Biggest Surprise (Movie) of 2011

Posted by Vinnie Leduc on January 15, 2012

Fright Night
The Muppets
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Warrior
X-Men: First Class

2011′s best surprises raised eyebrows in two different manners. Sometimes it was the way a revitalizing reboot turned a flagging franchise around, corrected the ship’s course, and steered it towards a brighter future. Not only did Disney resuscitate The Muppets after they had long been forgotten, but the musical comedy wowed critics to a 96% approval rate on Rotten Tomatoes. Rise of the Planet of the Apes touched critics and audiences alike by shifting the focus away from humans and onto digitally created hero Caesar in a well executed tale that promisingly (and hopefully) sets up additional chapters. After The Last Stand and Wolverine resulted in lost hope from many fans, X-Men: First Class returned the quality of the popular Marvel series back to that of the first two films, thanks to director Matthew Vaughn’s vision and Michael Fassbender’s and James McAvoy’s dramatic portrayals of Magneto and Xavier, respectively.

Other times, surprises are born from bad trailers. Take the preview for the remake Fright Night. Is this supposed to be funny or scary? Cuz it doesn’t look either. Surprise! It actually was both. But our biggest surprise of 2011 goes to the mixed martial arts movie Warrior. Despite a cheesy preview that nearly gave away everything, the movie made impact that rivaled The Fighter from the previous year, and it hit hard emotionally with awesome performances from Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, and Nick Nolte. Winner: Warrior.

Honorable Mentions: Attack the Block, Bridesmaids, Happy Feet Two, The Lincoln Lawyer, Real Steel, Something Borrowed, Tower Heist

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http://MovieStinger.com Paul Curtin

Notle’s preformance was amazing, I got a creeper when Hardy made him break down. Great movie, shame it did so poor at the box office.
http://redbandproject.com/ Yoda808

Since it came out on DVD/Blu yesterday, I should have added Real Steel for at least an honorable mention. It isn’t the greatest movie, but I think I was more surprised by it than I was X-Men or Apes . . . but mainly because I was thinking it was going to be totally lame like everyone else (I still had some hope for First Class and Rise at least). I’m sure I wasn’t the only one surprised by it.

Ah well, still a good bunch though.
- http://MovieStinger.com Paul Curtin
  
  I think the main two reasons it wasn’t on this list is because Vinnie wasn’t a fan even after seeing it and I actually went in hyped for it after the Eminem trailer. Before the trailer I was thinking it was going to be a complete piece of crap, but after seeing the Transformer-like visuals mixed with good music and what looked like a solid boxing story I basically got what I expected and left the theater happy. Probably add it to my Blu-ray collection though. I’d say the fight scenes were actually a lot better than Warrior too, but Warrior was still the better film.
http://moviestinger.com Vinnie Leduc

No problem, I just added it to the HMs. I have no qualms about retroactively adding to any of the Best of 2011 lists, so don’t hesitate to voice your opinions as you catch up on any movies. Personally, I thought Real Steel looked okay when I first saw the teaser, felt the same after the Eminem trailer, and left the movie thinking it was overall okay. The fight scenes were awesome and definitely the highlight, especially that junkyard one. The opening bot-v-bull was cool, too; it got my hopes up for the rest of the movie. Yeah, I’d agree that the fight scenes were better than Warrior’s, but I just really didn’t like the predictable plot and typical father-son drama. I had no problems with Jackman, but that kid got on my nerves like no other. And the lame-ass dancing… ugh.