I saw all of those except Le Havre (which I wanted to see but never got around to it). Drive was the only one I was able to appreciate, but I didn't love it either way.

You do know that just because you call something "great" doesn't mean it's "great"? It's "great" to you, and it may be "great" to me, but there's nothing wrong with the person who didn't find it "great". Speaking in absolutes doesn't make anything more absolute, especially with a subjective medium.

I guess I'm at fault too for making a claim as blanketed as "bad crop" in regards to the year at hand. This year's just really been lackluster for me, personally.

Any year with Meek's Cutoff is good enough for me.

Looking at my top ten lists for the last three years, this seems very much the strongest and most interesting- though it makes a significant difference for me if you shift Certified Copy back to last year. And I still have maybe half a dozen movies I suspect I will love that need watching. I would agree that, for me at least, this is the best movie year since 2007.

James Mills, serious question: How many 2011 releases have you seen? If the number is less than, say, 50, wouldn't your time be better spent continuing to seek out those films that appeal specifically to you rather than acting dumbfounded that a lot of people liked films that you didn't? I mean, when I also say that I think 2011 has been a "great year," I have a particular set of films in mind that may bear little resemblance to the ones that mfunk or matrix or anyone else are thinking of. (And if watching that many of this year's releases doesn't sound appealing to you, why are you posting in the New Films section of an internet message board devoted to movies?) zedz said it best:

Telling James Mills he shouldn't post here has just become a redundant exercise in getting yelled at by Mr Sausage

I wouldn't tell him he shouldn't post here, just that his perspective seems willfully narrow.

It's one thing to forge out a spot as the board's resident contrarian; it's another to try over and over again to convince everyone else that your opinions are fact

I said that nobody's opinions are facts. That is the opposite of what you're claiming I do.

swo, what you're writing is also somewhat irrrelevant to what I stated. I wasn't at all "dumbfounded that a lot of people liked films that I didn't," I said that claiming a certain film is great is merely an opinion, not a fact. Because, as you so wisely quoted zedz of stating, anybody who says something as blanketed as "the worst year in the history of cinema" or even "the best year in the history of cinema" is always going to be wrong, just as I was wrong in saying that this year was a generally "bad crop". It's really not that simple.

And to answer your serious question, I doubt that I've even seen 30 films of 2011. But, just as you suggested I do, I have seen many more films from previous years that are more keen to my taste. That doesn't mean I can't contribute to a thread that involves new films in the genres that we all care so deeply about. I don't understand why mfunk (and perhaps a few others) is so adamant about bantering with someone that is in full support of the same cinema as them. I'm not here to be disputatious, honestly. If anything, I compromise my own beliefs too much on these boards in attempts to be better understood and, to some extent, accepted.

I think the issue here is pretty simple - if you've only seen 30 or so films from this year, you don't have a strong basis for your claim of this year being a "bad crop", in your own words. Flippant remarks like this are what antagonize people; it's thread crapping. Apologizing for it now is fine, but if you want to stop causing arguments, try to make more constructive posts in the first place. I highly doubt anyone wants you to "compromise [your] own beliefs" in order to fit in - I would hardly accuse the prolific posters here of conformity of taste.

To try and steer things back on track, my most anticipated 2012 film right now is Cabin in the Woods. When checking it out on IMDB I came across something bizarre - it looks like The Avengers might not be the only Whedon-helmed film coming out next year. He also made a feature adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing - the cast is filled with regular collaborators. Normally modern, low-budget Shakespeare would make me cringe, but so would modern, low-budget musical and Dr. Horrible was a pleasant surprise, so I can't help but be optimistic.

It's always so hard for me to judge "years in film" because of the way I consume cinema. I was able to quickly catch Le Havre in theaters this year, but I mostly watch foreign films on DVD and usually later when I can pick them up for relatively inexpensive cost. I can't count how many times I saw my "favorite film of 200X" several years after its release. This is why I feel ill-equipped to respond to the Top 10 list for each year.

Wasn't there a planned adaptation 10 years ago, that was going to star Cate Blanchett?

Apparently so. I think I'd much rather see Polley's version, even without Cate. Or maybe she's still interested, in which case... bonus!

Polley seems determined to film a story by every great contemporary female author from Canada. Damned if I know who comes after Atwood and Munro.

Kaufman's Frank or Francis which starts shooting in a few weeks has filled out it's cast rather nicely.The film has Steve Carrell, Nicolas Cage, Jack Black, Kate Winslet, Kevin Kline, Elizabeth Banks, Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens on board. The film sounds delightfully nutty. I hope it's ready for a fall festival debut.

"Despite certain reports, THR can confirm Kate Winslet is not in the cast."

Normally I hate anthology films but this one has quite a number of great directors attached. :

Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki passed through Rotterdam on Friday. He was booed by some when he turned up late and dishevelled at the Q&A before his film Le Havre but the film itself was very warmly received. Kaurismaki told the local press that he will soon be joining forces with Manoel De Oliveira, Jean-Luc Godard, Pedro Costa and Victor Erice on a film to mark the status of Guimäres in Northern Portugal as European Capital of Culture in 2012.

You could have just written Erice will be giving us something new and I'd be fawning in anticipation.

WOW Godard has a pretty good track record with Anthologies I think.

Upgrade: Blake Lively's out and Rooney Mara's in on Soderbergh's Side Effects.

Cool. Maybe Soderbergh will build movies around Mara now instead of that dopey Tatum character.

Tatum's in Side Effects too. After that and Magic Mike (starring Tatum) is the Liberace thing, then Soderbergh's supposedly done with filmmaking.

Indeed, like Ryan Reynolds and Chris Evans, it's hard to get past his frat-boy/jock exterior, even when he's trying to be taken seriously. He was passable in "Haywire," but I can't help but think a better actor could've done more with his role.