Monthly Archives: January 2013

2012 In Retrospect

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Here we are — the final end of 2012. What better way to wrap up than to reflect on the good, the bad, and the other? And so there’s a top ten, a bottom five, and a bunch of stuff I missed. (This post is long; you might appreciate those links.)

“What’s the point,” you may ask, “of choosing a top ten from a wholly arbitrary list of 97 films?” And to that I say, “best not to think about it too much.”

As ever, all of these are selected from what I watched this year. The full list of eligible titles is here.



The Five Worst Films I Saw For the First Time in 2012

In alphabetical order…

The Book of Eli
I gave four main-list films one star this year, and 14 two stars, yet a film I awarded three stars makes this list. Why? After a great beginning, Eli gradually descends into sanctimonious tosh; it becomes almost offensively bad. For that reason, I remember it with considerably less affection than its star rating would suggest, and certainly worse than those 14 others.

The Final Destination
I came to the Final Destination series late, but initially found them to be divertingly enjoyable teen horror movies. The third one went a bit off the rails (literally), but this fourth entry has no redeeming features. The definite-article title neatly indicated it was the last in the series, but then they went and made a fifth and so ruined that too.

The Last Airbender
Some people have called M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of the Asian-tinged US cartoon one of the worst films ever made. I don’t necessarily disagree. Poorly made in every way but its special effects, the only joy in The Last Airbender comes from tittering at the double entendre every time the hero is described as “a powerful bender”.

Legion
I don’t necessarily have anything against films with a religious theme, yet this is the second one on this year’s list. Legion doesn’t contain the objectionable moralising of The Book of Eli, though — it’s just a really badly made film. You might forgive bad dialogue and acting if the action sequences were well-done, but they’re not. Irredeemable.

The Spiral Staircase
A needless modernised remake of the ’40s adaptation of Ethel Lina White’s novel Some Must Watch. This isn’t that bad judged in its own class (turn-of-the-millennium US cable TV movies made For Women), and it even has a couple of good bits, but by comparison to the fabulous earlier film, it’s contemptuous.



The Ten Best Films I Saw For the First Time in 2012

An uncomplicated low-budget British period action movie, but one that delivers on all the fronts it promises to. It may be too bloody and gory for some, but that adds a certain realism to the Seven Samurai-esque medieval story that isn’t unwelcome. Paul Giamatti stands out as a scenery-chewing villain par excellence, but a likeable cast all round help pull the film through some of its slower moments.

I couldn’t care less about Fashion — indeed, in many respects I despise that world as much as the next right-headed human being — but Bill Cunningham transcends that to be a social documentarian. A documentary about a documentarian may sound trite, but this simple portrait of a simple man is anything but. I imagine it won’t connect with everyone, but I loved it.

I love a good procedural thriller (look at Anatomy of a Murder, the only pre-millennium film to crack my 2010 top five), and this adaptation of a Michael Connelly doorstop is in broadly the same mould. Matthew McConaughey endears even as a smarmy small-time lawyer thrust into a big-league murder case, with (bit of a spoiler here) his own client certainly the villain. There’s been talk of a sequel, for which I have my fingers tightly crossed.

A big franchise is relaunched because a writer had a good idea for a story? Wonders never cease! And it pays dividends, because Rise isn’t your usual blockbuster: it’s an intelligent science-inspired drama that just happens to link up to a studio sci-fi/action series. Its pretty much Proper Science-Fiction, in fact. Even better, that doesn’t stop it from having a barnstorming climax.

I don’t think even TDKR’s staunchest defenders could claim in good faith that it was a perfect film (though some of the holes people harp on about aren’t holes at all and that bugs me). I think a lot of people wanted The Dark Knight: Part 2, but instead Nolan delivered something that was, despite the sheen of realism, much more comic-book-y. And you know what, I loved it. Caution after the non-stop unconvinced reaction of so many others leaves it low-ish in this list; when I get round to a pre-review re-watch I’ll see if I should’ve ranked it higher (or, indeed, lower).

A British spy thriller, yes, but about as different from Bond as you can get. A measured pace unveils an intricate plot (too intricate for some (mostly American) critics), it’s gorgeously shot, and Gary Oldman pulls off a mission many thought impossible by delivering a Smiley that can stand up to Alec Guinness’ classic performance. Superb. I really need to re-watch it though, which may have seen it place higher on this list.

