10 Best Movies of 2010
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- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsLeonardo DiCaprioEmily MortimerMark RuffaloTeddy Daniels and Chuck Aule, two US marshals, are sent to an asylum on a remote island in order to investigate the disappearance of a patient, where Teddy uncovers a shocking truth about the place.This psychological thriller, set in Massachusetts in 1954, follows U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) as they venture to Shutter Island, home of the fortress-like mental institution Ashecliffe Hospital, to investigate the inexplicable disappearance of a patient named Rachel Solondo. To make matters worse, a hurricane has trapped the two cops on this god forsaken rock for the time being. As they try to determine how Rachel escaped and her current whereabouts, Teddy and Chuck are stonewalled by the warden (Ted Levine) and the hospital's urbane but shifty administrator, Dr. Cawley (Sir Ben Kingsley), who is championing a (then) revolutionary new method for treating the criminally insane. The deeper Teddy digs into the mystery of Rachel's disappearance and what is really going on at Ashecliffe, the more he himself grows disturbed.
It is a well-acted, handsomely made, old-fashioned haunted house movie. Shutter Island is a film to be seen more than once - and a film to be savored. It reveals new depths and undercurrents at every turn. As far as the twist is concerned, don't get so wrapped up in it that you miss the double-whammy reality twist at the very end - and the moral ambiguity inherent in it. - DirectorChristopher NolanStarsLeonardo DiCaprioJoseph Gordon-LevittElliot PageA thief who steals corporate secrets through the use of dream-sharing technology is given the inverse task of planting an idea into the mind of a C.E.O., but his tragic past may doom the project and his team to disaster.Inception is a movie about ideas, quite literally - stealing them, creating them, their power and their ability to linger. But this is a Christopher Nolan movie, so of course it's about Big Ideas, about reality and heartbreak and choosing how to best live our too-brief lives. The fact that Inception is also fun and emotional and thrilling, even with all those eggheady concepts wrapped inside it, makes the movie a true marvel.
At its core Inception is a heist movie, about a team of operatives led by haunted soul Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) to venture into peoples' minds and extract the darkest secrets from their subconscious. In this particular mission, which will be Dom's last, the goal is a little different. Japanese business mogul Saito (Ken Watanabe) has assigned them to the perilous task of Inception, planting an idea so deep in the subconscious of rival CEO Fischer (Cillian Murphy) that he believes he thought of it himself. While the many wows of Inception come almost entirely from visual splendor, big ideas or impressive fight sequences, DiCaprio provides added dazzle with yet another well-calibrated, weight-of-the-world performance. The third act of the film is almost nonstop action
culminating in visual effects-aided heartbreak, but in the denouement a single shot of DiCaprio, his face both a mask and a soul laid bare, has just as much impact. - DirectorDavid FincherStarsJesse EisenbergAndrew GarfieldJustin TimberlakeAs Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, he is sued by the twins who claimed he stole their idea and by the co-founder who was later squeezed out of the business.In a club near Harvard University in late 2003, Erica Albright tells Mark Zuckerberg - future businessman, future billionaire, future inventor of Facebook - that she just wants to be friends. She doesn't mean it. Few do when they're breaking up. Nor, perhaps, would Mark grasp the concept if she did. You get the sense, watching The Social Network, that Mark has little experience with friendship. And in the wake of Erica's rejection, he flees to his dorm room and opens his soul to his laptop screen, flooding a blog with bitter put-downs and unspoken rejoinders - venting and processing perhaps the only way he knows. And while doing so, he patches together bits of code and unleashes a bit of vitriol on women in general - creating an online game of "who's hot, who's not" on the Harvard campus. He begins working on a networking site of his own - a site he initially calls thefacebook.com. Within days of launching, it's the rage at Harvard. The following month, The Facebook expands to a handful of othercampuses. Financially backed by roomie Eduardo Saverin, the site then earns a raid following among tens of thousands of collegians around the world and interest from entrepreneurs. People are meeting, socializing and hooking up online. And friend instantly becomes a verb.Mark didn't understand friendship, The Social Network tells us, so he redefined it.
