Top 10 Films of 2013 Preview

Making a Top Ten

This movie watcher is almost ready to make a Top Ten list.  There are a few I need to watch by either renting or attending inexpensive showings.  That said, the list might not be out until February, but I hope to compile what a normal critic would.

Making a Top Ten is tricky.  You want to leave room for your favorites while acknowledging that there are others that were technically more solid films.  Plus there are multiple genres that need mentioning.  At the end of it all, you have to enjoy the films you put on this list.

For now, let's analyze the year and take a look at what worked and what did not work in the world of cinema.  Some of the movies I discuss will likely make my top ten.  Since I cannot attend every film, because I'd be broke, I can come up with a solid list and go to movies and rent them based on word of mouth and personal interest.  For instance, I was anticipating Gravity for a long time, because of its solid marketing campaign, and upon seeing it and tracking its box office and reviews, I'm super happy with that film.

And in another case, I will NOT be seeing Wolf of Wall Street after hearing nasty reviews and looking at the running time, basically 3 hours.  Lots of top critics said it was boring.  Unless some trusty sources say different, I'll leave that off my "to see" list, it definitely DID NOT make the "to-see-in-theaters" list.  Too many comments about bordom, its "C" rating on Cinemascore, Academy Members walking out in the middle, and word of orgies and pornographic scenes are just a few reasons not to see it.  I've really appreciated Leonardo's work lately, but this seems a lot like Gatsby, and even Django.  His characters are starting to carry a motif of gluttony that is getting old.

Enough of that, here are some of my favorites so far:

The Year in Cinema

Unless there are an exceptional amount of animated films, I will usually only include my favorite one in the top ten list.  This year I'm guessing Frozen and The Wind Rises will duke it out.

I Have not Seen The Wind Rises yet but I'm looking forward to it. I've enjoyed all of Miyazaki's work.

Expect The Hobbit to be somewhere on there.  I loved this second outing to Middle Earth regardless of what people are saying about it.

Another favorite is Gravity, almost a short film, it is very tightly montaged into 1 hour and 1/2 running time with plenty of stuff that will blow you away. I looked forward to it all year when I learned who was in it and who the filmmakers were.  It was amazing.










Pacific Rim was the best summer movie in my opinion. Best monsters, and action scenes in a long time.  The story was deeper than a 2 dimensional action flick too which was nice.  People had feelings and crap.












12 Years a Slave will also likely make the list, Solomon Northrop's journey is unmissable, everyone needs to see this film.  It is crazy to think that this happened not too long ago.

Another one of my favorites was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, it is really an inspiring piece by Ben Stiller--people criticized it for having multiple genres, but I believe that is what made it stand out and that is where it drew its strength.

 I loved Catching Fire, but somehow it is not as memorable to me as other films this year and even the first Hunger Games. It was still solid and better than the first film, it had an ending like Empire Strikes Back.















There are a few films I have yet to see.

Blue Jasmine
Her
Inside Llewin Davis
Mud
American Hustle
Philomena
Fruitvale Station
MAndela
Prisoners
Enough Said
All is Lost
Saving Mr. Banks
Nebraska
Don Jon
The Wind Rises


Have Seen That are worth leaving on a Top Ten List:
The Butler****
Gravity *****
12 Years a Slave*****
Frozen****
The Great Gatsby***
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty****1/2
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug****1/2
Captain Phillips***1/2
The Croods****
Catching Fire****1/2
The Wolverine***1/2
Pacific Rim****
Elysium ***1/2
Philomena ****
(5 Stars is the most)


Probably Will NOT see unless more good word of mouth circulates:
August: Osage County
Wolf of Wall Street

Other Movies I've seen:
Monsters University ***
Iron Man 3 ***
Man of Steel ***
Lone Ranger ***
Oz the Great and Powerful ***
Thor 2 ***
Despicable Me 2 ***
The Heat ***
Ender's Game ***
The Internship **
Anchorman 2 ***



Boxoffice

It was a year where a lot of unexpected things happened as far as box office returns go. Unpredictable gems showed up, there were lots of risks taken by studios, and there were huge flops. The summer blockbusters were underwhelming save for Iron Man 3 and Pacific Rim.

