I thought this was a great year for movies, I saw a total of 13 movies in theaters that were released in 2013, and 2 more movies at home that I didn't have a chance to see in theaters here in Green Bay. As you will see from my list at the end of this post, there are actually dozens more movies that were released this year that I would love to see at some point, and yes I spend a lot of time reading about movies on sites like Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB.
I want to say that these are rankings according to my taste in movies and my taste alone, and not everyone will feel the same way that I do. I tend to value humor in a movie even if the movie is not a true comedy. If the movie is a flat out drama with little humor, I probably won't enjoy it quite as much. I tend to lose a little bit of interest if I don't laugh once in a while at a movie, and it isn't at all difficult to make me laugh a bit.
Unranked movies I saw that came out this year:
Kings of Summer- I really liked this movie, It is available through Red Box, and possibly on demand through certain services, but at this moment it is not available on Netflix Instant. The movie is about how a small group of young high schoolers spend their summer, I don't want to give too much away, but it is a bit of a coming of age tale, while also bringing in elements of dealing with family, and friendship. I really enjoyed the movie, but I had a hard time writing about it, possibly because I have been making myself write a bit more than I have in the past by seeing more movies in the last week. I especially enjoyed the performance by Moises Arias in this movie, he is funny and a bit off beat. There are a lot of known actors that people would recognize in smaller roles in this movie, and some good performances by lesser known younger actors. If you want something that is a bit different than the mainstream selections take a chance on this movie, I think you will enjoy it.
Blackfish-This was the only new documentary that I saw this year, and it was really eye opening. I have never been to a Seaworld, at least I don't remember going to one at any point in my life, and after watching this movie, I highly doubt I will ever go to one. This movie documents the history of a whale named Tilikum, and all sorts of incidents that have taken place involving Orcas at Seaworld, showing from the actions taken to capture orca calves in the wild, to the breeding of them in captivity. If you don't feel like you can handle this subject or don't want to know about it, I understand. I found this movie eye opening, and I had a visceral reaction to certain parts of it, I really had no idea of all of the incidents, if you love animals, I would say that this is a must see to just show you the kind of things that have happened at Seaworld. I watched this movie when it was played on CNN, I have no idea if it is streaming anywhere, but there is a lot of interesting information that I had no idea about that is given out in this movie, I highly recommend it.
And Now the List of Movies I Saw in 2013:
13. Pain & Gain-I saw this movie, I paid to see this movie, why oh why did I pay to see this movie? I don't know of any other examples in recent history where I regretted not walking out of a movie. I wan't to say that I will never see another Michael Bay movie in my life, but I will probably see him ruin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before I am ballsy enough to really make that vow.
12. Thor: The Dark World-I was really bored during this movie, I can't pinpoint the reason. It may have just been the fact that the movie didn't do a good enough job of trying to get my to care. Loki was entertaining, but he wasn't in enough of the movie. I wouldn't be surprised if I don't see this movie again, there are numerous other Marvel movies I would rather be watching.
11. World War Z-This wasn't a great movie by any means, and it definitely wasn't a very good adaptation of the book, it is entertaining in parts, it was a good popcorn movie, and not much more. I don't know how excited I am about the upcoming sequels, they seem like a complete moneygrab, but that seems to be what a lot of the movie industry is doing right now anyway.
10. Pacific Rim-I thought this movie was so much fun, I think the idea is really cool and creative. Some elements of the plot somehow seem to be set up for convenience and there are some pretty bad fake accents in this movie as well, but it is still entertaining, and the monster battles are really well done. I tend to like the work of Guillermo Del Toro, he does monsters especially well. He was originally in line to direct the Hobbit back when it was still being planned out.
9. Anchorman 2-This was a funny movie, but it didn't really stand out in any other way than humor. I am not sure I expected much more than humor, I don't think there were quite as many quotable lines in this one as there were in the first, which might make it have less cultural staying power than the first.
