Top 10 Fantasy Movies of the Decade

Rounding out the genre troika is my list of the Top 10 Fantasy Movies of the Decade. You'll note there are quite a few Superhero movies on this list. Most genre-specific lists include Superheroes in Sci-Fi, but I think they usually include more fantasy elements than science; near-perfect men and women who do extraordinary things for those less perfect than themselves. And yes, Superman may well be from outer space, but Thor is right out of Norse mythology.

"Fantasy" as a label has been used as a catch-all for Horror and Sci-Fi, but when you think about it, isn't all fiction by definition Fantasy?

For the purposes of this post, Fantasy is defined as having fantastical elements, including, but not limited to, mythological creatures, beings and entities or those who through fantastical circumstances find themselves imbued with fantastical properties and/or abilities. So, without further ado, my picks for The Top 10 Fantasy Movies of the Decade:

10. MirrorMask

Neil Gaiman's traditional 'quest' fantasy about a teenage girl who must find a fabled Mirror Mask to end a conflict and heal her mother, has been described by some as The Wizard of Oz Goes to Cirque du Soleil. Canadian illustrator Dave McKean directs for Jim Henson Productions, creating a rich and gorgeous world where anything can and does happen. Simply magical.

9. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Ang Lee's Chinese fairy tale about the search for a stolen sword and the abduction of a young noblewoman introduced Western audiences to wire-work and cemented Lee as one of the best filmmakers in either hemisphere. Luscious, exciting and enigmatic, it features a terrific performances from Chow Yun Fat and the amazing Michelle Yeoh, who says more with here eyes than pages of dialog could ever convey. Add a gorgeous score from Tan Dun and you have a unique film experience that's been copied, but never quite replicated.

8. The Prestige

The first of two Christopher Nolan films on this list, The Prestige is a story about two rival magician's and the lengths which one will go to take revenge on the other for a perceived wrong, and fine line between science and magic. Starring Hugh Jackman; Christian Bale, Michael Caine; Scarlett Johansson; Andy Serkis and David Bowie, The Prestige is a movie that requires more than one viewing to understand all of its complexities. A truly amazing film.

7. Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. completes his return from Hollywood hell in Jon Favreau's brilliant adaptation of the Marvel comic book about weapons manufacturer Tony Stark who, after being kidnapped and forced to build a weapon for the enemy, creates a flying suit that he uses to enforce peace. A fun, thrilling and dazzling Superhero movie unlike most in the genre, Iron Man is also one of the genre's best. Downey is joined by Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges and an unrecognizably hot Peter (A Christmas Story) Billingsly in this exciting first entry in what is sure to become a 3 picture franchise.

6. Watchmen

Alan Moore's supposedly unfilmable graphic novel was brought to the screen this year by 300 director Zach Snyder, and while the end product was far from perfect, it was sure worth the wait. Billy Crudup, Mathhew Goode, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jackie Earle Haley (in a tour de force performance) head up the cast in this story about disillusioned superheroes who must re-team to stop the world from being destroyed. Moore may have disavowed teh Hollywood machine, but his story makes for one hell of a good movie.

5. Spider-Man 2

The first sequel on my list, Sam Raimi's follow-up to Spider-Man is one of the best Superhero movies ever made. Tobey Maguire; Kirsten Dunst; James Franco; Alfred Molina; Dylan Baker and the amazing Rosemary Harris head up an exciting and intelligent movie about the toll being a Superhero takes on the human underneath the mask.

4. The Incredibles

Pixar has yet to fail us, and Brad Bird's hilarious tale about Superheroes forced into retirement takes on not only the comics' staple, but James Bond, teh fashion industry and family dynamics in one of Pixar's best entries. Featuring the voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Jason Lee and Elizabeth Pena, The Incredibles is a hilarious, exciting and touching movie worth seeing again and again.

