My Film Picks For 2012

It is award season in Hollywood-land, with the Oscars a mere 7 weeks away, so what better way to embrace it than by completely ignoring all that self-congratulatory piffle and instead looking forward to the films that we will be talking about during 2012?
So here are the five films, in no particular order, that I am especially looking forward
to this year, and no, Twilight Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is not one of them.




1) The Great Gatsby

Just need to shake the thought this is a Spiderman film...

One of my all-time favourite books being directed by one of my all-time “thought he was OK until I saw Australia” directors seems like the perfect match. Leonardo DiCaprio, he of the never aging face, takes on the role of the great man himself, while Toby Maguire and Carey Mulligan lend able support as Nick Carraway and Daisy Buchanan respectively. The very fact that it is one of my favourite books leads me to feel a great deal of nervousness about this, Lurhman is undoubtedly a great director, but it feel as though his powers are

waning somewhat. But if he can rediscover the old spark, he has a wonderful cast of actors at his disposal and judging by the early photos he has got the 1920s America feel spot on.


2) Prometheus

If this sucks, I am going to set fire to Sir Ridley's beard

 The Alien prequel that isn’t an Alien prequel but after watching the trailer looks like an Alien prequel arrives in the summer and there is a heck of a buzz about it. Sir Ridley of Scott returns to Sci-Fi after exhausting his interesting historical figures routine and having assembled a great cast, which includes the likes Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace, the beardy director might just be back to his best, if the epic trailer is anything to go by. Chances are though it will kind of ruin the brilliant memory of Alien by explaining it all a bit too much, but as long as it doesn’t make me punch the wall in anguish (I am looking at you here Aliens vs Predator) then I will be a happy man.


3) Expendables 2

If you look at this poster for too long, you will become pregnant.  Fact.

 Before you say anything, yes the original was a terrible film. The acting ranged from bad to hilarious and the script seemed as though it had been written by the work experience boy. But despite its flaws it still turned out to be THE BEST FILM EVER MADE! All the best
80s action movie stars and Jason Statham blowing things up and throwing around horrendously bad one liners more often than they threw around hugely over-powered grenades. The only thing it was really missing was Arnie actually blowing things up, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Chuck Norris. But do you know what? THE SEQUEL HAS ALL THOSE THINGS! Also according to IMDB it also stars Novak Djokovic. Yes, that Novak Djokovic, the guy who is brilliant at tennis. Amazing.


4) A Dangerous Method

Is anyone else sick of Keira Knightley?

On a more serious but perhaps no less psychologically disturbed note, A Dangerous Method, this stars Viggo Mortensen as Sigmund Freud and Michael Fassbender as his rival Carl Jung, both of who will be directed by the legendary David Cronenberg. With that triumvirate of spectacular movie making talent and the fact that having done a Psychology A-Level I find the topic fascinating, I cannot help but be excited to see this film. The story of the birth of modern psychotherapy should be a deep and intriguing tale and one that hopefully will not be spoiled too much by the presence of Keira Knightley as the inevitable love interest. Don’t you dare ruin this Keira, don’t even try.


5) Chronicle

Last of all we have a new take on the whole superhero origin story in the shape of Chronicle, which follows the events of three teenage boys who gain super powers and proceed to scare little girls by levitating teddy bears at them. Seriously, that is in the trailer and it looks highly amusing. It is shot in the “found footage” style, similar to Cloverfield or Blair Witch and I found the trailer to be one of the more interesting ones I had seen over the past few months and I think this could end up being one of the sleeper hits of the year. The cast is largely unknown and the director, Josh Trank, has directed nothing I have ever heard of, but despite the relative lack of experience they seem to have found a new, interesting and slightly darker angle on a familiar story.

So that is five of my picks for the year, they certainly won’t be the best films in terms of awards and performances but they will certainly catch the eye this year. Notable mentions must also go to The Hobbit, Lincoln and of course Titanic 3D. In fact scrap this list as everyone will just be watching Titanic all year.