Top 10 films of 2011 General research and trivia
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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt 2 Adventure / Drama / Fantasy / Mystery Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint Director: David Yates
Harry Potter and the
quest of finding and
taking place on 21
a 2011 epic fantasy-drama
Lord’s three remaining
the series’ closure of
Deathly Hallows – Part 2 is film directed by David
Yates and the second of two films based on the
novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling. It is the eighth
and final instalment in the Harry Potter film series,
written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron,
destroying the Dark
Horcruxes, the magical
items responsible for his immortality. But as the
mystical Deathly Hallows are uncovered, and
Voldemort finds out about their mission, the biggest battle begins and life as
they know it will never be the same again.
and Rowling.
Filming
Synopsis
Principal photography
The final chapter begins
2009, and was completed
as Harry, Ron, and
Hermione continue their
began on 19 February on 12 June 2010,with
the final day of reshoots
December 2010, marking ten years of filming. Part 2 was released in 2D,
3D and IMAX cinemas
worldwide from 13–15 July 2011, and is the only Harry Potter film to be released entirely in 3D. Box Office The film opened to
critical acclaim and is
among the best reviewed films of 2011.At the box office, Part 2 claimed
the worldwide opening
weekend record, earning
$483.2 million, as well as
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setting opening day and
2011. In October 2011,
in various countries.
Deathly Hallows – Part 2
opening weekend records
The film is currently the
third highest grossing film of all time, the highest
grossing film of 2011, the highest grossing film in
the Harry Potter series,
and the ninth film ever to gross over $1 billion. DVD Release The Blu-ray and DVD
sets were released on 11 November 2011 in the
United States, and was released in the United
Kingdom on 2 December
Harry Potter and the
was declared the highest pre-ordered Blu-ray and DVD ever by Amazon.
com. The film was also released in the Harry
Potter: Complete 8-Film Collection box set on
DVD and Blu-ray, which included all eight films
and new special features. Part 1 and Part 2 were
released as a combo pack on DVD and Blu-ray on 11 November 2011, in Canada.
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Cast • Daniel Radcliffe as
Harry Potter, the film’s protagonist.
• Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, Harry’s best
friend and Hermione’s romantic interest.
• Emma Watson as
Hermione Granger, Harry’s best friend and Ron’s romantic interest.
• Ralph Fiennes as Lord
Voldemort, an evil, powerhungry wizard, and the
leader of the Death Eaters. The chief antagonist of the series.
• Michael Gambon as
Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts killed two films earlier by Severus Snape.
• Alan Rickman as
Severus Snape, former Potions and Defence
Against the Dark Arts teacher and the new
headmaster of Hogwarts. • Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy, a Death Eater
and son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.
• John Hurt as Ollivander,
a wandmaker abducted by the Death Eaters.
• Maggie Smith as
Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration
teacher and the Head of the Gryffindor house at Hogwarts.
• Helena Bonham Carter as Bellatrix Lestrange, a Death Eater and Sirius Black’s cousin and murderer.
• Jason Isaacs as Lucius Malfoy, Draco Malfoy’s father and a disgraced Death Eater.
• Kelly Macdonald as
Helena Ravenclaw, the ghost of Ravenclaw at Hogwarts. Macdonald
replaces Nina Young, who portrayed the character in a cameo in the first film.
• Gary Oldman as Sirius
Black, Harry’s godfather. Killed in battle three
films earlier by Bellatrix Lestrange.
• Robbie Coltrane as
Rubeus Hagrid, Harry’s half-giant friend and a
former staff at Hogwarts. • Warwick Davis as Filius Flitwick, the
Charms master and
Head of the Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts;
and Griphook, a goblin
and former employee at Gringotts Bank. For the role of Griphook, Davis
replaces Verne Troyer, who portrayed the character in the first film.
• David Thewlis as Remus Lupin, a member of the
Order of the Phoenix and
a former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.
• Julie Walters as Molly Weasley, the Weasley
matriarch and a mother figure to Harry.
