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Favourite Films of 2011 (that I've seen):

There's inevitably a delay in seeing some movies, particularly when it comes to Awards Season (as such I was months late in seeing The King's Speech, and only just over the Christmas season have I caught up on Black Swan). Plus you might not always be able to get to the cinema - indeed there was a huge gap in my cinema-going after the forgettable Columbiana in the first half of September, that was only plugged in the last days of the year with the excellent Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

Part of me decided that, in these more restrained times, I'd only go and see films I was much more certain would be worth the trip and the ever-increasing ticket costs ... but then there are other films that you are certain you'll be buying on DVD or Blu-Ray. Kevin Smith's Red State is a must-buy for me, so rather than spend several quid seeing it in the cinema (it was barely on the screens as it was) I can put that cash towards the home video release (which, now that I mention it, is in January). Also coming out in January will be Drive - another flick I'm rather switched-on by, so there's two examples of September 2011 releases that I won't see until January 2012.

Enough of that though - what flicks (that I actually saw in the cinema) tickled my fancy in 2011? In chronological order, my Top Ten of 2011 are:

1) The Fighter - Mark Wahlberg's restrained boxer is the perfect balance to Christian Bale's far-out, wide-eyed, character-of-characters in this true-life tale of a working class boxer rising to great heights before the chance slips through his fingers entirely. If it was between this and Rocky, I'd pick Rocky, but The Fighter is well worth seeing.

2) True Grit - the Coen Brothers give us a fresh telling of the source novel. Typically classy Direction, beautifully photographed, and brilliantly performed. An absolute must-watch.

3) Paul - Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kristen Wiig, a pot-smoking alien-on-the-run, and a whole host of modern comedy legends make Greg Mottola's fanboyishly fun sci-fi-action-road-movie-comedy a total blast.

4) Fast Five - surprisingly bloody good fun. I might even go so far as to say it's the best of the series. Big in every way, the action is thunderously entertaining, the vehicle sequences thrilling, and it was just such a fun ride. A little heart, a little humour, and Justin Lin's assured ability at crafting memorable action set pieces make this a damned good time.

5) X-Men: First Class - exhibiting smarts to equal its brawn, even underwhelming side characters can't affect the fascinating central battle between good and evil that birthed the Xavier/Magneto war of conflicting ideologies. Sweeping aside the action-heavy but ever-so-dimly-written-and-directed Last Stand, Matthew Vaugh's comic book fest proved to be the highlight of a heavy crop of comic book movies this year.

6) Captain America - putting characterisation ahead of blowing shit up, Joe Johnston's comic book adaptation proved to be a thoroughly entertaining ride that actually bothered to ascribe meaning to all the spectacle.

7) Hobo With A Shotgun - without a doubt my number one film of 2011. Jason Eisener's grindhouse throw-back is gleefully gruesome, utterly barmy, and lovingly crafted with a truly independent spirit and method. Rutger Hauer brings heart and even pathos to the titular avenging street-dweller, while everyone else brings grue, guns, and gurningly over-the-top performances. It was my most anticipated movie of the year, and the Blu-Ray release didn't let me down at all - bloody brilliant.

8) Rise of the Planet of the Apes - mixing smarts with blockbuster budgets seems to be becoming a common theme nowadays, and hip-hip-hooray for that. After last year's underwritten Iron Man 2, and three ever-diminishing and ever-dumber Transformers movies, the balance has been countered with films such as this. Trading on themes ever-present in the struggle for equal rights, the spectacular visuals were coupled with a meaningful script.

9) Super 8 - nostalgia, scope, heart, and thrills galore combined to form a nigh-on perfect sci-fi that harked back to the glory days of Steven Spielberg's milestone works such as E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. J.J. Abrams did a stellar job. The central child cast pull you in and feel real, joy isn't without pain or loss, and the jaw-dropping train crash compliments an accomplished sense of pacing.

10) Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - deftly scripted and directed, nail-shreddingly tense action from Brad Bird as he makes his live-action debut. Mixing thrills with chuckles in all the right places, this is one of the best action thrillers I've seen in a long time.


The Technically-In, Technically-Out Mention (because I saw it on January 3rd 2012):

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011) - side-stepping the 'perfunctory pit' that so many English-language remakes fall into (Let Me In, please step forward), David Fincher brings his uniquely gifted talent to explore the ever-more-popular international phenomena that is the opening part of the 'Millennium Trilogy'. Fincher brings his remarkable sense of poise and precision to material that's already familiar to millions globally, but still manages to match the original Swedish film punch-for-punch.