3. Pan's Labyrinth

A movie that I feel is the first true Cinematic Masterpiece of the 21st Century, Guillermo del Toro's tale of a young girl living under the thumb of a sadistic step-father who is also a General in Franco's regime of terror, Pan's Labyrinth is not a sweet fairy tale for children, but rather a tale of beauty and truth triumphing over evil. And whether you choose to believe to believe that Ofelia is truly a princess from another world or a young girl who escapes into fantasy to escape the pain of the real world, there is no denying the power of del Toro's vision. A stunning acheivement.

2. The Dark Knight

How many times can Nolan's sequel to Batman Begins be praised? Not enough, for my money. The late Heath Ledger's astounding performance as The Joker is enough to make The Dark Knight the best Superhero movie ever made, but it's only part of the whole that is the amazingly dark and gritty film that The Dark Knight is. Christian Bale (despite teh ridiculous raspy voice) turns in another powerhouse performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Add Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Aaron Eckhart and Maggie Gyllenhaal to the mix and you have a Batman movie even Tim Burton must be jealous of.

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

How can one separate Peter Jackson's three films? You may as well try to separate Tolkien's novels. Ambitious, extraordinary, luscious and iconic can only begin to describe these three epic films. I'll simply let the trailers speak for themselves:

Any arguments for the #1 spot? I thought not.

Honorable Mentions: Finding Nemo; King Kong; Hellboy 2; The Illusionist; Peter Pan; Shrek; Spirited Away; Tideland; Howl's Moving Castle.

On side note, Uncle P may be absent for a few nights over the next couple of weeks. I recently had a dream which has inspired a new screenplay, which demands to be written and I'll be spending some time working on that. I'll stop by now and then and will be posting my Top 10 of 2009 before the end of January, but if I don't get to say so before, I wish you all avery Happy, Safe and Healthy Holiday Season.

More, eventually.
Prospero

Read More......

Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade

First let me say, I have tickets to see Avatar this coming Saturday, so this list may (or may not) be amended come Sunday.

While researching all the great Sci-Fi movies of the last 10 years, I found lists that included films I would categorize as 'Fantasy,' which also included plenty of Superhero movies. These will be addressed in a separate post. And while many Superhero films contain Sci-Fi elements (Superman is from another planet, after all) but to me, they are more Fantastical than Scientific.

Again, these are entirely my opinions. You can agree, disagree or ignore them completely; I don't care.

10. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra

Larry Blamire's hilarious tongue-in-cheek 50's homage about a pair of stranded aliens, their radioactive pet; a mad scientist and his lab-created girlfriend and a mind-controlling skeleton in the California desert is just pricelessly funny."Dance, Animala! Dance!"

9. Pitch Black

Director David Twohy introduced the character Riddick (and the actor Vin Diesel - oh, how I'd love to hear that voice whispering dirty talk in my ear) in this surprisingly good film about a group of travelers stranded on a planet inhabited by blood-thirsty bat-like monsters who only come out during the yearly eclipse of its two suns. The survivors struggle to make their way through the exceptionally hostile environment to a ship that save them, led by the criminal Riddick, who has had his eyes surgically altered to see in the dark. An original concept and well-developed characters helped make Pitch Black better than most B-movies. Radha Mitchel, Cole Hauser and Keith David round out the cast in this exciting and scary movie.

8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Michael Gondry directs Charlie Kaufman's script about a man (Jim Carrey in an extraordinary performance) who hires a company to erase the memories of a love affair gone sour. Kate Winslet, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Jane Adams, David Cross, Kirsten Dunst and Tom Wilkinson round out the exceptional cast of this weird, haunting and beautiful film.

7. Slither

James Gunn (author of the Dawn of the Dead remake) directs Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Michael Rooker and Gregg Henry in this comedic take on a small town over-run by alien slugs who turn the residents into zombies (and Rooker into a tentacled monstrosity). Slither crosses the line between Horror and Sci-Fi, though the alien elemnet makes it Sci-Fi in my book. Disgusting and hilarious. Best line: "Somethin's wrong with me!"

