My personal Top 10 movies of 2012

Okay, so this is hard. What makes my taste better than your taste? What makes my top 10 more important than yours?

Nothing.

I’m not saying this is THE BEST MOVIES of 2012. For one thing, there are MANY 2012 films I haven’t watched yet. So it is impossible for me to make a complete, fair judgement. ALSO, these films aren’t what I bestow the title of “BEST FILMS” on – they’re simply the ones I enjoyed most. For various reasons. So I’ll make a quick list of my 10 favourite films of 2012, with a brief tweet-sized (literally, 140 characters) comment on each. Please note: These are presented in alphabetical order – though I can pick my favourite (The Skin I live in), it’s too hard for me to pick between numbers 3-10 (#2 is easy too 😛 ).[[MORE]]

So, let’s get down to business (alphabetically):

The Amazing Spider-man: I was a huge fan of Raimi’s trilogy, and (500) days of Marc Webb gave this film the heart & action it needed.

The Dark Knight Rises: Even I’m surprised it made the list. No The Dark Knight, but such a Nolan flick and a great conclusion!

Frankenweenie: Cute family film! Nice to see something great again from Burton after the disappoinments of Alice & Dark Shadows.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: MORE Lord of the Rings? Yeah! And this time, funnier, and probably pacier than last time!

Material: A GOOD South African movie should be celebrated. Aside from the silly granny and some lame jokes, this was a well-balanced film.

Melancholia: Wow. Emotional, real, scary. In a realistic way. And such a well-constucted film!

Moonrise Kingdom: Wes Anderson at his best! The ultimate misfit movie, continually turning in new and exciting ways.

Searching for Sugarman: One of the best documentaries I’ve seen. Especially well-structured, providing an unfolding mystery tale all the way through.

Seeking a friend for the end of the world: Beautiful film about what’s really important. Tip: Don’t watch when feeling lonely.

The Skin I live in: Almodóvar is one of the best story-tellers. The way the story keeps changing, and makes you re-evaluate assumptions you made earlier. BEST.

****CLOSE BUT NO CIGARS****

The next few films didn’t make the cut, but only barely:

• The Artist
• Drive
• Prometheus
• Die Wonderwerker

****The un-Top 15 films****

These are the movies I saw this year, that didn’t make the cut. In order for the Top 10 to make sense, you have to know which films it was compared to. (Alphabetical, again)

• 31 Million Reasons
• The Avengers
• The Best exotic Marigold hotel
• Brave
• Bully
• Dark Shadows
• The Dictator
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Fincher version)
• Hugo
• Iron Sky
• Lyfstraf
• Men in black 3
• Midnight in Paris
• The Muppets
• Murundak: Songs of Freedom
• Our idiot brother
• Project X
• The Raven
• The Rum Diary
• Safe House
• Skyfall
• Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace (3D)
• Taken 2
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• The Adventures of Tintin: The secret of the unicorn
• To Rome with love
• Young Adult

****2013****

The 2013-release movies I’m most excited for:

• Django Unchained
• A Good Day to Die Hard
• Evil Dead
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Man of Steel
• Kick-Ass 2 (yes)
• The Wolverine
• Sin City: A dame to kill for
• The World’s End (#3 in the “Blood & Cornetto” trilogy)
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Jack Ryan

High Frame Rate (HFR) 3D – as seen in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

What makes cinema cinematic? I always thought the answer to this question came down to things like “being swept away,” “big explosions,” “a huge screen,” or “beautiful bodies.” It turns out a big part of what makes cinema what it is, is very technical. Peter Jackson’s new film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, was Hollywood’s first commercial feature in 80 years to push technical boundaries by changing the industry-standard framerate of 24 frames per second.

Review: Skyfall

It almost looks like people are franticly starting to backpedal on their decisions to reboot every movie franchise ever. Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight series is over officially and permanently, according to the director. The upcoming X-men: First Class sequel, Days of Future past, is speculated to be designed specifically to tie the old and new X-men films together using far-fetched fantasy devices like time travel. It has already been confirmed that Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will be joining Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy, portraying the older, familiar versions of their characters. So yes, the filmmakers seem to be basically doing to X-men what JJ Abrams did to the Star Trek franchise by loosely retconning a newly spun-off series into the established canon.

In 2005, EON productions launched the reboot of the James Bond film franchise. Daniel Craig was the new James Bond, and the film was stripped of all the familiar clichés. They changed the tone of the film, going for longer, gritty action sequences, like that of the Bourne films, and steered clear of the gadgets, cheesy humour, and familiar faces that made 20 Bond films what they were. Now, after a hit (Casino Royale) and miss (Quantum of Solace), the series returns with Skyfall.

One of my first thoughts about Skyfall is that the movie is pretty self-aware of its above described status. Occasionally, in a piece of humour-laden dialogue, the “old way” MI6 used to operate is mentioned. Often, specifically in relation to trademark Bond gadgets or cars. Bond’s age is mentioned, and a big part of the plot revolves around the question of whether traditional espionage is still necessary in the modern world. Almost as if to defend the 50 years worth of films recently released on blu-ray, the film concludes resoundingly positively that James, his die-hard, old-school ways, and cars with hidden machine guns are still needed every now and then.

The film’s story, involving Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem), a cyber-terrorist who mirrors James Bond in interesting ways, makes a big spectacle out of a metaphorical introspection into Bond’s soul. Unmarried, with no next-of-kin, James Bond’s life revolves around his job – but what if his employers were betraying him? Plot wise, the film is more of a traditional Bond flick than the previous two: He travels the world, meets and seduces beautiful women, gets into all sorts of trouble involving gangsters, trains, and reptiles, and follows up clues to solve mysteries. The filmmakers might even be challenging modern day attention spans with the time that elapses between some of the action scenes. Can modern-day teenagers even stay awake through that much dialogue?

The jokey nature of certain scenes (mostly involving winks at the audience regarding the previous films) and the overly careful re-introductions of certain not-so-familiar faces seemed forced and over-the-top, but this might just be the producers’ attempt at re-igniting the familiar franchise elements. Skyfall manages to carefully tread the middle ground between Casino Royale’s hyper realistic grit and Die Another Day’s cheese with an extra helping of cheese, paving a safe road for the next delivery to include gadgets, martini’s, one-liners, Q, M, Moneypenny, and maybe even an Aston Martin with an ejector seat.

The MK MVPs in Review [Videos]

For the third year in a row, MK delivered their Music Video Project entries – twelve videos financially backed by MK, allowing for bigger and better videos for local musicians than usual. After last year’s selection pretty much looked like a demo reel for slow-motion cinematography, I was very pleased with the variety and quality of this year’s picks.

Read more (and see the videos) at another-day.co.za.

Review: CrashCarBurn – Gravity

CrashCarBurn, having recently signed to EMI after being independent for years, released their third album, Gravity in November. It is a pseudo-concept album that proves that they can deliver intelligent and professionally produced music that’s on par with a big record label’s standards.

Die Heuwels Fantasties – Alles Wat Mal Is

Nadat ek baie gemengde opinies oor Wilder as die wildtuin gehoor het, is ek nou al maande lank nuuskierig oor wat Die Heuwels Fantasties se derde album, Alles wat mal is, gaan oplewer.