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If you've seen David Fincher's Dragon Tattoo, the opening credits probably blew you away with their angry, sub-Bond style and loud cover of Led Zeppelin's The Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor and Karen O. At the very least, they should have made a strong impression, presuming you don't already think that it was the best title sequence of the whole year.

Now, you can watch those Dragon Tattoo opening credits online - thanks to Tim Miller and Blur Studio's superb design, it's 154 seconds of your life that you won't regret losing.

 

 

Yet to make your mind up about your favourite titles from the past 12 months? Read on for the top 5 opening credits of 2011. 

 

This year has been a ridiculously good year for cinema - particularly British cinema. It started off with a raft of excellent January releases, with The King's Speech and 127 Hours leading the UK Oscars charge, but it's a mark of how much talent there has been throughout the year that three British directorial debuts have made their way into my top films of 2011. Documentaries, too, have been overwhelmingly strong - Senna has made a lot of "Best of 2011" lists, but Project Nim, Pina and TT3D hoovered up a decent amount of box office cash as well, some even proving that 3D might be more than just a passing Hollywood phase.

But enough of this. What you all REALLY want is yet another list of movies that some opinionated person thinks were better than all the other movies released this year. So, going by the only way to judge these things (theatrical release dates), here are the Top 11 Films of 2011.

Ryan Gosling. The Gosling. Old Gozzles. Whatever you call him, it's undeniable that at the moment, he's the sexiest guy on the big screen (and that doesn't depend on the big screen).

Yeah, that Ryan Gosling is so hot right now. But he's been hot for some time. Since The Notebook, he's been a heartthrob for girls (and boys) around the world, but with The Ides of March out this year and Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love making a glorious Gosling sandwich this week, he's getting everyone's love juices flowing more than ever.

So what's his secret? Allow us to introduce the Ryan Gosling acting masterclass. After careful detailed analysis of Old Gozzle's performances, we have distilled his entire acting technique into a few easy-to-follow tips. Here are seven simple steps to make you as cool as Ryan Gosling.

Director: Richard Ayoade
Cast: Craig Roberts, Yasmin Page
Certificate: 15
Trailer

"I was conducting a routine search of my parents' bedroom..." It's a sentence you don't hear much these days - unless you're called Oliver Tate (Roberts), you live in Wales and you imagine your whole life plays out like a movie.

With his briefcase and duffle coat, you wouldn't be far wrong labelling Oliver as Adrian Mole's Cambrian cousin, or the Rushmore of Swansea. He even has an older girl to chase. Fortunately, though, Richard Ayoade's periscope reaches above his peers and shows us something unique. It mostly involves setting fire to things.

In case you need a few ideas for films to watch over this year's annual Clinton Cards Day...  

 

 

From left to right: Heartbreaking, Realistic, Terrifying, Vomit-inducing, Abusive, Rubbish, Inappropriate, Bleak and Incredibly Violent. What more could you want for Valentine's Day?

 

The King's Speech continued its UK box office reign with a frankly ridiculous total of £4.4m from this past weekend. £4.4m would have been a dream figure for the film's opening week. But a second week's takings, following a £3.5m debut? The mind boggles.

On the back of extremely positive word of mouth and award nominations, Tom Hooper's period biopic actually increased by 20% for its second week of release - a feat rarely seen outside of freak success stories like Slumdog Millionaire. And with the BAFTA and Oscar nominations fast approaching, make no mistake: it is on its way to being this year's Slumdog, with audiences' good intentions pushing it to financial and critical success. 

Danny Boyle's 127 Hours didn't enjoy the same boost (despite similarly positive reactions). Instead, it fell under its rock's weight down to £1.3m, a drop of 38%, not helped by The King's Speech stealing its share of screens across the UK; Colin Firth conquered 30 more, bringing his total cinema kingdom up to 424.

New entry The Green Hornet (with its relatively unknown title character) couldn't match The Firth's buzz, amassing just £1.8m - an altogether different sting to the one Sony wanted after all that marketing money. With Gulliver's Travels placed in third (relatively close to Hornet with £1.2m), the 3D screens and uplifts are being split down the middle, leaving Jack Black to march on towards a total of £13m and Hornet unable to even top the two-week total for The Next Three Days, which has gathered together a disappointing £2m. Perhaps a poorly chosen release date had a part to play there.

But flops are common this week, with Tron Legacy almost out the UK Top Ten altogether without even reaching the £10m mark. There's also barely any sign of new release Conviction, another hoping for awards attention, which arrived in 12th spot with just £279k. That's two thousand more than Season of the Witch's second-week tally of £276k.

Further down the charts in arthouse zone is the depressingly beautiful Blue Valentine, which clocked up £176k. But it did that with just 35 screens - an average taking of five grand apiece. That's a lot stronger than Conviction's average of one thousand for each of its 253 screens. Expect those cinemas to switch loyalties sharpish.

Black Swan, I Spit on Your Grave and NEDs are all out this Friday but for now, nothing can compete with Colin Firth's performance. And with Firthy picking up a Golden Globe (and BAFTA nomination), The King's Speech's reign will just keep on going. Word of a jump towards 500 screens suggests that even Natalie Portman's ballet skills will find it a hard nut to crack.

 

 

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams
Certificate: 15
Release Date: Friday 14th January

Blue Valentine is a story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) use one night to try and save their failing marriage.

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka
Certificate: 15

There’s nothing like watching two people tear each other to shreds. Blue Valentine is a close-up portrayal of a marriage’s last legs. It’s painful, it’s depressing, it's like listening to an Elliott Smith song on repeat for two hours. If you like that kind of thing. And you should do. Because it’s brilliant.