The King’s Speech (2010)

Colin Firth’s King George VI and commoner speech therapist Geoffrey Rush form a contentious friendship across social boundaries, humanizing the king and uplifting Rush in a real crowd-pleaser. Ultimately, though, what do kings do besides speak?

d: Tom Hooper | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Enemy | Bertie | Exercise | Common man | It’s just a chair.

True Grit (2010)

Based on the Charles Portis novel (not the John Wayne film), the Coen Brothers obey Western genre constructs while deftly adding their own sense of dark irony and violence. Jeff Bridges steals many scenes, but Hailee Steinfeld, 14, is the heart of the story.

d: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen | imdb.com | trailer | “Charlie Rose”
You’re not going. | I’m a Texas Ranger. | Your eye. | No affidavit.

Black Swan (2010)

Director Darren Aronofsky presents “Swan Lake” as a psychological thriller, “Carrie” in a tutu — the sheltered innocent, the creepily overbearing Mommy Dearest and blood. It’s either homage or derivative or something else, but Natalie Portman is quite good.

d: Darren Aronofsky | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Black swan | Attack it. | Passerby | Fitting | Hot for teacher

The Fighter (2010)

Mark Wahlberg plays real-life welterweight Micky Ward in “Rocky” meets desperate Lowell, Mass., and he is supported by three super performances — gaunt, funny, crack-addicted Christian Bale, unsunny Amy Adams and overbearing mother Melissa Leo.

d: David O. Russell | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
What’s the problem? | You can’t be me. | I’m the one fighting.

Blake Edwards (1922-2010)

Blake Edwards directed enduring slapstick farces like the “Pink Panther” movies with Peter Sellers, “10” and “Victor/Victoria” and also excelled in other genres — the iconic “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and the alcoholic drama “Days of Wine and Roses.”

imdb.com | The New York Times | The Washington Post | Time
Honorary Academy Award speech | press conference | “Biography”

Leslie Nielsen (1926-2010)

Serious character actor Leslie Nielsen became a comic star when he spoofed his image in “Airplane!” (“… and don’t call me Shirley”) and as bumbling Det. Frank Drebin in the television series “Police Squad!” and the successful “Naked Gun” movies.

imdb.com | The Washington Post | Los Angeles Times
“Airplane” | Det. Frank Drebin | Three strikes

127 Hours (2010)

Danny Boyle uses too-frenetic direction and flashbacks and James Franco employs a method all his own to play the real-life Aron Ralston, making the story of the 27-year-old hiker who cut off his right arm inspirational. But they don’t capture the solitude.

d: Danny Boyle | imdb.com | trailer | Wow | Aron falls. | Aron’s bag
I love you. | We have to do it again. | I aim to shave 45 minutes off.

Due Date (2010)

Director Todd Phillips doesn’t deliver the same laughs he did with “The Hangover,” because these gags — a masturbating dog and Robert Downey Jr. punching a child — aren’t good enough and the furry Zach Galifianakis is more palatable in small doses.

d: Todd Phillips | imdb.com | trailer | Restroom? | Father’s ashes

Fair Game (2010)

Noami Watts plays exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson with smarts and steely determination and Sean Penn is himself as her husband — swaggering liberal Joseph Wilson — in a real-life spy thriller and the story of a marriage under extreme duress.

d: Doug Liman | imdb.com | trailer | Breaking point
It’s everywhere | Joe Wilson vs. the White House | Saddam

Red (2010)

Morgan Freeman sums up the spy game, saying “we’re getting the band back together,” and it’s a likeable bunch — Bruce Willis, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren (with a machine gun) and Brian Cox — in a likeable movie. It’s likeable but not much more.

d: Robert Schwentke | imdb.com | trailer | Dunning

The Social Network (2010)

Tension-building director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, equipped with his machine gun-paced dialogue, turn the story of Facebook — invented (mostly) by Mark Zuckerberg — into a zeitgeist thriller and a post-modern revenge of the nerds.

d: David Fincher | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
Sign | Equation | The Sopranos | Sean Parker | Bosnia

The Town (2010)

Ben Affleck directs and stars in a bank heist picture set in Charlestown, Mass., the capital of bank heists, with average results. Affleck can’t find the right tone for the film or his complicated character, and only Blake Lively gives an interesting performance.

d: Ben Affleck | imdb.com | trailer | My bank was robbed.
You dummies shot a guard. | I never asked you to. | Six inches

