Every year I summarize my favorite flicks of the year.  I haven’t seen every good movie, but I’ve seen most of the bigger ones.

This is more about giving me what I want from a film than being a “quality” movie.  While I recognize a movie like Lincoln might be educational, showcase great acting, and have literary merit, for me it was a lot of old white guys arguing in conference rooms.  At the end, they reach the shattering conclusion that slavery is bad.  Surprise!  Good movie, but not making my list.

My favorite of the year, surprisingly, was The Avengers. While I normally enjoy big budget Sillywood schlock, I rarely elevate it to “favorite of the year” status.  But hey, this one made me laugh aloud several times, had me on the edge of my seat several times, and let me have a hell of a good time for two hours without feeling embarrassed about it afterward.  Score!

The rest of my faves, in no particular order:

Django Unchained.  Quentin Tarentino makes movies that are more about schlocky American cinema than about any period in history.  Somehow his exuberant gore fails to offend, and his dialogue never fails to delight.

Silver Linings Playbook. Crazy people aren’t cute, except when they are.

Argo. Suspenseful, intriguing, fun.  I’ll let the liberties taken with the facts slide.

Looper.  This might seem to be a movie about time travel, but it’s really a movie about parenting.

End of Watch. I am deeply critical of our policing system in modern America, and in many ways our hero cops in End of Watch are perfect examples of what’s wrong with it.  Doesn’t stop me from winning me over.

Moonrise Kingdom. Two misfit kids run away from home and have surreal adventures.  Enchanting.

Wreck-It Ralph.  Not Pixar’s best work, but certainly worth watching.

Chronicle. Three high school kids with no imaginations get superpowers. An interesting take.

Tomorrow I’ll post about my most-hated 2012 movies…

Racism is bad, m’kay?

Rubber is the Citizen Kane of sociopathic tire movies.

I left the film running while Mary took a phone call, and when she returned, I got to summarize what she missed by saying, “The tire went into the motel, watched TV for a while, and took a shower.  The maid came in and was annoyed that someone had left a tire in the shower, and threw it out into the dirt.  That’s a big mistake with a tire that reacts to every slight by psychokinetically exploding heads.”

There’s a parallel plot involving the spectators watching the events unfold, and this kicks the weirdness level up a notch.  Because, you know, that’s what it needed.

When the highest compliment you feel like paying a movie is, “It didn’t keep me awake,” that’s probably not a good sign.

I’m merciful to comedies.  If I laugh a couple of times, and am not sickened, I’m pretty happy.  And I laughed a couple of times in the first third of No Strings Attached.

Alas, it ran out of steam.  And got a little insulting.  Mostly boring, trite, and predictable.

Natalie Portman might have been an Oscar contender for Black Swan, but the choice to do this crappy film will ruin all those chances.

Still, hey, I laughed.  A little.

Thoughtful film about a relationship’s opening and closing.

I had heard this was a tearjerker, so when the opening scene shows a little girl wandering through a field next to a busy road, crying, “Megan?  Megan?” I was concerned that there would be dead children involved.

I hate that.

And yes, Blue Valentine is sad, but there nobody gets killed or maimed.  They just have grown apart.

I liked that the movie shows the charming beginning and pathetic end, without any of the transitional stuff in the years in between.   You can kind of imagine it, but it isn’t important.

Danny Boyle has made a lot of movies I loved, including Shallow Grave (***1/2), Trainspotting (****), 28 Days Later (***1/2), and Slumdog Millionaire (***1/2).  Somehow, though, it’s hard to get excited about going to see a movie about a guy trapped in the desert all by himself for a week.

That said, it’s a pretty good movie — though not the kind of thing I’d personally put in Oscar contention.

Christian Bale steals the show in a supporting role as Marky Mark’s crack addict brother.  Most of the movie is a painful and twisted take on being dragged down by a dysfunctional family.  It kind of leaps into Rocky 2 territory at the end for some reason, but it does it well, so I’m not going to fault it.

I never saw the original Green Hornet series, though I did see Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993, **), which implied that it was all about Lee’s awesomeness as Kato.

Kato’s fight choreography was pretty cool.  Some of the banter between Kato and the Hornet was slightly amusing.  There were a great many jokes about them denying homosexuality — a little funny the first time.

I’m an unfan of Cameron Diaz.  I think she believes that she’s funnier and smarter and cuter than she really is.

Acceptable popcorn flick.

Before I get to my favorite flicks of this year, I’ll mention one from 2009 that I didn’t see until 2010.

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo — would’ve made my top 10.

OK, my top three, in no particular order:

• Inception.  Christopher Nolan has made several of my favorite movies:  Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. I paid to see Inception twice in theatres — unheard of, for me. (The second time my brain wasn’t doing backflips analyzing possible plot paths that weren’t happening, but could have been.)
• Toy Story 3. Perhaps not quite as awesome as Toy Story 1 and 2, but that ain’t much of an insult.  I still laugh when I think of Mr. Pancake Head.  Pixar continues to consistently deliver delightful movies with literary merit.
• Black Swan. Disturbing.  Far to dark to be profitable, but intense and thought-provoking.  And one of Natalie Portman’s best performances.  (I want to watch The Professional again.)

More movies I loved:

• The Social Network
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Shutter Island
• Kick-Ass

Not a super strong year, I guess.  Watchable movies included The Town, Easy A, Despicable Me, Machete, How to Train Your Dragon, Megamind, Prince of Persia, Hot Tub Time Machine, Cop Out, and Prince of Persia.

The biggest dog was Hereafter, also known as Give Me My Two Hours Back.  Salt and The Wolfman were also poo.

I have not yet seen 127 Hours, True Grit, Tangled, or Exit Through the Gift Shop.