Top Ten Movies of 2012

I'll put these on my watchlist. Especially Italy: love it or leave it and Laurence Anyways look interesting to me.

And since you've exposed yourself as a fellow Dutchie I will tell you: Kauwboy is now on sale at the HEMA for 5,95 (which I know because I bought it).

Bah, I never see enough (current) movies to make a list of top ten. So Here are my top movies of 2012 in no order -
The Master
The Raid: Redemption

I also saw Cabin in the Woods, Skyfall and Prometheususussues but didn't love them.

I went through that whole Wikipedia list and yup, I saw exactly two new movies this year. Seems like every week we say we're going to see a movie this weekend and then never do. So...

1) Avengers
2) Spiderman

My top three movies this year, in no particular order:

The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit

My bottom three movies this year, in no particular order:

The Avengers
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit
Two guesses how many movies I saw this year.

Most Fun (my preferred standard)

10. John Carter. I wouldn't have remembered it but for Sinnick's post. I appreciate the faithfulness to the original and most of the execution. The Tharks were well done.
9. The Cabin In The Woods. The production values were a bit low, and I do love the ending Rywill came up with, but this was close enough to the ultimate statement on the horror/slasher genre - I think Whedon killed it.
8. The Dark Knight Rises. Enjoyed the spectacle here and the build up to Robin.
7. Prometheus. Pretty, cool, and fun. Would have liked it more with a more cohesive plot.
6. Dredd. Fun. I thought this was pretty true to what I know of the Dredd/Mega-City One setting and consistent. It's a workman-like movie, and has Dredd. The downside to me was the repeated hallways where they must have run out of set-design budget, but it wasn't that big a deal.
5. Chronicle. I was really surprised how well this was done. I was sold from the flying scene on.
4. Skyfall. Pretty, fun.
3. Avengers. As Lizard_King mentioned, it's thin, but I knew that going in. It might not be a classic but two phenomenal Hulk scenes were icing on the cake for this popcorn.
2. Django Unchained. Most recently seen. Best visceral experience in a theater in a long time.
1. Looper. I'm a fan of good time-travel movies. The scene where one guy is losing bits of his body was great.

Most Disappointing.

Total Recall. Disappointing that they made this.
Lockout. I wanted to like it with it's stupid, fun idea, Joseph Gilgun going nuts, but it was just missing something, and had some horrible bits in the beginning.
The Man With Iron Fists. Had my hopes up for no reason. The only memorable bit was the introduction of Jack Knife.

Didn't See (yet, in most cases), but people talk about a lot*.
Argo (will see)
Moonrise Kingdom
Lincoln (not interested)
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
(anything animated, because I'm a bad person)
Life of Pi

* There's a lot of films I'm interested in but don't think will benefit from the big screen, so I wait.

Beasts is live-action. There are some CGI scenes but I don't think any of the movie is animated in the traditional sense (although I saw it a while ago).

Every time people rave about how great a job Whedon did with Cabin in the Woods somewhere in LA a movie and video game reviewer twitches violently and does not know why.

I think you might be merging two different things bloo said into one. I think he's saying he didn't see Beasts and he also didn't see Rise of the Guardians or Madagascar 3.

I think he means that he will watch any animated film that was released in 2012, in addition to 'Beasts of the Southern Wild', 'Life of Pi' etc.

You mean Tom? He liked it.

Yeah, he was a big fan of Drew Godard Presents a Drew Godard Joint, Cabin in the Woods by Drew Godard.

Heh I see your point. He also liked The Avengers though. Explain that!

Tom isn't so much a Whedon-hater as he is a nerd-troller.

I'm not saying he hates Whedon, just that he got weirdly pissy at people referring to CitW as a Whedon movie.

Not that I really meant to turn this into another thread where we talk Tom. Sorry, folks! I just thought it was amusing!

It's okay, I did too.

It's all arbitrary anyway. The plaudits/blame that a director or writer gets for the quality of a film is directly proportional to their fame.

In this specific case, though, Tom was being more obtuse than usual. He tried to argue that Cabin In The Woods had more in common thematically with Lost than anything Whedon worked on because a) Drew Goddard wrote some Lost episodes, and b) there's stuff in Cabin In The Woods that happens underground, just like the hatch in Lost. So, you know, airtight logic.

I know. I meant I haven't seen any animated movies. Brave, ParaNorman, FrankenWeenie, etc.

