Palooza Presents "The 99 Films of 2011"

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

99 Films of 2011

27. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Michael Gambon, Clemence Posey, Helena Bonham Carter, John Hurt, Warwick Davis, Domhall Gleeson, Evanna Lynch, Kelly Macdonald, Jason Issacs, Tom Felton, Helen McCrory, Ciaran Hinds, Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis, Emma Thompson, Robbie Coltrane, Gary Oldman, Matthew Lewis, Devon Murray, Jessie Cave, Afshan Azad, Bonnie Wright

Director -
David Yates
Writer(s) -
Steve Kloves
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 96%
Metacritic Score - 87/100
Viewed - In theaters
I don't really need to explain this. The Harry Potter movies are really good and every young adult novel series will look up to these movies until the end of time. This movie had a lot to live up to, the end of such a long series always has high expectations and this did not disappoint. In the world of sequels for the sake of sequels, this franchise had the benefit of some of the most popular source material that was always intended to tell a long narrative. I cannot commend everyone involved in this enough for their impressive work making the end of something great feel so much more than just the end. They've taken something that could definitely wind up being ridiculous or anti-climatic or repetitious and they make it feel like home. You've followed these characters as they grew up and now they've finally matured into what they were supposed to become and it's amazing. If you're a fan or have kids who are, go see this. If you're not, stop being so stubborn, these are some good movies. Also, Emma Watson is one of the most beautiful women on the planet. I love her.
Grade - B+

I thought the first was great as I just finished reading the book. I though the second was blah and never read another book.
Saw 3-7.1 and they were all "good" (azkaban being best)....maybe it was the hype , or the 3D , or the nostalgia built into it knowing this was it for the cast...but man o man I loved it. The Snape story line is what really got to me.
Reading the book would have killed the suspense over 2 plot points but overall great movie. Very weird epilogue though...cool..but it was so long it was icky.

99 Films of 2011

24. Contagion
Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Laurence Fishburne, Marion Cotillard, John Hawkes, Bryan Cranston, Demetri Martin, Elliot Gould

Director -
Steven Soderberg
Writer(s) -
Scott Z. Burns
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 84%
Metacritic Score - 70/100
Viewed - In theaters
Just like in 2000's Traffic, Steven Soderberg has taken a basic premise - then drugs, now a deadly virus - and put it together in a well-balanced ensemble, creating another Hollywood success for himself. I say Hollywood success instead of simply "success" because of Soderberg's strange indie kick he went on with Bubble and The Girlfriend Experience, to name a couple... Some people say this movie is like Outbreak. I'd agree with them, except I'd be more specific - This movie is like Outbreak, but good. Very good. The ensemble revolves around four central storylines - A wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) comes back from a business trip sick and he husband (Matt Damon) rushes her to the hospital where she soon dies * barely a spoiler alert and if I could have an aside for one second - there was nothing more rewarding than watching Gwyneth Paltrow die * other people being mysteriously dying too all over the world; the CDC director (Laurence Fishburne) and the rest of his staff are unaware of the gravity of the situation and so Fishburne's Dr. Cheever hires Dr. Erin Meers (Kate Winslet) to investigate the virus in America; WHO employee Dr. Orantes (Marion Cotillard) starts tracking the virus, tracing Beth (Paltrow)'s steps; A conspiracy journalist (Jude Law) who perpetuates the public's overwhelming panic. I already addressed the Paltrow situation, so let's move on to bigger and better things - Jude Law has the most interesting and compelling story, Marion Cotillard is an amazing human being and she can do no wrong, but what fucked me up the most was Kate Winslet's story line. I may have cried. .. You know what you're getting from a Soderberg directed movie in terms of style. I, for one, am a huge supporter of Soderberg and will probably see his ultra-gay new movie "Magic Mike" just to see sweaty guys, what? I mean Soderberg's style, man! This is one of, if not, the best 'end of the world' movies.
Grade - B+

I think my problem is this.

 

This wasnt an end of the world movie. I saw this with Planet of the Apes still fresh in my head..particularly the last 2 minutes. So much as I enjoyed 95% of it I thought the ending was a wimper.
Wasnt the mortality rate something like 20% ?? IRL holy crap thats scary as shit. But for a hollywood movie it just meant a couple people would die but not the end of the world.

