Film

Everybody likes a good scare and, judging from the $35 million that The Devil Inside made this weekend, they like a bad one, too. I realize it's very early to say this, but if The Devil Inside doesn't turn out to be one of the worst movies of 2012, then I fear for the year ahead. I had high hopes for this one since it had a pretty effective advertising campaign and it combines two of my favorite horror subgenre's: faux documentary and exorcism. Even with the immediate realism of the documentary genre and the unknowable horror of an exorcism movie, The Devil Inside manages to not only feel miniscule in scope, but is also free and clear of any and all scares and comes fully packaged with one of the worst endings in cinematic history.
Don't let the awesome trailer fool you into thinking this is more than just your average beginning-of-the-year crap. January is typically the dumping ground for films the studios are too afraid to release around awards season and normally won't even screen them for critics. Most of the time, if you're sitting down to a movie in January, it's probably going to be terrible, but there are exceptions to every rule. The Devil Inside is not one of them. If anything, it solidifies the rule in poopy-flavored shame.

Lots of film enthusiasts like me are licking their chops in anticipation of Steven Spielberg's biopic, Lincoln, set to arrive this year and likely win every Academy Award shortly thereafter. But the filmmaker, who hasn't directed a film since the embarrassing fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise, has brought a double dose of holiday joy to moviegoers everywhere. Released within four days of each other, The Adventures of Tintin and the tearjerker War Horse are tasty appetizers before Spielberg directs Daniel Day Lewis to the Oscar promiseland next winter.
The day after Christmas I, and what seemed to be the rest of Bend, went out to see a movie. I was finally ready to open up my wallet and purchased two tickets for what was billed as The Adventures of Tintin: An IMAX 3D Experience for the low, low price of an arm and a leg. Entering the lobby, there were lines upon lines forming for showings an hour away. But, to my relief, most of these were for War Horse which got me thinking, “had I picked the wrong movie?” As it turns out, yes, yes I did.

The genius in opening a movie like The Darkest Hour on Christmas Day is that it gives somebody like me a chance to see something a little creepier, rather than all the family friendly, Spielberg-saturated, over-produced, holiday schlock.
It's clear within seconds that The Darkest Hour is a movie that's going to cut corners… practically all of them. A quick set-up with the two main characters as nightclub Web entrepreneurs (Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella) includes male bonding, trickery, deceit and scoring chicks in a hot Moscow nightclub. Then there's an electrical storm, aliens invade and we have a compilation of every cliché stolen from every end of the world, science fiction, apocalyptic, doom-and-destruction movie ever made. That's right, Darkest Hour gets no points for originality, but I had no idea how truly “suck-you-into-the-void-of-another-dimension-bad” this movie could be. The good news is that after a while it gets pretty darn laughable.

Yes, it's pretty awesome getting to select my top movies of the year for the Source. And for the second year in a row the process has proven difficult because, as we all well know, most of the “best” movies of the year take their sweet time coming to Bend. Unlike last year, there weren't a lot of obvious, dramatic standouts, but there were a lot of laughs.
1. Bridesmaids
Why give Bridesmaids the number one spot? Because no movie made me laugh harder this year. The female Hangover? Absolutely not – these laughs are for everyone!
2. The Descendants
The best stories have always leaned heavily on the intermingling of comedy and tragedy and in Alexander Payne's first film in seven years, he blends the two with great success. I adore the dynamic between Matt (George Clooney), his daughters, and tagalong Sid.

1. Drive:
A great cast in a wonderfully low-budget modern noir. Slick and surprisingly gruesome, Drive is my surprise hit of the year.
2.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2:
Harry and his wizardly mates go out in style with the final chapter of this magical saga that defined a generation.

Editor's note: Seeing as how we let film columnist Morgan P. Salvo run wild with the 10 worst movies of the year in the special section of the paper, we figured we'd find out what performances he actually liked this year.
1. Rutger Hauer: Hobo with a Shotgun
The title says it all. Brains splatter, guts burst open and Hauer stays right on top of his character's dedication to vengeance in true vigilante style.
2. Michael Shannon: Take Shelter
The guy who specializes in tormented souls delivers the goods here in subdued brilliance.

OK, I have to admit that on my drive to the theater I was semi-excited about my impending Mission Impossible IMAX experience, looking forward to hyper-realistic stunts and fistfights. Once inside, I was told by a blank screen to prepare for “the full IMAX immersion.” I sat back ready for the eye candy.
Well, it's clear enough and plenty loud (one guy in the audience actually yelled for it to be turned down a notch), but once the crystalline dust settled and my eyes focused, I seriously didn't notice any difference from a regular movie theater experience. But then glaring at me square in the face was this entity called Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.

What you need to know about Diablo Cody and Jason Reitman's new film Young Adult is that it's a dark comedy. I know you saw the trailer, and yes, as advertised, there are parts that will elicit laugher, but this isn't you're average, run-of-the-mill joke fest. While the title may be Young Adult, the humor goes more sinister than Cody's Oscar-winner predecessor Juno. The humor in that film, while edgy, definitely stayed more in the young-adult realm, while Mavis (Charlize Theron) brings out a more sinister, adult side of Cody's humor and psyche.

Director David Gordon Green has come a long way since Undertow and Snow Angels. I guess the comedy bug hit him with Pineapple Express and his time working with Danny McBride on Eastbound and Down has produced some of the most vile, offensive, hedonistic and, thus, funniest television I have ever seen.

How often do you find yourself sitting down to enjoy a film that you're genuinely excited for? Not just the excitement of it being a movie you've been looking forward to, but one that the critics are calling “The best film of the year” or “a stunning masterpiece that will open up your soul” or some such hyperbole. It makes you feel like you're about to partake in something important: a piece of art that is so critically lauded that it becomes a socially shared experience like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Jersey Shore. Now, after getting bombarded with all the hype and accolades, how many times does that piece of art actually live up to the standards you've already set? Not very often, right? I think that might have been my problem with The Descendants, a very good movie that I'm sure will do well come awards season, but that never quite crosses the line into “great.”