Movie Review #58 12 Years a Slave (2013)

- My guilt runs deep

Oscar nominated film from Steve McQueen 12 Years a Slave. A movie based on a true story of a black man who was free by the laws of the time and quickly became a slave under the servitude of the white men down in the south of the USA. Well I've only seen one other McQueen movie which I actually reviewed for this blog (Shame (2011)) and I really liked it, it didn't hide much emotionally or physically in a sexual fashion; thus I come into 12 Years a Slave with the idea that the movie won't hide much of a brutal time for African Americans.

Movie Review #57 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

- white collar crimes always payout

Another Martin Scorsese film up for an Oscar. It doesn't feel that long ago I was sitting down watching my first Scorsese film. Oh right. It wasn't. Everyone has a gap in their knowledge or hobbies and Scorsese was certainly mine. It was only a few years ago I guess I watched my first one, I think I wrote out the actual day in a previous blog post(?). I of course had a fill of Scorsese as I just sat down and watched his films one weekend so I can't say for sure what one was first, but I can say I did enjoy all of them immensely. I am completely guilty of brand loyalty, so it should come as no surprise that I went into The Wolf on Wall Street with my arms open wide to embrace the movie.

Movie Review #56 Gravity (2013)

- “f=(gm1m2)/d2”

Ah, the science fiction-y movie for the Oscars. The rare genre for Best Picture. I certainly consider Gravity (2013) one of those movies where you get a lot of viewership of the movie over some of the other contenders as the market for science fiction is the same market for people who more often than not go see movies (and multiple times). For most of the nominations that Gravity received, I completely agree with. I do think it should be up for best picture, it won't win; I don't think it has the strong emotional lasting appeal that the 'Best Of' should have, nor does it have a strong enough story, but it's good and probably the best science fiction movie of 2013 (unless you're looking for fantasy science fiction, where Star Trek Into Darkness should win). I suspect the movie will grab a lot of the technical ones. Visually the movie is stunning from start to finish, which no exceptions. On technical visuals alone the movie is just darn perfect.

Movie Review #55 Ernest et Célestine (2012)

- The fairy odd animal couple

Whew, sorry for that brief if not funny throw away review. I just had to review it, all these good movies, I had to put it all into perspective. Thursday will always be Oscar nominated films, but as we'll run out of Thursdays, some Tuesdays will also be Oscar nominated films. Next up a movie nominated for best animation! I'm glad to see the Oscars always pick an animated film that isn't Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks or a high profile Japanese anime. Not that any of them are bad, just I'm sure everyone knows that there are a lot of other animated movies around and we just aren't seeing them. I hope that my review pushes someone into seeing these underrated movies because they are worth it.

Movie Review #54 Dracula: The Dark Prince (2013)

- Bit(e) of love

I just caught Dracula: The Dark Prince (2013) and was spurred to imagination of a review for it, so here I am typing up a storm at 6:00AM. I'm not sure what it is about Vampire movies, I just have to watch them. There hasn't been a good vampire movie in my books in a very long time. I know who to blame, but I think that might get me off topic too much so I'll jot that down for another time.

Movie Review #53 American Hustle (2013)

- Who hustles and who gets hustled?

The deal is, I'm going to be watching movies from now till Oscar time. The movies I'll be reviewing will be the ones nominated in the Best Picture category, though with a bit of luck I'll review some films that are just up for other Oscars. Maybe. So I'll be doing 9 reviews for sure prior to March 3^rd - Oscars night, and one more to make the even 10. Other than that it'll be hit or miss for other nominated movies, but I'd like to touch one at least one animated film just to spice things up, and maybe a foreign film, as one of my favourite film reviews on this blog was the foreign film Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (aka: A Separation (2011)). Whatever happens, here is your first review of 2014 and the Oscar nominated American Hustle (2013).

2013: My journey from January 1st to December 31st

I started the year off really strong with my film watching. January and February were really great months. Busy watching all the Oscar nominees alone was a fast paced ride for me. Catching all the movies before Oscar night I missed in 2012 is always a race. I kept the pace up for awhile but it all died down in April and I didn't really pick up again until midsummer and kept that up till my October horror fest. November and December were a wash as I only watched 6 movies in 60 days. Grand total I watched 215 movies in 2013, down by more than 50 from last year I'm afraid.