Honourable Mentions:

Source Code - certain plot holes aside, Duncan Jones' follow-up to last year's impeccable Moon, is a breezy bit of sci-fi action that may sometimes stumble with logic, but nevertheless puts ideas ahead of fireballs.

Scream 4 - this third sequel rocked up a decade after the dreadful Scream 3 and actually had a little something to say. Most of the wit of the original had returned, and there were even a few good tricks pulled out of the bag. Perhaps it struck home more with those of a nostalgic disposition such as myself: I discovered the original flick during my formative years - initially loving it, then resenting it due to the torrent of tripe cash-ins that it unleashed, only to fall back in-love with it all over again after the horror genre regained its balls in the early 2000's.

The Inbetweeners Movie - the little Brit-flick that could. More like a long episode that doesn't always fire on all cylinders, but for any fan of the cringe-inducingly-good show on E4 must have been happy with this. If you're in-on-the-whole-thing it's great fun, but if you're decidedly on-the-outside-looking-in, you might think otherwise. Personally I'm on the inside having a great old time.

Do note that I usually come to less-mainstream fare after their release year, either through Sky Movies, Film4, the Horror Channel, or DVD/Blu-Ray.

Flavours of the Month: June 2011...

LOOKS:

Tron and Tron Legacy (Blu-Ray) - the original was a huge artistic and technical leap at the time (as illustrated plentifully on the disc), but in terms of the script it was a bit lacking. I feel that the sequel is definitely superior in this regard, and while it's not the technical cinematic landmark that Tron was, I still really, really dig it. A solid and focused plot married with superb visuals and a fantastic aural experience courtesy of Daft Punk.

Hatchet - sifting through the DVD extras, it certainly looks like it was a fun time making the movie, but it's a real shame that the passion didn't translate into anything remotely original. The movie itself is a grab-bag of moments from the Friday 13th franchise, and while modern horror debuts such as Eli Roth's Cabin Fever are oftentimes chock-full of references, the best ones use these references are a genre-fan aside. Cabin Fever referenced everything from Last House on the Left to Dawn of the Dead, The Evil Dead, and beyond, but the spark that lit the fire under Roth to make the movie was from personal experience of a flesh eating virus. Adam Green's Hatchet, however, has flawed goals from the off. You can't set out to deliberately make a loveable anti-hero horror rogue. None of the horror icons were intended to be icons, they just happened to become that over time ... this demonstrates the disappointing and misguided purpose behind Hatchet. At least they had a fun time making it.

Psychoville 2 - about as jet black as black humour can get, this series from two-thirds of The League of Gentlemen has been a very memorable viewing experience. I don't think I'll ever think of Tina Turner's "Simply The Best" in any other way but that of Maureen Sourbutts' horrifically comical rendition.

Paul Merton's Birth of Hollywood - as a student of film, this proved to be a fascinating three-part documentary series detailing the, well, birth of Hollywood. Scouring the arrival and increasing drawing power of silent cinema, the truth behind Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's fall from grace, and the arrival of sound, Merton's series told this fascinating story with expertly balanced passion and humour.

Paul (Blu-Ray) - the disc is, compared to that of Scott Pilgrim (also from Universal), is somewhat lacking in the extras department (indeed it's curious that some of the production video blogs are missing - most notably the other half of the Frisbee blog, the first-half of which was featured on the Pilgrim Blu-Ray). However, a handful of silly asides, an enjoyably friendly commentary, and a solid making-of keep the end up. As for the film itself, it's still thoroughly entertaining.

Top Gear: The Great Adventures Vol. 1-3 - while Volume 1 is a bit of a mixed bag outside of an extended Polar Special (thanks to a rather disappointing treatment of the U.S. Special), the second and third volumes decidedly pick up the slack. Commentaries give a jovial insight into the production of Top Gear (and just how un-set-up it actually is, despite the protestations of its curiously always-vocal detractors), and the extended footage provides more meat for folk like me - huge fans of the world's number one motoring show.

L.A. Confidential (Blu-Ray) - inspired by L.A. Noire, I picked up the Blu-Ray on the cheap. It's a five-star film all the way, and one which just gets better with age and repeated viewings. You can clearly see where many influences came from with Team Bondi's game.

