Scots Taffer on 3/1/2013 at 10:37

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Been a while and it's a bit late, but here goes...

Ordered By Most Watchable

Beasts of the Southern Wild - I've now come to recognise the one-off movie event. A movie that makes such an indelible impression that you should never revisit it. This is one of those movies and I am lucky I caught it in the last cinema in town showing it on its last showing. A visceral, moving, immediate piece of film-making that is full of imagination, beauty and poetry. Loved this.

Wreck-It Ralph - what I've come to expect from Pixar (but not by Pixar): brilliantly written, fun, funny, heartfelt, so many set-ups and pay-offs, and a twist in a kid's movie that I didn't see coming.

Seven Psychopaths - hilarious, meta, twisted, brilliantly acted; loved it.

Life of Pi (3D) - the book was too heavy going for me, but the movie is a perfect balance between weighty thematic concepts and visual poetry. Best use of 3D I've seen since Avatar, probably better in fact.

21 Jump Street - might not be everyone's taste but I loved this silly comedy to death.

Cabin in the Woods - fun, imaginative, bit irreverent, good combo!

The Avengers - him again? Solid popcorn fun, not the second coming or even the best comic-book movie ever, but great blockbuster cinema.

Looper - I'm torn on where this sits... it might need to be higher but I need to see it again to see how it holds up. That said, I thought it was an original and interesting take on the time-travel story device to explore a man coming to terms with his own mortality and morality.

Premium Rush - visually inventive, different, solid turns by all involved, good fun flick.

Hotel Transylvania - It doesn't entirely hold its plot together, but I thought this was far more than just a homage to a bunch of horror movie icons (see far below this for Frankenweenie for a contrast).

Bourne Legacy - I know the critical consensus came in against this one but I actually really enjoyed the action and thought apart from a poorly paced opener that it mostly worked.

Wanderlust - Paul Rudd and Rachel from Friends in a comedy about city slickers at a hippy free-love commune, yeah, it goes entirely to the places you'd expect and I thought it was quite funny in doing so.

Once Upon A Time In Anatolia - another movie I'll never be able to revisit, but a grim, contemplative and atmospheric piece of film-making.

We Need To Talk About Kevin - an intense and unsettling experience, only the Damien-devil-child-esque performance of the younger child threatened to destabilise this movie, one that I can't say I recommend but it's definitely well made

Pirates! Band of Misfits - That's Hugh Grant's voice?? Wow. This one was fun.

Haywire - Steven Soderbergh directs an MMA chick along with some stars in a conspiracy chase movie with incongruous jazz soundtrack? Ok.

Hunger Games - watched it on a flight somewhere and thought it was reasonably watchable but suffering from the very modern problem of being a franchise "set-up".

Safe House - very conventional, didn't overacheive, braindead action cinema.

Amazing Spiderman - I would say the Mediocre Spiderman personally, but it's still watchable.

The Lorax - it's ok... didn't offend, didn't inspire, fits here.

Madagascar 3 - ... yeah, what you're thinking.

Disappointments

The Dark Knight Rises - simultaneously bloated and slim, ponderous and rushed, politically motivated and toothless, this movie was just a bit of a mess. And I actually liked the ending that everyone hated.

Skyfall - it didn't fail at being gorgeous or funny or having some good set-pieces, but it failed to make any sense, or a coherent continuation of the previous 2 Bond movies, or leave the franchise in a place that I want to revisit.

Brave - not what I've come to expect from Pixar.

The Change Up - this wouldn't register as a disappointment had I not read the gut-busting script first, but I had, the casting and crudeness of the direction just made this one DOA.

Woman in Black - bit boring really, worst I can say about it.

Frankenweenie - this is nothing but a loving homage to B&W horrors, and I say that critically, not lovingly, there's nothing else here.

Balls

Prometheus - fuck this stupid, stupid movie.

The Grey - I don't know how you fuck up Liam Neeson vs Wolves, but this is apparently how.

Get the Gringo - as ill-conceived as a drunken anti-Semitic rant.

The Watch - in-flight movie, so, so bad.

The Raid - against my better judgement, I fell for the hype, what a load of shit - the same fight a thousand times.

Total Recall - I'm annoyed that an action setpiece I conceptualised wound up in here and used it for no real effect, but that shit happens and so did this pointless remake.

A disgustingly long list of movies I still want to see: The Master, Moonrise Kingdom, Life of Pi, The Hobbit (I reckon it'll suck), Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained, Monsieur Lahzar, The Intouchables, Once Upon A Time In Anatolia, Headhunters, Safety Not Guaranteed, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Samsara, The Imposter, Ruby Sparks, Queen of Versailles, Killer Joe, Bernie, Premium Rush, Argo, Holy Motors, Flight, Killing Them Softly, This is 40.

Scots Taffer on 3/1/2013 at 12:38

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:thumb:

I want to see God Bless America too.

Kuuso on 3/1/2013 at 13:25

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It feels like I've only seen average movies this year. I've also watched loads of older movies, which leaves me lackluster in my 2012 knowledge. Still want to see The Master, Life of Pi, Beasts of the Southern Wild.

Eye-opener:
Dance of Outlaws
A film about a woman who doesn't exist. Moroccan Hind was raped and consequently denied an official identity - she has no other choice but to work as a prostitute and traditional wedding dancer, but despite the odds of her situation, refuses to give up her dream of dignity, motherhood and love. This is a story of modern day outlaws, children of prostitutes, abandoned child brides and those who have had to escape to the fringes of patriarchal Moroccan society. Through the eyes of one young woman we see a life of constant struggle, but also a life free of the society's norms and boundaries. The woman in the centre of the film, Hind is both vulnerable and courageous as she tries to regain her life, her children and her mere right to live as an equal human being in the 21st century.

