2012: TV series

It's the first year I do this, but looking back at 2012 I spent far more time watching series compared to previous years.


Game of Thrones - season 1
Game of Thrones, man. What can I say about it? It's really one of the best things that's ever been on TV. Haven't read the books (yet - ordered the whole set!) but I find it hard to believe they're even more awesome than the series. And I've only seen season 1. Bought it on blu-ray, and it's great, well worth the money. The reason why I haven't seen season 2 yet is due to that, in part - it's not been on tv over here yet, and the blu-ray quality spoiled me, so I don't want to see it in shitty quality on my laptop.
Anyway, season 1 had quite a few awesome scenes - loved Viserys getting his golden crown for instance. I actually really enjoyed everything related to Daenerys and Khal Drogo - sad how it ended really. Sad how some great characters (nooo Boromir! hehe) are already out.  On the whole, I think Arya and Tyrion are my favourite characters, obviously for very different reasons. And in a way, I even like Jaime "childpusher" Lannister hehe.

Oh and Varys The Eunuch is great as well. And Lord Baelish. Nice couple :)
Anyway, love the entire world and all the houses and everything. In a way it's sad I discovered this series relatively early - if they already released 5 or 6 seasons it would be fun to do a marathon viewing.

The Walking Dead - season 1 and 2

Talking about marathon viewings: it took me a week to see season 1 (which has 6 episodes). I watched season 2 in three days, and one day I saw 5 eps. So yeah, I rather liked it. It's not without its flaws, I felt like some things dragged on for way too long (like a certain someone being dangerously crazy), but I can't complain as the gruesome zombie death to stupid humans arguing ratio is fairly okay. It could always be better, but I won't complain too much. I must say I'm pretty indifferent to most of the characters, but I love Glenn (please don't tell me he'll die any time soon!) and Daryl (he's the Sawyer of this series hehe). Not going to spoil things, but Dale and Shane are pretty much yin and yang, so the end of season 2 makes sense in a way.
To be honest I am getting somewhat of a Lost feeling from this: there are a lot of unanswered questions, there are some similar characters, and everyone dies :)

Mad Men - season 1 - 4
Took me a looong time to get through this, and I still wonder why I saw four full seasons. Nothing ever happens! Well, there was the infamous lanwnmower incident in the season 3 episode "Guy walks into an advertising agency":

Yeah, that was frakking awesome. Hahaha they all got little bits of foot in their mouth hahahaha. You can just watch that gif over and over again.
Oh, and this is how I reviewed the series on twitter: "Don is a Dick (in more ways than one), Betty is a childish, spiteful bitch and Joan's tits are too big." I still stand by that; it's quite hard to find a likeable character in this show (maybe understandable considering it's about marketing people!). I liked Betty at first but after the first season she really became an annoying, selfish bitch, and she honestly doesn't seem to have a clue on how to raise children. Funny how she objects to Don's adventures, but she was already in the arms of another guy before divorcing Don. Hypocrite much? Saying all this, I obviously love her, I need someone to be annoyed with in a series or I get bored hehe.
Oh yeah, the only character I actually like is Kinsey - gotta love his beard in season 2 and 3. I might have a little mancrush on him just because of that beard really. Also, seeing his reaction above...that's not a very straight way to react is it? So I was pretty sad to not see him in season 4, which was pretty much the worst season I'd say.

Side note: I really love the early 60s setting and all the racism, sexism, etc. I think Republicans nowadays still have that same mindset. Carter Pewterschmidt from Family Guy would fit in this series as well hehe.

Spartacus: Blood and Vengeance (and Vengeance)
Have a bit of a weird history with this series - saw the first 4 or 5 episodes last year, but only saw the rest of the first season when it was on tv again. The second half is really so, SO good. The first half was really some random fights and shit, second half has lots of political intrigue and really even rivals that Rome series in sheer awesomeness. Also, Batiatus is one of the best characters ever. He's a slimey little worm but he grows on you. And the stuff that comes out of his mouth...oh boy. Made me laugh so much whenever he used foul language in a creative way. A small selection:

"By Jupiter's cock!"
"And what, I wonder, does good Solonius receive for convincing me to spread cheeks and accept deeper ramming?"

"You council to suck the cock that pissed on me!"

"That man has fingers in all the proper assholes. He wiggles them, and every one of them shits gold."

"Once again the gods spread the cheeks to ram cock in fucking ass!"

"Should he have issue he can reason to my cock!"

"At last the gods remove cock from fucking ass!"

"If not for yourself, do it for coin and cunt!"

"Juno's cunt and Pluto's asshole!"

We can always put some of that in a meme:

John Hannah is so boss hahaha. 

Anyway, I'm halfway through Vengeance (season 2) and it's just not the same without him. It's not completely boring (mostly thanks to Xena Lucretia and Ilythia). I should've probably watched the "Gods of the Arena" thing first, also because it's more about Batiatus. The new Spartacus (RIP Andy Whitfield) is also...hmm. Not that I don't like him, but he looks younger and smaller than Andy. I mean, he's not bad on his own, but...you know.



Okay, that's all I can think off for now.