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Box Office all time records As a result of the film’s enormous success, it currently holds the following U.S./Canadian box office records:
Top 10 lists #2 - Lou Lumenick, New York Post #2 - Josh Horowitz, MTV
#3 - Col Needham, IMDB #4 Empire
#4 Mike Scott, The Times-Picayune
#5 Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle #5 Jaime N. Christley, Slant #5 TV Guide
#7 Moviefone
#7 Mike Giuliano, Baltimore Sun #8 Gregory Ellwood, HitFix
#9 Ray Greene, Boxoffice Magazine #10 Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
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Transformers: Dark of the Moon Action / Adventure / Sci Fi Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Director: Michael Bay
Transformers: Dark of the
during their collaboration
and John Turturro reprised
science fiction action film
Elements: Supporters
Peter Cullen and Hugo
Moon is a 2011 American based on the Transformers toy line. First released on June 23, 2011, it is the third installment of the
live-action Transformers film series.
Like its predecessors, Transformers and
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is
directed by Michael Bay
and produced by Steven
Spielberg. The film’s story is set three years after
the events of the second film, with the Autobots,
with the NEST (Networked and Transformers) military force, discovering a
hidden alien technology
in possession of humans, which had been found by
Apollo 11 on the Moon 42
years prior. Meanwhile, the Decepticons unveil a plan to use said technology
their starring roles, with Weaving returning as
the voices of Optimus
Prime and Megatron, and Kevin Dunn and Julie
White reprising their roles as the parents of the
main protagonist, Sam Witwicky.
to enslave Humanity in
English model Rosie
planet of the Transformers,
replaced Megan Fox as
order to save the home Cybertron. Cast Shia LaBeouf, Josh
Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson,
Huntington-Whiteley
the lead female character; the cast also saw the additions of Patrick
Dempsey, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong, and Frances
McDormand. As well with
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Leonard Nimoy, Keith
Szarabajka, Ron Bottitta, John DiMaggio, George Coe, Francesco Quinn,
James Remar, and Greg
Berg who joined the film’s
voice cast. The script was written by Ehren Kruger, who also collaborated
Indiana, Washington, D.C.,
Foster. The novel is a
Chicago. The film was
Transformers. It follows
Moscow, Florida, and
rendered specifically for
3-D, and the visual effects involved more complex
robots which took longer to render.
on the narrative of the
Story
Bay stated this would be
Unlike the two previous
series.
which were based
second film of the series. his last installment in the
Dark of the Moon was shot with both regular
35mm film cameras and specially developed 3-D cameras, with filming locations including
prequel to the 2007 film the same story structure as Dark of the Moon,
being set in 1969, the year of Apollo 11. The story
structure differs slightly,
though, because the novel was written merely as
prequel to the first film.
Transformers installments,
Cast
solely on the script
• Shia LaBeouf as Sam
Transformers: Dark of the
graduate who is once
writers’ endemic story, Moon was based on a
novel called Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday,
written by Alan Dean
Witwicky, a recent college again tied to the fate of Earth’s survival.
• Rosie Huntington-
Whiteley as Carly Spencer,
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• Tyrese Gibson as USAF
former member of NEST.
Decepticons, who is still
NEST major
“Deep” Wang, a paranoid
final battle of Revenge of
Sam’s work.
• Leonard Nimoy as
General Morshower,
Prime’s predecessor as
Buzz Aldrin appears as
who transforms into a red
Prime at the NEST
Panther Fire Truck. He was
• Ken Jeong as Jerry
badly wounded from the
software programmer at
the Fallen.
• Glenn Morshower as
Sentinel Prime, Optimus
leader of NEST.
the leader of the Autobots
himself, meeting Optimus
and black Rosenbauer
headquarters.
also a mentor to Optimus.
• Julie White as Judy
Transformers
Ironhide, the Autobots’
• John Malkovich as
• Peter Cullen as Optimus
specialist.
• Frances McDormand as
Autobots and keeper of
Starscream, Megatron’s
Chief Robert Epps, former • Josh Duhamel as Lt.
Colonel William Lennox. • John Turturro as
Seymour Simmons,
Patrick Dempsey as Dylan Gould, a wealthy car
collector who is secretly in cahoots with Megatron. • Kevin Dunn as Ron
Witwicky, Sam’s father. Witwicky, Sam’s mother. Bruce Brazos,
Charlotte Mearing,
• Lester Speight as
“Hardcore” Eddie, a
• Jess Harnell as
cantankerous weapons
Prime, leader of the
• Charlie Adler as
the Matrix of Leadership.
second-in-command.
