Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: Rip Torn as Patches O'Houlihan in Dodgeball

"And will someone catch a goddamn ball? It's like watching a bunch of retards trying to hump a doorknob out there!"



I thought I would call in the reserves like I did for my Top 100 films. Today we have Ben writing about one of the best supporting characters in a comedy of all time. Take it away, Ben.......


Rip Torn in Dodgeball


I was going through some of my favorite moments from Dodgeball to figure out what Patches O'Houlihan line to quote or what scene to reference and it got me thinking. Some comedy is mostly the product of witty writing, but oftentimes the delivery and context is what's essential to the humor. Dodgeball has some genuinely good one-liners but it's a crude, silly comedy not Oscar Wilde. When I read on the page: "Son, you're about as useful as a poopy-flavored lollipop!", I crack up but I've seen Dodgeball and hearing Rip Torn deliver the line in context with a leering, boozy disdain that I don't have the skills as a writer to convey on page......shatteringly funny. He deserves some kind of medal for the way he pronounces the word 'poopy'. And 'hookers.' And 'I ain't a guy.'

If you don't know the role, you're probably getting the idea. Rip Torn plays Patches O'Houlihan the washed-up, degenerate former dodgeball great who rides around in a Jazzy trying to train and berate the good guys all the way to the championship. Virtually all of Torn's lines are ridiculous and virtually all of them are painfully funny as well. You can get on your high horse about what artistry needs to be involved in creating a great performance, but the fact of the matter is that Rip Torn looked at that script (if there even was a script to speak of, which I kind of doubt) and found a fully-realized comedic character in what's basically a series of off-kilter potty humor one-liners. I don't mean to say that Patches has great pathos, but the man absolutely slays in line after line while still moving the plot forward and conveying enough history of the man so that some other elements of the plot tie together. He fully commits to a silly role as a nasty, crazy old cripple with an inventive capacity for abuse. If that was so easy, we'd have more than a few truly great comedies coming out every year. As it is there's only a handful of significant comedic roles where everything the character says is funny (Egon from Ghostbusters, for example) so apparently it's a fairly arcane art.

Maybe we can learn more about great comic performances by taking to heart some of Patches' teachings before he was 'killed by two tons of irony.' Patches says that 'if you want to have dodgeball victory, you have to grab it by its haunches and you gotta hump it into submission.' Maybe comedy is like that too; maybe 'humping it in to submission' is a metaphor about committing to difficult materials with total authenticity. Or maybe we should stop gussying up the fancy zoetrope with the funny pictures, embrace our inner groundling and just f***ing laugh.

Henry Saw: Exit Through the Gift Shop

I doubt I'll see a documentary I like more than this one for the rest of the year...


What an entertaining and interesting film...

I don't know where to start so I will cheat and quote Paranoid Pictures (the film's distributor) to summarize the film: Banksy is a graffiti artist with a global reputation whose work can be seen on walls from post-hurricane New Orleans to the separation barrier on the Palestinian West Bank. Fiercely guarding his anonymity to avoid prosecution, Banksy has so far resisted all attempts to be captured on film. Exit Through the Gift Shop tells the incredible true story of how an eccentric French shop keeper turned documentary maker attempted to locate and befriend Banksy, only to have the artist turn the camera back on its owner. The film contains exclusive footage of Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Invader and many of the world's most infamous graffiti artists at work, on walls and in interview. As Banksy describes it, "It's basically the story of how one man set out to film the un-filmable. And failed"

The aforementioned Frenchmen is Thierry Guetta who is, without a doubt, the "main character" of the film. Despite being "A Film By Banksy", and Banksy being the first and last person we see (though we never see his face), the film is all about Thierry. It shows us how he was able to meet and befriend most of the notable street artists of our time, filmed every moment of it, and then decided to become an artist himself. The film, which was basically directed by two different men (Thierry and Banksy), but then edited by one (Banksy), is endlessly discussable. So you'll forgive me if this review doesn't have a firm thesis, the film demands exploration, but if you want the short version: This movie is awesome. Also, just a head's up, I might not be able to avoid spoiling some things from here on. You've been warned...