Easy A (2010)

Screenwriter Bert V. Royal’s loose high school adaptation of “The Scarlet Letter” isn’t quite as smart as he thinks it is, but Emma Stone is a charming smartass. She leads a fun, breezy 90 minutes, complete with knowing nods to those cheesy John Hughes films.

d: Will Gluck | imdb.com | trailer | “Pocketful of Sunshine”
There’s a higher power. | Olive & Brandon | Woodchuck Todd

Machete (2010)

Robert Rodriguez’s fake trailer before the “Grindhouse” double feature is now a 105-minute, ultra-violent revenge fantasy — and it’s a blast. Deadpan Danny Trejo is Machete, an expert knife thrower who makes women (Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez) melt.

d: Robert Rodriguez, Ethan Maniquis | imdb.com | trailer
Underground Network | Both cops | You’re a fighter | Sniper

The American (2010)

George Clooney plays a hitman near the end, the maker of one last firearm in a smart, mannered film set in Italy, where even the prostitutes are beautiful and sophisticated. The movie is so good, so sure of itself, it could have been made in the 1970s.

d: Anton Corbijn | imdb.com | trailer

The Tillman Story (2010)

The documentary isn’t just about the death of Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who was killed by friendly fire in Iraq, and the ensuing cover-up by the U.S. government. It’s also about how the surviving Tillman family kept fighting for the truth.

d: Amir Bar-Lev | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose

Piranha (2010)

The problem with this exploitation remake/homage to “Piranha” (1978) isn’t the gratuitous blood and breasts. The problem is execution. Richard Dreyfus’ cameo — and eventual death — in the first scene hints at 90 minutes of fun, then the movie disappoints.

d: Alexandre Aja | imdb.com | trailer | Chew on this. | In the water.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

Edgar Wright directs a mash-up of ideas — comic books, video games, Michael Cera’s deadpan comedy — into something just-right. Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, who crushes on Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who carries the baggage of seven evil ex-boyfriends.

d: Edgar Wright | imdb.com | trailer

The Other Guys (2010)

Much better than “Cop Out” but no match for “Hot Fuzz,” director Adam McKay and Will Ferrell goof on the buddy cop genre. Ferrell keeps his shtick in check and Mark Wahlberg plays it straight, while Samuel L. Jackson and the Rock send up their images.

d: Adam McKay | imdb.com | trailer | Lion and tuna | Who is that?

Get Low (2010)

Robert Duvall is pefectly grizzlied and Bill Murray perfectly glib in a depression-era story of a funeral party, but the performances aren’t quite enough. The movie meanders and never delivers on wild stories of a hermit, settling for a too-safe third act.

d: Aaron Schneider | imdb.com | trailer

The Kids Are All Right (2010)

Lesbians Annette Bening and Julianne Moore have a complicated marriage and two kids — just like everyone else! Then the kids contact forgotten sperm donor Mark Ruffalo, who again plays a scruffy, emotionally impotent fuck-up who fucks everything up.

d: Lisa Cholodenko | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
How did you meet? | So, Paul? | It’s her job. | Team sports

Inception (2010)

Director Christopher Nolan creates a visually stunning, surrealistic dream world, then one beyond that and then another beyond that. Along the way, Leonardo DiCaprio leads a heist of another man’s mind and finds closure with dead wife Marion Cotillard.

d: Christopher Nolan | imdb.com | trailer | First lesson
The most skilled extractor | I need an architect. | Don’t be afraid.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

The third “Toy Story” doesn’t have the resonance of “Up” or the imagination of “Where the Wild Things Are.” It is just cute, nothing more, nothing less, the middle half an endless prison break. Plus, the filmmakers go for too many “Is Ken gay?” jokes.

d: Lee Unkrich | imdb.com | trailer | Made for each other.
Play time. | Tea party. | Switch him back. | Welcome to Sunnyside

The A-Team (2010)

Like “Charlie’s Angels,” this action-comedy is the rare movie based on a television series that honors the source material, having fun without making fun. Bradley Cooper delivers charm and smarm and director Joe Carnahan the action, including a flying tank.

d: Joe Carnahan | imdb.com | trailer | Face | Murdock | Flying tank

Winter’s Bone (2010)

Jennifer Lawrence gives a breakthrough performance as Ree Dolly, a 17-year-old Ozark Mountain girl looking for her missing father. She is an everyday American hero, fighting for her life and against the antiquated social mores of her extended family.

d: Debra Granik | imdb.com | trailer

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

The documentary follows Joan Rivers in her 76th year — at her best and worst. She wins “Celebrity Apprentice,” endures a Comedy Central roast, opens for Don Rickles, but her play bombs. Rivers will take any gig, anywhere. She is show business.

d: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg | imdb.com | trailer | I hate ...

