We here at Perpetual Geek Machine think life as a nerd has been pretty spectacular in 2012. Great movies, games, tv shows and more. We’ve made friends with Nicole Kline, and then put her to work writing here! Rich got engaged, Dan bought a house. There’s a good chance Ryan and/or Bryan did something adorably Canadian. Kevin spent most of the year brewing beer and Adam made it through the latest Mayan apocalypse mostly unscathed!
Just like last year to celebrate the end of this trip round the sun we got together to run down our top 5 favorite things of the year. We then presented those during part 1 of our spectacular year end podcast. In part 2 of that podcast we whittle out lists down to a Top 5 to represent the site as a whole, and then 1 singular item that is Perpetual Geek Machine’s favorite thing of 2012. Last year The Muppets was our winner. What will take the crown this year? Listen to the podcast to find out!
In addition to fighting it out on the podcast we’re also each presenting our lists here on the site. Please join us to run down Rich Coonelly’s top 5 things of 2012!
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I am not what you would call a James Bond fan. Sure, the movies are fun sometimes, but they can be little more than stylistic action movies with a protagonist that I find very uninteresting. To top it off, I think Daniel Craig is the worst Bond since George Lazenby. Why is it that I found myself drawn to Skyfall so much this holiday season? Is it because Daniel Craig has started to come into his own as Bond? Is it stellar action? Is it because Javier Bardem steals the show as the villain? Is it Javier Bardem’s crazy hair? Actually, all of these things combined made me love “Skyfall.” (more…)
A couple of weeks ago I jokingly titled “Taken 2” as “Taken Too” because the premise of the sequel to the 2008 action film is nearly identical to its predecessor. The only thing that’s really changed is who is taken this time. Happy in how clever I thought I was giving a silly title to what looked like a rehashed but otherwise decent action movie, I went about my business and thought nothing of poor reviews I started to hear. Little did I realize just how representative my ridiculous title was to the actual movie. (more…)
It’s hard to mention the movie Judge Dredd and not audibly groan. Sylvester Stallone’s take on the comic book character is a travesty of film, and it sent the Dredd character and franchise back to the stone age. I honestly thought we’d find out who killed Kennedy before we saw another attempt at this series. Thankfully we did not have to wait that long because Karl Urban breathes new life into Judge Dredd in this fun and fresh action movie.
If you are unfamiliar with the story of the Judge Dredd universe, war has ravaged the world and there is not much left. Those that survived formed a massive, walled-off city in which violence runs rampant. Here the police act as the judge, jury, and executioner and may kill you for seemingly minor offenses in an attempt to maintain order. In “Dredd,” the titular character and his rookie trainee are locked in a massive slum tower by a drug kingpin called Ma-Ma. Their goal is to take down Ma-Ma and her operation or die trying. (more…)
In a similar manner to the fourth Bourne novel originally penned by Robert Ludlum and passed to Eric Van Lustbader, this fourth entry into the Bourne movies also passes the torch from Matt Damon to Jeremy Renner. “The Bourne Legacy” follows Aaron Cross, another highly gifted and trained assassin forged by the CIA, as he dodges bad guys sent to eliminate him as a result of Jason Bourne’s actions from the previous three movies. Though the title of the movie implies Cross will continue to bring the fight to the CIA as Bourne did this movie has less to do with carrying on his predecessor’s work and more to do with carrying on Matt Damon’s work of making money from a successful action franchise. Though I hate to measure this movie against the previous three it’s difficult not to look at “The Bourne Legacy” and see that it is vastly inferior. (more…)
