The 15 Best Damn Movies of 2013

INTRO DISCLAIMER PART.... PLUS TITLES!

MOVIES I MISSED THE PAST YEAR: American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Short Term 12, The Spectacular Now, Dallas Buyers Club, Nebraska, Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear, After Shock, Black Rock, Snitch, From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises, The Last Stand, Riddick, Elysium, VHS 2, Blue Jasmine, Magic Magic, Through the Never, Before Midnight, Joss Whedon's William Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing, The Bling Ring, The East, The Iceman, Disconnect, The Hunt, A Band Called Death, A Hijacking, Blue is the Warmest Color, Man of Tai Chi and of course Machete Kills

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Behind the Candelabra, The Heat, Trance, The Way Way Back, Spring Breakers, This is the End, 42, Stoker, Upstream Color and The Conjuring

BEST MOVIE NOT ON THIS LIST: The Act of Killing


2013 was an incredibly solid year for movies even with a fairly lame summer that included some egregious crimes against cinema such as The Purge, White House Down and whatever the hell was going on in Star Trek Into Darkness. With every passing year we will always get some heinous pieces of shit (The Lone Ranger), some bland ones (After Earth), some boring ones (The Counselor), and some extremely disappointing ones( pick most movies from the summer) but even if we see that the bigger studio movies get cruddier and cruddier with some effort, time and patience we'll find the ones that make sitting through the rest of the crap worth it. These are the best damn movies of 2013.

15. ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW
Randy Moore's directorial debut is a strange and truly one of a kind wonder. It's not perfect and very rough around the edges but it's exciting, daring, and ballsy. Already being dismissed as, "just the movie illegally shot at Disneyland and Disney World", it has a lot to say about the modern American family, the general ickyness of theme parks, and the corporatization of happiness. Surprisingly funny and filled with melancholy Escape from Tomorrow is a wonderfully weird gem.

14. PRISONERS
Aided by solid performances by the whole cast, great cinematography by the always excellent Roger Deakins and drenched in a moody atmosphere Prisoners rises above its thriller genre cliches and trappings. Taking after the high drama of Mystic River crossed with procedural crime movies from the late 90s and early 2000s the film manages to avoid feeling like an over-extended episode of Law & Order and instead remains tense, engrossing and entertaining all throughout.

13. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Paul Greengrass' latest is an incredibly intense with Oscar worthy performances from Tom Hanks as the titular captain and Barkhad Abdi as the leader of the pirates. The entire third act is easily one of the most thrilling, engaging and memorable cinematic moments of 2013.

12. PAIN & GAIN
Michael Bay's latest has stuck with me in a way I totally didn't expect. It has all the recognizable aspects of Bay's previous work including music video editing, oversaturated cinematography and a juvenile sense of humor (a big moment is reserved for a warehouse full of dildos). Despite all these obvious and worn out signatures, they come together to add to the satire at the core of the film. It's his most immature mature piece of work, coming closest to resembling an actual film. The cynical mean-spirited frat-bro sensibility works in the film's favor rather than against it. While not as biting or edgy as it wants to be, Bay has obviously much to say about the perversion of the American Dream, a perversion he might've had a hand in. After an entire filmography of giving the audience what they want in the most base way possible, Pain & Gain is a mirror showing pettiness, desperation, and the lengths one would go to achieve what they think they're entitled to. "What happened to the American Dream?" Bay's answer: "this is it, you're looking at it" and that's something to be noted.

11. TO THE WONDER
Immensely cinematic, poetic, and captivating in every way, Terrence Malick's sixth film is his most personal and deeply emotional but some will still find it frustrating. Using a similar narrative approach as in The Tree of Life, the film is expressionistic to a fault but don't let that deter you from watching it. Feeling more like watching someone's dreams and memories, To the Wonder is a visual experience you'll want to lose yourself in.

10. BLACKFISH
The controversial documentary has been getting a lot of attention and deserves every bit of it. Equal parts enlightening and upsetting, it's difficult not to be effected by it in some way. The film covers a lot of ground making strong effective points on animal rights, the artifice of theme parks and everything that's wrong with Sea World. With all the talk surrounding the film, it is too easy to ignore the fact that the documentary is ultimately humanist. Telling the stories of trainers, it gives much needed context and compassion for tragic losses caused by the mistreatment of animals and corporate indifference.

9. THE WORLD'S END
Edgar Wright's third collaboration with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost is a furiously funny and poignant effort. A little less of a clear cut genre parody like the previous two films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, it more than makes up for it with a solid thematic focus. Think of it as the antidote to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, confronting head on the downsides of nostalgia, arrested adolescence, and the fears of entering adulthood. It maintains a striking balance between portraying the pain of regret and missed opportunities and just plain awesome sci-fi action.

8. PACIFIC RIM
The blockbuster highlight of the year. Insanely fun and colorful, Guillermo Del Toro's big budget studio effort wears its heart on its sleeve. It's unabashedly earnest and takes great joy in displaying all its influences from kaiju movies of the 1950s to mecha anime. It's everything a giant robots fighting giant monsters movie should be.

7. ONLY GOD FORGIVES

Nicholas Winding Refn's follow-up to Drive is damn near perfect. An uber-stylized hyper-violent response to his previous film that is more focused on the psychology of the characters rather than being an exercise in cool. It's ugly, dark, grim and feels more like a true noir film with a dash of Miike-like horror and violence thrown in for good measure. Where as Drive is a juvenile power fantasy (one that I still like and recognize as both awesome and iconic), Only God Forgives is a better, deeper, and uncompromising work that firmly establishes Refn as more than a one trick pony.

6. 12 YEARS OF SLAVE
Steve McQueen's third film is undeniably powerful and stirring. Filled with fantastic performances by the entire cast and directed with a deliberate self-assuredness, it's no surprise the film has been getting heaps of praise. Not much else to say other than go watch it if you haven't already.

5. THE KINGS OF SUMMER
Hilarious, heartfelt and all the other words used to describe indie-esque coming of age films. 2013 saw three coming of age films all cut from the same ilk, the other two being the slight but fun The Way Way Back and The Spectacular Now. The Kings of Summer stands out by truly being one of the funniest movies of last year. The three leads Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso and Moises Arias all play off each other naturally and you believe in and are invested in their friendship and share in the both the joys and pains of adolescence.

4. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES
While Derek Cianfrance's first film Blue Valentine was self-important, pretentious and filled with contempt about the people it was portraying.  His second film is a near masterpiece. Instead of the "look how shitty life is" attitude of his first film, here he finds the  humanity of people caught in desperate situations. Tackling large lofty concepts such as the American myth and the hopelessness of working class America The Place Beyond the Pines is not the condemnation that was Cianfrance's previous film but a well done work that is beautifully haunting, ambitious, and epic.

3. FRANCES HA
Noah Baumbach's latest is an immensely pleasant surprise. Funny and touching, it truly gets a certain generation's growing pains. Don't the let the quirky tone fool you as that's part of the point. Imagine if the manic pixie dream girl actually existed: She'd be annoying and actually kind of sad. Greta Gerwing is absolutely fantastic as the titular character rounding out to make Frances a fully human character who can be sweet,  endearing, idiotic, clumsy and ultimately someone who doesn't have their shit together. Both honest and charming, Frances Ha ends up being one of the better feel good movies of 2013.

2. GRAVITY
Fuck you, it's brilliant.

1. FRUITVALE STATION
A stunning debut from director Ryan Coogler and easily the most human, empathetic and tragic movie of the year. Based on the terrible events that happened on New Year's Eve 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, CA, Coogler tells an intimate story spanning the 24-hour period that leads up to that night. Instead of using the film as a platform itself to discuss the issues of politics, class and race, the story is tightly focused on the human and personal matters. Coogler's aim is something much more complex and abstract, truly showing what it's like to be in someone else's shoes. The movie gives the all important context and story that is never considered when such an event is covered by mass media outlets and received and processed by the general public. It's an astonishing and important film, not only because of what it's about but how confidently and with immense sensitivity that it chooses to portray the story of Oscar Grant. Fruitvale Station is an incredible reminder of not only the power of subtlety but the power of film to educate, inform and portray stories that we find relatable and with a little effort come close to truly understanding.

TAKING A LOOK AT.........BATTLESHIP

It'd be too easy for me to call last year's Battleship a dumb boring piece of shit, but the fact of the matter is, Battleship is a dumb boring piece of shit. I'm a believer that a film isn't bad because of what it is about but of how it is about it. It's easy to make fun of a movie because it's based a board game, that conceit alone is worth all the derision and scorn and make you feel like you're above the movie in every way. And while that's true, Battleship is bad not because it's merely based a board game but because it is a headache inducing bore. It was about the time the aliens' true form was revealed that I realized Battleship is the recent modern equivalent of that fucking Wing Commander movie from 14 years ago. It's everything studios think is cool at the moment; the trailers included dubstep, there's the "Michael Bay-lite" blue-orange saturated cinematography, big flashy special effects, low demeanor humor, the whole "made for the masses" feel, last minute gung-ho patriotism and Rihanna is in it. I feel like a lesser human being after having watched it. Fortunately it is not the inept travesty that was Pearl Harbor but that would have made it more interesting. At least there was comical wrong-headedness bordering on parody about Pearl Harbor, Battleship is just drab by comparison.

No one was surprised to how Rihanna showed up to the court proceedings.

I gave up on the work of Peter Berg after the nonsense that was Hancock, a terrible film that coasts by on the star power and charisma of Will Smith. It makes one wonder if Friday Night Lights and The Kingdom were happy accidents. Both are critical incisive looks at American thought, construction and lifestyle, one is about the over-importance and consequence of small-town sports and the other of American foreign policy. There are theories that suggest Battleship has the same critique and intelligent view of terrorism but about the time that an out-of-commission battleship piloted by a bunch of WWII vets cheer for the fiery destruction of  the lizard-cat aliens, all metaphor and theory went out the window. Having "Fortuante Son" be the end credits song of  Battleship isn't subversive but stems from the same kind of miscalculation and thought that "Born in the USA" is also a patriotic song. We can take some solace and faith that the film was a domestic flop costing over 200 million and making only 65 million total, you know, only 65 million dollars.

A good summation of what it's like watching Battleship.

If you've seen Top Gun, Transformers, Independence Day, Pearl Harbor, Annapolis, Wing Commander, Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, or any blockbuster since 1998 then you've probably seen Battleship. Falling star on the rise Taylor Kitch plays some fucking idiot who is forced into the Navy by his brother played by Alexander Skarsgard of True Blood fame. Kitch's character is an over-confident cocky hot-head who is in love with the Admiral's daughter and must prove himself in order to marry her. He does this by learning leadership and blowing up a bunch of aliens. Rihanna plays a terminator, Jesse Plemons stars as Matt Damon and Liam Neeson plays a someone not giving a shit. I won't bother with the plot since the movie didn't either.

What's worth to note is how the aliens operate which is so subtle as to not make any impression at all. They're not a generic malevolent invading force, in fact they seem to do a lot things by accident initially. A pulse sound they emanate presumably for contact purposes is perceived as an attack, the falling debris of their crashing ships destroy half of Hong Kong, many of the on-foot aliens only attack in self-defense. There's just the bare suggestion that the aliens are doing what an American military force would do, set-up communications, destroy roadways, and let the opposing force save their wounded but again by the end all this shit is forgotten. We don't give a shit about understanding or communicating with them, they need to get blowed-up bad, also they look dumb.

Japanese baseball took a whole new turn.

Then the third act happens which includes one of the most sincere earnest crazy over-the-top set-ups to happen ever, after all their ships are destroyed, Kitch and his remaining crew gather on the museum battleship the USS Missouri to find some WWII veterans who are willing to help which leads to a montage set to AC/DC's Thunderstruck. It manages to be shockingly effecting while somehow not pandering but is also both embarrassing and endearing. It's exciting and propulsive in a way the rest of the film isn't. The scene illustrates Berg's respect and admiration for the veterans in a way that Bay wouldn't dare touch, the military are just toys to Bay, for Berg they're people. But again, this doesn't make Battleship a good movie, or even a noteworthy one but I think it's always best to keep in mind, today's trash is tomorrow's cult hit, since that explains what's going on with The Chronicles of Riddick.

