Article: Palooz Presents: 2013 in Film

[Glenbino]

Do those really count?

If Sharknado isn't top 50, this thread should be deleted.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[NAHSTE]

We don't count SyFY

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

SyFy is a television network. What does that have to do with the year 2013 in film?

Sci-Fi is a genre.

 

[Glenbino]

SyFy is a television network. What does that have to do with the year 2013 in film?

Sci-Fi is a genre.

SyFy makes like 100 movies a year.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Buzzman]

If Sharknado isn't top 50, this thread should be deleted.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

How do you say it should be top 50 yet just said SyFY doesnt count.

 

[Glenbino]

How do you say it should be top 50 yet just said SyFY doesnt count.

I'm a loose cannon. That's why I could never make a list like this.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[NAHSTE]

SyFy makes like 100 movies a year.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

Ah now I see you were just trashing Buzzman's taste in a different way. Got it.

 

[Houston]

How do you say it should be top 50 yet just said SyFY doesnt count.

:dead:

I think he was being sarcastic.

 

[Palooza]

Interesting to see that you watched 121 films last year while I watched 116, yet I haven't seen 31 of the movies you've ranked so far and only 7 of your honorable mentions.

list them.

 

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

SyFy makes like 100 movies a year.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

The movie company is called Asylum. They're awesome.

 

[Glenbino]

The movie company is called Asylum. They're awesome.

Back in the early days of Netflix I may or may not have been tricked by their movie titles into thinking it was something else.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Palooza]

Back in the early days of Netflix I may or may not have been tricked by their movie titles into thinking it was something else.

Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

To be fair, their titles are :glen:'d versions of popular films.

 

[Glenbino]

To be fair, their titles are :glen:'d versions of popular films.

I think the one that got me was Battle for Los Angeles while Battle:LA was still in theaters.

I had heard it was a flop, so I figured they just cut a deal with Netflix to make some extra cash..

I was about 30 minutes in before I'd realized Aaron Eckhart hadn't shown up yet. :glen:



Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

 

[Pitty]

I think the one that got me was Battle for Los Angeles while Battle:LA was still in theaters.

I had heard it was a flop, so I figured they just cut a deal with Netflix to make some extra cash..

I was about 30 minutes in before I'd realized Aaron Eckhart hadn't shown up yet. :glen:



Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk

Meanwhile Kel Mitchell does.

 

[Buzzman]

12 Years a Slave
Her
Blue is the Warmest Color
Inside Lleywn Davis
The Wolf of Wall Street
Gravity
Mud
Captain Phillips
This is the End
Broken Circle Breakdown
The Spectacular Now
Prisoners
The Hunt
Before Midnight
Drinking Buddies
Short Term 12
Rush
The Place Beyond the Pines
Prince Avalanche
Side Effects
Spring Breakers
Lone Survivor
The Great Gatsby
Enough Said
The Way Way Back
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Saving Mr Banks
The Croods
Oblivion
Philomena
Warm Bodies
The Kings of Summer
Kick Ass 2
Fast and Furious 6
The To Do List
What Richard Did
Fruitvale Station
We're the Millers
Behind the Candlebra
The Conjuring
Aint Them Bodies Saints
Auguest-Osage County
Bad Grandpa
World War Z
Star Trek Into Darkness
Dallas Buyers Club
All is Lost
Thor 2: The Dark World
American Hustle
Disconnect
Frozen
Snitch
Frances Ha
Texas Chainsaw 3D
Blackfish
Iron Man 3
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Monsers University
The East
Man of Steel
You're Next
Delivery Man
Stories We Tell
Despicable Me 2
Labor Day
Out of the Furnace
Elysium
Don Jon
The Attack
Now You See Me
The World's End
21 and Over
Evil Dead
Oz the Great and Powerful
The Bling Ring
White House Down
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Olympus Has Fallen
GI Joe Retaliation
The Hangover Part 3
Nebraska
Hours
Jack the Giant Slayer
Trance
At Any Price
The Wolverine
Dead Man Down
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
Gangster Squad
The Purge
Pain and Gain
Pacific Rim
The Iceman
Admission
After Earth
Oldboy
Upstream Color
Only God Forgives
The Internship
Stoker
The Heat
Identity Theft
The Mortal Instruments

