Well, we’ve remembered about the tradition we tried to start last year and we’ve spent the week arguing over our Top 10 Movies of 2011. Charlotte was last to vote so she’s getting a forfeit – suggestions welcomed.

10. The Dark Knight Rises Prologue

A little housekeeping to start with – I (KK) foolishly set the criteria for this chart as anything with a “UK theatrical release between 1^st January 2011 and 31^st December 2011 inclusive” – so technically I suppose this is eligible.

Ryan M: I don’t care if it was only SIX minutes, it’s been the most exciting SIX minutes of film I’ve seen all year… IN 70mm IMAX!! Bane is f**king bad ass!

Ryan C: Seen it 3 times. In IMAX. Actually can’t wait to see the whole thing, just as long as they make Bane understandable…

9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Ryan C: Never have I felt so much for a chimp, great special effects and a nice way to lead into the inevitable sequels

Nic: I was surprised by this film. I thought it was going to be average at best, but it was fantastic.  Very nicely done, Lithgow was on form as ever and Weta are simply amazing.

Ryan M: This was my surprise of the year. Wasn’t sold by the trailers, but thought the film was brilliant. CGI was incredible, as was Andy Serkis’ motion captured performance.

8. Arthur Christmas

KK: Dangerously close to perfect, and that’s all I have to say on the matter.

Nic: It’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such a wonderfully magical Christmas movie.  The little Christmas nuances that are in both the script and the animation are fantastic, and really get you in the holiday mood.  Aardman are the British Pixar…great animation with great stories!!

7. Troll Hunter

Naysun: a tad unoriginal in format with crappy characterisation save for a couple of characters, but engrossing with great humour and awesome trolls.

KK: I know I’m not meant to say this sort of thing out loud, but I really hate subtitles.  I struggle to sit still for more than a couple of hours, but throw reading into the mix and it’s normally only a matter of time before I’m sound asleep in the cinema. For some reason, Troll Hunter was different – and in all honestly I think the subtitles made the whole thing funnier. By no means an original idea, but really well executed and thoroughly enjoyable.

6. Crazy, Stupid, Love

Bizarrely, this in the only one of Bob’s choices to make the Top 10, and he doesn’t even seem to like it that much…

Bob: […] This wasn’t a ‘bad’ film per se, but it wasn’t great either. I felt that the story arc took too long to resolve (a happy resolution 45 minutes earlier wouldn’t have been out of place) and the characters were too obviously shallow. That being said it was a good romp with some fun little moments.

Ryan M: A smart romantic comedy which isn’t cheesy and very original. Carell and Gosling make a great double act.

KK: Deceptively and refreshingly sophisticated for a rom-com , ticked all the boxes and exceeded all my expectations.  Gosling and Carell are a brilliant combination.

5. The King’s Speech

Charlotte Very British is the first thing that comes to mind.  The acting, pacing and directing were all superb – very engrossing for such a simple storyline.  A story well told.

Naysun: Yes, it was directed like a TV show and it is unbelievable that it won the Best Director Oscar, but despite that the cast brought a very tight script to life and managed to make royalty relatable and even a little bit fun. The two leading men showed us what chemistry means on screen.

Justin: Thought the premise sounded boring, but I was quickly engrossed in the story and the characters. Also gave me the strange feeling of being momentarily interested in royalty.

Justin: Did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did – just the right tone of humour, with great characters and an exciting story. Might not recommend it to kids, but definitely would to adults

Charlotte: As good a Disney movie as they come!  The sequence with the horse fighting the man holding a frying pan sold it for me.  I like it when things make fun of themselves.

Nic: Best Disney film for a long time- classic humour, great animation, and a really good soundtrack

3. Drive

Naysun: A little self-indulgent on the director’s part, but this film shows that Ryan Gosling has real depth to his acting ability. And the opening car chase is just pure film making excellence.

Justin: I love movies with little dialogue and thought Gosling did a great job of not talking. I especially loved the music and how surreal it made the action

KK: Admittedly, I wouldn’t have bothered with this movie if it wasn’t for Gosling, but I did and he was bloody brilliant.

2. Super 8

Naysun: Super 8: The thing that bugs me most about this film is how much people went on and on that’s it’s not as good as Close Encounters or E.T, and that I’m too young to remember those films. I watched those films as a kid too, and I do love them, but this was a great fun homage, with an astounding young cast. Abrams did a great job to get what he did from them, and I did get just enough of that childish magic feeling to leave me happy for the rest of the day. Fun stuff.

Nic: As soon as I had watched this I said “this is the kind of film I want to make.”  It just reminded me of classic Spielberg. “Production Value!!!!”

Charlotte: Like Nic says, coming out of the cinema all I could think was “This is exactly the kind of movie I want to be making.”  Love the power of that “childish magic.”

1. Warrior

Ryan M: This gets number one as not many films brings me close to tears like this film did, even on repeat viewing. Tom Hardy gives a great performance, especially in his last fight, but I was surprised to see what an outstanding job Nick Nolte did. What a film!

Justin: I don’t really like MMA in real life, but the action inthis was great. After I got over not cringing, really enjoyed the acting in this, especially from the old man. Surprisingly emotional.

Ryan C: Amazing performances from Hardy and Edgerton, and quite cool to see Kurt Angle up there as Koba. Brilliant movie!

Naysun: Yes, it was essentially a conventional sports film, but it did it beautifully and brilliantly, and acting, directing and cinematography were superb, the emotion palpable, and it put MMA into a film without making it stupid, which is no mean task. Shame no one went to see it.

And there we have it – the Haphazard Top 10 of 2011. Interestingly, not a single choice on this was unanimous. I’ve used a highly exciting and complicated algorithm to calculate scores and table positions, but if we were to go more down the road of “broad agreement”, Super 8, Troll Hunter and The Kings Speech would all be tied for the top spot.

 
While I would like to think there is some degree of diversity to this list, we’re clearly swinging more toward geeky fandom than life as art house regulars. That said, I think there’s a sense that these movies reflect the kind of things we aspire to make – and I’m more than happy with that!

Sloppy kisses

KK