Best movies of the 2000s - Yearly Top 5 lists

[John]

Also, here are my favorite guilty pleasures of the decade:
- Transporter 1-3
- Crank 1-2
- Iron Man
- The Expendables
- John Rambo
- Doomsday
- Saw series
- Planet Terror
- Machete
- 300

Ooooh, a guilty pleasures list! I like that idea! I've got my share of those. Of the ones you've listed here, far and away my favorite is Rambo. That is how you make a kick-butt action film! I have absolutely no idea what compelled me to go see that movie in the theaters. I'm not really a huge fan of the Rambo series (although First Blood is good and Rambo: First Blood Part II qualifies as another guilty pleasure), but some friends got me to go see Rambo and it was a blast. Highly recommended for action film fans who aren't the squeamish type.

[John]

NOTE: Newcomers interested in seeing previous rankings from the 2000s should start from the beginning of this thread before jumping into the post below.

2011
In retrospect, I need to apologize to 2010 for lamenting its poor overall quality of films. Though it wasn't a deep roster, the year's top 5 ranged from very good (The Town) to outright brilliant (Inception). There is no brilliance in 2011. The year's top 5 are a collection of quality films that are worthy of your attention, but I do not expect any of these films to be ones you remember 10 years from now.

Once you get past the top 5, you enter a cinematic wasteland of mediocrity. 2011 was truly one of the most barren film years that I can remember. If you couldn't make it to the theater very often this year, you didn't miss much. An endless parade of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots, and films based on existing intellectual properties flooded multiplexes. Scanning the list of top grossing films for the year, you don't hit an original story until Bridesmaids at #11 (The Help, also tied at #11, is adapted from a novel). But can we blame Hollywood? It's difficult to chastise studio executives for foisting garbage upon us when we reward them for doing so by, say, ponying up $33.7M for the opening week of The Devil Inside. We reap what we sow.

Though they may not be all-timers, the year's top 5 are at least respectable films and worth your time to seek out. They're an eclectic mix, so there should be something here for just about everyone. As always, I am only considering films that I have seen. That means touted films like The Help, The Artist, and War Horse aren't candidates for my top 5, just as Jack and Jill and Apollo 18 are (thankfully) ineligible for Worst of the Year.

Top 5 Films

1. The Adjustment Bureau - This one came totally out of nowhere. $65M overseas helped The Adjustment Bureau turn a modest profit, but the film entered and exited American theaters quickly and quietly. I gave it a pass after reading so-so reviews. Imagine my surprise when I caught the movie at home and discovered that it was a deeply touching love story wrapped inside an intriguing science fiction tale. This is the kind of film that you can use as a gateway to science fiction for the lady in your life who won't normally give sci-fi the time of day. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have great chemistry, and writer/director George Nolfi does a great job adapting a short story by Philip K. Dick. The best science fiction makes you not only think but feel. The Adjustment Bureau had me questioning how far I would go for love, and by the end, I was completely emotionally invested in the outcome for these lovers seemingly destined to remain separated by forces beyond our understanding.
2. Moneyball - Many of you have read the book. Would you ever have imagined that it could be turned into a narrative movie? The trick was turning scriptwriting duties over to super-writers Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Some may be annoyed that the some of the book's core concepts are glossed over in service of story, but the writers correctly did amazing job pulling a compelling underdog story out of a book based around numbers. In the process, they created a sports movie that is accessible to non-sports fans. If The Adjustment Bureau is a gateway to science fiction, Moneyball is a gateway to baseball. Even those who are bored to tears by baseball can appreciate a good David vs. Goliath tale, which is precisely what Moneyball delivers. You can read my full review of Moneyball here.
3. The Ides of March - For some reason, The Ides of March is generating no buzz as a Best Picture Oscar contender. Perhaps it's due to a political climate that's charged even more so than usual as we enter an election year. Whatever the reason, it's criminal that this smart film isn't getting the attention it deserves. Don't look at this as a political movie. Yes, it deals with politics, but it in no way takes liberal/conservative sides. It's really a story about what happens when idealism faces harsh realities. Does the idealist hold to his principles or does he look out for his own best interests? Great stories make you question how you would fare if placed in a tough situation. I don't envy Ryan Gosling's Stephen Meyers - after working so hard, buoyed by the vision of a candidate you truly admire, the dagger in the back must dig so much deeper.
4. Drive - Ryan Gosling gets a second appearance in the top 5, and it's his role as "Driver", not Stephen Meyers, that's likely to be remembered by film junkies in the years to come. This is a tough film to categorize. "Art house action" is what I'd call it. Director Nicolas Winding Refn films Drive in a dreamy style. His version of 80s-era Los Angeles is soft, pink lights and luscious synthpop. Gosling, meanwhile, completely inhabits the character of "Driver", a man of few words, seemingly so gentle yet capable of unspeakable brutality when pushed. In his moments of horrific violence, Drive is at its most riveting. The elevator scene (WARNING: NSFW!) is, without a doubt, 2011's most memorable scene, in my mind. My frustration with Drive is that it is so very, very brilliant when "Driver" is pushed to the edge, but there are too many scenes with little-to-nothing happening that slow the movie down and keep it from achieving the brilliance it's capable of. Some movies get a "B" for being "kinda good"; Drive gets a "B" for shooting for true greatness and only partially hitting the mark.
5. Hugo - Probably the biggest pleasant surprise of the year. I respect Martin Scorsese, but this just doesn't seem like his kind of film. When I think of Scorsese, I think of gangsters and hard men doing violent deeds. But Scorsese shakes up expectations with a heart-warming tale of a boy desperately clinging to the memory of his father by trying to repair the automaton his father was working on restoring before his death. The boy's obsession leads him to a bitter old man who happens to be one of the greatest filmmakers of the silent film era. Time has passed this man by. He is largely forgotten now, but not completely, and for those that do remember him, this man has left an indelible impression. It's a reminder to shoot for greatness, for you never know how many lives you may touch. This is the only movie I've seen during the recent 3D revival that I actually recommend seeing in 3D. It's brilliantly shot, and the 3D never devolves into the gimmicky.

