Summer 2011: The Surprising Lists Of Whiskey Member Favorites And Least-Favorites

Jumbs: As far as summer surprises go, definitely Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Apart from having a ridiculously long title, and knowing the entire plot from the trailer, the movie was full of great (Goodman) to competent (Franco) performances and knowing-without-being-overt references to past films. Draco Malfoy (I refuse to call him anything else) is taking one step closer to being typecast, but as an audience member, who cares? I'm sure he was supposed to be menacing or cruel, yet I laughed through most of his dialogue as it was so genuinely entertaining. And as someone who is extremely critical of CG in movies (one of the many reasons I couldn't stand Avatar), the CG in this was incredible.

Hawkeye: I didn't think it was possible, but Andy Serkis will now always be typecasted as a CGI ape. That's totally okay, though. His previous roles as Gollum and King Kong merely served as a build-up for the role that entirely saved the reboot of the Planet of the Apes franchise all on its own. Personally, I've never been much of a fan of CGI, typically preferring practical effects over their computerized counterpart, and I was a bit skeptical of the mediocre plot and the mediocre acting of James Franco, but it was the beautiful harmony between Serkis' expressions and the adaptation of those expressions to the computer ape-palate that will undoubtedly keep people talking for years to come and study in the future as a stepping stone for the true capabilities of showing emotion through what is essentially a non-existant presence.

Lyonheart: What I like most about going to movies during the summer is the possibility that one of the many blockbusters is going to surprise me. It was looking very grim up until Rise of the Planet of the Apes came along. I had this movie pegged as a boring rehash, a simple attempt to take money from my pocket to make more useless summer drivel. What I found was a film with substance, tension, and intensity. The story arc between James Franco's character and his father, played by John Lithgow tied up a reason quite nicely as to why the experiment was happening in the first place. It then went one step further to create a similar, very engaging, father son relationship between Ceasar (smart ape) and Franco. Follow that up with Andy Serkis and his Oscar-worthy motion capture and let us not forget the power house that is WETA and their amazing effects team. The film had me forgetting it was a film and I think that's the sign of a solid summer movie going experience.

mylifeforAiur: If Rise of the Planet of the Apes is to be remembered for anything, it should be remembered for helping fill the sizable depression known as the Uncanny Valley. Here's a film that actively endears an audience to a motion-captured character and then continually pulls at the heart-strings until you're basically rooting for mankind to be annihilated by some damn dirty apes. That also brings me to another salient point: Rise of the Planet of the Apes manages to deftly weave a story about some crestfallen apes, the precipitant of humanity's downfall, and oppression and avarice without appearing preachy and or domineering. There's something to say for a film that makes you cheer for the death of your own species. I myself however, welcome our soon-to-be, apish overlords.

Godzilla_Sushi: I really enjoyed Rise of the Planet of the Apes more than any other summer movie I saw. I'm not great with words but I found it so engaging. After the CG wore off a few minutes in, the movie had me hooked. I really connected with Caesar. I loved the older Planet of the Apes films and I was more than ready for something that would keep those movies in mind but still create a new story. The references to the old movies and actors were awesome. I mean, they really were a treat. The Golden Gate bridge felt like a real true finale, where many summer movies in 2011 have fallen short. Climbing redwood trees along with the apes made me feel so good. The apes weren't real, but you could have fooled me.

tds418: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was the best movie of the summer for me simply because it was as good as it could have been. Rowling's books are extraordinarily hard to adapt to the screen for it is her simple yet vivid writing style that gives the series its charm. Hallows Part 2 comes closer to this magic of the books than the previous movies because it is less burdened with plot. The exposition has already been done away with in the first half, and what is left for part 2 is the climax of the series; both in terms of action and emotion. Instead of rushing to hit all of the necessary plot points, the movie can give the proper amount of time to the important scenes. As someone who has grown up with Harry Potter I will say that I didn't cry, but I came pretty damn close.

wealllikepie: My favorite movie this summer was probably 13 Assassins. I generally love all of Kurosawa's work, and while Miike's work was less focused on the badassery of the characters and more on the realistic portrayal of the event, his movie still reminded me of the likes of Seven Samurai. I really enjoy the Japanese aesthetic and was fascinated by the use of harakiri as a political tool. Also, the characters were given their own insights and reasons for participating in the event, making me cheer for them in the battles that followed. Of course, the battles themselves were really well done, being a perfect demonstration of masterfully executed swordplay that kept me on the edge of my seat. Overall, I feel like fans of Kurosawa's work and fans of Japanese lore in general really must check this movie out.

