Best of 2011 Sorted By Genre

This List is based on the movies that I saw last year, as you can see at the bottom there a good amount of movies I need to see to make a better, "Best of 2011 Sorted By Genre" 


Action: Transformers: Dark of the Moon 
Animation: Rango 
Comic Book: X-Men: First Class 
Comedy: 50/50 
Drama: The Help 
Epic/ Historical: The Conspirator 
Fantasy: Hugo 
Musical: The Muppets 
Sci-Fi: Super 8 
Sports: Moneyball 


Horrible Mentions: Captain America: The First Avenger, Drive, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Source Code, Thor, Warrior 


Movies I Haven’t Seen Yet: The Adventures of Tintin, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Like Crazy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Tree of Life, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, War Horse

What to Watch Over the Holidays

Dear movie fans,

I want to start off by saying, “all good things have to come to the end.” With an opening like that you might be thinking I have to quite or even give up on this blog. Well, that’s not the case at all. Let’s just say my access to free movie watching has be terminated, yes my friends I have lost my job at my local movie theater. Hopefully this minor setback won’t suppress my passion for movies and filmmaking. I will try my best to keep my fellow film fans up to date on movie related news. As far as my movie reviews go, again I will try my best to keep them up to date. I won’t be able to literally watch every movie now, unless I pay an arm and leg for them. On the positive side I can now get some real use out of my “AMC Stubs” card, and really rack up rewards. I’m not paid to promote “AMC Stubs” card anymore but I personally think it’s a good rewards card if you frequently watch movies at an AMC theater.

With that being said what movie shall I spend my money on over the holidays? There is so many coming out that pique my interest, which I’m looking forward to. This weekend, December 16, 2011, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, both look promising. The Wednesday before Christmas on the 21st of December, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Adventures of Tintin come out. Both of these films will most likely be seen again around award season, as in the Oscars. I should have my Oscar predictions posted shortly after the nominations are announced. We Bought a Zoo comes out the Friday before Christmas on the 23th; personally it looks alright. Moving on to Christmas Day, a few movies come out and to tell you the truth none of them are really that “Christmassy.” The ones I would watch would be War Horse because of its potential Oscar buzz and The Darkest Hour, for its Sci-Fi themes. Feel free to tell me in the comment bellow what movies you might see over the holidays.

Review: The Muppets

IMDb

Title: The Muppets

Distributor: Walt Disney Pictures

Director: James Bobin

Writer(s): Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller,

Staring: Amy Adams, Jason Segel, Chris Cooper, and The Muppets

MPAA Rating: Rated Rated PG for some mild rude humor.

Running Time: 103 min

Synopsis: With the help of three fans, The Muppets must reunite to save their old theater from a greedy oil tycoon.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 97% (Fresh), Top Critics: 92% (Fresh), Audience: 91% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 76 out of 100, Users: 8.6 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 80 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: B+

My Review

Source Material: The charters were based on Jim Henson creations, but the story was original.  

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: The action comes to you in the from of slapstick, witch is hilarious.  

• Comedy Elements: Good old comedy, some is corny and others that are just down right funny.    

• Dramatic Elements: There is some real good dramatic parts, even thought a lot of them played out via musical style, but it was still good.    

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Old school VFX. Good old puppets shine bright in this film, wait a minute, I mean Muppets.   

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 9: Add a lovable and musical friendly actress (Amy Adams) to a comic genus (Jason Segel) to an classic "puppet" act and you get gold. I know some people thought the movie 'breaking the fourth plane" was used to much. Personally, The Muppet knowing they are in a movie or that they are "puppets" is part of who they are, that's what makes it funny. 

• Art Direction: 8.5: I can only imagine the ingenuity the filmmaker have to come up with to make a good amount of "puppets" to come to life and be believable characters.  

• Cinematography: 8.5: I bet that it a challenge to shoot everything basically waste up especially on the Muppets, well because the puppeteers cant be in the shoot. It always amazes me to see an film shot with majority puppets if all.     

• Direction: 9: The film flowed nicely. You could see the amount of passion in the filmmaking. A great film coming from a guy behind "Flight of the Conchords"    

• Editing: 8.5: Very good job like I said before the film was very well paced.     

• Screenplay: 9: This film has a really good story. I wish every film was mad with the same passion as Jason Segel, there would be many more great film.      

• Sound and Music: 10: I want to buy this soundtrack so bad. not only did it have great classic song The Muppets are known for but good original ones too. 

