Drama
Rod Lott
Vanguard director Takashi Miike is not one to repeat himself, and in Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, he hasn't — not really. Yes, the film is the Japanese filmmaker's follow-up to 2010's 13 Assassins; yes, both are remakes and focused on samurais. But they approach the genre from such varying ways that other than excellence, the similarities end there.

Horror
Rod Lott
Smiley is Candyman for the LOLcat generation.

Action
Rod Lott
Who in the hell hires Jackie Chan and then tells him not to kick a lot? The Exterminator director James Glickenhaus, that’s who.

Television series
Rod Lott
Ed Halligan, you bitter sonofabitch, how I’ve missed you.

Documentary
Rod Lott
All the love audiences have for the Oscar-nominated Searching for Sugar Man (which I wasn't crazy about) is what I feel for Paul Williams: Still Alive.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Here's how I knew the Icelandic crime thriller Black’s Game was going to be great:

Documentary
Rod Lott
There's a long-standing joke about Jerry Lewis being loved by the French, and to paraphrase The Simpsons, it’s funny ’cuz it’s true. We even see the adulation — then, now — in Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, a two-hour documentary about the man whom one celebrity admirer calls “The Beatles of movie comedy.”

Thriller
Rod Lott
When done right, few films can provide as much enjoyment as the heist picture. South Korea's The Thieves is one of them — epic in every sense of the word: in length, in scope and in entertainment.

Television series
Rod Lott
Femme Fatales is unlike any previous Skinemax Cinemax adult series in that the nudity, while plentiful, isn’t the reason for its being and, therefore, isn’t dreadfully boring like those others — yes, you, Emmanuelle in Space. If you harbor an equal love for pulp fiction and dangerous curves, the 13 episodes that make up the premiere season’s three-disc set should provide plenty of no-brain, all-bod entertainment.

Thriller
Rod Lott
At least All Superheroes Must Die isn't like every other comic book-inspired cinematic vision that currently serve as the buttered bread to Hollywood's rumbling stomach. That alone is not enough to make for a good movie, but it's a head start.

Horror
Rod Lott
I swear, the luck o' the Irish: While moving from her condemned apartment building, a young, pretty and very pregnant woman (Amy Shiels, Veronica Guerin) is brutally attacked by three youths in hoodies while her husband, Tommy (Aneurin Barnard, Ironclad), watches helplessly from the elevator in which he's stuck.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Nature Calls finds writer/director Todd Rohal attempting to shoehorn the wonderfully, outlandishly absurd humor of his previous film, 2011's The Catechism Cataclysm, into a vehicle more mainstream. While it doesn't generate ill will, it does not work, try though the cast might.

Thriller
Rod Lott
I'm a sucker for a good cop movie, and End of Watch is a great one. Had I seen it before its home-video release, it would have made my 2012 year-end list.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Pick a revenge movie. Any revenge movie.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Why Stop Now is a comedy that tries too hard to be a comedy. C’mon, you know the kind: Although grounded in reality, the film presents characters so quirky, they may as well come with signs around their neck to signal their stock roles, i.e. “Precocious Sibling” and “Black Sidekick.” Incidentally, this one fronts both of those examples.