Top 10 Films of the Year

So here it is, the last of my end of year lists, this has been a slightly disappointing year in film for me but within the disappointment there were still some excellent films which came out. Now keep in mind, I'm going on UK release schedule so you won't see films like Lincoln, Les Miserables, Cloud Atlas and Django Unchained in this list, plus I haven't seen like Beasts of the Southern Wild, The Master and Paranorman. And so, without further ado, my top 10 films of 2012.

Top 10 Performances of the Year

Next up in these lists is my favourite performances of the year. 2012 had some brilliant acting jobs and there are a lot of performances that I really wanted to put in this list. That said, there were 10 performances that bested all of them:

Top 11 Scenes of the Year

So now we are up to the best scenes of the year and the start of my reflection on the films of 2012. Now there were a lot of great film moments from 2012 and it was hard to pick just 10, and so I've put in 11. Now this is the only time that I'll extend one of my lists but there are so many great scenes from last year that I couldn't just limit it to 10. With that said, let's start off with these scenes:

Top 10 Most Anticipated Films of 2013

It's the time of year again for the traditional end of year film lists and it's time for me to throw my thoughts of the year out into the world. However, I think it's best to look forward to the films that are coming out next year and then reflect on the films of this year. So without further ado, let's dive in:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

Since the first trailer was released, I was really looking forward to the first instalment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit films. Then the warning signs began, first the footage unveiled at Cinema-Con was badly received and then came the news that there would be 3 films of The Hobbit. I started to get nervous but today, I went to see the film and all my fears were unfounded. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a brilliant film.

Pacific Rim Trailer

So Guillermo Del Toro's next film involves giant robots, giant monsters, Idris Elba announcing that he'll cancel the apocalypse and GLaDOS from Portal. So as soon as the tickets are released I will be booking them.

My Thoughts on the Golden Globe Nominations

It's that time of year again. The major awards contenders are being announced and it's time for me to give my thoughts on each category. Now this will be going in my traditional Will Win, Should Win, Missing criteria and I will be including the TV ones as well. With that said, let's dive in.

My Prediction of the 2013 Oscar Nominees at the End of the Year

Seeing as the awards season is now firmly under-way, I think it is now time for my annual feature in this blog, my Oscar predictions. Now all of these predictions are based on the current awards season releases going on and I will of course be commenting on the actual nominations when they are announced. So, let's get started:

Sightseers Review

Oh boy, this is a hard one to review. On the one hand I really want to tell you all just how brilliant a film Sightseers is but in order to do so I will need to spoil some details of the plot. If you don't want Sightseers to be spoilt then my quick verdict is that Sightseers is the best black comedy to come along since Four Lions and it is a black comedy in every way. It is both laugh out loud hilarious and really darkly dramatic at points. If you are a fan of black comedy in any way then you should go out and see Sightseers. So now onto my full review of the film, again don't read on if you don't want the film spoilt for you.

Argo Review

Every since I saw the first trailer for this film I was fascinated, the Iranian Revolution is a fascinating period of history and I find it amazing to see the ways in which the US government tried to rescue the hostages. With this film, I had a hard time believing at first that the plan was real but with wider research, I found out that it was real, a story so crazy it can only be true. To that end, what did I think of the film? It was incredible and is quite possibly my favourite film of the year.

The Force Is With Disney

Over the past few weeks, the biggest film news has been that Disney has bought Lucasfilm and has commissioned a new trilogy of Star Wars films starting in 2015, a year which Disney is now certain to win with box office with this, Avengers 2 and Ant-Man. A lot of people have been hostile at this decision but me, I'm cautiously optimistic.

Skyfall Review

Over the past few years, I was doubting the ability of the Bond films to stage a comeback. After the pretty bad Quantum of Solace, I had no idea how the film-makers could successfully sell Bond to audiences again. After watching Skyfall I can see just how good the Bond films can be when the right people are on board.

Frankenweenie Review

Over the past year, stop motion animation has been seeing a resurgence in popularity that mainly started after the release of Coraline in 2009. First Aardman went back to plasticine with the excellent The Pirates In An Adventure With Scientists and Laika continued their dominance in stop motion with ParaNorman (which I haven't seen yet). Now the last of the big stop motion films has come out, Tim Burton's Frankenweenie. After Dark Shadows which was viewed by most people to be terrible but which I really liked, this is Tim Burton going back to his roots by remaking a short film that got him fired from Disney. So how does the film hold up: it's Burton's best film in years.

