Atomic Popcorn brings you yet another Top 10 list! This time we are bring you a list of some of the best on-screen duo’s there are! Below is a list of my top 10 on-screen duo’s of coarse you will have your own opinion. I promise to not use the word chemistry more than 4 times also!

If you all have any ideas for a top 10 list or want to see something specific send us an email at top10@atomicpopcorn.net and we will try and get it up here for you.

Without further ado, here is what I think are the top 10 on-screen duo’s of recent memory.

10. Ben Affleck & Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting- This unlikely duo of two kids from Boston making a movie based on something they wrote. Well the movie was a hit and the duo are still just that in Hollywood. Damon and Affleck both have a great career both behind and in front of them.

9. Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in Bad Boys- who can see these guys without at least humming “Bad Boy Bad Boys, whatcha gonna do?” I know I can’t. A great on screen chemistry between these overly large men. The acting is on par with any action flick but these two bring to the table something special. I think they may be channeling a little something from another of our top 10 contenders for Top 10 Duo’s.

8. John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction – These extremely violent yet stupid criminals made a movie and a career for a certain Director. While these two came onto the scene quietly, they left with a very large bang after this film. Such chemistry and great writing lead these guy’s onto our Top 10 list.

7. Sam and Frodo in LOTR Trilogy – This unlikely duo has melted ring’s around the world. All jokes aside about being gay lovers, this on-screen duo shares a lifetime of pain and love throughout these films. This duo was something that I don’t we had seen on screen in a while. A true chemistry between two guys in the midst of uncertain times.

6. Brad Pitt and George Clooney in the Ocean’s franchise – two of Hollywood’s leading men, leading the charge for some awesome bank robbing. What more can you want from two Joe Cool’s. Great acting, great suave, these two ooze cool.

5. Tyler and The Narrator in Fight Club – Didn’t we just mention Joe Cool above this, well he is back along side Edward Norton as number 5 on our list. These two really gave us a run for our money in Fight Club. Writing aside, the acting between these two made the movie what it is today.

4. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover in the Lethal Weapon franchise – oh my, two entirely different people trapped with one another made these two real men of the 80′s. The boys of Lethal Weapon brought to the screen an on-screen chemistry that not many have or will match. The laughs, the tears, the fights, true brothers ended up on screen with these two crazies!

3. Woody and Buzz from the Toy Story franchise – Yes I am well aware that they are artistically enhanced characters. Yes I am also aware I have a animated feature as my number 3. Without a doubt you have to include Tom Hanks and Tim Allen on this list. Starting as fierce rivals for Andy’s love, they have grown into a duo among the best. The interaction and delivery from this duo brings to life what we only know as animated history!

2. Robert Redford and Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting – Suave and complete. The acting and everything that follows and it includes these guys had it and brought it to the screen. These movies are classics for two reason and the two reason are the men above and below this blurb. These guys we looked at the men of men and rightfully so.

1. Steve Martin and John Candy in Planes, Trains and Automobiles – the funny men of the 80′s paired together to bring to the screen one of the best on screen duo’s ever. With Candy gone we can only assume what could of been but this was and is still a great movie. Due in large, or in whole, to these two completely crazy comedians.

I must confess, I’m rather intrigued by Kevin Smith’s Cop Out. How, exactly, did a big budget movie with a roster of talent like this end up so terrible?  Willis looks sad, bored and tired, Morgan bops and babbles like he’s full of Ketamines, and Kevin Smith doesn’t even seem to have been on the set. Many have been buzzing about the director’s weight fiasco last week, but I say cut the guy some slack. It’s really his new movie that’s the fat, bloated slob.

Where do we begin and who’s to blame? Probably everyone, but as is usually the case, we could start with the script. I’m not the world’s biggest Smith fan, but the trouble starts here with the fact he didn’t write this one himself. I’m not actually sure anyone wrote it, despite the fact we have names in the credits. It feels like they filmed a series of notes scrawled on the back of a coaster at Chili’s by a bunch of guys drunkenly rehashing half-remembered buddy cop movies. In the places where there were memorable chase scenes and witty comaraderie, they just filled it in with actors flashing guns at the camera and Tracey Morgan waxing poetic about his bowel condition.

One is tempted to point an accusing finger at the tired, old formula, but that would be silly. The formula works and it has given us a number of good entries like the Lethal Weapon movies, Rush Hour, and Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang (yea, I know they weren’t technically cops). Cop Out just doesn’t seem to understand the formula, and as a result it flails about aimlessly trying to find something to hold onto.

The basics are here; Willis is a divorced cop whose struggling with his teenage daughter, estranged wife and her smarmy second husband. Morgan is his partner, and as the plot requires, also a sassy black man. The potentially interesting twist, that he’s also frightfully insecure about his wife’s fidelity, is smashed into pieces and emerges as the film’s most clueless and wrong-headed attempt at comedy.

