Well, it’s been a helluva year personally, on this site and a just above average one movie wise. I made the decision in January to put every waking moment into this site…and then some. Much to the dismay of my pregnant (at the time) wife many nights, mornings and entire weekends were spent hammering away with designs, articles, widgets, HTML and Christ knows what else.The site was and still is a labour of love that runs hand in hand with The Movie Bit segment on my radio show. Besides all that and interviewing a shit load of people including Colin Farrell, Russell Brand and Michael Cera, things were kept manically busy, and that’s besides everything else I do on my talk show. If there’s someone dishing out medals, I’ll take 2 boxes. But, the highlight of the year, was the birth of my son Cameron. Anyway, onto the hard-core shit…and egotastical photos
JANUARY
Precious hit the Irish cinemas on a very limited run and was absolutely mind blowing. At the same time it was an equally depressing flick and a tough watch at times. Then things got more depressing as Aragorn from Lord Of The Rings went for a walk with some kid for nearly 2 hours. The Road was one of the first movies I saw this year and it was also one of the worst. Could a movie be any more boring? Avatar smashed the 3 mill mark at the Irish box office and just kept going. Ricky Gervais kept going too and presented the Golden Globes and if truth be told, he didn’t fuck it up, and was actually quite brilliant. The hype started for Tron as MTV got an exclusive look at one of the neon push bikes or whatever they’re called and all the geeks got hard in unison. Marc Webb ( in a story that writes its own headline) got the gig as the Spiderman director. Speaking of directors, the LA Times got Tarantino, Bigelow, Reitman, Cameron and Lee Daniels to talk fantastic shit in one of my favourite clips of the year.
FEBRUARY
Neil Jordan got Colin Farrell to drive (?) a trawler around West Cork in Ondine, which was a really sweet and wonderfully shot film. Neil Jordan was left bemused by my question about cold water and shrinkage, when I met him and Farrell in Dublin on the week of release. A clip of Alice in Wonderland turned up and the world was amazed with Depp as the hatter..well they were for the clip at least. Bob De Niro made a welcome return to form in Everybody’s Fine and I wailed my eyes out like a..who knows what. I cried alot anyway. John Travolta shaved his head, grew a beard and Jonathan Rhys Myers put on a suit and grew the worlds worst moustache since Hitler in a no brainer entertainer, From Paris With Love. Another Irish actor put in a fantastic job in The Lovely Bones, where Saoirse Ronan played an absolute blinder. Visually stunning this is certainly a must watch. The Toy Story 3 trailer turned up and we all geek screeched and more screeching was had when the first trailer for Get Him To The Greek hit the web. Other than that, that was February, which wasn’t that shit to be fair!
MARCH
Aaaaahhhhh… March. The month when the world pretends their Irish, drinks green pints and either gets sick all over the place or gets pregnant…while fighting random drunk strangers in the street. In another moment of madness, Claudia Winkleman was announced as the new host of Film 2010 and I got very upset. I mean really upset. Foaming at the mouth kinda like the Wolfman turning into the Hulk upset. It was announced that Independence Day (the movie…DUH!!!) could be getting 2 sequels, and then that news more or less disappeared. The hype started for Iron Man 2 with Posters and videos of the Stark Expo inducing erections and moistness in the geek brigade. That lasted until we saw the movie. The Hobbit was delayed again. And then my movie of the year turned up. Kick-Ass was so good, I couldn’t be arsed writing a proper review for it. Instead I thundered off the cinema house and watched it again. Simon Delaney came from outer space up in a figure hugging, red latext outfit as Zonad and the world discovered (again) that the Irish can make a real LOL movie. Granted, nobody went to see it, but it was picked up in a number of film festivals and Irish people got plastered. Nothing to do with the movie or anything..but you know…it’s March. And speaking of the Irish, Perriers Bounty rounded off the month quite nicely as Brendan Gleeson, Cillian Murphy and Jim Broadbent all swore at each other. In other news, Michael Bay said he wasn’t sold on 3D conversions and nobody listened! Well except me..and other people..probably.