Now This Is How to Follow Up The Avengers: Iron Man 3 Trailer Thoughts

After The Avengers came out a few months ago, I was starting to wonder just how the hell Marvel were going to top it. Now the trailer for Iron Man 3 has been released and I can see how they can top The Avengers.

My Thoughts on the Carrie Trailer

A few months ago, I did a post going on about how the remake of Carrie looks set to be really interesting following the casting of Chloe Grace Moretz in the title role (see here). Now the trailer has just been released and I have to say, that's how you do a teaser trailer.

Looper Review (contains spoilers)

At the start of the year, I knew virtually nothing about Looper but as the year went on and more clips from the film started to be released, I got more and more curious about the film. When the reviews started coming out praising how intelligent the film was, I knew I had to see it, there are so few intelligent sci-fi films around. Now that I've seen the film, I know that the future of sci-fi films is in good hands with people like Rian Johnson helming films as brilliant as Looper.

Upcoming Changes

Over the next few months there will be a few changes in the way I run this blog and I think it's only fair that you know about them.
Right now I am in my A2 year of College and as such I will spend most of my time doing work for this. As a result I will not be able to update this blog as often as I like. I'll still try and post reviews of any films I see and continue my regular series on the big film award shows and my end of the year lists.
Just keep in mind that there may well be only one or two updates to this blog in the next few months and I ask you to accept this.

How Not to Redesign a Character

Over the past few years there have been dozens of remakes floating around the film world, some good (True Grit and King Kong), some bad (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween). Right now, there are some remakes I am optimistic about with the upcoming version of Carrie being the main one which gets the original film but wants to add its own elements and there are others which seem to not get the original film in any way, shape or form and the remake of Robocop is one of them, as shown by the first shot of Joel Kinnaman in the Robocop suit.

Berberian Sound Studio Review

Now this is an interesting film and I don't really know how to get across to you just what the film is like. It's strange, surreal, intense, engrossing and I'm not sure I really get it but I still thought it was a really good film and I do recommend you see it. Now I'm going to keep this review short as, honestly, the less you know the more you'll be immersed in the film.

War Horse Review

At the start of the year one of the films I was looking forward to seeing the most was Steven Spielberg's War Horse but I never got the chance to see it in the cinema. Recently though I got the film on DVD and was finally able to watch it and, while it's not as good as the incredible stage version (aka the best stage show I've ever seen) this is still a great film.

RIP Tony Scott

A few days ago, one of the greatest action movie directors of the past few decades, Tony Scott, committed suicide. I wish to offer my sympathies to the family and friends of Tony Scott as they come to terms with this horrific event.

Brave Review

So I just went to see the new Pixar film Brave, which people want to be Pixar's return to form after the disaster of Cars 2. I was really looking forward to the film since it felt interesting that Pixar was doing it's first female protagonist and that the film is set in Scotland (making it more historically accurate than Braveheart) and I really enjoyed this film.

So Now I've Found Out My Most Anticipated Film of Next Year

So today it was confirmed that Kick-Ass 2 will be released on June 28th 2013 and Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Nicolas Cage and Chloe Grace Moretz will be reprising their roles.
The sound you're hearing is me cheering in joy over this news. I loved Kick-Ass (see my review) and the June release date shows a lot of confidence on Univeral's part that the film will be popular.
Right now the big questions are whether or not Jeff Waldlow can fill the shoes of Matthew Vaughn (but I'm optimistic seeing as Vaughn hand-picked Waldlow for the job and Vaughn will still be involved) and whether Moretz' age will affect the film considering that Kick-Ass was filmed 4 years ago.
Still, I'm really looking forward to this film and will be watching it as soon as it comes out.

The Olympic Ticket Scalper

Normally I don't do posts focused on web videos, the most I do is link you to these videos. However on this occasion I have to make an exception simply because this video is so funny.

