In past years for my “Best of” list, I’ve been able to provide fun categories like “Best Kill” and “Best Quotes”, but sadly, that won’t be happening this year.  I keep notes throughout the year, but in July, my hard drive crashed, and because I am a foolish person, I didn’t back up the notes to a separate drive.  However, I do have enough information to do the traditional categories as well as Breakthrough Performance, “A Very Good Year”, Best Villain, Best Surprises, Biggest Disappointments, and a new category, “Best Movie You Probably Missed This Year.”  One final note: unlike previous years, the film had to come out in 2012; festival-only flicks don’t count, so that’s why there’s no love for The Place Beyond the Pines on this year’s list.

Hit the jump to check out my miscellaneous “Best of 2012″ picks.  Be sure to keep checking back this week as we’ll be running Top 10 lists from Adam, Dave, and me.

Films with time-traveling bears tend to defy easy description.  So do movies where a teenager has alien fly mutant blood and was forced to wear a TV set on his hand as a child.  It’s also tough to describe a flick where a Ghostface-like slash wanders into the picture and isn’t the focal point.  Director Joseph Kahn has swirled all these elements and more into the delightful, abrasive lunacy of his new film, Detention.  The movie is a rapid-fire assault on the senses, and while it plucks at your neural pathways like an inbred hillbilly armed with a banjo and amphetamines, Kahn’s picture has sharp mind, a charming wit, and a scathing critique on nostalgia and the narcissism of teenagers both past and present.

Detention, opening in theaters on April 13^th, is a wild and crazy hipster, teen horror-comedy that mixes in science fiction, body-swapping, time-travelling, 1990′s throwback, date flick and a murdering psycho, in only the way that director/co-writer Joseph Kahn (Torque) can. Cinderhella is a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life and is preying on the local students of Grizzly Lake, who are just trying to survive their final year of high school. As the bodies pile up, Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) and Clapton Davis (The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson) are in a deadly and outrageous race against time to save the world.

At the film’s press day, filmmaker Joseph Kahn (who is known for his music videos for such artists as Eminem, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, U2, and Muse, among others) talked about wanting to make a high school movie that’s relevant for kids today, how he stays in touch with pop culture, all the films he referenced, creating the Cinderhella character, how closely they stuck to the dialogue in the script but continuously worked with the interpretation of it, and the bonus features that he’s working on for the Blu-ray release.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Detention is a wild and crazy hipster, teen horror-comedy that mixes in science fiction, body-swapping, time-travelling, 1990′s throwback, date flick and a murdering psycho, in only the way that director/co-writer Joseph Kahn (Torque) can.  Cinderhella is a slasher-movie killer who has seemingly come to life and is preying on the local students of Grizzly Lake, who are just trying to survive their final year of high school.  As the bodies pile up, Riley Jones (Shanley Caswell) and Clapton Davis (The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson) are in a deadly and outrageous race against time to save the world.

At the film’s press day, actor/executive producer Josh Hutcherson talked about his first experience behind the scenes on a film, what he thought of the script when he first read it, how grueling the shoot was, getting to learn how to ride on a unicycle, and what it was like to do his own stunts.  He also talked about how happy and excited he is over the box office success of The Hunger Games, and how he doesn’t think there’s a chance that director Gary Ross won’t return to helm the sequel, Catching Fire.  Check out what he had to say after the jump:

We have three new release dates to pass along.  Two of them are coming up quick, so have your calendar ready:

• Detention – The high school horror-comedy led by Shanley Caswell and Josh Hutcherson will open in 10 theaters on April 13 before expanding.
• Bernie – Richard Linklater‘s black comedy starring Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey, and Shirley MacLaine is scheduled for release on April 27.
• Hyde Park on Hudson – We’ll get to see Bill Murray play Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the thick of award season on December 7.

Hit the jump for more on each movie.

You probably best known director Joseph Kahn as the man behind the delightfully terrible Torque, a movie even Kahn mocks in his new picture Detention.  The trailer for Detention is bizarre enough to make the film worth a look as it seems to be dancing in between Scream, The Breakfast Club, and Disney Channel made-for-TV movies.  Even the synopsis doesn’t make much sense:

Detention, is a teen horror-comedy where the local students of Grizzly Lake must survive their final year of high school. Standing in their way is a slasher movie killer who has seemingly come to life. It becomes a race against time to stop the killer and save the world – if only they can get out of detention. The Detention cuts through prom. Most of them don’t have dates anyway.

We’ve been sent the poster for the film and it features a drawing of a bear with a skull for a mouth.  Works for me.  Hit the jump to check out the poster and the trailer.  Detention premieres on Sunday, March 13th at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival.

A trailer has gone online for Joseph Kahn’s bizarre-looking new film Detention.  While the trailer cracks a joke at the expense of Kahn’s previous film, Torque, it’s an odd mish-mash that recalls gooey high-school comedies, Scream, and The Breakfast Club.  I don’t know what to make of this movie and that’s exciting.  The film will be making its premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival and I’ll be interested to hear the response.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  Detention stars Josh Hutcherson, Dane Cook, Shanley Caswell, Spencer Locke, Aaron David Johnson, Walter Perez, Erica Shaffer, Parker Bagley, and Alison Woods.