Worst of the Year - Battle: Los Angeles. 2011 was such a weak movie year that I can't even muster up much anger at they year's worst movie. Battle: Los Angeles is not all-around hideous; it is simply hideously stupid, popcorn blockbuster drivel. It's the kind of movie where context and expectations shape perception. Had I caught this film late one night on HBO and come into it cold, I would probably have left thinking, "Eh, whatever." But because of it's snazzy marketing campaign that played up the "alien invasion through the eyes of the grunts" angle, I entered with hope for something a little edgier. Instead, we get stereotypes in fatigues shooting at poorly rendered CGI aliens and emoting all over the place before they punch out in the most predictable fashions. The real battle here was to stop checking my watch every five minutes as I waited for the movie to mercifully come to a conclusion.

Two Movies, One Good - Super 8. J.J. Abrams, you know how to get me into the theater. You got me to see Mission: Impossible III despite being totally bored by that franchise. You sold me on Cloverfield with your too-cool-for-school marketing campaign. You convinced me to give the Star Trek franchise yet another chance despite so many disappointments. When will I remember that none of these films were, you know, really good? What is the magic spell you've got on me that makes me give you chance after chance? Whatever it is, it worked again in 2011. You sold me on Super 8 as an homage to Spielberg-ian films of the 70s and 80s like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, and The Goonies. But Super 8 is less "homage" and more "imitation", and a shallow one at that.

You can read my mini-review for an explanation of why Super 8 didn't work for me. In short, I found the movie emotionally manipulative and its sci-fi trappings completely superfluous. It wasted fine performances by its young cast by failing to focus on them. Every time we started to get close to the kids, we'd be jarred out of the moment by the obligatory scene of the monster stirring up trouble. I wanted to shake Abrams and shout, "We don't care about the monster! Show us more of the kids!" There's a great film hiding inside Super 8. As the monster is infiltrating the town, the kids are making a zombie film that they intend to enter into a film competition intended for more advanced filmmakers. The scenes where the kids are putting their heart and soul into making this film are Super 8's only genuine moments. I wish Abrams had made the movie about children chasing dreams and growing up in the process instead of trying to remake someone else's movie and coming up with a dull CGI alien that never inspires the wonder and awe of Spielberg's aliens. The kids' final cut of their film runs during Super 8's credits. It's the best moment of Super 8. I felt so cheated that I never got to see them take their film to Columbus and witness the outcome. Somebody get this great cast of kids back together and make that movie.

Movies seen in 2011
To qualify for this list, a film must have received a U.S. theatrical or video-on-demand release during 2011, or be slated for release in 2012.

• Act of Valor (2012 release)
• The Adjustment Bureau (home viewing)
• Attack the Block
• Battle: Los Angeles
• Black Death (home viewing)
• Contagion
• The Descendants
• Drive
• The Eagle (home viewing)
• The Guard
• Hanna (home viewing)
• Hugo
• The Ides of March
• In Time
• Margin Call
• Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol
• Moneyball
• Paranormal Activity 3
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Source Code
• Super 8
• The Thing (home viewing)
• 13 Assassins (home viewing)
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

[John]

A dull-as-bricks movie year leads to no change on my Top 25 and Worst 5 Films of the 2000s lists. There has been some reordering, though, and one new film (highlighted in red) entered the top 25.

