Top 5 Films of 2013

Well, the book has closed on yet another Hollywood movie year. I caught 35 films in 2013 and sadly really only enjoyed about a dozen of them. The disappointments arrived early (Gangster Squad, Broken City, A Good Day to Die Hard) and just seemed to get worse as the summer progressed (Star Trek Into Darkness, The Man of Steel and The Lone Ranger).

Thankfully, things started to get substantially better after August, so much so I found myself having trouble keeping up with all the titles I wanted to see.

Yes, 2013 may have started poorly, but fueled by a late-inning bevy of unique films and outstanding performances, it closed as one of the more satisfactory movie years in recent memory. Below are my five favorite releases.

1. 12 Years A Slave: Steve McQueen's fact-based period tale of a free man kidnapped and forced into slavery for a dozen years is a harrowing, unflinching masterwork of human survival and features career-defining performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender and newcomer Lupita Nyong'o. This is the type of film that deserves a timeless place in Oscar's hallowed halls.

2. Dallas Buyers Club: This true account of Texas hustler Ron Woodroof, who when diagnosed with AIDS in 1985 began smuggling and then selling non-approved, life-prolonging drugs to others stricken with the illness, is not just a professional triumph for actors Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto but a glowing testament on how films with socially taboo subject matters can actually entertain audiences just as effectively as they can enlighten them.

3. Nebraska: Alexander Payne's rural family comedy is a hoot from start to finish, an incredibly poignant, wonderfully acted ode to fathers and sons and how that bond, while often muddled and trying at times, still counts for something.

4. Captain Phillips: Paul Greengrass' real-life account of a cargo-ship captain captured by Somali pirates is a taut, exceptionally crafted thriller and reminds us that Tom Hanks can still deliver the kind of powerhouse performance that won him consecutive Oscar trophies nearly twenty years ago.

5. Gravity: Alfonso Cuaron's 2001-esque space drama is an immersive, superbly acted visual triumph, a film that not only proves 3D can be a worthy upgrade but that darkened movie theaters are still capable of delivering magical experiences.


If I Could Choose Five More: 6. The Way Way Back 7. Blue Jasmine 8. Go For Sisters 9. The Wolf of Wall Street 10. Prisoners


Most Overrated Film of 2013: All Is Lost - A lot has been made of Robert Redford's nearly wordless performance of a man lost at sea. However, with virtually no discernible plot or characterization to drive the story, the film is really nothing more than watching a legendary star fumble around a boat for 100 minutes. A good reality-show, maybe. An engaging movie, not so much.

Most Underrated Film of 2013: 42 - Brian Helgeland's look at Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball arrived in April to good reviews and grossed nearly $100 million but seemed unjustly forgotten by year's end. It's actually an extremely moving, well-acted profile of courage and resolve that contains scenes just as brutal and unsettling as any found in 12 Years A Slave.



Happy New Year!

Top 5 Blu-rays of 2013

I'll be blunt: 2013 was a pretty lackluster year for Blu-rays. Where the previous three years we were treated to a pretty steady stream of cult and classic films, so much I had trouble keeping up with all the releases, this year, quite frankly, I barely had five titles to add to this post.

For whatever reason, the major studios just kind of fell asleep at the wheel in regards to upgrading their catalog titles. Kind of puzzling since so many great films have yet to appear in the high-definition format. Granted, shelf space is shrinking at the nation's big-box retailers but that didn't stop the likes of Criterion and Shout Factory! from releasing a monthly stream of top-tier products via Amazon and their own consumer-friendly websites. Let's just hope the lack of product this year is because so many titles are currently being restored or enhanced for future release. We can dream can't we?

That said, the year wasn't a total loss. We got great new transfers of On The Waterfront and Shane, a handful of cult releases like John Carpenter's The Fog and Night of the Comet and even a surprise or two from Warner Archives. Yes, the pickings may have been slim but there were enough, just enough, noteworthy titles to get excited about. Below are my top five:

1. On The Waterfront - Criterion Collection: Elia Kazan's 1954 masterpiece about a morality-stricken ex-prizefighter turned longshoreman who takes on a corrupt union boss received a stunning new 4K restoration, nearly a dozen fresh extras and a long-overdue widescreen transfer that actually allows you to choose between three different aspect ratios. Easily the most engaging and satisfying disc of the year. Keep 'em coming, Criterion.

