“The Avengers”
With “The Avengers”, Joss Whedon delivers exactly what I wanted from this movie. Full of sharp banter, he found a way to give each and every character in this ensemble their moment to shine (except Hawkeye, but who really gives a crap about Hawkeye?). Fun throughout, emotional when it needs to be, and action-packed at the right moments, “The Avengers” goes down as the best superhero movie of the year. What’s even better, Whedon gives us the best Hulk in three attempts, and Mark Ruffalo’s quiet rage steals every scene he’s in.
“Pitch Perfect”/ “Magic Mike”
I may be alone in this (at least the “Pitch Perfect” part of the equation), but I didn’t have a better time at the movies this year than at these two. Both are an absolute blast. A sucker for musicals, I won’t claim that “Pitch Perfect” is a great movie—let’s call it a guilty pleasure. The story is pure cheese, but the a capella renditions of pop songs are too good to resist. “Magic Mike”, Steven Soderberg’s saga about male strippers, is ridiculous in other ways. Among other things it has going for it, there is a vomit-eating pig, and Matthew McConaughey playing the sleazy, oiled-up role he was born to play. There’s also a character named Big Dick Richie. How can you go wrong with that?
“King Curling”/”Remington And The Curse Of The Zombadings”
These two fall into the “weird shit I’ve seen at the movies this year” category. “King Curling” is a Norwegian comedy about the ultimate endurance test in sports, the professional curling circuit. Sharing DNA with “The Big Lebowski” and Wes Anderson, “King Curling” throws every sports cliché under the bus as it follows its hero, a former mental patient, on his slippery quest for glory. “Remington and the Curse of the Zombadings” is even more bizarre than that. When homophobic young Remington pisses off the wrong drag queen, one that just so happens to be a sort of witch doctor, he’s cursed to turn gay the first time he falls in love. And just when you think it can’t get any more absurd than that, the zombies show up. Yes, zombies. A sharp satire of close-minded intolerance, “Remington” is one that must be seen to be believed.
CONTINUE FOR BRENT’S TOP TEN MOVIES OF 2010
