Fatso's Top 20 Biggest Movies of 2014

And now, without further ado, our top movie rentals of the year. Any favourites? Disappointments? Surprises? These were the films you couldn't wait to see on DVD and Blu-ray:

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1. Gravity

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 2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

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3. The Wolf of Wall Street

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4. Captain Phillips

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5. Thor: The Dark World

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 6. 12 Years a Slave

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7. Lee Daniels' The Butler

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8. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

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9. Frozen

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10. Philomena

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11. The Railway Man

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12. American Hustle

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13. Blue Jasmine

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14. Rush

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15. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

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16. Ender's Game

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17. Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

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18. About Time

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19. Saving Mr. Banks

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20. Dallas Buyers Club

Fatso's Top 20 Biggest Titles of 2013

'Tis the time to be making end-of-year lists and whatnot so we got our number-crunchers to put together the Top 20 titles that were constantly flying off our racks this year. 2013 Oscar Best Picture winner Argo topped the list, a much less surprising title than 2012's #1. Good to see foreign entry The Intouchables crack the Top 10, and curious that some of you were crazy about Alex Cross at one point! Here's the complete list:

1. Argo
2. Skyfall
3. Looper
4. Taken 2
5. Lincoln
6. Life of Pi
7. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
8. Django Unchained
9. Silver Linings Playbook
10. The Intouchables
11. Jack Reacher
12. Les Miserables
13. Iron Man 3
14. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2
15. Alex Cross
16. Pitch Perfect
17. Oblivion
18. A Good Day to Die Hard
19. Game of Thrones - Season 2
20. Zero Dark Thirty

Final Cut 2013: A Cinema Tribute

Nick Bosworth over at JoBlo.com has put together this fantastic tribute to the movies of 2013. Containing a phenomenal 283 films spread over 8 minutes of sensory overload, the mash-up does an effective job of encapsulating the landscape of cinema in the past year -- although the choices, understandably, are mostly geared towards Western audiences. A number of films haven't made it to our shores just yet, but see how many you can spot:

Fatso Christmas Watchlist

Need a movie to watch over the Christmas holidays with the whole family? Here's a handy list of recent, new and upcoming Christmas-themed releases you can rent from Fatso...

Almost Christmas
Abominable Christmas
The Wiggles - It's Always Christmas With You/Santa's Rockin'
Chilly Christmas
Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger!
Peppa Pig - A Christmas Compilation
A Christmas Without Snow
A Christmas Wish
Scrooge
Mistletoe Over Manhattan
Christmas Comes Home
The Chase for Christmas
The Christmas Colt
K-9 Adventures: A Christmas Tale
Saving Santa
3-Day Christmas
A Christmas Tree Miracle
Golden Winter

The Story of Life as Told by the Movies

This great little mash-up pieces clips from a whole bunch of movies together to tell the story of life through its various stages, from birth to death etc. See if you can spot where the clips are from...

State of Cinema: Steven Soderbergh

So what's wrong with the movies these days? What exactly IS the state of cinema? Let Steven Soderbergh lay it all out for you in this 40-minute speech he made at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It's a cogent, funny, intelligent piece that's a must-listen for anyone who wants to know what factors and circumstances are influencing the production of movies these days and so forth. And it seems the guy can't get away from movies, even after he's announced his retirement - here's some talk of Magic Mike 2 being on the way.

Fatso's Top 20 Biggest Titles of 2012

Here it is, Fatso's Top 20 most rented titles of 2012! Game of Thrones - Season 1 was the champion by a surprising long shot (Season 2 is due in March).

1. Game of Thrones - Season 1
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
3. The Help
4. Crazy, Stupid, Love
5. The Hunger Games 
6. Boardwalk Empire - Season 1
7. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
8. The Iron Lady
9. True Blood - Season 4
10. The Descendants
11. Abduction
12. Friends with Benefits
13. Hugo
14. The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn
15. Drive
16. Hanna
17. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
18. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
19. In Time
20. Moneyball

Fatso's Top 50 Worst-Rated Movies

Ever wondered what the worst-rated movies on fatso are? I have. So I got this report pulled of the Top 50 current worst-rated movies we have on the site. The criteria: (1) movies that have been rated 0.5 (our lowest rating) and (2) the most number times it's been rated 0.5, the idea being that the film has elicited such a negative response that so many viewers have flocked to rate it as such (if sorted by average rating the list looks slightly different). It's quite a startling, bizarre, funny list - definitely shows a snapshot of the sort of genres that aren't too popular with the majority out there, i.e. artsy movies with big stars, like The Tree of Life, The American, Black Swan. I love the fact that both Battlestar: Los Angeles AND its Asylum knock-off Battle of Los Angeles are on there. Anyway here's the list, tell us what you think!

