2012 - BEST MOVIES
by cinemavis | created - 15 Feb 2012 | updated - 13 May 2019 | Public- Instant Watch Options
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1. Django Unchained (2012)
R | 165 min | Drama, Western
With the help of a German bounty-hunter, a freed slave sets out to rescue his wife from a brutal plantation owner in Mississippi.
Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington
Votes: 1,692,445 | Gross: $162.81M
2. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
PG-13 | 164 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Eight years after the Joker's reign of chaos, Batman is coerced out of exile with the assistance of the mysterious Selina Kyle in order to defend Gotham City from the vicious guerrilla terrorist Bane.
Director: Christopher Nolan | Stars: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway, Gary Oldman
Votes: 1,825,291 | Gross: $448.14M
3. The Master (2012)
R | 138 min | Drama, History
A Naval veteran arrives home from war unsettled and uncertain of his future - until he is tantalized by the Cause and its charismatic leader.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, Jesse Plemons
Votes: 186,060 | Gross: $16.38M
4. Amour (2012)
PG-13 | 127 min | Drama
Georges and Anne are an octogenarian couple. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, also a musician, lives in Britain with her family. One day, Anne has a stroke, and the couple's bond of love is severely tested.
Director: Michael Haneke | Stars: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert, Alexandre Tharaud
Votes: 105,612 | Gross: $6.74M
5. Skyfall (2012)
PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
James Bond's loyalty to M is tested when her past comes back to haunt her. When MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.
Director: Sam Mendes | Stars: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Naomie Harris, Judi Dench
Votes: 730,660 | Gross: $304.36M
6. Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
PG-13 | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Two 12-year-olds, who live on an island, fall in love with each other and elope into the wilderness. While people set out on a search mission, a violent storm approaching them catches their attention.
Director: Wes Anderson | Stars: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward, Bruce Willis, Bill Murray
Votes: 366,578 | Gross: $45.51M
7. Holy Motors (2012)
Not Rated | 115 min | Drama, Fantasy
A man boards a limousine to be driven to his day's work: nine mysterious "appointments."
Director: Leos Carax | Stars: Denis Lavant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, Kylie Minogue
Votes: 48,864
8. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)
PG-13 | 93 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Faced with both her hot-tempered father's fading health and melting ice-caps that flood her ramshackle bayou community and unleash ancient aurochs, six-year-old Hushpuppy must learn the ways of courage and love.
Director: Benh Zeitlin | Stars: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Levy Easterly, Lowell Landes
Votes: 85,045 | Gross: $12.80M
9. The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012)
Not Rated | 111 min | Drama, Music, Romance
Elise and Didier fall in love at first sight, in spite of their differences. He talks, she listens. He's a romantic atheist, she's a religious realist. When their daughter becomes seriously ill, their love is put on trial.
Director: Felix van Groeningen | Stars: Veerle Baetens, Johan Heldenbergh, Nell Cattrysse, Geert Van Rampelberg
Votes: 43,305 | Gross: $0.18M
10. The Hunt (2012)
R | 115 min | Drama
A teacher lives a lonely life, all the while struggling over his son's custody. His life slowly gets better as he finds love and receives good news from his son, but his new luck is about to be brutally shattered by an innocent little lie.
Director: Thomas Vinterberg | Stars: Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Annika Wedderkopp, Lasse Fogelstrøm
Votes: 363,904 | Gross: $0.69M
11. Pieta (2012)
Not Rated | 103 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A loan shark is forced to reconsider his violent lifestyle after the arrival of a mysterious woman claiming to be his long-lost mother.
Director: Kim Ki-duk | Stars: Jo Min-soo, Lee Jung-Jin, Woo Ki-hong, Eunjin Kang
Votes: 15,754 | Gross: $0.02M
12. To the Wonder (2012)
R | 112 min | Drama, Romance
After falling in love in Paris, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Their church's Spanish-born pastor struggles with his faith, while Neil encounters a woman from his childhood.
Director: Terrence Malick | Stars: Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams
Votes: 29,948 | Gross: $0.59M
13. Life of Pi (2012)
PG | 127 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
A young man who survives a disaster at sea is hurtled into an epic journey of adventure and discovery. While cast away, he forms an unexpected connection with another survivor: a fearsome Bengal tiger.
Director: Ang Lee | Stars: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Adil Hussain, Tabu
Votes: 666,344 | Gross: $124.99M
14. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)
PG-13 | 169 min | Adventure, Fantasy
A reluctant Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, sets out to the Lonely Mountain with a spirited group of dwarves to reclaim their mountain home, and the gold within it from the dragon Smaug.
Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Andy Serkis
Votes: 872,337 | Gross: $303.00M
15. Flight (I) (2012)
R | 138 min | Drama, Thriller
Troubling questions arise after airline pilot Whip Whitaker makes a miracle landing after a mid-air catastrophe.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Denzel Washington, Nadine Velazquez, Don Cheadle, John Goodman
Votes: 375,912 | Gross: $93.77M
16. Tabu (I) (2012)
Not Rated | 118 min | Drama, Romance
A restless retired woman teams up with her deceased neighbor's maid to seek out a man who has a secret connection to her past life as a farm owner at the foothill of Mount Tabu in Africa.
Director: Miguel Gomes | Stars: Telmo Churro, Miguel Gomes, HortêncÃlio Aquina, Américo Mota
Votes: 7,421
17. Broken (IV) (2012)
Not Rated | 91 min | Drama, Romance
Three suburban English families' lives intertwine with tragic consequences.
Director: Rufus Norris | Stars: Charlie Booty, Lily James, Tim Roth, Eloise Laurence
Votes: 14,997
18. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
R | 157 min | Drama, History, Thriller
A chronicle of the decade-long hunt for al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden after the September 2001 attacks, and his death at the hands of the Navy S.E.A.L.s Team 6 in May 2011.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong
Votes: 318,702 | Gross: $95.72M
19. No (I) (2012)
R | 118 min | Drama, History
An advertising executive comes up with a campaign to defeat Augusto Pinochet in Chile's 1988 referendum.
Director: Pablo LarraÃn | Stars: Gael GarcÃa Bernal, Alfredo Castro, Antonia Zegers, Luis Gnecco
Votes: 26,202 | Gross: $2.34M
20. Argo (2012)
R | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.
Director: Ben Affleck | Stars: Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin
Votes: 638,734 | Gross: $136.03M
21. Rust and Bone (2012)
R | 120 min | Drama, Romance
Put in charge of his young son, Alain leaves Belgium for Antibes to live with his sister and her husband as a family. Alain's bond with Stephanie, a killer whale trainer, grows deeper after Stephanie suffers a horrible accident.
Director: Jacques Audiard | Stars: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure, Céline Sallette
Votes: 70,262 | Gross: $2.06M
22. Caesar Must Die (2012)
Unrated | 77 min | Drama
Inmates at a high-security prison in Rome prepare for a public performance of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar."
Directors: Paolo Taviani, Vittorio Taviani | Stars: Cosimo Rega, Salvatore Striano, Giovanni Arcuri, Antonio Frasca
Votes: 6,809
23. Prometheus (I) (2012)
R | 124 min | Adventure, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Following clues to the origin of mankind, a team finds a structure on a distant moon, but they soon realize they are not alone.
Director: Ridley Scott | Stars: Noomi Rapace, Logan Marshall-Green, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron
Votes: 643,639 | Gross: $126.48M
24. Rhino Season (2012)
88 min | Drama, Thriller
Kurdish-Iranian poet Sahel has just been released from a thirty-year prison sentence in Iran. Now the one thing keeping him going is the thought of finding his wife, who thinks him dead for over twenty years.
Director: Bahman Ghobadi | Stars: Behrouz Vossoughi, Monica Bellucci, Yilmaz Erdogan, Caner Cindoruk
Votes: 7,294
25. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
PG | 101 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy
A video game villain wants to be a hero and sets out to fulfill his dream, but his quest brings havoc to the whole arcade where he lives.
Director: Rich Moore | Stars: John C. Reilly, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Sarah Silverman
Votes: 457,933 | Gross: $189.42M
26. Oblawa (2012)
96 min | Drama, Thriller, War
Late autumn 1943. Wydra (Otter), a Polish partisan, catches an informer in a nearby village and brings him to his starving unit in the forest. A thrilling adventure finds desperate times calling for desperate measures in wartime...
Director: Marcin Krzysztalowicz | Stars: Marcin Dorocinski, Maciej Stuhr, Sonia Bohosiewicz, Weronika Rosati
Votes: 1,357
27. Ill Manors (2012)
Not Rated | 121 min | Crime, Drama, Music
The lives of four drug dealers, one user, and two prostitutes are explored.
Director: Plan B | Stars: Riz Ahmed, Sliem Ben-Salah, Ed Skrein, Lee Allen
Votes: 11,237
28. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
R | 122 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
After a stint in a mental institution, former teacher Pat Solitano moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife. Things get more challenging when Pat meets Tiffany, a mysterious girl with problems of her own.
