Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:
Cars 2 - Odd, I've seen many comments son how Pixar had never made a bad movie till this one, and its lets Pixar down, but I really loved it. Me and the boys where huge fans of the original film, and this one was a nice idea on a sequel, rather than just having them sit around Radiator Springs again. Can't really fault the film, excellent overall.

The key here is understanding how good "worst pixar film" can still be.

I loved captain america and planet of the apes

2011 was a really terrible year for blockbuster movies. Each looked more missable than the one before it. I mean, look at the list of the top ten grossing films of the year;

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Kung Fu Panda 2
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
Fast Five
The Hangover Part II
The Smurfs
Cars 2
Rio

I was more than happy to miss every film on that list, and will likely never even bother to watch them on DVD. That'd have to be the first time that the entire top 10 list of films was completely missable.

That said, there was a an excellent number of lower profile films released during the year.

We Need to Talk About Kevin - there's some arty elements that are distracting and unnecessary, but Tilda Swindon is fantastic and the story of a mother and son's completely broken relationship and it's tragic consequences.
The Guard - Funny as feth, and with more than a bit to say. A top notch little movie.
The Ides of March - I suspect a lot of you would worry about director George Clooney's politics showing through in this film, the film is focussed entirely on the game of politics, and how even with the best intentions the game is utterly corrosive.
The Tree of Life - this is a love it or hate it movie. Most of you would know director Terrence Malick as that guy who turned the battle of Guadalcanal into a treatise of the nature of man... well this one doesn't even have the war scenes. It's all heavy, existential pondering told with camera tricks and wonderful vision. I loved it, but I can totally see why plenty of people wouldn't.
Contagion - A really smart, well told story of an outbreak. Finally a believable take on a story that's been told many times.
The King's Speach - a very good movie, but there is an undeniable feeling of 'this movie is Oscar bait, watch how we make speaches' that stops it being truly great.


There's also a lot of really promising movies coming out leading up to Christmas, or coming out just after.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Hugo
War Horse
The Descendants
The Adventures of Tintin
J Edgar

I am Number Four - teen comic book action. Fun if your expectations are sensibly low.

Unknown - Fun; not as well-made as Taken, but less self-indulgent. January Jones is just too young-looking to play Neeson's wife, just as she was to play Emma Frost.

The Adjustment Bureau- Not bad. Emily Blunt luminous. Damon not at his best. I can always get behind a Philip K Dick mind feth, but this one was relatively tame.

Limitless- Pretty solid. One of Bradley Cooper's better roles, and De Niro not phoning it in as much as usual.

Sucker Punch- Did not live up to its strong visuals, but overall I still enjoyed it. Needed a bit more story and emotional buy-in. I appreciated how dark it was, though.

The King's Speech- Excellent but not mind blowing by any means. For this period a movie I saw this year which was a nice suspenseful surprise was Glorious 39.

Hanna- Fun take on this concept. The Chemical Brothers score was a pleasant surprise.

Your Highness- Disappointing. I like these guys, I enjoyed Pineapple Express, I like Natalie Portman and Zooey Deschanel, and I love D&D. And this still only had a few bright moments for me.

Thor- Not a great story, but I liked the cast, I liked the performances, I was totally into the classic Jack Kirby visuals and crazy old-school Marvel mingling of classic myth and comic book space alien wackiness. Overall enjoyable.

X-Men First Class- One of the better things I saw in the theater this year. Not amazing, but generally solid performances all around. Fassbender kicking ass, as usual.

Conan- Not nearly as good a movie as the original, but a passable sword & sorcery flick, and Momoa did a decent job, hopefully loosening the stranglehold Arnie Blackblack's had on this character in the public imagination. If this paves the way for a movie even halfway true to Howard's original stories, I'll remember it fondly.

Contagion- Pretty great. Excellent, realistic portrayal of how this would/could go down. Good performances, believable story.

Puss in Boots- Good family fun.

In a Better World- Really good. Been getting into Scandinavian film a bit the last few years, and this Danish entry is excellent all the way around.

