Greetings! Normally on Monday mornings you can expect to visit here and see your weekly fix of movie news here in the regular weekly segment entitled “Movie News Monday!” 

Well, today we are mixing it up! No official “Movie News Monday” post today (although, be sure to follow me on Twitter and/or on Facebook for continual movie news updates everyday). Instead, today we take a look at the final countdown of 2012 in theaters! Are you looking forward to the movies in the final quarter? Did most of 2012 disappoint you? Let’s take a gander at what to expect from the rest of the year in cinema.

Ah, 2012! Remember in 2011 when the year 2012 was being heralded as “The Year of Movies?” There definitely have been some fantastic films this year, but there have also been the fair share of disappointments as well. The year that would be one of the greatest in cinema placed high expectations on the likes of movies such as:

• The Grey, Safe House, Act of Valor, John Carter, Mirror Mirror, Wrath of the Titans, The Raven.
• Lockout, Dark Shadows, Rock of Ages, Snow White & The Huntsman, Prometheus, Savages,
• Total Recall, Bourne Legacy, The Expendables 2, Haywire, The Cold Light of Day, Premium Rush

…just to name a FEW.

What happened to those movies? While all those listed above weren’t necessarily horrid (most were), they all definitely qualify for the “fell short of expectations” category! 2012 was staged to be such an impressive year for theatrical releases and instead it delivered a lot of duds. Don’t get me wrong, there were some amazing movies so far in 2012, but would it surprise you to learn that Ice Age: Continental Drift is the 3rd highest grossing film of 2012 worldwide to date?! (After The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises). SMH

Why are movies like The Hunger Games or The Amazing Spider-Man or Brave (even Madagascar 3 beat Pixar’s Brave!) or Men in Black 3 earning less than one of the worst animated movies of the year? My expectations continued to be dashed upon the rocks of despair!

This is not to discredit the good amount of amazingness (yes, I just used the made-up word “amazingness.”) that we DID have in theaters! Who can forget the BIGGEST movie of the year: Marvel’s THE AVENGERS (which, coincidentally releases on Blu-ray tomorrow in stores!)?

Other releases also gave us some great experiences in theaters such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Hunger Games, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (you KNOW I’m only kidding with that one), 21 Jump Street, The Cabin in the Woods, etc. Yet, it seems that 2012 was plagued with more disappointment than deliverance of “amazingness.”

Thankfully, 2012 is not yet over. The final quarter brings what is often referred to as the “Oscar Bait” to the screen. The next three months represent the second biggest movie season of the year and with it come some pretty impressive titles (excluding The Great Gatsbywhose release date has been since removed from the quarter 4 lineup and will now be releasing in May of 2013).

Below is a list of a few movies worth keeping an eye out for in the next jam-packed three months of cinematic offerings for your consideration. My top 5 picks for each month (along with my Top Pick for that month) will be listed first, followed by the remaining monthly titles that launch in that respective month. Let’s hope October-December pays us back for some of the large disappointments of the past nine months (especially January and September…the box office numbers this month have been bad, but so have the movies themselves).

Here is your 2012 Final Countdown!

October

Frankenweenie

• Director: Tim Burton.
• Vocal Talent: Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Martin Landau
• Release Date: October 5, 2012
• Story: A young boy, grieving the loss of his canine companion, finds a way to revive him!

Watch the Trailer

—

Taken 2

• Director: Olivier Megaton.
• Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace
• Release Date: October 5, 2012
• Story: ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills must once again defend himself and his family as revenge-seeking thugs threaten his wife and daughter.

Watch the Trailer

—

Argo

• Director: Ben Affleck.
• Starring: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman
• Release Date: October 12, 2012
• Story: Based on true events, a US Government operation to extract American hostages from behind dangerous enemy lines under the ruse of location filming for a fake movie.

Watch the Trailer

—

The Paperboy

• Director: Lee Daniels
• Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Zac Efron
• Release Date: October 17, 2012
• Story: A reporter investigates the possible wrongful conviction of a death row inmate in his Florida hometown.

