Looks like we'll be treated to 10 Best Picture nominees worth the recognition this year. (Take that, 2009, The Blind Side, and Up in the Air!) But now that 2010 is almost kaput, it's high-time for a reality check of the year's best films -- an unflinching glimpse back at the times when even quality cinema stumbled in its path to greatness. Here, we explore five great films with five really ridiculous (and questionably forgivable) scenes.
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There are thousands of forgettable female film characters piled into the IMDb database each year (Katherine Heigl's Killers persona Jen Kornfeldt anyone?), but when it comes to inspiring movie females of the kick-ass variety, there are considerably fewer. With 2010 rapidly coming to a close, their impressive wit, intellect, resourcefulness, brute strength and emotional endurance deserve to be recognized! In our continued holiday-list making spirit, Movieline recalls its favorite women to kick ass at the multiplex in 2010. Feel free to nominate your own femmes phenomenal in the space below and let's hope for many more of these exceptional females in the year to come.
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It seemed that almost every week of this year brought another head-scratching or mind-blowing story involving James Franco. Thankfully, unlike many rumors that emerged from the wasteland of internet news in 2010, the facts about Franco were always more fascinating than the myths. Actually, there were so many jaw-dropping stories in succession that there wasn't much time to make up rumors. So join Movieline as we look back at the top ten stories involving the quotable, unpredictable actor who somehow managed to keep topping himself through the end of the year.
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How Do You Know, the new James L. Brooks movie that's about, well, something, I suppose, is not very good. The title, presented in the form of a question (sort of), offers no clue to the merits of the film let alone hints to what the plot of this movie might be about. Honestly, after seeing this movie, I'm still not 100 percent sure what it's actually about. With that in mind, I did my best to come up with 10 questions, Jeopardy! style, based on the title of the film, to offer some clarity to this pressing issue of our time.
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You can have your top 10 movies and other reflections on the year in culture. I'll stick with an even more demonstrative metric of Hollywood at its best (and worst): Marketing. Some is inspired, some not so much. And some is inspired in all the wrong ways. With this in mind, join me for a leisurely stroll through some of 2010's best, worst, weirdest and wildest attempts at studios peddling their wares.
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In James L. Brooks's new romantic comedy How Do You Know, Owen Wilson co-stars as a loopy, commitment-phobic major league pitcher who romances Reese Witherspoon's character (to the best of his ability) during a low point in her career. How did Wilson get to a point in his career where he is acting opposite Oscar winners (Witherspoon, Jack Nicholson) in an Academy Award-decorated scribe's script? Movieline charts the eight roles that lead Owen Wilson to this point.
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When you think of big time television fails of 2009, your first thought is likely The Jay Leno Show. A year later, Movieline reviews ten more small screen failures -- including the most heartbreaking television cancellations and most horrifying cleavage on Sesame Street -- as we approach the end of the calendar year. Enjoy, and feel free to contribute your own suggestions ahead.
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"I am happy that I had the opportunity to establish the world that these characters can now play in [...] I look forward to seeing what others can do playing in the same world." Those are the words of Jon Favreau, as he leaves directorial duties on Iron Man franchise behind for good. Which director will Marvel try to lowball -- excuse me, "lure" -- into that Favs-created world for Iron Man 3? Ahead, Movieline offers seven suggestions.
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The way music is used in film makes for an interesting marriage. For every unmemorable movie made memorable because of a perfectly placed pop song, there is an unremarkable song turned iconic by its inclusion great film. There isn't anything inherently brilliant about Donovan's "Atlantis," but when Martin Scorsese used the song during the Billy Batts scene in Goodfellas, it became brilliant. Don't ask me to explain; that's just the way these things work. Who were the Donovans of 2010? Ahead, Movieline offers up the five best music cues of the year.
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As if the consistency and legacy of the films weren't destabilizing enough, 2010's movie vintage will forever be remembered for its deeply troubling developments in the dark arts of publicity stills. I don't mean the comic humiliations endured by the likes of Drew Barrymore or Tracy Morgan, either; I mean, "Like, uh, hold me." Click through for this year's top 10 milestones of the form.
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While digging through a list of every film released in 2010 and contemplating ideas for year-end top-10 lists, it dawned on me: Wow, a few of these titles sound like they could be porn. The individual synopses clearly suggest, alas, they are not in fact adult films. But at least I got a list out of it: The top 10 movie titles of 2010 that sound like they may be porn, but are in fact not porn.
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We may have timeless classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas to edify our gooey holiday spirits, but maybe it's the not-so-timeless classics that most enrich. I'm talking about Christmas variety specials of the '70s and '80s, the resplendent little tchotchkes they are, and their illegal quantities of trippy bliss. Karen Carpenter in kiddy overalls? Jerry Lawler writing letters to Santa? This is what a holiday should be about. Come with us as we revisit five dada moments in Christmas's primetime past.
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Few Hollywood pastimes enjoy the longevity and influence of a well-placed casting or development rumor. Agents, producers, writers, studio execs and numerous other industry species have used the form to stimulate interest in their projects (or disinterest in others) as long as trade publications have existed to print them; the growth of the Web has seen those projects -- and their insinuation as anything close to reality -- explode. And 2010 was a banner year for BS.
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After a quick foray into comedy with this summer's The Other Guys, Mark Wahlberg returns to drama this month in The Fighter. He stars as Mickey Ward, a tough-luck Boston boxer with a domineering mother/manager (Melissa Leo) and a brother/trainer (Christian Bale) who once knocked down Sugar Ray Leonard before becoming a crackhead. Alert Oscar! But how did Wahlberg become an Academy Award-nominated actor from his roots as a hip-hop artist who lead the infamous Funky Bunch? You can always trace a direct line through a handful of roles (not necessarily his best roles, mind you) to illustrate what led to an star's current success, and with Wahlberg, that line might be as high as it's ever been. Let's look at eight performances that trace the evolution of one Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg.
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Christmas arrived early for fans of both Bret Easton Ellis and musicals this morning via the announcement that the author's 1991 novel American Psycho -- which was memorably adapted into a feature film starring Christian Bale -- is being transformed again, this time into musical form. In celebration of this news -- and in hopes that it avoids the same disastrous Broadway fate as Spiderman -- Movieline suggests a few song titles that composer Duncan Sheik ("Spring Awakening") will hopefully consider for the first draft, which is expected next year.
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