****Favorite Films of 2012****

Okay, here we go again announcing my favorite films of this past year.
This year has been great with movies and it was a challenge
choosing my favorites and putting them in order.
My rule is that any movie I've seen in either at home or in the theatre
(including film festivals) that is listed as a 2012 movie at the
Internet Movie DataBase (IMDb)
is considered a 2012 movie.

Favorite Films of 2012
1. Django Unchained
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. Young Gun in the Time
4. I Declare War
5. Wreck-It Ralph
6. Black Out
7. The Dark Knight Rises
8. Argo
9. Dredd
10. Ted

Honorable Mentions:
Graceland
The American Scream
The Avengers
Wrong
The Grey

This past year's monthly special nights were 80's Monday,
South American Cinema Night, Home Invasion Thursday,
and Kung Fu Friday.

Here's my most favorite to least favorite for each
category:

80's Monday:
1. Risky Business
2. Weird Science
3. The Lost Boys
4. Lethal Weapon
5. Blues Brothers
6. Adventures in Babysitting
7. An American Warewolf in London
8. Sixteen Candles
9. Heathers
10. Say Anything
11. Saint Elmos Fire
12. Top Gun

South American Cinema Night:
1. Mandrill
2. The Wind Journeys
3. Goodbye Momo
4. Central Station
5. La Familia Rodante
6. Mancora
7. A Red Bear
8. American Visa
9. Huelepega: La Ley De La Calle
10. Whisky
11. Felicidades
12. Un Titan En El Ring

Home Invasion Thursday:
1. Wait Until Dark
2. Mother's Day
3. Funny Games
4. Them
5. The Aggression Scale
6. Extremities
7. Hard Candy
8. Inside
9. Desperate Hours
10. Straw Dogs
11. Trespass
12. Silent House

Kung Fu Friday
1. Tai Chi Master
2. Legendary Weapons of China
3. Man With The Iron Fists
4. The Magnificent Butcher
5. Love On Delivery
6. Dreadnaught
7. Legend of Drunken Master
8. Dirty Ho
9. Snake and The Eagle's Shadow
10. Enter The Dragon
11. Once Upon A Time in China
12. Dragon Tiger Gate

Les Miserables (2012)

Les Miserables
Saw this very late but had plenty of coffee
to sit through this long dramatic musical.
I enjoyed it a lot.
It's definitely not a movie I would see over and over.
But, it's got great powerful scenes and some songs were
pretty awesome.
Yeah, I would of wanted some more better songs.
I love the French rebel scenes.
I think the children in this were better performers and
singers than most of the grown ups.
I'm not too familiar with the original story and opera
but I think the story was pretty okay.
It kept me in there.
I would of wanted some scenes to be shorter.
Every minute of this was ambitious and calling for an Oscar.
I think it was a little over the top
(like trying to hard to impress and go all out).
But, overall, it was a pleasant experience.
It was marketed as a big Oscar hard driven musical and
that's what we get.  Nothing more.

Kung Fu Friday: The Legend of Drunken Master

Every fourth Friday of every month this year,
I'll be checking out a kung fu movie of any period.
Gives me an excuse to kick the walls and break blocks of wood.
Also gives me the excuse to go to I Luv Video or Vulcan Video
and catch up on some great kung fu flicks out there.

The Legend of Drunken Master
This was pretty cool and funny kung-fu flick.
I saw Drunken Master for the first time a few years ago.
I liked a lot.
This is not a direct sequel just the style of fighting.
If you give anyone wine or liquor, I'm pretty sure they
can fight like Jackie Chan in this movie.
But, not as fast or cool.
The first half was more of the comedy part
and the second half got a bit serious.
I like the first drunken fighting scene that happens
about 30-40 minutes in.
Pretty simple fun flick.
I might have to add this to my Kung-Fu section.

Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained
Very freaking awesome movie.
Now, my comments might be bias because
Tarantino is my favorite director and I've been waiting
to see this one all year long.
But, even with my own personal hype, this delivers!
Very beautiful!
The first half had me emotional since the first frame.
The second half was more like,"hell yeah" and intense.
Christopher Waltz and his character "The Dentist" stole the
show in my opinion.
He carried the story along.
Brilliant.
And Leonardo DiCaprio was phenomenal in his villain role.
Lots of good scenes.
I don't even know how many favorite scenes I have:
the sheriff shooting, the bagheads scene, the mandingo scenes,
the shootouts, etc. etc.
Gots to see this one again.
And can't wait to own it and have some Southern white cake with it.
My number one favorite movie this year.

