Top Movies of 2011

Well its that magical time of the year, a time when we get together with friends, and family and create those moments that we hope will last a life time. Oh I'm not talking about Christmas I know not all of us like celebrating pagan holidays and I don't want to leave anyone out (courtesy of David Hollingsworth, who you can check out at Punchline-Everytime.blogspot.com) I of course mean the end of the year movie list. I am sure all of you have gotten together with friends and family and complained or complimented the major award shows and who they do and don't mention every year. Me and my friends who probably watch way too many movies for are own good love to bitch and whine about what is and isn't getting recognition. Well I think I may be talking too much so lets get to the good stuff.

There are 8 movies I feel that deserve mention on this list and while I believe that there is a huge gap between 4 of the movies I want to give these other movies a proper mention.

You know if I am to be perfectly honest with you I can't really stand the X-Men movies, They are seemingly played more for the comic book fan then a movie goer and it really hurts the overall feel of the movie (see Green Lantern). However First Class much like Batman Begins before it finally gets the Characters right and no need to needlessly shoehorn Wolverine into the plot. Really sold by the performances of James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik Lennsher otherwise know as Magneto and hell even a good showing by Kevin Bacon. This is a good Sunday after dinner movie with enough action set up against the backdrop of the Cuban Missile Crisis giving both the film and comic nerd in me something to enjoy. 8/10

Much like the last movie I never got into the original Planet of the Apes series. No real reason why they just never did it for me, anyway this film took that idea and turned it into possibly the best summer movie of 2011. Much like how First Class is going to get you to somehow root for Magneto at the end, I found myself really rooting for Ceasar and his quest to be treated not like a pet but like the intelligent being that James Franco has turned him into. The action also isn't over the top its about as what you'd expect considering the situation and it features some wonderful shots of San Francisco.  8/10

The Muppet's humor will always be hit and miss with me, sometimes I will see Muppet Treasure Island and laugh for hours after the movies over and sometimes I will catch myself wishing I had chosen to watch a Jeff Dunham stand up special instead. That being said this movie will for me represent one of the few comedy movies that got it right this year. The jokes hit at the right time and honestly even the idea that the Muppet's are now down on there luck and forgotten really brings humor to the idea of a star looking for one last shot at the limelight. Jason Segal really brought his humor not only in his performance but in his writing. 8/10

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2

Well every year there is one movie that everyone says thats the movie we want to see. This was that movie, as someone who has been a Potter fan for as long as I can remember this movie really needed to be something special. Thankfully for everyone it was a movie that really was enjoyable enough for me to watch it more then once. That being said my initial love for it may have died abit and for the most part it is really is for pure entertainment. However unlike some Michael Bay movies we could mention they didn't sacrifice story for the sake of entertainment. 9/10

4. Moneyball

First confession; I am a really big baseball fan, so much so I attend games on a regular bases. I guess you might say that means I can take some pain because of how painfully slow baseball is. I get so much joy out of the game though. Second confession; Until recently I have never been a huge Brad Pitt fan, I can't say he is a bad actor cause I'd be lying really I just can't think of too many of his movies that I really care for. Moneyball is the story of the Oakland Athletics team that through a radical system can finally compete with the big money teams. Based on a true story it is something that we can all relate to, we all see inequality in the system we live in, and its good to remind us that you don't always need the most of something (in this case money) to compete. 9/10

3. 50/50

It takes a great mind and a really funny man to take a movie about cancer and make it uplifting and dare I say funny. Thats just what happens though in this tale of a man stricken with cancer and how he comes to terms with it. I can tell you going in that I had my doubts and that this movie had the potential to fall flat on its face. People tell me that cancer is just one of those topics that you can't make funny. This movie shows us that we aren't talking about your everyday Adam Sandler slapstick movie where cancer will be magically wished away at the end. Their is a sense that maybe the cancer is too much for him and at the end when you see him finally break down you felt it too. I know for a fact I was starting to get emotional towards the end. Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Seth Rogan are a comedy dream team that you wouldn't have thought was a legitamite dream team. 10/10

2. Warrior

Another year another great combat sport movie that really keeps raising the bar. The Wrestler in 2008, The Fighter last year and now Warrior. Warrior is the story of two brothers in a MMA competition each for there own motivation. Tom Hardy's character an Iraq war veteran to give the money to a platoon mates widow. For Joel Edgerton's character he needs the money to save his house and really to save his family from living on the streets. Really though what made this movie for me was Nick Nolte as the two main characters father. As a person who has some father issues himself I can tell you that I really was hit hard by a lot of his scenes especially ones where you see that he is trying to repent for hs past mistakes. I will not spoil the ending but this movie keeps you invested till the credits roll. 10/10

