The Blu-ray.com Community Top 20 Films of 2012 (Please Read First Post)

[djgeneral]

Seven Psychopaths is probably my #1 film at the moment. Still a lot of big films to see. ParaNorman would also be quite high on my list.

[CoolRanch]

1. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Life of Pi
3. The Grey
4. Les Misérables
5. Argo
6. Prometheus
7. The Avengers
8. Lincoln
9. The Expendables 2
10. The Hunger Games
11. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
12. Beasts of the Southern Wild
13. Skyfall
14. The Cabin in the Woods
15. Chronicle
16. Lockout
17. The Bourne Legacy
18. Brave
19. Dredd
20. Zero Dark Thirty

[Evra]

The Dark Knight Rises
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Skyfall
This Is 40
Ted

Trouble with the Curve
Prometheus
The Amazing SpiderMan
The Hunger Games
Les Miserables

ParaNorman
Premium Rush
21 Jump Street
Pitch Perfect
The Five Year Engagement

The Avengers
Looper
Chronicle
Dredd
Brave

I haven't seen a lot of films but that's my list as of now.

[Lehnhart]

This list are the first films that popped in my head that I enjoyed so far this year. Top 4 are concrete, the rest I tried my best to sort them because I liked most of them equally.

1 The Amazing Spider-Man
2 The Avengers
3 21 Jump Street
4 Argo
5 Rise of the Guardians
6 Skyfall
7 The Grey
8 Chronicle
9 Lawless
10 The Dark Knight Rises
11 End of Watch
12 Taken 2
13 Ted
14 Bourne Legacy

[Dispatch Ninja]

1 - silver linings playbook
2 - skyfall
3 - django unchained
4 - looper
5 - the hobbit: an unexpected journey
6 - seven psychopaths
7 - perks of being a wallflower
8 - moonrise kingdom
9 - beasts of the southern wild
10 - dredd
11 - the dark knight rises
12 - cabin in the woods
13 - the raid
14 - lawless
15 - the amazing spider man
16 - killer joe
17 - flight
18 - prometheus
19 - the hunger games
20 - end of watch

[SSGT_BOND]

1. The Dark Knight Rises
2. Prometheus
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. Skyfall
5. Looper
6. Django Unchained
7. Lincoln
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. Silver Linings Playbook
10. The Avengers
11. Cabin In the Woods
12. End of Watch
13. ParaNorman
14. The Master
15. Dredd
16. Argo
17. Killing Them Softly
18. The Bourne Legacy
19. Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai
20. The Grey

[MarkJ801]

Originally Posted by Lehnhart

Top 2 are concrete, the rest are really no particular order. Too hard to sort them all. I liked most of them equally.

1 The Amazing Spider-Man
2 The Avengers
3 21 Jump Street
4 Rise of the Guardians
5 Skyfall
6 Ted
7 The Grey
8 Taken 2
9 Bourne Legacy
10 Chronicle
12 Lawless

If you keep them in that order, that's the way they will get the points. So having it in no particular order doesn't really work.

[cinemaphile]

As it currently stands:

1. Avengers
2. Les Miserables
3. Cabin in the Woods
4. Paranorman
5. Hotel Transylvania
6. Jack Reacher
7. Safe
8. The Raid
9. Skyfall
10. People Like Us
11. Amazing Spider-Man
12. Looper
13. Lincoln
14. Project X
15. Total Recall
16. 21 Jump Street
17. This is 40
18. Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted
19. Bourne Legacy
20. Snow White & the Huntsman

Potential/Probable Top 20 films still to see:
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained
Silver Linings Playbook

[L-Rouge]

mate I think I have only seen ten movies this year

but they have been enjoyable outings, and grateful

1 Hunger Games
2 Dark Knight Rises
3 The Hobbit
4 Skyfall
5 Avengers
6 Titanic
7 Total Recall
8 Battleship
9 Ice Age

[CZAR]

1. The Avengers
2. The Cabin in the Woods
3. The Dark Knight Rises
4. The Hunger Games
5. Safe House
6. The Grey
7. The Amazing Spider-Man
8. 21 Jump Street
9. American Reunion
10. The Woman in Black
11. Project X
12. Chronicle
13. Red Tails
14. The Vow
15. The Innkeepers
16. Gone
17. Contraband
18. Man on a Ledge
19. Snow White and the Huntsman
20. Think Like a Man


I will update my list as I continue to watch more films. I still need to see the films below. Got Em!!

