Wow what a great year for movies this year has been. I had a hard time choosing my top 15 films but funny enough the opposite happened on my bottom 15. Keep in mind though, these list will be starting from 15-1 (well that's the purpose of a countdown isn't it). Another thing, I am not able to review all this titles but I am hoping to do so in the coming future, even if it's short ones. The ones highlighted are the ones I did a full review or at least a short review, so just click it to read it.
So, without further ado, here's my best and worst of 2013
Honorable Mentions:
Pacific Rim
Thor: The Dark World
The Wolverine
The Conjuring
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2/Flashpoint Paradox
Stoker
World War Z
Elysium
Jack Reacher
Best 15 films (For this list, I will say why I liked these movies):
15. Captain Phillips
This is probably one of the most well-acted pictures I've seen this movie. Tom Hanks who plays the titular character was solid and you ca really feel for the character and for the rest of his crew and also a powerful performance by new comer Barkhad Abdi and also from the rest of his crew. What I love most about Abdi is the fact that he's able to stand his ground acting alongside Hanks. The performance, the smart script, the cinematography are one of the many reasons why I fell in love with this movie and to be alongside my top films.
Brit Marling shines in this movie, firstly, she is such a beauty to look at and secondly this woman is multi-talented. She can definitely act, she can also definitely write and who knows maybe she can direct one hell of a picture too. Never have I been so captured by an espionage drama and this movie did that, the central theme of the movie was perfection because it is relatable to our current issues. The rest of the cast was also able to stand in their own feet and able to show great performance from their character.
13. Star Trek Into Darkness
I loved the first Star Trek film in this rebooted franchise and I also love this sequel. Benedict Cumberbatch was great as Khan in my opinion, from his voice to his actions you can feel the motive of this character but it was not Cumberbatch who was gold, the rest of the cast was solid too. Pine was good as Kirk and Quinto was also great as Spock and lastly it was such a relief to see Peter Weller again. I loved the action in this film, it was thrilling and pulse-pounding and the good story was able to catch-up with it and it worked well.
12. Don Jon/Silver Linings Playbook
This is the ultimate guy film and in my opinion one of the best relationship movies. This movie tackles what is probably one of the most overused themes in movies and that is relationship but unlike other romance film, this is different. This is basically a romance film on the perspective of males and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was able to write and direct a film that shows the male side in a relationship and he did in a balanced way and without it being one-sided. The film neither defends the male side nor the female side, it just goes on to show how some people behave in relationships like this. Sure on the surface it's a great comedy but underneath it's a great film about self-discover and acceptance. Huge kudos to JGL for having his hands all over this film (and all over ScarJo if that matters).
11. The Place Beyond The Pines
A well-crafted film that feels like 3 movies at one and it just hits it on every right note. The story was captivating and this plays a huge role for you to understand all of the characters involved. And all of these characters will not be feel real if it wasn't for the amazing performances by Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Dane Dehaan. This is a solid heist film at first then became great family film (not a kiddie film) that deals with inner family problems.
10. The World's End/This Is The End
Both great films, both great comedies and quite possibly the two of the best comedies that have come out this year. Same theme but very different in execution, I love the fact that in "This Is The End" the cast plays an exaggerated version of themselves and of course they did it perfectly, every dialogue is a punch line and really made the movie a great laugh-out-loud experience. As for "The World's End", this is the conclusion for Edgar Wright's Cornetto Trilogy and this one ends it on such a high note and to be blunt this is my favorite film among the three. It's a smart comedy, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and co. were perfectly casted, the tone they went for was perfect and to top of this great ice cream of combinations is it has great action scenes that really holds up the film well.
Nicolas Winding Refn is back with Ryan Gosling in yet another arthouse film. This film was met with lots of negative reactions but that didn't stop me from seeing this movie and loving it. Sure this movie was pure style and the substance of it is masqueraded as a massive metaphor. I just love Gosling in this film, yes he's a man of few words but you can tell a lot from the character just by looking at his eyes and you know his pain, sorrow and regret and with the help of neon lights and the mood of the scenes, Refn just nailed it.
8. Behind the Candelabra
Michael Douglas, Matt Damon and Steven Soderbegh, what more can you get? This has brilliance written all over it, from the casting down to the set-pieces, it was all perfect and captured the feel of it's era and this sets served as one of the biggest points of the movies. Before watching this movie, I had little knowledge of Liberace and researched about him right after watching this film and all I can say is that...... Oh my God, Michael Douglas is amazing in the role, the mannerisms, the voice and the looks was portrayed well by Douglas and I couldn't think of any other actor in the role.
7. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The second installment in The Hobbit Trilogy was anything but bad. This movie is an eye-gasm that keeps you entertained throughout the time even though it run out a bit too long. The top star in this film despite the cast is the magnificent VFX, it is truly one of this film's stars. The creation of Smaug is one of the best things I've ever seen in movies, he was extremely detailed and extremely terrifying. Moving on, the performance in this movie was also quite solid with Martin Freeman shining as the lead role and Cumberbatch was phenomenal as the stupendous Smaug and nothing could ever have been perfectly cast even only as the voice of a CGI creation.
6. Rush
It's been a while since we saw a Ron Howard film and Howard's last film was a little disaster called The Dilemma. I am so happy to see this Ron Howard picture because not only was it a great Howard but it surely is one of the best biopics I've seen. There was little fiction in this movie and it holds up to be one of the truest biopics ever but of course none of this would have been believable if it wasn't for its great cast. Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt was good, he really embodies a playboy and a guy who just wants to have fun and Daniel Bruhl who was just captivating as Niki Lauda, from the voice to the actions, it was all Lauda (I'm basing this from interviews).
5. Man of Steel
This is one of my most anticipated films of the year and I have been satisfied by the result. However, this is by far the most polarizing comic book movies but to me, I just love this movie. There's a lot of graphic novel that this movie was inspired from and I found some elements of those in the movies and as a comic reader I love those nods even though some of them were little. This movie is A LOT different than the original Superman films and while I love the first and second Supes film with Christopher Reeve, I thought that this rebooted take to the character was faithful too and it was a great origin story for the Man of Steel and at times I thought that this one is better or equal with the original ones. One thing's for sure, come 2015, I will be first in line for Man of Steel 2.
4. On The Job
Even being a Filipino, I'm not a huge fan of our cinematic products because most of them are dumb and just plain stupid. This movie however, treats the audience with respect and gave us what is probably one of the most thrilling mainstream films in Philippines. This movie is chilling and will make you be afraid for your life because this is what can really happen in real life. One of the things I love about this movie is the performances by the actors, they were a complete natural and most of them actually winds up as one my favorite performances of the year. This film is deserving of all the attention and all of the praise its getting.
3. Gravity/Django Unchained
Space has never been so scary after this film, it is one of my all-time dreams but after seeing this, no thanks. This film made me feel isolated and afraid for the characters' sake and those characters are brilliantly played by Bullock and Clooney. Bullock was amazing showing off as a scared inexperienced doctor, she was great at showing her emotions and being afraid for her dear life. As for Clooney, he was smooth as f*ck and played a very well veteran in this aspect on film. Unlike the others though, the story of this film was quite simple and I liked it because it didn't complicate itself and just told one linear story.
Tarantino is one of my favorite directors of all time and to see him tackle what is probably one of the most underused genres nowadays was quite exciting. However, I admit that I'm not a fan of spaghetti westerns but when I watched I was just blown-away, it was a great tale of redemption and top that off with awesome music and amazing performances by Waltz, Foxx, Jackson, Washington and of course DiCaprio (who in my opinion should have been at least nominated for the Academy).
2. Prisoners
You want to know how a film does its job? It's when you feel scared in reality even though you are not in the same situation as the character, and this film did just that. Prisoners was certainly one of the most dramatic and scariest films I've ever seen this year. This film has it all, a chilling tone, a grungy cinematography and an unforgettable performance by Hugh Jackman that surely surpasses what he did with Les Miserables. However it's not only Hugh who was great in this movie, but also his co-stars especially Paul Dano, Jake Gyllenhaal, Melissa Leo and Maria Bello who just accomplishes what their roles are intended to do.
1. Metro Manila
As for my number one film is another Filipino film that is jointly produced by British director and writer Sean Ellis. This compelling film touches on so many issues that Filipinos are facing now, be it, poverty, human overpopulation and politics. I have such huge respect for Ellis for touching on this matter especially on how foreign this country is to him and yet he was able to show off what my country's issues are unlike what other mainstream filmmakers are doing here who just do stupid films. This movie and OTJ (my 4th choice) restored my faith in mainstream Philippine cinema and I hope that next year we get lots of quality mainstream films.
So that does it for my top 15 films for 2013, the next page however are my bottom 15 films of 2013. This is gonna be short but definitely not sweet and no pictures present.
Worst 15 films:
15. Dark Skies- A terrible sci-fi that is just dumb and just plain bad. Nothing in this film was even remotely okay, the pacing was bad, the acting was horrible and the premise is just bleh.
14. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone- I had so much hope for this movie especially with the talent involved, but it was just bad. This had potential to be great but with a bad set-up and unfunny dialogues and actions, it was just disappointing.
13. The Hangover Part III- I enjoyed the first two Hangover films even though it was quite identical and honestly this film didn't remind me of The Hangover because NONE OF THEM EVEN GOT DRUNK, HENCE THE WHOLE POINT OF THE TITLE! John Goodman was the only good thing about this movie.
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation- The first one was bad but I thought that they have learnt their lesson with that and actually made this film good. I thought wrong. Even though it was an improvement, it was still bad. With uninteresting story and a trying to have a complicated premise. Thank you The Rock for helping me finish this film.
11. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters- Another childhood fairy tale that got the adult treatment. Basically, none of the movies with that premise have been bad to okay, this one definitely falls under bad. It was inaccurate and it had little to no effort to help the characters be shaped up. To sum it up in one word, this movie is BORING.
10. After Earth- M. Night Shyamalan, you need to stop, your golden time is over. Another terrible sci-fi in this list with the only good thing to it is it's good enough VFX. Jaden Smith was an uninspiring lead (there are one scene that I found him to be quite good though, so maybe there's room for improvement) and Will Smith needs to stop hammering his son in films.
9. R.I.P.D.- Ryan Reynolds, stick to serious movies because you can be good with it, the evidence? Buried was a great film and he gave his best performance their. This movie however was simply bad, it's trying way too hard to be the new M.I.B. too bad the leads are not as interesting as those in M.I.B. (and yes even Jeff Bridges was quite bad in this).
8. jOBS- A bad biopic about one of the greatest innovators of our time, Steve Jobs. This movie did nothing for me but hate Jobs, it could have been a lot great if it was in the right hands, too bad it wasn't.
7. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters- The first film was enjoyable with good enough performances from the cast, this was anything but that. It felt too long and the performances was paper-thin, the same with the story development.
6. The Lone Ranger- This is quite possibly the most disappointing movie I've seen this year. It was way too long with an inconsistent tone to it and with Johnny Depp going crazy once again but this time it's not fun to watch.
5. The Internship- There was nothing funny with this movie, and the only time I laughed is the time when Will Ferrell appeared. In the end, this was just a cliched comedy.
4. 21 & Over- A movie about teenagers that just drank all-night and did stupid things without any consequences. Firstly, the leads are not charismatic, secondly the jokes were bad, and lastly it felt like a Hangover rip-off, and a terrible one at that.
3. A Good Day To Die Hard- THIS IS NOT DIE HARD, THIS IS NOT DIE HARD, THIS IS NOT DIE HARD, THIS IS NOT DIE HARD, AND LASTLY, THIS IS NOT F*CKING DIE HARD!
2. Movie 43- One of the worst movies ever made. This was just a compilation of terrible skits and terrible jokes that in the end makes up for a terrible terrible movie. But above all this negativity, there was one thing that hinges on my mind, WHAT THE F*CK ARE THESE GREAT ACTORS DOING HERE??!!!! HOW THE F*CK DID THAT HAPPEN??!!!!
1. Scary MoVie- F*CK THIS F*CKING MOVIE!!!!!
Well that was a load off. Lastly though, this is the list where I share my top performances of actors and actresses of 2013. Enjoy!
Best Actors:
1. John Arcilla, Jake Macapagal (Metro Manila)
2. Joel Torre, Joey Marquez (On The Job)
3. Leonardo DiCaprio , Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Samuel L. Jackson (Django Unchained)
4. Bradley Cooper, Robert DeNiro (Silver Linings Playbook)
5. Michael Douglas (Behind the Candelabra)
6. Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano (Prisoners)
7. Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
8. Daniel Bruhl, Chris Hemsworth (Rush)
9. George Clooney (Gravity)
10. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don Jon)
11. Harrison Ford (42)
12. Henry Cavill, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner (Man of Steel)
13. Vincent Cassell (Trance)
14. Simon Pegg (The World's End)
15. Tom Hiddleston (Thor: The Dark World)
Best Actresses:
1. Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
2. Melissa Leo (Prisoners)
3. Kerry Washington (Django Unchained)
4. Brit Marling (The East)
5. Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
6. Maria Bello Prisoners)
7. Mia Wasikowska, Nicole Kidman (Stoker)
8. Kristin Scott Thomas (Only God Forgives)
9. Evangeline Lilly (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug)
10. Jane Levy (Evil Dead)
Well that's all of it, despite the terrible movies we've had, it was still a good year. Let's hope for much more better films for next year! Oh and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
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