News Column

2011 Movie Yearbook

Dec 29, 2011

Here is one last, highly irreverent look at the best and worst in film of 2011 -- and everything in between.

Most convincing proof you can stick dinosaurs into any movie: "The Tree of Life."

Best opening credits: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo." Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Karen O cover Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" while David Fincher provides some appropriately sinister imagery. Bang your head.

Best end credits: "Super 8." The short film nestled inside the credits was better than the preceding movie.

Funniest comedy: "Bridesmaids."

Funniest comedy about a subject no one would normally think funny: "50/50," the true story of a young man's battle with cancer.

Funniest comedy that had a terrible trailer: "Bad Teacher."

Funniest comedy most likely to please your AP English teacher: Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris."

Least funny comedy that had a promising trailer: "Horrible Bosses."

Worst comedy: "Jack and Jill."

Best comic-book movie: "X-Men: First Class."

Worst comic-book movie: "Green Lantern."

Squarest comic-book movie: "Captain America: The First Avenger."

Most surprisingly entertaining yet still ridiculous comic-book movie: "Thor."

Best sequel: "A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas."

Worst sequel: "Cars 2." No, "The Hangover Part II." No, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides." No, wait, "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked." No, wait ...

Most superfluous sequel: "Scream 4." If you're not going to kill off any of the returning major characters, then why bother?

Best comeback: "The Muppets."

Worst comeback: "The Smurfs."

Best remake: "Straw Dogs."

Most tolerable remake: "Footloose."

Most passable remake that sounded like a decent idea but turned out to be pointless: "Fright Night."

Worst remake: "Arthur."

Worst remake disguised as a prequel: "The Thing."

Most disappointing execution of an intriguing premise: Mel Gibson as a man who speaks only through a hand puppet in "The Beaver."

Most convincing argument never to shake other people's hands again, ever: Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion."

Best sports movie: "Moneyball."

Best sports movie for people who couldn't care less about sports: "Moneyball."

Best shameless "Rocky" rip-off: "Warrior."

Best entrance: In "Margin Call," the CEO (Jeremy Irons) of an investment firm on the brink of disaster arrives via helicopter in the middle of the night -- a vampire who feeds by chewing the scenery.

Best performance by an animal (tie): Uggie from "The Artist" and Cosmo from "Beginners," both proving Jack Russells may be the smartest dogs of all.

Most wildly overlong scene we're really glad they didn't trim down: The airplane ride in "Bridesmaids."

Best plot twist conveyed by a single word of dialogue: 'The Skin I Live In." Wait, he said WHAT?

Best birth scene: The baby arrives in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part I." Vampire fangs come in pretty handy when you can't find any surgical scissors.

Best opening scene: The astonishing eight-minute prologue to "Melancholia" -- postcards from the apocalypse.

Best closing scene: "Martha Marcy May Marlene." Terror, interrupted.

Best closing dialogue: A husband and wife in "Take Shelter." "See?" "OK."

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