Honorable Mention - End Of Watch
This movie was awesome. It seemed so real. They did such an amazing job of hooking you into these two characters that the intensity you felt when they were in action was amazing and the laughs you had while they were busting each other's chops were equally as great. There were a couple of times where I started to wonder where the movie was ultimately going but I didn't really care because I would gladly keep watching the daily events in these two cops lives.
10. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
This is a tough one to review. Do I do it as a stand alone movie or part of the Lord Of The Rings world? I was very entertained and loved the movie very much. It was too long and I'm still trying to wrap my head around how The Hobbit (one book) is going to be three movies with a running time of almost 3 hours each? But it is a very entertaining fantasy world story done by Peter Jackson. You really can't go wrong with that. Is it Lord Of The Rings level? HELL NO!!! Not even close. This movie cracked my top ten of the year . . . . . barely. The Lord Of The Rings trilogy was a top 3 (if not number one overall) every year.
9. Django Unchained
This was one of Tarantino's better movies. I like that he finally told a story in actual time instead of the going back and forth in the timeline sutff he usually does. The character development was awesome and his direction of Christoph Waltz just makes both of thier talents better. He was easily the best part of the movie. The quick and proper dialogue from him and the back and forth with Jaimie Foxx was awesome. I was loving the movie and couldn't wait to see where it would go and then we got to meet Leonardo DiCaprio's character and the setting of Candyland and the movie honestly got even better. The violence was waaaaaaaaay extreme at times and didn't really have to be, but outside of that - this was a very excellent movie.
8. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
I'm stunned by how much I totally loved this movie. I figured it was just one of those artsy movies with a bunch of excellent senior citizen actors and actresses that the critics rave about just because. But it wasn't. It was a perfectly told movie about a collection of very different characters finding their way regardless of age and circumstances. The characters were all equally and excellently developed that you care about each one of their stories. You find yourself rooting for all of them and being unable to wait to see how it all plays out.
7. Pitch Perfect
This movie was soooooooooo much fun. I loved the music. I loved the characters. I laughed my ass off. This is easily one of the biggest surprises of a movie I've seen in a long, long time. I'm not by any stretch of the imagination willing to say that in terms of good filmmaking this is a phenomenal movie. But in terms of just pure fun and laughs - this is one of the more enjoyable movies that I have seen this year.
6. Silver Linings Playbook
I loved this movie. They made you care about the characters and made it okay to laugh and care at the same time as they dealt with their mental disorders. The chemistry between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence was amazing. And although it was pretty predictable where it all was going, I enjoyed the ride. The performances of the ecclectic group of supporting characters were equally funny, touching and entertaining.
5. Lincoln
This was a movie that is a reminder just how good of a director Steven Spielberg is. Forgotten at this point for the most part with all the talk about the new class of directors that churn out movie awesomeness, Spielberg has put forth a historical biopic without any of his usual special effects and what not that can make even the most not interested in history peeps (like myself) riveted by the story being played out on the screen. And Daniel Day-Lewis completely equals his director's awesomeness with his performance. The man is pure gold as an actor. It seemed as if Lincoln himself was alive and back on screen.
4. Argo
This movie was great. And I didn't even realize how much I was enjoying it until the tension that had been building for so long finally passed. I literally felt relieved. That is good film making when you get someone to feel that way and totally reel them in without them knowing it's even happening. I continue to be amazed at how much better Ben Affleck is as an actor than a director and the fact that when he is directing himself, he makes himself a better actor. So weird.
3. Les Miserables
I loved this movie. I have grown to be a bigger fan of musicals over the years. Thank you, Moulin Rouge! I had seen this play on broadway many many years ago. I sort of remembered the story and tried to keep my expectations in check because I had heard such great things about it. However, they completely met and exceeded my expectations and all of the good word the movie had gotten. I loved that it was a total musical with barely any normal spoken dialogue. I loved even more how the actors were legitimately singing at that moment instead of lip syncing to a previous recording. I loved the cast (especially Anne Hathaway and the new girl that played Eponie). This was easily my favorite non-comic book related movie of the year.