Narrated by Rhys Ifans (the friend in Notting Hill), the film's first half follows a fairly conventional narrative. Banksy, shrouded in shadow so that we cannot see his face, introduces us to Thierry and his obsession with filming everything. Thierry, it seems, went everywhere with a video camera. He has no real reason to do so, later in the film he gives us some silly reason involving the death of his mother, and throughout we must wonder if he has some kind of disorder. Once Thierry films his cousin Space Invader (whose art you can see above) he becomes addicted to filming the works of street artists. Through his cousin he soon meets Shepard Fairey (best known for his iconic Obama - Hope image) who he films putting up his well known "Obey" image.



What is most interesting about this part of the film is that we can't quite understand why Thierry is so hypnotized by the underground art world and its inhabitants. We get that he is excited by it, and the risk involved in filming the artists at work, but he doesn't seem that interested or informed in any way. He just likes being there and soaking up whatever the artists tell him. At this point in the film I was already questioning the validity of this art-form. Space Invader's icons, and Fairey's Andre the Giant inspired "OBEY", don't really seem to have any artistic value. At one point Fairly argues that, by making an image ubiquitous enough, you can make people believe an image is important even if it isn't. This seems to be his mission; to make his silly graphic image important when he knows he it is not. I suppose that's art.

We never find out what Space Invader's goals are.



Thierry manages to contact and film a great deal of the best known Street Artists, but Banksy becomes his Great White Whale, and we soon learn why. Banksy is the best known, most respected, and "best selling" graffiti artist. Unlike some of his compatriots, Banksy does not have one theme or motif that he wants to hammer into the public. The film, which was made by Banksy, paints him as far more provocative and...in a way...the only one worthy of the title of "artist" among his compatriots. There is no denying that the piece that first got him worldwide acclaim, his painting on the wall between Israel and Palestine, is an astounding work of art.



Finally, through random circumstance, Thierry finally meets Banksy. He becomes the only man to ever film Banksy at work, and after earning Banksy's trust after a stunt at Disneyland, Thierry becomes Thierry's official camera man. The only problem was that Theirry, in order to justify his omnipresent camera, told Banksy he was making "THE" street art documentary. Banksy tells us that the only reason he allowed Thierry to follow him around is that he knows that street art is temporary, most of it gets cleaned away as soon as it is found, and he wanted someone to document the key artists and works of the movement.

Eventually, Banksy asks Thierry to finally start to compose his film. When we see what Thierry edits together, and remember that this is a man who has never aspired to be a film-maker in his life, it is one of the funniest moments of the film. Only adding to the humor is Banksy's wry and hilarious opinion of Thierry's work. To get Thierry off his back Banksy tells Thierry that he should try creating his own art. The second half of the film follows the ramifications of this suggestion.

It is at this point that the film becomes firmly about Thierry, who manages to make himself a hyped and successful L.A. artist, and the movie concludes with Shepard Fairey and Banksy reflecting on the monster they helped create. One of my favorite qualities of the film is that it trusts the audience to know that Thierry's art is crap. A half-hour of the film is devoted to Thierry's questionable method of creating art and his opening of a grand exhibition. The whole time we know that, to paraphrase Janosz from Ghostbusters II, everything he's doing is bad. Banksy summarizes the whole thing with perhaps the funniest line of the movie, and again I'm paraphrasing, but it was something like: "I used to encourage everyone I meet to create art. ...I don't do that anymore."



Exit Through the Gift Shop is a total success. It made me reevaluate my opinion of street art, made me more aware of the key figures in that world, and forced me to think about how our culture values art. The film peppers in reactions from people looking at the art which offers a necessary, and wide-ranging, perspective that Banksy could not otherwise have provided.

I'm not going to pretend that this movie has caused me to fully respect the street art movement, or that it did enough to address the question of why these artists choose to do their work in this manner, but it's not really trying to do either of those things. The focus of this film is Thierry and through him we see the excitement, and potential to make a real impression, that is inherent in this vandalizing art style.

The film has brief moments of dragging, Thierry is not that compelling a protagonist, but Banksy keeps things moving fairly well. Banksy does an impressive job of editing together thousands of hours of footage into a tight 87 minute movie with a definite beginning, middle, and end. I also have to give the film's title a nod, it's quite clever, and nicely summarizes Banksy's overall reaction to the Thierry saga.

A great doc that I cannot recommend more. It's fun, it's thought provoking, and its filled with some pretty cool art. See it.

Grade: A-

Best Scene: I loved seeing the art Banksy did at the Gaza Strip but I'll say the scene at Disneyland...

