Random Movie Lists: Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

I've been meaning to blog about my most anticipated movies of the year for a couple months now, but I haven't gotten around to it.  I suppose it's a bit odd to unveil such a list when we're more than a third of the way through the year, but luckily, none of the movies on my list have been released yet.  But, that all changes tomorrow.  So, here we have it, my Top 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012:

On Second Thought: The Proposition (2006)

Since it's been a while since I laid out my vision for this blog, I'll refresh everyone's memory.  In posts filed under "On Second Thought," I've planned to re-watch a movie I haven't seen in some time and reflect on whether it's improved with age.  For the inaugural "On Second Thought" post, I've chosen The Proposition, the 2006 hyper-violent Australian western directed by John Hillcoat.

I know, I know, this is a random choice and most of you probably don't even remember hearing about this movie.  I'll try to pick more widely seen movies in the future.

I saw The Proposition only once.  I actually remember a surprising number of details about the day I went to see the movie in the theater way back in the spring of 2006.  But, when I re-watched it last month, I realized that I'd basically forgotten the entire plot.  I remembered the movie as being extremely and brutally violent and a slow-burn thematic movie that succeeded more in terms of tone and mood than anything else.  On that count, my memory wasn't far off.

In Theaters: The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2

Over the last decade or so, the entire movie movie business has been cannibalizing itself.  The market is saturated with sequels, remakes, and adaptations of TV shows that no one on the planet was asking for.  In fact, there's a movie coming out later this month that's based on a board game...a freaking board game!

Basically, Hollywood has become so risk-averse that they're unwilling to invest any kind of money in something that doesn't have built-in audience familiarity.  And, as a result, we're seeing a huge decline in the overall quality of the movie marketplace, the Harry Potter movies notwithstanding.

This trend has been particularly hard on horror movies because, let's face it, there weren't a ton of good horror movies being made to begin with.  By and large, horror movies are cheaper to make than other genres with mass appeal.  Couple their low cost with a reliable audience of idiotic teenagers and adults who act like idiotic teenagers, and it's easy to see why there's a tidy profit to be made in the horror movie business.

In Theaters: John Carter **

Let me get something out of the way.  I wanted to like this movie.  When the trailers started coming out and people were expressing skepticism, I assured them that John Carter was going to be awesome.  And, when the stories about the film's enormous budget started leaking out of the studio, I kept saying "Don't worry...they said the same thing about Titanic."  No matter how weird or unfamiliar it all seemed, John Carter was a sure thing in my mind.

I can explain my previous naivete in two words:  Andrew Stanton.

This guy is one of the most successful and brilliant minds in the movie business.  He's one of the main writers and directors at Pixar, meaning that, at least at one point, he had a pact with Satan that ensured every thing he touched was creative and commercial gold.  He was a writer on the Toy Story movies and the last two movies he directed were Finding Nemo and Wall-E,  two immortal classics.  Yet, when Disney gave him the reins on a live action would-be blockbuster, he choked.

In Theaters: Jeff Who Lives at Home ***1/2

There are a lot of movies about goofballs, weirdos, and sad-sacks that are content to simply make fun of their characters for two hours.  Those movies [ahem...Napoleon Dynamite...ahem] are the product of lazy filmmakers and, after the initial look-at-these-idiots humor wears off, most of these movies die ignominious deaths.


Jeff Who Lives at Home is not one of these movies.

On HBO: Game Change ***

Let's get this out of the way...I love HBO.  I know it's trendy to say so, but, in terms of original television programming, no one holds a candle to them.  So, a year or so ago, when I read that they were going to be adapting Game Change, the widely heralded account of the 2008 Presidential Election, I was, to say the least, very intrigued.

Then came the news that they were skipping the vast majority of the book, which focused almost entirely on the race between then-Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.  The section on internal squabbles in the McCain-Palin campaign is, as I understand it (I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't read the book), more or less an afterthought.  I was a little surprised that they would go this route, not because HBO is known for being politically balanced, but because the McCain-Palin issues seemed far less interesting.

In Theaters: The Hunger Games ***

So, yeah...I'm writing this review well after virtually everyone on the planet has seen, talked about, and dissected The Hunger Games, when it will serve no useful purpose other than to satisfy my ego-driven desire to put all my opinions into print.

My bad.