There are a bunch of other movies I really want to see but haven't yet for one reason or another. Have barely been getting out the movies at all this year.

sebster wrote:We Need to Talk About Kevin - there's some arty elements that are distracting and unnecessary, but Tilda Swindon is fantastic and the story of a mother and son's completely broken relationship and it's tragic consequences.
The Guard - Funny as feth, and with more than a bit to say. A top notch little movie.
The Ides of March - I suspect a lot of you would worry about director George Clooney's politics showing through in this film, the film is focussed entirely on the game of politics, and how even with the best intentions the game is utterly corrosive.
The Tree of Life - this is a love it or hate it movie. Most of you would know director Terrence Malick as that guy who turned the battle of Guadalcanal into a treatise of the nature of man... well this one doesn't even have the war scenes. It's all heavy, existential pondering told with camera tricks and wonderful vision. I loved it, but I can totally see why plenty of people wouldn't.
Contagion - A really smart, well told story of an outbreak. Finally a believable take on a story that's been told many times.
The King's Speach - a very good movie, but there is an undeniable feeling of 'this movie is Oscar bait, watch how we make speaches' that stops it being truly great.

I also liked We Need to Talk About Kevin. Granted, I am enormously biased in that I love pretty much anything Tilda Swinton does (I even liked I Am Love). Good use of foreshadowing throughout the movie. I also liked the senselessness of it, at the end. Man that kid pulled off brutish evil fantastically.

The Guard was also pretty high on my list for best movie of the year. It was a really good time.

For Ides, I'm less concerned with Clooney's politics then I am with Clooney himself, I find the man enormously unlikable. Atop that, the advertising for it was so very aggressive it was a huge turn off for me.

Contagion also really swell, if sort of a downer.

Clooney can be a little annoying. I really like him in some stuff. Oh Brother Where Art Thou? right up at the top.

Ouze wrote:I also liked We Need to Talk About Kevin. Granted, I am enormously biased in that I love pretty much anything Tilda Swinton does (I even liked I Am Love). Good use of foreshadowing throughout the movie. I also liked the senselessness of it, at the end. Man that kid pulled off brutish evil fantastically.

I thought the little kid was marvellous as well. Just pure malevolence.

The foreshadowing was great, I think it was one of the rare times a non-linear narrative really worked (usually it ranges from annoying to harmless).

For Ides, I'm less concerned with Clooney's politics then I am with Clooney himself, I find the man enormously unlikable. Atop that, the advertising for it was so very aggressive it was a huge turn off for me.

Which is fine, but all I can say is that it's a really good movie, featuring a wonderful cast, Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marissa Tomei and George Clooney, with Ryan Gosling standing out amongst them. It's also absolutely believable, in the sense of having a plot that feels like a series of things that would actually play out as the movie shows, and rarest thing of all, it actually has smart people talking like actual smart people, and not necessarily making the right choice, but using their intellect to make the choices they make.

Alright, I'll give Ides a spin.

Ouze wrote:Alright, I'll give Ides a spin.

Awesome! Tell me what you think of it, even if it's just to abuse me

The thing about Pixar is that they make movies. Full Stop. They don't put out Oscar bait every single time. Everything isn't going to be Wall-E or Up. Sometimes they put out a good family movie that the adults will get a kick out of like the Incredibles or anything Toy Story. Occasionally they just put out a pure kids movie like Cars 2. What gets murky is they don't tell you what it's going to be ahead of time and everything is in the same Pixar style. So are you getting Up, The Incredibles, or Cars 2? You dunno until you see it.

Cars 2 is even more forgetable than Cars for me but my 5 year old loves them both. So mission accomplished Pixar.

Kings Speech: Actually a really good movie. Nothing like I usually go for but the wife wanted to see it and I had a good time. Two hours of film that was more than worth watching.

I still wanna see Contagion, Your Highness (if only for Natalie Portman), Hanna, X-Men First class, and Conan. I'm on the fence about Ides.