1. Drive

The best movies every year is a movie for the most part I can pin point on the calander and tell you that it was going to be awesome. This year however I found a movie so amazing, so fantastic, so perfect that I am racking my brain trying to find a problem with it. If you hate subtlty then this movie wasn't going to be for you. Ryan Gosling who has arrived as a major player in hollywood showed us this year that he can play in the romanitc comedy, he can do a political thriller and now he can do a stoic bad ass and really thats what The Driver is. Albert Brooks as a villain was amazing not overly done and the romance was again subtle a word that I use a lot when describing this film. I feel that I can't really do this movie justice so I will let the other David (http://philm-with-dzafra.blogspot.com/2011/12/this-years-fives.html) tell you about some of these movies and other great 2011 movies.

Next time we will talk about some of the bad movies of this closing year.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

Oh how great it is to feel like a kid again, which is exactly where I go every time I see these Harry Potter films that have meant so much to me over the last 10 years. Well Harry returns in the final installment of the most lucrative film franchise of all time. So i thought before I get going I would give my ratings for the previous films seeing that I wont get to talk about them ever again, hopefully anyway.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone: 7/10
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: 7/10
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: 6/10
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince: 8/10
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1: 7/10

Also I must point out that I love the book series and have really hesitated writing this review mostly cause I don't want to put this cap on my childhood but I guess as they say all good things must come to an end, and I have stalled long enough so lets get going.

Plot: 9/10
You know when you get right down to it the plot of the books and by extension the movies is kinda goofy and slightly far fetched. I mean a young wizard just learning his way around a world he never knew fighting off the most powerful dark wizard of all time and winning. So the job of the story is to make us buy it and I am glad to say they have done that perfectly the last few films. The story of this movie is simple Harry must not only find the last of the Horcruxes and destroy them but also upon doing so defeat Lord Voldermort and bring light to a dark wizarding world. They kept this movie short and too the point which meant that lucky for us we get a lot of action worthy of a Lord of the Rings sequel. The plot while of course taken from the source material is translated perfectly and even some things added even make you forget for a second that there was a book in the first place. The only downside was the unnecessary epilogue at the end of the movie which while in the book doesn't really have any thing of interest. Unless you didn't know the story ended on a Happy ending.

Characters: 9.5/10
I'll be the first to admit that even though I love this series the main character himself Harry Potter is completely boring. That being said over eight films Daniel Radcliffe has shown that he is a pretty good actor and has finally shown that he was a great choice to play the title character. Hermione is great as always yeah Emma Watson can really be over dramatic with her performance but I wont hold that against her and Ron is Ron like he has been for the last movies he is the typical side kick. So where does this high score come from you ask? Well like any great series its always the supporting cast that really helps tell a story. Lord Voldermort for me anyway is possibly one of the best villains I have ever seen on the big screen and Ralph Fiennes was possibly one of the greatest casting moves of all time. Severus Snape played by the always awesome Alan Rickman is for me the best character in this series, and I can admit to tearing up a bit at the scenes where we finally see what drives this character. Neville and Luna are great for the few times they show up on screen and the other teachers involved really get a great send off. Finally a shout out to Belatrix and Molly Weasly for only giving us an awesome fight but also the biggest cheer of the night.

Setting: 10/10
If you haven't seen a Harry Potter film first I don't know where you  have been for the last decade, but I am sure you would recognize its distinctive look anyway. The film is shot really dark in keeping with the dark tone of the overall story. I really do love the look they have given these films, from bright and colorful like you would expect a children's movie to be. All the way to the grim dark tone you would expect of a coming of age fantasy story about the battle between good and evil. The magic looks nice but that's standard, Voldermort is designed nice but that's standard. I can't go on about all of this because well at this point most of you know what i mean when i describe a Harry Potter movie.

Dialogue: 9/10
You know the best parts of this series is seeing where they add spoken dialogue for scenes that it didn't exist in the first place. For instance they greatly expanded the battle between Harry and Voldemort and let them just destroy the castle. I mean its not like Warner Bros. is going to need it anytime soon. However I think where you really see the great screen writing is Snape's memory. Snape recounting his love for Lily and the task of watching over Harry even if he despises his father can only be shown through the great delivery of Alan Rickman. While like I said for the setting at a point everything becomes standard and you don't really have to describe something to fans any more this would be one of those situations.

