2013 Movies in Review, Ratings, Random Comments

All stars out of 5 possible, like on amazon.

Zero Dark Thirty (1/12/13)  - 4 stars; Rated R; Intriguing, suspenseful even though you know the outcome; strong language

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (1/26/13) 3.5 stars; Rated R; Not exactly a keep and cherish sort of movie, but entertaining; contains gore and violence and random, gratuitous sex

Good Day to Die Hard (2/16/13) 3 stars; Rated R; things blew up, bullets were fired, but it suffers from being part 4 in a series of similar movies; strong language

Jack The Giant Slayer (3/2/13) 4 stars; Rated PG-13; Surprisingly likable though the princess still manages to pull some airheaded moves; Jack's forgettable, but the princess is pretty, the effects are decent and the end fight's interesting

Oz: The Great and Powerful (3/9/13) 3 stars; Rated PG; I'm not a huge fan of the creepy pastel, "New Willy Wonka movie" look to begin with though I did enjoy how they managed to re-tell the old story with some twists.

Olympus Has Fallen (3/23/13) 2.5 stars; Rated R; typical action flick; the White House gets attacked and a disgraced secret service guy's the last hope for saving the president. They tried to do some character development by having the secret service guy's wife in a few scenes but they weren't enough to really sell the emotional connection.

GI Joe: Retaliation (3/30/13) 2.5 stars; Rated PG-13; I forgot I saw this movie. The cliffside fight scene was cool.

Iron Man 3 (5/4/13) 4 stars; PG-13; typical Iron Man movie; not quite as good as Avengers but a neat action flick with random pieces of humor appropriately applied

Star Trek Into Darkness (5/18/13) 4 stars; PG-13; I don't remember much about the first one, but I did enjoy this one. I was distracted by the fact that the antagoist also plays Sherlock Holmes on the BBC series.

Man of Steel (6/15/13; 6/29/13) 4.5 stars; PG-13; This movie suffered from a slow start, but it was better the second time around. At first, I didn't like the way the flashbacks were organized, but the second time around it made more sense.

Despicable Me 2 (7/4/13; 7/18/13) 5 stars; PG; Better than the first. That's hard to pull off for a sequel. While it's good to have seen the first one then this one, I think they accomplished a lot more with the second movie. The minions are still charming and Gru's character continues to develop. The girls are still cute, and Agent Lucy's a nice addition to the equation.

The Lone Ranger (7/6/13) 2 stars; PG-13; Disney's new John Carter; It suffered from being entirely too long and drawn out. The Lego sets used to promote it were and are cute, but it couldn't save the movie.

Red 2 (7/20/13) 4 stars; PG-13; Interesting, fun action movie; Anthony Hopkins once again pulls off crazy very nicely. Bruce Willis and the rest of the awesome cast save the world again.

Wolverine (7/27/13) 3 stars; PG-13; decent fight scenes but overall, it was just an average movie.

Gravity (10/5/13) 5 stars; PG-13; not really my kind of movie, but it's a beautifully done tale of survival and a woman's fight to keep sane during a highly stressful situation.

Hunger Games: Catching Fire (11/26;11/30; 12/2/13) 5 stars; PG-13; Entertaining movie with enough character development to make me care and enough action to make the 2.5 ish hrs seem well spent. Yes, I saw it three times in a week. The fact that it was still interesting the 3rd time is a feat in and of itself. I didn't think anybody would go with me and had 3 hrs to kill, so I saw it by myself. Then I saw it with a friend I rarely get to see. Then I saw it with a different batch of friends. Surprisingly good seeing as I thought the second book was overall weaker than the first book. Since the third book drove my overall opinion of the series into a very large hole, it should be interesting to see what I think of the 3rd movie. I'm torn between avoiding it and letting curiosity suck me in.

Frozen (12/9/13) 5 stars; PG; The goofy movie poster belies a touching tale full of themes like loyalty, love, family, and sacrifice. It's got some stunneningly beautiful scenes and overall leaves a good impression despite a few awkward, forced songs.

Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (12/21/13; 12/30/13) 4 stars; PG-13; Apparently amazon reviewers don't agree with me. It's good, but it's not quite as good as I'd like the precursor to Lord of the Rings to be. It's definitely better than Hobbit 1: An Unexpected Journey, but it contains some forced parts and some useless characters. Beautifully scored, as usual. The dragon's pretty cool. Some of his lines are kinda stupid, but he's overall awesome.

Conclusion: 2013 had some rough movie patches, but overall, it was a good year with a very strong end movie-wise. I'm not sure any of these are one's I'd add to my blu ray collection, but they kept me entertained and coming back for more.