What are your best films you seen in 2011, released in 2011?
Can you come up with at least ten? Three honorable mentions?


In no order for me:

Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Bridesmaids
X-Men: First Class
Rango
Lincoln Laywer
Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark
Source Code
Contagion
Captian America
50/50


Honorable mentions:
The Help
Reel Steel
Rampart

10 - X-Men: First Class
9   - Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
8   - Hanna
7   - Unknown
6   - Contagion
5   - War Horse
4   - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
3   - Drive
2   - Super 8
1   - Hugo

I only saw 2 films, Planet of Apes and Heist. But they were both well written. Apes was a sensible, logical plot, though it fell slightly flat for me. Heist was also a Blake Snyder by the book script that worked. You have to really work to suspend disbelief for some of the stuff that happens, but it succeeds in making you care about the characters, except the Eddie Murphy one. Apes did not achieve that. So that will be reflected in my ranking.

1 - Heist
2 - Planet of Apes

In no specific order the ones that I liked best this year were;

Hugo
The Help
War Horse
Harry Potter DeathlyHallows
Super 8
Drive
Limitless
Warrior

Honorable Mention to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Even though the beginning almost lost me, and the sex was overboard, it was a strong movie. The character of Lisbeth...was superb.

I'm going to hold off on posting my Best Of for the moment. There's still several films I need to see before I can post an informed list. I still haven't seen Hugo, War Horse, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Carnage or Shame, which are all supposed to be really good.

Nevertheless, my favorite film so far has been Drive. I saw two films that came close to topping it but as of now, it doesn't seem like anything will (the only film that seems to have a chance is Hugo).

2011 has been a really interesting and unconventional year. No real Oscar season to speak of but many unique films that have been all over the map and many unexpected treats. A surprisingly good year for mainstream studio films as well. I think the films I hated the most were mostly indie/DTDVD fare or Hollywood films that fell through the cracks and no one cared about anyway. That's definitely a change.

2011 was a disappointing year overall after 2010 which was pretty good times. I always re-order my list on the 31st to make sure it's the way it should be, but on first viewing:

1. 33RD Drive
2. 34TH The Tree of Life
3. 21ST Rise of the Planet of the Apes
4. 43RD Contagion
5. 11TH Super 8
6. 23RD Final Destination 5
7. 12TH Insidious
8. 5TH Source Code
9. 16TH Kill The Irishman
10. 25TH Super

11. 42ND Warrior
12. 24TH Red State
13. 45TH Moneyball

Note: True Grit was 6th, but was removed because you said it had to be seen AND released in 2011.

In no particular order, I enjoyed:

1. Super 8
2. Bridesmaids
3. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
4. Source Code
5. X-Men: First Class
6. Rango
7. Unknown
8. Drive
9. Warrior
10. The Inbetweeners Movie

Best
1.   Drive
2.   Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
3.   Rise of the Planet of the Apes
4.   X-Men: First Class
5.   Source Code
6.   Win Win
7.   Contagion
8.   50/50
9.   Moneyball
10. Battle Los Angeles

Worst
10. Cars 2
9.   Larry Crowne
8.   Cowboys and Aliens
7.   The Hangover part II
6.   Sucker Punch
5.   Green Lantern
4.   Super 8
3.   Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides
2.   Transformers - Dark of the Moon
1.   The Thing

Looking forward to in 2012
1.   Prometheus
2.   The Dark Knight Rises
3.   The Hobbit
4.   Gangster Squad
5.   Django Unchained
6.   007 - Skyfall
7.   The Grey
8.   Safe House
9.   Looper
10. Taken II

Not been a great year for tent poles for me, but there were a lot of good smaller films.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was about the best of the big un's.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was expertly made and was a nice change of pace.

Quite enjoyed Hugo, though it was a little slow.

Source Code was good.

Drive was a good film.


Highlights that I didn't see in the theatre:

The Artist was the best film I saw this year.

Of Gods and men

Hesher

13 Assassins.

Been a great year for documentaries...Senna, General Orders No. 9...amongst many others.

A few to see still, but We Need To Talk About Kevin, Snowtown and Take Shelter are all up there for me.

If I had to absolutely recommend one film you have to see, then I'd say Snowtown without a shadow of a doubt. A unique experience.

Just finished Drive for the second time and indeed, it was the best film I saw in 2011.

I still haven't seen Shame or We Need To Talk About Kevin. I suspect one or both would've factored into my top 10. I also would've included Sion Sono's four hour epic, Love Exposure, in my top five but it was only released in the US in 2011. It was released in Japan and elsewhere back in 2008.