• Hugo Weaving as
Megatron, leader of the
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Effects
unlike a plain surface
to fully render Devastator
On the last weekend of
or an animated head.” The
is approximately a frame
the Moon, the company’s
style of cinematography
being used for the
robots into the scenes, as
than 200,000 hours
foreground/midground/
day—or equivalent to
shots, even in normal live-
subject like a human head
ILM’s work on Dark of
supervisor said that Bay’s
entire render farm was
helped integrate the
film, giving ILM more
“Michael is keen on having
of rendering power a
background depth in his
22.8 years of rendering
action shots.
[10] Farrar embraced the
The most complicated
robots for 3-D, making
“Driller”, a giant snake-like
the Transformers’ faces
body and spinning rotator
the nooks and crannies of
In Revenge of the Fallen,
time in a 24-hour period. detail in creating giant
effects involved the
sure that in close-ups of
creature with an eel-like
“you see all the details in
blades, knives and teeth.
these pieces. It’s totally
it took 72 hours per frame
for the IMAX format, which amount of 4,000. For the
Driller, which required the entire render farm, it was
up to 122 hours per frame. [63] The most complex
scene involved the Driller destroying a computergenerated skyscraper,
which took 288 hours per frame.
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Reception
Transformers: Dark of the
$771,356,453 in other
The film has received
and a rating average
total of $1,123,746,996.
from film critics. While
special effects and 3-D
was an improvement over
impressive, but they aren’t
the Fallen and were also
bloated running time, or
effects and 3-D action
script.”Metacritic, another
over the long running
the film a Metascore of
Moon a score of 35%
mixed to negative reviews
of 4.9/10, saying, “Its
many of them believed it
shots are undeniably
Transformers: Revenge of
enough to fill up its loud,
praising the film’s visual
mask its thin, indifferent
sequences, criticism fell
review aggregator, gave
time, the below average
42/100.
Several critics also felt
Box Office
still did not live up to the
Transformers: Dark
Film review aggregator
$352,390,543 in
acting, and the script.
that Dark of the Moon
first Transformers movie.
of the Moon grossed
Rotten Tomatoes gave
North America, and
territories, for a worldwide It is the highest-grossing film of the franchise. It is
also the second highestgrossing film of 2011
worldwide, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly
Hallows – Part 2. On its
first weekend worldwide, the film made $382.4 million, marking the
third-largest opening of
all timem It has made the
second-largest worldwide debut at IMAX venues, with $23.1 million.
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The Hangover: Part II Comedy Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms Director: Todd Phillips
The Hangover Part II
Phil, Stu, Alan, and Doug
their roles from the first
comedy film produced
for Stu’s wedding. After
October 2010, in Ontario,
is a 2011 American
by Legendary Pictures and distributed by
Warner Bros. Pictures,
and a sequel to 2009’s The Hangover. Todd Phillips directed the
film in addition to co-
authoring the script with Craig Mazin, and Scott Armstrong.
as they travel to Thailand the bachelor party in
Las Vegas, Stu takes
no chances and opts for a safe, subdued
pre-wedding brunch.
However, things do not
go as planned, resulting
in another bad hangover with no memories of the previous night.
Synopsis
Development of The
The film stars Bradley
April 2009, two months
Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and Justin Bartha. The Hangover
Part II tells the story of
Hangover Part II began in before The Hangover was released. The principal actors were cast in
March 2010 to reprise
film. Production began in
California, before moving on location in Thailand.
The film was released on
May 26, 2011 and, despite receiving negative reviews from critics, became the
highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time.
