My 2012 Movie List

Most of January was taken up with talk of running.  It’s time to put an end to that nonsense and get to the important stuff: movies. 

Starting in 2010 I began keeping a list of all the movies I watched for the year. 2010 was out of control – basically I attempted to see as many movies as possible that year. Ended up being 331. Yep, a little less than a movie per day. 

2011 was a little more reasonable: 175. That list is available here.

And now I present the 2012 list, totaling 150.  

1 RV	76 The Prestige^^
2 Friends With Benefits*	77 The Rock
3 Ben Hur^^	78 Pan’s Labyrinth*^^
4 Unforgiven^^	79 Tango & Cash
5 Toy Story^^	80 Monty Python & the Holy Grail^^
6 Yankee Doodle Dandy*^^	81 Serenity
7 The Maltese Falcon^^	82 Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog
8 Breaking Dawn	83 Raiders of the Lost Ark^^
9 Inception	84 Shawshank Redemption^^
10 Unknown	85 Twilight
11 Star Trek (2009)	86 Tootsie*^^
12 Blade Runner: Theatrical Release^^	87 Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe? *^^
13 Gladiator^^	88 Reservoir Dogs^^
14 The Sting*^^	89 Saving Private Ryan*^^
15 Do the Right Thing^^	90 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
16 Journey 2*	91 Treasure of the Sierra Madre*^^
17 Metropolis*^^	92 50/50*
18 The Last Picture Show*^^	93 Total Recall (2012)*
19 Moneyball*	94 African Queen^^
20 Pulp Fiction^^	95 Rock of Ages*
21 Gran Torino^^	96 The Bourne Legacy*
22 The French Connection*^^	97 In Time*
23 Downfall*^^	98 Chinatown^^
24 Up^^	99 the Bourne Identity
25 The Fabulous Baker Boys	100 Network*^^
26 The Apartment*^^	101 New Moon
27 Sophie’s Choice*^^	102 Real Steel
28 Swing Time*^^	103 X-Men: First Class
29 The Bicycle Thief^^	104 Total Recall
30 11:14*	105 L.A. Confidential^^
31 Bringing Up Baby^^	106 Real Steel
32 The Great Dictator*^^	107 Twilight
33 Footloose (2011)	108 New Moon
34 12 Angry Men^^	109 Eclipse
35 Inglourious Basterds*^^	110 The Third Man*^^
36 2001: A Space Odyssey ^^	111 Ice Age: Continental Drift*
37 Double Dare*	112 Haywire*
38 Platoon^^	113 Cabaret^^
39 This Means War*	114 Das Boot*^^
40 Full Metal Jacket*^^	115 Requiem for a Dream*^^
41 Night At the Opera*^^	116 American Graffiti ^^
42 Thor	117 Sullivan’s Travels*^^
43 Easy Rider*^^	118 The Avengers
44 The Avengers*	119 Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind^^
45 The Green Mile*^^	120 Aliens^^
46 Titanic^^	121 What’s Your Number?*
47 Amadeus^^	122 Big Miracle*
48 Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans*^^	123 Mission Impossible: 3
49 We Bought A Zoo*	124 The Three Musketeers*
50 The Avengers IMAX 3D	125 Scooby Doo*
51 All About Eve*^^	126 City Lights*^^
52 Spartacus*^^	127 Twilight
53 I Am Number Four	128 New Moon
54 The Vow*	129 Eclipse
55 Men In Black 3*	130 Breaking Dawn, Part 1
56 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol	131 Breaking Dawn, Part 2*
57 Last of the Mohicans	132 Magic Mike*
58 Bridge on the River Kwai* ^^	133 Surfwise*
59 Mission: Impossible	134 Hancock
60 Modern Times*^^	135 Breaking Dawn, Part 2
61 Some Like It Hot^^	136 The Departed*^^
62 The Gold Rush*^^	137 Jaws^^
63 Memento^^	138 MASH*^^
64 All the President’s Men*^^	139 Pump Up the Volume
65 Forrest Gump^^	140 To Kill a Mockingbird*^^
66 In the Heat of the Night*^^	141 North By Northwest^^
67 Cinema Paradiso*^^	142 The Deer Hunter*^^
68 Ragining Bull*^^	143 The Pianist*^^
69 X-Men	144 Les Miserables *
70 Silence of the Lambs^^	145 West Side Story^^
71 Hunger Games*	146 Paths of Glory*^^
72 Journey 2	147 West Side Story
73 Back to the Future^^	148 The Amazing Spider-man*
74 Mission: Impossible 2	149 Iron Man
75 X-Men 2	150 The Dark Knight Rises*

Cinema Paradiso - My pic for fave

Films marked with an *denotes that it was my first time seeing it.  A ^^ denotes it was part of my Sunday Showdown (AFI vs. IMDb) challenge.  Having the Sunday Showdown hanging over me each week definitely has caused me to see quite a few films I normally wouldn’t in the course of the year. Kubrick aside, that was mostly a good thing.

