2012 movie watching

[jal90]

This year has been quite fulfilling in terms of film viewing. I watched 200 films (wanted a round number so I just watched my last one today ), which makes 37 less than last year, but overall the experience was more varied. I was finally able to start with one of my old pending matters, John Ford. Seven films and one of them in my top20. In addition to this, I also started with John Carpenter, finally started to explore the classic Japanese cinema seriously (Mizoguchi was kind of disappointing, Kobayashi and Kurosawa made some favorites), got a growing interest on the Czech New Wave, and watched works from directors I had kind of forgotten after one film watched (Buñuel, Bergman, Haneke, Eastwood). I've also been watching some pending matters from the last decade. On the other hand, this has been the year of my glorious viewing of Manos: The hands of fate and the animated version of Titanic, apart from coprophagia classics Salò and Pink Flamingos.

I just watched one film from this year, though, and it was the short trilogy by Don Hertzfeldt, It's such a beautiful day. I also watched some 2011 works, but overall this was a retrospective year more than anything. The only other thing I kind of regret is not having watched many animated movies this year in comparison with my usual statistics.

My top10 of 2012 viewings (all Tier 10):

1. Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962) - 99
2. The man who shot Liberty Valance (John Ford, 1962) - 98
3. A page of madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926) - 98
4. For a few dollars more (Sergio Leone, 1965) - 98
5. Downfall (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004) - 98
6. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979) - 98
7. Underground (Emir Kusturica, 1995) - 98
8. Come and see (Elem Klimov, 1985) - 98
9. Day of the wacko (Marek Koterski, 2002) - 97
10. The man who wasn't there (Joel Coen, 2001) - 97


My bottom10 of 2012 viewings (all Tier 1):

1. Manos: The hands of fate (Hal Warren, 1966) - 1
2. Titanic: The animated movie (Camillo Teti, 2001) - 9
3. Pink Flamingos (John Waters, 1972) - 32
4. Freddy got fingered (John Green, 2001) - 35
5. Milf (Scott Wheeler, 2010) - 38
6. Aerograd (Aleksandr Dovzhenko, 1935) - 39
7. Livide (Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury, 2011) - 42
8. Fire and ice (Ralph Bakshi, 1983) - 43
9. Number 17 (Alfred Hitchcock, 1932) - 44
10. Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth (Hideaki Anno, Kazuya Tsurumaki & Masayuki, 1997) - 44

[nauru]

I watched 155 films this year. In 2012 I made more of an effort to see the work of well-known directors who are often lauded by film enthusiasts, and made progress toward seeing at least 5 films from each of the, say, 150 best-known and/or most-respected directors ever (totally unscientific, just based on my general observations of large groups of film enthusiasts' opinions of certain directors over time), regardless whether their work suits my tastes or not. This resulted in me watching several films from directors whose work I tend to strongly dislike, such as Lars von Trier, the Coen brothers, Woody Allen, and Wes Anderson; and not particularly enjoying myself during that process.

However I also got some exposure to John Carpenter, David Lean and Brian de Palma and found each of these mildly enjoyable. I also watched a film I wouldn't have watched if not for its director: Carnage (2011) which was directed by Roman Polanski, and I really enjoyed that. So even though the ratio of good to bad wasn't impressive in 2012, hopefully things will get better.

Best I saw in 2012

Young Adult (2011) 85, T10
Jesus Camp (2006) 80, T9
Real Steel (2011) 80, T9
Chronicle (2012) 79, T9
Game Change (2012) 79, T9
Get On The Bus (1996) 78, T9
Head in the Clouds (2004) 75, T9
The Duchess (2011) 75, T9
The Help (2011) 75, T9
Black Death (2010) 73, T8

Worst I saw in 2012

Resistance (2011) 1, T1
Moonrise Kingdom (2012) 3, T1
The Idiots (1998) 3, T1
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) 4, T1
Brick (2005) 4, T1
Haywire (2012) 5, T1
Hanna (2011) 5, T1
Ice Age: Continental Drift (2012) 5, T1
Tron (1982) 5, T1
Dracula (1992) 6, T1

Now that I think about it, I watched a lot of Tier 1s in 2012, and only one Tier 10. Weak year for me.