Best of the 2000s

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - The movie that kept cinema alive for me long enough for my #2 movie of the decade to rekindle my passion. I never would have thought it possible for there to be such a perfect capturing of those masterworks of literature, but Peter Jackson pulls it off.
2. V for Vendetta - The movie that made cinema relevant to me again after a 10-year falling out. Much more than a simple action film, this one really reached me on a personal level. "Remember, remember the fifth of November,"... a message as timely now as it was in the time of Guy Fawkes.
3. Inception - It's always dangerous ranking movies you've only recently seen; they tend to come off higher than they should be. Despite that fact, I believe Inception will stick high on my list. It's theme of the importance of letting go of regret and the importance of forgiving yourself resonated with me.
4. District 9 - How amazing is this film? For $30M, Neill Blomkamp delivered a poignant tale of how we all too often allow our differences to become justifications for bigotry, and created a cracking sci-fi/action film with production values rivaling movies with 10x District 9's budget. It's just my kind of film; simultaneously entertaining and thought-provoking.
5. There Will Be Blood - An acting and directorial tour de force. Who would have thought, "I drink your milkshake!" would become a classic line for the ages?
6. No Country For Old Men - The Coen Brothers have long deserved recognition for their quirky work. They finally received it with one of their darkest films ever - and coming from these guys, that's saying a lot.
7. Avatar - Say what you want about the film's worldview, but it's clearly a film that's going to impact how we look at movie's for years to come (quite literally, if the spate of announcements of 3D versions of upcoming movies is any indication).
8. Children of Men - An artistically shot film depicting a hopelessly bleak future. Sometimes depressing can be beautiful.
9. The Wrestler - As touching a movie as you'll find. Just a superlative performance by Rourke. The work he must have put in to get his body in shape for this film is difficult to imagine.
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - RotK gave this trilogy the fine send-off it deserved and cemented its place as the #1 movie series of the decade.
11. Gladiator - A grand epic in the Braveheart mold (which, incidentally, remains one of my favorite films of all time).
12. Collateral - No one paid much attention to this move. They should have. Watching Jamie Foxx make the journey from dreamer to doer is inspirational.
13. In Bruges - My highest ranked comedy was also not seen by many people. Like Collateral, it deserves more attention, though I admit the film's foreign-ness works against its acceptance here in the States.
14. Blood Diamond - Is it emotionally manipulative? Probably. In this case, I was successfully manipulated. You win this round, Ed Zwick.
15. True Grit - An absolute pleasure to watch, True Grit actually makes me root for a comeback for the western genre. The melodic use of language, the gravelly voiced performance by Jeff Bridges and the stellar debut from young Hailee Steinfeld make True Grit a movie I'll look forward to seeing again.
16. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - The least of the trilogy is still a fine film in its own right. Boo for dumbed-down Ents; yay for the Battle of Helm's Deep!
17. Serenity - My lowest ranked top film of a year before 2011 (which placed no films on the top 25 at all). It won't show up on most film critics' top anything list, but then most film critics aren't as passionately in love with Firefly as I am.
18. Shoot 'Em Up - I make no apologies for unabashedly loving this celebration of wanton violence. If you're thinking about going over the top, take a hint from Shoot 'Em Up and go all the way over... then be careful not to trip over your audiences' jaws as you go even further.
19. Pan's Labyrinth - Watching what Guillermo del Toro dreams up here makes me wonder what he would have done with The Hobbit.
20. Frost/Nixon - If you're going to see just one biopic, see this one.
21. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - If I were asked what the second most beautifully shot movie of the decade was, I would nominate Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
22. Memento - You could make a compelling argument that this amazingly told story is the best movie of the 2000s. Perhaps I saw it before I was ready, but I still recognize its genius.
23. Inglourious Basterds - How can you not love a movie where Hitler gets a hot lead-full of comeuppance?
24. Inside Job - It's difficult to keep your cool as you receive the straight dope on how the great 2008 financial meltdown happened and then listen to those responsible for the crisis profess astonishment that anyone could believe they did anything wrong.
25. Munich - Despite being too long for its own good, some extremely powerful scenes propel Munich to these lofty heights.

