Review | Les Miserables (2012)

A one-note musical that could've been worst

The Worst Songs of 2012

Pop music at its masturbatory.

5 films in 2012 that everybody liked but I did not (so far)

What I watched after the HSC (so far)

I've been watching so many films after finishing my final HSC exams and perhaps it's a routine I'm getting used to and I like it. With all the difficulty of starting myself in finding job and Chris Brown like mood swings, I've been watching more movies than anytime this year.

Review | The Perks of Being A Wallflower (2012)

A standout high school film in recent memory.

Review | Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

A whimsical, nostalgic journey of the auteur, yet experiences some predictable roadblocks.

Review | Reality Bites (1994)

Hey hipsters, here's your defining romantic comedy! IRONY!!!!

An Apology to the Nostalgia Chick...

Yep you heard it. This is going a personal post in which I actually experience something hard-hitting and I blamed it on myself. In fact I would for good reason. To say that I said worst things about people and their place in this world would be an understatement. Recently, I wrote a post about director Zack Snyder and how I think he is the worst director currently working. I still stand by that fact, but if I would ever meet him as a person, my thoughts would work differently. Today I'm going to write an apology to Lindsay Ellis, aka. The Nostalgia Chick...

Review | The Cabin in the Woods (2012)

An overtly-clever horror film that doesn't redefine the genre. It kills it.

Review | The Sessions (2012)

A heartfelt and honest movie that brilliantly executes a strange premise

Review | The Dark Knight Rises

This trilogy settles... with something hollow. And there are some spoilers in this review.

MY OFFICIAL FAVOURITE FILMS OF 2011

 You've asked for it (or maybe you didn't)

Zack Snyder is Not A Good Director (So fanboys, shut up!)

I'm going to say this because I had enough. I'm about to say this because he's part of the new generation of directors who have styles reminiscent of well known arthouse and Hollywood directors like Quentin Tarantino or Jean Luc Goddard. Well, I'm not talking about arthouse, I'm talking about Zack Snyder, the filmmaker almost everybody trusted but decided to turn their back for some unknown reason.

Review | Prometheus

Pretty great but keep your hopes low. There are some major spoilers in this review but don't worry I actually obscured them, so it's safe to read. 

Review | Shame

A brooding character study that achieves something we never explored before, but it's all up to you to figure it out yourself

Review | The Tree of Life

The movie almost everyone persuaded me to see and not to see.

Review | Limitless

Smart and enjoyable, though its brain needs fixing if it was to use 100% of itself.

Review | Extremely ______ and Incredibly ______

How it got a Best Picture nod, it's beyond me.

MY UNOFFICIAL LIST OF BEST FILMS OF 2011 / The 2nd Anonymous Theatre 3000 Awards (Part IV)

Now we get to the point. The question that everyone (well, not everyone) would be asking. What are your favourite movies of the year? It's a good question and given how I'm never really up to date with so many critically acclaimed films due to many movies with its limited and delayed release, but at least caught up with a few to make a list. But note. This list is unofficial. It's probably so because I've haven't seen so many films (and I've lost count). Note: Melancholia, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Skin I Live In, A Seperation, Shame, 50/50, Take Shelter, Young Adult, Martha Marcy May Marlene, The Guard and Warrior are the following great films I've haven't seen yet. However movies critically acclaimed such as The Help, The Tree of Life, Albert Nobbs, War Horse, Bridesmaids and Beginners are movies I'm really less interested in seeing.

Here's what I'm going to do. I am going to do at least six slots. The last being what almost made my top five which is of course this category is going to have. At least five will make it although this is my unofficial list. And it doesn't mean these are my favourite movies. More like movies that I think more about throughout the year. You know what I'm saying. But first let's go to the honourable mentions, movies I've seen but never felt like Best film material:

HM: Paul, Never Let Me Go (though it was released in 2010), Thor, X-Men: First Class, The Ides of March, Moneyball, Captain America: The First Avenger, Super 8, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

The 2nd Anonymous Theatre 3000 Awards (Part III)

OK. Now for the worst. Of all the reviews I usually read online, often films that are poorly received get my attention. Not because of how bad the film was, but because reviewers often get hysterical during the reviews. It's a mixture of anger and mania, but has a humourous flavour. Then again, they have to succumb the horrors of cinema. In that case, there are special categories for this film. So far, I only did two, but think about them as the Lifetime Achievement Awards. So if you haven't read, here there are:

Biggest Impact on Western Civilisation... for Better or Worst
Joss Whedon award for Fanbase of the year

Now in this Part, I am not going to do a Worst Director, Worst Actor category since it is pretty generic to do so. But once you scroll down, you'll know what are the worst movies to come out this year, given how it is a pretty mediocre year for film and comparing to the last few years it's pretty low.

