Guys Top 10 Movies of 2013

This is interesting ... I've just gone back over the website to see what I rated each movie throughout the year and put them down in the order of top to bottom. I quickly saw that once compared to one another the original rating now appears to be inaccurate given my current view. I guess this means that things change, which is quite obvious, and having a point of perspective for comparison also changes your opinion. As does time. Re-watching Django Unchained I have found it to be not as good as that amazing day in the cinema. I think having a crowd around and being so excited to be seeing a new QT flick added to how much I loved it the first time, but subsequent viewings have shown me problems with the movie and so its dropped a few places. For now, however, here is the completely subjective list of my top 2013 films:

My top 10 films released in 2013

10. We're The Millers - Comedy - I’ve been struggling with many of the mainstream American comedies of late but somehow the creators just nailed this one. I was laughing my ass off and appreciating Jennifer Anniston's at the same time. Amazingly sexy and brave playing a stripper at 44!

9. Mud - Drama - A wonderful little Indie movie about love set on the Mississippi river in the deep south with a great cast of teenage kids, Matthew McConaughey & Reese Witherspoon. Definitely worth checking out, probably McConaughey's best acting role to date.

8. American Hustle - Thriller - A film with the biggest cast you can have in 2013 directed by a guy at the peak of his career. It’s a little Oscar baiting at times, a little confusing over all, but its characters are rich and deep and multi-dimensional and for that its worthy of a top 10 place.

7. The Impossible - Drama/Thriller - Wow. This movie is intense to the extreme. I don’t know what it is with Naomi Watts putting her characters through the wringer but few get punished as much as she does in this tale. Showing the effects of the tsunami in Thailand on a single family with a backdrop of the effects on the country, it’s emotionally charged and near horrific in impact.

6. This Is The End - Comedy - What is going on here? Two American comedies in the Top 10 and no British ones?!?! I love this movie for the simple reason it was made by a bunch of funny actors who have some pull in Hollywood, and it feels just like that. As I watch it, all I can think of is how much fun they must be having off camera and in between the scenes.

5. Django Unchained - Tarantino - As usual the Tarantino film defies being characterized as anything other than a Tarantino film. A western about a German with a black slave in a revenge exploitation flick starring Leo DiCaprio as an evil master and Samuel L Jackson as an abhorrent slave with Jonah Hill in the Klu Klux Klan? Funny, different, action packed and utterly entertaining.

4. Rush - Sports Drama - A brilliant movie about the rivalry of James Hunt and Nikki Lauda that surprised the hell out of me with how much I loved it. The driving scenes were great, the set design and car construction was spot on but the interaction between the two leads was mesmerising.

3. The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug - Fantasy - Way too high up on the list for how badly put together this movie is, but I’m a sucker and I love this kind of thing. Just seeing Mirkwood and Smaug was enough to be a Top 10 but the 3D HFR experience, the barrel scene, Tauriel and the comedy placed it higher. The bad editing and useless padding stopped it going to the top.

2. The Place Beyond The Pines - Drama- Such a good movie with major focal shifting phases done better than any other film, except maybe A Beautiful Mind, that I can think of. It’s the first movie I’ve really understood the hype around Ryan Gosling and the one where Bradley Cooper really started coming into his own as an actor.

1. Gravity - Sci Fi - This movie is the reason I watch so many movies. I’m always hanging out for an experience that just blows your mind, lets you forget you are on planet Earth, and takes you to another place. For almost 2 hours I was in space. I was alone. I was fighting for my life and I was enthralled. This is movie making at its absolute best, even if the script is a little weak, the movie itself is an experience unlike anything else I’ve ever had. Alfonso Cuarón is amazing.

(Yet to see Byzantium, 12 Years a Slave, Captain Phillips, Before Midnight, World War Z, Short Term 12 or The Spectacular Now)

My top 10 films released before 2013 I had not seen before

10. Anna Karenina - The most interesting and different film on this list, I think. Once again Joe Wright produces an engaging, interesting and different style of love story that somehow keeps me enthralled.

9. The Loved Ones - Gotta love sick Aussie horror flicks. And drills.

8. The Colour of Money - Good old 80's excess film with star actors, and directed by Scorcese.

7. Looper - Great Sci-Fi film based on a great premise. You get everything you expect going into this movie.

6. James Bond: Skyfall - Best Bond yet???

5. All The Boys Love Mandy Lane - Most fun horror film of the year. Inventive in its creation but hits enough familiar points to feel like an old friend.

4. The Perks of Being a Wallflower - A sweet and moving film that is also quite dark and intense. This movie has lingered with me and I think about it often which is a sign of great filmmaking.

3. The Fighter - Best acting of any movie on this page, Christian Bale really is a freak in his ability to transform into different people, but the story catapults his acting to a new level.

2. Perfect Sense - Unexpectedly wonderful. Incredibly daring. Sublimely entertaining. Indie at its best.

1. Shame - Easily the best movie I saw this year. Its beautifully shot, finely crafted, amazingly acted, profound, moving and has the best ending of any movie this year.

5 most disappointing films of 2013

1. Lincoln - I just felt bored and let down by this unfortunately, even Daniel Day Lewis couldn't save it for me.

2. Elysium - I really thought the director of District 9 and the cast would have produced something amazing, this was rather dull and predictible.

3. The Hunger Games - Why is there so much hype about this? Its really not very good at all and has a disturbing plot for young'uns to be enjoying so much.

4. The Great Gatsby - I love Baz and was looking forward to this but it felt bloated and I was a bit bored throughout unfortunately.

5. Pain and Gain - This seemed like such a winning formula but it turned out to be a weird, violent, mess of a film for me.

Quite an amazing year of cinema once again. All of the Marvel retreads are still as boring and predictable as ever, but are making a killing at the box office so here's to more and more and more and more and more of them coming up in the next year. The smaller Indie films seem to have had more of an impact on me this year, as have some of the risker big budget movies that I wish were made more often. There were some suprising dissapointments aswell that just goes to show a great cast and a great director doesn't mean a great movie. Looking forward to bringing you many more reviews in 2014, and maybe a podcast or two??

Thank you, Dear Readers, for being a part of our innaugral year!

Guy