Durendal: It may be bending the definition of 'summer', but 13 Assassins was easily my favorite film. Sure, it's got its flaws (Miike's no Kurosawa), but I loved it enough to dismiss any criticism I had. I feel like this film was made specifically for me and that's a super rare thing. The story's simple in that summer blockbuster way, but the action is nuanced in a way that's thrilling, yet shuns the shiny colors and explosions of Transformers et al and flat out made me wonder why any movie has been in 3D ever. While Miike's not a director I'd call 'delicate', he handles his action in a very grounded manner. Against the backdrop of what's been probably the most beautiful cinematography this year our 13 heroes fight without robot friends, magic wands or super powers and it is glorious. 13 Assassins reminded me why I love samurai films so goddamn much.

SSully: Super 8 stands as my favorite movie this summer because it is the perfect popcorn flick. Everything a person could desire is in Super 8, aliens, military conspiracies, small town troubles, and of course a group of kids who seem to have been stolen straight out of Stand By Me. There is absolutely nothing special about the plot, the main pull is how a group of kids handle this extraordinary situation. By the end of the film I had my fair share of laughs, heart pounding moments, and dare I say maybe even a tear all thanks to the outstanding performance from the kids.

ElectricBoogaloo: Child actors often flatter to deceive, dampening the scenes they're in and taking you right out of the experience. But in Super 8 the pre-teen ensemble is surprisingly transcendent, pulling off a fair amount of comedy, along with the more heartfelt and emotional moments from JJ Abrams' wonderful screenplay. This is a character driven story first and foremost, set amongst the backdrop of an unknown and mysterious threat. It harkens back to the monster movies of old, creating suspense out of a creature that is only intermittently glimpsed at until the final moments of the film. The visual effects creating Super 8’s constant slew of abnormal events are fantastic, and the massive train crash is a stand-out moment - partly due to Abrams' signature directorial style. With Speilberg producing it's easy to see the similarities with films like The Goonies and E.T., and Super 8 definitely takes you back to that classic style of filmaking with sincere gratification. While many of this year's summer blockbusters have faltered in their attempts to grasp the hearts and mind of cinemagoers, Super 8 comes out shining as bright as Abrams' signature lens flare. And that's pretty damn bright.

MikeS: Far and away my favorite film of the summer, Super 8 proved to me that child actors don't have to suck the proverbial shlong. The sportive performances of the kids in the film couple with the immensely fun directorial (lens) flare of JJ Abrams in order to form a sort of Entertainment Voltron capable of swatting away the tired tropes of summer blockbusters. In general, if people under 15 years of age talk for more than 15 minutes in a film there is a good chance that you will be itching to relieve said 'actors' of their vocal faculties. It is then doubly impressive that JJ Abrams manages to not simply make these performances tolerable, but to make them so damn engaging and memorable that I would not only consider these young actors to be the best part of the film but the best part of any film this summer.

Ultima1: The best movie of the summer has to be Super 8. We are introduced to a story set only a few decades in the past, in a small town with an array of characters. This movies acts as a love letter to E.T., following around wholesome children who are just living their day to day life, ultimately encountering something paranormal that helps them learn more about themselves rather than the creature. What made this movie stand out from being an E.T. clone has to do with the excellent performance of the actors. These characters are portrayed as real people shaken by a central event. Peppered with some dysfunction, these characters are living their lives and handling the turn of events with the best intentions and we are caught along for the ride. What comes of it is nothing short of the best story told this summer.