Wait King's Speech was this year? Add that to my last of Great.

IIRC it went wide release this year, after having a limited release at the end of 2010 mostly just so it could qualify for the 2011 Oscars.

That was indeed excellent. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and only like movies with Royals generally when they are are in scenes being treated by Doctor Guillotine.

This one doesn't focus on royals, but it's a good, rather creepy mystery set in 1939 England:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/glorious_39/

Not perfect, but pretty darn good. There is a sad bit about pets prior to the blitz, though.

Frazzled wrote:Harry Potter. I thought it sucked balls on an epic scale and kept hoping for an Arclight strike to put it and me out of my misery, but the Wife and Genghis Connie liked it (but were vested in it).

As someone vested in the Harry Potter universe, I thought it was decent; some of the scenes just didn't make sense, though I it reaffirmed my beleif that Snape is a great actor.

Also, I thought Genghis Connie was what you called your wife

Thor. It sucked as bad as I thought it would. What exactly is Loki's motivation again?

I honestly liked Thor, even if it was rather campy.

Loki was actually a very complex character; He loved his father, Odin, despite the fact that he was a Frost Giant by blood. He knew that his brother, Thor, would make a TERRIBLE king, and so when Thor was desposed of and Odin fell into Odinsleep, he tried everything in his power to destroy the greatest threat to his people, the Frost Giants, all the while keeping his brother off the throne.

He was more of an Antagonist then an actual Villian, honestly.

How about you's guys?

Answered ya.

Tyyr wrote:The thing about Pixar is that they make movies. Full Stop. They don't put out Oscar bait every single time. Everything isn't going to be Wall-E or Up. Sometimes they put out a good family movie that the adults will get a kick out of like the Incredibles or anything Toy Story. Occasionally they just put out a pure kids movie like Cars 2. What gets murky is they don't tell you what it's going to be ahead of time and everything is in the same Pixar style. So are you getting Up, The Incredibles, or Cars 2? You dunno until you see it.

Cars 2 is even more forgetable than Cars for me but my 5 year old loves them both. So mission accomplished Pixar.

Sort of. There's the films Pixar wants to do, like Up and Wall-E, and there's the film that corporate management requires them to make, because that's where the money is.

Fact is, despite all their films being solid box office performers, and despite Cars and Cars 2 being their most poorly reviewed and least loved among the fans, they are also the most financially successful. Not because of the box office, but because this;


just doesn't move as many lunchboxes as this;

If cars and cars 2 represents pixar selling out, I am ok with them selling out now and then to bankroll the rest. They weren't actually bad bad.

Pixar's involvement is one of the greatest things giving me hope for John Carter.

Slarg232 wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Harry Potter. I thought it sucked balls on an epic scale and kept hoping for an Arclight strike to put it and me out of my misery, but the Wife and Genghis Connie liked it (but were vested in it).

As someone vested in the Harry Potter universe, I thought it was decent; some of the scenes just didn't make sense, though I it reaffirmed my beleif that Snape is a great actor.

Also, I thought Genghis Connie was what you called your wife
.

A Primer:
Genghis Connie: (Daughter) Future ruler of known space and currently head of 1,000 Tumen lurking in the hills above Austin. This time they are armed with Henry repeaters, not short bows though. In the future you will know her as Great Khan.

She Who Must Be Obeyed (Wife). No curb is safe when she is driving the soccermobile of doom. I taught her everything she knows about shooting. This has been widely viewed as a bad move.

The Boy (teenager). Once boy genius now teenager genius. Year and a half and its fly little bird fly! (quick change the locks!)He’s smarter than I am but that’s not exactly difficult. I can still take him in Alpha Games though. His friends are afraid of me.

Rusty (aka Rusty Tiger by GC). Dad’s old dog, recently retired to the Austin house. He is a Caucasian mountain dog mix and pants when its -200 Kelvin. He’s ancient and a tank but one of the friendliest dogs you’ll ever meet.

