Contagion.

When you think of a disaster movie, what comes to mind? Is it a giant monster destroying a city? Or perhaps a horde of zombies? Or maybe you fancy the world being destroyed by flashy special effects? Contagion forgoes all of the options for a much more believable look into the genre.

It was brilliantly directed, all of the actors gave fine performances, the music was fittingly somber, and it was a welcome change of pace from the cgi/explosion fests that have plagued cinema for the past few months

Contagion tells its story through the eyes many individuals and their plights during a serious viral outbreak. We follow the head of disease control as well as his affiliates in different parts of the world, an online propagandist reporter, and a father who is doing everything he can to protect his daughter. These different angles are where the movie absolutely shines. Following each of these individuals, we get a different look at human nature and how different people will act during an outbreak of this nature.

As mentioned above, the strongest point of the film is the characters. However, we wouldn’t have these great characters without some great acting to back them up. Laurence Fishburne plays Ellis Cheever the head of disease control. Matt Damon plays Mitch Emhoff, the concerned father. Fishburne didn’t bring anything new to the table, but he was still fantastic. Matt Damon was great as a struggling dad. Early on we learn that he is immune to the disease but his daughter may or may not be immune. This brought some great intensity to scenes in which they’re scavenging for supplies. Even the simple act of making snow angles with the neighbor’s worries Damon’s character and we get to see an inner struggle. He wants to protect his daughter from this disease, but he also wants to let her have a life outside of a closed up house. Finally, we have Jude Law as Alan Krumwiede as the propaganda reporter. While all of these individuals were fantastic, Jude Law stole the show in my opinion. Even to the end of the film, it was hard to gauge his intentions.

If there was a viral outbreak, would you act selfless? Or would you succumb to the primal instincts of survival of the fittest? This film is able to explore these themes and proves that you don’t need mindless violence and gore in order to tell a mature and moving story. There are many scenes that are difficult to watch, not because of the violence, but because you will begin to question human nature as a whole. There was never a moment of peace in the film, as the content and pacing of the film will keep you on your toes at all times. One of the strongest themes that the film touched on was herd mentality and our inability to think when pushed into a crisis.

This was one of the scariest films I have seen in years, and it did it without violence and/or jump scares. Because of this, and the film’s gritty realism, I highly recommend this it. It’s one of the year’s best so far.

Cowboys & Aliens.

Like most people, when I first heard about this movie, I had no idea what to think. It sounded like it could be either the most idiotic movie you'll ever see, or the most fun. It's most definitely the latter. It was incredibly stupid, but in a good way. It never tried to do anything extremely serious with its absurd premise. It had its flaws, some major ones even but I never felt like they took away from the movie. This is a movie that I can easily put on at anytime and have a good time.

The basic premise is that a man named Jake Lonergan (played by Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of the desert with no recollection of his past or name with a strange device attached to his wrist. After warding off a few slave drivers/scalpers, he steals one of their horses and rides off to Absolution. Once there, he catches the eye of Ella Swenson (played by Olivia Wilde), a local girl who seems to know something about Jake's past. Soon after, he runs into trouble with the local bandit Woodrow Dollarhyde (played by Harrison Ford) after getting his son arrested. Suddenly, aliens attack the town and capture many of the townspeople including Dollarhyde's son. They then form a ragtag group and venture off to rescue everyone.

My favorite part about the story is how silly it is. It's full of cheesy dialogue, and plotholes the size of Texas (no pun intended), but it all fuels the classic Western B-movie feel the creators were going for.

The ragtag group is filled with your typical cliche heroes. Your typical amnesia hero and love interest (Craig and Wilde), your gruff anti-hero (Ford), your local village idiot who is always looked down upon (Doc, played by Sam Rockwell), a kid who wants to prove himself (Emmet played by Noah Ringer), and your motivational speaker/priest (Meacham played by Clancy Brown) who's only purpose is to die heroically and give the main heroes a motivational speech about not giving up. Finally, you can't have a western without an Indian tribe who despise the heroes but eventually learns to trust them and fights by their side. All of the actors did a fantastic job. Much like the story, you could tell that everyone had fun. Craig and Ford stand in particular because they play well of each other. Wilde was the only weak point, but that's only because of the other actors she was up against, and not due to bad acting.

