50 Movies in 2012

[Poolio]

1. Love Actually
2. Swing time - this was a good hangover film. Light, funny, and enjoyable.
3. Super 8 - I enjoyed this, although there were some lighting effects that bothered me... but I'm not sure if it was/is a flaw with my tv or something on the dvd.
4. Bridesmaids - Okay, admission time! I've never been much for the Judd Apatow movies, they've just been "meh!" for me. But, I got a quite a few laughs outta this one and kinda enjoyed it. And, as others have said, the friendship between Annie and Lillian is what sealed the movie for me. I've loved Melissa McCarthy since she was on Gilmore Girls, she's nearly always hilarious. And Chris O'Dowd was just adorable.
5. Red riding hood - This movie was pants. I sat through it but it was like the Brothers Grimm and Twilight had a baby and this was the result.
6. Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, part 2 - My criticisms from when I saw it in the theaters still holds. I still enjoyed but the missed opportunities still bother me.
7. Spaceballs
8. Battle : Los Angeles
9. MST3K : Devil doll
10. The Snow creature - From 1954. Things I learned from this film: #1. Tibetans not only look like the Japanese but they also speak Japanese! #2. Yeti's are not completely covered in hair, they just wear hairy pants. #3. If all else fails, send in an American Botanist.
11. Space Truckers - I want my 90 minutes back. I've seen a ton of bad sci-fi movies from the 90s but this is up there with Space Mutiny. Look it up.
12. Sucker punch - I enjoyed this more than I thought I would but I am glad I didn't pay money in the theatre for it.
13. Chico & Rita - Newly-minted Oscar nominee. This was the first showing in Columbus and one of the first in the US for this movie. It is fantastic. It's a love story between two people but it's also a love story to music. You'll want to dance, you'll want to cry. If you get the chance, go see this.
14. Santo the Silver Masked Man vs. the Martian Invasion - Oh man, this was so wonderfully bad. It was awesome. We had a couple people show up in Mexican wrestling masks and the crowd was super into it... LOTS of laughter and heckling.
15. Dumbo - I haven't seen this in years. Still a wonderful movie. And, if you don't tear up a little during "Baby mine" you have no soul.

16. House of pleasures - The story of a French brothel at the end of the 19th century. Opulent and sexy but also very personal. You see everything, how the women live when they're not "entertaining", how they care for themselves and each other. It's fascinating. Yes, there's plenty of nudity and sex to go around (with a little violence and gore thrown in) but it is the relationships between these women that are the centerpiece. Highly recommended.

[MissKitty]

16. House of pleasures - The story of a French brothel at the end of the 19th century. Opulent and sexy but also very personal. You see everything, how the women live when they're not "entertaining", how they care for themselves and each other. It's fascinating. Yes, there's plenty of nudity and sex to go around (with a little violence and gore thrown in) but it is the relationships between these women that are the centerpiece. Highly recommended.

Plenty of nudity and sex, you say? Why do I have the feeling that CR is already searching for it on Netflix?

[c-lando]

16. House of pleasures - The story of a French brothel at the end of the 19th century. Opulent and sexy but also very personal. You see everything, how the women live when they're not "entertaining", how they care for themselves and each other. It's fascinating. Yes, there's plenty of nudity and sex to go around (with a little violence and gore thrown in) but it is the relationships between these women that are the centerpiece. Highly recommended.

Plenty of nudity and sex, you say? Why do I have the feeling that CR is already searching for it on Netflix?

HAHAHHHA! They had him at BROTHEL. But, may have lost him at FRENCH.

[Poolio]

16. House of pleasures - The story of a French brothel at the end of the 19th century. Opulent and sexy but also very personal. You see everything, how the women live when they're not "entertaining", how they care for themselves and each other. It's fascinating. Yes, there's plenty of nudity and sex to go around (with a little violence and gore thrown in) but it is the relationships between these women that are the centerpiece. Highly recommended.

Plenty of nudity and sex, you say? Why do I have the feeling that CR is already searching for it on Netflix?

HAHAHHHA! They had him at BROTHEL. But, may have lost him at FRENCH.

That's what the mute button is for, right?

[Cockney Rebel]

16. House of pleasures - The story of a French brothel at the end of the 19th century. Opulent and sexy but also very personal. You see everything, how the women live when they're not "entertaining", how they care for themselves and each other. It's fascinating. Yes, there's plenty of nudity and sex to go around (with a little violence and gore thrown in) but it is the relationships between these women that are the centerpiece. Highly recommended.

Plenty of nudity and sex, you say? Why do I have the feeling that CR is already searching for it on Netflix?

HAHAHHHA! They had him at BROTHEL. But, may have lost him at FRENCH.

That's what the mute button is for, right?

The 19th Century thing is also off-putting. But I like opulence, obviously. After all, I has it.

