Top 20 of 2012 PART 1

It's that time when everyone has to write their best of the year lists. I'm no different. Though I waited a year to write my best of 2011 list, I've decided that I can confidently write my best of 2012 list today! That is in no small part due to all the films I've been reviewing for Filmoria and Static Mass Emporium. So a massive thanks to those sites because I'm actually ending the year having seen quite a lot of 2012 releases.

In fact by my count I've seen 68 films released in 2012 in the UK. That's out of a total of 193 films I watched for the first time this year. I'm sure with all the films I re-watched this year, that would comfortably take me over the 200 mark for films I have watched in 2012. Respectable but I hope to do better in 2013!

And now on to the list:

Films I didn’t get to see that may well have made an appearance: The Master, The Raid, Rust and Bone, Headhunters, Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Hobbit

Honourable mentions (if only this were a top 25): Avengers Assemble, The Grey, The Descendants, Safety Not Guaranteed, Coriolanus

20. Looper

My own silly expectations are to blame for this being outside the top 10. I suspect if I watch Looper again, I'll enjoy it a lot more. Great, intelligent science fiction but not as good as the time travel films I grew up with despite a fantastic performance from JGL.

19. Prometheus

Another victim of my ludicrous expectations, though I think a lot of other people felt let down by this too. Still a great film though and one I'm looking forward to re-watching. It certainly had the most exciting marketing of the year.

18. The Hunger Games

I got the trilogy of books for Christmas last year and while the first film didn't live up to the promise of the first book, it was still a hell of good film for young adults (and the rest of us!) Infinitely better than Twilight, it's a shame that the second and third books didn't live up to the original either. I'm hoping the film sequels will improve on the books. This is why I loved the first book so much.

17. Chronicle

It’s a superhero spin on the tired ‘found footage’ formula.  Climaxing with a creatively shot smack down that flies, explodes and rips through a city on a meager budget, Chronicle is a very impressive directorial debut.

16. Margin Call

I reviewed this for Filmoria when it was released on DVD and loved it. I also got to interview actress Susan Blackwell who appears at the start of the film. Compelling, sad and refreshingly free from boo-hiss villainy in favour of surprising humanity.

15. 21 Jump Street

Laughed my ass off while watching this. Literally nearly fell of my chair clutching my stomach it was hurting so much during the drug taking scene. One of the best surprises of the year. Funny, silly, dumb AND occasionally smart!

14. Carnage

One of my favourite casts of the year all stuck in a room for the entire length of the film. It has middle class couples at war over brawling boys and despite being stagey is absolutely hilarious especially once the alcohol starts to flow.

13. My Brother the Devil

Another one I reviewed for Filmoria, It is filled with gripping performances and it has a script that raises a wealth of important and relevant issues that combine to make this a must-see British drama from an outstanding new voice.

12. Sightseers

This one I reviewed at Static Mass Emporium, Alice Lowe delivers a brilliant performance and her character Tina steals the film from all around her. Sightseers is an excellent serial killer comedy that has lots of laughs, vicious violence and heaps of heart, and all with a killer soundtrack. My review also won a competition and appeared here at the Picturehouse Cinema blog.

11. Lawless

I loved the period setting, all the performances from a fantastic cast and thoroughly enjoyed the prohibition and early gangster story. Guy Pearce makes a superb villain and Tom Hardy shined in his bad-ass in a cardigan role. Better than the Hillcoat/Cave collaboration The Proposition.

And here is the top 10 0f 2012! What do you think so far?

Looper Film Club Review

Thanks again to this post from Scott at Front Room Cinema, I got to take part in the From The Red Carpet film club again last weekend.  Everyone that took part got two free tickets to see Looper and then we all met up on Facebook on the Sunday evening to discuss the film.

From the Red Carpet have published their review of the film and there are lots of quotes from all us film clubbers in it so please have a look at the review and leave them a comment telling them to make sure they keep inviting me back.  The From the Red Carpet review is here.

