Based off of the Spanish-language short film (real short at under five minutes) of the same title and director, this Guillermo del Toro-produced horror picture from first time feature director Andres Muschietti couldn't have been released at a better time, where Jessica Chastain is hot off her success in Zero Dark Thirty.The film is about a couple little girls, who after a horrible and gripping series of events are left alone in a cabin by their father. After five years of their disappearance, the girls' uncle (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) finally tracks them down, but they've basically devolved into feral children. Him and his rocker girlfriend (Chastain), who has her reservations about becoming an aunt, adopt the kids and try to help them re-integrate into a normal life. But those kids didn't live in that cabin alone - they were mothered by a malevolent ghost which came home with them.
The first half hour of the movie is grade-A magnificence. It plays as a pure psychological drama and both the leads and the girls give the material a huge boost in believability. Through a chilling but simple opening credits sequence you understand how the girls lived in the cabin without wasting any time. The movie gets the tone completely right and there's enough doing on dramatically to recommend this to any fan of the genre.
That being said, this film does lose some steam after a while. There's a lot of untapped potential from the 'parent' angle, and due to certain elements of the story, it focuses mostly on Chastain's character (we never really see how the uncle has to deal with being a new parent). At a point the plot becomes all about jump scares and the creepy ghost (which is an actually scary design for a creature), but the most interesting stuff was happening in "reality." If this was only about feral children, or if the ghost stuff was left more ambiguous, this could have been a classic. As it is it's a very well-done, but flawed first feature.
Rating: B-
Broken City:
This film has been in limbo since 2008. Having been one of many blacklisted scripts in Hollywood, the project finally got off the ground when Alan Hughes (who co-directed The Book of Eli with his brother) got a hold of it. Pretty much the opposite of a "passion project," this destined-for-the-bargain-bin title is not worth your time.
Mark Wahlberg plays a private eye working for the mayor of NYC (Russell Crowe) to find out who is cheating on his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones). But is the mayor really doing that, or does he have something up his sleeve, trying to set Marky Mark up in a confusing, convoluted manner? The answer is yes, and this is possibly the most mediocre, boring film I've seen in a long time. I don't even know what to say about it. My strongest memory about this movie is sitting in the theater having to listen to the old lady in front of me, eating both a cheese stick and a stalk of celery, repeat almost every line of dialogue to her equally-withered friend. Broken City is a broken movie, and I can't even think of a single positive thing about it. There was unanimous grumbling coming from my audience once it was over. Besides the actors giving it their all, on a fundamental script level this is a poor excuse of a film.
Gangster Squad is the latest picture from Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) that's had a lot of problems along the way. Originally slated for a September release, the film was pushed back to account for the tragedy in Aurora. There was a shootout in the film that took place in the famous Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which the cast and crew decided would be distasteful towards the victims, so they had to reshoot it. Then flash-forward to today, this finally released "passion project" that Fleischer had a difficult time convincing the stars and producers to make ended up not doing so well at the box office, performing third under the mature award-buzz flick Zero Dark Thirty and the Paranormal Activity spoof from Marlon Wayans, A Haunted House. Plus, the actual movie kind of sucks too.
The story is about real-life gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn), who basically owns all of Los Angeles. Josh Brolin plays a police officer summoned by Nick Nolte to create a squad of officers to stop him (including Ryan Gosling, Anthony Mackie, Giovanni Ribisi, Michael Peña, and Robert Patrick).
I think this film should have been retitled "Film Noir for Dummies." If it weren't for the excess amount of blood and gore, I think this cleaned-up version of 1940's Los Angeles looks like it was made for children. Everything about this film falls flat. The plot lacks any tension whatsoever, and the stakes aren't clear. Sean Penn is going all-out as a cartoonish Rocky and Bullwinkle-styled villain that's hard to take seriously. Ryan Gosling is doing some high-pitched thing with his voice that doesn't fit at all with the character. His relationship with Emma Stone lacks any of the chemistry they shared in Crazy, Stupid, Love.
