10 Finest Fellas in a 2009 Film

Happy Hump Day! My picks for male babes of 2009. If you were wondering if I had a 'type', feel free to peruse my lists from previous years!

10. Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds

10 Fittest Chaps in a 2011 Film.

Happy Hump Day! The gal's list here (where I had to include Emma Stone because it was her or Kaya Scodelario, and Arsenal fan Kaya chatted smack about my football team, so... #foreverpettylikeMilesTeller).

10. Jude Law, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Film review: SIDE EFFECTS (Steven Soderbergh, 2013)

Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara) has been waiting for her husband Martin to be freed from prison for four years (he, played by Channing Tatum, was sent down for insider trading). After the day occurs and he is finally let out, however, she is taken over by spells of depression which culminates in her driving her car into a brick wall. This seeming cry of help is noticed by trendy clinical psychiatrist  Dr. Jonathan Banks (Jude Law). Dr. Banks allows her release from hospital on the proviso that she checks in with him a few times a week. 

Film review: ANNA KARENINA (Joe Wright, 2012)

Adultery. It’s always made for some of the most delicious film, TV and book storylines. Indeed, between 1873 to 1877, Leo Tolstoy used it as the basis of his novel, which he published in eight parts. Joe Wright, always one for a literary classic (Pride & Prejudice, and to a lesser extent depending on how much you rate McEwan, Atonement), adapted this 19th century Russian lit classic to the big-screen. 

After scouting across the continent for filming locations, he finally settled for the unusual, somewhat Dogville-esque of having the vast majority of the film filmed on a stage. 

The big difference between Anna Karenina and Dogville however, though, is where the latter barely had any set at all, with the locations and props chalked into the wooden floorboard, the set of Anna Karenina, whilst discernibly all a stage, is vast and opulent, with moving backdrops and richly designed interiors aplenty. 

The purpose of Wright choosing to having the movie filmed on a stage was because he said that Anna felt like her entire life was “on a stage”, and, indeed, the scenes where she faces society and stylistic touches are added (such as dancing couples freezing into a tableau whilst she dances with Count Vronsky) are certainly very effective indeed.

Film review: SHERLOCK HOLMES 2: A GAME OF SHADOWS (Guy Ritchie, 2011)

Sherlock Holmes has identified a series of seemingly unrelated events, from bombings to assassinations of key intellectuals, and he, as only he can, pinpoints Professor James Moriarty as the criminal mastermind behind all of these. 

He is right of course, and soon his sleuthing brings him face-to-face with the villainous genius. Recognising the stakes, Holmes asks Moriarty to keep Doctor Watson out of their intellectual game of chess (Irene Adler has sadly, already been made collateral damage as a result of the two’s mental warfare). Predictably, however, this plea only serves to get his trusted wingman further embroiled in Moriarty's crosshairs.

It is up to Sherlock, alongside his long-suffering companion, to thwart Moriarty before the professor can eliminate them and wreak war upon a fragile Europe.

Much as with the original, the film belongs to the two co-leads. The sheer fun they had in making the film radiates off the screen in an infectious, high-energy Hollywood romp with moments of cinematic ingenuity.