The second year of the 2010's didn't exactly represent the best 12 months in cinema but it did feature some notable comebacks. Ethan Hunt, Sherlock Holmes and Dom Toretto (of all people) all returned to cineplexes with a vengeance. As if that weren't enough, both fantasy and drama delivered potent examples of their respective genres.
9. A Game of Shadows
The sequel to the very first good Sherlock Holmes film introduces the famed sleuth's arch-nemesis, Professor James Moriarty, and follows the detective's efforts to foil the evil mastermind's scheme to instigate a global war.
8. Fast Five
Fast Five introduced The Rock's Luke Hobbs to the series and got the entire saga back on track after a less-than-entertaining trilogy. Most Fast movies involve heists and the highlight of the movie -- and the entire franchise -- is the $100 million high-octane bank robbery in Rio de Janeiro.
7. Moneyball
Moneyball chronicles Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's struggle to turn a losing team around and the way that he accomplishes just that with the help of his assistant, a sabermetrics expert, and his revolutionary, mathematical approach to team-building.
Still eerily timely, Contagion explores a pandemic, stemming from the spread of a respiratory virus originating from a bat, and the world's rush to create a vaccine.
In Real Steel, robot boxing has eclipsed human fighting sports by the year 2020. Former boxer Charlie Kenton and his son, Max, train discarded sparring-bot Atom, who displays both a talent for beating more advanced opponents and a die-hard loyalty to Max.
4. Immortals
In 2010, one (Clash of the Titans) of only two fantasy films based on Greek mythology worth watching was released. The following year, the other one -- this movie -- debuted. While Clash revolved around demigod Perseus, Immortals focuses on Olympian/human hybrid Theseus and his fight to prevent King Hyperion from freeing the notorious Titans.
3. Battle: Los Angeles
When hostile aliens make camp in the oceans near major coastal cities, the White House responds the way that it should in most of these movies -- it sends in the marines. Iraq War veteran Michael Nantz finds himself leading a platoon of devil dogs, a group of soldiers from the Army National Guard, an Air Force sergeant and a few civilians through LA as they dodge extra-terrestrials and, eventually, take the fight to the invaders.
Faced with losing his house to foreclosure due to exorbitant medical bills for his daughter's open-heart surgery, retired mixed martial arts fighter Brendan Conlon breaks his promise to his wife and returns to the ring in order to win some much-needed cash. Unbeknownst to Brendan, his estranged younger brother, Tommy, has resumed the sport as well, after going AWOL from the Marine Corps. Eventually, each sibling winds up in the same MMA tournament, the Sparta.
1. Ghost Protocol
The best thing about Ghost Protocol is the fact that Ethan Hunt really doesn't wanna perform the death-defying stunts crucial to completing the mission. He's so reluctant to put his body on the line, yet again, that he looks around the rooom for other candidates when the team decides that someone is going to have to climb the tallest skyscraper on the planet, Dubai's 2,722 foot-high Burj Khalifa -- and within a narrow time frame. The second-best thing about Protocol is the fact that the gadgets, staples of the series, don't work -- which makes the idea of climbing that tower, using unreliable company equipment, that much less appealing.
Although the idiotic face-masks no longer work (thankfully), some things never change: Luther is as dependable as ever and Ethan continues one of his personal traditions established in the first Mission: Impossible movie -- sprinting at top speed.
Just eight months after Ghost Protocol's release, Jeremy Renner, who portrays intelligence analyst William Brandt, starred as superspy Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy and assassin Sabine Moreau, portrayed by French actress Lea Seydoux, turned up as a Bond girl in Spectre. How's that for keeping it in the spy movie family?
Although the idiotic face-masks no longer work (thankfully), some things never change: Luther is as dependable as ever and Ethan continues one of his personal traditions established in the first Mission: Impossible movie -- sprinting at top speed.
Just eight months after Ghost Protocol's release, Jeremy Renner, who portrays intelligence analyst William Brandt, starred as superspy Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy and assassin Sabine Moreau, portrayed by French actress Lea Seydoux, turned up as a Bond girl in Spectre. How's that for keeping it in the spy movie family?
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