17 Movies I Liked Okay in 2011

37. The Eagle



The more I think about it, the lower on the list I think I should have put this. I love an historical action film and the Roman Empire had some great visual style, but I'm remembering that the story here didn't make any sense. That's the problem with making this list at the end of the year; I forget stuff like that. Still, my recollection isn't that I disliked it, so the visuals and action must have been pretty good? Maybe I just blocked out the worst parts. I dunno; you tell me. I'm certainly not watching it again to find out.

36. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy



An intriguing drama with some great actors, but very, very slooowww.

35. Sucker Punch



Awesome visuals and set-pieces; confusing message about female empowerment. Hell, just confusing in general.

34. Beastly



Beauty and the Beast for the Twilight crowd. And me, apparently. Not exactly original, but I'm a huge sucker for that particular fairy tale and Beastly hit the right beats to make it work for me. Vanessa Hudgens doesn't give me a ton of reasons to believe Alex Pettyfer would fall that hard for her, but he's great in it and sells the attraction anyway.

33. Drive Angry



Great grindhouse schlock. Didn't exactly make me love Nicholas Cage all over again, but it's my favorite thing he's done in years.

32. Conan the Barbarian



I've seen the Schwarzenegger Conan movies countless times, but I don't hold the first one in as high regard as most fans do. In fact, I like Conan the Destroyer a lot better. Which is to say that my standard for this movie was pretty low and it met my expectations just fine. It's not a great movie and it's not everything a Conan movie should be, but compared to the rest of the sword-and-sorcery movie genre that exists in reality and not an ideal world, it's toward the top of that pile.

31. Our Idiot Brother



I loves me some Paul Rudd, but this is not his best movie. It's funny in parts, but the message is overly simple: that uptight women need to chillax like the bros.

30. The Adjustment Bureau



A good thriller marred by a rushed ending. Still, I love Matt Damon and I totally bought the romance between him and Emily Blunt.

29. Moneyball



I also love Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill (and Philip Seymour Hoffman, but he's wasted in this movie). The game-changing formula that this movie is based on is fascinating; I just never got a great feel for what the movie is trying to say about it. Is it a good thing? A bad thing? A little of both? If it's a little of both, why does it matter enough to make a movie about it? The film works a little better as a drama about Brad Pitt's character, but even then I'm left unsure what it's trying to say and I've spent some time thinking about it.

28. The Green Hornet



I probably would have hated this movie had I been a Green Hornet fan, but I'm not and I don't mind its light-hearted approach. I allow myself one Seth Rogen movie a year so's not to get burned out and I enjoyed this one. Kind of wish I'd held out for 50-50, but oh well. This was fun, if dumb.

27. Fast Five



Speaking of dumb fun, Fast Five could have squandered the opportunity of putting Vin Diesel and The Rock in the same movie together. The cynical me actually expected it. But it didn't. Not only did it make the most of their screen time together, it built a storytelling engine that will easily (and interestingly) power this series for the next few movies. On the other hand, them dragging that safe down the street at the end was helladumb.

26. The Mechanic



I only have vague memories of the Charles Bronson original version, but what I do remember was handled more to my liking in this one. I know that's cryptic, but I'm mostly talking about the last five minutes of both movies. Anyway, a better-than-average Jason Statham vehicle, improved by the presence of Ben Foster.

25. Source Code



Nice scifi story. It didn't stick with me like a great movie should (maybe 'cause I figured out what was going on too early?), but it kept my attention and I rooted for Jake Gyllenhaal to figure out a way to save and end up with Michelle Monaghan's dead character.

24. Bridesmaids



Very funny and I like the meta-message it sent about gender equality in Hollywood films. I didn't buy into the romance like I was supposed to (mostly because I didn't like Kristin Wiig's character much), but it was still a funny movie with actresses I love and some nice heart.

23. Arthur



My friends who've seen the original tell me that I'm not supposed to like this, but - like with Green Hornet - I have the luxury of getting to judge it purely on its ability to make me laugh. Which it did. And the relationship between Russell Brand and Helen Mirren was awesome and touching.

22. Friends With Benefits



An almost perfect romantic comedy foiled only by a resolution as cheesy as those in the other romantic comedies it mocks. Between this and Bad Teacher though, I'm right on board the Justin Timberlake Is Awesome train now. I was already there with Mila Kunis, whom I've loved since That '70s Show.

