M: 2012 Year in Review

I love what Jenn did with her Year in Reviews, so-- my turn!  However, I'm going to simplify it a bit for myself.  Besides, if I did a movie review like Jenn's, a good chunk of my comments would be similar. :)

Movies from 2012:
I think I did a decent job on my movie resolution this year, which was to watch at least one newer release movie each month.  I think I hit every month, whether it was in the theater or watched later in the year on a plane. I listed the movies roughly in the month they were released in theaters rather than which month I watched them just to make it easier on myself.
January: Saw both Joyful Noise and We Bought a Zoo on the plane. The latter was really, really good.
February: Month of romances with The Vow in the theater and This Means War (plane). First was predictably sad, second was silly.
March: Was super excited for The Hunger Games, which I enjoyed and thought brought the book to life well. Less excited for Mirror Mirror (plane), which lived up to my low expectations.
April: Was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed and laughed during The Five-Year Engagement (plane). It helped that most of the movie was set in Ann Arbor (Go Blue!).
May: Caught up on The Hulk and Captain America in anticipation of The Avengers, which I enjoyed a lot.  Had no expectations of What to Expect When You're Expecting (plane) and it was just okay.
June: Only movie I saw in theaters this month was Brave, which as Jenn described was way different from what I thought it was about (but good!).  Saw on the plane: Snow White and the Huntsman (meh!), Rock of Ages (cheesy), and Your Sister's Sister (loved, loved, loved!).
July: Lotsa movies in the summer that I saw in the theater: The Amazing Spider-Man (was okay and I think it sets up a new direction for the Spider-Man franchise), The Dark Knight Rises (one of the best ends to a trilogy ever), Step Up Revolution (gratuitous dance movie that hit all the right notes for me!).
August: Think I was still watching July movies in August, but I did catch one later on during a plane ride -- Celeste and Jesse Forever. Surprisingly enjoyable.
September: Saw The Perks of Being a Wallflower with Jenn. Enjoyed it a lot but it was really annoying listening to Emma speak American English.
October: Saw Pitch Perfect and enjoyed every moment of it; so much so that I want the DVD!
November: Saw Skyfall and it was fine.  Most of my plane movies were watched this month and in August.
December: Les Misérables, which was everything I hoped it would be. Rise of the Guardians, which was surprisingly a lot of fun!
Movies I still want to see: Cosmopolis; Argo; Anna Karenina; Looper; The Bourne Legacy; Silver Linings Playbook; The Hobbit; This is 40

Music from 2012: 
This year I actually listened to some new music and can talk about some new favorites.
Bands I liked: Of Monsters and Men, Imagine Dragons, The Lumineers, Walk the Moon, Grouplove, Mumford & Sons, AWOLNATION, Foster the People...
Favorite song: "Demons" by Imagine Dragons
Favorite CD: My Head Is an Animal by Of Monsters and Men

TV from 2012:
Dropped: Beauty & the Beast (not great); The Mindy Project (didn't keep my attention); The New Girl (got grating); Grey's Anatomy (fell behind); Private Practice (fell behind); Parenthood (lost motivation to stay caught up); Two Broke Girls (fell behind); Hart of Dixie (forgot about it); Hawaii Five-O (fell behind); Secret Circle (got canceled); Chuck (ended so this doesn't really count); GCB (got canceled, I think); Smash (forgot about it); 666 Park Avenue (did not like); Switched at Birth (got annoyed); Jane By Design (got canceled, I think); Pretty Little Liars (cut myself off); The Lying Game (not sure if it's still on but cutting myself off); Fairly Legal (this upsets me because I love this show, but it was CANCELED.)
Picked up: Nashville (trashy drama? I'm in!); Arrow (surprising how much I enjoy this show); Go On (quite a bit behind, but enjoyed what I've seen so far!)
Still Watching: How I Met Your Mother (can't believe I'm still watching this!); Revenge (still one of my favorites); Glee (has its ups and downs and many more downs than ever, but I'm still watching); Once Upon a Time (similar to Glee); Amazing Race (love it); SYTYCD (less "new" and exciting than previous seasons, but still I love it); Nikita (quite a few episodes behind, but still enjoy it); Covert Affairs (same as Nikita)

Books from 2012: 
Failed on my resolution to read books off my bookshelf.  I did use my Kindle a lot, though! Not much worth mentioning, unfortunately.

Conclusion: Quantifying my resolutions (SMART goals?) did not help me achieve them, really!

M: A Netflix Weekend

Haha, and two more off of my Netflix queue!  Only 19 more to go! :)

Prom: Even though Aimee Teergarden kind of annoys me, I rather enjoyed this movie and her in it as well.  I appreciated that the actual prom part of it wasn't a big deal but it was more about the lead up and what prom meant for people than anything else.  Quite predictable, but a really cute movie.

Sorority Wars: This was a made for TV movie, I guess, since it definitely had commercial breaks built into it.  Lucy Hale stars, with Courtney Thorne Smith and some other girl who reminds me a lot of Ellen Page but isn't Ellen Page. It was another super predictable movie but made me happy in that feel good made-for-TV movie way.

M: Resolution 2012 Update

2 movies off of my Netflix instant queue: It's a Boy Girl Thing and My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.

Both cheesy and pretty much exactly what I expected of them when I added them to the queue.  The second one had a little bit of a twist at the end and the final scene was set to an Ingrid Michaelson song, so I'll say that of the boy girl, girl boy movie face off -- My Girlfriend's Boyfriend won by a small margin.

Not worth expanding on either of the two movies, really. The first one had the girl who played Seth's girlfriend on The OC when he wasn't dating Summer (the comic girl... Anna, I think?).  The second one has the blind guy from Covert Affairs (also formerly of Popular) and Alyssa Milano.

A nice lazy Saturday evening. :)

Now to get a currently playing movie in before the month is over... I might concede defeat on that within the first month! :(

Update (2 hours later): 3 movies off my Netflix instant queue. Latest addition is Morning Glory starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, the friend from Mad About You, and the Jeff Goldblum.  Maybe I'm just Rachel McAdams biased, but this was actually really good!  Probably the only movie I might recommend from the three I watched today.

Well, 3 down... 21 more to go? :)

2012 Resolutions

M: Can't start a new year without resolutions!

Mira: I'm going to try to quantify my goals this year...
1. Netflix: We currently have 120 items on our Watch Instantly queue. Decrease the queue by 20%. (Translation: Watch at least 24 things off of it in completion myself.)
2. Fiction books on bookshelf: Since I failed so miserably at achieving this achievement, I will make an effort in a way that may be achievable.  For every new book purchased, make sure an old unread book is read. (Translation: do not increase the number of unread fiction books on shelf.)
3. Watch and review at least ONE newer release movie each month. (Possible movies: Sherlock Holmes/We Bought a Zoo (Jan); Mirror, Mirror/Hunger Games (Mar/Apr); The Five-Year Engagement (Apr/May); Snow White and the Huntsman (Jun); The Amazing Spider-Man (Jul); Step Up 4 (Jul/Aug); Les Miserables/The Hobbit (Dec)...)

Jennifer:
1. Read Anna Karenina, Middlemarch, and Atlas Shrugged. I've been meaning to read these for years now. I read 38 books last year, so surely I can finish these three! I got the first two for free on Kindle and I own the last already anyway.
2. Repeated from last year - catch up on Breaking Bad. I did watch the pilot last week!
3. Finish watching Angel. I own all 5 seasons on DVD, I'm a huge Joss Whedon fan, but for some reason I have never actually watched every episode. Ridiculous!