The score was fantastic. Harry Gregson Williams skillfully combines the sound of your classic Westerns with the heavy and fast paced score of sci-fi flicks. The main theme is a combination of fast paced violins with some guitar riffs thrown in.

Despite complimenting the plot holes earlier, there a few that stood out as being bad. But they never hurt the movie as a whole and it was easy to look past them. The aliens themselves are getting lots of criticism for their designs, but I really liked it. I laughed at first, but they were unique and original.

I recommend this movie. It's the perfect brainless action flick.

Captain America, Punching Hitler in the face since 1941.

I had my fair share of worries going into this movie. Johnston has done some good movies in his career, but for the most part he's not a great director. My second worry was Chris Evans as Captain America. He's not a bad actor by any means, but he's mostly been cast as comic relief. His first "Serious" role was in Sunshine, and he was fantastic in that. The problem was, I still didn't see Captain America in him.

This film had a great acting, a fitting score, and great style.

The story here, for those that don't know Captain America, is that the skinny and asthmatic Steve Rodgers is a true patriot and wants to fight for his country. However, due to his health issues (and height), he's not allowed to join the military. His enthusiasm catches the eye of a scientist who gives him the chance to become the first supersoldier. Thus Captain America is born.

The acting was great all around. Chris Evans really surprised me here. Not only did he nail the "pre Captain America" Steve, but also as Captain America. He had great charisma. Evans really proved that he's not just a comedic actor. I'm hoping this part will land him some more serious roles. Hayley Atwell played Agent Peggy Carter, a tough as nails heroine and love interest for Steve. One of the strongest points of the film was their chemistry. Of course, there was a few scenes with cheesy dialogue, but I actually enjoyed those. Despite these great performances, Tommy Lee Jones stole every scene that he was in as Colonel Chester Phillips. He had some fantastic one liners and a powerful screen presence. Unfortunately, I felt Hugo Weaving as Red Skull was the weakest link. He was fine as a villain, but his German accent was just hokey.
There was a huge supporting cast here and they were all great. I loved all of the Howling Commandos. I do have to mention Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark, the father of Tony Stark/Iron Man. I loved his performance because it really felt like a 1950s version of Tony.

The music was very good and suited the film well. Alan Silvestri scored the film and I love the main theme. It really feels like the theme song of an American superhero. The best part about the music was it was never intrusive when it didn't need to be. There were a few scenes where the music was intentionally cheesy. There some incredibly touching moments backed up by music.

It really felt like a retro/film noir type film with its visual style. It also felt like a parody of the WW2 propaganda films. It had a very surreal visual style. The writing was very good as well. Much like visual style, the writing also acted as a parody of "American" hero cliches.

The action was well shot as well. Like the above mentioned visual style, it had the touch of retro style film making combined with hints of modern action films.

All in all, I can easily recommend this movie. Not only to Marvel fans, but to fans of retro style film making and old school adventure films.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I'll say this before I begin the review. I enjoyed the first Transformers. Sure it was stupid, but it was an enjoyable Summer popcorn flick. I HATED Revenge of the Fallen though. It completely destroyed any and all of my childhood memories of Transformers. It was loud and noisy (not in a good way), had an over abundance of humping and dick jokes, and the "comic relief" were two blatantly racist and unfunny robot twins. Naturally, this caused me to despise the possible sequel before it was even announced. I had zero expectations for Dark of the Moon because of this.

Now for the big shocker, I really enjoyed this movie. The plot was a laughable, but good attempt at a darker story. The acting was just ok, but the voicework for the transformers was pretty good for the most part. The new female (I'm not including her under "Actors" for a reason....) was abysmal. She was so bad that I wanted Megan Fox back...which should never happen. Also, like the other films, the humor was just not funny and offensively stupid at points. It made up for these shortcomings with some great action sequences, and phenomenal music, and I'm not just talking about the score.

The story was bad like all the other films. However, I do have to give Bay credit for trying to give us a darker and more serious story this time around. The Decepticons are attempting to take over the world...again... This time around, they want to activate an ancient teleportation device in order to bring their allies to Earth in order to enslave humanity and create a new world. It wasn't anything special, but it was leagues above the other films. Like I said before, I have to give Bay credit this time around. There were few times where I honestly got teary because of things that happened. Teary during transformers? shocking I know!

