2012 in film was all over the place.  Films we wanted to love left us heartbroken and films we wanted nothing to do with ended up holding a spot in our hearts.  I hate to say it was a disappointing year for film, but that seems to be the word that keeps popping into our heads.  There were bright spots though – Paul Thomas Anderson made another masterpiece, foreign directors continued to challenge Hollywood style and content, and William Friedkin (The Exorcist) exploded back onto the radar. With the amazing slate of films lined up for 2013 we may eventually look back at 2012 as the calm before the storm, but as we take shelter inside our boats and sail into that storm, these are the films we’re bringing with us.

The list is presented in alphabetical order. Read More…

June is here, which means so is my birthday, and as a birthday gift to myself I’m going to make another list.  Hooray for lists!  June also means that we are half-way through another year and that it’s time to reflect on the massive amount of new releases that I’ve already seen.  With still a dozen or so highly anticipated releases to come, I’m pretty sure that my year-end list will look vastly different from this one.

Check out my top 10 movies from the first half of the year after the jump Read More…

Well, folks, it’s about that time again.  The new year has come, and it is up to us to tell you what the best movies were last year because, let’s face it, we’d hate to force you to think for yourself.  We tried to do this as objectively as we possibly could, and, in using the scientific method, employed such tools as our trusty alembic, abacus, and many systems of levers and pulleys to finally arrive at the definite conclusions presented below. Make sure to comment and let us know what you think!

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This Thanksgiving when you’re sitting around the dinner table slowly working your way into a food coma of turkey and wine take a moment to give thanks to all the great cinematic food-eating scenes that cinema has given us over the years.  Need help, check out these 10 great face stuffing scenes. Read More…

Well, as one might say, film techniques may become dated, but their messages do not.

1957 was a year perhaps un-extraordinary in most categories.  In the US, Eisenhower was president, the Cold War was slowly escalating, and Leave it To Beaver aired on television depicting the ideal life of the average American.  The Hollywood Production code, too, was in full force to restrict would-be auteurs from creating their finest.  Playwrights were able to avoid such strict censorship, as seen in Eugene O’Neil’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”, published in ‘56 and winning the Pulitzer in ‘57.

However, around the world, filmmakers were pumping out soon-to-be classics, and thereby pushing the limits of film.

Here is a short list of some of the masterpieces that saw their advent that year. Read More…

1991 saw Leonardo DiCaprio make his film debut in Critters 3, while fellow film rookie, Edward Furlong was being catapulted into super stardom for his role in Terminator 2.  Who would have thought then that Furlong would be destined for a career in staright-to-DVD and Lifetime movies while DiCaprio… well, we all know what happened to his career.  So too did a 15-year-old Mila Jovovich make her debut on the screen with the horrid Return To The Blue Lagoon.  But both Mila and Leo weren’t the only ones to take part in terrible sequels that year.  In fact aside from T2, 1991 was littered with throwaway franchise cash grabs.

The top 10 films, worst sequels, and more from 1991 can all be found after the jump Read More…

“Once upon a time” is a staple of story beginnings.  This is a list of the best films with “Once upon a time” in the title.  Now, there aren’t that many films that fall into that category, but the movies that do share a two common traits: quality and length.  Out of all the films I watched while making this list I didn’t see a single bad one and some of the movies that I was seeing for the first time completely blew me away.  The length of the films is another thing that sets them apart from you average movie.  The average runtime of the films on the list  is an epic three hours and six minutes long.  So here’s my advice for you, if you have three hours to kill and you want to see a masterpiece, pick a film off this list and watch it. Read More…