Looking Forward To...

The World's End
Release: August 23, 2013
Distributor: Focus Features
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Rosamund Pike, Eddie Marsan, Bill Nighy, Pierce Brosnan, David Bradley, and Martin Freeman

Link Roundup

Attempting to do my first link roundup. It's these people's fault really since they post some quality stuff and I need to find a way to share them with you all. Of course, there's some sad news as well towards the bottom.

Rob Will Review Rob eloquently writes a non-spoilery essay on why you should be watching Fringe. It's what I've been telling everyone, except coherent and well-written.

Encore Entertainment Andrew fondly revisits the scrumptious Pushing Daisies' pilot. I miss that show more every day.

Flix Chatter Ruth lists her 15 favorite period drama heroes and asks her reader to vote for their favorite. I surprised myself when I realized I hadn't seen most of these. I chose Mr. Darcy by the way.

Entertainment Weekly recaps the first episode of Game of Thrones and for someone who has had no prior knowledge of the great world that George R.R. Martin created, this was both informative and funny.

Edgar Wright posts a video of how his film Shaun of the Dead would look like in the style of his other film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. As a fan of both films, I saw this about ten times.

Peter Jackson shares the first videoblog on the set of The Hobbit. It's long, but I was flailing the whole time. I can't wait!

Hide Your Arms has compiled a list of more than 100 Doctor Who T-shirts. The fact that I don't own a single Doctor Who shirt should be grounds for immediate expulsion from fandom. Sigh.

Speaking of Doctor Who, some sad news today as Elisabeth Sladen passed away due to her until-now secret battle with cancer. Lis played Sarah Jane, one of the Doctor's treasured companions, and she did so for a long time spanning decades. She was so beloved that she went on to lead a successful children show spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. She will truly be missed.

- The official Doctor Who page pays Lis Slader a lovely tribute
- Maureen Ryan over at TV Squad compiles some reactions to Lis' death
- Finally, io9 looks at the legacy that Lis leaves behind

End-Of-Year: Top 10 Favorite Films of 2010

Took a little longer than I had planned, but without further a due, here are my ten favorite films of 2010. In a year (or even a few weeks), maybe I'll feel a bit differently, but for now this is how it all shook out. If you want to see the rest of the top 25 films of 2010, click here.


10. Agora - Always a fan of films where the central character is an historical woman way ahead of her times going against the tide by being her own person and Hypathia as played beautifully by Rachel Weisz is one such woman. Her steadfast will to learn and understand the universe amidst political and religious turmoil was inspiring. Playing opposite here is her slave as played by Max Minghella who struggles between his devotion to her and his freedom. Their journeys were fascinating to watch unfold amidst all of the upheavals of the times all leading up to that magnificent and heart-wrenching ending.


9. 127 Hours - As a huge fan of Slumdog Millionaire and Danny Boyle in general, I was counting down the days for his next feature film and with 127 Hours he delivered another great one. The film is pretty much a one-man show with James Franco playing real-life person Aron Ralston and his amazing ordeal of being stuck down a canyon for a grueling 127 hours. Boyle's frenetic style, which I'm a fan of, helps the movie never get stagnant, but it was Franco who really shouldered the whole film with his wonderful performance. The pièce de résistance was definitely the "cutting off the arm" scene which was as exhilarating and riveting as I had expected it to be, but I was also damn impressed by the gorgeous and breathtaking locale shots of Utah.


8. A Prophet - This film is nearly three hours long and yet I remembered thinking when I finished it that it was probably the fastest 3-hrs I've spent watching a film. Not sure why this movie was so watchable to me since it's a pretty hardcore prison drama. I'll attribute some of it to its great lead actor Tahar Rahim who was brilliant in showing us the journey of a man who went from a small-time crook to a full-fledged master criminal all the while maintaining sympathetic to the audience. It's an incredibly difficult role, but when done right, like it was here, you couldn't look away.


7. Easy A - I wanted to watch this movie because it had a few of my favorite veteran actors such as Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson and while those two latter actors DO steal the show as the easy-going cool parents, it was relative newcomer Emma Stone who was the breakout star of the film, and really the year. The success of the film as a John Hughes-inspired teen-style high school comedy was squarely put on Stone's shoulders and she carried the film spectacularly with her unassuming yet charismatic presence. The film itself had plenty of laughs and heart to fill its 92 minutes of running time.


6. Toy Story 3 - I knew it was going to be "one of those movies" when I started tearing up as soon as Randy Newman's score started playing and I supposed a lot of people probably had a similar reaction. For this film, it really was about saying goodbye to these characters who we first met more than 15 years ago, which also makes me feel incredibly old. It was the big theme of the film as Andy had to say also bid adieu to his toys because he was off to college. Of course before that happened some bits of hilarity (daycare!) and horror (incinerator!) had to happen, but every emotion the film elicited was sincerely earned.


5. Inception - I still remember this past summer when I couldn't get the film out of my head. And why not? This was certainly an ambitious and smart film and I applaud Christopher Nolan for always going there with all of his movies. The story itself is actually not that complicated to follow, but it is still such an intricately layered film, literally and metaphorically, that every viewing brings forth something new. The cast, which was my pick for Best Ensemble, is beyond words and they needed to be in order to keep up with Nolan's story. I'm still debating the ending with friends of mine to this day, so I just can't seem to get this film out of my head.


4. Black Swan - Even though I fully expected the unexpected with this film, especially with Darren Aronofsky at the helm, I wasn't fully prepared for his thrilling and sometimes disturbing vision of a ballerina going absolutely out of her mind in quest of perfection. You could tell that Natalie Portman underwent immense emotional and physical transformations to magnificently pull off this role, so kudos to her. And though I singled out the visionary direction and the inspired lead, the whole surreal film came together wonderfully in a sort of mindfuck kind of way and I just loved it all.