I highlighted the films I particularly found enjoyable and would suggest to others. Five of the six of them are from the Sunday Showdown challenge; 2/3 are from before 1970.  Cinema Paradiso (1988) was my absolute favorite. 

I’m  keeping a list again for 2013(currently at 14), a few of my movie-geek friends are too. We’ll see what exciting cinematic experiences that leads to.

Sunday Showdown: AFI vs. IMDb (#76 & #75)

Sunday Showdown double feature and late… again.  The AFI vs. IMDb battle continues:

#76: Forest Gump vs. Cinema Paradiso

#75: In the Heat of the Night vs. Raging Bull

Really, I don’t want to talk about In the Heat of the Night vs. Raging Bull.  I didn’t like either of those movies. I appreciate In the Heat of the Night for what I envision it was at the time of its 1967 release – smack in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement.  But now it’s more of a movie that you’re sure was powerful 35 years ago, but today…

And Raging Bull? Well, Robert DeNiro is just bat crazy. But I had to choose one of the two so I chose Raging Bull. That’s all I have to say about that.

Speaking of… Forest Gump vs. Cinema Paradiso. I have been told by one of my film aficionado friends that if I choose Gump over Cinema Paradiso that he’s going to blow up Mount Rushmore or kill all the fish in the Atlantic Ocean or something like that.  

Forrest Gump & I met a few months ago in L.A.

Forrest Gump is a great story. Truly. I defy anyone not to tear up when Forrest and his Jenny are reunited in the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Or when Lt. Dan has his showdown with God on the shrimp boat.  Or Jenny throwing those rocks at her father’s house.   These are all gorgeous, heart-wrenching and even iconic moments. Forrest Gump is one of the best loved American films of all times, and will probably continue to be for decades to come. Forrest Gump is an absolutely wonderful story.

But it’s not necessarily a great movie.  

You will fall in love with this kid, I promise

As much as I hate to give in to cinematic terrorism... I have to agree with my film enthusiast friend.  Cinema Paradiso is the better movie.  I had never seen it, and apart from the Sunday Showdown challenge, I’m not sure I ever would’ve – and what a terrible pity that would’ve been.  Such a fabulous film. It is foreign, with subtitles, but it’s still beautiful – perhaps even more so – because of that. Undoubtedly one of my favorites so far. If you haven’t seen it, you definitely should.

And hooray, Mount Rushmore and all the fish in the Atlantic get to live another day.

	AFI’s Top 100	IMDB’s Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
#58	The Gold Rush (1925)	Memento (2000)
#75	In the Heat of the Night (1967)	Raging Bull (1980)
#76	Forrest Gump (1994)	Cinema Paradiso (1988)
#77	All the President’s Men  (1976)	Singing In the Rain (1952)
#78	Modern Times (1936)	Some Like it Hot (1959)
#79	The Wild Bunch (1969)	The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
#80	The Apartment (1960)	Rashomon (1950)
#81	Spartacus (1960)	All About Eve (1950)
#82	Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)	Amadeus (1984)
#83	Titanic (1997)	Once Upon A Time in America (1984)
#84	Easy Rider (1969)	The Green Mile (1999)
#85	A Night at the Opera (1935)	Full Metal Jacket (1987)
#86	Platoon (1986)	2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
#87	12 Angry Men (1957)	Inglorious Basterds (2009)
#88	Bringing Up Baby (1938)	The Great Dictator (1940)
#89	Sixth Sense (1999)	Braveheart (1995)
#90	Swing Time (1936)	The Bicycle Thief (1948)
#91	Sophie’s Choice (1982)	The Apartment (1960)
#92	Up (2009)	Goodfellas (1990)
#93	The French Connection (1971)	Downfall (2004)
#94	Pulp Fiction (1994)	Gran Torino (2008)
#95	The Last Picture Show (1971)	Metropolis (1927)
#96	Do The Right Thing (1989)	The Sting (1973)
#97	Blade Runner (1982)	Gladiator (2000)
#98	Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)	The Maltese Falcon (1941)
#99	Toy Story (1995)	Unforgiven (1992)
#100	Ben Hur (1959)	The Elephant Man (1980)

Next week, finally a fair and equal match: Silence of the Lambs vs. Pan’s Labyrinth.  Spooky and more spooky.