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

[Gopher]

Random thespian note: I would love to see an adaptation of Carrie: The Musical but after the lack of success of this film I'm not too confident. Not that I would have been confident if the new remake was a hit...

 

These are good reads, baumer!

Edited January 11, 2014 by Gopher

[baumer]

49) Despicable Me 2:  My dream is to one day play video games for a living.

 

My second favourite animated film of the year.  Much better than the first and much funnier than the first.  The Minions are basically gremlins.  I'll leave it at that as animation, which I have mentioned 1000 times, is really not my thing.

***Side note:   WILHELM SCREAM:  At the start of the movie, as the magnet ship is overhead, one of the researchers falls and screams.

 

 

48) The East:  Spy on us, we'll spy on you.

 

This is my most frustrating grade of the year.  This is the film that the world might not be ready for but it is one that it needs.  Unfortunately, it stopped short of going all the way.  This would be equivalent to getting naked on prom night, putting on the condom, feeling each other up and then being told that you had to stop, without sex.  As one of the characters says in the submarine movie, Crimson Tide, "When you put a condom on, usually it means you're going to fuck."  Someone should have told writers Brit Marling an Zal Batmanglij this.  

 

The East tells the story of a renegade group of people who live their lives to expose the corruption of big business.  As the trailer tells us, "Steal for us, we'll steal from you.  Spy on us, we'll spy on you."  But somewhere along the way, they got cold feet or else they just got lazy and forgot to tell the rest of the story.  Our world is filled with corruption, greed, a lack of respect and thievery.  This film almost goes the distance, but it pulls up before the finish line.  

 

And that's a damn shame.

***Side note:  There are a lot of parallels in the film to real life scandals.

 

[Cmasterclay]

Very good list and writing, baum. Prisoners is probably in my top ten of the year, though. Wonderful film

[baumer]

47) Oldboy:  Ask not why you were imprisoned, ask why you were set free.

 

I must be easily pleased.  I've never seen the original so I had no idea about the plot.  And I thought the movie was pretty good.  I liked Brolin's transformation and the ending just floored me.  I should have seen it coming but I didn't.  I found the performances to be very strong and Copley was excellent as usual. He's become one of my favourite actors.  I also really enjoyed the unraveling of the mystery and you got a glimpse into Doucette's life.  And then of course there is the absolute beauty of Olsen.  Added bonus.

 

I think if you go into this blind and not really know anything about the original, you might enjoy it.  IMO, there is no need to compare it to the original.  If that's what you choose to do, then perhaps this is disappointing.  For me, it worked well.

***Side note:  There were many actors and actresses offered the leads in this film including Will Smith, Christian Bale, Mia Wasikowska, Rooney Mara and others.

 

46) Fast and Furious 6:  You've got the best crew in the world standing in front of you, give them a reason to stay.

 

I'll be honest, when I first saw this film, I gave it a 7/10, which would have put it down about 10 notches.  Then I saw it a second time and I ignored all the ridiculousness of the film and just enjoyed the action and the actors and the machismo.  After Walker's death, watching this film is a different experience.  The scenes of close bonding, of friendship and of family; themes that are front and center in the Fast and Furious films, really hit home and you can't help but look at the film differently.  Yes the film is a lot of fun because of the 114 mile runway, yes it is fun because The Rock looks more like a mythical God than a Federal marshal, yes it is fun because Diesel still hams it up for all that it's worth and yest it is fun because of the fast cars, bikini clad women and for seeing Statham at the end, setting up 7.  But even more than all of that, when I watch it now, I can't help but to enjoy it a bit more because Walker is no longer with us.  It's sad to see a life like his extinguished too early, so I will make a point of enjoying the films and not looking for them to be something they are not.

***Side note:  The post credits scene is Hans death from "Tokyo Drift", while using new footage to introduce Shaw.

 

 

45) World War Z:  Most people don't believe something can happen until it already has.  That's not stupidity or weakness, that's just human nature. 

