This article is a comparison between of how 2012 compared to ten years and twenty years ago in terms of the quality and style of Hollywood’s cinematic offerings. Firstly I should say that their may be an unfair inclination towards 2012, but I have included next to the years in the stats section how many films I have seen from each year. The films I’ve seen from the earlier decades tend not to have been the highly rated ones, as you can see from my Top 3 list for 1992!
One thing that you can tell from the box office figures is that even 20 years ago, people loved superheroes with at least one featuring in the top three in each of the years in question!
1992 (25)
Highest rated English language films on IMDb
5 Scent of a Woman
4 Glengarry Glen Ross
3 Aladdin
2 Unforgiven
1 Reservoir Dogs
My top 3
3 Rapid Fire
2 Army of Darkness
1 Alien3
Highest Grossing (US)
3 Batman Returns
2 Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
1 Aladdin
1993 Best Picture winner
Unforgiven
1993 Best Director winner
Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven)
We can immediately tell that back in 1992 people liked a bit more drama in their films when watching at home, two Pacino films in the top five shows that viewers were fond of a more storyline and dialogue driven style of film then than nowadays. Four of the top five being films aimed at the older audience, with some fairly adult themes running through films like Reservoir Dogs and Scent of a Woman. It was very different in the cinema though with the crowds flocking for a bit of childish entertainment, with the slapstick offering ofHome Alone 2: Lost in New York and Aladdin. The sequel to the Burton classic Batman making an appearance, but sadly although it thrived at the box office, it showed badly on the screen with a cringe-worthy Batman played by Michael Keaton, and a comical but not remotely believable Danny deVito as the Penguin. Luckily for them all was forgotten after the next two embarrassing offerings in the franchise!
As I said at the beginning I hadn’t seen many of the “big hitters” from 1992 (being only 7 at the time), so my top three films from the year are based on films watched at random over the years on television. I’ll give a short review of my top film for each of the years covered in this article.
My top film of 1992 – Alien3
Notable cast
Sigourney Weaver (Alien; Avatar; The Cabin in the Woods)
Lance Henriksen (Aliens; Pumpkinhead; Close Encounter of the Third Kind)
Pete Postelthwaite (Inception; The Usual Suspects; The Omen remake)
Directed by David Fincher (Se7en; The Social Network; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
I know this may not be an entirely popular opinion but Alien3 was without a doubt the second best film to have anything to do with the franchise after the wonderful Aliens. You get a fairly unknown cast added to those generally associated with the franchise (Weaver & Henriksen), along with the late Pete Postelthwaite; a man once described by the legendary Steven Spielberg as “the best actor in the world”.
It has everything that Alien and the later editions didn’t have; great acting and wonderful visual effects (strangely losing out on the Oscar to Death Becomes Her).
2002 (52)
Highest rated English language films on IMDb
5 Bang Bang You’re Dead
4 The Bourne Identity
3 Catch Me If You Can
2 The Pianist
1 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
My top 3
3 John Q
2 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
1 We Were Soldiers
Highest Grossing (US)
3 Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones
2 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
1 Spider-Man
2003 Best Picture winner
Chicago
2003 Best Director winner
Roman Polanski (The Pianist)
In 2002, the public wanted action and action they got in spades. 2001 had seen the beginning of Peter Jackson’s (Bad Taste) Middle Earth trilogy, and he continued where he left off with the second instalment being the second highest grossing and IMO the second best film of the year. The big money was spent on a dreadful attempt at making a superhero film by Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead); Spider-Man was pretty garbage, and only got worse as the sequels progressed. Thankfully Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer) came along and saved the franchise with his wonderful The Amazing Spider-Man which was a breath of fresh air after three boredom filled films starring Tobey Maguire (Pleasantville)!
