IHC's guide to 50 noteworthy movies in 2010 [I Heart Movies]
Here's a list of movies to watch out (I know, I know) for in 2010.
Youth in Revolt
US release date: January 8 2010
Director: Michael Arteta
Starring: Michael Cera, Portia Doubleday, Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Erik Knudsen, Adhir Kalyan, Steve Buscemi, Fred Willard, Ray Liotta
Plot: While his trailer trash parents teeter on the edge of divorce, Nick Twisp sets his sights on dream girl Sheeni Saunders, hoping that she'll be the one to take away his virginity.
The Book of Eli
US release date: January 15 2010
Director: Albert Hughes, Allen Hughes
Starring: Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis, Ray Stevenson, Jennifer Beals, Michael Gambon
Plot: A post-apocalyptic tale, in which a lone man fights his way across America in order to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving humankind.
The Lovely Bones
US release date: January 15 2010
Director: Peter Jackson
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon, Amanda Michalka
Plot: Centers on a young girl who has been murdered and watches over her family - and her killer - from heaven. She must weigh her desire for vengeance against her desire for her family to heal
Creation
US release date: January 22 2010
Director: Jon Amiel
Starring: Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones, Jim Carter
Plot: English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his revolutionary theories on evolution and the relationship with religious wife, whose faith contradicts his work.
Legion
US release date: January 22 2010
Director: Scott Stewart
Starring: Paul Bettany, Kevin Durand, Dennis Quaid, Adrianne Palicki, Kate Walsh, Lucas Black, Tyrese Gibson
Plot: An out-of-the-way diner becomes the unlikely battleground for the survival of the human race. When God loses faith in humankind, he sends his legion of angels to bring on the Apocalypse. Humanity's only hope lies in a group of strangers trapped in a desert diner with the Archangel Michael.
The Wolfman
US release date: February 12 2010
Director: Joe Johnston
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Hugo Weaving, Anthony Hopkins, Emily Blunt, Geraldine Chaplin, Kiran Shah, Art Malik, Elizabeth Croft, David Sterne
Plot: Upon his return to his ancestral homeland, an American man (Del Toro) is bitten, and subsequently cursed by, a werewolf.
Shutter Island
US release date: February 19 2010
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Emily Mortimer, Michelle Williams, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson, Jackie Earle Haley
Plot: Drama is set in 1954, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels is investigating the disappearance of a murderess who escaped from a hospital for the criminally insane and is presumed to be hiding on the remote Shutter Island.
Cop Out
US release date: February 26 2010
Director: Kevin Smith
Starring: Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan, Jason Lee, Michelle Trachtenberg, Rashida Jones, Seann William Scott, Adam Brody, Kevin Pollak, Fred Armisen
Plot: A comedy about two cops whose adventures include locating a stolen baseball card, rescuing a woman, and dealing with gangsters and their laundered money.
The Crazies
US release date: February 26 2010
Director: Breck Eisner
Starring: Timothy Olyphant, Radha Mitchell, Joe Anderson, Danielle Panabaker, Christie Lynn Smith, Brett Rickaby
Plot: About the inhabitants of a small Iowa town suddenly plagued by insanity and then death after a mysterious toxin contaminates their water supply.
Alice in Wonderland
US Release Date: March 5 2010
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, Anne Hathaway, Stephen Fry, Christopher Lee, Alan Rickman
Plot: 19-year-old Alice returns to the magical world from her childhood adventure, where she reunites with her old friends and learns of her true destiny: to end the Red Queen's reign of terror.
Green Zone
US release date: March 12 2010
Director: Paul Greengrass
Starring: Matt Damon, Jason Isaacs, Greg Kinnear, Brendan Gleeson, Amy Ryan, Said Faraj
Plot: Discovering covert and faulty intelligence causes a U.S. Army officer (Damon) to go rogue as he hunts for Weapons on Mass Destruction in an unstable region
Hot Tub Time Machine
US release date: March 19 2010
Director: Steve Pink
Starring: John Cusack, Chevy Chase, Craig Robinson, Crispin Glover, Rob Corddry, Lizzy Caplan, Kate Walsh, Sebastian Stan
Plot: After a night of drinking Red Bull and vodkas, a group of guys travel back in time to when they were younger cads.