[CMonster]

So the year is officially over. Figured I'd throw my two cents in. Only saw 27 films made in 2012. The best was by far Cabin in the Woods. It made me laugh so hard it brought tears to my eyes the first time I watched it. I would definitely recommend it. The only other thing from this year that made my tier 10 was Bill Burr's stand up special. I am missing some key films that I figured will rank high for me including Moonrise Kingdom, The Master, and Django Unchained. I had 4 movies end up in my bottom 3 tiers and each deserves a special mention for how bad they were. Ice Age: Continental Drift was pretty atrocious even for an animated kids film. The Expendables 2 was really just boring most of the time and all the action was shot to show the stars in action poses rather than the action. Magic Mike was just awkward. And finally Rock of Ages had pretty mediocre covers and the only decent laugh came from the 10 seconds Bryan Cranston was on screen.

As for films I've actually watched this year I can't say exactly. I've ranked 248 but I know a bunch of those are me playing catch up with rankings so I'd guess I've probably only watch between 100-150. The best I saw from this year are all embarrassing to admit I hadn't seen them before because they were all unquestionable masterpieces. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Taxi Driver, The Shining, and Network all easily jumped near the top of my list of favorite films. I think I ranked Cuckoo's Nest slightly higher than the rest but I should probably change that because Network was probably my favorite out of all of what I saw this year. I'd argue it probably has the best script I've ever seen.

As for the worst films I saw, the first movie I watched in 2012 was the worst. Zeitgeist: Addendum takes the cake for being not only the worst movie of the year, but the worst movie I've seen since the original Zeitgeist. I don't exactly know why I watched it because of how I felt about the first one, but I can honestly saw it was exactly twice as good as the first by scoring a whole 2 points. As for other abortions I saw this year, both Enter the Void and Sleeping Beauty(not the Disney version) fell into the pretentious arthouse bullshit category and were significantly worse than any of the films I listed that were made in 2012 that were bad. I would gladly watch a Rob Schneider film before returning to either of them. I also saw The Human Centipede: First Sequence mostly based on curiosity. It managed to be less gross than my expectation but that isn't really saying much because it is definitely one of the most disgusting films I've ever seen. Plus it managed to be boring in an attempt to be artsy. The two other worst films of note were Twilight Saga: New Moon (only watched because of rifftrax and still was nearly unbearable) and Thankskilling which I went into thinking it would be so bad it's good, but whoever made it was trying to hard to do that which means it just turned out bad.

All in all it was a pretty weird year for movies for me. I probably watched more movies that landed in my top 20 rankings and bottom 20 rankings than any other year of movie watching. I also ended the year with Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie and walking in on the closing of Killer Joe, both of which were pretty much insane. I also did starting getting more into Asian cinema this year and watched a few kung fu and Takashi Miike films. Neither of those added to any sense of normalcy.

If I were to recommend one films I saw this year it would definitely be something that fit with the whole weird thing, but was surprisingly good. A documentary called Brother's Keeper. It's about a murder trial surrounding a group of very elderly brothers. It was very interesting and doesn't have many criticker rankings.

[afx237vi]

My second full year on Criticker and I ranked 227 films, compared to 255 in 2011. Best film I saw, or at least the most memorable, was probably The Night of the Hunter (1955).

[Gregzilla]

Watched 169 movies in 2012. Down by 29 from 2011 and the lowest in the last 5 years.

5 movies from 2012:

1.The Hunger Games T5
2.Prometheus T7
3.Beasts of the Southern Wild T7
4.Life of Pi T7
5.Lincoln T7

Nothing really engaged me enough to push it over the T7 mark.

