Happy new year! Mamo casts its eyes back on the year 2012, the year in which the Avengers assembled, the Dark Knight rose, and the words “Mayan apocalypse” turned out to be referring to Taylor Kitsch’s career. The Matts give a broad survey of what worked, what didn’t work, and what were (in our wide and varied opinions) the best films of the year.
To download this episode, use this URL: http://rowthree.com/audio/mamo/mamo285.mp3
Tags: At Any Price, Battleship, Best of, Best of 2012, cabin in the woods, Cloud Atlas, Django Unchained, Far Out Isn't Far Enough, HFR, Hiro Dreams of Sushi, Holy Motors, jennifer lawrence, joss whedon, Les Miserables, Mamo!, moonrise kingdom, Podcast, Prometheus, quentin tarantino, Skyfall, Star Wars, Taylor Kitsch, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Hobbit, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Hunter Games, wes anderson, Yellow
Completely agree with the long-term strategy point. Now that J.J. has left the building and I hope all his...
My list, for those that need the text:
BEST
Jiro Dreams of Sushi
Le Tableau
Moonrise Kingdom
Prometheus
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Robot and Frank
Far Out Isn’t Far Enough
Frances Ha
Great Expectations
In the House
Cloud Atlas
Not Fade Away
Flight
ParaNorman
Django Unchained
NEXT BEST
Haywire
The Bay
Skyfall
Passion
Spring Breakers
Everyday
Looper
Goon
The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit
Argo
The Hunger Games
The Avengers
Snow White and the Huntsman
Lincoln
WORST
Savages
At any price
Yellow
MOST DISAPPOINTING
Bourne legacy
HAVE AT ME, INTERNET.
No Wuxia, Matthew Price?
WUXIA is literally eleventh on my list, just barely escaped making the grade. I’m stunned that Price’s extensive coverage of every movie he saw in 2012 that he considered even halfway decent did not include that film.
It was recently released domestically as DRAGON, incidentally, for Row Three-ers wondering what the bleep we’re talking about – and boy, it is well worth seeing.
My bad, because I completely forgot about it. Which makes it an honourable mention by definition, I suppose.
Also that was hardly every movie I consider halfway decent, all films listed I consider excellent. I saw about 200 more movies this year and my list of halfway decent would be another 70-80 of those.
That is the Yen Kaneshiro murder mystery / kung fu thing right?
I forgot how much fun that was until now.
That there is good cinema. Just shy of my list as well.
For those who crave text and/or hate the sound of my voice, my Top Ten list has just been posted to The Substream:
http://www.thesubstream.com/article-top-ten-of-2012-matt-browns-batch.html
Happy to see Prometheus at Number 1. Thats my favorite movie of the year as well. I re-watched it over Christmas break and it totally holds.
I love the visuals, the sense of mystery of the alien world, the engineers, the medipod sequence, the android David and the sympathetic Elizabeth. The scientist and the geologist are little goofy. But in a movie that delivers on so many levels to focus on the negatives seems absurd to me.
Fastbender is obviously brilliant, but I think Noomi Rapace’s Dr.Shaw is my favorite character. She manages to channel Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley and be her own strong character simultaneously.
I was shocked reading through the top 10 lists from critics that this movie is totally absent. There is no doubt in my mind that this movie’s standing will improve with age.
**
Damon Lindelof not being involved in the sequels is upsetting to me. He says not working on the sequels is a scheduling conflict. The cynic in me wonders if this is a reaction to internet fanboys. If internet reaction is the motivating factor behind him stepping down from writing duties I think that is really sad.
Biggest Breakout Stars of 2012:
Channing Tatum
Jennifer Lawrence
Gordon Levitt
Ben Whishaw
Matthew Mc.
Didn’t have a positive reaction to ParaNorman, myself, though it was visually striking. I found it far too preachy, and that always kills the movie for me. I thought there was some better animation this year.
Matt will not be surprised to learn that, in spite of it’s stunning visuals, Dark Knight Rises left me very cold. It has some great sequences, but it may actually be my least favourite of the Nolan Batman trilogy.
Glad to see you both included the much-maligned Prometheus on your lists. I liked, myself.
I think in ParaNorman’s case I found it just preachy enough, given the subject. I can see your point, though. On the pure animation aspect the only thing I found more striking was my other pick, Le Tableau.
I just managed to catch ParaNorman on the New Year’s Eve and also wasn’t crazy about the way it ended. It was still a decent movie and absolutely amazing visually, but I was hoping for the story to be better. Perhaps, I had set my expectations too high after it getting so much praise?
I personally liked Frankenweenie a lot better, but I remain a fan of Tim Burton (despite avoiding Dark Shadows). Stylistically, Frankenweenie wasn’t anything new, but typical Tim Burton style, but I happen to like that style a lot.
Back to ParaNorman, with this movie and Coraline, the studio Laika has become quite the solid contender when to comes to stop-motion movies. I look forward to seeing what Laika does next (I think 2014 is when their next movie is set to come out).
Channing Tatum is 2012′s biggest winner.
I’m still waiting to see a couple of more films before I make my top ten list.
Yep, I’d agree with that, big year for Tatum. Also, big comeback year for McConnaughey, between Magic Mike, Killer Joe and Bernie.
My favorite movies of the year in no particular order:
Cloud Atlas
Cabin In The Woods
Shut Up And Play the Hits
Skyfall
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan’s Hope
Indie Game: The Movie
Looper
Frankenweenie
Cockneys Vs Zombies
The Hobbit
Avengers
Much Ado About Nothing
Haywire
Grabbers
The ABCs of Death
I don’t think I’ve ever put this many documentaries on my top movies before. All 3 docs hit a core nerve for me.
Never saw and have potential to make it onto my list as favorite movies from 2012:
Moonrise Kingdom
The Raid: Redemption
Chasing Ice
Robot & Frank
Django Unchained
Also on my list to see from both high to low art:
The Master
Iron Sky
Dredd
Resident Evil: Retribution
Total Recall (I’m curious enough to at least want to see the first act before I pull the plug… also I hear despite the CGI, Toronto landmarks make a number of appearances)
Rec 3: Genesis
Brave
West of Memphis (I guess it has a wider release in January)
Biggest disappointment:
Dark Knight Rises
Probably not just 2012, but likely one of the biggest film disappointments for quite some time. I mean it’s up there with Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and the Star Wars prequels, where I enjoy the earlier films so much but dislike the later film so very much. Christopher Nolan really “nuked the fridge” with his one.
On the flip side there is Prometheus, a beautifully mess of a movie. I plan on getting it on blu-ray, but like the last 2 Alien movies, it is both really good and bad. It’s disappointing that Ridley Scott couldn’t reach the heights he was going for (in my opinion but to each their own), but still managed to kickstart some interesting conversations and debates with his movie.
I disagree with Matthew Price about Cabin In the Woods not gaining anything from re-watching it. Mainly the last 3rd of the movie which is just so visually rich with so much happening on screen that it is hard to take it in all at once and each time I watch it, I pick up something that I missed previous times. I have a feeling that Cabin in the Woods will be the movie from 2012 that I re-watch the most further down the road.
IndieWire comprehensively breaks down the winners and losers at the 2012 box office:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2012-from-blockbusters-to-flop-all-wide-release-films-listed?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Thompson%20on%20Hollywood&utm_content=NEW+TOH+Alert+TEMPLATE+