6. Star Trek

J.J. Abrams' reboot of the classic series was the second most fun I had at the movies last summer. Near-perfect casting and a clever script that maintains the integrity of the original TV series while allowing for new elements and character relationships helped make Star Trek one of the few franchise reboots that actually work, despite what my Trekker friend Dan (no, not my dear D) thought. A thoroughly enjoyable film, made all the more so by terrific performances from Chris Pine; Zachary Quinto; Zoe Saldana; Karl Urban; Simon Pegg; John Cho; Anton Yelchin; Leonard Nimoy and Eric Bana.

5. Children of Men

Afonso Curaon's adaptation of the P.D. James novel set in the not-too-distant future is a dystopian nightmare, where no children have been born for 18 years and one man finds himself the unlikely guardian of the only pregnant woman on the planet. Dark, grim, violent and bloody, Children of Men is ultimately hopeful about mankind's future. It also features some of the most amazing continuous shots ever set to film. Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine head up the cast of this extraordinary film. Sorry K, I know you hated it, but I loved it.

4. Moon

Duncan Jones' brilliant film tops my list of the best films of 2009, hearkening back to the great 'quiet' Sci-Fi films of the 70's. Sam Rockwell's amazing performance alone is worth the price of admission.

3. Donnie Darko

Richard Kelly's 2001 debut casts Jake Gyllenhall as the title character, a young man who finds himself caught up in a bizarre time-travel conundrum involving an evil 6 foot tall rabbit named Frank and a jet engine falling from the plane carrying his sister home from a dance competition in the future. Maggie Gyllenhall; Mary McDonnell; Patrick Swayze; Beth Grant; Jenna Malone; Noah Wylie; Drew Barrymore (who produced) and Katherine Ross all give fine performances in this weird, wild and wonderful film that is still the subject of conjecture and debate among critics, film enthusiasts and physicists. Sadly, Kelly's follow-up films (Southland Tales; The Box) have not lived up the potential he displayed in his first outing.

2. Wall-E

Pixar's amazing story of trash-compacting robot who longs for companionship was tied for my choice (along with The Dark Knight) for Best Picture of 2008. Gorgeous, hilarious and deeply romantic, Wall-E is director Andrew Stanton's eco-warning love story for the 21st Century, and quite simpley one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever made.

1. Artificial Intelligence; A.I.

Originally developed by the late Stanley Kubrick, Stephen Spielberg's adaption of Brian Aldiss' short story 'Supertoys Last All Summer" was the first film I professionally critiqued on the now-defunct PhillyOut.com. As one friend commented after we saw it, A.I. is a 'thick' film. Part fairy tale (Pinnochio), part domestic drama and all heart, Speilberg's Sci-Fi masterpiece may well be his most contested film. But astounding performances by young Haley Joel Osment as the robot David who longs to be a real boy and Jude Law as the framed-for-murder 'pleasurebot' Gigolo Joe help elevate this deep, dark and ultimately thoughtful film about what it means to be human into something much more than the sum of its parts. Derided by many critics when it was first released, opinions about this movie have changed greatly over the past nine years, and I am glad to report that I am no longer among the minority of folks who love it.

Honorable Mentions: District 9; The Cell; Signs; War of the Worlds; Serenity; The Fountain; The Host; Cloverfield; Minority Report.

My picks for the Top 10 Fantasy Movies of the Decade, next.

More, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

The Gayest Thing You'll See This Week

How happy was I see to hear that the D.C. Council voted 11 - 2 in favor of approving Same Sex Marriage? Go D.C.! (via)





Now we just need to let the rest of the country know that ALL men (and women) are created equal and deserve the same basic human rights as everyone else. Keep fighting the good fight, folks. It will happen.

Tomorrow: The Top Sci-Fi Movies of the Decade.

More, anon,
Prospero

Read More......

Top 10 Horror Movies of the Decade

Having been practically raised on Horror movies, it takes a lot to unsettle, surprise or scare me. And in the last 10 years, I can count on one hand the Horror movies that really got to me. And on the other hand, I can count the ones that at least entertained me.

