Count Down 100 Movies from 2013 (Multiple users) Tele page 20

[The Stingray]

Good job, Jack.

 

As far as Blue Color, I don't think I could watch that because of that scene. That type of excessive nudity has its place in porn, not in "regular" movie. You shouldn't have to go there to evoke emotions or whatever.

[Plain Old Tele]

Jack, this thread is truly one of the most magnificent and amazing things I've ever read. Twenty, thirty, forty years from now, this will be an example taught in schools everywhere about how to compose and format and write a "Best Of" list. I'm hard-pressed to think of a finer piece of writing in recent years. Outstanding on every level, and truly a statement for our time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SchumacherFTW]

Great list Jack. Do you feel that had Blue been able to ride the Best Foreign Feature category it was ineligible for it could have garnered a greater level of awards interest? Adele certainly deserved something, she was truly mesmerizing.

[baumer]

So it's clear I have to see the Lesbian blue hair movie and the movie where war criminals re-enact their murders.  

[baumer]

I'll move yours in here tomorrow Jack.

[Plain Old Tele]

I'll start mine whenever y'all give the go-ahead (when the others are done).

[baumer]

It's a free for all.  Go for it, Tele.  Hiccup's almost done and Films, well, who knows what's going on with him.

[Plain Old Tele]

Getting ready to type all this up, I realized two things: first, I've only seen a fraction of 2013 movies compared to some of you here, so a Top 30 is the best I can manage; and second, I saw very few movies that I'd consider completely bad (this is more because I have to be fairly selective about what I see than anything else). So even the #30 movie here is mediocre to decent, not awful.

 

Okay, off we go!

 

30. Riddick

 

 

Vin Diesel is clearly passionate about this character (to the point of doing a cameo in TOYKO DRIFT just to get the rights back from Universal), and when he and David Twohy made PITCH BLACK, they knew exactly what they were aiming to be: a fun, entertaining, and smart B movie that fit well into its genre but had modest aspirations beyond that. THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK lost most of that direction; while it still had its moments and charms, the large budget and broader scope made it feel bloated and, well, not very Riddick-y. RIDDICK, fortunately, ditches that big-scale attitude and aims for PITCH BLACK territory. It’s not as good as PITCH BLACK — aside from Riddick himself, the characters are largely one-note and un-interesting, and the stripped-down plot doesn’t offer many surprises — but it’s still fun in its own right, and digital VFX now allows even a modest-budgeted movie like this to have a bit of scope. I recommend it more for genre and/or Diesel buffs than just a casual viewer, though.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Telemachos

[The Stingray]

Funny, I was gonna watch Riddick tonight. Chose Mulholland Drive (2nd time) instead.

[baumer]

Riddick is truly one of the big surprises of 2013 for me.  Kind of like Tele says, Pitch Black was really good and COR really sucked, bad.  But Riddick was so much better.  I remember going to see it only because I had a couple of hours to kill and I had seen everything else.  So I reluctantly sat down to watch it and was certainly shocked at how good it was.

 

Good to see it on your list, Tele.

[Plain Old Tele]

29. Blue Jasmine

 

 

One of my dark cinephile secrets is that I’ve never been a huge Woody Allen fan. For the most part, I’ve liked his earlier stuff a lot more than his more recent work, and to me BLUE JASMINE is a fairly awkward movie, despite Cate Blanchett’s performance. Woody seems out of his element here, away from New York, and most of the movie comes across as a fairly shallow and simplistic caricature of various characters and attitudes. It feels more like someone trying to imitate Woody than anything else. Still, Blanchett is strong, and so are Sally Hawkins and Louis C.K. Overall, a somewhat frustrating movie, but not without good moments.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Telemachos

[The Stingray]

I don't watch Woody movies because of who he is as a person. So I'm glad you didn't like it that much.

[baumer]

Woody is hit and miss with me as well.  Not a big fan of some of his "classic" stuff and I'll never really be able to like Annie Hall because it won best picture over Star Wars in 1977.  But he has some excellent films as well like Crimes and Misdemeanors, Husbands and Wives and Midnight in Paris.  I haven't seen Blue Jasmine but I will when I get a chance.

[Ezen Baklattan]

I personally found Blue Jasmine to be Allen's best film in a while. To Rome With Love was kind of terrible, and Midnight In Paris seemed overly self-indulgent and somewhat forgettable to me.

[Plain Old Tele]

28. Elysium

 

 

It got a lot of flack when it was released, both from Blomkamp fans who were expecting a masterpiece and for its unabashedly leftist attitudes, and while I don’t think the criticism is unwarranted, I think it’s a solid enough genre piece in its own right. Some of Blomkamp’s real strengths are his eye for production design and bringing his experience from living outside America into a typically American- or European-focused genre, and both are on display here. This feels like a very real and lived-in world — subbing Mexico City for a future LA is a stroke of genius, and damn, Blomkamp can make really cool and fun weapons. Where he stumbles is Elysium itself, not so much for design reasons (though it feels more like your typical “future rich utopia” than anything new and unique), but because it feels like it’s only partially-thought out. And really, that sums up the movie itself — it’s worth watching for the design work, Matt Damon, and Sharlto Copley, but it’s not as fully realized an idea or story as Blomkamp thought it was. Disappointing if you were expecting something great, but decent enough with its various elements for fans of the genre.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Telemachos

[The Stingray]

Yeah, I expected more obviously, but still solid entertainment. Could have used an extra 20 min.

[Michael Gary Scott]

How many movies did you see tele?

[Plain Old Tele]

How many movies did you see tele?

Not nearly enough 2013 releases (around 40, IIRC).

[Plain Old Tele]

27. Pain and Gain

 

 

Full credit to Bay for ditching his usual toys-n-explosions and using his considerable visual talent to tell a darker side of the testosterone-amped Americana he usually glorifies. PAIN AND GAIN a fascinating and often very funny story, with Wahlberg doing solid work and The Rock really stepping up to the next level of performance. Unfortunately, the movie is a bit too sprawling and un-focused — it seems like Bay and Co. don’t quite have a handle on their main character or the main throughput of the plot; they repeatedly change narrators with little effect, they don’t really get a sense of where Wahlberg’s character ends up (he seems repentant and then clueless), and while they lean heavily on the “this is all a true story”, they dance around how much they actually created. There’s a fascinating article about the end credits, where they show the “real mugshots” of all the characters… except, of course, some of them were composites and so they shot fictitious mugshots using actors in lieu of “real” ones. Awkward. But still, I’d rather Bay be doing movies like this than another series of Hasbro commercials.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Telemachos

[4815162342]

Sharlto Copley doing whatever the fuck he was doing was easily the best part of Elysium.I wanted to see what antics President Kruger would have gotten up to.