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Screen Rant’s Top 10 Favorite Movies of 2011
by Sandy Schaefer
(11 of 10)
Screen Rant's 10 Favorite Movies of 2011
There's a fine (and sometimes non-existent) line between what constitutes a great movie and a "favorite." We all have films we absolutely love and re-watch over and over, imperfect though they may be; conversely, we may really admire and respect the quality of a widely-recognized "classic," but it's not the sort of flick we feel the need to see more than once or twice.
We've settled on a list of 10 movies released in 2011 that the�Screen Rant staff not only admired, but flat-out enjoyed. Bear in mind,�this isn't synonymous with a "best of" list for films that hit theaters over the past year. These are simply the ones that we deemed our favorites.
Read on for our top 10 choices, along with 5 honorable mentions that almost made the�cut. As always, let us know if you agree/disagree and what your favorite 2011 flicks were in the comment section.
We've settled on a list of 10 movies released in 2011 that the�Screen Rant staff not only admired, but flat-out enjoyed. Bear in mind,�this isn't synonymous with a "best of" list for films that hit theaters over the past year. These are simply the ones that we deemed our favorites.
Read on for our top 10 choices, along with 5 honorable mentions that almost made the�cut. As always, let us know if you agree/disagree and what your favorite 2011 flicks were in the comment section.
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Hmmmmm
I live in the same part of London as where Attack The Block was set, I found it struck a little too close to reality. Not in terms of the aliens of course.
Melancholia was my favourite of 2011.
I lived in London for 5 years (Don’t know how I managed), so I know exactly where you’re coming from. It’s a terrific low budget movie and Sam deserves all the plaudits. Still, it’s unsettling when the main hero is a thug with “Daddy” issues. Awww, I forgive you for using a knife to mug me. Come here and get a hug you child with the body and attitude of a serial Broadmoor inhabitant.
Nice list…
Needs more Woody Allen
thats damn true!
And where TF is Warrior ???
That one almost made the top 10, so it got a honorable mention instead (see: the last page of this post).
Oh sorry I missed that page…THX.
Anyway, I know that this is subjective point of view…but do you really consider Harry Potter to be better than Moneyball and Warrior ?I mean, the last HP part was one of the worst ones ever…
Well, just bear in mind: this really isn’t meant to be a “best of 2011″ list (see the beginning of this article for some clarification on what I mean).
listed as honorable mention. may see it as an Oscar contender
Ok so how did drive, Hugo and attack the block top harry potter?
Cause drive hugo and attack the block are better than harry potter
Disagree. I would say Hugo is a work of art, while the last Harry Potter was epic and exciting. Drive was eh, alright, and Attack the Block I didn’t enjoy at all…
Of course this is all opinions, regardless of how matter-of-factly you like to state it…
I didn’t enjoy hp part 2. It wasn’t story maybe if I put both parts together then yes. But it was just a conclusion and I’m tired of seeing the same voldemort potter fight every time. Both shoot a spell big ball of magic is made blah
But like you said its an opinion and there isn’t really a reason to argue an opinion. Plus I know many people that would disagree with me haha
i agree .. HARRY POTTER WAS EPIC ! IT’S THE BEST !!
Nice list but my top ten is an in no particular order
Captain America
Thor
X men first class
Rise of the planet of the apes
Crazy stupid love
Hall pass
Fast five
Transformers dark of the moon
Horrible bosses and
The hangover part 2.
Also cowboys an aliens.
I can’t believe I forgot Harry potter. I think that one tops my list with rise of the planet of apes in 2nd.
These are all either action movies or R-Rated comedy (some of them are good, actually), so you probably haven’t seen anything like Moneyball, Drive, Ides Of March, etc.
actually I enjoyed drive. And moneyball was a excellent film but I think brad Pitt shouldn’t have played beane. Though I did miss out on idles of march. Also we bought a zoo wasn’t bad. Pretty good.
MY TOP TEN IS :
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
HARRY POTTER
coz .. HARRY POTTER IS THE BEST !
That’s over 10 Sir.
I felt thor was better than cap. I even liked first class more than cap. But cap was still pretty awesome.
I agree Thor was better than cap
my top ten for this year so far is
Thor
Fast Five
Captain America
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Mission Impossible
X-Men: First Class
Super 8
Harry Potter 7.2
Puss in Boots
this might change later as i have not seen everything that i have wanted to see yet.
My top films:
Real Steel
XFC
Captain America
Transformers 3
Evangelion 2.22
Super 8
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Green Lantern (don’t care if everybody hated the film)
The Muppets
Soul Surfur
The Deathly Hallows 1 and 2
Sherlock Holmes 2
I didn’t hit the theater a lot this year, but of the 1/2 dozen or so films I saw this year, The Muppets was MY favorite. Brought me back to my childhood and left me smiling when I left the theater.