The two of them end up embarking on a series of misadventures (or is it misfires?) that pit them against a Latino druglord, an annoying cat burglar who practices Parkour, and the typically beautiful woman on the run from the bad guys. We get scenes of the police chief chastizing their methods and taking their badges, Willis smiling coyly and firing his gun haphazardly in the general direction of the perps, and an extra added bonus involving Morgan tailing a suspect on a kid’s bike while wearing a giant cellphone costume. Hardy har-har.

The cast is surprisingly flat and bland. None of them bring any of what we expect to the table. I usually like Willis, whether he’s going daftly over-the-top (The Fifth Element) or building subtle nuance into his characters (The Sixth Sense). But here, he doesn’t seem to be playing anything. He just stands there, looking forlorn and waiting for Die Hard 5 to pick him up at the bus stop so he can leave the movie. Sean William Scott shows up as the thief, and he’s beyond annoying; he’s mind numbing.  He tries to make that old “guy repeats everything the others say” routine feel like it wasn’t shuttled off the preschool playground. Obviously, he fails. Michelle Trachtenberg as Willis’ daughter and  Rashida Jones as Morgan’s wife are just wasted pretty faces. The villain of the piece is so eye rollingly bad in his role, I’d feel bad singling the actor out. The only one really trying here is Tracey Morgan.

That’s right. Tracey gives the movie his all. He’s approaching the role not as an actor examining a character but as a star trying to outshine the rest of the film. He screams, he smirks, he rails on and on with jokes that weren’t funny when they started, and if the movie had continued I’m perfectly confident he would have eventually donned a tophat, played the kazoo and started moonwalking next to Willis.

I think Morgan can be funny when he has someone who knows how to channel and direct his brand of comedic energy, but here, stranded alone with Willis on lunch break, he goes overboard. The result is like watching a man courageously save a woman from drowning and try to pump air back into her lungs while everyone else watching can see all too clearly she’s long dead.

Finally, there’s Kevin Smith. I cannot see a single mark of his style, humor, or instinct anywhere on this picture. The friend I saw this with commented “If I didn’t know better I’d just assume this was some other Kevin Smith”. He’s right, for as much as it matters to the final result, C.More Butts could have directed this movie; it’s cookie cutter all the way.

There’s really not much more to say. This is a complete failure, albeit there are one or two jokes that almost hit the mark. Worst of all, you could substitute all the collaboraters with unknowns and the result would be the same.  I went into this movie curious, wondering what a cop comedy starring Willis and Morgan  and directed by Smith would look like. Strangely, I’m still wondering.

Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 

This is yet another Tuesday Top 10 List from Atomic Popcorn and today I have brought to you all what I think are the Top 10 Fight Scenes of recent memory. Below are the movie’s along with their videos of said fight.

PLEASE leave your comments with better video or even better yet, better fight scenes. I would love to see what you all have to say as what the Top 10 should be.

Without further interruptions I bring you the Atomic Popcorn Top 10 Fight Scenes.

10. The Way of the Dragon:
Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee – come on folks you CANNOT forget this fight scene!

9. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children:
Cloud and Sephiroth – this is an great fight scene along with awesome animation.

8. Raiders of the Lost Ark:
Indiana Jones doing what he does best – do a google search and read why this scene actually came about!

7. Lethal Weapon:
Mel Gibson against the ever crazy Gary Busey – great stuff all around.

6. Rocky IV:
Rocky kicking some Russian ass – this movie can make me cry in a matter of minutes. Great all around movie and a great great fight scene. Gloves and all!

5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:
Gorgeous ass kicking at it’s finest. What more can you want from a fight scene? Oh yeah Bamboo walking/flying!

4. The Karate Kid:
Crane Kick anyone? Enough said…

3. Snatch:
Mickey O’Neil vs. Gorgeous George – this just looks like it hurts.

2. Fight Club:
Come on you cannot leave out a movie with the word “fight” in it. And besides this is a classic scene in many ways.

1. The Matrix:
One bad actor versus many different agents? And kicking some serious agent ass..The Matrix is number 1 on my list!

Top 11 Bromances

Who doesn’t love a good bromance? Whether it’s homo-erotic overtones or just a friendship with a lot of love and respect for the other, bromances are a special kind of romance. Normally they’re shared between a male and another male, both of whom are straight and play for the right team. We here at Atomic Popcorn (well, mainly me) have decided to take a look at the Top Eleven Bromances in cinema:

11. Point Break – FBI Special Agent Johnny Utah and Bodhi

I love Point Break, and would defend it as a legitimately good action flick. You could make a case for some bromance between Utah and Gary Busey’s Angelo Pappas, but the real love here is between Utah and Bodhi. Utah can’t bring himself to kill or harm Bodhi, so he fires his gun in the air whilst screaming ‘Aah.’ Keanu plays it like he does everything but it’s Swayze who makes the relationship work. Sure it’s a simple film when you get down to it, but that doesn’t make it any less great. Plus, Utah let’s his “brother” go the proper way.