2. Shane - Paramount Home Video: Arguably the greatest Western ever made, George Stevens' 1953 tale of a transient gunslinger who befriends a family of homesteaders and helps them battle a ruthless cattle baron received its own high-def restoration this year and the result truly breathes fresh life into the 60-year-old classic. And though it would have been nice for Paramount to include its newly struck 1.66:1 widescreen version, along with an anniversary retrospective or two, this new transfer is light years ahead of the old 2003 DVD and is a no-brainer for upgrade.

3. Badlands - Criterion Collection: Terrence Malick's beloved 1973 debut about rural young lovers who cut a swath of murder and mayhem across the American Midwest has influenced many over the years (Tarantino's True Romance and Natural Born Killers are direct homages) and remains one of the definitive films of '70s New Wave cinema. For its 40th anniversary, Criterion struck a beautiful new 4K transfer and added its usual array of impressive extras, the best of which is a 42-minute documentary that features new interviews with stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and art director Jack Fisk.

4. John Carpenter's The Fog - Shout Factory!: The original 1980 tale of vengeful ghosts terrorizing a small seaside town remains one of my favorite Carpenter films and usually gets an annual screening at my house (the wife likes Hal Halbrook and the quaint coastal setting). Shout Factory! released a crisp 1080p transfer and a slew of new extras, my favorite of which is an episode of the Sean Clark-hosted Horror's Hallowed Grounds that pokes around the film's Point Reyes National Seashore shooting locations.

5. Fearless - Warner Archives: Peter Weir's excellent 1993 drama about a plane-crash survivor struggling with his near-death experience features Oscar-worthy performances from Jeff Bridges and Rosie Perez and a crash sequence set to Henryk Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 that's frankly one of the most haunting and emotionally draining ever put on film. The long-awaited widescreen transfer alone gets this title on my list, but alas, no extras are included. Not that you really need them, as the only thing you'll want to do after the credits cease is collapse into a corner.


Merry Christmas!


Dec. 31: Top Five Films of 2013

Top 5 Albums of 2013

Overall, 2013 wasn't a bad little year for music. In addition to long-overdue efforts from Bowie, Buffet and McCartney, we were treated to a wonderful collection of folk tunes from Edie Brickell and a banjo-pickin' Steve Martin, a wildly original toe-thumper from Arcade Fire and a surprisingly effective comeback rocker from a Mike Peters-fronted Big Country.

Yes, sir, just when I think the likes of Kanye, Drake and Miley will render the year meaningless to my ears, a cadre of old friends burst through the door wielding albums that thankfully remind me music is still something worth getting excited about. Below are five of my favorites.

1. Love Has Come For You - Steve Martin and Edie Brickell: I must admit I was never that intrigued by actor/comedian Steve Martin strumming the banjo, but something about adding the melodically soothing vocals of '80s holdover Edie Brickell intrigued me enough to give their 13-track folk collaboration a whirl. The result is nothing short of a gift from the music gods: a beautifully crafted collection of homespun, tale-oriented tunes - some soul-wrenchingly poignant, others playfully humorous - that get your feet a tappin', your hands a clappin' and provide as much nourishment for the heart as they do the mind. Favorite Tracks: When You Get To Ashville, Friend of Mine.

2. Reflektor - Arcade Fire: This follow-up to 2010's Grammy-winning The Suburbs leaves all the reflection and mellowness of its predecessor at the door and cranks up the volume on 13 highly creative, hip-shaking tracks that prove freshness and ingenuity don't have to diminish after an Album of the Year award. Favorite Tracks: Joan of Arc, It's Never Over (Hey Orpheus).

3. NEW - Paul McCartney: The 71-year-old icon's first collection of original music in six years is a tight, melodically fresh 13-track reminder that no matter your age or extensive past musical output, one can still deliver something relevant and quite surprising. Favorite Tracks: Early Days, Everybody Out There

4. Mechanical Bull - Kings of Leon: The reigning monarchs of southern rock ditch all the baggage and drama from the last album tour and deliver a satisfying 11-track collection of soul and verve that makes you wonder why they didn't name the album after one of its actual songs: Comeback Story. Favorite Tracks: Wait For Me, Comeback Story.

5. Songs From St. Somewhere - Jimmy Buffet: Okay, at this point the 66-year-old Mayor of Margaritaville isn't going to win any awards for songwriting or originality, but if you're a fan of laid-back, sun-kissed, smile-inducing tunes that brush away your troubles and go great with a Mai Tai and a plate of fish tacos on a Saturday night, then you can't go wrong with this solid 16-track collection. Favorite Tracks: Somethin' 'Bout A Boat, Oldest Surfer On The Beach.