Watch the Trailer

—

T’s Top Pick: Cloud Atlas

• Director: The Wachowskis; Tom Tykwer.
• Starring: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant
• Release Date: October 26, 2012
• Story: A beautiful tale of multiple lives whose paths cross and whose actions effect each other throughout time.

Watch the Trailer

—

*Additional October titles include: Pitch Perfect, V/H/S, The House I Live In, The Oranges, Butter, Sinister, Smashed, Here Comes The Boom, Seven Psychopaths, War of the Buttons, Middle of Nowhere, Alex Cross, Paranormal Activity 4, The Sessions, Chasing Mavericks, Silent Hill Revelation 3D, and Fun Size.

November

Wreck-It Ralph

• Director: Rich Moore.
• Vocal Talent: John C. Reilly, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman
• Release Date: November 2, 2012
• Story: Video game personality battles with an identity crisis and seeks to forge a new path.

Watch the Trailer

—

The Man with the Iron Fists

• Director: RZA.
• Starring: Russell Crowe, Lucy Liu, RZA, Jamie Chung
• Release Date: November 2, 2012
• Story: Tarantino presents 7 clans battling for power and gold in a most violent way.

Watch the Trailer

—

Skyfall

• Director: Sam Mendes.
• Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes
• Release Date: November 9, 2012
• Story: Agent 007 returns and helps M as demons from her past resurface and threaten more than just her.

Watch the Trailer

—

T’s Top Pick: Lincoln

• Director: Steven Spielberg.
• Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tommy Lee Jones
• Release Date: November 16, 2012
• Story: A Spielberg-passion. Bio pic of the 16th President of the U.S. (sans vampires)

Watch the Trailer

—

Life of Pi

• Director: Ang Lee
• Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain
• Release Date: November 21, 2012
• Story: A shipwrecked boy named Pi finds himself in the mixed company of various animals all trying to survive.

Watch the Trailer

—

Rise of the Guardians

• Director: Peter Ramsey.
• Vocal Talent: Hugh Jackman, Alec Baldwin, Isla Fisher, Chris Pine
• Release Date: November 21, 2012
• Story: Icons of lore and legend rise to protect the children of earth against an evil that threatens them through their dreams.

Watch the Trailer

—

*Additional November titles include: Flight, A Late Quartet, This Must Be the Place, The ABCs of Death, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -Part 2, Anna Karenina, Silver Linings Playbook, Hitchcock, Rust and Bone, and Killing Them Softly.

December

T’s Top Pick: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

• Director: Peter Jackson.
• Starring: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Cate Blanchett
• Release Date: December 14, 2012
• Story: Hobbit Bilbo Baggins embarks on a perilous and unexpected adventure with Gandalf and company.

Watch the Trailer

—

Zero Dark Thirty

• Director: Kathryn Bigelow.
• Starring: Chris Pratt, jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton
• Release Date: December 19, 2012
• Story: Chronicle of the Navy SEAL hunt for Osama bin Laden after the 9/11 attacks.

Watch the Trailer

—

The Impossible

• Director: Juan Antonio Bayona.
• Starring: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland
• Release Date: December 21, 2012
• Story: A family’s frightening ordeal of separation and search after a torrentous tsunami.

Watch the Trailer

—

Django Unchained

• Director: Quentin Tarantino.
• Starring: Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson
• Release Date: December 25, 2012
• Story: An idealist bounty hunter and a slave join forces to track down transgressors.

Watch the Trailer

—

Les Misérables

• Director: Tom Hooper.
• Starring: Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter
• Release Date: December 25, 2012
• Story: Musical set in 19th century. French prisoner Jean Valjean hopes for redemption.

Watch the Trailer

—

*Additional December titles include: Hyde Park on Hudson, Playing for Keeps, This is 40, Jack Reacher, Monsters Inc 3D, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, On the Road, Not Fade Away, Amour, The Guilt Trip, Parental Guidance, and Promised Land.

Well, those are MY picks for the next 3 months. Tell me, which ones are you most looking forward to? (Leave a comment)

Thanks for reading! Happy Watching!

–T, The Focused Filmographer 

(btw, $5 says you will probably have the song “Final Countdown” in your head all day today! 😀 You’re welcome!)

*up next: Time to Vote Tuesday