Thursday, December 13, 2012

7 Quick Recaps of 2012 Films

A strange year for movies in my opinion... Started off stronger than usual, then got really bad, then I found a few gems out of nowhere, and now we are in the award season and some good ones are out there...

Here are some recent ones I've seen:


Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

I liked it but it was far from perfect. Some pretty ridiculous life scenarios going on but I liked the way they at least took on some heavy topics with a mix of seriousness and humor. De Niro is tolerable for a change, Jackie weaver is good as the mom, and Cooper and Lawrence get the job done. But yeah, some pretty ridiculous life scenarios going on. I thought I'd like it more than I did, but I don't want to over value it compared to other movies from this year.

4/5



Ted (2012)

About what I expected after hearing so much about it. Decent enough and funny in parts, but not enough there for a full length movie in my opinion. Mila Kunis is and always will be super hot, so yeah, check it out.

3/5



Sound of My Voice (2012)

Brit Marling was really great in Another Earth and I knew from last year she was doing this film but never got a chance to see it. I liked it for what it was but was not as captivated as I was with Another Earth. She is great as a cultish guru but the two other leads are just not convincing to me in any way.

3/5



Your Sister's Sister (2012)

Hmmm. I don't know. I love Emily blunt. Mark Duplass was ok. I thought everyone was decent. But the story was just too weird.  Parts of it were plausible the reactions to the actions of the characters was not consistent with reality in a movie that is trying to be realistic.

2.5/5


Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012)

Kind of weird. I liked it more than I thought I would after getting half way through, but a few things bugged me too much to love it. People just didn't seem to do what they would do, or something like that. Not sure. Steve Carrell was way too lame/depressing all the time. I get the juxtaposing with Keira's cheery character, but man, what a drag. I don't know.

3/5


Skyfall (2012)

Was very much entertained and I'm all for it. Not exactly the kind of movie I'd say is a top 10 of the year in any sense, but fun. I'm a little too close to the Bond franchise so I'm not sure what my opinion means... I grew up watching all of them on VHS and owned the entire collection for a time. I still don't think the overall Craig movies have been all that good in terms of Bond movies, but again, I'm a bit of a nostalgic watcher and always enjoyed the camp of the earlier films.  I don't think Craig is given enough to work with other than the action part, which I get for modern day appeal.  I enjoyed the deeper stories of some of the other characters in this one, but...

4/5

SPOILER ALERT
I'm guessing it must just be a personal thing, but I think what didn't do it for me was the Bardem character. I thought it started out great and I was totally pumped for what he would bring... I thought the premise was decent enough and I expected a bunch of intelligent mind games and cool technical computer shit, etc... Well, it started with that, and then he turns into just another disposable bad guy who just walks around with a posse trying to shoot Bond. I mean, the set up to the farm scene was fantastic - I think my favorite 20 minutes of the film - when Bond and M and the caretaker are getting ready... But previous to that scene and then specifically the entire ending scene, Bardem is just a psychopathic killer looking for revenge and being incredibly stupid about it... He SHOULD have died 3 times when Bond shot at him while climbing in the tunnel - all 3 bullets hit the miniscule sections of metal... and he SHOULD have died many times when charging like a mad man to kill M in the court scene... and he SHOULD have died 100 times when he just blindly walked at the farm house shooting and throwing grenades and shit...
What am I getting at? Basically I just thought he could have been a much more subtle revenge plotter... he could have set M and Bond up for a lot of shit using his intellect and computer skills, instead of just abandoning all that and falling into a cliche action guy.

It just annoyed me that the writers went out of their way to make him some incredibly smart super genius with computers and dangle it in front of us that he can do whatever he wants - they even show us his secret island lair with super computers (a definite homage to past Bond villains if ever there was one) and yet he never does anything with his power except 'hack' Q... I also didn't get the direction of him being gay, or pseudo-gay, or whatever that was with his first meeting with bond... I thought it detracted from his entrance not because of the content, but because it didn't add anything to the story and just felt like shock, not moving the story. Unless I missed something somewhere else, it didn't make any sense to his character.


I just want to be clear that I really liked the movie...It feels like I'm coming across that I didn't like it. I enjoyed the entire time I was there and watching it. Enough of it just fell into some regular shit for me to not fall in love with it. For a Craig Bond movie it is clearly the best, by a mile. I'm not trying to compare this to all Bond movies because they have changed over time and Craig's movies have clearly gone in a different direction... That's fine - no issues with that.
It doesn't detract from the overall movie for me... it just keeps it from feeling like something special.
I'll definitely see it again sometime.    

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Wow! Wish I hadn't missed this one when it came out. Easily a top 10 of the year for me. I loved almost everything about it.  Very unexpected story path and incredibly likable cast.  I love Aubrey Plaza's geeky hot style.

5/5
 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

BOSS

Anonymous said...

I agree. SNG:4.7*