[strahanfan92]

99 Films of 2011

56. We Bought a Zoo
Matt Damon, Scarlett Johannson, Patrick Fugit, Thomas Haden Church, Colin Ford, Elle Fanning, Mary Elizabeth Jones, Angus Macfadyen, John Michael Higgins, JB Smoove

Director -
Cameron Crowe
Writer(s) -
Cameron Crowe, Aline Brosh McKenna
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 67%
Metacritic Score - 58/100
Viewed - HQ torrent
"Based on a true story" always means sugar coating the truth. I don't know anything about the true story involving this, but you could tell that it dramatized. Everything is too perfect and too Hollywood. On top of that, it's really sappy and childish; the inspirational themes of the movie are shoved down your throat. Scarlett Johannson is a beautiful human being and looking at her was worth the time I spent watching this mediocre movie. Cameron Crowe waiting so long to make a movie for this? Dumb.
Spoiler Alert - They buy a zoo.
Grade - C

That photo looks photoshopped.

[Palooza]

That photo looks photoshopped.

Yes it looks terrible, that's why I used it.

[KINGOFOOTBALL]

I hope Palooza has gotten a mountain of thanks.I have been bitchslapped for my assumption this would take forever. This thread has been a good read and entertaining thus far. I love revisiting movies after a few months just to see if my initial impression is the same months later. Only occasionally do movies leave me with eagerness to watch again.
I always wanted to write down mini thoughts on every movie I watched....instead I can just thanks or groan someone elses.

[Senser81]

99 Films of 2011

26. Margin Call
Zachary Quinto, Paul Bettany, Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, Jeremy Irons, Simon Baker, Demi Moore, Penn Badgley, Mary McDonnell

Director -
JC Chandor
Writer(s) -
JC Chandor
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 89%
Metacritic Score - 76/100
Viewed - HQ torrent
Margin Call benefits from a great script and the actors performances. The plot is much more confined, which gives you a catastrophic uneasiness, even though if you're not a dumbass, you should already know what happens. It's not so much about the financial crisis as it is about how the short period of time with people who helped create it try to combat what they've done. In essence, everyone is a villain; there are just some you can sympathize with better than others and some you understand the ruthlessness that helped build and will now destroy what was created. Zachary Quinto steps out of the shadow of Spock and Sylar and does a really surprising job of carrying the film at it's core. After the company fires Quinto's boss and mentor (Stanley Tucci), he passes along a flash drive of something he needs finished. Quinto stays up all night and figures out something awful is about to happen and so we follow him and his buddy (Penn Badgley) as they go up the food chain to their boss (Paul Bettany) to his boss (Kevin Spacey) o his boss (Simon Baker) to the CEO (Jeremy Irons). The irony that is sprinkled throughout is that the further up the food chain you go, the less they know about the details and more they are concerned with saving themselves. Irons does what he does best, oozing evil and terrifying the shit out of me. Kevin Spacey and Stanley Tucci are the easiest to relate to and sympathize with aside from Quinto. Paul Bettany's character is a smart, selfish, but loyal guy who seems to be working his way down the path that got the ones making the decisions where they are. If none of this would have happened for another decade, Bettany's character would be on crisis control with Irons, not Baker, who is seemingly the most incompetent of the group. Demi Moore is pretty useless and annoying until the end, where she, SPOILER ALERT, is cast as a scapegoat.
Grade - B+

So its like A Few Good Men?

[Palooza]

I'm going to take a nap and put another dent into this

[Palooza]

I hope Palooza has gotten a mountain of thanks.I have been bitchslapped for my assumption this would take forever. This thread has been a good read and entertaining thus far. I love revisiting movies after a few months just to see if my initial impression is the same months later. Only occasionally do movies leave me with eagerness to watch again.
I always wanted to write down mini thoughts on every movie I watched....instead I can just thanks or groan someone elses.

listen to this man :puft:

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

23. Hesher
Joseph Gordon Levitt, Devin Brochu, Natalie Portman, Rainn Wilson, Piper Laurie, John Carroll Lynch, Brendan Hill