Henry Saw: Chloe

This was bad...very bad...


What a bland and lifeless movie. Everyone in the movie seems incredibly bored, the film never makes us believe anything is at stake, and the whole thing is as forgettable a film as I've seen in some time.

IMDB's plot description: Catherine and David, she a doctor, he a professor, are at first glance the perfect couple. Happily married with a talented teenage son, they appear to have an idyllic life. But when David misses a flight and his surprise birthday party, Catherine's long simmering suspicions rise to the surface. Suspecting infidelity, she decides to hire an escort to seduce her husband and test his loyalty. Catherine finds herself 'directing' Chloe's encounters with David, and Chloe's end of the bargain is to report back, the descriptions becoming increasingly graphic as the meetings multiply.

Directed by Atom Egoyan, best known for "The Sweet Hereafter", Chloe is a plodding and useless waste of time. The tone, consistently cold and uninspired, is almost antagonistic towards anyone who would want to be interested in the film. It's slow, predictable, and, despite dealing with some grounded and human issues, strangely robotic.

Julianne Moore, who is probably my least favorite working actress, uses her same old bag of tricks. She's normal, then bitchy, then manic, then cries for a bit, then does a sex scene, and rinse and repeat. Liam Neeson, distractingly using his Taken accent (I kept waiting for him to talk about a particular set of skills), is fine. He's well cast, he is a charming and good looking older man (which is all that the role demands), but was probably only required to do about 2 weeks of shooting. He breezes through all his scenes, raises his voice a few times, and banks some independent film cred I suppose.

Amanda Seyfried, known for her roles in Mama Mia and Big Love, is pretty damn bad. She's pretty, but not that alluring or sexy, and that's a big requirement for the role. We never believe her infatuation with Julianne Moore and her husband, we never buy her as a threat when the movie goes into Fatal Attraction mode, and we never care about her character.



The film's biggest flaw is the script. It's filled with unrealistic scenes (the scene where Neeson is lecturing a class is ridiculous), predictable reveals, and godawful dialogue. The characters talk like they were in a Danielle Steele novel adapted by one of James Patterson's ghost writers.

Ugh. Just total crap. There is no need for you to ever watch this movie. It has nothing to offer, even though it thinks it seems to have somewhat lofty aspirations, and is just plain boring. This a movie to be actively avoided.

Grade: D

Best Scene: ...uh....hm....I guess when Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore have a confrontation in their favorite cafe...but that's just because I have to pick one...

Henry Saw: Kick-Ass

A few great scenes...but this is a disappointment


Kick-Ass, the new film by Matthew Vaughn and the first comic book movie of the "summer", poses the question of what would happen if a teenager tried to be a superhero in the real world. The comic on which its based, which was written by Mark Millar and drawn by John Romita Jr., is an attempt to update the comic book hero story for the 21st century. If Superman is a superhero who pretends to be a nerd, then Dave Lizewski (Kick-Ass) is a nerd who pretends to be a superhero.

The movie follows the book's plot fairly closely. Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is your typical comic-book-loving geek growing up in New York City. His only power, he tells us, is "being invisible to girls." One day, while hanging out with his friends in the comic shop, he asks why no one has ever tried to be a superhero before. Inspired, Dave decides to order a wet suit off the internet and try to become a real life vigilante. It doesn't go well. He gets stabbed and run over in his first attempt to fight crime, but he refuses to quit. After lenghty rehab, he successfully saves someone outside a diner and, dubbing himself Kick-Ass, becomes an internet sensation.

Kick-Ass encounters another pair of superheroes: Hit-Girl (Chloe Moretz), an 11 year old who is an expert in taking out bad guys in brutal ways, and her father Big Daddy (Nick Cage) who has trained his daughter to be a killing machine. A mob outfit, led by Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong), is soon after all costumed heroes, including Kick-Ass, and Dave must figure out how he is going to handle these "real" heroes he meets, the "bad guys" who are after him, and the girl he has a crush on in school...



Let's start with the biggest (and perhaps only) reason to see Kick-Ass: Chloe Moretz. Pretty much every scene with Hit-Girl is outstanding and Moretz completely steals the film. Her delivery of some very harsh and difficult lines are note perfect. She never seems silly which is quite a feat. Her fighting abilities defy logic, but it still works, and her action sequences are my favorite since Taken. I can't overstate how kinetic and well choreographed her fight scenes are or how good Moretz is in the role. Moretz brings much needed humor and energy to an otherwise disjointed film. Moretz is good enough to give me some hope (not much) that the American remake of Let the Right One In won't be a crime against nature...and that's saying something.

