Barbara

Rating: 8

A German cold war movie in the spirit of The Lives of Others.  Beautifully gripping and atmospheric.

Jack Reacher

Rating: 7

Surprised myself by enjoying it quite a bit!!  What can I say, Tom Cruise is a kook but he branches out sometimes and does interesting stuff.

This is 40

Rating: 6

Some cute moments but I expected more.

Best/Worst of 2012

Best:

10: End of Watch - Jake Gyllenhaal cop movie

9: Flight - Denzel as an addict

8: The Grey - Made me like Liam Neeson. Already liked wolves.

7: Prometheus - Not Alien but still great

6: Bernie - True crime treat

5: Anna Karenina - Luscious

4: The Imposter - TRUE true crime!

3: Killing Them Softly - Gorgeous noir

2: The Big Picture - French noir

1: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry -  You think you won't like a documentary about a Chinese artist, but you will!!


Worst:

5: Beasts of the Southern Wild- So much hype, so little anything

4: The Dark Knight Rises - My hopes were too high I guess

3: Killer Joe - Why?

2: The Dictator - You can do much better, Sascha Baron-Cohen

1: Lincoln - Throw in the towel, Spielberg. Please.


Little Gems:

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Savages
Magic Mike
Wanderlust
Our Idiot Brother
Looper
Arbitrage
The Campaign
Sinister

Love / Hate:

The Master -
Love: Cinematography, acting, music
Hate: Script, acting

Cloud Atlas -
Love: Weird concept, weird casting (Hugh Grant?), acting, art direction
Hate: Awful face prosthetics, 172 Minute length

The Big Picture

Rating: 9

Gripping from start to finish, in what seems to be a sumptuous and hopefully lasting trend of French thrillers.

Killing Them Softly

Rating: 9

The first second of the opening credits alert us not to expect anything conventional here.  Extremely compact and total genius.  I hope the director, New Zealander Andrew Dominik, finally gets some much overdue recognition.