2. The Dark Knight Rises
Brace yourselves because this is going to be a long one. Let me start by saying this is an amazing movie. It fell in line exactly with where my expectations for it were. I kept saying that this would be more of a sequel to Batman Begins than to The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's performace was a once in a lifetime type of thing and to think that they would be able to top that would be ridiculous. That being said - Christopher Nolan (best director out there - sorry, Fincher) was so fair to everyone in this movie. He was fair each actor that has been throughout all the trilogy. Gary Oldman got his due. Morgan Freeman got his due. Michael Caine got his due. And most importanly - Christian Bale got his due after pretty much just being a distant third fiddle to Ledger and Eckhardt in the last one. Besides them, he worked in Catwoman very well and Anne Hathaway was great with the sleekness needed delivering her lines. Tom Hardy is the man. Love this guy and he was awesome as Bane. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was great as the new cop getting introduced. Much more on him later. As for the fans - he could not have done us more justice. This movie trilogy wrapped up in the most phenomenal of ways. I can't really go into it without giving too much away. I will go over some stuff later but with spoiler warnings. I am just so happy with how I felt walking out of the theater and didn't realize how much this telling of Batman really meant to me as a movie fan until that point.
All of the awesomeness being addressed, there were some things that left a bit of a blah taste in my mouth. The first 30-45 minutes of the movie seemed a little choppy and forced having to introduce Bane, Catwoman and the new cop guy. Luckily, just when it was getting to the point where it could really take away from the movie - it smoothed out and because awesome from then on.
SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD! Only read if you don't care with things being mentioned.
Bane was so badass and was such an awesomely developed villain, yet he became completely inconsequential after the swerve of Thalia A'Gul being revealed and his demise was almost done in passing and for comic relief. That bothered me alot. I felt like the character deserved better than that. As for the aforementioned swerve - I'm being generous when saying swerve because I saw that coming months ago when they announced the casting and saw it coming the whole movie. That was very un-Nolanesque. The only two other things that didn't sit well with me was A - the flying away with the neutron bomb (Did they have to drag it on the ground and bang it all over the place? It's a bomb. I feel as if something would have happened in the realm of blowing up prematurely by doing that? It just looked kind of silly.) and B - a major editing snafu with the getaway from the Wall Street attack. The chase started in total daylight and they went under some tunnel and it was total nightime when they came out? Again - just kind of hit me as un-Nolanesque.
Now on to my praise of the ending - STILL SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
Wow! Christopher Nolan not only gave every character what they wanted to have a happy ending, but he gave Warner Brothers the biggest gift ever if they really want to try and do the Justice League thing. I've been ranting with my friend about how they would never be able to pull it off because The Avengers was a work of advanced mastery in marketing and WB would basically just be throwing Justice League on the screen having to have a new Batman too soon and no advance hype whatsoever. Then Nolan goes and has Joseph Gordon Levitt acknowledged as "Robin" and has the movie end with him going in to the batcave. HOLY $HIT!!! I felt the same way after seeing Sam Jackson at the end of Iron Man. Now all they have to do is have JGL show up in the relaunched Superman next year and they already have the legwork for Justice League. Please let the powers that be at WB not screw this up and run with the absolute gift that Nolan has given them.
1. The Avengers
Never have I seen a movie with expectations like this. I mean you are talking about four different mega-high profile movies with four different known comic book characters. And there was a sequel to one of them in there too. This movie has legitamitely been hyped for four years since the scene at the end of the credits in Iron Man. You are talking about juggling all these characters (and the egos of the actors attached to the parts). You are talking about a pipe dream of a movie for fanboys since they picked up any comic book featuring this. You can say what about X-Men, but that was different. They were established and developed within that one movie. These were all established seperately and all revolved around completely different ideals. One was all about ego. One was all about doing the right thing. One was all about mythology. One was all about controlling anger. How in the hell would they be able to put all this together and do it justice? I kept telling myself to just enjoy a popcorn movie short on substance and cool to the eye and I would have been satisfied. I was wrong. They managed to pull off what I thought would be impossible, met the sky high expectations and quite honestly - blew them out of the water. The story was amazing. The action was awesome. The laughs were HUGE . . . . and it wasn't just Downey Jr's one liners. The script was written in such a way that everyone got to be in on it. There were two scenes with the Hulk where the audience was hysterical. The balance between everyone was amazing. They did every single one of them justice. Even bit players like Agent Colson was made to matter to every viewer. I can't remember the last time that I was impressed by a movie. Actually - I can. It was the Dark Knight. This movie didn't have as much broad spectrum substance as that and it's the only thing that keeps me from saying that this is the best comic book movie ever made. But I have no problem saying that this is the second best comic book movie of all time and easily the greatest achievement of hype matching I've ever seen.
