So my movie numbers for 2011 were just as piss-poor as those for 2010. 73 flicks in total for the year, up 4 on the previous year, representing a 5.8% increase. Better than inflation, I guess. However, that still only averages at 0.2 movies a day, or a movie every 5 days. This is no good. Once again, I’m going to blame the glut of awesome TV that seems to have evicted films as our go-to downtime medium of choice. Treme, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones were the standout shows this year, with HBO churning out hit after hit. I think I’m as excited about season two of Game of Thrones this spring as I am about The Dark Knight Rises. Which is saying something, as I’m really fucking excited about that.
Anyhoo, TV aside, there was some good, some bad and some downright ugly on the movie list this year. Check out m’list:
01/01/2011 Believe: The Eddie Izzard Story
04/01/2011 Scrooged
05/01/2011 G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
06/01/2011 Star Trek: Insurrection
07/01/2011 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
11/01/2011 Star Trek: Nemesis
15/01/2011 Minority Report
28/01/2011 Dinner For Schmucks
05/02/2011 The King’s Speech
11/02/2011 Batman
12/02/2011 The Town
19/02/2011 The Book of Eli
26/02/2011 Buried
03/03/2011 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
05/03/2011 Invictus
10/03/2011 Paul
12/03/2011 17 Again
12/03/2011 Clash of the Titans
19/03/2011 The Social Network
26/03/2011 Robin Hood
26/03/2011 Airplane
30/03/2011 Four Lions
03/04/2011 Ronin
05/04/2011 From Paris With Love
21/04/2011 Source Code
01/05/2011 Legion
02/05/2011 Date Night
13/05/2011 I, Robot
27/05/2011 Despicable Me
29/05/2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
02/06/2011 The Hangover: Part II
18/06/2011 Cop Out
18/06/2011 X-Men: Last Stand
21/06/2011 Senna
24/06/2011 Salt
01/07/2011 The Naked Gun
01/07/2011 X-Men Origins: Wolverine
05/07/2011 The A-Team
09/07/2011 The Adjustment Bureau
16/07/2011 True Grit
23/07/2011 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
03/08/2011 Captain America
12/08/2011 US Marshals
13/08/2011 The Other Guys
18/08/2011 Thor
22/08/2011 Limitless
09/09/2011 Ghostbusters
16/09/2011 American: The Bill Hicks Story
01/10/2011 Attack The Block
07/10/2011 Centurion
22/10/2011 Toy Story
22/10/2011 Toy Story 2
23/10/2011 Toy Story 3
17/11/2011 Tron
02/12/2011 The Fighter
04/12/2011 Tron: Legacy
09/12/2011 Arthur Christmas
10/12/2011 X-Men: First Class
11/12/2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
16/12/2011 Armageddon
17/12/2011 Sherlock Holmes
17/12/2011 Black Swan
18/12/2011 Home Alone
18/12/2011 Die Hard
24/12/2011 Space Cowboys
31/12/2011 Super-8
I pretty much saw most of these at home, given the lack of opportunity to get out to the flicks. I don’t know whether any of them lost anything in translation to the small screen, but there ya go.
Cinema highlights:
- Senna – Unbelievably good. And tragic. Unbelievably tragic. Brought a tear to my eye, and to the eyes of most folks sat near me. A story made all the more real by going to see it with my Dad, who was acquainted with, if not a colleague of, a number of the racing officials throughout the doc. Motorsport, it would appear, was a smaller world in the 80s than it is today. My movie of the year by a long way.
- The King’s Speech – Kath and I got to see this on a rare night away. I don’t know whether it was this occasion, or the quality of the film, but I loved it.
- Toy Story 3 – Simply brilliant. Had me sobbing like a child at the end.
- The Social Network – Just as good as I was led to believe. Sorkin can write like a motherfucker.
- Black Swan – Not the preposterously pretentious piece of shit I was told it was.
- Space Cowboys – No, really, I love that movie.
What Did You Do, Ray? 