Many Bat-fans would argue that the finest screen depiction of the Dark Knight is the ’90s animated series, and this is the theatrically-released spin-off — which many Bat-fans would argue is the finest big-screen depiction of said hero. Boasting an original new take on Batman’s backstory and origin, plus a fine cameo-sized turn from Mark Hamill’s arguably-definitive Joker, it’s definitely up there with the best Bat-films.

It took me a long time to get round to this 2003 Oscar nominee, for which I give myself a rap on the wrist because it’s excellent. Mass audiences also ignored it in droves, meaning we’re unlikely to get a sequel (despite there being well over a dozen further novels in the series). A shame. If, like me, you weren’t interested and haven’t bothered to see it, I encourage you to reconsider.

Spielberg’s World War One epic got lost last awards season under the weight of a silent French film and relative critical indifference. I thought it was a fine film, more family-friendly than its 12 certificate might suggest, but with a nonetheless realistic portrayal of a horrid period of history. Perhaps too melodramatic for some tastes, I loved it.

Is this really a surprise? I shouldn’t’ve thought so. I’m a big Bond fan and Skyfall is a big entry in the Bond canon, and I wrote a bloody big review of it too (lest you forgot). Whether it’s the best Bond film ever — or even the best Bond film to star Daniel Craig — is still open for debate, but the very fact it’s a debate to be had signals Skyfall as something very special.



Special Mentions

Having got my 36-film long list down to just 14, I struggled with some parts of the final top 10. Just bubbling under (and maybe they would’ve got in on a different day) were The Hunger Games, The Scarlet Claw, With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story… and Avengers Assemble. I love the work of Joss Whedon (which I’ll talk more about in my review), but arriving on Blu-ray after years of hype and a rapturous reception in cinemas, I found the culmination of Marvel’s Phase One movies to be underwhelming. Though it may not be a five-star insta-classic (and, believe it or not, I’m far from alone in that view — indeed, Whedon himself agrees), it’s still a rollicking good time.

An honourable mention too for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, the final instalment in what has turned out to be quite an incredible series, in its own way. Following those characters and actors as they grew up over ten years and across eight films is a fairly unique achievement, and while the films aren’t always objectively great, they’re rarely less than engrossingly entertaining. I didn’t unconditionally adore the finale as much as (British, at least) critics and audiences seemed to, meaning it’s pipped to a place on my top 10, but it was a fitting climax to what turned out to be an epic saga.

I also can’t end this without mentioning the nine main-list films that earned themselves 5-star ratings this year. Almost all of them (seven, to be precise) made it into the top ten: Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Bill Cunningham New York, The Dark Knight Rises, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Skyfall, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and War Horse. The other two were The Lost Weekend and With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story. Plus, among my other reviews, there were also full marks for Batman Begins, Batman Returns, The Dark Knight (I’ve seen it three times, reviewed it three times, and given it five stars three times!), From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, and the lovely Christmas-telly short Room on the Broom.

Additional thanks this year to the ’30s/’40s series of Saint and Falcon films, which between them accounted for 14 films. It should’ve been more, but my regular viewing of them kind of tailed off. I’ll aim to complete the Falcon films this year… but as I’ve been working my way through the Rathbone Sherlock Holmes flicks almost since this blog began, we’ll see how that pans out.



The Films I Didn’t See

In case you missed it at the start, this post isn’t about the films of 2012, only my 2012, and as always there were a large number of notable releases this year that I’ve yet to see. As is traditional, then, here’s an alphabetical list of 50 films from 2012 that I’ve not seen. Normally I slavishly stick to those listed as 2012 on IMDb, but this year there are several where their year listing is dubious, so I’ve (partially) thrown that notion out the window. Maybe next year I’ll go whole hog and just go by UK release dates. But that might be a bit radical.

Debates about precise years-of-production aside, this list is always a mix between a year’s biggest films and ones I think I might actually get round to seeing, considering that I tick it off going forward (see the last post’s statistics for how I’ve got on down the years). This year is particularly awkward at the top end of this balance, with a ton of kid-aimed animated films among the highest-grossing films both in the US and worldwide. I love a Pixar, Dreamworks, or whoever crossover as much as the next man, but Ice Age 4? Madagascar 3? The Lorax, Hotel Transylvania, ParaNorman, Rise of the Guardians? All were financially very successful, but how many am I likely to care about enough to get round to – especially as I’ve seen not even seen Ice Age 2, never mind Ice Age 3. I usually try to include about the top 20 highest grossing films, but I’ve dumped that this year to exclude some of those movies I don’t imagine I’ll ever see. Though, as it’s the fourth highest-grossing film of the year worldwide, I couldn’t really ignore Ice Age 4.