Raising Hope - I've really come to love this follow-up to the cancelled-too-soon My Name Is Earl. I do hope a second season is given to this show as, much like Earl, it elicits audible guffaws from me even when I'm watching it by myself.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World - what with finishing the graphic novels, the natural next step was another viewing of Edgar Wright's superb adaptation. I've seen it six times now, and even still I'm finding new things to appreciate. This time around it was the sound design - particularly the real world everyday sounds that are used to punctuate the dialogue and humorous moments. When I first saw it, it somewhat stumped me - yet I still enjoyed it - but I recognised that it was a somewhat niche 'thing' to get into. Something that would decidedly benefit from reading the source material - and I was proved right in that regard - as reading the books has given me a richer appreciation of the SP world and the film itself (and plenty of entertainment in-so-doing).

SOUNDS:

Nine Inch Nails "Year Zero" - it's taken me quite some time to get around to getting into this album, but I'm definitely into it now.

Anamanaguchi "Mermaid" - I found this via Edgar Wright's blog and I absolutely loved it. Stylistically it's like a modern twist on the music you used to hear on 8bit and 16bit videogames.

Tame Impala "Lucidity" - it's got a bit of a 1960s vibe to it. Heard it on a Top Gear episode from Christmas. Digging it; might have to look into getting their album.

UNKLE "Caged Bird" and "Follow Me Down" (Instrumentals)

Beck "Ramona" - there's been a distinctly Scott Pilgrim-shaped vibe to this month, and this wonderful track features on the movie's end credits.

Trent Reznor ft. Karen O "Immigrant Song" - as heard on the pounding trailer for David Fincher's version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Hopefully they release a full version of this arse-kicking cover soon!

VIBES & FLAVOURS:

The Walking Dead: This Sorrowful Life (Vol. 6) - the dialogue still has a propensity for exposition, but in terms of the artwork, and the situations that Robert Kirkman establishes for the characters to deal with, are jaw-dropping. The last few volumes have been increasingly shocking (in a good way), and this volume certainly had some particularly stunning moments.

L.A. Noire - well I've wrapped up Team Bondi's detective sandboxer and as I said last month, while it's flawed, it's a bold and involving step in a fresh direction.

Scott Pilgrim - "and the Infinite Sadness (Vol. 3)", "Gets It Together (Vol. 4)", "vs The Universe (Vol. 5)", "Finest Hour (Vol. 6)" - it's been since January that I last read the first two volumes of Brian Lee O'Malley's superbly entertaining and visually arresting graphic novels, so it was about time I resumed the series, and what do you know, I ended up barging the remaining four volumes. I consumed them voraciously and frequently laughed out loud at the dialogue and the artwork (in a good way). If you dug the movie, but haven't read the books yet - check out the books.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare - Rockstar San Diego's wild west sandboxer was my gaming highlight of 2010. It was a beautifully crafted (aside from a few minor bugs and glitches) game with an involving script, and it featured a new gaming icon - John Marston - a character that I genuinely cared for. Last year the DLC was released - basically Red Dead Redemption with zombies. It's relatively brief, but certainly not skimpy. New missions, side quests, strangers, random events, weapons and locations - plus it's crammed full of flesh-hungry undead and mythical beasts. I really enjoyed it, and while the original game is naturally better, it's a must-play for RDR fans. I even, for the first time with a sandboxer, got it to 100% completion. Let's hope that the fifth GTA is just as involving as RDR was.

Mark Kermode "It's Only A Movie" - Kermode was a figure of film criticism that I identified with strongly during my formative years. He appeared in numerous documentaries and film seasons on television (often regarding my beloved horror genre), and to this day I routinely watch/listen to his movie reviews. While the book so far has a tendency to meander and ramble in equal measure - like the man himself on BBC Radio 5 Live - that's also what makes it a personal journey through a life spent watching films for Kermode. I've particularly identified with his fascination with horror movies and other 'forbidden fruits' during his formative years.

As I've written about before, my formative years sat on both sides of the 1999 liberalisation of the BBFC. So on one hand there was the slack-jawed magnetic pull of the horror section of the video rental shop (remember those?), and the heavily cut version of The Evil Dead ... and on the other there was a whole list of genre milestones, freshly unleashed uncut (for most of them) onto the British public during my mid-teens ... the perfect timing, really. It's a time in my movie-watching history that I'll cherish forever - and it's that sort of love of film that this book exemplifies.

Allen Bridge - after a month-long break, it was time to head back to my drama/mystery screenplay. A tidying up of Act II first, and then proceeding onto Act III which is where, at the time of writing this, I currently reside.

Double Bill Mini-Cine Musings: Stoner aliens and Amber Heard in 3D...

