Your Top Movies of 2012 (and 5 Worst)

**Udaman** · 01-07-2013, 04:10 PM

OK, we had a thread about the best movies of the year. Here's my stab at it. I'll start with my favorites:

Honorable Mention: Looper, Moonrise Kingdom, Savages (would have been in top 10 without the horrible ending), Lawless, Killing Them Softly (I seem to be the only person who liked this movie), Amazing Spider-Man, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook (the last two were really close to cracking the top 10)

10. Pitch Perfect. This movie was a ton of fun to watch, with a great story, great acting, great singing and great humor.
9 (tied) Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. OK, technically this means I have 11 movies. But these two were similar to me. Felt like you were watching a real story. Very intense. Zero was too long, though.
8. Cabin in the Woods. Best scary movie since Scream. Wondefully written and acted (how many times can you say that about a scary movie)
7. Ted. I laughed out loud more times than I can count. Helps that I'm a huge Flash Gordan fan.
6. The Hobbit. I know others didn't like this...but it made me think back to reading the book as a kid. Movie didn't seem long at all. Can't wait until the next one.
5. End of Watch. Thought it was intense and incredibly believable. Surprised that it's not getting as much love from the award groups.
4. Life of Pi. Visually stunning and a great story. I was captivated entirely by this movie.
3. The Hunger Games. Turned a great book into an intense movie with incredible tension and wonderful performances from pretty much everyone.
2. Les Miserables. As a fan of the stage musical, I thought the movie nailed it.
1. The Avengers. The greatest comic book movie ever made, and it's not even close (and that's saying something)

My bottom 5 (and by these, I mean movies that tried to be good or big movies)

Honorable Mention: John Carter, Battleship (I actually enjoyed these movies more than I wanted do...they were awful, but still worthy of the popcorn I bought), Dark Shadows, Men in Black 3

5. The Watch. Such a good cast and such a huge letdown.
4. Three Stooges. Still can't believe I went to see this.
3. Prometheus. I don't care what the sci fi fans say, this was an awful movie that answered no questions, had a terrible ending, had awful decisions by the characters and was miserable all around.
2. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Killer. Such a decent premise and such a lousy movie.
1. That's My Boy. Two years in a row that Sandler has made my least favorite movie (Jack and Jill from last year). Guess maybe I should stop going to his shows.

**Wander** · 01-07-2013, 04:48 PM

I think for me it's a top 6...

1. Cloud Atlas - I can see why some don't like it, but it clicked with me, and I thought made improvements on the book
2. Dark Knight Rises - the idea of successfully making a "serious" comic book movie is still cool to me
3. The Hobbit - I actually think I like this better than Fellowship or Towers, largely due to the Hobbit actually doing things
4. Hunger Games - in some ways, the story here is better than LotR, but the films haven't reached that level
5. Prometheus - again, I can see why people wouldn't like it, but it worked for me, and I'm a sucker for space stories
6. Cabin in the Woods - clever idea, and fun to try and catch all the references/cliches

**killerleft** · 01-08-2013, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by Wander

I think for me it's a top 6...

1. Cloud Atlas - I can see why some don't like it, but it clicked with me, and I thought made improvements on the book
2. Dark Knight Rises - the idea of successfully making a "serious" comic book movie is still cool to me
3. The Hobbit - I actually think I like this better than Fellowship or Towers, largely due to the Hobbit actually doing things
4. Hunger Games - in some ways, the story here is better than LotR, but the films haven't reached that level
5. Prometheus - again, I can see why people wouldn't like it, but it worked for me, and I'm a sucker for space stories
6. Cabin in the Woods - clever idea, and fun to try and catch all the references/cliches

I don't see enough movies to really vote on a top and bottom 5, but I also thought Cloud Atlas was very good. The movie definitely made the connections from story to story easier to see, and the ending was improved greatly compared to the book. Some very good actors got to stretch their muscles playing wildly different roles.

**JasonEvans** · 01-08-2013, 12:34 PM

Yikes! I completely forgot to do my top 10. I like Udaman’s idea of a bottom 5 too.