1. The Tree of Life 
2. Skyline
3. The Other Guys
4. Buried
5. Monsters
6. The American
7. Sucker Punch
8. The Green Hornet
9. Somewhere
10. Your Highness
11. Four Lions
12. Defcon 2012
13. The Last Airbender
14. The Tourist
15. Black Swan
16. Blue Valentine
17. Tomorrow When the War Began
18. Inception
19. William & Kate
20. National Lampoon's Dirty Movie
21. Hobo with a Shotgun
22. Eat Pray Love
23. Machete
24. Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon
25. The Killer Inside Me
26. Bad Teacher
27. Twilight
28. The Social Network
29. Justin Bieber: Never Say Never
30. The 7 Adventures of Sinbad
31. A Town Called Panic
32. Meek's Cutoff
33. Battle of Los Angeles
34. Greenberg
35. Vampires Suck
36. Room in Rome
37. Dogtooth 
38. Rachel Getting Married 
39. Dinner for Schmucks
40. Battle: Los Angeles
41. The Twilight Saga: New Moon
42. TRON: Legacy
43. Bridesmaids
44. Avatar
45. Catch .44
46. Where the Wild Things Are
47. Frozen
48. Little Fockers
49. The Dilemma
50. Grown Ups

2011: The Cinescape

End of the year, feeling burnt out and can't remember what cinema in 2011 was like? Watch this thoughtful, beautifully edited compilation of clips from some key films that defined the year. Lots of big-hitters like Tree of Life, Harry Potter 7.2, Submarine and Transformers 3, but see if you can spot all those barely-there split-second clips of less high-profile films (Ip Man 2!).

Death of the Film Camera

Woke up to this distressing news. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but it doesn't make it any easier!! I'm trying to look on the positive side and imagine when Digital = Film as technology improves but right now it's hard to get excited about this development.

Just as a side point - this is not so much about film cameras as such but digital projection, and to illustrate the "unevenness" of all things digital (not saying 35mm is perfect but humour me for a sec). A quick run-down on three films I saw projected digitally recently and what they looked like:

• Source Code (St. Lukes) - this was the best of the bunch. Crisp, fine-grain-look, great colour. But the image also felt like there was no life. The flicker is missing!
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II (Gold Class, Queen St) -  it looked like Blu-ray projected on the big screen. Sharp, but sterile and lifeless image.
• The Devil's Double (Rialto) - one of the worst I've ever seen. Smeary, blown-out, lacking detail. It was pretty much DVD on the big screen.

I guess what I'm saying is there is a "living" aesthetic to film that digital lacks at the moment. When I go to the movies, I want to watch something that moves. I can save sharp Blu-ray/HD-whatever for the home. I want a different experience at the movies.

Anyway, back to film cameras - a massive pet peeve I have is when you can detect the video-y look slipping into an otherwise good-looking digitally shot pic. Way to take you OUT of the goddamn movie. This occurred when I watched Fright Night recently. 80% of the film looked ok, but then in the last reel heaps of shots started to exhibit really awful video blur/motion that looked like they were last minute re-shoots (imagine a slick big budget film that suddenly looks like something you could've shot on your consumer-grade DV cam). I'm not the most technically minded person but I appreciate aesthetics and I see what I see, and if I see something crap... well, it's crap. If anyone can explain to me the nature of this "effect", I'd love to hear it.

100 Movies, 100 Quotes, 100 Numbers

100% brilliant and mind-boggling...

Fatso's Top Rentals of 2010

Here are our top 10 most popular rentals of last year!

Top 10 Films
1. Boy, 7090 requests
2. The Hurt Locker, 5606 requests
3. Avatar, 5345 requests
4. The Hangover, 4719 requests
5. Up, 4631 requests
6. The Reader, 4552 requests
7. The Blind Side, 4528 requests
8. Where the Wild Things Are, 4487 requests
9. Up in the Air, 4317 requests
10. Julie & Julia, 4254 requests

Top 10 New Zealand Films
1. Boy, 7090 requests
2. The Vintner's Luck, 1859 requests
3. The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls, 1387 requests
4. Under the Mountain, 1294 requests
5. Second Hand Wedding, 1272 requests
6. Dean Spanley, 1017 requests
7. Separation City, 952 requests
8. Eagle vs Shark, 906 requests
9. The Strength of Water, 819 requests
10. Home By Christmas, 765 requests

Top 10 TV Titles
1. True Blood - Season 2, 813 requests
2. True Blood - Season 1, 801 requests
3. Glee - Season 1 Volume 1, 728 requests
4. Heroes - Season 3, 647 requests
5. The Wire - Season 1, 622 requests
6. Mad Men - Season 1, 608 requests
7. Family Guy: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side, 537 requests
8. Flight of the Conchords, The - Season 2, 530 requests
9. Flight of the Conchords, The - Season 1, 525 requests
10. Torchwood – Series 3: Children of Earth, 508 requests

Flying High

I just got back from a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong and felt like I need to rave a little about Studio CX, their in-flight entertainment system. Of all my long distance flight experiences, their's has probably been the most impressive (their service ain't too shabby too) in terms of the design, navigation and range of content on offer. Who would have thought I'd be watching John Woo's Hard-Boiled 40,000 ft in the air? 

Maybe I'm still high from watching this killer film on a plane - the last place I'd imagine watching it... It certainly made the journey better, I only wished I had stayed awake long enough to catch more of the films (kinda bummed I missed Donnie Yen's 14 Blades and the Korean thriller Secret Reunion). Another good thing is they seem* to preserve the original aspect ratio of the films rather than cropping them as many airlines do. I'm looking forward to my next Cathay Pacific flight already...

(*judging from a quick glance around people's screens, i.e. I could see that Clash of the Titans was shown in scope etc)