25/ Battleship
I have debated for the whole year whether the pure big-budget bullshit of the U.S. Navy verses Aliens was worthy of inclusion in this prestigious top twenty five ranking. And then I remembered just how ridiculously fun it is. A Transformers or Pirates sequel this most definitely is not. There’s a funny script, an urgent, fast paced story and it’s a ton of fun; that’s something Dark Of The Moon doesn’t have.
24/ The Tall Man
Pascal Laugier’s follow up to to Martyrs showed that the director had an agenda when it came to thought provoking, intelligent cinema as well as conceiving plots which constantly shift and turn direction beneath an audiences feet. Atmospheric and smart with a great central performance from Jessica Biel.
23/ Snow White & The Huntsman
Although the story was somewhat derivative, the execution of this fairytale was superb. Rupert Saunder’s direction was confident, his vision was realistic, gritty and foreboding and his cast excellent. But it’s Charlize Theron’s terrifying Evil Queen which pushes this into the excellent category.
22/ The Artist
A brilliant tribute to silent cinema that combines a stong story with great performances and inventive direction.
21/ Life Of Pi
Ang Lee takes this ‘impossible to adapt’ story of a boy’s struggle to survive a shipwreck with only a dangerous Bengal Tiger to keep him company and makes it look easy. A beautiful tale of the power of faith, stories and imagination.
20/ Chronicle
The inevitable found footage reworking of the superhero myth is surprisingly excellent thanks to a sphincter tight script and excellent casting.
19/ The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
David Fincher returns to familiar, serial killer territory with a slick, stylish and hard-hitting adaptation of the Swedish bestseller. Rooney Mara makes for a great Lisbeth.
18/ Cloud Atlas
The Wachowski Siblings team up with Tom Twyker to direct a the hour epic spanning 6 stories over many centuries, continents and characters. Exploring the inter-connectedness of humanity it’s deep, riveting and one of the most ambitious film of the year.
17/ Detention
Joseph Khan’s devisive apocalyptic fantasy, horror, science fiction, action- thriller, body swapping, time-traveling teen romantic comedy was undoubtedly one of the years most inventive and original movies directed with considerable flair and containing big laughs.
16/ Beasts Of The Southern Wild
A haunting coming of age tale set in the Louisiana swamplands as climate change causes the sea waters to rise. A life affirming story about finding one’s place in the universe with a gorgeous score and photography.
15/ Ted
Seth MacFarlane does the impossible in his feature directing debut and makes Mark Wahlberg funny in his shit your pants funny story of a child’s teddy bear that’s come to life.
14/ Brave
Pixar hit the bullseye once again with their moving, funny and exciting medieval fantasy which plays with the Pixar template of unconventional buddy movies. Beautifully made too.
13/ We Bought A Zoo
Matt Damon buys a zoo in Cameron Crowes sentimental dramady. While it's sentimentalily might be off-putting to some, you only have to look at E.T., Field Of Dreams and Jerry Maguire to know that this is the right kind of sentimentality.
12/ The Raid
Not the greatest action movie ever, but the greatest action, in a movie, at least since The Matrix, and maybe even since Hard Boiled. A tight script plus clean but brutal combat sequences take the breath away.
11/ The Grey
Joe Carnahan’s arty Alaskan survival tale with a standout performance from Liam Neeson. The wolf-centric, stalk and slash story is solid but it’s the spiritual subtext and superlative ending where the movie excels.
10/ Argo
Ben Affleck’s 1970’s, Iranian set thriller deftly balance a tense espionage story with a bonkers comedy caper. An eclectic cast compliment the bizarre story while Affleck makes it look easy.
9/ John Carter
Disney’s massive box office bomb was an under-rated masterpiece of escapist cinema. Although lacking originality due to the source material and directed in an unapologetically old fashioned way, John Carter is fun, romantic and exciting with great characters, stunning effects and makes you nostalgic for the golden age of 30’s science fiction serials like Flash Gordon.
8/ The Hunger Games
Not the tweeny Twilight rip-off one expected but a magnificently mature science fiction thriller. Director Gary Ross cleverly chooses an ultra-real tone which adds to the dramatic tension and adds integrity to the layers of socially relevant subtext. Oh and the incredible Jennifer Lawrence in the lead cements her as an A-list talent that’s here to stay.
7/ Looper
Rian Johnson’s smart, futuristic, action thriller is a expert lesson in world building, character building and style. Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Emily Blunt and a better than usual Bruce Willis star in this imaginative, exciting, moving and thought provoking slice of premiere science fiction.
6/ Prometheus
Although hampered by a script full of dumb characters and plot holes, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus remains endlessly rewatchable (hence its controversial placing in this list). Immaculately designed with an ambitious, multi-layered script and directed, acted and executed within an inch of it’s life, the film is a welcome return to unashamedly hard, sci-fi thrillers of the past.
5/ Dredd
Although stuck with a plot identical to The Raid, a reputation tarnished by the 1995 Stallone adaptation and a budget a fraction of that movie, Dredd was a joy from start to finish. It treated the character and concept with respect (Karl Urban is excellent), it’s produced with an indie vide from it’s unique photography to its electro-synth score while embracing its ultra-violent, exploitation roots.
4/ Skyfall
The best scripted Bond movie ever was directed with elegance by Oscar winner Sam Mendes. Layered with subtext (the first for the Bond series) with the focus smarty on its trio of central characters, brilliantly played by Daniel Craig, Judi Dench and Javier Bardem, it’s a class of movie this franchise has never seen before.
3/ Cabin In The Woods
The best script of 2013 is to horror movies what The Matrix is to science fiction. Working on a variety of different levels the film deconstructs and celebrates the horror genre while offering insight into socialism, storytelling and the movie going experience itself. Plus its constantly amusing, extremely fun, has a ton of gore and comes from the twisted brains of Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon.
2/ The Dark Knight Rises
While I still slightly prefer the unpredictability of 2008’s The Dark Knight, the follow up demonstrated a quality of storytelling in cinema that was beyond the reach of his peers. Once again, Christopher & Jonathan Nolan’s script is thematically layered putting the emphasis on Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne as he and his co-characters struggle with the burden of lying for the common good and the consequences of those lies. Impeccably filmed with a great supporting cast including the imposing Tom Hardy and the conflicted Anne Hathaway there’s not an element of this which feels wrong footed. And for me there’s a dreamlike feel to Christopher Nolan’s work which makes it so cinematically attuned to my own sensibilities, it’s hard not to stare at The Dark Knight Rises in awe.
1/ Marvel’s The Avengers
The movie that finally put the talent of writer/director Joss Whedon on the mainstream map after residing as a cult geek God following his work on TV favourites Firefly and Buffy. Avengers showed the rest of the world what we already knew; an impeccably efficient and imaginative script, a magnificently cast ensemble, a remarkable understanding of mixing dramatic tones, an obvious love of genre material, and some of the wittiest and funniest banter committed to film. While not the most visually cinematic of directors out there, his focus on telling the best possible story in the best possible way makes Avengers an utter classic.
Bubbling under = ParaNorman, Lincoln, REC 3, Flight, The Hobbit Part 1, John Dies At The End, Pitch Perfect, The Descendents, 21 Jump Street, The Amazing Spider-Man, Moonrise Kingdom.