 

Here's a film that was green lit for several reasons, from what I can tell.  One, the zombie craze is at it's zenith right now and two Brad Pitt was cast not so much for the domestic possibilities but the international prospects.  It had a hefty price tag and if it would have been released in China, it would have grossed 600 mill.  

 

As for the film,  I liked it quite a bit.  The film starts very quickly and it is one of the best 20-30 minutes of any film in the last few years.  The problem just starts out of nowhere and as people panic and then ultimately turn into angry zombies, there is a real sense of dread.  The scenes in Philly were very well done. 

 

Some of the script was a bit of a mess.  I didn't understand why the Jurusalem people were so ahead of the rest of the world.  As Jerry says to the doctor, "you did all of this based on an email about zombies?"  And even though he gives the explanation as to why he did, it didn't make much sense.  But other than a few small complaints like that, the film worked very well for me.  There was a huge sense of dread and people die, a lot of people die in the film.  It had genuine moments of terror and there were a few good jump moments.  Another small complaint I have is that there should have been a bit more gore. If The Walking Dead can show what they show, then surely there could have been a few zombie splatters and still have the pg-13 rating.

 

I hope there is a sequel.

 

[baumer]

44) Elysium:  Earth's wealthiest inhabitants fled the planet to preserve their way of life.  

 

Elysium is exciting and it is relevant.  People can look at the story and say it has been done before but as they say, there are really only 7 stories in Hollywood, it's how you tell the story.  I feel that Neil Blomkamp has now established himself as one of the best new directors out there.  Here he has stunning visuals to go along with the story.  This takes place in Los Angeles about 150 years from now into a dystopian future.  Earth is over-populated, disease ridden and has become a waste land.  Elysium of course, is the Utopia that only the rich and privileged get to inhabit.  On this world of course is a magic machine, like in Prometheus, that cures all of your disease.  Cancer, diabetes and even facial reconstruction is all available to you at the touch of a button.  It's like living in a vampire world.  You'll never grow old, never die and never get sick.  Down on Earth, it is controlled by the corporate big wigs who are so ruthless and heartless than when a worker is sick and close to death, one of the corporate fat cats tells the foreman to make sure he does not bleed all over the sheets because he doesn't want to have to change them.  For some reason this healthcare stuff seems to be bothering a lot of the reviewers here.  I think some people look too deeply into the politics of things instead of just looking at them as being part of the dystopia to some and Utopia to others.

 

Matt Damon is really good in this.  He's good in everything imo but in this he's a little different than usual.  I feel they could have given us a bit more about his character's adult life and there was a plot point involving a young child that as cliche as it would have been, I would have liked it if she turned out to be his daughter.  But she didn't.  

 

The real scene stealer of the film however is Sharlto Copley.  He was simply awesome.  When you think that this is the guy who played the mousey little man in District 9 and then you see the raw power he displays in this film, he doesn't even look like the same man.  He really stole most scenes he was in.  

 

Politics aside, the film appealed to me because more than ever (or at least more than I can ever recall), there is a growing gap in our world between the rich and the poor.  There really isn't much blue collar, average people anymore.  You have the wealthy and you have the poor.  Elysium might take place 150 years from now but it actually looks like one possible reality that we are heading towards.  Blomkamp tackles that beautifully.  There are a few plot pieces in the film that don't have answers and that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Maybe they can explore those in the next one, if they get there.

 

The one truly bad thing about the film is Jodie Foster.  She is miscast and her accent bounces between French, Transylvanian, Peruvian, hobo, English princess, cookie monster, the Terminator, Italian boxer married to Adrian and homeless person.  She really bounces all over the place.  

 

The film isn't perfect but it is a very good film and one of the best I've seen this year thus far. 

***Side note:  The film takes place in 2154, the same year as Avatar. 

 

 

43) Evil Dead:  We're gonna get you.

