3rd Annual Mikey @ The Movie Awards: Part One - The Fun Stuff

This is my THIRD annual awards, but I'm going to do something a bit different. For the first time, I'm going to do this in two sections: The Serious Stuff and the Fun Stuff. Part One is the "fun" awards...stuff like best trailer, best character, etc. So without further ado:

Worst Movie of the Year
(Theatrical Released)

The Bounty Hunter
Case 39
Cop Out
From Paris With Love
The Last Airbender
Legion
MacGruber
Splice
The Spy Next Door
You Again

Worst Straight to DVD/TV Movie

The 40 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It
Don't Look Up
Fred: The Movie
Nine Dead
Tell Tale

Worst Cast of 2010
(Must be a theatrical released movie)

Killers
The Last Airbender
MacGruber
Twilight Saga: Eclipse
You Again

Most Overplayed Theatrical Trailer
(Not totally a bad movie or trailer...just got tired of seeing it!)

Due Date
The Expendables
Green Zone
Hereafter
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

Biggest Let Down
(May not be a really bad movie...but was not as good as I hoped)

Alice in Wonderland
Brooklyn's Finest
Due Date
Iron Man 2
Shrek Forever After

Best Action or Adventure Movie
(I like seeing sh*t blow up!)

Inception
Kick Ass
Predators
The Town
Unstoppable

Best Action or Adventure Movie Performance

Aaron Johnson for Kick Ass
Chloe Moretz for Kick Ass
Chris Pine for Unstoppable
Denzel Washington for Unstoppable
Leonardo DiCaprio for Inception

Best Horror Movie

The Crazies
Devil
The Last Exorcism
Let Me In
Paranormal Activity 2

Best Horror Movie Performance

Ashley Bell for The Last Exorcism
Chloe Moretz for Let Me In
Kodi Smit-McPhee for Let Me In
Patrick Fabian for The Last Exorcism
Timothy Olyphant for The Crazies

Best Sequel

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part One
Paranormal Activity 2
Toy Story 3

Best Remake or Reboot
(Even though I haven't seen some of the original versions...oops)

The Karate Kid
Let Me In
Predators

Best Straight to DVD or Made for TV Movie

Crazy on the Outside
Defendor
The Descent: Part Two
The Special Relationship
Temple Grandin

Best Theatrical Trailer
(Even for movies I haven't seen yet!)

Black Swan
For Colored Girls
Inception
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Poster

127 Hours
Inception
The Last Exorcism
Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
The Social Network

Best Character
(Real or Fiction)

Aron Ralston from 127 Hours
Big Daddy from Kick Ass
Hit Girl from Kick Ass
Mark Zuckerberg from The Social Network
Olive from Easy A

Best Cameo or Limited Role
(Which could still qualify for a supporting nomination in my major awards)

Bryce Dallas Howard for Hereafter
Dale Dickey for Winters Bone
Juliette Lewis for Conviction
Patricia Clarkson for Easy A
Stanley Tucci for Easy A

Best Ending

127 Hours
Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part One
Inception
Shutter Island
The Social Network

Best Scene

The opening scene/Dream is crumbling scene of Inception
The hallway fight/chase sequence - and Arthur setting up the "kick" in Inception
Aron Ralston cutting off his own arm to save his life in 127 Hours
"Do I have Your Full Attention Mr. Zuckerberg?" from The Social Network
Eduardo confronts Mark and Sean at Facebook headquarters in The Social Network
Hit Girl's final battle/fight at the end of the film in Kick Ass
Big Daddy shoots Hit Girl (as practice) in Kick Ass
Andy gives his toys away and has one last play session in Toy Story 3
Juliette Lewis' one major scene towards the end of Conviction
Cotton showing the tricks of how exorcisms are faked in The Last Exorcism

Keep in mind I haven't seen every movie yet, so this portion of my awards IS subject to change by my January 9th deadline (to make sure I see every movie from 2010 that may have trickled over to the 2011). My "major" awards will be announced (hopefully) around January 10th or 11th...but we shall see. I'm not going to fancy these up with pictures or anything...because like maybe 2 people read this blog lol.

2010 Reviews #102 & #103: "Tangled" for "127 Hours"!

Tangled

Rated PG
1 hour 40 minutes

Storyline:
The long-haired Princess Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but when she falls in love with a bandit who was passing by she must venture into the outside world for the first time to find him.

Voice Cast of Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi

Critics Grade: 87%
My Grade: B+

Tangled is the exact kind of movie that Disney does best. Animated, of course. These types of movies typical, but not always, have some form of princess or princess to be. Then a dashing man who is typically a thief, beggar, or some kind of low life, low class person comes in to be her savior. Of course Tangled isn't that original of a movie, but with Disney you don't and shouldn't expect that. I don't mean that in a negative way either. Their target audience is children. Children do NOT care or even realize they are watching the same kind of movies over and over again. These movies makes kids laugh and make them happy. That being said, I thought Tangled was a perfect movie for the whole family to enjoy. It has a sweet, charming little story. The main characters are funny and very likable. They get into all sorts of trouble and dilemmas that they have to narrowly escape in humorous ways. Kids eat this stuff up, and this is nothing different. I honestly believe most younger children will have a blast with this movie. The animation is great, and the movie never dulls down. It, at least I think, will keep a child's attention. The best character is probably the horse Maximus. He's awesome.

