Palooza's Top 125 Films of 2012

[Cornelius]

I'll only watch Magic Mike if Kevin Nash shows his titties/no homo

[Palooza]

45 . Kill List

Neil Maskell, MyAnna Buring, Harry Simpson, Michael Smiley, Emma Fryer, Ben Crompton, Struan Rodger

Director(s) - Ben Wheatley
Writer(s) - Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - Unrated
Release Date - February 3 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 35 minutes
RT Score - 76%
Metacritic - 67/100
Views - 1
Viewed - torrent
Quote - "It doesn’t feel wrong. They’re bad people. They should suffer."
Review - You can't really discuss this movie without spoiling it, so I won't, because this movie is worth a watch for sure. It's basically these two former British military dudes are now hitmen and after an ambiguous "Kiev job" that went south, they accept a blind assignment from some powerful dudes. Mayhem ensues. It is a film in 3 parts, 3 different genres essentially. The film starts off as a drama about a struggling marriage then we jump into the assignment and we fade into the psychological thriller and at the films conclusion we are at full horror mode. Add in a pretty fucking crazy WTF moment to end the film and you've got yourself a pretty fucking solid movie. Excellent acting from everyone included especially the main guy (Neil Maskell), his partner (Michael Smiley), and his wife (MyAnna Burning). It's a really creepy WTF movie that blends three genres, not perfectly but well enough. I liked it!
Rating - B-

[Palooza]

44 . Bernie

Jack Black, Shirley McClaine, Matthew McConaughey

Director(s) - Richard Linklater
Writer(s) - Richard Linklater, Skip Hollandsworth
Source Material/Connections - based on the Texas Monthly article "Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas" by Skip Hollandsworth
MPAA Rating - PG-13
Release Date - April 27 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 44 minutes
RT Score - 91%
Metacritic - 75/100
Views - 1
Viewed - netflix?
Quote - "Frozen like a popsicle."
Review - Richard Linklater and Jack Black hit it big together back in 2003 with School of Rock. Almost 10 years later, we have a completely different movie written and directed by Linklater, but we have Black's best performance and movie since School of Rock. Here we have a brilliantly acted and directed film about a small Texas town and the people who live there. Shot in a pseudo-documentary style where real members of the town give their testimony about the events that unfolded in Carthage between kind hearted funeral director, Bernie (Jack Black) and evil cunt millionaire Marjorie Nugent (Shirley McClaine) after the two take a liking to one another. I hate to spoil the movie the ONE event that happens a little more than halfway through the movie but it's what DRIVES this movie. Every plot description makes mention of it, so I'm just gunna get it out there. So, you've been warned. After the two start to get cozy, the cuntiness of Majorie becomes too much for Bernie to handle and after getting more and more abuse as his kindness is taken advantage of over and over, he snaps and shoots Marjorie in the back a bunch of times. A moment of temporary insanity for the highly respected community member and you've now got yourself a murder. This is where McConaughey comes in with yet another perfect role as the local DA. Bernie keeps up Marjorie's lifestyle for months, convincing the townsfolk that she was just back to her reclusive ways. The community loves Bernie and can't stand Marjorie, so even through Bernie's confession and pleas of temporary insanity, the towsfolk still don't believe he is capable of such a thing. It's a brilliant portrait of small town living and people. McConaughey's character actually has to get the trial moved to a different town because he knows they won't convict the sweet, well-natured Bernie. Jack Black gives what is by far his best performance yet, which just goes to show you that comedians ARE GREAT ACTORS they just need the right people around them and the perfect damaged character to fit their comedic style. The film is brilliantly directed by Linklater who has something going with Black he should keep up. McClaine and McConaughey are the only two other actual actors in the film and they do a great job with what they are given. The lighthearted nature of the film is actually really well done with a subject such as this, all credit here is given to Linklater. Kudos.
Rating - B-

[dell71]

Love Lawless. Kill List is damn weird, hard movie to grade. Certainly, it has the most WTF ending all year.

[Palooza]

I'm interested in knowing if you've seen the next few movies I have rolling out. Stay tuned, dell.

edit - by few I mean 2

[Palooza]

43 . Compliance

Ann Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, James McCaffrey, Ashlie Atkinson