Heh. Once he latches onto The Best Comparison Ever, it's pitbull-biting-down stubborn. The weirdest exchange I ever had with him was when he decided that Burn After Reading was the close thematic twin of No Country For Old Men because characters got killed in both of them.

I hadn't realized this was a 2012 release. I liked it a lot too, especially for the polite and orderly turns in which characters took shooting each other, stabbing each other, and elbowing each other in the head. There were never any disagreements about what phase of head-killing everyone was engaging in, which is probably other cultures being more polite. (The director's prior effort Merantau was also quite enjoyable for the same reasons, with the shooting mostly replaced with general acrobatics.)

The Raid: Redemption (which, as long as you want to go on a Tom tangent, he wrote one of his "Worst Things" articles about) was a secretly traditional kung fu movie. As I've said several times the loooong final fight is a direct call back to Shaw Brother's fare like Shaolin vs Lama, The Mystery of Chessboxing, Master of the Flying Guillotine and a ton of others where two (or more) heroes fight against an invincible kung fu master for a very long time.

That being said, it may have been a 2011 production, but I saw it in an art-house release this year.

I liked the Avengers, more than both Skyfall and Dark Knight Rises for the simple fact that the heroes the Avengers are actually competent. In 2012 Bond and Batman were passive and ineffective, Batman in particular was a bit player in his own movie. I prefer my adolescent power-fantasies to actually be full of adolescent power fantasy wish fulfillment. Whedon did a very good job by the simple power of not screwing it up.

As someone who has made this error many times before, Tom stopped reading your response as soon as you said that it was hard to follow the action in the Bourne sequels' fight scenes.

Master of the Flying Guillotine definitely has one of the top ten final fight endings ever. Any extended martial arts duel that doesn't end with the dead loser falling directly into a coffin suffers by comparison.

That fucking close up hand held nonsense. It was cool in one fight (the apartment fight in the 2nd Bourne movie I think) but has since ruined several otherwise good action scenes (the opening car chase in Quantum of Solace is the prime example.)

He once flat-out suggested I was stupid for saying that shakycam closeups of hands didn't make for an interesting fight scene or car chase.

...

And once again we're talking Tom. Man!

Not this shit again.

I finally watched the commentary with Goddard and Whedon last night and Whedon actually did direct more scenes than I thought he did. They'd point out the scenes he directed throughout. For example, he did all the Japan scenes. Not enough to be Director obviously. Regardless, there's enough of his style in the movie for me being a Whedon fanboy this year to stand.

I think this movie should get some recognition for its special effects but it was in serious need of a better (different) editor. It seemed like all of the pretty pieces were there, but the story never seemed to "get there". I'm a fan of Tarkovsky, so the 3-hour, slow-burn, hard sci-fi is not an obstacle to my enjoyment, but the seemingly deliberate obtuseness weighed it down a bit. I would really like to see this get a director's cut because I think it can be saved with the material they shot.

Plus.. Rapace & Fassbender...

My top 5 of the year would be

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild
3. Avengers
4. The Hobbit
5. Prometheus

I'll just list off my top 5, unless I can think of 10 before I'm done posting.

1. The Avengers - Proving Joss Whedon's chops at directing ensemble casts, being the second-best superhero movie I've ever seen, and for the "Puny god" Hulk scene. Plus, it was just fucking awesome all around.
2. The Raid: Redemption - Probably the most violent movie of the year, incredible action, and pacing that just blows the mind. I particularly loved the scene where one guy smashes the head of one of the baddies into a wall, and as he collapses does it 4 more times.
3. Prometheus - An incredibly creepy performance from Fassbender as David, and despite a somewhat nonsensical plot, manages to squeeze some really good characters out of the actors. Plus, mmm, Charlize Theron as a total badass.
4. Mirror, Mirror - Julia Roberts had way too much fun with her role (which is a totally good thing), Snow White and the dwarves were exactly how I imagine they'd be in a live-action film, and gorgeous visuals. It's totally a Tarsem joint, and some people get turned off by his directing style, but I loved The Fall and even liked The Cell (despite Jennifer Lopez, yikes). What can I say, I'm a sucker for his movies.
5.1 Dredd - Yeah, I fucking went there. I can't explain exactly why I think this movie is good, except that I just plain enjoyed the whole thing throughout. I wasn't ever bored, it actually made sense in the context of the universe, and never showing Dredd without the helmet, to me, was big.
5.2 Chronicle - Tied for #5. Live-action Akira? Yes, please. Talks of a sequel have me excited.

