130: Americano (2005)

Title: Americano (2005)
Starring: Joshua Jackson, Leonor Varela, Dennis Hopper
Directed By: Kevin Noland

Score: 5/10

129: The Adventures of Food Boy (2008)

Title: The Adventures of Food Boy (2008)
Starring: Lucas Grabeel, Brittany Curran, Kunal Sharma
Directed By: Dane Cannon

Score: 3/10

128: District B13: Ultimatum (2009)

Title: District B13: Ultimatum (2009)
Starring: Cyril Raffaelli, David Belle, Elodie Yung
Directed By: Patrick Alessandrin

Score: 8/10

127: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

Title: The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina
Directed By: Jon Turteltaub

Score: 7/10

126: Salt (2010)

Title: Salt (2010)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Directed By: Phillip Noyce

Score: 6.5/10

125: Inception (2010)

Title: Inception (2010)
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ellen Page
Directed By: Christopher Nolan

Score: 8.5/10

124: 2012 (2009)

Title: 2012 (2009)
Starring: John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Directed By: Roland Emmerich

Score: 7/10

123: Jennifer's Body (2009)

Title: Jennifer's Body (2009)
Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons
Directed By: Karyn Kusama

Score: 6.5/10

122: Extract (2009)

Title: Extract (2009)
Starring: Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig
Directed By: Mike Judge

Score: 7/10

121: Surrogates (2009)

Title: Surrogates (2009)
Starring: Bruce Willis, Rosamund Pike, Radha Mitchell
Directed By: Jonathan Mostow

Score: 7/10

120: Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)

Title: Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs (2008)
Starring: Billy West, Katey Sagal, John Di Maggio
Directed By: Peter Avanzino

Score: 8/10

119: Power Kids (2009)

Title: Power Kids (2009)
Starring: Nantawooti Boonrapsap, Sasisa Jindamanee, Nawarat Techarathanaprasert
Directed By: Krissanapong Rachata

Score: 7.5/10

118: Sharks in Venice (2008)

Title: Sharks in Venice (2008)
Starring: Stephen Baldwin, Vanessa Johansson, Hilda van der Meulen
Directed By: Danny Lerner

Even when giving this movie the benefit of the doubt, it fails. Maybe it's the (repeated) use of stock footage. Maybe it's the replaying of EVERY underwater scene shot, at DIFFERENT points in the movie. Or, maybe it's just that this was never meant to be any kind of a success with a shoestring budget and Stephen "I am literally EATING my career" Baldwin. Whatever the last straw was, this film took that straw and smashed it into a million tiny little straws and then danced on them. So bad. This movie is just so, so bad.

Score: 3/10

117: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)

Title: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009)
Starring: Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Clancy Brown
Directed By: Sam Liu

I might as well just write "see reviews of the other PG-13 DC animated movies for score info". They've done it again here. The tension is real, the action is taut and fun to watch, the humor is spot-on and the dissection of the friendship between these two characters is portrayed flawlessly.

It also helps that DC utilized the cast of the old Batman and Superman animated series for this film as well. They ARE these characters. That's how they should sound. I'm really glad I saw this, and so is the kid in me that used to watch those shows after school and on Saturday mornings. Highly recommended.

Score: 8.5/10

116: Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Title: Punisher: War Zone (2008)
Starring: Ray Stevenson, Dominic West, Doug Hutchison
Directed By: Lexi Alexander

Maybe The Punisher just wasn't meant to be a big screen hero. This is the third attempt, and I'm pretty sure it'll be the last. Isn't that the rule, three strikes and you're out?

What's most unsettling about this film is that it DID get some things right. It nailed the "comic book movie, but not TOO much comic book movie" feel. The cast was overall pretty solid, especially Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle. I think where it went wrong though, was all on the pages of the script. The TITLE character, you know the Marvel Comics character that this movie is ABOUT, doesn't have a single line until about a half hour in! And when he DOES finally talk, it's a throwaway line about being remorseful over a mistake. The Punisher IS revenge. That's it. As represented here, he is the ultimate killing machine. We shouldn't be hearing regrets as his VERY FIRST LINE OF DIALOGUE! Here's how you make this movie: he should be dispatching the baddies with extreme prejudice FIRST; THEN he should make a mistake; THEN he should be remorseful; THEN he should redeem himself by again dispatching the baddies with extreme prejudice. But more importantly he should be telling the audience what he's doing and why, from the very FIRST frame. This movie would've been improved 20x or more by something as simple as a Stevenson voice over (my note to the creators).

As is though; it's hard for the audience to care at all what Castle is doing, because we see more of the villains then we do the hero. That's the film's fatal flaw from minute one and it just unravels from there for the next hour and forty minutes. See it if you saw the others, because somewhere between the three of them is a good Punisher movie. Too bad I don't have time to put 'em all in Final Cut Pro and figure it out for them.

Score: 6.5/10

115: The Vicious Kind (2009)

Title: The Vicious Kind (2009)
Starring: Adam Scott, Brittany Snow, J.K. Simmons
Directed By: Lee Toland Krieger

The characters are sometimes absurdly off-putting, but because of the incredibly strong performances and interesting situations they're put in, it all works brilliantly. I'm a pretty vocal Adam Scott fanboy, but here he brings something entirely different to the table. He has this frantic energy about him that just electrifies the scenes he's in. It's nothing short of amazing to watch. Brittany Snow more than handles her own too when she's allowed to flourish onscreen, usually in scenes opposite Scott.

This weird, almost tragic little indie really delivered for me. It's definitely worth checking out. Highly recommended.

Score: 8.5/10

114: Hulk Vs. (2009)

Title: Hulk Vs. (2009)
Starring: Bryce Johnson, Fred Tatasciore, Steven Blum
Directed By: Sam Liu and Frank Paur

A decent animated distraction that really only suffers because it's two quick stories instead of one long one. Even if they could have somehow been combined, that would have definitely been something special. As is though, it's pretty run-of-the-mill for these PG-13 animated releases. The fights ARE fun to watch though, and Deadpool is hilarious!

Score: 7/10

113: The Last Airbender (2010)

Title: The Last Airbender (2010)
Starring: Noah Ringer, Dev Patel, Nicola Peltz
Directed By: M. Night Shyamalan

This is a prime example of squandered potential. The characters of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender could easily have shone in live action on the big screen, but instead they're all boring cardboard cutouts of themselves spouting mindless drivel for dialogue and performed by woefully miscast wooden actors.

Shyamalan has his defenders and his attackers, and truthfully I am neither. I've enjoyed a few of his films, and I've laughed loudly about how bad some of his others are. That said, I should point out that while I AM very familiar with the original series, I am also not a hardcore fanboy. The series (not unlike the director's filmography) is clunky, flawed, poorly paced and consists of a hodgepodge of ideas from other medium. I liked it though, and compared to this film version, it's brilliant.

The biggest complaint I have about this film, besides the mispronunciation of almost EVERY lead characters' names, is that it never made me care. These people are impossible to relate to. Not a single one of them makes decisions that make sense for their story arc and, more offensive to the audience, none of them do much of anything interesting. These people have the power to control the very elements around them: air, water, earth and fire; and yet none of them use these abilities in a way that feels logical. Instead it comes across as "well now I don't have anything for them to do in this scene, so we'll just give them some CG fire to play with, yay!"

Note to anyone who saw the trailer and was intrigued enough to want to check this out: DON'T. You will not enjoy yourself. You will not be happy that you gave it a try. It's a trap! Watch the series instead.

Score: 2/10