2012 Media Diet

2012 Media Diet

Only full movie viewings are included.

*Repeat movie viewings

Bold: TV shows/season

Underlined: Novels

1. Dune (Lynch, 1984)

2. DOA (Maté, 1950)

3. The Time of Your Life (Potter, 1948)

4. The Student Prince at Old Hiedelberg (Lubitsch, 1927)

5. L'amour en fuite/Love on the Run (Truffaut, 1979)

6. Annie Get Your Gun (Sidney, 1950)

7. The Bank Dick (Cline, 1940)

8. Ginger Snaps (Fawcett, 2000)

9. 9 (Acker, 2009)

10. Visages d’Enfant/Faces of Children (Feyder, 1925)

11. The Circus (Chaplin, 1928)

12. The Satan Bug (Sturges, 1965)

13. In The Loop (Iannucci, 2009)

14. Get Shorty (Sonnenfeld, 1995)

15. Cry-Baby (Waters, 1990)

16. Stairway to Heaven (Powell, 1946)

17. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (Powell, 1943)

18. Hausu/House (Ohbayashi, 1977)

19. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alfredson, 2011)

20. Kill List (Wheatley, 2011)

21. The Artist (Hazanavicius, 2011)

22. Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011)

23. Rango (Verbinski, 2011)

24. 13 Assassins (Miike, 2010)

25. Mission Impossible 2 (Woo, 2000)

26. Bridesmaids (Feig, 2011)

27. Hunt for Red October (McTiernan, 1990)

28. Patriot Games (Noyce, 1992)

29. Drive (Winding Refn, 2011)

30. Mystery Team (Eckman, 2009)

31. Monsters (Edwards, 2010)

32. The Help (Taylor, 2011)

33. 50/50 (Levine, 2011)

34. Beginners (Mills, 2010)

35. Sin Nombre (Fukunaga, 2009)

36. Rubber (Dupeiux, 2010)

37. Shame (McQueen, 2011)

38. Midnight Cowboy (Schlesinger, 1969)

39. Chasing Amy (Smith, 1997)

40. A Letter to Three Wives (Mankiewicz, 1949)

41. The World, the Flesh, and the Devil (MacDougall, 1959)

42. Alpeis/Alps (Lanthimos, 2011)

43. Jodaeiye Nader az Simin/A Seperation (Farhadi, 2011)

44. A Better Life (Weitz, 2011)

45. The Man From Earth (Schenkman, 2007)

46. The Crow (Proyas, 1994)

47. The Ward (Carpenter, 2010)

48. Trolljegeren/Trollhunter (Øvredal, 2010)

49. Cul-De-Sac (Polanski, 1966)

50. Les Revenants/They Came Back (Campillo, 2004)

51. The Rocketeer (Johnston, 1991)

52. Kicking and Screaming (Baumbach, 1995)

53. Nuovo Cinema Paradiso/Cinema Paradiso (Tornatore, 1988)

54. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Herzog, 2010)

*55. Delicatessen (Jeunet, 1991)

56. Dai-Nihonjin/Big Man Japan (Matsumoto, 2007)

57. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Tykwer, 2006)

            Cloud Atlas (Mitchell, 2004)

58. Hobo With A Shotgun (Eisener, 2011)

59. Thirteen Days (Donaldson, 2000)

60. Heaven Can Wait (Lubitsch, 1943)

61. Thor (Branagh, 2011)

62. Margin Call (Chandor, 2011)

63. Ssaibogeujiman gwaenchanha/I’m A Cyborg But That’s Okay (Chan-wook, Park, 2006)

64. The Woman in the Window (Lang, 1944)

65. Hairspray (Shankman, 2007)

66. Banlieue 13/District B13 (Morel, 2004)

            Breakfast of Champions (Vonnegut, 1973)

67. Rain Man (Levinson, 1988)

68. Shakespeare In Love (Madden, 1998)

69. In Darkness (Holland, 2011)

70. Visioneers (Drake, 2008)

            Rubicon (Horwitch, 2010)

71. The Invisible Man (Whale, 1933)

72. Larceny, Inc. (Bacon, 1942)

73. The Song of Bernadette (King, 1943)

*74. Lady From Shanghai (Welles, 1947)

