TOP MOVIES OF 2011

Crazy, Stupid, Love
Starring: Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Analeigh Tipton
Directors: Glenn Ficarra, John Requa
Release Date: 29th July 2011

A happily married family man (Carell) is shocked when his wife (Moore) asks for a divorce. Now he’s trying to manage the relationship with his kids while finding himself thrust back onto the dating scene. When he realises he’s too deeply uncool to pick up women he enlists the help of a stylish life coach (Gosling). The directors of I Love You Phillip Morris (who wrote Bad Santa before that) bring something wonderfully subversive and entertaining to the ‘marital crisis’ sub-genre. This has the honesty of a good indie movie with the appealing gloss of a Hollywood picture.

 Fright Night
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Colin Farrell, David Tennant, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Toni Collette
Director: Craig Gillespie
Release Date: 7th October 2011

Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin is Charley, the young man trying to convince everyone that a deadly vampire (Colin Farrell) has moved in next door. Soon he turns to gothic celebrity Peter Vincent (David Tennant) only to discover he’s not the fearless supernatural guru he portrays. Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Charley’s best friend ‘Evil’ Ed, and Toni Collette is the mum. The 80s original was an enjoyable, well written comedy horror. This has upped the stakes with a near perfect cast of fun actors, and Farrell is on career best form as the despicable, yet faintly bored, vampire. The sharp script knows how to have fun, without ever losing its intensity.

 Super 8
Starring: Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, Ron Eldard
Director: J.J. Abrams
Release Date: 10th June 2011

Set in 1979, this is a homage to Spielberg’s ’70s and ’80s science fiction films, written and directed by J.J.Abrams. It tells the story of a group of small-town teens who are filming a home movie on their super 8 camera when a train derails, releasing a dangerous presence into their neighbourhood. E.T., Close Encounters, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park all have story threads or shots lifted from them, and while some might think it overdoes the tribute this is ultimately nostalgic for a style of filmmaking that is sorely missed.

Thor
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Release Date: 29th July 2011

When heir-apparent Thor (Hemsworth) arrogantly ignores his king’s (Hopkins) wishes, he is stripped of his powers and banished from the fantastical realm of Asgard. On earth, Thor must learn humility before his treacherous brother Loki seizes the throne in his absence. This is one of the best movies of 2011 because it was a difficult character and world to introduce to live-action, and Marvel did a very good job. It never strays too far into cheese, and Marvel’s gamble that Kenneth Branagh would bring some Shakespearian gravatas to the court of Asgard paid off. Hemsworth is excellent as Thor.

. Captain America: The First Avenger
Starring: Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Sebastian Stan, Hayley Atwell
Director: Joe Johnston
Release Date: 22nd July 2011

During World War II, skinny Steve Rogers (Evans) volunteers for an Allied research project which turns him into super soldier ‘Captain America’. Soon he is up against Red Skull (Weaving), Hitler’s head of weaponry, who intends to use a tesseract as an energy-source for world domination. This is an enjoyably old-fashioned adventure set apart from other comic book movies by its ’40s atmosphere. The set pieces serve the narrative rather than the other way round and its filled with enjoyable, shaded performances.

Contagion
Starring: Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law, Gwenyth Paltrow
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Release Date: 21st October 2011

Think Bird Flu: The Movie. Action-thriller about a deadly disease and the international team of doctors contracted by the Center for Disease Control to deal with the spread. It’s also about how information spreads virally in the internet age. Contagion is a global story, filmed in 10 countries. Steven Soderbergh directs an excellent cast from a script by the writer of The Bourne Ultimatum. Pleasingly procedural yet still breakneck tense, this works as a chillingly realistic depiction of an event that really could happen any time, and actually did in 1918, less than a hundred years ago.

. The Adventures Of Tintin
Starring: (voices) Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Daniel Craig
Director: Steven Spielberg
Release Date: 21st December 2011

Spielberg’s first animated movie is a performance-capture 3D version of Tintin’s initial encounter with Captain Haddock. After unearthing a clue to the treasure of ancestor Sir Francis Haddock, they set out together to find it, with protection from a prison escapee. Daniel Craig voices villainous pirate Red Rackham. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost voice near-identical detectives Thompson and Thomson. Peter Jackson’s Weta Digital do the animation. And the movie’s biggest strength is the incredibly humanity in that animation – Tintin (Bell) is ageless, graceful, likeable, while Haddock (Serkis) is drunk, bumbling, wistful, and there isn’t a single Zemeckis-style dead eye on offer. This is Spielberg back to his adventuring best.

. Midnight In Paris
Starring: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates
Director: Woody Allen
Release Date: 10th June 2011

Romantic comedy-fantasy about a discontented screenwriter (Wilson), and his critical fiancée (McAdams) vacationing in Paris with her wealthy, conservative parents. As he takes a midnight walk alone he is magically transported back to the 1920s where he is advised and entralled by its high society, including Salvador Dalí (Brody), T.S. Eliot and Luis Buñuel. Director Woody Allen is very hit and miss but here he nails the charm, the humour and the sentimentality.