The rest of the cast makes very little impact. Aaron Johnson is a complete non-entity, which sort of suits the role, but he's not charismatic enough to carry most of the movie. Nick Cage...I just can't watch him on screen anymore. He attempts a Adam West parody that was just grating. Also disappointing was how much time we spend with Mark Strong and Christopher Mintz-Plasse who plays Frank D'Amico's comic-obsessed son. None of their scenes are menacing, or funny, or serve any narrative purpose. The only stand-out scene involving Mark Strong is when he gets into a fist fight with, surprise surprise, Hit-Girl. It's the most shocking moment in a film that really tries to push the envelope to little success and you have to give Strong credit for being willing to punch a little girl on screen.

Vaughn fails to keep things interesting for long stretches (i.e. any scene without Hit-Girl after the 20 minute mark). There's a horrible sub-plot where Dave pretends to be gay so he can hang out with the girl he likes. It's cringe-inducing, produces only one small laugh, and takes up a surprising amount of run-time. Another problem the movie has is that it doesn't know what it wants to be. It starts as if its going to be a true parody of Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies and other superhero films. Dave lives in a house just like Peter Parker's, we get shots and line readings that echo those Spider-Man films directly, plus references to The Dark Knight, Richard Donner's Superman movies and many others. For some reason, it seems that at a certain point Matthew Vaughn decided he wanted to make a real superhero movie and not a send-up. By the time Dave is using a *SPOILER* jet-pack *SPOILER* Vaughn has completely given up trying to ground the film in reality and has made just another superhero film. It's a big mistake on Vaughn's part. The tone of the film ends up being incredibly jarring and all over the place.



Vaughn is creative in his choice of music but doesn't always make the best decisions. Playing the Banana Splits song while Hit-Girl takes out a room of thugs is fantastic; it brought a big smile to my face. Using the score from 28 Days Later when Big Daddy takes out a room of thugs is...distracting. It felt like something they used as a temporary score for screenings that they then managed to get the rights to. In short, the music is very hit or miss, with the use of Gnarls Barkley being a big miss.

So what do I think of Kick-Ass on the whole? Despite how entertaining I think the Hit-Girl scenes are, and how strong I think Moretz's overall performance is, it is not a film I can recommend. Too much of the film falls flat and never finds the right balance of humor and action. It's a movie I will own, just because I'll want to revisit and share all the Hit-Girl action sequences, but I'll definitely be skipping over everything else. And until the film is out on DVD...so should you.

Grade: C

Best Scene: Hit-Girl's first big action scene...

Henry Saw: The Secret in Their Eyes

The movie that won Best Forign Film at this years Oscars. It deserved it...


Now I don't know if The Secret in Their Eyes is better than The White Ribbon or Un Prophet, the two films that were favored to win the prize, but I can say that El secreto de sus ojos is a very strong work and highly recommended.

The film opens in modern day Argentina where a man named Benjamín Esposito (Ricardo Darín) is struggling to begin a novel. He wants to write a book based on a murder case he once worked when he was an investigator. Hoping for inspiration on where to start, he goes to visit an old co-worker of his named Irene Menéndez Hastings (Soledad Villamil), and the two reminisce about the case that was a pivotal part of both their lives.

25 years earlier Esposito was called to investigate the rape and murder of a beautiful young woman. Along with his brilliant but alcoholic partner Pablo (Guillermo Francella), Benjamin swears to the woman's husband Ricardo (Pablo Rago) that he will find and incarcerate the man who committed the crime, which proves to be difficult even when they know who did it.

The film was directed by Juan José Campanella, a veteran of American TV shows (House, Law and Order), and is expertly put together. Most movies that employ flashbacks, and cutting between the past and present, do it in a cheap manner. It's a technique that can come off as the film-makers taking short-cuts or that they had no idea how to start or end the movie. The Secret in Their Eyes is very tightly constructed and both "eras" of the film feel vital to the narrative.



