Review of 2011

FOREWORD, INCLUDING LAME EXCUSES

So I had this great idea. I decided that in the last week of the year, I'd look back over the films I watched in 2011 and make a list of the ten I liked best. A Top 10 Movies of 2011, if you will. Smart, eh? Can't believe no-one else has thought of doing it.

Anyway, around 350 new films were released this year in the UK. Because I am in huge demand for after-dinner speeches, celebrity bashes and children's parties, I've only had time to see a fraction of these. So, in truth, I'm in no position to cast judgement on this year's films. But I'm going to anyway, because I like to live on the edge. Of those I didn't see, the likes of The Skin I Live In, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Big Mommas : Like Father, Like Son might well have made it on here if I'd seen them in time. But I didn't. So there you go.

Anyway, here's the Top 10 films of 2011 that I did see. To be honest, none of these really knocked my socks off, but they're all pretty good. Click on the links to see my reviews.

Top 10 Movies of 2011
  1. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  2. The King's Speech
  3. Submarine
  4. Senna
  5. Attack the Block
  6. Drive
  7. True Grit
  8. Source Code
  9. Blue Valentine
  10. 127 Hours
Impressed? Thought not. Well, you can get a few critical lists that are more informed, wide-ranging and generally put together with more thought here, here and here. And here.Turns out other people had thought of doing this too. What are the odds?

BONUS SECTION : MISCELLANEOUS AWARDS FOR 2011

Still here? Okay, some other bits and pieces from the year past. I watched about 90 films this year, in between working and sleeping and generally faffing about. Along the way, I seen ghosts, aliens, monsters, car crashes, a number of lesbian love-scenes and several murders, including a man getting his head chopped off with a samurai sword. But enough about what I got up to, let's see what I thought about the movies I watched this year.


Best film I watched all year :
Beauty & the Beast
Worst film I watched all year :
Through a Glass Darkly
Biggest disappointment : Hanna
Nicest surprise : Monster House




Performances that Stuck in My Mind

  1. Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine
  2. Mark Strong in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  3. Presley Chweneyagae in Tsotsi
  4. Lesley Manville in Another Year
  5. Ricardo Darin in The Secret in Their Eyes
The Lovely Girls Competition


  1. Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men: First Class
  2. Mila Kunis in Black Swan
  3. Emma Stone in Easy A
The Dr Zhivago Award for Best Hair

  1. Caeser in Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  2. Black Dynamite in Black Dynamite
  3. Henry in Eraserhead
The Fonzie Award for Cool Things in the Movies this year

  1. A gorilla attacking a helicopter in Rise of the Planet of the Apes
  2. Ryan Gosling in Drive
  3. The Hidden Blade technique in The Hidden Blade
The Men in Hats Award for Best Dancing


  1. Pink Elephants on Parade in Dumbo
  2. The ballroom scene in Beauty & the Beast
  3. Michelle Williams tap dancing in Blue Valentine
  4. The soul dancing in The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans
  5. The final ballet in Black Swan
The WTF Award for Films I'm Not Really Sure I Understood


  1. Ashes of Time Redux
  2. The Tree of Life
  3. A Town Called Panic
The HammerTime Award for Hammer-related Films


10 Random Things I Liked in the Movies This Year
  1. The mental plotting of A Town Called Panic
  2. The gay IRA joke in The Guard
  3. The way Voldemort held his wand in Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part 2
  4. A man dressed as a bear in True Grit
  5. Will Ferrell's Gator pimp back-story in The Other Guys
  6. Scooby Doo's scary cameo in 127 Hours
  7. The blind, fluorescently-toothed aliens in Attack the Block
  8. The "Holy Crap, I Didn't See That Coming" ending of The Secret in Their Eyes
  9. The opening credits in The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
  10. Senna's poignant reaction to Roland Ratzenberger's fatal crash in Senna
The Best Things I Watched on TV This Year
  1. Barcelona playing football
  2. Treme, Season 1
  3. Six Feet Under, Season 1
  4. Frozen Planet
  5. The Killing, Season 1 (the Danish version)
Things To Be Sad About
  1. No time this year to catch up Midnight in Paris, The Skin I Live In, We Need to Talk About Kevin and many, many more. Curse those after-dinner speeches and children's parties!
  2. Transformers 3 and Pirates of the Carribean 4 both taking over $1 billion at the box office. What is wrong with people!?
  3. Bubba Smith, aka Hightower in the Police Academy films, died.
But, to end on a high, Things To Be Happy About
  1. Spielberg getting his mojo back with The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
  2. Ryan Gosling, who starred in 93% of films released this year.
  3. Christmas, which means it's time to watch It's a Wonderful Life again
So there you have it. Bet that was more fun than any Christmas present you got this year. Unless you got a Nerf gun, of course. Those things are deadly. Anyway, have a drink on me (I'm good for it) over the festive period and join me in the New Year for some more movies and fun! Well, more movies anyway.



Posted by Declan on 24.12.11

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