Drive was my number #1 too.
Captain America a close
#2 if not tied for #1.
This is the reason why I hate lists.
Does the Screenrant staff actually think that half of these movies are better than Warrior?
X-Men:First Class was my favorite movie of year,but from the movies that I saw(tbh,I didn’t see a lot that are on the list)Warrior is probably the best made of what I’ve seen.
My other faves this year are:
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
Sherlock Holmes:Game Of Shadows
Hanna
Limitless
Young Adult
Paul
Tree Of Life
I think i’m the only person in the world that didnt like “Drive”
but to each his own, very nice list
You’re not, I thought it was just ok but most of it came across as awkward and uneven despite a great performance from Albert Brooks.
I was not impressed by DRIVE…….I thought LIMITLESS was better
Where’s Sherlock Holmes? And more important, how could you leave out The Descendents? It will win Oscars big time this year.
I honestly don’t get the love The Descendants is receiving. I’m a fan of Alexander Payne so I was desperately looking forward to the movie but the entire movie just came across as fake, and there was no sense of urgency anywhere in the movie despite the fact that Clooney’s character is at a loss as to what to do, and where was the comedy that everyone was talking about? It came across as overrated.
But George Clooney gave the performance of his career and deserves an Oscar, I’ll give you that.
i´ve watched the 1rst part two days ago,it´s just a cool film,i didn´t watched the second and m.i.4,i think sherlh.2 were in my list too. must change it with appo.18!
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
Super 8
50/50
The Muppets
Cowboys & Aliens
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
I know that’s not 10, but those are my favorites of the year.
My top ten (in no order):
Moneyball
Warrior
Super 8
Midnight in Paris
Hugo
Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol
Thor
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Crazy Stupid Love
HOWEVER, there are a few movies that I really wanted to see that I haven’t. So my list is at best incomplete. I didn’t see:
Drive
Ides of March
50/50
Tree of Life
Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Muppets
And a few others.
Anyway. Not a bad year for movies in my opinion.
10. Warrior
9. Rise of the Apes
8. Ides of March
7. Moneyball
6. Captain America/Thor(felt like 1 film)
5. X Men: First Class
4. The Girl w/ Dragon Tattoo
3. Mission Impossible GP
2. Harry Potter
1. DRIVE
I feel X Men FC is so much superior than the other Marvel films this year. All good, but Xmen was just fantastic.
I completely agree
I don’t like most of the choices on this list, to be honest. MI4 and Captain America are both bad movies. The only films here that I feel deserve to be on the list are Drive and Dragon Tattoo. The rest are either mildly enjoyable or bad. Though I have not seen Shame or Martha.
My top ten would be: (Note, I saw 58 movies in theatres this year so.. it took a little bit)
10. Hanna
9. Rango
8. Source Code
7. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part II
6. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
5. The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo
4. The Ides of March
3. Moneyball
2. Drive
1. Hugo
I kind of don’t agree with the top 2… I thought Drive was alright, but didn’t think it was anything spectacular, and I didn’t really enjoy Attack the Block at all. The thing is, I don’t sympathize OR identify with any of the main characters, the only one that’s any bit likeable in my opinion was the girl. All of the kids were obnoxious, not to mention they were criminals. It was also very inconsistent how powerful the aliens were. It seems like when they were attacking side characters, they were super powerful and pretty much killed in one hit, but when it came to the main characters, they seemed very weak and slow… How convenient right?
And with Drive, no, I wasn’t expecting Fast Five, but at the same time, I found that some parts seemed like they were trying too hard to be artsy and the result for me was that those parts were boring. Also for a movie that stressed how great of a driver he was and how central the theme is of him being this great driver, the one chase scene in the movie was just so incredibly unrealistic and ridiculous that it was kind of a major let-down when it happened…
I think for me, I really enjoyed:
Hugo
Mission: Impossible: Ghost Protocol
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Source Code
Harry Potter
Captain America
Warrior
Thor
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super 8
In no particular order of course…
I also really enjoyed Battle: LA but I know a lot of people disliked it, probably because it didn’t have some conspiracy in there that made the military look bad, yes it was pro-military, THE WAY IT SHOULD BE, if you disagree, I don’t give a crap, you probably have no clue how the military really is so your opinion doesn’t mean jack… Everyone who has first-hand experience with the military and of military people, myself included, will tell you that Battle: LA got that aspect of it exactly right. The Hurt Locker got it exactly wrong, but the “Academy” in Biasville, I mean, Hollywood, praises and encourages that kind of negative undertone for the military in movies because it matches their own baseless opinions…
X-Men: First Class was also surprisingly enjoyable.