"How'd I go from Ichi the Killer to this shit? Oh right, I was in Thor."

Olympus Has Fallen is mostly just stupid.

About a third of the way through the recent "siege on the white house" actioner I was ready to call it an ugly and stupid film. Fortunately as the movie goes on it just reveals itself to be as mundane and standard as any other entry in its genre. We already know the set-up is preposterous, Gerald Butler is a barely disgraced secret service agent who Die Hards his way through a bunch of stuntmen in ski masks in cheap dimly-lit hallways to save president Aaron Eckhart. The film is old-fashioned paranoid patriotic fodder; the American flag waves in slow-motion as sunlight shines through it, disaster imagery is used to stir emotions, Morgan Freeman makes some kind of speech and the words "people" and "nation" are exhaustively overused . Actually fuck it, the only way to make sense of this coffee-brown-shit tinted mess is through a good old fashioned Q&A.

Is the movie offensive?
It really depends on you sensitivity to what's being shown and presented. The movie seems to have a bare sense of social responsibility unlike the remake of Red Dawn from last year. Rick Yune plays the main baddie, a North Korean terrorist named Kang Yeonsak who disguises himself as a South Korean ministry aid who, as the movie glaringly points out, is not aligned with either county, is in fact wanted by North and South Korea for terrorist actions and whose mother was killed by an American landmine. Where Red Dawn presented a hostile takeover, King Kang as I will call him just wants to start World War III, or destroy America or reunite the Koreas, I'm not sure which as he kind of changes his mind throughout the movie.

Wait, that doesn't answer the question.
Oh, right. Well the movie uses pretty harsh imagery to get straight at our core, the Washinton monument is destroyed and falls and crumbles and lands on a couple citizens that borders on exploitative but that's the obvious intention of the movie. But it's all done in really shitty CG so it barely even registers, actually it's less offensive than just really stupid and unconvincing looking. The attack on the White House is visceral and ironically delivers the movie's best action scene, it's harrowing, relentless and blows the movie's action wad in the first 20 minutes. The film's most disturbing moment is when a suicide bomber blows up the gate to the White House allowing the takeover to happen. You won't feel proud of yourself after seeing this movie but you won't feel dirty either. The movie is so ridiculous and cartoonish and you can't possibly take anything you see in it with any validity.


How racist is it?
Just racist enough, King Kang is given pretty solid and valid motivation to hate Americuh but him and his group are portrayed as alien/foreign others. One of the white house staff turns out to be a traitor for profit or country ,again not sure which because the movie doesn't give a fuck which just reveals the awesome dumbness within. If he's for profit how the fuck does he plan on spending money in a nuclear wasteland? At least the movie was sensible enough to include a different colored bad guy even if the in house traitor is just another cliche. What's most strange is this comes from Antoine Fuqua who previously directed the quite good Brooklyn's Finest and the "liberal" action movie Shooter. Seriously, go fucking watch Shooter, it's the exact opposite of Olympus Has Fallen, the main bad guys turn out to be corrupt old white senators, the fact that they're made by the same guy is staggering.

Is the movie dangerous?
Only to stupid people.

How's Butler's facial hair?
It goes from non-existent to lightly stubbled, there's no Spartan beard in this one.

Would Spartan Beard have made the movie better?
Maybe.

How many head stabbings are there?
About 3 or 4, honestly there's not enough.

In the third act it's revealed the White House is a Transformer. (picture sourced www.latimes.com)

Why does the White House have rockets?
 Because fuck you that's why.

How bad is the CG?
TV movie quality, you sort of feel bad for saying it's shitty because the movie is trying very hard and pretending to be a bigger movie.

Would Bill O' Reilly masturbate to this?
I think so.

What should I watch instead?
Die Hard, Commando, First Kid

The 15 Best Movies of 2012

Another year has passed and that's means another 15 movies you probably missed, totally ignored and maybe didn't hear about. While my list isn't necessarily just only the the underlooked and under appreciated movies of the past year, as there will be a few mainstream and big hit releases on there, they're the movies that came out of nowhere, that did something new or unexpected with film.

Movies I totally missed last year: Zero Dark Thirty, Lincoln, Argo, Lawless, End of Watch, Coriolanus, The Woman in Black, Wanderlust, This is Not a Film, The Comedy, God Bless America, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, Jeff Who Live at Home, Liberal Arts, Lockout, Silver Linings Playbook, The Sound of My Voice, Not Fade Away, Anna Karenina, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning,  Rust and Bone, Beyond the Black Rainbow, Ruby Sparks, Seven Psychopaths, Klovn, Red Hook Summer, Sinister, The Sessions, Flight, Life of Pi, Hitchcock, The Intouchables, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, Smashed  and The Oogieloves in the Big Balloon Adventure

15. The Grey - Originally sold as the "Liam Neeson punches wolves" movie, The Grey is so much more than that. At times it is a grim and bleak exploration of death with Cormac McCarthy-like aspirations while also being a gripping survival story. The film is a huge leap forward for director Joe Carnahan whose previous two films Smokin' Aces and The A-Team, have been fun diversions while The Grey is filled with an intense low-key sadness and melancholy. The film is the anti-survival story, it is about how cruel and mean-spirited and objective the world really is, but despite the utter hopelessness and desperation pervading the movie , you'll be glad you watched The Grey instead that "wolf punching Liam Neeson movie".

14. The Raid: Redemption - Despite whatever you think of the stupid subtitle, The Raid is a must see action movie in every regard. An intense and brutal experience that makes The Expendables 2 ,Taken 2 and just about every other American action film from last 10 years look like stale boring embarrassments. The speed and ferocity with which lead actor Iko Uwais  moves will leave you astonished. Earlier in the year I wrote an article comparing The Raid to a Thai martial arts film from the previous year, while I was a bit harsh and unfair to The Raid, I guarantee you will have the perfect action night double feature with Bangkok Knockout and The Raid. While it might not be ground breaking, it is bone-shattering and will leave you wanting more in the best way.

