1. Melancholia
2. Bridesmaids
3. The Artist
4. Hugo
5. A Separation
6. The Descendents
7. Pina
8. Moneyball
9. The Interrupters
10. Beginners
Schwarzbaum’s 5 worst films, after the cut.
1. I Don’t Know How She Does It
2. Sucker Punch
3. Jack and Jill
4. Larry Crowne
5. Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, pt. 1
Really glad to see Melancholia at number 1. It was outstanding. A Separation was also terrific. Too bad that The Tree Of Life missed the cut, but it’s not everyones cup-of-tea. I get that. As for Mr. Potter: just because a movie has a 96% rotten tomato score doesn’t mean it’s one of the best films of the year. I don’t think that Lord of the Rings Return of the King was that much better than the first two, but the film was honored as a representative of the entire series as an achievement. If Deathly Hollows 2 got awarded with oscars and ten best lists, it would be as a way to honor the entire 8 film canon as a grand accomplishment, which I think it is. But the only great Harry Potter film is number 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban. It’s the best written book in the series and Alfonso Cuaron is really the only film artist to make a Harry Potter movie. Consequently, it’s superb and the superior film. Deathly Hollows 2 was good, fine, passable as a concluding chapter, but nothing extraordinary. At the end we should have wept out of bittersweet sadness, instead of shrugging and going, “Ya, I guess that did the trick.” Nice picks Schwarzbaum.
@John-No one is bringing it down because its a blockbuster, its just half of a good movie. If anything, part 1 was better than part 2. DH2 was literally a battle…and an epilogue. Its a great ending for fans of the franchise, but it has no business being an awards contender. It’s not even as good as Rise of the Apes or Mission Impossible, which are both big budget blockbusters.
And I think most film minded people would agree that Azkaban was the best of the series. I would have loved to see what Alfonso Cuaron could have done with the cast as they grew and became better actors.
I’m disgusted with the people who say Deathly Hallows Part 2 isn’t a good film, and the only reason it got great reviews was because it was the final film. That’s complete bullshit, I’m sorry, it is. Don’t bring it down just because it’s a big-bugdet blockbuster.
Chris Price: Order of the Pheonix, Goblet of Fire, and Prisoner of Askban better than DH2? Totally discreditcs your opinion. that’s ridiculous.
I’m one of the biggest HP fans out there but I’m under no delusions that it has any oscar hopes except in tech categories. It got great reviews, as many have said, because they brought this series of films to a conclusion with a somewhat decent film AND because it is being reviewed on a different scale than movies like Tree of Life and The Artist. Like it or not but that’s true.
As far as the reviews vs. the end of year lists. That happens all the time, where the individual review is a complete rave and then doesn’t make the end of year list. Just remember what the motto of this website is: “The trick is not minding.” Something I think both Scott and OCO 300 should remember…
No…..sharkamn, HP is not better than The Descendants.
OCO 300…what, in your own analysis, makes HP8 a very great film? I want to hear it from you, not citing bogus award shows.
Well, Harry Potter is a somewhat better film than The Descendants, anyway. At least the filmmakers didn’t assume people were stupid and wrap them in the warmth of an interminable Clooney voiceover.
@OCO I can only assume to reward the franchise, not the individual movie. I don’t think its unfair to say that HP3 was far and away a better film than Deathly Hallows pt2, but the last film in the franchise reaps the rewards of the series as a whole. Pt. 2 is literally half of a movie, and I think it only acts as catharsis to those who have read the books and can finally see this epic battle on screen, which is understandable…but in no way makes it “award worthy”. With films like HP and other well made, but not excellent films…isn’t the box office enough? I personally think Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible is much better than HP, but I’m not expecting any award recognition, but I think it deserves to kill Sherlock Holmes and other big budget holiday releases
Can we please stop whining over Harry Potter and celebrate that Melancholia is in the #1 spot???
@Matt then why was HP8 won Hollywood Film of the year?
Thank you Lisa for having the courage to acknowledge Melancholia for the masterpiece it is — haunting, unforgettable, subtle, a great work of film-art. Von Trier is a disturbed artist but his work — and the performances of his fine cast — should stand on their own and not be vilified.
HP wasn’t a great film. In fact, it was literally half of a good film. All HP movies get good reviews, as they should, they are well made entertainment for the masses. But the reason Deathly Hallows pt 2 got such great reviews was due to it being the last of the franchise, that’s all. And honestly, it seems to really appeal to fans of the books, which truly great films shouldn’t have to bank on. I never read the books, and thought the movies were all good, but not great.
And Owen’s lists are usually better because he loves the mainstream films just as much as the art house, which a great critic should. I may be a little bias though seeing as The Tree of Life is by far the greatest film released in this, or any other recent year.
What’s most troubling is that many of us have typed in reasoned responses as to why HP isn’t being considered an Awards Favorite and yet he chooses to ignore everything we say. He doesn’t counter our arguements, he either ignores them or outright brushed them off.
This is an area worthy of conversation. But Scott doesn’t want a conversation. He wants a street corner.
What makes you think I hate it? It’s still in my Top 20 of 2011, dude. Out of some 300+ films from this year (that I’ve seen so far). So, yeah, I’ve seen it. And I love fantasy films. Box office has very little (if zero) weight on my evaluations.