 

Evil Dead is perhaps the riskiest, ballsiest, most gory horror film I've seen since the 80's. Once the book is opened and the demon stuff begins, it's an exercise in grotesque. For the 60 minutes or so that this takes place, it left me exhausted watching it. One character in here, the one who stupidly reads the book after he knows he is not supposed to, goes through more pain than any horror movie character I have ever seen with the exception of perhaps some of the rapists in the new version of I Spit On Your Grave. But that's debatable. Anything and everything that can happen to this guy, does. In short, he gets fucked up real bad.

The movie is not perfect as it is hampered by some really bad acting in some parts and by some really annoying characters in others. But horror movies are known for this so if you can get past really egregious performances in some spots, then you'll be fine. It's a small complaint really, but it does take away from the overall rating. Another point I have to bring up that bothered me a bit is that the Ash character ends up being a woman and maybe because to me ASH is ASH, he is a man.  
But those complaints aside, the movie was everything they said it would be. It made the audience jump a few times and the humour was also there from the original.

The good in the film is everything else. Shotguns, hammers, nailguns, knives, glass, syringes and fire is all used to mess people up. I remember reading that in the first one the cleanup on the set every night was a nightmare because of all of the goop they used for the blood. I can't imagine being a cleanup member on this set. There were gallons of blood used here and sometimes it looked more like molasses mixed with chocolate syrup mixed with red dye. It was pretty disgusting at times. I also enjoyed how duct tape was the answer to everything in the film. If you have a hole in you the size of China, just use duct, it'll fix you right up.

One of the best horror films of the year.  

***Side note:  70,000 gallons of fake blood were used.

 

[Plain Old Tele]

It kinda blows my mind that you think STID is the worst movie you saw last year.

[baumer]

That's all I have for films ranked 8/10 and below.  The rest are all 8.5/10 and above.

[4815162342]

The Jerusalem sequence of World War Z is one of the worst cinematic sequences of 2013, because of how unfaithfully it fucks its own source material in the ass (plus the whole LOL-worthy army ant stuff, the random singing/chanting/dance party stirring the zombies on the particular day Pitt arrives, etc).

[baumer]

It kinda blows my mind that you think STID is the worst movie you saw last year.

 

It's not.  It's just the worst of the top 100.  There are 20 other films that were lower.

 

STID was all noise to me.  SPFX and no story.  Bored me to tears.  Saw it twice, both times were bad.

[baumer]

The Jerusalem sequence of World War Z is one of the worst cinematic sequences of 2013, because of how unfaithfully it fucks its own source material in the ass (plus the whole LOL-worthy army ant stuff, the random singing/chanting/dance party stirring the zombies on the particular day Pitt arrives, etc).

 

Not to me it wasn't.  

[rukaio101]

The Jerusalem sequence of World War Z is one of the worst cinematic sequences of 2013, because of how unfaithfully it fucks its own source material in the ass (plus the whole LOL-worthy army ant stuff, the random singing/chanting/dance party stirring the zombies on the particular day Pitt arrives, etc).

I'm surprised you were going into WWZ expecting it to be in any way faithful to the book. Hell, I wouldn't call it an adaptation at all, it's just a film that happens to share the same name as the book. 

 

And honestly, I loved the Jerusalem sequence. Sure the way they started it was a little forced, but it's one of the largest scale zombie action scenes I've ever seen and it really looks and feels the part.  

[baumer]

42) Confessions of a Marriage Counselor:  That man is the devil and he will take you to Hell with him.

 

Tyler Perry is like the John Hughes of relationship movies. He has an ear for dialogue and he allows you to become immersed into the world you are watching. Temptation is a pretty simple movie. It's really about a woman who is unhappy with her marriage and then gets seduced by a rich man and his lifestyle. That's the pitch. 

Ultimately this is a film about seduction.  People are seduced my money, by the idea of a better life and by better people.  But the seduction always has consequences and this film punches you in the gut with those consequences.  