 

[Palooza]

Blue is the Warmest Color
Broken Circle Breakdown
Before Midnight
Enough Said
The Croods
Philomena
What Richard Did
We're the Millers
Behind the Candlebra
Auguest-Osage County
Bad Grandpa
Frances Ha
Texas Chainsaw 3D
Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues
Stories We Tell
Despicable Me 2
Labor Day
The Attack
The Incredible Burt Wonderstone
Hours
At Any Price
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Sea of Monsters
After Earth
Upstream Color
The Internship
Stoker
The Heat
The Mortal Instruments

These are the ones I have not seen.

 

[kmanharris]

71. Out of the Furnace
Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, Woody Harrelson, Zoe Saldana, Forest Whitaker, Willem Dafoe, Sam Shepard, Boyd Holbrook​

Director(s): Scott Cooper
Writer(s): Scott Cooper, Brad Ingelsby
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: December 6th
RT Score: 52% (90 fresh, 83 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza:
Comments:
Yikes. What an unfortunate movie this is. It's not bad, but it should be great. An A-list cast, a nice little crime/revenge story. Not entirely sure what went wrong here whether it be my overexposure to movies, the revealing trailers or just an extremely predictable movie in general, but after an intense "this guy is a psycho, got it" scene, the movie slowly rolls down hill into a big pile of shit. The viewer can see the pile of shit from the top of the hill, so there's no reason to roll with it and get lost in the movie. The movie relies too heavily on the actors to use their performance to lift the film, but there's just so little characterization that you don't care. You know Casey Affleck's character is going to die and Bale is going to avenge him. This is an okay thing to make obvious if you kill him early, but he dies at least 2/3 of the way through. Poor storytelling. Crazy Heart was also not a very good movie that was carried by great performances within a cliche story/setting. Scott Cooper, you've been found out the jig is up. He can be next seen directing the Whitey Bulger biopic starring Johnny Depp. That looks to be a disaster.

Spoiler Alert: Bale gets his revenge.
Grade: C

Saw this the other night. If the acting wasn't as superb as it was, this movie would have been absolute shit. The storytelling was awful and predictable but Bale and company made it respectable.

 

[Palooza]

60. The Counselor
Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt, Rosie Perez, Natalie Dormer, Edgar Ramirez, John Leguizamo, Dean Norris, Goran Visnjic, Ruben Blades, Bruno Ganz, Emma Rigby, Donna Air, Fernando Cayo, Sam Spruell, Richard Brake, Alex Hafner​

Director(s): Ridley Scott
Writer(s): Cormac McCarthy
MPAA Rating: R
Release Date: October 25th
RT Score: 34% (65 fresh, 134 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: After being told in a million different ways that he is going to be in over his head, The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) gets in over his head in the drug trade as everything that can possibly go wrong for him, does.
Comments:
Cormac McCarthy is a great writer. He has the short & sweet, dark, depressing and violent down pat. Cormac McCarthy is not a screenwriter. He is a novelist. With the Counselor, his first non-adaptation screenplay, it is obvious the man needs a filter. A filter preferably by the name of Coen, but a filter nonetheless. The movie is a series of long, drawn out monologues about the drug trade and how they reflect everyday philosophies with a few glimpses at some creative violence. On paper, this should work, but it doesn't. I don't blame any specific person; everyone seems to do their job quite well actually - everything is well acted (except one person), Ridley Scott's slick directing works perfectly here and the writing is top notch (except the repetitive plot line of 'speech about not getting into what hes getting into' followed by heinous act of violence, rinse and repeat), if a little heavy handed. The problems reside in the aforementioned need for McCarthy's work to go through a filter, overseen by a top tier writer/director team and also, the biggest problem, is the only character who doesn't seem to have shit fall at their feet at every turn is played by the least likable actress on earth, an absolute piece of dog shit of a human. Cameron Diaz - :marty: if you are not cast in this role I could have tricked myself into believing this was a good movie, but no. You make out like a fucking bandit while everyone else cries or dies. Seriously, fuck you.

