I consider The Tall Man to be the surprise movie of 2012 going beyond my limited expectations and a story that was at first confusing but quickly brought back into focus with plot points which make complete sense once the twists are revealed.
Savages isn’t a complete waste of time but it was a waste of potential. The main characters aren’t very well developed though it’s not helped that the actors don’t deliver better performances and the use of voice over from Blakely was annoying. There are a couple glimmers of light: the film looks great thanks to director of photographer Dan Mindel and Benicio Del Toro is fantastic in a small but integral role.
Contagion has some things going for it, but mainly from an acting and technical level rather than the story. The cast is mostly good despite having a limited amount of screen time and Soderbergh’s visual style, while nothing new from what he’s done in the past, still looks stunning and gives the film a certain gravitas yet at the same time I felt like I was more or less a spectator versus becoming involved or entrenched with what was going on.
The Bonfire of the Vanities was a critical and financial flop when it was released back in 1990 and considering its cast with Tom Hanks and Bruce Willis, it should have been better. For me, I don’t think it was that bad though I’ve never read the novel it was based upon so taking at face value, it’s at least an average, and biting, satirical drama-comedy.
The Amazing Spider-Man certainly had opportunities to be a great movie and although I still enjoyed the film, sometimes even immensely, there are times the script could’ve been tweaked. Even so, the casting was pretty good starting with Andrew Garfield who will hopefully find more bearings with the sequel(s) while Emma Stone was a delight.
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Season Four is a fun animated series with great action, incredible animation and well written stories (for the most part). Not sure how fanboys liked the show but for myself, as a modest fan of the franchise, I found each episode, and the season as a whole, to be enjoyable.