There had to be hundreds (if not thousands) or Horror movies released since Y2K had many of us convinced that the Apocalypse was nigh. Most of them were actually quite terrible (see my last post). A few were okay. Even fewer were actually any good.

Once again, this list is based solely on my opinion. Agree, disagree, rant and rave... I really don't care. As I've said before, my feelings aren't easily hurt (unless you're my boyfriend and you cheat on me - but that's unlikely these days, anyway). So, without further ado, here is my list (in order of my personal favoritism) of the 10 Best Horror Movies of the Decade:

10. 30 Days of Night

David Slade's 2007 adaptation of Steve Niles' graphic novel put the blood back into the vampire movie. A small town in far northern Alaska is under siege by a group of nasty Euro-trash vampires who know they have an entire month without sunlight to do whatever they want with those who elect to spend the long, long night in the far north. Josh Hartnett is the town Sherrif; Melissa George is his estranged wife; Ben Foster is the enigmatic Renfield-like Stranger and Danny Huston is the vampire leader in this violent, gory and relentless film.

9. Dead Silence

Also from 2007 comes the second film from director James Wan and writer Lee Whannel (Saw) about a man (Ryan Kwanteen) who returns to his hometown after the death his wife to uncover the truth about the evil ventriloquist Mary Shaw and the curse she has placed on his family. Underrated and under-seen, Dead Silence may well be the creepiest ventriloquist movie since Magic.

8. Kairo (Pulse)

Kaiyoshi Kurosawa's 2001 Ghost in the Machine story is one of J-Horror's most disturbing and effective titles. When a friend commits suicide, a group of Japanese students investigate a string of events that may well lead to the end of life as they know it. When first watching this film, I found myself desperate to see around corners in a effort to stave off the incredible tension Kurosawa manages to build. Forget the lame (and downright boring) 2006 American version and get together with someone you want to hold onto to watch this incredibly intense ghost story.

7. The Mist

Film adaptations of Stephen King's novels and stories have always been hit-or-miss. Luckily, director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption; The Green Mile) is one of those few directors who actually understands King's works and and can successfully translate them for the screen. The Mist has long been one of my favorite King novellas, and Darabont's version of it is both creepy, fun and exciting while featuring some excellent performances from Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher and Frances Sternhagen. And Darabont's horrifying ending is actually far superior to King's original, ambiguous ending.

6. The Devil's Backbone

Before he made the brilliant Pan's Labyrinth, director Guillermo del Toro took on Franco's post-revolution Spain in this highly disturbing tale of an orphan who encounters the ghostly occupant of his orphanage's well and the unexploded bomb waiting for Franco's troops. Chilling, haunting and visually arresting, The Devil's Backbone is the perfect companion piece to Pan's Labyrinth.

5. (Tie) Shaun of the Dead / Fido

Really more of a comedy than a horror movie, Edgar Wright's 2004 homage to all that is Romero is both hysterically funny and gruesomely creepy. As Shaun (Simon Pegg) tries to keep his girlfriend, best friend and family safe from the zombie plague that has enveloped England, he learns a thing or two about responsibility, love and survival. I still want to know why I was the only person in the theater to laugh when Ed (Nick Frost) screams "We're coming to get you, Barbara!" into the phone at Shaun's mum.

Equally funny and even more satirical is Andrew Currie's hilarious Fido, starring Carrie Ann Moss, Dylan Baker and Billy Connolly in an alternate history tale of a 1950's America where zombies have been domesticated via an electrical collar which turns them into docile servants and sex-slaves. Taking cues from such staples as Lassie and Dawn of the Dead, Fido may actually be funnier than Shaun, because it takes on The American Dream and turns it completely upside-down.

4. [Rec]

Juame Balaguero and Paco Plaza's first-person tale of a reporter trapped in a building filled with zombies was re-made in the U.S. as Quarantine, though the original is far more effective. Chilling and filled with shocks, Balaguero and Plaza use the techniques pioneered in The Blair Witch Project and elevate them to a whole new level.