Good:
Moonrise Kingdom: I do not like Wes Anderson's style. It rubs me the wrong way in any way it can. This movie is still fucking good though.
The Imposter

Average:
God Bless America: Should have done more with the subject, now descends into filmmakers rant on "how shit entertainment is shit herpderp" while creating useless violence himself
The Hobbit (verging on bad): see the hobbit thread
Safety Not Guaranteed: Quirky and fun little movie, but does not provide much in the end, since the characters are fairly forgettable.
The Dark Knight Rises: Too many sequences, A cop-out ending, worst death scene of 2012. Needed trimming badly.
Hunger Games (verging on bad): Battle Royale is weeping in some corner, while the americans turn the same idea into what it should not be. It was ok technically, but the acting and story is just shit.
The Avengers: It's a good popcorn flick, but not much else. Scarlett is hot.

june gloom on 3/1/2013 at 19:26

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The only movie I saw this year in theaters was The Dark Knight Rises, which basically boiled down to "suitably epic on a JLA scale but not as good as TDK."

Oh, I did see Chernobyl Diaries too -- smart movie, dumb characters, falls apart towards the end.

Spitter on 3/1/2013 at 21:30

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Here's highlights of the stuff I saw this year, in wildly random order.

The latest Mission Impossible was really fun and Tom Cruise is still a solid action actor.

I finally saw it on Christmas, and yes, The Dark Knight Rises is a politically bankrupt piece of shit with a lame and unnecessary ending. On the upside, this is Nolan's least irritating turn at directing action. That's because there seems to be very little of it! I won't lie, though, I'd watch Joseph Gordon-Levitt in spandex in a spin-off trilogy.

Moonrise Kingdom is good, but either I've hit my lifetime amount of Wes Anderson or I saw a completely different film to all the other people who were absolutely swooning over it and thinking it was his best. It isn't, but I won't hold that against the lovely film.

The Impostor is honestly a more interesting story and a concept than a successful documentary.

Alps is the new one by Yorgos Lanthimos, the director of the creepy weirdo insular incestous family drama Dogtooth. Alps is about a group of people who help their clients let go of their recently deceased loved ones with some delightfully creepy method acting. It's at times too kooky for its own good and isn't up to par with Dogtooth, but holds it together for the most part quite well.

Chicken with Plums is a visual feast, but even the overt frenchness can't hide the sappy life-affirming sappiness.

Searching for Sugar Man is a likely Oscar documentary nominee, and a likely winner too. Even if I just swore off Chicken with Plums, I did dig Sugar Man's life-affirming touch with its quest for the long-forgotten american rock hero who disappeared but whose music became legendary in South Africa. The buzz and the movie itself both remind me a lot of Man on Wire, which also was the documentary Oscar winner of year whatever. The documentarists, however, bend the rules of documented narrative as far as they can for maximising emotional impact. I don't mind it, but if you believe in SANCTITY OF THE TRUE STORY then by god don't go find out how things actually went.

Prometheus was a let down, but honestly just fine. Fassbender sells the entire thing, and it's obvious that Scott realised it too, so much he loves centering the action on the android. The undercooked idea behind the story was interesting, but linking it to the Alien franchise didn't really amount to anything. I guess it at least allowed Scott a bigger (marketing) budget.

Room 237 documents the absolutely bizarre (conspiracy) theories surrounding Kubrick's The Shining and its production. The movie stays its hand quite well at from simply pointing us to just LOOK how goddamn INSANE these people are, but at times it just revels at showing off lunatic interpretations stemming from continuity errors. It's fun, but should be telling that I almost forgot I ever saw it.

The sun-scorched Hell does its neatest trick when you realise that the title is german for bright. Beyond that it's a poor man's The Road with nothing of its own to offer.

Canned Dreams tells stories of the manufacturing process of canned food and, integrally, the people responsible. It all seems so heavily calculated and manipulative, however, that I couldn't get into it except during very few selected segments. The movie also has the dubious honour of having the grossest scene I saw all year during the butcherhouse bits.

Get the Gringo. I can't believe nobody liked this. Yes yes yes Mel Gibson is horrible. So is Tom Cruise! They both made the two most fun action movies of the year. So I guess that evens out some karma.

Shut Up and Play the Hits doesn't even attempt to document the rise and success of James Murphy's LCD Soundsystem, but rather tries to figure out why he decided to disband the band on the top of their fame. It doesn't really get anywhere, but is worth the admission for the energetic live takes from their last ever gig.

Die Wand (The Wall) has a woman stranded in a forest, closed off by an invisible wall. The movie drops off its scifi and horror beginnings fairly soon and becomes a study of isolation and independence. It's so very, very slow and quiet and I didn't find it to be anything more than just fine initially, but of all the movies I saw this summer, it's the only one I keep still thinking about.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is 2011 I think?? But I DON'T CARE it came out in here in 2012 and without going on an adjective killing spree, I'll just say it's easily my movie of the year. Bonus points for having possibly the largest cast of tragic gay characters in a movie this year.

STILL GOTTA SEE: We Need to Talk about Kevin, that Judge Dredd movie, Looper, everything that has their premiere in this godforsaken country during this year.