13. Cosmopolis - There probably wasn't a stranger or more off putting film in 2012 than David Cronenberg's return to the weird; it makes Holy Motors look accessible by comparison. Don't let the inclusion of R-Pat deter you, the movie will probably do that on it's own, at times it feels like it's being weird for the sake of weird and it mostly works in its favor. Cronenberg delivers a slavish effort to the source material by Don Delillo, you will see a giant rat, numerous conversations about capitalism and the economy, people delivering monologues in a robotic manner, a prostrate exam and Pattison getting pied in the face. While you may not agree or understand everything that's going on, the movie is an excellent reminder that sometimes we just need to be perplexed every now and then.

12. Beasts of the Southern Wild -  This is probably the most obvious choice on the list but it is one that was difficult to decide on. The movie is less about wonder and imagination than it is about harsh reality. Director Behn Zeitlin invokes the same imagery used in David Gordon Green's earlier southern gothic films. Beasts is a like a cross between the despairing Gummo and something from Terry Gilliam. The little moments of wonder will floor you and keep you with the film while at the center of it all is the rambunctious Quvenzhané Wallis who holds the film's emotional core not just because she's a small child but because she delivers an incredible and tear-inducing performance.

11. Compliance - Compliance is uncomfortable, extremely uncomfortable. It has all the tension and mood of a thriller and a horror film. Is it one? Who knows? What makes it special is how the majority of the film takes place in the stockroom of a lowly fast-food restaurant but manages to not make it feel like a gimmick or a stage-play. It's a small film but it's impact will stay with you for days.

10. Brave - Brave is more than a worthy effort in the long run of Pixar classics. The film works best when it gets near it's second half focusing on the relationship between Merida and her mother giving us an ulitmately positive message about parental concerns, choice, freedom and of course what it means to be brave. Some may take issue with the small scale and less than epic feel of the film but Brave is a personal story and when it gets away from the subplots and focuses on the heart of the story we're with it. It suggests a much bigger and magical world and I can only hope Pixar plans to return to it to show us more of Merida and where her adventures take her.

9. Skyfall - Skyfall is a strange film. It is a progressive, modern and stalemated examination of Bond in the current world but manages to do all this while also be campy and fun and everything a solid Bond movie should be. The movie revels and pays tribute to everything we love about Bond while critiquing at the same time. Bond gets his trademark Aston Martin but it is subsequent blown to pieces, the villain has a huge hideaway island but it's deserted and empty. It's sort of slow-moving and actionless before it gets to an incredible final hour once Javier Bardem's over-the-top Raoul Silva enters the picture. Bardem's villian runs away with film and turns a mostly good film into a memorable and iconic one.

8. Paranorman - After the terrible and pandering 9 I wasn't terribly excited for a new animated film from Focus Features. 9 was a dull style over substance exercise squarely made for the Hot Topic crowd and Paranorman unfortunately looked liked more of the same. To a pleasant surprise Paranorman is pretty great and it's criminally unfair the movie will be seen like it is riding the zombie-wave three years too late. It's not that at all, what you get is a warm and funny that puts on a welcomed spin on zombie tropes while being a legitimately fun tribute to horror films.

7. Killing them Softly - Andrew Dominick's follow-up to his 2007 masterpiece The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a completely different beast entirely. It is an angry and confrontational film that is blunt and as subtle as a sledgehammer. It works as an anti-gangster picture which portrays the criminals as desperate, petty and pathetic refusing to romanticize them in anyway, there is a mean and cynical streak running through the film that wants to shake audience out of their bored slumber and total desensitization toward violence. The performances and the writing are all top notch, with Pitt, Gandolfini, and Scoot McNairy delivering some career-best work. When the movie hits, it hits hard, the violence and cruelty are all impactful, it ain't pretty and you won't feel good about yourself afterward but we should all be damn glad this kind of movie was released.

6. Detention - Joseph Kahn's second film is an exhilarating wonder. Another critic described it as an episode of Community directed by Edgar Wright, it is a balls out, bug nuts film that never stops, it just gets crazier and crazier. A movie like this feels one of kind. There really isn't anything like it and succeeds in its kinetic style, it feels like Kahn pulls off what the Wachoski's have been trying to do with editing since Speed Racer, it's a movie that moves and pushes editing toward to the future, this is the kind of movie that should be influencing future filmmakers. In the least insulting way, Detention is the perfect movie about the internet generation made for them, it's ambitious, insane, and ridiculously entertaining.

5. Cabin in the Woods - Cabin is the kick in the ass horror and genre films needed. Director Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon have literally pressed the nuke button on every tired trope and unscary icon. It never feels  overly clever for it's own sake and it never gets bogged down in its own hyper meta-commentary. Cabin in the Woods just works and rewards viewers and horror fans with one of the best third acts in recent memory, one that leaves you exhilarated and the hope that from here on, nothing will be the same.

4. Kill List - Disturbing, unsettling, and nerve-wracking, if Cabin was the best movie about horror movies in 2012, Kill List is without a doubt the best horror film of 2012. The movie isn't really scary but it isn't about that, it's not out to scare you, it's there to make you deeply and horribly uncomfortable, things get weirder, stranger and more dangerous as it goes along. There is a pabable sense of dread that builds and builds until you can't take it anymore just as it reaches its shocking conclusion. If there's any movie on this list you should watch (but really you should watch all of them) , make it this piece of downright mindfuckery.

3. Chronicle - Chronicle is the best superhero film of 2012. There is a scene in the middle of the film when the three teenage leads discover they can fly, it's a moment that is filled with awe, wonder and pure joy. It's a scene that feels totally big and cinematic and inspiring, Chronicle does more in one scene for superheroes than either of those two other movies. And don't let the stupid aesthetic distract, Chronicle is well-shot and doesn't succumb to shakey-cam, while it doesn't do much for the "found-footage" genre it does make it actually watchable. The previews made this look like "Project X or Jackass with superpowers" but what you'll see is a well-written character-driven story where you care about what happens instead of just thinking about how cool everything looks.