Fast Five was also surprisingly enjoyable, although a bit too ridiculous to include in any top 10 list, lol.
Still want to see Rio.
Hanna I’m on the fence about. It was enjoyable, but again, it’s more on the artistic side, not really the style I typically enjoy, but it was a fun ride.
Brides Maids was also surprisingly enjoyable. Laughs and heart in that one.
The Adventures of Tintin was alright too.
Puss in Boots got me laughing out loud in the theater, so that’s definitely a thumbs up there.
The Lincoln Lawyer was alright too, just a bit too linear, it was basically here’s a problem, and now it’s solved, and that was the movie, but still not too shabby…
Real Steel was also alright, like a modern take on Rambo for the younger audiences.
Still want to see The Debt, heard it was supposed to be alright…
For me, the major flops for 2011 have been:
Immortals: What a totally non-epic epic fight in that movie…
The Hangover 2: Oh yah, let’s just release the same exact movie but in a different location and make more money… Well, apparently that works for games too… *cough*MW3*cough*
Midnight in Paris: Seriously, the critics are on drugs. I found all of the characters to be VERY annoying, and I can’t really enjoy a movie if I am simply annoyed for the entire movie. Not to mention, I’m sure it just got good critical reviews because of the not-so-subtle political messages in the movie…
Colombiana: LMAO, what a joke of a movie this was… Too silly and cheesy to be taken seriously, but they tried too hard to be serious to be enjoyed as a cheesy B-Action movie. Basically it’s just stuck in the middle where you can’t really enjoy it either way…
Insidious: I was LAUGHING so hard out loud in the theater at the last 30 minutes or so. Seriously, did they just hire a bunch of people in Halloween costumes and told them to walk around aimlessly?? lol
Attack the Block: Like I’ve said, I couldn’t force myself to like, sympathize, or identify myself with any of the main characters, I pretty much would have prefered if they were all killed. Except the woman. But the kids, they were all obnoxious and not to mention they were criminals who preyed on other people. And also, like I’ve mentioned, the aliens seemed so inconsistent. When they attacked side characters, it was like one bite and they were dead, and they would be too fast to avoid, but when they went after the main characters, it was like all of a sudden they got slow and weak. Just too convenient, that’s all…
The Adjustment Bureau was just stupid. Again, inconsistent powers was just so distracting. Some scenes it seems like they can do all of this crazy stuff, yet when they are simply trying to stop one guy they have all kinds of troubles. And the whole thing with water, without giving anything away, can I just ask, isn’t there water in the air? It’s something called “humidity” I wonder if they’ve heard of it?? And the ending was just so… convenient, again…
The Roommate: Wow, I am surprised the company behind Single White Female doesn’t sue them, because that movie is pretty much a direct rip-off of that movie except with college students instead of grown women and with much cheesier dialog… Also, the movie just kept switching from scene to scene, it was more like a crappy tv show on MTV than a feature length movie… It was terrible… Wasn’t my idea to watch it just in case you guys are about to make fun of me…
Water for Elephants, another movie I didn’t want to see, but was forced to see anyway, and it was terrible…
And there are plenty of other terrible movies that I didn’t see or just don’t need to comment on, lol.
Ah, forgot to mention Sherlock Holmes 2, but in the dislike category. Sorry, but I wasn’t really that thrilled with the first one and I thought the first one was definitely better than the second one. In my opinion, the second one just tried WAY too hard to make jokes. And the whole backtracking to explain things was kind of interesting in the first one, but in this second one it was just so overdone it got old fairly quickly… The overuse of slow-motion didn’t help either, and I still don’t understand how Sherlock and Moriarty’s thought bubbles were conversing with one another… That’s just… strange…
And again, the same beef I had with the first one reared its ugly head again in the second one. You find out later that he had some things already figured out, yet, he still went through the steps like he didn’t know. It seems more for the sake of the audience because in real life if you’ve had it figured out, you’d take care of it right then. No reason to drag it out unless for the sake of giving that “Ohhh, now I get why he did that” moment for movie viewers… And lastly, how he seems to notice “everything” regardless of how subtle it is, yet there was a scene where something REALLY obvious goes RIGHT past him and he doesn’t bat an eyelash until after it was too late. Again, seemed like something just for the sake of moving the plot forward, doesn’t really make for a cohesive plot. And the fight choreography is terrible, they had a guy run at a wall just to run up it and do a flip, just to still have to turn around before he’s facing the right direction. What a complete waste of energy and moves, why not just simply turn around?? *shakes head*
They mite have been criminals but they all had a good side to them. There not bad kids they just live in a bad area and are affected by it
I live in a bad area, both my middle and high school were both very bad school with a lot of crime, drugs, gang activity, etc. I’m not a criminal and I never think about victimizing innocent people for my own benefit. I believe that everyone is responsible for their own actions. you cannot try to point the blame on your parents, your surroundings, your peers, only you can make the choices you choose. That’s my belief, so once I see people causing harm, physically, emotionally, or financially, to someone else, I couldn’t care less what boo hoo story they have to justify their position.