Clash of the Titans
US release date: March 26 2010
Director: Louis Leterrier
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Alexa Davalos, Danny Huston, Isabella Miko
Plot: The mortal son of the god Zeus embarks on a perilous journey to stop the underworld and its minions from spreading their evil to Earth as well as the heavens.
Repo Men
US release date: April 2 2010
Director: Miguel Sapochnik
Starring: Jude Law, Liev Schreiber, Forrest Whitaker, Alice Braga, Carice van Houton, RZA
Plot: Set in the near future when artificial organs can be bought on credit, it revolves around a man who struggles to make the payments on a heart he has purchased. He must therefore go on the run before said ticker is repossessed.
Date Night
US release date: April 9 2010
Director: Shawn Levy
Starring: Steve Carell, Tina Fey, Mila Kunis, Mark Wahlberg, James Franco, Olivia Munn, Kristen Wiig, Mark Ruffalo, Ray Liotta
Plot: In New York City, a case of mistaken identity turns a bored married couple's attempt at a glamorous and romantic evening into something more thrilling and dangerous.
The Losers
US release date: April 9 2010
Director: Sylvain White
Starring: Zoe Saldana, Jefferey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, Jason Patric, Columbus Short
Plot: After being betrayed and left for dead, members of a CIA black ops team root out those who targeted them for assassination.
Kick-Ass
US release date: April 16 2010
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: Aaron Johnson, Mark Strong, Nicolas Cage, Chloe Moretz, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Plot: Dave Lizewski is an unnoticed high school student and comic book fan who one day decides to become a super-hero, even though he has no powers, training or meaningful reason to do so.
Machete
US release date: April 16 2010
Director: Ethan Maniquis, Robert Rodriguez
Starring: Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal, Lindsay Lohan, Rose McGowan, Don Johnson, Cheech Marin, Tom Savini
Plot: After being betrayed by the organization who hired him, an ex-Federale launches a brutal rampage of revenge against his former boss.
Oceans
US release date: April 22 2010
Director: Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzard
Starring: A whole lot of undersea creatures
Plot: Disney Nature's follow-up to the wildly successful "Earth" takes a look at the mysterious life under the waves.
Wall Street 2
US release date: April 23 2010
Director: Oliver Stone
Starring: Charlie Sheen, Shia LaBeouf, Carey Mulligan, Susan Sarandon, Frank Langella, Michael Douglas, Josh Brolin
Plot: As the global economy teeters on the brink of disaster, a young Wall Street trader partners with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko on a two-tiered mission: To alert the financial community to the coming doom, and to find out who was responsible for the death of the young trader's mentor.
A Nightmare on Elm Street
US Release date: April 30 2010
Director: Samuel Bayer
Starring: Jackie Earle Haley, Rooney Mara, Kyle Gallner
Plot: A re-imagining of the horror icon Freddy Krueger, a serial-killer who wields a glove with four blades embedded in the fingers and kills people in their dreams, resulting in their real death in reality.
Iron Man 2
US release date: May 7 2010
Director: Jon Favreau
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Leslie Bibb, Olivia Munn, Don Cheadle, Kate Mara
Plot: With the world now aware of his dual life as the armored superhero Iron Man, billionaire inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) faces pressure from the government, the press, and the public to share his technology with the military. Unwilling to let go of his invention, Stark, along with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow), and James "Rhodey" Rhodes (Don Cheadle) at his side, must forge new alliances -- and confront powerful enemies.
Robin Hood
US release date: May 14 2010
Director: Ridley Scott
Starring: Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Cate Blanchett, Kevin Durand, Matthew Macfadyen, Danny Huston, William Hurt, Max von Sydow
Plot: The story of an archer in the army of Richard Coeur de Lion who fights against the Norman invaders and becomes the legendary hero known as Robin Hood.
Shrek Forever After
US release date: May 21 2010
Director: Mike Mitchell
Starring (voices): Julie Andrews, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy, Mike Myers, Antonio Banderas, Jon Hamm, Justin Timberlake, Maya Rudolph, Kathy Griffin, Amy Sedaris, Craig Robinson, Eric Idle, Regis Philbin, Larry King
Plot: The further adventures of the giant green ogre, Shrek, living in the land of Far, Far Away.
