I just read my 2010 “best of” list. I said The Fighter was the best movie. I also have True Grit in my top ten (#9). I can’t stick by Grit. It’s been awhile since I’ve wanted to watch The Fighter. But I still stand by it. Contraband comes out this weekend.
I got really negative in my worst of section last year. Too negative. I’m going to talk less this year. Well I’m going to try to.
Here are the numbers for 2011 -
In 2011 I saw 128 movies in the theater. I saw 99 movies outside of the theater. That’s 227 movies over-all. 25 more than last year. Not every movie in the theater was something I hadn’t seen before. It will take me a minute, but I’m gonna transcribe my list of all these movies into blog form and write a 1-2 sentence review for each. This will be a gift/task for myself and a bonus for all of y’all.
2011 was a weird Year.
I feel a major disconnect with the mainstream critical picks. I don’t buy or accept the praise and I don’t really want to see too many of the movies they champion. I’m trying to erase obligation from my movie-going habits, but also maintain steady, steady, constant, constant viewing.
But it’s weird. I feel like I’m constantly dwelling on the disappointments I find in the movies. Movies of all stripes. I can’t focus on the positive elements. Something is amiss and I have a hard time feeling that there’s something wrong with me.
CLOME SELECTS TEN BEST MOVIES OF 2011
Let’s jump into the top ten. I had a difficult time rating them, but during a conversation with a friend I was reminded that this list is not just about the movies that I enjoyed, but about the movies that I wish to champion or at the very least recommend.
10. HANNA – Hanna was one of the first mainstream releases that I saw in 2012 that really hit me. Almost pure style to a fault. Super crazy fun. But takes its preposterousness seriously. This is important for me in an action film. Loved Saorise Ronan. Loved the friendship with the little British girl. Loved the bizarre love triangle between Hanna and the two british kids. Madcap music and crazy editing that hit on all the right levels.
Saw it a second time and still liked it, but not as much… That happened a lot… in 2011
9. 13 ASSASSINS –
Another movie I saw twice. Another movie that lost some impact the second time around. The first time though. The first time was exhilarating. I saw it at the Paramount Theater at its SXSW premiere. It was a packed house and everyone was into it. Almost too into it. The cheering almost got to be too much, but my general rule is that any audience reaction is a great audience reaction. I had some very strong feelings this first time. It reminded me why of I loved samurai films. It was the most fun I had had watching a samurai flick since the first time I had seen Seven Samurai. I’ve always had a bit of trouble getting into Miike, but this was such an effective movie-movie.
The assassins are all great. Koji Yakusho is fantastic. But the villain… The target of the assassination is so awesomely, despicably, unacceptably evil and his dispatching is so goddamn satisfying.
8. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES -
This was an all too pleasant surprise. Saw it on a whim. Had heard almost nothing but good things, which all went against my massive twitter war against the film. So I got some street meat, hit the subway trains and got to the theater just in time. Made a real mess around me with all that food and all that sauce. Got some heart burn. Really enjoyed the movie. Solid but silly Sci-Fi. Subtitled Apes. Weird unnecessary Charlton Heston references. I really love the shirt Brian Cox wears in one part. That kid from Harry Potter is way too evil to believe. Owes quite a bit to the seminal Matthew Broderick film Project X. Best Sci-fi movie in years. Classic throwback but new shit in all the best ways. James Franco = mad decent again. Second Favorite Monkey Movie.
7. SUPER –
The best Kevin Bacon movie of 2011. Also best superhero movie. Mad fucked-up love story. Juno rapes Dwight. Beautiful Scene. Michael Rooker doesn’t do much. Inevitably be compared to Kick-Ass but its very much it’s own thing. Just as unrealistic in some ways, but way more interesting. All these wannabe superheroes are sickos. A real impressive achievement in terms of the shooting time and budget size. But the best part of this movie was Kevin Bacon walking into the IFCCenter screening late eating from a big ole box of popcorn.
6. BRIDESMAIDS - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLnHFDPwoWs
I went to see this with Katie Rotondi and while she was getting a soda, the woman next to me leaned in and said “You’re such a good guy for coming to see this with her. I wanted to see The Hangover 2 myself.” What a dumb lady.
5. IMMORTALS -
Mickey Rourke gives his best performance since The Wrestler. The second best Rourke Performance in the modern Rourke era. His literal scene-chewery is practically enough to add this to any and all best lists. Immortals has some of the best eating scenes of 2011 and they’re all Rourke all the time. His King Hyperion is a villain for the age$. All Age$. I did not expect to like this movie. I never finished Tarsem Singh’s The Cell and The Fall looked like garbage. The initial trailer for Immortals looked like an even worse retread of 300 territory. But the movie was actually and literally and wonderfully and so stupidly great. There is a total disregard for any real Greek mythology, but you still get an effective & fun take on the hero’s journey. The slow motion action and violence plays like wonderful choreographed dances. There’s this head hammeringly brilliant scene hidden in the middle that Andrew Parrish really likes. Brain breaking. This movie is so stupid. I love it. Legit great. How can Stephen Dorff be the Gimli-esque comic relief? Why is Kris Humphries playing Poseidon? I love Luke Evans as Zeus. Him and his Mesmerizing abs.
4. UNCLE BOONME WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES -
I need to watch this again. I can’t remember nearly as much as I’d like to. Best Monkey Demons in any film this year.