[c-lando]

The 19th Century thing is also off-putting. But I like opulence, obviously. After all, I has it.

Heeeheeheeeeee!

[Cockney Rebel]

New to me films in bold
1 • Limitless
2 • Rocky Mountain Express
3 • Idiocracy
4 • The World is Not Enough
5 • Erasing David
6 • Live and Let Die
7 • El Superstar: The Unlikely Rise of Juan Frances
8 • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
9 • The Muppets
10 • Our Idiot Brother
11 • Thunderbirds are GO
12 • Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
13 • Little Voice
14 • The Auteur
15 • Short Circuit
16 • Personal Services
17 • Harry and Tonto
18 • Howl's Moving Castle
19 • The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
20 • Meet Monica Velour
21 • The Artist
22 • Punching the Clown
23 • Man on a Ledge
24 • Adventures in Pornoland
25 • About Adam
adding
26 • Moneyball
Not as terrific as I somehow imagined it might be. I think my problem was Pitt not being believable enough for me. Jonah Hill, however, was magnificent & laconic in his laid back support role. A useful bunt rather than a home run.
27 • The Workshop
This 91 minute candid documentary about a "self-belief" retreat - complete with rampancy & nudity - was OK apart from the first 91 minutes

[va_vacious]

New to me movies are in bold

1. The Princess Bride-- Still holds up quite well, if anything, I think it's better than when I first saw it. Wesley!!!
2. No Strings Attached- Ashton Kutcher/Natalie Portman. I liked him better than her, which is weird. AK should stick to rom-coms, he does them well, even if he's a tool in the real world.
3. The Truth about Cats and Dogs-- hmmm, nostalgically cute, but it really isn't a good movie when you get down to it. Garofalo is adorable, and Uma is such a newbie in this one.

4. Velvet Goldmine-- forgot that Christian Bale is in this. Ewan McGregor and Jonathan Rhys Myers is pretty good. I loved the music, still.
5. I Hate Valentine's Day Rom-com with Nia Vardoles and John Corbett. Not as good as My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

[Atzend]

1. Limitless
2. Godzilla vs. Mothra
3. The Andromeda Strain
4. Tron: Legacy
5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
6. Ghost in the Machine
7. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold
8. Alien Nation   
9. Mary & Max
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey
11. Ides of March - Good, but not great.  Felt like something was missing.  Perhaps it was any semblence of emotion from any of the characters. While the the dialogue was good, a little extra personality may have been an improvement.

[Cockney Rebel]

New to me films in bold
1 • Limitless
2 • Rocky Mountain Express
3 • Idiocracy
4 • The World is Not Enough
5 • Erasing David
6 • Live and Let Die
7 • El Superstar: The Unlikely Rise of Juan Frances
8 • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
9 • The Muppets
10 • Our Idiot Brother
11 • Thunderbirds are GO
12 • Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
13 • Little Voice
14 • The Auteur
15 • Short Circuit
16 • Personal Services
17 • Harry and Tonto
18 • Howl's Moving Castle
19 • The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
20 • Meet Monica Velour
21 • The Artist
22 • Punching the Clown
23 • Man on a Ledge
24 • Adventures in Pornoland
25 • About Adam
26 • Moneyball
27 • The Workshop
adding
28 • Drive
Shoulda been filmed in Liverpool. Then someone woulda nicked the wheels and we wouldn't have had to put up with an hour & 40 minutes of plop
29 • 9 to 5
It always amazed me that whilst Dolly P & Lily Tomlin felt like natural fits for this 1980 farce (The "Office Space" of its time) Jane Fonda seemed woefully miscast and out of place. Is it really 32 years old? Crap... I remember going to the London video premiere as a guest of one of the film companies and getting absolutely shitfaced at the free bar. The movie seemed funny afterwards. A lot funnier than now that's for certain

[Butter]

1. Forks Over Knives - 3
2. Die Welle (The Wave) - 5
3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - 5.5
4. Insidious - 7.5
5. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - 8
6. Babel - 7
7. The Adventures of Tintin - 8
8. Unknown - 6
9. I Am Comic - 7

10. The Woman in Black (2012) - 4

Pretty much lacked any scares aside from jumpy ones.  The entire movie seemed pretty much telegraphed.  There is always a creepy vibe to scary goings-on in a far-off English country village (see Village of the Damned), but this one just didn't get it right.  We go up to the same room about 47 times, despite it being a ginormous country manor that is haunted by the titular lady.  All the scares were run-of-the-mill type stuff... even though Andrea was surprised that I wasn't jumping during any of the supposed scares.  The plot is dumbed way down (unless it was this dumb in the book), and there was no redemptive quality even to the scene where Daniel Radcliffe's character was supposed to have figured out how to make the haunting stop.  The very very end even seemed... plastic or just unemotional, even though it was obviously supposed to have some emotional heft to it.