3. The Social Network - Even though it's not my #1 film and it's probably going to lose the Oscar to The King's Speech, in a lot of ways this is probably the film of 2010. A lot of it has to do with its subject matter i.e. the founding of Facebook, but also because it's plainly an amazing movie. From its writing, directing, and acting, almost every element of the film was top-notch. Why *I* like the film though was because in the heart of it all, it was about two friends, wonderfully played by Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield, whose friendship was challenged while they were building something together that would literally change the world. It's that relationship that makes this movie so worthwhile even in years to come.


2. Blue Valentine - This was probably my most anticipated film last year and so of course it was released on the very last week of the year. The wait was worth it though as the film delivered on every level in no small part due to its two incredible leads fantastically played by Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling. Both displayed a wide range of emotions as the film went back and forth from their initial courtship to their relationship's eventual collapse. Saying both had chemistry would be terribly simplifying it since I believe they inhabited their characters so fully and so realistically that it almost hurt watching their relationship crumble.


1. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - As a huge Edgar Wright fanboy (loved Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz unequivocally), me loving this film was a no-brainer, but what was easily my favorite summer film somehow coalesced itself into my favorite film of the year. It's definitely the most unique film I saw this year. Most of that was Wright's full commitment to the video game aesthetics ever-present in the film that perfectly complemented its graphic novel origins. The relatively young cast is immensely talented especially Kieran Culkin who played my favorite character, Scott's gay roommate Wallace Wells. It's not a perfect film, but it is my favorite and I'm just totally in lesbian with it.

And that's it! At least for now. For the rest of my top 25 list, click here.

Box Office: Toys Rule, Rocky Too

Toy Story 3 crossed the $400 million milestone, only the 11th film to do that in US box office history. Worldwide, it is the highest grossing animated film of all-time beating Shrek 2 and is poised to be the 7th film to break the billion dollar mark.

Sylvester Stallone had his biggest opening weekend ever with his new film, The Expendables, racking up a healthy $34.8 million this weekend for the top spot. In second place with a solid $23.1 million tally was Eat Pray Love, a film based on a widely popular book and Julia Roberts' biggest opener since 2001. Putting up Serenity-esque numbers, fanboy-driven film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World came in 5th with a disappointing $10.6 million.

I'm both shocked and not shocked that Scott Pilgrim did so poorly. I knew it wouldn't touch the other two opening films this weekend, but the hype (mostly online) was deafening and theaters in the area sold out many Friday night shows. For my part, I contributed $13 to its gross and had an AMAZING time. The low box office is sad, but no matter since its status as a cult classic is now assured.

In other box office news, Angelina Jolie gets her second $100-million film with Salt crossing that milestone over the weekend while Inception had another good, though its biggest so far, drop inching closer to $250 million. Despicable Me, meanwhile, continues its dream run and also looks to cross that $250 million line.

Looking Forward To...

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Release: August 13, 2010
Distributor: Universal
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Kieran Culkin, Brandon Routh, Chris Evans, Michael Cera, Alison Pill, Jason Schwartzmann, Aubrey Plaza, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Johnny Simmons, and Mae Whitman

Looking Forward To... SUMMER

Iron Man 2 opened this past weekend racking up $128 million, good for the fifth highest-grossing weekend of all time. And thus begins summer movie season.

Looking over the list of movies coming out between now and the end of August, I'm not really finding much to feel excited about. Take for instance Iron Man 2. I very much was looking forward to this until the reviews came in. They all pretty much stated that the film was just okay and definitely not as good as the first. I'll probably still end up seeing it, but then what else?

This weekend is the opening of Ridley Scott's Robin Hood starring his Gladiator muse Russell Crowe and to be honest I'm not exactly rushing out in theaters for this one. The rest of May is actually worse as my picks ranged from the stupid (MacGruber and Shrek Forever After) to the oh GOD WHY (Prince of Persia and Sex and the City). No thanks!

June is a veritable wasteland full of lame ass comedies with more lame ass comedies. Only Pixar's Toy Story 3 seems to be worthy of anyone's time. And who amongst you didn't watch the trailer and teared up a bit? The A-Team could be fun and the cast looks good so it's piquing my interests a bit. Maybe if enough of my friends want to see it (so far no one is saying anything), I may see it with them. And I almost forgot, in most likely very limited release, I Am Love with the lovely and superbly talented Tilda Swinton also opens this month.

July has some potential, but for the most part I'll probably wait until I can see a few of them on Netflix. One definite exception to that is Christopher Nolan's Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Marion Cotillard. I've done my best to not read any synopsis or even see any trailers. But how wicked cool is the cast and the poster? Other possibilities include Salt (because Angelina Jolie does summer blockbusters well) and, in limited release and possible Oscar contender, The Kids Are All Right from Focus Features starring Julianne Moore, Annette Bening, and Mark Ruffalo.

August is usually where movies go to die. Or is that September? Not sure. In any case, it's not too bad this year since as pumped as I am in seeing Inception, I'm equally as excited to see Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. I'm a bit (okay a lot) of a Wright fanboy ever since Shaun of the Dead, so I'm just disappointed that I don't already OWN this movie. Then there's Eat Pray Love with Julia Roberts and James Franco which looks okay as well as Sundance favorite HappyThankYouMorePlease from director Josh Radnor, also the star of one of my favorite shows How I Met Your Mother. Haven't heard much about the film other than it's a crowd pleaser. Can't think of a better way to end summer than with one of those.

So looking back at my post, the number of films I want to see is higher than expected with eleven possible choices. Last summer I saw five films that eventually made their way to my top ten movies of the year. So I'll hope for the best. What about you?