1. Drive - 8/10 2. The Adjustment Bureau - 8/10 3. Hanna - 7/10 4. Super 8 - 7/10 [b]The Ward - 7/10[/b] 5. In Time - 7/10 6. Source Code - 7/10 7. The Lincoln Lawyer - 7/10 8. Insidious - 6/10 9. Unknown - 6/10 10. Midnight in Paris - 6/10 11. X-Men: First Class - 5/10 12. Thor - 5/10 13. Conan O\'Brien Can\'t Stop - 4/10 14. Just Go With It - 2/10 I almost put [b]The Ward[/b] at number 3 on this list - that\'s how much I liked it. Eventually I placed it below Super 8 because I felt that film was more colorful and full of wonder. However The Ward is one of the most purely enjoyable genre exercises this year. I call it a genre exercise because this horror/thriller is nothing you haven\'t seen before. The plot is cliche and the tricks are all familiar. If you\'ve seen half as many movies as I have you can probably call every scare before it happens. And yet, somehow, this was just really effective. I place much of that praise on the shoulders of Amber Heard, who plays our protagonist. She is such a likeable, strong, plucky, smart, resourceful character that we can\'t help but root for her, which makes the chase scenes very thrilling any time she\'s in danger. We identify with her. When she ends up in a straight jacket, I was imagining what it would be like if I were in a straight jacket, and so on and so forth. The ending is disappointingly familiar. I\'ve seen at least two other movies that I think had this exact same premise. It explains a lot of the weirdness we experienced, but still feels unsatisfying. That said, I think a lot of viewers will be so hard on the ending that they forget how invigorated they were by the first 70 minutes of the movie. Sure, I wish this film from horror legend John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) were more unique and creative, but I can\'t deny that he\'s taken familiar material and made it work hard. I can\'t name the film this is most like without giving away the plot, but if you like chillers like 1408, Shutter Island, or Jacob\'s Ladder you will probably enjoy this little movie.