8. Iron Man 3-I thought this movie was a great return for form, while also creating a new and enjoyable feel to the character that already had 2 previous movies. I like what director Shane Black added to the tone of the movie, I really liked the introspective take on Tony Stark in this movie. It would normally rank much higher, but I really liked many other movies this year.
7. Hunger Games: Catching Fire-I thought this was quite a bit better than the first installment, and I loved what they did with the arena especially, it looked just like it did in my mind, well except with better computer animation. I am cautiosly optimistic for the remaining movies, although turning one book into 2 movies always bothers movie, just another money grab.
6. Frozen-This, for me at least, felt like a return to the Disney movies I grew up with, it was a great movie to attend with my family. The vocal performances in this are great, and even though its not that similar to the original story, I thought they did a great job of getting some humor into the film, I especially liked Josh Gad's role in the movie.
5. Star Trek Into Darkness-I have to admit that I am not the biggest Star Trek fan, I haven't seen as much of the original series of the movies to be able to claim that about myself. I know that this movie takes a lot of different stories from previous Star Trek iterations and changes them in ways to reflect the alternate universe. I do think that there could be a little bit of creativity put into writing any of the additional Star Trek movies, if there are going to be any.
4. This Is the End-I loved the sense of humor in this movie, and how all of the main actors were making fun of themselves in some way, I also really liked the wide variety of people they got to appear in this movie, there were very few of the extended group that they didn't get for the movie. I thought it was generally a fun idea, and the movie was hilarious. I am interested to see the movies that Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg write and direct in the future.
3. The World's End-I really liked this movie, it was the frontrunner for my favorite movie for a few months there. I think this movie is just so well directed and edited, some of the best transitions and fades I have seen in a long time. It was not my favorite movie made by the core team of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and director Edgar Wright. Edgar Wright has directed 4 movies that I love so I am excited to see what he can do with Ant-Man and join the Marvel universe. I would imagine it will have quite a bit of humor along with lots of well shot action scenes. If there is one thing I can say it is that Edgar Wright is the anti Michael Bay. Michael Bay edits so that his action is too fast, whereas Edgar Wright goes with longer shots and fewer cuts, not forcing the eye to adjust so much throughout a sequence, sorry I didn't plan on ranting about Michael Bay outside of Pain & Gain.
2.Gravity-This movie is probably the most technically and visually amazing film I have seen in a long time. It used CGI but it didn't feel like CGI at all. I think that Cuaron is likely going to win the best director Oscar this year for the simple fact that he was able to do so much with just actors in a room by themselves. I think that Sandra Bullock proved that her Oscar was not a fluke with her performance in this movie. I don't think watching it at home will do it nearly enough justice, this movie was made to be watched on a big screen and in 3D and I loved it in that situation.
1.Her-I was excited heading into this movie, and the movie was still able to exceed my expectations. I loved everything about this movie, from the idea, the performances, and the execution of those ideas. It is almost a bit of a fable for the cyber age that we are in. I think the main things that set this movie above Gravity are my belief that Her will be much more rewatchable than Gravity, and the sense of humor in Her. I stated before that I really value a sense of humor in a movie, and this movie really hit me in the perfect way on so many different levels.
Well I forced myself to power through all of that writing, now it is a new year, and I will have to start a new list from scratch, time for a fresh slate.
If I had felt like taking a lot of extra time I would have linked all of the movies below this to their IMDB pages. I may still go back and add the links in at a later time. But below is a pretty extensive list.
Movies I didn't see but probably will at some point in the future:
12 Years a Slave
Short Term 12
Fruitvale Station
The Spectacular Now
Inside Llewyn Davis
The Way Way Back
Blue Jasmine
The Wolf of Wall Street
American Hustle
Kick-Ass 2
Captain Phillips
In a World
Don Jon
Nebraska
Hell Baby
Bad Milo
We're The Millers
Elysium
The Wolverine
Man of Steel
The Heat
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Monsters University
Despicable Me 2
The To Do List
Ass Backwards
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Sound City
Muscle Shoals
Drinking Buddies
Enough Said
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