JARVIS

It's been four years since a post-credits appearance by Nick Fury confirmed that The Avengers was on the way. Four long years with enough excitement building up that this moment could even surpass the end of Christopher Nolan's Batman saga as the most eagerly anticipated film of the year. Along the way, there have of course been doubts that a movie on this scale could even work. Take a look at the cast list up there, and you will find that there are ten major characters. Eleven if you include Bruce Banner and The Hulk as different characters. How would it be possible to fit all of those characters into one two hour movie without some of them getting short-changed?

The answer, of course, is to bring in a writer/director who knows a thing or two about writing for an ensemble cast. Joss Whedon is best known for the TV shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly - and also had a celebrated run on the X-Men comics. All of those feature large casts that are all given their moments to shine, and are critically-acclaimed across the board for their sharp scripts. You couldn't go wrong, right? Well, the fact that his only directorial effort - a follow-up to the unfinished Firefly, called Serenity - had a budget of $39 million and didn't even break even at the box office, despite it being almost universally applauded. The Avengers by contrast has a budget in excess of $200 million, so despite his undisputed reputation for quality, it's still quite a risk that Marvel Studios placed on his shoulders. And one that surprised a lot of people, at that.

The good news, however, is that it worked. He pulled it off. They said it couldn't be done, but... well, I've been having trouble trying to express in words just how successful this movie is. For the first time in a long time, there just isn't a flaw that I can see anywhere in this movie.

One year after the events of Thor - which in the movie timeline is later than all of the rest - S.H.I.E.L.D. are studying the Tesseract that gave Captain America so much trouble with the help of scientist Erik Selvig. But almost immediately, things don't go according to plan as a portal opens through which steps Loki, who makes off the with the Tesseract and sets about his plans to conquer the planet. A desperate S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits Bruce Banner (they know where he's been all along) to help as a scientific consultant before sending Captain America and Black Widow after Loki in an impressive action scene which also includes Iron Man.

Before you know it, Thor also makes an appearance, and all hell breaks loose. After much squabbling between themselves and hilarious one-liners, Nick Fury has no alternative but to activate the Avengers Initiative - a plan to bring together Earth's best and brightest at a moment of crisis.

And that's as much story stuff as I feel I can tell you. Needless to say, the action - which has been for the most part impressive in the previous movies - really gets ramped up to eleven here, and it just gets bigger and better from there. The final battle, in which our heroes all fight for the future of the planet, far from being the anticlimax we've gotten used to from the final battles in these movies is so big and so epic that you really need to see it to believe it. This is really as good as it gets for a comic book movie... as close to the comics actually coming to life as you're ever going to get. And what's better is that not a single one of the major characters can claim to have not gotten their due. Each and every character on-screen gets his/her moment to shine, and boy do they shine! The final battle plays to each of the characters' strengths which serves to really drive home that, yes... all of these heroes needed to be there. Without any one of them, the whole plan would have fallen apart. Also, any criticisms that anyone had about Black Widow in Iron Man 2 will most definitely be expelled in this movie.

And then there's the script. Joss Whedon really knocks this one out of the park, with his trademark wit and charisma. There are also a few surprises, which is something that Whedon is also known for. Thankfully, though, he's resisted the urge to have the characters speak "Whedonese" which really would've taken the cast all out of character in this case. Another big worry is that by taking these characters out of their own movies and putting them together, there wouldn't be the chemistry required to make even the sharpest script work. These worries disappear the moment the characters interact with each other for the first time. It was like these actors were meant for each other. I don't want to give too much of the script away, but a definite highlight is "Doth your mother know you weareth her drapes?"

So there you go. The Avengers. Go see it. You owe it to yourself to see this movie. I was surprised at how jaw-droppingly spectacular it is. If I had Christopher Nolan's e-mail address I would send him the following single-sentence message... "The bar has been raised".

Countdown To Avengers: Captain America - The First Avenger

Directed by Joe Johnston
Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

Cast
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Tommy Lee Jones as Chester Phillips
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan as James "Bucky" Barnes
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan
Derek Luke as Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine
Kenneth Choi as Jim Morita
Bruno Ricci as Jaques Dernier
J.J. Feild as James Montgomery Falsworth
Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (cameo)

Out of all of the movies in the run-up to The Avengers, Captain America was the one I was most skeptical of. The whole patriotic flag-waving American thing just isn't something that I can relate to, especially when the costume is so gaudy, old-fashioned, and - unlike other superheroes - barely changed in the last 70 years. Of course, patriotism has been a big part of every superhero that debuted in that era, in which villains were invariably German or Japanese, and then a little later Russian and Chinese, but with Captain America... just his name makes it all that more blatant. Especially as most other superheroes have grown over the years to be flawed, and have the same issues that any ordinary human would have, and from what I can see, Cap has remained the idealist he was at his conception. Needless to say, I didn't bother going to see this movie at the cinema.