Director -
Spencer Susser
Writer(s) -
Spencer Susser, David Michod
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 54%
Metacritic Score - 45/100
Viewed - DVD
You guys know how Buzzman feels about Ryan Gosling, right? I'm the same way with Joseph Gordon Levitt. My love for him may even go beyond his acting ability, I'd probably go gay for him. That's beside the point. Instead of getting caught up as being typecast after (500) Days of Summer, JGL jumps into a role that is the polar opposite of Tom Hanson. Here, he plays Hesher, a mysterious, deranged and psychotic stranger who somehow helps a family cope with the loss of their matriarch. The family consists of T.J., a young teen who is bullied and is struggling to understand the loss of his mother in a car crash, Rainn Wilson's Paul who has sunk into a deep, comatose state of depression and Grandma, a delusional old woman who simply just wants someone to go for a walk with her. One day T.J. erupts into a fit of rage, calling attention to a house that is being built, which we find out is being used as Hesher's home. Hesher isn't happy, alludes the security guard who comes after him and shames TJ in the process. Ever since, Hesher becomes a part of the family, moving in as TJ's friend. What follows is one of the most bizarre chain of events that brings the family together and Natalie Portman's doofy Nicole, a grocery store cashier who fights off TJ's bully in her store's parking lot. Portman doesn't need to do much here, she can play an adorable weirdo in her sleep and Rainn Wilson doesn't do much but mope around, so obvious the show is Hesher and TJ's whose hatred for Hesher helps him come out of his shell. Not only is Hesher a reckless human being who does what he wants when he wants, he is hilarious, obnoxious and speaks his mind. One scene in particular at the dinner table with the family, where Hesher persists that TJ go for a walk with Grandma, saying "Go on a walk with your grandma. Your grandma, goes walking in the morning, by herself? You can’t get your ass out of bed an hour earlier? What if she gets raped? You ever heard of the Grannie Killer? Yeah, the Gran- The Grannie Killer. He killed like 13 or 14 old ladies. I mean, I don’t think he cock-fucked them all, but he would finger-fuck them. I don’t care, I’m just saying. Your grandma asked you to go for a walk, you should go ... so she doesn’t get raped." The movie is equal parts sad and cynical, but it never really brings you down. Hesher's antics are crazy and hilarious enough that you never feel as depressed as TJ or Paul, but you understand their sadness. Hesher is something of a fallen angel, sent to help this family, whether they like it or not. It's brilliant.
Spoiler Alert - here is a fantastic scene during one of the last parts of the movie. The quote below is from the video linked below that.

I pulled this gas tank from an old Chevy. I wanted to blow it up, so I did. What I didn't think about was all the little bits of metal that were going to fly out in every direction. I almost killed myself. I woke up in this hospital and this doctor was like, "Son..." and I said "Don't call me son, you fucking cunt." And he was like, "You blew off your nut." ... I just lost my nut, like that. I went fucking crazy. I assaulted a nurse or a doctor, I don't really remember. I got arrested. I went to juvee. All I could think about was my fucking nut, man. I'm missing a nut. What am I going to do? I had to go looking for it, right? So I busted out of juvee and I went searching. I couldn't find my nut. ... Well, there was this one night I was sitting there and I was taking a shit and I was looking at my balls and I was staring at this little piece of flabby sack where my left nut used to be. And then I saw my right nut for the first time. I was like FUCK MAN, MY NUT! Look I have one, I still have a nut. Right? It's a good nut, it works. God or the fucking devil or whoever the fuck it is you know he left me with one good nut. I still have a fucking nut and it works. And my fucking dick works too. ... Okay, you lost your wife. And you lost your mom. I lost my nut.

The movie is full of these fantastic metaphors. Most people aren't going to like this movie, but I LOVE it.
Grade - B+

[Palooza]

Video isn't showing up for me.. annoying.

[Buzzman]

How the hell is Hesher at a 45 on Metacritic? JGL's intro scene in Hesher is amazingly awesome.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

22. Rango
Johnny Depp, Isla Fisher, Abigail Breslin, Ned Beatty, Ray Winstone, Alfred Molina, Bill Nighy, Stephen Root, Howard Dean Stanton, Timothy Olyphant

