Let me just say in advance that SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS has a chance to beat APES for this award before the end of the year. Of course, I hated, hated, hated the first one, so if the sequel is any good (and the trailer suggests it won't be), I won't know until it makes it to HBO.

"The Artist". Two years after Avatar the best movie may be a silent movie in black and white academy ratio.

Its biggest problem may be that by the time it goes wide the hype will be so strong that people are disappointed.

Most definitely Rise of the Planet of the Apes and X-Men First Class. I thought the trailers for both were underwhelming, and I was not excited for either one. But both turned out to be great movies.

On the lower end of the spectrum, both Cars 2 and Green Lantern were enjoyable. Felt like a pack mentality with all the hate those two got.

Definitely "Crazy, Stupid Love" for me. I just wanted to go on a date night with my wife and it ended up being my favorite summer movie amidst all the whiz bang explosions and superhero movies.

1. Get off your high horse
2. The pirates movies are shit

first movie that came to mind was Emilo Estevez' The Way a small movie but had tremendous impact on it's simple story, great cast and emotion

other movies:

The Hedgehog
Troll Hunter
Rango
Drive Angry
Source Code


best indie movie film festival screening:

Natural Selection

also I think the Dardene brothers are a tad overrated but The Kid with the Bike was stunning and definately in my top ten films of the year.

Warrior
Machine Gun Preacher
War Horse (Not out yet but I saw it 2 weeks ago)
The Descendants

Conan... I really thought I wouldnt like this at all. Not saying its great, but I did have fun with it and felt if it was called something else, I would have liked it even more.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes a close 2nd.

I'm trying to keep my expectations in check when I finally see it.

Drive is also mine. I thought it would be good, but I didn't think it'd be my favorite of the year.

I wasn't expecting Of Gods and Men to be anything close to bad, but I was still surprised by how sublime it was.

...and I still really need to see Drive, after all the good things I've heard about it and then having that reinforced here.

Although I haven't seen it yet, the biggest surprise has to be the universal hatred of Cowboys and Aliens. I thought this movie would just be a slam dunk summer hit.

Also, i was expecting to absolutely love Super 8 since I grew up in the 80s. Yet the 2nd half of the movie just sucked ass as the plot became so retarded.

Captain America. Thought it was going to be like the Hulk or some other horrible comic movie and this was really surprising and such a damn good story.

Bridesmaids. Had no idea who was writing it and just knew it was a bunch of random (and pretty ugly) girls and was supposed to be the female Hangover. While I enjoyed the Hangover, a female version (thinking lots of dildos and penises being shown) was not something I'd want to see. Turned out to be very funny.

Muppets. I love Jason and I know he is a Muppets fan and I know this was being helped with Disney, but how many old time movies come out to be a good movie? I really wanted to see this and turned out to be even better than what I expected. Can't wait for a sequel!