Overall: 9.5/10
You know when I look back at my generation and how our pop culture is going to be defined by I know there are a few that are going to look back and think Twilight. However I think that my generations mascot is a boy wizard who discovered that not only is he a wizard but has a destiny to one day destroy the most evil wizard on the planet. This movie was the perfect ending to what was an amazing series, yeah it had its flaws but damn what a ride it was. To see this go from a child's book to adult fiction like it did and effortlessly and then to see them translate on the big screen like that is just short of amazing. This movie caped off not only one of the best film franchises of all time, but also but a great cap to one of the best parts of my childhood. This film will make a believer out of anyone who still doubts that there is no magic in this series. This movie to me is the best film I have seen since The Dark Knight.

On a side note I would also like to say that this film also has an awesome soundtrack that you should listen to now.

Good Night everyone.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Review

I should start off by pointing out that I Hate Michael Bay. Everything he has done has been terrible, his scenes are nothing more then set ups for the next big CGI filled explosion. The man knows nothing about character development, as the actors are equal props in his movies. That being said I went into this movie hoping to give it an equal chance to prove me wrong. What ended up happening is everything I thought it was going to be and less.

Plot: 1/10
The Plot from what I can gather is about the previous leader of the Autobots returning and revealing that he is actually working for the Decepticons. This leads to Sentinel Prime unleashing a technology that would help bring their home planet of Cybertron to Earth, enslaving humans to the robots and using our resources to rebuild the now barren planet. In a well done movie this plot actually seems like something worth checking out but here its really just becomes another subplot in a movie full of useless and boring subplots like; Sam looking for a new job or Sam jealous of his girlfriends rich and handsome boss, Sam feeling like despite the fact that he has saved the world he is a nobody. Also the whole time I am watching this movie I am thinking to myself dear lord didn't we just see this play out in the last two movies. Michael Bay has no idea on how to set up a scene and it really shows

Characters: 2/10
Don't let that 2 fool you there were absolutely no characters in this film trust me. Sam Witwicky played blandly by the equally bland and hopefully soon to be forgettable Shia LeBeouf is whinny and and the straight face expressions on his face are there the entire movie, when he is not yelling for Optimus. His new girlfriend who has a name but for the moment lets call her Not-Megan Fox cause that's what she is. That's not to say that Megan Fox is a good actress because she is not but I never thought I would watch a movie and be wishing for a Megan Fox performance. The US government is apparently run by morons cause they think that they can control alien lifeforms that can take the form of giant robots. The robots are played OK but how hard is it to really voice iconic characters like this. Also a waste of time was the final battle scene between Optimus Prime and Megatron, lasting maybe 30 seconds.The only character who gave me any enjoyment was Agent Simmons played by John Turturro, who is trying to at least have fun with his character, damn I wanted to movie to be about him every time he is on screen. The problem here is none of the characters are given enough time to really develop and give us a reason to care about what they are doing, scenes with the human characters go nowhere fast and they feel like you are watching a 2 hour long trailer for the movie.

Setting: 5/10
I know that this is called setting but I also think that his includes the visuals of the movie and Michael Bay does no a thing or two about visuals. The movie itself and the visual effects are really done well and you do get a decent picture painted. That being said again this is all a retread of the past two movies and thus its no longer special is it. Yeah we have the robots but we have already seen that give us something exciting now but alas we are given the same formula and of course we are all going to eat it up. I am not immune to this I feel for it with the Star Wars prequels each time hoping that the last film wasn't just that one bad film in the series. You know watching robots kill each other isn't a hard concept to do and for the most part in the last two films Michael Bay has gotten that down, except now he knows that he doesn't have to try.

Dialogue: 1/10
Some of the lines in this moving seem more like what you would expect from a professional wrestling show that you find in the backyard of your cousins friends house, or that episode of South Park who did the same thing. I guess its not so much that because the characters are boring that the dialogue is not tolerable but its the fact that the characters haven't been given a chance to develop to make what they are saying even mean anything. This also brings me to the other thing that drives me crazy about Michael Bay. Michael Bay loves America and that I have no problem with, but his movies are all about Freedom and why America kicks ass. Every time Optimus gives a little speech its about freedom and how tyranny will never be allowed on his watch. Dear lord by the time I was done with this movie I was sick of freedom. Also of course these scenes are done with an American flag in the background to drive the point home. You get the feeling that the lines are meant to make us think of the war on terror and most of us are trying to put that behind us.