Get Him to the Greek (2010)

Russell Brand’s portrayal of Aldous Snow — the British rocker from “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” — as both outlandish satire and human being is pitch-perfect in a wild road picture with Jonah Hill and Sean Combs, who plays a music industry executive.

d: Nicholas Stoller | imdb.com | trailer | Seattle? | Chocolate Daddy
Your last album ... | Lars Ulrich | I love this game. | Adrenaline

Splice (2010)

Biochemists and lovers Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley genetically engineer an impressive human hybrid — part human, part all sorts
of animals — with myriad results, including a bizarre love triangle. It’s a B movie that delivers on some high aspirations.

d: Vincenzo Natali | imdb.com | trailer

Dennis Hopper (1936-2010)

Dennis Hopper directed Easy Rider and often lived like the film’s drug-dealing hippie bikers, earning two exiles from Hollywood. But he returned to do sobering work — most famously as a photographer in Apocalypse Now and a psychopath in Blue Velvet.
imdb.com | Time | The New York Times | The Washington Post
Clips | “Easy Rider” | “Apocalypse Now” | “Blue Velvet”
Interviews | Charlie Rose | Bob Costas | David Letterman

MacGruber (2010)

The “Saturday Night Live” sketch isn’t funny, but it is mercifully short, and the hero dies. The movie is 99 minutes, and sadly, Will Forte’s bumbling version of 1980s television icon “MacGyver” lives — for corny sexual innuendo and misguided machismo.

d: Jorma Taccone | imdb.com | trailer | Coffee shop

Solitary Man (2010)

Michael Douglas plays another version of disgraced businessman Gordon Gekko, just as greedy but more hapless — 60 years old, chasing college girls, pitied by his family. It’s a good performance, but there’s nothing likeable about it. “Wonder Boys” is better.

d: Brian Koppelman, David Levien | imdb.com | trailer | I could stay.

Best Worst Movie (2010)

Michael Paul Stephenson directs this happy, sad documentary about “Troll 2” — the worst movie ever made — and its bizarre cult following. Stephenson, the kid in 1990 movie, visits the rest of the cast, including the really good-natured George Hardy.

d: Michael Paul Stephenson | imdb.com | trailer | ... born an actor

Iron Man 2 (2010)

The “Iron Man” sequel is a disjointed, entertaining mess — the sort of summer fun “The Dark Knight” could never have. Robert Downey Jr.’s smartass charm wears well, and he is supported by Mickey Rourke (a Russian villain) and Sam Rockwell (a clueless rival).

d: Jon Favreau | imdb.com | trailer | Plane jump
New assistant | Grab a quote | Suitcase suit | Ivan Vanko

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Jackie Earle Haley plays Freddy Krueger in another remake of a 1980s slasher film that isn’t as scary or fun as the original. Nominated for an Oscar as a pedophile in “Little Children,” the creepy, little Haley is now being typecast as one.

d: Samuel Bayer | imdb.com | trailer | Falling asleep | Drug store

Kick-Ass (2010)

Based on a comic book, the movie is a violent, profane satire of comic book movies — and it’s a lot of fun. Chloe Grace Moretz, just 11 when the film was made, is a real discovery as superhero Hit Girl, walking the line between adorable and trained killer.

d: Matthew Vaughn | imdb.com | trailer | I’m Kick-Ass.
Suit up | Birthday present | Big Daddy | Mist Mobile

Date Night (2010)

Excellent on television, Steve Carrell and Tina Fey are smarter than this action-comedy, which is, not ironically, standard date night material. The outtakes are the best part, a hint of what might have been had the pair been allowed to improvise the whole film.

d: Shawn Levy | imdb.com | trailer

Chloe (2010)

Amanda Seyfried looks too young to be a call girl, and Liam Neeson is a colossal bore. Julianne Moore is the only believable part of this love triangle, which devolves into an intellectualized exploitation movie. At least the couple’s modern house is perfect.