• VFX: 8: Who cares about computer, when you have real life taking frog, pig, bear, and gonzo. Its the Muppet get excited for some fine puppetry.     

Overall: 9: I can say I enjoy this movie tremendously, and hope you do to. I think kids will like this film even though its not animated, maybe not the real young ones. Honestly, the adults may enjoy it more because we grew up on The Muppets. I highly recommend this film to everyone.    

Review: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

IMDb

Title: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Distributor: Summit Entertainment

Director: Bill Condon

Writer(s): Melissa Rosenberg (screenplay), Stephenie Meyer (novel)

Staring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner

MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for disturbing images, violence, sexuality/partial nudity and some thematic elements

Running Time: 117 min

Synopsis: The Quileute's close in on expecting parents Edward and Bella, whose unborn child poses a threat to the Wolf Pack and the towns people of Forks..

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 26% (Rotten), Top Critics: 27% (Rotten), Audience: 69% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 45 out of 100, Users: 4.5 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 46out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: NA

My Review

Source Material: Based on the book written by Stephenie Meyer with the same name.  

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: The last ten to fifteen minutes get somewhat intense but the rest of the film is very melodramatic.  

• Comedy Elements: Some funny one liners from side charters.    

• Dramatic Elements: This movie has layer and layer of melodramatic moments.   

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: There is going to some sci-fi elements when dealing with "vampires" and "werewolf" but nothing to fancy that excites those parts of the brain   

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 4: Honestly the side character are better actor then main three. Out of the main three I see Robert Pattinson getting prestige awards some day cause I have seen him in better roles. Out of the entire cast the one the deserves an award, not necessarily for her character in Twilight, is Anna Kendrick cause she is fantastic in just about everything.   

• Art Direction: 3: The only part I enjoy art wise about this film is it transformation from bright happy wedding to gloomy horror, personally that was the only redeeming factor to this film. 

• Cinematography: 3.5: I didn't really see much that excited me visually.  

• Direction: 1: The pacing of this film was slow. I felt like the filmmakers spent at least thirty to forty-five minutes on the wedding/ honey-moon scenes.   

• Editing: 2: I don't think the filmmaker know what the phrase "cut away the fat." Like I said before I think they should have spent less time on the wedding/ honey moon stuff. I understand that's what the women want but come one, move along.     

• Screenplay: 3: Can I say loop hole. I have discussed a few difference option that could have worked better than was in the film     

• Sound and Music: 5: The music was sadly one of the best parts of the film, for me.

• VFX: 1: One word terrible. You know this to be a fact when even the fans say, "I didn't like the special effects."   

Overall: 3: I'm way late on this review, with that being said, fans of all ages have already seen like a million times. Just look at the box office numbers. This review was more or less to get my opinion out there. Watch with cation though cause this film has caused people to pass out and even go into seizures.  

Immortals Review

IMDb

Title: Immortals

Distributor: Relativity Media

Director: Joe Johnston

Writer(s): Charley Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides

Staring: Henry Cavill, Mickey Rourke, Freida Pinto, Luke Evans, Isabel Lucas, John Hurt

MPAA Rating: Rated R for sequences of strong bloody violence, and a scene of sexuality.

Running Time: 110 min

Synopsis: Eons after the Gods won their mythic struggle against the Titans, a new evil threatens the land. Mad with power, King Hyperion has declared war against humanity...

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 38% (Rotten), Top Critics: 25% (Fresh), Audience: 75% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 48 out of 100, Users: 7.2 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 55 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: C- Users: B

My Review

Source Material: Based on on the Greek myths of Theseus and the Minotaur and the Titanomachy.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: Honestly I wish the film had more of a epic feeling to it. Yes it has has some good action sequence but personally over all it fell a little short.

• Comedy Elements: There was no real comic relief, no one really to break the tension and seriousness. I remember a few cheesy line and stark comments. NO GOOD SIDE-KICK   

• Dramatic Elements: This film was mainly action driven but with that being there was a good amount of dramatic scenes which personally slowed the film down. 

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Greek mythology = high fantasy now days...so yes VFX were used. 

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 7: Over All the actors put forth a good performance. When you exam this film the only real seasoned actors are Mickey Rourke and John Hurt. Mickey Rourke was a decent "bad guy" but I felt like he was board or didn't really care about his character. John Hurt was really good mentor type character, but not much screen time. I also enjoyed the beautiful Freida Pinto but her role and every other side charters role were weak.      