Daniel Radcliffe is barely more than there, and the rest of the cast follows suit.  I hope Harry Potter got a piece of the back end of this, because there was a rather large crowd of teenage girls for the Saturday at 5 PM showing we hit.  The crowd was literally 70% teenage girls.  I am still trying to figure out if that is the crowd for scary movies, or if they were just there because of how dreamy Daniel Radcliffe is.  I know that's pretty much why we were there.  I don't get to see horror movies in the theater unless they have a pre-approved clemsonfan crush in them, so I have to jump at those rare chances.

11. Tabloid - 7

Not exactly the fun thrill-ride I was expecting having read some of the glowing reviews of this last year, but still an interesting enough story.  I never really connected with Joyce McKinney, and never really believed her telling of the tale of the "manacled Mormon".  But even aside from that, there is a lot of stuff here, and most of it very interesting stuff.  An interesting tale of instant celebrity in a time before the internet, but rife with British tabloids needing content.  Aside from McKinney's main story, the deep down "truths" are not something you probably haven't seen before elsewhere.

[MissKitty]

1. Limitless
2. Rocky Mountain Express
3. Idiocracy
4. The Muppets
5. Our Idiot Brother
6. Howl's Moving Castle
7. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
8. The Artist
9. Man on a Ledge

10. Moneyball
11. Drive

Drive was more violent that I thought it was going to be. It reminded me of Reservoir Dogs, but with only one small, somewhat reluctant dog. If I'd read the book I think I would have thrown it across the room in disgust at the gaping plot holes. And Ryan Gosling was just phoning it in.

[Kwyjibo]

1. Ice Spiders - Caught a few minutes of this SyFy clunker and then we realized that it was so bad that we couldn't possibly turn it off.  It was good entertainment while packing away the Christmas decorations.

2. 13 Women - Myrna Loy uses the power of suggestion to kill 12 of her former finishing school classmates that were cruel to her.  Odd movie.  They went to great pains to make Loy look exotic (she was supposed to be half white/half middle eastern).  Instead, she just looked overly made up.  The plot was full of holes big enough to drive a truck through.  Okay for a Saturday morning sitting around with a bowl of cereal letting the kiddo climb all over you.

3. Fashions (1934) - William Powell is a con man that sells stolen copies of expensive designer clothes.  Things get crazy when he hooks up with an Ostrich feather salesman in Paris, hey, it could happen.  Powell makes the big con and gets the girl in the end.

4. Wet Hot American Summer - Had never seen it, and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Silly, funny, weird... typical of The State/Wain/Showalter/Ian Black.  Christopher Meloni should really do more comedy.  Loved!

[Dan]

Movies seen in 2012 (new movies in bold):
1. Young Adult
2. The Bridge on the River Kwai
3. Wet Hot American Summer
4. Can't Hardly Wait
5. For Love Or Money
6. The Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)
7. Underworld: Awakening
8. Zombieland
9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
10. Looking For Richard
11. Underworld: Evolution
12. The Help

Underworld: Evolution is good, but I think I would rank it 3rd in the series. Part 1 is still the best, and I might put Awakening as number 2. It's close. Maybe I need to watch them both again just to make sure.

The Help was really good. I knew a little bit about one of the major plot points, but otherwise I couldn't believe how invested I was in the various characters by the end of it. Some wonderful characters, in fact.

[c-lando]

1. X-MEN: FIRST CLASS - 01/01/12 - Blockbuster Express rental - repeat viewing
2. ESPN 30 for 30 "Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks" - 01/01/12 - 3.5 out 5
3. WE BOUGHT A ZOO - 01/08/12 - AMC Parkway Pointe with Victor and Amanda - 4.5 out of 5
4. CONTRABAND - 01/15/12 - AMC Parkway Pointe with Victor - 1 out of 5
5. RED TAILS - 01/22/12 - AMC Parkway Pointe with Victor - 2 out of 5
6. MONTE CARLO - 01/27/12 - Blockbuster Express - 2 out of 5
7. THE INBETWEENERS MOVIE - 01/29/12 - gift from friend - 2 out of 5

8. EAST IS EAST - 01/30/12 - repeat viewing
9. UNDERWORLD: AWAKENINGS - 02/03/12 - AMC Parkway Pointe with THE GREG - 4 out of 5 - a great addition to this series. I'm with Dan. I'd probably rank this one 2nd in the series. Too bad Scott Speedman wasn't actually IN the movie. I hope they secured him for the next installment. PLEASE OH PLEASE OH PLEASE!!!! But, back to this one. Non-stop action, good gore, above decent plot, and THOSE LEATHER PANTS. GOOD LORD. Also nice seeing the guy from the INBETWEENERS movie in this film.