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Watched on Thursday May 22, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 24, 2025.

Watched on Friday May 23, 2025.

Kinda loved this but watching it with some raucous friends definitely played a large part in my enjoyment. This isn’t a “watch it alone on the couch” kind of movie. Had a blast!

Warner Archive Blu watch

The final act really got me in the emotions on this one, even if the story arcs are highly predictable. This remains an energetic romp with a message of bravery for a cowardly world. Caught the 4K UHD, which looks great.

4K UHD rewatch.

Watched on Tuesday May 6, 2025.

Watched on Thursday May 8, 2025.

“We really had it all, didn’t we?” Said Leo Di Caprio about the thrillers and action films of the 1990s

In a previous era just normal ass programmer thrillers were mostly better than they are now! This isn’t particularly special but it’s pretty rock solid.

4K UHD watch of the director’s cut. Hadn’t seen the film since theaters.

Watched on Sunday May 4, 2025.

Had seen this before, but hadn’t been seen by it before.

Not only holds up, but aged like fine wine and is way better than I ed it being.

Whew. Reactions have been so polarizing I was worried I wouldn’t love it. I don’t disagree that the story is somewhat sparse, so I don’t think this is Evans’ masterpiece or anything. But I genuinely loved it. And suspect I’ll watch it again fairly soon. I just think Evans + Hardy worked liked gangbusters for me.

Saw the first 2/3rds opening night in IMAX but had to dip out for a family thing that came up. Saw the whole thing tonight on a regular screen. IMAX was amazing and the final act of this was spectacular. I think culturally, this will be THE movie of 2025.

Jeff Fahey is under appreciated. These DTV sequels really are pretty fun. This one’s not quite on par with II but still pulpy as hell.

Honestly very pulpy fun!

“You were right, I was wrong” - Words every frustrated modern American loves to hear.

This is an incredible ethical exploration and masterfully paced thriller. 

Tony Scott for life!

An absolutely stunning, and apparently endlessly timely, tale of profound human authenticity and heroism, while also being highly compelling and propulsive. A 4K UHD viewing from the release.

I enjoyed this quite a bit! Lots of fun twists and turns so maybe don’t watch the trailers if you haven’t already?

Watched on Wednesday April 16, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday April 16, 2025.

I think my expectations were super low, and as such I had a pretty good time here?

Had a blast with this. Viola Davis is just better than most who try to do it. Love seeing kick ass action, and a functional and authentic first family! It’s about as smart as your average DIE HARD knock off, but more earnest. Let Viola do literally anything she wants!

Kinda loved this?!

Watched on Saturday April 5, 2025.

Watched on Saturday April 5, 2025.

4K UHD rewatch

Watched on Tuesday April 1, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 31, 2025.

I'd seen this before. Multiple times. It hit home deeply this go round, and I think it's a full on major studio blockbuster masterpiece.

No joke this is a great police procedural / crime thriller!? On Netflix.

I love this movie.

Wildly under seen and under appreciated. Still so great!

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 15, 2025.

Watched on Friday March 14, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 9, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 13, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 11, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 11, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 12, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday March 12, 2025.

Whoops 5 stars might win best picture might be the best movie of 2025 might be the best of SXSW 2025

Watched on Monday March 10, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 10, 2025.

Watched on Monday March 10, 2025.

Here's all the feature films I was able to watch at SXSW 2024 with my accompanying star ratings. These are simply in the order I watched them in.

• Touch Me
• The Astronaut
• Hallow Road
• We Are Storror
• The ant²
• Arrest the Midwife
• Drop
• Good Boy
• LifeHack
• Clown in a Cornfield

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
2. Rebel Ridge
3. The Fall Guy
4. Land of Bad
5. Life After Fighting
6. Kill
7. The Shadow Strays
8. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In
9. The Killer
10. One More Shot

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Brutalist
2. Dune: Part Two
3. Conclave
4. The Last Showgirl
5. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
6. Rebel Ridge
7. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
8. The Wild Robot
9. Babygirl
10. The Fall Guy

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Plastic Guns
• Ghost Killer
• Don't Mess with Grandma
• Planet B
• Anora
• Heavier Trip
• Saturday Night
• Ick
• The Wild Robot
• Trizombie

...plus 16 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Ed Travis' Planet of the Apes franchise ranking.