There is so much wasted talent and potential in Gangster Squad. Before his film career, Fleischer was a music video director, which is easy to tell for he uses the worst techniques imaginable here. Slo-mo bullets, over-use of effects, and a too-polished-for-real-life look really hinder the film. It's a shame because his first film Zombieland, featured some of the best uses of slow motion I've seen in a long time (especially during its amazing opening credits sequence); it's too bad he couldn't have found new ways to show off his techniques here, where he often resorts to the standard bullet shells flying. Film noir is supposed to be dark and gritty (the actual term literally means "black film"), so something just felt bland about this movie to me. It felt more like an exercise for Fleischer than a film with any kind of meaning behind it. It's not necessarily a poorly put together film (you'd have no idea scenes were cut and re-shot), but it's incredibly mediocre considering the talent involved. Disappointing on every level.
Wow, I really don't understand the Academy sometimes. Here are some of the biggest snubs/unwanted surprises from this year's slew of nominees.
10. Leonardo DiCaprio snubbed for Django Unchained
Well, I wasn't expecting Tarantino's film to get much in the way of nominations, and I'm happy to see that it's up for Best Picture, but I guess it wasn't Dicaprio's year. Having never won before, I thought he could've taken it home, but nope. Alan Arkin's performance was just so powerful and moving.
9. Jack Black snubbed for Bernie
OK, maybe this was never going to happen, but it saddens me. Just like how Moneyball legitimized Jonah Hill, I think a nomination would've given Jack Black the extra credit he deserves. He may not be getting the best roles lately, but he's a hugely talented guy with a lot of potential.
8. Tarantino snubbed
This year's directors category is the biggest snub-fest there is. While I'm glad to see a couple unexpected entries like Ben Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild and Haneke for Amour, it just seems like a popularity contest. Tarantino will never win, but us fans can just cross our fingers that he might be redeemed for his awful Inglourious Basterds snubbing with a win for best original screenplay (though it's unlikely).
7. The Imposter for Best Documentary Feature
OK, I haven't seen the other nominees yet, but I loved this movie too much to not include it on the snub list.
6. Ann Dowd for Best (not-sure-if-supporting) Actress
I mean, if Christoph Waltz is a supporting character in Django (even though he probably is as equal to Django as a main character) then I think Dowd is "supporting" as well in Compliance, and if that's the case, what the hell is Jacki Weaver doing on the nominee list. I barely even remember her character in Silver Linings Playbook!
5. Tom Hooper snubbed
Big surprise here - I thought Les Mis would be an Academy darling, but guess not. The close-ups must have disoriented the old Academy voters.
4. NOTHING for The Dark Knight Rises
Think what you want about it, but TDKR should've been up for some technical awards. I may not have a full understanding of the smaller categories, but I'm pretty sure that The Dark Knight Rises had better sound mixing than Lincoln.
3. Kathryn Bigelow snubbed
While I wasn't as big a fan of Zero Dark Thirty as many, I sure as hell wasn't expecting this. Some people believe it may have had to do with the politics she used in the film and how it depicts torture. Yup, that's why "safe" fare like Lincoln and The Artist will continue to win, while more mature flicks like this get left to dry.
2. John Hawkes in The Sessions
If you look me in the eye and tell me in all seriousness that Bradley Cooper deserves a nomination more than John Hawkes, I will hunt you like wild game and brandish your head on a golden plate to hang above my fireplace.
1. Ben Affleck snubbed
This is the biggest shock of all. Before today I thought for sure that Argo would win Best Picture, but it looks like Lincoln might come out on top. The only positive I can think that will come of this is that Affleck may no longer be interested in these Oscar-type films and will run towards the Justice League movie like a fly on a rib roast.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
That's all I could think of off the top of my head -- did you have a personal snub that upset you? At least I can sleep at night knowing Paranorman wasn't snubbed in the animated category.
I'm a big horror movie nut, and as every horror fan will attest to, the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a masterpiece of the genre. It combined a gritty documentary feel with a heap of tension and perhaps the scariest degenerate hillbilly family ever depicted on film. A lot of people gave the 2003 remake a lot of crap, but I thought it was appropriately creepy, with an amazing performance by R. Lee Ermey (aka, the army sergeant from Full Metal Jacket). I'll even give the remake's prequel Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning a pass. But Texas Chainsaw 3D is beyond comparability in its shittiness. I cannot defend this film in any way.