3. FAST FIVE -
I had never seen any fast/furious movie in its entirety until the week that Fast Five came out. I jumped in headfirst that week. I think Fast Five stands on its own ground as a fantastic and fantastically absurd action movie in the grand tradition of True Hollywood Blockbusterdom, but what’s even more incredible is the way it builds upon the shaky foundations of its lesser predecessors.* Fast Five takes the best aspects of the first four films – the characters – and utilizes the fucking hell out of them. Everyone is back. Everyone that matters. And Tyrese is still Hungry. Amazing how great Tyrese is in these flicks and how wasted he is in the Transformers movies. But this movie also has The Rock. And for the first time he earns it. He is a movie star. He’s the best thing in the movie and they even let him kill the bad guy.
Oh yeah and Osama Bin Laden got killed when I saw Fast Five.
*Lesser doesn’t include Tokyo Drift, which is a pretty wonderful film in its own right. Probably a better movie than Fast Five in the long run.
2. DRIVE -
This ended up this high almost just through the process of elimination. That makes it sound like I didn’t like this movie that much, but I did. If you asked me what my best movie of 2011 was right after I saw Drive, I would have said Drive. Such great tension was built and built and exploded multiple times. Everyone is great. Even TV actor Bryan Cranston holds his own against movie titans Ron “HB” Perlman & Al Brooks. R. Gosling wins me over and doesn’t say anything. A wonderful remake of Shane with great great shades of Thief*. Refn finally does it for me all the way. The best fucking soundtrack. So good you got sick of it in weeks, especially when kids play it at their fucking parties. This movie does everything it wanted to do as a movie. And it does a great job of being a movie. It remakes the beginning of The Driver, but is a better movie over-all and it doesn’t have the luxury of starring a 1970s-era Bruce Dern or even a 1970s Isabella Adjani. Love the backlash+. Hated the subway ad campaign.
*(Thief was my favorite movie that I watched in 2010)
+ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/board/nest/188479292)
1. CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS/ INTO THE ABYSS -
Cave of Forgotten Dreams made me laugh and cry upon repeated viewings. Only necessary use of 3D in any recent movie. Best ending of 2011. Best narration. Herzog comes close to a History Channel style documentary and I love it. Into the Abyss is a completely different kind of movie. Didn’t even feel like a movie. Life is terrible. Life is beautiful.
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W.O.W. What a year at the movies? But wait we’re not done yet, before getting to the BOTTOM TEN WORST MOVIES OF 2011 here are some special awards.
CLOME SELECTS $PECIAL AWARD$ 2011
MOST HILARIOUS AND DISCONCERTING MOMENT AT A MOVIE - Almost getting kicked out of DRIVE ANGRY 3D, because of Keith Haskel’s uncontrollable laughing.
THREE BAD MOVIES I REALLY ENJOYED WATCHING –
3. The Three Musketeers - The only Paul W. S. Anderson movie that I have ever seen in a movie theater and one of the only Paul W. S. Anderson movies that I have ever enjoyed. This flick is an utterly disrespectful, bullshit mess, but ya know what… it was pretty fun. Impeccably cast. Christoph Waltz may only appear to be more bored on the terrible Carnage poster. Ray Stevenson has a facsinating career. Mila is having so much fun, but is she having more fun than ORLANDO BLOOM? What is Orlando wearing? There’s all these flying ships in the movie. Why?
2. Scre4m – I had so much fun at this packed screening. I almost tried to defend this movie as being good, but its terrible. Props to Eric Roberts daughter for kicking her own ass.
1. Shame- Good acting. Well-made. Dumb as hell. And it takes itself so seriously, which is perfect. The first half is a lot of fun. Treads so much familiar ground, but its moves by at a fast clip and the laughs keep coming. What New York is this? What is this graffiti on the subway? Who are these Europeans masquerading around as Nu Yowrkers. James Badge Dale knocks it out of the park. The Restaurant Date scene is legitimate comedy. The second half takes too long and marches out the movie cliches of a night gone out of control. Oh you’re so depraved, Brandon. A bar fight. A gay BJ. (I wish I was having my b-day party at Quo). A 3-way! and an attempted suicide in the bathroom!? What is this, film school? ALSO – Michael Fassbender looks like a Velociraptor when his mouth is shut.
GREAT MOMENTS in BAD MOVIES
- The Beaver - Gibson fights the beaver. Mel Gibson jumps into Evil Dead 2 and fights The Beaver (his hand) in a duel to the death. Remember how he drove the nail in to the cross with his own hand in The Passion*??? What a scene? What a miserable movie.
*Of the Christ.
-Hall Pass - The Ending Scene with Stephen Merchant is actually really funny. Almost made the whole film worth it.
BEST TRIPLE FEATURE – Cave of Forgotten Dreams/13Assassins/Silver Bullets = exhilaration
MOST APPROPRIATE DOUBLE FEATURE – The Skin I live in/ The Woman = sometimes things just work out. Modern b-movie extravaganza. The stylish mad-scientist shocker and the low-grade, low-budget Weirdo family with a secret.
This year I saw three new NIC CAGE movies and they were all un-forgiveably terrible. Here’s how rank them in descending order.
3. Drive Angry 3D – sick of movies that are trying to be so bad they’re amazing. Almost saved by David Morse and Keith Haskel.
2. Trespass - Nicole Kidman has never been such a disaster. How did this happen?
1. Season of the Witch - starts out so promising. Why did this happen?
TO BE CONTINUED I….
CLOME SELECTS: 2011 in REVIEW pt. 2 – THE WORST