Falling off the list: Tropic Thunder

As noted, no 2011 film breaks into the top 10. 2006 is the only year to place four movies in the Top 25 (#2, #8, #14, and #19). It joins 2007 (#5, #6) and 2009 (#4, #7) as the only years featuring multiple Top 10 entries. 2000 and years 2007-2010 all place three movies, thanks in part to the addition of Inside Job (2010) and the exit of Tropic Thunder (2008). It's a close battle between 2007 and 2010 for #2 film year of the 2000s behind 2006. Every year from 2001 through 2004 placed just one top 25 film. Interesting that 2001 features my #1 overall movie and nothing else. The strength of the top films of 2001 and 2003 propel those years higher in my estimation than 2002 and 2004, which featured little else of note beyond their top two placers.

And now the very worst 5 movies of the 2000s:

Worst of the 2000s

1. Transformers - When one of these brain-dead mega-budget films gets made, how many smaller budget potential gems do we lose out on? I shudder to think.
2. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones - The Phantom Menace already dragged my memories of the original trilogy through the mud. Now you're burying my memories neck-deep in dung.
3. Battlefield Earth - Of all the movies on this list, this one is easily the worst from a purely technical perspective. Film students will be studying this movie for years as an example of what not to do.
4. Four Lions - See my tirade from 2010. It's a testament to my hatred for this film that I lump it in with these big-budget shlock-fests. I probably hated my experience with Four Lions more than any of the other films on this list. Still, part of what goes into my determination of "worst" is expectations, and I expected less from Four Lions than these other films.
5. The Matrix Reloaded - Chalk up one more in the "tarnished memories" column. At least The Matrix only had three years in my heart before it was brought low by cash-in sequels.

[John]

You've just finished reading my Best Movies of 2011. Now it's time to look forward! Here are 10 of the films I'm particularly looking forward to in 2012. Since release dates for indie and Oscar award season films are so hard to pin down this early in the year, I'll be focusing on studio-backed films with set release dates.

2012 Movies to Anticipate

• The Grey (January 27) - I'm cheating here, having already caught this film at an advance screening. Read my capsule review and then go see this movie. So many people are going to skip this gem; don't be amongst them.
• The Raid (March 23) - The Sundance reviews have been positive for this brutally violent story about a highly-trained SWAT team ordered to sweep through a slum highrise building run by a malicious crime lord. It will get a limited theatrical release, so you may need to catch it on video-on-demand.
• Prometheius (June 8 ) - Here's something odd: I can't tell you what this movie is about. All I know is that it marks the return of Ridley Scott to the world of Alien. Brother, that's all I need to know. Front row center opening night.
• Argo (September 14) - Ben Affleck really impressed me as a director with The Town, so I'm excited to see his take on the true story of how the CIA attempted to resolve the Iran hostage crisis by staging a fake Canadian science fiction film shoot in Iran.
• Looper (September 28) - I'm not familiar with director Rian Johnson, so I'm going on word of mouth here, and the word of mouth on this film about a time-traveling killer who learns that his mark is his future self is good.
• Gangster Squad (October 19) - Coming off a year where he appeared in two of my top 5 films, I'm ready for more Ryan Gosling. Gosling is just one member of a brilliant ensemble cast. I enjoyed Ruben Fleischer's clever Zombieland, so this movie has plenty of credentials.
• Gravity (November 21) - Alfonso Cuarón wowed me with his spectacular long shots in Children of Men, and now he's bringing them to space in a film with a cast of two. I'm hearing it could be revolutionary in style.
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December 14) - C'mon. Each Lord of the Rings film is ranked in my top 25. Did you really think I wouldn't be anticipating the prequel?
• World War Z (December 21) - I'm very disheartened to hear that they're ditching the "looking back" perspective of the book to make a more conventional "here comes the apocalypse" zombie film, but I'm still interested. The source material is brilliant.
• Django Unchained (December 25) - December is an embarrassment of film riches. I don't love every Quentin Tarantino movie, but even his failures are interesting, and I'm not expecting a failure here.

[jlabruno]

The Grey looks really good

Also want to see John Carter, And since my wife had me take her to see all the twilight movies I am now anxious to see how it ends. (Did not read the book)


From this part year I really enjoyed Moneyball. Great acting job by Mr Pitt. Also being a fan of the Harry Potter franchise I enjoyed the last movie. Sad to see it end. I also thought the Warrior was REALLY GOOD> My favorite movie of the year. Nick Nolte was excellent and so was Tom Hardy.


Most anticipated movie this year for me will be the next Batman. Also want to see Act of Valor. Seeing as I work for the Army I am really excited to see a movie filmed using REAL Navy Seals.

[John]

Top 5 of 2011 post updated with full list of films seen in 2011. This will give you an idea of the competition faced by the anointed top 5.