21. Real Steel



Unambitious, but it does what it does - tell a sentimental story about a man's redemption, both to himself and to his son - really well.

Movie News Roundup: Yoda Died Today

EDITED TO ADD: Frank Oz did not die today. I'm sorry to those of you I scared. I totally wasn't thinking that my headline might be misinterpreted that way.

The American trailer



The Anton Corbijn spy movie starring George Clooney looks really good. I especially love the setting of the little village on the Mediterranean.

After the break: Green Hornet, giant spiders, Conan, Wonder Woman, Oz, and Star Wars.

Awesome List: Yet more Indy, your new Red Sonja, Tiki Joe Mysteries, and more

Aliens in Indiana Jones?

I know a lot of people were bugged by the scifi element in Crystal Skull, but they're forgetting that there's a precedence for it. As far back as Raiders there's evidence that our ancient civilizations had contact with life - droid life, anyway - from the stars.



"Indy! No hitting!"

I still have a lot of Indy links to post. Like this one about how the Indiana Jones stunt show at Disneyland will no longer feature Dr. Jones' directly hitting anyone. One of the senior show directors said that even though there haven't been a lot of complaints, there "will be more pushes and shoves than direct hits." Crowds don't seem to like it when he punches Irina Spalko. Stupid crowds.

Re-reading the article, I notice that it says three punches are being removed, but it doesn't say how many punches Indy used to throw. So I suppose he could've thrown about 20, leaving 17 of them intact. I wouldn't bet money on it though.

Incidentally, I got to be in the Indy stunt show at Disney World last time I was there. I'll have to scan some pictures from that.

Waiting for Dr. Jones



And speaking Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure, this guy's taken tons of pictures of the queue. Disney sure knows how to make waiting in line fun.

Indy party!

Want to throw an Indiana Jones-themed shindig? Here's how. [Link is dead and has been removed at the request of the linkee.]

Indiana Jones makes bath time better

Indy towels.

Red Sonja casting



Apparently Rose McGowan is your new Red Sonja. This is older news and there was a minor hitch in it thanks to a tabloid's reporting that Rose and Red Sonja producer Robert Rodriguez had broken up. Rose has denied that rumor though and will be at San Diego Comic-Con with Rodriguez to promote the movie, so it sounds like she's still in. (For Barbarella, too.)

And in other Unlikely Casting news...



Here's Seth Rogen to defend why he's playing the Green Hornet.

For years we'd really been trying to write a movie that was kind of about a hero
and his sidekick. When we heard the Green Hornet movie was up for grabs, we
thought that could be the perfect way to do this story, because he is the only
hero whose sidekick is more known than he is.

More about space opera

Related to Monday's post about the relevance of space opera, Barnes & Noble ran a nice overview of the genre. Paul DiFilippo looks at it's history and talks about not only the successes, but what hasn't worked and why. Interesting stuff.

Tiki Joe Mysteries



I'm all for more murder and mayhem in the Pacific islands. Even if it doesn't include a hot detective or the walking dead.

Wonder Woman and Dumas' birthdays, a Green Hornet fan film, and Jesse James: The Musical

Kill All Monsters!-Related

Dude changed his middle name to Megatron.

Dust to Dust-Related

This looks like old news, but apparently Barry Upton and Sam Snape are writing a Jesse James musical.

Swashbuckling

Today would've been Alexandre Dumas' 205th birthday. Happy Musketeer Day!

When I first heard about Dynamite's doing a Zorro comic, I had mixed feelings. A Zorro comic should be cool, but I was never able to get into Topps' attempt at it (though they did have some awesome covers). Of course, Topps didn't have Matt Wagner writing it.

Pulp

If you're having a hard time picturing Seth Rogen as Green Hornet you might like this short, fan film version better. It was made by French guys, but it's in English. (Thanks to Kevin Melrose for the link.)

Science Fiction

Writer Carl Ellsworth and director D.J. Caruso, aka the guys responsible for Disturbia, have been hired to also write and direct the Y: The Last Man movie.

Wonder Woman

Today is also Lynda Carter's birthday. According to Wikipedia, she's 56. Happy Birthday, Wonder Woman!

Jericho: Season Two, Simpsons donuts, and how to tell when you're too into your fantasy series.

Kill All Monsters!-Related

Steve Bissette continues his look at giant monsters.