My T10s otherwise were a number of old favs plus a couple of MOMs.

they are:


The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
The Help (2011)
Iphigenia (1977)
Jacquot de Nantes (1991)
Psychomania (1973)


29 T1s

The worst of the worst being:

Bad Girls from Mars (1990)
Curse of the Swamp Creature (1966)
Cutting Class (1989)
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)
Megaforce (1982)
Red Dawn (1984)
Starcrash (1978)
Pet Sematary II (1992)



Other notable films:

The Curious Female (1970) T9 - Ultra-low budget sex comedy that I surprisingly liked. In a future in which watching movies is banned, A group of rebels gather together to watch old movies. On this night the rebels watch an old ultra-low budget sex comedy. The rebel leaders stops the film at times to give historical context for the other rebels. Not really funny, But something clicked for me on this one. slated for a rewatch.

Das Millionenspiel (1970) T9 - One of this years MOMs. A man is hunted by several people for a TV show. If he survives the week he gets a million dollars. Commercials, Interviews, Musical Numbers, Everything that makes for great must see TV. A really interesting flick. It doesn't tell the viewer how to react to what is going on and leaves no room for the viewer to form thier own opinions on the proceedings.

The Black Hole (1979) T5 - The Disney sci-fi flick. Notable only for it spurring me on to write my only other mini-review. I'm surprised how much my apprieciation for this flick has grown over the years. Not that it's a good movie or anything, But I liked it much more now than when I was a kid.

Death Drug (1978) T2 - An anti-drug film that I may have seen before. Philip Michael Thomas (Star of TVs hit show "Miami Vice") Gives an incredible performance in the roll of a lifetime (he says so himself at the beginning of the movie). The low rating was due to being stunned by the movie, But it's staying in my collection. The movie masochists should really seek this one out.



Happy New Year and Happy Viewing.

[Jerky]

The best thing that I watched in 2012 came last night after celebrating New Year's Eve. I was on Youtube, listening to music, when I came upon Talking Heads 1984 concert film "Stop Making Sense". I didn't even plan on watching it all, it just so happened that I couldn't turn it off. What a show!

Here's a rundown of the best and worst thing I watched in each month in 2012 (not including shorts) with their score in brackets

January

Best - The Artist (75)
Worst - Bucky Larson: Born to Be A Star (35)

February

Best - The Help (65)
Worst - Jack and Jill (5)

March

Best - Generation Kill (75)
Worst - The Darkest Hour (35)

April

Best - The Mars Underground (80)
Worst - My Soul To Take (20)

May

Best - The Rise and Fall of ECW (75)
Worst - Hold That Ghost (50)

June

Best - The Avengers (70)
Worst - Piranha 3DD (10)

July

Best - Detention (70)
Worst - The Pact (35)

August

Best - The Cabin in the Woods (75)
Worst - Margaret (30)

September

Best - Black Mirror (70)
Worst - Men In Black 3 (50)

October

Best - Human Planet (80)
Worst - The Catechism Cataclysm (35)

November

Best - The Dark Knight Rises (80)
Worst - Red Lights (45)

December

Best - Stop Making Sense (90)
Worst - House At The End of the Street (35)

[TheDenizen]

Just saw God Bless America, which vaulted right to the the top of my list for 2012 films. Superb.

[Anomaly]

Like some other people have noticed with their viewing, 2012 did tend to be a year of extremes for me, with me giving out my lowest rating since 2008 and my first 100 since 2007! But overall it was a balanced year, as I saw films from all the genres, from Hollywood to indie, from old to new, from classic to not-so-classic, and from a multitude of countries. Total for the year was 188, up 6 from last year. Didn't see too many films from 2012 itself, but that's typical of me, since judging from my large list of 2011 films seen this year, I'll watch everything I missed this year.

The Best:
Fanny and Alexander - 100
Days of Heaven - 94
Time of the Gypsies - 93
The Exterminating Angel - 93
Glengarry Glen Ross - 91
Ivan's Childhood - 90
The Bridge on the River Kwai - 90
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 90
The Navigator - 90
Songs from the Second Floor - 90

Some from directors I already know and love, some from explorations into new directors. Fanny and Alexander was obviously the highlight, but all the others gave something great as well.