Arthur Christmas

Arthur Christmas
Cute little animation I saw with my son today
to celebrate Christmas.
I like the concept of the story.
The elves were awesome in the beginning of the movie
when they were delivering toys all night.
The story had some heart in it.
The meaning of Christmas and Santa Claus are defined here.
In the second half, few of the scenes kind of dragged on.
But, it overall, it was a decent happy Christmas movie.

A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas

A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas
Pretty funny movie. 
A little more funny than I thought for another sequel.
Yeah, there were a lot of dumb moments
but that's all part of a stoner movie.
The cameos were awesome.
Some of the good parts happen in the beer pong/cocaine
scenes.
Other parts were so and so.
I always knew Santa Claus was into the devil's grass.
This movie proves it.
Nice little movie about friendship and stupidity.
The first Harold and Kumar movie is still the best.

This movie was served with a Mexican Lasagna
(ground chicken, cheese, rice and beans) topped
with Fritos. And a Stone IPA

Home Invasion Thursday: Inside

Every third Thursday I'll comment on
a home invasion movie I've never seen before.
When I saw Kidnapped from Spain last year,
I decided to start a home invasion section for my collection.
Might as well do a special on this.

Inside
Now for my last home invasion movie this year.
It was okay.
I expected more out of this French horror.
I can tell you one thing, that lady invading the house is
one ugly bitch.
And she got more annoying.
I just wanted her to die at the end.
But, guess what?
I'm going to spoil it.
She gets away.
Now, that's usually typical in home invasion movies.
Usually the bad guys get away.
And that's what makes this genre crazy because
these things can actually happen.
I waited until December to watch this one because
the night that our main character gets invaded, happens
to be Christmas Eve.
There were stupid moments like stupid cops who
don't call for back up.
But, on the gory side, this was pretty cool.
Overall, a little disappointing.
At the end of the year, I'm going to list
my most favorite to least favorite home invasion movies.

This movie was served with Cordon Bleu Chicken
(with ham and swiss cheese inside) and French Style Green Beans:

South American Cinema Night: Felicidades

Every 2nd Wednesday of every month
I'll be checking out a movie from any country
in South America.
My goal is to see one movie from each country.
This excludes any films I see at film festivals.

Tonight's movie is from Argentina:

Felicidades
Now, it's time to wrap my South American Cinema Night this year
with this Argentinean Drama/Comedy.
I have to admit, I am disappointed with this South American Cinema Night.
Most movies aren't worth watching in my opinion.
This movie was a little too boring and slow for me.
There's three stories that play out.
I didn't really feel any of them.
It's about these characters trying to reach their goal through
Christmas Eve.
But, the final outcome of their goals were uninteresting.
I was wanting some clever dialogue.
Some crazy moments.
Not quite satisfied with this.
I'm throwing in the towel for tonight.
Avoid!

New Release Tuesday: Sleepwalk With Me (2012)

Sleepwalk With Me
Never heard of this movie or even this comedian
until this past weekend.
My brother from another mother, Ramon, showed me
a trailer to this and it got my attention.
So, it gave me the excuse to avoid seeing the Total Recall remake
for New Release Tuesday today.
I liked it.
It was cute, sweet, and a little funny (just like the trailer).
It holds its charms all the way through.
It's about a man finding himself and what he wants.
It can be a little selfish.
But, that's the message.
Good little indie comedy worth watching.
I don't know if it's worth buying but
glad to have seen it.
 

V/H/S (2012)

V/H/S
I didn't like this movie one bit.
It started out okay but damn it
they ruined it.
I don't mind the Found Footage genre but
this one blows.
None of the stories were interesting.
The first story is my favorite but still didn't really
meet expectations.
And just when I thought it was over,
they dragged on with another stupid story
to close the movie.
The gore was okay.
I actually liked "The ABC's of Death" more than this one,
even though that one too, was a disappointment.
Don't waste your time on this.

A Professional Gun

A Professional Gun
Finally got to see this rare Spaghetti western.
It is directed by the guy who brought us the original
Django and even has the same actor who plays Django.
What drew me to this movie is obviously the song.
The main theme song here was featured in
Kill Bill Vol. 2 (where The Bride breaks out of the coffin).
The beginning of the song is used throughout this movie.
But, the whole song was used in the final standoff.
Beautiful.
Up there with the standoff from The Big Gundown.
Jack Palance was pretty cool as "Curly."
Nero was cool as always.
This needs to come out one day.
Can't wait to see it one day with better quality
for both sound and picture.
But, props to Vulcan Video for having a bootleg copy of it.

