The best movies of 2011? Already? How can we possibly know?
Hey, it's just for fun, but why not. After all, we've reached the exact halfway point of 2011, so we thought it would be a good idea to look back at what's come out so far this year that we really liked.
Audiences flocked to this Fox cartoon (no pun intended, really) about a pampered macaw that gets caught up in a jungle adventure with a sassy paramour. 'Rio' is somewhere between 'When Harry Met Sally' and 'Romancing the Stone,' mushed together for the whole family to enjoy. A light, colorful affair, it's a perfect Sunday-matinee-type movie. -- Eric Larnick
Not your typical western (and there's not a lot that actually happens either), but for a movie that's essentially the big-screen adaptation of 'Oregon Trail,' we were pretty impressed with what we got out of 'Meek's Cutoff.' Don't expect any big shoot-outs or a whole lot of talking -- just sit back, take in the sights, and enjoy watching this wagon trail search high and low for water as they follow a captured Indian who's either leading them to salvation or death. -- Aiden Redmond
Eccentric German filmmaker Werner Herzog does more than just offer an unparalleled glimpse at one of humanity's greatest and most mysterious achievements in this 3D documentary about the 30,000-year-old cave paintings at Chauvet, France. He also takes the opportunity to tackle the big questions: Why are we here? What will we leave behind? And can nuclear radiation really turn a white alligator into an albino crocodile? -- Michael Hogan
This 2010 Palme d'Or–winning head trip makes 'The Tree of Life' (see below) look about as surreal as 'Fast Five.' As much as it still has us wondering what in the hell was going on and why, at one point, we had to watch a woman knock boots with a catfish, those are two of the many reasons 'Uncle Boonmee' stands out as both entirely different and fascinatingly spiritual. No, it's not the easiest movie to recommend on this list, but it's definitely something special -- even if you can't put your finger on why. -- A.R. 
A time-travel action-thriller with Jake Gyllenhaal doing some very nice work as an Army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan who wakes up somewhere else on a train and must repeatedly relive eight minutes until he can figure out who's trying to bomb that very train. Credit director Duncan Jones for maintaining some serious tension all the way through the final scene, which certainly had us talking. -- Chris Chaberski
We always knew there was something special about Saoirse Ronan, and in 'Hanna' this is proven 10 times over. Her icy glare (see left) and kickassery steal the movie -- she is absolutely riveting as the titular character. An honorable mention goes to the supporting Cate Blanchett, who shadows Hanna throughout. This tale of ultimate survival will have you on the edge of your seat. -- Chris Jancelewicz
This adaptation of a Raymond Carver story by director Dan Rush slowly and subtly works its charms on you, and before you know it, you've just watched one of the most nuanced, underplayed portrayals of an alcoholic we've seen on film. "Nuanced" and "underplayed" may not be used that often to describe Will Ferrell, but his work here is outstanding. -- C.C.
Chris Weitz's sympathetic portrait of an undocumented day-laborer and his U.S.-born teenage son living by their wits in East L.A. succeeds in its ostensible mission of humanizing its oft-demonized subjects, thanks in part to its believable leads, Mexican veteran Demián Bichir and first-timer José Julián. (See our review.) -- M.H.
OK, so the romance between Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth might be slightly forced, but that's not nearly enough to keep 'Thor' away from Asgardian glory. Hemsworth is perfect as the God of Thunder, and come on, casting Sir Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Thor's badass father? Perfect. Throw in the climactic fight against The Destroyer, and you have one hell of a superhero flick. -- Alex Suskind
These days, the "Late Night Wars" feel like forever ago, now that Coco's got his own show again and Jay Leno is still as unfunny as ever as the host of "The Tonight Show." But even a year after everything went down, 'Conan O'Brien Can't Stop' is not only one of the funniest movies we've seen all year, but a surprisingly raw and honest look at O'Brien's true colors and what was going through his head after parting ways with NBC. If you love Conan, this movie will make you love him double, and it's as endlessly entertaining as it is interesting to see him do what he does best while trying to keep his head above water. (See our review.) -- A.R. 
Sure, we giggled like children at the title. We also scoffed at the notion that Jodie Foster was going back behind the camera and Mel Gibson was the star (with a beaver puppet on his hand the whole movie). But we were very, very pleased when we realized this film was quite unlike anything Foster or Gibson had shown us before. With an intense performance by Gibson and a breakout supporting job by Anton Yelchin of 'Star Trek,' the movie is dark, sometimes humorous, and left us in near tears at the end. -- C.J.
