My Most Anticipated Films of 2013

Slashfilm always runs a few articles this time of year, looking ahead to the most anticipated films of the next year.

First - the Runners Up:
Great Gatsby - I'm intrigued. I think it may be a trainwreck, particularly given the fact is was pushed back 6 months, but that green light will be coming RIGHT AT YOU.
Kick Ass 2 - The first one was awesome. I hope it keeps up.
Sin City - A Dame to Kill For.
The Conclusion of Breaking Bad. Okay - not quite a film. But seriously - there couldn't possibly be anything in entertainment I'm more excited about.

10. Pacific Rim. Charlie Day in an action movie. What?

9. Thor - The Dark World. I wasn't expecting to like Thor - but I really did. And Thor and Loki only grew on me in The Avengers. So - here's hoping the next one keeps the trend up. (No trailer yet, or official images)

8. Lone Ranger. It could be terrible. But the photography looks great, and I hope it could be like the first Pirates.


7. Catching Fire. LOVED the first Hunger Games. Can't wait for the next one. Jennifer Lawrence rocks. 

6. Star Trek - Into Darkness. The first one was awesome. I can only hope that a non-origin story will be even better.


5. Warm Bodies. It's a zombie rom com. For Valentines Day. Looks promising!


4. Much Ado About Nothing. The Whedonverse doing Shakespeare. Bring it on! (No trailer yet...)

3. Elysium. I mean... come, *on*. (Only teasers so far)

2. Stoker. Ahhhhh - SO EXCITED. That cast is fantastic and it looks deliciously creepy.


1. Gangster Squad. I was excited when this was due in September. I understand the need to push it back and reshoot the ending in the wake of the Aurora shootings. But god! What a fab trailer. What a great cast! Every time I see this, I can't wait for the film.

Best movie posters of 2012

The best posters of the year! First, a few of the runners-up:

 It was a good year for our 16th president.

 

These two were my favorites of the Dark Knight posters. Even when I had my qualms about catwoman, I loved the razor heel shattering the batarang in the rain. And the Bane propaganda poster is fab, too.

Zero Dark Thirty could be included in this redacted theme, but... not as nice a poster.

 And a few more:

 

10. Dark Shadows. The movie is supposedly not so good, but I loved this line of character posters - bold and different. 

 

9. Killer Joe. Chicken.

8. Skyfall. Horizontal action on a vertical poster, the pure white background, the credits in the middle - all wonderful.

7. Looper. Simple, effective, eye-catching.

 6. Wolverine. Not till next year, but this poster is gorgeous.

5. Moonrise Kingdom. You can tell it's Wes Anderson from across the lobby.

4. The Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, if the finished film had lived up to the advertising. 

 3. Django Unchained. Yes.

2. Cabin in the Woods. Escher!

1. Killing Them Softly. All of them.

Top 10 Winter Holiday Films

10. Miracle on 34th Street

 9. Laurel and Hardy March of the Wooden Soldiers/Babes in Toyland. It is so, so surreal.

 

8. Die Hard

7. A Muppet Family Christmas 

6. A Christmas Carol

 

5. Mickey's Christmas Carol

4. Muppet Christmas Carol

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas

2. A Charlie Brown Christmas 

1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Special Mention: Doctor Who Christmas specials.

Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas is also pretty great. 

Christmas pterodactyl!

Post 300!

My brother just posted his 300th post and, serendipitously, this one is mine. However, whereas he is a writer, and his post is thoughtful and reflective... yeah. I'm not a writer. You should go read his. But it is nice to look back at 5 years and see how much has happened and how much one has accomplished. It reminds me a bit of this SMBC comic, which I quite like. I love the idea of being great at somthing new every 7 years. So in my case, by 14 I was a singer and I had sung professionally. By 21 I was a scholar - I was really great at prep school. By 28, I was a traveler, and had gone around the world by myself. By 35... who knows?! I potentially will have been at my dream organization for 7 years, so maybe career woman? Super-environmentalist? I've been trying to get better at photography. I have plans to do some serious hiking. I could learn to camp in back-country. I could finally stick with guitar lessons long enough to really learn it. I could learn to cook. Or do yoga. Or speak a third language. Anyways, it's a nice little "the world is your oyster" reminder.

(I realize now that I had remembered the comic wrong and he starts at 11. Lazybones.)

Hulllloooooo!

Oh lord. So long since I've posted a thing! Mea culpa, blog. The last two months have been absolutely flat-out, but I DO have lots to say about the year end movies and awards season, so I'd love to get back into the swing of things. In that spirit, let's leave the movies aside for now and have a little media endorsements/year-end roundup.

Best pop-culture quote: "I can't get married. I'm in tech."

Runners-Up: "Yeah, Bitch! Magnets!"

"Aca-scuse me?"

"His name is Susan and he wants you to respect his life choices."

Best trailer: Gangster Squad

Runner up: The first Les Miz

Best tv episode (drama): Game of Thrones - Blackwater

Runner up: Sherlock - The Reichenbach Fall (it was on US tv in the spring, right?)

Best tv episode (comedy): Community - Basic Lupine Urology

Runner up: Mockingbird Lane - pilot

Best drama show: Breaking Bad. Still. Some more.

Best comedy show: I'm actually going to go with Parks and Rec this year over Community, Always Sunny, and Archer just for being more consistent.

Best miniseries/movie:  Sherlock

Runner up: The Hour. Only because it isn't over yet, so I'm not sure how it will play out...