The film starts out with clips from the original 1973 film, as if reminding us what a good horror movie was, before plunging us into a shameless rip-off of the opening scene from The Devil's Rejects, only lacking any of its grittiness or style. It also supposedly takes place right after the original ends, but there are so many things they get wrong that all continuity is thrown out the window. First off, in the original, there were only four members of the family living in the house - but here there seems to be a congregation of bearded fat guys in the house as well, along with a mother and a baby, with no explanation as to who they are or what roles they played in the murders. The film adds in extraneous family ties in order to add "depth" to Leatherface later on, but none of it works or makes sense. They also try to add an "anti-hero" layer to him that works against the character in every way, making him neither scary or interesting. The same problem existed (to a far lesser extent) in Rob Zombie's Halloween. Seriously - we don't need to know the psychological reasons why these villains are killing people.
The acting is atrocious, the script is even worse, there's absolutely no suspense whatsoever, the kills aren't even clever or visually interesting, it doesn't feel "brutal," and it makes me upset as a horror fan. Other than a few fun moments where the chainsaw is in-yo'-face with the 3D, this not only has nothing going for it, but it actively tries to ruin a mythology.
Rating: D-
The Impossible:
Whew. Now that I vented about that piece of crap, how about a movie that was pretty good; The Impossible tells the story of a family separated by the massive 2004 tsunami in Thailand and through their single journey you get this very broad sense of what it must have been like to go through this disaster. I thought J.A. Bayona (director of the cult horror flick The Orphanage) really made this potentially sappy story into something very gritty, realistic, and yet hopeful.
Naomi Watts is on fire here (or I guess in this case she's on water), and let's just say that at times her performance can be hard to watch. The other members of her family include her three sons and her husband, played by Ewan McGregor. McGregor is similarly intense and great as his on screen wife, and the kids are surprisingly good as well. It's really distasteful, but it's been said that the studio heads pressured Bayona to essentially re-cast the picture with white actors (the real family this tale is based on is Mexican), and although I'm disgusted that that's how movie corporations operate, I can say the casting department did not disappoint despite it being whitewashed.
While I did have some issues with the film, many of which are spoilers about the ending, I think this is a very intense, well put-together look at this large-scale tragedy. By the end of it you will feel as though you were pulled through this ordeal alongside these people. It's hard to watch and troubling, but artfully done.
Rating: B+
Promised Land:
The Office's John Krasinski and Matt Damon both co-wrote and star in Promised Land, the latest picture from Gus Van Sant. Damon and Frances McDormand play two corporate salespeople travelling to a small town to offer them the "chance of a lifetime." They plan to drill for gas on their property, which in turn will make this economically declining farm town into a prosperous community. They have a lot on the line on whether or not the town agrees, but things get complicated when a schoolteacher (played by the aging but still great Hal Holbrook) and an environmental group spokesperson (Krasinski) speak out against the drilling, believing it unsafe and that it could potentially pollute the town water supply with chemicals.
There were a lot of things to like about this film. The relationship between Damon and McDormand was refreshingly non-flirtacious and as I'm a sucker for small-town movies, I enjoyed the isolated nature of the town and all the local yokels. Of course the story is all too relevant with today's economy, and I loved the moral dilemma of money vs. morals (one of my favorite scenes in the film deals with this idea on the smallest scale possible: a little girl's lemonade stand). I also liked that both sides of the debate were given fair and balanced viewpoints, never leaning towards one side or the other, just focusing on the characters.
There were also a lot of things here that pissed me off. Rosemarie DeWitt plays some chick Damon meets at a bar, and her one function in the plot is to smile at him. We also get a similar situation with McDormand and some guy that works in the grocery store (you Lost fans will recognize him). These half-hearted characters really feel out of place and would've cut down the run time - not that this is a particularly long movie, but at times it doesn't go anywhere. There's also a twist ending (I guess M. Night was brought in), but it's a god-awful place to end up, and upon reflection doesn't make a lot of sense. It's worth watching once, but ultimately Promised Land seems like a promising movie that could have been great.