Finally, the amount of Rise of the Planet on the Apes on Best of 2011 lists really boggles my mind but I've been hearing surprisingly good things from just about everyone. Is it really that good? I'm thinking about checking it out.

Anyway, without further ado...

Best:

1. Drive
2. The Skin I Live In
3. Melancholia
4. Carnage
5. Bellflower
6. A Dangerous Method
7. Young Adult
8. Hugo
9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
10. Hesher

Quoted from James McClung Just finished Drive for the second time and indeed, it was the best film I saw in 2011. I still haven't seen Shame or We Need To Talk About Kevin. I suspect one or both would've factored into my top 10. I also would've included Sion Sono's four hour epic, Love Exposure, in my top five but it was only released in the US in 2011. It was released in Japan and elsewhere back in 2008. Finally, the amount of Rise of the Planet on the Apes on Best of 2011 lists really boggles my mind but I've been hearing surprisingly good things from just about everyone. Is it really that good? I'm thinking about checking it out. Anyway, without further ado... Best: 1. Drive 2. The Skin I Live In 3. Melancholia 4. Carnage 5. Bellflower 6. A Dangerous Method 7. Young Adult 8. Hugo 9. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 10. Hesher

ROTPOTA isn't THAT good....but they don't make that many good big films these days and those sort of tent poles are always fun.

It also benefits from it being better than you expected...which may not be the case for you at this point!

Attack the Block is still the best film of 2011.  ROTPOTA and Warrior were both surprisingly good.

Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't stand Attack the Block. I don't know what it was about it.

As for Apes, the ape stuff was really good. The human stuff, not nearly. As was said, though, it's not often when big movies are even tolerable. This is more than tolerable, but on a weak year.

It also would've been pushed down to 4th on mine, because I watched THWDT on December 30th.

EDIT: My last post was inaccurate. There were more changes than I originally recall.

1. 33RD Drive
2. 48TH The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
3. 34TH The Tree of Life
4. 43RD Contagion
5. 47TH Rango
6. 21ST Rise of the Planet of the Apes
7. 23RD Final Destination 5
8. 16TH Kill The Irishman
9. 25TH Super
10. 24TH Red State

11. 45TH Moneyball
12. 42ND Warrior
13. 39TH The Ides of March

Of all the big hitters, I've pretty much covered them all. A Separation is the glaring omission of films I've not seen.

I know there's a wave of thought about Shame and Drive, but both were too clinical (albeit fine films) for me and lacking in emotional punch. Just too cold and 'pretty'. No doubt both will be thought of very kindly in years to come. I'd group those two together and Melancholia and The Tree of Life together. Again, there was a lack of emotional engagement for me. I need that emotional entanglement in a film in lieu of it being a 'fun flick' or a 'kick-back-and-enjoy-yourself-flick'.

I do want to give a nod (even though they're not amongst the best of the year, but as good action films) to Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and the underrated Captain America (which I recall my friends slagging off on the drive home, but I actually really enjoyed - even if it was The Wolfman (one of the worst movies I've ever seen) Joe Johnston).

I'd say best of the year starts with (in no order and I've probably forgotten one or two):

- Take Shelter
- Senna
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes (deserves to be here more than MI:4 and CA)
- Project Nim
- Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
- Carnage
- The Inbetweeners Movie (yes, really - on the money for anyone who did the Ibiza/Magaluf/Zante circuit at the turn of the century, as obviously the writers did and reminisced about)
- Kill List
- Beginners
- The Trip
- Trust (Ross showing he wasn't just the funniest man in Friends)

I had to differentiate with a second list of absolute favourites for the year (of which it was very difficult to pick my film of the year):

- We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Snowtown (one of the biggest punches in the gut I've ever received - stunning film. Not surprising, 'cos no one does gritty like the Aussies)
- Martha Marcy May Marlene
- Tyrannosaur (what an incredible debut)

And my number one (primarily 'cos it lit my emotions like a Christmas tree):

- The Artist

I've yet to see Mission Impossible 4, but here goes in no particular order...

The Help
The Descendants
Hugo
Drive
The Artist
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
13 Assassins
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Martha Marcy May Marlene

Honorable Mention:

Warrior
Project Nim
The Beaver

E.D.

Funny how I can't think of that many?

Drive
The Guard
Kill List
Senna
50/50
Snowtown
Attack the Block
The perfect host (might not be 2011?)

Really want to see Tyrannosaur, anybody seen this?
Also got Blue Valentine to watch which I've heard is good too.

Didn't watch enough films from 2011 to have a list but I'm glad Take Shelter and We Need to Talk About Kevin are getting some love.