[Show spoiler]Need To Watch
Lockout
Prometheus
Ted
Savages
Premium Rush
Lawless
The Tall Man
The Master
End of Watch
Looper
Argo
Seven Psychopaths
Cloud Atlas
Flight
Wreck-It Ralph
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
Rise of the Guardians
Killing Them Softly
Zero Dark Thirty
Django Unchained

[Jumpman]

Well, with Zero Dark Thirty the only film left I need to see for 2012, here's the list as it stands now:

Top Films of 2012

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
The Dark Knight Rises
Lincoln
The Grey
The Hunger Games
Side by Side
Haywire/Magic Mike
This Is 40
Pitch Perfect

Honorable Mentions 2012

Skyfall
Return
Detachment
The Cabin in the Woods (mainly for the screenplay)
Snow White & the Huntsman
HBO’s Game Change

[Cabby]

1. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
2. Silver Linings Playbook
3. The Cabin in the Woods
4.The Dark Knight Rises
5. Django Unchained
6. Looper
7. Moonrise Kingdom
8. The Avengers
9. Skyfall
10. Argo
11. 21 Jump Street
12. The Master
13. Safety Not Guranteed
14. Jeff, Who Lives At Home
15. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
17. Lincoln
18. The Hunger Games
19. Your Sister's Sister
20. The Five Year Engagement

[Buzz201]

I've only seen 13 films this year, so my countdown is perhaps a bit different to everyone else's. I've included a sentence or so giving my opinions on each one.
01. Looper
Brilliantly fun sci-fi with some brilliant acting from Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt.
02. Safety Not Guaranteed
Enjoyable sci-fi romcom, could do with more jokes, but Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass shine in their roles.
03. Goon
Surprising violent hockey comedy, which is unusually sweet.
04. Skyfall
Good fun blockbuster. Daniel Craig does a brilliant job of playing Bond, and we finally get to see more of Judy Dench's Bond.
05. The Dark Knight Rises
Brilliant end to a brilliant franchise. Perhaps too predictable and safe, probably the worst in the trilogy, but this just goes to show how good trilogy is.
06. Chronicle
Brilliant anti-hero film with a surprising relateable villain. Could've done with a longer running time, and a few more action scenes. The found footage element didn't annoy me, but I can understand why it did a few other people.
07. Jeff, Who Lives At Home
Surprisingly sweet comedy drama in which Jason Segel stalks a LOT of people, Jason Segel and Ed Helms prove that they are better actors than you first thought. Needs more jokes however.
08. 21 Jump Street
Brilliantly funny college comedy. Channing Tatum proves he can do comedy, and Ice Cube provides a few hilarious self-referential jokes.
09. The Amazing Spider-man
Mark Webb does a surprisingly good retelling of Spider-man, but we've all seen it before in the Rami films.
10. Ted
Seth MacFarlane delivers a brilliantly funny crude comedy, of which Mark Wahlberg is clearly the star. However, it very quickly descends into pointless celebrity cameos and is let down by a rushed climactic plot point (The

[Show spoiler]kidnapping

one).
11. Ice Age 4: Continental Drift
Not the best children's film I've ever seen, but not the worst. Enjoyable but needs more gags.
12. The Woman In Black
Not scary at all but a nice way to spend 90 minutes or so.
13. The Avengers
Biggest disappointment of the year. Every single superhero/spy shown (with the exception of the Hulk) is incredibly annoying and smug, half way through you're expected to care about the death of a character who's had less than 5 minutes screen time. Every third line is a zinger, this became grating after a while since only three were actually funny.