There's a lot of enjoyment to pull out of this movie if you aren't getting caught up in the high expectations that are created by how great this movie looks on paper. The violence is great, the dark worldview is signature McCarthy, and the combination of the words and how they roll off the actor's tongues is ear porn. Unfortunately, Cameron Diaz is cast in the meatiest role and meanwhile Assbender spends the entire movie reacting to speeches given by other characters or being upset he didn't heed anyone's soliloquial advice.

Spoiler Alert: Penelope Cruz doesn't look as good without a head. Diaz gets over on em all.
Grade: C+

 

[Palooza]

59. Iron Man 3
Robert Downey Jr, Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Stephanie Szostak, Jon Faverau, Ty Simpkins, Paul Bettany, Ashley Hamilton, William Sadler, Dale Dickey, Adam Pally​

Director(s): Shane Black
Writer(s): Drew Pearce, Shane Black
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Release Date: May 3rd
RT Score: 78% (219 fresh, 61 rotten)
The Plot by Palooza: Iron Man has to save the world from bad guys.
Comments:
The major talking point for Iron Man 3 is the handling of the Mandarin and the overall spectrum of villainy. So, if you haven't seen the movie and care about details you should piss off right about .... now. There will be spoilers throughout this "review", but not quite yet...

This is the first look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe post-Avengers and it's significantly underwhelming. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (for the rest of the way will be referred to as MCU) has a very distinct formula that works almost perfectly, but when it is not executed as best as it can be or the little sprinkles that rises these movies up beyond mediocrity fall flat, you have yourself a problem. Not unlike it's lazy, embarrassing predecessor, the film relies much too heavily on Robert Downey Jr's charisma, which is perfectly placed without some really nice action set pieces. Unlike Iron Man 2, the execution is much more properly done here. However, there's the botched "twist" and bastardization of a well known villain matched up with an excessive amount of Pepper Potts, a weak Iron Man-less second act and a cartoonish villain.

Let's not ignore what the film actually does very well - Shane Black is an action movie god. The combination of action and humor is unmatched by anybody else in the business. Robert Downey Jr's comeback came almost entirely from his brilliant turn as Harry in Black's Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, add this to RDJ's comfort with the character and you have a wonderful film on paper. On paper. The attack on Stark's house is an amazing display of high scale destruction. The ominous nature of the Mandarin is absolutely beautiful... up until the reveal. And this is where I run out of nice things to say about the movie. Beyond the action and RDJ's charisma, there is a lot left to be desired. Up until the twist reveal, you are able to tolerate Guy Pearce's cartoonish villain, but once we find out the Mandarin is just a puppet for Pearce's bitter genius, your dick goes from midnight back down to six. It's really underwhelming and we spend the rest of the movie following Pearce as he manipulates Pepper Potts and she becomes an awful sidekick to Iron Man. She is infected with some shit that makes everybody superstrong and she kicks some ass at the end of the movie, much to my disappointment. It's weak and ridiculous. I hated every second of it. That's not to mention that the entire second act consists of Tony Stark and no Iron Man as he struggles to regain his "powers" and hangs around with a dumb and annoying child. Wildly disappointing.

Spoiler Alert: Iron Man wins.
Grade: C+

 

[SethMode]

I am sure that this has been discussed a lot somewhere on the internet but: what the fuck is up with Shane Black and Christmas? Has he ever come out and said anything about it?

 

[Palooza]

I am sure that this has been discussed a lot somewhere on the internet but: what the fuck is up with Shane Black and Christmas? Has he ever come out and said anything about it?