Barbarella

Barbarella
I went to the Cult section at Vulcan Video looking
for something weird I haven't seen but that's supposed
to be a cult classic. 
Well, here is this one.
Pretty decent cheesy sci-fi flick.
I probably won't see it ever again but
I got it out of my "to watch list."
There were some cool moments like the evil dolls biting scene
and the making love with a pill scene.
The music was also cool.
Other than that, the rest is silly and cheesy to the max.
Low Budget, that's for sure.
Like the cheesy visuals.
Next cult classic to see: Plan 9 from Outer Space.
Maybe I'll do a double feature with Tim Burton's Ed Wood.
I'll do that next year.

.New Release Tuesday: Hope Springs (2012)

Hope Springs
Man, I thought this was going to be at least
a little bit funny.
Not at all funny. Not even Steve Carell.
Meryl Streep was pretty cool with this character.
Different from her usual serious stuff.
The good thing about this movie was that
it was short and simple.
This was marketed as a comedy so I was disappointed.
Maybe if I was 70 years old,
I might of enjoyed just a bit.
Maybe it should of been naughty or something.

The best part of the night was this
grilled tilapia plate with cheese, crackers,
and white wine:

80's Monday: Sixteen Candles

Every first Monday of every month is 80's Monday.
There's a lot of movies that came out in the 80's
that were so popular that I haven't seen.
I'm an 80's kid, so this segment will give me a chance
to catch up on some of those popular typical movies from this period.

Sixteen Candles
This is the last 80's movie night of the year.
So, had to go all cheesy.
My birthday lands on this month, so decided
to go with this movie tonight.
And, I'm going to be double the age from this movie's title.
So it's only right to have some cake tonight.
I actually enjoyed most of this.
It didn't feel like a girlie movie until the last
15 minutes of the movie.
Majority of it was a typical 80's high school movie.
Crazy characters running around.
Theme songs playing to some of the characters.
Weird Chinese guy popping everywhere.
This is a pretty decent fun flick that I missed out in the 80's.
As for the ending, I'm not a girl, but as a guy, it was nothing
that special.  I've seen some better romantic endings.
But, I get it.
My favorite scenes include scenes with this guy:

And just for the sake of being cheesy tonight, here's the pic of the cake I ate tonight:

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Killing Them Softly
This was okay.
I would of wanted more because I'm a huge fan
for gangster films.
This one is more drama and dialogue oriented than action.
But some of the talking scenes dragged on for a while.
I would say this is less gangster and more of
a hitman movie.
My favorite character is the Australian junkie.
Without him, this movie would of probably sucked.
Some of the shots and music were cool.
The first killing scene was awesome with its slow motion style.
I didn't like that it kept referencing Bush and Obama speeches.
I mean, a first few times is okay.
But, this movie constantly referenced it.
They do that because this story connects to it.
That's a good thing they pushed the release of this movie
until after elections.
Other than that, good dialogue especially the first half.
Decent hitman movie.

For Greater Glory (2012)

For Greater Glory: The True Story of Cristiada
I don't know much about Mexican history.
I'm not really into these kinds of movies.
But, my brother Erik insisted that I watch this one a few months back.
Not bad.
A little too dramatic than it should be.
One complaint is that it was too long for
something that could of been explained shorter.
For example, my favorite scenes is the scene
where they want to kill the brave young boy.
It took two long scenes for them to show that when
they could of just shown that in one dramatic scene.
As far as the whole story, I'm not really into religious stories
and that much with war, so I wasn't into it.
But, I did enjoy the cinematography on this.
 

New Release Tuesday: Lawless (2012)

Lawless
Overall, this was pretty decent flick.
There's only a couple of scenes that pissed me
off. But, those scenes needed to happen
so we can have ourselves a longer movie.
I just wanted more towards the end.
But that's okay.
Shia LaBeouf was okay playing a weak person
trying to be brave and hard.
Would of wanted some more Gary Oldman but
he was only in the movie for two scenes.
Gotta tell you, I've never seen
Guy Pearce play such a ruthless villain before.
He did excellent.
Music was pretty cool for this country setting.
Good movie to check out.
If I ever see this again,
I'll make sure to have me a six pack of Independence Bootlegger.

Savages (2012)

Savages
What a big disappointment this movie was.
I knew this had mixed reviews, but you know me,
I don't give a damn what "critics" have to say,
I'll still see a movie just for the hell of it.
This one happens to be directed by one of my favorite directors.
But, this is two strikes in a row for Oliver Stone.
I personally was let down.
This has to be one of my least favorite movies from this year.
I feel like I need to take Oliver Stone off my director shelf
so I can avoid buying this movie.
It starts okay and the premise was good
but come on, this is bullcrap.
First of all, I hate the narration by the main actress.
And speaking of her, she sucks too.
Second, one of my actors (Benicio Del Toro), didn't have
a good written character.
Could of been so much more.
As for the story itself, this Mexican cartel
has to be one of the most sweetest cartels ever to exist.
Yeah, they torture people and decapitate heads, but when
it comes to our main characters, they only get a few scratches.
Bullcrap, once again.
I thought this would be more gangster.
Instead this is more of love triangle with a stupid
girl and two guys who I don't know why they are so
hung up with this girl.
But she got lucky, because, the cartel that kidnapped her,
treated her with class.
Stay away from this movie.