Things I still have to see: Argo, Beasts of The Southern Wild, Cloud Atlas*, Django Unchained*, The Hunger Games, Liberal Arts, Life of Pi, ParaNorman, The Perks of Being A Wallflower, Prometheus, Silver Linings Playbook, This Is 40*, Wreck-It-Ralph*

*doesn't get a UK release till next year

[SleeperAgent]

1. Skyfall
2. Dark Knight Rises
3. Looper
4. Brave
5. Prometheus
6. The Hunger Games
7. Total Recall
8. The Hobbit
9. Cabin in the Woods
10. Dredd
11. The Avengers
12. Safe House
13. The Grey

[jvince]

TOP 20 FILMS OF 2012

1. Moonrise Kingdom
2. Searching for Sugar Man
3. Django Unchained
4. Argo
5. The Imposter
6. Looper
7. Ruby Sparks
8. The Cabin in the Woods
9. Sleepwalk with Me
10. Seven Psychopaths

11. The Secret World of Arrietty
12. Klown
13. The Avengers
14. Wreck-It Ralph
15. Samsara
16. The Grey
17. Silver Linings Playbook
18. Safety Not Guaranteed
19. The Impossible
20. Hitchcock

[chris_sc77]

1 - Django unchained
2 - Cloud Atlas
3 - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4 - the dark knight rises
5 - The Flowers of War
6 - Perfect Sense
7 - God Bless America
8. Game Change
9 - The Avengers
10 - looper
11 -the raid
12 - Savages
13 - cabin in the woods
14 - seeking a friend for the end of the world
15 - the five year engagement
16 - Prometheus
17 - Wanderlust
18 - The Grey
19 - moonrise kingdom
20 - killer Joe

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by Foggy

I was actually about to make this thread on New Years Day, but you've beat me to the punch

Suggestion: Can we write a little paragraph about the films place on the list and if enough people do it add them on the results to give the list a little weight so if someone catches a film they haven't seen or heard of, it'll give them a little idea of the film.

Anyway, my list, which I'll make look fancy later:

1) Skyfall
2) The Master
3) The Cabin in the Woods
4) Looper
5) Seven Psychopaths
6) Argo
7) Beasts of the Southern Wild
8) Moonrise Kingdom
9) The Avengers
10) The Raid: Redemption
11) Killing Them Softly
12) The Perks of Being a Wallflower
13) The Dark Knight Rises
14) Silver Linings Playbook
15) Kill List
16) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
17) Chronicle
18) Ted
19) Iron Sky
20) Prometheus

Films I'm planning to check out before I finish my list:

Django Unchained
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Cloud Atlas
Wreck-It Ralph
Killer Joe
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Safety Not Guaranteed
Ruby Sparks
ParaNorman

Finished Format (Not Finished List)

#1 Skyfall
Directed by Sam Mendes
Written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and John Logan
Starring Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem
Synopsis: Bond's loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her, bringing MI6 under attack.



My Thought:

[Show spoiler]Bond is one of the main reasons I love films, when I was a kid I used to watch them all when they were on TV, a few years ago I lost all interest in the James Bond films. Sure, I watched Casino and Quantum but the care wasn't there. Skyfall reminded me of why James Bond captivated me so much, while also catering towards what I like to see in films nowadays, playing with ideas about the need for intelligence agencies and struggling to keep up with the spinning world of technology, while delivering a classy action thriller fixed with great practical work, stunning cinematography by Roger Deakins and fantastic acting. Only downside are the few lousy moments of green screen and CGI work.

#2 The Master

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams
Synopsis: A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by The Cause and its charismatic leader.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]The Master, like its main characters alcoholic mixtures, is richly dense in mystery and enigma. While this might be annoying to some, I think The Master could be looked at in the future as a film in front of it's time. It's definitely a film that demands re-watching, and a film I'd be happy to revisit time after time as the film seems like it'll shape very differently every time I'll view it. The acting is superb, from the pitiful Phoenix and the charismatic Seymour Hoffman, both playing characters that are worlds apart yet connected by curiosity and loss. A truly hypnotic film

#3 The Cabin in the Woods
Directed by Drew Goddard
Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard
Starring Kristen Connolly, Chris Hemsworth and Anna Hutchison
Synopsis: Five friends go for a break at a remote cabin in the woods, where they get more than they bargained for. Together, they must discover the truth behind the cabin in the woods.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]A hell of a good ride, I know all too many people who dislike this film because it's too weird, which is strange considering all the horror film-lore going around, the one that is poking fun at horror films is considered to be too much. I think a better word for Cabin in the Woods is unique and utterly fun, the most fun I've had at the multiplex all year in fact!

