Gravity, American Hustle and Django Unchained among best films of 2013

THIS year saw the return of the blockbuster. From Gravity to World War Z and The Hunger Games, Leigh Paatsch names the best (and worst) films of 2013.

Number one ... Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock, was the standout movie of the year.

THIS year saw the return of the blockbuster. From Gravity to World War Z Leigh Paatsch names the best (and worst) films of 2013.

Tell us what you think of Leigh's ratings and let us know your best and worst movies of the year in the comments section at the end of the story.

Best Ten Films of 2013

1. Gravity

Every frame of Gravity is a supremely sublime combination of the you-are-there and the how-did-they-do-that?, completely immersing the audience in both the wonder of space, and the wonder of cinema. Not just a stunning work of science fiction, but a truly heartfelt work of human drama. Hey Hollywood, got any more of these kind of movies? We'd all love to see 'em.

News_Rich_Media: The new trailer for space epic, 'Gravity', starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.

2. Mud

It starts with someone's boat lodged high in the trees. It ends with someone's body floating down a river. And in between? A classic tale of innocence lost and wisdom gained, one that comfortably holds its own against the likes of To Kill a Mockingbird and the best works of Mark Twain.

News_Image_File: Matthew McConaughey in Mud

3. American Hustle

A joy to watch from beginning to end, and a second triumph for 2013 from gifted writer-director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook). The deranged plotting of this caper flick set in the 1970s is Argo meets Goodfellas meets The Sting, with all three getting along like a house on fire.

News_Rich_Media: Bradley Cooper, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence star in a twisted tale of con men and the FBI in the 1970s.

4. Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino has been around over two decades now, but his films still exude the energy and enthusiasm of a fresh talent at work. Here QT continues his recent knack of rewriting history books to suit himself, with America's slavery era getting a forceful going-over.

News_Image_File: Tarantino's still got it ... Christoph Waltz as Schultz and Jamie Foxx as Django in 'Django Unchained'.

5. Captain Phillips

The best movies based on real-life events can make you forget the established facts, and simply feel the moment at hand. Such is the case with this gripping account of the 2009 hijacking of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama by four Somali pirates. Such fine acting from Tom Hanks as well.News_Rich_Media: An action packed scene from Sony Pictures' latest epic 'Captain Phillips', starring Tom Hanks.

News_Image_File: Under siege ... Tom Hanks in "Captain Phillips."

6. Prisoners

A complex, unsettling and utterly absorbing crime drama, featuring a clear career-best display from Hugh Jackman. Not since Clint Eastwood's 2003 masterwork Mystic River has a Hollywood film drilled down to the emotional core of everyday people.News_Rich_Media: From Denis Villeneuve, 'Prisoners' stars Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, with Melissa Leo, and Paul Dano.

News_Image_File: Thriller ... Hugh Jackman stars in Prisoner.

7. Blue Jasmine

When it matters, veteran filmmaker Woody Allen can still make movies that matter. Luck was on his side when he cast Australia's Cate Blanchett as a broken woman fated to never piece her life back together. The pulsing power of her performance warrants the next Best Actress Oscar.

News_Image_File: Oscar buzz ... Cate Blanchett plays New York socialite Jasmine in Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine".

8. Zero Dark Thirty

A searing, challenging factual drama all about the US government's marathon hunt for Osama bin Laden, the most notorious terrorist in history. A blast from our recent past that does not undercharge the explosive nature of its subject matter.News_Rich_Media: The decade-long hunt for Osama Bin Laden is chronicled in this highly anticipated and controversial drama from Academy Award winning director Kathryn Bigelow.

News_Image_File: Hunting a terrorist ... Jessica Chastain plays a member of the elite team of spies and military operatives who secretly devoted themselves to finding Osama bin Laden in "Zero Dark Thirty".

9. Silver Linings Playbook

Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper were fantastic in an edgily offbeat love story of two highly-strung people rebounding from all-time lows. To tag this as merely a feel-good movie is to do it a great disservice. The hard-headed sense of humour trumps the soft-hearted nature of the tale exactly when it should.

News_Rich_Media: After spending four years in a mental institution, a former teacher moves back in with his parents and tries to reconcile with his ex-wife.