75. Devil Dogs of the Air (Bacon, 1935)

76. Blade af Satans bog/Leaves Out of the Book of Satan (Dreyer, 1921)

77. Gold Diggers of 1933 (LeRoy, 1933)

78. My America (Hegedus, 2011)

79. The Way Back (Weir, 2010)

80. A Shot in the Dark (Edwards, 1964)

81. Slacker (Linklater, 1991)

82. I Melt With You (Pellington, 2011)

83. Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2011)

84. Sleeping Beauty (Leigh, 2011)

85. Melancholia (von Trier, 2011)

86. Non si sevizia un paperino/Don’t Torture a Duckling (Fulci, 1972)

87. Heaven (Tykwer, 2002)

88. Naked (Leigh, 1993)

89. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (Greenaway, 1989)

90. The Girlfriend Experience (Soderbergh, 2009)

*91. The Amateur Monster Movie (Richards, 2011)

92. Dyut meng gam/Life Without Principle (To, 2011)

93. Le diable probablement/The Devil, Probably (Bresson, 1977)

94. Michael (Schleinzer, 2011)

95. The Deep Blue Sea (Davies, 2011)

96. Nuit blanche/Sleepless Night (Jardin, 2011)

97. En terrains connus/Familiar Ground (Lafleur, 2011)

98. The Hunter (Pitts, 2010)

99. Elena (Zvyagintsev, 2011)

100. Sisters (De Palma, 1973)

            Cosmopolis (DeLillo, 2003)

101. Serbuan maut/The Raid: Redemption (Evans, 2011)

102. Die Büchse der Pandora/Pandora’s Box (1929, Wilhelm Pabst)

*103. The Mothman Prophecies (Pellington, 2002)

104. Ace in the Hole (Wilder, 1951)

105. Easy A (Gluck, 2010)

106. Troll (Buechler, 1986)

107. Hearat Shulayim/Footnote (Cedar, 2011)

108. Copie Conforme/Certified Copy (Kiarostami, 2010)

109. Hunger Games (Ross, 2012)

110. The Thirteenth Floor (Rusnak, 1999)

111. Bubble (Soderbergh, 2005)

112. Grip of the Strangler/The Haunted Strangler (Day, 1958)

113. Heathers (Lehmann, 1988)

            Farscape: Season 1 (O’Bannon, 1999)

114. Troll 2 (Fragasso, 1990)

115. Best Worst Movie (Stephenson, 2009)

*116. Dogtooth (Lanthimos, 2009)

117. Metropolitan (Stillman, 1990)

118. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Hill, 1969)

119. Mission: Impossible III (Abrams, 2006)

120. The Ruling Class (Medak, 1972)

*121. Alien 3 (Fincher, 1992)

122. The Seven Year Itch (Wilder, 1955)

123. The Green Lantern (Campbell, 2011)

124. Sonatine (Kitano, 1993)

125. Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (Nagisa Ôshima, 1983)

126. Play Misty For Me (Eastwood, 1971)

127. Primary Colors (Nichols, 1998)

128. Monsieur Lazhar (Falardeau, 2011)

129. Prometheus (Scott, 2012)

130. On Borrowed Time (Bucquet, 1939)

131. The Train (Frankenheimer, 1964)

132. La rose de fer/The Iron Rose (Rollin, 1973)

133. Snow White and the Huntsman (Sanders, 2012)

134. Son of Frankenstein (Lee, 1939)

135. Forbidden Games (Clément, 1952)

136. Abbott and Constello Meet Frankestein (Barton, 1948)

137. Sharon’s Baby/The Devil Within Her (Sasdy, 1975)

138. Training Day (Faqua, 2001)

139. Green For Danger (Gilliat, 1946)

140. Adventures of Tartu (Bucquet, 1943)

141. The Spiral Staircase (Siodmak, 1945)

142. Hopscotch (Neame, 1980)

*143. Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen, 2000)

