Gopher

And that's it, folks! Here are my personal grades for BOT's top 15 films: 1. Drive A 2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 B- 3. 50/50 A 4. Hugo A 5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes B+ 6. X-Men: First Class B+ 7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo B+ 8. Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol A-/B+ 9. Warrior B/B- 10. The Descendants A- 11. Rango A- 12. Super 8 B- 13. Moneyball A- 14. The Muppets A- 15. The Artist B+ Pretty solid list, I must say.

1. DRIVE (167 points, 13 lists) There's something inside Drive. It's hard to explain. Perhaps it's because this is a film filled with archetypes- Ryan Gosling's Driver hero doesn't even have a name, Albert Brooks is the classic villain-thug, Christina Hendricks is so much of a mole that she might as well have been called The Moll, Carey Mulligan the girl he's supposed to save. It doesn't try to reinvent the genre, so you can't look and point at what's so incredible. But damn it, when a genre film is pulled off this well, it becomes seductive- every shot and line of dialogue in Drive has a purpose, a purpose used to its full effect. It's shot and scored to a dazzling and efficient pulse, and Refin's style of not trying too hard (while making a greater impact) allows for the cast, who give their stereotypes flesh and bones, to take away the audience. Drive is, in fact, nothing short of incredible. It's my favorite movie of the year, and it's BOT's favorite movie of the year. And really, has Gosling ever been dreamier?

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (161 points, 16 lists) I could try, but I'm not going to bother. I'll just hand this over to Noctis- "One of my favorite films ever. I'm a Harry Potter nut until the end, but that doesn't mean I love all the movies in the series. I don't. DH1/DH2 are easily my favorite in the series without a single doubt in my mind. Although DH1 was slightly less flawed, DH2 is a bit better for me - if only for its exhilarating action sequences and the forest scene with Harry and the ghost of his loved ones. Score was utterly incredible. For me, this film got better on repeat viewings. I could notice a lot more little details. Cinematography is spectacular! Every single second of the boathouse was stunning to look at. I do have qualms with the film, though. I wish they had included a couple of scenes of Snape/Lily as teenagers, but that's minor. The very last scene before the epilogue was, in my opinion, a beautiful way to close the film. Just the three of them on the bridge was so poignant."

3. 50/50 (153 points, 14 lists) Recently, I saw this Jonathan Levine film for the first time since early July. It was just as funny- Seth Rogen's "I nailed that ----!" scene is just as funny as it is rewarding for the viewer to watch- but I found the dramatic elements more endearing and Will Reiser's blend of comedy and tragedy seamless. 50/50 has performances from JGL, Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anjelica Huston that are all at the top of their game, and proves itself to be the funniest, most heartwarming movie of the year. And seriously, f**k cancer.

4. Hugo (147 points, 13 lists) One of Scorsese's most personal films turned out to be incredibly different from anything in his filmography. Hugo is a masterful, magical film, a love story to cinema at its finest, featuring the absolute best 3D I have ever seen. It's a marvel that will be valued for decades to come.

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (137 points, 15 lists) Apes was in a similar situation as X-Men; in fact, a year ago, a few people here thought this reboot would be the bomb of 2011. Instead, Apes succeeded because it was a bold, daring entry for a franchise film, featuring one of the best performances of the year in Andy Serkis.

6. X-Men: First Class (128 points, 16 lists) Sure, this quasi-reboot/prequel isn't perfect, because nothing with January Jones's acting is (and yes, that includes Mad Men). But I never expected anything from X-Men: First Class, the movie was fast tracked by Fox and the franchise's record isn't exactly glowing. What I got was a summer blast, with great action scenes from Kick Ass's Matthew Vaughn, and some really fun performances- Michael Fassbender is a treasure, whether he's Magneto, Edward Rochester, or a sex addict.

7. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (128 points, 14 lists) If the worst crime David Fincher committed with his Dragon Tattoo adaptation is staying too close to the ultimately so-so material, then that's pretty solid. This is a movie that looks and sounds great, features some genuinely captivating scenes, and Rooney Mara delivers a truly breakout performance. This is better than the Swedish movie. If you haven't seen either film, just see this one. You'll appreciate it more.