You don't really go along with 'Rango' for the plot, you stick around mainly to soak in all that weird atmosphere. Johnny Depp -- by way of Hunter S. Thompson -- provides the titular voice of an identity-crisis-stricken chameleon who stumbles into a Wild West adventure filled with all the little, gnarly cowboy quirks you'd see in a classic Sergio Leone film. 'Rango' is a weird, visually acidic movie packed with all the anarchy of a Tex Avery cartoon. Not quite for parents, not quite for kids -- it's a movie for all those oddball "kid at heart" types. (See our review.) -- E.L.
Christopher Plummer and Ewan McGregor are father and son -- convincingly -- in this movie about coming to terms with and accepting who you really are (but not in a pandering sort of way). Plummer's character both comes out of the closet and announces that he has terminal cancer to his son at the same time, and we watch McGregor's shell-shocked reaction to the news. Heartfelt and genuine, this is the sleeper hit of the year, so far. -- M.H.
'Cedar Rapids' might have come and gone in theaters, overshadowed by the disappointing likes of 'The Hangover Part II,' but few things this year made us laugh as hard and or charmed us more than this flick. A great premise delivered by a stellar cast -- and some major bonus points for finally giving John C. Reilly his due as one of the flat-out funniest people alive right now. -- A.R. 
If there's one thing we love, it's movies about real people with real problems, and writer/director Thomas McCarthy knows how to do them damn well. This story about the great things that come from helping others had so many things going for it, from Alex Shaffer's knockout debut performance, to a script that's as poignant as it is hilarious. But the thing that really stands out is the way it always stays genuine -- never taking the easy Hollywood shortcuts that would make it feel less true to life. 'Win Win' is a simple film done extraordinarily well, and that's about as much as we can ask for when we go to the movies. -- A.R. 
After the disaster that was 'Wolverine,' we were praying 'X-Men: First Class' would turn out OK. Thankfully, it exceeded our expectations. 'First Class' traces the origins of some of our favorite mutants, including Charles Xavier, Mystique, Magneto, Havok and Beast. As for the villain, you knew Sebastian Shaw (played brilliantly by Kevin Bacon) was the perfect pick after seeing the awful things he did during the opening sequence. Sure, the story line isn't that close to the comic books, but that doesn't matter. While watching the mutants take on the Cuban Missile Crisis, it's clear that 'First Class' injects this franchise with exactly what it needed: new life, new stars and a fresh energy to build on. Plus, there were some lovely ladies and hot hunks, which helped. (See our review.) -- A.S.
Terrence Malick's unflinchingly ambitious meditation on childhood, family, spirituality, evolution and existence itself isn't for everybody -- it received angry boos and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, helped stoke a media debate about the value of "boring" movies, and prompted one theater to post a warning notice for unsuspecting Brad Pitt fans. But this summer, for those who believe that film is also an art form, 'Tree of Life' is a welcome respite from the never-ending onslaught of self-assembling robots and juiced-up action heroes (though, be warned, there are dinosaurs). Lovers of great acting, meanwhile, may prefer to focus on the revelatory performances by Jessica Chastain and young newcomers Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. -- M.H.
Every other comedy that comes out between now and Dec. 31 will have to compete with 'Bridesmaids' for title of "Funniest Movie of the Year." Taking the usual Judd Apatow slacker-who-must-grow-up formula and pinning it to the manic 'SNL' all-star Kristen Wiig, 'Bridesmaids' is a nonstop escalation of hilariously awkward conversations, passive-aggressive bickering and neurotic breakdowns. Featuring a bevy of talented comedians as the most wacked-out bridal party in film history, 'Bridesmaids' proves that no joke is too raunchy and toilet humor knows no gender. Everyone talks about Wiig's drugged-out, vampy tantrum in first class as the breakout scene -- and it is hilarious -- but we had already lost all self-control watching her terrible game of one-upmanship with Rose Byrne at the engagement party. While everyone else was too busy talking about what this means for "women in comedy," 'Bridesmaids' simply did one thing: tell great jokes. -- E.L. 
We don't even know how to convey how much we loved this movie, and the kicker is that if we start giving away the details, we'll just spoil the magic for everyone who hasn't seen it yet. That said, 'Midnight in Paris' is the one movie we've seen this year that had us grinning ear-to-ear from beginning to end, surprising us in ways we never would have imagined. Owen Wilson has never been better, and of the 40-some-odd films in Woody Allen's repertoire, it's pretty amazing that he's still makin' 'em this great. We came seriously close to giving this the No. 1 spot on our list, but even at a close second, it's easily one of the best movies of the year. (See our review.) -- A.R. 