Director(s) - Craig Zobel
Writer(s) - Craig Zobel
Source Material/Connections - based on a true story
MPAA Rating - R
Release Date - August 17 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 89%
Metacritic - 68/100
Views - 1
Viewed - torrent
Quote - "I'll do... everything that you need."
Review - This movie is fucked up. That's all there is to it. The worst part is that it is based on a true story and it barely needs to dramatize any parts of the real story, which is a huge plus. If you've never heard of the story, I will explain it in a bit and you must keep in mind that it is REAL. This really happened. I need to keep repeating that because it seems so ridiculously implausible that people can be so stupid. But that's the point. People who work and manage in the food service industry are as stupid as you'd think. The film follows the events of a group of McDonald's workers who are manipulated into thinking a prank caller is a detective who accuses one of the workers (Dreama Walker) of stealing. Mayhem ensues. One by one, the caller manipulates and uses each of the workers to humiliate the poor girl in many ways, mostly sexually. It's absolutely scary and pathetic that they are human beings who are so fucked up they get off on doing extreme things like this. Don't get me wrong, I still have a ton of fun prank calling people, but this is just another level of sick. And again, it seems ridiculous that these people would go along with this and it's unrealistic, but it's not. This really fucking happened. As the story progresses, the humiliation for Walker's character gets worse and worse as the not-so-bright manager of the McDonald's gets more and more wrapped up in the caller's lies. Although the motives are questioned throughout, nobody ever comes to the conclusion that maybe they are being tricked. The stoner burger flipper is the only one who seems to think what they are doing is fucked up, but he is too stupid to fight anyone. The assistant manager is just as dumb as the manager (Ann Dowd), but she at least has a conscious about the whole ordeal. Throughout the movie you can watch Walker's character as the humiliation just slowly destroys her to a point where her participating in the CLIMAX (pun intended) of the film makes total sense, but only in the world of these dumb (and now broken down/emotionally destroyed) fast food workers. I won't get into the manipulation of the manager's fiancee and Walker, but I think you have some idea. Finally after this, the handy man comes back to collect an ice cream cone and is thrown into this ridiculous situation. He's the only one who gets on the phone with the caller and is like uhhh you're a sick fuck you are a lying sack of shit come at me bro do you even lift? And that's where everyone is like ohhhh maybe we're being schemed. Wait, fiancee what did you just do with this girl?! And things start to fall apart for everyone, but it's already too late for Walker's character as she is absolutely traumatized. The dude who did this actually did it to a whole fuck ton of dumbass fast food employees and got caught some time after this movie takes place. He was an extremely sick fuck, but they portray him as one of those crazy of the white variety. Someone with a family and a normal job who is just a sick fuck on the inside. Yikes. Overall, it's a really brilliant, hard to watch, but also hard to look away, cringe worthy examination of the Milgram experiment and American stupidity/gullibility in general. At points this movie is extremely hard to watch and I wish I could have seen Dreama Walker naked under better circumstances. A really fucked up true story that will have you lose all faith in humanity. Highly recommended.
Rating - B-

[Palooza]

42 . Robot & Frank

Frank Langella, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Surandon, James Mardsen, Liv Tyler, Jeremy Strong, Jeremy Sisto, Rachael Ma

Director(s) - Jake Schreier
Writer(s) - Christopher D. Ford
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - PG-13
Release Date - August 17 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 86%
Metacritic - 67/100
Views - 1
Viewed - redbox
Quote - "Some things take time, Frank."
Review - We have not seen much from Frank Langella since his brilliant, Oscar nominated role as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon. Sure he was Shia LeBeouf's mentor in the piece of trash that is Wall Street - Money Never Sleeps and he also played the creepy guy in another piece of trash, The Box, but there hasn't been anything to commend him for since being Nixon. Now we have something to pat him on the back for. A unique twist on the tired tale of two people (one's a robot here) who are reluctantly thrown together. Set in the near future where technological advances have given us robotic helpers (if you can afford them), we have Frank, an old man who is slowly losing his mind and his kids who are sick of taking care of him (James Marsden, Liv Tyler). Well, actually just Marsden's character is sick of taking care of him as Liv Tyler is some environmentalist who is anti-robot and off in Africa or something. So Marsden buys him this robot so he doesn't have to drive up to his dad's place and take care of his miserable ass anymore. As I said, the movie is based in a world where technology is more advanced than us. Here, books have become artifacts worth plenty of money and Frank spends a lot of time at the library, hitting on the librarian (Susan Surandon) and causing trouble. Oh and we come to find out that Frank is a former jewel thief. A very good one, too. After a good bit of reluctance between Robot and Frank, Frank realizes that his new robot is a valuable asset to him and they band together to rob the library so he can get a copy of an actual book. Which book slips my mind, but I'm sure it's pretty famous. Dante's Inferno maybe? Something like that. Either way, they steal the book and he saves it to give to the librarian as a way to impress her. From here, the relationship between Robot and Frank builds, extremely organically and soon enough, Frank is accused of his crimes and the only evidence against him is the robot's memory and here we come to an extremely heartbreaking dilemma and conclusion. The themes of reluctant friendship are blatant and a lot of the movie can be attributed to movie tropes like buddy movies, angry old man who is losing his mind, etc etc etc. It's a heartwarming movie with an upsetting conclusion (and a pretty obnoxious twist) that relies a little too heavily on what's been established in films to tell its story. Still, it does all these little conventions nicely, even if we've seen them all before. It's what you can describe as a crowd-pleaser. It's easy to get behind Frank, even if he is a crusty old man. We root for him and we're heartbroken at the end of the film too. Peter Sarsgaard's voice work is perfect here as is Langella as Frank. They make a great team, even if it isn't exactly a great movie.
Rating - B-

[dell71]

You're ahead of me, here. Haven't seen either yet.

