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While we look at Best and Worst lists and prepare for awards season I'm in the mood to take a look back. Here's what I'll remember from 2009 at the movies:
January - A hilarious "Mall Cop", some unfunny dogs and Helen Mirren riding a unicorn.
February - A freaky "Coraline", a stinky "Panther" and the Jonas Bros.
March - The Rock as a cab driver and Seth Rogan as a unique B.O.B.
April - A month of Disney stars: Miley, Zac and James Earl Jones. And one awful game of "Dragonball".
May - Summer starts on an "Up" note, and things get crazy with "Terminator", Spock and "Wolverine".
June - Good comedies from Will and Eddie; complete messes from Jack Black and Shia LaBeouf.
July - The return of the "ice Age" and Mr. Potter, but the guinea pigs weren't a "Force".
August - A couple of chefs cook-up something special, while "Shorts" is short on laughs.
September - "9" not close to being a 9 and "Fame" won't be remembered. "Cloudy" is the clear winner.
October - The re-telling of a couple of "Toy" stories, things get "Wild" and MJ is "It".
November - A new Scrooge, a "Blind Side" worth seeing and a fantastic "Fox".
December - The new "Princess" has warts, Alvin comes back singing and "Avatar" is king of the world.
As you know 2009 was a record-breaking year for movies and family films, specifically animated films, accounted for a a big part of the $10.5 billion spent at the box office. Not all of those family films were worth seeing, but many of them were, and 10 stood out above the rest.
Here is my list of the Top 10 Family Films of 2009:
#10) "Bandslam" - It came out in August and hardly anybody noticed, which was too bad. Good acting and nice story, with believable characters and surprising twists. See it on video.
#9) "The Blind Side" - Inspiring, true story of football player Michael Oher and the family that takes him in. Sandra Bullock's role of a lifetime.
#8) "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" - Released in January and still made it on my list. Funniest live-action film of the year. Kevin James was born to play this role of a mall security guard forced to become a hero.
#7) "Star Trek" - The best of the big budget summer blockbusters. Fast-paced and action-packed. A cool looking film that provides the back-story to the Star Trek saga, meaning you don't have to be a Trekkie to really enjoy it.
#6) "Julie and Julia" - Outstanding performances by Meryl Streep and Amy Adams bring this clever story of a young wife looking to become a good cook and her idol, Julia Child, to life. Maybe the most entertaining movie I saw this year.
#5) "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - The third and BEST of the "Ice Age" films. Very funny dialogue, great voice work and sparkling animation.
#4) "Michael Jackson's This Is It" - A wonderful tribute to The King of Pop. Fantastic music and rehearsal footage. I smiled through the entire film. Amazing job by director Kenny Ortega of putting this outstanding documentary together so quickly after Jackson's death.
#3) "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" - Great writing, terrific animation and a nice story. Plus, the 3-D animation is as good as it gets. So many funny lines and gags that I had to see it twice just to get them all. The funniest animated film of the year by far. Sony Pictures Animation stays on a roll.
#2) "Up" - Nice bounce-back by Pixar, after last year's disappointing "Wall-E". A very emotional story that also has it's funny moments. The most adult of any of the Pixar films. It was #1 on my list until December.
#1) "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - An fantastic script, memorable characters and phenomenal stop-motion animation puts "Mr. Fox" at the top of the list. It has a quirkiness that I simply love. And the voice-work, led by George Clooney and Meryl Streep, is outstanding. It didn't do well at the box office but will get the attention it deserves when it comes out on DVD.
2009 was a record-breaking year for movies, and, once again, family films led the way.
Here is my list of the Top 10 Family Films of 2009:
#1) "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - Wonderful adaptation of the popular childrens' book, with memorable characters and phenomenal stop-motion animation. It has a quirkiness that I simply love, and the voice-work, led by George Clooney and Meryl Streep, is outstanding. #3) "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"
-
Great writing, terrific animation and a nice story. Plus, the 3-D is as
good as it gets. So many funny lines and sight gags that I
had to see it twice to get them all. The funniest animated film of
the year by far.
