SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE - 2012 VERSION

In 2011, I saw 58 movies in the theater. 41 of those were on a Sunday night.

I'd say that makes a pretty damn successful Sunday Night Movie run for the year. On top of that, of the 11 Sundays that we missed, it was usually only due to people being out of town. It's become a pretty solid tradition that I don't see slowing down any time soon.

Late last January, I went through and found all the movies that had release dates scheduled for the coming year and made sort of an unofficial "most anticipated" list, and yesterday, I went through it again and compared it to what I'd seen. It was fun to do, so I figured why not do it again.

Early next year, I'll come back to this list and see what I loved, what I hated, what I missed and what I stayed away from all together.

I'm starting in March this year, because I've fallen a bit behind in posting these (even though I'm writing this on 2/9, it won't go up for a couple of weeks).

MARCH
JOHN CARTER - Andrew Stanton directed WALL*E and he's making the jump to live action with Tim Riggins in tow. His Pixar buddy Brad Bird made the jump with MI:4, and it was great. I really, really want to like this.
21 JUMP STREET - I'm torn on this. I think I'll see it, but I have very, very low expectations.
THE HUNGER GAMES - The only thing I know about this movie is that both Twilight and Harry Potter fans love the books. That doesn't exactly fill me with excitement or confidence.
JEFF WHO LIVES AT HOME - Ed Helms and Jason Segel together. I expect it to be funny, but it's a Duplass Brothers movie and sometimes what they think is funny and tragic just ends up being boring as shit.

APRIL
AMERICAN REUNION - I grew up with the AMERICAN PIE movies, so I have to see this by default. I expect one really funny part and the rest will be a whole bunch of alright.
CABIN IN THE WOODS - A horror movie that supposedly isn't anything you'd expect. I know just about every horror movie ever says that, but Joss Whedon (BUFFY, THE AVENGERS) wrote it, so I kind of believe it.
THE FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT - The guy that directed FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL, with Jason Segel and my two celebrity crushes right now, Alison Brie and Emily Blunt. Sold.

MAY
THE AVENGERS - Cautiously optimistic and have been since they announced it. It has to be awesome, right?
BATTLESHIP - I'd be way more willing to give it a fair chance if it wasn't named after a god damn board game. But, Peter Berg and Liam Neeson with some FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS alum along for the ride? I'll roll with it.
MEN IN BLACK III - I'm not excited, I'm genuinely curious why they're making it. Not like Will Smith needs the money.
MOONRISE KINGDOM - Not the biggest Wes Anderson fan. I feel he gets more pretentious with every movie, but I'm willing to put that aside to see what he's been up to.

JUNE
PROMETHEUS - Might be my most anticipated movie of the year. I just want it to be awesome.
BRAVE - I skipped both CARS movies, because I want to pretend Pixar's track record is impeccable. From what I've read/seen, this should be pretty great, keeping the streak intact.
G.I. JOE - RETALIATION - I didn't see the first one because it looked awful. This one looks like a very different kind of awful. A really, really fun kind of awful.

JULY
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - A brooding punk rock Peter Parker turns into a gritty Spider-Man. I think of all the super hero movies this year, this one has the most at stake for starting over so soon and retelling an origin that not only everyone knows, but was done very well by Sam Raimi barely a decade ago. I still don't know what I think.
THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - I've stopped looking at anything related to this. I don't want to know anything else. I just want to bask in the glory of the last chapter. Very high on the list of things I'd like to see.

AUGUST
THE BOURNE LEGACY - I liked all three of the Matt Damon movies and I'm totally on board with Jeremy Renner taking over. Should be awesome.
TOTAL RECALL - Just to see what kind of bullshit Len Wiseman has in store. Bryan Cranston is in it too, so at least he'll be awesome. The rest of it will probably suck.

SEPTEMBER
ARGO - Ben Affleck has been killing it from the director's chair, so I'm all in.
LOOPER - Right up there with PROMETHEUS and DARK KNIGHT RISES. The director of BRICK making a time travel, bounty hunter movie starring Bruce Willis. It's going to be awesome.

OCTOBER
GANGSTER SQUAD - They've been trying to get this made for a while now, and I'm always skeptical of that situation, but I have high hopes for this one.

NOVEMBER
WRECK-IT RALPH - Disney movie about a video game character trying to redeem himself. Everything I've heard so far has been great. Really hope it stays that way.
GRAVITY - Any time Alfonso Cuaron (CHILDREN OF MEN) makes a movie, I'm seeing it.
SKYFALL - Bond is back, and hopefully Sam Mendes can make a more interesting movie than QUANTUM OF SOLACE, because that movie was boring as shit.

DECEMBER
WORLD WAR Z - Another long gestating project that finally came through. Hopefully not everyone is sick of zombies by then.
THIS IS FORTY - Judd Apatow's sideways sequel to KNOCKED UP. Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann were great together in that, but Apatow has a knack for letting his movies run too long. Hopefully he fixes that, otherwise get ready for a dearth of headlines that read THIS IS FORTY... MINUTES TOO LONG.
THE GREAT GATSBY - Leo, Toby, Carrie Mulligan and Baz Luhrmann can hopefully do this book justice. At least Vinnie Chase isn't the lead, right? But I just found out that it's in 3D, so I've already got one foot out the door.
DJANGO UNCHAINED - Tarantino's spaghetti western. I'm already in line.
THE HOBBIT - I felt I had to put this on the list even though I don't care if I ever see it. I've never been a Tolkein fan. I've tried, but just can't do it. THE TWO TOWERS was great, but I didn't care for RETURN OF THE KING at all and I've been sick of hearing about this movie for three years already. Can't imagine I'll be less sick of it by December.

Release Dates To Be Determined

SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS - The writer/director of IN BRUGES makes another movie is all I need to know.
ONLY GOD FORGIVES - After BRONSON and DRIVE, I'll watch anything Nicolas Winding Refn does.
THE MASTER - Paul Thomas Anderson has an awesome track record, and this movie is apparently about Scientology. I expect great things, even if I have no idea where it's going to go.
COGAN'S TRADE - The guy that made CHOPPER with Brad Pitt as a mob enforcer? Where do I sign up?

Anything I miss that's for sure coming out this year? I know there will be some Sundance/Cannes/Toronto Film Festival movies that come out of nowhere, and those are usually the best ones because of the surprise factor.

What are you looking forward to?