• Art Direction: 8: I liked the fact this film didn't portray the gods as "aged in wisdom" it was interesting to see them  portrayed as heroic 20 or 30 somethings. I also like the compare and contrast between the different "groups" Immortals vs Greeks (Theseus) vs Cretans (Hyperion).

• Cinematography: 6.5: I thought it could have been better. Personally I think Zack Snyder captures the "slow-motion / speed-up" effect better.  

• Direction: 6.5: With being an action film I thought the film moved slower than what I was wanting it to. I guess I was hopping for a 300 pace since it was shot with the same style.  

• Editing: 7: It was well edited but like everything else it kind of feel short.  

• Screenplay: 6: I love Greek mythology and lore, they make good stories, so how can you take a good heroic character like Theseus and basically screw it up. Maybe it was the director's fault for not driving the story he is know for visually awesome movies with weak stories. Come on dude Greek mythology is epic so tell a story that matches.     

• Sound and Music: 7: Over all it was good but again not up to par.

• VFX: 8: Like I said with the art direction on this film its beautiful. Good VFX all around...the gods smile upon this work. I thought the 3-D was weak though.  

Overall: 7: Personally I had a fairly good time watching this film. I love the action sequence especially the ones with gods...I enjoyed the "bad-ass" feel of the gods over the "aged in wisdom" Like I mention before. Personally after seeing it I don't feel one hundred present recommending it a friend to see at a theater, main because it not worth a full ticket price. Go on haft price day or wait and rent it on DVD.  

Review: Captain America: The First Avenger

IMDb

Title: Captain America: The First Avenger

Distributor: Marvel Studios

Director: Joe Johnston

Writer(s): Christopher Markus (screenplay), Stephen McFeely (screenplay)

Staring: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Stanley Tucci

MPAA Rating:Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action

Running Time: 125 min

Synopsis: After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 71% (Fresh), Top Critics: 75% (Fresh), Audience: 86% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 67 out of 100, Users: 8.5 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 67 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: N/A Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based on the Comic Book series with same name.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: This film is for the most part action pack. What I liked over this movie and other action movies is the action was well choreographed. When I watched let say Transformers 3 sometime there was to much going on but in this movie there seem to be a balance of action and drama.

• Comedy Elements: There is quite a bit of one liners and homages to original Captain America. Both of these aspects of the film ease some of "war-like" tension. Some may argue that its to campy and light hearted but I think it makes it fun and entertaining. I'm guess there is more movie going people that are looking for fun and entertaining films over a artsy-fartsy films.

• Dramatic Elements: There is some emotional scene but personally I think there where on the week side. Don't get me wrong the actors were awesome...I'm will to say perfect casting.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: Another comic book movie in the books.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 7.5: Chris Evans is the go to guy if you ever want a superhero. With that being said I'm all right with him being both John Storm and Steve Rogers After seeing the film I came to the conclusion that Chris Evan is to Captain America that Christopher Reeves is Superman. I know Marvel would like to reboot Fantastic Four once they get there right back from Twentieth Century Fox. Therefore casting a person that will basically make us for get about Chris Evan's Human Torch. Anywho lest talk about the other fantastic actors in this film. Hugo Weaving in my opinion is in the top five actors who make an awesome bad guy...I think its the voice. "Mr. Anderson" lol A Matrix reference. It was great seeing Tommy Lee Jones being awesome again. Don't even get me started on the beautiful Hayley Atwell.

• Art Direction: 8: This film is basically a period peace...Time period WWII...Captain America = Well America and Red Skull = Nazi Germany/ Hitler. I believe that atmosphere was portrayed in this film very well. In a friend of mines review of this very same movie he made a valid point. In a round about way the high-tech weapons that Hydra (Red skull's followers) used was obvious no match for the weapons of the time, therefore disconnecting with the 1940's.

• Cinematography: 8: Because the action sequences were so well done the over all the film's cinematography was good, if not better than good. Not really much more to say on that topic just have to see to believe it.

• Direction: 7: The pace was decent, there were some slower parts. I see Joe Johnston work as average if not slightly above average. When you got a guy who is mainly known for film such Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Jumanji, and Jurassic Park III, would you worry that he might screw up...He did a decent job but I thinking it might have turned out slightly better under other direction.

