2012 - The Movies I Saw

Here's everything I saw from this year, in the past year (and a couple movies from 2011 that took too long to expand). Anything I saw in theaters, I've got the link to my initial reaction. Mostly, that's just a way to differentiate the movies I saw in theaters versus the ones I saw later.

I also included a ten point scale for how much I liked the movie. I didn't feel like a top 10 list, so this is my far less efficient alternative.

The Dark Knight Rises    10/10
I won't pretend it's a perfect movie, but as the most dissected movie of the year, it holds up as a satisfying end to a remarkable trilogy.

Looper    10/10
No movie wowed me quite like this one. Intelligently written science fiction with excellent casting.

The Cabin in the Woods    9/10
The most successful inversion of horror movies I have ever seen. A rare satire that also works as the very type of movie it is reflecting on.

Marvel's The Avengers    9/10
A marvelous (pun only noticed upon proofreading) execution of the ballsiest gameplan of any studio since Lord of the Rings. The Marvel universe is in wonderful hands.

This is 40    9/10
Not a perfect movie and deffinitely deserves the moniker "white people problems". That said, it's filled with a ton a jokes, a large and talented cast, and no 30 minute, overly dramatic detour like in Funny People.

21 Jump Street    9/10
In a light year for comedies, this came out of nowhere as the rarest of movies: a good TV show adaptation.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey    8/10
Hard to place this movie, but in the end, Middle-Earth is Middle-Earth. Even when not firing on all cylinders, just visiting this world is awe-inducing.

God Bless America    8/10
It's not for everyone. What it lacks in subtlety it makes up for in overtness (redundant, I know). It is in your face unapologetic and I loved every second of it.

Argo    8/10
I can only credit this movie working so well to great direction. Six years ago, I'd've never believed Ben Afflect had it in him. One of the best "based of actual events" I can think of.

Skyfall    8/10
Saying "the best Bond film" is hitting a pretty low ceiling. It makes a strong case for that acolade and more. It's deserving of all it's success.

Pitch Perfect    8/10
I am the first to admit how awful I expected this to be. Instead of a Disney Channel movie with sex jokes, this continues the tradition of the best teen comedies of the early 2000s (Bring It On, 10 Things I Hate About You, etc.).

ParaNorman    8/10
This isn't the funniest or best looking animated movie of the year. What it lacks in polish it makes up for with one hell of a story. It takes some time, but by the end, it has one of the strongest messages of any movie I saw.

The Hunger Games    7/10
I'm not sure that it's $400 million good. It sure was a solid start of a franchise and a welcome shift from the Twilight dominance of the past half decade.

Wreck-It Ralph    7/10
Video game Toy Story. Not greatly original but it is full of that Disney charm that we don't see enough of these days.

Brave    7/10
What's this? Disney Animation beating Pixar...again. Solid Pixar outing although victim of it's own studio's success. At least it's a return to form after Cars 2.

The Five-Year Engagement    7/10
A little longer than it needed to be, but a fun cast and an enjoyable romantic comedy.

Bachelorette    7/10
I have some issues with the plot that hold me back from loving it. Thankfully, the cast is an eclectic and superb comedic cast and the dark tone is a welcome change from your standard wedding movie.

Magic Mike    7/10
As a straight man, am I technically allowed to say I enjoyed this movie a good deal? I say yes.

Lincoln    7/10
The acting was great. I can't deny that. The plot itself is basically a collection of speeches. That got more mileage from others than me.

Cloud Atlas    6/10
The most ambitious movie of the year. It took me hours to recover from it. Ulitmately, the message was lost on me, I think.

Les Misérables      6/10
Impressive production. Some great singing. Some not so great singing.

Flight    6/10
Denzel is solid, but the movie is really uneven.

Prometheus    6/10
Beautiful movie that tries to do too much.

Safety Not Guaranteed    6/10
It's nice to see Aubrey Plaza taking on a lead role. A little too indie for it's own good though.

Silver Linings Playbook    6/10
As a dramatic movie, it's a little slight. As a romantic comedy, it's a little heavy. Altogether, a fairly unique movie with some great acting turns.