[Palooza]

You're ahead of me, here. Haven't seen either yet.

I look forward to your reviews of them when/if you ever do.

[Palooza]

41 . Goon

Seann William Scott, Alison Pill, Liev Schreiber, Jay Baruchel, Marc-André Grondin, Eugene Levy, David Paetkau, Kim Coates, Jonathan Cherry, Ricky Mabe, David Lawrence, Ellen David, Geoff Banjavich, Nicholas Campbell

Director(s) - Michael Dowse
Writer(s) - Jay Baruchel, Evan Goldberg
Source Material/Connections - n/a
MPAA Rating - R
Release Date - March 30 (limited)
Runtime - 1 hour, 30 minutes
RT Score - 82%
Metacritic - 64/100
Views - 3
Viewed - netflix/showtime
Quote - “THIS IS NOT FUCKIN BASEBALL!”
Quote (FOR LEFTY) - "Two rules, man: Stay away from my fuckin' percocets and do you have any fucking percocets?"
Review - This is a perfect example of a bad movie using a perfect mixture of charm, violence and heart to make an enjoyable movie. This movie actually has no right being any good at all and that's why it's so high up this list. It is filled with humor, likable characters and it has great re-watchability. The story is simple as it's essentially Happy Gilmore meets Rudy meets The Mighty Ducks with R-rated humor. Seann William Scott plays the Goon named Doug who is an embarrassment to his family because all he does is drink and fight. You'd think "okay, Seann William Scott, drinking and fighting, yeah some movie." Except, he has HEART and is truly just a sad, lonely dude who is reluctantly content with not being good at anything and expresses some great acting in containing hissarcastic asshole nature and in turns becomes a damaged loser who is sad about not being good at anything. He finally finds his calling as a Goon (someone who is there just to fight) on a Canadian hockey team, but there, he's still an outcast. The hockey players don't consider him to be a hockey player, because he's simply there to fight, so he's still struggling to find acceptance somewhere. This is where bonding with the young hotshot who was rocked and now subsequently shook by the best Goon in the game (Liev Schreiber), who sports one of the most awesomely hockey mustaches ever, comes into play. Schreiber is an underrated, eclectic actor. Here he pulls off the bad guy role with enough charisma that you don't hate him, but you understand him. He's made a niche for himself and he is willing to pass the reigns over to Doug, but not without a fight. It's shit like this that makes the movie so entertaining. Everything, no matter how ridiculous, feels genuine. It has all the obvious inspirational sports tropes, but the heart and soul that was put into this movie, mixed with the raunchy humor and cool fight scenes and you have yourself one of the better and most unexpectedly good sports movies of recent. Alison Pill (who we will ignore is in the most atrocious show on TV not named Girls, The Newsroom and only acknowledge as Kim Pine from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) is absolutely fucking adorable as the curse-spouting, boyfriend cheating love interest to Doug. She's as damaged as Doug and it's refreshing to see 3-dimensional characters in a raunchy sports comedy, which is where Jay Baruchel comes in. He gives himself some of the most obnoxious and ridiculous lines as Doug's best friend and #1 fan, but where he is the most important is as the film's writer (with Seth Rogen's writing partner, Evan Goldberg). This film has the heart, raunchy humor and likability of Superbad but with sports instead of high school. I'm extremely impressed with this movie, especially with my low expectations. I look forward to what they do with a sequel even without Goldberg helping Baruchel out.
Rating - B-

[MVPete]

Robot & Frank was awesome, ending put it over the top for me. Watched it again a few days later .

[Palooza]

Robot & Frank was awesome, ending put it over the top for me. Watched it again a few days later .

 

Whenever Robot was like "you have to erase my memory, Frank." and Frank refused I was like awwwwwwwwwwwww!!! They like each other! I like them! Nooo, wait, Waaahhh I was seriously heartbroken for a good while after that movie. You just knew no other Robot or the same Robot with a new memory would make Frank happy. Absolutely heartbreaking.

[dell71]

I did see Goon, though. Very entertaining.

[Palooza]

Our final B- is coming up next and then a little more than a handful of B's and then we'll get into the movies I really, really liked. No time table for when we'll get to what since I always turn out to be a liar because I get lazy or start rearranging the order. I'll just keep typing them up today until I get sick of it.

[MVPete]

Really enjoyed goon, had a smile on my face for basically the entire movie. For a sports/humor movie the story line was solid, and the cast filled the roles perfectly.