2011 - A lousy year for movies?

Napoleon Plural

I'm racking my brain to think of any standout films this year. I enjoyed Transformers 3D but only the once. Tintin I still haven't seen. What else was there? Bridesmeads I avoided after bad word - or should that be turd - of mouth. Ditto Tinker Tailor, only heard bad things, despite the critics. All the Twilight stuff forget it, same for Harry Potter personally.

Drive I enjoyed, but not that much.

Oh, X-Men prequel I should have caught, but didn't. Can anyone else enlighten me?

Wilde

Tinker Tailor was a highlight for me. -{

Thunderpussy

I enjoyed, Transformers 3, Thor, Cpt America, X-Men First Class. Paranormal Activity 3, was fun to watch the audiance reaction ( people still scream at a glass moving by itself etc ). Nothing else comes to mind of any note. I agree it's been a very weak year for movies and have read that 2011 holds the record for more sequals than any other.
I missed Tinker Tailor but am old enough to remember the BBC Version with Obi Wan Himself. )

Mr Beech

I think it is safe to say that not many classics came out of 2011. Not a bad year, but not a good one. Too many mainstream casual blockbusters methinks. Though I loved The Deathly Hallows Part 2 and like The Tree Of Life.

Number24

Source Code, Hannah, The Adventure of Tintin and The Beaver were good,but not future classics.

Number24

Napoleon Plural might be right: perhaps 2011 has been a below average movie year. Granted, I haven`t seen some of the movies I have the highest hopes for yet (Tinker,tailor ... , Ides of March, Drive, The girl with the dragon tatoo), but it doesn`t look to good so far. Please prove me wrong!

Lexi

Number24 wrote:

Napoleon Plural might be right: perhaps 2011 has been a below average movie year. Granted, I haven`t seen some of the movies I have the highest hopes for yet (Tinker,tailor ... , Ides of March, Drive, The girl with the dragon tatoo), but it doesn`t look to good so far. Please prove me wrong!

I'm looking forward to Tinker, Tailor.... (when it comes out on DVD) - I think The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo will be really good... and one I will certainly see at the cinema.

Tintin was excellent... Limitless was not bad... but not one I will see again. Gnomeo and Juliet was cute.... Rango was really quite extraordinary - cinematography wise... and really NOT a kids movie (far too clever) however my 6 year old loved it )

2011 was the first time I haven't seen 2 of Daniel Craigs movies on the big screen... Cowboys and Aliens, and Dream House.... both of them just haven't really appealed, well Dream House I didn't even know was out ) However I will see them when they come out on DVD - along with Source code.

But I think you're right Nap.... 2011 hasn't been that inspiring....

Number24

There has been some good movies in 2011, but what I am missing so far are great movies. Films that will be called classics in twenty years. Something like There will be blood, True Grit, Momento etc. I believe Tinker ...., The girl with the dragon tatoo and Tree of Life have a have the best chances.

Number24

Has any of you seen Jane Eyre, Meek`s Cutoff or Edgar J. ?
They are supposed to be high quality.

ke02eww

Tend to agree nap....

However, Can't believe no one here liked the kings speech....

My own favs include limitless, battle Los Angeles, and Rise of the planet of the apes....

Which says it all really...

Biggest let down.... The debt...

Looking forward to j Edgar...

This might jog a memory or two..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_in_film

pyrat

The Kings Speech was outstanding, and perhaps the best movie I attended all year.

J Edgar looks interesting. Having just read a book about Bill Donavan and the OSS, I'm interested in seeing how they treat this along with if they make mention of Dusko Popov and his advising the FBI about plans regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor some few months before it actually occurred. Probably too much to hope for from Hollywood though.

Number24

The King`s Speech was really good, but it came out last year according to IMDB. I think 2010 was a good movie year, but perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me.

pyrat

Was it that long ago? Man time flies... Seems to prove the hypothesis of this thread though.

ke02eww

Number24 wrote:

The King`s Speech was really good, but it came out last year according to IMDB. I think 2010 was a good movie year, but perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me.

That's what my wife said when I asked her for movies of this year...

But according to this, it was released in uk in Jan 2011, having premiered in it's high-censor-version in 2010 in the us only. I think,the censor dispute delayed it's screening in the uk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Speech

so I thought you Brits would have seen it in 2011 qualifying it as a film you'd seen this year.

Number24

ke02eww wrote:

Number24 wrote:

The King`s Speech was really good, but it came out last year according to IMDB. I think 2010 was a good movie year, but perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me.

That's what my wife said when I asked her for movies of this year...