It's time to start blowing confetti all over your living room, because I'm going to list my ten favorite films of the year. I think 2012 was a badass year for movies and for once I had a tough time picking what was going to make the list. But no more time for meaningless chit-chat. It's time for my TOP TEN of 2012! Buckle your seatbelts.
10. Skyfall (Dir. Sam Mendes) Skyfall is simply an amazing Bond film. It doesn't reinvent the wheel or anything, but it's superbly acted, amazingly shot by Roger Deakins, and well written. There hasn't been a more beautiful looking action film this year, and Judi Dench gives a smashing performance in what will sadly be her final Bond picture. It also features possibly the biggest explosion of 2012. It's a ridiculously large explosion.
9. Klown (Dir. Mikkel Nørgaard) I guarantee that this film will eventually be remade by someone like Judd Apatow or Todd Phillips in the future. This Danish movie is about two friends on a debaucherous trip in the countryside: the sex-crazed Casper and his buddy Frank, who in an effort to prove his fatherhood potential to his girlfriend "kidnaps" his 12-year old nephew and brings him along on this over-the-top journey. Klown has the raunchiness of The Hangover, the style of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the outright disgusting factor of Jackass. Please don't show this one to grandma, unless she is unusually progressive (or is it degressive?). Either way, I thought it was the funniest movie of the year in the most awkward ways possible.
8. Paranorman (Dir. Chris Butler, Sam Fell)
Strangely enough, this film is one of two on my list that are supernatural stop-motion animated films aimed towards older children featuring a young male character trying to save a small town. Even stranger is how radically different those two films are. But looking at Paranorman, it is not only amazing to look at, it's actually really funny and has great characters. The film has a real sense of sorrow as we follow Norman dealing with his "power" in the first portion of the film, and becomes a really fun zombie action film in the other half, complete with Pixar-ian jokes only mom and pop will "get." Paranorman deals with hefty topics like morality and ignorance at the cost of human life, all while wrapping it up in a package an entire family can enjoy.
7. Frankenweenie (Dir. Tim Burton) Really you guys? Tim Burton's cash-ins like Alice in Wonderland make billions, but when he finally goes back to his roots and makes one of his most personal films in years nobody goes to see it. Perhaps buried underneath the other, more family-friendly animated film this October, Hotel Transylvania, Frankenweenie is an unfortunate under-performer. The film is absolutely beautfiul to look at with its stark black and white photography, and has a really strong (and timely) pro-science message behind it. It proves that Burton still has it in him to produce more Ed Woods during this latter portion of his career. So if you've been late to the Frankenweenie train, please be sure to check out this awesome little ode to monster movies.
6. The Dark Knight Rises
(Dir. Christopher Nolan)
It may not have reached the heights of The Dark Knight, but TDKR really did hold its own and featured some of the most memorable scenes and lines this year. What person left the theater without doing the Bane voice? We're all guilty of it - it's just so damn cool. Sure there are plot holes, sure there are really strange character choices (um, why does it seem like everybody knows Batman is Bruce Wayne all of a sudden), but I have to give it the benefit of the doubt even during its most ludicrous moments. TDKR is a nearly perfect end-cap to the Nolan trilogy and my head was spinning (in a good way) by the end of it.
5. Looper (Dir. Rian Johnson)
This is Brick director Rian Johnson's first "big" action movie, and I think this guarantees it won't be his last. Looper has some of best action and time travel I've seen in a long time, implementing them in unique and iconic ways, and uses them to serve the story in what turns out to be a pretty interesting character-driven narrative. The plot deals with time travel-ed up themes of selfishness and nature vs. nurture, all while delivering some of the coolest visuals in a sci-fi movie this past decade. And JGL knocks it out of the park (as always).
4. Django Unchained (Dir. Quentin Tarantino)
Yup. I'm always up for anything Tarantino. Pretty much knew this film would end up on the list before the year even started; Django Unchained is yet another insane creation from one of film's best working directors. All at once it's a meditation on slavery, a quest driven by love, a violent spaghetti western, a blaxploitation flick, AND the best "buddy comedy" this year.