144. Mosura/Mothra (Honda, 1961)

145. Bijo to Ekitainingen/The H-Man (Honda, 1958)

146. Nordwand/North Face (Stölzl, 2008)

147. Dark Days (Singer, 2000)

148. Moonrise Kingdom (Anderson, 2012)

149. Tyrannosaur (Considine, 2011)

150. Patton (Schaffner, 1970)

151. Into the Abyss (Herzog, 2011)

152. 21 Jump Street (Lord, 2012)

153. The Grey (Carnahan, 2011)

154. Flandersui gae/Barking Dogs Never Bite (Joon-ho Bong, 2000)

155. Intouchables/The Intouchables (Nakache, 2011)

*156. Dellamorte Dellamore/Cemetery Man (Soavi, 1994)

157. Immortals (Singh, 2011)

            Ender’s Game (Scott Card, 1985)

158. White Dog (Fuller, 1982)

159. These Amazing Shadows (Mariano, 2011)

160. Cropsey (Brancaccio, 2009)

*161. Labyrinth (Henson, 1986)

*162. Blues Brothers (Landis, 1980)

163. Armadillo (Pedersen, 2010)

164. The Devil’s Double (Tamahori, 2011)

*165. The Prestige (Nolan, 2006)

166. Life During Wartime (Solondz, 2009)

167. The Dark Knight Rises (Nolan, 2012)

168. Samaria/Samaritan Girl (Ki-duk Kim, 2004)

169. Furankenshutain no kaijû: Sanda tai GairaThe War of the Gargantuas (Honda, 1968)

170. Devil Doll (Shonteff, 1964)

171. The Front (Ritt, 1976)

172. Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da/Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (Ceylan, 2011)

173. Street Scene (Vidor, 1931)

174. Ai no borei/Empire of Passion (Ôshima, 1978)

175. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012)

176. Rundskop/Bullhead (Roskam, 2011)

177. Candyman (Rose, 1992)

178. The Hunter (Nettheim, 2011)

179. Restrepo (Hetherington, 2010)

180. The Turin Horse (Tarr, 2011)

181. That Evening Sun (Teems, 2009)

182. The Adventures of Robin Hood (Curtiz, 1938)

183. Quel maledetto treno blindato/The Inglorious Bastards  (Castellari, 1978)

184. Sátántangó (Tarr, 1994)

185. A Bridge Too Far (Attenborough, 1977)

186. Black Sunday (Frankenheimer, 1977)

187. Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (McNaughton, 1986)

188. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (Cassavetes, 1976)

189. Black Moon (Malle, 1975)

*190. Punishment Park (Watkins, 1971)

191. Crimson Tide (Scott, 1995)

192. The Dark Crystal (Henson, 1982)

193. Bullitt (Yates, 1968)

194. Paranormal Activity 2 (Williams, 2010)

195. Grand Hotel (Goulding, 1932)

196. El Mariachi (Rodriguez, 1992)

*197. Mousehunt (Verbinski, 1997)

*198. Srpski film/A Serbian Film (Spasojevic, 2010)

199. The Three Stooges (Farrelly, 2012)

200. Papillon (Schaffner, 1973)

*201. The Best Years of Our Lives (Wyler, 1946)

202. ParaNorman (Butler, 2012)

Lolita (Nabokov, 1955)

203. Playtime (Tati, 1967)

            Farscape: Season 2 (O’Bannon, 2000)

204. The Master (Anderson, 2012)

205. Philadelphia (Demme, 1993)

206. Prince of Darkness (Carpenter, 1987)

207. The Avengers (Whedon, 2012)

208. Ordinary People (Redford, 1980)

209. Killer Joe (Friedkin, 2011)

210. I Am Omega (Furst, 2007)

211. Dredd 3D (Travis, 2012)

212. The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Lord, 2012)

213. World Without End (Bernds, 1956)

214. The Fugitive (Davis, 1993)

215. The Mummy (Freund, 1932)

216. The Valley of Gwangi (O’Connolly, 1969)

217. The Fortune Cookie (Wilder, 1966)

218. Aurora (Puiu, 2010)

219. Hudson Hawk (Lehmann, 1991)

220. The People Under the Stairs (Craven, 1991)

221. The Imposter (Layton, 2012)

222. Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943)

223. On the Beach (Kramer, 1959)

224. Blackmail (Hitchcock, 1929)

225. Shivers (Cronenberg, 1975)

226. Beyond the Black Rainbow (Cosmatos, 2010)

*227. Pet Sematary (Lambert, 1989)