This decision turned out to be a big mistake, because not only is Captain America: The First Avenger a far better film that I expected, but it's also my favourite out of all of the movies produced by Marvel Studios so far. Joe Johnston took the 40's setting and ran with it, making a huge piece of pure fun entertainment not seen since Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade.

Chris Evans plays Steve Rogers. A short, scrawny asthmatic who doesn't have the physical specifications to be able to join the army and fight the Nazi's. What he does have, though is the heart and determination. Both of which are noticed by defected German scientist Abraham Erskine, creator of a serum to create a supersoldier. The serum has been used once before - by Johann Schmidt, the head of a secret Nazi group called H.Y.D.R.A. - but although it gave him the increased strength, speed and agility it also left him deformed. After going through boot camp, where Col. Chester Phillips dismisses Rogers out of hand, Steve finally goes through the procedure that is very similar to the one that Emil Blonsky underwent in The Incredible Hulk. Turns out that the super soldier serum takes the character traits of the subject, and makes them physical traits - explaining why Schmidt became the Red Skull, Blonsky began turning into a monster before Banner's blood turned him into the Abomination, and Rogers' pure heart makes him... a tall, muscular, handsome Aryan man. Yeah, it's pretty ironic that America's greatest hero is pretty much Hitler's wet dream.

So after becoming both the perfect physical specimen with new-found superhuman abilities do the army send him into the front line to take down the Hitler personally? No. They instead give him a gaudy costume and send him on a tour to raise war bonds under the pseudonym Captain America. Despite this being a complete waste of a perfectly good supersoldier, I actually think this was a good move by the writers. He didn't design his costume. He didn't come up with the vomit-inducing name. That was all manufactured for him by the army to sell war bonds. That not only makes a lot of sense, it's also a huge improvement on the source material. And it gives the filmmakers a chance to include images of Captain America Issue 1 in the storyline.

Whilst all of this is happening, though, Johann Schmidt has led an incursion into Norway in order to claim an ancient artifact. A tesseract - the same "Cosmic Cube" that was featured at the end of  Thor - which creates some pretty lethal energy weaponry when reverse-engineered. With this, he turns on Hitler, and leads H.Y.D.R.A. on their own path of domination, capturing a US army unit to experiment on along the way. Among the captured soldiers is Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers' best friend. Learning this from Hayley Atwell's Peggy Carter gives Rogers the motivation he needs to disobey orders and lead an action-packed rescue mission with the help of Carter and a certain Howard Stark. From then on, this trio - along with the rescued soldiers and Col. Phillips - are an elite unit that are tasked with bringing down H.Y.D.R.A. before their plans come to fruition.

The cast of this movie are probably the most reliable since the original Iron Man. The camaraderie between Rogers, his men and Stark is believable, but pale in comparison to the sexual tension between he and Peggy Carter. There is none of the snark or bickering of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, but that doesn't make every scene they are in together anything less than electrifying. Tommy Lee Jones pretty much plays himself as Chester Phillips, but that's hardly a bad thing. And of course, Hugo Weaving can play a diabolical villain like Red Skull in his sleep. The pacing of the storyline is perfect for the first time in Marvel Studios history, with the movie starting excellently and not dipping in quality once (even for the troublesome final battle that has disappointed in most other Marvel movies in the past). The action is both exciting, and old-fashioned enough to really remind you of the great action scenes in Spielberg adventures of the 80's.

Unlike the other movies, references to the other Avengers' aren't as subtle. With the title and the inclusion of tesseract, the supersoldier program, Howard Stark et al, the entire storyline is pretty much one big reference to The Avengers. Not surprisingly, considering The Avengers takes place in present day, the movie ends with Steve waking up in the 21st Century after nearly 70 years "sleeping", and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury welcoming him. After the credits there is a brief collection of shots from The Avengers... and tomorrow I will be reviewing that movie.