The 2001 Movies Countdown- #10-1

We reach that point in the countdown where we get to what I call the cream of the crop for the year. When you see 50 movies there are bound to be some bad ones but there are bound to be some pretty great ones as well. I feel comfortable saying that this may be the strongest top 10 in terms of quality I've seen in any year. There are not a lot of Oscar winners here but I liked all these films for various reasons and I think there is not a lot of distance between 1 and 10 here. If I were ranking these on a 5 star scale I'd have all these films rated at above 4 stars for various reasons. They all do something well and blend solid storytelling with respect for the characters and the audience. So with that said....here we go.

10. Source Code

- Director Duncan Jones returned to theaters with this science fiction thriller about an Afghanistan veteran waking up on a train in Chicago inserted into the last 8 minutes of a man's life. Someone blew up the commuter train and Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) job is to find the person responsible and stop them. The catch is that he only has 8 minutes to do it and when he fails he gets inserted right back into it again to try and piece everything together. The Source Code is a new device designed by a scientist where one can be inserted into a person's life for their final 8 minutes and create an alternate timeline of events. As Colter tries to solve the problem he picks up little tidbits of information and develops an attraction to another passenger on the train. Pieces of information he gathers from one scenario bleed into the next one as he tries to use other time lines to save the current timeline he finds himself in. It is a challenging film to follow in that it expects its viewers to keep up with it and never dumbs down the premise or the explanations for people who may get lost along the way. I'm always going to be a fan of films that respect the audience's intelligence and there are plenty of good characters here and the action manages to be both exhilarating and poetic at the same time.

9. Moneyball

- Based on the popular book in baseball circles, Moneyball chronicles the 2001 season of the Oakland Athletics as general manager Billy Beane tries to change the paradigm of baseball. Many probably saw the trailers and the source material and dismissed the film out of hand. Those people are foolish. This is an excellent story that has overtones of the classic David vs Goliath battle. Here though, David solely focuses on his intellect to try and take down Goliath. If the big teams can out spend everyone it is foolish to try to play the game by their rules on their turf. However, if you can create a new method for selecting guys, and place emphasis on statistics, then you can bring in guys who fit a team concept rather than fitting guys into a team. This is a movie that could have been buried in statistics and boring exposition but the script finds some pretty funny moments and Pitt does a superb job of creating a "hero" who is equal parts too smart for the room and vulnerable to his insecurities.

8. Crazy Stupid Love

- The most refreshing part about this story is that it is written as an adult love story for adults. The characters are not treated stupidly here. They do dumb things but it isn't some plot contrived event, it happens because they are following their heart blindly and not listening to reason. Anyone who has ever felt love can identify with that. Essentially what you have here is a film that focuses on love and then looks at it from multiple genders, ages, and perspectives. You are bound to find someone to connect with here. That alone is an achievement because too often these films paint characters in unflattering light. Here we have a movie littered with sympathetic characters. Even David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon) who has the affair with Emily is painted with a soft brush. He isn't some co-worker prowling over some married woman. She was looking to cheat and needed attention and David happened to be there at the right time for that to happen. Up and down this film there are nothing but great performances. Carrell finds a sweet balance between a man hopeful and desperate to keep together what he has. Moore and Bacon play their parts well. Tomei is all spastic energy and her scenes are some of the funniest in the film. Emma Stone is a fantastic actress and as long as she doesn't shoot herself off the rails she will be one of the best actresses of her generation. The real find here is Gosling though. He finds good spaces for this part and infuses a lecherous man with enough heart and goodwill that you are on his side.

