The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2012

The world may not have ended in 2012, but this is where my Liftetime series comes to its end.  This may not have been my most popular series judging by numbers, but it was the most fun and interactive one I think I've ever had.  I wanna thank so much, those of you who have participated in sharing your own lists whether it be in the comments, FB or Twitter.  And thanks for your input in other places as well.  I hope you were able to discern that I was doing Favorite and not "Best" here and encouraging you to throw up your own Favorites as well.  The purpose of this wasn't to be "my word is law", I was hoping for a more communal offering with this.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2006

This year turned out to be really easy, but contained a lot of my absolute favorites from the entire decade.  I remember being severely disappointed in the Best Picture nominees for this particular year.  And while I liked The Departed and think Scorsese's career deserved a Best Director statue, I was rooting against its Best Picture win, because its a remake and a lot of it (including full sequences and framings) were ripped straight from the original.  Also, this was the year of the Mexican director, but of the 3 that made big time films, they picked the one that wasn't even that good of a movie as a Best Picture nominee.  But, what can you do.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2000

After some tougher years, 2000 was almost a breeze in comparison.  I had plenty to choose from.  A lot of smaller movies dominated the chopping block, but it was a painless crawl to the required 6.  2000 was big year in my life as I had graduated high school in the summer and began college.  I also noticed on the list that there were a fair amount of movies that I enjoyed back then and kind of sort of have grown to detest over the years since.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1999

If you didn't have the word "The" in your title you were by default the winner of the 1999 Academy Awards.  This was an interesting year where my list is probably the most "pop friendly" of any of them so far.  At least to me.  This year is also notable as it contained what I consider the worst film I've ever plopped down money to see in a theater.  I'm speaking of Wing Commander.  A film my friends and I went to ONLY to see the trailer for The Phantom Menace.  See, back in the day you HAD to go to the theater to see the new trailers.  They weren't online weeks before they finally showed up on the silver screen.  They even turned the house lights back on after the trailer so people could leave if they wanted to.  We should have left.  After the movie, we all realized we wanted to ask the others if they wanted to leave, but were afraid someone might have been enjoying themselves.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1995

Let's talk about one big one that's gonna surprise you that's not on the list.  That's The Usual Suspects.  I had the ending ruined for me before I ever that one, so I never got that awesome "shock" on the first view that got people to love the movie.  I went over to a friend's house and he had to show me this part of this movie that blew his mind...guess what...it was the damn ending to The Usual Suspects.  Shitty, right?  Well, we can't win them all.  Also, Michael Mann's Heat isn't on here as I like the movie, have watched it once or twice but I'm not crazy about it.  This list, though is full of stuff I loved.  Its also noteworthy, Puff, that this year is when the horror genre was pretty much going on a lifeline.  We'll discuss that more next time.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1991

Forewarning, there's a really wild choice here in this year's picks.  But, damnit, I'm going to go ahead and go with it.  And when you read about it, maybe you'll get why.  Plus if you know me and some of the movies that I tend to watch and attach myself to, you'll understand.  1991 had a lot of cool stuff and a lot of middle of the road stuff for me.  Things have slid a little as far as "absolute favorites" for me following 1989.  But, hell, we still have plenty of good stuff to choose from.  Tim Burton ended his own streak by not making a movie in this year.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1990

We've hit the 90s!  This particular year had a lot of films I like and I had too weed this list down, but nothing was anything major.  Most of those were all fine films but nothing I'm was clinging to and driving my brain crazy when it come to decision making time.  One film on here wouldn't have made the list had it been made last year, but I quite frankly loved it so much that it knocked out plenty of competition.  Also, something that I remember enjoying quite a bit like Dick Tracy...I haven't seen in a long long time, so it lost out on my ignorance of not revisiting it in many years.  And I like Total Recall, but in comparison to the others it just hadn't been watched as much and I don't even own it on Blu-ray or DVD.  Same goes for Goodfellas.  Everybody should see Goodfellas...it just well...falls short when considering MY favorites (cuz like i've said, there's a difference between "best" and "favorite").

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 1988

1988 wasn't 1987 tough to make cuts, but there were some omissions I was sad not to be talking about with my 6 film limit.  I know the next year will be a big one too, so its pretty telling there was great run of films in the movie industry from 1987-1989.  Or maybe...I was just soaking in and paying attention to more movies at the time (likely a big factor).  I've also noticed Tom Cruise has been in big movie after big movie, but none of them have yet to show up on my lists (No, I am not a Top Gun fan, sorry).  So, alas, another day, another year another list of 6 movies!

Roger Moore, The Man With The Golden Apology Needed

News this week came that Liam Neeson would be reprising his role as a man with a "particular set of skills" for a 3rd go-round in Taken 3.  When the film releases in 2014 or 2015, Neeson will be the ripe young age of 62 or 63 playing an action powerhouse badass.  Also this week, a trailer arrived for the new Sylvester Stallone/Arnold Swarzenegger team up Escape Plan.  Both also had solo adventures this past winter with The Last Stand (see it!!!) and Bullet To The Head (have some beers while you watch it!).