As ever, the rest of the list is made up of Things People Have Talked About – not necessarily big earners, but Oscar contenders and those smaller, usually foreign, films the cinephile press and sites seem to have been discussing. Bit more of the latter this year, I think, just because I’ve been paying a little more attention.

21 Jump Street
The Amazing Spider-Man
Amour
Anna Karenina
Argo
Battleship
Berberian Sound Studio
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Bourne Legacy
Brave
The Cabin in the Woods
Chronicle
Cloud Atlas
Dark Shadows
Django Unchained
Dredd
End of Watch
The Expendables 2
Flight
Frankenweenie
The Grey
Hitchcock
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Holy Motors
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Jack Reacher
John Carter
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Looper
Magic Mike
The Master
Men in Black 3
Les Misérables
Moonrise Kingdom
The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists
Rise of the Guardians
Rust and Bone
Seven Psychopaths
Silver Linings Playbook
Snow White and the Huntsman
Taken 2
Ted
Total Recall
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 2
Underworld: Awakening
The Woman in Black
Wrath of the Titans
Wreck-It Ralph
Zero Dark Thirty



A Final Thought

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far, especially if you’ve read through all the end-of-year posts I’ve produced this year. I do waffle on, don’t I?

But that’s it now! I’m done! Well, apart from the whopping pile of unposted reviews. They’re going to require some re-viewing before reviewing, I think.

And it’s also time to get stuck into 2013. Maybe this year I’ll reach 100 again; indeed, based on form I should reach 120-something. Always good to set oneself up for failure, eh…

2012: The Full List

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2012, eh? What a year: the Jubilee, the Olympics (I still call it the Jubilympics); the Paralympics; the highest-grossing film in Britain ever; the most-watched video on YouTube ever; the world not ending… it was certainly a year to remember.

Not so much for 100 Films, unfortunately: as we know, I fell just a trilogy box set short of reaching my titular goal. Not the first time, and as we’ll see later it may even have been predictable (except not really). Nonetheless, there are lists to be reeled off and statistics to be over-analysed. And this year there are more statistics than ever! If you’re like me, you’ll be excited by that; regular folk may just skip to the end.

Before those, there’s The List itself. After two years (is that all?) of presenting it in numbered order, I’m switching back to alphabetical. Why? Well, as you’ll see just before said full list, there’s my monthly updates. They cover the year in order, as it happens, and now that I’m linking to them from this post there’s no real need for a numbered list here too. Indeed, for those who like to cut up facts and statistics and lists in multiple different ways (as I do), this means that a year of 100 Films is presented as both numbered and alphabetical lists for the first time — exciting!

And as this post is now longer than ever, here’s a quick contents list, so you can just skip straight to the stuff you prefer…

So without further ado…


As It Happened

Below is a graphical representation of my viewing, month by month. More importantly, each of the twelve images links to the relevant monthly update — as noted (three times now?), this is where you’ll find the numbered list of everything I watched this year.













The List

Alternate Cuts
Other Reviews
Shorts

The Statistics

For only the second time ever I fell short of my goal, watching just 97 new feature films in 2012. (All are included in the stats that follow, even if there’s no review yet.) What’s perhaps more interesting is the pattern that I’m forming: in the six years I’ve been doing this blog, I’ve repeated a run of 120-something (2007, 2010), 100-exactly (2008, 2011), and under-100 (2009, 2012). Weird.

I also watched one feature I’d seen before that was extended or altered in some way, as well as reviewing 10 others that I’d seen before (easily the most ever). All 108 films are included in the statistics that follow, unless otherwise indicated. (Despite not making it to 100 on the main list, that’s more films in the stats than either of the two years I made it to 100.)

I also watched five shorts (none of which shall be counted in any statistics). As noted last year, I own quite a few DVDs of shorts (my database informs me that it’s nearly 400 individual short films), so I really should make more of an effort in this area.

The total running time of new features was 146 hours and 17 minutes. That’s the lowest ever, in part thanks to a lot of Saint and Falcon films that only run around an hour each. The total running time of all films (including, for this stat only, shorts) was 169 hours and 35 minutes. That means that the shorts, alternate cuts and other reviews run nearly 24 hours — over double the next nearest (which was last year, at nearly 12 hours). You may like to compare the following graph to the number-of-features one above — does the total number watched tarry with their total length? (As it turns out, yes, yes it does.)

