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Top Ten Movies of 2013

Mr Light

Mr Light

Admiral
Admiral
I said "movies" and not "films" so I'll be picking what was most entertaining, not necessarily most artistic ;)

1. Hobbit 2: nothing more magical than Tolkein on the screen!
2. Man of Steel: they evacuated the city first, okay? :p
3. Star Trek 2: aside from the Khan rip off ending I thought this was incredibly solid!
4. Iron Man 3: still miffed over the Mandarin, but a solid movie.
5. Thor 2: very lame villain, but aside from that it's good.
6. Fast & Furious 6: this franchise is really growing on me.
7. White House Down: I thought this was a great popcorn movie. I don't get why it bombed.
8. Pacific Rim: drags in the middle but otherwise great fun.
9. Lone Ranger: if you cut out the ridiculously unneeded Old Tonto framing device, I had great fun!
10. Catching Fire: solid adaptation.
 
Cuttin' it down to movies that I saw in the theater and were released this year, in order of release -

G.I. Joe: Retaliation 3D
- better than the first, and the mountain sequence was worth it

Come Out and Play
- very cool horror film

The Place Beyond the Pines
- ya don't see many movies that totally shift focus at the midpoint from one star to another

Iron Man Three 3D
- not as good as the first, but better than the second

Star Trek Into Darkness IMAX
- another good sequel, and I got to meet Peter Weller the first of five times I saw it at the theater

Much Ado About Nothing
- a nice Shakespeare adaption, with a Whedon-tastic cast

Pacific Rim 3D
- very cool monster movie that wasn't afraid to make its own history

Gravity 3D
- how awesome was this movie? George Clooney was fun, and Sandra Bullock carried the weight of the film

Thor: The Dark World 3D
- I think I may have liked this more than the first, and it was good follow up to the events of The Avengers

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
- a great page to screen adaption of the book, and Jennifer Lawrence is becomin' one of my favorite actresses
 
Mr Light said:
I said "movies" and not "films" so I'll be picking what was most entertaining, not necessarily most artistic ;)

1. Hobbit 2: nothing more magical than Tolkein on the screen!
2. Man of Steel: they evacuated the city first, okay? :p
3. Star Trek 2: aside from the Khan rip off ending I thought this was incredibly solid!
4. Iron Man 3: still miffed over the Mandarin, but a solid movie.
5. Thor 2: very lame villain, but aside from that it's good.
6. Fast & Furious 6: this franchise is really growing on me.
7. White House Down: I thought this was a great popcorn movie. I don't get why it bombed.
8. Pacific Rim: drags in the middle but otherwise great fun.
9. Lone Ranger: if you cut out the ridiculously unneeded Old Tonto framing device, I had great fun!
10. Catching Fire: solid adaptation.
Click to expand...

Same for me...
 
I haven't seen that many new movies this year; of the ones I have (in alphabetical order):

Gravity (overrated, but still a terrific visceral experience)
Star Trek Into Darkness (better than the '09 film)
The World's End (the least of the trilogy, yet still a great movie)
Upstream Color (not as good as Primer, but it's growing on me)
 
Films I haven't seen yet: Blue is the Warmest Colour, Nebraska, The Past, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis.

10. Captain Phillips - One of Tom Hanks' best performances, and featuring an equally impressive turn by Barkhad Abdi. This is also the best use of Paul Greengrass' aesthetic that I've ever seen, and deftly handles the complexities of the situation.

9. Frozen - In some ways this is a less consistent film than Tangled (I really would have deleted the trolls), but it's got soaring moments and two great twists that outdo Tangled's best. Beautifully animated.

8. The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese's brilliant, scathing portrayal of Jordan Belfort, an unredeemable heel (the fact that they got Belfort himself to cameo in this suggests he didn't quite understand what they were doing). I can understand why some people won't like this, because the movie depends on the viewer to realize how rotten pretty much everybody is -- there are no lessons learned within the film itself. But this became the funniest movie I saw all year.

7. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire - The year's best action movie, once again anchored by Jennifer Lawrence's phenomenal lead performance. Lawrence impresses in a range of roles, but I'd like to live in a world where people were more willing to take what she does here as seriously as the more "serious" films that she does.

6. 12 Years A Slave - An impressive, important piece of cinema, although I do think it's slightly overrated at present.

5. The Spectacular Now - This was one of the first talked-about films of the year, but was undeservedly kind of lost in the shuffle going forward. Terrific performances, and one of the great 'shock' moments of 2013 cinema.

4. Wadjda - A deceptively simple story about a plucky young girl growing up in Saudi Arabia, which provides a fascinating view into changing traditional society. That the film exists at all is impressive; that it's so damn good, doubly so.

3. Before Midnight - I saw the first one on DVD, after seeing the second one in theatres back in 2004. This is a wonderful series, and I hope we continue to follow Jesse and Celine for a long time; I guess the next one will be around the time their daughters are off to university.

2. Blue Jasmine - Woody Allen's best film in a long, long time, featuring Blanchett's riveting lead performance, and the now very underrated work of Sally Hawkins.

