2009 brought Star Trek back in a major way. It also brought back Terminators, ninjas, a legendary fictional detective, a legendary real-life gangster.
13. Invictus
12. Obsessed
On the surface, Obsessed is a simple but all-too-common story about sexual harassment as well as both white and female privilege and double standards ("No" clearly doesn't mean "no" to blonde and blue-eyed Lisa Sheridan). But it also works as a pretty decent metaphor for culture appropriation.
11. The Ugly Truth
Talk show host Mike Chadway disabuses his producer, Abby Richter, of her preconceived notions about romantic relationships while giving her some game at the same time. But since it was hate at first sight between the two, it's not pretty.
10. Good Hair
Who would've guessed that legendary stand-up comic Chris Rock's best
leading role would've in a documentary? But like Bruce Hornsby said,
"That's Just the Way It Is". Rock examines the fallacy behind the idea of "good hair" and why African-Americans (sadly) feel the need to spend so much money to chemically alter or conceal their natural hair texture.
9. Land of the Lost
Goofy 1970s television series Land of the Lost made for a great candidate for the big-screen remake treatment. I mean, it couldn't get any worse. Far outshining Ferrell's other tv show remake, Bewitched, the criminally underrated Land of The Lost movie features Will as arrogant paleontologist Dr. Rick Marshall who proves his time warp theory the hard way when he; his
8. The Collector
A safe-cracker is in the for the worst night of his life when he breaks into a house in which a sadistic serial killer has targeted the inhabitants.
7. The Hangover
party. The groom and his future brother-in-law look forward to the upcoming
weekend; the groom's teacher friend collects money from his students for
the trip to Vegas; his dentist friend lies to his girlfriend about their
destination; the guys check into their hotel villa and toast to the fun
they'll have that night. And then the guys wake up hungover the next
morning. And the party story turns into a mystery.
The biggest mystery is what happened to the now-missing groom. And Stu's
now-missing tooth. But how tf did a tiger end up in the bathroom? And where
did the baby come from? As the group follows clues, every answer leads to
another (at least one) question. And the wedding keeps getting closer and
closer. And the bride keeps calling.
The Hangover became the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time (a title
it held for seven years) and made Zack Galifinakas and Ken Jeung stars.
Nine years later Game Night tried the mystery-comedy formula but never even
came close to the out loud laughs of The Hangover.
6. In the Loop
5. Sherlock Holmes
After 93 years, director Guy Ritchie finally cracked the code. He figured
out how to make a Sherlock Holmes movie entertaining.
Displaying a wit seldom (if ever) associated with the legendary detective,
the new and much improved Sherlock not only outsmarts criminals, he also
beats 'em down -- all while irritating the crumpets outta Watson.
The story, set in 1890, begins with the super-sleuth and his longtime
crime-solving partner, Dr. Henry Watson, preventing Lord Henry Blackwood
from performing the latest of six ritual sacrifices. Months after Blackwood
is hanged for his crimes, he's spotted around England. Unfortunately for
Holmes, he has to crack the now reopened case alone because Watson has decided to trade his investigative career for the married life.
Meanwhile, Holmes' old flame, American thief Irene Adler, returns to
further complicate things. But after convincing Watson to rejoin the band
for one last tour, the pair deduces that Blackwood plans to kill the
members of Parliament. As if he didn't have enough on his plate, Adler
reveals to Holmes that she's been hired by Professor James Moriarty -- a
genius sociopath who'll become his arch-nemesis.
4. Public Enemies
Bringing the 1930s into the 21st century, Public Enemies takes a look at
the headline-making moments in the lives of Depression-era gangsters John
Dillinger and Lester "Baby Face Nelson" Gillis and briefly touches on
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Alvin Karpis of the Barker Gang and Frank Nitti.
Gillis, who killed three FBI agents in the line of duty, more than any
other individual, is depicted being shot to death by FBI agent Melvin
Purvis -- who later kills Dillinger. In reality, Gillis was killed four
months after Dillinger -- and neither was shot by Purvis. Historical inaccuracies aside, Public Enemies still stands as the best 1930s-era gangster movie to grace the silver screen.
3. Ninja Assassin
Ninja Assassin is arguably the best ninja movie - not counting Batman
Begins - of the 21st century. The title isn't merely perfunctory nor is it
misleading. The film is packed so full of ninja lore that it makes you
wonder if impressing the Rza and the other members of Wu-Tang was one of
the filmmakers' goals.
Ninja Assassin takes the time to show how Raizo, the most promising student
of the Ozunu Clan, is forged into a killing machine through a grueling training
regimen. Unforgiving sparring sessions with real weapons...
The best line:
"The breath I take after I kill you will be the first breath of my life."
2. Terminator: Salvation
While the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, disliked this 4th
entry in the series (maybe because it's the only one of the 5 movies not to
include him), it brought the robot saga back - and back to its roots - with
a vengeance following the unwatchable Rise of the Machines and the less serious Judgement Day.
Terminator: Salvation, by far the most underrated Terminator film, finally gives us a long (two hours' worth, anyway) look at the bleak future glimpsed in the original Terminator. It looks like we all dodged a bullet, for now, since the movie, set during the war between humans and machines, takes place in 2018.
Surprisingly enough, the movie, the only one to not star Arnold Schwarzenegger and the first to not receive an R-rating, is among the best of the series. Salvation is also the only Terminator movie that doesn't feature time-travel.