8. Mission Impossible- Ghost Protocol (115 points, 14 lists) Artsy, cerebral movies that combine intelligence with entertainment are always nice. But the franchise pic Mission Impossible 4 does combine intelligence with entertainment. Brad Bird expertly crafts every action scene in this film with skill, making every setpiece feel fresh. It helps that the script gives the always-game Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg a whole lot to do together.

9. Warrior (110 points, 12 lists) I loved parts of what Hardy, Edgerton and Nolte did here, but I didn't love the film as a whole. So I'll let someone who did explain why this deserves to be BOT's #9 favorite film of the year: "Great cast and that final fight was the most intense shit ever. My heart was racing. Genuinely had no idea who was gonna win." - CoolioD

10. The Descendants (105 points, 10 lists) In the same vein as Moneyball- get a great book, great writers to adapt it, a great director, a great actor, and you rarely go wrong. The Descendants has real depth: it finds tears through laughter and vice versa, dances with emotionally complex themes so well that the film feels intimate and heartfelt. It's a hard movie not to like.

11. Rango (93 points, 11 lists) A quirky, animated western shouldn't work. But Gore Verbinski's Rango does, in spades. It's one of the weirdest, wildest animated movies I've ever seen. I know kids haven't seen Chinatown, so I can only assume this movie was made for us.

12. Moneyball (91 points, 10 lists) Moneyball feels like a classic studio hit. Make a movie with a deserved A-lister like Brad Pitt and write a fabulous script by Steve Zallian and Aaron Sorkin that gets a great performance out of him. It's a tremendously entertaining, emotionally powerful film that I've already seen multiple times.

13. Super 8 (91 points, 11 lists) We as an internet community built up Super 8 to be a movie better than it actually was, and more successful than it would be. It didn't quite live up to the hype, at least in my humble opinion. In fact, I liked it when I first saw it and I have absolutely no desire to see it again. But a whole lot of you guys liked the movie. I'll say this much, J.J Abrams certainly went for a nice Speilberg tribute.

14. The Muppets (79 points, 9 lists) Talk about a comeback story! Jason Segel saved the gang from Disney limbo and wrote with Nicholas Stoller a film that serves as both a touching tribute to The Muppets and its own hilarious adventure. I can't wait to buy the DVD.

Keep in mind that The Rite made 14m in its opening this weekend last year and it was #1. It's generally a weak time of year. January looks like it'll top last year's handedly, which was one of my main areas of concern. That's great. This month looked like a nonstarter.

1. Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (B+)

15. The Artist (75 points, 7 lists) Michael Hazanavicius's silent movie, seemingly destined for the Best Picture award at the Oscars next month, also scored very high with some users here. Critics against the movie argue that there's not a lot of substance in the film- sure, it's fluff, but it's impeccably made fluff, and a fun, joyous tribute to the silent era.

Here are the HONORABLE MENTIONS! 20. Beginners (55 points from 8 lists) I'm very happy that this indie dramedy, starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer, got some support. It's such a sweet little poem of a film, touching beautifully on themes like love and loss, featuring terrific performances all around. Mike Mills, who wrote and directed the film, has such a distinctive voice. I wish him the best of luck with future movies. 19. Source Code (58 points, 9 lists) Sci-fi did very well all around, and Duncan Jones's creative sci-fi film starring Jake Gyllenhaal was no exception. Jones's followup to Moon was a smart, very entertaining piece of escapism. 18. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (61 points, 6 lists) Meticulously crafted and filled with an incredible cast, this adaptation polarized some and extremely pleased others. And of course, everyone loved Gary Oldman's nuanced performance as George Smiley. 17. Midnight in Paris (72 points, 10 lists) Not only does Midnight in Paris offer me a chance to post this picture of Adrien Brody as Dali, but Woody Allen's comedy is creative, whimsical and the best film he's made in years. 16. The Adventures of Tintin (73 points, 10 lists) Nice surprise to see this so high up. Stephen Speilberg and Peter Jackson's adaptation of the classic Herge comics was a rip-roaring ride that captured the spirit of the original books. And of course, we got another incredible performance by Andy Serkis as Captain Haddock. I'm looking forward to the sequel!