1. Planet of the Apes
2. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
3. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
5. War for the Planet of the Apes
6. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
7. Battle for the Planet of the Apes
8. Escape from the Planet of the Apes
9. Beneath the Planet of the Apes
10. Planet of the Apes

Here's all the feature films I was able to watch at SXSW 2024 with my accompanying star ratings. These are simply in the order I watched them in.

• Backspot
• Road House
• Family
• Dickweed
• Whatever it Takes
• Azrael
• I Saw the TV Glow
• Sasquatch Sunset
• Arcadian
• Monkey Man

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Toxic Avenger
• Divinity
• So Unreal
• Triggered
• Out of Darkness
• Strange Darling
• One-Percenter
• The Last Stop in Yuma County
• Your Lucky Day
• 100 Yards

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
• Talk to Me
• Flamin' Hot
• Self Reliance
• or Die
• Hypnotic
• Furies
• John Wick: Chapter 4
• Monolith
• STILL: A Michael J. Fox Movie

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My personal ranking of the films from the Shawscope Vol. 1 Blu-ray box set from Arrow Video. Ranking these as I go through them. We're covering all the films at Cinapse!

1. The Boxer from Shantung

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

2. Challenge of the Masters

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

3. Five Fingers of Death

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

4. Crippled Avengers

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

5. Dirty Ho

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

6. Executioners from Shaolin

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

7. Shaolin Temple

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

8. The Five Venoms

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

9. Heroes of the East

   Cinapse roundtable reviews!

10. Chinatown Kid

    Cinapse roundtable reviews!

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

What else should I add?!

• Mass
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• Sicario
• No Country for Old Men
• Rudy

Here's all the feature films I was able to watch at SXSW 2022 with my accompanying star ratings. These are simply in the order I watched them in.

• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Sissy
• Emergency
• The Lost City
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
• Slash/Back
• A Lot of Nothing
• Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
• X
• Deadstream

...plus 14 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Tale of Zatoichi
2. The Tale of Zatoichi Continues
3. New Tale of Zatoichi
4. Zatoichi the Fugitive
5. Zatoichi on the Road
6. Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold
7. Zatoichi's Flashing Sword
8. Fight, Zatoichi, Fight
9. Adventures of Zatoichi
10. Zatoichi's Revenge

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Rurouni Kenshin: The Final
2. Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning
3. Riders of Justice
4. Old Henry
5. The Swordsman
6. One Shot
7. Hydra
8. Xtreme
9. Tom Clancy's Without Remorse
10. Copshop

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is a list of all the films that have screened publicly at the Community Cinema, an outdoor amphitheater in Austin, TX that is part of the Community First! Village and developed in partnership with the Alamo Drafthouse.

• Creed
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• High Noon
• Finding Nemo
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• The Lego Movie
• Jurassic World
• Joe
• Inside Out
• Back to the Future

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Here's all the Fantastic Fest 2016 features I was able to catch.

• Nova Seed
• They Call Me Jeeg
• Arrival
• Boyka: Undisputed IV
• The Void
• The Red Turtle
• 24×36
• The Autopsy of Jane Doe
• The Bad Batch
• The Girl with All the Gifts

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are the movies I saw at Fantastic Fest 2015. In chronological order.

• The Assassin
• Lazer Team
• Victoria
• Anomalisa
• Tale of Tales
• Green Room
• Camino
• The ing
• Gridlocked
• The Deathless Devil

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Here are the feature films I saw at SXSW 2014, in chronological order.

I also caught a couple of their "Episodic" programming slots which were episodes of TV shows. Saw the first episode of COSMOS and of FROM DUSK TILL DAWN: THE SERIES.

1. Exists
2. Manny
3. Only Lovers Left Alive
4. Fort Tilden
5. Starry Eyes
6. Joe
7. Frank
8. The Guest
9. The Raid 2
10. Godzilla

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I didn't see everything. And I specifically assert that I think these are probably the BEST films [quality-wise] I saw which were released in 2013, but not necessarily my favorite. I hope to release a "favorite" list as well, which will likely be pretty different, factoring in my personal tastes and plans to re-watch much more heavily.

I'm already second guessing myself even as I list these, so this isn't definitive. No list really is.

Didn't see yet: Her, Nebraska, Act Of Killing, Blue Jasmine, Philomena, All Is Lost, Before Midnight, and probably more.