"The Internet isn't written in pencil, Mark," she tells him. "It's written with ink."
The Social Network, if it has a practical message at all, tells us that the wonderful promise of online communication brings withit a cadre
of new temptations and problems. And we're shown some of those in an up-close-and-personal way. We're told that the movie's main
characters never paused to consider such things. But we, the users, might want to do just that. - DirectorGary WinickStarsAmanda SeyfriedGael García BernalVanessa RedgraveSophie travels to Verona where she finds an old unanswered letter asking for love advice. She answers it and when the recipient shows up along with her grumpy grandson, they head off to find the old long lost love while a young love sparksWhile in Verona, Sophie goes to visit the home of "Juliet," the courtyard and balcony that has become the official residence of Shakespeare's legendary star-crossed lover. Every year, thousands of letters are brought to that courtyard and left there, addressed to Juliet, or mailed by people who can't make the trip. The Juliet Club, also known as the Secretaries of Juliet, is an organization of volunteers who take every one of those letters and write responses back to the broken-hearted people. There is something very powerful in the idea of all of these cries of pain to be not only heard but answered. Sophie's drawn to the idea, and when she offers to help for a few days, she ends up finding a letter that's been tucked into the wall for over fifty years and she decides to answer it herself. A few days later, the woman she wrote to actually arrives in Verona, and Sophie ends up drawn into the orbit of Claire (Vanessa Redgrave), this English woman who had one perfect summer with an Italian man named Lorenzo a half-century ago. She agrees to help Claire track down her Lorenzo to see if there's any chance for a reunion, and the majority of the film is about the idea of picking up where you left off and dealing with the "what ifs" that so many of us carry around, weighed down by regret.
The film is charming, adorable, and sweet with many laughs to be had as well. The message of romantic love being timeless and one
that can cross many generations was very well appreciated and felt. The scenery of Italy in the film is gorgeous. There are breathtaking shots that make you want to hop on a plane after the film is over and go there yourself. There is much to enjoy as the story unfolds. A very sweet film, with a fantastic performance, and with much to offer a public that longs for some fulfilling story lines. - DirectorDavid SladeStarsKristen StewartRobert PattinsonTaylor LautnerAs a string of mysterious killings grips Seattle, Bella, whose high school graduation is fast approaching, is forced to choose between her love for vampire Edward and her friendship with werewolf Jacob.Set just a couple of weeks on from the events in New Moon, life has settled back down in Forks and the romance of Edward and Bella continues on much in the same vein, only with werewolf Jacob making his feelings well and truly known. Rivalries are soon put aside, though, when it is realised that a vampire army is being created in Seattle by somebody wanting to come and look for Bella. Knowing they cannot defeat this army themselves, Edward's family turn to Jacob's tribe and the two form an unlikely alliance to fend off the threat.
The action in this movie is far better than the previous film. With this movie the wolves actually look authentic when they are fighting. The movie is filmed in a way that really captures the action well and it will surprise many people due to its high quality. Also they finally get into some of the back story surrounding some of the Cullen's. The audience finds out the back story of Jasper played by Jackson Rathbone and Rosalie played by Nikki Reed. Eclipse should enthral fans of the series and have them chomping on the bit for the final two movies. And who knows? It might even pick up a few more fans along the way. Eclipse isn't great, in that "the Academy will be wetting their pretentious pants over it" kind of way. But yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it. If you liked Twilight and The Twilight Saga: New Moon then you will enjoy this. - DirectorDavid YatesStarsDaniel RadcliffeEmma WatsonRupert GrintAs Harry, Ron and Hermione race against time and evil to destroy the Horcruxes, they uncover the existence of the three most powerful objects in the wizarding world: the Deathly Hallows.In a hellfire and brim-stone opening, the head of the Ministry of Magic roars that "our world has faced no greater threat." The forces of 'You Know Who' have seized this and infiltrated that. The Hogwarts trio have gone into hiding, protecting their families as best they can. When Hermione movingly whispers "obliviate" and removes any memory of her from her family, her image fading from photographs as she sadly covers her tracks, we realize the stakes. And when we see Voldemort's brain trust meet and torture a random Hogwarts teacher, the blood tells us this will be the darkest and most violent Potter film yet.
