Ranking Bond Films

1. Casino Royale
2. On Her Majesty's Secret Service
3. Skyfall
4. GoldenEye
5. From Russia With Love
6. Dr. No
7. Licence to Kill
8. Goldfinger
9. The Spy Who Loved Me
10. The Living Daylights
11. For Your Eyes Only
12. Thunderball
13. Tomorrow Never Dies
14. You Only Live Twice
15. Man With the Golden Gun
16. Diamonds are Forever
17. Quantum of Solace
18. Moonraker
19. World is Not Enough
20. A View to Kill
21. Live and Let Die
22. Die Another Day
23. Octopussy

10 Creepiest Shots in Movie History

10. Psycho

9. Texas Chainsaw Massacre

8. The Shining

7. Eraserhead

6. The Silence of the Lambs

5. Eyes Wide Shut

4. Nosferatu

3. The Exorcist

 

2. Donnie Darko

1. The Shining (again)

The Avengers

The Avengers is the long awaited film from comic book fan-boys.  Since 2008's Iron Man, Marvel fans have been wanting this and it does deliver.  I was a little skeptical at first but Joss Whedon does pull this off.  The film stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, and Samuel L. Jackson.
The movie is about Loki steals a magical cube to open a portal to control an alien force so the humans will bow down to him.  So The Avengers have to assemble to stop him.  That is all of the plot, which makes it the only major problem with this movie, is that the story is to generic.  However, Whedon's dialogue and the chemistry between the cast saves it.
Mark Ruffalo gives the most interesting performance.  He is also in my opinion the first one to get Hulk right.  He plays him as nice guy, but someone at any time is able to snap.  He pulls off that tension I think better the Ed Norton and Eric Bana.  Tom Hiddleston as Loki although his character did not have that much depth,  he was chewing scenery.  It reminded me of villainous performance that Gary Oldman we do back in the 90s.
The action is imaginative,  but most if its CGI.  It doesn't make you feel the pain that great action scenes do.  Also sometimes the camera was to close in to where I could not see what was going on.  Still its a fun time at the Cinema.
Rating - 84%

2012 Most Anticipated

10. The Wettest County in the World
- Good Director (John Hillcoat) and Good cast (Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, and Jessica Chastain). Well with the the exception of Shia Lebeuf.
9. Only Good Forgives
- Fresh off Drive, Refn and Gosling are back.
8. Brave
- Pixar looks to get back on track after their first failure.
7. Gravity
- Alfonso Cuaron says he wants to open this film with a twenty minute uncut shot (awesome), oh yeah Clooney is in it.
6. Django Unchained
- This seems like maybe QT most important film, he'll need to change his usual approach if he wants to make a serious film about slavery.
5. Seven Psychopaths
- In Bruges star and director reuniting, oh and that feels so good.
4. Skyfall
- James Bond is back, enough said.
3. Prometheus
- Ridley has returned to the franchise he started, but also to the genre he shaped.  He has returned HOME, lets hope he doesn't leave in total shit.

2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
- This needs no introduction

1. The Dark Knight Rises
- Neither does this

So I think we are in for one badass year.  We have some interesting properties and a lot of ambitious film makers, this gives me a lot of hope for 2012.

10 Best Films and Performances

The Ladies
1. Jessica Chastain - The Tree of Life, The Debt, and The Help
2. Rooney Mara - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
3. Saoirse Ronan - Hanna
4. Mia Wasikowski - Jan Eyre
5. Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

The Men
1. Michael Fassbender - Jan Eyre, X -Men First Class, and Shame
2. Ryan Gosling - Drive and The Ides of March
3. Albert Brooks - Drive
4. Andy Serkis - Rise of the Planet of the Apes
5. Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The Films
1. Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn)
2. The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
3. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (David Fincher)
4. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (Brad Bird)
5. A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)
6.  Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Rupert Wyatt)
7. Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
8. Hanna (Joe Wright)
9. X-Men First Class (Matthew Vaughn)
10. {Tie} Rango (Gore Verbinski) & Hugo (Martin Scorsese)

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Brad Bird comes to live-action with sheer badassery.  This film is like a new master practicing his form, and its hard to believe that it comes from one franchise that I've really hated.  Not any more though.  Ghost Protocol stars Tom Cruise coming back as Ethan Hunt, and also stars Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, and the deliciously sexy Paula Patton.

The plot is Ethan Hunt and his team are on the run after being set up for a blowing up The Kremlin.  Then they have to find a Swedish terrorist who wants to do what all evil genius villains do which is to create nuclear war. (Oh  this guy still hasn't gotten over the 80s.)   The story is very simplistic indeed.  However, simple can be good for director if he wants to visually do a lot of things.

The film exceeds with some of the greatest action set pieces I have ever seen.  One involves Tom Cruise climbing on the biggest building in the world which is intnse as hell.  Another is a foot chase and a car chase through a sandstorm.  Then one of hell of and ending showdown between cruise and the villain in a car garage while playing keepaway with a briefcase. It has one short-coming in it script, which we hardly get to know the bad guy.  However where this film exceeds where the other in the franchise has not is that comradery between the team is there. I highly reccomend this film

rating - 94%

Immortals

Okay performances, amazing visuals, one hell of an battle scene at the end, the beautiful Freida Pinto, but lacking in the story. 

Tarsem Singh who directed The Fall, he knows visuals. Amazing production design and costume design is always expected from him. Now he is delving into CGI, and the man does he succeed here. However he has a problem in understanding what makes a good story. Tarsem, unlike Michael Bay, his films craft and visual style are impressive and he is also pretty good with actors. However he needs to find a good script some time soon. However, I do reccomend the film for the beauty in it.


Rating - 59%