In a quiet Ohio town, a couple of young kids, barely teenagers, just want to tell a great story: 'The Case,' a zombie/detective tale that is the movie-within-the-movie of 'Super 8.' At the local train station, while they film their climactic scene, a pickup truck turns onto the tracks and collides head-on with a passing locomotive. What ensues is MASSIVE, mind-blowing, minute-plus-long sequence of destruction and noise and chaos and things-flying-everywhere that puts even 'The Fugitive' to shame.
From there, director J.J. Abrams lays out a tale so clearly inspired by late-'70s/early-'80s Steven Spielberg that the man himself agreed to produce it. Much has been written of the Spielberg-Abrams connection, and for good reason: 'Super 8' covers a mysterious, unseen monster ('Jaws') that turns out to be an alien ('Close Encounters of the Third Kind'), and against all odds, a group of kids uncovers the truth ('The Goonies') and sets the poor, misunderstood alien free ('E.T.').
The heart of 'Super 8,' though -- and why it is so memorable and touching and deserving of being called a great story -- is not the aliens or the train crash or any of those spectacular elements. It is the character of Joe Lamb, played exceptionally well by Joel Courtney, and the other kids in the cast -- particularly Elle Fanning as Alice, Riley Griffiths as Charles, and Ryan Lee as the pyro kid -- who truly bring the film to life. We haven't seen an ensemble of child actors this good since maybe 'Stand by Me,' and that is some seriously high praise.
That said, the scene where the kids dash through their once-peaceful suburban neighborhood as U.S. Army tanks rumble up and down the streets unleashing artillery in every direction is pretty damn memorable, too. All these things -- zombies, aliens, falling in love, tanks -- who's to say which one is more realistic than the next? Point is: There they are -- up on the big screen, loud and exhilarating and captivating to watch.
Thanks to 'Super 8,' we're reminded that the thrill of a great story is never quite so close or personal as it is when you're young. Something about the innocence of childhood, perhaps, makes what's in your imagination that much more possible, that much more likely to actually happen, that much more real. -- C.C.
'The Princess Bride' (1987). Viewers too young to remember Columbo probably know Falk best from this much-loved storybook send-up, in which Falk reads the title fairytale to skeptical grandson Fred Savage and gradually wins him over. Falk manages to match the boy in feisty attitude while remaining the gentlest of readers, and he gets to utter the movie's apt closing line. 'Tune In Tomorrow...' (1990). Falk is again on his own flamboyant, eccentric wavelength as Pedro Carmichael, a radio soap opera screenwriter in 1950s New Orleans who enchants listeners and charms protégé Keanu Reeves, until Reeves realizes that his own taboo romance with Barbara Hershey (his aunt, though not by blood) is providing fodder for Carmichael's scripts. Based on a Mario Vargas Llosa novel, the movie is a fun meditiation on the importance of storytelling in our lives, made all the more comical by Falk's outsized performance and his outrageously arbitrary slurs against Albanians. Opening of 'Tune in Tomorrow....' (Falk enters at 10:30)
'Roommates' (1995). This tearjerker is shamelessly sentimental and manipulative, though no less effective for that. Falk, unrecognizable in old-age make up that takes him far beyond his 68 years, plays a curmudgeonly, old-world grandpa named Rocky who takes in his orphaned 6-year-old grandson. Rocky lives with the six-decades-younger Michael for 30 years, seeing him through adolescence, college, medical school, marriage, fatherhood, and beyond. He does so as much out of stubbornness as out of love, hanging on well into his 100s just to make sure the kid follows the right path and finds the strength to endure some horrible tragedies. It's another wily, cagey, scrappy performance from Falk, the sort that made viewers recognize him for the treasure he was while lulling them into the assumption that he would be around forever. 
Movie heroes often find themselves fighting brilliant criminal masterminds, but let's face it -- a lot of crooks are just plain idiotic. Take, for instance, the characters in '30 Minutes or Less,' opening Aug. 12. Here, two would-be thugs (Danny McBride and Nick Swardson) kidnap a slacker pizza-delivery boy (Jesse Eisenberg) and force him to rob a bank by strapping him into a vest wired to explode; he, in turn, enlists his schoolteacher frenemy (Aziz Ansari) as a partner-in-crime. Laughs ensue. 