Also want to see John Carter, And since my wife had me take her to see all the twilight movies I am now anxious to see how it ends. (Did not read the book)...

Most anticipated movie this year for me will be the next Batman. Also want to see Act of Valor. Seeing as I work for the Army I am really excited to see a movie filmed using REAL Navy Seals.

John Carter, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, and particularly The Dark Knight Rises are of course some of the biggest blockbusters slated for 2012. Everyone and their cat will be going to see The Dark Night Rises, and I'm sure Christopher Nolan won't disappoint (controversy over Bane's voice notwithstanding). As much as I love Nolan, I have a hard time getting up for superhero films. In all likelihood, I'll wait to catch The Dark Knight Rises on TV.

I saw Act of Valor last year, and you can read my capsule review here. I wish I could recommend it, but if you're a diehard Navy SEAL fan, you might dig it. As actors, the cast of Act of Valor make great SEALs, but at least they are earnest. "Earnest" would be a good way of describing the entire film. It's very straightforward and transparent in it's effort to muster your patriotic fervor. This is a movie where our boys are unequivocally the good guys, and the foreigners are bad to the bone. A throwback film, in a way, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know what to expect heading in.

[John]

The 2012 Oscar nominations were just announced. Hugo, my #5 movie of 2011, led all films with 11 nominations, closely trailed by The Artist (which I did not see) with 10. Other nominated films that were amongst those I saw last year include Moneyball (six nominations), The Descendants (five), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (three), and Drive, The Ides Of March, Margin Call, and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes (one each). No surprise that my #1 film of the year, The Adjustment Bureau, received no nominations; it's not an Oscar type of film. The awards will be presented on February 26th.

[Neil Thomas]

That is a bummer about world war z in how they are changing the perspective of the movie. I feel that movies are so afraid to take a chance these days and we get the same old watered down crap that is 95 percent of what we see. I just hope it doesn't turn into the same zombie we have seen over and over again. The perspective in the book is what made it unique. Hopefully I am wrong and it comes out amazing but at this moment I am a skeptic.

[Neil Thomas]

I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night and loved it. I was cheering the Apes on throughout the flick. James Franco was alright(though downright naive), but the cgi blew me away. I almost didn't rent it due to the previous Mark Walburg Planet of the Apes, but I am so glad I picked.it up.

I have the Adjustment Beureau on my dvr but haven't watched it, now I am more interested wince John speaks highly of it.

Django Unchained had some of its scenes filmed here in Jackson Hole. Some of the stars of the flick and their assistants came into the spa I work at to get treatments. They borrowed a bunch stuff from us too. The whole town was buzzing about it.

[Bill]

That is a bummer about world war z in how they are changing the perspective of the movie. I feel that movies are so afraid to take a chance these days and we get the same old watered down crap that is 95 percent of what we see. I just hope it doesn't turn into the same zombie we have seen over and over again. The perspective in the book is what made it unique. Hopefully I am wrong and it comes out amazing but at this moment I am a skeptic.

Unfortunately, when people buy tickets for watered down crap, they will continue to make the same movies until people stop buying tickets. One has to vote with one's dollars.

/soapbox

EDIT: I suppose one of these days I should see any of the movies John says is good....

[John]

I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes last night and loved it. I was cheering the Apes on throughout the flick. James Franco was alright(though downright naive), but the cgi blew me away. I almost didn't rent it due to the previous Mark Walburg Planet of the Apes, but I am so glad I picked.it up.

I didn't mention Rise of the Planet of the Apes specifically in my Top 5, but I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by it. Believe it or not, I've never seen an Apes movie before, other than parts of the original (I've seen the big twist ending of the original, at least). I always considered the series sort of second-rate, for some reason, and I went into Rise with low expectations. But as John said, it's actually a pretty decent flick. Andy Serkis was brilliant in his motion-capture role as Caesar the ape, and the movie was touching at points. Rise narrowly missed out on my Top 5.

I have the Adjustment Beureau on my dvr but haven't watched it, now I am more interested wince John speaks highly of it.

I think you're going to dig The Adjustment Bureau - perhaps not as much as I did, but I think you'll still like it. Something about the themes explored in the movie really spoke to me. This was my biggest pleasant surprise of 2011.

Django Unchained had some of its scenes filmed here in Jackson Hole. Some of the stars of the flick and their assistants came into the spa I work at to get treatments. They borrowed a bunch stuff from us too. The whole town was buzzing about it.

I'm really looking forward to Django Unchained. Tarantino doesn't hit on all his films, but his return to top form with Inglourious Basterds has me really excited for Django. Even at his worst, Tarantino never brings the boring.