I'm damn sad to tell you that I did not find the film as satisfying as my ridiculously high expectations had told me it would be.  Nevertheless it's still a pretty great film with loads to like but its not in the same league as some of my favourite time travel movies or my favourite Bruce Willis movies.  I leave you with some sample quotes from the film clubbers:

EVERTON ‘Pure class. A Top 3 time travel film, easily – I love the way they used it intelligently. The torture scene was an instant classic.’

PETER ‘Great, intelligent science fiction but not as good as the time travel films I grew up with despite a fantastic performance from JGL!

 CHRIS ‘Looper is a slick, stylish and very smart sci-fi movie! The whole concept and premise is executed perfectly and JGL is sublime in the leading role.’

MEGAN ‘JGL was great although I did think the prosthetics were a bit distracting. His performance was awesome though.’

What did you think of Looper?  Instant classic or disappointing?

Battle of the Joseph Gordon-Levitt's

If any of you voted in my previous blockbuster duel that pitted Prometheus VS The Dark Knight Rises, you might remember how this works.  If not, here's the exceptionally simple rules.  If you could only see one of these two films in the cinema, which would it be?

This time it's a battle of the upcoming Joseph Gordon-Levitt starring action-thrillers.

In the red corner: 

Premium Rush: UK Release 14th October

It's written and directed by David Koepp.  He hasn't directed a huge amount but Stor of Echoes was a great film.  However his strength lies more in his writing and though his credits are a bit of a mixed bag, there are some absolutely cracking thrillers; Toy Soldiers, Jurassic Park and Panic Room being most notable in my eyes.  It's also got Michael Shannon on villain duties which is a huge plus.




It's going to make riding bikes extremely exciting!

And in the blue corner:

Looper: UK Release 28th September


This one is written and directed by Rian Johnson and re-teams the star and director of excellent indie high-school neo-noir Brick.  It's also got Bruce Willis and time travel.  Need I say more?

Here's hoping for some smart, fun science fiction!






So there are your choices.  If you could only see Premium Rush or Looper in the cinema, which would it be?  Before I saw the trailer for Premium Rush and found out Michael Shannon was in it, I'd have gone for Looper no competition.  Now I'm quite torn.  I suspect this one might be a bit one sided with a lot of votes for Looper but I'm looking forward to hearing your responses.

Fascinating Faces: Looper, Lawless and Gangster Squad

I've seen some fascinating faces in trailers over the last few weeks.  Three stars many of us know and love, still recognizable but undeniably transformed.  I am stunned by these faces and already itching to see more of the performances.  But how much of my excitement is just down to the make up and how much is due to the men behind the masks?

I offer you exhibits A, B and C as evidence.

Exhibit A: Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Looper

The Holly wood Reporter um... reported that 'Thanks to three hours in the makeup chair each morning, the actor transformed into a younger version of Bruce Willis for the role – in which the duo plays the same character at different ages.'

If you're not convinced about the transformation or just sad to see the handsome JGL mutilated, check out this little video I found on YouTube for a close comparison of the two actors.



Exhibit B: Guy Pearce in Lawless

Now I'm not sure what they've done to Pearce's face here but watching the trailer suggests this is going to be another fantastic performance to look out for.  In fact I don't even think this is down to make up.  Instead I think it's a combination of Pearce's slicked back hair, accent and tone of voice and most of all the faces he pulls in the trailer below.  Some might say this is bordering on OTT but I can't wait to see this performance.



Exhibit C: Sean Penn in The Gangster Squad

MTV says: 'A centerpiece of the trailer, it's hard to miss Sean Penn even under all of that makeup... The trailer gives lots of screen time to Penn, and when you also consider the prosthetics on his face, it's not hard to imagine that Warner Bros. would make a Best Supporting Actor push for him come Oscar season'.

He looks almost like something grotesque out of Dick Tracy.  But it's not just the make up and prosthetics, Penn seems totally transformed here.  It's another performance that looks incredible and will no doubt be a lot of fun to watch.



So are we in for a treat with these three or what?  And how much of these performances will come down to the physically transformed faces of the actors and how much is down to their acting skills.  It's a question that has bugged me ever since seeing one of my favourite performances ever on screen.  No doubt aided by magnificent make-up, but also a testament to the incredible talent of Charlize Theron, if you haven't seen Monster, I highly recommend it.  Never has a star been so unrecognizable and so brilliantly lost within a real-life character.

