R2D2's Ultimate Top 10 Countdown Of The 2000s #9 - Decade Specials.

[For the last 10 days of the decade, I'm doing a Top 10 list a day, all culminating into an ultimate post of Top 10 lists. We have previously seen Top 10 Comedies, Dramas, Animation, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Foreign, Musicals, and Action/Thrillers. Now we're moving on.]

Note: Today was originally going to be big Oscar-related films, and I've been trying to catch up with those I hadn't seen yet (for instance, in the last couple days, I watched both Michael Clayton and The Wrestler (reviews forthcoming)). But I still have one more I need to watch (Milk), which I'll be doing later today, but I don't want to delay the list, so I'm gonna go ahead and post the list I was going to do tomorrow, and then do my Oscar list tomorrow. So let's get to it.

Top 10 Decade Specials of the 2000s

What does this mean, exactly? Well, if the 2000s were anything, they were known for certain types of films. It's been known as the decade of the superhero, as well as the decade of remakes (and, occasionally, remakes (and/or reboots) of superhero films). So this is the list that takes the best of the remakes and the superhero fare of the past decade and puts them all together in one list. So let's go for it.

10. Disturbia (2007)

A modern remake of Hitchcock's Rear Window. It has a pretty good cast list, led up by Shia LaBeouf, Carrie-Anne Moss, and David Morse. Instead of the broken leg, we have a a kid under house arrest (with one of those little ankle bracelet things). It's a fun little thriller where, at times, you're really not sure if Morse is a bad guy or not (I mean, you know he is, but still. It's similar to this year's A Perfect Getaway... the ending is obvious, but it still makes you second guess yourself). It also has some nice eye candy in the form of Sarah Roemer who, unfortunately, hasn't really done anything else major.

9. The Incredible Hulk (2008)

Some might disagree with me here, but I really enjoyed this movie. It was also infinitely better than the other Hulk attempt a few years prior, which was a total snooze-fest. Great cast with Edward Norton, Tim Roth, Liv Tyler, William Hurt, and Tim Blake Nelson. There's even a fun cameo by Lou Ferrigno (and Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark at the very end). Will Edward Norton be along for The Avengers? Let's hope so. But either way, this film had some good action, humor, and special effects.

8. Sky High (2005)

Call it a guilty pleasure if you must, but this was an original take on the superhero genre. It's also light and fun for the whole family, if need be, so you don't have to worry about the darkness of a lot of the more recent superhero films. It's like Harry Potter with superheroes instead of wizards, and it's full of fun appearances, such as Bruce Campbell, Lynda Carter, Dave Foley, and Cloris Leachman, along with its more main cast of Michael Angarano, Kurt Russell, Kelly Preston, Danielle Panabaker, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. For those who don't know, think of it like a live-action Incredibles, but without superheroes being banned/in-the-closet. Michael Angarano's parents are super famous, but he has no powers to speak of, and ends up going to Sky High (superhero school), only to end up in sidekick classes. He makes friends, enemies, and even a potential love interest... who might be more than she seems. A great film I recommend if you've never seen it.

7. Watchmen (2009)

Now this would be the complete opposite of the previous film. It's about as dark as they come. I was a fan of the original comic (except the squid-tastic ending, which I was incredibly happy they changed for the movie). Jackie Earle Haley was brilliant as Rorschach, and I'd even say deserving of an Oscar for his role, though that ain't gonna happen. Regardless of what you thought of the movie, his was one of the best performances of the year... and you rarely even saw his face.

6. Ocean's 11 (2001)

An all-star cast in this remake of the 1960 film of the same name, this is a great heist film... most would say (and I'd agree) one of the best. The cast totally works off each other well, and you can tell they're having fun. Not much else to say about the film. I love heist films, and I love this one.

