General Chat / 2013 in Film

What do you guys think of the movies released in 2013? In my opinion, 2013 has been really poor so far... I've seen twelve titles, and I have scored none of them higher than 7.5, which is exceptionally poor. 2012 had twelve movies I rated higher than my favourite 2013 movie. 2011 had six, one of them a 9.0. 2010 had eight, with another 9 scoring movie.

I considered Elysium one of the candidates to score over 8, but the reviews are really disappointing so far. I have yet to see Monsters University and World War Z, but I don't have too high expectations. Not much else is left. Kick-Ass 2 perhaps, as I loved the first movie. The Hobbit might be great if it's not as cheesy as part 1... But in all honesty, I don't think this year is salvagable.

Django (8.5) and Silver Linings Playbook (8.0) were released in 2013 over here, but I'm not including them because they are originally 2012 movies.

Seen:

 

8,5 - Gravity (A small story executed to perfection. Multi-layered plot and visually stunning. The last ISS-scene is one of the most exciting things of the past few years of cinema, easily)

8,1 - Prisoners (great plot, great acting (I don't say that often, at all), great cinematography and very intense, dark atmosphere. There was some deus ex machina I didn't like, but not nearly enough to drag the movie down. Also the only 'flaw' I could find.)

8,0 - Stoker (Very solid, and a little Hitchcockian which is certainly a good thing!)

8.0 - About Time (one of the few romantic comedies that's actually good. Very, very sweet.

7,8 - World War Z (Best thing about this movie was the convincing apocalyptic atmosphere. A positive surprise, this movie was!)

7,8 - Rush (Compelling story, intense, and the acting is very good. I don't say that often.)

7.8 - Elysium (not a new District 9, flawed, but still pretty solid, definitely entertaining and I loved the visuals. Great design, great execution.) (new #1 for this year)

7.7 - Borgman (Dutch award-winning movie. Very dark, absurd, confusing, atmospheric, fascinating and funny. I loved every bit) (new #2)
7.7 - Europa Report (pretty cool scifi)

7.6 - Side Effects (solid Hitchcockian movie)

7,5 - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Very good. Not great. Like the first movie, much better than you'd expect)
7.5 - Now You See Me (Loved the plot twist!)
7.5 - Star Trek Into Darkness

7.3 - The World's End (entertaining, but not as entertaining as the other two Cornetto movies)

7,0 - Warm Bodies (Not saying this is a tough intellectual piece of art, but it was surprisingly layered. And good fun)

7.2 - Despicable Me 2
7.0 - The Great Gatsby
7.0 - This Is the End (good entertainment.)

7,0 - Monsters University (Terrible Disney plot, only saved by Pixar humour and style)

7.0 - The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (so much cringy scenes, dialogues and deus ex machinas... But I really loved Smaug. +1 for Smaug.)
6.9 - Man of Steel (Too much cheesy action crap. And way too loud.)

6.6 - The Spectacular Now (Typical coming of age movie with teenagers played by 25 year old people, but of slightly above average quality)
6.5 - Pain & Gain (exceptionally good for a Michael Bay film. It was alright!)

6,2 - Kick-Ass 2 (Not a worthy sequel)

6.0 - The Hangover Part III
6.0 - Snitch

5,8 - The Lone Ranger (Too much bullshit - even though I understand it's supposed to be pure entertainment like Pirates and Indiana Jones. Too much bullshit of the bad kind. Very underwhelming)
5.8 - Identity Thief

5,6 - Don Jon (bordering on boring)
5.5 - Spring Breakers (Weeeeird!)

5.4 - Pacific Rim (managed to disappoint me even with moderately low expectations. Dumb shit)
5.4 - Odd Thomas (Hilariously cheesy, good fun)
5.0 - Hummingbird
1.0 - Ushi Must Marry (Possibly the worst movie I've ever seen. I'm ashamed of my country)

 

What are your opinions of 2013?

I'll make a poll at the end of the year.

I'm hearing good things about The Conjuring, so I'm hoping it'll be good.
Elysium though... Wow. I loved it, and I'm not a huge fan of Matt Damon.

2013 has been terrible for movies. i did want to see now you see me, only movie that looked pretty interested. gatsby was okay, too.

I've seen:

.) Django Unchained
.) Les Misérables
.) Monsters University
.) Man of Steel
.) Lone Ranger
.) Flight
.) Kon-Tiki

I count Django to 2013, as well as Les Miserables. Both great movies.
Monsters University wasn't that good - fun but nothing spectacular. Just putting as many cliches as possible into a parallel monster universe... Meh.
I can't say much about Man of Steel. My brain was on standby.
Lone ranger was pirates of the carribean part 14 in the wild west.