d: Atom Egoyan | imdb.com | trailer | The Client

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

John Cusack, Craig Robinson and the manic Rob Corddry return to 1986, when all the best sex and drugs were at ski lodges (“Hot Dog: The Movie”), where Crispin Glover (“Back to the Future”) is a bellhop in a hilarious male wish-fulfillment fantasy.

d: Steve Pink | imdb.com | trailer | Gay ones. | John Cusack

Greenberg (2010)

Noah Baumbach directs this character study of Roger Greenberg, a 40-year-old former musician turned carpenter full of regret. Greenberg is Ben Stiller’s most serious role and possibly his funniest, while newcomer Greta Gerwing is a regular-girl revelation.

d: Noah Baumbach | imdb.com | trailer | “Charlie Rose”

The Runaways (2010)

Kristen Stewart is a dead ringer for Joan Jett (right down to the brooding slouch), and Dakota Fanning gives her first grown-up performance as Cherie Currie — lead singer of the Runaways. But Michael Shannon is the most watchable as their creepy manager.

d: Floria Sigismondi | imdb.com | trailer | “Cherry Bomb” video

Peter Graves (1926-2010)

Best known as Jim Phelps in the classic television series “Mission: Impossible,” Peter Graves also found fame as Captain Clarence Oveur in the “Airplane” movies, lampooning his serious image and asking little Joey: “You ever seen a grown man naked?”

imdb.com | “Airplane” | “Mission: Impossible”

She’s Out of My League (2010)

Jay Baruchel, one of Seth Rogen’s band of brothers in “Knocked Up,” graduates to lead loser in a generic knock-off of a Judd Apatow film. Not even romantic interest Alice Eve can explain why she’s with the dead-end, self-esteem-less Baruchel.

d: Jim Field Smith | imdb.com | trailer | Beauty and the beast

Corey Haim (1971-2010)

Corey Haim died from a drug overdose at 38 years old — a lost boy and cautionary tale for child stars drunk on money and fame. He teamed with best friend Corey Feldman for four forgettable movies and finally the A&E reality series “The Two Coreys.”

imdb.com | “The Lost Boys” | “Lost Boys 2” | “The Two Coreys”

My favorite movies (2009)

1. Where the Wild Things Are | Spike Jonze
2. The Hurt Locker | Kathryn Bigelow
3. Inglourious Basterds | Quentin Tarantino
4. Up in the Air | Jason Reitman
5. Funny People | Judd Apatow
6. A Serious Man | Coen Brothers
7. Adventureland | Greg Mottola
8. Zombieland | Ruben Fleischer
9. Goodbye Solo | Ramin Bahrani
10. Sugar | Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

Tim Burton imagines a new wonderland — where Alice is 19, on the verge of a lifeless marriage and Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter) and Helena Bonham Carter (Red Queen) steal scene after scene. Stunning makeup and costumes accent the feminist allegory.

d: Tim Burton | imdb.com | trailer | Off with his head.

The Crazies (2010)

In a remake of George Romero’s 1973 film, insanity caused by a mysterious virus via the U.S. government returns, but this B movie is executed at a high level, with understated performances by Timothy Olyphant and Radha Mitchell and a tense car wash scene.

d: Breck Eisner | imdb.com | trailer | Car wash | The Crazies (1973)

Crazy Heart (2009)

As tired, drunk country singer Bad Blake, Jeff Bridges performs his songs (written by T-Bone Burnett) like he has been singing them his whole life. He is great, but the movie is just good. Robert Duvall shows up — a nod to his country singer in “Tender Mercies.”

d: Scott Cooper | imdb.com | trailer | Charlie Rose
No tab. | Keep after it. | “I Don’t Know” | “The Weary Kind”

The Book of Eli (2010)

Thirty years after the end of the world, Denzel Washington still walks the earth in a “Road Warrior” pilgrimage, fighting off cannibals and thieves. Then he finds a town ruled by Gary Oldham, a Western ensues, and there’s one hell of a payoff at the end.

d: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes | imdb.com | trailer | That book.

Youth in Revolt (2010)

Michael Cera plays Nick Twisp (not just another movie virgin) and his supplementary persona Francois Dillinger (French, confident, daring) in a winning comedy with all sorts of extreme characters played by Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta and Steve Buscemi.

d: Miguel Arteta | imdb.com | trailer | Francois Dillinger | Say yes.