The Worst:
Squirm - 25
Laserblast - 24
The Violent Years - 23
The Wicker Man (remake) - 22
The Human Centipede - 21
Deep Blue Sea - 20
Troll - 19
Surf Nazis Must Die - 16
The Skydivers - 14
Problem Child - 12
On Deadly Ground - 11
The Beast of Yucca Flats - 9
Red Zone Cuba - 4

Notably I watched all of Coleman Francis' films (The Beast of Yucca Flats, The Skydivers, and Red Zone Cuba) because they were just so incompetent that I couldn't help but continue watching them. Most of the rest were just shit.

The Films I'd Most Like to Watch Again:
Time of the Gypsies - I wasn't quite expecting what I got, and though I enjoyed it highly, I feel a rewatch would allow me to truly grasp the greatness of this film.
Troll Hunter - I kept thinking about it for a while after seeing it. Might be better than I originally thought.
West Side Story - The Romeo-and-Juliet-plot is seriously powerful. The first half less so, but it might still be necessary.
Wes Anderson's films (Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom) - Because I loved them. Should go back to his older works, too.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - Because you need to see this more than once.
Teen Wolf - It almost works as something good. It's so close. Then again, maybe it isn't worth it.
On Deadly Ground - Because it's hilarious.

Most Disappointing Films:
His Girl Friday - Qouting my minireview: "Sociopathy, masquerading as patriarchal garbage, masquerading as comedy."
Bellflower - Read to much internet hype, ended up being something I didn't like and soured me to internet blogs once again (when will I learn???)
Drive - See above.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Nice sets. Boring and slow plot.
The Man Who Fell to Earth - Bowie's great. The direction is disconcerting and terrible.
Louis C.K.: Hilarious - I liked Chewed Up, but this just wasn't as funny.
The House of the Devil - It was going good but then the climax was soooo awful. Seriously couldn't believe it.
Billy Wilder, in general (Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole, The Seven Year Itch) - Double Indemnity and Some Like It Hot were great, so I don't really understand why these other well-regarded Wilder films are so dry, cold, and emotionless.
Surf Nazis Must Die - For wasting such a great title on something that's not even cheesy enough to laugh at.

Greatest Surprises:
The Invisible Man - Those special effects are seriously great, outside of the crappy primitive green screen.
Glengarry Glen Ross - I expected something great, but the power of that climax was still incredible.
The Amazing Spider-Man - Managed to be good, despite having everything going against it.

Worst Sequel:
Hannibal. Jesus.

Funniest Scenes:
Schwarzenegger's cameo in The Expendables.
Steven Seagal tripping balls and visiting the astral plane or whatever in On Deadly Ground.
Kevin Bacon's reaction face to Campbell and Richards making out in Wild Things.

Best Moment:
[spoiler]Alexander meets Ismael in Fanny and Alexander. Transcendent.[/spoiler]

Worst Moment:
[spoiler]The one-two punch of the turtle killing and the amputation scene in Cannibal Holocaust. Disgusting.[/spoiler]

Other:
Saw Juno. Was average. Have no idea why people get into such a frothing rage over it's existence.

All in all, a great year for viewing. Here's to hoping 2013 is just as great.

[Kojiless]

Saw a veritable buttload (industry term) of films in 2012, but only 34 were actually released in 2012.

The top four resemble those on other people's lists, so I won't trouble you by posting them again. But the bottom four... Holy Jeebus, were they bad...

Starship Troopers: Invasion
Airborne
Night of the Templar
7 Below

The only one I'd toss into the "so bad it's good" cauldron is Night of the Templar, if only because writer, director, producer, actor, composer, marketing analyst, caterer, veterinarian Paul Sampson reminds me a little of Tommy Wisseau (no offense, Mr. Wisseau).

[paulofilmo]

kill list. cult and war and stress and claustrophobia.
Two ex-service men need to make some money in order to keep a jacuzzi.


surviving life (theory and practice). an old dull man's escape to oneiric limerence. w/animated poultry.


the cats of mirikitani. make art not war.


possession. a man and a woman have an argument.


brideshead revisited. They fill you with the faults they had / And add some extra, just for you.


how wings are attached to the backs of angels. heap of gorey, pinch of servais. gorgeous sound.


ordet. the quest for meaning. the discovery of an astonishing pipe.



meghe dhaka tara. auteuristic pride to the melodramatic.


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80+ score went to: