MOVIES
TOP 20 MOVIES IN 2011
1. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, John Hurt
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 15th July 2011
Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their hunt for Horcuxes at Bellatrix’s vault at Gringotts before heading back to Hogwarts, where Snape is now the Headmaster. When Voldemort realises their plan, he too shows up and the stage is set for an epic battle that will leave the school in ruins. In fact their fight sequence expands on what’s witnessed in the book, as some considered that to be a bit too brief. Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a thrilling and genuinely emotional finish to one of the best film series of all time. It deserves its recognition.
2. Drive
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Albert Brooks
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Release Date: 16th September 2011
Action-drama about a Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver. When a criminal job goes horribly wrong, his world begins to unravel. It’s the most visually stylish up and coming director working with one of Hollywood’s most interesting stars. This is a product that harks back to the best movies of old, drawing obvious comparisons to the likes of Bullitt and Day Of The Locust. Drive won the Best Director Award at this year’s Cannes but it’s a movie that pleases the awards crowd, the arthouse crowd and the mainstream crowd.
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Starring: Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Release Date: 9th December 2011
It’s London in the early 70s and a recently retired spy (Oldman) is tasked with finding which of
his former colleagues still in British intelligence is a Soviet spy. Based on the 1974 novel by John le Carré, this has about the best cast you can imagine and a unique style that slow and beautiful to behold – but not for young people seeking thrills. This is a very tense drama aimed at older audiences, or those who looking for something different in the thriller category. Excellent all round, this should have a presence at the Oscars.
4. Hugo
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Jude Law, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley
Director: Martin Scorsese
Release Date: 9th December 2011
Fantasy-adventure based on Brian Selznick’s part-novel part-comic
about an orphan boy in the 1930′s living a secret life in the walls of a
Paris train station where he maintains the clocks, and thieves to
survive. When Hugo encounters a broken automaton, an eccentric girl
(Kick-Ass’s Chloë Moretz), and the reserved man who runs the toy shop,
he is caught up in a magical
adventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy. This is director Martin Scorsese’s first 3D film, and he, predictable enough, brings art to the form. It’s also his first kids movie, but really it’s a love letter to cinema itself (film pioneer Georges Méliès is a major character). The magic of childhood innocence meets the magic of cinema in a dazzling presentation.
5. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Release Date: 24th June 2011
In present day San Francisco experiments with genetic engineering create intelligent apes and trigger a war for supremacy. The focus is on the relationship between Dr. Rodman (Franco), who’s trying to find the cure for his father’s Alzheimer, and the most developed ape, Caesar. Andy Serkis motion-captured that role and gives the best performance of the year. The excellent monkey fx are matched with top notch character work (each has a distinct personality and arc despite being mute). The direction is smart and often thrillingly kinect when a monkey is on the move. And it’s a well plotted script that triumphs despite having some very tricky aspects to cover.
6. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Josh Holloway
Director: Brad Bird
Release Date: 16th December 2011
The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his new team (Renner, Patton, Pegg) to go rogue to clear their organisation’s name. The villains are played by Michael Nyqvist (09′s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds) and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire). Directing duties were given to Pixar animation maestro Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), whose experience of live action was minimal. But it paid off. Critics agree this is the best high-adrenaline action flick of the year, by some way. The edge of your seat tension is capped by the skyscraper sequence, which in Imax is one of the most heart-in-mouth sequences in cinematic history. It’s also the best Mission Impossible movie – not as convolted as the first, bigger in every way than the third.
7. The Artist
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Release Date: 23rd November 2011
It’s 1927 in Hollywood and while a silent movie star wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with a young dancer set for her own big break. The movie is shot as if it’s a silent black and white from the ’20s, and while no dialogue might sound daunting, it reminds us that as much, if not more, can be communicated by the face. The leading man won best actor at Cannes this year. The Artist is just a fantastic idea, brilliantly executed.
8. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (U.S. Remake)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer
Director: David Fincher
Release Date: 20th December 2011
A disgraced journalist (Craig) investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch’s niece 40 years earlier, with the help of a punky computer hacker carrying serious man issues (Mara). Sticking closer to the book and with an on-fire David Fincher at the helm, this is an improvement on the Swedish movie, which was pretty good to begin with. Rooney Mara fully commits to the now iconic role, finding the right balance of agressive edge and vulnerability.