5. Spider-Man 2 (2004)

This is the best of the Spider-Man flicks, and most would agree. Doc Ock is a great villain, but it also leads into the eventual transformation of Harry into the Green Goblin 2 (in the less-than approved third film). This has a lot of good action and great special effects. I'm still not sure how I feel about (spoiler alert if, for whatever reason, you haven't seen it yet) Doc Ock turning good at the end of the movie and sacrificing himself. It kinda took away a "Sinister 6" potential for future films (yet they let Sandman live in number 3. Go figure). Regardless, this is still in the top tier of superhero films.

4. 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

I'm no fan of westerns by any means, nor do I go out of my way to see Russell Crowe, but I certainly loved this movie. (And no, Fletch, it's not simply because of Ben Foster... though that helps.) It has good character building, as well as a good anti-hero in Crowe's Ben Wade (well, anti-hero by the end of the movie). And speaking of the end... while a lot of people didn't like it, I loved it. I thought it was moving and it worked. An all-around great film.

3. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

In this remake of the Romero classic, the cast is larger and the zombies are faster. Sure, there are problems (with such a large cast, most of which don't come in until halfway through, there isn't a hell of a lot of character development). But when you have characters like Andy who you can't help but feel for, even though you see him up-close only once in the movie... or a guy like Steve, who makes you (love to) hate him almost right after you meet him. Or the character who has the best evolution throughout the movie, Michael Kelly's CJ, who goes from a grade-A ass to a likable hero over the course of the movie. From the brilliant opening to the heartbreaking (and then ironic) ending, it's fun all around. The movie is bloody, suspenseful, and action-packed. And what other movie can get away with shooting a baby in the face?

2. Iron Man (2008)

One of the biggest surprises of its year, Iron Man breathed life into a genre that was slowly dying. Mostly, it was thanks of Robert Downey Jr.'s quick-witted performance. The movie did fall prey to "origin story"-itis, where it takes a while to get to the hero action, and then the villain is more-or-less an alternate/evil version of the hero. But it all worked, and it worked well.

1. The Dark Knight (2008)

If you didn't know this would be at the top of the list, you've probably lived under a rock for the last couple years. Heralded as the best superhero movie ever made, The Dark Knight gave us Heath Ledger's final (brilliant) performance as The Joker. There's really nothing to say about this film that hasn't been already said by everybody and their mother, so I guess I'll just leave it at that.


End Note: I realize that I didn't include X-Men, the film that began the superhero craze, or its sequel, which is also placed pretty high on the superhero tier. But just to calm your nerves, X2 would probably fall at #11 on my overall list, if for anything, its fantastic opening sequence.

TV Review: Leverage - Season One.

If you're a long-time follower of this blog, you most likely know how much I enjoy a good heist flick. So when I first heard of a TV show called "Leverage," it immediately caught my interest. Of course, I first heard of it not too long ago, right before the second season premiered on TNT, the channel it airs on. Since I hadn't seen the first season, I couldn't really watch the second, but I did put the first on my Netflix queue. And now, it's finally coming in. And I have to say, I'm loving this show.

As anyone who watches TV knows, there are different kinds of TV shows in how its stories are told. There are the episodic shows, usually 30 minutes long, where very little (if anything) carries over from episode to episode (such as Spongebob Squarepants). Then there are the story-arch shows, usually an hour long, where each episode is just a continuation of the last, a perpetual "To Be Continued" until the season finale (such as Dragonball Z or Heroes). And then there's the mix of the two, where there's a continuing story, but every episode is centered around something different (which is most non-sitcom drama/comedy shows). This one is the latter, though barely. The underlying story isn't with any major heist or anything like that, but with the characters themselves. Although every episode is different from the last, the character development (either with each other or, for instance, the growing alcoholism of one character) is what ties the episodes together. There's also a subplot involving the tragedy of the main character's son, which builds through the season and comes together in the finale.