But according to this, it was released in uk in Jan 2011, having premiered in it's high-censor-version in 2010 in the us only. I think,the censor dispute delayed it's screening in the uk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Speech

so I thought you Brits would have seen it in 2011 qualifying it as a film you'd seen this year.

A British movie released in America before the UK premiere? Fornication!

Lexi

ke02eww wrote:

Number24 wrote:

The King`s Speech was really good, but it came out last year according to IMDB. I think 2010 was a good movie year, but perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me.

That's what my wife said when I asked her for movies of this year...

But according to this, it was released in uk in Jan 2011, having premiered in it's high-censor-version in 2010 in the us only. I think,the censor dispute delayed it's screening in the uk.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Speech

so I thought you Brits would have seen it in 2011 qualifying it as a film you'd seen this year.

I was assuming the same thing... as in, a film that was released in 2010. In fact the talk of this movie started back in October....

Whether or not it's release in the UK was 2011 - all the buzz and reviews were out before Christmas of 2010 in the US and Canada... (in fact it was released pretty much everywhere else... before it came here.. )

So I guess that is why for me at least, it didn't make my 2011 list.

smudgedude

pyrat wrote:

The Kings Speech was outstanding, and perhaps the best movie I attended all year.

J Edgar looks interesting. Having just read a book about Bill Donavan and the OSS, I'm interested in seeing how they treat this along with if they make mention of Dusko Popov and his advising the FBI about plans regarding the attack on Pearl Harbor some few months before it actually occurred. Probably too much to hope for from Hollywood though.

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Lady Rose

Have to agree that 2011 has been a pretty dire year for movies. I've hardly been to the cinema at all this year. The last thing I saw was Planet of The Apes. I've actually spent more time watching American TV series!!

I missed Tinker, Taylor and still fancy it even though the reviews were awful.

I am looking forward to the Woman in Black though.

Number24

Looking back, 2010 was agood year for movies:

The black swan
The king`s speech
True grit
The social network
The town
Shutter Island
Let me in
Easy A
The Ghost
Kick-ass
127 hours
Winter`s bone
Inception

Mr Beech

Just saw The Descendants and I think I will enjoy that one for a long while after 2011. It was a good one for me.

Barry Nelson

You are correct Nap, it has been a lousy year for movies, like LR, I have been to the cinema very few times this year. The few times I ventured out I was often disappointed.

PPK 7.65mm

As far dramatic movies go maybe, but for big budget commerical type movies it has been pretty good. Though come December their are some good dramatic type films coming out like War Horse, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and some others.

Films this year I enjoyed: Cowboys and Aliens, Captain America, Thor, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2, The Muppetts, Reel Steel and The Killer Elite.

Napoleon Plural

Someone I regarded as in the know pointed out that studios just aren't investing the same cash any more, hence a movie like Harry Brown, the Caine vigilante flick, getting a run at Odeon Leicester Square, quite a prestigious spot for what was really a second-string movie.

Ok just realised quality isn't all about cash, but there seems to be a lack of nerve, whereas everyone is talking about HBO series and the like, that's where it's at.

Number24

There seems to be enough money for some movies, but sadly it`s usually sequels and/or superhero movies. I think it`s regrettable that the UK with its long and rich history doesn`t spend more money making big historical movies. I have a taste for movies that shows you something you have`t seen before. Examples are pre-columbian America in Apocalypto, Elizabetian England in Elizabet:The Golden Age or Japan in the 1860`s in The Last Samurai. Far too many movies are about policemen in NY or LA who don`t play by the rules or professional women who need to learn not to be so uptight and learn to live and love. Show us something differnt, and spend some money on it. This is part of the reason I dream of seeing a good, big-budget viking move at least once in my life.

Napoleon Plural

Fair point. The film Anonymous dealt with a CGI Elizabethan England but that seems to have fallen off the radar very sharpish. I would have seen it at a discount, reviews were poor. You'd think after Pirates of the... they could do Vikings easily enough, or even show Pirates in Europe. Or did they in the last one? That seems another example of lazy filmmaking, I couldn't bring myself to see this year's Pirates film.

Of course, a kind of realism in movies makes it hard to do period blockbusters as we all know they don't really talk like that, in modern day parlance. Oh lord, wasn't Robin Hood this year, the Russell Crowe thing? I can't remember, but that's another one to miss. Anyway, the Norman invasion might be a great film, never done I understand, but we don't really know if Harold broke his vow to William, plus there's that nagging sense that they spoke a different language to use anyhow.

On top of which, the CGI has diminished appetite for spectacle, the hordes of armies in LoTR just didn't really work for me, it's not real.