9. X-Men: First Class
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Release Date: 3rd June 2011
60s-set prequel to the X-Men trilogy which focuses on the relationship between Charles (aka Professor X) and Erik (aka Magneto) as young men and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. As Charles establises his school and Erik seeks revenge against his tormentors in the concentration camp, a new mutant threat, Sabastian Shaw, emerges seeking to provoke nuclear war between the superpowers. This is a throughly entertaining movie that plays like a smarter, freakier version of a Bond flick. Fassbender is excellent as Magneto, and Bacon is compelling as Shaw.
10. Bridesmaids
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Jon Hamm, Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper
Director: Paul Feig
Release Date: 13th May 2011
Two feuding bridesmaids (Wiig & Byrne) battle over how to plan their friend’s wedding. Unlike Bride Wars, this isn’t sappy or girly girly. It’s more like a female version of The Hangover, even though it turns more serious in the second half. Ultimately this is Wiig’s tour de force, as she pairs being one of the best comedy actresses around with suprising dramatic skills. The movie was produced by Judd Apatow and directed by Paul Feig, who last worked together on Freaks And Geeks. Bridesmaids has great characters, performances, laughs and replay value.
11. Warrior
Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Release Date: 9th September 2011
The youngest son (Hardy) of an alcoholic former boxer (Nolte) returns home, where he’s trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament – a path that puts the fighter on a collision corner with his older brother (Edgerton). The power this has is making you emotionally invested in both brothers, even though only one can supposedly triumph. Hardy and Nolte in particular are excellent, with the latter likely to be Oscar nominated. The ending is unforgetable.
12. The Descendants
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges
Director: Alexander Payne
Release Date: 18th November 2011
After his wife is put in a coma by a boating accident, Matt (Clooney) tries to reconnect with his two daughters, and ponders whether he should sell his family’s ancentral land in Hawaii to developers. Then he learns a secret about his wife that upends his world again and puts him on a road trip. The director of Sideways and About Schmidt always finds a fantastic tone, floating between subtle hilarity and touching poignancy. As with those previous titles, this is a story of recovery and Clooney gives a textured, human performance that’s one of his best.
13. Midnight In Paris
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates
Director: Woody Allen
Release Date: 10th June 2011
Romantic comedy-fantasy about a discontented screenwriter (Wilson), and his critical fiancée (McAdams) vacationing in Paris with her wealthy, conservative parents. As he takes a midnight walk alone he is magically transported back to the 1920s where he is advised and entralled by its high society, including Salvador Dalí (Brody), T.S. Eliot and Luis Buñuel. Director Woody Allen is very hit and miss but here he nails the charm, the humour and the sentimentality.
14. The Adventures Of Tintin
Starring: (voices) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Daniel Craig
Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: 21st December 2011
Spielberg’s first animated movie is a performance-capture 3D version of Tintin’s initial encounter with Captain Haddock. After unearthing a clue to the treasure of ancestor Sir Francis Haddock, they set out together to find it, with protection from a prison escapee. Daniel Craig voices villainous pirate Red Rackham. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice near-identical detectives Thompson and Thomson. Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital do the animation. And the movie’s biggest strength is the incredibly humanity in that animation – Tintin (Bell) is ageless, graceful, likeable, while Haddock (Serkis) is drunk, bumbling, wistful, and there isn’t a single Zemeckis-style dead eye on offer. This is Spielberg back to his adventuring best.
15. Contagion
Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date: 21st October 2011
Think Bird Flu: The Movie. Action-thriller about a deadly disease and the international team of doctors contracted by the Center for Disease Control to deal with the spread. It’s also about how information spreads virally in the internet age. Contagion is a global story, filmed in 10 countries. Steven Soderbergh directs an excellent cast from a script by the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum. Pleasingly procedural yet still breakneck tense, this works as a chillingly realistic depiction of an event that really could happen any time, and actually did in 1918, less than a hundred years ago.
16. Captain America: The First Avenger
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell
Director: Joe Johnston
Release Date: 22nd July 2011
During World War II, skinny Steve Rogers (Evans) volunteers for an Allied research project which turns him into super soldier ‘Captain America’. Soon he is up against Red Skull (Weaving), Hitler’s head of weaponry, who intends to use a tesseract as an energy-source for world domination. This is an enjoyably old-fashioned adventure set apart from other comic book movies by its ’40s atmosphere. The set pieces serve the narrative rather than the other way round and its filled with enjoyable, shaded performances.
17. Thor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: 29th July 2011
When heir-apparent Thor (Hemsworth) arrogantly ignores his king’s (Hopkins) wishes, he is stripped of his powers and banished from the fantastical realm of Asgard. On earth, Thor must learn humility before his treacherous brother Loki seizes the throne in his absence. This is one of the best movies of 2011 because it was a difficult character and world to introduce to live-action, and Marvel did a very good job. It never strays too far into cheese, and Marvel’s gamble that Kenneth Branagh would bring some Shakespearian gravatas to the court of Asgard paid off. Hemsworth is excellent as Thor.
