1. The Avengers
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Action
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Joss Whedon
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Samuel L. Jackson , Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo
Plot: When an extraterrestrial invasion threatens all of mankind, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agency must bring together the world's greatest heroes in order to stop the threat. But before they can save Earth, they will have to learn to work together as a team.
2. The Dark Knight Rises
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Action/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Christopher Nolan
Actors: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Gary Oldman
Plot: Eight years after the fall of The Joker and Harvey Dent, Gotham City is quiet, peaceful - but all that is about to change. Bane has arrived and plans a campaign of terror that will push the city to its limit. Batman will once again take the mantle of hero in order to save his city.
3. Django Unchained
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Western
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Actors: Jaime Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington, Don Johnson
Plot: Once a slave, Django is now a free man working as a bounty hunter. After assisting a German bounty hunter, the two join forces to take down the wicked Plantation owner Calvin Candie - who has Django's wife and wants him back as a slave.
4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama/Romance
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Stephen Chbosky
Actors: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Mae Whitman, Paul Rudd, Dylan McDermott
Plot: An introverted freshman is dealing with a lot in life: first love, mental instability and his friend's suicide. Two seniors take the teen under their wing to introduce him to the real world.
5. Moonrise Kingdom
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.2 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Wes Anderson
Actors: Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton
Plot: In the 1960s, on a small island off the coast of New England, two young lovers decide to flee together. When their disappearance is noted, various factions of the town ban together to find them and turn the place upside down... which may be just what is needed.
6. Love ( Amour )
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.3 out of 4 stars
Language: French
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Michael Haneke
Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alexandre Tharaud, William Shimell, Rita Blanco
Plot: Anne and Georges are a wonderful, loving couple in their 80s. They have to rely on each other as their one daughter lives abroad with her own family. When Anne suffers a stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed, it will test their bond of love like no other event before.
7. Argo
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: Ben Affleck
Actors: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Clea DuVall, Alan Arkin
Plot: Six Americans are hiding out at the Canadian Embassy as the Iranian revolution reaches critical mass. It's up to a CIA agent who specialized in "exfiltration" to get the Americans to safety with a risky escape plan.
8. Silver Linings Playbook
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Comedy/Drama
MPAA Rating: R
Director: David O. Russell
Actors: Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Julia Stiles, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker
Plot: After eight months in an institution, Pat Solitano moves in with his parents, wanting nothing more to get his life back in order, starting with re-connecting with he ex-wife. He meets a young woman with challenges of her own who promises to help him, as long as he does something for her in return. Yet as the plan comes together, these two damaged individuals begin to form their own bond.
9. Life of Pi
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Adventure/Drama
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Ang Lee
Actors: Irrfan Khan, Suraj Sharma, Tabu, Adil Hussain, Ayush Tandon, Gautam Belur
Plot: A son of a zookeeper survives a shipwreck by stowing away in a lifeboat with a zebra, orangutan, hyena and Bengal tiger.
10. Wreck-It Ralph
Year of Release: 2012
Overall Rating: 3.1 out of 4 stars
Language: English
Genre: Animation
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Rich Moore
Actors: John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Sarah Silverman, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, Adam Carolla
Plot: An 8-bit bad guy longs to be the hero, so to earn the medal he rightfully deserves, he game jumps to the new first-person shooter Heroes Duty but just when success is at hand, he wrecks things and winds up in the candy-coated racing game sugar rush where he reluctantly teams up with glitch named Vanellope and finds out being a true hero means a lot more than just having a medal.