Prince of Persia
US release date: May 28 2010
Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley, Alfred Molina
Plot: Based on the video game, which follows an adventurous prince who teams up with a rival princess to stop an angry ruler from unleashing a sandstorm that could destroy the world.
The A-Team
US Release date: June 11 2010
Director: Joe Carnahan
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Sharlto Copley, Jessica Biel, Patrick Wilson, Quinton Jackson
Plot: A group of Iraq War veterans looks to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed.
The Karate Kid
US release date: June 11 2010
Director: Harald Zwart
Starring: Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan, Taraji Henson
Plot: Work causes a single mother to move to China with her young son; in his new home, the boy embraces kung fu, taught to him by a master.
Jonah Hex
US release date: June 18 2010
Director: Jimmy Hayward
Starring: Josh Brolin, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, John Malkovich, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, David Patrick Kelly
Plot: In the Wild West, a scarred bounty hunter tracks a voodoo practitioner bent on liberating the South by raising an army of the undead.
Toy Story 3
US release date: June 18 2010
Director: Lee Unkrich
Starring (voices): Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Timothy Dalton, Michael Keaton, Joan Cusack, Whoopi Goldberg, Bonnie Hunt, John Ratzenburger, Wallace Shawn, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Black Clark, Estelle Harris
Plot: Woody, Buzz, and the rest of their toy-box friends are dumped in a day-care center after their owner, Andy, departs for college.
The Last Airbender
US release date: July 2 2010
Director: M. Night Shymalan
Starring: Noah Ringer, Jackson Rathbone, Dev Patel, Cliff Curtis, Nicolal Peltz, Jessica Andres, Seychelle Gabriel, Aasif Mandvi
Plot: The story follows the adventures of Aang, a young successor to a long line of Avatars, who must put his childhood ways aside and stop the Fire Nation from enslaving the Water, Earth and Air nations.
Predators
US release date: July 7 2010
Director: Nimrod Antal
Starring: Topher Grace, Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo, Alice Braga
Plot: A group of elite warriors are hunted by members of a merciless alien race known as Predators.
Despicable Me
US release date: July 9 2010
Director: Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud
Starring (voices): Julie Andrews, Ken Jeong, Jason Segel, Steve Carell, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristin Wiig, Will Arnett, Dann McBride, Russell Brand, Mindy Kaling
Plot: A trio of orphan girls cause the normally deplorable Gru to rethink his plan to steal the moon.
The Sorcerer's Apprentice
US release date: July 16 2010
Director: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Monica Bellucci, Jay Baruchel, Alfred Molina, Toby Kebbel
Plot: A sorcerer leaves his workshop in the hands of his apprentice, who gets into trouble when the broomstick he's tasked to do his chores for him somehow develops a mind of its own.
Inception
US release date: July 16 2010
Director: Christopher Nolan
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ken Watanabe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas
Plot: A CEO-type becomes involved in a blackmailing scandal.
Salt
US release date: July 23 2010
Director: Phillip Noyce
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, Chiwetel, Eijofor, Zoe Lister Jones, Yara Shahidi, Gauis Charles
Plot: As a CIA officer, Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie) swore an oath to duty, honor and country. Her loyalty will be tested when a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Salt goes on the run, using all her skills and years of experience as a covert operative to elude capture. Salt's efforts to prove her innocence only serve to cast doubt on her motives, as the hunt to uncover the truth behind her identity continues and the question remains: "Who is Salt?"
Little Fockers
US release date: July 30 2010
Director: Paul Weitz
Starring: Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Harvey Keitel, Laura Dern, Raven-Symone, Barbara Streisand, Teri Polo, Blythe Danner
Plot: The Focker and the Byrnes families brace themselves for the arrival of a baby
Twilight: Eclipse
US release date: June 30 2010
Director: David Slade
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Nikki Reed, Kellan Lutz, Elizabeth Reaser
Plot: Lovestruck teenager Bella must choose between her vampire boyfriend Edward and werewolf Jacob.