Which get's me to my next point...I as an adult had a great time watching the movie as well. Disney and Pixar as well, know how to make a movie these days that will keep not only the kids attention but the parents as well. I laughed an ample amount of times throughout the movie. All the characters had their quirky and funny little moments that adults can appreciate. It's hard for me to say anything negative about a movie like this because they are here to entertain our youth and movies like this aren't required to be fancy and artsy and blah blah...all the stuff you see in a lot of grown up movies these days. It's nice to take a step back in the old time capsule and remember when I was a kid and used to watch movies like this. I'm glad this tradition is still alive. I'm glad kids will have movies like this to remember. It is a pretty memorable movie after all. The only thing I really didn't care for was the music. Disney is also well known for making some of the most memorable and classic film songs of all time. None of them here really stuck in my head after they were done...and I don't remember a single song from the movie whatsoever. But again...not that big of a gripe. This is a good movie for everyone in your family...in my opinion. Not the best animated movie of the year, and certainly not Disney's best. Still though, a very solid addition to their wonderful and magical collection.

127 Hours

Rated R
1 hour 31 minutes

Storyline:
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive. This is the true story of Aron Ralstons fight to live.

Starring James Franco

Critics Grade: 93%
My Grade: A-

The more I think about this film, the more powerful it really becomes to me. After first viewing, I thought, well that was a pretty decent movie with a great lead performance but I felt it was missing something. But now after some thinking I've realized: oh my gosh, I just watched a story unfold in movie form that actually happened to a man in real life. I knew going in this was a true story of course. I knew what the outcome would be. But it didn't sink in until hours after watching the film how unbelievably real and tragic this story was. The movie is directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle (the brilliant Slumdog Millionaire) and he does a fantastic job at bringing this tale to life. With what he had, virtually a one man show about a man trapped under a rock, he does a phenomenal job making us feel part of the story.

For those who don't know, Aron Ralston was hiking back in 2003 and was climbing down a crack in the terrain. He was trying to us a boulder for support but the boulder shook loose and it came tumbling down and Ralston came with it. The boulder landed on his right arm and it became stuck. He was unable to movie the boulder and could not free his arm. He never told anyone where he was going, and he was so far down the crack that no one could hear him screaming. He spent 5 days, roughly 127 hours in this situation. He had minimal water, almost no food. His arm virtually decayed and he lost weight rapidly due to lack of water. Eventually, and this is no spoiler alert, he intentionally broke both bones in his arm and started to cut off his arm with a small dull blade he had.

The movie is probably 95% in that cave with just James Franco and the rock. The beginning we see him starting his adventure and meeting up with some girls. Then periodically throughout the film we see very brief glimpses into his life through quick flashbacks or hallucinations. But mainly...it's just him and the rock. Boyle does some master class work here. I felt totally immersed in this mans dilemma. This is easily one of the most claustrophobic movies I've ever seen. Many close shots of James Franco and we never see to much outside of what he can see. I really got a fairly accurate sense of his pain and suffering. I could not even imagine what he went through, but this film demonstrates pretty well what it was like down there for him. If you don't like movies that stay in one place for almost the whole film...you may not care for this one. It will definitely make you feel unnerved and maybe even a bit queasy.

The best part about the movie, hands down, is the performance of James Franco. I've never seen him THIS good. The movie itself may not be in my top 10 of the year, but Franco will easily be one of the best performances of 2010. He gives absolutely everything he possibly has for this role and I believed him as Aron Ralston. He shined in his scenes where he was hallucinating and talking to his video camera. It was almost as if Franco WAS actually trapped under that rock. It was one of the most remarkable and believable performances I've seen in a very long time. I've never been the biggest fan of him, although he is nice to look at wink wink. But in this movie he nails it and then some. If you see the movie for any reason, see it for Franco. He IS the movie of course, he's in every scene. This movie is about Aron Ralston, and Franco immerses himself in this guy and in this life changing situation.

The scene that got me, and will get most movie goers, is the part where he cuts off his arm. It's pretty damn graphic. Everyone should know it's coming, if you know about the story. You get everything in this scene. He had to break both bones in his arm (which we see and hear clearly) and then he had to start stabbing and slicing through the skin, muscle, tissue, etc. The most graphic part was the nerve in his arm. They showed it, they showed him cutting through it and Franco delivers some of this best work in this scene. It was as if he was actually doing this on camera in front of us. I got a little sick to my stomach watching it and listening to it but it is a very necessary scene to sit through. It demonstrates this man's will to live. His determination not to give up and to have a wife and have a child. His will to have a future and pass this message and story along to all of us.

This is a very good movie with a brilliant lead performance. It could be a movie some people may have a hard time sitting through to it's claustrophobic nature. But this was not a slow movie. I found myself glued to the screen wondering how far this was going to go and wondering what effects all of this had on Ralston. It's a fascinating story that is a beautiful example of how precious life is and not to take it for granted. If this man could live through this and still have the courage to cut off his own arm to get out and continue his life...we can all learn something from this. This isn't just a movie...this was real life, once you realize that...the more powerful this man's story becomes.