10 Best Movies of 2012: #9

Normally the rom-com that's packed with so many characters and storylines ends up being too jumbled and a complete mess. With Think Like a Man, you still had the high amount of characters and storylines, but with a lot more connectivity and less mess.

I mean, just looking at the poster alone would make you think, "This movie is going to be a mess." But with a 2 hour runtime, each storyline was given enough time to play out.

Enough comedy and drama to fill the 2 hours, as well as just the pure entertainment of watching these storylines play out and thinking how these situations have played out for you or your friends, there was a good amount of realism here. Rom-Coms can be a bit over the top, but Think Like a Man manages to stay grounded.

Stay tuned as we continue to countdown to #1 on our best movies of 2012 list.

2012 Award Season: Best Comedy

Nominees: Ted, 21 Jump Street, Jeff Who Lives at Home, Five Year Engagement

My favorite kind of movie is one that can make me laugh. Every year there seems to be a couple that really stick out, but in 2012, it was hard to narrow it down to just 4 nominees, let alone pick one. But there is one clear cut choice. But we'll get to that.

You've already seen Ted on the top 10 movies of the year, so it has some high consideration already, but it's not the funniest movie of the year for us.

Jeff Who Lives at Home is a sleeper pick, a movie most people probably missed, but a movie with a great cast, a good story and of course, laughs. I enjoy an underdog story, but we don't have one here.

Another Jason Segal movie, Five Year Engagement Plan is also nominated, and while I love Segal (and Emily Blunt), it still didn't pack as many laughs as 21 Jump Street did.

WINNER:
      21 JUMP STREET

No one really expected much from this movie, which made it so much easier to love. Besides the fact that skinny Jonah Hill is funny and Channing Tatum in a role where he isn't the sole focus, it's just a silly comedy with a known name attached to it that worked. I saw the movie 3 times in theater, many times on TV and DVD, it's great. I can take even more happiness away knowing there's a sequel coming!

2012 Award Season: Best Actress

Nominees: Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johannson, Anna Kendrick

We all know of the "golden girls" of Hollywood today. The Meryl Streeps and Michelle Pfeiffers and....Betty Whites of the world. They're still around, but it's certainly not their time anymore, a small crop of young actresses are making their way to the top.

Scarlett Johannson had a good year, co-starring (or super co-starring) in the Avengers and capping the year off with a role in Hitchcock. Solid performances in both, and a brighter future ahead, but she didn't win it this year.

Anna Kendrick, one of my personal favs, starred in a few movies this year that did well both critically and financially and has risen her star. Pitch Perfect, End of Watch, Paranorman and The Company You Keep are on her resume for this year, and she continues to show why she's one of the best actresses around. But only 1 woman had a better 2012 than her...

              WINNER:
                                    Jennifer Lawrence

In 2011, Jennifer Lawrence starred in her first mega franchise (X-Men). In 2012, she did it again with The Hunger Games. While the Hunger Games wasn't fully what it could have been, that certainly doesn't fall on Lawrence. She is the ideal Katniss. But her year didn't end there. With House at The End of the Street, and more notably, Silver Linings Playbook, we are witnessing a star in the making.

10 Best Movies of 2012: #10

A lot can be said about a movie that doesn't take itself seriously and succeeds at just entertaining the audience. Even more can be said when that movie involves a talking, volatile teddy bear.

Most people are quick to shit on movies like this because they see the concept as silly or flat out, dumb. But it's in these movies that you can find some of the funnier, more lighthearted comedy and Ted was full of it.

Being a slight fan of Family Guy and Seth MacFarlane as a whole will help make the movie funnier to you, as it did for me but looking beyond that, it stands alone.

Part of what made this movie work was having actors like Mark Wahlberg and Mila Kunis involved. People who have done comedy movies before, but you would never suspect had a funny bone in their body. I think it allowed for a more "realistic" kind of comedy, rather than casting 2 people that do comedies religiously.

Ted is #10 on the list!

2012 Award Season: Best Action Movie

Nominees: The Avengers, Expendables 2, The Bourne Legacy, Skyfal

The genre of Action movies has seen its ups and downs over the last decade or so. Gone are the cheap, one liner bad asses, replaced by what it is supposed to be more realistic fighters with decent acting chops. Now, that last part isn't always the case, but you can certainly see in the nominees above, it is the case.

WINNER:
                                     SKYFALL

Older James Bond flicks never featured much action, they've always prided themselves on having a debonair character with a gun and some gadgets. Fast forward to Skyfall and the evolution as a whole of the James Bond films, and you have the best action movie of 2012. From the opening sequence to the many fight scenes, shooting scenes and whatnot, it's a blast (literally). 