#4 Looper
Directed by Rian Johnson
Written by Rian Johnson
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt
Synopsis: In 2074, when the mob wants to get rid of someone, the target is sent 30 years into the past, where a hired gun awaits. Someone like Joe, who one day learns the mob wants to 'close the loop' by transporting back Joe's future self.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Looper is a film that has a hurricane of great ideas, styles and themes spinning around, often unpredictable, fast paced and well written, Looper is a science-fiction classic waiting in the isles, if only its ending was strong enough.

#5 Amour
Directed by Michael Haneke
Written by Michael Haneke
Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert
Synopsis: Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested.



My Thought:

[Show spoiler]Slice of grim and crushing filmmaking. The opening shot of the film reflects a mirror image of a cinema auditorium homing in on the fact that this is an important film to you, you need to take notice. The acting is spot on, the direction is soothing and the film sweeps you up with ease without being over the top flashy. And it really allows you to make up your own opinions.

#6 Seven Psychopaths
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Written by Martin McDonagh
Starring Colin Farrell, Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell
Synopsis: A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]My guiltiest pleasure of the year, not at all subtle, not really all that clever. It's really just a mismatch of imaginative ideas spun into an overly self-reflective script, but yet it all works and end up being really rather quite funny in the end. Never so stupid it's insulting but never so impactful it's considered art, Seven Psychopaths just gets a nice entertaining balance.

#7 Argo
Directed by Ben Affleck
Written by Chris Terrio
Starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston and John Goodman
Synopsis: A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Complete intense, almost so perfect it's too perfect film, hits every beat correctly, tells a phenomenal story along with having great writing and direction that completely sucks you in. Probably the big crowd pleasing film is the most likely to deserve the Best Picture in the end.

#8 Beasts of the Southern Wild
Directed by Benh Zeitlin
Written by Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar
Starring Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry and Levy Easterly
Synopsis: Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Such a wonderful film, I'm so gutted I'm unable to find it anywhere on blu-ray to watch. Quvenzhané Wallis is completely brilliant and conducts the screen so well, worked on my emotions like no other film has this year.

#9 Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Written by Quentin Tarantio
Starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio
Synopsis: With the help of a German bounty hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal Mississippi plantation owner.



My Opinion:

[Show spoiler]The obligatory Tarantino entry, like Inglorious Basterds before it, I left a little underwhelmed (although obviously really enjoying it in the end of course) but the more it lingered the more it wormed itself into my mind and now I find myself gagging for a rewatch. Many great scenes in this one and in some parts Tarantio's best work, but it's just too long and unfocused to reach the top of the list.

#10 Moonrise Kingdom
Directed by Wes Anderson
Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Starring Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward and Bruce Willis
Synopsis: A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Again, another film that left me underwhelmed on first watch, but unlike Django, I have gotten around to rewatching this one quite a few times now and it really does work completely on me now. Moonrise has such an whimsical atmosphere around it that it's too hard not to fall in love with its charm, it also helps that the film is funny as hell as well.

#11 Wreck It-Ralph
Directed by Rich Moore
Written by Rich Moore, Phil Johnston, Jim Reardon and Jennifer Lee
Starring John C. Reiley, Sarah Silverman and Jack McBrayer
Synopsis: A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.



My Opinion:

[Show spoiler]Wreck-It Ralph was a film I was expecting to like, but not love. And it's a film that not original and takes a lot of ideas from other great animation classics. But I was shocked by all the right notes that Wreck-It was hitting, it made me laugh (a lot), it got me very attached to the characters and to the dilemmas they were stuck in and had a little bit of maturity lying underneath as well a a lot of sweetness. It simply just clicked.

#12 The Avengers
Directed by Joss Wedon
Written by Joss Wedon and Zak Penn
Starring Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson
Synopsis: Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki and his army.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]The first big big Blockbuster on the list, some people hate it, a lot really love it, I just like it. It shows how escapist, mindless fun doesn't need to be nonsensical, and shows that work does need to be put into these sorts of film. The dynamic characters, the set pieces, the unpredictable gags. It's not a classic like many proclaim, but it is a rejuvination into the new era of production line special effect driven films with no soul.

#13 The Raid: Redemption
Directed by Gareth Evans
Written by Gareth Evans
Starring Iko Uwais, Ananda George and Ray Sahetapy
Synopsis: A SWAT team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Abosolutly brutally in every way. Simply put The Raid has to be seen to be believed.