Besides the script being well written, the performances by our three leads is what carries the film. Tyler Perry seems to find beautiful black people and plucks them from obscurity and into his films. Jurnee Smolett Bell is beautiful and she is fantastic in here. She goes from sweet and innocent to a vixen and a cold hearted diva. Robbie Jones plays Harley and he has the task of being charming and evil all in one film and he pulls it off beautifully. But my fave performance was that of Lance Gross, who played Brice. Strong, insecure, hurt and damaged. His arc in the film is the best of the three. I have never seen him in anything before but my buddy (who has seen a lot more "urban" films than me) has and said he is good in everything. I think you could see a lot more from Lance Gross in the future. He has leading man good looks and he has leading man range.

I love Tyler Perry movies. That's no secret. Maybe it's why I seem to like this a lot more than many others. This was a great movie and one that surprised me.

***Side note:  Bill Cosby first introduced Tyler Perry to actress Jurnee Smollet Bell

 

[baumer]

41) The World's End:  What the fuck does WTF mean?

 

Billed as Edgar Wright's conclusion to his trilogy which includes Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, this one is imo the funniest of the bunch.  It's basically a bunch of childhood friends getting together as adults and trying to relive their youth.  The catch is that somewhere in the middle it turns into an apocalypse film where like The Stepford Wives, people are being into more benevolent beings where there is no more pain or suffering or even free thinking.  It sounds like a strange concept but it works very well.  

***Side note: At one point Gary says to the guys, "I'm free to do what I want, any old time." which is a line from the song, "I'm Free" by the Soup Dragons. 

 

40) Philomena: My guess is that Anthony was adopted and sent to America

 

The first thing you notice is that Dench is in the film.  She's a screen legend and her name gets people interested.  Then when you see the film, you realize that as good as she is, this is is Steve Coogan's film.  He absolutely owns it.  There was a raw power he exhibits every time he's on screen.  There are some scenes where he upstages Dench.  I've never really been a big Coogan fan, not that I disliked him but he just never really made an impression on me.  That has changed.  

 

Philomena is based on true events and it is a heartbreaking story about young Irish mothers who have to raise their kids at a convent.  The nuns running the place are horrible people and they end up selling the kids to wealthy Americans for a substantial amount of money.  Dench plays the mother 50 years later, looking for her son. 

 

Philomena is well written, beautifully acted and it looks gorgeous.  It splits time between Washington and somewhere in Ireland.  

 

I really enjoyed the movie and this is one of the best screenplays of the year.

***Side note:  Mare Winningham has a role in here.  She had a fairly good role in the 80's coming of age film, St. Elmo's Fire.  She hasn't been around much since.  

 

 

40) Don Jon:  Tied:

 

See Gopher's review of Don Jon.  

 

39) Dallas Buyer's Club:  You know what?  You don't deserve my money, you homophobic asshole!

 

An excellent film but the film itself is overshadowed by two of the very best performances of the year.  Mathew McConaughey and Jared Leto get lost in their roles and you will have a hard time recognizing them.  They are shoe ins for Oscar nominations and one of them will probably win.  

 

Besides the performances, the best thing about Dallas Buyer's Club is that it indicts the FDA for the corrupt organization it is.  This is based on a true story about people contracting AIDS and not being allowed to take natural drugs and supplements which would prolong their life.  Ron Woodruff was given 30 days to live.  With the drugs he took, all not approved by the FDA (because there wasn't any money to be made for the pharmaceutical companies) he managed to live another 8 years.  

 

While not one of the best films of the year, it is one of the very good ones.

***Side note:  Jared Leto lost 30 pounds for his role, McConaughey lost 47.

 

 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Christmas baumer

[Plain Old Tele]

It's not.  It's just the worst of the top 100.  There are 20 other films that were lower.

 

Gotcha. Carry on.

[Michael Gary Scott]

Dont always agree but enjoy reading

[baumer]

Dont always agree but enjoy reading

 

With 100 films, it would be impossible to agree or even like what I have to say about most of them.  But that's what makes this thread fun.  