The film's greatest strength is the acting. Everyone, and I mean every single actor, is fantastic in the film. Darin, who is in his sixties but is able to play a man in his thirties, carries the film. He's not a passive or one-note character as we often get in crime dramas. The film asks him to play angry, determined, disappointed, smitten, and empty. Darin plays every note right. The other real standout was Francella as Pablo. It's a role that feels familiar, the drunken sidekick who pulls himself together for one last case, but Francella puts a lot of realism, weight, and tragedy into the part. Francella is at the heart of one the film's best scenes; Pablo, confronted in a bar by Benjamin, reveals how he has figured out where they can find their primary suspect. It's a great monologue, it focuses on how men cannot change their passions, and Francella delivers it perfectly.

The Secret in Their Eyes is filled with stand out scenes. There is a dazzling chase scene through a football stadium that's done in a single shot. The interrogation scene, which could have felt overly familiar, is as good as the movie demands it must be. It is Soledad Villamil's best scene and I was shocked when I learned that her character Irene is barely in the novel on which the movie is based. Throughout Campanella changes up his style but never in a jarring way. It's not a flashy film, the director trusts his actors to do most of the work, and the movie is better for it. Another strong choice by Campanella is to not ever stray from the main plot and characters. Though it takes place during a tumultuous time in Argentinean history, Campanella just uses that as backdrop and context, and never loses the audience trying to make a grand statement about that time.

The flaws in the film are few but noticeable. The way Benjamin first identifies a suspect, though integral to the film's title and echoed in a nice way later in the film, is quite a stretch. The aging makeup in the film, especially Ricardo's, is also just bad. Distractingly bad. Lastly, the very last scene in the film was strangely anticlimactic. I'm not sure I would have wanted it to be any different, and I'm not sure how it could have been improved, but it ended the movie on a oddly flat note.



The movie this most reminded me of is a Korean film named Memories of Murder. Both films deal with detectives who are haunted by their inability to close a case and how, over time, they begin to question every choice they've made. They are great movies, Secret in Their Eyes has more wit while Memories of Murder has more flying jump kicks, but the Argentinean film gets the edge due to the performances and some remarkable sequences.

A film definitely worth watching. It is possible that this film does not have the artistic aspirations of The White Ribbon or A Prophet, in the end it is just a crime procedural, but there is a lot going on beneath the surface. The exploration of how we deal with loss, the things we decide to fill our life with, and how we can find hope and redemption in others...these themes are all elegantly touched upon. Seek this film out, especially if you're a fan of the genre, but expect to get much more than from your standard murder mystery...

Grade: A

Best Scene: Pablo's speech about passions....

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #61 - Will Ferrell as Mugatu in Zoolander

"Your mistake indeed!"


The best thing Will Ferrel has ever done. By far. His Mugatu, which is a spoof of an entire industry more than a single individual, is the funniest part of Zoolander. The weird relationship he has with Todd, the way the pitch of his voice fluctuates, his frustration and bewilderment when ever he's around Zoolander...it's all great.

And then, of course, there's the best scene in the film:

Henry Saw: The Good The Bad The Weird

A very brief review of a crazy and fun Korean action film


The Good The Bad The Weird is a hard film to describe. The plot is fairly easy to summarize...3 different types of bandits chase one another for possession of a treasure map during the 1940s in Manchuria. That seems like a straight forward plot...but this is not a straight forward movie. The Good The Bad The Weird is a pastiche of Spaghetti Westerns, John Woo action films, Indiana Jones pictures, and Quintin Tarantino. Add in the usual strangeness of Korean films and it makes for a unique but fun experience.

The plot is quite inconsequential to this film. This movie is all about the set pieces and and the main three characters. This is the best action movie I've seen from Korea. In recent years Korea has been the origin of a lot of great films but most of them are, despite all having a quirky quality, fairly grim. The Good The Bad The Weird is an exuberant film. It's all about having fun.



The director Ji-Woon Kim, who previously made A Tale of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life (which was featured in a Scene of the Day post a few years ago), fills the film with original shots and action sequences. He establishes, and then impressively keeps, a very delicate and manic tone. The final action sequence, a mix of the tank sequence in The Last Crusade and The Road Warrior, is a spectacular set piece (even if the music rips off Kill Bill Vol. 1).

