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.

I did however manage to watch 57 movies that were shown in 2013. So many movies on the backlog it's still pretty crazy. Where will I find the time for them when new movies (good and bad) keep coming out that I have to watch?

Similar to last year, I've decided to give awards based on what I watched this year covering all 215 movies and not just the ones that came out in 2013. Hope this tickles your fancy.

Best Animation:

I watched a lot of anime in August and a lot of it was beautiful. From a fulfilling story to stunning scenery and fleshed out characters, I was sobbing like a child for three of them (5 Centimeters Per Second (2007), A Letter to Momo (2011) and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)). However I had to go with Paperman (2012) as the winner. It's seven minutes long, so it's very simple, limited colours and probably had the same emotional impact on me as the full feature films I listed above. It's stunning. It won an Oscar, so at least the Oscar committee and myself agree on something. I'd also like to note that I was able to see Paperman and all the other animated shorts when they were announced for an Oscar this past year because the late Roger Ebert let his twitter followers in on a link that allowed viewing of the shorts. So no matter our different opinions on just about every movie out there, thanks and r.i.p.

Winner: Paperman

Best Sci-Fi:

I had three contenders for this, Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) which is absolutely sci-fi-lite. I mean yes it's about the possibility of time travel but it is so layered under the interpersonal connections between a handful of people science fiction is on the back burner. I disqualified it on that basis. It's a good movie but for best Sci-Fi, I wanted something that screamed it. Which left me with two. I recently watched Gravity and boy howdy it is an amazing looking film. I think the characters were plain yet acted superbly. It also takes place in modern times. It's more Science & Fiction. No the best Science-Fiction movie for me was Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). It's a wild ride with a lot of great actors, a strong villain and a whole lot of lens flare. Looking at my entire list of sci-fi nominations, I probably should have watched more movies that would have qualified.

Winner: Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Comedy:

I think by now my readers should know I just don't watch enough comedy movies to properly pull off a category. Mostly due to the fact I think most of the comedy put out in theatres is pandering to the lowest common denominator of humour. Which is to say it's brain dead comedy. It's reaching out to the masses instead of trying to be smart. So at the end of the year, I had one movie that I'm willing to support and that is The World's End (2013). Simon Pegg and Nick Frost together for the last of Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy. I was weary at first of the movie, unsure where they were going and uneasy that perhaps they didn't know where they were going. But soon enough the movie took grip and I enjoyed the ride with a barrel of laughs. I don't think everyone is going to like this and that's my point above. I'd rather a movie try something different and fail to me or others than to see the same poor movie over and over.

Winner: The World's End

Best Drama:

I actually had to put way more time than I wanted into this one. I'm a sucker from crime drama, and I'm also a big sucker for George Clooney. I mean have you seen him? He could say I am a purple person to me and I'd just say your words are the gospel. So Michael Clayton (2007) was certainly a high contender for me. I'm also infatuated with Tilda Swinton. So when the two of them start an acting war on screen, it's bliss. But while the movie was intellectually spirited, as was my eventual winner, I thought the winner had a better design and set, was more colourful and wondrous. It's also another 2013 movie, so I'm trying to stay relative.

Winner: The Great Gatsby (2013)

Best Horror:

I dedicated all of October to watching new to me horror movies so that I could have a horror movie to suggest, I find it ultimately difficult to pick one based on how scared I was as I'm usually disconnected from the terror rather quickly. Don't get me wrong, the jump scares or how I like to call them “closet zombies” (because it's always something in the closet and zombies are “in” nowadays) always get me, even if I know they are coming. But rarely do I get connected to anyone in a horror movie so I never feel bad for them or want them to live. With that said I found a couple of movies that were interesting, well acted and didn't suffer from poor acting. But I think easily enough [Rec] 2 (2009) was the winner. I know I suggested the first one before and I think the 2^nd keeps up the pace nicely. It takes place minutes give or take after the first one, and it assumes you have seen the first one, so you best do that before seeing this one. It's subtitled so I know that might turn some of you away as horror is much different if you have to read while getting scared but I didn't find it distracting at all.

Winner: [Rec] 2

Best Action:

As per usual for myself I had a winning choice of action movies to pick from and call the best. I think I watched three different Statham movies this year, he's always good choice for action movie. He's smooth, great voice and for the most part his movies make sense (save for the crank series which is silly, and amazing). But nope, no Statham this time. Well how about the mighty resurgence of Schwarzenegger, Stallone or Willis? They in recent years have all been making more action movies again? And again. No my readers. I did not give them my vote. Well how about a wild Japanese director known for controversial movies? How about a movie with amazing choreography, interesting twist on an old story with grand fighting all around? Yes. If for some strange reason you happened to say Takashi Miike's 13 Assassins (2010) then you were absolutely right - and you should pick my lotto numbers next week. This was a really close to 10 movie for me but I thought the suggested monkey king having sex with anything that moved was really silly and knocked it down to a 9.

Winner: 13 Assassins

The Worst Film:

Nothing as bad as last year's worst movie The Room, but I had some seriously bad movies crammed into my peepers this year. Getaway (2013) and R.I.P.D. (2013) were really bad movies this year. I almost can't believe they got made. Terrible acting, especially in RIPD and boy howdy the nonsensical decisions just about at every single turn in Getaway. I gave both of these movies 2/10 but what took the cake was a movie I watched for my horror fest of October. Muppets in a poorly written, acted and all around silly movie just made for the worst movie I watched in 2013.

Loser: Ghoulies (1985)

The Best Film:

Django Unchained (2012). Hands down. Wasn't even a choice. I'm not hiding the winner with a paragraph. All movies this year were compared to this day in and day out. I'm not a big QT fan, the usual films by him aren't in my top 25. This movie? Top 5. I've watched it multiple times this year and recommended it more than any other film this year. The music is top notch, the acting is unbelievable. The wild west is my favourite location/time period for a movie and this movie just didn't have a complaint for me. A 10 out of 10 movie for me.

Winner: Django Unchained

That's another year gone folks. I know I took a long break here during the year, but thanks for reading my limited posts this year and I hope my readers have a great 2014.

PS: Remember I'm not putting heavy time into editing anymore so if spelling and grammar mistakes are present, deal with it.