With the end of the year less than five weeks away I’m hard at work trying to knock out all of those pesky titles I’ve avoided — good and bad — from the year so that I can make my best and worst of the year lists in time for you guys to enjoy. It’s not an easy task but someone’s got to do it, while I definitely am not the person who has to do it I will regardless.

So here’s this week’s viewings:

THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS (2012)

A nonsensical love letter to kung fu films made by amateur filmmaker RZA. I’m not a big fan of the result but I can see that it isn’t without some discussion required. Go read my full review.

ON THE ROAD (2012)

Another film which takes a writer on the road to have random adventures and meet all sorts of  interesting characters. My problem with the film however is that none of these meetings ever feel important or have any weight to them. They all feel like complete fodder to fill the two hours of this empty movie.

THE CAMPAIGN (2012)

Will Ferrel continues his farcical humour taking on politics — since it was an election year in the US — alongside Zach Galifianakis in a comedy that doesn’t really pack that many laughs. I enjoyed a lot Dylan McDermott as the campaign manager paid by the big politic money for whoever he’s told to work for and the level of indignation that he has in every moment he plays alongside Galifianakis is great, otherwise not much to speak of.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012)

“He throws a horse!!!” – as my compatriot Ryan McNeil tells me on twitter. I knew I was in for a worthless action film but I didn’t expect the action to be this uninteresting. Other than a pretty cool axe wielding scene in the exact middle of the film (when we Lincoln first meets the main bad guy) everything else is pretty throw away and completely forgettable. I even wonder why they bothered casting Anthony Mackie in the role of the friend since he gets so little screentime and even less lines.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN – PART II (2012)

With all the films I’ve already mentioned on this list it’s amazing that this is one I’m going to go ahead and put in the ‘win’ category. The reason why this film, unlike every other film in the franchise, works is that now that Bella is now a vampire and we’ve been fully immersed into the supernatural we’re able to completely indulge in the insane and just go with it. I’m not calling this film a masterpiece, Kristen Stewart still can’t act to save her life, but between some pretty hilarious moments as well as Michael Sheen chewing on scenery towards the end of the film it’s completely worth it if you’re already this deep into the franchise.

SEEKING A FRIEND FOR THE END OF THE WORLD (2012)

While I was already warned going in that this film is barely, if worthy calling it, a comedy I still somehow kept expecting a joke to come around the corner and make me laugh. While it’s not devoid of humour the film really takes more of a romantic and dramatic turn as we follow these two wayward individuals on this little quest during the final days of the world and it works.

COMIC-CON: EPISODE IV – A FAN’S HOPE (2012) 

A documentary about fandom in it’s highest regard. While I run a movie blog, read a lot of others, read comics and am basically the target audience of the event the film is covering I have little interest in seeking out this event. It’s the kind of thing that if it were a trip downtown where I was living I’d probably go check it out to see what the fuss is about but would never push myself to go out of my way to be there. That being said I feel this movie was a weak documentary. It follows a few people as we see them and how they experience the con (during the 2010 convention), but the film fails to answer many key questions as to what the con really represents for these people. The stakes are never really that high and I almost feel that if someone had dedicated a full film to any one of these people, or even the con itself as a historical view, we’d actually have an interesting story to be a part of.

My count has been updated to 218 First time watches (124 from 2012); 118 Rewatches; 336 Total Films