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Cast
Box Office
• Bradley Cooper as Phil
The Hangover Part II has
• Ed Helms as Dr. Stuart
the US and Canada, and
Wenneck
“Stu” Price
• Zach Galifianakis as Alan Garner
• Justin Bartha as Doug Billings
• Ken Jeong as Leslie Chow
• Jeffrey Tambor as Sid Garner
• Jamie Chung as Lauren, Stu’s fiancée
• Bryan Callen as Samir, a smarmy strip club owner in Bangkok
• Mason Lee as Teddy, Lauren’s brother
• Paul Giamatti as
Kingsley, an undercover Interpol agent
• Sasha Barrese as Tracy Billings, Doug’s wife • Gillian Vigman as
Stephanie Wenneck, Phil’s wife
• Yasmin Lee as Kimmy • Nirut Sirijanya as Lauren’s father
grossed $254,464,305 in
$327,000,000 elsewhere, for a worldwide gross of $581,464,305. On
its opening weekend, it earned $177.8 million,
which was the highestgrossing worldwide
opening for a comedy film, taking the record
from The Simpsons Movie ($170.9 million). On the
weekend of June 17–19, 2011, it out-grossed its
predecessor in worldwide earnings to become the
highest-grossing R-rated comedy of all time.
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Reception The Hangover Part II
received mostly negative reviews from critics.
The review aggregator,
Rotten Tomatoes, gives the film a score of 35% based on 221 reviews
from critics with a rating
average of 5.0 out of 10. The website’s critical
consensus is that the
film is “a crueler, darker, raunchier carbon copy of the first installment”
and “lacks the element of
surprise – and most of the
joy – that helped make the original a hit.”
Metacritic, which assigns
a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews
from mainstream critics, gives the film a score of
44 based on 40 reviews. [65] CinemaScore polls
reported that the average
Andrew Barker of Variety
average review stating,
review, stating, “The
plays like a challenge to
gave the film a negative stock dismissal ‘more
of the same’ has rarely been more accurately applied to a sequel
than to The Hangover
the audience’s capacity for raunchiness. It gets
laughs, but some of them are in disbelief”.
Part II, which ranks as
Conversely, Michael
copy of its predecessor
Hollywood Reporter
little more than a faded superimposed on a
more brightly colored background”.
Christy Lemire of the
Associated Press said,
“Giving the people what they want is one thing.
Rechtshaffen of The gave The Hangover
Part II a positive review
remarking, “What happens in Bangkok isn’t as much fun as when it happened
in Vegas, but it’s still worth the trip”.
Making nearly the exact
Lou Lumenick of the New
time, but shifting the
are definitely laughs
same movie a second
setting to Thailand, is just ... what, lazy? Arrogant?
Maybe a combination of the two”.
grade moviegoers gave
Roger Ebert of the
to F scale.
also gave the film an
the film was a A- on an A+
“The Hangover Part II
Chicago Sun-Times
York Post said, “There to be had, even if the
three leads often seem
to be going through the motions”.
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Paul Adventure / Comedy / Sci Fi Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen Director: Greg Mottola
Paul is a 2011 science
Close Encounters of the
Invincible artist Ryan
directed by Greg Mottola,
Extra Terrestrial, as well
the film as The Big Guy’s
fiction comedy film
written by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. It stars Pegg, Frost, and the
Third Kind and E.T. the
as their favorite science fiction films.
voice of Seth Rogen as
After they mentioned the
film contains numerous
suggested he might make
the title character. The references to other
science fiction films,
especially those of Steven Spielberg, as well as to general science fiction fandom.
In an interview for the DVD release of Paul, Pegg and Frost made the film to
demonstrate their love for Steven Spielberg’s films
Ottley, had a cameo in henchmen. Box Office
project to Spielberg, he
In North America, Paul
a cameo appearance,
at #5, with $13,043,310
and a scene was added
to include him as a voice on a speakerphone in
1980 discussing ideas
with Paul for his soon to become box office hit
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. According to Robert
Kirkman, he, along with Invincible co-creator
Cory Walker and current
opened in March 2011
behind Limitless, Rango, Battle: Los Angeles,
and The Lincoln Lawyer. The film closed after 63 days in theaters,
grossing $37,412,945
domestically, just below its $40 million budget.
With the international $57 million gross, the film is considered a success.
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The premise for Paul came
brand, the settings had
with the controversy of
2003, while they were
crowds, and extras were
Religion and Creationism,
from Pegg and Frost in
filming Shaun of the Dead. To help with the script,
Pegg and Frost went on
their own road trip across America and used ideas
from it to add to the script. According to Mottola,
the film was given the
green-light shortly before
the late-2000s recession;
if had been delayed, “they probably wouldn’t have made the movie.” The
budget for the film was around $40 million.