Spirited chases with Death Eaters and snatchers, cut like a real action film, break up Harry, Hermione and Ron Weasley's search for Horcruxes, the evil talismans they must destroy on "The Chosen One's" way to his date with destiny - aka battle with You Know Who.
The first third is brisk and witty, the middle third gloomy and the finale not so much a cliffhanger as a grim, inspiring tease, a masterly build-up to put "I can't wait for Part 2" on every Muggles' lips. - DirectorClint EastwoodStarsMatt DamonCécile de FranceBryce Dallas HowardAn American construction worker, a French journalist and a London school boy set out on a spiritual journey after death touches their lives in different ways.Hereafter tackles questions of what happens after we die and whether we can communicate with those who've gone before us.
George Lonegan, a reluctant SanFrancisco psychic, made a living for a while communicating with the dead, until the psychological toll of learning so much personal informationabout strangers became too great. Now he lives in a small, tidy apartment and works at a factory, even though his older brother keeps trying to convince him that it's his duty, and of great potential financial benefit, to share his gift.
In Paris, TV news anchor Marie Lelay is still recovering from having survived the tsunami. She had been vacationing with her boyfriend, who's also her show's producer, when the massive waves hit the coast. She'd been at the top of her game professionally. Now, she questions everything she's made of, having experienced unexplained visions that shook her up.
In London, young Marcus loses his identical twin brother, Jason, in an accident. The twins had grown up poor with an absent, alcoholic mother, leaving only each other to rely on; add to that the fact that Jason, the older brother by 12 minutes, was the smarter and stronger one. Marcus now struggles to navigate the world on his own but finds himself drawn to psychics in hopes of receiving guidance from his brother one last time.
All three of the film's main characters are toiling within their individual states of loneliness in three different countries, even though they're seeking or making connections to another realm. When their paths ultimately cross - as you know they surely must - it doesn't have quite the emotional payoff you might have been looking for, but the journey each of them takes is never short of vivid.
We are fully invested in the three individual stories. And if the connections among them seem fragile at best, that only serves to highlight that the 'Hereafter' and the 'Here And Now' are not so very far apart, but instead two worlds teeming with compassionate beings, separated only by that filament-thin barrier that separates life from death and, more significantly, the living from the dead. Life after death is at once the most personal and universal of human mysteries. "Hereafter" is an attempt to convey the bigness of life though a story involving disparate characters in different parts of the world. - DirectorPierre CoffinChris RenaudStarsSteve CarellJason SegelRussell BrandGru, a criminal mastermind, adopts three orphans as pawns to carry out the biggest heist in history. His life takes an unexpected turn when the little girls see the evildoer as their potential father.Even villainy has its share of routine downsides. Competition. Politics. The difficulty finding good help. The usual stuff. Don't forget, villains are people too. They have hopes, parents, and bills to pay, just like the rest of us. Despicable Me gives us one such villain, Gru, and he has his hands full.
An ambitious criminal whose dastardly deeds have fallen short of notoriety, he is miffed that his younger rival, a nerdy fop who calls himself Vector, has heisted the Great Pyramid, while he has managed to swipe only the Statue of Liberty - the miniature one in Las Vegas. But Gru has a plan. If he can capture the Shrink Ray and obtain a small-business loan from the Bank of Evil to build a spaceship, he is confident he can swipe the Moon, thus securing his place in the Annals of Crime.
