Everyone waits until the year is over to compile their “Best of whatever” movie lists. This has become a mundane practice. Time for a bit of a change, kids.

Liam Neeson is the star player on a team (Taken 2) that was able to maintain its core players (cast and writers). But then there’s one giant change: A new coach (director Olivier Megaton). And the chemistry and game-plan just never comes together as it once did in 2009. Fortunately, an old veteran coach by the name of Tim Burton, was able to salvage the weekend by going back to what propelled him onto the main stage years ago. Plus, a small-market team (Butter) was able to lure in some star power and pieced together a nice little performance.

The new releases for the respective week will have a capsule review at the end of the column. An updated list comes out every Monday. Here’s how things are shaking up so far in 2012:

1. Chronicle
2. The Dark Knight Rises
3. The Cabin in the Woods
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. Side by Side
6. ParaNorman
7. Looper
8. The Avengers
9. Game Change
10. The Secret World of Arriety
11. Red Tails
12. The Grey
13. Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
14. Friends with Kids
15. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
16. The Raid: Redemption
17. Arbitrage
18. The Odd Life of Timothy Green
19. Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds
20. Big Miracle
21. Think Like a Man
22. Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted
23. Brake
24. Robot and Frank
25. Hope Springs
26. Rock of Ages
27. HeadHunters
28. Hemingway and Gellhorn
29. Mirror Mirror
30. People Like Us
31. Magic Mike
32. Total Recall (2012)
33. House of Ghosts
34. The Campaign
35. Ted
36. Celeste and Jesse Forever
37. V/H/S
38. 21 Jump Street
39. Snow White and the Huntsman
40. Pitch Perfect
41. The Words
42. The Master
43. This Means War
44. God Bless America
45. The Three Stooges
46. Gone
47. Resident Evil: Retribution
48. The Queen of Versailles
49. The Amazing Spider-Man
50. Blue Like Jazz
51. For a Good Time, Call…
52. Frankenweenie
53. Ruby Sparks
54. American Reunion
55. Jeff, Who Lives at Home
56. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island
57. Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best
58. Katy Perry: Part of Me
59. Butter
60. The Expendables 2
61. Ice Age: Continental Drift
62. Juan of the Dead
63. Prometheus
64. Hysteria
65. The Dictator
66. Safe
67. Searching for Sonny
68. End of Watch
69. Brave
70. Lawless
71. The Hunger Games
72. John Carter
73. Wrath of the Titans
74. Dead Dad
75. Ingenious
76. Underworld: Awakening
77. The Devil Inside
78. The Possession
79. Dredd 3D
80. Premium Rush
81. Father’s Day
82. Livid
83. The Five-Year Engagement
84. Downtown Express
85. Sparkle
86. Savages
87. Sound of My Voice
88. Project X
89. Men in Black 3
90. The Tall Man
91. Hit and Run
92. Hotel Transylvania
93. Piranha 3DD
94. Dark Shadows
95. The Raven
96. The Bourne Legacy
97. [Rec] 3 Genesis
98. Silent House
99. Won’t Back Down
100. That’s My Boy
101. Darling Companion
102. Bully
103. The Watch
104. What to Expect When You’re Expecting
105. Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
106. Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding
107. Trouble with the Curve
108. Lockout
109. The Woman in Black
110. The Vow
111. Man on a Ledge
112. Step Up Revolution
113. Extraterrestrial
114. The Lucky One
115. Contraband
116. The Samaritan
117. Act of Valor
118. 4:44 Last Day on Earth
119. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
120. Safe House
121. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
122. To Rome with Love
123. The Apparition
124. House at the End of the Street
125. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days
126. Taken 2
127. Why Stop Now
128. The Pirates! Band of Misfits
129. Kill List
130. Chernobyl Diaries
131. Haywire
132. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection
133. A Thousand Words
134. Joyful Noise
135. Battleship
136. Wanderlust

Not Screened: One for the Money, Casa De Mi Padre, Chimpanzee, High School, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Nitro Circus 3D, Cosmopolis, Oogieloves In The Big Balloon Adventure, The Cold Light of Day

REVIEWS

FRANENWEENIE

Tim Burton reanimates his 1984 short film into feature length form, while attempting to execute the tone of the classic monster movies – mainly Frankenstein; all while putting it in a kiddie-friendly delivery, with a ton of spoofy-winks toward the adult crowd. Basically, it’s the same formula used on the Muppets (Muppet Babies cartoon) and/or Scooby-Doo (young version of the original characters). The difference here, instead of a human monster, grade-school Victor Frankenstein revives his deceased dog, Sparky. While the last 30 minutes are extremely clever and entertaining for all ages, the first hour is as charismatic as the black-and-white coloring, despite the 3D stop-motion animation. Though there has been a surge in love-letter movie-making to Hollywood’s past in recent years, when it comes to the classic horror genre – and with Burton and other filmmakers having all the modern amenities at their disposal – ParaNorman is still this year’s best in bringing it all together.

BUTTER

The heart of the story, well, ironically, there isn’t any (you know, too much butter could kill the heart, ba-dum, chh). All you get is a quasi-dark, yet sprightly, R-rated comedy revolving around a prestigious local butter sculpting contest in Iowa. Two perspectives are chronicled via the main competitors: One is an observant young black orphan (Yara Shahidi), and the other stems from the small town’s power hungry trophy wife (Jennifer Garner). Having a roster, portrayed by a host of known talent (Olivia Wilde as vindictive stripper steals the show), the script takes this eclectic cast of characters and symbolizes them as metaphors for political and current societal behavior (worshiping American Idol, pretty people getting all the breaks, etc.). It’s blunt an unapologetic approach within the dialogue is amusing most of the way, but the filmmakers completely wuss out in the last 30 minutes and go through an array of clichés in wrapping this up.

TAKEN 2

Let’s just say there’s a logical reason why magicians rarely ever do the same trick twice for an audience. All this amounts to be is a cheap cash-grab. Actually, a cheap, and surprisingly dumb, public looting to be precise. The script thinks its flashing so much intelligence but then quickly falters with moronic character actions. While the first installment had some edge to it, and covered its ass with sound explanations, this just feels that no one was really thinking outside of sequel-dollar-signs and making sure the body count is high enough. Liam Neeson has shockingly aged greatly from 2009’s story; and his combative scenes look as if all of his thug/body count foreign co-stars are trying to properly throw the fight without anyone noticing. But guess what, the audience is painfully on to it. Where did the special set of skills go in the last four years?