Year in Review: The Top 10 Most-Read Articles from 2012

Continuing my delayed year-end coverage I though I’d look back at the top ten most popular posts throughout the year.  The ones that made the top ten had the highest number of views and I was pretty surprised at a few of these getting such attention.  Do you have a favorite review that didn’t make the list?

10.  25 Days of Christmas: How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) – 354 HITS

This is the first of four reviews in my 25 Days of Christmas series that made the top ten, and I think that alone shows how popular the series is as a whole.  This film is a Christmas staple, and rightfully so.  Since this was a review from 2011 with little revisions when I re-posted it, I can’t vouch for it being representative of my best work.

9.  Fantasia (1940) – 407 HITS

This was only my second entry marking the return of the long-delayed Journeys in the Disney Vault series, and forcing me to make it a weekly series (that will return this week!). Fantasia is a hard movie to sit through, but I’ll get a second chance because I have to tackle Fantasia 2000 in a future Disney Vault, so maybe it’ll grow on me?

8.  25 Days of Christmas: A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) – 410 HITS

I mentioned how my 25 Days of Christmas series was popular, but coincidentally this and one other 25 Days… review had massive jumps in readership well before Christmas.  I don’t think this one had the longevity of the other, but I continued to see it pop up during the summer and Halloween.  Maybe it’s because of a mutual love for existential Christmas conundrums?

7.  The Lost Weekend (1945) – 485 HITS

It would be sad not to have a Billy Wilder film somewhere on this list, and thankfully you viewers found something worth reading in my review of The Lost Weekend.  I will say, I don’t particularly like this review from a grammar stand-point.  I’m doing my best to stay on top of grammar and punctuation, as well as word choice, and boy do I seem to love the word “film” in this review.  One of my New Year’s resolutions is to lessen my usage of the word “film” whilst reviewing.  Regardless, I am hoping to re-watch The Lost Weekend in 2013 and see if my opinion on it has changed.

6.  The Invisible Man (1933) – 530 HITS

Here’s another entry from early in my blogging career.  The Lost Weekend and The Invisible Man were reviewed around the same time, and I’m not necessarily sure if that translated into their high viewing counts.  I did mention in this review that I’d noticed a consistent jump in readers.  We also have another review where I over-exert my usage of the word “film.”  Really gotta work on that.

5.  25 Days of Christmas: The Polar Express (2004) – 630 HITS

I took some flack for my distaste of The Polar Express, and to that I say “did no one read my review of Annie?”  I found that to be a far more excoriating review of a beloved film than this was.  The biggest critique against me was my not enjoying the hot cocoa song.  Apparently it was supposed to be endearing….I disagree.

4.  Beach Blanket Bingo (1965) – 742 HITS

I’m happy to see this review get such a high count because I railed on this movie.  I’ve grown to love Gidget to the point that I asked for the box set as a birthday gift, but if I never see another Beach Party film I think I could live with myself.  This film is just nonsensical, and sure you can say “well that’s the point,” but there’s no fun to be had in all that nonsense.  The characters are inane, Frankie is a dick (and I hate saying that because his rendition of “Beauty School Dropout” is my favorite song in Grease), and you have to love attempted murder in the last ten minutes.  I’ve been told that Psycho Beach Party is a good film for those that hate this series, and maybe I’ll seek that out in the future.

3.  The Girl (2012) – 911 HITS

My review of HBO’s biopic The Girl was right on the money along with a lot of other movie bloggers who criticized the lack of context and momentum.  Weirdly enough, my review was also used by several anti-Tippi Hedren blogs to show that she was a liar which I never intended; shows how some people don’t read thoroughly.

2.  Old Hollywood Book Reviews: TCM Classic Movie Trivia – 944 HITS

This was the beginning of my Old Hollywood Book Review series, now renamed Golden Age on the Printed Page, as well as being the first review that had the largest readership I’d seen.  We got over 900 reads for this in a day, and I’m still stumped as to why exactly.  I  recently pulled this book out during my New Year’s party, and let’s just say I received a few bum looks from my friends for knowing too much.

1.  25 Days of Christmas: Gremlins (1984) – 1,760 HITS

Gremlins appears to be the movie that never goes away!  This review was the most read review for three months solid, and I still don’t understand why.  I actually think it was read more in the months leading up to Christmas then it was during the holiday itself.  Congrats Gizmo and company, you were the most read review on Journeys in Classic Film in 2012, but can you hold on to that title next year?