Biggest Box-Office Drainer - The Lion King - 3D

Alright before you go grab your pitchforks, let me reiterate. Everybody loves The Lion King. Every girl at my school called it their favourite movie of all time. Even I did, though I didn't loved it like everyone else. But to release this movie in theatres like 1994 through post-converted 3D and thrashing adult fare like Moneyball, Contagion and Drive (which never made a lot of money) is just sad. This might be the first time I saw the entire movie in that format. I liked it, but I asked in my head with anger: WHAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT?" about putting it back in theatres with a gimmick that should've just gone away. It's here to stay at number one for three weeks in the US.

Guys, you can either do two things: wait in ten years for the movie to come out with a new gimmick from Hollywood. Or you could just buy it on Blu-Ray so you can watch it forever. Gimmick or package guys. Please choose.


Super Bowl award for Crass Product Placement - The Smurfs

Congratulations, Sony. You've just made the highest rate of referencing an Internet brand in a single movie. That's a record. *hold my thumbs up

The 2nd Anonymous Theatre 3000 Awards (Part II)

Best Supporting Actor 

Albert Brooks (Drive)
To the rest of the general audience, Brooks is well known for his comedic roles, particularly his guest voice in several episodes of The Simpsons. But in Drive, Brooks is a scary gangster who acts more human than any other gangster I'll ever seen. However it's more likely that if you've fucked him over, then he'll poke your eye with a fork. He's foreboding, but has nothing against people. THe fact that he was snubbed by the Oscars is a crime.
While I wasn't won over Moneyball, the one thing I was left impressed walking out of the film was Jonah Hill playing the architect of sabemetrics Peter Brand. His character places an impact in sport and his partnership with Brad Pitt is at times feel like the odd couple when all he did was just stand there, but because of the jargon-crafted screenplay, it worked.
For me, the major highlight of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II isn't the fact that it pulled off a spectacular finale for the mega huge fanbase, but it's also came from Alan Rickman, who plays the anti-hero in this series, more or less. He is perhaps the more human Death Eater and there's a scene where it made me tear up when we see the relations between him Lily, Harry's mother.
Tom Hardy is perhaps the best out of a fine cast of British actors in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Like all of them, his character provides the complexity to the film. His character is smooth, but is very melancholic at the same time.
Ben Kingsley is a major gameplayer in Hugo, playing a bitterly miserable toy store owner filled with something he regrets. Although he may look and sound like your average senile grandfather, you'll see by the end of the film, he's the person responsible for the popularity of cinema.

Last Year's winner: Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Runner Ups: Jonah Hill (Moneyball), Alan Rickman (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II), Tom Hardy (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Ben Kingsley (Hugo)

The 2nd Anonymous Theatre 3000 Awards (Part I)

As the Oscars are approaching, I am doing my own awards. Inspired by the awards done by RopeOfSilicon, I am doing my own awards as a response to every insipid awards show. The Anonynous Theatre Awards are based on the best of movies... in literally every aspect of every movie. If a movie is listed, it won't be because of what I think about the movie, but what part of the movie work itself at their very and personal best.


Best Visual Effects

Rise of the Planet of the Apes 

Review | Hugo

It makes Avatar look Avatarded!

Review | The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)

One of the most confronting yet addictive movies of the year.

 

Review | Blue Velvet

And the Award goes to... Bronies

As the year is ending, from this point on until January or February, I'm going to do my own awards that represents everything in film around 2011 and I have to say that this year has the worst crop of films in any single year in movie history. When the year had been saturated by sequels, remakes and reboots, you reckon it's in the darkest timeline of all time. And that's what it is. Pointing out movies that had made some interest this year and somewhat doesn't.

Best films of the 2000s

The movies had come and gone in various ends of the spectrum and it came be broken down to which movies are the best by remembering what was awesome in what particular year and how important it is to them. Determining how important would depends on how many times they've seen a particular movie, whether it is put on a thousand best lists of a thousand newspapers and magazines. The 2000s was the start of the new millenium where our civilisation become maintained with social networking sites and iPods. People went looking for weapons that may lead to platonic suicide and they later discovered that there were no such thing as WMDs. Our music had various changes where it asks you for those who love their music to turn their brain off. That is the result of music we are currently having today.

But that's not the point. I am counting down the 25 best movies of the 2000s. Some that I have kept in my DVD collection and some that... I think about and do not have the balls to collect it on DVD. And that's that. However before we get into the list, you are going to ask where is Requiem For A Dream, any movie by Wes Anderson or something like that, it's just that I haven't seen them yet.

And here a few mentions