After obtaining permission to use the Comic-Con
to be changed to avoid
used to portray attendees since there had been
some issues regarding
filming inside San Diego’s actual convention center. During filming, Joe Lo
Truglio was a stand-in
for the character Paul,
the only character who
was created by CGI. Seth Rogen did some motion
capture in pre-production and voice work during post-production.
Numerous scenes
throughout the film deal
Darwin and Evolution vs. with the character of
Paul the alien being the proverbial ‘fly-in-the-
ointment’ of conservative Judeo/Christian/Islamic doctrine. Simon Pegg
and Nick Frost, who are
atheists, have alluded in BBC Radio interviews they had wished to
delve deeper into the controversy but cut
several scenes short in
favor of flow and timing on film.
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• Simon Pegg as Graeme
O’Reilly
find a comedy that also
• Nick Frost as Clive
Moses Buggs, Ruth’s
dream come true’.
Willy
Gollings
• Jason Bateman as
Special Agent Lorenzo
Zoil. Bateman described his character as an
“exaggerated nasty guy”. Bateman also stated he based Zoil on Yaphet
Kotto in Midnight Run and Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive.
• Kristen Wiig as Ruth Buggs
• Bill Hader as Agent Haggard
• Blythe Danner as Tara Walton
• Joe Lo Truglio as Agent
• John Carroll Lynch as father
• Jane Lynch as Pat Stevenson
• David Koechner as
Gus, a hilbilly Graeme and Clive first encounter in a Nevada gas station.
• Jesse Plemons as Jake, Gus’s friend.
• Sigourney Weaver as “The Big Guy”. Weaver
described the role as “a
dream come true”. In an interview with Graham
Norton, Weaver stated:
‘It’s a love letter to sci-fi fans. I jumped at the
chance to be in it. To
pays homage to sci-fi is a • Seth Rogen as Paul (voice)
• Jeffrey Tambor as Adam Shadowchild, a famous science fiction writer
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Reception As of September 2011, the
cheeky and very, very
effects, convincing
positive reviews;
at E.T. in the same way
taste humour.”
film has received generally
Rotten Tomatoes gives
the film a score of 72% based on 184 reviews,
with an average rating of
6.3 out of 10; it fared less well among 36 of that
website’s “top critics”,
scoring a 58% (21 fresh reviews and 15 rotten). Empire rated the film
“excellent” (four stars out of five) stating, “Broader
and more accessible than either Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, Paul is pure Pegg and Frost – clever,
funny. You’ll never look again.”
SFX also gives the film four stars out of five,
saying “the film veers dangerously close
to alienating (no pun intended) all but its
geek core audience, [though] the more
characterisation and bad
Peter Bradshaw gave the film two stars out of five and called it a
“goofy, amiable piece
of silliness” exhibiting
“self-indulgence” and
possessing a “distinct
shortage of real gags”
obvious concessions to
On the same scale Nigel
never enough to derail
only one star, calling it a
a mainstream crowd [are] the film’s laugh-a-minute ride”;
SFX also calls it a “triumph of visual
Andrews gave the film
“faltering extraterrestrial knockabout”.
The Independent grades the film two stars out
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of five, saying “Pegg is
likeable as usual, Frost
more doltish than usual, and Kristen Wiig an
appealing convert from
Bible thumper to ladette”, and notes that “from
time to time, clever ideas rear their heads – like
the idea that ‘Paul’ has
been the brains behind all science fiction and UFO initiatives for the
last 30 years, including
Close Encounters and The X-Files – but they soon
return to the film’s default setting of laddish japes
and a conviction that the word ‘cocksucker’ will always get a laugh.”
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Super 8 Mystery / Sci Fi / Thriller Elle Fanning, Amanda Michalka, Kyle Chandler Director: J.J. Abrams
Super 8 is a 2011
filmed in Weirton, West
action thriller film written
areas.
American science fiction and directed by J. J.
