The following are my picks for worst and best of 2013. I hope you enjoy it.
**MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD**
THE BIGGEST DISSAPPOINTMENT OF 2013 -
Iron Man 3: I really wanted this movie to knock it out of the park. Shane Black, one of my favorite Hollywood writers, wrote and directed this movie. He wrote The Long Kiss Goodnight, my second favorite Christmas movie of all time. Some of his trademark smart-assiness and wit was present in the dealings of Tony with the kid, but there was too much Tony, not enough Iron Man or War Machine, and the climactic final battle was a big letdown. Even the post-credits scene was lacking, going for a joke instead of something significant to the next movies. Not good for the first Marvel movie after The Avengers. The bright side is that, yes, I can re-watch this movie and do get some entertainment value from it, especially as the initial shock of the first viewing fades away.
THE WORST MOVIE OF 2013 -
Movie 43: I’ve walked out of only two movies in my life; Black Mask and Natural Born Killers. This came very close to being the third. I did laugh a couple of times… but not very much. It was being extremely vulgar in a vain attempt at creating humor simply from how extreme the vulgarity was. I left this movie pissed! (Pissed as in furious, not drunk.) How they got so many big named actors to do this movie is beyond me. Wolf of Wall Street… you need to get a hooker and some cocaine for this film, since that’s all you really know how to do, because it took a bullet for you!
Speaking of The Wolf of Wall Street, someone is going to have to explain to me why that movie is good and deserving of Oscars, because I honestly just don't see it.
MY TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2013 -
First up, two honorable mentions. These two movies just barely missed my top 10.
Rush: Rush
surprised me as being a decent, interest keeping drama. It’s about two
famous Formula 1 racers that have a rivalry, originating from lower
circuit races. The entire movie was well done. The acting, script,
direction and racing sequences were all top notch… better than I
expected them to be.
And now, without further ado… the top 10!
10. We’re the Millers:
Local boy makes good! Jason Sudekis, formerly of Saturday Night Live,
is a very funny guy! Jennifer Aniston and he were perfect as the
small-time drug dealer and stripper turned fake squeaky-clean parents to
smuggle a “smidge of pot” across the Mexican/American border. Sudekis
wears an Authur Bryant T-shirt for the first 15 minutes of the movie,
which was a nice KC shout-out. All the supporting characters were just
as good as the rest of the cast.
9. You’re Next: Like Rush, this was another movie that I knew almost nothing about before seeing it at a free screening. You’re Next
starts off with a big scene reminiscent of the 80’s slasher genre,
setting the tone for the rest of the film. It’s about a man bringing
his fiancé to meet his entire family when they all get together for
their parents’ anniversary at their cabin/mansion in the woods.
Suddenly, they are all in a fight for their lives as the family is
stalked by masked killers who have also set traps for them to spring.
The fiancé also reveals herself as something more than just a girl next
door. It’s a perfect blend of 80’s and modern survival horror movies,
complete with a powerful female lead, and was thoroughly enjoyable.
8. American Hustle:
This is a great drama about a small time con-duo that gets drafted by
the FBI to take down larger offenders. This movie also shows just how
“method” an actor that Christian Bale is. Never one to shy away from
drastically altering his body for a role, he gained a bunch of weight so
he had the beer-gut necessary to play his character. The entire
ensemble cast put in great performances in this movie and it always
seemed to be moving forward, never stalling for a moment. The cast,
direction and costumes all helped with the believability of the movie
being set in the 70’s. The best parts are all featuring Jennifer
Lawrence, though. She steals every scene she’s in as the certifiably
crazy wife of Bale’s character. Definitely give it a chance.
7. Dead Man Down:
This one was a BIG surprise to me. I went and saw this movie because
I had nothing better to do. I was slightly interested from the
trailer so I figured, why the heck not? Collin Farrell plays a small
time hitman who wants out of the whole thing, but he works for a boss
that doesn’t let people quit. He lives across from a woman with a
scarred face who seemingly has a romantic interest in him, but has
darker intentions. When they finally get together, the whole thing
steamrolls into a great character driven suspense drama that pays off
with an explosive and action packed climax that was perfect to bring
the story to a close. Kind of a sleeper hit for me.