The Oscar for best picture going to Chicago was very strange indeed. The film was a big hit for the Academy taking home six statuettes and earning a further seven nominations; there was clearly something in the water – I can’t imagine there is any other reason for Queen Latifah (Hairspray) getting an Oscar nomination. Even she probably thought they had made a mistake, give her her dues though she definitely portrays the best mammoth in film history in the Ice Age sequels!
My top film of 2002 – We Were Soldiers
Notable cast
Mel Gibson (Braveheart; Lethal Weapon; Chicken Run)
Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine; You’ve Got Mail; Robots)
Madeleine Stowe (Twelve Monkeys; The Last of the Mohicans; TV’s Revenge)
Directed by Randall Wallace (The Man in the Iron Mask)
If I said name your favourite film of 2002 to 10,000 people, I doubt I’d get one person that said We Were Soldiers, the truth is though – they’d be wrong! It has to be the most heart warming war film I’ve ever seen and almost makes you forgive Mel Gibson for some of the more recent elements of his past; whilst most can forgive the anti-Semitism, the alcoholism and the violence, I don’t think that many will forgive him for putting them through Apocalypto. Even at work when I look out past the Wallace Monument it fills me with a sense of despair!
It’s a very strange film in that none of the main cast are actors that you would associate with this kind of film. It’s set over the course of just one battle, taking in the tension and the immense significance of the occasion from both sides on the battlefield without feeling as narrow-minded and cloying as the usual American films based on the Vietnam War.
2012 (32)
Highest rated English language films on IMDb
5 Life of Pi
4 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
3 Avengers Assemble
2 Django Unchained
1 The Dark Knight Rises
My top 3
3 Looper
2 Lincoln
1 The Hunger Games
Highest Grossing (US)
3 The Hunger Games
2 The Dark Knight Rises
1 Avengers Assemble
Another success for superheroes! This time two excellent attempts were brought to the fore by Christopher Nolan (Memento) and Joss Whedon (TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer). 2012 for me was without a doubt the best of the three years in question with nothing particularly bad reaching our screens except the utterly horrendous Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer, which thankfully was cancelled out later in the year with a masterpiece in the shape of Lincoln, which is without a doubt my favourite to win the Best Picture award at this years Oscars!
The only disappointing thing about 2012 was the lack of original ideas. Half of the films I have watched from last year have either been sequels, remakes or reboots. Come on Hollywood, there must be something you haven’t covered yet!
My top film of 2012 – The Hunger Games
Notable cast
Jennifer Lawrence (House at the End of the Street; Silver Linings Playbook; Winter’s Bone)
Josh Hutcherson (Bridge to Terabithia; The Kids Are Alright; Red Dawn remake)
Woody Harrelson (TV’s Cheers; Natural Born Killers; Zombieland)
Directed by Gary Ross (Seabiscuit; Pleasantville)
This can’t be right! My top film of 2012 made it into the three highest grossing films of the year? Well I suppose there has to be a first time for everything. When a horror reviewer’s top film makes that much money there has to have been something exceptional about it, and there is. I love this film and cannot wait for the sequels, I don’t read fiction books as don’t have the patience or memory to do so therefore have no idea whether I’m going to see something totally different or something along the same lines, but frankly if it’s even half as good as this one I’ll enjoy it!
I wrote about The Hunger Games in my Top Ten Films of 2012, so I encourage you to have a read of that article here: Alan Redman’s Top 10 Films of 2012
Alan Redman – @Every1LuvsPingu
Interesting comments on Alien 3, roundly considered to be a shambles of a film. I really like it too, as it happens, second only to Aliens. Not for the reason’s you do as I thought some of the creature effects were lacklustre.
There’s some excellent moments in there especially the score from Elliot Goldenthal. I also like the gothic/art deco setting and the plot to trap the alien in the lead mold was fresh. It’s had an excellent industrial feel. It still has the best title sequence of any film IMO, I love lot’s of little pieces in it like the glass breaking over Newts face or the camera following the escape pod out of the ship.
The directors cut with returned footage improves the overall film but it’s a massive ‘what could and should have been’ IMO.