Nominations for worst:
Snow White and The Huntsman - Seriously, in what bizarre alternate universe is Kristen Stewart considered to be fairer/hotter than Charlize Theron?
Wrath of The Titans - Did the equally horrible Clash need a sequel? No, no it did not. Go watch Immortals (there I go again with Tarsem!) if you want a good movie about Greek lore.
Red Dawn - Go to hell.

edit: Little trivia about The Fall: Tarsem made sure that nobody told the little girl that Lee Pace wasn't actually paralyzed. So, during the scene when Pace's character freaks out after realizing the pills he took to commit suicide were just sugar pills, and she's crying and screaming, that wasn't actually acting on her part. That was real. Sadistic, I know, but they do finally tell her, and have Pace stand up and walk in front of her before the final scene when they're both watching a silent film together. The big smile on her face is genuine.

Really? I love, love, love The Fall with an unbridled passion. But the trailer for this looks horrible. I really like Tarsem's style, and The Cell was the movie that made me believe for a moment that Jennifer Lopez isn't afwul. Maybe I should just stop judging it from the trailer and give it shot...

Catinca Untaru deserved a fucking Oscar or something for that role. The most natural and genuine child-actor I've ever seen (which isn't surprising after reading your trivia). So talented.

Trust me, watch it. You will not be disappointed.

I put it in my top five back on page one where I said.

What I didn't say was that the production was lavish as hell and the costumes were amazing.

I actually did read your post and somehow still managed to miss it. I was too focused on listing all the other movies on you mentioned that I haven't seen (it's most of them, yikes). I was thinking about watching Show White and the Huntsman solely for the costumes, so I'll just bump that off and watch Mirror Mirror instead.

I think D'Onofrio offsets 2 or 3 J-Los.

A bit late , but here were the top 10 movies for me this past year.

10. The Hunger Games
9. Dredd
8. MIB3
7. Lincoln
6. The Hobbit
5. Cabin in the Woods
4. Avengers
3. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Skyfall
1. TED

TED really was so over the top awesome, hopefully everyone gets a chance to see it now. Looking back it was actually a pretty decent movie year. :)

Saw this was starting on one of the movie channels tonight, remembered your post, and watched it. HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

So good? I have it queued in my movie list based on recommendations here. I don't know whether to be eager or not. Will I at least, not be bored?

For the record, I completely enjoyed Dredd when I watched it based on its appearance on several people's list here.

You will, at the very least, not be bored.

Oh, that's a good point. I did see Dredd at last, although not until last week or so, and it was pretty good. I would definitely put that at no. 3. I've always been a fan of the Stallone version (although I don't care at all about the comics), and I liked that they brought a lot of the sci fi GIANT CATASTROPHE stuff down to a level where you could really focus on the core conceit. Also, Cersei Lannister was great, Helmet Dredd and the Rookie were pretty great, and apart from some soft action bits that dragged a bit, the whole thing was a good package. Many times when some dumb staple of action movies was onscreen we'd make a sly comment about it, only to have it at least partially addressed to our satisfaction in short order. It still had plot holes, of course, but nothing dealbreaking or on the scale that it required billions of special effects to mask the bullshit.

Ah man, I kind of was :I. I mean, the visuals were great but I was so annoyed by a lot of things that I couldn't properly enjoy it. I think it comes down to the fact that I just didn't really 'get it'. Like the terrible accent for example. I know it's supposed to be a joke, but I didn't think it was funny or really all that clever so I was annoyed by it anyway. The prince just had one of those punchable faces, and Lilly Collins lacks the sass this Snow White really needed.

All was redeemed at the end though, because that musical sequence made it worth all the effort. I am now obsessed with this song, and there is this incredibly awesome epic tale behind it.

Darn :|. I didn't know the story behind that awesome song and dance number at the end, though, so thanks for posting it. It just makes me want to go back and watch it again now.

There's a video of it, even. I've watched it at least a dozen times in the last couple days. Compelled to share (it's really that awesome). Thanks, Lizzy W



edit: I also had no idea that Lily Collins was the daughter of Phil Collins! Awesome forever.

It definitely has a bollywood feel, doesn't it.

Sounds like a you problem, cos Lilly Collins was awesomely adorable.