Top 5 Movies of 2012! Starting with #5

First off, I want to take a quick minute and introduce myself. My name is Jordan Hannah and I absolutely love movies. Truth be it, I love all mediums but movies hold a special place in my heart. Not only do I love cinema, but my dream job which I'm working hard towards is to become a screenwriter. A goal I have would be to land representation sometime in 2013 but one can dream. Some of those that know me, know that I have been saying forever that I would start a blog but now I can happily say that I have finally started this fun adventure!

So... what's in it for you? Well, if you love movies and love discussing them and agreeing or disagreeing with my awesome opinion, I would love to hear from you. This blog will serve as a platform for movie reviews, movie news, best of lists, worst of lists, and everything movies. I honestly don't know what to expect from this but I expect it to be fun on my end. The goal is for there to be a post everyday Monday thru Friday with the weekends being time for you all to bash my opinions on Twitter or something. So with this being the first week of my blog, I plan to do a Top 5 list of 2012. Once again, you may agree, disagree, but no matter what, I would like to hear your opinion! Here goes nothing....

TOP 5 Movies of 2012!!!

NUMBER 5

END OF WATCH

I was definitely curious about this film prior to watching it.  Writer/Director David Ayers was on my radar for a variety of reasons. He is very diverse within cinema involving the police force. He wrote the screenplay for S.W.A.T. (guilty pleasure) and one of my favorite films Training Day. Given this being his directorial debut, I found it intriguing that he shot the film using a documentary-type style. Another aspect that I thought about going into this film, was that Michael Pena is a wildly underrated actor. He previously starred in Shooter with Mark Wahlberg, was great in his brief screentime in the Lincoln Lawyer and a variety of other roles. Up next, you have the great Anna Kendrick. DISCLAIMER: If you don't like Anna Kendrick, then maybe you shouldn't read this blog. I'm just going to say it, she's eye candy and talented, I mean did you see Pitch Perfect? Kidding! Carrying on... Jake Gyllenhaal was a solid choice to be the lead. I'm sure that the majority of the female crowd didn't mind.

So what makes this movie work?
DISCLAIMER: I'm a geek/nerd/ whatever else fits within this category. I love CGI. I love action. However, what hits home...what separates great movies from good movies is characters and story. This is the main reason why I enjoyed this film. Now I have heard the arguments! I'm here to make my case. I know that some people out there did NOT like this movie because it "just follows" two cops throughout their daily grind. Some may say there's nothing really happening and that we're only watching two friends share laughs, and goof off throughout their day. Understandable. However, the chemistry between Pena and Gyllenhaal was supreme. Sharing those stories, those moments of happiness and everything in between made me care about them. I loved these guys! I rooted for them! This movie was built on the chemistry between the characters and making it personal. Where this movie struggled was probably on the story. However, having said that, the story isn't bad. It's decent, but for me as an audience member, I was invested because of the characters and....Anna Kendrick.

After seeing them struggle, and then having the audience know that a greater evil was plotting against them was all that was needed. I bought into it. Now some of you may have hated the ending. I will not spoil it if you haven't seen it and for future reference if I ever do tend to discuss spoilers I will say SPOILER ALERT!!@*^!(*^!#(*!#^!( OMG!!! SPOILS AHEAD!!!... or something to that affect... or effect... damn. Where was I? Oh, the ending... all I will say, the ending got the reaction it wanted. You don't have to love it... Shoot, maybe you do love it... but the greater result to be had is the feeling and the emotions you experience with any ending. This is why people love happy endings but I digress. I love endings as long as it elicits the reaction it seeks.
Overall, I didn't expect a lot going into the film. However, by the time I came out. I loved it... and it stuck with me... Hence, #5!

Now for a grading procedure... for now I will give the movies I discuss a percentage grade from 1-100 given the typical letter grading scale. I'm not sure if I will stick with this or if I will actually give a letter grade or if I give a few stars like the 4 star scale or some other means. I'm open to suggestions.

END OF WATCH--- 83% (B-)

What! I thought you said you liked this movie?!?!?!?! WTH!!! Well, I like to think of myself as a tough grader but I'm probably just being arrogant. If this offends you, please discuss it with me in comments.

Well. That was fun. I hope you enjoyed. Until next time.
Follow me on Twitter @TheJayBrant