I saw two films at the cinema this year. That’s the same as last year, and so the joint lowest-ever. Cinemas are so pricey and time-consuming these days. Still, there were near misses for The Avengers and The Hobbit, which would have made it my best year at the box office since 2009. But alas, no.

The highest format is once again TV, this year totalling 53 films. After accounting for hardly any of my viewing in the first two years, TV surged to dominance in 2009 and has remained there ever since. Considering the size of my unwatched disc collection, that really shouldn’t be the case. Second place this year again went to Blu-ray (third year running). With 41 films it’s about the same as last year. DVD, however, sinks further into the doldrums: just six SD discs graced my player this year. Again, considering I have literally hundreds of the things I’ve not got round to, that’s a disgrace. There was also a single download (one of the Falcon films that I missed on TV and had to retrieve from iPlayer, as will be the case with all of them when I get on with the rest of the series).

Much to everyone’s surprise, streaming has undergone a resurgence and so makes a moderately significant appearance on the list this year. Whoever thought (even in the comparatively-recent early days of dedicated services like YouTube) that streaming would be a viable way to watch films in a reasonable quality? But that’s where we’re at now, thanks to increasingly fast broadband and a preponderance of rental services looking to make it easy to view films for those punters not all that concerned with image quality. All my streaming films this year were watched on a Wii, via either Netflix or LOVEFiLM. The former seemed to provide DVD-like quality; the latter looks more like an over-compressed downloaded pirate copy. In spite of that, I’m not going with Netflix — I have LOVEFiLM for DVDs/BDs by post, and my package comes with free unlimited streaming (it’s an old one that’s no longer available, haha!) If only they could step up the picture quality… Anyway, four films came down the pipes to me this year — it may not sound like much, but the previous average was 0.2. At this point I wouldn’t like to predict if that will be higher or lower next year.

This year the most popular decade was the 2010s, with 46 films (42.6%). That’s the first time it’s topped the list, just losing out to the ’00s last year. It’s a solid victory: though the first decade of the new millennium still comes in second, it’s with just 21 films (19.4%). It would be an even wider percentage gap were it not for the other reviews (adding a pair of Batmans to the ’00s) — indeed, looking at the main list alone, the three years of this decade account for over 47%. Clearly I err towards the modern.

That said, third place this year goes to the ’40s: buoyed by the Saint and Falcon films, it totals 14 (13%). Of the rest, the ’90s managed a respectable nine (up on last year’s low of five); both the ’80s and the ’60s reached five; the ’30s achieved four; the ’50s made it to three; and the ’70s had just one. That’s every decade since the 1930s covered, the same as last year — oops! I have a moderate collection of silent films that I really should get stuck into. (I’d do a graph for this section, but with all those decades to factor in it’d just be a mess.)

This is also the first full year to feature my new top information line (I say “new” — I was surprised to find this was the first whole year of it, so I guess I started in mid-2011). That means lots of opportunities for new statistics, and so that opportunity shall be seized! The main area this can be applied are the countries and languages info, which reveal I watched 106 films that were either wholly or significantly in English. 106, out of 108. Diverse. Some of those did share languages — Iron Sky, for instance, has a lot of German; and there were a couple of Hong Kong films that also rated English as a listed language. Cantonese and Mandarin chalked up three films apiece, one way or another. And that’s it.

Country-wise, the USA dominate with a massive 88 films (81.5%). No surprise really. Second goes to jolly old Blighty with 30 (27.8%), a mixture of co-productions and… not co-productions. Indeed, it’s the former that gives third place to Germany (13) and accounts for many others, which I’ll list in a minute. Some films could easily be narrowed down to a specific country of origin (several of those German films are definitely US productions with co-funding), but others are truly multi-national — how do you decide where to draw the line? I’ve taken to just listing every country IMDb offers. So some of the following ‘genuinely’ produced films I watched — Hong Kong, Canada (both 4) — while many others were just somehow in on it — France (4), China (2), India (2), and one each for Australia, Finland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Spain.

A minuscule three films from the main list appear on IMDb’s Top 250 Films as of New Year’s Day 2013. To put that in perspective, the previous low was seven, and that was half of some years’ total, and a third of the first’s. It’s not as if I’ve seen most of the IMDb Top 250 either — I’m missing about 119. To rub it in, the three I did see are all from the past 18 months. Main lesson: try to watch more classics next year. Nonetheless, the positions of those present range from 38th (The Dark Knight Rises) to 220th (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2), via 130th (Avengers Assemble). I know, Skyfall isn’t on there! Positively shocking.

