The Guilty Pleasure Films of 2010

Film: Devil

Director: John Erick Dowdle

Cast: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Bokeem Woodbine, Logan Marshall-Green, Jenny O’Hara, Geoffrey Arend

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/d/devil-poster.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/131191-devil/

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List number: 10

Display Width: 200Devil
Universal

First, you’ve got to get past the production credit. The name “M. Night Shyamalan” is like creative kryptonite in 2010, synonymous with unadulterated crap like The Happening, Lady in the Water, and his latest motion picture affront, The Last Airbender. So, rest assured that all he had to do with this otherwise intriguing thriller was craft the story and pay the bills. He left the actual scriptwriting and directing to others… and it shows. As a simple tale of four people trapped in an elevator — and the suicide/crime scene surrounding their involvement — the narrative is a tad too pat… Signs pat. But John Erick Dowdle does such a good job of setting up suspense and delivering payoffs that we ignore the cosmic coincidences and settle in for some decent scares. Luckily, this Devil delivers. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Robo-Geisha

Director: Noboru Iguchi

Cast: Aya Kiguchi, Hitomi Hasebe, Takumi Saito, Taro Shigaki, Etsuko Ikuta, Suzuki Matsuo, Naoto Takenaka

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/r/robo_geisha.jpg

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List number: 9

Display Width: 200Robo-Geisha
Funimation Entertainment

You generally don’t win Academy Awards for movies which feature lines like “She has a machine gun in her ass!”, but there are other rewards, like creating the funniest midnight movie ever. The plot: a crooked industrialist kidnaps geishas and surgically transforms them into robotic assassins as part of his plan to destroy Japanese national identity by blowing up Mount Fuji. If you’re still with me you’ll probably appreciate Robo-Geisha, a film which has too much of everything including blood splatter, hysterically bad dialogue, even worse dubbing, and action scenes which achieve new heights (or sink to new depths) of absurdity. It’s all presented in a perfectly timed succession of gags by director Noboru Iguchi who keeps you laughing so hard you barely have a chance to breathe. Sarah Boslaugh

 

Film: Jackass 3D

Director: Jeff Tremaine

Cast: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Steve-O, Ryan Dunn, Dave England, Jason “Wee Man” Acuña, Preston Lacy, Ehren McGhehey

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/blog_art/j/jackass3dposter.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/post/132321-the-50-million-joys-of-jackass/

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List number: 8

Display Width: 200Jackass 3D
Paramount

Maybe it’s the four years between installments. Perhaps the wealth of imitators, both professional and pimping themselves on the Web, have romanticized the original’s raunchy “talents”. It could be the inherent humor — no matter how juvenile and sophomoric — of watching grown men risk life, limb, and reputation in the service of some very salacious slapstick. With the new gimmick patina of 3D pushing the prurience right up and into our faces, Johnny Knoxville and his merry band of idiots reminded us that some brands of baser wit never go completely out of style. While we may feel horrible for laughing so hard, the key is that we are laughing. And since they are having such a seemingly good time, we can’t help but join in on the jaundiced festivities. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

Director: Jalmari Helander

Cast: Tommi Korpela, Per Christian Ellefsen, Ville Virtanen, Jorma Tommila, Jonathan Hutchings, Onni Tommila

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/blog_art/r/rareexports2.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/post/134348-you-better-watch-out-rare-exports-a-christmas-tale/

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Display Width: 200Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Oscilloscope Laboratories

Rare Exports is the best unholy Christmas creation ever. It’s the perfect combination of old world superstition and new age satire. Buried in between the animal carcasses, musty slaughterhouses, and Spartan living condition is still a child’s vivid imagination, only this time, the visions aren’t of candy and kindness, but of a horned demon with elf-like minions that may or may not resemble anorexic old men. Rare Exports wants to argue that the real meaning of Santa was always as an underage cautionary tale, a coal in the stocking vs. presents by the fire kind of behavioral modification. In this case, the wee ones don’t just need to be “good for goodness’s” sake, but a shout-out to God (or any other benevolent deity) might help the Hellish cause as well. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Machete

Director: Robert Rodriguez

Cast: Danny Trejo, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Jeff Fahey, Cheech Marin, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, Jessica Alba, Robert De Niro

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/blog_art/m/macheteposter2.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/130570-machete/

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List number: 6

Display Width: 200 Machete
20th Century Fox

Machete first appeared on the big screen during Easter weekend 2007. The trailer, based on Robert Rodriguez’s script (and star vehicle for Danny Trejo),was one of several sideline gags accompanyingPlanet Terror and Death Proof. Yet somehow, those few minutes of Machete seemed more grindhouse than Grindhouse. Emerging as a feature in fall 2010 with star Trejo and trashy aesthetic intact, the vigilante tale is essentially a checklist of guilty pleasures. A strung-out Lindsay Lohan dons a habit. Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez enforce justice with the power of limitless sex appeal. Jeff Fahey delivers his lines with a preternatural awareness of how a B-movie actor should speak. Gory set pieces punctuate the plot and occasionally illustrate heretofore cinematically unexplored functions of human anatomy. Presiding over all of this is genre film powerhouse Trejo — long in the wings and now a star. Trejo’s face is neither fresh nor new, but it is without a doubt that of an avenging action hero. Thomas Britt

 

5 – 1

Film: For Colored Girls

Director: Tyler Perry

Cast: Janet Jackson, Thandie Newton, Whoopi Goldberg, Loretta Devine, Anika Noni Rose, Kimberly Elise, Kerry Washington, Phylicia Rashad