3. The Imposter (Dir. Bart Layton)
From what I've seen this year (which isn't really that many), The Imposter is my favorite documentary. The way the story unfolds is so captivating, so it's hard to know how to exactly recommend it. Really - don't watch the trailers, don't read the synopsis, just go out and rent or download or buy this movie! All I can assure you is that the story of this "imposter" is incredible and a little troubling (kind of a theme among my top movies this year).
2. Bernie (Dir. Richard Linklater)
Jack Black has never been better in his first role that gives him "street cred" among the end-year awards season. He plays this pleasant, church-going funeral director that everyone loves and regularly takes care of the sweet little old ladies around town. One of these ladies, played by Shirley McClaine, is kind of a bitch, but Bernie becomes close friends with her anyway. I don't want to ruin the twist that comes towards the middle of the movie, but it does take a dark turn, showing that Bernie isn't exactly perfect all the time. I loved the small-town humor, I loved the dark subject matter, I loved Jack Black, and I loved how the line of morality is blurred in this quirky little movie. To see Jack Black go from rocking his "fucking socks off" in Tenacious D to singing "Blessed Assurance" with a church choir in Bernie is kind of insane.
1. Compliance (Dir. Craig Zobel)
Compliance is the most affecting movie I've seen this year. It's an intense thriller set all in one location, a fast food restaurant, and with a simple phone call things get progressively more and more...well you'll just have to see for yourselves. I would imagine a lot of people might react negatively to where this film eventually goes, but I thought it was fucking brilliant. If it weren't for the fact that this was based on a true story I would be right there with the haters, but supposedly this very closely resembles what actually happened. It goes to very dark places, so it's not for everyone, but I think Compliance is a great (but depressing) look at human nature and how we're compelled to follow orders.
Honorable Mentions: Prometheus, Les Misérables,The Raid: Redemption, 21 Jump Street, End of Watch, Chronicle, Robot and Frank ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Well there you have it - another year down! In my opinion 2012 was a bloody great year for movies and choosing which films didn't make the cut was an uphill battle of mind and courage; I was this close to including Les Mis, which certainly deserves a spot on the list. In case you're interested, for the record as of now I've seen roughly 85 movies that came out this year, and reviewed 76 of them. Again, I'm not a professional critic (though I wish I was), so I don't see every movie that comes out (which hopefully doesn't rob my little blog of all its credibility). Anyway, thanks for reading you bitches...see you next year! xoxo
And some "top" films I missed this year: Holy Motors, Cosmopolis, Brooklyn Castle, Amour, The Impossible,This is Not a Film, Your Sister's Sister, The Lonliest Planet, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, Keep the Lights On, Battleship, Red Dawn, The Twilight Saga Episode V: Vampires on Ice, That's My Boy, Man on a Ledge, Piranha 3DD, Rock of Ages, and Madea's Witness Protection.
I will soon post my top ten films of the year, which I'm sure everyone is uncontrollably excited for, but first I feel the need to dole out some praise (with a dash of malice) towards various aspects of this year in movies. Don't know really what else to say, but I'm adding this sentence just to make the top paragraph of my post have some weight to it.
(mandatory orangutan)
BEST ACTOR - Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
I don't think there was a more spellbinding performance this year other than Joaquin Phoenix playing Freddie Quell in The Master: a broken down, lost man whose violent drunk outrages make him a true outsider of society - that is until a charismatic cult leader played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman accepts him. Phoenix's face is contorted, along with his body, in a way I've never seen an actor do before. Your eyes are glued to him, never knowing when he's gonna snap. It's just a crazy-good performance (I mean that figuratively AND literally).
Runner-Up: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Instead of making Lincoln into some sort of bigger-than-life Bill Pullman-at-the-end-of-Independence Day inspirational speaker, Day-Lewis, in his infinite acting genius, gave him the humble, soft-spoken nature he likely had in real life. Of course it takes a British guy to fully bring to life this American icon. Slavery: it's done.