The Olympic Ticket Scalper with Patrick Stewart, Ryan Lochte, Simon Pegg & Maisie Williams from Patrick Stewart

My Thoughts on the Olympic Opening Ceremony

Now anyone who knows me knows that I do not care about sport of any kind at all and to that extent I have not really been that fused over the London 2012 Olympics. Granted, being British, I understand the pride we feel over us getting the Olympics but I've never felt that way. However, when I found out that Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, Sunshine and Slumdog Millionaire was doing the Opening Ceremony, my hopes were raised that the ceremony would be good, and it did not disappoint. This was a brilliant Opening Ceremony.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

This is it, the big film event of the year, Christopher Nolan ending his trilogy of Batman films. For most people this has eclipsed even The Hobbit and Avengers Assemble as the big film of the year so what did I think. This was a brilliant end to the best series of superhero films ever made.

Sympathies

Right now the main news story is the massacre at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises. My sympathies go out to all those affected by the shootings both directly and indirectly and to the friends and family of those who died in particular.

Prometheus Review Edit

A few weeks ago I posted my review of Prometheus, giving it a score of 3/5 an okay score. After thinking about it for a while, I now have to admit that Prometheus was a pretty bad film. The plot holes are now incredibly overwhelming, the acting was pretty bad from most members of the cast (Michael Fassbender excluded) and the characters, aside from David and the pilots, were completely forgettable. On that basis I now have to change my review score for Prometheus from 3/5 to 2/5

The Amazing Spider-Man Review

For most of the year I have not been looking forward to The Amazing Spider-Man. The fact that the film was only made so Columbia didn't lose the rights to the series to Marvel was bad enough but the trailers made the film look awful, filled with the pre-destiny rubbish that is not right for Spider-Man. But when I watched the film I found it to be okay but nothing really amazing.

Comic Con 2012

Since Comic Con has just finished I feel that I should try something different and give my highlights of the news from Comic Con. Now there won't be anything about trailers and footage shown at Comic Con since I wasn't there, I will just be talking about the announcements made at Comic Con. Without further ado, let's start with:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Show Live Review

For the most part on this blog I keep my posts related to film events that I feel I should talk about/review. However I need to make an exception for this, something that all British geeks should be familiar with, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and I got to see the radio show performed live by the original cast.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn Review

Ever since Raiders of the Lost Ark, Steven Spielberg has always wanted to put Tintin onto the big screen, with the blessing of Herge himself. Now, with the help of Peter Jackson and the team at Weta doing the visuals and a script by geek icons Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, Spielberg is finally able to put Tintin onto the big screen, and it is brilliant.

Best of 2012: Halfway Through the Year

Now that the year is half done (and the fact that this coincides with the Good Doctor putting up his best of 2012 halfway through the year list here), I feel that I should do a brief little show on my thoughts and rankings of the films I've seen this year and different categories in these films (with there being 5 entries per list), starting off with:

Prometheus Review (contains spoilers)

Now before I begin I feel like I should give my thoughts on the other Alien films I've seen. Alien was really good, a bit over-rated, but still good and I consider it a master-class in suspense, Aliens is my all time favourite film and I went into full detail here. As for Alien 3, Alien Resurrection and the AVP films, I haven't seen them and, going on the reviews, I don't think I want to. With that said, I was looking forward to Prometheus, hoping that it would be the return to form Ridley Scott needed after the atrocious Robin Hood and would help answer some of the questions people had over the first Alien film. With that said, Prometheus was a disappointment. In order to say why, I may give away some key plot points in the film so consider this your spoiler warning.

Just When You Thought You'd Seen It All

Over the past few years, numerous different franchises have been given the film treatment. Some have turned out great (Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Christopher Nolan Batman films, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings etc) some bad (GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra) and some into abominations of cinema that deserve to be sent to the bowels of hell (Michael Bay's Transformers Series, Twiglet). However, when all the franchises were being snatched up, there was one franchise I never thought could even be given the film treatment.

Django Unchained Trailer

So today the trailer for the new Quentin Tarantino film came out, and it looks just as awesome as his other films.

My Guess on the Oscar Nominations Halfway Through the Year

In a tradition for me, it's time for me to say my thoughts on what will be nominated at the 2013 Oscars, you should know the rules by now (with the categories being the same as my predictions at the start of the year) so lets just dive in:

Men in Black 3 Review

Now before I begin I feel like I should give brief thoughts on the previous Men in Black films. Men in Black 1 was a really good film with a brilliant villain, incredible make-up effects and really clever ideas about the universe. 2 was just a lazy rehash of 1 and I didn't like 2. Now comes along Men in Black 3 and I enjoyed it, despite the fact that there are a lot of problems.