Looper Joins Marketing Overload Trend

Firstly who is getting annoyed with trailers for trailers?  Weirdly I'm not.  When it comes to movies I really can't get enough of the marketing.  So as long as they don't show all the best jokes, tell the whole story or ruin the ending, they can advertise as much as they damn well like.

Which is exactly what Prometheus, Total Recall and now Looper are doing.  Trailer previews or trailers for trailers are becoming the next big thing.  Just another way to get us movie fans slobbering.  I particularly enjoyed the way the Total Recall one puts up epic titles saying... 'Get Ready'.... more flashes of images.... 'For the Premiere'... more epic imagery.... 'of the trailer' (sounds of audience groaning).  Oh is that it?

So anyway whether you like them or not, here's the trailer preview for Rian Johnson's Looper which I'm intensely excited about.  It was one of my most anticipated for 2012 and just one of the many new films featuring the talents of the mighty Bruce Willis and the incredibly likeable Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 



Here's some more images from the film if you haven't seen them.  It seems they're trying to 'Brucify' Gordon-Levitt somehow.  I can't quite put my finger on it (maybe they've done something to his mouth?) but seeing as they seem to be playing the same character in this time travel science fiction actioner, it makes the film look even more interesting.  I read somewhere JGL has even been studying Willis's voice in Sin City so I'm very keen to see one of my favourite up-and-comers tackling an impersonation of the legend that was/is John McClane.  And every picture has guns in it.  And guns in movies are cool.

1 Gun

Finger gun

2 Guns

Willis don't need a gun

JGL does

 It's got time travel, Bruce Willis and JGL and it's directed by the guy that gave us Brick.  I'm hoping it lives up to that last statement.  What do you think?  More or less excited about this now?

Bruce's Big Year

I love Bruce Willis.  I'm not ashamed to admit that.  Forget that he offered a real life bounty to anyone who could provide information on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden and his outspoken support for the Iraq war and focus on the fact that nobody does kick-ass, smart-ass action as well as the almighty bald one.

I've had a healthy crush on him ever since I first saw him stomping bare foot over broken glass, wise-cracking and killing terrorists with feet the same size as his sister in Die Hard.  But this year my Brucey fix is going to be like a syringe full of adrenalin straight to the heart with not one, not two but five movies coming to the screen in 2012.  And to add to that, while I get to feast on these, I know that Willis is working on a promising sounding video game adaptation and the next installment in the Die Hard franchise.

So here's the lowdown on Brucie's bonuses for 2012:

The Cold Light of Day: Bruce has been lying to his son (new Superman Henry Cavill).  Guess what; Big Daddy Willis doesn't just work for the government... no he's a motherf*cking CIA agent dumbass.  So shit hits the fan on holiday because Willis has been stealing briefcases and Cavill's gotta sort it out.  Not sure how much ass kicking Bruce will be doing but this still looks like big dumb fun... especially with Sigourney Weaver thrown into the mix.

Fire with Fire: I'm just going to go with IMDb here and tell you that the story goes something like this; 'A fireman takes an unexpected course of action when he's threatened by a man who he's been ordered to testify against'.  It's got Willis paired up with another young buck, this time Transformers' Josh Duhamel.  It's also got 50 Cent but don't let that put you off.  Seeing as Willis and Mr Cent already worked with each other on Setup, I can smell some kind of relationship in the air and I'm not going to deny that it makes me a tad jealous.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation: After sitting through the original G.I. Joe film and the trailer for this sequel, there is truly only one thing that makes me happy about the whole sad, sorry, sordid affair.  No not the casting of The Rock and not the wierd dubstep remix of The White Stripes but the moment when Brucey appears firing a machine gun, face all screwed up in his inimitable style and delivering the only interesting line in the whole trailer. 