The acting was competent but nothing special. Shia Lebeouf was...meh, although I do have to give him credit for trying to put more emotion into scenes when they mattered. The only problem is his character is still an annoying twat. All of the other humans did their job, but John Malkovich was just wasted. The only exception to the "good acting" was Ken Jeong (who I normally love) as an Asian nerd named Jerry Wang...(I'll get to this later...) Any comedian will be painstakingly annoying when put into a Michael Bay film. All of the voice actors for the transformers did a memorable job. Peter Cullen and Hugo Weaving return as Optimus Prime and Megatron respectively. My only complaint is that Megatron was barely in the film. The other major transformer was Sentinel Prime, Optimus' mentor (voiced by Leonard Nimoy). I loved him, for both his design and his role in the story.

Now for the new female lead. You might be wondering why I'm not including her in the acting section. This is because being called an actor/actress implies that you have some sort of ability to act. This person had none...She was dreadful...she was abysmal...she made me want to gouge my eyes out. And she needs to seriously relax with the botox. A barbie doll looks more realistic than she did...and barbie dolls don' have huge fish lips.

The comedy...was terrible. There were one or two moments where I chuckled, but it was, for the most part, toilet humor. Fortunately, none of the humor involved John Turtoro's butt. Unfortunately, it did involve a few dick jokes and more racial stereotyping. Nothing as bad as the twins, but equally unfunny and childish. The twins were replaced by the Brooklyn accent mini transformer from RotF and a new sidekick who is basically Butthead, from Beavis & Butthead, in robot form and not nearly as funny. Now for the worst part...Ken Jeong as Jerry Wang who wants to be named Deep Wang. I honestly wish I was kidding when I said that that was his last name. An Asian man named Deep Wang...since this is a Michael Bay film, do I need to explain what kind of jokes were involved with this character? Good, because I won't. My biggest complaint with the humor is how it completely killed the serious tone set by previous scenes. This doesn't just happen once or twice..it's consistently doing it.

The action sequences were incredibly well done this time around. I could actually tell, for the most part, what the hell was going on. There some amazing set piece action sequences in this film. The only problem was that most of them were pointless when the next scene happens. I can forgive them though because of the thought and detail that went into them. They were incredibly memorable.

Now for the music. Naturally, Steve Jablonsky's score was outstanding. All of his music fit their respective scenes very well. He updated the main theme, and it sounds fantastic. The score used for the final battle/climax has the proper oomph that it should and never feels overbearing. Now for the part that surprised me. I don't hate Linkin Park, but I'm not the biggest fan in the world. Their songs for the first two films never felt out of place but they always felt like free advertising more than anything. Not this time around. While the heavier parts still felt out of place, the beginning of the song was used to amazing effect. It created some amazing atmosphere for the darker moments of the film. I honestly don't want to spoil it.

Overall, I can recommend this film. The acting is so so, the humor is unfunny and racist, but it more than makes up for it with its attempt at a darker story, expertly filmed action sequences and some fantastic music.

I've never done this before in one of my review...but there is something else that needs to be mentioned. There are possible spoilers ahead, but they need to be talked about. There were a few scenes that were disgustingly offensive. The area of the climax was named "Ground Zero." There were many occasions of crumbling buildings and enemy planes running into the sides of buildings. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not, but these immediately made me think of 9/11 and the horrors of that day. The other scene, while making sense in the story's plot, felt really out of place for a film like this. Megatron blows up the Lincoln Memorial and sits on the remnants like a throne, while a smaller decepticon crushes Linclon's head. The other big thing was a scene that made me think of the failed Challenger space shuttle mission that resulted in the death of 7 brave men and women.

X-Men First Class

How exactly does one create perfection? I'm still not sure myself, but you might want to ask Matthew Vaughn because with First class, he has somehow done it.

I had incredibly high hopes for this movie going in, and they were met and exceeded. Matthew Vaughn has always been a master of blending genres. A Romantic comedy with fantasy adventure in Stardust, superhero with some drama and comedy thrown in with Kick Ass. In First Class, he is able to intelligently blend your typical superhero movie with a political thriller and a sort of James Bond style film making.

First Class was brilliantly directed, had a great score by Henry Jackman, and all of the actors perfected their roles. To be honest, its only weakness was something that couldn't be helped. It's a prequel, which takes out many of the twists and surprises. Charles had to become paralyzed and wheelchair bound by the end, Erik had to give in to his hatred of humans and become Magneto, Mystique joins Magneto etc.

