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Django Unchained 2012
Looking back at my expectations for Django Unchained, I really wanted a lot of things out of it. I was looking for a deep subversion of the western. I was also looking for a modern take on the Spaghetti Western. Even more, I wanted to watch a film that flipped my world upside down and just rocked my socks off.
Not all of these things that I wanted Django Unchained to be came true. Instead, the film is a very…
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The Avengers 2012
After a rewatch, I still thoroughly enjoy this movie. It held up great and I even liked it a little bit more than when I first saw it, but still not a top of the year contender for me.
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The Avengers 2012
Just a really fun, adventurous, super entertaining thrill ride. The Avengers is a great summer blockbuster and is definitely something worth seeing in theaters. Let the spectacle draw you in, its worth it.
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The Dark Knight Rises 2012
Great action set pieces, spectacular acting (especially from the side characters), and a fitting end to a trilogy that really had a story to tell, and told it well.
The trilogy of films works far better as one story than any of the movies do individually. That said, the story that is created and told over these three films is engaging, complex, and theatrical.
As with The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises again ups the ante in every way.…
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Drive 2011
While far too many films these days rehash the same concepts and premises in the same ways over and over again, Drive accomplishes the rare feat of taking story tropes that we think we are familiar with and blazes its own trail. Not to mention that every performance is aces. I could watch Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan stare at each other for hours.
In 20 years, people will still be talking about Drive. The soundtrack, the scorpion jacket, the mind blowing opening car scene, I love it all.
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Skyfall 2012
I think my original review still captures the majority of my thoughts on Skyfall.
The one thing that has changed in this second viewing are my feelings on the final act. It still messes with the pacing and destroys a lot of the foundations that had been building up all throughout the film, but it simply didn't bother me quite as much this time around.
Skyfall is still gorgeous (the blu ray transfer is fantastic as far as visuals and…
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Skyfall 2012
Skyfall is the movie that I wish was made as Daniel Craig's first entry into the series. It would have been the perfect film to reboot, rebrand, re-imagine, whatever you want to call it. Skyfall is a great blend of the historical elements that made the Bond franchise good to begin while still developing the series so that it can grow beyond nostalgia in the present day.
Craig hasn't been better as the spy. No more brooding to be found…
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Looper 2012
I don't have a whole lot more to add from my initial review back in September.
This is my second viewing of the film, the first of many times on blu ray, and it is still my favorite movie of 2012.
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Looper 2012
I have spent the better part of the past three days trying to figure out what I could write about Looper that would effectively convey why it is my favorite movie that I have seen this year. This is my feeble attempt to try.
Expectations can be a tricky thing. If they are not met, then you are left with something that can leave a gaping void of fulfillment. Its like the saying goes, "I'm not mad at you, but…
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Argo 2012
Argo holds up surprisingly well upon a second viewing. I thought it was fantastic the first time I saw it and the same strengths in the film I saw then stay true to this viewing as well.
I absolutely love just how tight the whole thing feels. There is no filler sequences. Every scene serves a purpose and and the two hour runtime is utilized to the utmost effect.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is that the last half hour was…
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Argo 2012
With Argo, Ben Affleck hits the primetime in terms of working directors. He has made not only his best movie to date, but also a great film that is surprisingly funny, extremely intense and suspenseful, and about as "complete" of a movie overall that I have seen recently.
One of the things that really struck me about Affleck's previous efforts was his incredible sense of detail. Going in to Argo, I wasn't sure if he could replicate that same feeling…
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The Dark Knight 2008
The second entry in a series has it the easiest. The tone has been set and the origin story has been told. Nolan really starts to put his stamp on the series as a whole here as he takes us to deeper, darker places than he did in Begins and again tells a story of an extremely conflicted hero and the struggles that entails.
This isn't a superhero movie. It is a three course character study that happens to be…