SureOkay: In an era where movie trailers reveal the entire movie, the trailer for Midnight in Paris didn't tell me much, but left me wanting to see it nonetheless, and the experience of going in pretty much cold gave the film an unpredictability that I miss. The one aspect that surprised me the most was the films characters. The way Woody Allen creates famous writers' and artists' exaggerated personalities from their respective styles put a smile on my face I couldn't get off. Even the original characters shine and emit wonderful energy that resonated with me. The best word I can use to describe MiP is delightful and I mean that in the most genuine way. There's always something to be said when you come out of the theater feeling more elated than you were before, and it was the only movie this summer, with the exception of The Tree of Life, that has moved me in any way emotionally.

JulesWinnfield: Hobo With a Shotgun was my favorite movie of the summer. Yes, Hobo with a shotgun was my favorite movie of the summer. It was everything a summer blockbuster should be, maybe for an indie crowd that likes guns going bang, and bad one-liners. It is a movie that succeeds in what it really tries to do, be as fun as everyone wanted it to be. Just dumb stupid fun, all you should want out of a summer movie. The plot is so simple and even hilarious in it self. It's a movie that sadly won't even be thought about when we look back at this summer. It's the little engine that could, the little engine filled with a hobo, a hobo with a shotgun.

Govannan: This is the little Irish comedy that could, and is still selling out screenings in Irish cinemas more than a month after its release. The film features hilarious performances from all the main characters; Brendan Gleeson is the delightfully irreverent, titular guard, while Don Cheadle plays the incredibly bewildered foil to Gleeson's antics. Mark Strong does a fantastic turn as the career villain, constantly railing against the unprofessional conditions in which he must work, while musing on the finer points of Nietzsche. The dialogue is smart, always funny, and ultimately very aware of the opinions and general ignorance of many Irish people ("I thought only black lads were drug dealers?"). The film isn't entirely heartless either, there are a few emotional moments to be had, many thanks to Gleeson's dying mother, Fionnula Flanagan. The direction and cinematography on offer are mostly unremarkable, perhaps even workmanlike, with a few great-looking memorable shots thrown in for good measure. While the film might be a tad impenetrable to overseas audiences purely due to the expressions and accents used, it actually does capture the mood, if not the details, of small-town Irish life fairly well, so you should try to give it a watch.

HT101: My favorite film of the summer was Fast Five. This may seem like a weird choice since we had some great movies this summer, but for my money, it was the most entertaining and fun experience I had at the movies this summer. The reason the movie was the best was that it did not try to be anything else but an awesome action flick that was balls to the wall crazy with what they did. The awesome bank heist and the train sequences were amazingly well shot and Justin Lin has really hit the high mark by getting better and better with each movie in the series he directed. They also did a great job setting up the next movie with a twist that you'd probably see coming but is still cool none the less. If there's one movie that I would buy on DVD and rewatch it multiple times, it would be Fast Five.

FinalDasa: My favorite film of the summer has to be Captain America: The First Avenger. Nothing says summer movie more than the American flag waving in the background as a comic book hero kicks a bunch of ass. It spoke about a wimpy kid who was better than his bigger and more muscular peers due to his heart, his humble ability to never give up despite the odds being against him. His strength didn't have to be in his muscles but something deeper and less tangible. Captain America also scratched the typical summer itch of action with explosions, gun fights, jail breaks, and evil geniuses focused only on ruling the world. It wasn't great, it won't win an Oscar, but thats not what summer is for.

mylifeforAiur: Now, first things first: I like Michael Fassbender as Erik/Magneto in X-Men: First Class. He's good. Nay, he's great. But therein lies the fundamental issue that belies First Class' critical praise; the film spends an insubstantial amount of time in developing the other characters. I mean, disregard a comfortably camp Kevin Bacon, an outright unimpressionable McAvoy, a tasteless--and downright ineffective--January Jones, and what are you left with? A state of bewilderment brought on by a distinct feeling of critic-imposed beguiling? Sure, but more importantly, a roster of assorted characters that you fail to remember due to the fact that they were ham-fisted into the plot in a manner of a few seconds without the regard to even a pretence of back-story or character development. Oh, wait. Wasn't Mystique in that film? Oh, yeah, her character was given all the trite dialogue to spew forth mawkishly. The soundtrack was alright, though.

