My best list:
Man Of Steel
Pacific Rim
The Way Way Back
Before Midnight
The Bling Ring
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition (I know it's a DTV film, but it's damn cool)
Warm Bodies
Parker
The Kings Of Summer
Mixed feelings
Iron Man 3 (too jokey, and the plot twist wasn't good)
The Hangover 3 (the flaws with the second one stuck, yet Melissa McCarthy and John Goodman helped it from being total manure)
This. So many films this year I was excited about, only to be let down. Prisoners was one of very few I didn't have to accept flaws and force myself to like it. Such a strong, solid entry in the noir genre. Jackman's best work since The Prestige.
I'm still waiting to see Her, and Inside Llewyn Davis before finalizing my mental list, but I have strong doubts anything will top Prisoners for me.
So many promised so much but in the end, only two were left standing and inseparable: Rush and Saving Mr Banks.
Yours?
I keep forgetting about Rush, but I think that's more because nobody talks about it than because it wasn't a great film (it was). Bruhl and Hemsworth were fantastic. It's a real shame neither will get much notice for it.
I haven't seen a lot of the major "best of the year" competitors this year, but here are my favorite films of the ones I did see... Pretty much in order.
THE WOLF OF WALL STREET
GRAVITY
SHORT TERM 12
CHEAP THRILLS
THE CONJURING
THIS IS THE END
DON JON (Sundance cut, didn't see theatrical)
Also, SPRING BREAKERS (I saw in 2012, but want to make sure you think I'm not intentionally skipping it). If I put it in order, it'd probably be right after Gravity.
I haven't seen Wolf yet. Of the films I did see, Gravity was the best. Cuaron's done better and the special effects are grossly overrated (What's impressive about 2K CGI?) but, still, it's a damn good film. I was also fond of Upstream Color and Trance.
Edit: And Saving Mr. Banks. But whom on this forum didn't love that movie?
I haven't seen Wolf yet. Of the films I did see, Gravity was the best. Cuaron's done better and the special effects are grossly overrated (What's impressive about 2K CGI?)
All movies ever made, except for a couple of exceptions in the last couple of years, have been essentially 2K. I think many have had nice effects.
I'm not saying you can't do good special effects at 2K, I'm saying that Gravity's weren't particularly good. There's nothing novel about 2K CGI and Gravity's animators didn't come closer to photorealism than any others that I've seen. However, I thought their remote head-light box combo was an interesting adaptation of the digital backlot; I'll gladly give them credit for that.
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