Welcome to my review of 2011! Please add your comments to tell me what you loved last year as well.
10 Best Movies of 2011
Hmmm this is harder than I thought it would be to narrow down to 10. In relation to my goal of seeing more movies, I definitely achieved that one. Seeing more movies in the hope of seeing more good ones? Tick. I enjoyed most things I saw last year. I've seen 21 of Empire's Top 50 of 2011 as well. Here are my best 10 movies:
1. Super 8
2. Source Code
3. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 3D
4. The Guard
5. Hanna
6. Captain America: The First Avenger 3D
7. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
8. Paul
9. Comic-con Episode IV - A Fan's Hope
10. Horrible Bosses - funniest movie this year. Unfortunately for Bridesmaids, which was also good and very funny, it just didn't stand up to repeat viewing - for some reason I did not find it anywhere near as funny the first time. I think there was a surprise factor in Bridesmaids that won't be there in Horrible Bosses.
Another 10 great movies that surprised me this year:
1. Tucker & Dale vs Evil - funniest and cleverest horror movie of the year.
2. Fright Night 3D - best use of 3D, smart and sexy.
3. Limitless - better than it looked and clever visuals.
4. Medianeras - an Argentinian film from the film festival. Hope it comes out here.
5. Drive - slow burning gritty moodpiece.
6. Cyrus - John C Reilly as a sad sack battling with his new girlfriend's weird son played by Jonah Hill.
7. X-Men - we were prepared for badness after Wolverine but this was actually great.
8. Everything Must Go - Will Ferrell gives another strong dramatic performance in an undervalued movie.
9. Thor - better than expected origin movie.
10. Never Let me Go - strongly acted and intriguing premise.
There was some great acting this year:
10 Best Performances of 2011
Ryan Gosling as Driver in Drive (with a best supporting actor nom for his abs in Crazy Stupid Love)
Kirsten Dunst as Justine in Melancholia
Mel Gibson as Walt in The Beaver
Koko the dog in Red Dog
Natalie Portman as Nina in Black Swan
Brad Pitt as Billy Beane in Moneyball
Andy Serkis as Ceasar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Saoirse Ronan title role in Hanna
Brendan Gleeson as Gerry in The Guard
James Franco as Aron Ralston in 127 Hours
It was definitely the year of Ryan Gosling - 3 big performances in Drive, Crazy, Stupid Love and The Ides of March (which rated well and is making a lot of Top 10 lists but I didn't see it yet) plus voted the US People Magazine Sexiest Man of the Year which I probably can't disagree with after he made us all swoon in the bedroom scene of CSL.
I think it was also a year for Michael Fassbender (Magneto in X-Men prequel but also several other performances) and we will no doubt see more of him in 2012.
I was going to do the "Worst Movies" as well but I really didn't see anything I didn't like last year. I must have chosen my movies to see really well. So the best I can do for you is this:
The 5 Most Disappointing/Overrated Movies of 2011:
Yes, thank you very much if you were going to comment, two of these movies were on my 'Most Anticipated for 2011' list I made in a post earlier this year. Where did it all go wrong? Scripting or acting issues mainly, or just too much overhyping and promotion on things that were just average.
1. Sucker Punch
2. Friends with Benefits
3. Your Highness
4. Bad Teacher
5. Arthur
Biggest mystery of the year
How did the movie "In Time" (no hype, starring Justin Timberlake, poorly reviewed) last at the cinema for 2 months when other quality movies came and went within two weeks?
Highest Grossing Movies of 2011
Sequels ruled this year, some possibly undeservingly (I still refuse to watch Breaking Dawn Part 1 as it will be the most boring film ever despite the fact I liked the book series). If it wasn't a sequel, it was probably a superhero. Congratulations to a couple of smaller original movies which managed to make the cut against sequel-itis and franchising power. Yes I'm talking about you Kristen Wiig who wrote and starred in a totally original movie that was also a surprise hit.
Australia
1. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($51.3m)
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($38.8m)
3. The Hangover Part 2 ($35.3m)
4. Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides ($29m)
5. Bridesmaids ($28.8m)
6. Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part 1 ($27.2m)
7. Fast Five ($26.7m)
8. Tangled ($22.5m)
9. Cars 2 ($20.8m)
10. Red Dog ($20.6m)
Full list of top 100 for Australia here http://boxofficemojo.com/intl/australia/yearly/?yr=2004&p=.htm
United States
1. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($381,000,000)
2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($352m)
3. Twilight Breaking Dawn: Part 1 ($266m)
4. The Hangover Part 2 ($254m)
5. Pirates of the Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides ($241m)
6. Fast Five ($210m)
7. Cars 2 ($191m)
8. Thor ($181m)
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes ($177m)
10. Captain America: The First Avenger ($177m)
11. The Help ($169m)
12. Bridesmaids ($160m)
13. Kung Fu Panda 2 ($165m)
14. X-Men: First Class ($146m)
15. Rio ($144m)
Movies I Wish I'd Seen in 2011 but will have to catch up later:
1. Submarine
2. Snowtown
3. Hobo with a Shotgun
4. True Grit
5. Winter's Bone
6. Attack the Block
So there you have it. I look forward to hearing your own best/worst movies.
when are you reviewing tintin..............
ReplyDeleteSorry Anonymous I haven't seen Tintin yet so it will have to be in 2012's review. My free tickets were a bit restrictive to use over the holidays and now I'm back at work. Hopefully in the next week.
ReplyDeleteOut of all those movies I only chose to see Hanna and it was good. Transformers and X Men (Michelle's picks) were was OK and Fast Five which was so ridiculously bad that I watched the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteMichelle said she cried twice watching Kung Fu Panda 2. LOL.
Actually Kung Fu Panda 2 did have a few surprisingly touching or sad moments despite the overall movie not making my list.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised by sucker punch.I really thought it was going to be an over the top guys movie with guns and babes and instead was surprised by the serious side and what was really going on under the layers of phantasy overlay.I liked it alot.And I thought the acting was fine.I didn't see too much hyping either.I saw adds in print and on teev, but they never gave the story away.Plus it has Abbie Cornish in it :P .It is probably the only movie I will buy apart from "harry potter7-finishing the job" and planet of the apes - which I like despite the glaring plot hole(james francos boss has ethics /concern and needs to stop The project early on and then at a crucial point without any warning throws all caution to the wind ... class action lawsuit here I come!.Tin Tin had amazing animation and is a real step forward for the genre but doesn't count as it is not in this list, but would be my number one pick followed by the planet of the apes and then Sucker punch ,Super 8 ,Source code ,Harry potter
ReplyDeleteThe most disappointing was Paul.I didn't laugh much and it had my 2 favourite genres sci-fi and comedy(oh well,will have to watch Galaxy Quest again .yay!)
I am also annoyed that I missed The thing and Thor this year
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify you can put any movie in your own Top 10s, doesn't have to be on my list. It's always hard to decide if movies released late December should be in the year before or the current year, so go with when you saw it I guess.
ReplyDeleteBrett I agree Sucker Punch was good but it's on the list because I thought it was going to be so awesome and blow my mind but it just sorta didn't. Too much hype in my Empire magazine is probably the cause.