Films of 2011: The Rest of Them

It all started so well. After a poor showing last year, I told myself that I would pay much more attention to this blog and write a proper review for everything I saw.

Ahem.

For the sake of the approximately 3 people who may still actually check this URL occasionally, I've finally managed to round up a list of everything else I saw since my last review, back in... er, May. Of course, at this point even writing a two-line summary of each film would take forever, so I've chosen to go for the more efficient (i.e. lazy) route of simply dividing everything into one of four broad (and I mean broad) categories of "Great", "Good", "Okay", and "Bad", which are all hopefully self-explanatory. Within each group the films are just listed in order of release date - I wouldn't want to spoil my top 10 list that I will post in the next couple of days (honest!)...

Great

Drive

The Ides of March

50/50

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (especially in IMAX!)

The Artist

Good

Thor

Hanna

X-Men: First Class

Senna

The Tree of Life

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Horrible Bosses

Captain America: The First Avenger

Super 8

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The Inbetweeners

The Skin I Live In

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Albatross

Contagion

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

In Time

Moneyball

Hugo

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Okay

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Bad Teacher

Super

Cowboys & Aliens

Bad

Your Highness

Green Lantern

Transformers: Dark of the Moon

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Limitless

Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is a writer whose life is going nowhere. He hasn't written a word of his novel, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) has dumped him, and he's behind on his rent. This all changes when by chance he runs into his shady ex-brother-in-law, who gives him a mysterious clear pill that allows him to access all of his brain power at once as opposed to the 20% that we ordinarily use. Overnight Eddie becomes a charismatic super-genius, capable of wooing any woman and making millions by predicting the stock markets; before long he has gathered the attention of both powerful businessman Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro) and other, far more dangerous individuals. And on top of that, his continued use of the untested drug begins to take its toll on Eddie...

I went into Limitless with comparatively low expectations and as such was very pleasantly surprised by a highly entertaining, fast-moving and stylish film that makes good use of its basic sci-fi concept and runs with it to great effect. Cooper makes for a likeable lead, Neil Burger's direction is solid and the script has enough twists and unexpected moments of humour to keep your interest throughout. There are certainly a few issues with regards to unresolved plot threads but ultimately this didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film. It's not spectacular, but it is definitely good fun.

VERDICT: Worth seeing.

IMDb

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Source Code

I'm going to skip the plot synopsis for this review, but that's not just me being lazy - as is often the case with sci-fi films, the less you know about story going in, the more you are likely to enjoy it; the discovery of the various plot revelations is one of this film's most enjoyable aspects.

Source Code is British Director Duncan Jones's follow-up to the excellent low budget sci-fi effort Moon, and shares much of that film's intelligence and heart. However with an expanded budget, this time Jones has managed to craft a superb 90-minute thrill ride constructed around a highly intriguing plot concept that combines action and emotion in equal measure. The compelling and inventive screenplay and excellent direction are well supported by the fine performances of the principal cast (Jake Gylenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright), resulting in one of the best films that I've seen since Inception.

The only potential weakness of the film is the ending -some could argue that it could have ended five minutes earlier and been more effective, but in my opinion I believe that it's justified. I certainly came out of the cinema with a smile on my face and the desire to see it again as soon as possible, which says it all really. Between Source Code and Moon, Duncan Jones has firmly established himself as a director to watch in future and I am very much looking forward to seeing what he does next.

VERDICT: A fantastic film, go see it.

IMDb

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Sucker Punch

Oh dear.

How's this for a synopsis: a girl who accidentally killed her younger sister while trying to rescue her from an abusive stepfather is committed to a mental asylum, which is actually a brothel, but plans to escape with her fellow inmates by dancing seductively while entering into a dreamworld full of zombies, robots, ninjas and dragons. And if you think that makes no sense, you'd be completely right.

Sucker Punch is not a good film, to put it bluntly. It's not a total disaster - the visual effects and art direction are very good, some of the action scenes were well executed and there is some very interesting use of music. Sadly none of this matters when the story is complete nonsense and populated by a load of characters you care absolutely nothing about. While I give director Zack Snyder some credit for at least trying something original, the film he has made here is a jumbled mess, which is also surprisingly boring considering it features scantily-clad females battling against zombie Nazis with axes and swords. Being generous I might call it an "interesting failure" but really, it's just a failure. And a failure that promotes cruelty to dragons, to boot.

VERDICT: Skip it.

IMDb

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Battle: Los Angeles

To be honest, there's not a whole lot to say about Battle: Los Angeles. Take pretty much every alien invasion film you can think of, mix up all the most clichéd plot elements, throw in a handful of stereotypical US marines and a hefty dose of shakey-cam CGI explosions, and you will have a fairly good impression of what the film is like.

It's not terrible; on the other hand it's not exactly good either. There is very little in the way of plot (choosing to focus solely on one squad of marines as they try to escape the city is not a wise choice), and the characters are so poorly defined that I generally found it difficult to tell them all apart, especially in the chaotic action scenes. At one point almost half the cast gets killed in an explosion and I couldn't even work out who had died. There's also a few groan-inducing moments of poor dialogue, but ultimately the worst offender is the frankly awful direction by Jonathan Liebesman - the action is generally incoherent and actually quite dull. That's quite the achievement when there are that many things blowing up...

VERDICT: Don't bother. Even Independence Day is better.

IMDb

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The Adjustment Bureau

On the election night of his doomed senate campaign, David Norris (Matt Damon) has a brief encounter with a beautiful, charming woman named Elise (Emily Blunt) and it's love at first sight. Just a few months later he runs into her again - but soon encounters a group of fedora-wearing men who will stop at nothing in their efforts to keep the couple apart, and demonstrate an extraordinary array of powers in their efforts to do so.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Adjustment Bureau - I found the unusual mix of genres (romance, drama, thriller, science-fiction and even a bit of comedy) highly appealing and in some ways the film bears a resemblance to Dark City, one of my all time favourites. Some people I saw the film with were surprised by the strong romantic element to the story, and while normally this might put me off, the chemistry between Damon and Blunt was sufficiently strong to make me invest in their characters. The film moved along at a good pace and was genuinely exciting in its final stages - an impressive effort from first-time director George Nolfi. Add in some fine supporting performances from Anthony Mackie, John Slattery and Terence Stamp, and you have an excellent film that makes a refreshing change from the usual generic fare that tends to fill the cinemas at this time of year.

VERDICT: Go see it.*

IMDb

* Or get the DVD, seeing as I've now almost entirely missed the cinema release window. Ahem.

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Unknown

Hmm, it's been quite a while since my last review - and it all started so well this year. For fear of falling behind, it's time to churn out some quick write-ups...

Unknown may as well be called Taken 2.* After all, the plot does ultimately boil down to Liam Neeson travelling to Europe with a dodgy American accent and kicking all kinds of ass. This film does at least have a bit of added depth in that after suffering a car accident and awaking from a brief coma, Neeson's character discovers that his wife does not recognise him and there is in fact another man claiming to be him, which does certainly add a bit of intrigue.

As a film, Unknown is very much throwaway entertainment. It's fast-paced, stylishly shot and keeps your attention throughout. The resolution of the central mystery is perhaps somewhat dubious but at least I didn't see it coming from a mile off. Aside from that, there's not much to be said about it - having only seen it less than two months ago, it's already fading from my memory. At least it's better than Taken.

VERDICT: Silly but it passes the time.

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* The fact that there is in fact going to be a Taken 2 makes this all the more amusing.

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