Jan 11 2012
My Top Ten Movies of 2011
4. Drive
Of many surprising success stories this year, Drive perhaps rose out of obscurity more than any other feature. It wasn’t a sequel, a remake, a blockbuster and in no way looked like an Oscar contender, but that didn’t stop it from being one of the best films of the year.
It’s a thinking man’s action film, where the long drawn out pauses in story and conversation eventually give way to moments of brutal and shocking violence at the hands of Ryan Gosling’s unnamed Driver. The slow burn is what makes the film work, and a killer soundtrack doesn’t hurt either.
3. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I wish this film hadn’t already been made once, as it’s hard to view The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with unbiased eyes when you’ve already seen the Swedish original. But even if you have, there is no question that David Fincher’s variant is superior in every way from casting to filming to scoring and everything in between.
Rooney Mara’s Lisbeth Salander is the most interesting, complex cinema character in years, and she’s so good she almost makes the rest of the film fade into the background. But there still is an interesting mystery to be found here, and Fincher does a fantastic job telling the story in his own signature style.
2. Fast Five
Oh god, I’m probably going to take a lot of heat from these last two. But I will stand by them, and I will say that Fast Five in particular is one of the best action movies to be released in recent memory. I’ve always been a fan of the series, but now critics and audiences finally agreed with me that for what these films are, they do their job perfectly.
Assembling almost the entire original cast and adding The Rock was brilliant, and in a Hollywood landscape of CGI fighting robots and superheroes, Fast Five made action feel authentic again, and it’s final safe swinging car chase sequence is undoubtedly one of the best scenes in any movie this year.
1. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Laugh away, but in a year of surprises, nothing blew me away quite like Rise of the Planet of the Apes. After a few unnecessary sequels and a horrible remake, there was little hope that a prequel to the series would be anything approaching good. But somehow, some way, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was the total package, and far and away the most entertaining film of the year for me.
And while I might bemoan Hollywood’s reliance on technology in this modern era, it’s what made this movie work. Andy Serkis was able to convey complex emotion through a CGI wireframe, and convinced us that an ape could truly feel. Caesar was a mute protagonist (well, mostly) but was one of the most convincing leads of the year.
UPDATE: New #1 – The Artist. See this post for more.
Honorable Mentions:
Real Steel – A robot boxing movie I made fun of for months that turned out to be very worthwhile.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – A slow moving spy thriller that replaced dialog for gunfights, yet was gripping nonetheless.
Horrible Bosses – Two fantastic comedy trios, good guys Bateman, Sudeikis and Day and bad guys Spacey, Farrell and Aniston made this one of the funniest movies of the year.
The Pill – You haven’t seen it, but you should. The birth control comedy by JC Khoury was only in a few theaters, but remains one of the best indie films I’ve seen.
What I Didn’t See Yet That Might Have Made This List:
War Horse, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Artist, Tree of Life, Shame, The Help, The Descendants
I’ll get to them, OK?
More Unreal Posts
- Debate of the Day: Should There Be a Best Comedy Oscar?
- The Ten Best Movie Trailers of 2011
- Great, Now Monkeys are Better than Me at Video Games
- The Morning Link: The Ten Worst Movies of 2010
- My Top Ten Movies of 2010
wow, no blockbusters? (I count 5) Once again a terrible list.
I seem to be the only person I know who doesn’t like RotPotA or Source Code. I can respect your picks – most of those movies were a lot of fun (if not always well made) so I can see why they are your faves.
My Picks:
10 – Drive
09 – The King’s Speech
08 – Melancholia
07 – Tron: Legacy
06 – Marwencol
05 – Kill List
04 – The Prize
03 – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
02 – Take Shelter
01 – Warrior
Nick, at least two of your films are from 2010…
X-Men: First Class: Enjoyable movie. I’m glad that I saw it.
Bridesmaids: I tried to watch this with my friends, we all groaned for 30 minutes and then had to stop. The scene where two women tried to surpass each other in the speech was just loooong and not funny at all. That was the scene when we had enough.
50/50: In my watchlist.
Limitless: Could’ve been more epic, but was a good movie.
Midnight in Paris: Hadn’t seen, probably won’t.
Source Code: Interesting movie with likeable characters. Could’ve used a bit bigger budget (the ending CGI).
Drive: Perhaps this was overhyped. The protagonist just doesn’t make sense to me. Extremely talented guy makes extremely stupid decisions. Drives me nuts. The movie was ok, but not as amazing as I was led to believe.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Haven’t seen, might add to watchlist.