I looked back and it appears I saw 89 films in theaters this past year. Wow… that is just plain scary. I don’t even want to think about how many hours I wasted on bad films. Blech!! On the other hand, I look back with delight on the good times I had.

Here are my Top 10

Argo – I move back and forth between Argo and Lincoln for the #1 spot. I finally decided I am going with Argo. I don’t think it is going to win Best Picture as I don’t think old-school Hollywood is ready to give Best Picture to a film directed by and starring Ben Affleck, but I thought it was the best film of the year. Quality acting, an incredibly compelling story, but what put it over the top was the remarkable re-creation of the Iranian revolution. It perfectly captured a significant time in world history.
Lincoln – I adored this 2 and a half hour history lesson. It told me important things I never knew about how this country was governed at the most challenging moment in our history. Certainly the best-acted movie of the year. I think the only thing holding it back from the top spot was Sally Field’s Mary Todd Lincoln and JGL’s Tab Lincoln. I just found the emotionally overwrought Lincoln family to be tiresome and distracting from the really important stuff going on elsewhere in the film. I know Mary Lincoln was crazy, it is a part of history with which I am familiar, but it did not work in the story. At least that is my opinion.
Avengers – It may be absurd to put a popcorn, action flick this high in my top ten, but this is one of the best popcorn action flicks of all time. Joss Whedon’s amazing mix of humor and action really worked.
Looper – I know it has become fashionable to poke holes in the time-travel theory of this movie, but as I sat in the theater, it worked for me…it really worked! I probably spent more time talking to people about this film and what it all meant than any other flick this year.
Django Unchained – As time passes, I warm to this film more and more. The splattering blood was a bit much at times, but about a half dozen brilliant acting performances make this a film you cannot take your eyes off of. QT needed an editor who was unafraid to tell him to trim some of the scenes.
End of Watch – Sometimes simple just plain works. This movie followed two beat officers on the mean streets of LA over the course of several months. Sometimes they were investigating stuff that tied together into a larger story, sometimes they were just doing their jobs. One of the officers was taking a film class so the movie got to use lots of handheld, realistic camerawork. The end result was an intense and realistic cop story that utterly captivated me. Props to Jake G. and Michael Pena for some fabulous acting.
Cloud Atlas – I was enthralled with the storytelling method employed by the Wachowskis and Tom Twyker in this film. As all 6 stories race to conclusion in the back half, even the weakest bladder would refuse to leave their seat. None of the stories rises to the level of brilliance, but mixing them together made for an utterly unique moviegoing experience. As the friend I saw it with said emailed me the next morning, “I can’t stop thinking about Cloud Atlas!” Again, a common thread in this list, some truly memorable and inspired acting performances in this film.
Life of Pi – The movie was slow at times, but contained some of the most brilliant CGI work I have ever seen. The animals are all computer generated but are completely real on screen. The tiger is infused with personality and character even though the movie never cheats by making him too human. I also love that Ang Lee never shows us the “other version” of the story, merely letting the main character tell us what happened. This is Lee’s way of letting the audience know which version of this amazing story he believes to be true… and I agree!
Chronicle – If this is the reward we get for enduring the endless line of horror “found footage” movies then it is worth it! Chronicle took “found footage” and elevated it to a significant storytelling device. I can ever forgive the way the “found footage” premise utterly collapsed on itself in the film’s big battle conclusion because it worked so well earlier in the movie. Chronicle was the first of a long line of high quality sci-fi this year. It was a cast of unknowns, though star Dane DeHaan is really on the rise because of this film. He has been cast as Harry Osbourn in the Spider-Man sequel.
Seven Psychopaths – I probably have no business putting this in my top ten, but I could not resist. I laughed a lot and just really enjoyed this insane story. Like many of the films in this list, it told its story in an unconventional way, which I appreciated. It had a fabulous cast who were just perfect for these roles because – well – they all have a rep for being just a little bit crazy. I could probably watch Christopher Walken, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrellson, and Colin Farrell read the telephone book and enjoy it. So, having them read a funny and surprising script was just a delight.