Overall: 2/10- EPIC FAIL
This movie was everything I thought it was going to be and less. Michael Bay has said that this is his last movie in the series and we can only hope that means that we never have to see this crap again. This isn't even bad anymore its really sad that this movie is going to get the money that its getting because like myself with the Star Wars prequels sad fan boys will rationalize that because it's Transformers it deserves there hard earned cash. The only think I liked at the end of the day was that I did not pay for this pop culture abortion.

Green Lantern Review

The Daily Complainer loves movies. Since I was a kid i have been fascinated by first the bright colors of a Disney animated film. As I have gotten older I have come to see movies differently. That being said it really does take a lot to impress me so when I say that I like a movie or that it was a great movie you know that i really mean it. That being said we move on to Warner Bros. summer comic book answer to Thor and Captain America, Green Lantern, based off the comic book of the same name.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

This movie starts with an introduction of a brief history of the Guardians of the Universe and Parallax. Parallax for you not into comic books is meant to embody fear. It then mentions Abin Sur defeating and trapping Parallax which is undone in 30 seconds after a few explorers are devoured by Parallax and then attacks Abin Sur causing him to go and find a replacement due to his fatal injury. Although just barely shown this scene is really just to get the plot in motion, I compare it to the dialogue between Luke and Obi-wan in the first Star Wars when discussing the fall of Anakin. Thus we are introduced to Hal Jordan as portrayed by Ryan Reynolds, who is a big bright spot in this movie, a bright green light if you will. Hal a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft's which is where we are also introduced to our love interest for the movie Carol Ferris played by the lovely Blake Lively.

This review will be broken down as such:
Plot
Dialogue
Characters
Setting
Overall

Plot- 5/10
The Plot while not horrible suffers from the fact that this movie was written as a comic book and not a movie but I will get into that when we talk Dialogue. The basic premise of this movie is about overcoming fear, much like another Warner Bros. DC movie Batman Begins. This is painted with the help of Parallax which is meant to symbolize fear. Our main character Hal Jordan's attempt to overcome fear due to the fact that he has the image of his dad dying stuck in his head. This wasn't done subtly either everything in this movie is very overt. At every chance they get they always mention that fear is the enemy of will, it drives what the lanterns do, also when Hal confronts the Guardians he tells then that what they fear is admitting that they are afraid. Also when Hector Hammond and Hal Jordan face off Hector states that he has embraced his fear. Overall the plot suffers from too many things going on and nothing being too developed.

Dialogue: 4/10 
As much as I hate to admit it the dialogue in this movie is terrible. This isn't what you would expect in a Hollywood film, but a comic book. Before you say its a comic book movie that's the key word movie. Having a very charming Ryan Reynolds say some of these lines do make up for it but sadly much like the plot everything is very overt there is no subtly in this movie. You need subtly make a movie work no one wants to just be told everything they want to be able to think it over and form there own opinions, at least that's what i like.

Characters/Actors: 8/10
The saving grace for this film is the casting and the characters they portray. Ryan Reynolds was the last person I would have picked to play Hal Jordan. When I heard he was going to play the greatest Lantern of all time I shuttered. However watching him on screen I saw Hal Jordan not that Ryan Reynolds disappeared into this character he just was Hal Jordan. Blake Lively plays the standard love interest with a slight twist. She is a strict boss that clearly cares for Hal but understands that he is clearly living with fear. Also watching her save Hal was a great twist on the damsil in distress. Carol Ferris also while being a love interest also kinda serves as best friend as well, by that I mean she helps the hero realize that its not being fearless its overcoming fear by facing it. Hector Hammond goofy looking, in my theater everyone laughed when they saw him. He was never really developed and it would have served better if the movie was more focused on differences between Hector and Hal. Also he really didn't need to be in this movie, they would have served better if it was about Hal vs. Parallax if you really want to make this movie about fear.
Minor characters like Kilowag and Sinestro are done really well, really putting into are heads that Hal has a long way to go and making him doubt his abilities.

Setting: 9/10
Beautifully done is the settings for Oa, and while I have my issues with CGI its not going anywhere so we must learn to take it. Along with the settings is the fact that the Green Lantern costume is adapted to whoever is where it. Also the different life forms are shown to really be different from each other.

Overall: 6/10