The show centers around Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton), a man who used to go around finding criminals and frauds and righting wrongs (he was an insurance investigator) until his son was screwed over by the insurance company Nate worked for and died from lack of payment for surgery. When he's contacted by a man to pull off a heist to steal back information that had apparently been stolen, a crack team is put together to pull it off. This team includes the muscle, Eliot (Christian Kane); the computer whiz, Hardison (Aldis Hodge); and the master thief, Parker (Beth Riesgraf). And eventually, Nate pulls in an old friend, a con artist/actress named Sophie (Gina Bellman). They discover that working together, though frustrating at times, is both fun and rewarding (both intrinsically and extrinsically).

The first episode is the big heist where most of the extrinsic reward comes in (getting a ton of money for themselves). After that, the show shifts gears a bit, and instead of being episode after episode of just robbing people blind for personal gain, it's more Ocean's 11 meets Robin Hood. And of course this makes sense. For a TV series, you can't have everything be personal gain or else you lose sympathy with the characters. When your main characters are anti-heroes, you have to make them sympathetic. Dexter Morgan (of Dexter) is a serial killer who kills serial killers. The men and women of Leverage are thieves who steal from the rich and corrupt and give to those who have been wronged to the point where no judge and jury could help.

And with shows like this, you have to have great characters. And the characters are tons of fun. The characters are usually at their best when they're interacting with each other (especially when they're doing what they do best). But a lot of them are also interesting alone. Ironically, the least interesting character is the main character, Nate. He's the brains of the operation, but in comparison to the others, his personality is a bit dull. When you put an ordinary (albeit highly intelligent) guy amid a bunch of quirky people, the ordinary is gonna stick out. He's not a bad character at all, though. He's saved by his intelligence. He's like Danny Ocean, but with less wit (and no Clooney charm). He grows on you as the show goes on, especially when he's actually in on a con and doing some fun character personas, but outside that, his main story is his alcoholism. 

Out of the others, though, it's hard to pick a favorite. Eliot has the bad boy appeal, like a less abrasive version of Lost's Sawyer. He's where most of the action comes from. But at the same time, he's not a total hard ass like you would expect. He's pretty friendly with everybody, and he's only rough if you get rough with him. It's always fun to see him get dressed up to do a character different from his personality (like a nerd or something).

Then you have the token black guy, Hardison, who's the "cool" nerd of the bunch. He's where a lot of (but not all of) the comedy comes from. And Parker is hot, yet very strange, like there's just a little bit missing up there, if you know what I mean. There's an interesting relationship (like, romantic) that builds between Hardison and Parker, but it isn't fully developed by the end of the first season.

There's some good comedy from her, as well. And then you have Sophie, the token British character, who is interesting, but only a few notches above Nate for me (ironic considering she's his love interest). Her main thing is to act as different characters, which isn't as interesting coming from her as it is with, say, Eliot or Parker (especially Parker, who can't con to save her life, but is an excellent thief). But she can do a ton of different accents, which is really impressive.

The heists are fun, too. With a show like this, you know they're gonna get away with what they're doing, but the fun is in trying to figure out how. And apparently, when the show was aired on TV, they played the episodes out of order, which apparently made for some strange character development scenes between different characters. But upon releasing the DVD, they put the episodes in the order that they were originally meant to be in. Anyway, the show loses a little steam after the first few episodes, but then picks up around halfway in. The reason is that the episodes focus more on straight-up conning rather than heists, and the episodes where they have to pull off a heist are the more interesting ones... at least to me. So really, the best ones are the first few, a few in the middle, and then the last couple episodes. But they're all entertaining and fun.

Overall, the show is witty, charming, funny, and fun. There's good action, thrills, and laughs (again, for those who follow my blog, you might know how difficult it is to get me laughing, and this show constantly had me going). If you're a fan of con or heist films (especially comedy heist films, like the Oceans trilogy), I truly recommend this series. I rarely go out and buy television shows on DVD, because I rarely go back and watch them again, but I actually went out and bought the first season after watching only the first 3 episodes (the first disc from Netflix). And for me to do that says quite a bit. I wouldn't recommend such an extreme for everybody, but at least give it a rent if it's your thing. So... yeah.