2011 Best of the Year – Film
10. Hugo
Martin Scorsese
If Martin Scorsese set out with Hugo to make a family friendly children’s film, he failed. Hugo is not capturing hearts dollars at the theater. That being said Hugo succeeds at being one of the most beautiful films this year and the best example of 3D since James Cameron’s Avatar. The child actors on display here, Asa Butterfield and Chloe Moretz, are fantastic and bring heart to the film, something child actors rarely accomplish. If you’re a film buff, the subject matter, and visuals on display here will surely meet your fancy. Especially in 3D.
09. Hanna
Joe Wright
If you looked at Joe Wright’s filmography prior to Hanna (2005′s Pride and Prejudice and 2007′s Atonement) you would surely question if he had the direction chops to handle an Action/Thriller. Fortunately Wright stepped up to the plate a delivered a brilliant film with one of the best new characters of 2011, the titular Hanna played by Saoirse Ronan. Ronan not only holds her own against screen veterans Eric Bana and Cate Blanchett, she steals the show with every minute she’s on screen. Add in the incredible soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers (that just missed my top 10 albums of the year) and you have a wonderful action movie and a potential breakout franchise and star.
08. Super 8
J. J. Abrams
Abrams has been a bit of an unstoppable force as of late, from launching new TV shows to directing great films (Mission Impossible III and Star Trek). He continues that trend with Super 8, a movie directed as well as written by Abrams. Playing homage to the Steven Spielberg sci-fi movies of the late 70s / early 80s, Super 8 aims to recapture the innocence of childhood and the nostalgia of an era past. The story is compelling, and the band of child actors on display here are top notch, from “veteran” Elle Fanning to newcomer Joel Courtney. I’m excited to see Abrams bring his artistic vision to more projects in the future.
07. Drive
Nicolas Winding Refn
If you went into Drive looking for a explosion-a-minute, summer blockbuster, action movie you might have walked out feeling pretty disappointed with this film as Drive was not any of those things, nor was it ever trying to be. Nicolas Winding Refn’s film oozes with style. The character of The Driver is something that any man would want to be – cool, calm, collected, always knowing exactly what to do at the right moment, speaking only to deliver that final punctuation on the scene or conversation. The music featured on the soundtrack is excellent and pairs perfectly with the film further immersing you into the tone that Winding Refn is looking to deliver.
06. I Saw The Devil
Kim Ji-woon
I Saw The Devil could be compared to fellow Korean director Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance trilogy, a series of films that put their protagonists in seriously awful situations and see how they react. I Saw The Devil takes that concept to it’s highest degree, almost feeling like a parody of the genre at times. The villain of the film is so awful, so vile that you’ll be rooting for the protagonist no matter how suspect his ways on problem solving get. Just when you think you’ve seen all that this film has to offer, Ji-woon still has tricks up his sleeve.
Reviving the Mortal Kombat series was no easy task. The fighting game genre has been slowly coming back into the populist lately with the recent reboot of the Street Fighter franchise, but MK has been pretty dead for a while. Mortal Kombat brings back everything that I loved about the old games, the fatalities here are more insane than they’ve ever been, the combat is far easier to pickup on than any other fighting game series, and the inclusion of the new ladder system adds a whole new element to the game. Not to mention they added a pretty solid story component to the game, something basically unheard of in a fighting game.
After the commercial disappointment of 2009′s Brutal Legend, Double Fine decided to focus on smaller, more focused games which would be distributed on the digital platforms of XBLA and PSN. Trenched, which after a legal dispute was forced to rename itself to Iron Brigade, is the most recent game to come from that largely successful effort. The concept of a tower defense game is nothing new, but Iron Brigade does something different with the genre. Adding in a ton of RPG-style customization and 4 player online co-op really brought something new to the genre and made this game a ton of fun to play with friends. Not to mention the amazing salute system.
This is pretty much the first game I’ve played from the Dirt series. I took notice after a bunch of gameplay of the new gymkhana mode was shown off. This new mode which is akin to the style of tricks that horses do (hence the name) is by far my favorite thing about Dirt 3. Chaining a run of 3 donuts around a front-end loader, to a giant jump off a dirt ramp, to a power slide into cones is enough to make any game fun. Dirt 3 also includes some awesome online modes and a robust single player progression. This is a fantastic half arcade, half realistic racer.
This game scares the crap out of me. You’re almost always out of ammo, the environment is mostly dark and the music could not been more erie, and it’s awesome. The storyline is surprisingly solid, and the addition of a voice to your main character doesn’t really pan out, but picking up a dismembered limb of an enemy and shooting that at another enemy never gets old. I wasn’t really a fan of the multiplayer that seemed to be tacked onto this game, but the single player is all you need to make Dead Space 2 a fantastic survival horror game.
Gears of War 2 while a great game, didn’t really do much to pique my interests, much of that game seems to just be a re-tread of the previous game. In the third installment, Gears 3 brings a bit more to the table. The multiplayer is once again solid, but not what I come to this franchise for. Horde mode is back and better than ever. Beast mode is new and exists as sort of a reverse Horde mode when you play as the Locust attacking Humans. There are a ton of medals and challenges to complete and just about every mode, even the campaign lets you advance that progression. Even the DLC for this game is great.
