Best & Worst Film & TV: 2012

[jvcarroll]

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Your Best & Worst Flim & TV Picks for 2012 (and why)​

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Categories:​

Live Action Film​

Animated Film ​

TV Show ​

Biggest Surprise/Disappointment ​

Movie Theme​

Guilty Pleasure(s) ​

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My Picks:

Best Live Action Film: Avengers ​

Worst Live Action Film: Dark Shadows​

Best Animated Film: ParaNorman​

Worst Animated Film: Brave​

Best TV Show: American Horror Story: Asylum​

Worst TV Show: Veep ​

Biggest Surprise: Cabin in the Woods​

Biggest Disappointment: Prometheus ​

Best Movie Theme: Adele's Skyfall​

Worst Movie Theme: Whatever they played at the end of the Hobbit. ​

Guilty Pleasure(s): Magic Mike, Glee, Ted​

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Why:
The Avengers was the movie most people felt was destined to fail with all its bloat and absurdity, but Whedon made it work. I can't say its one of my favorite films of all time. I still feel it is one of the best-made films of the year.

Dark Shadows was another one of Burton's beautiful set pieces with very little substance and even less respect for the source material.

There's a special place in my heart for ParaNorman. Even though the storytelling could have been tighter, this is such a different sort of film that falls out of any one particular category. It has a sweet message and the stop-motion animation is even sweeter.

Brave was disappointing on so many levels. It's was a great idea with a wonderful protagonist and some amazing animation techniques use on her hair. Nonetheless, the movie is just a mess. It's the one Pixar film that I have no desire to ever see again. There were other weak animated films this year, but they gave me laughs. This one had me checking my watch every 5 minutes.

American Horror Story reinvented itself in the second season. It's pulp horror and unapologetic about it. Wonderful performances and nonstop surprises.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus deserves better than the clumsy Veep. It's absent of any likable characters and it's just not funny.

Cabin in the Woods redefined horror films. Either you like the idea of the film or you don't. I loved it!

Sigh, Prometheus. It was supposed to be the new Aliens. It wasn't.

Adele's Skyfall transports me back to the original 007 themes. This will be the Oscar winner.

After making it through the tedium of the Hobbit, audiences are rewarded by some unbearable Middle Earth fanboy music by someone named Neil Finn. Shivers.

Magic Mike is the indie film that could. It cost $7 million and grossed over $167 worldwide! It also proved that there's a market for films other than the young male demographic. Other parts were enjoyable too. I'll stop there.

Glee is the cloying, absurd, autotuned melodrama that always seems to make me sing along and cry on cue. I hate that it has that impact on me! I can't deny it either.

Ted was actually good! I expected another Greg the Bunny. Seth MacFarlane is funny beyond Family Guy. So what's that show's excuse for getting stale?

 

[Drtooth]

Ted was actually good! I expected another Greg the Bunny. Seth MacFarlane is funny beyond Family Guy. So what's that show's excuse for getting stale?

The show's been on well past its prime and is such a network pet they don't even need any good writers. Seth actually wants to end the series so he can work on more projects like Ted and his Flintstones remake he desperately wants to get out there. Seth does have talent and he is a very funny guy. Not to mention how he even hosted a big show (can't remember if it was a fundraiser or not) during the writers' strike for the striking writers. The problem with the show is it's popularity. And the unfunniest, most overused jokes? Not even his fault. he doesn't even care much for the Conway Twitty stuff or the Chicken Fights. I really hope to see him move on. It's a shame more animator/cartoonists don't get the recognition he does. Last year's Mission:Impossible was directed by Brad Bird, but Tom Cruise overshadows his credit.

I'm going to add another best . Of course, my own personal taste.

Best Animated Series​

Gravity Falls​

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This is a pretty tough decision on what new cartoon series is truly amazing enough for me to like it over everything else. Robot and Monster is very good. So isn't the new TMNT series. Green Lantern Animated erases all the badness the live action movie caused. That says something. But a series that deals with the super natural in a weird rural part of the United States? That's a pretty deep premise. Every episode had me rolling on the floor, especially the Street Fighter episode that employed a wonderful video game pixel artist for those special effects. Disney really needs to promote the crap out of this thing. I'd hate for it to be the animated equivalent of Arrested Development that has bigger word of mouth than viewership. And Grunkle Stan has become one of my favorite cartoon stars in such a short time.​

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I was going to have a Worst cartoon. Allen Gregory. But that was unfair since it came out in '11 and was only cancelled the start of this year. But really... every character was an unlikable jerkwad. Either an oblivious jerk or a soul crushing one upping jerk. The TV Tropes page has under the trope Deadpan Snarker, "Yeah, basically everyone." I like Jonah Hill, but this was the most unlikable cartoon I've ever seen. And the pastel look burned my eyes.​

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So to be fair, this year, I'll say "The Annoying Orange" and be done with it. Like I always say, old internet memes in outside media? No thank you.​

 

[charlietheowl]

Definitely agree with Jamie on American Horror Story. I did not watch much of the first season, but this season got me hooked from the previews and has kept me on my toes for much of the year. Jessica Lange does a great job as Sister Jude. I also thought that Parks and Recreation has been doing an excellent job this year, as they have a dream cast where any supporting character can carry their own plot-line and have it be hilarious.