Here is everything else that was above 20 points but not in the Top 15 or a honorable mention. These movies received quite a bit of support- Win Win, for example, placed in nine lists, and Ides of March had four Top 5 placements. Hanna: 21 Transformers: The Dark Side of the Moon (great album, great movie): 21 The Adjustment Bureau: 24 We Need to Talk About Kevin: 24 Senna: 25 A Separation: 26 Melancholia: 27 Thor: 29 Shame: 31 Horrible Bosses: 31 Fast Five: 33 Contagion: 36 Captain America: The First Avenger: 36 The Tree of Life: 38 The Help: 40 Win Win: 43 Bridesmaids: 47 War Horse: 50 The Ides of March: 54 Some thoughts: I honestly thought The Help and Bridesmaids- particularly the latter- would do better. They were each found on eight lists, but mostly placed in the second half of each list. It was interesting to see that Thor, Cap and Fast Five- all generally well received franchise movies- were all the way down here when some other certain franchise movies rocked the top of the charts. Transformers 3 really didn't do any better here than Pirates or Sherlock, indicating that even the second movie had more passionate followers. Strong showing for Ides of March, relatively okay for War Horse, and the rest mostly consists of arthouse films- Tree of Life, Melancholia, A Separation, We Need to Talk About Kevin, Shame, etc.- that did not have a lot of placements but were ranked highly by the people who did see them.

The job for users was to post their favorite 15 movies of the year, in order. Each ranking would be given "excellence points" (because these are all movies at least some users loved) based on the position of the film- a movie placed #1 would be given 15 points, a movie placed #2 would be given 14 points, all the way down until a movie placed #15 would be given 1 point. What I'll do is post every movie mentioned, do five honorable mentions (numbers 16-20) and give each movie in the top 15 a paragraph about why they were so great. Here are all the movies that were put on top 15 lists and garnered between 1 and 20 points, in order of weakest to strongest. African Cats: 1 Cedar Rapids: 1 Tyrannosaur: 1 Scream 4: 1 Insidious: 2 Weekend: 2 Meek's Cutoff: 2 Sucker Punch: 3 Tower Heist: 3 Puss in Boots: 3 Paranormal Activity: 3 Unknown: 3 Bad Teacher: 4 TT3D: Closer to the Edge: 4 The Troll Hunger: 5 Bobby Fischer Against the World: 5 Cars 2: 5 (easily the worst score Pixar would ever receive at a site like this) Water For Elephants: 5 Arthur Christmas: 5 Take Shelter: 6 Like Crazy: 6 The Inbetweeners Movie: 7 Jane Eyre: 8 The Skin I Live In: 8 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: 8 Paul: 8 Our Idiot Brother: 9 Submarine: 10 In the Land of Blood and Honey: 10 Real Steel: 10 Rio: 10 The Debt: 11 Limitless: 11 13 Assassins: 12 Kung Fu Panda 2: 13 Pearl Jam: Twenty: 13 The Guard: 13 A Very Harold and Kumar 3D Christmas: 13 Life in a Day: 14 Pirates 4: 16 We Bought a Zoo: 16 Crazy, Stupid, Love: 17 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: 17 Margin Call: 19

Okay, no Noctis update? Alrightie then, let's start.

Nothing on NBC is doing much better, though. I imagine they'll get a fourth season and just play it by ear in terms of future seasons. 30 Rock will get a seventh and probably last season, otherwise they will have to draw new contracts with the cast and crew and the show will be prohibitively expensive to produce. Parks & Rec is doing fine for NBC standards and should have many years left. The Office really should end soon, but NBC isn't about to let its only show consistently pulling a 3.0 demo go.

This is a placeholder thread at the moment. I have the preliminary list set and ready to post, I'm waiting for any last-minute changes. I'll start tomorrow!

Oh, right, forgot about Enya. What a chilling scene. Loved every second of it.