2. Detachment - While Detachment made the festival circuit in 2011, it wasn't released in theaters until February 2012 and even then it was only on limited screens, it finally reached dvd in September of last year. With that factoid out of the way, Tony Kaye's second film after almost 14 years is despairing and hopeless. It's the kind of movie that'll make you angry, frustrated, and depressed but it's worth it. Detachment is leagues better than Kaye's first film, American History X, while he still has characters deliver obvious grand-standing monologues, there is graceful lack controversy for controversy's sake. It is a begrudgingly human film that isn't filled with the same over-bearing shock tactics and abrasiveness of his first.  He takes on public education in way that doesn't feel like you're being spoon-fed any kind of message, you won't feel insulted, this is not a movie about a heroic teacher who helps inner-city kids with school problems, this is a movie that's much closer to how complicated, depressing and fruitless everything is.

1. The Master - Invigorating. The Master is an incredible reminder of bravura filmmaking, it's confident and big and feels major. It strikes a weird balance between being focused and ambiguous  it's a "small" character study while also being a biopic of a major religious figure while also being a study of cults and fanaticism. Paul Thomas Anderson juggles all these things while doing his damn best to emulate Kubrick and Malick. The film isn't as iconic or flashy as There Will Be Blood, but it doesn't need to be. Phoenix and Hoffman deliver enthralling intense performances that captivate you all the way through. Shot on 70mm, scenes taking place in living rooms, and church meeting halls feel just as epic as anything in The Hobbit. The film can almost be summed up in the scene in which Freddie rides a motorcycle across a barren desert, it's a scene that is oddly tense, unsettlingly and utterly transfixing in a way that only a rare few movies ever reach.

Jack Reacher is safe, dull and disappointing.

Jai Courtney and Tom Cruise ready to thrown down in Reacher

Jack Reacher is boring but that doesn't mean it's terrible or bad; it is just achingly by the numbers. As Tom Cruise's comeback movie it is barely serviceable, essentially the film feels like you're watching the Cruise version of The Da Vinci Code, an airport mystery novel brought to life in the blandest way possible. As an action movie, Jack Reacher moves too slowly, plodding along as we wait for the lead character to catch up, so by the time the final shootout comes it feels too little too late. As a mystery it's terrible, just your average episode of CSI brought to movie length; if anything that makes it feel like Reacher is the most expensive TV movie ever. Jack Reacher is without a doubt the best version of Jesse Stone we're going to get for quite some time.

A much more accurate poster of Jack Reacher

The plot is straight-forward: a former sniper is accused of murdering citizens in broad daylight, when he's put in custody he tells the police to get Jack Reacher. As we're told Jack Reacher has got a history of military badassery, we expect he's going to come in, fuck shit up and set things right. Well, he does and he doesn't; he spends most of the movie telling people how stupid they are and how they are not as awesome as he is, while he stumbles from clue to clue not because he wants to but because people keep bothering him.

The movie doesn't need to be amazing or thrilling or reach for bigger themes to be entertaining, but as a straight-forward thriller it's barely functional. The fact that the movie aims so low as to just barely make it over the bar feels utterly annoying and frustrating. This is even more shocking when considering this franchise starter is directed by the smart and talented Christopher McQuarrie--seriously, just listen to his stories on the Kevin Pollack show, or his experience on writing Valkyrie (another collaboration between McQuarrie and Cruise from 2008, although McQuarrie just wrote that one.) This is McQuarrie's return to directing after a twelve year hiatus when he delivered his first film, the under-appreciated, Sam Peckinpah-homage The Way of the Gun. The film was violent and shocking and cynical in all the right ways while featuring an incredible third act shootout. Jack Reacher by comparison looks like it could've been made by anyone. The only piece of dialogue that sounds like McQuarrie is when Reacher threatens to drink Jai Courtney's character's blood from a boot (spoilers: he doesn't even follow up on that promise). There's nothing wrong with a movie that's unambitious, straight-forward or lean but the problem is the movie is just plain damn uninteresting.

Seriously the movie is worth rental for some Herzog greatness.

There are a few bright spots in the movie. One scene has Rosamund Pike's character recount the last hours of each of the victims, which is different and effective. The other highlight is the perfectly underused Werner Herzog as the big heavy, known only as "The Zec."  Herzog, who shows up one-eyed and two-fingered, does his best to suitably chew all the scenery he can in his few memorable moments. What's great is that when you view the movie you'll see that Herzog doesn't really do anything other than sit and stand around,  while looking totally scary or like plotting something really evil. However, despite his total lack of action, Herzog manages to command your attention and convince you of his evil backstory, a testament to his talent and awesome accent.

Jack Reacher just caps the year off in functional blandness, working it's biggest crime is being boring and unengaging. The film aims too low to not work for what it's doing. It's not great, it's not good, it's not bad, it's just okay but sometimes that's not enough and coming from the man who made something as exciting as The Way of the Gun , Reacher just doesn't reach hard enough.

Looper, Graphic Novels and The Importance of World Building

Mondo poster per HuffPost

Before we officially start off  I want to point out some of the odd similiarities between Looper and last year's Drive. Both are seemingly mainstream efforts and sold as such, they are made by critically-noted directors and have turned out to be much more than your average "car-chase" movie or Bruce Willis movie. Coincidentally both films were released by the conjunction of Sony and Film District, which suggests both the studio and distributor know what they are unleashing on the audience. What's great about both films is that they are like sneak attacks on the audience, films with an experimental and out-of-the-norm edge sold as blockbuster thrillers. The key difference is that Looper is much more accessible than Drive. Where Drive had a slow European style, Looper is rife with plenty of shooting and explosions. I note this as Looper also includes as many art-house and independent film flourishes as Drive does but under the guise of a science-fiction chase film. At the very least Looper avoids the sub genre of "action movie just happening to take place in cool-looking future setting" such as this year's Total Recall. It is a relief and joy that both films get such wide releases but the problem with that is that the films are often ignored and misunderstood by the public at large.