Moonrise Kingdom Review

Now before I begin, I have to say that I am not fully familiar with the works of Wes Anderson. I have only seen one of his films before (which was Fantastic Mr Fox) but I understand the distinctive style of Wes Anderson. With that said, Moonrise Kingdom is probably the most Wes-Andersonian film, which I think people who are familiar with the works of Wes Anderson will agree with me and if this is the type of film Anderson normally makes then I need to see the rest of his filmography as Moonrise Kingdom is an incredible film.

Oscar Bait Time

It's that time of the year when the trailers for the potential Oscar bait for next year are coming out and there are 2 trailers I saw which peaked my interests, Les Miserables and The Great Gatsby. Now I fully predict that they will be nominated in the major categories at the next Oscars and I feel that, since it's been a while since I've done one of these, that I'll take a look at the trailers, starting off with:

Dark Shadows Review

Now for years I've hoped to see a Tim Burton film that would allow Tim Burton to return to his campy, gothic roots and as such, I've been really looking forward to Dark Shadows, putting it high up in my most anticipated films of the year and I really wanted this to make up for the disaster that was Alice in Wonderland, second only to Robin Hood as my least favourite film of 2010. So what did I think of Dark Shadows? I really enjoyed it, it was the Burton film I have wanted to see for years. Now before I begin there are 2 things I should say, firstly I have never seen the original series Dark Shadows, didn't know anything about it, didn't know the characters, didn't know anything before the film so you'll be getting this review neutrally from someone who isn't bias about Dark Shadows and secondly, there may be a few mild spoilers, I won't give anything big away but there could be a few minor spoilers. With that said, lets get into my review.

100th Blog Post: Aliens Review

Well here it is, my 100th entry on this blog. For all of those who have been reading this for all this time, I thank you for supporting me for so long. I had a real hard time figuring out what to do for this 100th post, should I go back to my most popular post and doing something related to the trailer for Hick, some thoughts on The World's End and Kick-Ass 2 being announced, but in the end there is only one thing I could do for this occasion, a review of my all time favourite film, James Cameron's Aliens.

My Thoughts on the Final Trailer for The Dark Knight Rises

Today, the final trailer for The Dark Knight Rises was released, I was wondering, how could Christopher Nolan make a superhero film as good as Avengers Assemble.

Avengers Assemble Review

Today came a day like no other, a day when I saw a film I never expected to see in the cinema, my most anticipated film of the year, Marvel's Avengers Assemble. The culmination of Marvel's ambitious scheme to weave comic book style continuity into film, so how does this scheme pay off. Put it this way, Avengers Assemble is easily one of the best superhero films ever made and is the best out of all of the Marvel Studio's films.

The Pirates In An Adventure with Scientists Review

After I sat through the sheer awfulness of The Hunger Games, I needed something to help lift my spirits up, thankfully there is a new Aardman film out and it's Aardman's return to good old fashioned stop-motion animation. Now I love Aardman and I have been hyped for The Pirates all year, putting it ahead of films like Skyfall and Dark Shadows in my list of most anticipated films of 2012. So how does it hold up? It's one of the funniest films I've seen in a while.

The Hunger Games Review

Today I went to see one of the most anticipated and successful films of the year, as well as one of the most critically acclaimed. Is it bad that, for me, the highlight of the cinema experience for this film was seeing the trailers for Avengers Assemble and Dark Shadows on the big screen. As you can tell, I didn't like The Hunger Games all that much.

The Carrie Remake Suddenly Gets More Interesting

Today, Chloe Grace Moretz has accepted the lead role in the upcoming remake/re-adaptation of Stephen King's Carrie and the film has suddenly gotten a lot more interesting.

John Carter Review

Now before we begin I feel it's important to say that I am not familiar with the John Carter books but I do recognise that they played a large role in influencing sci-fi for 100 years, from Superman to Avatar. It feels right that the film is coming out 100 years after the first book, A Princess of Mars, was released and the fact that Andrew Stanton, the director of one of my favourite sci-fi films WALL-E, was making his live action debut with this film made me all the more excited. Which is why I'm glad to say that I had a great time with this film, unlike so many others, but there are still a few problems with it.