Rodney The Rocket (aka Young Man, the Shanker or Bonecrusher by GC). The youngest and largest of the two wiener dogs. Was an abused stray puppy until found. Has scars and a terrible fear of boys on wheeled things. He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed. Tbone uses him as a chew toy and seeing eye dog.

Troy or TBone (aka Old Man or called Terrax the Overlord by GC). Ancient wizened mini wiener rescue. Also abused and bounced from home to home. Has seizures but thankfully not in a long while. He is OCD about playing fetch with small balls, has about three teeth and can’t see non-moving things. But he’s mean, spiteful, the Dark Side’s Yoda of wiener dogs.


EDIT: Its interesting that Pizar is a part of John Carter. I thought their reason for the season was "children's" films.

EDIT: Its interesting that Pizar is a part of John Carter. I thought their reason for the season was "children's" films.

Not at all. As Sebster said, they make multiple different kinds of movies; their ouvre is really just computer animated movies, not purely ones for kids. From what I heard John Carter isn't/can't be a "Pixar" movie because it's live action. So Pixar's handling all the computer animation/creatures/digital post-production. I just hope their mentality/effort level in regards to story and script is in place for this one, too.

On another note, we watched The Debt last night. Really good. One of the best things I've seen which came out this year.

You guys should watch the documentary "The Pixar Story" if you haven't already. It's very good and on netflix.

Saw Ides of March. Was a great movie, I thought; one of the few where i ended and I wished it had kept going. Clooney was pretty downplayed. Some of the turns were a little predictable, though, although I did not guess who was on the phone in the hotel. Glad I watched it.

Saw Moneyball last night, thought it was one of Brad Pitts best films. Really enjoyed watching that.
Seeing Another Earth tonight, not sure what to expect with that really, watched the trailer and it looked fairly interesting but i'm not expecting too much.

Ouze wrote:Saw Ides of March. Was a great movie, I thought; one of the few where i ended and I wished it had kept going. Clooney was pretty downplayed. Some of the turns were a little predictable, though, although I did not guess who was on the phone in the hotel. Glad I watched it.

Excellent!

I am a little surprised that "Limitless" was only mentioned by one of you. That is definitely worth a watch.

dantower wrote:I am a little surprised that "Limitless" was only mentioned by one of you. That is definitely worth a watch.

I guess?

I mean, if the movie is about a character who is insanely smart, he should not be continually one step behind the audience. Just a thought.

I concur that 2011 was pretty poor for blockbuster entertainment, though I personally thought was Thor was pretty good (best Avenger movie so far IMHO)

My film viewing decisions have also been appalling this year. I used to be great at seeing the indie gems like Trollhunter, but now I let them pass by in favour of blockbuster averageness (the drawback of having a small child means I have to pick and choose what I watch).

I refuse to let myself be brainwashed into seeing event movies in 2012... except for TDKR and Avengers ...... bother I forgot about the The Hobbit... and Skyfall... damn it! Definitely not watching Man of Steel or The Amazing Spiderman though, so yay me.

Frazzled wrote:

blackclaw1 wrote:Out of interest what was it you disliked about priest ,probably one of my favored movies of the year?

A lack of acting, plot, and mostly just kind of boring.

Fair enough , it's a shame the producers bought the rights to a completely un-related comic as the comic sounds much better.

Didn't get to the cinema much this year so only caught a couple of new flicks.

Not a movie as such but was on at the cinema, Senna was absolutely brilliant and very moving at the end.
The Inbetweeners was pretty funny as well, my mate who's a fan of the series wasn't too impressed but i liked it. Thought it was quietly well observed in places in amongst the gross out humour.

Slarg232 wrote:

Frazzled wrote:Harry Potter. I thought it sucked balls on an epic scale and kept hoping for an Arclight strike to put it and me out of my misery, but the Wife and Genghis Connie liked it (but were vested in it).

As someone vested in the Harry Potter universe, I thought it was decent; some of the scenes just didn't make sense, though I it reaffirmed my beleif that Snape is a great actor.

You mean Alan rickman?