It hasn’t been a full year quite yet here at CyniCritics. With only ten and a half months of existence recorded, it’s still been one hell of a year for us. Our own domain name, a feature on IMDb’s Hit List, increasing viewership, some new friends and a growing appreciation for the art of cinema all make the cut of our accomplishments this year.

To celebrate the New Year and kick off the end of the year goodie posts, Matt and I would like to thank everyone for stopping by, reading our work and taking part in the discussion. Here is a list of a few of our favorite posts from CyniCritics over the past year and ones from other sites that caught our eyes and wracked our brains. Happy New Year, everyone!!!

Favorite Posts on Friend Sites

Are Hollywood Actors Overpaid? by Anomalous Materials– The brilliance of Castor is his ability to create an amazing dialogue among film enthusiasts. The tagline on his site summarizes it all, “where movie lovers come to mingle.” In this post, as with many, he starts by asking us a question, seeking our answer, not seeking us to learn his. The question is great and so is his exploration of it.

The Art of Movie Posters by FlixChatter- I would read any feature that Ruth puts out on her wonderful site, FlixChatter. I could have chosen over a dozen posts from her site. Nearly daily it seems I see her posts on the IMDb hitlist, with some extremely interesting, thought-provoking film topics. She picks unique topics that we all tend to overlook, like movie posters. We didn’t overlook her post to inspire our own list of Misleading Movie Posters.

The Top 10 Single Location Films by The Top 10 Films– Dan has quite the website. Lately some of the lists have really intrigued me, but the one that may have took the most thought and research was this one. Reading it made me really think hard on some of the single location films I have watched and more importantly, all the ones I have tried to make, mostly due to being an amateur. Great list to look over.

Do We Over-Hype A Movie? by Go, See Talk!- Marc runs another one of my favorite sites. Highly interactive and a collection of some of the most fun posts to comment on, Go, See Talk! has been making posts like this all year. This recent post is something extremely relevant to this year, which seemed to filled with over-hyped films, including Inception, Tron Legacy and Alice in Wonderland.

What Are the Best and Worst Things About Being a Movie Blogger– Ross v. Ross- The most hilarious and brain rattling site I have visited yet. The Rosses (Rossi? Reese?) have been spot on even if it’s offbeat. This post was one that wasn’t offbeat, instead it was simple, inquisitive and garnered a great discussion. It’s what blogging is all about.

Favorite Posts on CyniCritics

Director Vanity: Stars That Look Like Their Directors– After seeing a picture  early in the year of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Nolan, star and director of the summer hit Inception, working on set with striking resemblance in facial structure, hair style and contemplative look, I pondered at other notable combinations. Depp and Burton, De Niro and Scorsese, Keaton and Meyers make the list. It was hands down the most fun post to search pictures and respond to comments for.

Five Movies to Watch Alone– The post was the first and only post to land us a spot on IMDb’s Hit List, which gave our viewership a nice, healthy boost from then on. More importantly, the post brought up an interesting conversation on how people watch movies. We found the only way some people can watch is movies, is well… by tucking the kids into bed, kicking the spouse out and shutting themselves out to the world. But as college kids, I think we’ve rarely watched a movie alone.

Summer Box Office Predictions– Until Inception rolled around in July, my box office predictions were looking at being 5/5. Still, for a summer full of flops and financial disappoints, I was quite proud that I was able to call them out before they bombed at the box office unexpectedly.

Color Blind: Directors and Black and White– One of Matt’s many, but fantastic essay features that showed his colorful writing ability he has with film. Great observations, great examples and a great post.

The Big 10: No Easy A’s– There really were no text or writing or grand observations in this post, but it was ironic to realize we have given out ten A grades to movies at this point and only one F (The A-Team). Maybe we aren’t as cynical as well we think.