APRIL
A month for fools and so on. Foolish or not, an all time high of 164 articles were published on here by my bad self in the month of April. Besides that crazy kinda shit and speaking of shit, The Movie Bit podcast finally clambered on top of the iTunes Podcast charts in the TV&Film category, toppling the mighty Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode and BBC 5 Live off the Top spot. The bastards at Glee got it too. Either way, it was short lived (ish) but an impressive feat no less. Liz Lemon and the 40 year old virgin sounded like a match made in heaven and coupled with a rippling Mark Wahlberg, what could go wrong. It turned out, nearly everything. Date Night received 2 stars, but I still love Liz Lemon and would happily have her babies…hang on…A week or so later, Iron Man 2 turned up and all the geeks screeched, so did the critics mind, but I rather enjoyed the whole thing, which reminds me..time to watch it again. An epic interview with Kevin Smith was conducted and Mr.Smith hopped on my couch and I didn’t speak for nearly an hour. The trailer for SATC 2 arrived and most of us vomited…twice. More vomiting happened when it was announced Lucas was developing a Star Wars comedy series, but it was the good kind of vomiting…the same sort the Irish are used to in March…and all year round. Then…yes…there’s more. I had a bit of a meltdown when it came to 3D in an article that actually had a bit of research compiled into it. And no, that wasn’t the April fool. The 2 April fools that appeared are here and here.
MAY
May was a sad month. I got a year older and Guillermo Del Toro left the Hobbit. People only gave a shit about one of those. Some viral started appearing for Knight&Day and was really well done…unlike the movie itself. And in more Tom Cruise news in May, it was mentioned that Les Grossman (from Tropic Thunder) would be getting his own movie. Dennis Hopper died and Josh Brolin nearly killed his career when the trailer for Jonah Hex arrived. I thought at the time how can a gattling gun strapped to a horse fail. I was wrong! Michael Bay blew up Megan Fox when she was replaced for Transformers 3 and nobody really cared. John McClane, Tracy Jordan and Stiffler starred in a SilentBob movie called Cop Out, which wasn’t half bad, but some critics took the knives out and sliced Kevin Smith wide open, forgetting about the movie. Silent Bob would later go on to get kicked off a plane for being a large bloke. For years the music industry has raped the youtubers and then Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison company showed an interest in this amazing clip. Russell Crowe walked out of an interview on the BBC and fearing for my life I gave Robin Hood 4 stars, which was rather enjoyable even if he did have 25 different accents. The old traditionalists cried bollocks, but the rest of us didn't. And then, after many of the people who meander around the net looking for “clues” the Super-8 trailer from JJ Abrams arrived and many geek screeches were heard around the world. An interactive trailer for SATC 2 hit the web and it allowed you to ride Sarah Jessica Parker around an equestrian centre…and learn shit about the shit movie. An speaking of shit, Rorshach from Watchmen pretended he was Freddy Krueger in a remake of Nightmare on Elm Street. And speaking, yet again, of even more shit SATC 2 turned up and got me foaming at the mouth. The person who typed the credits at the end of the movie got one star!
JUNE
Right in the thick of the silly summer season is June. A bit of a trailer for Rango turned up, and like everyone else I was quick to spot the Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas parts. An Irish movie about phone boxes in rural Ireland won the Audience award at the AFI Silverdocs Festival, which was a damn big deal! I thundered off to Dublin to talk to Jonah Hill and Russell Brand which was quite epic, in particular Mr.Brand who lay on a chair and table with his pants open. If I were batting for the other side I would have chanced it. Get Him To The Greek crowned Diddy as the King of everything. The dude was seriously funny! Now that I think about it, a weekly sitcom starring his GHTTG character would be awesome. A first look at the Smurfs hit the web and nobody gave a shit. Ridley Scott spoke about Alien prequels and everybody gave a shit. Our buddy Simon Delaney told me exclusively that his next gig was with Sean Penn. Many peoples worlds came to an end for 2 odd minutes when the trailer for Gulliver's Travels turned up. It made SATC 2 look good, and that’s saying something! Richard Gere turned up in Brooklyns Finest and I wasn’t entirely blown away by it. I did contemplate buying a gerbil though! Peter Jackson and some acting unions re-enacted a few versions of Helms Deep after actors and crew were told not to work on The Hobbit.June also saw one of the best movies of the year make it onto the big screen. The Killer Inside Me arrived with controversy as Casey Affleck turned into Rocky in the meat locker and beat several double quarter pounders out of Jessica Alba.
