Over at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, tonight's double feature is a particularly inspired pairing of simian cinema from 2011: the cautionary thriller Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the equally harrowing doc Project Nim. What lessons can be taken from this matching of monkey movies?
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It was a buoyant holiday frame for the last releases of 2011, with audiences turning out in droves (and likely family-loaded minivans) to boost just about every film in theaters. Biggest congrats are in order for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which is indeed set to make in 17 days what Mission: Impossible III made in its entire theatrical run. And, look! A bunch more people caught the timely holiday spirit and bought a Zoo this week, along with a War Horse and, uh, Garry Marshall's New Year's Eve. Enjoy it while it lasts, Garry. Auld lang syne, 2011. Your holiday weekend receipts after the jump!
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The year is drawing to a close, which means that it is time to start thinking about all the things you did not accomplish in 2011. (That Ghostbusters 3 script? Still unread. That copycat Wedding Crashers crime you committed in college? Still unresolved in court.) But before you do that, let's take a look back at some of my favorite Movieline stories that punctuated this remarkably unproductive calendar year.
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Once you start commemorating an entire year in film, it's hard to stop. I'd apologize, except I think I'm onto a provocative topic: What is the single funniest line of dialogue in 2011? Was it in a straight comedy, or did a serious actor utter it in a moment of surprise levity? Or is a woman responsible for the year's most hilarious quip?
And so my most-favorite, least-favorite task of the year rolls around again. I never call it a "10 best" list -- meaning the unequivocal 10 best films of the year -- because I'm fully aware of how subjective it is. Yet as frustrating as it usually is to pull together just the right 10, I found the job surprisingly pleasurable this year. So many movies to love! How could this have happened? Let's not even address the fact that two 3-D movies made it onto my list -- that surprises me as much as anyone. The remarkable thing is that year after year, no matter how much samey-sameness Hollywood (or even so-called indie cinema, for that matter) seems to give us, there are always pictures that resonate, movies that stand apart as if to do so were their God-given right.
With all this laudatory talk of the best of the year and Nelson Muntz-style "HA hah"-ing at the worst, isn't it time to spare a thought for all the films in between, the ones that are neither remarkably good nor jaw-dropping awful? 2011 saw hundreds of films hit theaters, some only on offer for a week or two before being shunted off to other platforms, others providing an adequate or mildly disappointing few hours of entertainment at the multiplex. But just because a movie is middling doesn't mean it can't have some memorable, even exceptional scenes. Here are five from flicks that likely won't be on many year-end lists, but that still deserve a second look.
Sunday night's Teen Choice Awards came down to the eternal, epic battle in the world of young adults: Harry Potter vs. Twilight. Call it the finale vote, or credit sheer force of fandom -- the recently concluded Harry Potter series emerged triumphant over the also-popular Twilight Saga, taking home a collection of coveted, er, surfboards. After the jump, get the full list of movie-related winners and get the answer to the burning question that's been haunting your days and nights: Which duo totally shared the best kiss of the year?
Bridesmaids is arguably the biggest success story of the year, if you consider that its box office grosses not only turned a female R-rated comedy into a blockbuster, but gave new life (and industry confidence) to the entire subgenre of lady-fronted comedy. Looking back on the first half of 2011, though, not every surprise was a Bridesmaids; some hit the jackpot without making nary a splash in the public eye. Continue along our look back from the midpoint of the year and consider these five quiet hits that you probably didn't know were hits.
Reason #1 why we love Lea Thompson, who just landed a new ABC Family pilot, Switched at Birth: She's the girl we all wanted to be in the '80s. Reason #2: She's like the estimable honey badger when it comes to real talk about her old Red Dawn co-star turned Qaddafi of Hollywood, Charlie Sheen.
Movieline hit the red carpet at Saturday's Spirit Awards, where Exit Through the Gift Shop took home Best Documentary, with one guiding mission: Find out who Banksy really is! But just in case we couldn't get to the bottom of that enigma, we had a backup mission: Find out what he'd look like if he came to an awards show incognito! Hit the jump to watch the results of Movieline's investigation into The Banksy Identity, as aided by a few celebrity informants.
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