This movie was served with Tecate and Texas Carne Asada Plate:

Kung Fu Friday: The Man With The Iron Fists (2012)

Every fourth Friday of every month this year,
I'll be checking out a kung fu movie of any period.
Gives me an excuse to kick the walls and break blocks of wood.
Also gives me the excuse to go to I Luv Video or Vulcan Video
and catch up on some great kung fu flicks out there.

Went to the theatre for tonight's movie:

The Man With The Iron Fists
Not bad! Not bad at all.

As a matter of fact, I thought almost the

whole thing was a lot of fun.

Good kung fu references.

The ending was weak and RZA being 

the main actor was a bad choice but

other than that, this is a great tribute to kung fu films.

All the other characters were pretty awesome too.

This movie is made for fans of kung fu.

A lot of people who went to see it, saw it because of RZA.

That audience probably didn't get some of the style of this movie.

It worked for me.

Just like other kung fu films,

it starts out not knowing what the hell is going on.

Lots of characters.

Then little by little, you start catching up.

Russell Crowe's character, Jack, was pretty cool with his bad ass dagger gun.

A few cool fighting scenes, some exaggerated blood, and

cheesy moments, makes this a good kung fu late night movie.
Never to take seriously.

New Release Tuesday: The Expendables 2 (2012)

The Expendables
Cool Action Popcorn movie.
I actually liked this one more than the first one.
It was still cheesy but at least this one had
more variety during action scenes.
The first one had mainly shooting.
This one had more knives and martial arts.
And speaking of martial arts, it sucks that Jet Li's character
left way early in the movie.
What the hell?
Van Damme as a villain was pretty cool.
Would of wanted a surprise cameo by Steven Seagal
(maybe in Part 3).
This one had more better plot than the first one.
Still, this ain't something to make a big deal of.
I wouldn't exactly buy it.
But, good to check just like the first one, as a popcorn movie
night without too much to think.

Lincoln (2012)

Lincoln
This should of been called "The 13th Amendment."
There wasn't enough of Lincoln scenes.
The movie was half Lincoln and half scenes about the 13th Amendment.
Actually, the supporting characters felt more
in charge and carried the story more than our main character.
I do love the performances and of course the
Daniel Day Lewis hype set the bar high that I was a little
disappointed with his performance here.
I'm sure most will praise his performance but
to me, it's all part of the hype.
I enjoyed his performance more in "There Will Be Blood" and
"Gangs of New York."
The movie was long and it felt long.
And I didn't like the way they decided to ended.
If they would of ended with a certain scene they showed before
the actual ending, it would of been more powerful.
Other than these things,
it was a well made movie.
Costumes, set designs, and the supporting cast,
helped make this movie okay.
Of course, I'm going to added to the Spielberg section.
If it weren't for that, I say this is probably just worth to rent only.

Home Invasion Thursday: Straw Dogs

Every third Thursday I'll comment
on a home invasion movie I've never seen before.
When I saw Kidnapped from Spain last year,
I decided to start a home invasion section for my collection.
Might as well do a special on this.

Straw Dogs
I saw the original for the first time last year or so.
I liked it.  Dustin Hoffman ruled in that one.
This remake is almost the same thing except they
changed it to Southern America.
Majority of the movie sucked.
It didn't feel like a home invasion movie.
The last 15 minutes were the best parts of the movie
(the actual home invasion stuff).
The only reason I saw this is because I was curious to see
the differences between this one and the original.
The original one was more psychological and character driven.
This one, is all in your face.
But once it was over, it was over.
The bear trap killing scene was my favorite part.
Check out the original.
This one, not so much.

South American Cinema Night: Un Titan En El Ring

Every 2nd Wednesday of every month
I'll be checking out a movie from
any country in South America.
My goal is to see one movie from each country.
This excludes any films I see at film festivals.

 Tonight's movie is from Ecuador:

Un Titan En El Ring
For a low budget low quality movie, this had something
good going on in the first 30 minutes.
After that, it went downhill for me.
Started disliking the characters.
It got a little preachy towards the end.
Ooh, the foreign priest is a wrestler!
The town whore is named, Zoila.
And the parental figures here don't do a good job
raising their kids.
It left me with a hopeless feeling for all these characters.
All I know is that Ecuador is a crappy place to live in.
And this movie proves that to me just one more time.

No trailer found for this movie.