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/film_art/c/coloredgirls-poster.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/133156-for-colored-girls/

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List number: 5

Display Width: 200For Colored Girls
Lionsgate

For those familiar with Tyler Perry’s previous films, this adaptation will not be a surprise. The material intrinsically plays into the writer’s well known frame of retro-reference, and while not as bawdy and burlesque as his other works, it sums up his strategies surprisingly well. At his core, Perry is a showman, someone who understands the inherent value in melodrama, manipulation, and most importantly, music. His theatrical pieces are like revivals, simplistic Bible and relationship messages measured out in cliche filled conversations and powerful gospel songs. In the case of For Colored Girls, poems are now the tunes. Indeed, this adaptation is unusual in that it feels like a musical without a score. In the movie translation of the title, Perry never lays a foundation for the concept. He just sets up his story, introduces his cast, and then delivers the devastating insights. Bill Gibron

 

Film: Hot Tub Time Machine

Director: Steve Pink

Cast: John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, Chevy Chase, Collette Wolfe, Crispin Glover, Lizzy Caplan

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/h/hot-tub-time-poster.jpg

Revie: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/123020-hot-tub-time-machine/

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Display Width: 200 Hot Tub Time Machine
MGM

The title says it all. Hot Tub Time Machine is a high-concept comedy that’s completely aware of its utter silliness, and mostly embraces it. Getting former teen icon John Cusack to tweak his ’80s roles by playing a dissatisfied fortysomething who travels back in time with his buddies to a rockin’ Greed decade ski resort was great. But what really makes the movie work is the rest of the cast of friends. The always-dependable Craig Robinson, the perfectly-cast Rob Corddry as the pompous ass, and Clark Duke in a breakout performance as the young nephew who wasn’t alive in the ’80s. What makes the movie a guilty pleasure are its missteps, like too many cheap jokes about fashion and music and the casual homophobia. There’s also the uselessness of Chevy Chase’s hot tub repairman, not to mention the painfully forced romantic subplot between Cusack and Lizzy Caplan. But the real joy of Hot Tub Time Machine comes from its shameless tweaking of time travel cliches, particularly those found in Back to the Future. The kicker is seeing Marty McFly’s Back to the Future dad, Crispin Glover, as a grumpy one-armed bellhop in the present who has both arms and a sunny attitude in the past. Chris Conaton

 

Film: The Book of Eli

Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes

Cast: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/b/book-of-eli-poster.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/review/119050-the-book-of-eli/

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Display Width: 200The Book of Eli
Warner Brothers

If The Road Warrior was a morality play that met up with M. Night Shayamalan (when he made quality films), the end result would be The Book of Eli. A simple concept of a man on a mission to preserve a book that will save post-nuclear holocaust mankind, The Book of Eli’s screenwriter Gary Whitta endows his tale with several surprises and well-written roles that don’t play like stock characters. Denzel Washington stars as Eli, the aforementioned man whose aforementioned mission is complicated by Carnegie (Gary Oldman), an opportunistic warlord / Wild West throwback who has seized power in one of the world’s last thriving outposts and wants the book for his own ends. With top-shelf action scenes choreographed by martial artist Jeff Imada and equally top-notch performances from the always-solid Washington and Oldman and a strong showing by Mila Kunis (now receiving raves for her pirouette-turn in Black Swan), The Book of Eli’s surprise twist of an ending jettisons the film into the rare category of “guilty pleasure” viewing minus the guilt. Lana Cooper

 

Film: Kick-Ass

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Chloë Grace Moretz, Nicolas Cage, Mark Strong

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/k/kick-ass-poster.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/post/129003-taking-names-and-chewing-geek-gum-kick-ass/

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Display Width: 200Kick-Ass
Universal

It should have been more popular. Instead of arguing over the controversial nature of a clearly fictional tween assassin, cults and online shrines should be speaking out about their love for Hit-Girl’s heroism. As an attempt to both mimic and mock the superhero ethic, as a warm love letter to the genre and another noted installment in same, this more than meta geek out should have been the Spring’s break out hit. Instead, its invention and excitement were moderated by a proto-PC desire to turn every aspect of the movie into a full blown debate. Three decades ago, kids could ninja their way through a lame family film experience and no one really cared. Add in a serious subtext and some curse words, and suddenly it’s time to readjust one’s moral compass. Too bad they missed the fantastic forest for the talking point trees. Bill Gibron

 

Film: The Expendables

Director: Sylvester Stallone

Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis

Image: http://images.popmatters.com/news_art/e/expendables-poster.jpg

Review: http://ded5626.inmotionhosting.com/~popmat6/pm/post/133887-the-expendables-blu-ray-bad-assiness-is-the-new-nostalgia/

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Display Width: 200The Expendables
Lionsgate

The Expendables is Sylvester Stallone’s latest very silly attempt to revisit his glory days, a movie about violence as a brutish conduit for moral justice. Greedy Somali pirates, crooked Latin American dictators, slimy rogue CIA drug kingpins, and even some good old All-American abusive lunkheads all get their just desserts, as delivered by a coterie of muscle-bound übermensches under Sly’s watchful command. Much of that righteous violence is impressively staged — Sly has learned some tricks over the years, not the least of which is how to film furious action with clarity and power — but simple, dumb, righteous violence it remains. The politics of morality, gender, and society in this film are about as subtle as an explosion (and there are a few of those as well, as should be expected). Taken for what it is, it’s not without its delights; just don’t dare to take it for anything it isn’t. Ross Langager