As for movie, I'll say that Wreck-It Ralph was my favorite, with a sweet story, great voicework and lush animation, and Promethius was my least favorite, with clunky acting (how do you waste Noomi Rapace!), and dumb script-writing.

 

[Drtooth]

Is it too easy to say Honey Boo Boo and The Oogieloves movie were the worst of television and movies respectively?

 

[fuzzygobo]

Honey Boo Boo may be easy, but it's painfully obvious.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

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Best Live Action Film: Lincoln​

Worst Live Action Film: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter​

Best Animated Film: ParaNorman​

Worst Animated Film: Only saw ParaNorman!​

Best TV Show: Breaking Bad or 30 Rock, depending on my mood!​

Worst TV Show: Honey Boo-Boo​

Biggest Surprise: Django Unchained​

Biggest Disappointment: Sons of Anarchy: Season 5​

Best Movie Theme: No idea.​

Worst Movie Theme: No idea.​

Guilty Pleasure(s): None noted. ​

I'm a bit of a Civil War nerd. I really love the personalities involved in the Lincoln Administration, and I feel that the movie did an accurate job at portraying them. The acting was outstanding, the writing was excellent. I didn't think it was shot in a particularly interesting way, and Spielberg isn't my favorite director, but I thought that the content of the film was well handled. Granted, I haven't seen that many films this year.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. It was longer than it should have been, and thought it was smarter than it actually was. It had some excellent action sequences, but that's not enough to carry a film.

ParaNorman was simply beautiful artistry.

Breaking Bad just keeps getting better and better. I was on the edge of my seat in Episode 7 (fans of the show will know why; no spoilers here!) Beautiful, heartbreaking, and intense. It's still the most well-written show on television, and it's shot with such attention to composition and detail.

30 Rock is hilarious as usual. I love Tina Fey. And a Muppet cameo didn't hurt!

Honey Boo-Boo... need I say more? The culture is devolving.

Wasn't expecting much from Django, but I ended up being blown away. Really well written, terribly violent, unflinching in exposing one of the darkest times in our nation's history, and strong acting performances all around. And special shout out to Ted Neeley, Jesus Christ from Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) in the role of one of the trackers!

Sons Of Anarchy. Stop getting worse.

 

[Drtooth]

Honey Boo-Boo... need I say more? The culture is devolving.

Cracked had a brilliant assessment of the series. Essentially we need to keep vilifying and stereotyping low class families that work hard for little or no pay and even have to get on welfare and unemployment. Instead of thinking about families that have it tough, the diabetic, Jabba the Hutt crossbred with characters from Deliverance. Boo Boo's family is terrible. But you know who's worse? The vultures of TLC. How is any of this carnival freak show nonsense "Learning?" Seriously... if there is one cable channel that needs to go away, it's TLC.

And what's worse? The oh so "hip" people who watch that garbage ironically. It's not "ironic" to watch it. It can't even be called lowest common denominator because you can't divide by zero! Only way to stop garbage like this from farting out of television screens is to tell people to stop watching and do something constructive. Like watch a B movie ironically. At least people with a soul worked on those.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

Cracked had a brilliant assessment of the series. Essentially we need to keep vilifying and stereotyping low class families that work hard for little or no pay and even have to get on welfare and unemployment. Instead of thinking about families that have it tough, the diabetic, Jabba the Hutt crossbred with characters from Deliverance. Boo Boo's family is terrible. But you know who's worse? The vultures of TLC. How is any of this carnival freak show nonsense "Learning?" Seriously... if there is one cable channel that needs to go away, it's TLC.

And what's worse? The oh so "hip" people who watch that garbage ironically. It's not "ironic" to watch it. It can't even be called lowest common denominator because you can't divide by zero! Only way to stop garbage like this from farting out of television screens is to tell people to stop watching and do something constructive. Like watch a B movie ironically. At least people with a soul worked on those.

I agree. I don't watch it. I hate it. I hate TLC and what it has become.

I feel the same way about reality shows. They exist to make viewers feel better about themselves, and to feel an inhuman disdain for people who dare to have a dream. A lot of people feel good watching others fail, mostly because they are dissatisfied with their own lives and the way the world is. That's my theory, anyway.

 

[Drtooth]

I agree. I don't watch it. I hate it. I hate TLC and what it has become.

The network is the worst thing that exists on television bar none. From cult members with way too many kids to grotesquely fat people to grotesquely fat people in cults with too many kids, also their kids are dwarfs that extreme coupon. The fact that people watch that stuff is basically the most frightening thing there is on this planet. Not nuclear war fare, not the scary world leaders... the dumb as crap people who watch TLC, especially the dimwits that think they watch it ironically.

 

[MrBloogarFoobly]

TLC will lead to Nuclear Warfare.