That is a bummer about world war z in how they are changing the perspective of the movie. I feel that movies are so afraid to take a chance these days and we get the same old watered down crap that is 95 percent of what we see. I just hope it doesn't turn into the same zombie we have seen over and over again. The perspective in the book is what made it unique. Hopefully I am wrong and it comes out amazing but at this moment I am a skeptic.

Unfortunately, when people buy tickets for watered down crap, they will continue to make the same movies until people stop buying tickets. One has to vote with one's dollars.

Bill, you couldn't be more right. What right do movie fans have to rail against Hollywood for foisting low-budget crap upon us when we're willing to form over $34.5M for shlock like The Devil Inside? Why should we expect our cries for more originality to be heeded when the top 11 highest grossing films of 2011 are all sequels or based on existing intellectual properties? Suddenly in Hollywood, ambitious projects are getting axed by studios that have decided that it's safer to make bad low-to-mid-budget movies rather than fund expensive high-concept films. Why shoot for Avatar-like profits and risk a Mars Needs Moms-like fiscal bloodbath when you can churn out cheaply made garbage that's virtually guaranteed to turn a profit? It's like investing in trailer parks vs. million-dollar condos - the latter may be sexy, but the former is a slow, steady trickle of virtually guaranteed income. Which would you pick?

View your ticket as a vote, and don't vote for the derivative! Do you really need to see the fourth installment of the Transfomers series on June 29, 2014? Is it possible that something more worthy of your vote is our there? Perhaps a local art house is showing an interesting film. Perhaps you really love "hard R" films and want to see more of them at a time when studios are increasingly pushing titles towards PG-13. Whatever it is you want, you better be prepared to support it with your vote: your ticket. Otherwise, you've got no business complaining about Hollywood's choices - they're just doing what you're asking them to.

I suppose one of these days I should see any of the movies John says is good....

You should!

[Lions]

Whatever it is you want, you better be prepared to support it with your vote: your ticket. Otherwise, you've got no business complaining about Hollywood's choices - they're just doing what you're asking them to.

I've been trying this. It's not working!

I will say that I rarely bother to see anything but a big budget action flick in the theater anymore. My home entertainment system lacks a great screen but the sound system is quite good, so unless I'm watching something that I expect to blow me away visually, I'm more than happy watching it on dvd at home and avoiding the added cost of a babysitter.

On a slightly tangential note, my daughter is terrified of television, so I don't watch that much of anything until she's in bed. She was actually curled up with her head buried in my shoulder for the entire first half of the Super Bowl. She actually doesn't mind sports so much, but the commercials which come on loudly or are showing violent movie trailers don't sit so well. Usually, it's not a problem, but she better get over it by opening day!

[John]

Suddenly in Hollywood, ambitious projects are getting axed by studios that have decided that it's safer to make bad low-to-mid-budget movies rather than fund expensive high-concept films. Why shoot for Avatar-like profits and risk a Mars Needs Moms-like fiscal bloodbath when you can churn out cheaply made garbage that's virtually guaranteed to turn a profit? It's like investing in trailer parks vs. million-dollar condos - the latter may be sexy, but the former is a slow, steady trickle of virtually guaranteed income. Which would you pick?

On this very subject comes news today that Disney is preparing to take what might be one of Hollywood's all-time baths on John Carter. Based on the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs, John Carter is budgeted at an estimated $250,000,000 (and that's not including marketing costs). But the movie is "tracking" extremely soft ("tracking" is the term used for studios' pre-release surveying of interest on a film). There are concerns that John Carter may struggle to earn $100,000,000. You don't have to be a math major to figure that's going to hurt.

I admit I'm not interested in John Carter and almost certainly won't be paying to see it, but for those who want to see Hollywood continue to bankroll big-budget movies, this is yet another blow. Again, why should Hollywood take this kind of risk when they can invest in micro-budget films like The Devil Inside? If the movie flops, so what? You spent peanuts on creating, marketing, and distributing it. And it won't take much for the movie to become profitable. As a business model, it makes complete sense. For fans of risk-taking filmmaking, it's a big step backwards.

[John]

2012 Movies to Anticipate

• World War Z (December 21) - I'm very disheartened to hear that they're ditching the "looking back" perspective of the book to make a more conventional "here comes the apocalypse" zombie film, but I'm still interested. The source material is brilliant.

You can scratch this one off my list. The release of World War Z has been pushed back to June 21, 2013. I can live with that. December, 2012 was shaping up as a ludicrous month for exciting movie releases, and World War Z risked getting lost in the shuffle. Since I'm not usually all over the summer blockbusters, it's more likely that I'll be able to focus on World War Z as a summer release.