7. Super 8

- My original thought posted on Facebook very simply said that, "Someone should show this movie to Michael Bay and tell him that THAT is how you do an action movie." That was met with mild skepticism but I invite anyone to watch this movie and say they don't like it. It has action, and explosions, and a few good scares but what sells the film is the heart and soul directly in the middle of this. It's an alien movie in the same way E.T. was in that the alien is sort of tangential to the rest of the film. I know this film got lumped as a mix of different Spielberg films (and in some ways it is) but this film has its own ideas and vision. Before everything goes haywire in the town what you have is two young men who are absolutely smitten with a girl that is starring in the film they are making. That could've been bad but Elle Fanning is so completely adorable in her role and you can see why these boys are tripping over themselves for her. The scene with them recording dialogue at the train station is riveting and moving. She is so good there and you, as the viewer, are sort of living through the eyes of the boys there as you sit there mouth agape at her reading. Then things get nuts and because you believe wholeheartedly in why someone would love this girl it draws you into the story. By the end you want the kids to be safe and a part of you wishes you were living in this moment so you could be having these adventures with your friends. This movie will make you want to be 12 again and have that wild-eyed sense of wonder. The end is a bit of a let down but still- it's almost perfect.

6. Rise of the Planet of the Apes


- With Super 8 in June and this film in August it gave me some great relief to the future of summer blockbusters. This film, much like Super, flashes big action sequences but surrounds it with a completely compelling story making the impact that much more satisfying. The film got slagged a little early on because people were expecting this to be a film where apes destroy everything and run roughshod over the city of San Francisco. This isn't that movie though. This is more about the apes starting to gain a stronger foothold in the world as the human race begins to eliminate their own. They explicitly show in a tag scene during the closing credits how this will happen. The real fun here though comes from Andy Serkis. His acting in the film covers a wide variety of emotions as he plays Caesar as a wide eyed youngster, a rebelling teenager, a person questioning their identity and finally a defiant leader. There is a debate going on about his Oscar chances and I think he really deserves strong consideration. I know it is a computer and everything but it is him infusing the character with emotion and really elevating the story at every single turn. It's a great performance and probably his best work so far.

 

5. Insidious

- If you ever wonder what would've happened had Alfred Hitchcock made a Gothic horror film- Insidious is the answer. The sound editing is top notch on this film as it creates scares and tension without resorting to cheap fake jump scares. The strings on the soundtrack reverberate fear into the viewer and then there are some absolutely terrifying images throughout including one of the best jump scares in the past 10 years. What really sets this film apart though is that director James Wan really wants you to be forever scanning the screen for what lurks in the corner or on the periphery of the action. There is one creepy scene that takes place in the middle of the two and features two "Did I just see that moments?" which work incredibly well. There may be some complaints about the last third of the movie but I think that is a little short-sighted and speaks more to how great the first two thirds of the movie is. The writers set an impossibly high bar to cross and instead of trying and failing, they go completely into left field with the explanation as to what is happening and the final images of Patrick Wilson walking through the house to find his son are incredibly creepy. This film finds a way to be scary without being cheap about it.

4. Bridesmaids

- If Judd Apatow, Paul Feig, and Kristen Wiig's goal here was to prove that women can do raunchy as well as the men- then I guess mission accomplished. However, that sort of sells the film short even though it was the running dialogue for critics of the film. This is a film that is full of heart and while there is craziness surrounding everything that happens, the very grounded performance by Wiig is what sells this film and makes it a revelation. Wiig plays the lifelong best friend of Maya Rudolph's bride and feels like she is being pushed aside by a new friend, played by Rose Byrne. On top of that, everything in Wiig's life is falling apart and this whole spectacle is making her feel less and less like a whole person and more a jigsaw puzzle of goals and objectives that she has failed to reach so far. There are some legitimate real sad moments here which run in a weird juxtaposition to the comedy, but it's those former scenes that really sell the latter ones. There is a glorious 5 minute scene where Wiig and Byrne deliver competing speeches at the engagement party- with each one trying to one up the other. You feel for Wiig's character as she knows Rudolph better than anyone there but she can't quite eloquently put that into words. Partly because she's not good at this type of thing, but also partly because she is downright jealous of her friend and is wrestling with how that feeling conflicts with happiness for her best friend. On top of that scene is a great scene on an airplane where Wiig does her best Lucille Ball impression and effectively garners laughs out of a situation that is so uncomfortable it makes you squirm just watching it. The big gross out scene is funny enough, but it doesn't feel germane to the rest of the story and is slightly out of place. Also, Melissa McCarthy is a riot as the completely over the top sister in law to be.

