Top Ten Films of 2012

And for the last blog of 2012, I give you the best films of 2011. What a wonderful year to be a movie lover; there really were a lot of great works created last year.

Honorable Mentions: The Master, Five Year Engagement, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Searching for Sugar Man.

10. Looper
9. Life of Pi
8. Argo
7. Lincoln
6. Zero Dark Thirty
5. Amour
4. Moonrise Kingdom
3. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Silver Lining Playbook
1. Beasts of the Southern Wild

Cashback (2006)

What if you could freeze time? That would be pretty cool. Here’s a movie about an art student who learns how to do just that. Meanwhile he tries to get over the girl friend that broke up with him and deal with insomnia. Along the way he becomes interested in a co-worker, a beautiful and charming cashier. Simple, enjoyable and just the kind of film any director would love to say was their first. Grade: A-

Frozen (2013)

There are so many aspects to this Disney film to celebrate. It’s first and foremost a very entertaining fable with fun, catchy tunes (with wonderful lyrics). It’s also not the love story we’ve seen done to death, over and over again, with these kinds of Disney fairy tale films. This one is about the love between two sisters and two very independent, strong-willed women many girls can look up to.  This is on par with Tangled (the last fairy tale film Disney did) and proof John Lasseter is doing something right over there at the Mouse House.  I suspect this loose adaptatin of Hans Christian Andersen's story, The Snow Queen, will win a lot of fans (and awards). Kristen Bell and Idina Menzel lend their voices to the main characters and both perform fantastically. As with Hans Christian Andersen’s other story Disney butchered, I’m okay with the liberties they took because it can connect more with today's audience.   love what Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck did here and I’m excited to see what other films they make with Disney. Grade: A

American Hustle (2013)

David O. Russell is having a bit of a renaissance here. After The Fighter and Silver Lining’s Playbook comes another entertaining film with an all-star cast of Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner. It’s the story of a con artist couple being used by an FBI agent to use their talents to indict crooked politicians during the ‘70s. And it’s inspired by real events. All of this is intriguing enough but add Russell’s brilliant use of character development over plot to make this an even better film than it probably deserves to be. This one has great tension, many laughs and classic interactions from very memorable characters. My only complaint (and it’s a minor one) is that it’s pacing isn’t as smooth flowing as his other films, but I still greatly enjoyed this zinger. Grade: A-

Top Ten Christmas Films To-Be, Maybe (Commentary)

For my annual Christmas Top Ten List I had trouble deciding what to do. I’ve already done the best movies and so forth, what else is there? So below are 10 Christmas films that I’d love to see get made. They’re not necessarily good ideas, but I’d love to see them anyway. What do you think? Anyone crazy enough to attempt one of these concepts?

A Christmas Paradox
Here’s a twist on Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, using Time travel instead of mystical ghosts. Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew Fred is the main character, a scientist who decides to go back in time to change the moment when Ebenezer started hating Christmas. Except when he returns to the present, assuming the holidays would be better he finds that Bob Cratchit is now the humbug miser and Scrooge is just as unhappy as before as Bob’s clerk. Now he must fix the mess he made by going back and ruining Ebenezer’s past to save everyone else’s Christmas.

How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Animated)
I really love what Sony did with Horton Hears a Who and I’d love to see them update Dr. Seuss’ classic holiday story. I know there’s the Ron Howard/ Jim Carrey version (which I actually don’t mind that much) but with animation there is so much more they could do.

Christmas Road Trip Movie
Think a mix between Vacation and Plains, Trains and Automobiles. A family travels across country to celebrate the holidays with the father’s large family. Comedy ensues.

Modern Nativity Story
Take the Nativity Story and have it happen in our time. Mary and Joseph are poor, homeless emigrants who find shelter in a hotel’s back utility closet. Every part of the story could be modernized for effect and it might end up being really moving. Just don’t make it a preachy film.

Christmas 3000
In the distant future we have lost the meaning of Christmas. In fact no one even celebrates it anymore. So a team of Christian scientists collect Jesus’ DNA and clone him so he can bring back the holidays. Except Jesus ends up making things even worse and it’s only our hero, a jolly fat atheist named Nicholas who saves the world from Jesus by bringing back fun and merriment to the end of the year. Or, now that I think of it, call the film Jesus vs. Santa. This black comedy concept would get some wonderful heated hate letters.

The Making of Rudolph
A behind the scenes film about the making of the classic Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer animated film from 1964. There’s got to be something cool about the making of that made-for-TV film.

Christmas in Paradise
I’ve never seen a Christmas film set on a tropical setting. Maybe newly-weds who go to the relatives who live in the Caribbean. The wife grew up there so it’s nothing new but the husband is used to a wintery Christmas and goes crazy.

Evil Elves
What if Santa’s elves became possessed and turned into evil, vampire like trolls intent on eating children? It would be like a zombie Christmas movie with lots of scares. Okay, maybe they should just call this one Gremlins.

A Pixar Christmas
I don’t care what the concept is or who is in it but I’d love to see Pixar make a holiday-themed film. I know it would be an instant classic.

Santa Claus Conquers The Martians (Remake)
There’s no doubt that this 1964 bomb is one of the worse Christmas movies made, which is why we need to remake it. It can either be made as a wacky parody that aims for laughs or a science fiction comedy that’s full of action. I don’t care which direction they go, I just want to see a special effect extravaganza where Santa Claus battles aliens trying to ruin the holidays. 

A Christmas Carol (2009)

When I heard Robert Zemeckis (one of my favorite directors) was making another film adaptation of Dicken’s famous holiday ghost story, I groaned. Then I heard Jim Carrey was going to star in the film and play multiple characters. I still groaned. I love both guys but why this story. It’s been done so many times by so many people I just didn’t see the necessity of it. In the end I decided to see it because I wanted to watch a Christmas movie and it was the only one available. I was delightfully entertained but still wish they’d collaborated on something else. Carrey is fantastic and the visuals are sublime. And as for motion-capture animation this is one of the best.  But it reminds me of my high school years when the theater teacher picked some lamn play or musical to perform that year and you just had to accept it if you wanted to participate.  It’s worth checking out for the holidays but only if you’ve already seen George C. Scott’s verision of Scrooge (which is still the best adaptation). Grade: B+

Rise of the Guardians (2012)

Sadly, nobody saw this film when it came out. It did so poorly that it financially hurt Dreamworks Animation Studios enough to cause layoffs and to lower the company’s stock price. Yet it’s a really fun film and any flaws it has are minute. It creates a world where the world’s children are protected by four supernatural heroes: Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and The Sandman. And the villain they must protect children from is the sinister Pitch Black aka Boogey Man. Step in our hero, Jack Frost, who will join the Guardians to put an end to Pitch Black’s most recent and daring plan of spreading nightmares to all the world’s youth. What makes this film really special is the design elements used to create the Guardians; they look really cool. The Easter Bunny is not some fluffy cute creature, he’s a boomerang welding warrior. Santa Claus isn’t your typical jolly fat guy, he’s a giant Viking general ready to kick some ass. The Tooth Fairy is a hummingbird queen and The Sandman is a magical spinning top. I loved what director Peter Ramsey and team did with this film and have to check out the books by William Joyce which was this film’s source of inspiration. Grade: A-