JULY
Christ, I nearly forgot about July. As movie months go, this was probably the most important, as Christopher Nolan's Inception turned up. Most went back for second helpings and the rest went home and watched something a bit more intellectual like The Fast and The Furious. I missed out on seeing Inception as my son Cameron was born on July 14th. Due to becoming a Dad and much preferring to be changing shitty nappies I handed The Movie Bit over to Niall from Scannain.com who brought something never witnessed on here previously..professionalism. Besides that, Liam Neeson and co turned up in The A-Team and contrary to months of me berating it, it turned out to be one the best no brainer entertainers of the year. Things took a turn for the worst when a teaser trailer for Yogi Bear appeared, complete with Dan Aykroyd and Justin Trousersnake voicing Yogi and BooBoo. Ed Norton had “words” with Marvel about the Hulk and Mark Ruffalo got the Hulk gig instead. Some images from Thor fell from the heavens and I wasn’t impressed, neither was anyone else. And then we all went off to update our status as the full length trailer for The Social Network turned up! I spoke to Lee Unkrich about the amazing Toy Story 3. The rest of July was spent looking through other peoples Facebook photos for nipple slips and underwear shots…oh and changing nappies and being a Dad!
AUGUST
August was a damn busy month. Besides The Expendables being half watchable, Angie Jolie pouring some Salt and an amazing trailer for Danny Boyles 127 hours, the biggest announcement of all was made that Blu-Ray fans were waiting for. George Lucas and co were prepping a release of Star Wars on Blu-Ray. All geeks, bar the bastard trekkies gave a screech and a little bit of sex wee dripped out. The only thing to ruin August was Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Kevin James, David Spade and Rob fuckin Schneider who all just jerked each other off in some home movie called Grown Ups. Ohh and Piranha 3D also chomped its way into cinemas and everybody loved the way it was shot, how crap, but good the special effects were and the soundtrack. Nobody seemed to bothered about boobs a plenty and an underwater lesbian scene in 3D.Or..hang on…. Nic Cage rocked out some funky outfits, a hair do and done a few Streetfighter fireball moves in the actually very good Sorcerer’s Apprentice. I spoke to Michael Cera and Jason Schwartzman about Scott Pilgrim and Tabasco sauce as lubricant in an interview that was conducted on the floor of a hotel room and I also spoke to Anna Kendrick about the same thing…except not on the floor…and nothing about lubricant.
SEPTEMBER
Tony Curtis died, Back To The Future was 25 years old, Star Wars was said to be going 3D, A trailer for True Grit rode into town and The Hobbit had more trouble than a rabbit surrounded by a few constipated bears. Ben Affleck came back on the big screen with a bang, in The Town which is a must, but overrated watch. Toy Story 3 knocked the Dark Knight off the fourth position in The Irish box office raking in 7 odd million euro. All the Irish went out and got drunk….nothing to do with the success of Toy Story 3 or anything, it was just another day. M. Night Shyamalan trundled back behind the camera for Devil which proved his career is not dead yet. It was “shot in 3D using the system Jim Cameron developed” said a disclaimer in the trailer and with that Resident Evil Afterlife exploded in 3D all over your face. But as usual things went to shit as about 34 minutes were added to the running time due to the constant slo-mo. Not even if Mila Jovovich had Pam Anderson tits would the slo-mo have been justified. I spoke to Boba Fett who was in town for a Star Wars convention and I rather liked Cyrus. Liam Neeson signed on for Battleship (don’t even ask) and this lickle website got nominated for The Irish Web Awards. The new Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield said “It’s a true fucking honor to be part of this symbol” and some people got nervous about the F word..probably. I spoke to Eli Roth and Daniel Stamm about The Last Exorcism and and the world more or less turned up at the door of this website to hear some exclusive news about the forthcoming Star Wars Blu-Rays.