Director: David O. Russell | Stars: Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver
Votes: 742,222 | Gross: $132.09M
29. Lincoln (2012)
PG-13 | 150 min | Biography, Drama, History
As the Civil War rages on, U.S President Abraham Lincoln struggles with continuing carnage on the battlefield as he fights with many inside his own cabinet on his decision to emancipate the slaves.
Director: Steven Spielberg | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field, David Strathairn, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Votes: 272,453 | Gross: $182.21M
30. Lawless (2012)
R | 116 min | Biography, Crime, Drama
Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits.
Director: John Hillcoat | Stars: Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, Jason Clarke
Votes: 253,319 | Gross: $37.40M
31. Killing Them Softly (2012)
R | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Jackie Cogan is an enforcer hired to restore order after three dumb guys rob a Mob protected card game, causing the local criminal economy to collapse.
Director: Andrew Dominik | Stars: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta, Richard Jenkins, Scoot McNairy
Votes: 153,021 | Gross: $15.03M
32. Laurence Anyways (2012)
Not Rated | 168 min | Drama, Romance
A drama that charts ten years in a transgender woman's relationship with her lover.
Director: Xavier Dolan | Stars: Melvil Poupaud, Emmanuel Schwartz, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye
Votes: 22,186
33. War Witch (2012)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, War
Somewhere in Sub-Saharan Africa, Komona, a 14-year-old girl, tells her unborn child growing inside her the story of her life since she has been at war. Everything started when she was abducted by the rebel army at the age of 12.
Director: Kim Nguyen | Stars: Rachel Mwanza, Alain Lino Mic Eli Bastien, Serge Kanyinda, Ralph Prosper
Votes: 7,564 | Gross: $0.07M
34. Lore (2012)
Not Rated | 109 min | Drama, Romance, War
As the Allies sweep across Germany, Lore leads her siblings on a journey that exposes them to the truth of their parents' beliefs. An encounter with a mysterious refugee forces Lore to rely on a person she has always been taught to hate.
Director: Cate Shortland | Stars: Saskia Rosendahl, Kai-Peter Malina, Nele Trebs, Ursina Lardi
Votes: 15,928 | Gross: $0.97M
35. Seven Psychopaths (2012)
R | 110 min | Comedy, Crime
A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster's beloved Shih Tzu.
Director: Martin McDonagh | Stars: Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Christopher Walken
Votes: 273,728 | Gross: $15.02M
36. The Impossible (2012)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama, History, Thriller
The story of a tourist family in Thailand caught in the destruction and chaotic aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Director: J.A. Bayona | Stars: Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor, Tom Holland, Oaklee Pendergast
Votes: 243,794 | Gross: $19.02M
37. The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
R | 140 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Two men and their sons must deal with the unforeseen consequences of their actions.
Director: Derek Cianfrance | Stars: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Craig Van Hook
Votes: 290,077 | Gross: $21.38M
38. A.C.A.B. - All Cops Are Bastards (2012)
112 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A look at the controversial riot cops unit, told through the stories of three veteran cops and a young recruit.
Director: Stefano Sollima | Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Filippo Nigro, Marco Giallini, Andrea Sartoretti
Votes: 8,142
39. Kon-Tiki (2012)
PG-13 | 118 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
Legendary explorer Thor Heyerdahl's epic 4,300-mile crossing of the Pacific on a balsawood raft in 1947, in an effort to prove that it was possible for South Americans to settle in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
Directors: Joachim Rønning, Espen Sandberg | Stars: Pål Sverre Hagen, Anders Baasmo, Gustaf Skarsgård, Odd-Magnus Williamson
Votes: 51,931 | Gross: $1.52M
40. Anna Karenina (I) (2012)
R | 129 min | Drama, Romance
In late-19th-century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky.
Director: Joe Wright | Stars: Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Matthew Macfadyen
Votes: 106,433 | Gross: $12.82M
41. The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
PG-13 | 103 min | Drama
Charlie, a 15-year-old introvert, enters high school and is nervous about his new life. When he befriends his seniors, he learns to cope with his friend's suicide and his tumultuous past.
Director: Stephen Chbosky | Stars: Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Ezra Miller, Paul Rudd
Votes: 547,475 | Gross: $17.74M
42. Aftermath (2012)
Unrated | 107 min | Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
A Polish man who returns home after the death of his father unearths a secret about the now-deceased Jewish residents of his village.
Director: Wladyslaw Pasikowski | Stars: Ireneusz Czop, Jerzy Szymkiewi, Wojciech Walasik, Zbigniew Zamachowski
Votes: 4,239 | Gross: $0.00M
43. Cloud Atlas (2012)
R | 172 min | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi
An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.
Directors: Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski | Stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving
Votes: 374,192 | Gross: $27.11M