6. Fast & Furious 6: I’m a newbie to the Fast and the Furious franchise, having seen the first 5 of them, one after another about two weeks before number 6 came out. Yes, they are straight-up popcorn movies that have the bare minimum of a story to tie together scenes of people and cars doing unrealistic acts of awesomeness… but they never claimed to be Shakespeare. Leave your disbelief at the door and you will love how each of the characters have to have friggin’ super powers to survive everything they get put through… I’m looking at you, Vin D, who drives high speed into a bridge barrier to launch himself through the air, over the large open gap between direction lanes, to catch Michelle Rodriguez and then land on the hood of another car on the other side of the bridge… and neither has a scratch on them… or became paste in midair.
This franchise as a whole is either
genius… or just straight lucky, (the recent death of main actor Paul
Walker aside.) After the success of the first one, the next two were
increasingly worse. Vin Diesel came back for the fourth, which
resurrected the franchise, and the fifth made the brilliant decision to
bring in characters from all of the previous movies and switched the
genre to a heist movie… with cars, therefore elevating the
enjoyableness of the two that suck! Fast 6 continues that
tradition and finally ties all the movies storylines together in
heartbreaking fashion… that the core audience unfortunately knew was
coming with the death of a character that died in FF3, but was in both 5
and 6. It will be interesting to see what happens with the upcoming
sequel and beyond.
5. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty:
Ever had a hard time trying to talk to that girl you had a crush on?
Ever wished you did something more with your life than put in your 8-5
and be alone at home? Do you ever daydream of being a complete
badass? If you answered yes to any of these, then you should see this
movie. Ben Stiller is either complete hit or complete miss with me.
This was most definitely a complete hit. I love stories about a
nerdy/geeky man who finally steps up and grabs life by the short hairs,
proving to himself that he had it inside himself all along. This
movie is very inspirational.
4. Olympus Has Fallen: This
was the first free screening I went to in 2013 which opened up the
doors to getting so many more, but I was excited for this long before I
got the tickets from Josh Enke. I’ve been wanting Gerard Butler to do
movies like this ever since I saw him in 300 as King Leonidas. “THIS! IS! SPAR-TA!” After Gamer
failed at the box office, (even though I think it’s a good movie,) he
went on to do romantic comedies, suspense dramas and indie movies. I
was ecstatic to see that he was coming back to the action genre. Little
did I know that it would end up being my favorite pure action movie!
Butler picks up the mantle of “Action Hero” left vacant for 20 years by
the likes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Willis, Van Dame, etc…,
delivering superb balls-to-the-wall action sequences and hilarious
one-liners that they would all be proud of! The validity of this movie
is helped by the caliber of actors that Butler is surrounded with:
Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Angela Bassett, Melissa Leo, Dylan
McDermott, Cole Hauser, Ashley Judd. This true ensemble cast all come
together and create what is, in my opinion, a better Die Hard movie
than Die Hard 2-5! Definitely entertained! And as always… Olympus
Has Fallen > White House Down.
3. Saving Mr. Banks: I’m
sure this is personal bias coming out, with me being an aspiring
novelist, but I absolutely loved this movie. If you have ever written
anything that you have cared about, with characters that seem like they
are family to you… if you have ever poured all your heart and soul,
hardships and pain into your writing… you need to see this
movie. Yes it’s funny, yes the author is stubborn and doesn’t want to
make allowances for her book to be turned into a movie, but the heart of
this movie is more than that. It’s about someone who loved what she
wrote, which originated from a deeply personal and tragic place, that
finally becomes able to grow as a person. It reminded me so much of my
own writing. Now, Torn Asunder is not Mary Poppins by a long shot, but they come from similar places. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson are great as Walt Disney and the author of Mary Poppins. This movie touched my soul.
2. Man of Steel:
I was lucky enough to see this at a free screening with my father a
week and a half before it opened. That crowd was better than the other
two when I actually paid to see it! The audience reaction to
Superman’s defeat of Zod, alone, was worth the drive to the Barrywoods
AMC. This movie missed being my top pick of 2013, but only by a slight
margin.
This is the Superman film I have been waiting my whole life to see. Superman II
starring Christopher Reeve was the best we had… giant cellophane “S”
and all, (though the Superman vs. Clark Kent scene from Superman III
will always have a special place in my heart.) We never had a movie
that truly shows the fighting power that Superman possesses. People
complain about this movie saying that he didn’t have any regard for the
innocents of Metropollis. ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME? Clark was
Superman for less than 36 hours when he had to step up and fight a
platoon of Kryptonians, all with military training that he didn’t have!