#4) "Michael Jackson's This Is It" - A wonderful tribute to The King of Pop. Fantastic music and rehearsal footage. I smiled through the entire film. #5) "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - The third and BEST of the "Ice Age" films. Very funny dialogue, great voice work and sparkling animation. #6) "Julie and Julia" - Outstanding performances by Meryl Streep and Amy Adams bring this parallel story of a young wife looking to become a good cook and a young Julia Child, to life. Maybe the most entertaining movie I saw this year. #7) "Star Trek"
- The best of the big budget summer blockbusters. Fast-paced and
action-packed. A cool looking film that provides the back-story to the Star Trek saga, meaning you don't have to be a Trekkie to enjoy it.
#8) "Paul Blart: Mall Cop" - Released in January and still made my list. Funniest live-action film of the year. Kevin James was born to play this mall security guard forced to become a hero. #9) "The Blind Side" - Inspiring, true story of homeless football player Michael Oher and the family that takes him in. Sandra Bullock's role of a lifetime. #10) "Bandslam"
-
Came out in August and hardly anybody noticed, which was too bad. Solid
acting and a nice story, with believable characters, surprising
twists and good music.
Next time: My Worst Film of 2009!
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And now, as promised, the movies to plan on seeing in the second half of 2010:
July:
2 - "The Last Airbender" (Paramount)
9 - "Despicable Me" (Steve Carell)
16 - "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (Nicolas Cage, Disney)
30 - "Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore" (WB)
August:
13 - "Ramona and Beezus" (FOX)
September:
17 - "Flipped" (Madelline Carroll - "Swing Vote")
24 - "Guardians of Ga'Hoole 3-D" (Helen Mirren)
October:
1 - "Alpha and Omega" (Lionsgate, Hayden Panitierre)
November:
5 - "MegaMind" (DreamWorks Animation, Will Ferrell)
12 - "Rapunzel" (Disney, Mandy Moore)
19 - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One"
December:
10 - "The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader" (20th Century Fox)
17 - "Tron: Legacy" (Jeff Bridges, Disney)
17 - "Yogi Bear" (WB, Dan Akroyd)
22 - "Gulliver's Travels" (Jack Black)
Man, what a year it's gonna be at the movies!
2010 is going to be a busy year for movies, with some big competition at the box office. Here's a quick look at family films to watch for in the first half of next year:
January:
15th - "The Spy Next Door" (Jackie Chan)
22nd - "Tooth Fairy" (Dwayne Johnson)
February:
12th - "Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief"
March:
5th: "Alice in Wonderland" (Johnny Depp)
26th: "How to Train Your Dragon"
April:
2nd: "Diary of a Wimpy Kid"
May:
7 - "Iron Man 2" (Robert Downey Jr.)
21 - "Shrek Forever After" (Mike Myers)
28 - "Prince of Persia" (Jake Gyllenhaul)
June:
4 - "Marmaduke" (Owen Wilson)
18 - "Toy Story 3" (Tom Hanks)
"Alice", "Iron Man 2", "Shrek" and "Toy Story 3" will be HUGE, and you knoew there's going to be a sleeper hit in there ("Percy Jackson" gets my vote).
I'll look at the 2nd half of the year next time.
See ya next year!
It's the biggest weekend of all-time at the box office, even though the #1 film didn't make $100 million.
"Avatar" came in first again with another $75 million. That's bigger than last weekend. "Sherlock Holmes" made a suprising $65.4 Million to come in second. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" grossed $50.2 million Friday through Sunday, and a 5-day total of $77.2 Million. The first one opened two years ago with only a 3-day $45 million. "It's Complicated" came in fourth with over $22M. "Up in the Air" with George Clooney rounds out the top 5 with nearly $12M.