[John]

NOTE: Newcomers interested in seeing previous rankings from the 2000s should start from the beginning of this thread before jumping into the post below.

2012
What a rebound year 2012 was from the atrocious 2011! We had a fair share of bitter disappointments, to be sure, but we also had some wonderful surprises to stand alongside movies that lived up their expectations and then some. That's precisely the formula for a great movie year.

One thing to note about movies in 2012: They demanded your patience and attention. This was the year of the marathon movie. I lost count of the films that stretch well over two hours in length. Cloud Atlas and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey were pushing towards three hours. On one hand, you might appreciate more time for storytelling and world-building. On the other hand, you might appreciate being able to get home in time to tuck the kids in! A lot of these lengthy films could have done with some trims, but I get the sense that we haven't seen the end of the trend towards longer movies.

Superheroes, young adult book adaptations, and animated films continued to dominate at the box office. The Avengers took the top spot, The Dark Knight Rises was $2, and The Amazing Spider-Man was #7. (Side note: Do we really need to reboot Spider-Man just three years after the last trilogy concluded?) The Hunger Games, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, and (if you want to look at it as YA) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey were #3, #5, and #6 overall, respectively. Five animated films landed between #8-#14 in overall gross.

One of those animated films, Brave, was one of only two original films (i.e. not a sequel, prequel, reboot, or adaptation) to land in the top 14 grossing films of the year (the other was Ted. People bemoan Hollywood's dearth of originality, but the familiar still draws the biggest crowds.

A trend that I wouldn't mind seeing an end to is the splitting up of book adaptations into two movies when the book isn't sufficiently deep to support such a split. Both Twilight and The Hobbit were guilty of this crime. The effect was extremely noticeable in the stretched-out Hobbit, which had to inject a boring made-up villain in an attempt to keep audiences focused. We'll see this happen again in 2014 when Mockingjay, the final book in The Hunger Games series, gets the two-movie treatment.

Speaking of The Hobbit, it introduced us to 48 frames-per-second projection. This development became one of the big controversies of the year. Director Peter Jackson swears by its ultra-high fidelity image that eradicates motion blur, but many critics called the effect jarring and likened it to a BBC sitcom television broadcast. The next two Hobbit movies will also screen at 48 FPS, and James Cameron is reportedly thinking about filming his two planned Avatar sequels at a whopping 60 FPS.

What really made 2012 stand out to me was none of this big-picture stuff, though. It was the smaller, unexpected films that really packed a wallop. Who could have anticipated that Joe Carnahan's The Grey would be so emotionally powerful? Who would have that David O. Russell could make a touching romantic comedy staring mentally troubled lovers? Who guessed that Rian Johnson's incredible Looper script would make us forget all our cynical nitpickings over time travel paradoxes? Who knew what a beautiful mess the Wachowski's Cloud Atlas would be? It is precisely those wonderful surprises that made this such a wonderful year in cinema.

As always, I am only considering films that I have seen. That means touted films like Amour and The Master aren't candidates for my top 5, just as The Three Stooges and The Paperboy are (thankfully) ineligible for Worst of the Year.

Top 5 Films

1. Looper - I love stories that are about more than they appear. Those who dislike science fiction will avoid Looper, but they're making a terrible mistake because Looper is very much a human story. It's a story about the redemptive power of love and the necessity of giving our children a fair chance to discover themselves, even if what they discover may horrify us. It's exciting, it's visually impressive, and it's one of the most moving films I have seen in a long time. This is one that will stick with me.
2. Silver Linings Playbook - A close second for Movie of the Year, Silver Linings Playbook was one of several outstanding films released this year that showed people triumphing over seemingly insurmountable physical or psychological challenges to find love (other examples include The Intouchables and The Sessions). Cooper and Lawrence are both brilliant actors whose sometimes heartbreaking romantic path to an unlikely but uplifting conclusion leaves you feeling that if they can overcome, so can you. It also features Robert De Niro's best performance in memory.
3. The Grey - What a disservice its January release date and its misleading trailer did this movie! Many of those who could braved the cold to catch The Grey in theaters came away disappointed because they were expecting to see Liam Neeson beat up wolves. That might have been a fun movie, but The Grey is so much more than that. It's a brutal, hurtful journey for men who, barring an act of God, are destined to die unmarked and alone in the unforgiving wilderness of Alaska. But perhaps they find something out about themselves that makes all the misery worthwhile, and maybe we learn a little about ourselves in the process.
4. Cloud Atlas - Cloud Atlas was the year's most polarizing film, landing at the top of both Best and Worst of the Year lists. I'm here to tell you that it deserves the salutes, not the scorn. Haters took issue with the complicated narrative structure that weaved back and forth through six time storylines, the makeup jobs intended to all six actors to play a multitude of different characters, and the "hokey" message that we are all interconnected. But where the haters find the complexity frustrating, I find it fascinating. Where they find the makeup off-putting, I see actors rising to a challenge. And maybe we can do with some more "hokey" messages if it allows us to leave the theater feeling a little more optimistic about the human condition.
5. Headhunters - This one snuck up on me, maybe because it started so slowly. But then the action began ramping up, the jokes started clicking, and then BOOM!, we're hit with a great surprise ending that twists expectations. I left the theater thinking "B." By the time I got home, I was up to "B+." Later, I bumped it again to "A-." I had to check myself from giving it a full "A." If you have the patience to weather the slow start, this is one nifty little flick.