3. The Descent

With his first film Dog Soldiers, director Neil Marshall took on werewolves. For his follow-up, he took us underground with a hardy group of female thrill-seekers exploring caves in the Blue Ridge mountains. Following a cave-in, our intrepid adrenaline junkies find themselves lost in the dark and pursued by cannibalistic humanoids. Claustrophobic and filled with tension, The Descent is one of the few movies that ever made Uncle Prospero actually jump out of his seat. And it's also one of the very few Horror movies where the women are actually real people rather than just jiggly-boobed victims. Make sure you see the original version, rather than the U.S. version with it's typically happy ending...

2. Trick 'r Treat

I have talked about Michael Dougherty's Halloween anthology ad nauseum, but I still think it is one of the finest and most entertaining Horror movies or the past 10 years. I just hope his planned sequel lives up to the original.

1. Drag Me to Hell

Director Sam Raimi (Darkman; Spider-Man) first made a name for himself with The Evil Dead, a groundbreaking horror film about a group of college kids who unwittingly unleash a horde of "Calderian Demons" on the world. After a long and varied career (which included the highly underrated The Gift), Raimi returned to his Horror roots with this summer's most entertaining film. The story of a young woman (Allison Lohman) who denies a mortgage extension to an aging gypsy and pays the ultimate price, Drag Me to Hell is an old-fashioned tale of terror loaded with Raimi's signature shots, loads of violence and not a single F-Bomb or one second of gratuitous nudity. The most fun I have had at the movies in a very long time.

Honorable Mentions: 28 Days Later; Ginger Snaps; Teeth; Saw; The Ring; The Devil's Rejects; The Gift; The Others; Cabin Fever; May; The Orphanage; Orphan; Zombieland.

Oh, and the picture at the top of the post? Only there to freak out my dear friend, Dan. Yeah, I'm evil like that...

More terrors, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

The Worst Movie of 2009

I was going to do a "Ten Worst of 2009" list (and I still may), but I already know what my my #1 Worst Movie of the Year is, so I thought I'd just get it out of the way.

Like many of you, I tried not to get caught up in the online hype for this picture. The trailers promised something so scary, you could literally crap your pants. The word-of-mouth was unlike anything I'd seen since the movie it was being compared to, The Blair Witch Project. And the "Demand It" campaign was a stroke of genius. But when all was said and done, Paranormal Activity turned out to be a completely unscary and downright boring movie.

Director Oren Peli's First-Person hand-held camera movie about a young couple (Micah Sloat and Katie Featherston) dealing with extraordinary events in their home was touted as the scariest movie since the aforementioned Blair Witch. Katie and Micah have been experiencing some unusual phenomena in their home. Micah buys a video camera to try and catch whatever is happening while they sleep (it is through that camera we see what's happening). Katie calls in a psychic, who advises her to consult a demonologist. We soon discover that Katie was "haunted" as a child (apparently by the same entity) which ended with her house burning down. Micah decides he will take matters into his own hands and get rid of it himself, taunting the entity and inviting it to communicate, things the psychic expressly warned them not to do. As Micah becomes more and more of a macho asshat, the creepy goings-on get more intense.

Paranormal Activity was a great idea, and while it isn't badly executed from a technical point of view, it's pacing is deadly. The first hour meanders about as Micah continuously tries to convince Katie to have sex on camera while ignoring her increasing discomfort. A door moves. Something screeches and thumps. Katie sleepwalks. Sort of creepy, but too little for too long. By the time the movie actually starts to look like it's going to get scary, it's over (with one of the single most ridiculous and superfluous final shots, ever).