Vector pirates the pilfered Shrink Ray, forcing our persistent antihero to adopt three girls selling cookies door-to-door in order to use them to infiltrate Vector's impenetrable fortress. Little does Gru suspect that Margo, Edith and Agnes are more than a match for his evil genius. Gru steals the Moon, but they steal his heart.
Despicable Me, with its trio of orphaned adolescent sisters determined to find a home, its pair of rival villains armed with enough gizmos and gadgets to blow up an Xbox, and its horde of squeezable minions more adorable than a paddock of puppies, pretty much covers the bases. Girls, boys, sentimental moms and wise-cracking dads (or vice versa) will be entertained by one aspect or another of this cleverly formulaic cartoon that is, by turns, caustic and charming, gross and poignant, silly and sophisticated. - DirectorMatthew VaughnStarsAaron Taylor-JohnsonNicolas CageChloë Grace MoretzDave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a superhero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.Dave Lizewski is your average teen whose only super power was being invisible to girls. The only way he can get the attention of the girl of his affection is by pretending to be gay. One day, after being mugged in plain day, he wonders why no one ever thought about becoming a selfless superhero. Dave dons in a ridiculous looking turquoise wetsuit and becomes the vigilante 'Kick Ass'. After a YouTube video of him defending a man from a street gang appears on the internet, KickAss becomes an overnight sensation. Kick Ass adventures are often hilarious but it is the duo of Big Daddy and Hit Girl who will get most of your attention. Unlike Kick Ass, father and daughter play two highly trained and deadly vigilantes who are after New York City's mafia kingpin Frank D'Amico. Wielding often outlandish weaponry, Hit Girl is a foul-mouthed 11 yr-old girl with a knack for killing thugs in close combat. Her introductory scene comes with complete and jaw-dropping shock to both Kick Ass and viewers as she stabs, cuts throats, and swears with incredible virtuosity.
Kick-Ass is a story that takes the fantasy of superheroes and thrusts it into the harsh light of day, and the result is something that makes you laugh and cringe at the same time. As long as you don't have too many qualms about violence or profanity, particularly coming from a kid, then chances are it'll be one of the funniest things you'll ever see. Combining outlandishly over-the-top action,
hilarious dialogue, and intelligent dark humor, Kick Ass is a wildly exhilarating watch that dared to do it its own way, whether you like or not. There's only one thing I can say about Kick-ass: It's Kick-Ass! - DirectorDean DeBloisChris SandersStarsJay BaruchelGerard ButlerChristopher Mintz-PlasseA hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.Hiccup is the laughingstock of his dragon-hunting class, failing at every turn to take the reptiles down. Even his own father is disappointed, fearing that his son will tarnish his legacy as the most bad-ass slayer in town. Hiccup's fortunes - and, ultimately, those of his society - change when he secretly befriends a rare type of dragon, exchanging fish for a little inter-species trust. Apart from Hiccup and Stoick, his dad, there's Astrid, the ambitious and rambunctious classmate who's determined to finish first in her class - and becomes the first to discover Hiccup's secret. With her thick braid and feisty little animated face, she evolves from being a thorn in Hiccup's side to, predictably, his adoring side-kick. Snotlout is another student in the rag-tag Viking posse, with aggression to burn and a chip on his shoulder about Astrid's fading affection.
The landscapes and skies that fill the screen are lush and layered; sun-dappled wood, leaf, and stone are richly textured; and even the costumes, tools, weapons and buildings are, for the most part, historically accurate. And the flying scenes are just jaw-dropping, heart-lifting, joyfully amazing.
Nordic beauty, likable charm instead of cheap jokes, heartfelt characters and story, joyful flying sequences. with How to Train Your Dragon, it appears DreamWorks Animation has momentarily set aside its Shreked-out shtick and made a dazzling movie. Animated or not, for kids or whoever, this is an entertaining, thoughtful movie.