Lady Rose

Napoleon Plural wrote:

On top of which, the CGI has diminished appetite for spectacle, the hordes of armies in LoTR just didn't really work for me, it's not real.

I've banged on about CGI quite a bit on this board because I hate it so much. It totally ruins films for me and I really believe it is responsible for me personally avoiding many films. The minute I see hordes of fake armies I turn off .....

Mr Beech

Napoleon Plural wrote:

Fair point. The film Anonymous dealt with a CGI Elizabethan England but that seems to have fallen off the radar very sharpish. I would have seen it at a discount, reviews were poor. You'd think after Pirates of the... they could do Vikings easily enough, or even show Pirates in Europe. Or did they in the last one? That seems another example of lazy filmmaking, I couldn't bring myself to see this year's Pirates film.

Of course, a kind of realism in movies makes it hard to do period blockbusters as we all know they don't really talk like that, in modern day parlance. Oh lord, wasn't Robin Hood this year, the Russell Crowe thing? I can't remember, but that's another one to miss. Anyway, the Norman invasion might be a great film, never done I understand, but we don't really know if Harold broke his vow to William, plus there's that nagging sense that they spoke a different language to use anyhow.

On top of which, the CGI has diminished appetite for spectacle, the hordes of armies in LoTR just didn't really work for me, it's not real.

Sometimes you just have to live with CGI these days. Some director's still follow the practice of "If you can do it practically, do it." Others say to do CGI whenever it makes it easier. I think Industrial Light and Magic has some of the best CGI around and didn't have many issues with Pirates of the Caribbean as a series (the new one is probably the worst though) and I think some Transformer scenes are incredible (I skipped the new one , but the first movie has some memorable CGI).

LotR on Blu Ray is a piece of heaven. The CGI looks cleaner than ever, as does the rest of the movie. It was easy to forget that Gollum was not there with how well his skin is done. I have to say that the fakest looking thing in their CGI for me is probably just Gollums shadow. A little too high def compared to other shadows. )

sambwoy

Regarding POTC4, I didn't go to see it in the cinema, only when it was released on DVD and I was caught in the moment and thought, 'I know critics have said there's not much of a plot and its just made of parts and bits, but I will see it with my own eyes', and yeah, I got tired halfway through and it was getting late.

The third Pirates film was a milestone in my line of films i have seen, as it tought me a valuable lesson about mainstream films these days, because it was unbelievably long and far too self-indulgent with Jack Sparrow and the comic relief, and had the Disney ident followed by hanging.

Back to POTC4, came back seconds before the credits and my dad said 'Johnny Depp was so funny...', and that concerned me, like Jack Sparrow is the be all and end all of this franchise. These films are surely more than comedies, at least they are advertised like that, more in the vein of Indiana Jones et al, if the comedy is the only thing you can remember about this film, then there is a problem.

Mr Beech

sambwoy wrote:

Regarding POTC4, I didn't go to see it in the cinema, only when it was released on DVD and I was caught in the moment and thought, 'I know critics have said there's not much of a plot and its just made of parts and bits, but I will see it with my own eyes', and yeah, I got tired halfway through and it was getting late.

The third Pirates film was a milestone in my line of films i have seen, as it tought me a valuable lesson about mainstream films these days, because it was unbelievably long and far too self-indulgent with Jack Sparrow and the comic relief, and had the Disney ident followed by hanging.

Back to POTC4, came back seconds before the credits and my dad said 'Johnny Depp was so funny...', and that concerned me, like Jack Sparrow is the be all and end all of this franchise. These films are surely more than comedies, at least they are advertised like that, more in the vein of Indiana Jones et al, if the comedy is the only thing you can remember about this film, then there is a problem.

I think the first one was the best because it was fun and I was surprised to find that I actually missed Will (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth (Keira Knightley), but it turns out that it really helped seeing what was going on with each of them separate from Jack. I don't think it is as enjoyable when the whole film is Jack and no normal people to switch off to or root for. Depp signed for a fifth one, so here's to hoping for an improvement over #4.

pyrat

POTC4 is my second favorite of the series mostly due to the interaction between Penélope Cruz and Depp. And of course, Geoffrey Rush is always wonderful as Barbossa.

There is still hope for 2011 though, notably Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Gary Oldman, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol and our man Craig in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo still to hit the screen in December. If 2011 is saved, it will be a near run thing.

Napoleon Plural

The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec was an enjoyable romp, plus you got to see her in the bath. -{

Underperformed at box office though, so follow-up unlikely.