As much as we are obliged to look back over the year just gone, we are obliged to look ahead at the year just beginning. It’s always exciting to look at the next twelve months and all the exciting treats that are coming to our screens. Below are my personal picks of the films worth seeing in 2012, and I’m hoping there will be many more besides, a few gems I haven’t even heard of yet.
Friday 6 January 2012
The Iron Lady – Trailer
The first Friday of 2012 brings one of the big Oscar contenders as Meryl Streep channels Thatcher. The reviews are not as positive about the film in general as they are for Streep’s performance, though perhaps not surprising for a film from the director of Mamma Mia.
Friday 13 January 2012
Shame – Trailer, Debate
Everyone coming to this site hoping for naked pics of Fassbender and Mulligan are missing out on the fact that this sexual drama does not glamourise sex, instead showing the bleak reality of sex addiction. Should be amazing, and set Fassbender off on the year where he becomes the new Ryan Gosling.
Friday 20 January 2012
Coriolanus – Review, Jon Snow award
Not quite perfect but certainly well acted adaptation of Shakespeare’s least famous play come courtesy of debut director Ralph Fiennes. Not necessarily one to trip over yourself to see.
Friday 27 January 2012
The Descendants – Review
Getting more awards buzz than I think it deserves, this drama follows George Clooney as he tries to connect with his daughters while hunting down his comatose wife’s lover. There’s also a complicated plot involving the sale of some land which stops this film from breaching good and becoming excellent.
Friday 3 February 2012
Carnage – Review
Like Crazy – Trailer, Review
Martha Marcy May Marlene – Trailer, Review
A big weekend for small, quality cinema. Carnage is essentially a play, but a very amusing one at that and filled with superb performances all round as two sets of parents fall out over a fight between their children. Like Crazy has great performances (and the love of my life) in a film that is a little lack-lustre but much loved by critics about two lovers who go to stupid lengths to prolong their relationship. The best of a strong trio is Martha Marcy May Marlene, a harrowing drama following a girl’s time in a cult, and her subsequent return to society. See them all if you can.
Friday 10 February 2012
A Dangerous Method
The Muppets – Bloggingalong
The Woman in Black
Fassbender and Knightley unite to give birth to psychoanalysis, The Muppets produce their first cinematic release in thirteen years and Daniel Radcliffe escapes from Potter in a period ghost story. Not as strong a trio as the previous week but something for everyone.
Friday 24 February 2012
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel – Trailer
All my favourite British actors of a certain age team up and go on an Indian holiday together. I could not be more excited about what could easily be a Last of the Summer Wine holiday special.
Friday 23 March 2012
The Hunger Games – Trailer and Pics
Into The Abyss: A Tale Of Death, A Tale Of Life – Review
The new Twilight/Harry Potter replacement franchise begin as Jennifer Lawrence is forced to fight for her life in The Hunger Games. I hear the books are amazing and I know for a fact that Lawrence is too. On a more sedate note Werner Herzog brings us a documentary about a triple homicide, the perpetrators on death row and the men who have to live with their deaths in Into The Abyss.
Wednesday 28 March 2012
The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists
The wonderful people at Aardman are back with what we really want from them, a stop-motion animation film made out of plasticine. This one is about pirates and scientists and stars Hugh Grant. Lovely jubbly.
Friday 6 April 2012
American Pie: Reunion
I have a certain amount of nostalgia for this franchise, starting as it did during my time at secondary school where fart gags and penis jokes were the height of sophistication. In this fourth (ignoring those DVD sequels) instalment the whole gang gets back together and hijinks ensue.
Friday 13 April 2012
The Cabin in the Woods – Trailer
It’s the start of a Joss Whedon double bill as a film he wrote years ago finally slumps into cinemas. A group of attractive young people go to a cabin in the woods and bad things happen with a meta twist.
Friday 27 April 2012
The Avengers
Joss Whedon does some directing this time as he brings together all of The Avengers from their various films, some of which were arguably just prequels anyway. At least Whedon knows this is guaranteed to be more successful than poor old Serenity.
Friday 11 May 2012
Dark Shadows
Tim Burton has gone off the rails and cast Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter in his latest gothic film. Based on a cult TV series I’ve never seen this is a “gothic-horror tale centering on the life of vampire Barnabas Collins and his run-ins with various monsters, witches, werewolves and ghosts.”
Friday 25 May 2012
Men in Black 3
What makes this entirely unnecessary sequel exciting is not just the appearance of Emma Thompson but the fact that a film is finally acknowledging that Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones have the same face.
Friday 1 June 2012
Prometheus
Kristen Stewart may well be in a gritty adaptation of a favourite children’s story but all I care about this weekend is that Ridley Scott has made a prequel/not-a-prequel/totally-a-prequel-whether-Scott-admits-it-or-not to classic sci-fi horror Alien. Fassbender’s third film of 2012 (actually his fourth, but I have no time for Haywire).
Wednesday 4 July 2012
The Amazing Spider Man – Pictures
It takes a lot to get me excited about Spider-man but I suppose the combination of Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Marc Webb is just about enough to do it. Let’s not forget that Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen and Sally Fields are in it too. Swoon.
Friday 20 July 2012
The Dark Knight Rises – Poster, Teaser, Trailer
Christopher Nolan’s epic take on Batman comes to a close with a film in which everyone seems to be mumbling. It’s going to take a hell of a feat to top The Dark Knight but surely Nolan is up to the challenge. Bonus points for containing Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Friday 17 August 2012
Brave – Trailer
I’m almost willing to forgive Pixar for Cars 2 thanks to this animated adventure set in Scotland about a Princess hunting a bear. The British voice cast includes Emma Thompson, Kelly McDonald, Craig Ferguson, Robbie Coltrane and the unbeatable Julie Walters. Enough said.
Friday 21 September 2012
Premium Rush
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is back (and not for the last time) as a bike messenger who picks up a very dangerous parcel and get drawn into a chase across a city. My hat goes off to Gordon-Levitt, five minutes of cycling and I can’t sit down without wincing for a week.
Friday 28 September 2012
Looper
And Joseph Gordon-Levitt is back, again, as an assassin tasked with killing his future self as played by Bruce Willis. Not too appealing until you realise that it shared a writer/director with Brick, the film I refuse to recognise any flaws in. Who doesn’t love a time travel caper?
Friday 5 October 2012
Frankenweenie
Tim Burton has another film out this year and like Pixar he is returning to stop-motion animation. A gothic tale not starring Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter about a young boy who brings his pet dog back from the dead.
Friday 26 October 2012
Skyfall – Expectations and Reality
Bond is back and this time they are filming with a completed script so it should make more sense than Quantum of Solace.
Friday 14 December 2012
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – Synopsis
Peter Jackson is back to reclaim the Christmas box office with the only book by J. R. R. Tolkien that I have managed to finish. It may be more of the same but people seemed to like Lord of the Rings for some reason, so fair enough.
Mild Concern 