Didn't Dig Like I Thought I Would: Inside Llewyn Davis, The Grandmaster

1 - 12 Years A Slave
2 - Gravity
3 - Mud
4 - Short Term 12
5 - Dallas Buyers Club
6 - Wolf Of Wall Street
7 - Spring Breakers
8 - Ninja 2: Shadow Of A Tear
9 - Ain't Them Bodies Saints
10 - Fruitvale Station
11 - Captain Phillips
12 - Stoker
13 - I Declare War
14 - American Hustle
15 - Only God Forgives

1. 12 Years a Slave
2. Gravity
3. Mud
4. Short Term 12
5. Dallas Buyers Club
6. The Wolf of Wall Street
7. Spring Breakers
8. Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
9. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
10. Fruitvale Station

...plus 5 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I waited WAY too long (AND/OR had a killer flu during New Years) to assemble this list, so I'm not going to try and publish it on AICN. But I still wanted to get this together and post it somewhere, so here we go.

First of all, I'm not huge on BEST OF lists, because I think film is way too subjective for that. There simply isn't a BEST PICTURE every year. BEST lists allow for great debate, but they are essentially meaningless as actual indicators. Therefore, I compile "favorite" lists. This is my own, highly subjective list of my favorite films of 2012. I rank these according to my own tastes, experiences watching them, and how much they have stuck with me or filled me with wonder or ion.

This list is not all-encoming. It might shift and change over the years. But because I spend a lot of time watching, thinking about, writing about, and catag the movies I watch... I figure this list might be worth some people's time. At the very least, it is worth my time!

So yeah, this list is far more a reflection of my own personal tastes than it is a statement on great cinema in 2012. That said, hopefully my tastes will shed tiny little spotlights on some awesome movies.

SOME YEAR END STATS

I catalogued 323 films watched in 2012 on Letterboxd.
I watched about 15 screeners for film festivals that I couldn't log.
And I watched roughly 3 films that I couldn't get added to Letterboxd's database.

SO: 341 Total Films Watched in 2012.

SOME FILMS I DIDN'T SEE, BUT MIGHT BE GREAT

Silver Linings Playbook, Amour, Flight, Les Miserables, Smashed, Wreck-It Ralph

SOME AWARD WINNING FILMS THAT I BARELY LIKED AT ALL

Lincoln, Holy Motors, The Hobbit, The Master

SOME RUNNERS UP

Looper, Safety Not Guaranteed, Skyfall, Argo, Get The Gringo, The Dark Knight Rises, The Grey, Bernie,

A MOVIE THAT WILL BE ON NEXT YEAR'S LIST BUT DIDN'T GET A 2012 RELEASE

I Declare War

1. Django Unchained

   I laughed, was thrilled, was entertained, was appalled, was compelled to consider the horrors of slavery.

2. The Raid

   Saw this 4 times in theaters and would've been my number one but doesn't quite have the unique and singular vision of DJANGO UNCHAINED. That said, this is the greatest action film in at least a decade and nothing made me exclaim out loud like the fights in this movie.

3. Cloud Atlas

   The words I use for this movie are the same ones other fans would use: grand, sweeping, ambitious, ballsy, complex, uneven, unique. Only gotten to see this once yet, but will champion this film for years to come in light of its box office failure and critical dismissal.

4. Moonrise Kingdom

   Wes Anderson's most cynicism-free, whimsical, celebratory film yet. I love the coming of age tale at the heart and the redemption that is found here.

5. Dredd

   While remarkably similar to THE RAID, and completely throttled at the box office, DREDD was harsh, well-staged, visually stunning, and refreshingly simple.

6. Chronicle

   The best found footage film, and the world's first legitimate super villain tale. The teenagers here feel authentic, if maybe hyper-real, and the emotional and action payoffs in this film border on profound for a first time filmmaker and a left field original property.

7. Prometheus

   This will almost certainly be my most controversial choice on my list. While I acknowledge some of the flaws and idiocies of this film, I was filled with wonder by it. Noomi Rapace's quest for truth amidst a grand space opera that was visually opulent and mythologically confounding worked a magic over me that no one else seems to have experienced. I feel lucky to have loved this so much.