Flight and Kon-Tiki were good movies IMO - really two must-sees this year.

Looking forward to World's end and the second Hobbit movie, I think those will be great!
Oh and Machete kills will be awesome too. Period. />

Reminds me I need to see a movie which requires at least a bit of thinking. lol.

"MFG"

Iron Man 3 was the best of the three so far. Why has no one mentioned this yet?

i really want to see The Act of Killing and V/H/S/2 but i wasnt overly impressed by anything ive seen this year. pacific rim was ok

kick-ass2 coming out

Only new movie I've seen this year is Iron Man 3, and I'd give it a 7/10. But I am definitely looking forward to Captain Phillips.

I see approximately 5 films a year. So far it has been:

-The Internship (not a bad cast, but lacked in plot, 6.5)
-Oz the Great and Powerful (I got the ticket for free, so what the hell. Not Franco's best, 5.0)
-Scary Movie 5 (Classic Scary Movie series comedy. I enjoyed the Sheen/Lohan scene. 6.5)

Planning on seeing:

-The Monuments Men
-The Butler
-Labor Day (I will see any Jason Reitman film as long as I live)

If anyone sees Jobs, tell me how it is. I'm interested yet skeptical, because it stars Ashton Kutcher.

oh y'know what This Is The End wasn't exactly an instant classic but it really surprised me

I've seen..

-Iron Man 3
-Star Trek Into Darkness
-Man of Steel
-The Lone Ranger
-Pacific Rim
-Red 2
-The Wolverine

-Justice League: Flashpoint Paradox (straight to DVD, but hey it's 2013, so..)

Took two viewings to really love Man of Steel, and while I understand its faults I can look past it and see what it was aiming to be. Iron Man 3 was a standard Marvel superhero flick, but I don't like the way they handled the twist as it dragged the entire thing down and made me realize why more and more I dislike the Marvel films.

Lone Ranger was a surprise as again I could see past the faults that it had. I know a lot of people hated the thing but I really enjoyed it. Once it's released I'm planning to re-edit the thing and make a more streamlined films, cutting out many of the subplots and such that dragged on the runtime, etc.

Pacific Rim was awful, being nothing more than a special effects showcase. It had an extremely could premise but as a movie it didn't come together, was too full of stereotypes, and had the same basic storyline of Avengers. I'm getting a bit tired of this "portal-to-another-dimension-with-an-army-of-enemies-on-the-other-side-so-let's-send-a-nuke-through-it" plot-line that every major blockbuster seems to follow these days.

Lastly, Red 2 was okay and The Wolverine was the biggest surprise as I had low expectations for this one. I really went in merely to see the post-credits scene teasing next year's Days of Future Past, but I ended up seeing a really good movie. Hugh Jackman does a great job at his character and I definitely have more faith in what Fox is currently doing with their franchise as opposed to the path that Marvel Studios seems to be taking with theirs.

According to my Imdb list I've seen 7 2013 films.

Movie 43:
Forced collection of shorts which would've found their way much better on youtube. Of the ten parts I only liked 1. And I barely caught myself smiling or being amused. The only good part was the cast, which makes this movie a bigger disappointment, because they could've done such great things with them.
4,3

Warm Bodies:
Brilliant. I can't really explain what the beautiful thing in this movie is, but I loved it.
8/10

Oz: The Great and Powerful:
The story was great, as was the acting and the special effects sometimes. The only shame was that the dialogue wasn't as good as they could've made it. The more I look back at this movie, the more I love it.
7.5/10

21 & Over:
Not nearly as good as project x and a shame against the hangover. But still amusing.
5/10

Spring Breakers:
I loved this. The film wasn't much exciting as it was artistically brilliant. You don't have to watch it for the boobs but it's of a high technical level.
8/10

Iron Man 3:
My favorite out of the series. I hadn't read anything on the internet about this movie which is probably what made it even more awesome. It really caught me, for the full time of the movie I was caught to the screen.
8/10

Man of Steel:
I blame the poor sound/video quality to my terrible r6 download. To me it was a bit over the top, they could've told exactly this story without destroying half of the world. Other than the Superman vs. Zod storyline I thougt the history of superman was a bit incontinu. But I think I need to see it another time before I can really get into it, like I have with most superhero movies. I did amuse myself really well!
7/10

Movies I have yet to watch:
- The Great Gatsby
- Now You See Me (highly anticipating this one)
- Much Ado About Nothing
- This Is The End
- The Conjuring
- Blue Jasmine (I generally don't enjoy Allen's work, but this one has a female lead, which I haven't seen from him yet)
- The Spectacular Now (from the writers of my favorite movie, this oughta be good!)
- Lee Daniels' The Butler
- Kick Ass 2
- Don Jon (number one on my most anticipated list)
- Thor: The Dark World
- Catching Fire
- Inside Llewyn Davis
- Saving mr. Banks (this is gonna be so good!)

