A Year in Film with Brian Salisbury: 2012

Sunday, January 22, 2012

The Longest Yard (1974)

1st View
Format: Netflix WI
Venue: Rivendell

I've made it my mission to watch more Burt Reynolds films in 2012. Why? Mustache, err uh I mean, must you ask? Anywho, as much as the remake was trashy...I kind of enjoyed it. But what will probably get me crucified is the fact that I thought there were elements of the original upon which the remake actually improved. Don't get me wrong Burt is a faaaaar better leading man than Sandler, but there are parts of the original that are downright sluggish and that is where the silly, MTV sensibilities of the remake tighten things up. All in all, the original is still quite fun.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

Raw Deal (1986)

Revisit
Format: VHS
Venue: Rivendell

A mess from A-Z, a spectacular failure, and a personal favorite.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

The Devil Inside (2012)

1st View
Venue: Galaxy Highland (Press Screening)

Cheap, amateur, snake oil flim-flamery masquerading as a horror film. You can read my bile-spitting review at Horror's Not Dead. Be forewarned, I was not kind.

Rating: 0/10 Atkins

Margin Call (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

My first movie of 2012, was so far the most challenging. Well-acted, well-directed, but I still don't have the first bleeding clue what the hell were the particulars of the financial crisis at the heart of the plot. They even create a moment wherein the chairman of the company is asking Quinto to explain the situation in the simplest terms, on behalf of the audience no doubt, and what comes out is still Wall Street rhetoric. Not a bad film, just terribly inaccessible.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

Sunday, January 1, 2012

FINAL 2011 TALLY

So here it is, we've reached 2012 and I'm all caught up with my tallying. Actually, I'm sure there are several films I have forgotten to log, but that's to be expected. Here's how 2011 breaks down...

Total Films Viewed: 398 (239 New, 159 Revisits)
Total Number of Alamo Screenings: 65

Most Popular Decade: 1980s (107 Entries)

Least Represented Decade: 1920s (1 Entry)

Press Screenings: 20

Here's hoping for even more movies in 2012

Burke and Hare (2010)

1st View
Format: DVD
Venue: Rivendell

John Landis directing a pseudo horror comedy based on true events starring Simon Pegg? All the ingredients are there for something I would truly love. However, Burke and Hare meanders lazily through its plot; things just happening in succession grounded to nothing. Utterly forgettable.

Rating: 4/10 Atkins

Fright Night (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

Quite entertaining. A flawed but valiant effort that's comfortable nodding to the original without kowtowing before it. Some unfortunate CG aside, I rather liked this remake.

Rating: 7/10 Atkins

Apollo 18 (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

I'm not exactly sure how one goes about so epically fumbling such an interesting concept for a horror film, but the folks behind Apollo 18 sure figured it out. Its biggest crime is that its scant 86 minute runtime is stretched to a seeming eternity by its stagnating plot. It also petulantly insists that its found footage nonsense is real, apparently unaware that IMDB exists and anyone with the internet and fingers can verify its deception.

Rating: 4/10 Atkins

The Debt (2011)

1st View
Format: Awards Screener
Venue: Rivendell

Taught, suspenseful spy thriller with classic espionage trappings, but clearly adopting post-Bourne modern spy film sensibilities. I loved it.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

New Year's Evil (1980)

Revisit
Format: Netflix WI
Venue: Rivendell

One of my favorite holiday slashers. Cheesy as all get out, but so entertaining despite itself. I seriously dig that theme song!

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

Final Destination 5 (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

Largely more of the same from this tired, stale formula. I will say the effects look much better than they did in the fourth installment, but the dialogue and white-washed characters are no less obnoxious. The only thing that saves this entry from being entirely forgettable is its clever ending.

Rating: 5/10 Atkins

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Rivendell

I had heard so many people shit on Favreau's Cowboys & Aliens, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. It has moments of absolutely irreconcilable absurdity, and it is a bit poorly paced, but it's a lot of fun. That is all I ask of a movie called Cowboys & Aliens.

Rating: 6/10 Atkins

The Bishop's Wife (1947)

1st View
Format: DVD
Venue: Stately Salisbury Manor

Another fantastic Cary Grant film, another wonderful holiday classic.

Rating: 7/10 Atkins

Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

Revisit
Format: DVD
Venue: Stately Salisbury Manor

A holiday classic and the subject of this (that) week's For Your Consideration at Hollywood.com.