The Expendables 2: This time Willis gets a gun.  For that matter so does Schwarzenegger.  And Stallone has roped in Chuck Norris and Van Damme for round 2.  Didn't think much of the first one but then again, Willis didn't get a gun in that one.  So here's hoping.  And I love that Stallone can't be bothered with the whole subtitling sequel thing.  So it's not The Expendables: Bigger, Badder, Balder or The Expendables: Out for Justice.  It's just old school The Expendables 2.  Yeah it's a sequel now piss off.

Looper: Made by the guy that gave us Brick, reteaming with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and featuring a plot that involves time travel and killing people from the future, this is one of the most exciting prospects of 2012.  Yes and Bruce Willis has a gun in his hands again which is always a promising sign.  And the word is he's playing JGL's future self who JGL has been ordered to kill.  Sounds vaguely silly but also brilliant fun and with potential to be smart and twisty.

If all that hasn't got you licking your lips and rubbing your hands with glee, then IMDb also has Willis down for video game adaptation Kane & Lynch and fifth in the franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, both to be released in 2013.  So while I devour 2012's little treats from the king of kicking ass and cracking wise, I know that somewhere out there, Brucey has a gun in his hand waiting for the director to yell action.

The Joseph Gordon-Levitt Rises

You might think I just saw a band wagon rushing past.  Is that the 'Loving Joseph Gordon-Levitt' bandwagon I cried as it shot by me bursting at the seams?  Yes it was and though it's been filling up rapidly for years now and picking up speed like it picks up passengers, it's definitely time I jumped on board and yelled his name from the rooftops.

But why now?  Well for me it's less the successes of the last couple of years.  Inception had him scrambling around in a revolving corridor in probably the best fight scene of the decade and 500 Days of Summer had him moping through probably the best romantic comedy I've ever seen.


But JGL's upcoming slate is the real reason I'm getting so excited now.  Nolan's trilogy-closer The Dark Knight Rises is obviously going to be huge but with so much secrecy surrounding it and JGL's character John Blake not being well-known from the comics, it's hard to know how big a role he'll be playing.  With Bane and Catwoman to fight against, and Commisioner Gordon out of action, perhaps JGL's cop will be a vital ally for Batman.  We'll see.  This trailer certainly doesn't have any answers:



Less exciting but still proving his importance and popularity in Hollywood right now is Gordon-Levitt's casting as Abraham Lincoln's son in Spielberg's long-awated biopic.  Lincoln is played by Daniel Day-Lewis and so it should be a huge treat to see these two multi-hyphenates perform together.

But I digress.  The real reason for writing here is that JGL is in two of the most exciting films of 2012.  Rian Johnson's Looper re-teams the star with his director on high-school neo-noir Brick.  This was the film that way back in 2005 really brought JGL to the attention of so many.  Released soon after the grim and critically-acclaimed, but far from mainstream, Mysterious Skin, these films cemented JGL as a new king of cool indie films.



Looper however sees the star and director go mainstream.  With Bruce Willis, time travel and a clever sounding premise that the director has compared to the Terminator films, this ones got me dribbling with anticipation.  The synopsis on IMDB sums it up as 'A killer who works for the mob of the future recognizes one of his targets as his future self.'  A few more details are available over at Dark Horizons.  As soon as there's a trailer, I'll be posting.  There is a pic here.

Then later in the year will be the release of Tarantino's Django Unchained where JGL will be starring with Leo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx.  After Inglorious Basterds and letting the let downs of Kill Bill Vol.2 and Death Proof fade into distant memory, I'm super excited for this.  Tarantino and DiCaprio and now JGL for good measure.  This can't fail surely.  Apparently it's about 'a slave-turned-bounty hunter who sets out to rescue his wife from the brutal Calvin Candie, a Mississippi plantation owner'.  No trailer as yet.

But for those who need a JGL fix sooner, watch out for this one.  50/50 is released in the UK in late November and looks like a very funny but potentially very moving drama.  Starring Seth Rogen and JGL, it's about a young man diagnosed with cancer and given a 50/50 chance of survival.  It could be incredibly bad taste but judging by the trailer, it looks like a great comedy drama with a quality lead performance from Gordon-Levitt.  And here's the trailer:



So 50/50, Looper and Django Unchained.  If the JGL bandwagon has any room left, get on board now before it's too late.  2012's going to be huge.