8. The Avengers

   This thing just clicks, and I find the sheer achievement of it all to be fascinating. The humor works best for me, with it all feeling true to the comic book characters. The action works, too, behind the humor; again because it feels like it comes out of the reverence for the original characters.

9. The Cabin in the Woods

   While I've still only seen it once, this is a horror fan's dream and worst nightmare all wrapped up in one. Smart, hilarious, entertaining, and surprising; the movie totally deconstructs a genre. An audience member at our Q and A asked Whedon/Goddard how they felt about making "the last horror movie". I think that audience member was on to something.

10. Brooklyn Castle

    My number 10 spot was really tough for me. So many runners up that might have deserved this spot. But Brooklyn Castle wins the spot because it is an amazing, triumphant subject matter wrapped in a game I care nothing about. The kids in this film will enchant you, the spotlight that the film shines on problems in our education system will enrage you. And your heart will soar as you root for the next generation.

Butt Numb A Thon 14 happened Dec. 8th-9th, 2012 in Austin Texas.

It was my first ever BNAT and I had a blast.

This list is slightly incomplete because of one Secret Screening that cannot be named, but here is a more detailed list of what we saw, including footage for films soon to be released!

AIC With Harry Knowles YouTube Show Sizzle Reel
TEEN WOLF
Trailer: STAR TREK 2
HOBBIT (48FPS 3D)
Trailer + Ninja Fight Scene: GI JOE 2
BROADWAY MELODY OF 1940
THE GANGS ALL HERE
MAMA + GdT Q&A
Trailer: PACIFIC RIM
Trailer: WORLD WAR Z
LIBELED LADY
"BRAIN DAMAGE" AKA False Title For Secret Screening
Trailer: EVIL DEAD
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
WHITE HEAT
Trailer: THE HEAT (W/ Paul Fieg Q&A)
ROLLERBALL
Trailer: PAIN AND GAIN
BULLET TO THE HEAD

1. Teen Wolf
2. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3. Broadway Melody of 1940
4. The Gang's All Here
5. Mama
6. Libeled Lady
7. Nightmare Alley
8. White Heat
9. Rollerball
10. Bullet to the Head

I'll keep updating this list as I make my way through what I hope will be the entire Cannon Films catalog! I'm writing up my journey at

www.aintitcool.com under the column title Cannon Fodder.

Enjoy!

• Masters of the Universe
• Over the Top
• New Year's Evil
• Street Smart
• Breakin'
• Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo
• Runaway Train
• 10 to Midnight
• Murphy's Law
• Messenger of Death

I'm taking a page out of Neil Miller's (Film School Rejects) book and ranking the films that I saw at Fantastic Fest 2012. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see all that many films due to my work schedule. But I still caught enough to make it worth ranking them, if only for myself.

I'm going to say the ranking factor here is how much I enjoyed watching each film. There are, therefore, going to be some films that could easily move up in my estimation as I rewatch them over the years.

Enjoy!

1. I Declare War

   THE movie of the festival for me. Had a blast watching it and was surprised by it. This is something to buzz about.

2. Dredd

   Loved this movie and am physically saddened that it is doing so poorly at the box office.

3. Looper

   Probably the BEST movie I saw at the festival, honestly. But I'm still processing it and frankly had more fun watching the previous two. Further viewings will almost certainly become much more fun for me.

4. Cold Steel

   Keep an eye out for director David Wu. This movie could have been a straight up John Woo movie circa the late '80s. Awesome WWII sniper action and overboiled melodrama. Love it.

5. Miami Connection

   Drafthouse Films picked a winner. I'd love to watch and rewatch this on blu-ray. Ninjas, '80s pop, and bros.

6. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

   Loved seeing this movie with Scott Adkins and John Hyams present for Q and A and dug the action a whole lot. Even dug the different direction this film took. But the tone is very dark and unforgiving.

7. Tower Block

   I had fun with this sniper thriller. Like a slasher movie only with an unseen sniper. Add a cool "last girl" and a bullyish houligan and you've got a good time at the movies.

8. Sightseers

   Didn't like KILL LIST, did like SIGHTSEERS.

9. No Rest for the Wicked

   Loved the central character and his journey of corruption and quasi-redemption. Dug the ending a lot. But this was very slow paced and too long. Liked it.

10. Holy Motors

    This is a great film that I didn't really like watching very much. But the more I think about it, the more I connect with it...

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.