Rating: 7/10 Atkins

Midnight in Paris (2011)

1st View
Format: Blu-ray
Venue: Stately Salisbury Manor

Watched this with my parents for the first time and absolutely loved it. Typically, I am not a fan of Woody Allen. But this comedy is so impossibly charming and sincere, and geared toward writers and nostalgics (of which I am both), that it's hard not to get wrapped up in its elegance. One of my favorite films of 2011.

Rating: 9/10 Atkins

Topper (1937)

1st View
Format: TCM
Venue: Stately Salisbury Manor

While home for Christmas, I watched this film with my parents on Turner Classic Movies. Carey Grant and Constance Bennett star as a well-meaning, but trouble-attracting ghosts who make one poor sap's life a living nightmare. Breezy, fun plot, hilarious slapstick, and Grant is effortlessly charming. Great little movie I'd never even heard of.

Rating: 7/10 Atkins

Bridesmaids (2011)

1st View
Format: Awards Screener
Venue: Rivendell

I was very excited to see this movie. I like Kristen Wiig quite a bit and the idea of a crass all-female comedy sounded fresh and intriguing. Instead, I quickly became bored with the obnoxious reliance on female cattiness and the lazily slapped-together love story between Wiig and Chris O'Dowd; an actor I love on the British series The IT Crowd. The few chuckles the film earned, mostly thanks to Melissa McCarthy, weren't enough to keep me engaged.

Rating: 5/10 Atkins

The Adventures of Tintin (2011)

1st View
Venue: Galaxy Highlands (Press Screenings)

Thoroughly entertaining throwing to Spielberg's classic adventure films made all the more thrilling by the fact that the mo-cap animation means he is unburdened by the laws of physics. My pic for best animated film of the year.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)

1st View
Format: DVD
Venue: Castle Greyskull

I don't...it's just that...if you really think about it...ok, I got nothing. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a film, but I can say without fear of contradiction that I did in fact watch it. Capping off Junkfood Cinema's A Very Junkfood Christmas, it's Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny...?

Drive (2011)

1st View
Format: Awards Screener
Venue: Rivendell

Nicolas Winding Refn does it again. His films are so visually unique and incredibly stylish as to elevate even the most tired genre. In Drive, he creates an almost dreamlike throwback to gritty, fiercely independent crime stories of the 70s. Great performances, stunning cinematography, terrific score, and still quite entertaining. One of the year's best.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

The Descendants (2011)

1st View
Format: Awards Screener
Venue: Rivendell

I did not care for this awards-buzzy movie. The secondary storyline is wholly uninteresting and is resolved in a way that is completely unearned and never reconciles with the main, far more intriguing, story. All in all, I found it flat and stale...like an old soda left out overnight.

Rating: 5/10 Atkins

Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (2011)

1st View
Format: IMAX
Venue: Bob Bullock Theater (Press Screening)

Easily my favorite M:I sequel. Gets back to the group dynamic that defined the TV series instead of it being the Tom Cruise Show. The action sequences, aided by the fact that they were shot and then projected in IMAX 70mm, were heart-stopping. It's been a long time since I've seen audiences recoil like that at horror movies much less action flicks. Amazing.

Rating: 8/10 Atkins

Santa's Slay (2005)

1st View
Format: DVD
Venue: Castle Greyskull

With my irresponsible fetish for holiday horror films of all makes, models, and levels of quality, I'm not sure why I put off seeing this so long. Dumb as a box of coal, but so much fun. So. Many. Christmas Puns.

Rating: 4/10 Atkins

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)

1st View
Venue: Galaxy Highland (Press Screening)

Not as good as the first, though it had the potential to surpass it. Jared Harris' Moriarty is outstanding and the back-and-forth between he and Downey Jr is perfect. Unfortuantely, this bloated sequel can't decide if its an action romp or an old school Sherlock story.

Rating: 5/10 Atkins

Elves (1989)

1st View
Format: VHS
Venue: Alamo Ritz (Video Hate Squad)

One of the most inexplicable horror films I have ever seen. This was my first time attending at the Alamo Drafthouse's Video Hate Squad series. I will definitely be returning. This movie so boggled my already very boggleable mind so I decided to write it up for Junkfood Cinema's A Very Junkfood Christmas.