BEST ACTRESS - Brit Marling, Sound of My Voice
This movie kind of fell under the radar this year (and unrightfully so). Following up her powerful performance in Another Earth, Marling plays a woman claiming to be from the future. She has gained a small cult following, and watching her manipulate the members who challenge her is intense, while also walking that thin line where even as an audience member, you're not quite sure if she's "real" or not. Seriously, Brit Marling will work her way to the Academy Awards sooner or later.
Runner-Up: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
I think Ms. Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is one of the best scenes of 2012. Shot all in one close-up take, you feel the raw emotion of every word coming out of her mouth. A beautiful scene deserving of the Oscar alone. BEST MUSIC SCORE - Hans Zimmer, The Dark Knight Rises
You can never go wrong with Hans Zimmer. I've been listening to this soundtrack since it has been released and I think it's a masterwork as far as movie scores go. Seriously, just go about the interwebs, find it, and listen to it beginning to end. From Bane's haunting introduction music, to Selina Kyle's sleek piano theme, to the huge "Batman" stuff towards the end, it's everything a great score should be. One of my favorite tracks is "Imagine the Fire" (taking place during the big finale), which will hopefully play below (may be loud).
Runner-Up: Howard Shore, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
How can you not like this? Listening to this score makes me want to slay a dragon.
BEST SONG** - Adele, "Skyfall" from Skyfall
Adele's opening song to the latest 007 flick was one of the best of recent Bond memory. Enough said, it's a song as smooth as Bond himself.
Runner-Up: John Legend, "Who Did That to You" from Django Unchained
Django Unchained is yet another great soundtrack in the Tarantino universe. While QT doesn't usually employ original music, John Legend took it upon himself to send him a track out of the kindness of his heart and it was just groovy enough to land in the film. Since Quentin notoriously hates technology, Legend mailed him the track on a cassette tape in an envelope.
BEST TRAILER* - The Dark Knight Rises
Movie trailers really are an underrated art form. If you think about it they may as well be one of the most important aspects of marketing a film; a solid trailer will put asses in seats, and no amount of bad reviews will be able to stop it. Usually the best trailers come from big-budget action films with loads of "money shots" and get you with big, loud, giant spectacle. While the TDKR trailer does boast all of those things, unlike most action movie trailers it starts off with a quiet piano, and slowly crescendos towards the "Batman" action we all want. In effect the trailer almost feels like a mini-movie, and when it premiered I got chills down my balls (especially at the line, "Not everything...not yet").
Runner-Up (TIE): Zero Dark Thirty and Les Misérables
Equally badass trailer; let's go get Bin Laden. With Susan Boyle's Seal of Approval
BEST POSTER* - The Amazing Spider-Man (Teaser Poster)
(click to enlarge)
You take a look around a movie theater and you start to see the same cookie-cutter posters over and over again (just do a quick Google search and you'll find all the copy cats out there). But when this poster was released for the new Spider-Man flick, I was pretty, I want to say...amazed? First off, it's a poster for a superhero movie where the hero doesn't even have his suit on, and the dark shadows that make the Spider symbol looks so iconic and badass. A good poster is one that catches your eye as you walk by it, and this one really stands out - especially in an era where it seems so little artistic value is placed into these framed sheets.
Runner-Up: John Carter John Carter was shitty in almost every way, but it had a terrific poster.
(Click to enlarge: in case you didn't figure it out from the first poster)
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT - God Bless America
I absolutely loved Bobcat Goldthwait's previous film World's Greatest Dad (off the top of my head, I'd say it's in my top twenty or thirty films of all time), so I was very excited for his next film as you might have imagined. The concept seemed really different and cool: a guy goes on a killing spree, offing the annoying, priveleged people of the world (pop stars, Jersey Shore types). But it ended up overly preachy and didn't have much of a story. And it had an extremely awkward relationship between an older guy and a young girl.
Runner-Up: Brave
I wanted it to be really good to make up for Cars 2. Why, Pixar?! Change yer feehhhht.
