2012 SIDE B

An interesting meeting here, Pattinson-Cronenberg... the result is weird. Not bad weird, but not the usual weird from the Berg. Pattinson's acting skills play up the dispassionate billionaire slowly losing his fortune and being tracked by an assassin all while moving across New York in his high tech limo. Many will be turned off by the over wordiness of some of the discussions. Many won't be able to keep up with the financial jargon either, but for those who do (or try) you will find a pretty interesting/Cronenbergian look at the tick-tock mind of the rich.

Man I wanted this to make the big bucks. 'Dredd' 3D was actually one of the more enjoyable 3D experiences I had all year. Anthony Dod Mantle's photography is beautiful even at its most brutal. Karl Urban also plays Judge Dredd the way he was meant to be played. A complete an utter hardass with nothing on the mind other than justice.

What makes it all the more bittersweet is this movie was fun and made by people who actually like the character, the 2000 AD series and the world of Dredd. At $50 million they do some good work and don't waste it on just a bunch of CG. I'd love to see a sequel where we can start getting into who Dredd is, which is extremely interesting. But considering it was a failure at the box office, its unlikely.

Lionsgate fucked this from the minute they cut those horribly generic trailers. Then you sit down to watch it and realize that hmmm.. perhaps this isn't as cut and dry as sold. 'Safe' is the very definition of the throwback genre film, but without having to try hard. A lot of that credit is due to veteran screenwriter & director Boaz Yakin; who's probably best known for 'Remember the Titans'. However Yakin got his start and has always loved the action genre, but for one reason or another never got to direct one.

With 'Safe' it takes the tired sub genre of the hero saves the little girl and tosses it up. The structure has his and her separate stories running completely parallel; with them intersecting only a few times. The little girl is actually very resourceful and smart thus rarely needed his help. And on more than a few occasions does end up saving him. Easily this is Statham's best movie in years as he's notably really into the character. It's not like its some groundbreaking role, but this dude is in an extremely depressing and frustrating position in his life when suddenly he's faced with action movie problems. And rather than playing it completely straight Statham thinks on his feet allowing him to get lucky, make mistakes and sometimes succeed although maybe not the way he intended.

There's some bumps here and there with some slightly weird dialogue that doesn't fit the tempo. Maybe aiming too far into vintage genre style but Yakin fills the film with strong, rarely seen character actors and gives them all something to do. Not one actor feels wasted and not one action scene feels over or under done. Overall 'Safe' was extremely fun, pulpy and reminded me heavily of the kind of action films I really loved growing up. And I firmly believe if Lionsgate tried to sell it smarter it would've gotten its deserved attention.

'Juan of the Dead' is super rough around the edges. I mean there's pretty clunky looking CG, but damn it all if the whole picture isn't hilarious and occasionally displays some great locations images of a zombie apocalypse in Cuba. Definitely one of the most creative films of the year.

Ultra violent Oliver Stone is probably my second favorite type of Oliver Stone. First being super biting political Oliver Stone. I kind of wish he would've used 'Savages' as a way to get into the discussion of the unnecessary violence surrounding marijuana. He does touch on it, but he opted to aim for a summer movie and I like Stone's version of the 'summer movie'.

'Savages' is brutal, stylish and pretty damn grim from time to time. The real show comes from Hayek, Del Toro and Travolta. Our main group are presentable, but admittedly not the sharpest characters... which I suppose is the point. I've yet to watch the director's cut. Stone's director's cut are often really good because they never feel as rushed as many others. I do hope he chopped out Blake Lively's occasionally distracting voice over.

For whatever reason Hollywood doesn't believe they can sell a horror anthology. Hench why 'Trick R' Treat' ended up going to DVD when it deserved a wide theatrical release. Magnet's 'V/H/S' was a damn good purchase. I'd say there's one short I'd consider a weak link, but the rest are creative, nasty and sometimes quite eerie.

I love it when Steven Soderbergh plays around. 'Haywire' isn't perfect... well... fuck it, it's perfect for me. I can enjoy a good overzealous action flick complete with over done exposition, CGI explosions and a 165 minute running time. But a good understated action thriller is hard to come by.

Here Soderbergh uses his trademark style and slew of name actors to shape a film around MMA star Gina Carano. Is Carano an actress? No. But I don't hear people bitching about Chuck Norris or Mila Jovovich's acting. I'll argue for a first time she didn't do too poorly. Her real skill is beating the ever loving crap out of people; and she does it well. Lem Dodd's screenplay is simple, but designed to never explain anything outward and just let the story unfold. And that's worth far more to me than throwing the kitchen sink in just cause its an action picture.

I still don't think I laughed during any film this year more than in '21 Jump Street'. This was seriously a boat load better than it had to be or then conceivably possible. And yet it all works and continues to work even on repeated viewing. I'm really glad this turned out to be such a major success and I very much hope whatever we get next is equally as impressive.

'Kill List' is not a light film by any measure. Psychologically or physically its nasty and I love it. I don't want to give away too much as I many probably know very little about it; but its a slow burn horror film about two hitmen taking on a list of three "simple" kills. What it adds up to is a very dark, slightly twisted up finale that's pretty unflinching. I'd say this is probably the best "horror" film I saw in 2012.

Holy... shit. Seeing the 'The Raid' theatrically remains one of the coolest cinematic experiences from this year. I love kung-fu films are its so rare for them to get big screen releases in the states and I'm so glad Sony Pictures Classics grabs the rights to this after TIFF.

There isn't a better action film I could recommend right now. It's relentless, fast paced, produces a fighting style we've never really seen in a film and show cases a great new talent in the genre with director Garth Evans and star Iko Uwais. 'The Raid' will continuously woop your ass until the final frame.