Nerd Mentality

A Year At The Movies

Posted January 4th 2012 by Frankie Aguilar.

As a person who writes reviews, feeling a persistent need to make sure you know exactly how I feel about the movies I see, I'd be remiss if I didn't follow up my now annual 15 Flicks You Gotta See article with a bit of 20/20 hindsight scrutiny. I'd like to tell you that every movie on the 2011 list warranted not only the money you spent in the theater but subsequent DVD rentals as well. As it stands, you couldn't make it out of the month of March without that list falling on its face (thanks, Sucker Punch). I'll admit, I dropped the ball with that one, but can you really blame me? Not just there though, who would've guessed Fast Five would have been more than just another vapid body kit commercial or that Crazy Stupid Love would be more than just another chick flick? So think of this not only as a year in review, or even an open apology letter for steering any of you toward Sucker Punch, but maybe a second shot at what you should've watched in 2011.

The year 2011 will be remembered as a year lacking in originality, but don't take that as a bad thing right off the bat. 2011 saw 28 sequels come to theaters, the largest number of sequels in a single year, and of the top 10 highest-grossing films in the United States, eight were sequels. Add to the astounding number of sequels the continuing trend of the "comic book" movies, and 2011 wasn't filled with the unfamiliar. A few gems popped up though—the aforementioned Crazy Stupid Love surprising the hell out of me—and you'd do well to try a view a few of them.

Cedar Rapids, starring Ed Helms, really started the year out strong, even though a lot of people didn't get a chance to see it because of a lack of nationwide theater release. I wasn't sure if he could hold my attention as the main character of a movie without a drug-induced amnesia plot running behind him, but he pulled it off. Who knew you could find a way to make an insurance conference in Cedar Rapids interesting? But Helms' straight man paired with the manic energy of John C. Reilly found a way. Impress a lady (or gentleman) with this "indie" film, tell them it was an official selection at Sundance, but mostly just watch it.

February had two of the worst movies of the year in it. Big Momma somehow got another sequel in Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son, and the Justin Bieber movie dropped like, well you know where that metaphor was going. March, however, was a pretty big release month with quality abound. The Adjustment Bureau, Battle: Los Angeles, Limitless, The Lincoln Lawyer, and probably my favorite movie of the year in Paul all premiered in March, and were all pretty solid movies. But the blight on the month, maybe even a blight on the entire film industry, was the polished pile of shit that was Sucker Punch. I'm sure books will be written about how terrible Sucker Punch is, so I won't waste too much of your time, but understand that this movie is Gigli bad. Terrible story, acting and directing all got in the way of an overall cool idea, but for as great as it was supposed to be and how awesome it looks, it's not worth viewing at all.

April would've belonged to Fast Five, which I swear to you is really good, if it wasn't for the award juggernaut that was The King's Speech, a film that locked down the Academy Awards for Best Film, Actor, Director and Original Screenplay. You might be asking yourself, wasn't The King's Speech released in 2010? Indeed it was, but the Weinstein Company saw fit to re-release it with some of the profanities muted. Maybe it was for money, maybe they wanted to ratchet down to a PG-13 rating in order to get this award-winning film to a younger audience. Overall, I found it ridiculous, but whatever, the Weinstein's are rich and I sometimes use waffles for bread because I'm a winner.

The summer movie season was the part of the year I was waiting for, being that the majority of the comic book movies debuted from May to July. Thor and Priest in May; X-Men: First Class and The Green Lantern in June; Captain America and Cowboys and Aliens in July—all got my money. Now, I'd be lying to you if I said all of these flicks were good; I'm not enough of a fanboy to try and pass that. Priest was fun to watch, but people are too interested or repelled by sparkly vampires to care about true creatures of the night. The Green Lantern, however, was just lame. Ryan Reynolds looks the part of Hal Jordan, but he didn't pull the character off for me, and outside of the CG Lanterns, not one actor seemed to inhabit their character with any kind of vigor. And Cowboys and Aliens ended up being poorly presented, with an overall disjointed story that jumped around so much that it was difficult to keep track of. Of all the films based on comics, Cowboys and Aliens translated the most poorly from print to film.

The Marvel movies, on the other hand, were fantastic. I guess it's the fanboy in me, or the fact the my illustrious movie reviewing career is partially based on my love for all things Marvel, but all three of the Marvel movie this year were amazing. Of the three, I think X-Men: First Class was the best received, being that it had the most to lose. X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine left a sour taste in X-Fans' mouths and still people were tentative about a reboot. They may have added a few characters unnecessarily, but the performances of James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Professor X and Magneto respectively really turned this into a awesome movie. Add to that the success of Thor and Captain America, both of which are building towards the 2012 blockbuster event of The Avengers, and Marvel, along with myself, had a pretty good summer at the movies.

You can't talk 2011 without talking about the end of an era. For a lot of people who never learned to read, the Harry Potter movies represented a larger magical world for them to escape into, and in 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 would bring an end to that escape. But as countless YouTube videos and Potterhead blog posts will remind you, Magic Never Dies. Being a pretty big Harry Potter fan, both in print and on the big screen, I feel comfortable saying the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2 kind of let me down, somehow finding a way to be more boring than Pt. 1 even though the second half of the story is all action. But nostalgia always seeps into the cracks of my arguments, and I can honestly say I enjoyed it and I'm sad that it's over.

Closing out a year sparse with movies that garnered what people would consider "critical acclaim" were a few movies poised to receive that praise. Martin Scorsese's Hugo and the Steven Spielberg/Peter Jackson collaboration on The Adventures of Tintin (both of which are must-sees in 3D) are gathering up a lot of Academy buzz at the close of the year. Another late push is the David Fincher–directed U.S. adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And as ridiculous as it sounds, throw Spielberg in the running for a few more categories for his War Horse film as well. And don't sleep on Tinker Tailor Solider Spy, a movie I expect to reach the top of the torrent charts in the up coming weeks. You could also make a case for Country Strong or Young Adult, the former of which was pushed to 2011 to avoid being compared to last year's fantastic award winners and the latter as very sad, uncomfortably honest movie. What I'm saying is, you could make a case for them, but I won't.

Overall 2011 was enjoyable in the world of film, containing a bit of everything from for everyone. Outside the movies I picked (again, sorry for Sucker Punch), there were great comedies like The Hangover 2 and Bridesmaids, which were definitely enjoyed by ladies and gentlemen alike. Aching for some awesome foreign films, check out the quasi-alien invasion action flick Attack the Block or the adolescent comedy of The Inbetweeners Movie, both of which come to us from across the pond. Didn't get enough of Simon Pegg or Andy Serkis? Russel up a copy of Burke & Hare.

And if you're thinking to yourself, "2012 is definitely when the world is gonna end, how could there be any good movies left?" Don't worry. My 15 Flicks you Gotta see in 2012 might interest you. Shameless plug ended.

Tags: 15 flicks, Comics, Marvel, x-men, Captain America, Thor, green lantern, cowboys and aliens, sucker punch, harry potter, fast five, hugo, adventures of tintin, the girl with the dragon tattoo, movies

Posted in: Features, Entertainment

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