Director -
Gore Verbinski
Writer(s) -
John Logan
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 88%
Metacritic Score - 75/100
Viewed - Netflix
What is impressive about this movie is how easily this movie passes for a kids movie when there is just so much thrown into it that will appeal to older audiences. I'm sure I've said this enough but I can't stand Johnny Depp these days. He's way too overblown and he's had a pretty bad couple of years quality wise that for some reason have made a ton of money. He retreats from his obnoxiously weird work with Tim Burton to the cool weird he became popular with Gore Verbinski and the Jack Sparrow character, who I must add is a pathetic shell of his OSCAR NOMINATED SELF. Whatever, back to Rango - this movie is weird, definitely, but it's awesome. It's funny, it's clever, it's ambitious. Gore Verbinski is in no way the best director around, but he's good enough to give new life to the run of the mill animated movies that have taken over the market. The cast is filled with some really great actors (Ned Beatty and Ray Winstone come to mind), even if Abigail Breslin annoyed the shit out of me, it was overshadowed by the interactions Rango has with the other characters, which brings me to my favorite part of the movie - the homage. Rango wears a Raoul Duke-esque shirt the entire movie, but the single best part is Timothy Olyphant as The Man with No Name (except he's called 'The Spirit of the West') pulling off a brilliant Clint Eastwood, complete with Oscars in his golf cart. This movie balances the kids elements perfectly with the grown up elements and it drags you along for a cool ride complete with action and adventure. The best animated movie of 2012, by far, but you'll only have that the years Pixar makes Cars sequels.
Grade - B+

[Palooza]

Fuck. I'm so close to finishing this but I'm being a deadbeat about it. I'm on it tomorrow after 3pm EST. I promise.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011

21. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Paula Patton, Michael Nyqvist, Tom Wilkinson, Josh Holloway, Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan

Director -
Brad Bird
Writer(s) -
Josh Applebaum, Andre Nemec
Rotten Tomatoes Score - 94%
Metacritic Score - 73/100
Viewed - DVD
I am a huge fan of the Mission:Impossible series; it is the only set of movies where I can stand Tom Cruise. What this movie does best is leave a great taste in your mouth, ayyyyyyyy. The final scene of the movie gets you all giddy and excited and leaves you wanting more. Director Brad Bird of Pixar fame makes his first live-action movie and it certainly doesn't disappoint. The mixture of action, suspense and espionage is perfectly balanced. Brad Bird knows what people want to see, so he makes sure to make the action the focal point, but there is also an addition of some character development unheard of in movies like this. Most specifically is Jeremy Renner's character, Brandt, who is being groomed to take over, a mysterious agent who joins the team and we slowly learn his secrets and connection to Ethan Hunt, all the while learning what happened to some characters from Mi3. The smartest thing the movie does is add more screen time for Simon Pegg's Benji, who is essentially Simon Pegg as a genius tech expert. His comedic timing is spot on and his chemistry with the team seems unbelievably natural. Speaking of technology, what is used is pretty ridiculous, but that's the model this series has created; you know what to expect from the series so you should suspend disbelief from the get-go. Thankfully, the obnoxious mask maker breaks and we don't have to suspend our disbelief so much for that like we had to in Mi3 with Cruise pretending to be Philip Seymour Hoffman. The problem with this movie is the bad guy, to be honest. Michael Nyqvist of the Millennium trilogy plays the villain whose motives I don't really recall, but he's trying to end the world, so it's up to the rogue team lead by Cruise and Renner. He's pretty faceless and is barely used. It's more of the idea of him that makes the movie work. This movie is the team's and Brad Bird makes sure they are the focal point throughout. Paula Patton plays the badass hot girl with perfection and I look forward to seeing her in other movies. The Mission:Impossible series, and this film in particular, are some of the best action movies around. The mixture of espionage and action is balanced so well, it is unseen in any other action movie, usually they just throw a ton of explosions and fights here and there, but M:I is so much more than that. Except for the shitty 2nd one directed by John Woo, these movies have had some brilliant direction that have certainly kept them from being obnoxious or ridiculous enough not to enjoy.
Grade - B+

[Palooza]

Well, since I was without internet this weekend and I've been severely slacking on this, I created some awards to delay this even longer. Categories to be posted now, nominations before we get to the top 10 and then I'll sprinkle them in there as I go through the top 10.

Front page updated. Categories to be posted next, followed by 11-20 throughout the night.

[Palooza]

99 Films of 2011
AWARDS
Categories

Best of the Best
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Cinematography
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay

The Up and Comers
Director
Actor
Actress
Writer

Pleasantly Surprised
Picture
Director
Actor
Actress
Writing

Killed by Hype
Picture
Director
Actor
Actress
Writing

Pure Shite
Picture
Director
Actor
Actress
Writing