The only advantage he had was that he grew up on Earth. The other
Kryptonians were just starting to adapt to their powers. Superman had
to use everything he had to defeat them! If he wouldn’t have fought the
way he did, thousands more would’ve died! These are the
events that turn Clark into the Superman we all know and love, and Henry
Cavil played him perfectly.
Lois Lane is a
redhead! Not only that, for once they didn’t make her an idiot. I love
how they didn't even try to hide the fact that Superman and Clark Kent
are the same person to her. Amy Adams’ portrayal is my favorite
depiction of Lois, by far. The rest of the supporting cast was all
excellent, as well. Michael Shannon played General Zod as a man doing
what he was bred to do, instead of all “Kneel before Zod!” (Though I
did love Terrance Stamp’s original portrayal of the Kryptonian
general.) Shannon makes Zod into an actual sympathetic character…
until he goes ballistic after everything he existed for was gone.
Superman did the only thing he could do to stop him.
John Williams iconic theme was not missed because Hans Zimmer did a
great job in capturing the spirit of this new style of Superman. The
special effects were very well done; there was barely a place where I
caught something that didn’t look “real.” I also loved all the nods to
Kansas. Look for Clark to be wearing a KC Royals shirt in a dream
sequence and a KU game on a TV.
My only gripe
with the movie is that Lois was too conveniently placed in the action
at times so Superman could save her, or so she could be there to “save”
him. That, and when Superman screamed out in despair at the end, her
eardrums should’ve burst and all the glass in the station should’ve
shattered. But in the Maximus Decimus Meridius test, that's really
just picking nits. Coincidentally, Maximus was played by Russell
Crowe… who also played Superman’s father, Jor-El, in Man of Steel,)
I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the sequel. Although I am
cautiously optimistic about Ben Affleck playing Batman, I hate the
casting of Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.
All in all, this was my favorite movie of the year… until number one was released…
1. Pacific Rim: The inner child in me had a conniption fit of joy and the adult movie geek I am
wanted to stand up, run outside and punch a tree in half after
watching this movie. It was amazing! Guillermo del Toro wanted to pay
homage to all the Godzilla and Gamera type movies he saw growing up and
ended up throwing in elements of mecha-anime in the mix, as well. I
went to the theater to watch Giant Robots (Jaegers) punching Giant
Monsters (Kaiju)… but was pleasantly surprised with a great, character
driven drama on top of it! One part redemption story, one part revenge
story and one part triumph of the human spirit all made the story in
between the robot/monster punching enjoyable, to say the least.
Idris Elba is one of my new favorite actors, hands down. He owns
every scene he’s in as Stacker Pentecost, the leader of the Jaeger
project… even so far as getting an Independence-Day-style inspirational
speech before the final battle. Charlie Hunnam, aside from being
eye-candy for the women, was great as Raleigh Becket, the fallen Jaeger
pilot who's given a second chance at piloting an updated version of
Gipsy Danger, the Jaeger that he was defeated in before. Rinko
Kikuchi, rather new to the American film audience, was perfect as Mako
Mori, the prodigy Jaeger pilot who has never had a chance to pilot a
Jaeger in real life. The rest of the supporting cast just added to the
greatness of it all.
The special effects of this
movie were absolutely amazing! The water droplets flinging off the
Jaegers from the impacts of blows was beautiful and there was not one
moment in the movie where I thought that the special effects were
anything more than a natural progression of the story. Everything
looked so real! The score was even amazing! My main phone ringtone is
Pacific Rim’s main theme! The sequence where Gipsy finally shows up
during the extended battle scene 2/3 of the way through the movie, all
the way until she lands in the football field, is my favorite sequence
ever put to film, hands down! I got goose bumps and literally
sat on the edge of my seat during it! I just got goose bumps typing
that last sentence! I want to run out and punch a tree in half!
Thank you Guillermo del Toro for getting your passion project put to film. I absolutely loved it!
Well folks, that’s it for my analysis of the movies of 2013. Hopefully 2014 brings just as much entertainment to the screen!
No comments:
Post a Comment