2012 Award Season: Best Actor

              

Nominees: Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Strong male leads were not hard to find in 2012. A lot of household names starring in beloved franchises, a lot of A-list stars putting on inspiring performances.

Putting together this list, and its winner and reasoning behind it all wasn't easy, but I'm sure everyone can agree:


WINNER:

                   Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I enjoyed the work that all 3 actors put together this year, but JGL deserves this one this year. Bale's only movie this year, The Dark Knight Rises, was tremendous and I cannot discredit Bale for his work there, but he wasn't the noteworthy character in the film.

Bradley Cooper put together a string of great dramatic performances in movies that did well (The Words, Silver Linings Playbook) and is certainly breaking out.

But JGL put together one hell of a 2012. The obvious is that he was awesome in Dark Knight Rises. The not as obvious is that he probably had better performances in Looper and Lincoln and ultimately, has put his stamp on 2012. 

5 Movies That Didn't Make The Cut For The 10 Best Movies of 2012

15. Pitch Perfect
14. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
13. Prometheus
12. Expendables 2
11. The Bourne Legacy

5 good movies that didn't make the cut for the top 10 for various reasons.

Between missing some small element that would have taken it from good to great, to just not fulfilling its potential, each movie was still very good in its own right.

Some of these movies may be in your own personal top 10 for this year, and if that's the case, that makes this upcoming list that much more interesting, no?

So, stay tuned! Tomorrow we kick off the top 10 movies of 2012, as well as give out awards in specific categories.

2012 Award Season/Best Movies of the Year!

First off, Happy Holidays!!!

Now that business is taken care of, let's get to the fun.

Movies are big part of everyone's year, from the beginning of it to the end, they serve as many things for us. Entertaining, escape, time fillers, whatever they may be. Much like music, movies are essential to life. I got to watch close to 100 movies that were released this year and with a list so long and diverse as this years movies, it wasn't easy to rank them. That doesn't mean I didn't rank them! So without anymore wait I announce.....

The Movie Spot's 4th annual Award Season and Best Movies of the year!

It starts on Christmas day with a little sneak peek of the top 10 movies of the year, only by giving you 5 movies that were good but didn't make the cut for our top 10.

Things really kick off on Wednesday, December 26th. We'll release 2 movies from out list day by day, as well as award winners for categories we've created. All leading up to Monday, December 31st where we reveal the #1 movie of the year!

Awards like: Best Actor, Actress, Best Action movie and much more will all be given out in that 6 day span.

So get ready! We're almost at the finish line but there's so much to get to in the world of movies!

Fall TV Preview: The Rest

While the rest of these channels don't have much coming out, they do have some of the more watched shows, more beloved shows.

Comedy Central has South Park (Season 16), Showtime has Dexter (Season 7) and AMC has The Walking Dead (Season 3). Walking Dead Season 3 will be split up, 8 episodes airing before they break and air the other 8 episodes in the Spring of 2013.  

HBO
Boardwalk Empire: Sun, Sept 16th 9pm
Treme: Sun, Sept 23rd 10pm

Comedy CentralBrickleberry: Tues, Sept 25th 10:30
South Park: Weds, Sept 26th 10pm
Key & Peele: Weds, Sept 26th 10:30pm

Cartoon Network
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Sat, Sept 29th 9:30am
Green Lantern: The Animated Series - Sat, Sept 29th 10am
Young Justice: Invasion (Midseason Premiere) - Sat, Sept 29th 10:30am

Adult Swim
Robot Chicken: Sun, Sept 8th

Showtime
Dexter: Sun, Sept 30th 9pm
Homeland: Sun, Sept 30th 10pm

USABurn Notice (Midseason Premiere): Thurs Nov 8th
Psych: Date TBA

AMCThe Walking Dead: Sun, Oct 14th 9pm

BBC AmericaDoctor Who: Sat, Sept 1st 8pm

Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Sat, Sept 29th 11am

SYFYHaven: Fri, Sept 21st 10pm

FX Fall TV Preview

Though battling against major TV companies, FX has always provided a solid lineup of fan favorite shows. Their heavy hitters: Sons of Anarchy and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are back for new seasons.

Nothing new really premieres for FX but American Horror Story is still fairly new and now with AHS: Asylum, it could be gearing to go twice as hard as they did the first season.

NOTE: Bold means new show
FX
Sons of Anarchy: Tues, Sept 11th 10pm
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Thurs, Oct 11th 10pm
The League: Thursday, Oct 11th 10:30pm
Brand X With Russell Brand: Thurs, Oct 11th 11pm
American Horror Story: Weds, Oct 17th 10pm