Top 20 Best Films of 2013

Top 20 Best Films of 2013

1.     Her

2.     American Hustle

3.     Prisoners

4.     The Wolf of Wall Street

5.    Gravity

6.    12 Years a Slave

7.     Saving Mr. Banks

8.     Rush

9.     Captain Phillips

10.  Frozen

11.  Inside Llewyn Davis

12.  This is the End

13.  The World's End

14.  The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

15.  The Heat

16.  The Place Beyond the Pines

17.  The Way, Way Back

18.  Side Effects

19. Dallas Buyers Club

20.  The Conjuring

Honorable Mentions: 2 Guns, 42, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, August: Osage County, The Butler, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, The Croods, Despicable Me 2, Don Jon, The East, Elysium, Ender’s Game, Epic, Evil Dead, Fast & Furious 6, Fruitvale Station, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Iron Man 3, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Mama, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Metallica: Through the Never, Monsters University, Nebraska, Pacific Rim, Philomena, Star Trek Into Darkness, Thor: The Dark World, Trance, Turbo, Warm Bodies, The Wolverine, World War Z

 

Movies I Liked That Were Not Well-Received: Carrie, The Counselor, The Great Gatsby, Kick-Ass 2, Man of Steel, Now You See Me, Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen, Oz: The Great and Powerful, RED 2, Riddick, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Snitch

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug review

THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG:

A HEAVY IMPROVEMENT OVER ITS PREDECESSOR WITH MORE ACTION, STRONG CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT, AND GOOD OLD MIDDLE EARTH FUN!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES, NEW LINE CINEMA, AND MGM

The burning eye of Smaug the Dragon from The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

      Director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong) continues his long awaited trilogy of films based on JRR Tolkien’s novel, The Hobbit with The Desolation of Smaug, the second installment of the series. While I wouldn’t say it’s as good as The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, the film is still very entertaining and surpasses its predecessor with more action and creativity.

            Martin Freeman (The World’s End), Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, X-Men franchise), and the rest of the cast from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey reprise their roles as Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf the Grey, and all those lovable and humorous dwarves. Orlando Bloom (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Troy) also reprises his role from the original Lord of the Rings films as archer elf, Legolas, along with many other familiar faces from the popular franchise.

            Continuing the events of An Unexpected Journey, we find Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman), Gandalf (Ian McKellen), and the dwarves moving onwards with their epic quest to reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor, and defeat the dragon that stole everyone’s gold. Along the way they encounter giant spiders, Orcs, arrow shooting elves, and several other dangerous obstacles, all leading up to the fire breathing beast known as Smaug.

            The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug may not be the best in the Lord of the Rings saga, but it should satisfy long time fans of the original movies and Tolkien’s books, it’s definitely an improvement over the last film. There’s plenty of action and impressive special effects, the 3D is pretty effective, the character development is a little stronger than the previous movie, and as a whole the plot is much more interesting than part 1.

            My only issue is when it ends, the movie doesn’t really end, it just stops, so we’ll have to wait until part 3 to see what happens. But that’s my only problem with the film, there’s enough good elements thrown in there to make me forget about any of the other flaws, plus it should be worth the wait, we only have to wait one year for The Hobbit: There and Back Again.

            If you love fantasy adventures and The Lord of the Rings, you won’t be disappointed, filled with amazing action scenes, chilling suspense, beautiful set design, and awesome visual effects. It’s a holiday blockbuster that’s exciting, magical, and quite precious.

            And believe me, once the film ends you will get very excited for the final chapter of The Hobbit film trilogy, it happened to me.

            

Frozen review

FROZEN:

CHILLING WITH BEAUTIFUL ANIMATION, FUNNY AND CLEVER DIALOGUE, FUN SONGS, AND A PERFECT AMOUNT OF DISNEY MAGIC!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** 1/2 out of 4

DISNEY

(From left to right) Kristoff, Olaf the Snowman, Elsa the Snow Queen, Anna, and Prince Hans in Disney’s Frozen

            Walt Disney Animation, the team behind Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph strike again with another CG animated fairy tale adventure, Frozen, loosely based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, The Snow Queen. Like most of their animated features, Frozen is jam packed with songs and musical numbers, beautiful animation, and of course magic, which shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone, that’s what Disney is best at.

            The story begins with two young sisters named Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) and Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel), princesses of the kingdom, Arendelle. Anna is an ordinary kind-hearted girl, while her sister, Elsa has an extraordinary gift; she has a magical ice powers and can freeze things.

            Unfortunately things get out of hand when Elsa is being crowned queen after the death of their parents, and she accidentally sends the kingdom into an eternal winter and flees into the woods. So it’s up to Anna to search for her and bring her back to the kingdom.

            Along the way, Anna meets a young ice seller named Kristoff (voiced by Jonathan Groff) and his reindeer, Sven, along with a talking snowman named Olaf (voiced by Josh Gad), who accompany Anna on her journey to bring summer back to the kingdom.

            Overall, Frozen is one of Disney’s best, but don’t get me wrong I still think Wreck-It Ralph is superior, but this is still a fantastic traditional Disney film. Most of the songs and musical numbers are upbeat and extremely catchy, especially Idina Menzel’s Let It Go, it’s a wonderful musical number and has stunning visuals to go along with it.

            Besides great animation and catchy musical numbers, the characters are very likable. Anna’s a very gentle and friendly character with a likable personality, Elsa is a lot of fun when she’s using her ice powers and her singing voice is amazing, Kristoff is charming and very witty, Sven the reindeer, like Max from Tangled is hilarious and has very funny facial expressions that’ll surely give the kids and adults a good laugh, and kids will adore Olaf, for his buffoonery and curiosity, he’s a cute companion for Anna and Kristoff.