OCTOBER
Clips from Skyline started turning up and everybody was really impressed. We were also impressed with Captain America as Chris Evans appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly dressed up as the good Captain. Then news hit that Tony Scott signed up to direct the sequel to Top Gun. The world stopped turning and wondered why! The Dark Knight Rises was announced as the official title to the 3rd Christopher Nolan bat flick. All the bitching, moaning and flaffing about between unions and Peter Jackson and all things Hobbit came to an end. Mel Gibson was on board the Hangover 2 for a cameo and as quick as it was announced it was also mentioned that a few on the cast and crew of the Todd Philips sequel, got their underpants in a twist and Martin Riggs was no longer a part of the cast. One of the most visually astounding movies of the year, Legend of The Guardians impressed us all with amazing detail from Zach Snyder, but once you got over how it looked it was an overly complicated pile of owl pellets. Things got even worse when Paranormal Activity 2 landed. I was terrified by the original and the thoughts of reviewing the sequel scared me senseless. Nothing happened in the movie for an hour and a half except a dog barking and a robot cleaning a swimming pool a few times. I shed a tear or 2 when Doc Brown and Marty McFly hit the Scream awards and I cried some more after watching Vampires Suck.
NOVEMBER
Danny Trejo turned up with a Machete and sliced the shit out of anything with a pulse, in one of the more no brainer entertainers of the year. Lots people flocked to see George Clooney in The American and many contemplated tearing cinemas apart after an action packed trailer misled many, that this was a shoot em up. Instead, Anton Corbijn delivered a pretty solid euro style flick with a fantastic performance from a bloke who once was a doctor…on TV. The director of District 9, Neil Blomkamp was rumoured to be attached to a pretty impressive teaser trailer that ended up in the iPad edition of Wired. Aronofsky spoke about The Wolverine as was quick to dismiss any connections with past Wolverine movies and Duncan Jones released a shit hot trailer for Source Code. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows made nobody happy except the Warner accountants. Oh, and I ended up in Dublin at the final of the Irish Web Awards which The Movie Bit didn’t win any awards but people praised my arse off for it being a one man show. I then fell around alot! With my ego swelling I advertised for a few folks to come and write more shit on here, and they did! I also spoke to Johnny Knoxville, Jeff Tremaine and Spike Jonez about Jackass 3D, but mainly sheep shagging.
DECEMBER
Normally a month reserved for watching It’s a Wonderful life on TV continuously, December got off to a brilliant start with Gareth Edwards Monsters and then like a really cheap christmas pressie Johnny Depp and Angie Jolie arsed around Venice in The Tourist. Depp sported the worst look he ever has in his life and numerous shots of Jolie’s arse became a bit too repetitive. Christ, if we have to stare at her arse for most of the time, do a Wanted on it. Better still, show the hairs on her arse. Geeks waited nearly 30 years to get back on the Grid with Tron Legacy and were left underwhelmed by the story. And that’s it for December, and indeed 2010. Sure, there’s a few more movies to come like The Way Back and Love & Other Drugs, but since I don’t have a Delorean to drive into the future and it’s impossible to know what they be like. And I’d like a few days off, so this is a review of most of the year! My Top 5 flicks of the year will turn up tomorrow as will 11 for 11! And I know I’ve forgotten stuff..like Zach Snyder getting the Superman reboot gig and so on. Anyway, thanks for struggling through over 3100 words of badly written, rambling, self centred bullshit! It’s much appreciated that you made it this far!
