Movie Round Up, 2011

My annual round up of movies I saw in the theater over the preceding year.

True Grit (1/13/11)
An excellent movie. Deserving of the awards it reaped. I felt that Hailee Steinfeld deserved more credit -- she was the centerpiece of the movie and held it together extremely well. I look forward to seeing more from her. My one complaint was that I sometimes couldn't understand Jeff Bridges.

The King's Speech (1/30/11)
Incredible acting highlights this movie. Each of the main three stars are superb in their roles. The direction was a tad uneven, as sometimes the director went for subtlety and other times just the mundane shot. Some characters seemed miscast (like the brother, played by Guy Pierce, who is a fine actor and a favorite of mine, but was not right for that role). It certainly deserved the Oscars it won.

Limitless (4/5/11)
I really enjoyed this movie. I thought all the performances were dead on, including Bradley Cooper, an actor I don't normally like all that much. I enjoyed the plot and thought most of it worked even when it was a bit over the top. DeNiro gave one of his better late-career acting jobs in this.

Note: Like Unstoppable the year before, I'm not sure why this film didn't do better in the theater. All the elements were there and yet the film barely made back its budget. I think it may go on to have a decent life in rentals/sales.

Thor (5/18/11)
This was a fun comic-book movie. Hemsworth was excellent as the God of Thunder and Tom Hiddleston was incredible as Loki. The effects were excellent. The story was a bit dodgy at times, and Portman, normally a favorite of mine, seemed miscast here. Branagh's direction held the whole thing together and made it work.

Note: Hiddleston's performance was surprisingly nuanced and powerful for a "comic-book movie." Maybe not worthy of any sort of acting award nomination, but I would argue it is close. He shows pathos, empathy, rage, loss -- sometimes all in the same scene. I'm going to keep an eye out for his name in the future.

Super 8 (6/25/11)
The parts of this movie about the children growing up, growing together and apart, and making a cheesy zombie movie in the 1970s are fabulous. The parts about an alien that is killing/stealing people and items and wants to go home were dull and uninteresting. It is really too bad that JJ Abrams didn't trust that his coming of age story was interesting enough to hold an audience and he added the alien. Not a bad film, at all, but could have been an incredible kids come of age movie up there with Stand By Me.

Note: Elle Fanning was incredible in this movie. Expect great things from her.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (7/31/11)
A very satisfying ending to a very good series. It hit all the right notes from the novel, even as it changed some things in order to fit with the screen story being told (which varied and changed from the books to some degree). At this point, I'm not going to convert any haters out there, so I'll just say if you liked the HP movie series, this will be a satisfying conclusion to it.

Captain America: The First Avenger (8/1/11)
This was a very good comic-book movie. Probably a top 10 all-time comic book movie. It has the "golly-gee-whiz" feeling that you want in this type of movie, added to a fairly coherent story and plot. All the actors are at least solid if not very good in their respective roles. There were some over-done plot points, and the ending needed to be better written (Why couldn't he fly away in one of the smaller jets? Why couldn't he actually land the plane?), but it hit solidly on most cylinders and was fun to watch. What made this movie especially nice is that it was fun for adults and inoffensive enough for younger children to watch and enjoy.

Note: I wish there had been more scenes with Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones. They had such great chemistry and played off each other so well, I wanted more of them on screen.

Hugo (11/27/11)
This was an incredibly well-directed movie, with a solid story, excellent acting, and stunning visual effects. I felt the opening 45 minutes of the film were a bit long and some of the side stories could have been trimmed or done away with entirely. I will not be surprised to see this on end of the year best lists nor if it gets nominated for multiple rewards.

The Muppets (11/28/11)
I really enjoyed this movie. It had laughs, a good plot, in-jokes for long-time fans, and some surprisingly good music. My one complaint is that Kermit wasn't Kermit in the film. Usually, in any Muppet adventure, Kermit is the source of optimism and hope, the one who urges them to continue in the face of long odds. In this film, Kermit is defeated and sad and the new muppet, Walter, takes his place as the one with an unending well of hope.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (12/26/11)
A stylish thriller/whodunnit with excellent acting from Mara and Craig. It adheres much more closely to the novel of the same name, which will allow any subsequent sequels to also stick more closely to the original source material (the Swedish movies veered sharply, making each new movie go farther afield from the source). The Reznor soundtrack was annoying, not because it was bad or out of place, but because it was constantly there. There were few scenes with no soundtrack to let the actors, the film, or the scene breathe.

Strangely, I felt that Fincher's direction, while not at all bad, was somewhat pedestrian. There were few interesting angles or cuts, few stylish uses of color, and no surprises. This is not what I expect from him.

Note: I will be surprised if Mara doesn't get acting nominations and awards for her stint as Lisbeth.

Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol (1/1/12)
A very good action flick, with a decent plot, good acting, and stylish direction. My one complaint is that most of the action scenes go on a bit too long. After the second or even third "drop the case/almost slip and fall/swerve around something" moment in each scene, the audience gets the point. Move on. However, almost no shaky-cam, so that's a plus.

Overall, it was a good year for the movies I chose to see in the theater. However, I noted that there were fewer movies I wanted to see in the theater and many I would otherwise have seen, I decided against due to poor ratings and Rotten Tomatoes scores. This year looks to be more of the same -- I'm only seeing a few movies that are "must see" theater movies, and a bunch that will likely be rentals later.