228. The Snowtown Murders (Kurzel, 2011)

*229. Hobo With A Shotgun (Eisener, 2011)

230. Le notti di Cabiria/Nights of Cabiria (Fellini, 1957)

231. The Mummy (Fisher, 1959)

232. Dawn Patrol (Goulding, 1938)

233. I Spit on Your Grave (Zarchi, 1978)

234. I Married A Witch (Clair, 1942)

235. Zots! (Castle, 1962)

*236. Creepshow (Romero, 1982)

*237. [REC] (Plaza, 2007)

*238. Dead Alive/Braindead (Jackson, 1992)

239. Looper (Johnson, 2012)

*240. The Fog (Carpenter, 1980)

*241. Paura nella città dei morti viventi/City of the Living Dead (Fulci, 1980)

242. ...E tu vivrai nel terrore! L'aldilà/The Beyond (Fulci, 1981)

            Mister B. Gone (Barker, 2007)

243. Klovn: The Movie/Klown (Nørgaard, 2010)

244. House (Miner, 1986)

245. Argo (Affleck, 2012)

246. Piranha (Aja, 2010)

*247. Halloween (Carpenter, 1978)

248. Dark Water (Nakata, 2002)

*249. The Cabin in the Woods (Goddard, 2011)

250. Serpent’s Egg (Bergman, 1977)

251. Bellflower (Glodell, 2011)

252. Hodejegerne/Headhunters (Tyldum, 2011)

253. The Face of Another (Teshigahara, 1966)

254. A Fish Called Wanda (Crichton, 1988)

255. Oslo, August 31st (Trier, 2011)

256. Ballada o soldate/Ballad of a Soldier (Chukhray, 1959)

257. Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Gelb, 2011)

258. The International (Tykwer, 2009)

259. Glen or Glenda (Wood Jr., 1953)

*260. Winter’s Bone (Granik, 2010)

261. Skyfall (Mendes, 2012)

262. Sideways (Payne, 2004)

263. Ossos (Costa, 1997)

264. Scarface (Hawks, 1932)

265. Punisher: War Zone (Alexander, 2008)

266. Garden of Evil (Hathaway, 1954)

267. Wreck-It Ralph (Moore, 2012)

268. King of the Zombies (Yarbrough, 1941)

269. The Wrong Box (Forbes, 1966)

*270. The Warriors (Hill, 1979)

*271. The Meaning of Life (Jones, 1983)

272. The Devil’s Advocate (Hackford, 1997)

*273. Fail-Safe (Lumet, 1964)

274. Skammen/Shame (Bergman, 1968)

275. Reign Over Me (Binder, 2007)

276. Sons of the Desert (Seiter, 1933)

277. Lockout (Mather, 2012)

278. The Guns of Navarone (Thompson, 1961)

279. Silent Movie (Brooks, 1976)

280. Shadows (Cassavetes, 1959)

281. The Racket (Cromwell, 1951)

282. Lincoln (Spielberg, 2012)

283. Anna Karenina (Wright, 2012)

284. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Stoller, 2008)

            Gerald’s Game (King, 1992)

285. In Time (Niccol, 2011)

286. Avanti! (Wilder, 1972)

287. A Night to Remember (Baker, 1958)

288. Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (Lamont, 1955)

289. The Wrong Man (Hitchcock, 1956)

290. Cowboys & Aliens (Favreau, 2011)

291. Les Miserables (Hooper, 2012)

292. Django Unchained (Tarantino, 2012)

293. The Story of Mankind (Allen, 1957)

294. Escape from L.A. (Carpenter, 1996)

295. Des homes et des dieux/Of Gods and Men (Beauvois, 2010)

296. Love (Eubank, 2011)

297. Father’s Little Dividend (Minnelli, 1951)

298. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (Jackson, 2012)

299. Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (Lamont, 1952)

Seven Favorites:
 

1. The Imposter (2012) – Orson Welles’ F For Fake is the only other documentary I can name which truly turns the genre 180 degrees back at the audience. In addition to the imaginative recreations and hypnotic storytelling, this twisted exploration of human motives doesn’t exactly answer the real questions, but ultimately throws the whole material of a documentary to the whims of the viewer.