3. Hugo

- This film is pure and simply Martin Scorsese's love letter to film. Hugo is a young boy that lives in train station and continues to keep the clocks there moving long after his uncle has passed away. Hugo is enamored with a mechanical man that his dad was trying to make work when he died. In the station, Hugo meets an old shop owner who carries the secret of being a former film director that was loved but gave up his dreams after World War I. Hugo helps him rediscover the magic of those films and gain an appreciation for what he did and furthermore, how his films touched people. This film is a cinematic delight in every sense of the word. It is beautiful, both visually and emotionally, and is geared towards all of us who love films. It reminds us why we love the movies. It is about being enchanted and sucked into a world that- while imaginary- feels all so real. The film functions as a mix of heart, humor, and film history balled into a touching yarn as Scorsese tips his cap to a director from a past era. Also, this film may be some of the best use of 3D ever. The opening scene alone where the camera swoops into the Paris train station rushing past travelers and trains filling the frame with depth characters looks stunning, and the travel from outside the station in works as a framing device as if to say, "This is what film does."

2. Warrior

- This film had every reason to be a melodramatic mess. Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton play brothers that come from an estranged family. When he was 16, Brendan (Edgerton) stayed with his dad and his then girlfriend when the mom and Tommy (Hardy) left. Their mom eventually got sick and passed away and Tommy had to bear the brunt of that pain all by himself. Tommy refuses to forgive Brendan for this and not even being told that Brendan married that girl and Tommy is an uncle heals the open wounds. Their dad is a recovering alcoholic who has turned into a Christian and is sober. Tommy asks his dad to train him for a mixed martial arts tournament but only under the condition that he not try to heal their relationship. Tommy is hiding some scars from being a veteran and is trying to mask the acclaim and shame he has garnered from being a veteran. Meanwhile, Brendan has entered the same tournament as a means to support his wife and their children and pay for their house. The tournament comes and you know that eventually the brothers are going to meet and of course it will be in the finals. However, that does not detract from the emotional pain and toll this film takes on its characters and the viewer. There are complications as the tournament rolls on for both guys and in the end they battle strongly against each other for their own good. As a viewer though you are rooting for the family because both the guys are likable and are doing what they can to provide for themselves and the ones they love. It is an emotional gut punch of a movie time and again. Yes, it is a theme that has been done time and again but the acting, the heart, and the warmth of the film are what sets this over the top. It's criminal this did not find a bigger audience in theaters.

1. Drive

- This was an excellent year for Ryan Gosling and I didn't even get to see Blue Valentine which was apparently excellent as well. Here, Gosling is a stunt driver for movies that doubles as a getaway driver for crimes and a mechanic. The Driver has his rules- never work twice for the same person, works anonymously, and gives them a 5 minute time frame to do their job. His boss wants to have the Driver race stock cars and he takes out a 300,000 dollar loan from mobster Bernie Rose (played brilliantly by Albert Brooks). To that point in the film what you see is a Driver who is emotionally vacant. He is there but he doesn't attach to anyone or anything. He prefers to live his life in shadows. Then we meet his pretty neighbor (Carey Mulligan) and her kid and we see the beginnings of the Driver getting attached to something. However, the husband gets out of jail and gets back into the picture and the Driver agrees to help him with a job to get him and the family out of trouble. As it always is in these films, it isn't quite that easy though as there are a bunch of backstabbing deals here and what it looks like is happening- isn't really happening. The Driver takes it upon himself to exact justice and revenge on those that have done him and the neighbor wrong. This is a high-powered action film but it is so different than what we normally see in theaters. It is a deliberate film where every line, and shot, matters in the long run.  This is a film that is an exercise in style and substance but it is so intelligent and driven that it feels authentic all the way through. It's a visceral film that has depth and sometimes that is all you can ask for at the movies.

There it is. That's the list for 2011.

The 2011 Movies Countdown- #20-11

Day 4 as we get into the Top 20 and see those movie that were really good but not quite great.