10. Superbad – Evan and Seth

It wouldn’t feel right doing one of these without having this film on here. If Superbad does anything right, it’s the telling of a wonderful romance between it’s two leads. In fact it’s such a great tale of bromance you wonder if Michael Cera and Jonah Hill will eventually engage in full on french kissing. The film itself is hysterical and only enhanced by the homosexual overtones that embody it, particularly when each character goes his separate ways only to look back, longing for the others comfort.

9. Hot Fuzz - Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman

Some may prefer Shaun of the Dead, but due to my love of action flicks I’m going to go with Hot Fuzz as the better film. As a parody of buddy cop films, there was probably no better duo than Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The two manage to capture two unlikely friends and never delves into homosexual territory even when Angel is holding Butterman (in a nice reference to another flick on this list.) Doesn’t hurt the film is excellent either.

8. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – Kirk and Spock

The quintessential friendship, and one of them is half alien. Yet their relationship is ‘the most…human’ of any science-fiction duo. They’ve battled Romulans, Klingons, and even each other and yet though all of it you can’t help but get teary-eyed at the end of this film when they share one of their “last” moments. Oh, and as much as Shatner overacts, his speech at the end is golden.

7. The Lord of the Rings – Sam and Frodo

If anything, these two are going on here for that Hobbitsexual kiss Frodo lays on Sam in the twenty different endings of this film. Being fair though this is a wonderful tale of friendship that spans all three films. Samwise has multiple times he could just say the hell with it, yet he sticks by Frodo every step of the way. Things get uglier (literally) when Gollum shows up and tries to break this bromance up. As all things, good prevails and Sam sticks with his tied and true friend ‘til the end of it all. The books were better at conveying the relationship, but who doesn’t hear “My Heart Will Go On” when Sam, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin frolic and jump on the bed at the first of many endings to Return of the King?

6. Clerks – Dante and Randal

Before Evan and Seth, and even before Jay and Silent Bob there was Dante and Randal. In Smithian terms, Dante’s the bitch and Randal’s the butch. They really are that couple that should break up yet continue to stay together. Randal does absolutely everything he can to ruin Dante’s life and pester him, but that’s because he loves him so much. Dante knows this, which is why their marriage will be a long and unprosperous one. But really, they are two guys who shouldn’t be friends at all.

5. Top Gun – Peter ‘Maverick’ Mitchell and Every Male

It’s probably true the romance between Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis in this film was thrown in to remind everyone Maverick isn’t gay. True it’s a male dominated cast but it’s never felt so homoerotic than it does here. We have men shirtless playing volleyball (at least “Saved By The Bell” gave us Kelly and Lisa and Jesse in their volleyball match), and a handful of scenes of steamy men in nothing but towels. Not to mention Val Kilmer acts like he’s three steps away from macking out with Maverick in all of their scenes. Being fair, there is a nice friendship between Goose and Maverick which makes the fate of one of them tragic for the other. You just wonder how deep said character was hurt.

4. Lethal Weapon – Riggs and Murtaugh

Many will hail this as the best buddy cop film and they might be right. Everything works, especially the love Riggs and Murtaugh grow to have for the other. Instead of outright hating the other these two take the time to get to know the other and learn what’s good and bad about both. It’s done a lot subtler than recent films like say the Rush Hour series handled it. Edgar Wright said “there’s a real romance at the center of this film” and he’s right. By the end you feel these two have become the best of friends (as seen in the later installments) rather than the script forced them together.

3. Star Wars – Han Solo and Chewbacca

Han Solo has it easy for a number of reasons, the most of all being he’s got a giant tall walking carpet ready to rip arms out of their sockets. It’s always fun to try to guess what Chewie is saying given the responses Han gives to him. There’s levels of a kinship here like when Chewie screams in agony watching his long time friend be frozen in carbonite only to embrace him like a brother when he’s eventually set free. The two always have each others’ back through thick and thin, Chewie going so far as to strangle the life out of Lando for betraying him, Leia and his brother. Granted, I said Kirk and Spock where “the most human” of all science-fiction bromances, but we’re dealing with a Wookie and a human here, not someone who’s part human.

2. The Odd Couple – Felix and Oscar

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau started it all with this 1968 comedy adapted from Neil Simon’s 1965 play of the same name. If anything, it defines “bromance” well with two guys who drive the other absolutely insane but realize they in fact need each other. Writing a buddy comedy without seeing this film is like writing a vampire book without reading Dracula, disrespectful and retarded. It’s influence is felt today including on some of the relationships on this list, not to mention the TV spin-off, sequel, and an animated series.

1. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

For my money every buddy cop film owes it’s due to this masterpiece. These are two guys who would live and die for the other, fight over the same woman, banter with the other, or robbing banks and trains with a grin. Like love and marriage, you can’t picture one without the other. Newman and Redford are terrific actors and it shines right through here and the pair play off each other wonderfully, so much so they re-teamed a few years later for The Sting. This though, is their defining legacy as a duo and has cemented a legacy that will be felt in the film world forever.