Top Ten and Bottom Five Movies of 2012

Dear the Internet,

Well, 2012 is over and, in retrospect, I saw a whole lot of movies. I'm not a critic that gets to go to free screenings of everything, so I can really only judge the year based on a handful of movies. Here, with a few stipulations, are my top ten favorite movies of 2012 and my five least favorite movies.

My Least Favorite Movies Of The Year

Dear the Internet,

As much fun as it is to talk about things you like, sometimes it's more fun to talk about things you don't like. With that said, here are the movies I wish I didn't see this year:

Like Crazy - This is one of those rare movies where I found myself actively rooting for an onscreen couple to break up. This becomes problematic when it's the central premise of the movie. If you're in a long distance relationship where all you do is mope when you're apart and fight when you're together, it's probably not worth it. It just became grating after awhile and quickly went from a story of two crazy kids in love to a story of two whiny kids that can't move on. I recommend this movie to anybody that is in a bad relationship and wants to see what it looks like to everybody else.

Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon - After seeing the third movie in this series, it has become impossible for me distinguish any given scene from one movie to the next. Is this the scene where Optimus dies in the second movie or where he dies in the third movie? Is this the part where the Decepticons summon a great evil from the past in the first, second, or is it the third movie? Is this the part where the camera is moving too fast to see the robots punching each other but finds time to check out a girl in slow-mo in the third, first, or was it the second movie? Wait, is that a different girl. I recommend this movie to anybody that has both Memento amnesia and ADHD, but only if you aren't epileptic.

The Art of Getting By - This is a movie about privileged teenagers in private school whose lives are just so hard. I mean homework, girls, and their parents just don't get it. Ugh, life couldn't possibly get any more difficult than that. No joking at all, a big plot point in the movie is that the main character just doesn't feel like doing his school work. His teachers just don't understand. If I wanted to get that story, I would just read my journals from middle school. I recommend this to anybody that has 90 minutes they want to feel like three hours.

My Favorite Movies of the Year*

It's getting to be that time of year when people talk about their favorite things. Me being a "people", I figured it would be appropriate to write a list of my favorite films.

10. Attack the Block

9. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

8. Thor

7. Captain America

6. Step Up 3D

They Were Tears Of Joy!!!

Dear the Internet,

Saying you like Pixar is like saying you like the Beatles; of course you do, everybody does. I like Pixar. A lot. I've seen almost all of their movies in theaters. I have most of them on DVD. I've even met Brad Bird (writer/director of Iron Giant, The Incredibles, and Ratatouille) while I was working at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It was just a handshake and a hello, but I still cherish it. So, because Cars 2 is coming out tomorrow (and even though it's getting bad reviews, I still want to see it), I thought it would be fun to rank my favorite Pixar movies. This, with a few exceptions, was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. To make things interesting, I'm also going to just admit the point at which they made me cry. Fair warning though, there are spoilers in here, especially when I talk about what made me cry.

Long Time Gone

Dear The Internet,

So, it's been a couple months since I last posted something. Oops. I guess I'm a little surprised at how much time it takes to put up a quality post and how rare that time is. I can't really think of anything to post right now either, which can't help. I'm feeling sort of creatively constipated and I'm hoping that I can get things moving again by writing a bit. I really want to get out and shoot some photos, but these winter months make daylight a much desired commodity. It also doesn't help that I've been exercising more, which is a huge time eater.

Since it's the new year-ish I figure I'll write out some of my resolutions. I kind of don't believe in New Year's Resolutions because I think that if you want to change something, you should start as soon as you get that desire. January 1st isn't magic and most people don't keep their resolutions. If you really want to do something, you don't need to wait for a new calendar year. With that in mind, here are some things that I hope to change this coming year:

Act Your Age

Dear The Internet,

I just watched the trailer for Drive Angry and I honestly think they meant to put it as one of the fake trailers in Grindhouse, but I guess that would also explain why it is actually a movie, so I'll just say that it looks either terribly awesome or awesomely terrible. I can't even tell the difference any more. One thing that absolutely baffles me is when seasoned (aka, old) actors get paired up with super young actresses. Amber Heard is almost 20 years younger than Nicolas Cage! How would it be at all believable that they would pair up? Next is also guilty of this (it's also guilty of being terrible, so there's that). Maybe it's in Nicolas Cage's contract that his costar must be at least fifteen years younger than him. At least Adam Sandler has the decency to pair himself with very attractive woman that are within his age range.

The Two Most Recent Movies I've Seen

Dear The Internet,

I have this theory called the Airplane/Cable Theory that states that all movies seen on cable/TV are improved because you are seeing them under the most comfortable of situations (in your own home with your hand in your pants, Al Bundy style) and all movies seen on a plane are worsened because you are seeing them under the most uncomfortable situation possible (crammed into a plane, where a hand in your pants can put you on the no fly list).