In the three years this husband and wife duo has known each other they’ve met, fell in love, got married, had two children and made this record. Combining his classic country and folk root with her raw rock rhythms, they’ve put out one of the most unfussed with sounding recordings. I especially enjoy the saloon piano.
This album completes their 3 part concept album including 2006′s Sound the Alarm and 2007′s Under the Boards. Saves the Day has been through several different members since they were formed but the lone survivor, lyricist and vocalist Chris Conley hasn’t missed a step. Daybreak is filled with catchy choruses and great rhythms. The ten and a half minute opening song is the perfect start to this album.
Ernest Greene’s debut album is the literal definition of the genre Chillwave. Everything about this record will put you in a relaxing mood. Each track flows perfectly into the next providing you with a killer beat and some soft smooth vocals to put you in a perfect mood.
New Found Glory has been putting out records for over a decade now, refusing to accept that the emo-pop bandwagon has passed them by. Instead they dug their heels in and put out their poppiest record to date. It worked. Radiosurgery starts with crunchy guitars and the high pitched vocals of Jordan Pundik and never stops. Every song is a hit and I’ve been spinning it ever since.
The followup to 2008′s For Emma, Forever Ago had a lot to live up to. Fortunately Justin Vernon was up to the task, enlisting the help of a dozen other artists to join him and shape this record into something new. Bon Iver, Bon Iver build upon everything that Vernon had done before, from the soft melodies in “Skinny Love” to the auto-tuned vocals of “Woods”. This is an incredible record from start to finish.
Rebounding from Agony & Irony, their worst album, This Addiction is a return to form from one of my favorite bands. They’ve abandoned just about everything from Agony & Irony in favor of a style of music they were putting out 10 years ago. Matt’s songs are great, Dan’s songs are better and I’m just glad that Alkaline Trio still has some fight left in them.
I didn’t expect much when I heard that Mates of State were putting out a cover album. Cover albums are usually lazy and often used to break out of record contracts. This is not the case with Crushes though. The record was produced and recorded by the band, their first foray into self-production. They cover everything from Death Cab for Cutie to Mars Volta and put their spin on every track. This album just feels like Jason and Kori loved these songs and wanted to play them for everyone.
Hearing Beck channel a slightly terrible fictional Canadian indie rock band makes me happy. Beck’s Sex Bob-Omb tracks are just bad enough to be believable to be written by a group of slightly talentless twenty-something, but great enough that you’ll be singing along by the end of the song. This soundtrack did so much to make the film what it was. Not to mention that it features one of my favorite Metric songs to date.
Ted Leo has been putting out music for almost 20 years, 10 with his sort of solo project, the Pharmacists. He’s a brilliant lyricist, a great vocalist and his guitar riffs bring everything together. This records is my favorite Ted Leo release since 2004′s Shake the Sheets. I could listen to “Bottled in Cork” on repeat and still be pleased with hearing it again. One can only hope to be as badass as Mr. Leo when you’re pushing 40.
Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem wear their musical influences on their sleeves. This record harkens back to Bruce Springsteen, The Replacements, and even a little Van Morrison. It’s pretty crazy to see how much Gaslight has improved and evolved in just three years since their 2007 debut, Sink or Swim. They manage to improve their song writing skills and still keep their catchy sing-alongs.
This was one of my most anticipated games for PS3 and it didn’t disappoint. This visuals are stunning and truly some of the best I’ve seen this generation. Gameplay wise, it plays exactly how you would expect a God of War game to play but the combat was brought to an epic scale, delivering set piece after set piece. The game channels Shadow of the Colossus with the number of time you are fighting on giant gods and beasts. God of War III is a fitting conclusion to Kratos’ story.
I’ve put a ton of time into both the single player campaign and the multiplayer portions of this game. The campaign is solid but the multiplayer is where it’s at here. The game features 4 different classes that all feel unique, offer new abilities, and bring new play styles to the mix. The destructible environments have been amped up since the first game and really shine here. It’s pretty hard to camp when you can send a rocket into a building and have it fall on your opponent’s head.
This game makes me angry. I really can’t play it for longer than 30 minutes at a time without wanting to break things. It’s hard. Very hard. That being said, it’s also incredible. For such a small team to pack so much content and design into one package is truly remarkable. This game has levels upon levels, they’re always adding new characters which bring new ways to play the game. I love this game just about as much as I hate it.
The release of this game flew very low under my radar. For some reason I was dead set on thinking this was strictly a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed game, which under that premise I was largely uninterested. So I was quite surprised when I discovered that this game packs in the best narrative and single player campaign of an Assassin’s Creed game yet. All that and the multiplayer is pretty great also.
Heavy Rain proved that developers can still truly innovate in the generation. The way that the story unfolds in this game is unlike any other. Heavy Rain really succeeds by allowing the player so many different options throughout the game and then having those choices really mean something on large and small levels. Having discussions with many other people and each person describing a completely different outcome for their playthrough was one of my favorite aspects about this game. I really hope this style of storytelling shows up in other games.
