Mitch's Top 10 Films of 2012

As I keep posting in my best and wort of 2012, I have reviewed 109 films this year.  There is one film I've missed that finds its way into most critics lists and the major awards.  That film, "Amour", would probably find its way on my list as well but because I write for another film website, movieboozer.com, their deadline for lists are due before I can get to it.  Sad for me, but life has deadlines, and I can't see them all.  Regardless, a very good year for film here are my best of the best.

Click here for Mitch's Top Films of 2012 (20-11)

Mitch's Top 10 Film's of 2012 

10. Life of Pi

Regardless of 3D or not, Life of Pi is a visually extravagant dessert for the eyes. You can’t help but be moved by an amazing survival story dependant on faith that Ang Lee vividly puts on a beautiful canvas.

9. Moonrise Kingdom

A momentum building of wide-eyedness that hasn’t been reached in any of Anderson’s previous films.  I like that Anderson’s characters are not rooted in the majority, it is just a delight to watch what he thinks human interaction is.

8. The Cabin in the Woods

“The Cabin in the Woods” is a film unlike anything you’ve seen before. A must-see deconstruction meta-masterpiece that uses the often used foils of the horror genre and flips it on it’s bloody back.

7. Beasts of the Southern Wild

“Beast of the Southern Wild” is powerful, tense, and even a cathartic fable from thedeep south.  The beauty and terror that is Zeitlin’s “Beast of the Southern Wild” is able to elicit makes this film a must watch.

6. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

People and critics didn't catch onto this gem the way I did. “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World” is the most touching film I’ve seen all year.

5. Django Unchained

Audacity, thy name is Quentin Tarantino. Audacity via sheer entertainment that is.  

4. Silver Linings Playbook

“Silver Linings Playbook” doesn’t bother with reinventing the wheel, with familiar plot points playing themselves out, but with director David O. Russell keeping his hot hand after last year's “The Fighter” and really strong performances make it an incredibly rewarding movie going experience. 

3. Lincoln

Maybe by the end I was seeing through ‘Spielberg goggles’.  Drunk on heavy amounts of sentimentalism and pride of our democracy, but let the fact checkers have their squabbles because I did not want to sober up. 

2. Zero Dark Thirty

Jessica Chastain gives one of the best performances, male or female, in the last 10 years. Director Kathryn Bigelow is able to convey the reality and hardships of those brave souls who work so hard, sacrificing so much, and risking their lives to protect our freedom.

1. Argo 

“Argo” never misses a beat, not one, the unexpected humour hits, the unbelievable true story drama is gripping from the very beginning, and the “Wag the Dog” satire is very much felt.  Above all Affleck is able to have us empathize, be educated, and immensely entertained.

Click here for Best Films of 2011

                    Best Films of 2010

Mitch's Top Films of 2012 (20-11)

In my opinion 2012 was a much better year for cinema than 2011.  A hard year to pick the best of the best but here goes.  

Mitch's Top Films of 2012 (20-11)

20. Saftey Not Guaranteed

The performances here are charming, quirky, soulful, and surprising.  “Safety Not Guaranteed” is a wonderful little film that stretches heart more than it stretches space and time.  

19. Goon

Kudos to Sean William Scott's sweetest performance to date.  Delivering big laughs, the film has the subtlety of a Ke$ha song, and enough blood splatter to make Carrie jealous.

18. The Hunger Games

"The Hunger Games" is heartpounding and wondeful escapism.  By the end of the inevitable trilogy, Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen will be held inthe same iconic breath as Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley.

17. Holy Motors

Easily the wierdest film of the year, Carax has gift wrapped a beautiful puzzle for us but purposely took out a few pieces beforehand so that we can never put it together.  Denis Lavant's performance is something to behold.  

16. Looper

“Looper” is smart-fi of the highest order benefited from very intelligent performances from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, and Emily Blunt. Director and writer Rian Johnson has continued the science fiction movement that dares to combine big budget with big IQ in the vein that Christopher Nolan pulled off with “Inception”.

15. The Sapphires 

At times “The Sapphires” is a bit hokey, a bit predictable, and a bit manipulative, but it’s gotta whole lotta soul and a fantastic lively performance from Chris O'Dowd, making it one of the more pleasant cinematic surprises all year.

14. The Dark Knight Rises

“The Dark Knight Rises” is an exhilarating moviegoing experience and a powerful conclusion to one of the greatest film trilogies ever.