 

Ain't it cool?  

[baumer]

38) Now You See Me:  First rule of magic.  Always be the smartest person in the room.

 

A film that requires more then one viewing to take it all in.  I'll admit that the film is one of the most far fetched films I've seen but that didn't stop me from loving every minute of it.  When you have a terrific cast, a script that twists and turns every 15 minutes and a very sleek look to it, the result is one of the most enjoyable films of the year. 

***Side note:  The card trick at the beginning works in real life.  There is no editing in the scene, contrary to popular belief.  

 

 

37) Lee Daniel's The Butler:  Everything you are and everything you have is because of that butler.

 

The Butler is Lee Daniel's "true story" about the civil rights movement told in a story about a butler who worked for many different decades at the White House.  Instead of giving you a review of the film, I'll touch on something that has bothered some people.  This film takes a lot of liberties with facts and yet it says that its based on a true story.  These liberties don't bother me as Hollywood is there to tell a story and make it interesting for the masses.  If they have to bend the truth or change a few things to make it more dramatic, then so be it.  Based on a true story, is just that, BASED ON A TRUE STORY.  You don't have to go into it and believe everything you see.  The film is there to tell you a story that is based on fact, nowhere does it say that it's word for word the truth.

***Side note:  Robin Williams and Forrest Whitaker first worked together 26 years ago in the Oscar nominated Good Morning Vietnam

 

36) 42:  Someday you're gonna meet God, and when he inquires as to why you didn't take the field against Robinson in Philadelphia, and you answer that it's because he's a Negro, it may not be a sufficient reply!

 

The other civil rights movie of 2013.  This one is about Jackie Robinson, the first black baseball player to play in Major League Baseball.  It's a riveting story and it is anchored by one of the best performances of the year.  Harrison Ford plays Branch Rickey, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and he simply rocks.  I hate that this came out in April so that the octogenarian Academy members have already forgotten about him.  He is up there with some of the other great supporting performances this year.  But beyond that, for those of us who have never seen a story about Jackie Robinson, this is a must see.

***Side note:  Broke the record for biggest opening movie for a baseball film.

 

35) White House Down:  I lost the rocket launcher.

                                       You what...how do you lose a rocket launcher?

 

Audacious, ridiculous, jingoistic, preposterous, Bay-ish action and too much fun.

***Side note:  Richard Jenkins and Chaning Tatum worked together previously on Dear John.

 

[baumer]

34) Anchorman 2:  If you've got an ass like the North Star, men are going to want to follow it.

 

Anchorman is one of my favorite "so stupid, it's funny" movies, and I went to see the sequel expecting more of the same slapstick and sex jokes. There is definitely a lot more of the same lowbrow humor, and like the first movie (and, well, most things Will Ferrell does), the jokes are hit or miss. But the ones that hit, hit hard. There are definitely some real hearty belly laughs in this film. There are even some surprisingly clever jabs at 24-hour news networks and TV news in general, especially towards the end. Steve Carell once again stole the show as Brick and was given a more prominent role than in the first film. I thought he was adorable, if a little too over-the-top at times.

The highlight of the film for me was the rumble at the end.  The cameos are once again ridiculous, highlighted by Jim Carrey and Marion Cottilard as the Canadian news anchors.  The film is pretty funny up until that point, and then it hurt from laughing so much.

 

 

33) Red 2:  You think I'm just going to roll over for you hegemonic, Mickey Mouse loving Americans?

 

Superior to the first in every way.  Funnier, better action and more of Hellen Mirren, which is never a bad thing. 

***Side note:  Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones previously worked together on Mask of Zorro.

 

***Side note:  Both Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep were rumoured to have cameos. 

 

Edited January 12, 2014 by Christmas baumer

[tawasal]

Baumer I am loving your listing and reviews of each movie, but I would have liked if you had Pacific Rim in your top 20 or 30.

[tawasal]

I have only seen 49 movies from 2013.