Casa de mi Padre    6/10
Will Ferrell learned spanish for this. Shouldn't that be enough for a few points on my rating scale? Beyond that, it had a lot of what worked in something like Anchorman and little of what felt like too much in, say, Semi-Pro.

Ted    5/10
A super-sized episode of Family Guy. Mileage may vary.

Django Unchained    5/10
Inflated runtime but enjoyable the whole way through. A lot of scene chewing and winking at the camera (so to speak) that worked a lot better for me than in a lot of Tarantino films.

The Amazing Spider-Man    5/10
I, apparently had way more issues with this than most. For me, the crane scene still goes down as the most embarrassing thing I've seen in a movie this year (and that's saying something).

Paranormal Activity 4    5/10
It's a cheap bag of tricks that I'm completely fine returning to every October...but seriously, the pattern is established: the odd movies are the same and the evens are the same.

Haywire    5/10
I'll never understand how Soderbergh gets so many big names to do his movie. This felt like a specific type of action movie he needed to get out of his system. It's inconsistent, but a good distraction.

Lawless    5/10
The movie most ruined by the Community episode "Contemporary American Poultry". If you like the mob genre, you'll like this. If not, it won't change your mind.

The Grey    4/10
A bunch of men being chased by wolves. Not much more to it. Well made, but a little too sparse for my taste.

Wanderlust    4/10
A pretty forgettable comedy. In fact, I did forget that I saw it. A strong enough cast to keep it likeable.

Anna Karenina    4/10
A really impressively structure movie. The acting was pretty spot-on as well. This definitely falls into the category of "not my taste" rather than being a particularly bad movie. It did drag-on though.

The Master    4/10
A critical darling, that much like There Will Be Blood, I don't get the big deal. Hoffman, Phoenix, and Adams are all great throughout, but really, I got to the end and all I thought was "what's the point?".

The Bourne Legacy    4/10
If you told me that this was a script that had orginally had nothing to do with Bourne and was edited to fit into the franchise, I would totally believe you. On a technical level, it was fine although I couldn't shake the concerns of why they bothered making it.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home    4/10
I wanted to like this more than I actually did. It struck me as a little too indie for it's own good. Jason Segel and Ed Helms both get to play characters different from their normal casting.

John Carter    4/10
In a world where this wasn't one of the most expensive movies ever made and there wasn't an historically long time in development (This was one of the first movies EVER planned), this would be a forgettable but enjoyable science fiction movie. As is, it's a critically lampooned failure.

Beasts of the Southern Wild    4/10
I don't get it. The ending is fairly touching and the world it builds is inventive and impressive.  That's about all I can say about it. At no point was I all that engaged by it.

Moonrise Kingdom    4/10
I am not a Wes Anderson fan (by result, not intent. I don't go in assuming I'll hate it).  I think it's the fact that with every line, you can see the actors thinking, "This will be really funny for how dry it is".

The Guilt Trip    3/10
Harmless fun. Definitely greared more for Barbara Streisand fans more than Seth Rogen fans. One of those movies that could belong in any decade, not because it's timeless, but because the humor is so without edge that it can't offend anyone easily.

Battleship    3/10
I feel bad for how much this movie gets attacked. It was stupid and I have no idea who thought this would succeed as a summer blockbuster with such a convuluted story. That's a given. Beyond that, there's some good action, better than expected performances by not good actors (See: Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna), and even a couple moments that had me engaged. Yeah, I'm rating this higher than I shoud. So what?

Snow White and the Huntsman    3/10
Charlize Theron was in a completely different movie than the rest of the cast, a much better movie.

Goon    3/10
A harmless sports movie. A good role for Sean Williams Scott. I had fun watching it, even if I have no intent to watch it again.

MIB 3    3/10
Better than the second movie, I guess. Not by much. You either like Will Smith's charm, or you don't. It's the only thing to carry the movie. Personally, I couldn't get past all the egregious age permutations.

The Expendables 2    2/10
Yeah. I'm giving it a 2. There's movies that I enjoyed less, primarily beacause it knew that it's bad. It's camp. It's trash. It's constant winking at the camera. Most of all, it apologizes for nothing. A $100 million B-movie. It tried a little too hard to one-up the first movie and fails but it wasn't unbearable.

