Grumwave

My Top Movies of 2011

I was going to make a list of my Top 10 films of this year but then I realized I had only seen a handful of movies in theaters this year and honestly didn’t care for a few of them.  (Looking at you Transformers 3D).  Also there are so many movies I didn’t get a chance to see yet that I just know I would really like.  So I’ll just list the few new movies I saw that I really liked.

Loved:

Melancholia

I saw the movie from the second row and the shaky camera work actually made me quesy (a first for me) but even with all that the quesyness was justified by the awkward moments in the story that create great drama.  I love any movie that uses astronomy in a non-traditional sci-fi setting.  Beautifully shot too.

The Tree of Life

It’s true that it’s slow and glacial in pace but the visuals are so awe inspiring that I really don’t care.  I might be somewhat biased because as a graduate student in astrophysics who loved 2001 this movie seems to be my speed.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

A great end to a series that grew up along with me.  Just like my awkward pre-teens led to more confident adult, so has this series grown.

Bridesmaids

Hilarious.  So glad to see movies made starring funny women.  Most comedy movies just have women as some unattainable-unknowable-pixies.  But this movie puts them up front and I love it.

Overhyped:

Source Code

Not a terrible movie, in fact quite good. But the fact that it got a 93% on rotten tomatoes made me take notice.  Not nearly that good, a solid B.  

X-Men: First Class

Loved Michael Fassbender in this but there wasn’t enough character development for anyone else to make me really care.

Captain America

Full of horribly cliched dialogue, action and 3-D “wizardry” (like throwing a shield right at the screen, it just doesn’t look cool in 2-D). None of the characters had staying power, I forgot about them as soon as they left the screen.  Really not much different from Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.

Hated:

Transformer 3D

I really liked the first, hated the second but had high hopes that maybe this one would be different. Nope, instead we get more so-called “comedy”, never ending battles, and a female character that made me wish for Megan Fox back.

Haven’t seen yet, but really want to:

Moneyball, Take Shelter, Drive, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Hugo, Midnight in Paris