He also talks about DC's GIs-versus-dinosaurs comics that are collected in Showcase Presents: The War that Time Forgot. I started reading them myself, but was disappointed that instead of a continuing storyline about soldiers stranded on an island of dinosaurs, most of the stories are self-contained (except for an occasional one that takes two or three issues to complete) and feature new characters in every tale. It's still a cool idea, but I was hoping to get to know the soldiers better than the format allows.

Chris Sims convinces me to read Marvel MegaMorphs, about Marvel superheroes who pilot giant-robot versions of themselves.

Forget Transformers. How'sabout a life-sized Gundam giant robot figure?

Blogarama has a preview of Josh Cotter's giant-robot-featuring contribution to the Indie Spinner Rack anthology. Cotter's very cool Skyscrapers of the Midwest series frequently features giant robots, so this is no surprise. That doesn't make it any less welcome though.

Dust to Dust-Related

Looks like I missed TiVoing Tyrone Power and Henry Fonda in Jesse James on Fox Movie Channel this morning, but they're rerunning it on August 24th. Now if I can just remember...

Pulp

This is only a rumor as far as I can tell, but everyone else is talking about it so I might as well mention that Knocked Up star Seth Rogen may be writing and starring in a Green Hornet movie.

Mystery

You'll have to click on the link to get the full skinny, but the Sci Fi Channel's got some details about the second season of Jericho. Like how they're going to squeeze 22 planned episodes into the 7 that CBS ordered and how the plot will be intentionally reminiscent of events in Iraq.

In the comments to my post on Erle Stanley Gardner's birthday, Rupert from The Book Garden mentions that he's building a Squidoo list of Perry Mason novels. Quite an undertaking and very useful information considering the huge number of them that Gardner wrote.

Fantasy

Starting tonight, I'm not reading anything online that has either "Harry Potter" or "HP" in the text. Hewlett Packard news will just have to wait until I'm caught up. But before I go dark on the Harry news, I've got to share this press release that a friend forwarded to me. It's from a grief counselor offering "to speak with parents and children, as well as the media, on how to cope with feelings of grief and loss" once the series concludes. "This could have a serious impact on children, millions of whom have grown up reading, watching and profoundly enjoying the characters and storylines of the Harry Potter series." Maybe I'm a heartless bastard, but really?

Science Fiction

This is even more rumor than the Green Hornet story, but the Disney Blog is reporting conversations about Disney's remaking 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, possibly with "a certain captain from the Pirates franchise" as Nemo. That last bit sounds like wishful thinking more than informed speculation to me, but I don't have the contacts that the Disney Blog does, so don't listen to me.

Wonder Woman

That's Fit has links to some cool Wonder Woman gear for women. It's all under item number four in their "five ways to emblazon yourself with a message of strength."

Alpha Flight

Ramon Perez (Butternutsquash) has a fantastic post where he's drawn all the characters from the classic Alpha Flight team. Made me homesick it did.

Writing is Hard

One of the Three Golden Rules of Writing is "show, don't tell," but Writer Unboxed read a review of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo that made them wonder how strictly the rule should be followed. After all, "does the description of 'a little man with no compassion or concern for others' really hurt him? It helps the reader develop an instantaneous feeling about the character so the story can move forward, after all. Is that always bad? Did (Leven Thumps author Obert) Skye need to develop a sequence showing the character acting like an a-hole?" Good question. I'd be interested in hearing opinions on this one.

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

This post on the Simpsons Movie promotional donuts made me very hungry. I gotta find a 7-11.

The new Supergirl, John McClane beats Optimus Prime, and Dalek cupcakes.

Westerns

Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name" character is getting his own comic book series. I've been itching for a good Western comic, so I'll be giving it a look.

Horror

The absolutely least interesting part of the Dracula story for me is his origin, so a Dracula Year Zero movie sounds like a really awful idea to me. Until you tell me that Alex Proyas (The Crow, Dark City) is directing it.

I'm not really confident about sticking this under "Horror," but since the very funny Doug Jones plays Abe Sapien in the Hellboy movies, I'll tell you here about his blog.

Fantasy

Kerwin Mathews, the guy who played Sinbad in The 7th Voyage of, died July 5th. He was 81.

Movie studios are looking for the next Harry Potter success. So of course they're snatching up the rights to any book series that remotely features wizards and spells. I guess as long as you're looking to rip off the Potter movies, you might as well go to the Potter rip-off books, but I'm thinking that this is going to get old real fast.

I'm a nerd for historical movies and I've wanted to see one for a while that covers the period between cave men and the first civilizations. Prayer answered. And it looks good too.

