Years best... 2013

We are looking back at the past year in films and such.It kinda' sucked in case you wondered... and here's my top ten of the list, starting with my favorite movie of the past year.

1.      The Worlds’ End:

The final installment to Edgar Wrights’ “Cornetto” trilogy reunites Simon Pegg and Nick Frost for an alien invasion story about men who have gone past the ripe age of 40. Pegg’s performance is absolutely brilliant and it’s interesting to see Frost play the straight man in what seems like a role reversal from previous films. The film featured pro-wrestling maneuvers, alien robot decapitations, music from “Sisters of Mercy”, and everything I could have possibly hoped for. The film tops this year’s offerings from every major studio and delivered some of the most heart-wrenching moments for this theater goer.

2.      John Dies at the End:

I had to miss the theatrical release or it may have been number one on my list… I’m including it as number two because it was one of the best movies released this past year and touched every button I had. It was horrifying, comedic, and twisted- by far one of the best films ever from Indie director Don Coscarelli. John and Dave are definitely one of the best “buddy” duos in fiction today and it’s definitely a great gateway drug to the Soy Sauced world of David Wong brilliantly written book series.

3.      Evil Dead (remake)

Say what you will about the hackneyed writing or it’s failure to live up to the previous movies expectations, Evil Dead was still one of the most fun experiences I had at the movies and even saw it twice. It was gory, ridiculous, horrifying, disgusting, and it just hit a lot of perfect notes for me. It didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, so it makes the list by not even making the attempt. It was just a solid scare flick through and through.

4.      Pacific Rim:

Giant robots fighting giant monsters who ransack and destroy major cities throughout the world. Hell yeah… and with a solid popcorn munching “be proud of the human race” kind of script that peppers the story with major “rah rah” moments, this movie was one of the most satisfying experiences I had at the theater this year.

5.      Star Trek: Into Darkness

My fifth film on the list and I feel kind of awkward about it- it was a good film, and it hit a lot of the right notes, but it’s not really much more than a popcorn muncher for me. My wife, however, loved it… I’ve never seen her go out of a way to secure the DVD-Bluray release of a movie quite as quickly as she scooped this one up. That’s worth a nudge above number six-

6.      Thor: The Dark World

The sequel to the blockbuster sensation that was Thor and a follow up film to the successful Avengers franchise, Thor returns to earth and does battle with Dark Elves and stuff happens and things blow up and it was fun. It makes my top list of the year- and my lack of enthusiasm is matched only by the lack of this years releases in cinematic blandness.

7.      Much Ado About Nothing:

Joss Whedon helmed this adaptation of Shakespeares’ comedy and it was excellent. Great cast, great score, and a terrific experience for me in the theater.

8.      Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaugh

I don’t know where this film went wrong for me but it did. It still went into my top ten list, but it really didn’t have a lot of competition which is what you’ll find with a couple of the films I watched. But while I thought it was too long, the moments that worked were well worth it.

9. Riddick:

brings the character back down to basics. Betrayed and left for dead on a hostile alien world, Riddick only peripherally addresses the previous entry in the series. It’s largely glossed over but does feature a nice cameo from Karl Urban. Once we’re left with Riddick and we’re alone, we get a lot of introspection from the character as he wonders if he lost his edge and whether he’d become “too civilized” and so on, so forth. Blood spills, flesh gets ripped, and so on so forth.

10.     Hatchet 3:

The first and second Hatchet films were ranked much higher than this one, and I didn’t get a chance to see this one in the theater. Lack of direction from Adam Green kind of doomed this one from the get go, but there were moments that truly worked and some awesome grue to be had by all. So it ranks up there for me.

It’s been a pretty bland year for me in regard to movies.

 And this is some pretty bland writing from me, but there you go and then you're gone.