I really enjoyed the story, mainly because of the genre blending. The Cuban Missile Crisis is the basis of the film. We learn that this whole fiasco was actually created behind the scenes by Sebastian Shaw in order to create a new world for mutants. He is joined by Azazel, Riptide, and Emma Frost. In response to this, Charles teams up with Erik to create their own team of mutants to combat Shaw and stop the crisis from getting out of hand. They are joined by Angel, Darwin, Havok, Beast, Banshee and Mystique. The best part about the story was that it wasn't a "good vs. evil" thing. It was more a clash of ideals. One of the film's strongest points was that, at times, you could see where Erik was coming from and you could even agree with the points he makes.

The acting was phenomenal. James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender both nailed their parts as Charles and Erik, respectively. Fassbender in particular had some amazing scenes. He was aggressive and arrogant but also held deep respect for Charles, which are all traits that I can see leading up to his eventual transformation into Magneto. McAvoy on the other hand played a slightly more comedic Charles at times, yet also played him very seriously when the scene called for it. Kevin Bacon did a surprisingly good job as the film's villain, Sebastian Shaw. He was very chilling at times, and had this incredibly aggressive tone to his voice which I loved. He was very much a Bond villain to me. He never had any real "allies." He merely used everyone to further his cause...and he spoke a variety of different languages, so I have to commend Bacon for learning them all. I also have to give credit to Fassbender for the same reasons. I should mention Rose Byrn as well, who played CIA agent Moria MacTaggert. She wasn't a mutant but helped Charle's cause. She played the part very well, and played the role of the human negotiator so to speak.

All of the younger actors did fantastic jobs as well. Lucas Till stood out in particular as Alex Sommers/Havok. He played an honorable smart mouthed character very well. He was the "jock" of the group, so to speak but was trustworthy. Nicholas Hoult played Hank McCoy/Beast. Hoult really played the Jekyll and Hyde character extremely well. The only other character with significant screen time was Raven/Mystique played by Jennifer Lawrence. She was one of my personal favorite because, like Beast, I could really see the inner struggle she was going through. January Jones, for what it's worth, played a good Emma Frost but I felt she was a last minute addition to the cast because of her screen time, and lets face it...she was terrible. I hate saying this because I love her in Mad Men. All of the other mutants were in the movie simply for the hell of it, but they never detracted from the movie. Jason Flemyng played Azazel, the shape shifting father of Nightcrawler. Zoe Kravitz played Angel, a mutant with the ability to fly and spit acid. Edi Gathegi played Darwin, a mutant with the ability to adapt to any environment. Alex Gonzalez played Riptide, a mutant who has the ability to create whirlwinds with his hands.

Now I come to my absolute favorite part of the movie, the score. Anybody who knows me should know I'm obsessed with how perfect the Kick Ass score is, done by John Murphy and in part, Henry Jackman. Jackman returns as the main scorer for First Class, and manages to one up Kick Ass. The main piece of music is the perfect fit for the film. It is the musical version of the X-Men so to speak. I can picture every single X-Men when I hear this theme. The other main theme of the film is Magneto's, which is used in a variety of different scenes. It is a mix of traditional instruments with a very hard guitar/bass riff in the back. It is used to show Erik's sadness, but is also used to great effect during some of the film's more intense scenes. I'm not trying to sound cheesy here, but the mixture of Magneto's theme and the film's main theme during the sub scene (you'll know it when you see it) is one of the most uplifting pieces of music ever created for a film. This song flawlessly portrays how far along Magneto has come in learning how to properly control his powers.

The movie's visuals were petty good, but were definitely the weakest point. I can't blame Vaughn though, because he had a schedule of 9 months to complete this film. This doesn't mean they were bad though. Vaughn did a better job than anyone else in his position could of done.

All in all, this movie is the very definition of perfection and it comes at my highest level of recommendation. Even people who don't like superhero films will find something to like in this film. It has the perfect balance of action, comedy and drama and none of it ever felt forced.

Rango

It may be too early in the year for such a brash prediction, but I think Rango deserves best animated feature. It was a great movie with some great voice work, comedy, story, and music. One of the biggest surprises to me was how adult this movie was.