Best recaps: Vulture's Smash recaps by Rachel Shukert. The best show for hate watching last season (I'm expecting it to get good next year). Take, for instance, these gems from just one review: "Greetings, People of the Book (by Arthur Laurents)!...Which is why I couldn’t have been more thrilled to see this week open with Tom and Token singing “Another Openin’ to Another Show” as the Bombshell gang girds their collective loins for their first out-of-town tryout in Boston. Yes, it’s delightful to hear actual Broadway musical actors Christian Borle and Leslie Odom Jr. do what is by my count only the second-ever non-Marilyn-related show tune to appear on this show about show tunes. The sight of an interracial gay couple performing a Cole Porter song while gazing lovingly into each other's eyes across a grand piano is exactly the big gay lefty dick-slap across the kisser we’ve been yearning for since this farkakte show went on the air...We see everybody pack, but leave it to Ivy to bring the one thing you need for an out-of-town Broadway tryout: a framed photograph of Bernadette Peters....Sit down, Karen. You’re obnoxious and disliked, you know that, sir." It goes on.

Runners up: True Blood, both Vulture: "Look, I love a good lesbian incest plotline. Love it. But I have zero desire to see this relationship play out that way, at least until they end what I assume is a vitriolic feud with the hair and makeup people." and io9: "So there you have it. Was this the most disjointed episode in a while? Yes. But was it saved by two gay vampires and their new puppy? Yes, yes it was."

And Vulture's American Horror Story: "Hi everybody! Happy Thanksgiving! What are you doing reading this? Shouldn't you be hanging out with your families instead of reading an American Horror Story recap? Haha, kidding. People who watch this show don't have families. I'm sorry I wasn't here last week, I was on that plane with Rihanna, which was basically like being in Briarcliff. Before we get started, I have to go out of order and get one thing out of the way. Remember when Lily Rabe did the "You Don't Own" me in an obvious homage to the great giallo horror film, The First Wives Club? Man oh man. Was that amazing or was that amazing? When we go around the table today and say what we're thankful for, I'm picking this!"

Best editorial correction: "A Lens column earlier this month about introverts and extroverts misquoted the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. The correct quote is “Hell is other people,” not “Hell is other people at breakfast.”"

Runners-up: "Correction: An earlier version of this article claimed that journalists at Bloomberg Businessweek could be disciplined for sipping a spritzer at work. This is not true. Sorry. We must have been drunk on the job."

"This post originally referred to Jennifer Grey as “Ferris Bueller’s sister.” As commenters have pointed out, her role alongside Swayze in Dirty Dancing is clearly the more relevant. We regret putting Baby in a corner."

"I misspoke this evening on the Special Report panel. I suggested that Godzilla was less destructive than King Kong. And everyone knows that it’s the other way around. I apologize for any offense to the Kong family or to Godzilla’s fans — or victims."

"François Mitterrand, the former French president, is reported to have said that Margaret Thatcher had the mouth of Marilyn Monroe and the eyes of Caligula — not Stalin, as reported in an earlier version of this article."

Best short: 663114

Best book (that I've read this year): The Tenderness of Wolves

Best beach book (that I've read this year): The Night Circus

Best graphic novel: Locke & Key vol 5: Clockworks

Best new name for a book: Lord of the Flies -> Well That Escalated Quickly

Best album: Not Your Kind of People - Garbage. Obviously.

Best musical discovery: I'm digging the Raveonettes and the Presets at the moment.

Best summer song: I Love It - Icona Pop

Most played song: Black White and Blue - Ladyhawke (who knew?!)

Runner up: Do It With a Rockstar - Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra

Best awards show moment: Julia Louis Dreyfuss and Amy Poehler.

(Runners up: Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon tackling Jon Stewart, Emma Stone and Jim Rash at the Oscars

Most unexpected upset: Christian Borle over Andrew Garfield. Whoa.

Runner up: Dragon Tattoo for Editing

Best dress: Tina Fey

Best tweet: My fellow Republicans: We can now stop pretending that we like Mitt Romney. Hallelujah."— @GovChristieNJ

Runners up: “Thanks for stopping.” “Where ya headed?” “Gotham. But really anywhere in America would be great.” “This is Algeria, and I’m riding a camel” - @dankois

Too bad Anne Frank never saw Home Alone. Could have been a serious game changer in my opinion. - @Robfee

Paul McCartney is teaming up with Nirvana to play all the hits, like "This Is Too Loud" and "Not So Fast Guys" and "I Regret This Idea" - @chasemit

Just told my Secret Santa I murdered a plumber in Vermont in 1995 or is that not how it works? - @robdelaney

For someone so concerned with marriage licenses, God sure was focused on dinosaurs for 180 million years. - @ariscott

BREAKING: Apple Maps projecting Barack Obama to win Brazil. - @fauxjohnmadden

The Canadian version of Breaking Bad is kind of lame. It ends after he gets cancer and his treatment is totally paid for by the government. - @larryapocalypse

Best tv poster: Breaking Bad

Best tv trailer: Justified

Runners-up: Bates Motel, Community, Dexter , American Horror Story (I particularly like Ascend for that one)

Best sports moment: Tie between the Giants winning their first playoff game 7 in franchise history and the first perfect game in franchise history. In summary: Matt Cain.

"You know what? It felt like the World Series,” Cain said after the game, according to the Chronicle, “but it almost felt a little bit louder, a little bit crazier than that. Every strike, they were going nuts for. It was truly amazing. I’ve never had that much excitement in every pitch, every strike, every swing."

Best sports blog post: This.

Best musical: The Book of Mormon

Runner-up: The Scottsboro Boys. SO good. And Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson made me laugh. A lot.

Best play: Humor Abuse

Best concert: Garbage. Aaaaaahhhhh.

Runners Up: Amanda Palmer (both kickstarter and full tour) and Foo Fighters at Outside Lands.

Best webcomic: Animals Talking in All Caps.

Best gif: This. 

Best Year: Joseph Gordon-Levitt. 

There are some more fun ones over here.