Fast Five: Could’ve been awesome mindless action flick if it was a bit shorter. Also, some characters made illogical decisions.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes: Very “serious” movie. It was good. Climax was timed a bit oddly. Perhaps it wasn’t, but it just seemed like so to me.
My brother is a huge movie snob, we both like movies and often don’t agree with what is good and what isn’t (and for what reasons). Although my list would be totally different than yours I do respect your what you liked.
Although I would argue that Brides Maids wasn’t that good of a movie. I waited to see it off of itunes on my Apple TV and have to say that to me the movie was just okay at most….my opinion though.
@Wermine
Not to nitpick, but did you really judge Fast 5 based on if the characters made logical decisions? How did you ever manage to make it through the first four?
@Jim Lahey: I watched the first one many many years ago. Haven’t seen other three because I heard terrible things about them. First one came out over ten years ago, I was a lot more oblivious about character motives back then.
For a guy who loves his genre stuff and action films, I was totally blown away by THE HELP. I think you’ll like it too, Paul. Just ignore the horrible dvd and poster design.
Drive – Great “Grindhouse” type movie. The slow build up was great. The lack of emotion from Ryan Gosling played great into his Sociopathic character. The great serial killer vibe toward the end was great. Lot of tensions which is lessened by the stellar 80′s vibe soundtrack. Serious flick.
Source Code – I didn’t love this movie but it wasn’t bad. A great take on the concept of multiple realities and how they may interact with each other with a great twist at the end.
As for the rest of the movies on the list that I seen your pretty spot on.
@Josh I didn’t say I was living in the USA did I? My picks came out in the calendar year where I live.
You won’t hear me getting onto you about Apes. It’s not my personal favorite, but I really do love that movie.
I can’t speak for all that you haven’t seen, but The Artist, War Horse, and Tree of Life are all terrific, and you should definitely get to them as you find yourself able to.
I’m not making my list until I see Take Shelter.
@Wermine
i absolutely agree with Bridesmaids, stopped it at the same scene
This should be called “a list of movies that I need to stop putting off and just freaking watch.”
Except for Source Code and Girl with the Dragon Face Tattoo. Watched and enjoyed both.
Fast Five is one of the best action movies in recent memory? Have you SEEN Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol?
These are some great picks Paul. I agree with almost all of them. Though I haven’t seen 2, 3, 5 an 6, my favorite movie is definitely Drive. Normally I don’t really like those slow movies, but with that great soundtrack it was awesome. Ryan Gosling was also much better then I had expected.
I didn’t like Real Steel so much. That kid was so annoying. Instead of that movie I would give a honorable mention to Crazy, Stupid, Love. I know you didn’t like it, but I really enjoyed it. Could be that I have a man crush on Gosling though.
You should definitely watch Warrior and Melancholia. Some good picks though.
Oh yeah, Rise is my unexpected pick of the year.
Harry Potter?? Come on Paul.
@ DisturbedIndividual
wow, I think you just misinterpreted an entire thought process.
my list.
10. I Saw the Devil
9. Red State
8. Drive
7. Insidious
6. Attack the block
5. 50/50
4. The Woman
3. The Innkeepers
2. Melancholia
1. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
I always enjoy your lists because they are not heavy on movies that only go to 5 theatres in the whole world kinda thing…
The Descendants was very long…George Clooney is always good so there’s that but it doesn’t make my list of bests for the year.
I feel The Help was over-hyped. It was actually kind of dull…I understand the message it makes and racism is bad but it’s more of a ‘meh kinda movie.
I guess I’m going to have to make a serious effort to see X-Men…I’m susprised it has shown up on so many people’s Bests lists (seeing as X-Men United was so panned)
1. Midnight In Paris
2. The Descendants
3. Martha Marcy May Marlene
4. 50/50
5. Hugo
6. Bridesmaids
7. Harry Potter
8. Captain America
9. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
10. Source Code
I thought it was a pretty excellent year for movies
Great choices, which I mostly can agree with. My personal top 10 was different, but great picks!
I loved Drive and X Men: First Class, the rest of the list were either movies I haven’t seen yet or do not want to see. Though I love each explanation of each movie. I agree with Cheryl in that Hugo was overrated.
Movies strangely missing from even your lists of “still to be watched” or “honourable mentions”:
Submarine
Sarah’s Key
And more importantly:
The Guard
And:
Troll Hunter!