10. Stories We Tell

In a year blessed with brilliant documentaries, this engrossing Canadian-made affair was the absolute standout. Director Sarah Polley thought she knew her late mother Diane. Until she interviewed all the family and friends willing to inform her otherwise. Proof positive that one life story is actually many.

News_Rich_Media: Director Sarah Polley offers up a genre-twisting film that playfully excavates layers of myth and memory to reveal the truth at the core of a family of storytellers.

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And the Next Ten:

11. Flight
12. The Hunt
13. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
14. Elysium
15. Before Midnight
16. Blackfish
17. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
18. Ain't Them Bodies Saints
19. World War Z
20. Frances Ha

News_Rich_Media: Denzel Washington plays an airline pilot who saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.

Worst Ten Films of 2013

1. Movie 43

Some movies can go viral. This movie is literally viral. Arrived in Australian cinemas with advance word it was one of the worst comedies of all-time, and left with its reputation intact. Jam-packed with sketches so bad, it must be seen to be disbelieved.

News_Image_File: Worst movie of the year ... Naomi Watts in a scene from Movie 43

2. A Haunted House

A supposed send-up of modern horror movies that became a horror movie in its own right. If you paid to see this and its wretched cousin Scary Movie 5, you deserve a medal. And a straitjacket.

News_Rich_Media: A Haunted House trailer

News_Image_File: Oh the horror ... a scene from the abysmal The Haunted House

3. Kick-Ass 2

Witlessly violent, mean and misogynistic affair where rape was played for laughs. New record-holder for biggest drop in quality from original to sequel.

News_Image_File: Not so kick ass ... Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the young masked hero Kick-Ass, and Chloe Grace Moretz as the blade-wielding Hit Girl in Kick-Ass 2.

eq 4. Save Your Legs/Blinder

Aussies do love their homegrown sport. Aussies do not love their homegrown sport movies. These two feeble fixtures (one themed on cricket, the other Australian Rules) quite rightly failed to draw a crowd.

News_Rich_Media: Save Your Legs trailer

News_Image_File: Golden duck ... Stephen Curry is Aussie film Save Your Legs.

6. Diana

Naomi Watts was a right royal disaster in a terminally turgid biopic of the late Princess of Wales. Watts' good friend Nicole Kidman must be stressed about the reception awaiting her Grace Kelly movie.

News_Image_File: Royal disaster ... Naomi Watts stars as Diana, Princess of Wales.

7. The Lone Ranger

After going close in the last few Pirates of the Caribbean movies, this is where Johnny Depp's talent finally disappeared inside a toxic mist of quirks, tics and sundry self-indulgences. Will he ever find it again?

News_Image_File: What was he thinking? ... Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as The Lone Ranger in a scene from the film "The Lone Ranger."

8. Safe Haven

A perfumed sewer of tragi-romantic sludge from best-selling author Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook). Includes a final twist meant to put hands on hearts, but only put faces in hands.

News_Image_File: Flop ... Julianne Hough and Josh Duhamel in "Safe Haven".

9. Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

In 2012, it was Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. In 2013 it was this awful fairytale action reboot. What can we expect in 2014? Rhonda and Ketut: Zombie Hunters?

News_Rich_Media: Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters trailer

News_Image_File: Fairytale witch hunters? Puh-lease ... Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in Hansel and Gretel

10. Only God Forgives

A blizzard of brutal violence and bad dialogue, interrupted only by Ryan Gosling's wide repertoire of screen-saver stares. Even God would find it hard to forgive this.

News_Image_File: Vacant ... Ryan Gosling in a scene from Only God Forgives

Top 10 Movie Moments of 2013

Ryan Gosling makes his entrance in The Place Beyond the Pines
Space junk hits the space station in Gravity
The zombies go over the wall in World War Z
The tsunami goes over the coastline in The Impossible
The bullet-train fight in Wolverine
Gatsby throws one helluva party in The Great Gatsby
The US President wields a rocket launcher in White House Down
The first of many creepy little hand-claps in The Conjuring
Django becomes a free man - and gets a velvet suit - in Django Unchained
Tom Hanks makes his exit in Captain Phillips

News_Image_File: Fireworks ... Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby.

