Palooza Presents "The 99 Films of 2011"

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

Question..

Are these Theater visits , DVDs , or "internet" based ?

Just wondering as some films seem a waste of a theater visit while others are almost demanding of a theater experience.

[Palooza]

Question..

Are these Theater visits , DVDs , or "internet" based ?

Just wondering as some films seem a waste of a theater visit while others are almost demanding of a theater experience.

Good question. I'll tell you how I saw each movie so far -

Green Lantern - HBO
Unknown - HBO
Restless - HQ torrent
Hall Pass - HBO
Your Highness - Theater*
Battle: Los Angeles - Starz
The Mechanic - DVD
The Sitter - Decent torrent
The Darkest Hour - decent torrent
Transformers - the works
Cowboys & Aliens - HQ torrent
Bad Teacher - theater*
PotC: On Stranger Tides - Starz
The Art of Getting By - HQ torrent
Fright Night - HQ torrent
The Thing - HQ torrent
Scream 4 - decent torrent
The Rum Diary - theater*
Happythankyoumoreplease - Starz
The Debt - HQ torrent
A Good Old Fashioned Orgy - HQ torrent
Red State - Netflix
Sucker Punch - HBO
Hanna - redbox
The Adjustment Bureau - decent torrent
Our Idiot Brother - bootleg from Chinatown
Colombiana - Starz
My Week with Marilyn - redbox
Friends with Benefits - Starz
The Whistleblower - redbox
The Change-Up - HQ torrent
The Hangover: Part 2 - theater
The Green Hornet - Starz
London Boulevard - redbox
Cedar Rapids - redbox

*waste of money

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

67. The Green Hornet
Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Christoph Waltz, Cameron Diaz, Tom Wilkinson, Edward James Olmos, Edward Furlong, James Franco

Director -
Michael Gondry
Writer(s) -
Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 44%
Metacritic Score - 39/100
Viewed - Starz
Yet another movie with a ton of promise that failed to deliver. Sometimes putting a few good things together does not equal a good product. I love Seth Rogen, his obnoxious brand of humor is right up my alley and Michael Gondry is a strange and cool director but putting them two together in a superhero movie (the Green Hornet of all people, too) was not the right fit. The plot is pretty much every cliche superhero origin plot, mixed in with Rogen's somewhat forced bromance with Kato. I will give some credit to a few of the action scenes, which had a lot of promise but did not really deliver. I can't believe I've gone this far without mentioning the abomination that is Cameron Diaz. Possibly the worst human being on Earth, she is pegged once again as the "love interest" something that even fat Seth Rogen shouldn't be looking for nevertheless superhero, skinny, rich playboy Rogen. Also, why is she an assistant? You're like 40 years old, get a real job, bitch.
Spoiler Alert - Tom Wilkinson dies too early. Superheroes win, the guy gets the girl, etc.
Grade - F

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

66. London Boulevard

Director -
William Monahan
Writer(s) -
William Monahan
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 32%
Metacritic Score - 52/100
Viewed - redbox
What a year of disappointments. This had everything to make it awesome - post-In Bruges Colin Farrell, the writer of the Departed, Ray Winstone as a bad guy and Keira Knightley as "the chick". Monahan seemed to be his own worst enemy here, not knowing really how to direct. He's too involved with dialogue and being cool that he neglects the important elements of storytelling with the camera. This movie had so much potential, it is a shame Monahan was far too over his head to turn this into yet another solid English crime thriller.
Spoiler Alert - Final scene STOLEN from Layer Cake
Grade - F

[Palooza]

There are no more F's left, sorry W2B. There are no D's, all of the movies I had under there were arguable failures, so I went with that. The next set of movies are all pretty mediocre, which why they're C's. AVERAGEMOVIES.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

65. Cedar Rapids
Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Anne Heche, Stephen Root, Kurtwood Smith, Alia Shawkat, Sigourney Weaver, Rob Corddry, Thomas Lennon

Director -
Miguel Artera
Writer(s) -
Phil Johnston
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 86%
Metacritic Score - 70/100
Viewed - redbox
LOL the Wire reference.. do you get it? Because I was in the Wire. Obnoxious joke is obnoxious. John C. Reilly hits it out of the park once again, which is what brought this movie to mediocrity. As a supporting character, he can only do so much, but he hit every nail on the head with this one. Ed Helms plays yet another bitchy character who needs to break out of his shell. Yawn. Maeby Funke as a prostitute kind of creeped me out for a little bit, but then once they started doing drugs and stuff, I was used to her and actually enjoyed her character. Another thing - for a comedy, I did not find it to be that funny. Not laugh out loud funny at least. This movie was pretty much just as boring as I'd expect the midwest to be. Nothing too terrible, but not great either. Mediocrity at its lowest form.
Spoiler Alert - Ed Helms breaks out of his shell
Grade - C