Dec. 20: Top 5 Blu-rays of 2013

Still A Major Award: 30 Years of A Christmas Story

It seems we no sooner get the door closed on that last trick-or-treater that we find ourselves smothered in the blanket of the holiday season. Like clockwork, the ubiquitous retail ads begin their full frontal assault on our senses, the strip-malls slather themselves in pine needles and tinsel and that hulking, intrusive display of baking supplies appears in the center of the grocery store like some listless ocean-liner just begging us to try and slip past it.

Then of course comes the onslaught of feature films and television specials. They're supposed to fill our hearts with the magic of the season, the joys of giving and the lasting power of friendship. Basically all the stuff that's good about the holidays. I find, however, that the most relatable and lasting stories aren't the ones where things go right during this special time of year, but rather what goes wrong.

I mean be honest, the holidays today are less about joy and more about headaches: did we buy an even amount of gifts for everyone, how will we fit twelve people at a table that seats only six and should we serve that "broccoli-thing" for Christmas dinner (a cherished annual "discussion" at my house).

Yes, sir, when I want a tale that captures the "true" spirit of the modern season, I need look no further than Bob Clark's spot-on 1983 comedy A Christmas Story.

Based on humorist Jean Shepherd's 1966 book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash, A Christmas Story unfurls in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana during the early 1940s and centers around nine-year-old Ralphie Parker (Peter Billingsley) and his plight to "casually" convince his parents to buy him a much-revered Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas.

Of course that's easier said than done as Ralphie's father (Darren McGavin) has more pressing things on his mind, mainly battling the family furnace and showcasing his recently bestowed "major award" in the living-room window; and his mother (Melinda Dillon), while sympathetic to his cause, can't help but offer the dreaded parental response of "you'll shoot your eye out." Not easily dissuaded, Ralphie decides if he can't convince his parents, he'll takes his case to a higher source...the big guy himself, Santa Claus.

Along the the way we're treated to the usual, "more-realistic" rites of the season: picking out and trimming the tree, having one's tongue excised from a frozen flagpole, skirting snowball-hurling bullies, trying on demeaning gifts from far-away, clueless aunts, finding "alternative" dinner plans and the inevitable department-store tussle with cranky elves and a not-too-fond-of-overtime you know who.

It goes without saying A Christmas Story is a rather unconventional holiday film, but that's what makes it so special. Director Clark and Shepherd, who share screenwriting credit, take the traditional family unit we'd grown accustomed to seeing in these type of films over the years and masterfully places them in a series of irreverent-yet-relatable situations that really had never been depicted on screen before, at least not by something billing itself as an "All-American" Christmas movie.

The film would have fallen flat on its face, however, if audiences weren't able to empathize with the family up on the screen. Both McGavin and Dillon infuse their characters with the perfect balance of wit, warmth and quirkiness (just like our own parents) and Billingsley, who much of America had already fallen in love with through the NBC show Real People, provides Ralphie with just enough wide-eyed wonderment and childhood mischievousness to remind us all how glorious being a nine-year-old at Christmas really was.

A Christmas Story opened in theaters on November 18, 1983 and quickly grossed over three times its budget in just four short weeks, but as screen space was limited (this was the age of the five-plex after all) and studios wanted their big year-end films in place at least a week before Christmas, the film quietly disappeared by mid-December with little fanfare. However, this was also the dawn of home video and A Christmas Story, fueled by positive word-of mouth, gained a rabid following over the next few years and by 1988 was receiving Thanksgiving-weekend runs on network television.

Of course the rest is history, as most now know the film has an annual 24-hour run on TBS starting Christmas Eve and is universally considered one of the best holiday films ever made. My family is one the millions that screens it at least once during the season and we all look forward to our favorite scene (mine is the dinner at the Chinese restaurant, my wife enjoys seeing the Bumpus hounds tear apart the Old Man's roasted turkey).

30 years after its initial release, A Christmas Story remains a "major award," a true testament to just how "wonderfully chaotic" the holidays can be. The movie poster says it all: "A Tribute to the Original, Traditional, One-Hundred-Percent, Red-Blooded, Two-Fisted, All-American Christmas."


Happy Thanksgiving!

