I’ll say it
now, as the other half of the Cine-Men, I missed almost every movie that was
nominated for Oscars and Golden Globes this year. All the big fall movies that probably would
have made it onto my list were missed.
No Django, no Bond, no Zero Dark Thirty, no Silver Linings Playbook, no
Beasts of Southern Wild, no Argo… I’m
sorry Ben, please forgive me.
This year
did feel better than previous ones, we had a good start and a, from what I’ve
been told a terrific finish. With a particularly
weak Summer. “Avengers” did rule, but
look at the competition: Dark Shadows, Battleship, That’s my Boy, The
Watch. The award season made up for it,
though I won’t be able to tell until they come out on DVD. So I can look forward to that until the next
superhero summer, with the man of steel and man of iron. Enough stalling, behold, my best of list…until
I see the rest and completely change it.
10. THE
RAID: REDEMPTION
This is by
far one of the best action movies of all time.
And certainly the best one of the year.
The true plot is simplistic almost out of a soap opera, or whatever an
Indonesia version of a soap opera is.
What we get is a SWAT team trapped in a drug lord’s safe house with criminals
with guns, knives, machete’s and can all fight like Jet Li, and as the poster
tells it, “30 Floors of Hell.” The
violence is hard core, and the set pieces are constantly outdoing the previous
one. You want adrenaline pumping action
with great fight scenes, this is your movie.
9. WRECK-IT
RALPH
Disney and
Pixar decided to switch places this year, where “Brave” looked amazing, felt
‘done before’. Like ‘Brother Bear’
before. And the great voicing,
characters, and story goes to the “Ralph” crew.
It’s a really sweet story with a heartfelt performance by John C. Riley,
and an overly cute Sarah Silverman as game character glitch trying to find her
place in the world as much as Ralph is. Every
time they are on screen together is magic and the video game jokes are clever
for both adults and children. The
message can be interpreted different ways, but it has all the makings of a
cartoon classic.
8. CHRONICLE
Being one of
the un-popular kids in high school it’s easy to relate to the characters of
this film. One of the best
“caught-on-tape” films that truly uses as much of the medium as possible, and
is clever about the uses of cameras throughout the story. What really works here is that not everything
is spelled out for you. You get a
glimpse of what happened to the three boys that give them their amazing
abilities, but the power is a mystery and it’s not what’s important. It’s the effect this power has on the
individual boys. This is the kind of
fantastic origin story I love to see, the kind done right and is original with
a hint of familiarity to it.
7. THE DARK KNIGHT
RISES
The fitting
finale to the ‘Godfather’ of super-hero movies.
Actually, it feels more like “Return of the Jedi” what with the
over-stuffed narrative and tons of storylines to wrap up and all these new
characters to develop and follow. Being
a third part of a trilogy, it’s still one of the better ones, Bane was a
surprise hit, and even though it took Batman over 40 minutes of screen time to
be Batman, in the end I was satisfied and the final moments are still worth
watching, auto-pilot, and café scenes notwithstanding. It will be hard for anyone to do something
like this again. I do however have hope
for Superman and The Avengers.
6. JOHN
CARTER
After
re-watching this one again recently, I’m still convinced that people missed the
boat with John Carter’s adventures on Mars and that it will one day find its
audience, and get the recognition it deserved.
I always used to wonder “Will anyone ever make another Star Wars?” People compare films to it and none ever lives
up to it. But I truly feel that this is
the close as anyone has ever come to trying to fill that gap that’s been there
since Episode IV and V. It truly has
everything you could want in a film: action, adventure, humor, sword-fights,
flying machines and man, and a cute sidekick beast. Maybe there was a casting issue, and a little
too much story too fast, but that doesn’t take away from the entertainment and
pure enjoyment I get when watching “John Carter”.
5. SAFETY
NOT GUARANTEED
This is one
of those films with the indie sensibilities and heart that can make you laugh
and still have a easy to relate message.
The set-up is a guy who may not be all there who puts a ad for a
companion to go to the past with him.
Aubrey Plaza as the reporter intern posing as a candidate for said trip
is perfect in the role. The entire cast
really works and since it involves time-travel (real or not) this was right up
my alley. The Duplass brothers works
always feel to me like “Lifetime” movies for guys. And I mean that as a complement.
4. THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
I’ll admit,
I am biased in many ways to the Middle-Earth movies. Granted the original trilogy had a better
start with “Fellowship of the Ring”. I
still enjoyed being in the world that Peter Jackson put on film. And despite with obvious rip-offs of his own
films, what more than made up for it was experiencing this film at the
48HFR. I have never seen a movie like
this before. This is what it feels like what
everyone said “Avatar” was supposed to be.
Overall this was not perfect but I enjoyed it for the stand out moments
in a world I have come to love.
3. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
This penned
Joss Whedon masterpiece felt like it picked up where “Scream” left off. A film that makes fun of the horror genre
while still being a solid entry in the realm of horror films. My favorite horror is the kind that has more
laughs than scares. “Shaun of the Dead”,
“An American Werewolf in London” and the like.
‘Cabin’ does this in spades. With
the Bradley Whitford and Richard Jenkins characters we get an element not seen
in horror before. And I will give you
it’s not very scary at all, and the gore is few and far between, but the last
quarter of the film is so insane that it makes up for any shortcomings. Most of all, hate it or love it, it’s a fun
movie to watch and reminds you why the ‘Buffy’ and ‘Angel’ shows were ahead of
their time.
2. LOOPER
It has
Joseph Gordon Levitt, it’s written and directed by Rian Johnson, and it has
time-travel. Why wouldn’t I love this
movie? After recently buying this on
bluray and watching the hell out of it (seriously, I’ve seen it five times
since buying it) it has so many great moments, and great characters and the
story which shifts near the end and asks a question that geeks have been asking
for years. I won’t spoil it, but it’s
not really in the trailers and all it does is add to the brilliant story that
unfolds before your eyes. They also pull
a “Back to the Future” gag in a grizzly way.
And watching Levitt transform into Bruce Willis is still as amazing as
the Cage/Travolta switch in “Face/Off”.
If you haven’t seen this one yet, give it a watch you will not be
disappointed.
1. THE AVENGERS
What else can be said about this movie that already hasn’t been said? Except maybe, “I told you so.” On this very blog back in March I was onboard with this incredible aligning of planets that is Marvel’s heroes and the genius of Joss Whedon. We got the summer blockbuster of which the like hasn’t been seen since the Star Wars films in the 80’s and dinosaurs and Terminators of the 90’s. Whedon made the seemingly impossible possible by bringing this group together and have them win the day and our hearts at the same time. Don’t believe me? Watch people around you when the Hulk pounds the crap out of Loki and tell me that will never cease to make you smile.
Honorable
Mentions: The Grey, 21 Jump St.,
Lincoln, The Expendables 2, Goon, Prometheus, Killer Joe, Ted, VHS, Jeff, Who
Lives at Home, Lawless
--Robert L.
Castillo
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