MOST OVERRATED - The Avengers
The fact that there's a sect of people out there saying that The Avengers is a superior film to The Dark Knight Rises baffles me. I mean, it was OK as far as these types of movies go (it was certainly better than Thor and Captain America), but come on. The entire movie revolves around a magic glowing cube.
Runner-Up: The Cabin in the Woods
Yeah, I guess I'm not that big of a Whedon fan (except for Firefly). Even though not as many people saw it as The Avengers, Cabin in the Woods has a nearly unanimous seal of approval from "nerd culture" that I don't understand. Sure the finale of this movie is amazing, and Richard Jenkins is great, but the meat of the film following the "young adults" (and a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth) is as badly acted and scripted as any of the shitty horror movies that came before it. BEST PLEASANT SURPRISE - 21 Jump Street
A modernized remake of a hardly relevant 80's TV show starring Channing Tatum and skinny Jonah Hill: how the hell did this turn out so good? This is by far one of the best mainstream comedies in a long time, and was able to single-handedly change my mind about Channing Tatum.
Runner-Up: Ted
I still hate the "Thunder Song," but Ted came as another pleasant comedy surprise this summer. And remember - there's nothing as powerful as a young boy's wish...except an Apache helicopter. An Apache helicopter has machine guns and missiles; it is an unbelievably impressive compliment of weaponry: an absolute death machine.
Hope you enjoyed this - kind of a new idea on my part, tell me if I should do this again next year or if I should take this blog and shove it up my ass. And remember, I haven't seen every movie that came out! I'm not perfect! I'm sorry! I tried my best! I'm never good enough for you (weeps uncontrollably) * These categories only include films officially released in 2012; so if there is a trailer from 2012 for a movie coming next year (2013) it doesn't count, but if it premiered in 2011 for a 2012 release it does count. ** I would have given this to Les Misérables, but because it was not original music I didn't think it qualified
I was a huge fan of Tom Hooper's last picture, The King's Speech, but I still wasn't sure if I would be into this flick before seeing it. I'm not really a musical guy, so I had absolute zero frame of reference as to what to expect (besides what was in the trailer). I was afraid I wouldn't understand the dialogue being sung, and that it would be too pompous and boring, but I was very wrong. I actually sat through that near three hour musical absorbed and entertained the entire time.
I'm flabbergasted (a word I seldom get to use) at the middling response this film is getting from critics. All the main actors are at the tops of their games here: Anne Hathaway's rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" is brilliant, and Hugh Jackman is absolutely amazing in the lead role of Jean Valjean. He simply must get a nomination for the role. And I've been hearing mixed things about Russell Crowe, but I thought he did a fine job as well (again, I'm unfamiliar with other Les Mis's). The camera goes as close to the actors as you can get, with all of their emotions pouring out of the screen. Hooper brought this tale to life so damn well, I'm sure that if placed in other hands I would have been asleep. His decision to have the actors sing live instead of dub themselves over in a studio makes a world of difference in their performances. And the art direction is so well done, with every set piece and location brimming with movement and little details.
Here and there things might have dragged a little (like Sacha Baron Cohen's "comic relief" and a love-at-first-sight moment), but I thought this was a moving, goosebump-inducing achievement. As long as you don't mind your movies/musicals a little bombastic, I think Les Misérables is an incredibly big and beautiful film.
Rating: A-
The Guilt Trip:
The combination of Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand in a mother/son road trip movie has nearly endless comedic possibilities. The Guilt Trip employs none of them. While the casting choice was inspired and spot-on, the script is bare bones on laughter or substance, and mostly comes off as annoying. The first two thirds are embarrassing at best and it's just a shame that these two talented leads couldn't shine in their roles. Seth Rogen is clearly phoning it in, pandering to an older crowd that couldn't handle the raunchiness that makes him who he is, in effect looking more bored than ever. I did think there was a good chemistry between the actors however, and the last leg of the film was actually pretty sweet and heartfelt. It's almost the reverse of This is 40; in that film the relationship stuff felt forced, but the comedy worked, and in The Guilt Trip the relationship worked, but was as equivocally funny as a singing wall bass (wait...scratch that, those are actually kind of amusing). Unfortunately I look primarily for laughs in my comedies.