My Thoughts on the Dark Shadows Trailer

Now I have been highly anticipating this film for a long time, I did a previous post about the first promotional image from the film and I put it at number 5 in my most anticipated films of 2012 list, and finally a trailer has been released. See my thoughts below the jump.

Kony 2012

This is something everyone who reads this blog needs to watch. Watch this video and pass it on, then go on the link below to help. Make it so the world knows the name Joseph Kony.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/kony2012/kony-4.html

The Muppets Review (With Bonus Small Fry Mini Review)

Anyone who knows me knows that I love The Muppets, I love the show, I love the characters and I love the films. Hell, The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my favourite Christmas movies, just beaten to be my favourite by It's A Wonderful Life. So of course I've been really excited for this new film, how does it hold up? Well, I have to say, I loved this film, it was fun, creative and really made use of the fact that this is the first Muppet film to hit the big screen in over a decade.

My Predictions on the 2013 Oscar Nominatons

Seeing how this years Oscar season has just concluded, I think it would be best for me to offer my predictions for what will be nominated at next years Oscars. Carrying on from my previous predictions list, I will be including as many categories as I can (discounting the sound based, documentary and short film awards). So here are my predictions for next years Oscars starting with:

Why I Love Movies

After I read Film Critic Hulk's post, Why You Love Movies, I felt I had to say the reasons why I love movies. So here, lovingly ripped off from Film Critic Hulk, are the reasons I love movies.

Chronicle Review (Contains Spoilers)

This is one of those films that came out of nowhere into the cinemas, literally a week before I saw it I knew virtually nothing about it. And I am happy I didn't know much about Chronicle as the less you know, the more you'll enjoy it and I loved this film. Now there are spoilers in this review so if you don't want the film spoiled, go and see Chronicle first and then read the rest of this review.

What Have We Done To Deserve This

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33133

Why the hell is Michael Bay being allowed to make Transformers 4 and it to be considered a reboot. If I was the head of Paramount, I would take the Transformers license away from Michael Bay and give it to a director who knows what to do with this kind of film. Say Duncan Jones, Jon Favreau, Guillermo Del Toro, Brad Bird. Anyone but Michael Bay.

Top 10 Films of 2011

So here it finally is, my top 10 films of 2011. Once again I will be following my rules of the film having to have been released in 2011 in the UK. I will also be including links to the reviews I've made for each film (expect reviews to be coming soon for those without the links). So without any further delay, here are my top 10 films of 2011.

Top 10 Performances of 2011

So continuing my long delayed best of 2011 lists, I am now onto the best performances of 2011. Again the rules will be that it had to be released in the UK in 2011, so again expect films like The Fighter and True Grit to make the list and there can only be 1 performance per film. Let's dive in then:

Top 10 Film Scenes of 2011

Continuing my lists over the best of 2011. I think it's best to now discuss the best film scenes of 2011. Now this will follows the rules of any film in these lists has to have been released in the UK in 2011. Let's not waste any more time and dive right in with:

God Bless America

A few days ago, the trailer for the new Bobcat Goldthwait film, God Bless America was released and it looks epic. A film that we need to see more of in this day and age, a film punishing the people who make society actively worse.

My Thoughts on the 2012 Oscar Nominations

This year's Oscars are a mixed bag for me. On one hand, the two best films of 2011, Hugo and The Artist, are the the two biggest nominees. On the other hand, some fantastic films, such as Senna and Super 8, got ignored. Anyway though, here are my thoughts on this years Oscar nominations, again broken down by each category. Starting off with:

My Thoughts on the 2012 BAFTA nominations

Continuing with my awards season predictions I thought that I would again give my thoughts on the BAFTA nominations, once again using my traditional categories of Will Win, Should Win and Missing. Let's not waste anymore time and dive right in with:

Top 10 Most Anticipated Films for 2012

Here it is, my long delayed series of end of year lists. Now before I begin this list you should know the criteria for the list, any of the films which can be included have a UK release date in 2012, which is why some films which have already seen an American release date will be included. That said, let's go into the films I'm looking forward to most in 2012.

My Guess on the 2012 Oscar Nominations Just Before They're Announced

Right now it is a few days before the Oscar nominations are announce so I think it is about time to compile my final predictions for the nominees just before they are announced. Once again we start with: