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