2011 Films

All the films I saw at the cinema in 2011 ranked in order of preference:

1. Hugo
2. Drive
3. The Guard
4. Black Swan
5. Senna
6. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
7. True Grit
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin
9. Midnight In Paris
10. The Skin I live in
11. The King’s Speech
12. Moneyball
13. Stake Land
14. Kill List
15. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
16. Another Earth
17. Melancholia
18. Warrior
19. 127 Hours
20. The Way
21. Julia’s Eyes
22. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
23. Troll Hunter
24. 50/50
25. Source Code
26. Submarine
27. Super 8
28. 13 Assassins
29. A Lonely Place To Die
30. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
31. The Adjustment Bureau
32. X-Men: First Class
33. Thor
34. Captain America: The First Avenger
35. Limitless
36. My Week With Marilyn
37. The Inbetweeners Movie
38. Take Shelter
39. The Rum Diary
40. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
41. The Ides Of March
42. Real Steel
43. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
44. Fair Game
45. Never Let Me Go
46. Blue Valentine
47. Tree Of Life
48. The Lincoln Lawyer
49. The Help
50. In Time
51. The Awakening
52. Sucker Punch
53. Fast Five
54. Hanna
55. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
56. Wuthering Heights
57. Contagion
58. The Fighter
59. Paul
60. Animal Kingdom
61. NEDS
62. Rabbit Hole
63. One Day
64. John Carpenter’s The Ward
65. Drive Angry
66. The Beaver
67. Beginners
68. Bridesmaids
69. Red State
70. Cowboys and Aliens
71. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
72. The Conspirator
73. The Art of Getting By
74. I am Number Four
75. Fright Night
76. Henry’s Crime
77. Blitz
78. Priest
79. Red Riding Hood
80. Oranges and Sunshine
81. Faster
82. 1920 The Battle of Warsaw
83. Win Win
84. Colombiana
85. Water for Elephants
86. Immortals
87. Battle: Los Angeles
88. 30 Minutes or Less
89. Hereafter
90. Biutiful
91. The Mechanic
92. The Thing
93. The Three Musketeers
94. Anonymous
95. Tomorrow, When The War Began
96. The Debt
97. Green Lantern
98. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
99. Footlose
100. Justice
101. Attack the Block
102. Apollo 18
103. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
104. Unkown
105. Scream 4
106. The Silent House
107. The Eagle
108. The Resident
109. Season of the Witch
110. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
111. The Hangover: Part II
112. Sanctum

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Movie of the Month: September 2011

The best month of movies that I can remember in a long time, this is what I have seen:

The Art of Getting By: A well made and well acted coming of age drama that is engaging but lightweight.

Fright Night: Fun but ultimately pointless remake of an 80’s comedy/horror that was fun but pointless.

Kill List: Bonkers, bizarre and seriously fucked up horror/thriller that is strangely good.

Apollo 18: Yet another crappy “found footage” horror.

Troll Hunter: Brilliant but as silly as it sounds, the antidote to crappy “found footage” horror movies.

Colombiana: A week plot and silly premise but surprisingly enjoyable revenge thriller.

A Lonely Place To Die: Sadly overlooked thriller that sees a group of climbers take on the wilderness of the Scottish Highlands and a pair of truly sinister kidnappers.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The BBC adaptation of John le Carré’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is possibly the best spy thriller I have ever seen, I think the movie may just be better.

30 Minutes or Less: Some good moments but a silly idea and not enough laughs let this action adventure comedy down.

Drive: Possibly the most stylish movie you will see all year, if you are not yet aware of who Ryan Gosling is you soon will be. Brutal but mesmerising.

Warrior: MMA (mixed martial arts) is the fastest growing sport in the world, the first credible mainstream movie about the sport offers us nothing new that we didn’t see in Rocky 35 years ago, it is predicable and clichéd but so well made, compelling and engrossing that it really doesn’t matter.

I previous months Kill List, Troll Hunter and A Lonely Place To Die would have been good enough be awarded movie of the month, but all are surpassed by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Drive and Warrior, all of which have a good chance of making my top ten movies of the year. Its really tough to choose between them as they are all very different but one does just edge it, the movie of the month is:

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Found Footage Double Bill

First released thirty years ago Cannibal Holocaust (1980) is the first found footage movie that I am aware of. When The Blair Witch Project (1999) came along nearly two decades later it was still a relatively fresh concept having only been used a handful of times. In recent years it has been done to death with movies like Paranormal Activity (2007) (and its sequels), Clover field (2008) and The Last Exorcism (2010). Found footage movies are essentially a sub genre of horror, and like many horror movies they have become repetitive and tedious but every once in a while there is still a great example of the like the Spanish zombie/infection thriller REC (2007).

More by scheduling chance than by design I saw two found footage movies yesterday.  The Troll Hunter (2010): A student documentary about a bear poacher takes a new direction when the filmmakers realise the bear attacks are being staged to hide Norway’s biggest secret, Trolls really exist! Despite the low budget the effects are very good, the absolutely absurd story is played out totally deadpan, surprisingly it really works. An American remake of The Troll Hunter has already been announced.  Apollo 18 (2011): In the real world the Apollo 18 mission was cancelled, the premise of the movie is that it went ahead in secret. The movie is well shot and has a few tense moments, but also has a huge hole in the plot.

I would recommend The Troll Hunter even if you have had enough of found footage movies, Apollo 18 probably one for diehard fans of the genre.

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