Virginia and surrounding
Abrams and produced
Abrams and Spielberg
film stars Joel Courtney,
storytelling committee
by Steven Spielberg. The Elle Fanning, and Kyle Chandler and was
released on June 10, 2011 in conventional and IMAX theaters in the US.
The film tells the story of a group of young teenagers who are filming their own Super 8 movie in a small town in 1979 when a
train derails, releasing a
dangerous presence into
their town. The movie was
collaborated in a
to come up with the
story for the film. The
film was initially reported to be either a sequel or
prequel to the 2008 film
Cloverfield, but this was
quickly denied by Abrams. Primary photography began in fall 2010.
To promote the film, Valve Corporation created a
short video game segment and released it alongside
the PC and Mac versions of Portal 2.
Abrams’ original plan was
to film all of the sequences for the film-within-a-film “The Case” in Super-8 using Pro8mm stock
and cameras. However, this approach proved
unsuccessful, as visual
effects house Industrial
Light and Magic found it impossible to integrate
CGI into the footage due
to the format’s graininess. For sequences involving CGI, cinematographer
Larry Fong used Super-16 instead.
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Viral marketing Like Cloverfield, an
Super 8 camera films.
Rocket Poppeteers was
produced film, Super 8
found a hidden message,
no direct part in the film
extensive viral marketing
Saw”, contained in the
trailer for the movie was
This led to a website,
released in May 2010. The
Saw, which simulated the
a section of Area 51 being
contained various clues
and its contents being
computer was eventually
to Ohio. A pickup truck
Woodward, the son of Dr.
train, derailing it, and
to find out what happened
smashed open while a
website,
earlier J. J. Abrams-
Fans analyzing the trailer
was promoted through an
“Scariest Thing I Ever
campaign. The first
final frames of the trailer.
attached to Iron Man 2,
Scariest Thing I Ever
trailer gave the premise of
interface of a PDP-11 and
closed down in 1979
to the film’s storyline; the
transported by freight train
revealed to belong to Josh
drives into the oncoming
Woodward, who is trying
one of the carriages is
to his father. Another viral
also found, which plays but is indirectly related.
The Super 8 website also contained an “editing room” section, which
asked users to find various clips from around the web and piece them together. When completed, the
reel makes up the film
found by the kids in Dr. Woodward’s trailer.
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Cast
Box Office
• Joel Courtney
Super 8 had a production
• Kyle Chandler as Jackson “Jack” Lamb
It was commercially
• Elle Fanning
• Ron Eldard as Louis Dainard
• Riley Griffiths as Charles Kaznyk • Ryan Lee as Cary
• Zach Mills as Preston
• Gabriel Basso as Martin
• Noah Emmerich as Colonel Nelec • Bruce Greenwood as Cooper[5]
• Amanda Michalka as Jen Kaznyk
• Michael Hitchcock as Deputy Rosko • Caitriona Balfe as Elizabeth Lamb
• Joel McKinnon Miller as Mr. Kaznyk • Jessica Tuck as Mrs. Kaznyk • David Gallagher as Donny
• Glynn Turman as Dr. Thomas Woodward • Dan Castellaneta as Izzy
• Richard T. Jones as Overmyer
budget of $50 million. released on June 10,
2011. In the United States and Canada, it opened in 3,379 theaters and
grossed over $35.4 million on its opening weekend, ranking first at the box
office. The film grossed $127 million in North
America with a worldwide
total of some $260 million.
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Critical Response Super 8 received
of 4 and said, “Super 8 is
Abrams has an eye for
professional critics. On
not for a time but for a
of indelible images – a
Rotten Tomatoes, the
shell-shocked young
82%, and a rating average
story and not pounded
assigned the film a
aggressive action. Abrams
40 critics.
with tenderness and
Chris Sosa of Gather gave
named it one of the Top 10
positive reviews from
a wonderful film, nostalgia
movie review aggregator
style of filmmaking, when
film received a score of
audiences were told a
of 7.4/10, Metacritic
over the head with
Metascore of 72 based on
treats early adolescence
awe, his deft orchestration tank trundling through
a children’s playground, a plot-pivotal landmark framed in the distance
through a small hole in a bedroom wall – marking
him as a born storyteller”.
affection.” Richard Corliss
Most of the film’s negative
the film an A rating, calling
Best Movies of 2011.
negatively on the film’s
tale of finding one’s
Jamie Graham of Total
tragedy.” Roger Ebert
perfect five-star rating,
it, “a gripping and exciting place in the world amidst
Film gave the film a
gave the film 3½ stars out
saying, “like Spielberg,
reviews commented
ending and its frequent
homages to the early films of Steven Spielberg.