13. The Sessions

“The Sessions” plays as heartwarming and upbeat as the man of whom it’s about, with an endearing and physically demanding performance from Hawkes.

12. Marvel's The Avengers

Whedon’s impressively concentrated effort of direction and dialogue is never wasted with the sick talent of actors who convey a magnanimous amount of pathos even while wearing tights and body suits. 

11. Chronicle

In a year of superhero films galore, "Chronicle" was my favorite. The acting in the film gives the extraordinary events truth but it’s Trank’s direction that brings “Chronicle” to a higher level. This is the rare sort of smart fully realized sci-fi that makes me giddily go nanoo nanoo.

 Click here for Mitch's 10 Top Films of 2012

Mitch's Top 10 Worst Films of 2012

This is a little later than I like to do my end of the year lists but with my Minnesota occupancy and with the late wide release of Zero Dark Thirty I was forced to wait a bit longer.  

In the year of 2012 I was able to review a personal record of 109 films but there were still plenty that were missed.  I didn't see Tyler Perry's lambasted action detective drama "Alex Cross" and if I did I'm sure it might find a place on my list but sometimes time only allows for only one release a week and that week "Paranormal Activity 4" (also pretty bad) won out. But enough excuses.   

Without further ado-

Mitch's Top 10 Worst Films of 2012 

10. Pitch Perfect 

This is one those films the masses and I disagreed.  I don’t dislike this film because its a singing movie.  I dislike this movie because it’s not funny, the characters are extremely uninteresting, there’s little to no cohesiveness, and sadly this is a step back for the very talented Anna Kendrick.  “Aca”-give me a break. 

9. Lockout

What a waste of a perfectly sarcastic and beefed up Guy Pearce.  Stealing from the Die Hards and Escape From New Yorks as it does, “Lockout”, is a major fail, as dizzying action sequences bore and silly one-liners did not turn this reviewer’s frown upside down.

8. Battleship

You knew this picture was gonna be bad right from the first trailer.  Battleships did not disappoint.  Beyond goofy but still no fun, I hope Liam Neeson, who has another movie on my list, at least got paid ridiculously well.  By the end of the film I was smacking my ear, trying to get the water out.  

7. The Collection

Its almost as if director Marcus Dunstan was going for the unintentional B-movie intentionally. I was not amused. The horror is presented in such a dim-witted manor that even the most gleeful torture-porn horror lover has to check themselves at the bloody door.  

6. The Devil Inside

It’s been told the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was getting people to make crappy movies with his name in it.  Lord have mercy on us all for watching this would be horror film that has more unintentional laughs than intentional scares.

5. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

“Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer” tries to invoke the magnitude and drama of Lincoln, the Civil War, and the abolishment of slavery set to the backdrop of the sub genre of vampire horror, and this is just plain wrong.  Not that it’s wrong to combine the two, it’s just wrong to be so damn patriotic about it.

4. Nobody Walks

“Nobody Walks” is one of the more pretentious films in recent memory as it plays incredibly ugly with no search for it’s characters complexities.  People get hurt and make choices that hurt and we learn nothing from it.

3. Taken 2

"Taken 2" isn’t even fun in the ironic way, it’s dumb in all the wrong ways: close ups on bullet shells, close ups on defenseless females crying, and close ups on fighting sequences that should give out a warning to epileptics. The scene of Liam Neeson yelling at Maggie Grace on the finer points of driving is one for the memories.

2. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

I despise The Twilight Saga. I have watched them all, and I can never take that back. Much like the Phoenix, I shall rise from the ashes, and I will be a better person from it.  As the credits rolled a great joy washed over me, ecstatic bliss like the Ewoks dancing at the end of Return of the Jedi.

1. This Means War

This is bad film, a special bad film, the kind you have ready to go in your drunken bad movie party nights.  Sadly, there are two very talented young actors, Chris Pine and Tom Hardy, who get sucked in by the gravitational pull that is McG’s talentless black hole.

Check out Mitch's Top Worst Films of 2011

                Mitch's Top Worst Films of 2010

First Films of the New Year: A Deeper Look

  Happy New Year’s everyone!  I just wish Hollywood would think so.

I’ve got a New Year’s resolution for tinseltown- stop giving us crap films for the first film to be wide released each year!  I know, I know, Oscar films come out at the end of each year and so you’re not gonna get the cream of the cinema crop but year after year January’s opening act is quite often the bottom of the barrel. With Texas Chainsaw 3D being the film to be the first wide release (at least 600 screens) in 2013, I’ve decided it would be interesting to take a look back at the primary films initially dumped in the last 20 years dating back to 1982. Find out some fun facts (fun for me), patterns, and any anomalies that occurred.

