Been awhile since I’ve gone into this thread. I think the last one I actually graded was Hanna.
Rio - A-
Left me smiling at the end. Overchaotic at times, but otherwise a funny, lightweight animated feature with some good musical numbers.
Fast Five - A-
Fantastic action sequences, good humor, and great chemistry among the cast. Was a lot of fun.
Thor - A-
Hemsworth inhabits title role with ease. Great effects and set design, romance subplot a little rote.
Bridesmaids - B+
Funny and surprisingly thoughtful comedy brought down a bit by an irritating side character.
Kung Fu Panda 2 - B-
Ultimately disappointing. Tries to fit too much in too short a time resulting in an unsatisfying experience, despite well-choreographed action sequences.
X-Men: First Class - A-
Slightly cheesy, but enhanced by a solid story and great lead acting.
Super 8 - C
Mostly entertaining suburban drama/monster thriller ruined by a lousy payoff on both ends.
Midnight in Paris - A-
A bit indulgent, but never less than entertaining once it gets into its main conceit (I won’t spoil it).
Cars 2 - C-
A mess of a film in just about every aspect except animation. Disjointed, emotionally hollow, and gets increasingly moronic as it goes.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - B+
An undoubted improvement over its predecessor, Transformers 3 has a more coherent narrative, better action sequences, less annoying characters, and funnier humor but still occasionally suffers from unnecessary padding.
Complete rankings for 2011:
1 Rango
2 Source Code
3 Fast Five
4 Thor
5 X-Men: First Class
6 Midnight in Paris
7 Unknown
8 Rio
9 Transformers: Dark of the Moon
10 The Lincoln Lawyer
11 Bridesmaids
12 Kung Fu Panda 2
13 The Mechanic
14 Hanna
15 Super 8
16 Cars 2