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

64. Submarine
Craig Roberts, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, Sally Hawkins, Paddy Considine

Director -
Richard Ayoade
Writer(s) -
Richard Ayoade
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 87%
Metacritic Score - 76/100
Viewed - Redbox
I think more depressing teen love stories should be like this movie. This coming of age drama has a crazy array of characters, none of which would be described as good looking in any sense. The object of the protagonist, Oliver's affection does have "that thing". The director does a very good job of showing the audience how special she is, even if she isn't the best looking girl. What holds this back is the character of Oliver himself. Sometimes he's too self-aware and other times he's annoyingly naive. The melancholic soundtrack by the Arctic Monkeys front man that fit perfectly with the somber and depressing tone and feel of the movie. While it fit and it worked, it was just too depressing for me. If I was a kid who had his heart broken or was looking for love, this movie would have appealed to me more. The supporting characters are pretty spectacular, too, getting three brilliant English actors to round out the adults of the movie - Sally Hawkins and Noah Taylor as Oliver's drifting parents and Paddy Considine as their weirdo neighbor and former lover of Sally Hawkins' character.
Spoiler Alert - Everything's gunna be okay
Grade - C

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

63. A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas
Kal Penn, John Cho, Neil Patrick Harris, Danny Trejo, Paula Garces, Elias Koteas, RZA, Eddy Kaye Thomas, David Krumholtz, Amir Blumenfeld, Thomas Lennon, Bobby Lee, Patton Oswalt

Director -
Todd Strauss-Schulson
Writer(s) -
Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 68%
Metacritic Score - 61/100
Viewed - In theaters/3D
Two things factored into why I liked this movie so much - the amount of marijuana I consumed beforehand and experience in the theater. I went with a large group of friends; we were the only people in the theater and we were all as high as can be. Between this and the awesome interactive 3D - smoke pouring out at us as we smoked was the coolest thing ever at that moment. The jokes were what to be expected from the H&K franchise, an underrated set of movies. This one was on par with the others - nothing special but highly entertaining. I could have done without the fucking loser from CollegeHumor, though. Everything about him felt forced. Also, Kumar looks like shit. NPH's dressing room bit had me in tears, too.
Spoiler Alert - I was too high to remember
Grade - C

[Houston]

Sally Hawkins may be my favorite actress right now. Even with her acting aside, nearly everything she's in is worth watching, especially the movies when she's the main character.

[Fappin Raptor]

This thread is now an F for no more F's.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

62. 30 Minutes or Less
Jesse Eisenberg, Aziz Ansari, Danny McBride, Nick Swardson, Dilshad Vadsaria, Michael Pena, Fred Ward

Director -
Ruben Fleischer
Writer(s) -
Michael Diliberti
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 44%
Metacritic Score - 49/100
Viewed - In theaters
Danny McBride's raunchy humor is in full effect here, which is something I happen to love. The plot is pretty stupid and very ridiculous, but it works for dumb comedy like this. After Zombieland, the bar was set high for this movie, but this one seemed to be too much for Fleischer, who seemed to trip up here in his sophomore effort. Jesse Eisenberg is pretty lame and annoying as the main character, but Aziz Ansari comes through to save the day for him, bringing enough laughs to take away from Eisenberg. Fleischer needs to do better on his next effort, or else he may suffer from one hit wonder syndrome.
Spoiler Alert - The movie is longer than 30 minutes.
Grade - C

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

61. The Company Men
Ben Affleck, Tommy Lee Jones, Kevin Costner, Chris Cooper, Maria Bello, Rosemarie DeWitt, Eamonn Walker

Director -
John Wells
Writer(s) -
John Wells
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 67%
Metacritic Score - 69/100
Viewed - HQ torrent
This movie had a lot of good things going for it - Ben Affleck was tolerable (although a bit of a stubborn baby), Tommy Lee Jones was easily someone to root for, Craig T. Nelson was a cock, Chris Cooper played a on-the-edge-of-losing-it businessman, Kevin Costner as a sarcastic everyman prick and Maria Bello as a hot piece of ass. What went wrong? For as heartbreaking as everything seems to be going, you realize that everything is going to work out, no matter what. The ending gift wraps happiness for the characters with a nice little bow, something that pisses me off, but I was able to look past it enough not to fail it.
Spoiler Alert - Everyone, except the dead people, wind up with a job.
Grade - C

[EmpireWF]

30 Minutes was a HUGE letdown for me. Didn't find it funny at all besides Ansari.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

60. Everything Must Go
Will Ferrell, Rebecca Hall, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Michael Pena, Stephen Root, Laura Dern, Glenn Howerton

Director -
Dan Rush
Writer(s) -
Dan Rush
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 75%
Metacritic Score - 65/100
Viewed - redbox
I really like when comedians like Will Ferrell stretch out beyond their comfort zone into more dramatic fare. This isn't a gigantic stretch for Ferrell, but he's less of a dumb man-child and more of a lost and broken guy. The premise is smart and cool and perfect for a movie like this - Ferrell's wife locks him out of the house and puts all his shit on the lawn. If I remember correctly, this movie is based on the Raymond Carver story. Either way, this is Ferrell's first step toward the comedy-to-drama transition of comics. Hopefully he'll continue down a Bill Murray-type road instead of an Adam Sandler one. Ferrell needs to make more movies like this and I look forward to when he does. Any movie that can throw Glenn Howerton in a role is a movie I can get into.
Spoiler Alert - Michael Pena, you're a bad sponsor.
Grade - C

[Palooza]

I watched Everything Must Go Monday Night. Thought it was really good. Don't think many have seen it. Was it even in theaters?

Limited release, I believe. One of my friends saw it in the city over the summer, but I caught it on DVD.