 -Nowadays there's such a saturated movie schedule that there's a film or five released every week of the year.  The further you go back the less overcrowded it was and there didn't need to be a film released in the first week, i.e. 1982's first release, Vice Squad, wasn't distributed till January 22nd.

-In 1996, they had a fire-sale releasing 6 films wide release in the same weekend -The film with the longest title also came out in 1996, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.

-1993's The Leprechaun was released by Trimark Pictures.  The Jennifer Anniston introducing cult favorite was Trimark's third highest grossing film ever at a grand total of  8.5 million domestic just behind Warlock and Eve's Bayou.  Now wonder Trimark became defunct in 2000. From the 44 films Trimark released the combined total gross was $86,742,002.

-There are so many guilty pleasures among the 55 denoted below.  My top 5 would be Bio-Dome, Kuffs, Lionheart, Grandma's Boy, and Howie Long's one starring role, Firestorm.

-The real test of why January are the abandoned babies at the unsuspecting doorsteps are the Rotten Tomatoes scores.  If 60% is a passing grade than only 8 of those 55 films passed, with Richard Gere's 1990 Internal Affairs leading the pact at 88%.  In fact, the average score is a staggering 26.5%, Including three squadouches; One Missed Call (2008), DeepStar Six (1989), and Return of the Living Dead 2 (1988).  

 

-Bet you didn't know that the top 3 grossing "first film of the year" were Save the Last Dance (2001) at 91.0 million, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) at 88.0 million, and Fantasia 2000 (2000) at 60.5 million.

-I bet you can guess the film genre that appears the most on the list.  Yep, it's ecological documentaries.  No, its horror films.  Wannabe scary films appear 15 times.  On a weird note, Oscar darling Miramax is responsible for 6 films.  

M/D/YR	MOVIE	STUDIO	TOTAL GROSS (million)	OPENING GROSS (million)	GENRE	ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE
1/6/12	The Devil Inside	Paramount	53.2	33.7	Horror	7%
1/7/11	Season of the     Witch	Relativity	24.8	10.6	Horror	10%
1/8/10	Daybreakers	Lionsgate	30.1	15.1	Horror	67%
1/8/10	Leap Year	Universal	25.9	9.2	Rom-com	21%
1/8/10	Youth in Revolt	Weinstein	15.2	6.8	Comedy	67%
1/9/09	Bride Wars	Fox	58.7	21.0	Comedy	11%
1/9/09	The Unborn	Universal	42.6	19.8	Horror	11%
1/4/08	One Missed Call	WB	26.8	12.5	Horror	0%
1/5/07	Freedom Writers	Paramount	36.6	9.4	Drama	69%
1/5/07	Happily N'Ever After	Lionsgate	15.5	6.6	Animated Family	4%
1/5/07	Code Name: The Cleaner	New Line	8.1	4.2	Comedy	4%
1/6/06	Hostel	Lionsgate	47.3	19.5	Horror	60%
1/6/06	Grandma's Boy	Fox	6.0	3.0	Comedy	18%
1/6/06	Bloodrayne	Romar Ent.	2.4	1.5	Horror	4%
1/7/05	White Noise	Universal	56.3	24.1	Horror	9%
1/9/04	My Baby's Daddy	Miramax	17.6	7.5	Comedy	4%
1/9/04	Chasing Liberty	WB	12.1	6.0	Romance	18%
1/10/03	Just Married	Fox	56.1	17.5	Rom-Com	19%
1/4/02	Impostor	Miramax	6.2	3.0	Sci-fi	22%

[caption id="attachment_35769" align="aligncenter" width="101"] Season of the January Release[/caption]