As ever, there are too many other similar lists to consider checking them all. And based on those results, I wouldn’t be able to tick much off any of them anyway.

I’ve yet to re-watch any of the films from this list, only the second time that’s happened — and the last was the other year I failed to make 100. Weird coincidence. Not a surprise when one doesn’t see much at the cinema, really — I’ve got more than enough to catch for the first time without re-watching things in under 12 months. That said, a good few of the remaining reviews (especially the lower numbers) will likely require a re-watch before I cover them. Films like Tinker Tailor deserve thought in their review, not a quick dashed-off-from-11-month-old-memories comment or two.

At the end of all five previous years’ summaries I’ve included a list of 50 notable films I’d missed from that year’s releases. With 2012 over, I’ve managed to see (deep breath) one more from 2007 (bringing the total for that 50 to 27), no more from 2008’s list (leaving it at 14), two more from 2009’s (bringing that to 15), and six more from 2010’s (bringing it to 22). Finally, in the year since listing 2011’s 50, I’ve managed to see 16 of them. As that beats all I’ve seen in four years of 2008’s list and three years of 2009’s, it’s not a bad start. Still a lot of viewing to do, mind, and I’ll be adding another 50 from 2012 in my next post.

A total of 85 solo directors and seven directing partnerships appear on the main list. A record low have multiple films on the main list, with just Jack Hively and Irving Reis scoring three (all Saint and Falcon films, respectively) and Scott Stewart claiming a risible pair (Priest and Legion). However, Tim Burton, Joel Schumacher and Christopher Nolan each put in two appearances thanks to my retrospective on the Batman series — which actually makes three for Nolan, as I also saw The Dark Knight Rises. Matching that is Terence Young, director of three of the first four Bond films; and, like Nolan, Fritz Lang features in both the main list and the ‘other’ list, making two for him too. Numbers are rounded out by Guy Hamilton, director of Goldfinger, bringing the overall total of feature directors to 96. (I should also mention Leythum, director of the first two Marvel One-Shot shorts.)

This year’s star ratings kick off with 14 five-star films — the lowest ever (and five of those weren’t in the main list). Conversely, there were five one-star films — the highest ever. Oh dear. Plus, for the first time ever, the majority of films (41 of them) scored three stars. That’s well above average, and the most ever by nine. Consequently, four-star films were well below average, just 34 of them, the lowest ever by eight. Normally they account for around 50% of my scores, but this year it’s just 32%. The only bit of sanity came from the two-star films, back to their regular ballpark with 14 after last year’s record-low-by-half.

That gives an average score of 3.4 — easily the lowest ever. No surprise, considering the low 5s, high 1s, and uncommonly dominant 3s. The first four years’ average score alternated between 3.6 and 3.7, but they were all actually even closer, ranging just 3.63 to 3.66. Last year saw an extraordinary leap up to 3.83, while this year it sinks to 3.35 — a whole half mark lower. No wonder it’s been awkward compiling my top ten (but more on that next time).

Finally, a record-low 26 of the films (plus three of the shorts and all the other reviews) are currently in my DVD/Blu-ray collection.


Coming next…

Nearly done! Later this weekend I’ll look back over the 97 new films I saw to pick out my worst five and best ten, and remind you of 50 new releases from the past 12 months that I’ve yet to see.

December 2012

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It’s the end of the world as we know it, said some people who paid a mite too much attention to an ancient calendar. But though the world did not end, 2012 most certainly has, so it’s time to reflect.

I say “it’s time to” — most websites, magazines and what have you have already done so. But for a blog that counts how many new films one has watched in a year in its entirety, everything — to the very last minute — counts. And what number has that count reached, you may ask. Well…


Drumroll please

And the final total is… 97.

That makes only the second time I’ve failed to reach 100, and it was even closer (last was 2009, when I reached 94). A helluvan end to the year for all the wrong reasons put paid to much film watching, including plans to see The Hobbit (which I’ll hopefully now see soon and not let slide into another Avengers situation), and I couldn’t quite drag it back in the closing days. It’s disappointing, of course, but not the end of the world. Unless this is what the Mayans meant.


December’s films
Predators
#92 The Keep (1983)
#93 Predators (2010)
#94 The Expendables (2010)
#94a Room on the Broom (2012)
#95 Iron Sky (2012)
#96 Stiff Upper Lips (1998)
#97 The Plank (1967)


Next time on the all-new 100 Films in a Year monthly update…

And so the cycle begins again.

Will I reach 100 in 2013? Well, last time I failed, the next year wound up my second-best ever. Just sayin’