Worst of the Year (UPDATED) - Battleship. Say hello to the new worst movie of the year (and the most gratuitous usage of lens flares in 2012, too). Very much like Transformers, this is all loud, clanking metal noises, people staring at green screens, fetishizing of women, faux patriotism, and nary a brain to be found. Things just happen because the plot requires it. How does a 26-year-old slacker suddenly become a high-ranking Navy officer? (By the way, Battleship teaches that Navy life sure is sweet; all soccer games, neat-pressed uniforms, and none of that hard work I always heard about.) Why do the alien ships allow a Navy battleship to survive after it has already demonstrated that destroying Navy ships is as easy as dropping pegs onto them? (Seriously, pegs?) Where does the cowardly scientist who abandons his friends suddenly get the sack to attack an alien about to kill said friends? (I think he teleported in just for the occasion.) What a disgusting mess. This is why I loathe summer blockbusters. I hope the career of whomever green-lighted this turd is permanently sunk.

• (PREVIOUSLY) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Abe fended off a stalwart challenge from Snow White and the Huntsman, which I had the misfortune of seeing just one week earlier. I have to give the edge to Abe, though, for ruining a surprisingly enjoyable book, for its borderline offensive pandering to African Americans, and for it's sheer audacity in believing that a scene involving a silly villain tossing a badly rendered CGI horse at Abraham Lincoln was something we wanted to see. Seriously, if you're not going to follow the book, why do you even option it for a movie? What, to get the rights to that wicked awesome title? It freaking screams, "This movie is stupid!" Not loudly enough, though: Somehow, this turd earned $114,389,927 worldwide. I'd call that emancipation for idiocy.

Most Disappointing of the Year - Prometheus. A lot of people are probably going to put The Hobbit here and that film is certainly a worthy choice, but I had plenty of time to soak up the negative vibes from the "we're splitting this up into three movies" announcement and the terrible reaction to the early 48 FPS footage screening. So I have to turn to the... is it a prequel? An alternate history? Never mind... the long-awaited follow-up to two of my favorite movies of all time, Alien and Aliens. Yes, I know there were already two sequels and the Aliens Vs. Predator spinoffs. Like I said... the long-awaited follow-up. And with Sir Ridley Scott, the man who directed the original, back at the helm! And Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace! And a script by the guy who created Lost! Maybe that last part is where things went wrong. Lost was famous for failing to answer question or pick up threads, and Prometheus frustratingly follows the same pattern. It's an exquisitely gorgeous film and I appreciate the heady themes, but I cannot give it credit for failing to explore the questions it poses, and I cannot forgive it for giving us some of the stupidest space-travelers of all time. (Tip to Charlize Theron: Make a 90° turn and keep running!)

Kicking Butt Old-School Style - The Raid: Redemption. It absolutely killed me that The Raid just missed my top 5, so I'm giving it the Spotlight Award. This old-school butt-kicker deserves the recognition. After years of being fed pansy action heroes, The Raid represented a return to 80s-style action, where men wielded swagger as a lethal weapon (pun intended). There's a plot here somewhere, but that's not what you came for. You came for that scene where the SWAT team is ambushed in the stairwell. If you saw the movie, I need say no more. That scene was an announcement: This movie ain't [expletive deleted] around. With notice duly served, you another 70 minutes or so of some of the best action you've seen since the time of larger-than-life action figures like John McClaine, John Matrix, John Rambo... really, pretty much anyone named John kicked butt in the 80s. Except me, of course... I blame a lack of confidence brought on by my ridiculous braces. But never mind me: Go see The Raid. It's awesome.