1/12/01	Save the Last Dance	Paramount	91.0	23.4	Music/Drama	53%
1/12/01	Double Take	Buena Vista	29.8	11.7	Comedy	12%
1/12/01	Antitrust	MGM	11.3	5.4	Thriller	24%
1/1/00	Fantasia 2000	Buena Vista	60.5	2.2	Animated/Family	82%
1/1/99 *	Playing By Heart	Miramax	3.9	26K	Romance	62%
1/9/98	Firestorm	Fox	8.1	3.8	Action	12%
1/10/97	The Relic	Paramount	33.9	9.0	Horror	32%
1/10/97	Jackie Chan's First Strike	New Line	15.3	5.7	Action	55%
1/10/97	Turbulence	MGM	11.5	4.4	Thriller	17%
1/12/96	Eye for an Eye	Paramount	26.8	6.9	Thriller	8%
1/12/96	Don't Be a Menace...	Miramax	20.1	8.1	Comedy	29%
1/12/96	Bio-Dome	MGM	13.4	5.0	Comedy	5%
1/12/96	Two if by Sea	WB	10.6	4.6	Rom-com	11%
1/12/96	Dunston Checks In	Fox	9.8	3.0	Family	7%
1/12/96	Lawnmower Man 2: Jobe's War	New Line	2.4	1.2	Horror	11%
1/6/95	Houseguest	Buena Vista	26.3	5.8	Comedy	15%
1/7/94	The Air Up There	Miramax	21.0	5.2	Family	21%
1/8/93	Leprechaun	Tristar	8.5	2.4	Horror	27%
1/10/92	The Hand That Rocks the Cradle	Buena Vista	88.0	7.6	Thriller	59%
1/10/92	Kuffs	Universal	21.1	5.6	Action/Comedy	27%

Viewers checked out.

1/11/91	Lionheart	Universal	24.0	7.0	Action...............	25%
1/11/91	Not Without My Daughter	MGM	14.7	3.8	Drama	47%
1/12/90	Internal Affairs	Paramount	27.7	5.0	Thriller	88%
1/12/90	Leather Face: Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3	New Line	5.7	2.6	Horror	14%
1/13/89	DeepStar Six	Tri-Star	8.1	3.3	Horror	0%
1/13/89	The January Man	MGM	4.6	1.7	Thriller	21%
1/15/88	For Keeps	Tri-Star	17.5	4.8	Romance	22%
1/15/88	The Couch Trip	Lorimar	11.0	3.3	Comedy	43%
1/15/88	Return of the Living Dead 2	Lorimar	9.2	3.6	Horror	0%
1/9/87	Assassination	Cannon	6.0	2.7	Action	N/A
1/10/86	Black Moon Rising	New World	6.6	2.7	Action	33%
1/11/85	Tuff Turf	Orion	9.3	1.5	Drama	20%
1/13/84	Hot Dog: The Movie	MGM	20.3	4.5	Comedy	N/A
1/21/83*	The House on Sorority Row	FVI	10.6	617K	Horror	20%
1/22/86	Vice Squad	Embassy	13.2	1.7	Action	75%

Gotta love the 80's

Mitch's Best Movies of 2012...First Half

It's roughly the halfway point for the 2012 calender year.  Out of the 52 films I've reviewed this year lets take a look back at the films I think you need to see.  

In alphabetical order.

The Avengers- Whedon’s impressively concentrated effort of direction and dialogue is never wasted with the sick talent of actors who convey a magnanimous amount of pathos even while wearing tights and body suits. The Avengers is now the third highest grossing film domestically ever, very impressive.

Cabin in the Woods- a film unlike anything you’ve seen before.  A must-see deconstruction meta-masterpiece that uses the often used foils of the horror genre and flips it on it’s bloody back.  For horror lovers (ME!) out there this film is a specal treat. 

Chronicle- The acting in the film gives the extraordinary events truth but it’s Trank’s direction that brings “Chronicle” to a higher level.  This is the rare sort of smart fully realized sci-fi that makes me giddily go nanoo nanoo. 

God Bless America- Director Goldthwait is able to convey his (and my) anger over the state of humanity, but even more than that drill in an overwhelming mood of exhaustion. 

Goon- Delivering big laughs, the film has the subtlety of a Ke$ha song, and enough blood splatter to make Carrie jealous. 

Haywire- I want to thank Steven Soderbergh for this rare January movie gem and for introducing the force that is Gina Carano.

The Hunger Games- By the end of the inevitable trilogy, Jennifer Lawrence's Katniss Everdeen will be held in the same iconic breath as Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home- Each of these sad characters know life is passing them by and there are no better directors to tell the plight of the “man child” than the Duplass Brothers.

Moonrise Kingdom- A momentum building of wide-eyedness that hasn’t been reached in any of Anderson’s previous films.

Safety Not Guaranteed- The performances here are charming, quirky, soulful, and surprising. 

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World- The most touching film I’ve seen all year... So far...

Sleepless Night- While the high adrenaline action puffs its chest out plenty, Jardin is able to take a very elementary plot and layer intelligence that makes for compelling dynamite.  Foregin action films are getting better and better.