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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The soundtrack to 2013: Cameron Adams names the year's best albums
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
6 Under-rated Films of 2013
Oblivion
Side Effects
Trance
The Place Beyond the Pines
Enough Said
The Way, Way Back
6 Over-rated Films of 2013
Gangster Squad
The World's End
The Fifth Estate
The Hangover Part 3
Planes
Hitchcock
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
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
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
A big hello again to ... (the best comebacks of 2013)
Matthew McConaughey in Mud
Nicole Kidman in Stoker
Robert De Niro in American Hustle
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
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