Happy New Year!

I know, I know, I've been gone for a really long time.  No excuses, just a gift by way of an apology.

See, that's better! You can't beat a good Inception/Mean Girls combo.
I've made a blog resolution for the New Year - AT LEAST one post per week.  Promise.

So I thought I'd do a mini-recap on 2010 and look forward to the new year a little bit.

Favorite film of the year - The Social Network

I should confess first that I am a bit of an Aaron Sorkin groupie - and that David Fincher's not bad either, so this isn't a very surprising choice. I loved the script (obviously). I loved the momentum of it - you get the sense that in the hands of another creative pair it could have been incredibly boring. But the thing I think I really liked the most were the performances. Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg could just be an unsympathetic arse, but he's not. Andrew Garfield's Eduardo Saverin could be a whiney sore loser, but he's not.  The Winklevoss twins could become the comic relief, but they don't.  It's fab.

Honourable Mentions
Toy Story 3
Inception
Kick Ass

Worst film of the year - Sex and The City 2

This really shouldn't come as a surprise to you if you've read my review here. The first film wasn't great but I was unprepared for the level of awfulness that occurred during what felt like the 7 hour running time. And the most depressing thing is that it made so much money that a 3rd film is inevitable. Great.

Favorite performance - Nicholas Cage in Bad Lieutenant

I really enjoyed this film. Review is here.  It's a pitch black comedy that's just brilliant fun to watch and that's mostly because of Mr Cage. Check out the video below for some of his 'best' moments!



Now let's look ahead to 2011...

Already it's shaping up to be a pretty exciting January.  I've seen 127 Hours and The King's Speech this week (reviews to come!) and with Black Swan and True Grit on the horizon, things are looking good.

The year in which I'm excited about a film featuring an animated lizard

What's not to love about this?



The year in which Andrew Garfield becomes a household name

I saw Andrew Garfield playing Romeo at The Royal Exchange in Manchester in 2005. I was on the front row and he was a pretty shouty Romeo.  Yep, Spiderman once spat on me.  That's a pretty good claim to fame.  He was brilliant and I spent the next few years wondering when he'd appear as I'd told everyone I knew how great he was.  I think he's chosen really good roles, starting small and working up to The Social Network.  Who knows what the new Spiderman film will be like but I'm pretty sure he'll be great in it.

The year in which we worry about Clint Eastwood's sanity...

Clint Eastwood & Matt Damon team up - it's got to be great right?



Erm... maybe not.  What was that?!  Is it a character piece or an action film?  Whatever it is, that trailer is terrible!  Here's hoping it's just some unfortunate editing...

The year in which Harry Potter ends

Ending the post on a sombre note... Harry!  Sob!  I make no apologies for how dramatic I seem here.  It's the end.  And that is pretty sad. The only thing sadder is if the end turns out to be a little bit rubbish.  But that can't happen right?  It's going to be the best film ever right? Oh god.

What films are you most excited for in 2011?

The Nicholas Cage Redemption - Bad Lieutenant

I have a love/hate relationship with Nicholas Cage.  I bet most of you do too.  When he's good (Raising Arizona, Leaving Las Vegas, Matchstick Men, Kick-Ass) he's amazing.  When he's bad (National Treasure, The Weather Man, Ghost Rider, Bangkok Dangerous) he's awful.  And sometimes when he's bad he's amazing!  Con Air and Face Off for example.

I saw Bad Lieutenant a couple of weeks ago.
I have a bad habit of assuming whether or not I'll like a film before I see it but in this case I had no idea.  All of my Werner Herzog knowledge comes from reading or hearing stories about him from other people.  This is the first of his films I've seen.  I'm going to have to do something about that!

Spoilers ahead...but the film's been out for a while so we should be ok.

Ostensibly a remake of the 1992 film by Abel Ferrara, the film tells the story of Det. Terrance McDonagh who injures his back saving an inmate from a flooded New Orleans prison.  He is left with crippling pain and a really serious addiction to drugs.  Any drug.  Seriously...everything.

He becomes obsessed with solving the case of a family from Senegal who are murdered.  McDonagh uses more and more unorthodox methods to solve the case; falling deeper and deeper into debt and danger.

Cage is amazing.  I have read so many reviews where people slate his performance but I really think he's excellent.  He lets go just enough to make the part his own, but not so much that he becomes a caricature.  It's the distinctive Herzog touches that have received the most column inches though.  We experience some of the action from the point of view of iguanas and alligators.  They show up when McDonagh is hallucinating and edgy.  It's weird, but it works.

The cast are excellent too, with some actors that I always like, but don't often see.  Val Kilmer, Brad Dourif, Shaun Hatosy, Jennifer Coolidge, Fairuza Balk and Michael Shannon all appear in small but memorable roles.  Eva Mendes is at her best here too, as McDonagh's prostitute girlfriend Frankie.

The film is so demented, it can be enjoyed on a purely surface level.  On another level it can be interpreted in any number of ways.  Is it about self-abuse, right and wrong, an allegory for America and how it handles national traged, and what is the ending about?  All this is up to the individual to puzzle and ponder.  Pondering is fun...

So I loved it... here are 2 scenes that sum up the tone of the film.  The first, Cage's best moment. (Why the razor?!)



The second, a distinctive Herzog flourish of weird...with amazing music!



What are your favorite Nic Cage performances?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  Also, if you've seen the film...what did you think of the ending?  There are a few different interpretations, it'd be good to know which is the most popular.