Chained (2012)

A dark movie with a light at the end, a light that is so beautiful that it will leave you in awe. The movie begins with eight-year-old Tim (Evan Bird) and his mother, Sarah (Julia Ormond) are picked up by a cab driver named Bob (Vincent D'Onofrio). The cab ride seems normal until Bob keeps driving and finally takes the mother and child to his house in a deserted location outside the suburbs. The mother tries to fight the situation but in vain, Bob disposes of her and returns for Tim. This is where the movie takes a turn, Instead of killing Tim he keeps him alive and makes Tim his slave, and gives him a new name “Rabbit”.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

Like anyone who has seen the Lord of the Rings series, I went with caution for this movie. We all remember how long, uneventful and quite frankly boring the first Lord of the Rings movie was, but that movie was crucial in the series so I went to this movie with the same expectation, crucial but as interesting as watching paint dry. Yes there’s a “but”, but this movie proved me wrong. With Peter Jackson’s brilliant direction and the screenplay this movie is very eventful and a visual treat.

Skyfall (2012)

Not your typical Bond movie, instead of showing Bond’s gadgets and flashy moves this movie shows Bond for who he is, a man trying hard to find his place in the world. The introduction of the new villain Silva (Javier Bardem) who is the negative mirror image of Bond (Daniel Craig), emphasizes Bond as a person and the choices he had made. The movie starts out with an abrupt pause in Bond’s careen in the MI6, with Bond’s absence everything seems to go ok until the introduction of the mysterious new threat Silva.

Ted (2012)

Finally! Something the whole family cannot watch. If you’re sick of watching the “PG, fun for the whole family” movie, then Ted is the movie for you. A childhood tale twisted in the Family Guy way. The movie starts with a young John Bennett (Mark Wahlberg) making a wish to bring his teddy bear “Ted” (Seth MacFarlane) to life and now fast-forward 27 years later. John has to give up Ted to be with Lori Collins (Mila Kunis) in other words “he has to grow up” straight from the girlfriend dictionary, if I had a nickel for every time I heard that… moving on...

Playing For Keeps (2012)

It’s your same old story with an upgrade in cinematography and music. George (Gerard Butler) is an ex soccer player who has passed his glory day and now is trying to put together the pieces of whatever family he has left.  He desperately tries to mend his relationship with his son Lewis (Noah Lomax) and with his ex-wife Stacie (Jessica Biel) whilst trying to find a job to pay his bills.  His attempts to get close with his son fail miserably because of his immature ways. Now he has to grow up and become an adult so that he can mend his relationship with Lewis and possibly win over Stacie in the process.

The Expendables 2 (2012)

It is exactly what it’s portrayed to be, a blind, non-stop, action movie. The first Expendables movie was nice, but this gets a little boring. The saving grace is the cameo roles played by Schwarzenegger, Norris and Willis. The first fight is nice to watch and the rest are ok. Jean-Claude Van Damme gives a nice performance, actually instills a bit of fear, he makes a good negative character. The plot is very simple. In the first part Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his team destroy an island which creates a conflict of interest with CIA operative Mr. Church (Bruce Willis).

The Campaign (2012)

A nonstop funny move, it has a pinch of truth couched in loads of comedy. Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is running for his fifth term unopposed. Businessmen and brothers Glen (John Lithgow) and Wade Motch (Dan Aykroyd) convince Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) to run against Cam Brady. Now Cam Brady and Marty Huggins take off their gloves and engage in a no rules brawl trying to get the upper hand on the other. You might think that the laughter starts here but the laughter starts long before this, it is an all out funny movie but you might want to leave the family out for this one.

The Bourne Legacy (2012)

This sequel is as useful as Edward Norton’s mole. This movie isn’t a sequel or a prequel it runs side by side with the previous movie, The Bourne Ultimatum. The first half answers the question “can this be more boring?” The second half trumps the first half by showing us it can. The previous sentence made more sense than the movie. The tagline for this movie is “There never was just one”, the question here is does it take a 2 hour 15 minutes to answer that? The sheer redundancy of the movie is amazing. Imagine you find a matchstick and this matchstick is a bit stronger, emits less smoke and smells nice when you burn it.

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift (2012)

You’re probably thinking how much can they squeeze out of a franchise, and your right but still the movie has its moments. The scenes with Sid (John Leguizamo) and his granny (Wanda Sykes) are something to look forward to. The story is the same old stuff, a pinch of Pirates of The Caribbean here and a pinch of crazy there and you get the basic story. It all starts with the continental drift, which separated the supercontinent into the different continents we know now.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

As a Batman movie this is one of the best, second best to The Dark Knight. But as a Christopher Nolan movie, it doesn’t come up to expectations. Towards the end of the movie, there are 15 minutes where the plot kind of unfolds but which doesn’t really make sense. I mean, if you take away those 15 minutes, the movie would be awesome. This story takes place eight years after the rampage of the Joker, the Dent law has been enforced and Gotham is enjoying the calm before the storm. Batman (Christian Bale) is in retirement but is forced to come out of it thanks to a menacing new threat, Bane (Tom Hardy).