But again, that’s just my own personal opinion, and I know I don’t always have the most popular opinions, obviously if you feel differently, you have that right and more power to you friend.
Ack, proof my schools were bad, I meant “were both very bad schools” and “make the choices you make.” LOL
Ken Disagree with most of your opinions on this years movie but agree with everything you said in this post. People don’t take responsibilities for their own actions and it’s sad. It’s not your neighbor hoods fault you are a pile of trash it’s yours. People seem to find something to blame it own and make excuses for it. Pathetic really. I didn’t live in a terrible neighbor hood, but it wasn’t a great one. I had a very rough and violent child hood but again like you I don’t harm the innocent or really commit terrible crimes. I’m respectful to my elders and hold doors open for people.
In life we make our own choices not our neighbor hoods or our childhood.
We usually disagree with movies, and it’s all good. Lol.
that´s my opinion,you can´t blame it to bad places,where some of us live,i think,me too. i was also a bad boy,but never stolen or robbered older people or 3 against one. i´ve learned to respect older people and things that people worked hard for. and just have fight against people ,who attacked me personal so long till i exploded,then i fight back. only one on one,no weapons,no knives,just the good ol´fists! i don´t wanna push my story,but no one could ever beat me. i hate fights and stress,but some they dont know you,wanna test you,if conversation not help,they get what they want,but if it´s good for them is another question!
Where’s Thor and Sherlock Holmes II?
they are right there ^ see? you just wrote them. jk. this is “their” (screenrant’s) favorites
Favorite 10: Muppets, Thor, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Sherlock Holmes, Tree of Life, Winnie the Pooh, Super 8, The Help, Captain America
P.S. My favorite ten are not all the best 10 of the year.
Warrior
Drive
X Men First Class
The Skin I Live In
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Awesome list, Screenrant.
Attack The Block, Captain America and Harry Potter are also my favourite movies of 2011.
Here’s my list:
X Men First Class
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Harry Potter
Thor
Captain America
Attack The Block
I think Warrior was better than every single film on this list with the only possible exception being Drive. It’s really sad to see some truly great films left off the list for safe fluff choices. Some of the best films of the year are missing like:
Warrior
The Guard
Moneyball
Midnight In Paris
50/50
Source Code
Cedar Rapids
Tree of Life
The Adjustment Bureau
Ideas of March (Wasn’t amazing but better than at least half the list)
I forgot Crazy stupid Love and Super 8
Wow, Your list contradicts your top ten bad movies. You mention two of those movies not living up to the hype of movie goers yet you list them in your top ten favorites?? Drive is your number one pick?? Ryan the sexiest man alive pick must have influenced the vote because you have really missed the mark on this one. Sherlock Holmes gets nothing in the top ten?? Content and intelligence with a lot of action must not be the criteria for a good film anymore. I respect your opinions, but have to disagree on your top ten list.
These are favorites, not best.
1) We haven’t done a worst 2011 movies list yet, we’ve done a most disappointing list. There is a difference.
2) I mentioned that The Muppets actually lived up to the hype and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo managed to exceed many people’s expectations (I assume those are the two movies you’re talking about).
3) You don’t have to like Drive, but really – did you even bother to read any of the reasons I gave for why it’s a really good movie? Or it is easier to just dismiss my justification by saying we liked it because of Ryan Gosling’s popularity?
4) Implying that we don’t like movies that mix “content and intelligence with a lot of action” not only comes off as an indirect way of insulting us, it also ignores the fact that there were two movies on the list (M:I – 4 and Deathly Hallows: Part 2) where I specifically highlighted the films’ thematic qualities and blockbuster action.
That’s all to say: you can disagree with our choices all you want, but you clearly don’t respect them – otherwise, you’d have actually paid attention to what I wrote and responded to it more thoughtfully.
My favorite films are:
1) Melancholia
2) Hugo
3) Midnight in Paris
4) 50/50
5) Rango
6) Rise of the Planet of the Apes
7) Poetry
8) The Adventures of Tintin.
Don’t even know why Harry Potter is so high on your list, I personally thought it was bad and the worst in the series but hey its your list.
That’s supposed to be an 8, why does it appear as creepy emoticon?