The story centers on an adult John Connor during his time as a member of the human resistance but before he becomes its leader. While the troops under his command recognize John's potential, the heads of the Resistance have little time or faith in a quasi-prophet without a military background. A teenage and orphaned Kyle Reese, who ultimately fathers Connor, is also in the mix, struggling to survive in the bombed-out remnants of Los Angeles, which is teeming with various Terminator models stalking any remaining homo sapiens.
Sarah Connor, Skynet's long-ago (and future) target for assassination, is long dead and only exists as a voice on a collection of cassette tapes she recorded for her son. The newest player in the AI-gone-wrong saga is Marcus Wright, a deathrow inmate who remembers signing his body over to medical research before the nuclear strikes that wiped out most of humanity. changed the world.
As Connor discovers to his horror, the T-800 line of Terminators, one of which will eventually be sent back to 1984 to prevent his birth, have just come online and are nearly unstoppable.
But the T-800s are merely the cutting-edge of what the machines have to throw at mankind. Skynet's extensive arsenal includes: hydrobots, which patrol bodies of water; Moto-Terminators - riderless speed bikes that patrol the streets; T-1s, which are upright robots that travel on treads; T-600s, which are 800-lb humanoid robots with rubbery skin; T-700s, which look like skinless T-800s; HK-Aerials - flying robots that provide air support for ground-based machines (the HK stands for Hunter Killer); and Harvesters - giant robots that transport human captives.
But the T-800s are merely the cutting-edge of what the machines have to throw at mankind. Skynet's extensive arsenal includes: hydrobots, which patrol bodies of water; Moto-Terminators - riderless speed bikes that patrol the streets; T-1s, which are upright robots that travel on treads; T-600s, which are 800-lb humanoid robots with rubbery skin; T-700s, which look like skinless T-800s; HK-Aerials - flying robots that provide air support for ground-based machines (the HK stands for Hunter Killer); and Harvesters - giant robots that transport human captives.
Terminator: Salvation, released five months before the 25th year anniversary of the original's premier, returns the series to the dark tone of The Terminator.
1. Star Trek
A decade after the release of the first Star Wars prequel, The Phantom Menace, Star Trek followed suit with infinitely more successful results. Captain Kirk and the gang came back from the dead at a great time seeing as how Star Wars, Star Trek's only real competition in the space epic game, had supposedly wrapped up for good four years earlier. The new look Trek benefited from an infusion of Star Wars-esque action, which immediately earned it the title of the absolute best of the then 11 Star Trek movies (and better than half of the then six Star Wars movies). Director J.J. Abrams would resurrect Star Wars as well six years later.
This origin story goes back further than any other Trek movie -- to the
birth of James T. Kirk. Years later, while Kirk rebels against his
stepfather, stealing his vintage 1965 Corvette Stingray for a joyride that
ends with him in police custody and the car at the bottom of a gorge, a
young Spock stands up to racist bullies on the planet Vulcan. The two are
set on a collision course when Kirk is challenged to live up to his dead
father's legacy by joining Starfleet, while Spock declines an invitation to
attend the Vulcan Science Academy in favor of enlisting in the famed
spacefaring fleet himself. When they finally meet it does not go well. After Spock accuses Kirk of cheating, the latter is ordered to appear at a disciplinary hearing. However, a distress call from Vulcan interrupts the proceedings and the unavailability of the fleet necessitates the ordering of Kirk's fellow cadets into action in order to aid in the rescue of the planet's inhabitants from a catastrophic storm.
Having grown up hearing his mother's first-hand account of the attack that cost his father's life, Kirk recognizes the atmospheric disturbance for what it is: a Romulan assault. After conning his way onto Starfleet's newest and most advanced ship, the USS Enterprise, with the help of his friend, medical officer Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy, Kirk relays his suspicions to the vessel's commander. And upon their arrival at Vulcan, the Enterprise crew witnesses a Romulan mining ship, the Narada, drilling into the planet's core. Though the previous incident occurred 20 years earlier, the Narada is indeed the same vessel that attacked Kirk's father's ship, the USS Kelvin. In an attempt to negotiate peace, Captain Pike surrenders to the Narada's commander, Captain Nero, leaving the Enterprise under Spock's command and naming Kirk the first officer. Though Kirk and helmsman Hikaru Sulu head down to the drilling platform in order to thwart Nero's plan to create a black hole at Vulcan's center by depositing red matter in the global core, they're ultimately too late and the planet implodes. Spock, who'd beamed down to the surface, is unable to save his mother, though his father and the Vulcan high council survive.
Back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk and Spock clash, resulting in the former's being marooned on a desolate Starfleet outpost, where he meets an older Spock from 129 years in the future who involuntarily traveled to the past along with the crew of the Narada via a black hole (their arrival in the past, on the day of Kirk's birth, resulted in the destruction of George Kirk's ship). Kirk also encounters disgraced Starfleet engineer Montgomery Scott, who manages to get them back aboard the Enterprise. After provoking the younger Spock into a violent rage, Kirk becomes the ship's acting captain. The duo subsequently travels to the Narada to both rescue Captain Pike and to prevent Nero from destroying Earth in the same manner that he obliterated Vulcan.
Originally Posted 8/15/19
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