Built for Speed: Nick’s Best and Worst movies of 2011

BEST FILMS OF 2011

These are Nick’s selections for Best films of 2011.  Each comes with a rating out of 10 and a brief description.

 

 FILM

RATING

  

1

 Another year

9

 Mike Leigh’s chillingly accurate portrayal of disillusioned people in contemporary Britain.

2

 Snow town

8.5

 Speaking of chilling.  Eerily quiet, low key dramatization of the bodies in the barrels murders.

3

 Midnight in Paris

8

 Woody Allen’s love letter to Paris and his literary and artistic heroes.  The Woodster’s still got it.

4

 Get Low

8

 Hilarious dead pan Bill Murray verbally sparring with hirsute grump Robert Duvall about funeral arrangements.

5

 Melancholia

8

 The third film this year (along with Tree of Life and Another Earth) to link cosmic catastrophe and family dysfunction.  Lars Von Triers did it best with this one.  Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress at Cannes for her performance here.

6

 The Trip

8

 The full TV version’s now screening. Brit comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon tour Northern England, review restaurants, bicker and impersonate Michael Caine, Anthony Hopkins etc. Like a mix of Extras and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

7

 Fire in Babylon

8

 Doco about West Indies cricket team of the 70’s & 80’s.  A bit overcooked (so to speak) when discussing their political impact but the film really captures the team’s charisma, personalities and exciting style of play.

8

 The Illusionist

8

 Moving French animated film based on Jacques Tati script.

9

 Rise of the Planet of the Apes

8

 After the Tim Burton abomination who would have believed the Apes could be resurrected so brilliantly.

10

 George Harrison: Living in the material world

8

 3 + hours, not a second wasted.

 

WORST FILMS OF 2011

  FILM

RATING

 
1 Conan: The Barbarian

1

 Horrendous remake replaces any trace of swashbuckling heroism with torture porn.
2 Abduction

2

 Taylor Lautner’s thespian tour de force.  Almost in the “Plan 9 from Outer Space”, so bad it’s good category.
3 Your Highness

2

 Obnoxious medieval fantasy dud. James Franco brings to this film all the scintillating wit and enthusiasm he displayed as Oscars host.
4 Battle: Los Angeles

4

 Tedious propaganda computer game masquerading as movie.
5 The Mechanic

4

 Although a remake of a 70’s film it seemed to be trying to revive that reviled 80’s genre the video nasty.
6 Hangover 2

4

 A group of Hollywood scriptwriters go on an all night bender and wake up to find they’ve lost the guy who wrote all the funny lines in the first Hangover film.
7 Sucker punch

5

 Visually flashy but just another empty, soulless video game.
8 Transformers 3

5

 Giant mutating robots from outer-space I can believe but a supermodel seduced by Shia LaBeouf?
9 New Years Eve

5

 Starts ok and has a cameo from Larry Miller (the doorman from Seinfeld) but ends up leaving a bigger headache and feelings of nausea than the night itself.
10 Hall pass

5

 Farrelly Bros movie where Owen Wilson and Jason Sudekis are given a hall pass by their wives to do whatever they want for week.  More a disappointment than a complete dud.

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