American Reunion    2/10
It's a little sad. When the first one came out, it was full of up-and-comers. Now, they are all still available to do a lifeless rehash. Are there any A-listers in the bunch. The fact that Jim's dad and Stifler's mom have the biggest careers now is not saying a lot.

Hope Springs    2/10
Technically, it's not a bad movie. This one falls under the category of "not for me", and I don't think that should be a surprise. The leads are great. Steve Carrell is restrained. The movie is paced pretty well. But, it's a movie about grandparent romance.

Savages    2/10
It bums out that Taylor Kirsch had so many movies that fell flat this year. What hurt this one the most is the fact that it didn't look like it would be as bad as the others, then was. Also, the fake ending was bullshit.

The Campaign    2/10
I don't care much for Zack Galifinakis (although I'd like to), nor do I often care for Will Farrell in character mode. Had this movie merely been an election farce, I'd've rated it a little higher, but the idealized ending and anti corporate message killed it for me.

Mirror Mirror    2/10
The cheaper, family friendlier Snow White movie this year. Mostly, I thought it had the look and feel of a made-for-TV movie. I've given it this ranking despite my strange love of the closing credits song...Seriously, why do I like that song so much?

Dark Shadows    2/10
There were a lot of clever ideas in this, but like almost every movie made from a TV show, it is a bunch of funny parts in the first half, then it falls apart at the end when it remembers it needs to have a plot.

Killing Them Softly    2/10
Essentially, it's a small-time hit man movie. That's all I can gather about it. All the parallels it draws to the 2008 election felt really out of place.

Bernie    2/10
Jack Black is good in an otherwise forgettable movie. I wanted to like it more because of the good performance, but as short as it was, there was basically a half-hour idea in an hour and a half movie.

Bully    2/10
As far as documentaries go, it was well made. This isn't a "well-made" rating though. There wasn't anything new that was being said and as authentic as the footage is, there's hardly anything shocking or danming about it.

Taken 2    1/10
Did Michael Bay direct this sequel? Almost everything that was wrong about Transformers 2 is in this. In a word: excess. Also, I don't remember ever hearing people saying "I really liked the first Taken, but I really wish Maggie Grace had more to do with the action sequences."

Total Recall    1/10
Within a month of seeing this, I had already forgotten almost everything about this. Some movies are bad because of so many elements failing. The only thing this movie accomplishes is being completely forgettable.

Rock of Ages    1/10
This movie is pretty much everything that's wrong with kareoke cinema. A bunch of big names singing songs I'm tired of hearing. I wanted it to surprise me and it didn't.

Project X    1/10
The party is impressive, but I found the characters in this to be vile beyond belief. I tried to turn my brain off and appreciate the boobs and out-of-control attitude, which I'm pretty good at. This couldn't be done. I will recommend again no movie this year more than this one.

Premium Rush    1/10
I love Joseph Gordon Levitt, but he couldn't save this. Fifteen minutes in I was checking my phone hoping it was almost over.

The FP    0/10
Whole different rating system for this kind of movie. It belongs in the "brilliantly bad" category. Anyone looking for a chuckle with some friends, watch this without hesitation.

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A few I saw in 2012 that came out in 2011.

War Horse    8/10
I can't defend the pitch for the movie. I also can't deny how it manipulative it is. I can say, if you go into it with an open mind and willingness to be affected, it is both a  heart-breaking and crowd-pleasing film.

Young Adult    8/10
I can't say I thought much of it at the time. Had I wrote a reaction, it'd be very tepid. As I've stewed on it, I started appreciating the utter-coldness of it. Charlize Theron is as fantastic as she is divisive.

My Week with Marilyn    5/10
Michelle Williams is so good in this. Otherwise, pretty forgettable.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy    4/10
I was way too tired to see this when I did. It is a detailed and complex film. It's a shame I couldn't stay awake for it.

Shame    3/10
The controversy surpassed the product. Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan are both terrific though.

The Artist    3/10
I have no idea how this won virtually every best picture award. It was a simple movie and a fun throwback to a different era in filmmaking. Beyond that, I don't see much to offer.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close    1/10
I can't speak for the book, but this comes off as a guide for bad parenting and exploiting 9/11 for dramatic purposes. Pretty disappointing.