My Top 25 Favorite Movies of 2011, Part 1

From the deepest bowels of the blackest pits of Hades I rise, and ALL MOVIES SHALL TREMBLE BEFORE MY SHIFTY MIGHT!!!

Ahem. . .

Okay, now that I've gotten that out of my system it's time to get back to business with the annual 5-part list of my top 25 favorite movies of the previous year (2011).  Why not do a favorite movie list of the most recent year, you ask?  Because movies need time to breathe.  Immediate reviews of new movies are always far too reactionary, and with their marketing campaigns constantly pummeling our minds and the circumstances of the day coloring our moods, basing our entire opinions of a movie on a one-time, uniquely affecting viewing always seemed a bit dishonest to me.  Watching a movie for a second time, without all of the advertisements and hype (or un-hype), at a time long after the movie's initial release has always felt like the best way to form a truthful opinion.

Also, keep in mind that this is not "The Top 25 BEST Movies of 2011".  These are my FAVORITE movies of 2011, not necessarily the "best".  These are the movies that I've watched most often over the past year, movies I've shared with others and love, despite their flaws (or because of them).  I am not enough of a D-bag to declare what is "best" for others.  I only know what I like.

So strap in and hold on to your butts.  It's gonna be a bumpy ride. . .


-The Adjustment Bureau-

And the award for Most Boring Movie Title of the Year goes to. . . a pretty good film!  I merely "liked" this movie when I saw it in theaters, but the year has been kind and my fondness for this movie has grown quite a bit.  It's a simple love story wrapped in a science-fiction concept.  Based on "Adjustment Team" by Philip K. Dick (heh, heh), the movie, directed by George Nolfi (hee, hee), follows two people (politician Matt Damon and dancer Emily Blunt) as their burgeoning love affair conflicts with the plans of "The Chairman", a mysterious being who's been controlling mankind over the ages, guiding them along his own personal plan via his fedora-wearing agents in the Adjustment Bureau.  It sounds like a potentially dark concept but, while the movie treats it's fantasy aspects seriously, it's actually a good, old-fashioned Hollywood thriller.  And that's what I love about it.  Turn off your color and watch this movie in black and white (as I have) and you'll see what I mean.  That endearing earnestness that makes the classics so watchable is here in spades.  With two great, chemistry-laden performances by the lead actors, slick, technical direction and its sweet Hollywood ending, this movie feels like a breath of fresh air compared to all of the dark, gritty sci-fi we usually get.

-Rango-

Remember when a Johnny Depp movie was something to eagerly look forward to?  Well, after a long string of crap ("Alice in Wonderland", "The Rum Diaries", "The Tourist", "Pirates of the Caribbean 4", "Dark Shadows", etc.) that's no longer the case - with the occasional exception.  "Rango" is one of these exceptions.  From Gore Verbinski (director of "The Ring", "Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3") comes I.L.M.'s very first animated movie, featuring Depp as the voice of the lead gecko who, after getting separated from his owners and stranded in the desert southwest, pretends to be a dastardly outlaw, becomes sheriff of an old western town full of colorful animal characters and gets embroiled in a plot to control the town's water, all while fighting bandits, a desert hawk and his own lying nature.  It's a fantastic tribute to Old West cinema ("Rango" - ""Django"?), filled with amazingly designed characters (by Mark "Crash" McCreery), great action scenes, and lots and lots of hilarious sight gags and lines ("I found a human spinal column in my fecal matter, once!").  And it's definitely PG-rated.  Very hardcore stuff (for young'uns).  It's my favorite animated movie from 2011.

-Tucker and Dale vs. Evil-

The cult movie phenomenon of 2011 and the latest addition to my annual Halloween favorites is this little gem of a horror/comedy from director Eli Craig.  Taking the cliched horror movie situation of vacationing teens getting tormented by backwoods hillbillies and flipping it on its head, the film stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine (a perfect comedy pairing) as redneck hillbilly buddies Tucker and Dale who head into the woods to fix up their new vacation home.  When the duo rescue a lovely young lass from drowning, her group of friends (vacationing teens, all of 'em) think she's been kidnapped and will do anything to save her from her "evil" captors.  The misunderstandings mount, as does the gory body count.  While some structural flourished don't work and the film occasionally shows its low budget, but still works phenomenally, full of some of the funniest movie moments of 2011 coupled with some great gore effects.  And while the comedy far outweighs the horror, the performances of the two leads equals comedy gold, with a nice dose of touching (and effective) sentimentality thrown in to make you root for these characters even more.  Watch this movie and pass it on to your friends!

-Fast Five-

This is how you do it.  Pay off a decade-long storyline, that is.  "The Avengers" would do it also, but for all of the fans who've followed the "Fast and the Furious" series since 2001, this movie is the culmination that dreams are made of.  What is basically a soap opera/crime drama/car porn/hip hop action series for the "Grand Theft Auto" generation grows up a little bit and takes more responsibility this time around as Dom (Vin Diesel) and his crew of law-breaking street racers get caught between the vicious drug lord who rules Rio de Janeiro (Joachim de Almeida) and a crew of CIA enforcement agents run by a living pit bull named Hobbs (The Rock).  In order to break free and ensure the safety of the next generation of law breaking hooligans they need to pull of one last, unbelievable heist.  It's anarchic, anti-authoritarian fun at its best.  The love that the fans have for these characters is clearly shared by the filmmakers, specifically director Justin Lin, as he brings together all of the fan-favorite characters together at once, bringing the series' overarching theme of family hard into the fore.   It's the third film in the series that he's directed, and it's his most refined and assured, perfectly paced with equal amounts of fun and pathos.  The Rock is a particularly energizing addition to the series - his bare knuckle brawl with Diesel is this generation's version of a Schwarzenegger/Stallone fight.  In fact, it's The Rock's best movie to date!  Add to that one of the best climactic action sequences ever (you will rewind and watch it multiple times) and a kicker of a final, post-credits scene (leading to the final two movies in the series) and you have one helluva good time.

-Another Earth-

Intimate indie drama meets high concept science fiction in this low budget winner from director Mike Cahill.  Rhoda (Brit Marling, also co-screenwriter) has a bright future ahead of her.  She's intelligent, college bound and eager for life, but one night of partying and an astronomical distraction (a new, just-discovered Earthlike planet in the night sky) culminate in a horrible car crash.  Responsible for the deaths of a pregnant woman and her young son, and for sending the father into a coma, Rhoda is sent to prison.  Years later, after her release, she attempts to piece together a new life, but a chance meeting with the now-awake (and broken) man she put into a coma (William Mapother) opens up a new opportunity to put things right - if only she can overcome her own broken psyche.  Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that the Earth-like planet turns out to actually be a parallel Earth, populated with doppelganger versions of all of us?  Whoops, I forgot.  What seems like two very incompatible plot lines actually mesh quite nicely, with some neat sci-fi ideas feeding naturally into the dramatic storyline, and vice versa.  Marling and Mapother give fine performances as the two damaged main characters, anchoring the far-out concepts of the fantastical plot elements through their believability.  There's some sketchy acting here and there, the film occasionally shows its low budget, and the opening scenes are a little to "student-filmy" for my tastes, but I found myself undeniably sucked into the narrative and loving every minute of this intelligent fable of redemption and rejuvenation, from beginning to breath-catching end.