best of '11

Another year gone by. Another mad struggle at the end of December to see as many movies as possible.

This is my 8th year doing my 'best of' and I will run through the criteria for this list;

1. I need to have watched the entire movie. (yeah, I fell asleep during 'The Greatest Movie Ever Sold', so it won't count) 
2. The movie needed to be released in theatres during the 2011 calendar year. 

That's it. Sadly, I didn't get to see a few movies this year that I really wanted to ...

• Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Shame
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• A Dangerous Method

but that's the problem with being a regular dude with a full time job, trying to creep on all these movies.

In total, I watched 44 movies that were released this year.
Not bad compared to previous years
(57 in '10, 43 in '09, 40 in '08, 32 in '07, 55 in '06 and 53 in '05).

Without further ado, the list.

10 Crazy, Stupid, Love
9 Attack the Block
8 Like Crazy
7 X-Men: First Class
6 Moneyball
5 Cedar Rapids
4 Margin Call
3 Super 8
2 Bellflower
1 Drive

Biggest Surprise; Bellflower (check the trailer here >> )

2nd Biggest Surprise; Margin Call (check the trailer here >>)

Honourable Mention; Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Hobo With a Shotgun Contagion, Warrior, Paul, Hanna, Forks Over Knives

These are the most honourable mentions I've ever given out. Mission Impossible was exactly what it wanted to be, which is great. I actually really like the honesty of Crazy Stupid Love. It was well acted and the story was solid, so that's why it got the nod over the honourable mentions

Check here for the full list of movies I saw in 2011 >> 
Don't forget to check my Rotten Tomatoes/Flixster profile for all my ratings. However, I'll try and update this blog for everything in 2012. Oh yeah.

1love,

D

best of '10

Pretty good year, as I got to see 57 movies that were released in theatres in 2010. It was one of the more difficult years to create the Top 10 list. I really wanted to show love for Easy A and True Grit...heck, I even had the Social Network at #4 on my list, but there were some really original movies that seemed to catch my eye this year. Below is the final list, after a few weeks of contemplation.

Top 10
1 Black Swan
2 Inception
3 Animal Kingdom
4 The Town
5 Cyrus
6 Somewhere
7 The Fighter
8 The Social Network
9 Catfish
10 How to Train Your Dragon

Other movies that were in the Top 10 at one point or another -- The Social Network, Greenberg, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Scott Pilgrim, Easy A, True Grit and The Kids Are All Right

Best Comedy and Surprise of the Year - She's Out of My League

The full list of movies I saw in 2010;
Alice in Wonderland
Animal Kingdom
Black Swan
Buried
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
Catfish
Cyrus
Date Night
Dinner for Schmucks
Due Date
Easy A
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Get Him to the Greek
Greenberg
Grown Ups
Harry Brown
Harry Potter Deathly Hallows
Hot Tub Time Machine
How to Train Your Dragon
Human Centipede
I'm Still Here
Incepton
Iron Man 2
Jackass 3D
Just Wright
Kick-Ass
Killers
Knight and Day
MacGruber
Machete
Monsters
Morning Glory
Oceans
Ramona and Beezus
Remember Me
Robin Hood
Scott Pilgrim
She's Out of My League
Shutter Island
Solitary Man
Somewhere
Splice
The A-Team
The Fighter
The Karate Kid
The Kids Are All Right
The Last Airbender
The Other Guys
The Social Network
The Switch
The Town
The Trotsky
The Wolfman
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
Valentine's Day

happy new year.

best of '09

All right, so, looking back I didn't think the year was that great, but I did see 43 movies, which is 3 more than last year.
This year may actually be more difficult to compile a top 10. To me, nothing is clearer than 1 and 2, but 3-10 are all very close and were all excellent in my opinion.

Sadly I did not see - Sherlock Holmes, Invictus, Moon, Dr. Parnassus, The Blind Side and 9.

On to the next ones!

10 - Where The Wild Things Are
9 - Inglorious Basterds
8 - Up in the Air
7 - Funny People
6 - Up
5 - (500) Days of Summer
4 - District 9
3 - Fantastic Mr. Fox
2 - Avatar
1 - Brothers

Honourable Mention - Watchmen, The Hangover, The Hurt Locker and Star Trek

There were a lot of really original movies this year. I think that describes 2-5 quite well. Brothers was just super powerful. I've never been so emotionally attached to a movie while watching it. It was deep and very moving. Also, the movie didn't seem to get much love...and it was the first movie I could stand Tobey Maguire.

I know The Hurt Locker is the best reviewed movie of the year, but I'm not really into war movies, and the talk that it's a modern day "Full Metal Jacket" is true, it's not my cup of tea, but I did enjoy it.

All right, another hot one.

On to the next decade.

(I considered a top 10 of the decade, but I'm just a young buck.)

1 love,

D

bigg dane

The Hot - It was kinda funny...I guess...and Dane Cook is always entertaining.

The Not - Jason Biggs is the worst actor on the planet. Though, there were some moments (well, only one) that he and Dane Cook actually complimented each other. Also, not enough Alec Baldwin. It seemed as though the movie just relied on obscenities and the hilarity of the situations for laughs.

Final Shot - My Best Friend's Girl - 2/5

loser alien

The Hot - It was very original and quite funny. Simon Pegg is good. He needs more credit on this side of the border. It should be a big deal when his movies get released..because they are all really funny...especially since this movie was PACKED with celebrities. It was really cool. It seemed like it may have been really true, in a funny sort of way. It's kinda like this is how Simon Pegg got to where he is. Jeff Bridges was a dominator.

The Not - The love story was very obvious and cliche...and a lot of the movie was focused on that.

Final Shot - How to Lose Friends and Alienate People - 3/5