Day 192-- My top 10 movies of 2011

My 10 ten favorite movies of 2011:

A's

1.) Harry Potter

For 10 magical years of film and 13 years of readings, Harry Potter created a family between strangers and imagination in those still willing to believe.  At midnight of the July 15th, we, in our cloaks, robes, and glasses, said goodbye to our hero.

In this final movie Harry and the gang are off to Hogwarts find the last remaining horcruxs, which are the last pieces of Voldemort's soul.  Kill the horcruxes, kill Voldemort.  Much has been written about Daniel Radcliff's transformation as an actor from his age 11 to now 22, and I heartily agree.  He plays Harry as a grown-up leader still capable of humor and faults, but with utmost dignity to do what is expected of him.  He is ready.

The movie was filled with non-stop action, humor, friendship, and an unexpected grace. I can honestly say that it had the most heart of any movie I've seen this year, and one of the best hero's sacrifice I've seen in years. 

On a warm summer day at age 13, my childhood began when Vernon Dursely saw people in funny looking cloaks parading around London. I was sitting in my backyard near my dad's BBQ and everything seemed possible then.  On July 15th I was 23 sitting in an office chair in my boyfriend's room.  My college diploma was in a moving bag under the night stand and I was looking for my first real job come Monday morning. 

Magic goes on, Hogwarts goes on, Harry Potter doesn't stay a boy on the edge of school, Harry Potter grows up.  And you know what? it's ok for us to grow up too.

Read my full review here!

2.) Atlas Shrugged: part 1

You either love author Ayn Rand or you desperately hate her.  She used her novels to personify objectivism, a philosophy she created.  She believed in the utmost personal rights, regulation-free capitalism, reality, rationality, no religion, personal choice, and pursuit of individual happiness. She's a big hit among libertarians [Ron Paul is a libertarian].  Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Alan Greenspan was a close friend of hers and used her philosophy in his politics towards economics, which (a) helped the economic boom and riches of the 90s (remember those days?), but also (b) lead to the laxness that led to the poverty recession we're experiencing now (which is sucks).

Atlas Shrugged was her opus.  As a movie I really enjoyed it. It takes place in 2016 when the economy and gas prices has gotten so bad that people are going back to commuting on trains. Unfortunately the rails are so old that disasters often occur.  Dagny Taggart, who is vice president of Taggart Transcontinental Railroad makes a deal with metal businessman and inventor Hank Reardan who will design safer and more effective rails. They decided to test their rails in the state of Colorado first.

All is going well until lobbyists and politicians enter the picture and create "fair" laws so that a person can only own one business, thereby cutting Reardan's capital to invest in his railroad.  Luckily they are able to finish it in time and the rails run smooth and fast.  Colorado becomes rich and its citizens are better off, but the lobbyists create laws to make things "more fair" again and begin to heavily tax the rich states (ie Colorado) to benefit the poorer, less productive states--which in turn strangles the Taggart-Reardan railroad into expanding.

The movie concludes in a cliff hanger as the most talented, most ambitious, and most contributing members of society go missing.  Dadny learns that they left willing and must decide if she too wants to "go on strike".

This movie makes you think.  And it could have easily become a caricature of its philosophies but all of the actors remained complicated with depth.  Grant Bowler, best known as a werewolf on True Blood, does an excellent job as businessman Reardan who clearly loves business and progress but isn't a cardboard cutout of a CEO. Props goes to Taylor Schilling who plays Dadngy not as an ice queen but as someone who calmly loves her job and wants to make things better.  She beat out Angelina Jolie for the role.

3.) Thor

This was the conversations as my friends and I left the movie theater:

Me: [during and after movie] "Please get naked"

Friend: "Please make porn"

Roommate: "When this comes out on DVD I'm going to watch this and 300 and my vagina is going to shoot out fire"

We also said: "Sexy man" "Delicious" "He wore flannel and cooked breakfast" "He helps the elderly" "He helps children" "He can draw" "He's perfect". "Mmmmm" "Are you Thor or Hugh Jackman? No? Then get to steppin" "When's the sequel?" "They should come out with a dildo with his face and hammer and call it hammertime" "Best movie of the year."

For what it's worth, the plot was actually pretty good too.  It was sunny and fun, which is exactly what a popcorn flick should be.

4.) Horrible Bosses 

This one was such a surprise.  I was visiting a friend up in LA when we decided to catch a movie.  $11.50 per ticket later and we were in a pretty annoyed mood with unseemly high expectations.   Luckily the movie was actually really funny.  I'm pretty sure I became a Jennifer Aniston fan when she used the word "fingering" in the first 3 minutes of her screen time.  Her character is woman does not give a fuck (played by Aniston with glee, like she's been waiting her whole life for this), and I love her for it.