The Good The Bad The Weird is far from a flawless film. It's far too long. It's around 130 minutes and there are stretches where nothing exciting happens. This is a premise which demands a 90-100 minute running time and Ji-Woon Kim puts way too many superfluous scenes into the movie. For a such a fun movie...there are a lot of boring parts. Also, for good or bad, we never care about any of the characters. We might like The Weird (Kang-ho Song - who is in almost every Korean movie I've ever seen) but we don't really care about anyone. Finally, the ending...well its just so Korean. I didn't think the movie needed to end the way it did.

A fun film, an impressive action movie, but a little too long for my tastes. Still worth a watch...just don't be afraid to take a bathroom break.

Grade: B

Best Scene: That big final action/chase scene

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #62 - Matt Damon as Will Hunting in Good Will Hunting

"I'm pumped! Let the healing begin!"



My favorite celebrity makes his only appearance on the list.

I like Matt Damon. I like most of the movies he's in, I like him in every interview I've ever seen with him (especially this one) and I appreciate the choices he has made with his career/fame.

Good Will Hunting is what put Matt Damon on the map and, while he (and Ben Affleck) deserve credit for the great script they constructed, Damon must get an equal amount of respect for his performance.

It's a very hard role. Will Hunting is an ass, has emotional breakdowns, and makes sweeping life decisions, all over the course of 120 minutes. It is a role, and a performance, that Damon might never be able to fully separate himself from. No matter what movie you see Damon in, it is hard to not think of him as a Boston born genius, even in the Bourne movies. The only reason it is this low on my list is that it is not quite a tour de force. Damon is bouncing off fantastic performances from Affleck, Robins, and Starsgaard.

Damon was nominated for best actor but lost to Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets. He was much better than Jack. I've heard that Robert Duvall was amazing in The Apostle, but I've not seen that film, so for now I have to say that Damon was truly robbed. Will Hunting is the closest thing to Holden Caufield that my generation has (for good or worse) and a lot of that is due to Damon's performance.

Best Scene:

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #63 - Mike Myers as Austin Powers and Dr. Evil in Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my underground lair. I have gathered here before me the world's deadliest assassins, and yet each of you has failed to kill Austin Powers. That makes me angry. And when Dr. Evil gets angry, Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset. And when Mr. Bigglesworth gets upset... people DIE!"


So I've got a slightly embarrassing story about Austin Powers...I really hated it the first time I saw it.

I remember that I was in 6th Grade and my nanny (yes - I had a nanny in 6th grade - she was awesome) really wanted to go see Austin Powers. I remember going with her to the Mamaroneck theater to see Austin Powers and I did not understand a single thing. She was laughing and slapping her knee and I just did not get it.

Fast Forward a little under a year...I'm 12, in a hotel room with my dad and my sister (in California maybe), and they chose to order Austin Powers on Pay Per View (despite my objections). I don't know what changed between being in 6th grade and being in 7th grade...but I loved Austin Powers the second time around. Loved it. The Swedish Penis Enlarger, the volume of his voice, the Macarana, Richie Cunningham and his wife Oprah, and the great, great, Dr. Evil monologue.

Austin Powers became a staple of my adolescence and one of my most watched films of all time. It's not perfect, and Mike Myers uses a lot of his SNL gags in the film, but it's an undeniably grear comedic performance. In my mind, Myers puts the best of Peter Sellers to shame (I know, I know...but I've never liked Dr. Strangelove...)

Best Scene: I had a poster of this monologue on my wall for 8 years:

Henry Saw: How To Train Your Dragon

The best 3-D movie I've ever seen...



I don't know what's more surprising: The fact that I saw two great movies in a row with the word "Dragon" in the title...or that How To Train Your Dragon was great. From the trailers it looked like every other CGI film not made by Pixar...which is to say it seemed like it would be somewhere between generic and bad. Outside of Antz, the first Shrek, and Kung-Fu Panda, every other CGI animated film that was made by a company not named Pixar has been sub-par. They're not all bad...some are average...but most are pretty darn weak.

How To Train Your Dragon is a real achievement. It's a fantastic film. For the first 45 minutes I was somewhere between bored and unimpressed. I didn't get why the movie had a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Well, then the rest of the film came, and I've not been more swept up in a film's latter half in a long time.

