Best 2011 Movies

This is definitely one of the sleeper hits of the year and a nice spin on the haunted house movie. A couple (Rose Byrne & Patrick Wilson) move into a new house where their son's injury puts the boy in a coma, but the more frightening aspect is when paranormal events start occurring soon after. It's clear that director James Wan, producer Oren Peli and writer Leigh Whannel (who co-stars), definitely knew their material when they were producing this chiller in honor of "Carnival of Souls" and "The Entity" (which also stars Barbara Hershey, who appears here).

While it is a 2010 film, "The Company Men" was in theaters on 2011 and it's a damn shame that this underappreciated drama didn't get as much press as a movie like "The King's Speech" did (of which parent company the Weinstein Company threw all their Oscar weight behind this). A movie that examines the often debilitating effects on the American family from Ben Affleck's status-obsessed family man to Chris Cooper's factory-floor-to-corporate-offices executive who finds himself aged out of the job market. There are strong performances, thanks to it's cast in a very humanizing portrait of men who's upper class existence is rocked by the economic downturn. Equally solid supporting work from the likes of Tommy Lee Jones as a fatherly high ranking executive, Kevin Costner as a blue collar worker, Rosemarie DeWitt as Affleck's realistic thinking spouse and Craig T. Nelson's oily CEO.

It's a shame that "Cedar Rapids" didn't find a bigger audience, and I think the studio took a complete dump on an otherwise good film. This quirky comedy casts "The Hangover"'s Ed Helms as an insurance agent out to represent his company at a midwestern conference. But it turns out to be a bit of an eye opener for the naive Tim (Helms). This certainly is a movie that's light on the fart jokes but heavy on the subtle humor, and it works quite well. Anyone expecting a "Hangover"-style comedy, keep drinking.

You have to hand it to John C. Reilly, the guy keeps it interesting by alternating between big screen payday assignments like "Step Brothers" and "The Aviator" for sharp, character driven indies like the aforementioned #3. Here, Reilly plays a principal to the title character: an unhappy, overweight high school student (Jacob Wysocki) who deals with bullying at school and a complicated situation with his uncle (Creed Bratton). An amusing dramedy about the alienation of high school and what it means to be different.

The critics ROASTED a really great gangster film: the true story of Cleveland mobster Danny Greene. That's a damn shame because this is a really good film, with a hell of a good cast in Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Paul Sorvino, Vincent D'Onofrio and many other character actors. A commanding performance by Ray Stevenson as Green only carries the film more. Definitely one of the underrated movies of an early decade.

Like many of the films on this list, "Win Win" slipped conspicuously under the radar in a summer dominated by the likes of a British kid in glasses and transforming alien robots. It's a shame for this subtle dramedy as Paul Giamatti is a fledgling attorney who might have found the perfect way to hedge his financial troubles by taking advantage of a client's finances...until the client's estranged teenaged grandson shows up. It's the small films that Paul Giamatti doesn't rely on rat a tat neurotic comic relief, but shining in dramatic territory as he does so well here.

This amusing alien buddy comedy casts the "Shaun of the Dead" pair (Simon Pegg & Nick Frost) as British comic book nerds roadtripping from Comic Con in San Diego throughout the southwest, until they run into the unlikeliest: a friendly alien (Seth Rogen). Rogen as you might imagine, plays the alien as Seth Rogen would. Mixing potty humor with weed jokes with a sharp dose of sci fi, I think people can appreciate this R-rated spin on "E.T.".

"Super" isn't so much a superhero movie, it just conveniently has a superhero, a sidekick, a damsel in distress, a villain and his henchman. But it's more an exploration of a man's identity crisis, wonderfully played by "The Office"'s Rainn Wilson as he struggles to get his wife (Liv Tyler) to come back to him, after she falls into the hands of a douchebag drug dealer (Kevin Bacon). I will say this: anyone expecting a light slapstick comedy might be surprised at the violence. Plus you'll never look at a movie waiting line the same way again.

From the team that brought you "The 40 Year Old Virgin", "Knocked Up", "Superbad", "Forgetting Sarah Marshall", "Step Brothers" and "Get him to the Greek" have brought you....a chick flick?!!