I started to type "how come Shane Black..." and the first suggestion was "likes Christmas"

I found this - http://vodzilla.co/blog/features/wh...nd-christmas-or-a-christmas-iron-man-3-carol/

“What a bright time, it’s a right time…”

That’s exactly how you expect a festive favourite to begin: the screen opens onto a soaring shot over a city, as Jingle Beck Rock serenades the season. Then, a woman surrounded by tinsel and Christmas lights. She leans forward to enjoy an early present: a line of the white stuff straight from Santa up her nose. Then, she walks out to her apartment balcony and jumps. The storeys of the building fly past, every now and then interrupted by a burst of blurred fairy lights.

So this is Christmas, Shane Black-style.

In 1987, Lethal Weapon blew Christmas wide open. It turned out that Christmas films didn’t just have to be festive and feel-good; they could be both of those things and feature guns, swearing and prostitutes too. Happy fucking holidays.

That use of Christmas as a concept, as a whimsical backdrop for an action movie, was so good that Die Hard copied it – a combination that’s led to it being universally recognised as the best Christmas film of all time.

“I did Lethal Weapon back in ‘87 and we did Christmas, and Joel [Silver] liked it so much, he put Die Hard at Christmas and there was some fun to that,” Shane told Collider. “You don’t have to do every film that way,” he added. “I tried to explain that.”

But Shane enjoyed the seasonal setting so much that he has since used it in pretty much all of his films, which makes it easy to tell a Shane Black project apart from the rest of the thriller genre.

shane black Christmas films

His Santa obsession continued this year with Marvel’s Iron Man 3, which completed the writer-director’s ultimate Christmas trilogy: Iron Man 3, Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

So what’s the deal with Shane Black and Christmas?

Doing the promotional rounds for Iron Man in the summer, he offered an answer: “Christmas is fun. It’s unifying, and all your characters are involved in this event that stays within the larger story. It roots it, I think, it grounds everything,” he told the lovely folk at Den of Geek. “At Christmas, lonely people are lonelier, seeing friends and families go by. People take reckoning, [they take] stock of where their lives are at Christmas.”

It’s true that Shane Black’s characters are usually lonely. At a time when the world is concerned with family, and Homicide Sergeant Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) is celebrating his 50th birthday, Narcotics Sergeant Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) couldn’t be more different: widowed after a traffic accident, he spends his Advent nights pondering suicide. During the daytime, his reputation as a reckless madman means that nobody wants to work with him.

Shane Black’s script, directed by Richard Donner, emphasises the contrast between Riggs’ loneliness and the communal holiday spirit: shootouts take place in a pen of Christmas trees, while Christmas songs signal the opening and end credits. Gibson, meanwhile, conveys his character’s tragic desperation with a likeable charisma – that other key quality for a Shane Black protagonist.

In Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, our anti-hero is Harry Lockhart. Once Harold The Great, a child magician who performed at fetes in front of local crowds, he’s now a failed father in LA. We first meet him Christmas shopping. At night. With a torch. And a balaclava. But not only does he not pay for his son’s present, he doesn’t even know what his son wants (in the land of Christmas, the ultimate crime). His ex-wife on the phone explains that he needs to find Cyber Agent. “Protocop, protector of man,” comes the babbled reply. “Is that it? Protocop? He protects men.”

Where Lethal Weapon juxtaposed Riggs against a wider, warmer community, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang takes Harry into the seedy underbelly of LA, where everyone is a lonely screw-up. Michelle Monaghan’s love interest, former childhood crush Harmony, is an equally failed actress who thinks nothing of the idea of a man touching her boob while she sleeps. Val Kilmer’s Gay Perry, meanwhile, is as cold as they come.

“Merry Christmas,” he grins cruelly at Harry. “Sorry I fucked you over.”

As the cool detective flick unwinds its twists, the frosty pair start to warm to each other – a relationship that helps Harry to redeem himself by not giving in to the cold un-Christmassy world around him.

Odd couple chemistry, rapid dialogue, post-modern voiceover and occasional explosions? If Kiss Kiss Bang Bang was the role that announced Robert Downey Jr. was back on the scene, it was just a build-up to what happened next: Iron Man 3, a darkly hilarious film featuring odd couple chemistry, rapid dialogue, post-modern voiceover and occasional explosions. It was Kiss Kiss Bang Bang 2 as much as a Marvel movie; a Shane Black film that happened to have superheroes in it.