18. Super 8
Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard
Director: J.J. Abrams
Release Date: 10th June 2011
Set in 1979, this is a homage to Spielberg’s ’70s and ’80s science fiction films, written and directed by J.J.Abrams. It tells the story of a group of small-town teens who are filming a home movie on their super 8 camera when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their neighbourhood. E.T., Close Encounters, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park all have story threads or shots lifted from them, and while some might think it overdoes the tribute this is ultimately nostalgic for a style of filmmaking that is sorely missed.
19. Fright Night
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette
Director: Craig Gillespie
Release Date: 7th October 2011
Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin is Charley, the young man trying to convince everyone that a deadly vampire (Colin Farrell) has moved in next door. Soon he turns to gothic celebrity Peter Vincent (David Tennant) only to discover he’s not the fearless supernatural guru he portrays. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Charley’s best friend ‘Evil’ Ed, and Toni Collette is the mum. The 80s original was an enjoyable, well written comedy horror. This has upped the stakes with a near perfect cast of fun actors, and Farrell is on career best form as the despicable, yet faintly bored, vampire. The sharp script knows how to have fun, without ever losing its intensity.
20. Crazy, Stupid, Love
Starring: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton
Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Release Date: 29th July 2011
A happily married family man (Carell) is shocked when his wife (Moore) asks for a divorce. Now he’s trying to manage the relationship with his kids while finding himself thrust back onto the dating scene. When he realises he’s too deeply uncool to pick up women he enlists the help of a stylish life coach (Gosling). The directors of I Love You Phillip Morris (who wrote Bad Santa before that) bring something wonderfully subversive and entertaining to the ‘marital crisis’ sub-genre. This has the honesty of a good indie movie with the appealing gloss of a Hollywood picture.
1. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Nighy, John Hurt
Director: David Yates
Release Date: 15th July 2011
Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their hunt for Horcuxes at Bellatrix’s vault at Gringotts before heading back to Hogwarts, where Snape is now the Headmaster. When Voldemort realises their plan, he too shows up and the stage is set for an epic battle that will leave the school in ruins. In fact their fight sequence expands on what’s witnessed in the book, as some considered that to be a bit too brief. Deathly Hallows Part 2 is a thrilling and genuinely emotional finish to one of the best film series of all time. It deserves its recognition.
2. Drive
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Albert Brooks
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Release Date: 16th September 2011
Action-drama about a Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who moonlights as a getaway driver. When a criminal job goes horribly wrong, his world begins to unravel. It’s the most visually stylish up and coming director working with one of Hollywood’s most interesting stars. This is a product that harks back to the best movies of old, drawing obvious comparisons to the likes of Bullitt and Day Of The Locust. Drive won the Best Director Award at this year’s Cannes but it’s a movie that pleases the awards crowd, the arthouse crowd and the mainstream crowd.
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Starring: Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, John Hurt
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Release Date: 9th December 2011
It’s London in the early 70s and a recently retired spy (Oldman) is tasked with finding which of
his former colleagues still in British intelligence is a Soviet spy. Based on the 1974 novel by John le Carré, this has about the best cast you can imagine and a unique style that slow and beautiful to behold – but not for young people seeking thrills. This is a very tense drama aimed at older audiences, or those who looking for something different in the thriller category. Excellent all round, this should have a presence at the Oscars.
4. Hugo
Starring: Asa Butterfield, Chloe Moretz, Jude Law, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ben Kingsley
Director: Martin Scorsese
Release Date: 9th December 2011
Fantasy-adventure based on Brian Selznick’s part-novel part-comic
about an orphan boy in the 1930′s living a secret life in the walls of a
Paris train station where he maintains the clocks, and thieves to
survive. When Hugo encounters a broken automaton, an eccentric girl
(Kick-Ass’s Chloë Moretz), and the reserved man who runs the toy shop,
he is caught up in a magicaladventure that could put all of his secrets in jeopardy. This is director Martin Scorsese’s first 3D film, and he, predictable enough, brings art to the form. It’s also his first kids movie, but really it’s a love letter to cinema itself (film pioneer Georges Méliès is a major character). The magic of childhood innocence meets the magic of cinema in a dazzling presentation.
5. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow, Freida Pinto, Tom Felton
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Release Date: 24th June 2011
In present day San Francisco experiments with genetic engineering create intelligent apes and trigger a war for supremacy. The focus is on the relationship between Dr. Rodman (Franco), who’s trying to find the cure for his father’s Alzheimer, and the most developed ape, Caesar. Andy Serkis motion-captured that role and gives the best performance of the year. The excellent monkey fx are matched with top notch character work (each has a distinct personality and arc despite being mute). The direction is smart and often thrillingly kinect when a monkey is on the move. And it’s a well plotted script that triumphs despite having some very tricky aspects to cover.
6. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Starring: Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, Josh Holloway
Director: Brad Bird
Release Date: 16th December 2011
The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in the bombing of the Kremlin, causing Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his new team (Renner, Patton, Pegg) to go rogue to clear their organisation’s name. The villains are played by Michael Nyqvist (09′s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) Léa Seydoux (Inglourious Basterds) and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire). Directing duties were given to Pixar animation maestro Brad Bird (The Incredibles, Ratatouille), whose experience of live action was minimal. But it paid off. Critics agree this is the best high-adrenaline action flick of the year, by some way. The edge of your seat tension is capped by the skyscraper sequence, which in Imax is one of the most heart-in-mouth sequences in cinematic history. It’s also the best Mission Impossible movie – not as convolted as the first, bigger in every way than the third.
7. The Artist
Starring: Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo, John Goodman, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller
Director: Michel Hazanavicius
Release Date: 23rd November 2011
It’s 1927 in Hollywood and while a silent movie star wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with a young dancer set for her own big break. The movie is shot as if it’s a silent black and white from the ’20s, and while no dialogue might sound daunting, it reminds us that as much, if not more, can be communicated by the face. The leading man won best actor at Cannes this year. The Artist is just a fantastic idea, brilliantly executed.
8. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (U.S. Remake)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Rooney Mara, Stellan Skarsgård, Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer
Director: David Fincher
Release Date: 20th December 2011
A disgraced journalist (Craig) investigates the disappearance of a wealthy patriarch’s niece 40 years earlier, with the help of a punky computer hacker carrying serious man issues (Mara). Sticking closer to the book and with an on-fire David Fincher at the helm, this is an improvement on the Swedish movie, which was pretty good to begin with. Rooney Mara fully commits to the now iconic role, finding the right balance of agressive edge and vulnerability.
9. X-Men: First Class
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Lawrence
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Release Date: 3rd June 2011
60s-set prequel to the X-Men trilogy which focuses on the relationship between Charles (aka Professor X) and Erik (aka Magneto) as young men and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. As Charles establises his school and Erik seeks revenge against his tormentors in the concentration camp, a new mutant threat, Sabastian Shaw, emerges seeking to provoke nuclear war between the superpowers. This is a throughly entertaining movie that plays like a smarter, freakier version of a Bond flick. Fassbender is excellent as Magneto, and Bacon is compelling as Shaw.
10. Bridesmaids
Starring: Kristen Wiig, Rose Byrne, Jon Hamm, Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Ellie Kemper
Director: Paul Feig
Release Date: 13th May 2011
Two feuding bridesmaids (Wiig & Byrne) battle over how to plan their friend’s wedding. Unlike Bride Wars, this isn’t sappy or girly girly. It’s more like a female version of The Hangover, even though it turns more serious in the second half. Ultimately this is Wiig’s tour de force, as she pairs being one of the best comedy actresses around with suprising dramatic skills. The movie was produced by Judd Apatow and directed by Paul Feig, who last worked together on Freaks And Geeks. Bridesmaids has great characters, performances, laughs and replay value.
11. Warrior
Starring: Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Release Date: 9th September 2011
The youngest son (Hardy) of an alcoholic former boxer (Nolte) returns home, where he’s trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament – a path that puts the fighter on a collision corner with his older brother (Edgerton). The power this has is making you emotionally invested in both brothers, even though only one can supposedly triumph. Hardy and Nolte in particular are excellent, with the latter likely to be Oscar nominated. The ending is unforgetable.
12. The Descendants
Starring: George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Judy Greer, Beau Bridges
Director: Alexander Payne
Release Date: 18th November 2011
After his wife is put in a coma by a boating accident, Matt (Clooney) tries to reconnect with his two daughters, and ponders whether he should sell his family’s ancentral land in Hawaii to developers. Then he learns a secret about his wife that upends his world again and puts him on a road trip. The director of Sideways and About Schmidt always finds a fantastic tone, floating between subtle hilarity and touching poignancy. As with those previous titles, this is a story of recovery and Clooney gives a textured, human performance that’s one of his best.
