Best Movies and Performances 2012

Here's my latest video guys! I hope you enjoy it. They're my choices for Best Supporting and Leading Performances, as well as the Best Picture of 2012. Thanks for your support! - Ben

Lady and the Tramp (1955) - ★★★½

Director: Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske
Voice Actors: Peggy Lee, Barbara Luddy, Larry Roberts, Bill Thompson, Bill Baucorn

Lady and the Tramp surprised me. When I was a child, I despised this movie. I can't exactly say why, but I just never connected to the story or the characters. Probably because I'm a cat person.

Anyway, watching it again I realised that this is one of Disney's better films. The animation looks magnificent for 1955, and many scenes just had me in awe. I think what surprised me the most was that I got a little bit emotional towards the end. It's not one of my favorite Disney films, but I can't deny that's a very good movie.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) - ★★★½

Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers: Eric Roth (Screenplay), Jonathan Safran Foer (Novel)
Stars: Thomas Horn, Max Von Sydow, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Viola Davis, Jeffrey Wright, Zoe Caldwell

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close didn't manage to pull at my heartstrings. What it did do however was make me extremely intrigued in the story of an autistic boy on a mission. Everything with Thomas Horn and Max Von Sydow was absolute gold. The chemistry these two had was beyond words. I found myself absolutely enthralled in the adventure of Oscar (Thomas Horn). It seemed like the film was split into two different sections. One was the awesome tale of an autistic kid trying to keep the memory of his father alive, and the other is the sadness of the 9/11 terrorist attack. While the story of this kid's struggle is amazing, the film falls flat whenever they focus on 9/11.

The Cell (2000) - ★★½

Director: Tarsem Singh
Writers: Mark Protosevich
Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Vincent D'Onofrio, Vince Vaughn, Dylan Baker, Marianne Jean-Baptiste

What do you get when you cross Alice in Wonderland with Silence of the Lambs? You get The Cell. It's a bad movie... but slightly better than most modern horror flicks. You can put that down to it having better special effects, amazing costume design, stunning cinematography, and an interesting story. However, it lacked in terms of acting, character development, and perfecting the story. It had a hell of a lot of potential! Like I said, it was very interesting. Oh, did I mention that this is one of the weirdest freaking movies I've ever seen! It's the kind of thing that would disturb the masses, but it didn't disturb me as much as I thought it would. In that sense, it was also a let-down.

Moneyball (2011) - ★★★★½

Director: Bennett Miller
Writers: Michael Lewis (Book), Stan Chervin (Story), Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin (Screenplay)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Philip Seymour Hoffman

I never liked baseball. I'm from Australia, where the sport isn't very popular. I know little about the game rules or history, so I had no idea what this movie had in store. You know what Moneyball did, it made me interested in baseball. In all my life there have been only two other movies that had me curious about the sport. They were: The Sandlot Kids and Bad News Bears. Moneyball trumps them all; it's thrilling, intelligent and very well made. The story itself was extremely interesting by showing us the unfairness of the sport and how mathematics can be a valuable tool. Look, if a movie can make you interested in a sport you never payed attention to, then it's done a great job.

All the King's Men (1949) - ★★★★★

Director: Robert Rossen
Writers: Robert Penn Warren (Novel), Robert Rossen (Screenplay)
Stars: Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Mercedes McCambridge, Joanne Dru, John Derek, Anne Seymour

Money, Power, Greed, Corruption, Manipulation and Ambition. All of these subjects are explored in one of the greatest movies I've ever seen, All the King's Men. I'm at a loss for words when it comes to this movie. It absolutely blew me away. I find many classic films about politics and whatnot quite dated and boring, but this one was something different. In my opinion, it's as good as Citizen Kane, with perfect performances, cinematography and a story that remains relevant to the politicians of today.

Pocahontas (1995) - ★★★

Director: Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg
Voice Actors: Irene Bedard, Judy Kuhn, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, Linda Hunt, Russell Mean

Here's how I think the movie Pocahontas was conceived:

"Hey, let's have a Native American Disney Princess."
"Sounds good, who can we use."
"Pocahontas?"
"I think we've hit the jackpot!"

Yes, Disney has tried to do the impossible by making a children's movie out of America's brutal history with the Native Americans. I didn't find it offensive, but I didn't find it very entertaining either. It's one of the most beautiful animated films I've ever seen, and best of all, it has the most beautiful Disney song of all time. "Colors of the Wind," sung by Judy Kuhn.

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) - ★★★½

Director: Neil Jordan
Writers: Anne Rice (Screenplay and Novel)
Stars: Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, Christian Slater

You know what Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Antonio Banderas have in common? They're three of the sexiest vampires in the history of cinema! I have to say, this would have to be one of my personal favorite vampire movies. What's better than a movie filled with sexy vampires? A good quality movie with sexy vampires! But seriously, this is an example of an occult film gone right. With absolutely marvelous performances and a story that never fails to interest me, it's no wonder I found this thrilling from start to finish. At times it does get a bit ridiculous and the ending could have done with a more thorough explanation, but in the end I found it very enjoyable.

Where East Is East (1929) - ★½

Director: Tod Browning
Writers: Tod Browning, Harry Sinclair Drago, Waldemar Young (Screenplay)
Stars: Lon Chaney, Lupe Velez, Estelle Taylor, Lloyd
Hughes

Look, I cut old movies a lot of slack when they cast Hollywood actresses as foreign women. For example, I absolutely adored Luise Rainer as a Chinese woman in The Good Earth (1937). However, Where East is East is just careless when it comes to casting the Indo-Chinese women. I can forgive their wide eyes, pale skin and strong jaws, however, I cannot for the life of me get past how big their noses are (particularly Estelle Taylor). Anyone who has been to the East knows that the women there have very small noses. Here, the actresses may as well be gypsies. It completely ruins the Eastern atmosphere. The performances aren't bad, but it's impossible to take them seriously as Asian women... Now that I've got that off my chest, let's talk about the darn movie!

The Great Gatsby (2013) - ★½

Director: Baz Luhrmann
Writers: Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce (Screenplay), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Novel)
Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton

To me, Baz Luhrmann's 'The Great Gatsby' is as much of a  train-wreck as his other critically panned film, Romeo and Juliet.  I have not read the novel, but I will hazard to guess that this movie does not do the emotion of the story justice. You can see potential there, but Luhrmann focuses more on the visuals rather than the important stuff (once again). Yes, it's filled with amazing actors and a soundtrack that promised to be great. Instead, it contains uninspired performances and some of the most irritating songs to ever hit a 1920s themed movie. To me, this film was almost completely terrible.