#14 Zero Dark Thirty
Directed by Kathryn Bigelow
Written by Mark Boal
Starring Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt
Synopsis: A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L. Team 6 in May 2011.



My Opinion:

[Show spoiler]When I walked into this film, I was thinking I was going to be bored by it really. But I was compelled beyond belief, what's real? what's fake? who cares, this is great filmmaking in note book form, efficient, gripping and all too relatable.

#15 Killing Them Softly
Directed by Andrew Dominik
Written by Andrew Dominik
Starring Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins
Synopsis: Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]You know, I'm shocked about the negativity going around this flick, ok it's not very subtle and not very focused, but the film is very gritty and often daily satirical, and it usually works in a very unnerving fashion.

#16 The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Directed by Stephen Chbosky
Written by Stephen Chbosky
Starring Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller
Synopsis: An introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors who welcome him to the real world.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Another crowd pleaser, Perks of Being a Wallflower really connected to me, it's sweet, charming and quite emotionally charged, and again, another one I'm struggling to find on sale in stores on blu-ray.

#17 The Dark Knight Rises
Directed by Christopher Nolan
Written by Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan and David S. Goyer
Starring Christian Bale, Tom Hardy and Anne Hathaway
Synopsis: Eight years on, a new terrorist leader, Bane, overwhelms Gotham's finest, and the Dark Knight resurfaces to protect a city that has branded him an enemy.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Came out of The Dark Knight Rises (and my first IMAX experience) quite disappointed, you do have to admire the sense of scope and scale Nolan was going for in his final film in the trilogy but in the end the story struggles with the weight, but once you've gotten over those plot issues, the film works in such a thematical sense that the final Batman film really does work next to the previous two, despite it's initial flaws.

#18 Silver Linings Playbook
Directed by David O' Russell
Written by David O' Russell
Starring Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert De Niro
Synopsis: After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]David O Russell's play on the typical rom-com is an easy one to dismiss because of its conventional setting, but in the end, the film has a lot more going on than just that, it often has a slightly grizzlier sense of humour and has some darker tones to play, along with some great acting. Although I'm with a lot of others and don't see this as Best Picture material.

#19 Kill List
Directed by Ben Wheatley
Written by Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump
Starring Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring and Harry Simpson
Synopsis: Nearly a year after a botched job, a hitman takes a new assignment with the promise of a big payoff for three killings. What starts off as an easy task soon unravels, sending the killer into the heart of darkness.



My Thoughts:

[Show spoiler]Probably the most underseen film on my list, Kill List is as grizzly as they come, twisting genre as its twisted nature implies, every second of Kill List builds your nerves up into a crescendo of shivers none stop until the final second, truly uncomfortable viewing.

#20 Chronicle
Directed by Josh Trank
Written by Max Landis and Josh Trank
Starring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan
Synopsis: Whilst attending a party, three high school friends gain superpowers after making an incredible discovery underground. Soon, though, they find their lives spinning out of control and their bond tested as they embrace their darker sides.



My Opinion:

[Show spoiler]Finally, Chronicle is simply a very efficient blockbuster, both on budget and storytelling, keeping it quite low scale and never out staying its welcome. Chronicle sits you down for a lean mean 90 mins and leaving you completely satisfied and yet wanting more. If The Avengers is the way to do the big budget production line films, then Chronicle is the way we should do normal risky films.

[Hucksta G]

My list should be complete by Feb 14th and I will update when any film enters the list, but as of now, out of the 63 films I have seen from this year....

1. The Master
2. Zero Dark Thirty
3. Django Unchained
4. West of Memphis
5. Seven Psycopaths
6. Killing Them Softly
7. Beasts of the Southern Wild
8. Searching for Sugar Man
9. Argo
10. Looper
11. The Hunt
12. The Intouchables
13. Ted
14. The Dark Knight Rises
15. Life of Pi
16. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
17. The Grey
18. Skyfall
19. Amour
20. The Perks of Being A Wallflower

[MarkJ801]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Suggestion: Can we write a little paragraph about the films place on the list and if enough people do it add them on the results to give the list a little weight so if someone catches a film they haven't seen or heard of, it'll give them a little idea of the film.

Yeah, that's a great idea. If people want to do that I will definitely add it with the results!

[Hucksta G]

As anal as it sounds maybe it would be a good idea to make a rule where people can't comment on other people's lists?