The trio of Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis had incredible funny chemistry together as friends trying to murder each other's horrible bosses (Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Colin Farrell).  I enjoyed Day so much I became an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia fan.  Was it worth $11.50?  Maybe not.   But it was definitely an A comedy which is wicked hard to find.

B's

5.) Page One: Inside the New York Times

Page 1 is a documentary that follows one year at the New York Times.  It was the year of Wikileaks, a few corporate scandals, and the height of newspapers around the country closing.  The question every reporter was asking throughout the movie was clear: will the NYT survive and should it?

The answer: maybe, and yes. The best example comes from WikiLeaks, which shakes up the Times with a collective awe and fear.  If people can get world changing news fast and free, what use is there of the Times?  

Page One is all about the value of integrity.  These journalists show the unwavering need to find the truth and report it objectivity.  They don't jump onto stories they haven't properly investigated, and understand their role in the legitimacy of issues.  

For being a documentary about an objective news source, this doc wasn't exactly unbiased and clearly they want the NYT to be the winner over free fast news, bloggers, and other sources who have a voice.  We do need the Times, but how can it survive in today's climate should be the more important question instead of which source of news is better.

6.) Moneyball

I love when Brad Pitt eats.  His lips and chin and twinkly eyes...almost as good as Thor.  Anyway.  In Moneyball Pitt plays Billy Beane, the manager of the crappy Oakland A's baseball team in 2002.  Beane is trying to figure out how to make a broke-ass team competitive with the wealthy teams who can afford better player.  Cue in Jonah Hill's character who uses math and statistics to figure out the strength of cheaper players and how they can align with a whole team.

Pitt throws things, yells, looks sexy, chews, and manages the team to record winning streak.  The movie is all good fun, and as light and breezy as a Spring day. 

C's

7.) Breaking Dawn: part 1

Going to a Twilight movie is a little like shopping at Walmart: you don't want to admit that you choose to shop at Walmart but secretly it has everything you're looking for. Twilight is about someone loving you for eternity.  It’s about being different and finally finding your clan of outsiders.  It’s about magic and transformation.  Or it’s about hipster soundtracks and perfectly manicured eyebrows.

As the world knows, in this edition of the series, Bella and Edward are getting married.  There are exactly two things I think about when I see Bella Swan (portrayed by a whining Kristen Stewart): (1) so this is why feminism is dead and millions of girls want semi-emotionally abusive relationships and get pregnant out of high school, and (2) I love her hair!

In that first movie I understood why Bella and Edward would be drawn to each other: the looks, the curiosity, the emo personality match, and most of all, the chemistry. But why are these people getting married?  They’re both depressives and they both kinda like Breakfast at Tiffany's? 

Love, marriage, baby on the way and it's killing her.  Bella looks more and more like a Holocaust victim, no one informs her parents she’s on the brink of death, and her ex Jacob is always invited in the same room as her baby daddy (rude).  Apparently this is what happens when you have sex.

Read my full review here!

8.) Sucker Punch

Ok, so I kinda didn't see all of this movie.  All of my friends and reviewers said it was terrible so I waited until months later when someone rented it to finally watch it.  I only saw the beginning and the end, but some what I could see, it seemed stylistically amazing, plotline interesting, but something just not quite connecting.  Much like The Watchman.  For it being the disappointment that it was, I'm giving it a C.  However, I do have to thank it for introducing me to "Panic Switch" by The Silversun Pickups, which was the inspiration for Day 1 of this blog.

D's

--None

F's

9.) Red Riding Hood

There were exactly two things good about Red Riding Hood: that song, and that guy.  The rest of godawful.  The set looked plastic, the characters weren't developed, the dialogue was cheesy ["What happened to the bunny, Valerie?!"], and it was overall waste of time.  What was more unfortunate was that I had been looking forward to it for weeks and castigated my friends not to text during the movie.  The worst movie I could have used to make a point about class...

10.) Midnight in Paris.

Now, I'm a huge Woody Allen fan and a Marion Cotillard fan so I had high hopes for this one despite the atrocious trailer.  The trailer was right.  The problem was all about the thesis.  It's about writer who misses the 20s in Paris and magically he's in the 20s in Paris hanging out with famous authors of the era.  Here's a secret, Hollywood: time travel is never done in a non-stupid way.  And Owen Wilson is the king of stupid.

The whole movie felt clunky, dull, and childish.  It was painful obvious that this movie started as a "what if?" concept that should have ended there, but instead was turned into a 2-hour movie.  When you have 2 Oscar winners + Rachel McAdams and it still bombs, clearly the plot is RIDICULOUS. Yikes.