Another Oscar favorite from last year, The Fighter stands tall next to other cinematic favorites like Rocky and Raging Bull.

Getting punched in the head is a dangerous profession. Equally so when you’re family is just as dangerous as the guy you’re facing in the ring. The Fighter based on the story of Micky Ward on his final run to become a boxing champ. With the help of his older brother Dicky as his trainer and his mother as his manager, Micky is stuck between a rock and hard place. With a brood of Boston sisters nipping and snapping behind him, Micky and his new girlfriend, Charlene, stick together to make some changes when the family status quo clearly isn’t working.

This is a hell of a movie. When Mark Wahlberg actually gives a shit about a movie, he puts in some fantastic work. This was a passion project for him and he had the great benefit of being able to act with Christian Bale as Dicky. They work incredibly well together, they really do come off as real life brothers. Often really funny even with a sad scenario, Dicky has a crack addiction that robbed him of his future, one that he wants his younger brother to obtain. Rounding out the wheelhouse is Melissa Leo as Alice, the mother of the 6 sisters and 2 boys. A maniac in heels, she steals almost every scene she’s in.

Such a good movie packed with great writing, actors and direction. The boxing scenes are terrific too, everyone should watch this movie, one of 2010’s best.

……..and the franchise is saved! After the train wreck of X-Men 3 and the embarrassing Wolverine movie from the passed 3 years, the X-Men flicks were all but ready to be forgotten. First Class cleans things up and shows us this universe has a lot left to offer audiences.

Turning the clock back to 1962, we watch as Professor Charles Xavier and and Erik “Magneto” Lensher step in front of the mutant movement and become the leaders of the two factions of the “next evolution of the human race.”

It’s a great idea going back to seeing how the two most powerful (somewhat arguable) and influential mutants in the X Men world befriended each other and ultimately split over ideological differences. It’s a well written and smart movie directed with a careful hand by Matthew Vaughn. Excellent casting and acting (I’m a big fan of James McAvoy and Michael Fastbender is a terrific Magneto) and some top notch special effects make the world come to life. Seeing the Cuban Missile Crisis in an alternate universe is a really cool experience and a great political and social backdrop for the story.

While the movie falls into some problems like comic book cliches (get to know you and training montages), odd changes that anger nerds (Havok is actually Cyclops younger brother, neither one of them would be alive at this time) and does run a bit too long at just over 2 hours. I’d say the biggest problem is that most of the mutants are unknown to most people so at times it doesn’t really feel like an X-Men tale. That said there is still a lot of respect given to the source material. Many nods to the series storied past giving winks that only comic book fans get and setting up characters and events for future stories. There are some great cameos tucked in here as well which are great additions.

Great job making this flick, which is not only a great summer blockbuster, but a great action movie in general. Gives great hope that the series is back on track and has me looking forward to the next one.

The King’s Speech won 4 very deserving Oscars this passed year. I wanted to see it based on the accolades and word of mouth buzz the movie had since it came out. I knew very little about the plot going in and what one would think would be a boring art film is actually a touching and brilliantly told story.

King George VI of Britain never wanted to be king, a reluctant hero (figure head really) to say the least. He was forced to step up in place of his struck-dumb-with-love brother and had a rough go at it. The good king had a brutal stutter since he was a child and as such had the self esteem and confidence of a wet mollusk.

It’s very human story that many people can relate to. King George had very pressured upbringing surrounded by a wall of unsympathetic people. As an adult he truly was the product of his environment. Stepping into the biggest public speaking role you could ever imagine KGVI seeks the help of many speech therapists who fail until he finds Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). This brilliant Aussie helps good George become a true King.

While technical praise for crafting this film from every department is necessary, The King’s Speech is carried entirely on the shoulders of Colin Firth as King George and Geoffrey Rush. Their acting ability and on screen chemistry elevates this movie to award winning territory. I don’t think the movie would have worked without them, they’re that impressive. Helena Bonham Carter is also notable as King George’s wife who is pretty much his rock through out the movie. As the saying goes, behind every good man is a better woman.

I’d recommend this to anyone, it’s a great movie with a lasting story that is rooted in our history.

Scream 4 is the most average movie I’ve seen in awhile. The concept and parts of the execution are good and they work. But the parts that don’t are really terrible.

Taking place 10 years after the last movie, Sidney Prescott comes back to Woodsboro for a book tour and this is of course starts a new copy cat killing spree. The essential cast from the previous movie make it back with a whole batch of new kids to murder.

First and foremost, this movie isn’t scary. It has basic jump scares and orchestra hits to get some sort of reaction from the audience. There’s a good idea for a movie here, changing the formula of a horror movie in the new film landscape of reboots and re imaginations that are all the rage. But for every good idea, there’s a bad one at work. You can tell the script was being worked on all through filming as it feels very piece meal in execution.

The opening sequence which has always been a trademark for the series is just stupid and unnecessary. There are two false starts with some god awful dialog (something about the word “meta” in any context drives me nuts) that never should have made it on film. When the real beginning actual starts it feels completely unoriginal and boring. Another problem is that every attempt at humor fails. There’s a movement near the end of the movie that got a big laugh, but it wasn’t intentional (and to be fair was probably unavoidable).

The death toll is high for a Scream movie, but only one death really had any weight to it. I constantly questioned the believability of the movie as I had a hard time suspending my disbelief. There’s just so much stuff that I don’t think the killer could really do and the amount of forensic evidence left behind was downright silly. That might seem like nitpicking but you can’t leave a barn door wide open and not expect people to look in. Finally, the movie went on for one scene too long. The reveal of the killer was good, the reasoning behind it was as well (watch out for some shit dialog and acting though) and there was actually a good ending there. But it was extended out to another scene for some reason. If they just cut to black at this one perfect spot I would have thought much better of the movie, but the last 10 minutes are a fucking mess. Completely derailed the movie into a cartoon and it mimicked parts of the trilogy for no good reason. They wanted to set up another potential 2 movies but just this goofy rehash ending ruined that.

If you don’t see this movie you really didn’t miss anything.

Source Code is director Duncan Jone’s 2nd feature movie and he’s got another winner on his hands.

U.S. Solider, Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaul) is selected for the governments new “Source Code” anti-terrorism project. This new tech allows a person to go back in time for 8 minutes and re-live the events of a person who was present there. Here, a bomb blows up a train and the race is on to find the person(s) responsible so their next attack on the US can be stopped.

Source Code is a smart sci-fi movie, much like Moon, Duncan’s last movie. It’s a simple story with a few characters and locations (3 or 4 really) that is fascinating and fun to watch. It’s a lot like the movie Groundhog Day, but here Colter is forced to live just 8 minutes on the train, the clock ticking down to the next attack. Like any good movie, things aren’t as simple as they appear. In his investigation Colter must find out how to stop the terrorist and learn about how he got involved in the project. The ending is even well done if a bit confusing.

I’m a big fan of Duncan Jones, he’s got a great eye and vision and the special effects are great too. A real treat in a genre that is usually more bad than good.