The story was my favorite part because it’s basically Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas but with a lizard. Rango is a lizard who doesn’t know what his purpose in life is and after an incident leaves him stranded in the desert, he goes on a journey of self discovery. It almost felt like a parody of western/adventure films.

The voice acting was incredibly strong. Johnny Depp stole the show as Rango. I think Depp has a strong future in the world of voice work. He perfectly portrayed a lost in life lizard. The love interest Beans, played by Isla Fisher, also does a great job. She’s a very strong willed lizard. The villain Rattlesnake Jim, played by Bill Nighy, was one of the best villains I’ve seen in awhile. I honestly got a tingle in my spine every time he delivered a line. Think of a deep menacing voice responding to “Go to Hell!” with “Where do you think I came from?” I wish I could mention the rest of the supporting cast, but there are just too many of them. Needless to say, they were all fantastic.

I went into the movie knowing I would love the soundtrack, and surprise! I loved it. Hans Zimmer never disappoints. For Rango, he uses a great mixture of western and modern music and has some throwbacks to the classics. Music is an ongoing “joke” as the story is told by a band of fourth wall (talking to the audience) breaking mariachi owls. Overall, the music was appropriately action packed and westerny. Plus, you get to hear a banjo based version of Ride of the Valkyries, do you really need anything else?

Overall, this was a great movie. It has something for people of all ages and wonderfully animated.

The top 5 movies of 2010.

Well, all of the other cool kids (film critics) are doing it so here’s my list of the top 5 movies of 2010. Bear in mind that I haven’t seen every single movie that’s come out this year. If I saw True Grit and/or Black Swan, I can guarantee that those would be on this list.

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World- I’ve never had this much fun watching a movie before. Scott Pilgrim was incredibly energetic, had some great acting, a great soundtrack, and fantastic directing from Edgar Wright. Instead of trying to be something different than a video game, like most video game movies do, it revels in both the lore and culture of the gaming world.

4. Let Me In- This was one of the best horror films to come out in years, and I’m surprised to hear myself say it, because it’s a remake of a fantastic Swedish movie. I’m also surprised to hear myself say that it surpasses the original. It was beautifully shot, had a chilling orchestral score to accompany it, and was incredibly well acted. Chloe Grace Moretz continues to impress me as an actress. It wasn’t a perfect adaptation of the original, but it had subtle homages that never felt out of place.

3. Leaves of Grass- I think that Inception is not the only movie that will make you think about thinking about things that you probably don’t think about in everyday life and no I did not use “think” enough. Leaves of Grass is a philosophical, prophetic, racist, sexist, action comedy drama about finding out what it means to be yourself. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be shocked at the racism, and you’ll have a good time doing it. This movie had two amazing performances from Edward Norton who plays two twins who are drastically different in every sense of the word. One is a big time professor and philosopher who likes to play by the rules while the other is a redneck marijuana dealer who lives life without any rules. They play very well off of each other.

2. How to Train your Dragon- This was one of the biggest surprises I’ve had all year. I didn’t go into the movie wanting to hate it, but my expectations weren’t exactly high. This movie combined great acting and story with fantastic cinematography and an amazing orchestral score. It’s one of the few movies that uses 3D right, and I personally thought it was better than Avatar in that aspect. While Avatar had more impressive technology to use, I never felt immersed in the world. With How to Train your Dragon, the flying sequences made it seem like you were on top of a dragon and soaring across the sky. The acting was pretty incredible in this movie. Each of the characters were played perfectly by their actors and actress’.

1. Kick Ass- I know that putting Kick Ass as my #1 movie of the year will cause some controversy, but quite frankly it deserves it. I have never been this amazed with a movie before. Sure if you look at it from the outside, it’s just a bloody over the top action movie. However, if you look at it deeper, you’ll see a great story about what justice really is backed up by fantastic acting and a near flawless score. I don’t think I can praise the soundtrack enough. Every piece of music fits its respective scene near perfectly, whether it needed to be comedic or dramatic. It’s one of my all time favorite movie scores. All of the characters were very well developed and were relatable. Although they all had their flaws, some more so than others, they were likeable. This really helped the movie during the more intense scenes because you genuinely cared for them. Although this movie can be extremely violent, I think it’s a movie that everyone should see. I could honestly go on for pages about why this movie was so good but this explanation is already becoming too long for a top 5 list.

And there you have it! My top 5 movies of 2010!