One of the problems with being so selective with what you see over the course of the year is that even the lowest films on the list do not necessarily suck, they just happen to be not as good as some of the others. I have a feeling there will be some backlash with the defenders of #45:
#47 Cars 2
I don't know if I am alone here, but the Cars franchise to me is the least appealing of the Pixar lexicon. For one, Larry the Cable Guy is obnoxious and he plays probably a more important role in the story of the sequel than Owen Wilson's Lightning McQueen. He has his moments in this one, to be sure, but something about the notion of talking cars makes a whole lot less sense to me than talking toys. I think the concept of Cars 2 is entertaining in theory; the slow-witted Mater the tow truck (Cable Guy) becomes Lightning McQueen's pit chief in the international grand prix and ends up dragged into an international spy-car conspiracy. But basing the majority of the plot around a one-trick pony is ill-advised as Mater's jokes and mannerisms wear thin in a hurry. Michael Caine voices a spy named Finn McMissile and gets to shine in a cool opening James Bond knockoff, and John Turturro lends his talents as a slick Italian racecar looking to take down McQueen. The races themselves are colorful and pleasing on the eyes, while the rest comes across a little more dull.
#46 Win Win
I have a couple of friends that swear by American Splendor, which stars Paul Giamatti as comic artist Harvey Pekar in his first big lead role. I get that Pekar's voice and demeanor is supposed to be annoying, sure, but Giamatti's performance in Splendor was at times unbearable. With Sideways, there is at least the goofball antics of Thomas Haden Church there to balance the neuroses, but when Giamatti is left to his own devices, he is hard to take for a full 100 minutes. Win Win stars Giamatti as Mike Flaherty, a lawyer and wrestling coach and Amy Ryan as his doting but always skeptical wife. Just as he is set to underhandedly lock down an inheritance from an old man who he had been "legal" caretaker of, his grandson and unstable mother come into the picture. The grandson, Kyle (played by real-life New Jersey state champion Alex Shaffer), also happens to be a fantastic wrestler. So the question becomes-can Flaherty turn the situation into a win-win on all accounts? Some of the scenes between Giamatti and Shaffer work really well and the wrestling sequences entertain. It just seems to me like Giamatti is a better actor to take in supporting roles, where the dosage is significantly smaller.
#45 X Men First Class
A supremely overrated movie, in my humble opinion. Those who have claimed "best in the franchise" have, I believe, become so fascinated with the coolness of an X-Men origin story that they have overlooked the fact that the dialogue is atrocious, the plot plods along sluggishly, most of the action sequences aren't that great, and neither are most of the actors. Of course there's the "Well, you don't go to comic book movies for dialogue and acting," argument, but when you are up against the likes of Sir Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart (and to their credit, Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy hold their own), you will probably fall short. The story follows the formation of the X-Men and the Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Mutants in the background of the early 1960s and the Cuban Missile Crisis, a time when Charles and Erik worked together rather than shooting telepathy and metal things at one another. The film's baddie Sebastian Shaw (played with cheese and sleaze by Kevin Bacon) is planning to hijack the nuclear warheads for his own devilish purposes, and it just so happens that he and young Magneto (Fassbender) have a bit of a history--thus the Professor X/Magneto team-up aspect of the film. The dynamic between X and Mags is well understood by McAvoy and Fassbender, and they play it just right. Professor X, still hopelessly believing that there is good in all mankind, struggles to cope with his abilities, while Magneto tows the line between right and wrong, a man constantly fighting against his own resentment and anger. Jennifer Lawrence and Nicholas Hoult are decent (but have both been better) as young Mystique and Beast, and January Jones as Shaw's right-hand lady is once again not very good, despite the outfits. Three things saved this movie for me: 1) The aforementioned duo of McAvoy/Fassbender, 2) The final action sequence in or around Cuba, and 3) What is probably the most bad-ass character death of the year near the end. Without them, we're stumbling towards Wolverine territory. Need I say more?
#44 Horrible Bosses
Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudekis play Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudekis in the comedy Horrible Bosses. No, they play Nick, Dale and Kurt, respectively, but it never feels like they step much out of their comfort zones. Horrible Bosses has plenty of funny moments, but I feel that it could have been better. You get what you expect from the title--they have horrible bosses, and they want to have them killed. Bateman's works in corporate under the always-entertaining Kevin Spacey reprising his comically-mean act made famous in Swimming with Sharks. Day spends his shifts rejecting the sexual advances of a dirty-minded, dirty-mouthed dentist played by Jennifer Aniston. And Sudekis works under the ingrate, pony-tailed, coke-sniffing heir to Pellit Chemicals (Colin Farrell). Essentially, you have the three leads playing the straight man to their superiors. Thus, the scenes in which they interact with the bosses work well, and the scenes with the three of them together plotting work less, the kind of humor that makes you say "that's funny" rather than actually laughing. Their consigliere on the murder project is M.F. Jones, the always capable Jamie Foxx. He did time in prison, but for bootlegging Snow Falling on Cedars, not anything tough. They hire him on anyway, and of course things go quickly awry. A good-enough premise, but Bateman is exactly as smart-assed and easily defeated as Michael Bluth, Day is exactly as excitable and high-pitched as he is on Always Sunny, and Sudekis is as exactly as smarmy (Thanks, Ben) as he is in everything he has ever done.
More later today!
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