Science Fiction

Make your own Dalek cupcakes. (Thanks for the link, Kelly Sue!)

10 Reasons Why John McClane is More Badass than Optimus Prime.

Superheroes

Smallville watchers, meet your Supergirl.

Writing is Apparently Not That Hard

At least, Joe Mathlete makes it look easy with this excerpt from a fictional book (as in, it doesn't actually exist) that I would totally buy. I want to give you a best line, but the whole damn thing's awesome, so I'll just feed you the first in order to entice you to reading the whole thing: "Jameson P. Greeley sipped his glass of milk through a straw, savoring each drop like a kitten would vodka, if the kitten were an alcoholic and/or Russian."

Stuff Nobody Cares About But Me

I thought Meredith's half-sister Lizzie was completely charming in her Grey's Anatomy appearances. Apparently I was in the minority because focus groups didn't like her. Fortunately, the show's producers told the focus groups what to do with themselves and made her a regular character. Just one of the many reasons I love the creators of that show.

Links du Jour

Adventure

• I'm really looking forward to Marvel's World War Hulk storyline. I've been reading The Incredible Hulk ever since some of Marvel's hoighty-toightier "heroes" tricked him and exiled him to outer space, and I cannot wait for him to get back and smash the crap out of them. Especially Iron Man, who somehow turned into my new favorite Marvel villain over the course of the Civil War event. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing this up is that one of my favorite up-and-coming artists, Chris Moreno, is going to be drawing back-up features about a bunch of goofy superheroes trying out for Rhode Island's official, new superteam in the World War Hulk: Frontline mini-series. Which makes me even more excited about it all.
• I missed Oni's Northwest Passage mini-series the first time around, but promised myself that I'd catch it in the trade paperback collection. Looks like it's going to be a far prettier collection than I thought.
• I'm a big Captain Marvel fan. DC's "Shazam" one, not Marvel's outer-space hero one. Looks like 2008 is going to be a big year for him and his supporting characters, including an animated series and a new toy line.
• Speaking of which, Mary Marvel fans are in an uproar about her possible role in DC's upcoming Countdown series. Mary's always been a character who's remained unexploited by DC and folks are concerned that that's going to change in Countdown's "Seduction of the Innocent" storyline. Their fears aren't groundless, but I'm not ready to get out my torch and pitchfork just yet. One of the reasons that Mary's never been exploited by DC before is that frankly she hasn't been in their books a whole lot outside of the various Shazam series and an occasional guest-appearance. I'm not saying that I want her to become a dark and dirty character; I'm just not convinced yet that that's the ultimate plan DC has for her.
• Seen the new Pirates of the Caribbean trailer yet?
• Speaking of swashbuckling, you can now read the entire first issue of the excellent Black Coat mini-series online for free. There are also five-page previews of the other issues in the series.
• And in still more swashbuckling news, Michael Chabon's (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) new novel Gentlemen of the Road will be released in November from Del Rey. It features "a pair of wandering adventurers—swords for hire, horsethieves, flimflam artists, unlikely soul mates—who get caught up in the schemes and battles that follow a bloody coup in the great medieval Jewish empire of the Khazars."
• Kevin Smith's Green Hornet movie may not have gone anywhere, but that doesn't mean there won't be a Green Hornet movie.
• Dynamite Entertainment's giving a Zorro comic a shot. Zorro's a hero who sometimes works better for me in concept than in execution, but I'm looking forward to seeing their take on him.
• I think I heard about this a long time ago, but I'd forgotten that there's an Underdog movie in the works. Can't say I like the direction they went, but it looks like it's just about ready.

Fantasy

• Dark Horse Comics has released details about their plans to adapt Robert E. Howard's non-Conan material

Other Comics

• Civil War writer Mark Millar is known for making loud, self-hyping, and often controversial statements. Too bad they aren't always true. He recently claimed that his work on Civil War would spill over and benefit poor, little books like Captain America that "hasn’t sold over 45K in half a decade." Now, he speculates, "they’ll be regular 90K-plus books and even more for a little while." Only problem is, according to Captain America writer Ed Brubaker, "Cap 1, which came out two plus years ago, sold in the mid-70s, and the regular monthly book has been selling in the mid-50s since around issue 14, I believe." Not that Brubaker's claiming that Civil War won't help boost those numbers, but Captain America wasn't quite as beleaguered as Millar made it out to be.