Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Ten Best Films of 2013

Here is my list of the ten best 2013 movies.  I believe I’ve seen all the big mainstream movies and critically acclaimed films of the year that I felt I might like, including all four Oscar winning films (Picture, Animated Film, Foreign Language Film, and Documentary).  If you are curious, a complete list of the 77 2013 films that I saw can be found at the bottom of this post.  That’s down from 101 films for 2012 when I did last year’s Top 10, so this year’s may be missing a great one I just haven’t seen yet.

In case you think it’s a little strange to be doing a top 10 for a year that ended more than two months ago, I’d rather take the time to see as many movies as possible before compiling my list.  This means waiting for some of them to become available on DVD.  In fact, I was waiting for the Foreign Language Film winner The Great Beauty to become available so I could see it before making this list.  It came out yesterday.

You’ll notice some movies in my Top 10 that did not receive any awards nominations.  I have never felt that getting an Oscar nomination was the be all and end all of how good a movie was.  Although there were many fine films in 2013, for the first time since I started doing these Top 10 lists I didn’t have a five star film.  Usually there are one or two films in any given year that I feel deserve that rating.  Perhaps there is one among the films I have not seen.  If you have a 2013 film you feel is fantastic, and do not see it listed below as being one of the ones I’ve watched, please let me know about it.

Without further ado, here is my Top 10:

1.
The Wolf of Wall Street
2.
Gravity
3.
Her
4.
Stoker
5.
Philomena
6.
Mud
7.
Thor: The Dark World
8.
Much Ado About Nothing
9.
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
10.
Iron Man 3

Those are my top 10.  What were your favorite movies of 2013? 

Here is the complete list of the 77 2013 movies that I have seen so far.  My remaining four star films that just missed the Top 10 are highlighted.  Titles that are clickable take you to my review of that film.

2 Guns, 12 Years a Slave, 20 Feet from Stardom, 30 for 30: Elway to Marino, 30 for 30: Youngstown Boys

After Earth, American Hustle, Austenland

Before Midnight, Blue is the Warmest Color, Blue Jasmine

Captain Philips, Computer Chess, The Croods


Elysium, Ender’s Game

The Family, Fast and Furious 6, Frozen

Getaway, A Good Day to Die Hard, Gravity, The Great Beauty

The Hangover Part III, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Heat, Her, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I’m So Excited, In a World…, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Internship, Iron Man 3

Jobs

Kick-Ass 2, The Kings of Summer, The King’s Skeleton: Richard III Revealed

The Last Stand, The Lone Ranger

Man of Steel, Monsters University, Movie 43, Much Ado About Nothing, Mud

Nebraska, Nine for IX: Pat XO, Now You See Me

Oblivion, Olympus Has Fallen, Oz the Great and Powerful

Pacific Rim, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, Philomena, Prisoners

Reaching for the Moon, Red 2, Riddick, R.I.P.D., Rush

The Spectacular Now, Star Trek into Darkness, Stoker

This is the End, Thor: The Dark World, The To Do List, Turbo

Upstream Color

Warm Bodies, The Way Way Back, We’re the Millers, White House Down, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Wolverine, World War Z, The World’s End

6 comments:

  1. Solid list, Chip. We have four films in common in our top 10. Happy to see Wolf in top spot, that's my no 1 as well. Surprised Oz the Great and Powerful is in your top 20, what was it about that film you think is praiseworthy?

    If you're interested, I compiled a top 20:
    http://moviesandsongs365.blogspot.com/2014/03/top-20-films-of-2013.html

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    1. Thanks. Several of your Top 20 that aren't in my Top 10 would have made my Top 20 (Before Midnight, Blue is the Warmest Color, The Kings of Summer, etc.)

      I think we may have chatted some months back on The Wizard of Oz. It was shown every year on TV when I was growing up so it became a part of my childhood and it was something kids looked forward to every year. (This was before VCRs.)

      So with this prequel I got to revisit a lot of the things I liked about the story. In regards to the movie itself the moment with the china doll's broken legs and the parallel to the real world was when I started really liking Oz the Great and Powerful. And then they did a good job of showing how the Wizard got to be the man we see in the 1939 film. Yes, it was completely obvious which witch would turn out to be which, but that didn't detract from the film for me.

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  2. Nice picks here, Chip. Really love that WoWS took the top spot. Also very pleased to see Stoker make such a strong showing. That was a twisted little headtrip of a film.

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    1. Thanks. I saw Stoker just this month and I'm glad I included it among the 2013 films I took the time to see. I'll be reviewing it next. I wonder if there are other, not so obvious, gems still out there.

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  3. The most diverse list I've seen thus far, and my own was pretty scattered. Wolf and Her in your top 5 are very much deserved!

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    1. Thanks. You had three movies in your list that I hadn't seen yet, although I had two of them in my queues. I'l check out the other one, too.

      I thought The Wolf of Wall Street was very entertaining and I agree with you that it didn't feel like three hours at all.

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