2. The Life and Deathof Colonel Blimp (1943) – I found this film tied with Patton and The Train, but beat them out through its intimate look into the hearts and heads of soldiers. This film follows one man through generations of evolving conflict and foe, facing new realities with romantic ideals.

3. Papillon (1973) – With some of the most brutal make-up I’ve seen, Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman’s journey in this film spans continent, civilization, and reality. Passing through a jungle prison, leper colony, solitary confinement, dream sequences, and a surreal tribal village, this is less about the state of imprisonment and more on the state of humanity. 

4. Playtime (1967) – This French film is the epitome of whimsical. Each shot and sequence is so carefully constructed and filled with activity that it’s hard to know which corner of the frame you should be watching. An office building becomes a labyrinth, a traffic jam becomes a carousel, and a renovated restaurant overflows with colorful chaos, all in the delightful aesthetic that only Jacques Tati can concoct.

5. Perfume: The Storyof a Murderer (2006) – For a period piece about someone with extraordinary sense of smell, this film has mesmerizing moments that feel less like a scene and more like a work of art. The content is dark and grotesque, befitting a story that encompasses the genres of horror, romance, comedy, drama, and fantasy.

6. The Ruling Class (1972) – This loony black comedy offers politics, religion, social class, and spontaneous musical numbers. Mischief only adds to mischief and it’s hard to beat this parade of performances when Peter O’Toole plays the schizophrenic lead.

7. Rubber (2010) – This movie aspires to be nothing but entertainment and that is why I love it. Director Quentin Dupieux discards all the rules by taking a silly story about an animate tire and adding violence, black humor, and a whole additional jab at movies and their audiences. The opening sequence alone I find worth bootlegging and sharing with friends.

Seven Least Favorites:

1. Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) – I respect Werner Herzog as much as the next cinephile, but the material here is already sparse to work with (this is evident in the ending where we are sidetracked by albino crocodiles). Finally getting into the cave was my first struggle. The endlessly overused 3D technology and RC helicopter cameras were my next. As time crawled along, there was nothing new to absorb.

2. Glen or Glenda (1953) – If you know anything about movies, this should be one. Renowned director Ed Wood Jr.’s depiction of the world’s intolerance of transvestitism is nothing but stock footage, narration, and experimental sequences. As far as bad movies are concerned, at least Plan 9 From Outer Space was entertaining.

3. The Hunter (2010) – I cannot call this a movie. Rather it is two separate movies, chopped up, and then connected with staples. What would have made for a great visual drama turns a ninety degree angle down a different path. Potential themes are cut down and replaced with an unwelcome punch-line. It was one of the most disappointing theatre experiences I’ve ever had.

4. I Am Omega (2007) – When your closing credits are misspelled, you’ve achieved a level of failure beyond comparison. I watched this movie as part of a “zombie collection” DVD and it stars a man who slightly resembles Lou Diamond Phillips. This laughable story is presented as if a group of high school kids shot it over a weekend and offers a smorgasbord of hilarious clichés.

5. I Spit on your Grave (1978) – In the realm of Last House on the Left, this is another “rape and revenge” exploitation flick with nothing else to offer but tasteless, b-horror violence for shock value. For a story that should have been simple, this took forever, leading off in directions that shouldn’t have been an option.

6. Paranormal Activity 2 (2010) – Did this movie even have a script? I found the original to be a pleasant surprise and I had hoped this would offer further creativity with its new perspective. Rather than an expansion on the first film, it offers very little to indulge us. The chills are cheaper, the story is weaker, and the whole thing would have benefited from a ten minute runtime.

7. Zots! (1962) – While William Castle may have innovated the theatre-going experience, this film shows a different side to his creativity. Weak acting, comical visual effects, and a jarring subplot with Cold War spies took a fun fantasy idea and assembled it with broken parts.

Stats:

Movies: 299

Books: 7

TV Shows/season: 3

Most viewed directors:

            John Carpenter: 5

            Billy Wilder: 4

If anyone can find a typo/misspelling, let me know and you’ll get cred.