The Expendables
US release date: August 20 2010
Director: Sylvester Stallone
Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Eric Roberts, Randy Couture, Steve Austin, Terry Crews, Mickey Rourke, Brittany Murphy, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny Trejo, Charisma Carpenter
Plot: A team of mercenaries head to South America on a mission to overthrow a dictator.
Priest
US release date: August 20 2010
Director: Scott Stewart
Starring: Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet, Maggie Q, Karl Urban, Lily Collins, Stephen Moyer, Madchen Amick, Christopher Plummer
Plot: A priest disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.
The American
US Release Date: September 1 2010
Director: Anton Corbjin
Starring: George Clooney, Bruce Altman, Thekla Reuten
Plot: An assassin hides out in Italy for one last assignment.
Saw 7
US release date: October 22 2010
Director: David Hacki
Starring: Tobin Bell, Tanedra Howard
Plot: Detective Hoffman is the last man standing, Jigsaws work is now complete. That is until an old Detective returns to the case and closes in on Jigsaws accomplice. However one last game is already in motion and will truly reveal the fate of John Kramer's master plan.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
US release date: November 19 2010
Director: David Yates
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Bill Nighy, Bonnie Wright, Tom Felton, Michael Gambon, Rupert Grint, Maggie Smith
Plot: Voldemort's power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore's work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for them, so everything they do must go as planned.
Rapunzel
US release date: November 24 2010
Director: Nathan Greno, Byron Howard
Starring (voices): Zachary Levi, Mandy Moore, David Cross, Donna Murphy, Jason Alexander, Carol Burnett
Plot: The long-haired Princess Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but when she falls in love with a bandit who was passing by she must venture into the outside world for the first time to find him.
Red Dawn
US release date: November 24 2010
Director: Dan Bradley
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Isabel Lucas, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Josh Hutcherson, Matt Gerald, Adrianne Palicki
Plot: A group of teenagers look to save their town from an invasion of Chinese and Russian soldiers.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
US release date: December 10 2010
Director: Michael Apted
Starring: Ben Barnes, Skandar Keynes, Georgia Henley, Will Poulter, Eddie Izzard, Colin Moody
Plot: Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world.
Tron Legacy
US release date: December 17 2010
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Hurt, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen, James Frain, Garrett Hedlund, Serinda Swan, Bruce Boxleitner
Plot: A virtual-world worker looks to take down the Master Control Program.
The Green Hornet
US release date: December 22 2010
Director: Michael Gondry
Starring: Seth Rogan, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, Edward Furlong, Tom Wilkonson, Edward James Olmos
Plot: By night, debonair newspaper publisher Britt Reid fights crime as a masked superhero known as The Green Hornet. At his side is martial arts expert Kato.
Gulliver's Travels
US release date: December 22 2010
Director: Rob Letterman
Starring: Jack Black, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel, Amanda Peet, Billy Connolly, Catherine Tate, Chris O'Dowd
Plot: Travel writer Lemuel Gulliver takes an assignment in Bermuda, but ends up on the island of Liliput, where he towers over its tiny citizens.
Paul
UK release date: 2010
Director: Greg Mottola
Starring: Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Sigourney Weaver, Seth Rogan, Jane Lynch, Jeffrey Tambor, Bill Hader, Blythe Danner
Plot: Two British comic-book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.
Red Sonja
US release date: 2010
Director: Douglas Aarniokoski
Starring: Rose McGowan
Plot: No details at this time, based on the sword and sorcery fantasy comic book in the Conan universe.
The Rum Diary
US release date: 2010
Director: Bruce Robinson
Starring: Johnny Depp, Giovanni Ribisi, Amber Heard, Aaron Eckhart, Richard Jenkins
Plot: Paul Kemp is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean. Paul is challenged on many levels as he tries to carve out a more secure niche for himself amidst a group of lost souls all bent on self-destruction. Based on the novel by Hunter S. Thompson.
Scott Pilgrim vs The World
US release date: 2010
Director: Edgar Wright
Starring: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh, Alison Pill, Jason Schwartzman, Ellen Wong, Satya Bhabha
Plot: Scott Pilgrim must defeat his new girlfriend's seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to win her heart.