Paul:
Compared to the comedic writing style of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright (which is often intricate and fast paced in terms of call-backs, observations and references), that of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (who co-wrote this action/comedy/sci-fi/road movie) isn't so much about intricacies. Rather it's more about a central concept - two British nerds (Pegg & Frost) go on a road trip across America's alien-related sights after their visit to fanboy central (the San Diego Comic-Con), and end up having to escort an alien - named Paul - to a certain site (kudos to those who figure out the loving reference an hour before it occurs) so that he can get home.

Where Paul shines are the characters - from Pegg and Frost's loveable duo of alien-obsessed nerds, to Kristen Wiig's Darwin-denying Creationist (whose entire belief system is exploded in one moment), to a certain sci-fi legend cameo that's damn good fun in the third act. In between it all though, for added enjoyment, are a series of cameos and bit-parts ... and then there's Paul himself, as voiced by Seth Rogen - possibly the most fun-loving alien ever on-screen.

While it may not have the wall-to-wall, frenetically-paced chuckles, guffaws, and gaspers of Shaun of the Dead, or Hot Fuzz, it's a movie that can't just be slotted into the comedy genre and left. It's as much a road movie as a comedy, and there's a decent slice of action, and sci-fi, drizzled on top.

It's bloody good fun, and I'm hoping that there'll be an extended cut for the home video release - because by the end of the film I wanted a little bit more of the little character moments and interplay that no doubt had to be left on the cutting room floor for the theatrical release - so we'll have to see what's what, but this is a definite DVD/Blu-Ray purchase no matter what.


Drive Angry 3D:
Using 3D like it's supposed to (shoving guns, baseball bats, skull fragments, and bloody stumps deep into the lens), this romper stomper of a genre flick is good fun from-the-get-go. It's not meant to be deep, so if you were expecting anything remotely like that, then you're a fool - it's clearly about muscle cars, guns, Nic Cage doing his badass thing, and Amber Heard in Daisy Dukes ... in 3D.

Speaking of which, even though the 3D is a bit of fun, I'm really starting to lose interest in it. It's not just the bloody glasses you have to wear, nor is it just the damned cheek of charging a considerable slab more on your ticket for 3D, but it's just how damn-near-pointless 3D is. If a movie is shit, it's shit, be it in 3D or not, and vice versa. 3D isn't necessary to tell a story either, far from it, so it becomes either unimportant or a gimmick - and neither path is going to mean it properly taking off.

Moving on though, Drive Angry 3D was - at times - a little disappointing. William Fichtner's "The Accountant" is a thoroughly entertaining baddie, but there needed to be more of him throughout, meanwhile all the Satanic Cult stuff wasn't as developed (and therefore not as interesting) as it could have been, so that all became a case of generic bad guy cannon fodder for the third act. What does work are the exploitation elements - the cars, the sex, the violence, and the black humour.

Compared to Lussier & Farmer's previous 3D outing (the underwhelming remake of My Bloody Valentine, also in 3D and also featuring genre icon Tom Atkins), this is a decided step up in all respects ... it's just a shame that the pacing and plotting faltered throughout, and that some of the dialogue seemed lazy ("I'm going to kill you" - intentionally ironic in its simplicity or not, such lines came off as damp squibs when the audience was all expecting a much more creative kiss-off).

The flick would at times have a real sense of purpose propelling it forward, but then it would inexplicably lose it from time-to-time throughout (times when I'd be waiting for Fichtner's scene-stealing Accountant to turn up). Indeed, the aforementioned Satanic Cult was the most undercooked element of the script, lead by a one-note bad guy, who was entirely trumped by, yep, Fichtner's grin-inducing Accountant-from-Hell.

So it's a mixed bag, but ultimately it gets a thumbs up from me because - several scripting and pacing faults aside - it's just a bloody good time. It is called Drive Angry after all, and features sexy cars, sexy chicks, badass dudes and pounding jolts of violence ... in full-on gimmick-driven 3D.

I Love You, Man...

It's got Paul Rudd, Jason Siegel and a plot about bromance - what's to go wrong? Nothing in fact, it's all rather enjoyable - though perhaps they could have gone further with the bromance side of the plot (maybe they will in an extended cut - and hopefully they do).

Jason Siegel (who I'm still astounded was only just reaching adulthood when he was on-screen in the excellent, but short-lived, Freaks & Geeks) plays a loveably entertaining Venice Beach slacker to contrast Paul Rudd's decent good guy with a distinct lack of male chums. The film is often at its best when they pair up (as they briefly did in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, in which Rudd played the surfing instructor).

Not much to say about it really - it's a solid good laugh throughout, with engaging comedic characters (both primary and secondary), and I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing an extended cut with added bromantics.