I'm am NOT a writer. I'm also not a movie critic. I simply like the movies that I like. It could be an awful or great.I like a lot of "bad" movies It can be a blockbuster or a flop. It doesn't matter. It never has. I tend to like movies for what they are rather than dislike them for what they are not. So this is not necessarily a top 10 best movies list but rather, my Top Movies That I Liked This Year. (with caricatures.) Let's start with......
#10 CHRONICLE
Chronicle tells of the epic tragedy of Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin falls to the dark side of the force. Obi-Wan Kenobi has to confront his friend in a climatic battle that......wait......Wrong story? Oh. Well this one was told better and it took only one movie to do it. To be clear. I LOVE Star Wars!
#9 LAWLESS
Tom Hardy has quickly elevated himself to leading man status this year. He completely carried this movie and didn't have much dialogue beyond grunts and grumbles. His character of Forrest stole the show in a movie that had Shia LeBeef as top billing. I can't wait to see him take on Mad Max next!
#8 DJANGO UNCHAINED
If you make a movie about a black man in the 1800s then slavery is going to be part of the equation. To ignore that is to ignore history. That being said, this was NOT a movie about slavery. It was a movie about a man who was a slave setting out to rescue his wife. It was a classic spaghetti western that had a black man as the main protagonist. To ignore the fact that he most likely would have been a slave, or ignore the fact that the word "nigger" was spoken openly would be stupid. Oh, and it's a Quentin Tarantino movie. Of course it's going to be uncomfortably funny for some and overly violent for others. But if you can get over that and take it as it's intended to be taken, then you should be able to enjoy a really good rescue/revenge western.
#7 Prometheus
Oh man! This movie really divided people. It seems that a lot of people went in thinking it was going to be direct sequel to the Alien franchise. It was not. I don't know why people thought this since Ridley Scott had said many times that it was not, just in the same universe and that it takes place before Alien. I, for one, loved it. I did think some of the scientists were a little too stupid for their own good. "Hey let's go to an alien planet and start touching EVERYTHING! What could happen?" But despite the stupid scientists, I really, really enjoyed this movie. I think I enjoyed it more each time I've watched it.
#6 Les Miserables
The last movie musical that I saw that I really like was Mulan Rouge. I have never seen the play of Les Mis and I didn't know to much about the story but I thought the movie was really really good. Hugh Jackman was amazing and Anne Hathaway as well. Russell Crowe, it seems, is getting a lot of flack for his singing but It didn't take me out of it so I guess it was okay. (I know nothing about singing so it may have been more annoying to others.)
#5 The Hobbit: Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit was EXACTLY what I thought it was going to be. EXACTLY! And that's a good thing because I really liked it! I've heard a lot of people complain that the beginning was too slow. Seriously? do you remember Fellowship of The Ring? The beginning was just as slow. I think some people have selective memory about the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Hobbit fits perfectly into the world that director Peter Jackson has brought to the screen. As far as the "controversial" HFR (High Frame Rate), I thought it was AMAZING!! I can see how people might be put off by it but it only took a few minutes to get use to it. I recommend watching it in HFR at least once so you can make up your own mind about whether you like it or not.
#4 Skyfall
I was one of the few people that wasn't so bothered by Quantum of Solace. I recognize it's faults but they didn't take away from the movie for me. That being said, I was really looking forward to seeing how Skyfall would measure up. I can't say how much I dug this movie. It was an homage movie without beating it you over the head with it. It was a classic Bond movie that the old and the young could get into. I think they got pretty much everything right about this Bond movie.
#3 Wreck-It-Ralph
I cannot tell you how much of a surprise this movie was. It came out of nowhere and made you really care about the characters. It was probably the biggest surprise this year because I really did not expect anything from this movie. I wound up absolutely loving it! And hey, "who doesn't love a brat with dirty hair!?"
#2 The Dark Knight Rises
I have not seen a movie by Christoper Nolan that I haven't liked. I have a couple of friends that feel the EXACT opposite. They can't stand his movies. It was pretty much a no brainer that I was going to simply love this movie seeing as how I am Nolan fan and a Batman fan. I simply can't say enough about how much I love the Nolan Dark Knight Trilogy. So why is it not #1 ?
#1 The Avengers
Because I KNEW I would love The Dark Knight. Despite the fact that it was an excellent movie, it did not raise the bar the way The Dark Knight did. NO one knew if The Avengers would work because It has NEVER been done before. Take characters from an already established super-hero franchises and put them all into one movie, creating a SUPER franchise? And to have that as the plan from the beginning? That take an incredible amount of foresight and planning. But you can have all the planning in the world and everything can still bomb. Hiring Joss Whedon was the first right step. After that, it's all Joss and he brought it home in a big way. I enjoyed this movie from start to finish and I can wait to see what Phase II brings us!