Bottom 10 Movie Moments of 2013

Halle Berry makes guacamole with her boobs in Movie 43
Cameron Diaz engages in relations with a car in The Counselor
Richard Gere turns MP3 players into naked women in Movie 43
The sniper massacre in Jack Reacher
Jennifer Aniston's pole dance in We're the Millers
Naomi Watts seduces her teenage son in Movie 43
Naomi Watts seduces her best friend's teenage son in Adoration
Naomi Watts seduces her best friend's doctor in Diana
The big wedding in The Big Wedding
Any random scene from Movie 43

News_Image_File: Low point ... Halle Berry in Movie 43

10 Great Movie Pairings of 2013

Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in Gravity
Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale in American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio and Carey Mulligan in The Great Gatsby
Ben Stiller and Kristin Wiig in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Domnhall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams in About Time
Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon in Mud
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in Before Midnight
Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor in The Impossible

News_Image_File: Tsunami terror ... Naomi Watts in scene from film 'The impossible'.

10 Grating Movie Pairings of 2013

Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews in Diana
Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters
Josh Duhamel and Julianne Hough in Safe Haven
Seth Rogen and Barbra Streisand in Guilt Trip
Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson in Pain & Gain
Dwayne Johnson and Channing Tatum in G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy in The Heat
Melissa McCarthy and Jason Bateman in Identity Thief
Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in The Internship
One Direction and 3-D in One Direction: This is Us 3-D

News_Image_File: Not so hot ... Sandra Bullock as FBI Special Agent Sarah Ashburn and Melissa McCarthy as Boston Detective Shannon Mullins in a scene from "The Heat".

6 Very Special Effects of 2013

The fluid, floating camera moves of Gravity
The stratospheric gated community in Elysium
The plastic surgery in Behind the Candelabra
Jeremy Renner's hair in American Hustle
Christian Bale's comb-over in American Hustle
Our empty planet in Oblivion

News_Image_File: Great effects ... Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Scott Thorson in "Behind the Candelabra".

6 Not So Special Effects of 2013

Our empty planet in After Earth
The sludgy action scenes in Man of Steel
Johnny Depp's makeup in The Lone Ranger
The peeing in the pool in Grown Ups 2
The not-so-convincing giants in Jack the Giant Slayer
Hugh Jackman's chin testicles in Movie 43

News_Image_File: Not so realistic ... Jaden Smith in After Earth

6 Under-rated Films of 2013

Oblivion
Side Effects
Trance
The Place Beyond the Pines
Enough Said
The Way, Way Back

News_Image_File: Go see it ... Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond The Pines

6 Over-rated Films of 2013

Gangster Squad
The World's End
The Fifth Estate
The Hangover Part 3
Planes
Hitchcock

News_Image_File: Don't bother ... Sean Penn (as Mickey Cohen) and Josh Brolin (as Sgt. John O'Mara) in The Gangster Squad

Strongest Performances of 2013

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Denzel Washington in Flight
Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips
Hugh Jackman in Prisoners
Jennifer Lawrence in anything
Tom Hiddleston in Thor: The Dark World

News_Image_File: Brilliant ... Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker in Flight.

Strangest Performances of 2013

Anthony Hopkins in Thor: The Dark World
Javier Bardem in The Counselor
James Franco in Spring Breakers
Cameron Diaz in The Counselor
Bindi Irwin in Return to Nim's Island
Brad Pitt and the rest of the cast of The Counselor

News_Image_File: Just bizarre ... Javier Bardem with Michael Fassbender in a scene from film The Counselor

A big hello to ... (the best star debuts of 2013)

Onata Aprile in What Maisie Knew
Jackson Nicoll in Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert in Beautiful Creatures

News_Image_File: Star on the rise ... Onata Aprile with Julianne Moore in a scene from What Maisie Knew.

A big hello again to ... (the best comebacks of 2013)

Matthew McConaughey in Mud
Nicole Kidman in Stoker
Robert De Niro in American Hustle

News_Image_File: Making a comeback ... Nicole Kidman in Stoker.

Isn't it time you just said goodbye?

Christopher Mintz-Plasse in Kick-Ass 2
Katherine Heigl in The Big Wedding
Bruce Willis in A Good Day to Die Hard

News_Image_File: Enough already ... Bruce Willis as iconoclastic NYC cop John McClane.

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