            I’m not sure how this movie holds up compared to most of Disney’s traditionally drawn animated films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, or The Lion King, but I think it’s one of their best 3D animated movies, alongside Wreck-It Ralph, Tangled, and Bolt. Frozen is great family entertainment and a perfect movie to see during the holiday season, it’s charming, funny, and of course, cool as ice.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire review

THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE:

NOT JUST A FINE SEQUEL TO ITS 2012 PREDECESSOR, BUT A GREAT FILM ADAPTION OF THE BEST-SELLING NOVEL!

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** 1/2 out of 4

LIONSGATE

Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson are back in the arena in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

            Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook) and Josh Hutcherson (Epic, Zathura, The Kids Are All Right) are back in the arena as Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark in the latest chapter of the Hunger Games saga, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, based on Suzanne Collins’ best selling novel. Just like its 2012 predecessor, The Hunger Games, the film is edgy, dark, and full of intense action and shocking twists that will keep audiences at the edge of their seats, so not only is this a fine sequel but as an adaption of the original book, it’s done rather well, it stays focused on the original story and offers a pretty accurate film version.

            Shortly after the events of The Hunger Games, we find the tributes of District 12, Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) on a Hunger Games Victor’s Tour to all the districts of Panem. Along the way Katniss senses a rebellion is being formed, but the Capitol is still in control as President Snow prepares for the 75^th Annual Hunger Games, a competition that could change Panem forever.

            Once again Katniss and Peeta get roped into participating in the games, but this time the games have changed, big time and they might need something more than good archery skills and wits to get home, but with the help of their supportive team, Effie (Elizabeth Banks-Catch Me If You Can, Spider-Man trilogy, The 40 Year Old Virgin), Cinna (Lenny Kravitz-Zoolander, Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire), and Haymitch (Woody Harrelson-Zombieland, A Prairie Home Companion, 2012), the brave tributes of District 12 might be able to see the light of day once more.

            Overall The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is a great sequel to the previous Hunger Games movie. It’s darker, edgier, and a little more intense than the last film, also there seems to be more going on in this flick than the first.

            Most of the elements from the book are present here in the film, and yes, I have read the book, so fans of Collins’ novel will most likely enjoy the movie adaption. Plus fans of the first movie, who are curious to see the saga continue might enjoy it too, the action is great, the performances are decent, the screenplay is accurate to the original novel, and the set and costume designs are fantastic.

            The film is also great filler for the next Hunger Games film, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Parts 1 and 2, which will be back-to-back sequels for 2014 and 2015, trust me it’ll get you excited once the film ends.

            It’s truly something worth seeing on the big screen…IMAX if possible.

Thor: The Dark World review

THOR: THE DARK WORLD:

NOT EXACTLY A MIGHTY FOLLOW-UP, BUT IT HAS ITS MOMENTS! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

MARVEL STUDIOS

Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins and the rest of the Asgardians back in action in Thor: The Dark World

            Everyone’s favorite God of Thunder from Marvel is back in action in the highly anticipated sequel to the 2011 superhero movie, Thor. And honestly this new chapter of the Thor legacy, Thor: The Dark World isn't quite as solid as the first film but it's still another fun Marvel film. 

            Flashy action, impressive visuals, and the plot expands on the world established in the first movie. One of my issues with the first movie was the limited amount of screen time for Thor’s world, Asgard, well, this movie is focused much more on Asgard and for that I applaud it.

            The cast from the first film reprises their roles once more like Chris Hemsworth (The Avengers, The Cabin in the Woods) as the mighty God of Thunder, Thor, Natalie Portman (Mars Attacks!, Star Wars, Black Swan) as astrophysicist, Jane Foster, Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Hitchcock) as Thor’s father, Odin, and Tom Hiddleston (War Horse, The Avengers) as Thor’s adopted brother, Loki. Much like the predecessor, the cast does a wonderful job reprising their characters.

            Eons ago, Odin’s father, Bor battled the Dark Elf, Malekith, ruler of the realm, Svartalfheim who plotted to destroy the universe with a powerful weapon known as the Aether. Now many years later, Malekith and his legion of Dark Elves have vowed revenge on the Nine Realms and escaped in suspended animation during their battle with Bor and the Gods of Asgard.

            Odin’s son, Thor, the God of Thunder must re-unite with his love interest, Jane Foster and astrophysicist, Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellen Skarsgard-The Avengers), have a truce with his vengeful brother, Loki, and journey to the realm of Svartalfheim to defeat Malekith’s army of Dark Elves before they use the Aether to destroy the universe.

            This is what I was expecting in a follow-up to the first Thor movie, an epic adventure in Thor’s world with creative Gods and monsters and exciting action. Thor: The Dark World delivered exactly what I wanted, with plenty of surprises thrown in and the witty dialogue we’ve all come to expect from Marvel movies.

            Thor: The Dark World is a solid Marvel flick to follow Iron Man 3 this year, despite this movie being released in November instead of the summer like the previous films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But to be honest it’ll seem a lot quicker for The Avengers: Age of Ultron to hit theaters in 2015, so the hype will only be lasting a couple more years, because we had to wait five years for The Avengers to come out in 2012, but now we just have to wait two years for The Avengers 2.

            Oh well, to help fill the time, we have a Thunderous Thor sequel.