Honorable mention --Les Mis (beautiful, amazing first half, but second half was too looooong), Lawless (a bit aimless at times, but I adored listening to Tom Hardy grunt), Ted (as many truly funny scenes as any movie this year. Seth MacFarlane may be the funniest person around Hollywood right now), 21 Jump Street (close runner-up to Ted for most funny scenes. This was a guilty pleasure of mine early this year), Haywire (a simple spy story that kicked butt. Loved Gina Carano’s debut and I just wish Steven Soderbergh would never, ever stop directing!), Hunger Games (great job of capturing much of what made the book brilliant even if Peta was miscast), Skyfall (amazing at times, probably the best acted Bond film, but dragged too much and needed some more thought about the bad guy and his motivations).

Here are my bottom 5

5. Man on a Ledge – Utterly ridiculous plot that made no sense and contained not a single surprise. Ugh!
4. Wrath of the Titans – I thought Sam Worthington couldn’t get worse than Man on a Ledge… I was wrong. The story often seemed to exist purely to take us from one expensive but hard to follow CGI scene to the next. I yawned a half-dozen times, at least.
3. Battleship – The effects were good, but whoever is reading scripts for and giving career advice to Taylor Kitsch needs to be fired! This was so cheesy, it actually made some of the Transformers movies look decent by comparison. The Battleship gimmick was laughably lame and just made no sense.
2. Playing for Keeps – Obvious, stupid, parent-child relationship flick joins a long list of terrible films made by Gerard Butler since he wowed all of us in 300. Big cast was totally wasted in characters that were unbelievable and never made any sense. I am thankful that it died so quickly in theaters.
1. That’s My Boy – Adam Sandler is a funny man with good ideas who is capable of doing comedy that is funny and not just stupid. I have seen him do it many times before (Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates, Zohan, Punch Drunk Love, Funny People, Click). So, why does he keep on going back to the stupid well? This film was rarely humorous and was more-often-than-not just plain offensive. There was even a meaningless side plot involving brother-sister incest. Why?!?! He really needs to get away from Director Dennis Dugan, who is just godawful.

Dishonorable mention -- The Words (I think it was a story within a story within a story… but I did not care because none of them were all that compelling), Dark Shadows (A few amusing scenes but the film had no idea where it was going and would sometimes veer into utterly random ridiculousness. Ending was total nonsense), Ice Age: Continental Drift (your film features the voices of Queen Latifah, J-Lo, and Nicki Minaj but when it comes time for someone to sing… you pick Peter Dinklage. Just awful)

Of note: I have not yet seen The Sessions or Zero Dark Thirty, both of which probably have a decent chance to make the Top Ten. I also never got a chance to see The Watch over the summer, which (from what I hear) had a real shot at the bottom 5.

-Jason "also of note: when I walked out of the theater, I would have sworn that Prometheus would be on the my Top Ten list, but the more I thought about it, the worse and worse it got... still probably should have made honorable mention" Evans

**Udaman** · 01-08-2013, 02:02 PM

JE - I forgot about Seven Psychopaths. I thought the first half of the movie was simply outstanding. Then they moved to the dessert, and (just as the lead guy said) everything quieted down, which was a shame to me. I liked the ending as well, but still the movie went from 90 mph to 25 mph and then stayed that way for 45 minutes, which was a shame.

Be glad you didn't watch The Watch. Very glad.

I guess I should have had Lincoln higher. To be honest, I didn't put it there for 2 reasons - the first 5 minutes and the last. I thought the first 5 minutes were completely (and unnecessarily, by the way) forced. It took me a good 40 minutes of the movie to get over that. Then at the end, not showing the assassination was kind of a cop-out. Only Spielberg could get away with making a movie about Lincoln, then teasing us with a theater shot, only to pull the rug out and now show anything.

You will like Zero Dark Thirty. Of that I have no doubt.

**bedeviled** · 01-08-2013, 03:04 PM

I'll let the words of Jason, our resident movie critic, be my springboard.