2012: cinema visits

I didn't go to the cinema much at all this year, not really sure why. I guess when a ticket costs almost as much as the DVD/Bluray that comes out 6 months later, it's easier to skip a few. The death of my small local cinema plays a part in it as well I guess, although I think I only went there twice this year, and I stopped going to their alternative movie nights a few years ago. I'm part of the problem! I think it's an interesting debate: what is causing the death of small-scale cinemas? The big, expensive cinemas with their 3D and other crap, or how cheap DVDs are nowadays, and Blu-ray basically offering a better experience (with the proper TV) than in the cinema? Easy answer is that it's all little bit of everything of course. Anyway, I'm going to miss going to the cinema for €6 (nowadays it's around €10-12 in the big cinema), and especially their "movie day" in July where they showed recent movies for €2,5. Sadness :(

Anyway, moving on, the actual reviews!


The Hobbit
I enjoyed it. I didn't love it. Do you really want to know why? For me it had two main problems: the party hanging off things, falling down things, and just when things seem really really really bad... they get rescued!! Like, 10 times throughout the movie. Which leads me to major problem number 2: no tension at all. Two movies to go, and you've seen LOTR so you know Bilbo and Gandalf won't die. The dwarves, well, sure some of them might die, but it's not like that's the end of the world is it? There is danger in pretty much every step they take, but you know they're going to get out of it somehow. I suppose that's number 3: the second part has one action scene after another, but it's all pointless in the end.
I also feel like it's a movie with two souls, so to speak: in part Peter Jackson wants to recreate the simpleness of the book, but then he also wants to inject more epicness into it... and what you get is a mix of both that really felt weird to me. Personally I'm VERY interested in Middle-Earth and its history, and I would love a movie (or a mini-series) set in the first and second ages with guys like Glorfindel and Elrond kicking all sorts of ass - but all that just doesn't really add anything to this movie.
Anyway, let's talk about the good things: the scene with Gollum was awesome, I like Bilbo a lot more than Frodo (partly because of the acting, partly because we never really got to know Frodo's personality in LOTR did we?), and Gandalf...Ian McKellen is such a good actor. He doesn't even have to speak, you can really read things from his face.

Skyfall
Best Bond Ever!!!! Sort of. It's very much The Dark Bond Rises hehe, but really, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Good flow, good action scenes, loved the new Q, loved the Scotland scenes, loved the Shanghai and Macau scenes, loved Javier Bardem as the "is he gay or just crazy" villain...was very sad at the end - you should know that Goldeneye was the first Bond movie I've seen in the cinema (and I still love it, I consider it one of the best "classic" Bonds), so I have a certain attachment to certain...people. I am looking forward to the next Bond, whatever it will be like, but as far as I'm concerned they can now return to underground/under sea/inside of a vulcano lairs, and a bit more humour/sillyness in it.
Saw it again this week actually - I was surprised how much I still loved it. Love the underlying themes as well - not that they're very subtle, but still. I would say it's my favourite movie this year.

The Dark Knight Rises
It's my favourite one in the trilogy. Stop laughing!! First of all, it has the best villian. Rhas-al Gul's plan failed. The Joker just played around a bit - and he sort of won, but didn't live to see it. But Bane, he broke Batman, and he broke Gotham, something the other two tried but failed at.
Yes, there isn't much Batman in this, but The Dark Knight was really a Joker movie, so that complaint doesn't hold. I thought the general flow was the best in the three as well: TDK seemed very random at points, and Batman Begins was basically 2 movies in one. This had a proper beginning, middle and end.

Ted
I liked it, it had some good, or so bad-it's-good jokes, but the actual story was pretty boring and cliché. I mean, when it's on tv I'll watch it again and laugh, but as a movie it's really not that good. I generally don't like these relationship comedies, and despite being a lot "dirtier" than average, it still hasn't changed my mind.

Prometheus
Haters gonna hate. Apart from the last 10 minutes or so, I loved it. I mean, how frakking good is Michael Fassbender in this? Best creepy gay robot ever. Yes, the story and the way events play out is familiar, characters are pretty dumb, there's the awkward abortion scene, and a lot of other things I really didn't mind that much. I'm aware of its flaws, but it's greater than the sum of its parts. Or something like that. It reminded me of Sunshine mostly - great movie, apart from the last act. Oh, and probably also helps that I didn't get caught up in the hype.
It's also a beautiful movie, art-wise and sound-wise as well, I really love their jumpsuits and other little things you generally only notice on a second viewing. Bought it on blu-ray and don't regret it at all. I'd say my biggest gripe is that story wise, it's obviously the first part of a series, as there are far too many questions unanswered - and I honestly fear the answers will be stupid. It's like Lost all over again.

Snow-White and the Huntsmen
I was bored and wanted to go the cinema. This was the only thing they played that was vaguely interesting. I honestly don't remember much from it...um...oh, I enjoyed Charlize Theron's role and I wish she had more scenes. Sometimes it's more fun to root for the bad guy I think, and this was one of those movies.

The Avengers
Of course I loved this, how could anyone not like this? I can't even pick my favourite part... the bromance between Banner and Stark? The Iron Man/Thor fight? Everything Hulk? To be fair, it has some flaws as well, when I first saw it I felt like 90% of the movie is spent on the airship thing. I do hope the sequel has some more variety in the settings, or at least spend more time in an actually interesting setting. And as much as like Tom Hiddleston as a villain (that evil smirk!), we already had him in that role once didn't we? Still, very entertaining and the best of the Marvel movies.

This must be the place
Sean Penn is awesome as a retired Robert Smith. I loved both the down-to-earth-ness and the weirdness/randomness in this. It's hard to explain, but, yeah. Not that it's a must-see or anything, but I enjoyed it. The story and flow is a bit weird - it's a road movie of sorts, but then not really. It's a "special" one hehe.


Right, that's all I have to say.