The Best of the Movies: January-April 2012

The gang from The Cabin in the Woods
are curious to see who the winners are.

The first 4 months of the year at your local cinema can be pretty sketchy. Some years are pretty solid & some are 2010, in which How to Train Your Dragon, Shutter Island, & Kick-Ass were the only legitimately good movies (unless of course you liked Alice in Wonderland) over that 4 month span. This year however there's been a bevy of good movies. I've seen 12 films this year & not one of them has been bad*, though admittedly that doesn't mean they've all been good. In honor of this overly strong opening, before we all get swallowed up in summer blockbuster euphoria with The Avengers opening tomorrow, I'm taking a look back & handing out some awards for the first third of the year.

*This omits a drunken test screening of "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" at Crossroads. That movie is absolutely as bad as you think it is, despite Idris Elba's livening up the film whenever he's on screen.

Spring Movie Preview

My #1 movie to see this April/May

It's been nearly 9 months since I've posted a movie preview, which may explain why so few people saw the 2 best movies of last year ("Warrior" & "50/50"), but before I go on maternity leave (Terrible joke, I know) I thought I'd give you the 5 must see movies of the next two months* & the 5 you should do your best to avoid.

*Technically May marks the beginning of the summer movie season in Hollywood but seeing as we (I'm assuming all my readers live in Arizona, if you don't I apologize for lumping you in with our lovely state) live in the real America, where in the span of a week "The Daily Show" & super awesome sitcom "Happy Endings" both take shots at your state for being racist, & not the left-wing elitist hell hole that is Hollywood I'm calling May what it is-a part of Spring.*

*To see a preview of the films click on their respective titles, & movies are listed in order of release date.

Five to See:


1. The Cabin in the Woods (April 13, otherwise known as Friday the 13th)

What it's about: Five twenty-something friends go on a vacation to a remote cabin in... you'll never guess it... the woods! On the plus side I don't think they all accidentally kill themselves "Tucker and Dale" style. On a less promising note even with Thor at their side they'll probably all get murdered. By what/whom & why though seem to be the interesting questions.