Cavalcade of Awesome

Here are my favorite movies I watched in 2013. There are a few older movies in here, but everything in this list I watched for the first time in 2013.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012) – Yes, the first one, which I didn’t see until January 2013.  Just to set the stage, I didn’t just love the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  I enjoyed it, but didn’t LOVE it.  But the same can be said for me about the books.  The Hobbit, on the other hand, I first read in high school and I LOVED it and have been drooling to see Jackson put the kind of love and detail he did for the Rings movies into this prequel.  And judging from the first movie, he’s done it.  I loved everything about this movie.  The story, the sets, the music, the characters.  LOVED it.  And, as of writing this article, I also watched the second movie, The Desolation of Smaug.  But since it was January, I couldn’t include it here.  But, I LOVE this first movie and that’s why it’s on the list.

Fast & Furious 6 (2013) – I am in love with this series of movies. Especially everything since Part 4.  As a matter of fact, I think I’ve seen every one of these movies in the theater EXCEPT Fast 5.  Huh.  Anyway, this particular entry has become my favorite of the whole franchise.  Great cast, fun story, awesome action.  Excellent teaser scene at the end for Part 7.  Paul Walker’s death was tragic, yes, and it makes me curious how they are going to work around that.

Thor: The Dark World (2013) – The first Thor movie really surprised me in how much I liked it. So I was ready and waiting for this to not live up to it. But it did. I think I may have liked it even more than the first one.  Loki and Thor are great.  I like the return of Kat Dennings and Rene Russo as Frigga gets a chance to shine as well.  This is just a fun movie.  Are there a few problems?  Yes, but it’s fun enough that they didn’t bother me.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013) – I love this movie. Was it as good as the first one?  No, not really, but there is SO MUCH funny stuff in this sequel.  The 70s setting, James Marsden as Jack Lime, Ron going blind, Doby the shark and the insane newsperson battle at the end.  This was as good a sequel as you could get from Anchorman.  Hopefully Dumb and Dumber To will be as good as this.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012) – Oh my. There is so much to love about this movie with the character cameos, the awesome main characters and the fun story.  There’s even a new Buckner & Garcia song on the soundtrack.  I can’t recommend highly enough.  I’m surprised this wasn’t a Pixar movie.

Django Unchained (2012) – Yes! Great Hollywood Western done by Quentin Tarantino. Such a good movie.  I’m not even a fan of Jaime Foxx and I thoroughly enjoyed this movie (I still think Idris Elba would have been a better Django).  I hear Tarantino wants to do another western that isn’t a sequel to this.  I’m all for it.  Go, Quentin, single-handedly bring back the Western genre.  I love it!

As I usually do, here are some honorable mentions:

Now You See Me – Great cast, smart script.  One problem, the script may be it’s own enemy.  It’s a little too busy and tries to be a little too smart.  It causes the ending to feel a little disappointing.

The Wolverine – This was SO CLOSE to making the first list up there.  Great movie.  A few problems here and there, but Jackman, as always, crushes this role and there’s so much to love.  But, I’m not going to lie, there’s a few things I didn’t like.  But overall, a really good Wolverine movie.

We’re the Millers – Wow, I thought this was going to be funny, but it’s HILARIOUS.  Such a great cast and I literally laughed out loud throughout this movie.

Miami Connection – Watched this for Cult Film Club.  A 1987 movie that was lost and then re-released in 2012.  I can’t even begin to describe the weird and crazy awesomeness that is this movie.  You just have to watch and experience it for yourself.

This entry was posted on January 13, 2014 at 8:00 am and is filed under movies with tags Movie Board, movies, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.