Review: 2011 A YEAR IN REVIEW & THE TOP TEN AND A HALF

           2011 is one of the best, and oddest film years in recent memory. On one hand, while there were numerous great films year round, none of them particularly sticks out the way something like Slumdog Millionaire, Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, Inception, Toy Story 3, all did in the last few years. In terms of big movies it was actually a very poor year; there was a record number of sequels, threequels, fourthquels, fifthquels and prequels; 27 in total, not including remakes. There was even an octoquel. But besides that said eighth Harry Potter Film that we waited a decade for none were memorable, and at least two were essentially a remake of the previous installment (Hangover 2 and Transformers 3).

            And yet at the same time there was a major breakthrough in independent filmmaking. For the past few years online movie watching, particularly Netflix, has brought the realization that the market for such films is huge; it is just not as big as the market for Avatar. Nevertheless Indie films can use a limited release as a form of promotion, and earn their money back, off theaters. Either on iTunes, Redbox, Netflix, DVD sales, whatever. And thus the public’s legal accessibility to such films has greatly increased.

            It has been an interesting year; and to top it off it might be the first time that a silent movie takes Best Picture, since the first Academy Awards were held. Anyways, here is our Top Ten and a half for 2011, presented in no particular order besides alphabetical:

A Review: SPRING 2011

            Although officially the summer doesn’t start until mid May, movie wise it has slowly crawled up to late April in order to allow a wider window for summer releases. Next week Fast Five and Dylan Dog: Dead of Night will kick off this year’s batch of summer movies. But I’d like to take a look back and see what the spring of 2011 had to offer.

Review: EXPORTING RAYMOND

            It is a widely accepted fact that comedy is a very localized phenomenon and as a consequence one of the hardest genres to export. Today most Hollywood movies are made with the international market in mind; it is not unusual for movies to make most of their money outside their country of origin (Hollywood or not). Comedy remains as the exception. However this hasn’t stopped the business from trying to adapt its most successful sitcoms for audiences abroad. Exporting Raymond is the story of Phil Rosenstal, the show runner of Everybody Loves Raymond, traveling to Russia to help a team of Russian writers adapt the sitcom into their own Everybody Loves Kostya. And in the process he makes the attempt to argue that comedy in is most specific form is in fact a universally relatable genre. It is a bold undertaking but Rosenthal makes an incredibly persuasive argument.