I'm very suprised that "Avatar" would do so well again. "Sherlock Holmes" didn't look that good to me, but most people probably went for Robert Downey, Jr. It's great that "Alvin" did so well. A nearly $20M opening day and a suprising $15M Christmas night. I'm really hoping there's going to be a third one after this success.
In sixth was "The Blind Side" with $11.3M. It's total is a fantastic $184M. "The Princess and the Frog", "Nine", "Did You Hear About the Moorgans?", and "Invictus" were #'s 7-10, making less than $10M each.
The Top 12 total is $264 million, which is a box office record!
Hope you all had a nice holiday, and hopefully you were a part of the $264M weekend.
As the holidays are upon us, I'd like to start off by saying thank you to all the people who have been regulars for visiting the site this past year, and if you're new, welcome. Hopefully over the next year, you will enjoy the site as much as I have.
Well, at the box office, the big winner was "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", with a little over $4 Billion. I hate that one of my least favorites of theyear had to be the highest grossing. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" came in second, and "Up" with a strong third, becoming the second highest grossing Pixar film, only behind "Finding Nemo".
The biggest disappointment was a film that I thought was pretty good, "Land of the Lost". It was promoted like crazy and had a big budget. The outcome was less than $50M.
The biggest suprise was "The Blind Side". To date it's made nearly $170 Million. Besides a lot of men going because it's a sports film, Sandra Bullock fans, and even little girls made this movie a big hit.
Overall, it was a so-so year for films. I can't give away my picks for the best of the year yet, but I'll just say this, animation led the way.
Happy Holidays to everyone and after the new year, you'll get to choose the best of '09 in my awards.
Thanks.
Add "Toy Story 3" to the list of 2010 movies coming-out in IMAX 3D. This will be a first for Pixar, and it should be great.
Last week on ABC Family they showed a scene from the movie in which Andy is deciding whether or not to bring his toys with him to college. After seeing that clip you know there's going to be at least one big chase scene in the movie.
June 18, 2010. Circle the date.
And sad news from Hollywood with the death of Brittany Murphy. She will be most remembered by family film fans for her voice work in "Happy Feet" and her starring role with Dakota Fanning in "Uptown Girls" in 2003. And she also voiced Luanne in the TV show "King of the Hill" for it's entire 14 year run - over 200 episodes.
She will be missed.
I think we all knew something was wrong when we didn't see a trailer come out for "Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil". Now it's official: the sequel to the 2006 surprise hit (and one of my favorite animated films) won't be coming-out next month.
The scheduled release date was Jan. 15, but it's been removed from all schedules. Apparently "Hood-2" is still supposed to come out later in the year, but I'm disappointed because this was going to get 2010 off to a great start.
Let's hope whatever problems are holding-up the release can be solved.
Tuesday was a "Golden" day, as the nominations for the 2010 Golden Globe Awards were announced. And I've got to tell you, I'm pretty happy with the results of the voting.
First of all, most of the nominees for Best Animated Feature deserve the honor. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs", "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Up" are clearly the top three animated films of the year. "Coraline" I liked, but didn't love, but I can understand why it made the cut. The one that I'm disappointed about is "The Princess and the Frog", which I liked a lot less than most critics. I would rather have seen "Ponyo" or even "9" get that final nomination.
"Up", which also picked-up a Best Score nomination, should winthe Best Animated award. "Where the Wild Things Are" also picked-up a nomination in the Best Score category.
As for the acting nominations, very happy to see Sandra Bullock get a Best Actress in a Drama nod for "The Blind Side". And she's also been nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/Muscial for "The Proposal". Wow! And how about Meryl Streep: TWO Best Actress in a Comedy/Muscial nominations for "Julie and Julia" and "It's Complicated". She should win for "J&J".
"Avatar" is one of the five films up for the biggest award: Best Motion Picture - Drama. And director James Cameron is also a nominee. I got my ticket today to see "Avatar" in IMAX 3D Friday. For all that money I know it's going to look great. But I'm worried about what I'm hearing about the story.
The Golden Globes will be handed-out Sunday, January 17.
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