Along with all the other Shane staples came, of course, Christmas.

“I’m Tony Stark. I build neat stuff, got a great girl, occasionally save the world. So why can’t I sleep?” voiceovers Tony Stark, taking stock of his life as December 25th rolls around once again.

Tony Stark, like Riggs and Harry, is another outsider; not just because of his armoured suit that can blow up a tank or even because of his lavish lifestyle and obscene wealth, but because he choices to be. Shaken up by what happened at the end of The Avengers, he panics whenever anyone mentions it and hides behind his suits to avoid connecting with others, including Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). But it’s more than that; he refuses to take things when people hand them to him too. By his own volition, as well as others’, Tony is lonely. And as Shane says, at Christmas time, he’s even more so.

That introspective streak turns Iron Man 3 into Marvel’s most character-driven blockbuster yet; a journey of – here’s that word again – redemption that sees Tony change his ways and learn about himself, as well as kill a psychotic bad guy.

Sound familiar? That’s because on some level, you could read Iron Man 3 as A Christmas Carol. Shane Black even did that when writing the script: “We actually started talking about this as ‘A Christmas Carol’ episode of Iron Man. Certain characters in Iron Man 3 are analogous to different ghosts from the Dickens tale.”

Certainly, there’s an element of Tony’s past coming back to haunt him; repeated flashbacks to his time in Geneva when he “created his own enemy” in The Mandarin are complimented by the introduction of young Harley Keener (Ty Simpkins – watch out for him in Jurassic World), who, like Tony, has an absent father and is prone to playing with the odd gadget. Scientist and former lover Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall), meanwhile, arrives at his house one day to warn him of what’s to come, Marley-like, before reminding him of their historical Swiss connection.

Into all of that steps Guy Pearce’s Aldrich Killian. A smart guy with a neat line in suits and smiles, he opens up Tony’s eyes to the world that’s around him now, a present where his girlfriend is borderline leaving him and he’s lost sight of his purpose.

The spirit to leave the biggest impact, though, is The Mandarin. Played by Ben Kingsley, he terrifies Tony into action with an ominous rumble. “I’m gonna offer the choice: do you want an empty life, or a meaningful death?” he warns, threatening to strip the superhero of all symbolic meaning – painting a grim future yet to come for America, as well as our lead man. Then, The Mandarin disappears in a puff of a smoke, leaving Tony to take stock once more.

All three festive films follow anti-heroes finding redemption. It might not sound particularly original, but when done right, it’s a moving narrative; one so powerful that Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has been adapted for the screen dozens and dozens of times.

Even It’s a Wonderful Life, that perennial favourite, echoes a similar character development: a man coming to realise his own worth. The notion of someone thinking the world would be better off without them is present in Lethal Weapon too. That Christmas setting tips us off to the inevitably heartwarming, feel-good resolution, but that doesn’t stop it from being a satisfying watch. As Riggs runs into Murtaugh’s house to share in their dinner, even his dog comes in from the cold. Awww.

As well as flawed protagonists taking stock, it’s that sense of togetherness that gives Shane Black’s Christmas trilogy its entertaining punch: these are stories of fathers or husbands reuniting with their family, or men finding a group of friends to make a new family of their own.

“If you’re doing something on an interesting scale that involves an entire universe of characters, one way to unite them is to have them all undergo a common experience,” comments Black. “And there is something at Christmas that unites everybody.”

That driving force for a hero to connect with someone else is a universal thing we all recognise – and rather than a cliched romantic subplot or a kidnapped child in need of rescue, why not use Christmas as an emotional shorthand for an action movie backdrop?

Snowing and blowing things up, it makes Black’s movies bushels of fun – perhaps not for the whole family, but for an audience of people who are brought together by that shared love of humans trying to come good for the holidays. And guns. And swearing. And prostitutes.

I haven't read it yet though