13. Midnight In Paris
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates
Director: Woody Allen
Release Date: 10th June 2011
Romantic comedy-fantasy about a discontented screenwriter (Wilson), and his critical fiancée (McAdams) vacationing in Paris with her wealthy, conservative parents. As he takes a midnight walk alone he is magically transported back to the 1920s where he is advised and entralled by its high society, including Salvador Dalí (Brody), T.S. Eliot and Luis Buñuel. Director Woody Allen is very hit and miss but here he nails the charm, the humour and the sentimentality.
14. The Adventures Of Tintin
Starring: (voices) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Daniel Craig
Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: 21st December 2011
Spielberg’s first animated movie is a performance-capture 3D version of Tintin’s initial encounter with Captain Haddock. After unearthing a clue to the treasure of ancestor Sir Francis Haddock, they set out together to find it, with protection from a prison escapee. Daniel Craig voices villainous pirate Red Rackham. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice near-identical detectives Thompson and Thomson. Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital do the animation. And the movie’s biggest strength is the incredibly humanity in that animation – Tintin (Bell) is ageless, graceful, likeable, while Haddock (Serkis) is drunk, bumbling, wistful, and there isn’t a single Zemeckis-style dead eye on offer. This is Spielberg back to his adventuring best.
15. Contagion
Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date: 21st October 2011
Think Bird Flu: The Movie. Action-thriller about a deadly disease and the international team of doctors contracted by the Center for Disease Control to deal with the spread. It’s also about how information spreads virally in the internet age. Contagion is a global story, filmed in 10 countries. Steven Soderbergh directs an excellent cast from a script by the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum. Pleasingly procedural yet still breakneck tense, this works as a chillingly realistic depiction of an event that really could happen any time, and actually did in 1918, less than a hundred years ago.
16. Captain America: The First Avenger
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell
Director: Joe Johnston
Release Date: 22nd July 2011
During World War II, skinny Steve Rogers (Evans) volunteers for an Allied research project which turns him into super soldier ‘Captain America’. Soon he is up against Red Skull (Weaving), Hitler’s head of weaponry, who intends to use a tesseract as an energy-source for world domination. This is an enjoyably old-fashioned adventure set apart from other comic book movies by its ’40s atmosphere. The set pieces serve the narrative rather than the other way round and its filled with enjoyable, shaded performances.
17. Thor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: 29th July 2011
When heir-apparent Thor (Hemsworth) arrogantly ignores his king’s (Hopkins) wishes, he is stripped of his powers and banished from the fantastical realm of Asgard. On earth, Thor must learn humility before his treacherous brother Loki seizes the throne in his absence. This is one of the best movies of 2011 because it was a difficult character and world to introduce to live-action, and Marvel did a very good job. It never strays too far into cheese, and Marvel’s gamble that Kenneth Branagh would bring some Shakespearian gravatas to the court of Asgard paid off. Hemsworth is excellent as Thor.
18. Super 8
Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard
Director: J.J. Abrams
Release Date: 10th June 2011
Set in 1979, this is a homage to Spielberg’s ’70s and ’80s science fiction films, written and directed by J.J.Abrams. It tells the story of a group of small-town teens who are filming a home movie on their super 8 camera when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their neighbourhood. E.T., Close Encounters, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park all have story threads or shots lifted from them, and while some might think it overdoes the tribute this is ultimately nostalgic for a style of filmmaking that is sorely missed.
19. Fright Night
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette
Director: Craig Gillespie
Release Date: 7th October 2011
Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin is Charley, the young man trying to convince everyone that a deadly vampire (Colin Farrell) has moved in next door. Soon he turns to gothic celebrity Peter Vincent (David Tennant) only to discover he’s not the fearless supernatural guru he portrays. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Charley’s best friend ‘Evil’ Ed, and Toni Collette is the mum. The 80s original was an enjoyable, well written comedy horror. This has upped the stakes with a near perfect cast of fun actors, and Farrell is on career best form as the despicable, yet faintly bored, vampire. The sharp script knows how to have fun, without ever losing its intensity.
20. Crazy, Stupid, Love
Starring: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton
Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Release Date: 29th July 2011
A happily married family man (Carell) is shocked when his wife (Moore) asks for a divorce. Now he’s trying to manage the relationship with his kids while finding himself thrust back onto the dating scene. When he realises he’s too deeply uncool to pick up women he enlists the help of a stylish life coach (Gosling). The directors of I Love You Phillip Morris (who wrote Bad Santa before that) bring something wonderfully subversive and entertaining to the ‘marital crisis’ sub-genre. This has the honesty of a good indie movie with the appealing gloss of a Hollywood picture.
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