Godzilla_Sushi: My least favorite movie of the summer was X-Men: First Class. I had rewatched X-Men 3 and I enjoyed it more now than before. Seeing the new movie, it just felt dumb. Here were a bunch of random teenagers that flew with wings, and sound. The female characters were determined to please the men at any cost. I have a limited knowledge of movie reviews, but I don't think I'd be alone saying that Michael Fassbinder was the best part of the movie. He felt like someone who was doing the right thing, even if it was wrong. He fought for what he believed in, so far as a mutant vs. human story can go. It was the teens taking refuge in the safe house that bothered me. They would give this silly exposition about their powers and their need to express themselves. The powers were just too far-fetched, the feelings towards humans too goofy. By the end of the movie I wanted to watch the first two X-Men movies and draw myself back into what I loved about those films. Kevin Bacon was fun to see as a comic villain, but I can't take any more angsty teen superheroes in my movies. I don't want the youth in revolt comic book story anymore. I want to see Iron Man and Batman deal with serious conflict that might have gray areas. First Class was focused on rebooting something that might not have needed the teenage treatment.

brainboy77: My least-favorite movie of the summer is X-Men First Class. I came into the movie admittedly a little hyped because of the amazing advertisements; "peace was never an option" with that background music just pumped me up when I saw that teaser and Michael Fassbender hooked me with his Don Draper-like charm. But the movie itself was boring, the climax never stuck with me, and Fassbender just came off as too emotional. There are certain characters that you can relate to by showing their human qualities and there are certain characters you respect for their super-human traits; any of Eastwood's characters fit this mold as does Magneto. I was never really engaged in the movie at any point in time; the advertisements spoiled all the best moments and there were just way too many characters jammed in. When I started laughing hysterically at the hilariously super-serious and unaware Soviet "War Room" scene, I knew that this movie was irredeemable and I rue the $11 I spent on the ticket.

President_Barackbar: I really disliked Captain America. After all the things I heard about it being a great stand-alone superhero story, all I got was a long commercial for the Avengers movie. Everything about it seemed rushed: character development, cinematography (two montages!), and even the general pace of the film. For all the talk amongst the characters about how bad and horrible Hydra and Red Skull are, you rarely see them doing anything other than being beaten into submission by Captain America. They really seemed to squander the characters of Bucky and all the members of Cap's team, reducing what should have been interesting characters to what amounted to a wink and a nod to readers of the comics. To me, it seemed like a movie that couldn't wait to be done and over with so they could finally get Cap into the modern day Avengers.

TurboMan: When walking out of the theater after seeing Transformers 3, my friends and I all kinded of nodded and agree'd that "it wasn't the worst movie ever". Over the next hour, we began deconstructing what we had just seen, and slowly began to realize how foul and pointless the entire movie was. A sign of a horrible movie to me is when I feel like nit-picking the movie to death over praising the elements that the movie did right. The movie could have easily shedded 30 minutes if it just started off with Labeouf having his job. Malkovich turned from being a feared boss into a dumb comic relief character in a blink of an eye. Why is Megatron yelling at elephants in the beginning? Also, why is Megatron so easily tricked by Megan Fox whoever that girl is? I'm not asking for The Godfather of robot movies, but I would like something that makes as much money as it does to not be tailor-made for the lowest common denominator. It's not worse than Transformers 2, but it isn't better than any other summer movie that I got to see this year.

Ultima1: The worst movie I have seen this summer is The Hangover 2. There is nothing new, or funny, or good about this sequel. It consists of more jokes about that shitty saying "Dude, you were SO drunk last night...". The characters are vile, disrespectful, and idiots. The only actor who seems to be aware of this and cranks his role up is Zach Galifianakis. I sat through this movie trying to find a single joke but what I encountered was a lazy assembly of one-liners and dick jokes. I did not like the first one because it was not funny. Choosing to watch the second in a theater was me being hopeful that this garbage could redeem itself. It didn't. The reason I chose this movie isn't because I thought it wasn't funny. Coupled with its brand of non-humor along with the huge success it was, it will return. It is the worst because we are doomed to be treated to another awful story of awful things to the awful and unlikable characters because of us as an audience. This is why we can't have nice things.