2013 – Highs, Lows, Rituals and Totals

I love this time of year. I can look back at last year’s movies and decide which need adding to my collection plus I look forward to the coming years new movies and start to hope.  On top of that it means the Oscars are just around the corner and last but not least there are a couple of rituals to be done at home.

Rituals first.

1. Empty the stub jar. Yes, I keep my cinema tickets but only for the year. Why? Don’t know. Moving on.

2. Turn my DVDs right way up. I have a serious DVD collection, really serious. In fact there are too many films for me to possibly watch in a single year. So in order to enjoy as many as possible, as soon as I finish a film it goes back on the shelf upside down.  I then don’t watch it again to the following year. Slightly OCD but hey, who isn’t. Every New Year they get turned right way up and I revel in the fact I can watch anything I want. Yay.

Totals.

During 2013 I managed to watch 156 films (only complete viewings count and each title counts just once), 78 for the first time and 47 of those at the cinema. Favourites. I feel I should stress that this is a favourite film list and not a best film list. These are the pictures of the year I will return to most often and therefore better films could be overlooked for more fun ones. Everyone will admit to thinking Schindlers List is amazing but we would also confess to watching Jurassic Park more often.

Honourable mentions for 2013 include (in no particular order); Escape Plan, Django Unchained, Captain Philips, Les Miserables, Stoker, Welcome to the Punch, Pacific Rim, Rush, Elysium and the Hobbit – Desolation of Smaug’

10. Trance. National treasure Danny Boyle does it again in this stylish cerebral heist movie.

9. Despicable Me 2. Bottom! Need I say more.

8. White House Down. After 2 disappointing Die Hardesque movies in one year (more on that later), it was third time lucky with WHD. Without doubt the most fun I had in the cinema all year. A big stupid grin of a movie.

7. 2 Guns. An unexpected gem. A real 80’s throwback but in a good way. Snarky gold.

6. Riddick. Castaway meets Pitch Black. Going small budget allowed them take the gloves off and give us the Riddick movie we wanted. More please.

5. Lone Ranger. Not going to apologise for this. Call it a guilty pleasure if you must but this is so close to being brilliant. I’ll settle for really good plus the genius final train(s) sequence.

4. Jack Reacher. An opening sequence Hitchcock would have been proud of and the rest is cool too. Old school car chase with old school editing. What’s not to like, so stop whining about Cruise being too small and enjoy a taut, well paced thriller.

3. Gravity. I’d be amazed if this didn’t show up on just about every end of year list and rightly so. One of a few films that left me speechless on viewing. Will avoid the DVD extras like the plague because I just don’t want to know how it was done. Just like a magic trick, knowing would diminish (probably destroy) the wonder.

2. Iron Man 3. Self confessed Shane Black fan loves Shane Black movie shocker. Ok so you comic book guys might not like the Mandarin treatment here but guess what? This film wasn’t  made for you. Over a billion at the box office speaks for itself. Not only did people turn out in big numbers to see this, they went more than once (as did I. Thrice in fact.)

1. The Worlds End. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg make it three out of three. Brilliantly written, acted, directed and edited. There are so many layers of cool and hidden symbols here that it will stand up to viewing after viewing, just like Shaun and just like Hot Fuzz.

Worst of 2013.

At one point in the year I did consider placing just one film in all five positions in the bottom list just to get the message across but in the end four more candidates turned up to fill the spaces.

5. Machete Kills – A joke too far is no joke at all. This one has out stayed its welcome.

4. Kick Ass 2 – The biggest disappointment of 2013.

3. Olympus Has Fallen – Not the worst Die Hardesque movie of the year but that’s not saying much.

2. GI Joe : Retaliation – Apparently this did well enough to warrant a sequel. Have mercy on us all.

1. A Good Day to Die Hard – Oh how the mighty have fallen. Disjointed, improbable, lazy and with one of the least memorable villains of all time. Awful.

Man of the Year.

Steve Coogan – A dazzling display of versatility, Despicable Me 2, Philomena, The Look of Love and the return of Alan Partridge in Alpha Papa. Flawless.

So that was 2013 and pretty good it was too. 2014 here we come..

Jack Reacher

Before we get started, a few words about Films and Books. They’re different. A few more? I’ve seen numerous comments and reviews about Jack Reacher and most seem hung up on the fact that Tom Cruise doesn’t match the physical description in the books. Really! That’s what you want to say. Get over it. The character of Quaid in Total Recall is described in the book as a skinny nerd type, a 70′ s era Woody Allen if you will. Who do we get? Arnold Schwarzenegger (and more recently Colin Farrell). Robert Langdon in the Da Vinci Code (or possibly Angels and Demons) claims he is often mistaken for Harrison Ford. So do they cast Harrison in the role? Nope, Tom Hanks. What I’m trying to say is that there is more to a character than just looks, there’s, for lack of a better word,character.

Which brings us to Jack Reacher. I will confess that I haven’t yet read any of the Lee Childs novels, but what I gather from friends who have, is that Reacher is a huge, unstoppable force of nature, an arrow for justice who believes that the shortest distance between two points is a punch in the face. A man of few words, with no ties and no responsibilities. Well, Cruise nails all of that except the stature. Did that affect my enjoyment? Nope.

Put aside any prejudices you may have and enjoy what is a good old fashioned thriller/mystery. Just like Jack himself this is a lean beast of a film. From the opening sniping scene, viewed through the rifle scope (Hitchcock would have been proud) to the heroes exit there’s scarcely a wasted moment. The plot itself is not that complex and we as the viewer are privy to information Reacher is not. Again, does this spoil our enjoyment. Nope. The mystery becomes less of a who-done-it and more of why-did-they-do-it. Any more than that I’m not going to go into. Retelling the plot is not a review. Suffice to say, bad men do bad things and the hero (and I use the term loosely) saves the day.

There’s a car chase that reinforces Reachers character, full throttle, nothing matters but the objective and provides further proof that Cruise is utterly fearless (he does ALL the driving. No really, ALL). There’s also a cine literate joke regarding Tom Cruise and running (Well I laughed).

Of the other performances on display here, the other outstanding turn is that of Werner Herzog as the mysterious villain, The Zec. A survivor of a Russian prison camp, he is prepared to do anything in order to survive, a point chillingly illustrated by his tale of gnawing off his own frostbitten fingers in order to save his own life. Herzog is on top creepy form here and his bewilderment at others unwillingness to save themselves is utterly convincing.

In brief (too late), put aside your prejudices (literary or otherwise) and go see Jack Reacher. With eighteen or so more novels to choose from, I for one would certainly relish the opportunity to cross paths with him again.

8 out of 10