20. Final Destination 5

- A fun stab at the franchise after the horrible 4^th one from last year. They pretty much do everything right here that they didn’t do well in the previous one. The characters are better which makes you involved in the story. The tension is incredibly high through a few scenes and one scene will make you seriously consider ever having Lasik Eye Surgery. The scene with the gymnast on the balance beam is about 5 minutes of nail biting as they set up 4 or 5 difference things that could happen and then what happens comes completely out of left field. Also, the director here was a second unit director on some Cameron films so he knows how to use the 3D effects to great…um, effect

19. Horrible Bosses

- When you get casts with a bunch of stars the script sometimes has problems keeping up with all of them. Here the script plays to all the characters individual strengths and remains hilarious while doing so. Spacey is great in his role which is basically him riffing on his character from Swimming with Sharks. The revelations though are Farrell and Aniston who play against their type here and find some hilarious places to take the characters at every turn. Jamie Foxx is excellent in his small role and the three leads (Bateman, Sudekis, and Day) find the right mix for their parts to avoid becoming caricatures and staying sympathetic throughout. There was some initial talk about this plot being directly from Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, and they do a great job of alluding to that in a discussion about halfway into the film. The one minor complaint is that the film could've gone for a darker tone but sort of backed off that to keep it broad. It's a really minor gripe though.

18. Cars 2

- The first Cars took a bunch of flack from people, and I never quite understood why. Maybe it was simply because it wasn't Toy Story or Monsters Inc. Maybe it was because it was a bunch of talking cars. Maybe it was because the fast moving society in which we live couldn't deal with a movie celebrating the slowed down nature of a time long ago. Perhaps it was because Larry the Cable Guy was a major character in the film. The bad news is that if you fell in the last group you are not going to like this film because LTCG is a bigger part of this one. To be fair, he is really good in this film and while he can't replace Paul Newman- he does his best to interject enough of his "Aw shucks" charm to soften the blow. The story is a spy thriller as someone is trying to destroy new faster cars in an attempt to bring back the Lemon cars of old. Mater gets caught up in the plot and gets drafted by the British intelligence agency to help out with the case and that leads to plenty of fish out of water scenarios to explore. Most of them hit. At least one fails miserably but only because it is so questionable. (In Germany the bad guys trap Mater in the back of a semi and gas him. How did that possibly get past the idea stage?) The rest of the film though is an absolute delight both acting wise and visually. The graphics people here give the locations their own unique spin and there are enough sight gags (the pope mobile riding in a pope mobile) that you will chuckle. This skews younger than most Pixar films but it still has enough smile inducing moments to engage the adults in the crowd.

17. X-Men: First Class

- On some levels this is a really fun movie. It plays off the viewer knowledge to the point where we are spotting things that we know in later films will come up. Overall though this is a film that rises  above some quirky material by the performances of James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, and Kevin Bacon. All three of them grab hold of the viewer every time they are on screen and demand your attention. McAvoy plays Professor X with the same class and dignity that Patrick Stewart later brought to the part. He is the steadying influence on the X Men as he tries to be rationale about everything and avoid them blowing up and wiping out civilization. Fassbender has an even more menacing tone than McKellan found in the role of Magneto. He is playing nice for the sake of the cause but underneath it all he is sneering at everyone and everything and is insulted by how McAvoy associates with humans. Bacon is just enjoying his run as the bad guy here and he owns every single scene he is in. After that though the performances get a little worse and January Jones is absolutely horrid in her role. If she wasn't so appealing to the eyes she would be totally useless in her role. The students at the class get varying degrees of material but Jennifer Lawrence continues her great run here by rising above the material here. I'm only gonna go middle of the road here but that shouldn't be taken as me hating the movie. In the end I feel sort of ambivalent towards it. The cameo midway through was a nice surprise though.

