My top ten, so far:
21 Jump Street
The 5 stages of HFS.
Anna Karenina
The races.
The Bourne Legacy
Marta is “interrogated”.
Cosmopolis
The haircut.
Chronicle
Football in the sky.
Cloud Atlas
Sonmi-451 enters the restaurant.
Magic Mike
“It’s Raining Men”
The Master
The party.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
The end of the world.
Silver Linings Playbook
The dance.
You can do it, Naomi! You're...
ONLY 10 EASY STEPS AWAY FROM OSCAR!
1.) Bankrupt small, independent distributor via massive Oscar campaign. Failing that, proceed to...
2.) Cash in King Kong residual checks to pay for FYC advertisements from Kinko's.
3.) To avoid getting sent straight to VOD, attach entire film as a "trailer" to another film people actually want to see. And then...
4.) Try to do it Lahti-style and win Academy Award for Best Short Film.
5.) Avoid telling a story that everyone already knows by adding exciting details and/or gratuitous editing.
6. Carefully and patiently weather the wrath of film critics/the royal family/the tabloids/Diana-maniacs for trying to add said details. (Good luck!)
7. Find all of the boxes with "August: Osage County" screeners and slip in self-made cam bootleg from premiere screening at Lowes...the hardware store.
(Not Loews, the movie theater -- too expensive!)
8. Trick octogenarian Oscar voters into thinking that you are, in fact, a real princess. (Hey, it worked on Eva Marie Saint!)
9. On Oscar night, have camera crews come to Nicole's house, Joan Crawford-style, so you can win and keep your day job.
10. OSCAR!
The two brothers fight Mad Dog - The Raid: Redemption
The Erebor prologue; Riddles in the Dark - The Hobbit
Silva reveals his backstory - Skyfall
Riddles in the Dark, "I'm going on an adventure!", stone giants - The Hobbit
A Slow Boat to China, processing - The Master
Lavant kidnaps Eva Mendes, the accordion number, interlude with Kylie Minogue - Holy Motors
Euclid, George Washington - Lincoln
SYSTEM PURGE - Cabin in the Woods
"FUCK MILES DAVIS!" - 21 Jump Street
"I'm always angry." - The Avengers
"I love you, but you don't know what you're talking about.", Moonrise Kingdom
Bane breaks Batman, The Dark Knight Rises
Seth's fate - Looper
Last edited by Dent; 12-23-2012 at 01:08 PM.
Speaking of Dark Knight Rises, I'd probably go with Batman's stealth return to Gotham. When that symbol lit up on the bridge, it resulted in one of the loudest audience cheers I've ever heard.
T E A M R I V E T T E
I still have a lot left to see, but nothing is ever going to top psychic sex in The Paperboy for me.
Great. Now who's going to watch Sunday Rose on SAG night??
Another good Comic Book movie from this year in DREDD, I've been trying to think of which scene to induct from it. Firing a flare into a perp's mouth, the machine turets blowing up a whole apartment level just to try to kill one guy, Dredd crushing that guy's throat with one punch, the creative (and of course gratuitously violent) solution to the age old movie dilemma with villain attached with a bomb sensor.
But I think I'll pick this scene. One because it's on YT and I can share it. Two, it's really a good difference of ambition and execution between this and Sylvester Stallone's lousy JUDGE DREDD. Karl Urban with his pseudo-Clint Eastwood performance delivers that character's iconic line with not just defiance against the overwhelming odds stacked against him, but fucking certainty that indeed he will prevail and there will be blood. Not the unintentionally hilarious awfulness as Stallone delivered it. No "I yam dah lah!" A very simple scene, but DREDD absolutely nails that character/comic's core essence and appeal. Then again alot of good scenes naturally should look obviously simple.
BREAKING NEWS: Man of Steel is a hit! We're getting more superhero movies! AW commits mass suicide.
Movies recently reviewed by RRA:
Evil Dead (2013)
Superman (1978)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Star Trek (2009)
Speaking of Dredd, one of my picks for scene of the year is EVERY SINGLE SLO-MO scene. ugh, it's going to suck to see Lincoln's musty cinematography honored while Mantle's brilliant work for Dredd goes completely unacknowledged. gaaaaah.
BREAKING NEWS: Man of Steel is a hit! We're getting more superhero movies! AW commits mass suicide.
Movies recently reviewed by RRA:
Evil Dead (2013)
Superman (1978)
In the Mouth of Madness (1995)
Fast & Furious 6 (2013)
Star Trek (2009)
I'm pretty sure this is the first superhero film Hollywood's put out where the hero gets so brutally schooled by its villain. The pitiful display by Batman matched by the cold bluntness of Bane really brings the story elements of "Knightfall" to life and stands as a crowning achievement of Christopher Nolan's direction.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION - INOCA 2012
Also
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION - INOCA 2012
The Master- The First Processing Scene. Already mentioned, but it's the highlight of the movie for me. Absolutely gripping, and it lets the actors and the dialogue take hold of the audience and not let them go.
Moonrise Kingdom- The ending, culminating in that marvelous final shot.
Looper- both the montage of Joe's future and
The Hobbit- Riddles in the Dark and all of Gollum's scenes. Made me remember why I loved the original trilogy so much.
Life of Pi- "We are dying, Richard Parker"
The Dark Knight Rises- "I wondered which would break first: Your spirit, or your body!"
Lincoln- The final vote on the 13th Amendment
Prometheus- The opening and final scene. For a disappointingly mediocre movie, it sure had an intriguing beginning and a delightfully dark ending.
"You are what you love, not what loves you"
- Donald Kaufman