• Editing: 8: There are some cool montages that show off the bad ass-ness of Captain America

• Screenplay: 8: The villain was a bit weak I think the story could have benefited from using more Red Skull, besides that it was good.

• Sound and Music: 7.5: Good, had some campy music in the middle that was fun and light heart.

• VFX: 8.5: Most of the film seemed liked it was done with practical effect except for the obvious like the transformation scene. Witch is a very good thing.

Overall: 8: I'm sure if your a fan you already scene it and if you haven't your in line right now, or at least have plane to see it. But if your waiting for this cinematard to make recommendation...then I say see it. its a good action movie that fairly entertaining, and it also a comic book movie.

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

IMDb

Title: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Director: David Yates

Writer(s): Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)

Staring: Ralph Fiennes, Alan Rickman, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

MPAA Rating:Rated PG-13 for some sequences of intense action violence and frightening images.

Running Time: 130 min

Synopsis: The final chapter begins as Harry, Ron, and Hermione continue their quest of finding and destroying the Dark Lord's three remaining Horcruxes.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 97% (Fresh), Top Critics: 100% (Fresh), Audience: 93% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 87 out of 100, Users: 8.4 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 84 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: A- Users: A

My Review

Source Material: Based on Book with same name.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: There is a good amount of action, lets just say a good amount of the film is a battle sequence. A full blown war break out at Hogwarts. We finally get to see some bad ass wizard encounters, that just makes you smile.

• Comedy Elements: This is a darker film but that Harry Potter humor and light heartiness isn't completely gone. Meaning you will get a good couple of laughs.

• Dramatic Elements: Man a live there are a few sequence that might just make you cry especially if your a "fanboy" of the books. These scenes are cinematically beautiful.

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: If you don't know by now that Harry Potter takes place in a high fantasy wizarding world then you mostly live under a rock or your just not in touch with any popular culture at all. Either way this film has a bunch of visual effect to achieve the magic from Harry's world, that us Muggles don't understand.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 8: The performance were great overall. There was some highlighted character this time around that was nice to see for a chance. Notably, Minerva McGonagall played by Maggie Smith has an awesome battle with Snape. I think I enjoy the adult actor performance sometime over the now teen actors. I absolutely adore the performance that comes from Ralph Fiennes, and Alan Rickman. I' m not sure who else could have been a better Dark Lord, Ray Fiennes is such a great antagonist. Alan Rickman voice scream Snape, but this film we see the real Snape.

• Art Direction: 9: The film is straight up beautiful...I hope to see Oscar nomination.

• Cinematography: 9: Like I said before this film is an action film. With that being said the filming of the action is not horrible like we saw with Transformers a few weeks ago. Also so many different emotion were sparked with the cinematography alone, it was fantastic.

• Direction: 8: I was never board and the film seemed to flow smoothly. David Yates did a good job in my opinion.

• Editing: 8: I would basically say the same I did for directing for the editing.

• Screenplay: 8.5: Lets talk a bit about adaption. The average length of a screenplay is somewhere between 90 pages to 120 pages. Keeping in mind that one page of a screenplay is about one minute of screen time. The book had 759 pages which equals 759 minutes or 12 hours and 40mins. That would be one long movie...how about two 120min moives pulse or minus 30mins, meaning a screenplay with over 200pages, that's a little more manageable don't you think. So with that being said some stuff has to be cut. To a "fanboy" these cuts usually ruin the film complete, making claims like,"They forgot this...didn't explain that...WTF" To someone who hasn't read the books, confusion maybe in order but they get over it quickly. This is how I tend to approach adaption film. 1. Did the filmmakers hit the main plot points and premise I remember from the source material? 2. Dose the added material for cinematic effect add to the over story, therefore making a more exciting movie? 3. Dose the content of the film have good literary structure? 4. Was there good character development? 5. Did I enjoy the film as much as I did the book?

• Sound and Music: 9: I love the score as much as the other Harry Potter film. Music just add another depth of emotion.

• VFX: 10: The magic was brought to life again but this time better than ever. I see VFX award or two coming out of this film.

Overall: 8.5: Sorry I spent sooooo much time in the screenplay section but I know the worst part of every Harry Potter film or another film with a huge fan base is what the filmmaker choose to leave out of the film. Overall the film is great and I think all Potter fan will enjoy it. I'm sure most of anybody has seen it. I didn't get a chance to watch until Monday after it opening...so this review is a bit old news. I suggest watching Part 1 then watch Part 2 while Part 1 is still fresh in your head.