16. Thor

- Thor has always been one of the odder characters in the Marvel universe. He's based off legitimate myths that are taught to kids in school and when you start explaining his back story it can get pretty damn convoluted. Here though, they do an excellent job of telling the back story but also telling a story that keeps the plot moving forward and never dulls the viewer. They do this by inserting the viewer directly into the middle of the story and then flashing back to a previous event. So instead of a cold open to the movie, they tease something happening and then show you why that thing happened. It's a different tactic but it's one that works. I found it especially refreshing after watching the first X-Men again last night. That movie is downright dull. That isn't me saying it's a bad film, but it's not really controversial to say that they take a long time to set up the story of the characters. By the time they get it all set up, the movie is close to its end. This helped the second film to be better. It already had the exposition down and it jumped right into the middle of the action. (And it's not really controversial to say that the third one kinda blew hard). But anyway, back to Thor- Chris Hemsworth is really great in this role, and Kenneth Brannagh brings some great flourish to his directing of the film. He is well versed in Shakespearean drama and gives some of the larger scenes that small touch. It really works here. This film is designed more for the masses so it may leave some hardcore comic fans cold, but this is a fun little popcorn flick with some great dramatic touches.

15. Contagion

- For someone who is a germophobe like me this was the scariest movie of the entire year. People coughing and then trying to shake hands or touch me really freaks me out- especially when it is someone that I do not know.  Here a bunch of A-List actors and actresses get together and try to figure out what is happening with this unknown virus and how to stop it. Every character is expendable here and Gwyneth Paltrow has a pretty graphic autopsy scene. This film is good and clever but it does move pretty slowly at times which helped keep it from getting any higher than this on the list.

 

14. Kung Fu Panda 2

- A better movie than the first one as Po tries to track down his real father and ends up battling an heir to the peacock clan to regain power in China. The peacock was trying to harness the power of fireworks to take over the city and was told by a soothsayer that one day a black and white apparatus would defeat him. From there you get a really nice story with Po trying his best to save the day and avoid screwing up everything time and again. The animation here is crisper than it was in the first one with a few different animation styles used throughout going from computer animated to (seemingly) hand drawn at times. The story here is more solid and the action scenes are above the high level the first one set. A superior sequel in every single way.

13. Captain America: The First Avenger

- This is probably my favorite superhero film of the summer. Everything about the film just works including the setting and feel of the film. The movie takes place in the 1940's and it truly feels like a film that would have been made in that time. The CGI stuff early on with Chris Evans could have been really cheesy but he infuses those scenes with some pretty good pathos and develops the character so that when the ending comes you truly feel for him. I also enjoyed how the movie took a similar tact as Thor and started further along in the story and then went back and told you what happened. It breaks up the narrative structure and works as a framing device rather than just telling the origin story chronologically. Tommy Lee Jones is great in his role, but it's really a part he can play in his sleep. Overall a breezy two hour film that never overstays its welcome and never feels its length.

12. Rango


- It is a shame this movie didn't find a bigger audience from the start and instead had to plod along for a while. However, it probably isn't a huge shock that it didn't. It looks like an animated film for kids and while there is some slapstick and silliness for them- this is far more designed for adult audiences. It relies on the classic tropes of the Western film and incorporates the classic fish out of the water element of storytelling. Johnny Depp is a chameleon that gets lost in the desert on a family move out west. He gets stuck in a dry town where the residents are rationing water and trying to discover where their supply is all going. Depp takes the job as sheriff and has to defeat the bad guys and save the town. It is clever, funny, and carries a nice dramatic weight throughout that drives the story. This was a joy to watch.

11. The Muppets


- It sort of pains me to leave this on the outside of the Top 10 because I love this film. However, it speaks more to the strength of the Top 10, in my opinion, rather than to any weakness of this film. If I had one minor gripe it is something out of the hands of the filmmakers- and that is the voice of some of the characters. There is so much to like here as Segel writes a script that perfectly taps into the Muppet spirit without cheapening the characters. The music here is top notch with some classic Muppet songs (with the best one probably being "Pictures in My Head") and there is funny lines and concepts scattered throughout. Amy Adams is her normal gorgeous self and all the cameos work with one getting a huge pop in the theater. I won't say who it was but will hint by saying, "The response could have been described as a Big Bang." Also, Chris Cooper is great as the villain here. This movie will remind you why you loved the Muppets and how entertainment can be heart-warming AND fun.


Day 5 will probably come on Saturday so you may have to wait a few days for the all important Top 10.