2011 was probably my record low in total movies watched. I staggered around enough to see 53 movies. One of my 2011 goals was to read more. I succeeded, but at the expense of movies. Some of the good movies I saw this year were released in late 2010, so the list probably reads a little like last year’s Oscar race.
Best
11. Cowboys & Aliens – James Bond and Indiana Jones fight invading aliens! Better than expected.
10. The Secret in Their Eyes – Murder mystery from Argentina. The rest is a secret.
9. Limitless – I just want to take that mind-expanding drug. Maybe I’ll stop forgetting things. What was I saying?
8. Hall Pass - A decent year for comedies. This was among the better options. And who doesn’t hit Applebee’s to pick up women?
7. Cave of Forgotten Dreams - A fascinating look at the Chauvet caves in France. where the oldest known cave paintings are found. Werner Herzog gets in there, which is off-limits to all of us peons, shows the paintings in all their glory and adds in a bit of philosophizing for effect.
6. X-Men: First Class - An epic load of comic book adaptions hit the big screen in 2011. The ones I saw were all serviceable (thankfully I missed The Green Hornet). The origin story of Magneto and Professor X was the best one, over such tent poles as Capitan America, The Green Lantern and Thor. Thor was a close second.
5. 127 Hours – Watching someone go through the mental process of deciding to cut off his hand to survive is disturbing. A cautionary tale for all adventure seekers.
4. Crazy, Stupid, Love. - An exploration of what it means to be in love. Heartbreak, joy, redemption.
3. The Fighter - Mark Wahlberg – good. Christian Bale – great.
2. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - The Hollywood version with Daniel Craig and Mara Rooney. Remaking foreign language films is always a dicey proposition, because most of the time, why bother? But this is still a great story, and the remake is well done. My only complaint was the opening credits. Why the weird black, stylized James Bond-like sequence that didn’t have any relevance to the movie?
1. The King’s Speech – This won the 2010 Best Picture, but I didn’t see it until 2011. You already know it was good. If you didn’t see it, you probably thought Alvin & the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked should have been on this list.
Worst
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Complicated and pointless. And boring. Even hot mermaids couldn’t lure me under this sea.
4. The Black Swan – What is this? Awful.
3. Winter’s Bone – Winter can keep its bone, thank you very much.
2. Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - As a kid, this was my favorite book from the Chronicles of Narnia. Now watching the crisp, unreal visuals of the ship, the wooden acting, and the zero moments where I cared about any of the characters, I want to punch someone…
1. Sucker Punch – My eyeballs still need a scrubbing after watching this stupid turd squish before my eyes.
