Best of 2012--Movie Edition!

[Green Lantern]

Be careful, Green Lantern didn't like it! He's not quite the discerning movie critic I am.

Hey, I didn't hate it! And I thought Clooney was pretty great in it. It just didn't really stand up to some of the truly great stuff I saw (which goes for Alexander Payne movies in general.)

[Green Lantern]

Haywire was '12? I swear that was '11 too. Did Soderbergh really get out two movies in one year?

Between Contagion, Haywire and Magic Mike, the dude released three movies in a nine-month period!

[jay santos]

Did you mean top 4? Or are you reserving a spot for something yet unmentioned?

Reserving the fifth spot for one of those I haven't seen.

[Green Lantern]

In my top 5:

Les Mis
Safety Not Guaranteed
Cloud Atlas
Moonrise Kingdom

not seen yet but expecting might shuffle things:

Django Unchained
Silver Linings Playbook

I regret not seeing Cloud Atlas in the theater. It was gone so quickly! Everyone, it's important to remember that life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

[jay santos]

I regret not seeing Cloud Atlas in the theater. It was gone so quickly! Everyone, it's important to remember that life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

I was surprised to not see it on your list. And not on MG's list. Then I look up a few lists, and it doesn't appear to be registering with any critics as a top film for the year. hmm, what do I know?

[Green Lantern]

Here's my "Had some good stuff but left me distinctly underwhelmed" list AKA "meh:"

• The Amazing Spider-Man (why?)
• The Hobbit (three-hour film and they're not even to Mirkwood?)
• Lawless (I thought this was going to be awesome! I hate Shia LeBoeuf!)
• The Loneliest Planet (a great short film stretched to two hours)

[PaloAltoCougar]

Finally got around to watching The Descendants last month. Loved it.

I've seen it three times, and I like it more each time. In November while in Kauai I insisted on a self-guided one-day Descendants tour, including lunch at Tahiti Nui's (where Clooney had his initial conversation with Beau Bridges), but sadly the live entertainment was AWOL.

I think I liked that movie and a couple others from 2011 more than anything in 2012, but I'm still mulling them over, and haven't seen ZD30 yet.

[MarkGrace]

I've seen it three times, and I like it more each time. In November while in Kauai I insisted on a self-guided one-day Descendants tour, including lunch at Tahiti Nui's (where Clooney had his initial conversation with Beau Bridges), but sadly the live entertainment was AWOL.

I own it and have seen it a bunch of times. Despite some heavy emotional content, there's something about it I find very comforting.

[Surfah]

I own it and have seen it a bunch of times. Despite some heavy emotional content, there's something about it I find very comforting.

Ditto. We own it and have watched it a bunch. Plus it's been making the rounds on premium cable right now so it's on all the time. Like Field of Dreams, it sucks me in. No matter what moment it is at in the film I can't do anything else until it is over.

Like PAC said, it gets better every single time I see it.

[Pelado]

Ladies and Gents, we have reached that all-important time of year where federal law mandates that all good Americans comb through the list of movies they saw this year and ruthlessly whittle them down into a "Best Of" list, preferably consisting of 10 films that are sure to rank among the greatest films of all time. (Otherwise, what's the point?)

However, since hanging out on CUF is basically the same as doing business in international waters, we are beholden to no such dictatorial statutes so please feel free to list any number of great movies you saw this year (and maybe some you are still hoping to see.) I'll start:

I kind of went through and tossed everything I saw into a few categories so I'll begin with the movies that I thought were something special and would be the ones I would narrow down to a "top 10" if pressured (with the caveat that I still need to see Les Mis, The Impossible, Amour and Zero Dark Thirty.) Listed alphabetically they are:

• Argo
• The Avengers
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• The Cabin in the Woods
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Django Unchained
• The Five-Year Engagement/Wanderlust (my "relationship comedy" slot)
• Holy Motors (my "bizarre, unclassifiable but also awesome" slot)
• The House I Live In (great documentary about the drug war)
• Killing Them Softly (am I the only one who liked this?)
• Lincoln
• Looper
• Moonrise Kingdom
• The Queen of Versailles
• The Secret World of Arrietty
• Silver Linings Playbook

I'll also throw in under "Flawed but fascinating works by great directors:"

• The Master
• Prometheus

There are also categories for "Solid but unspectacular," "Fun for the kids!," "Nice surprise," "Kick ass," "Harrowing but rewarding" and "Terrible" but I'll get to those later.

I'm pretty sure I haven't watched a single one of the movies you listed. Where has the year gone?

[Jeff Lebowski]

I've seen it three times, and I like it more each time. In November while in Kauai I insisted on a self-guided one-day Descendants tour, including lunch at Tahiti Nui's (where Clooney had his initial conversation with Beau Bridges), but sadly the live entertainment was AWOL.

I think I liked that movie and a couple others from 2011 more than anything in 2012, but I'm still mulling them over, and haven't seen ZD30 yet.

I am trying to think of a movie I enjoyed more than this one from the past 2-3 years and I am coming up blank. It really was outstanding.

[il Padrino Ute]

I only went to see one movie in 2012 - that Snow White movie with the girl from Twilight - but I fell asleep during it so I can't comment on how good or bad it was.

[Eddie]

I only went to see one movie in 2012 - that Snow White movie with the girl from Twilight - but I fell asleep during it so I can't comment on how good or bad it was.

I took the kids to Wreck it Ralph. I was NOT optimistic. It ended up being better than I thought it would, so I didn't see it as a complete waste of time.

[Green Lantern]

I took the kids to Wreck it Ralph. I was NOT optimistic. It ended up being better than I thought it would, so I didn't see it as a complete waste of time.

I thought the animated movies this year had a pretty good track record. My daughter and I enjoyed Pirates!, Wreck-It Ralph, ParaNorman, Frankenweenie, Brave and Secret World of Arrietty. The only one I thought was terrible was Hotel Transylvania.

[Eddie]

I thought the animated movies this year had a pretty good track record. My daughter and I enjoyed Pirates!, Wreck-It Ralph, ParaNorman, Frankenweenie, Brave and Secret World of Arrietty. The only one I thought was terrible was Hotel Transylvania.

Ooh. I did see Brave as well this past year. I enjoyed that one too.

The rarity of a Disney movie in which the heroine has two parents! (Not that there is anything wrong with a single parent household - it just seemed like that was the norm for a long time.)