The movie's plot: We open somewhen during the dark ages. The setting is a Viking village that is terrorized by Dragons. Our hero, Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), is the son of the town's greatest warrior (Gerald Butler), and an apprentice of the town's blacksmith (Craig Ferguson). Hiccup encounters an undersized, disabled, and protective dragon that he names Toothless. After realizing that Toothless is not a threat, Hiccup ends up befriending and bonding with the small dragon, and uses the information that he learns from Toothless to excel in Dragon Killing School. It all leads to a climax of Hiccup's father in charge of a big offensive against the dragons and Hiccup having to lead his classmates in an effort save their parents from the king of the dragons.



As I said, the first half of the film is not that inspiring. It has its charm, and gives you all the information you need to know about this world and the characters, but I wasn't sure what kind of movie it was supposed to be. It's not that funny, or exciting...it was a lot of build up.

Once Hiccup (who is serviceable as a main character) finds Toothless...the movie hits every right note. Toothless is an endearing and compelling character and his relationship with Hiccup will touch anyone who has owned a pet. The flying scenes...good golly the flying scenes...this is what 3D was made for. Forget Avatar...this is the movie that showed me how 3D can be used to enhance a movie. How to Train Your Dragon is a true experience and can only be fully enjoyed in three dimensions.

The finale, which is exhilarating, is one of the best climaxes I've ever seen in a children's film. The villain is impressive and imposing, we actually feel fear for our heroes, and every plot thread comes together in a satisfying manner. It's...great.



I can't recommend the film enough. If you have a kid...or if you're a kid at heart...give this movie a chance. I adored How to Train Your Dragon and, despite a slow beginning, think it is the most exciting film of the year by far. It might lose a lot on DVD so try to see it while it's still on 3D screens

Grade: A

Best Scene: When we see just how big the evil dragon really is...

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #64 - Holly Hunter as Jane Craig in Broadcast News

Paul Moore: It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room.

Jane Craig: No. It's awful.



Holly Hunter probably doesn't get enough credit. She was a big part of Raising Arizona, won an Oscar for The Piano, took on weird projects like A Life Less Ordinary, and has stayed relevant with movies like Thirteen and, a personal favorite, The Incredibles. True, she was in Saving Grace, but let's not hold that against her.

Her first Oscar nomination came for her work in Broadcast News. It's a great performance. Hunter plays a career news woman who is torn between her nebbishy best friend (Albert Brooks) and a good looking, but stupid, anchor man (William Hurt). Hunter nails every moment of James L. Brooks' nuanced script (his best in my opinion). The fits of crying, the frustration and love for Albert Brooks' character, the attraction to Hurt's chracter...she's perfect.

It's not a travesty that Cher won best actress in 1988 instead of Holly Hunter...Cher was good in Moonstruck...but she gave the third best performance by a female that year. Hunter deserved it, with Glen Close in Fatal Attraction a close 2nd (how has she not won an Oscar?), but Cher is actually good in Moonstruck. But she's not Top 100 performances good. Holly Hunter is.

Best Scene: The big confrontation scene with Albert Brooks. Heartbreaking, funny...the best Woody Allen scene that he never wrote.

Jane: "I think you're the Devil!"

Aaron: I think we have the kind of friendship where if I were the devil, you'd be the only one I would tell."

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #65 - Forest Whitaker as Jody in The Crying Game

"...and as they both sink beneath the waves, the frog cries out, "Why did you sting me, Mr. Scorpion?:



A few points:

- Some English people I know had no idea that Forest Whitaker is not English due to his brilliant line delivery in his few scenes.

- Whitaker delivers one of the great monologues I can thing of, while crying, without missing a beat

- In a movie filled with strong points and memorable scenes...Whitaker's role is what stayed with me at the end of the film.

Whitaker will make another appearance on this list...so this is just a warm up...but it's definitely a worthy performance...

Best Scene:

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #66 - Laurence Fishburne as Ike Turner in What's Love Got To Do With It?

"Now, you listen to me. I MADE you. You were nothing before you met me, and you'll be nothing without me."


Just remember...this was Cowboy Curtis. Pee Wee's Playhouse's Cowboy Curtis. To be fair, by the time he starred as Ike Turner, Fishburne had already knocked it out of the park in Boyz in the Hood. But he was still Cowboy Curtus for most. He erased that with What's Love Got to Do With It.

How do you...sympathize with, understand, maybe even get, a wife-beater? It's impossible. There are few greater scum on Earth. Except...for Fishburne's Ike Turner.