1. Gravity - The most visceral cinematic experience I've had in a long time. I feel sorry for future cinephiles who won't be able to see it in 3D on the big screen, which is not something I've felt even about the previous three live-action films where I thought 3D was an additive rather than a neutral or negative factor.
 
I didn't see many films this year but these are my favorites:

-Gravity
-12 Years A Slave
-Before Midnight
-Inside Llewyn Davis
-The World's End
-Blue Jasmine
-Iron Man 3
-Frances Ha
-The Hobbit 2
-Blue Is The Warmest Color
 
Favorite, not necessarily best:

10. Blue is the Warmest Colour
9. Fruitvale Station
8. Prisoners
7. You're Next
6. Captain Phillips
5. This is the End
4. Gravity
3. Frozen
2. The Wolf of Wall Street
1. Pacific Rim
 
I actually only saw 11 movies released in 2013, so I'm going to do my top 11.

11. Planes - While I adore the original Cars movie, Cars 2 and this were close to awful. However my kids loved it and thats who they are really for.

10. Despicable Me - I just didn't like this, none of the heart of the first movie. The Minions are the only thing that makes it watchable. Still better then Planes.

9. Superman - Saw this movie on a flight and we landed before the movie ended, so I missed about the last 15 minutes. So I haven't formally reviewed it since I have not seen the important part of the movie, but even with that...this movie is still better then the lsat two movies.

8. Pacific Rim - Everyone seams to love this movie, I thought it was just okay. The characters weren't that exciting, the robots and monsters weren't that exciting and the fighting between the monsters and robots just wasn't that exciting. Meh at best.

7. Iron Man 3 - I liked Iron Man 3, I liked the whole handling of the Mandarin, I liked the stakes and the kid and everything but, overall there was something wrong in the execution. Maybe I was just expecting more, but I did like it.

6. Star Trek into darkness - I will state first that I like the new Star Trek and the way JJ Abrams has handled the reworking of it. They have an energy and look and feel I connect with. I liked the story here mostly, with the exception of Khan. Using Khan the way they did makes no sense what so ever. I think it would have worked better just letting him be a disgruntled Starfleet member John Harrison. When he reveals who he really is, it's like who cares your name is Khan. Why is that important to me?

5. Monster University - Just saw this last night and I'm very happy that I did. This is a prequel done correctly. It's funny how they can take familiar characters and make them feel new again. One of the thing I like about Pixar is their ability to make a movie with a message and not smash you over the head with it. Many may disagree with me, I liked Monsters University more then Monsters Inc.

4. Thor: Dark World - The Thor sequel got so much right, it makes it real easy to overlook the few flaws it does have, mainly the poorly written bad guy. The action and most of the humor was great. Loki always makes any movie better.

3. Oblivion - I really liked this Tom Cruise sci-fi movie. While not original, the way this movie goes about everything is fresh and the look of this movie is fantastic.

2. Much Ado About Nothing - This is an amazing adaptation of William Shakespeare's play. To be filmed with a bunch of friends in 11 days, so daring. While Kenneth Branagh's version is still my favorite, this is a very close second.

1. Frozen - My favorite movie from 2013 is a movie I didn't even want to see. After the first teaser, I had no interest. Even the first few trailers made this movie seamed awful. After a few friends saw it and said how great it was, we decided to go see it. I'm very glad we did, this movie connected with me in a way I couldn't believe. It has layers and depth most non-animated movies don't posses. The connection between the sisters, the songs are amazing. Especially Let it Go, which should win the oscar for best original song. How they turned a lot of the Disney Topes on their head, and the true meaning of True Love.

Well since those are the movies I saw that were released in 2013, thats my top 11. No doubt that I will see a bunch more of the 2013 releases in the months ahead and this list will change. However as of right now, this is it.
 
I'm in the UK so some films out in America haven't been released here yet (Wolf of Wall Street for example).

My list with comments is on my blog here

10. Frozen
9. You're Next
8. Philomena
7. Django Unchained
6. Prisoners
5. Rush
4. Les Mis

The top three were pretty much equal.

3. Saving Mr. Banks
2. Pacific Rim
1. Cloud Atlas
 
Not in any order:

12 Years A Slave
Gravity
Captain Phillips
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
American Hustle
Despicable Me 2
Fruitvale Station (A Movie that feels like it's been completely forgotten)
Iron Man 3
Star Trek Into Darkness
Monsters University
 
Based on how much fun (or scares) I had watching the movie:

1. Pacific Rim
2. The Conjuring
3. Gravity
4. Europa Report
5. The World's End
6. Mama
7. Evil Dead
8. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
9. Man Of Steel
10. Thor: The Dark World
 
About Time
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Frozen
The World's End
Monster University
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Star Trek: Into Darkness
The Wolf of Wall Street
Warm Bodies
Despicable Me 2
 
I think I'm comfortable making a top 10 list now.

10. The Way, Way Back
9. The East
8. The Conjuring
7. Catching Fire
6. Star Trek Into Darkness
5. Her
4. The Wolf of Wall Street
3. About Time
2. Gravity
1. 12 Years a Slave

and two 2012 nominees that are still getting put on 2013 lists: Frances Ha and The Hunt
 
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