People were supposedly walking out of the movie because they were scared. I can only imagine they were walking out because they were bored out of their minds. Much like the highest grossing movie of all time, Titanic, this film's ticket sales were fueled by younger audiences who were fooled by its triteness and allowed themselves to be scared by its vagueness and admittedly excellent performances. Peli's script completely fails to deliver on the scares and seasoned horror fans were left scratching their heads as to why so many people were tricked into buying his snail-paced direction and lame dialog. I keep asking myself how this exceptionally cheap ($11,000) indy movie from 2007 became the box-office sensation of 2009, and can only surmise that young American film-goers wouldn't know a good movie if it bit them in the ass. Paranormal Activity bit ass, alright. Just not in the good way.

Want to see an actually scary movie? Try Robert Wise's original version of The Haunting. Absolutely terrifying:

More bad 2009 Cinema, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

The Creepiest Things You'll See This Week

Oh, dear. Some one left their Baby Jane Hudson doll at the malt shop. At least I hope that's what happened. Or if not, then I hope the woman in this photo does not have Internet access, because if you Google the word "creepy," hers is one of the first images to come up. What may be even worse, she actually reminds your Uncle Prospero of a woman at his day job (I'll leave it to my co-workers who read this blog to figure who it is, though I am sure they instantly made the connection). Not that I'm being mean here. The woman is actually creepy - crass, tacky and lacking any real social skills (or vocal volume control), the co-worker in question has never once looked me in the eye, no matter how many times I have smiled at her or tried to be friendly.

Still, that photo is only one of three very creepy things I have to share with you, tonight.

The second (via) is a rather controversial video from a New Yorker who noticed that food had begun to disappear from his apartment. After confronting his girlfriend (who denied eating the food) about it, he decided to put a surveillance camera in his kitchen:

From the comments on BoingBoing, a lot of folks think this video is a fake, mostly because the woman leaves her water jug behind when she crawls back into her hidey-hole. I'm not so sure it is a fake. First, it is New York City. There are plenty of loonies in the Big Apple who are more than capable of doing such a thing. Second, she's almost caught when the guy gets up for a drink in the middle of the night. That could be enough to rattle her into leaving the jug behind. And third, even if you are desperate for attention on the Interwebs, why would you go to such lengths to fake such a thing? There are plenty of other ways to get noticed on line. I haven't gone so far as to research the NYPD logs for documentation of this incident, but I think it's the real deal.

Finally, in the Creepy Anthropomorphic Robots category of creepiness (also via), comes this video of a robot dance competition in Tokyo last month. Way creepier than that Lou Bega robot* from last year:

I don't know if it's the plaid schoolgirl uniform or the expressionless, Anime-style face... but it's sure creepy, alright.

Uncle P has loads of fun stuff planned for the Zombie Zone tomorrow, so don't forget to check it out. Hope to see you here on Sunday...

*Is it me, or does that video remind you of Ray Harryhausen's giant crab from Mysterious Island?

More, anon.
Prospero

Read More......

A Friend of Bill's?

Ah, our old friend Pareidolia makes a return with this completely secular image of Shakespeare in a dried blob of toothpaste. Hmm... come to think of it, it kind of looks like Darwin, too. Or my Uncle Cecil after a two-week bender. Or any old fart with a beard.

My favorite instances of pareidolia always seem to involve religious images - The Virgin Mary in a cheese sandwich or Jesus in a dog's butt. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, it's all part of a perfectly natural phenomenon that's been hard-wired into our brains, mostly as a form of self-preservation. Our memories are mostly images. Think back on a particularly wonderful event in your life. You may be remembering bits of conversation, the smell of a wonderful meal or the laughter you shared with a good friend. But I'll bet that most of what you're remembering are images of that experience. Most of us (the blind excluded) experience life visually. It's only natural that our brains should organize our thoughts in the same way. So, when we see something - anything - our brains try to interpret it visually, as well. Thus, a cloud becomes a bunny with fangs or a swirl in a knot of wood becomes the face of Chairman Mao. These occurrences are no more the work of God than they are the work of the Tooth Fairy. They are merely synaptic responses to visual stimuli. Sorry if I burst any bubbles, kids, but it's true.

So, the next time you see Jesus in a moldy piece of Swiss cheese, think about this:

More, very anon.
Prospero

Read More......