Looper is well made and highly entertaining but its first half is much better than its second. The last 50ish minutes of Looper become a completely different movie, not one that is bad or doesn't work but feels completely different from the fantastic set-up the first hour prepares us for. But I'm not really here to review the movie, I want to talk the most important aspect of the film, something that's been missing from movies for quite awhile and it's something most movies are too lazy or afraid to do. Or maybe it's something current filmmakers have forgotten to do, world-building. It seems as if in most modern films especially blockbusters set-dressing or set-showing takes the place of world building as if those establishing shots do all the work for them and they have no need to further explore the world they have spent so much time designing and making sure it looks all shiny, pretty and cool. What makes Looper such a great breath of fresh air is not its plot or style but rather its ambition, director Rian Johnson puts so much work into making us believe in this world he's created. Now if you're wondering what this has all to do with graphic novels it's that Looper belongs a unnoticed sub-genre of film I like to call "Graphic Novel films not based on graphic-novels or comic-books" I'm working on something a little more catchy. There's something about the "Look" and style about Looper that makes it feel like a graphic novel which I know more than enough to call its cinematography. While the subject of how graphic novels themselves world build is a large essay on its own for the sake of reader's time and patience I want to focus on films. Just know that graphic novels tend to be really really good at world building for a variety of reasons whether it is the time a reader has to sit and absorb a graphic novel/comic-book or the details of the illustration in a panel. While movies try this with establishing shots of futuristic cityscapes (of which Looper has plenty of) they tend do nothing more than just sit there for the few seconds they're on screen and look cool, not much different than the far away backdrops in video games.

Total Recall per screencrush.com

What I'm trying to say is that these worlds are meant to be involving, places we want to be engaged in which are fundamental parts of any great film, something the viewer is engaged or involved with. I mentioned earlier how Looper is part of a sub-genre I broadly defined "The Graphic Novel Film" and a few choice examples include The Book of Eli, Hanna, Running Scared as well as the Walter Hill trilogy aka The Warriors, Streets of Fire and Last Man Standing but I also should note that just because a movie is hyper-stylized or based on comic-book does not make it a "Graphic-Novel Film" because as noted it's not also the visual style and cinematography that is important but the world-building aspects of the film as well. As a quick example the first Blade film is a graphic novel film but Sin City is not despite being based on a graphic novel and employing an emulation of Frank Miller's illustrations and panels. Sin City is excessively stylish but there isn't much of world there as we intuitively know everything is green screened or tiny sets, sure it looks impressive but ultimately feels like a gimmick. The trick to proper and effective world building is making these things, the sets, the characters, the props feel tangible. And part of what makes Looper great and feel like a rarity these days is its feeling of expanse, over time it gets harder and more difficult to film in real locations giving films an isolated and artificial look* (and I know how that sounds as all films are artifice). While there are echoes of The Terminator in Looper an obvious influence on the film is Children of Men, this a big comparison to make and by no means am I really comparing the two but Alfonso Cuaron's brilliant masterpiece is still to this day one of the expansive and ambitious world-building films in over the last 12 years of film-making. It's more than enough that Looper aims high where most films don't bother. You  needn't look any further than the biggest film of the year The Avengers to see a blockbuster that feels artificial and ultimately small at double the production budget, even the attack on New York is isolated to about two blocks, does this mean Looper is a better film than The Avengers, not really but it is something to note as our bigger films go one route while the other is being phased out for a variety of reasons.

I am very well aware of the irony of using an image of isolation while talking about Looper's expansiveness. Although this does illustrate the graphic novel look of the film. (image from aceshowbiz.com)

 Hell, the easier comparison to make is to that holy grail of sci-fi films Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and just like Scott's film and Cuaron's Johnson is interested in where our current economy might lead us to. The film makes it more than obvious its views on economic disparity but one could also make the point that basically any science fiction film use the world gone to grungy shit as futuristic background, even the recent Cloud Atlas does so. It's hard to say whether or not Looper will join the ranks of iconic classics like Blade Runner or Children of Men but I do know I won't be surprised to see anyone of the next comic-con carrying around Blunderbusses and talking about "TK-ing".







*Looking at all the problems and over-exposure faced during the production of The Dark Knight Rises.

The Raid: Redemption vs. Bangkok Knockout, Discussing Action

The Raid is a good movie. Actually, it's a very good movie but it's not a great one and it's not the best action movie I've seen. Compared to most modern action films it's leagues better and definitely the type of movie we should see more often. The movie deserves all the acclaim it's getting but unfortunately like any movie that gets hyped, it has the threat to be seen as overrated or not living up to expectations. I felt underwhelmed after leaving The Raid. It's not that the movie doesn't live up to the praise it's gotten, it's just the film is more flawed than I expected it to be.

I've seen numerous martial-arts flicks and they all have terrible and simple stories. But we don't watch these films for the stories, we watch them for the fights and the ridiculous stunts. Luckily The Raid has plenty of decent fight scenes (as seen below). The problem is that for something like The Raid to be great, the fight scenes need to be relentless (or rather the pace of the film). As it stands there are a ton of slow moments in The Raid. I get that movie is adding breathing room between the fights scenes but anything other than someone receiving some bodily harm is dreadfully dull. This is what keeps The Raid from being the best action movie ever. The film follows a formula of action scene, talking scene, action scene, talking scene.

Which brings me to talk about the awesome, over-the-top and insane Bangkok Knockout. Directed by Panna Rittikrai, the action choreographer on all of Tony Jaa's films, BKO is the best action movie I've seen. It constantly tops itself and barrels through at a relentless pace from one fight scene to the next. But there's a huge difference in presentation between the two films. The Raid asks to be taken seriously where as BKO is very much a film about the fights and the stunts that doesn't even pretend to give a shit about it's own story. While many people can see that as a negative, BKO works through and through as the most pure crazy bat-fuck martial arts movie ever. There is nothing wrong with a film trying to take itself seriously but the problem is that The Raid doesn't really lend itself to do just that. The incredible fights scenes run polar opposite to the film's dour tone.

#2 Henchman Mad Dog is about fuck shit up.