Obviously we almost never like Fishburne's Ike (though he sells on why Tina fell for him), yet we sort of understand him. For me that's incredible accomplishment. We're talking about the poster child for S**t-head in modern America. Laurence Fishburne gave me an insight to his character. That takes incredible acting.

Best Scene: The sequence following Tina's recording of River Deep, Mountain High

Henry Saw: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

A gripping and unique thriller


The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a new Swedish film based on the best-selling novel by Stieg Larsson. The book, the first in Larsson's "Millennium" trilogy, was originally called Men who Hate Women in Sweden and it is easy to see why when watching this adaptation. This is a very grim and stark film. Anchored by an engrossing mystery, and a great performance from Noomi Rapace as "The Girl", the movie manages to consistently entertain despite a lengthy running time and an unfocused approach.

Full length plot description via imdb: Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vanger's are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Part of the fun of this film and its story is that a lot of it is familiar. The investigator in a secluded place trying to solve a mystery with a limited number of suspects...it's something we've seen before. What separates The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from being a Miss Marple episode with evil old Swedish Nazis is the character of Lisbeth Salander. She's an incredibly original creation. She is completely reserved, obviously psychologically damaged, but incorruptible and fantastic at her job. Lisbeth is not a character whose motivations and actions are easy to understand but they also all make sense. Noomi Rapace does a great job with a very tough and demanding role.



I was also impressed by how the movie is able to make the investigating scenes exciting. I've always thought that "computer" movies just never work. Swordfish, Antitrust...it's just not exciting to watch someone type and click things on a computer. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo somehow manages to make such scenes, some of which involve microfilm not laptops, thrilling. Perhaps the best scene in the film is a brief moment where Blomkvist flashes through a series of old photographs of Harriet at a parade and it creates the illusion of a movie (flip-book style).

There are flaws. The movie is WAY too long. We get an unnecessary and unpleasant series of scenes between Lisbeth and her legally appointed guardian. Michael Nyqvist, who plays the lead character Mikael Blomkvist, is not that interesting and brings very little to an under-written role. I also felt that the conclusion, which is satisfying, felt like it was rushed and awkward. It's not the payoff that the story or running-time deserve.

Total recommendation. This is a very good movie. Every Swedish movie I've seen recently has been great...Let the Right One In and Together were amazing films, the Oscar Nominated Short Instead of Abracadabra was lots of fun, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a great time at the movies. I eagerly await both reading the novels and the subsequent films to follow.

Grade: B+

Best Scene: When Blomkvist looks at the photos of Harriet at the parade...

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #67 - Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler in The Quiet American

"I know I am behaving badly, but I have every intention of behaving badly. As a matter of fact, this is exactly the kind of situation where one should behave badly."



I knew Michael Caine had to be on this list. I just like him too much. I wasn't sure if he would make it for Alfie, Get Carter, Slueth, Austin Powers: Goldmember, or City of God (one of those movies is not like the others...). In the end I went with what I feel is his most developed and compelling performance. The Quiet American, an adaptation of a Graham Greene novel, is a severely underrated film. Caine was nominated for an Oscar, but he was in too strong a field, and had no chance of winning. Well he is great in this movie.

I always admire an actor who is willing to allow the audience to not like him. Caine's character has a lot of flaws. He's more bad than good in many ways. But Caine is perfectly cast because he always keeps us with Thomas.

A great role and a great film...I hope you search this one out.

Best Scene: The confrontation with Brandon Frasier.

Henry's Top 100 Performances of All Time: #68 - Tom Hardy as Charles Bronson in Bronson

"How would you feel, waking up in the morning without a window? My window is a steel grid, I 'ave to put my lips against that steel grid and suck in air, that's my morning...cause I got no air in my cell."



Tour. De. Force.

Bronson is not that great of a movie. It's plodding, there's a lot of "music video" in there, and there's a definite air of pretension. What it has in its favor is an absolutely astonishing performance from Tom Hardy as the title character.

It is one of the braver performances I've ever seen. Hardy is not afraid to play an absolute asshole, an idiot, a nutcase, in the nude, in the dingiest settings...Hardy is completely invested in the character and his world.

I can't recommend that you seek this performance out enough. There's a lot to criticize about the film but nothing to knock about Tom Hardy's work. It's great.

Best Scene: Any of the scenes where Bronson is addressing the audience...but especially the one where he plays two roles...