6. State Of Play
Everything about this movie sounds like it should be boring, from the generic plot line, to the lazy taglines ("Find the truth"), to that awful name. But because of the crazy amount of talent assembled for this all-star cast, it works. The leads - Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Rachel McAdams, and Helen Mirren - turn what might otherwise be a limp thriller into a raging storm of drama and spectacle. Affleck, perhaps most surprisingly, embeds himself in the mystery element quite well, reviving the better bits of his performance as Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. But a movie like this requires an exemplary supporting cast to round out the edges and give it a little bit of sparkle to stand out from the literally hundreds of like-minded movies released every decade. Enter Jason Bateman playing against type as a flamboyant publicist, Jeff Daniels as the smarmy conservative politician, and Robin Wright holding down fort in her thankless role as "the wife." Also, Viola Davis shows up for literally one scene as a coroner and pretty much steals the show.