In order of how much I enjoyed them

-Star Trek Into Darkness: 8.2
-Les Miserables: 7.8
-The Hobbit: 7.5
-The Great Gatsby: 7.2
-Iron Man 3: 6.8

Yet to see: The World's End (super excited, as Shaun of the Dead was funny as hell and I've heard Hot Fuzz is even better)

Now You See Me is by far my favorite that I've seen so far this year.

I happened to watch it shortly after watching the Avengers again, so in my mind, Mark Ruffalo was still The Hulk. [That would have been the best plot twist ever.]

I also loved Despicable Me 2 and Star Trek as well.
Iron Man 3 was good, but I wasn't a big fan of the ending to be honest.

Pacific Rim was extremely enjoyable to watch. Mostly because I went into it without any high expectations in regards to storyline. It was simply one of those movies that you go to see with your buddies and enjoy the fact that giant alien/robot battles are taking place.

I saw The Conjuring a few days ago, and it was laughably terrible in my opinion. I'm not a huge horror film fan, but this one simply wasn't good. Typical jump-scare type movie, and the ending made me laugh.

Turbo was the 'sleeper' film for me this year so far. I went to go see it with some co-workers, not expecting much out of it. [We were planning on seeing Monsters University, but it was too early of a showing, so we settled for Turbo] And we were all pleasantly surprised. Yes it was cheesy and predictable, but it had its really funny moments and exceeded my expectations.

Really excited for Thor 2 and Captain America 2!

^Captain America is 2014, brah!

I personally think Les Miserables and Django and all those other 2012 oscar movies, don't count for 2013. Then Liam could've easily called this topic, 2013 in Cinema, as that's what I feel like everyone is talking about.

So... I just convinced myself I should finally get myself to watch "Spring Breakers".

This is one of those movies that you can hate and love at the same time. It indulges itself in the superficial non-morality of todays' youth as much as it rises above it, or dreamily dwells through it: transcends it. It's an acid-trip, a trance-like experience almost like an extended video-clip, which exactly reflects the entire concept of the movie. The idea of one, never-ending moment of ecstatic joy, which seems to be the theme of today's pop-culture. But nothing lasts forever as this film shows. It symbolically portrays this message throughout it's sometimes mesmerizing, sometimes up-lifting soundtrack (the entire sound editing is absolutely stunning btw), it's over-the-top imagery of ecstatic and excessive partying, repetitive editing and montage and most of all certain lines being constantly repeated to the point where they become completely super-superfluous and a bit annoying. It's exactly this nihilist and hollow repetitiveness of today's pop-culture that this movie so excellently captures. It's a film about an empty generation, brought up with Disney princesses and Britney Spears (the girls singing "My loneliness is killing me" might also imply a few things) without any real perspective or goal in life. They are completely indifferent towards everything.

8/10

As for the rest, this was a terrible year for cinema. "Only god forgives" and "Spring Breakers" are the only two movies that come to mind as being worth of remembrance. I must say though: I haven't seen the new Star Trek movie yet, which seems to be okay.

So far this summer...

Jurassic Park 3D: 10/10
Pacific Rim: 9/10
The Conjuring: 8.5/10
Elysium: 8/10
Fast and Furious 6: 7.5/10
This is the End: 6/10

Pacific Rim was such a pleasant surprise, while The Conjuring is a top-of-the-line horror movie for me. Elysium and Fast 6 I was happy with, while This is the End was a little too weird for me to really enjoy. It did have it's incredibly funny parts, though.

Oh, and seeing Jurassic Park (my favorite movie of all time) in 3D and on the big screen is something I really can't put into words.

Kinda makes me think who the fuck are the oscars gonna go to.

Oscars are dumb.

True, but sometimes it's nice to see an amazing film get the awards they deserve. Except Inception didn't get the awards it deserved.