The only other problem with The Raid is that it feels like 2/3rds of a movie. It essentially ends in its 2nd act and rushes through to an unsatisfying conclusion. The movie delivers on 2/3rds of set-up but with no satisfying pay-off. It's big ending is basically an extended fight with the film's #2 henchman. I know about problems with budget and scale but any action-savvy fan knows that fight should lead to something bigger, but it doesn't, it just sort of peters out. Despite these criticisms The Raid is still a really good film and absolutely worth seeing and better than any major studio action film.

Above is a clip from BKO. The clip just gives a taste of how outlandish and bizarre the rest of the movie is. Later on, two guys fight a metal-mask wearing axe-wielder who still fights while lit on fire. Does this mean BKO is a better film than The Raid? No, The Raid is actually probably a better film than BKO, but the later is a better action movie. Another crucial difference is the fights in The Raid are much more brutal and violent. Where BKO is about jaw-dropping stunts, The Raid goes for immediate visceral impact. People get brutalized in The Raid in ways that will make you wince, people get fucked up in all kinds of nasty ways. In the end both films are good for entirely different reasons, BKO is over-the-top insanity while The Raid delivers intense great fight scenes in a not-as-great movie. I can only say to watch both movies as a reminder of what good action movies are and should be.

Rudy's Top 15 Movies from 2011

There was a hell of a lot of movies in 2011 worth watching. I've probably missed more than half of them, which I'll list further down. What 2011 in film represents is probably one of the best years for genre geeks and 2012 will be even more so with big-ass mainstream releases such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Avengers and about every other comic-book property out there. Both Attack the Block and Drive are the type of films that make the whole year worth it, proving that there are directors out there who have talent and take genre films seriously. And while I really enjoy those films, I can tell you that the majority of the films on my list aren't winning any of the big academy awards, not that that truly matters anyway. It's apparently a movie geek challenge to come up with 15 films from the year that are totally worth watching and each year I feel lucky to have and take the time to do just that, now if I could only get paid for it, but that's a whole different story.

Some movies that I missed from 2011 that I really really wanted to watch: Shame, Take Shelter, The Descendents, Carnage, 50/50, We Need to Talk about Kevin, War Horse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Conan O' Brien Can't Stop, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, The Dangerous Method, Greatest Movie ever Sold, The Artist, Certified Copy, A Better Life, Like Crazy, I Saw the Devil, Tin Tin, Hugo, The Muppets, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Troll Hunter, The Rum Diary, The Debt and whatever important documentaries that came out.

Honorable Mentions: Melancholia, Moneyball, Red State, The Devil's Double, Bellflower, The Future, Source Code, 13 Assassins, Bridesmaids, Fright Night





15. The Ides of March - It's been a great year for Ryan Gosling. With all the varied performances he gave this year he'll be able to shake off being "The guy from The Notebook". He did the romantic comedy thing in Crazy, Stupid, Love, he did the quiet badass thing in Drive and he does the losing idealism and becoming disenchanted thing in The Ides of March. While the film doesn't tell us anything we already don't know about politics, it is a well made piece of breezy entertainment. I realize that "breezy" can be seen as a negative but the film is sharp, quickly paced and well written. Clooney has made a film that doesn't feel like an insulting liberal propaganda piece or topically dated. The film has strong performances all across the board with Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti getting some of the best lines. It's not a great film and it won't blow anyone away but it's a really good one and along with this year's Moneyball, it's the type of dialogue-driven film we need more of.



14. Bangkok Knockout - I am a huge fan of martial arts films. Sometimes they can be repetitive and any scene in between fights scenes can be cringe-worthy and Bangkok Knockout is no different. But what usually happens is that the action and fight scenes tend to be so amazing and jaw-dropping that you're able to forgive the rest of the film's faults. A recent sub-genre in martial arts films are the Muay-Thai films which tend to put an emphasis on real, no cgi, life-threatening stunts that look great on film. I wasn't a big fan of the original Ong-Bak, but The Protector and Born to Fight are probably the best martial arts movies I've ever seen. Panna Rittikrai, who was the action choreographer on those films, serves as director for Bangkok Knockout, and I'm happy to say that his film is just as good and tops both films in the stunt department. BKO is the best kind of over-the-top action film. Each progressive fight scene is better than the last and like all good martial-arts films, it borders on being exhausting. But with a film like this I'd rather have it over-deliver than be disappointing and under-deliver. There are some movies you describe to people as being "so ridiculous you have to see it", Bangkok Knockout is that movie.



13. Fast Five - With each progressing year, it seems like action fans get the short end of the stick in terms of quality. While I am a fan of Jason Statham, most of his films turn out to be the B-quality indecipherable shakey-cam crap that is popular these days, making the action scenes dull (The Mechanic, Killer Elite). Which is a huge issue for modern action films, many of them turn out to be unexciting and lifeless. Fortunately Fast Five came to the rescue this year, proving there is hope for big blockbuster action movies to be fun and exciting again. The movie is a blast from start to finish with set pieces that have build-up and payoff instead just being a quick succession of out of context money shots like anything out of Transformers or any other action film this year. Fast Five is just plain fun and a reminder that sometimes they do make them just like they used to.



12. Hobo with a Shotgun - This is the type of movie that seems to be tailor-made for me and there are many ways this movie could've been disappointing. The movie doesn't seem pandering or insulting or filled with cute nods and winks to other cult films. Hobo with a Shotgun never seems like it's trying too hard which is a problem for any wannabe cult film. Where the film could've been over-indulgent about referencing other horror films, it actually feels like it's own thing, a film that could've actually came out sometime during the 80s and was just now recently discovered. Recent cartoonish action films like Drive Angry and Machete have the right attitude toward being ridiculous and over the top but always fall short of just even being passably entertaining. I can comfortably say that Hobo with a Shotgun should be the standard for juvenile ludicrousness on film.



11. Captain America: The First Avenger - Captain America is a corny a movie, there are things about it that don't work, the war montage in the middle of the film has some of the worst cgi I've seen in a big budget studio movie but despite some glaring issues, the film's spirit and tone work so well that they make the negatives forgivable. The things that do work are great, like Chris Evan's sincere and earnest performance, the war bonds montage that proves that the people making this movie did really know what they were doing, and a relationship in a comic-book movie that didn't feel like by-the-numbers set dressing. Captain America is easily my favorite Marvel Studios film, even besting Iron Man. It's probably not the Captain America film most people were expecting and there's a sweeping of history that seems questionable, but the film succeeds in delivering throwback pulp entertainment to a cynical modern era.



10. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - There's no reason this movie should've worked. A prequel to a dead franchise from 20th Century Fox, the worst studio in Hollywood, who go out of their way to produce less than mediocre films. A laughable premise and a goofy trailer, this movie had no right being as good as it is. The film's biggest strength is Andy Serkis' performance as Caesar. The audience is able to empathize and understand Caesar who is more of an interesting and developed character than any of the actual humans in the movie, I'm not sure if this was intentional or not. Either way, the movie plays like a biopic of a cgi ape and it works. That's more than enough to recommend it.



9. Super -Super is exactly the film that Kick-Ass should've been, it is dark, cynical, and uncomfortable without being mean-spiritedly juvenile or ironic. James Gunn's second film since 2006's Slither is probably the most personal film of 2011. It is often sad, and downbeat with Rainn Wilson playing a character who is desperately pathetic. While some of the cutesy "indie" moments of the movie are flat out terrible, luckily they are few and far between. The film is filled with self-loathing and hate and gets superheroes and comic-books more than any other super-hero film. While the film is gory and violent, it never feels like a power fantasy since the movie shows us many times that Rainn Wilson's character is never empowered or confident, he's just pathetic, depressed and mentally-unhinged. This is not so much a dark comedy as much as it is just plain dark.



8. Hanna - Hanna much like 2010's The American (another Focus Features film) represent the marriage of quiet independent moody character studies and violent action films. Both movies have struck a perfect balance between the two. Hanna is easily more badass than Colombiana or any other superficial equivalent. All the performances are great, from Eric Bana's caring father, Cate Blanchett's cold-hearted villain, to Saorise Ronan's aloof performance as the titular character. The film is quickly-paced, stark, stylish and plays like a dark fairy-tale. I can honestly say that Hanna is a perfectly crafted piece of entertainment.



7. Tree of Life - I find it odd when a film is exactly what you expect it to be. If you're familiar with Terrence Malick's previous films such as The Thin Red Line or The New World, you should know to expect something that is visually beautiful, abstract and "airy". This means that Tree of Life is the most Malicky of all of his films and is the most ambitious. I can't tell you what any of it means, the whole film kind of sweeps over you and is a lot to take in. But I can say there was no movie in 2011 that was as visually enthralling as this one.



6. The Guard - John Michael McDonagh's directorial debut is a sharp and funny movie. Following in the steps of his brother Martin McDonagh who directed 2008's In Bruges, my personal favorite movie of that year, the McDonaghs are striving to make movies that feel like both celebrations and criticisms of Irish culture. The Guard takes the tired and true buddy-cop formula and uses every opportunity to poke fun at stereotypes, genre tropes and generalizations. While Don Cheadle is second billed, this is more Brendan Gleeson's film and he delivers a hilarious dry sardonic performance.



5. Contagion - Contagion is the scariest and most thrilling movie of 2011. It feels epic and has the scale that other films attempt to achieve but never quite get there. Director Stephen Soderbergh is riding the style of The Social Network hard, with a cool electronic soundtrack and a sharp visual style. Soderbergh seems to be challenging Fincher at his own game. Fortunately the film is well-written and balanced that you're able to let Soderbergh's visual imitation slide by. There's a lot of information being thrown a you during the movie but the most powerful scenes are the quick subtle moments of humanity that are shown from each character. I hope Contagion is on it's way to becoming a new classic, it deserves it.



4. Young Adult - I'm not a fan of Jason Reitman's first two films, Thank You for Smoking and Juno. They felt smug and insincere. His third film in 2009, Up in the Air felt like a step in the right direction. Even though I dislike Juno, I will defend Diablo Cody, I was one of the few people who was ready to hate Jennifer's Body only to realize it wasn't all that bad. With the re-teaming of Cody and Reitman, I was expecting Young Adult to be a pop-culture fest enamored with its own cleverness. Luckily, the film is the complete opposite of that. It eschews hip irony in favor of uncomfortable, unglamorous, and pathetic naturalism that works in its favor. It is seriously an amazing film that feels like a vicious indictment of a culture and people lost in utter self-absorption. Young Adult is pin-point accurate about what it's like to live the media super-saturated culture and is probably the saddest movie I've seen all year.



3. Drive - It's hard to talk about Drive without repeating what everyone else has said about it. It's cool and stylish, the synth 80s sounding soundtrack is incredible. Deceptively simple and rich in theme. It's perfectly cast, Mulligan is sweet and vulnerable, Brooks is slimy evil, Gosling does a whole lot by doing very little. It is a film for film geeks but is easily accessible for anyone who is patient for its payoffs. It's easily the coolest movie of 2011 and one you find yourself repeatedly engrossed in.



2. Attack the Block - Attack the Block is probably the most fun I had watching a movie in the theater in 2011. A movie for genre fans by genre fans. It's exciting, fun and adventurous, and feels like a big event movie with probably a third of the budget. There's an ill-advised attempt at social consciousness in the middle of the movie that seems ham-fisted, preachy and out of place. While it's a shame the movie couldn't find a balance between its genre parts and its "Spike Lee" parts, it's still the kind of film that genre fans should be glad exists.



1. Warrior - While this may be an odd pick for #1, I'm going with the film that affected me the most this year. While the set-up of the film seems gimmicky; two estranged brothers enter a mixed martial arts competition only to find they must face each other in the final fight sounds eye-rolling and trite but within the first scene of the film you forget all that and are completely grabbed. Previous MMA films such as Never Back Down and Fighting have been aimed at teenage mall crowds, Warrior is a film aimed a growing adults. This isn't a sports movie, it's a dramatic movie that happens to have fights in it. It is a movie that engaged me in ways that neither The Wrestler or The Fighter could. Nick Nolte's performance is fantastic and heartbreaking and he deserves a nomination for best supporting actor. Warrior is a film that puts story and character first accompanied by powerful performances. It reminds us what great movies are made of.