Showing posts with label best of the year 2012. Show all posts
Showing posts with label best of the year 2012. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Best of the decade 2010-2019 (film)

Here's my list of about 10 movies which were great in the past decade. Mind you, I haven't seen everything in 2019 (or previous) years, but I've seen a ton of comic book films and obviously Denis Villenueve and Christopher Nolan stuff.

Quite clearly for me, Mad Max was the best thing I saw. I think everyone would agree that it's the most transcendent/iconic for filmmaking in the 2010s.
  • Inception (2010)
  • The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
  • Prisoners (2013)
  • The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
  • Gravity (2013)
  • Gone Girl (2014)
  • ⭐ Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
  • Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
  • Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
  • Tie: Black Panther (2018) or Deadpool (2016) or X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
As I finish this list, I'm going to see Star Wars: Skywalker in a few hours ...It has nothing to do with the list above... Wish me luck!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Best of 2012: Film

Sorry for the delay... but it's still the first month of 2013. I held off because I wanted to see a few more films (catch up). Here's what I picked as best of 2012.


Marvel's Avengers
This will probably never happen again: a culmination of several movie franchises into one. I am sure they'll try again, but you know something will go wrong. Yes, it's a popcorn film, but so was Jaws. Robert Downey still stands out in the cast, but the rest do their part well.

Prometheus
Yes, I'm a nerd. It felt sloppy for sci-fi, but it really did its job here: scary, interesting, advanced.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
It honestly didn't feel that long. Skyfall and Django Unchained were much more boring (longer).


Casa de mi Padre
I think Will learned a few things from Tim and Eric here. The gags are good, and if you go in to this movie ready to laugh out loud, you won't be disappointed.

Dark Knight Rises
Even though I wrote about how horrible this film would be, I was pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. It's better than The Dark Knight (but not by much). It is packed with good scenes, characters, and toys. The tie-in with Batman Begins seemed a bit tacked-on, but who the hell cares? It's the best, most complete film I saw this year.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Best of 2012: Song

Since the advent of Spotify USA about two years ago, I have been exposed to massive amounts of music. You would think that would make finding the best music of the year, but it does not. It makes it harder. And I even made a 2012-specific playlist, only to find myself not really satisfied. Maybe it was a rough year for my musical tastes. But, here's the songs I had on a loop for a little while.


"To the World"
KanYe West, R. Kelly, & Teyana Taylor
This is good music. Hits the spot and is just the right amount of pop. A Rick James/Chappelle's Show shout-out here, which is kind of funny considering Dave Chappelle also lampooned the guy. Oh well

"Bones of Birds"
Soundgarden
Really loved the album, and it's hard to pick the best on it. Cornell says that this song is about childhood and losing innocence, but I don't really care. It's dark and Soundgarden in its truest, best form.

"Panopticon"
The Smashing Pumpkins
I liked Oceania, and really couldn't filter the "best song" from the album. "Pale Horse" came close, but it didn't have that sonic punch like "Panopticon". Really looking forward to what else comes out of Corgan next year!

"Dirty Rotten Bastards"
Green Day
Hard to pick a song in the triple album release... but this one seemed the most epic and all-encompassing. It reminds me of "Jesus of Suburbia".

"Tantalus"
Menomena
Moms is a really rockin' album, and doesn't disappoint for a Menomena fan.

Honorable mentions:

"Song Groove"
Michael Jackson
Also known as "Abortion Papers", this track was never released legitimately until now. It's a classic.

"She's the Woman"
Van Halen
Have to shout-out VH at least once this year.

"Opera Obscura"
...and You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
This band is really good at combining punk and metal into something arty. A lot of their stuff was good this year.

"There's That Grin"
Deerhoof
Pitchfork made a really good point about this band's music: all of their albums are different. High praise when a lot of bands just rehash and remix.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

The Comeback albums of 2012

There were handful of comebacks this year for alterna-grunge-metal bands from... simpler times. Garbage finally came back into the fold, albeit quietly. Probably the way they wanted it. Honestly, I didn't like any of the new tracks. Maybe I'm just growing old.

A louder, tackier group came back too: the Darkness. Their album didn't make much of a splash (at least in the U.S.) To be honest, I was disappointed. Their Hot Cakes actually turned me off from the band. I had too high hopes. I was a huge fan of their 2005 album, and eagerly awaited their return. Their new music videos disappointed me, too!

Tenacious D also came back after 6 years of silencio. Some good songs, but nothing here truly legendary in the way their debut rocked our socks.

Then there's Van Halen: Revenge of  The Roth! A great album of redone demos from the Zero sessions. Absolutely what the doctor ordered. I played the guitar solo from "She's the Woman" on repeat at least 30 times. And, If you haven't watched the videos of the band reminiscing, you definitely need to have a peek. I could watch them discuss the past all day. Van-fricking-Halen.


But the most surprising to me is King Animal, the Soundgarden record. After their permanent breakup, Chris Cornell seemed to become more... "fatherly" with his music. When I heard the news that the band was back, I feared the worst. I dreaded something as soporific as Audioslave; songs primed for those horrible Now! compilations. When I got news of the lead-off single being titled "Been Away Too Long", my heart cringed. The title of the album seemed bad also.

Fortunately, King Animal sounded like Soundgarden. And, it was good. It felt like it was a sequel to their last album. Still 90s pedigree. "Bones of Birds" and "A Thousand Days Before" are maybe my favorite songs of the year (even though, as Pitchfork points out, they are copies of oldies).

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Best of the Year 2012

...working on Best of the Year 2012 right now.

There will best lists for:
Stay tooned!

Moving some posts to Medium and elsewhere

There may be some video game or gardening posts here, but many of my blog and non-blog posts will be visible elsewhere, mostly likely my per...