There were many great films released this year, yet some of the best films failed to register a blip on the public radar. You can even say that 2011 is the year of the underrated and overlooked movies. Hopefully these quality movies will find second life in Blu-Ray or DVD rentals.
- X-Men First Class: Some may say it’s a reboot, some say it’s a complete mulligan. Whatever it was, it certainly distinguished itself from the Brett Ratner’s X-Men: The Last Stand, which obliterated a once-promising franchise. Setting the stage decades before the first X-Men started, First Class is a combined element of humor, Cold-War thriller, James Bond espionage styleaction, and the X-Men brand of special effects that we have grown accustomed to.
- Captain America: The First Avenger- another Marvel offering directed by Joe Johnston. Captain America: The First Avenger painted a nostalgic hue and combined an old Raiders of The Lost Ark with a futuristic Star Wars touch. While the movie had less action than I expected it to, it was definitely an enjoyable one. It also sets the stage for next year’s Avenger’s movie.
- Moneyball – Dubbed the Social Network of Major League baseball, Moneyball is based on the book Moneyball: the Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Micheal Lewis. The movie paired Brad Pitt as general manager, Billy Beane of the Oakland A’s with Jonah Hill as his assistant GM. It details the out of the box thinking that Beane’s Oakland A’s must overcome from MLB’s cellar dwellers to contenders by using the power of statistics in order to compete with bigger markets teams that have more money to spend. Brad Pitt also had one of his finest performances as he displayed the vulnerability one must when taking a risk in order to reach a successful level.
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Despite a flat performance by the main actor James Franco, Director Rupert Wyatt has resurrected a once great franchise (still recovering from Tim Burton’s remake Planet of the Apes). While Rise of the Planet of the Apes had some big actors such as James Franco and John Lithgow, the main star was Caesar, the main primate that eventually lead an uprising and wrecked havoc on all of humanity. Damn Them Dirty Apes!
- Drive – Superficially, Drive looks like another Fast & Furious knockoff. But once you got deeper into the movie, it seemed more like an action movie with soul. From the credits in the beginning to the 80’s style soundtrack throughout the movie, we are introduced into a seedy underwold world where Ryan Gosling’s unnamed character is a stunt driver by day and get-away driver by night. Even though the set-up has some of the artificial tropes of any clichéd action movie, Drive may set the tone for action movies in the future.