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X-Men: First Class Action / Adventure / Sci Fi / Thriller James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence Director: Matthew Vaughn
X-Men: First Class
James McAvoy as Xavier
stages in Los Angeles.
superhero film by
as Lensherr. Other cast
reviews, praising the
is a 2011 American Matthew Vaughn and
produced by Bryan Singer, based on the X-Men
characters appearing
in Marvel Comics. The fifth installment in the
X-Men series, the film acts as a prequel for
the X-Men trilogy, being set primarily in 1962
during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It focuses on the relationship between
Charles Xavier and Erik
Lensherr and the origin of their groups, the X-Men and the Brotherhood of Mutants. The film stars
and Michael Fassbender members include Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Rose Byrne, Jennifer
Lawrence, ZoĂŤ Kravitz,
Nicholas Hoult and Lucas Till.
Announced as early as
2006, First Class entered its production on August 2010, being finished just three weeks before its
premiere on June 2011. Locations included
Oxford, the Mojave
desert and Georgia, with
soundstage work in both Pinewood Studios and the 20th Century Fox
The film received positive writing and acting and
considering First Class a fresh new beginning for
the franchise, and was a box-office success with
earnings of $353 million worldwide.
Top 10 Research
Box Office
film ($54.5 million). First
million ) and Australia
In North America, the film
locations in 74 overseas
weekend X-Men: First
6,900 screens at 3,641
in $61 million during the
atop the weekend box
in the overseas ranking
$55.1 million across the
Caribbean: On Stranger
$3.37 million at its
Part II.
This opening was much
The film opened atop
weekends of X-Men:
countries, with the
million), X2: X-Men United
in the United Kingdom
Origins: Wolverine ($85.0
previews), France ($7.1
higher than the original
million), South Korea ($5.4
Class also opened 8,900
opened on approximately
markets, which brought
locations, debuting
weekend - standing third
office with earnings of
behind Pirates of the
three days, including
Tides and The Hangover
Friday midnight launch. lower than the opening
the box office in twenty
The Last Stand ($102.7
biggest grosses being
($85.5 million), and X-Men
($9 million, including
million), but it was slightly
million), Mexico ($5
($5.1 million). In its second Class dropped 56.2%, the second smallest
second weekend drop in
the franchise behind X-2: X-Men United (53.2%), and came in with an
estimated $24.1 million,
in second place to Super 8.Overseas, it raised to number two with $42.2
million. The film grossed $146,408,305 in the
United States and Canada as well as $207,215,819 internationally, bringing its worldwide total to $353,624,124.
Top 10 Research
Filming & effects
designers Simon Clowes
website Rotten Tomatoes
Vaughn said he shot
Prologue Films, who were
and a rating of 7.4/10 from
“to create a widescreen
credits and tried to do
emblematic of ‘60s
be done with traditional
James Bond films”.
animation depicts DNA
Matt Johnson added
geometric shapes,
the digital interior of
both Saul Bass and
the ‘60s vibe, we put in
the Bond films.
such as lens flare and
Critical response
edge fringing.”[17] The
The film has received
were also invoked by
with the review aggregator
and Kyle Cooper of
the film in anamorphic
responsible for the end
experience, which is
something that “could
movies, such as the
optical”. The credits
Visual effects supervisor
strands through simple
that for the lighting of
drawing inspiration from
Cerebro, “keeping with
Maurice Binder’s work in
some old school elements chromatic aberration and aesthetics of the decade
strongly positive reviews,
showing 87% freshness 231 reviews counted as of November 15, 2011, the consensus being
“With a strong script, stylish direction, and
powerful performances
from its well-rounded cast, X-Men: First Class is a
welcome return to form for the franchise.”[75]
On Metacritic, the film
received 65 out of 100 based on 37 reviews.