I’m just being a realist. You are only going to feel bad on the morning of Oscar nominations. Scott already knows BP is not happening, you still don’t. And the ridiculous claim that Daniel Radcliffe should be nominated for Best Actor? You are not getting much respect from AD readers after a comment like that. The chance for that is like one out of million. To quote another movie: “So, you’re telling me there is a chance.”
And there are many titles that were the biggest box office hits of the year AND critical darlings, but still failed to get nominated for Best Picture. Mainly because there was room for only five films, naturally.
Jurassic Park, The Dark Knight and The Lion King quickly come to mind. All these probably had been nominated if they had some 7 spots available. Definitely in with 10 BP nominations.
Something that hurt TDK was the fact that it was Part 2 and the first one was not nominated.
@Tero, not I can see why the People Choice Awards isn’t called the Critics Choice Awards, so lets just cut to the chase, do you hate Harry Potter cause its a fantasy film, never seen it, or cause it’s the highest grossing film of the year?
You are right, Scott. They should be evaluated individually. But that’s not happening in the world we live in.
If you and OCO want to make a difference. Go put ads in Hollywood or something. Talk directly to Academy members, not us. It’s pointless discussing this here.
Well it’s somewhat correlated…it’s #14 right now, but if you were a betting man based on the reviews, audience scores, box office, etc you’d expect it to be Top 5…even with the critical darlings like Tree of Life, The Artist, Hugo and Oscar bait like The Descendants and such in the race.
I mean a lot of these critic’s groups just list 2 films…the winner and the runner-up. Now I wouldn’t realistically expect Potter to show up under these. However, when they nominate 5 to 10 films or individual critics post a Top 10 list…hell yeah. Granted individual taste is going to vary and one shouldn’t expect it to show up on every Top 10 list…but for the critic’s groups nominations, when it’s a consensus like that, you damn bet it should. With the critical consensus it received across the board there’s no reason it shouldn’t be getting nominated every time a group of critics chooses more then a few films.
@Paddy M Oh you mean kinda like Lord of the Rings or Avatar?
FML I’m so sick of people rambling on about Harry Potter. It’s the same points, the same facts, the same statistics again and again. There’s no need. We get it. We know how much of a success it was, both commercially and critically, and we can see that its performance in critics’ lists and from critics’ groups hasn’t correlated with said success. But there are those of us who care, and those of us who do not. Scott, OCO 300, we know how you feel about Harry Potter. You won’t convince us of anything we don’t already know by force-feeding us the same obvious, well-known, easily-researched data on every partially applicable post. Do you think Lisa Schwarzbaum is going to read your comments and immediately re-arrange her list to please you? Or are you just protesting? Because we’ve heard the protests too many times already, and those of us who might have cared at first, have quite probably grown so sick of hearing it ad infinitum recently.
And this is coming from someone who LIKED Harry Potter.
If anyone had any common sense that shouldn’t make a difference Tero…each film should evaluated on its own merits.
Ah, we’re talking about Harry Potter? How refreshing.
Forget its critical response and box office sales, the fact that it’s the 8th episode in the series and the previous seven were not nominated – there’s your answer. That’s why it’s not going to materialise into Oscars.
Give it up already.
I love this selection.
I liked it though, don’t get me wrong.
Deathly Hallows part 2 isn’t even the best Deathly Hallows movie in the HP catalog. I get that it was a big deal to come to the end of the series, but let’s try and evaluate the film on its own merits, shall we? By my count it stands somewhere in the middle of the list of HP movies. At least Azkaban, Deathly Hallows 1 and Goblet Of Fire are better than this one, possibly also Order Of The Phoenix.
Marshall the reviews as a collective are too extraordinary to suggest that’s all it was…
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (97%, 8.4 avg, 100% Top Critics)
Return of the King (94%, 8.6 avg, 98% Top Critics)
So you wanna try again?
I think the problem about Harry Potter is this: it’s not really a great movie, but since it was the last one, people are saying, ok, as a series, the movies are pretty darn good (compare to say, Twilight), but still not as good as the trilogy Lord of the Rings. To me, it’s really a B/B+ grade movie, so I’m surprised it’s so high in the ratings in RT and Metacritic. But that just me, so Potter fans, calm down…these are good movies made with great actors
btw, Lisa’s list is much better than Owen’s list
OCO 300 says:
December 16, 2011 at 8:27 pm
I mean how man films that were the highest grossing film of year wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture?
That’s a good question…don’t know the answer without doing some further research but I do know the critical reception and box office stats put it in the same league as Titanic, Avatar and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King and of course all 3 of those were nominated and 2 even won.
On Rotten Tomatoes it got 96%, on Metacritic it got 87%, on Yahoo Movies it has an A, and on Broadcast Film Critics Associaton it got a 93/100 (did better than every movie this year) and to alot of people it’s the best reviewed film of 2011 and I don’t think it should only be nominated at the MTV Movie Awards, I think it should be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscar and even the state or city film critics awards shows. I mean how man films that were the highest grossing film of year wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture?
Yeah idk, Lisa Schwarzbaum gave it an A- so it probably should be on there.
does everyone hate harry potter?
Not bad. Extra points for her worst films list. Still can’t believe there are people defending the artistic merits of Sucker Punch. Unbelievable.