Box Office Success

A few animated films rocked it.
Frozen, The Croods, Monsters Univeristy, and Despicable Me 2 were solid, almost all of them closing north of $200 million, with the exception of Croods.  Frozen will pass $300 million soon, and Despicable Me 2 closed at $367 million.  Most notable is Frozen's ability to stay at the top of the box office 7 weeks after it was opened.  A rarity in movies today.

Marvel and Disney are good to go.
Their recipe for success is still working and DC comics from Warner Bros. is taking notes by planning a Batman Vs. Superman for 2015. Thor 2 made an improvement over its predecessor and will close at a little over $200 million.  Iron Man 3 is sitting comfortably at the top of 2013's highest grossing films.  Soon to be surpassed by...

Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The success of this franchise is not slowing down.  With a very strong opening of $158 million.  It is one of the highest openings for a 2D film.  It will soon surpass Iron Man's box office in the next few days.

Gravity
This film did really solid business domestically and internationally considering it had no previously written source material, it was not a sequel, and not a major franchise.  It opened very solidly at $55 million and stayed number 1 at the box office for 3 weekeneds consecutively in October with no other competition. A smart move for Warner Bros. It closed at around $255 million.

The Desolation of the Box Office
The Hobbit 2. With general audiences not appreciating the first film as much, the second Hobbit opened to around  $73 million ($10 million dollars lower than its predecessor).  A solid opener for a December film. It has a chance at reaching $280- $300 million domestically (in my opinon) and it will likely reach around $1 billion worldwide, being only the second film this year to do so behind Iron Man.  The Hobbit also stayed number 1 at the box office for 3 weekends in a row like Gravity and Fast and Furious earlier in the year. It did not do the same sort of business as Unexpeced Journay a year ago but it did solid business nonetheless. It helped close the year off as one of the biggest box office years in history for Hollywood.



Box office failures

Lone Ranger was unfortunately NOT a success financially. I say unfortunately because it was a film that was largely shot in the region I'm from, New Mexico.  I am a huge fan of Johnny Depp and his work, I think of him as a modern day Charlie Chaplin and his comedic timing was perfect on Lone Ranger and in all his movies. This was a film on a huge budget, likely north of $200 million and it flopped. Only making $29 million its opening weekend and then staggering to a $89 million halt, it was forgotten by filmgoers despite large marketing campaigns by Disney.  Disney will take a huge right-off for this project somewhere around $200 million when considering the addition of its marketing budget.  I personally enjoyed it thoroughly, perhaps it was because I'm a fan of the southwest, westerns and Johnny. Or maybe because I just decide to let go of my suspension of disbelief sometimes to enjoy a movie.  I thought it had remarkable cinematography, stunts, special effects, and comedic timing.  Moviegoers missed out by skipping Lone Ranger.  


47 Ronin
The moment I saw a trailer for this picture, I thought to myself, this looks interesting, but I need a good reason to go watch it.  The martial arts was not selling it to me, the special effects looked ok, they revealed a cool looking dragon, and some interesting looking action scenes.  But what made the movie flop from the start was the decision to keep the title 47 Ronin.  Who is going to remember that and what makes it unique and special?  It would have been more interesting to call this thing Dragon Killers, Samurai Vs. Cowboy, or Keanu Reeves Tries to Make a Comeback. No one is going to remember that title. In fact, when I first wrote down the name of the film just now, I wrote 49 Ronin and struggled to remember the second word.  It only made $10 million in its first weekend, which is very bad for a $150+ million film.  It will only get worse from here, it has a bad Cinema Score and no word of mouth.  Plus a very low Rotten Tomatoes Rating. Below 20%.


Ender's Game was pretty good! I think the reasons why the masses decided to avoid Ender's Game was surrounding some of the Orson Scott Card's positions on Gay Marriage.  The film started at number one at the box office and did not hold well as Hunger Games: Catching Fire hit theaters the very next weekend. Closing at a low $61 million.


After Earth looked promising.  Good cast, (Father and son Smiths) and directed by M. Night Shyamalon.  He has not made good stuff ever since his last critical (though not financial) bomb Avatar: the Last Airbender.  There was just no attendance or solid word-of-mouth, and a poor Rotten Tomatoes Score.  It closed at a low $60 million.