Rest of 2011 Movies I Saw (and Best of)

For the first half of what I saw in 2011, see here.

This covers movies I saw from September to December 2011, what I still need to see, and what I enjoyed the most.

• Detective Dee:  Chinese martial arts mystery flick.  Saw with Des.  Enjoyable, but not like Once Upon a Time in China, which is what I measure my Chinese martial arts movies by.
• 50/50:  Semi-autobiographical dramedy about a young man diagnosed with cancer and his fight against it.  Saw with Malvitas.  I was suspicious since it had Seth Rogen in it, and I’m pretty much over Seth Rogen (still like him in Freaks and Geeks though), but this was a really good movie.  I liked JGL (but I usually do) and he and Rogen cracked me up.  And totally made me cry.
• The Muppets:  Loved, loved, loved this movie.  Which you can read about here.  Saw with Malvitas, Des, and Mo.
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:  “Real” 70s spy thriller, as opposed to “action” spy thriller.  Spectacular cast:  Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciarnan Hinds.  Of course, me and Shaz went to mainly see Benedict Cumberbatch be all Cumberbatchy.  Although he had bad hair.  But looked killer in his suit.  Mmm… uh… anyways… a good movie, although I can understand some complaints about it being slow.

I made up for what I originally missed in early 2011 by watching a slew of new DVDs in the past four months.

• Adjustment Bureau:  SF movie about people who tweak the timelines for the “big picture.”  Has lots of good looking men wearing hats.  Like John Slattery.  Which makes me wish new Mad Men was here already.  Emily Blunt is also in this movie, and I love Emily Blunt.  Anyway, the time tweakers find their project foiled when one person discovers what they’re doing and most definitely does not want to be tweaked.  Totally enjoyed this.
• Jane Eyre:  Okay, so technically I watched this in 2012, but since it’s so close to the beginning of the year, I’m going to let this slide in.  I quite forgot the Jane Eyre had such a crappy childhood.  And Rochester is kind of a jerk.  But a Fassbendery jerk in this movie, which means it’s kind of ok.  And of course he redeems himself and you knew that was coming (since this is classic literature), so it’s ok to be all moony over the jerkface.  Jane is pretty awesome.  And Judi Dench plays Mrs. Fairfax, which I totally either forgot or didn’t know, which is even more awesome.
• Hanna:  Watched this solely due to the reviews from the Beta Male Experience (see ep. 41).  And boy, am I glad I did.  It has Cate Blanchett being utterly deplorable, and a young girl being completely badass.  Hanna has been trained to be the perfect assassin by her father, and at 16 gets sent off on a revenge mission to kill the woman (Blanchett) who killed her mother.  Not only is this a great suspense thriller movie, it also has a killer soundtrack by the Chemical Brothers.
• Fast Five:  Another movie I probably would’ve skipped, except the Beta Males were raving about how ridiculously good it was.  And that’s exactly what this movie was.  Ridiculous.  But weirdly good.  And complete fun.  Problem was I had to watch the rest of the series to set up for #5.  You can read my review of the franchise here.
• X-Men: First Class:  A decent entry into the X-Men movie family.  Xavier and Magneto were great!  Except Xavier was kind of an arrogant ass, which was an interesting take on the character.  Magneto was all Fassbendery, like Rochester above.  I don’t know why they continue having Mystique being all weirdly scaly.  January Jones as Emma Frost was TERRIBLE.  Holy crap.  I think JJ is only good at playing Betty Draper, and that’s it.  That was the flattest, least passionate, most pouty Emma EVER.  And I love Emma Frost.  She’s cool because she’s strong, and intelligent, and fiery, and takes no crap, and deals it instead.  JJ’s Emma was cold and aloof and BORING.  And DUMB.  She wasn’t even sexy, and she wore lingerie for most of the movie!

Movies missed in 2011 that I have to see some time in 2012:

• Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Rango
• Beginners
• Hobo with a Shotgun
• Super 8
• Mission Impossible 4 (although I need to see the other 3 still as well…)
• Attack the Block
• Adventures of Tintin

Still, not a bad year for me.  Saw way more than last year in the theatres, plus made an effort to see new releases on DVD.  I think this is partially from listening to the Beta Male Experience podcast regularly.  They’re infecting me with their enthusiasm.  For those unfamiliar with them, and want a fun new podcast to listen to, this a group of 20-somethings, mostly guys (with the occasional stray female poking her head in, or somewhat older guests) who are all really good friends, and they sit around and bash and/or praise movies, as well as each other.  They are absolutely hilarious.  Sometimes I laugh so hard I’m crying at my desk at work.

To finish off, my unranked Top 5 for the 2011:

• Bridesmaids
• The Muppets
• Hanna
• 50/50
• Fast Five

Total 2011 movies seen:  15.  Up from 7 last year!