Next Month: The Best of 2013

1983: A Tale of Two Bonds

1983 has always been considered a bit of standout year where movies are concerned. Titles like A Christmas Story, Flashdance, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Return of the Jedi, Risky Business, The Right Stuff and WarGames dazzled audiences during that special 12-month period 30 years ago and have held a timeless place in popular culture ever since.

But with so many memorable films, another cinematic nugget of some distinction often goes overlooked from that year: the fact that not one but two James Bond films, featuring two different leading actors, were released just four months apart by competing studios.

It's obviously not unheard of for two studios to release separate films featuring the same character(Tombstone/Wyatt Earp, Prefontaine/Without Limits) but this was the first and only time another producer looked to insert their own non-satirical entry into an ongoing, established series. It was akin to someone deciding to sidestep George Lucas and release their own Star Wars or Indiana Jones film.

Octopussy arrived first in June and was the “official” Bond entry for 1983, loosely based on the Ian Fleming short story of the same name and produced by Albert Broccoli’s Eon Productions, the company responsible for the 12 previous 007 films. As usual, MGM/UA handled distribution.

Directed by series vet John Glen, it featured resident Bond Roger Moore in his sixth consecutive appearance as the British secret agent and centered around a rogue Soviet general bent on starting World War III by smuggling a nuclear device onto a U.S. airbase in West Germany, via the exotic and mysterious Octopussy (Maud Adams) and her traveling circus.

Never Say Never Again followed in October and was a remake of the 1965 Eon-produced Bond film Thunderball. Producer Kevin McClory owned the screen rights to that film (he and Ian Fleming had developed its original screenplay together) and had been interested in remaking the film independently since 1975. Producer Jack Schwartzman’s Taliafilm (actress Talia Shire was Schwartzman's wife) provided financing, with Warner Brothers handling distribution.

Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), the film featured the much-publicized return of original Bond Sean Connery, absent from the series for 12 years, and follows an aging 007 as he attempts to retrieve stolen nuclear warheads from SPECTRE and the maniacal Maximilian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandauer). The film's title refers to Connery's assertion that he'd "never" play Bond again.

Both films were hits at the box office, with Octopussy taking in about $24 million more than Never Say Never Again's $160 million haul. (Never Say Never, however, made more on its opening weekend, no doubt fueled by curiosity over Connery's return.)

Which film is better? Well, each features all the required Bond prerequisites: playful humor, exotic locales, breathless action and beautiful girls. I have equally fond memories of catching both as Saturday matinees during their initial runs and still consider the pair two of my more favorite entries in the series.

Opinions vary, however. Even though MGM now owns the rights to every Bond film ever made, when the studio released its massive franchise-spanning Bond 50 collection on Blu-ray last year, Never Say Never Again was nowhere to be found.

Five Autumn Films Worth Falling For

Well, another lackluster Hollywood summer has come and gone. I braved the multiplex a total of 13 times from the first of May through Labor Day weekend and with the exception of The Way Way Back and Blue Jasmine, every film I saw was a considerable disappointment. (Yes, that includes the five films I highlighted in my summer-movie preview back in May.)

It's become pretty apparent that when the temperature rises and the kids get out of school the studios really don't care much about original stories or engaging characters anymore, just mind-numbing effects and how many they can pummel us with inside a four-month window.

However, now that the leaves are rustling and classes have resumed, the clouds are slowly starting to clear and a slew of character-centric, award-friendly films can once again be seen on the horizon.

Nearly 90 films will compete for your attention from now through Christmas. Below are five that look the most promising (in order of release):

Captain Phillips: Tom Hanks stars as the real-life cargo-ship captain who risked his life to protect his crew from Somali pirates in 2009. Hanks makes a long-overdue return to the everyman-in-peril character that made him a star(think Apollo 13 and Saving Private Ryan). Throw in director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum) and you've got the makings for a smart, edgy thriller that may just have an impact come Oscar time. (Oct. 11)

The Wolf of Wall Street: Martin Scorsese reteams with Leonardo DiCaprio. Do you really need to know more? (Nov. 15)

Nebraska: Alexander Payne's follow-up to The Descendants centers on a elderly man (Bruce Dern) and his middle-aged son (Will Forte) who set off on a picaresque road trip in order to claim a sweepstakes prize. This is the first film Payne has directed that he didn't write himself. But having grown up in Omaha, you know he's going make this one uniquely his own: chaotic yet poignant. The fact that Dern won Best Actor at Cannes doesn't hurt either. (Nov. 22)

American Hustle: Like Alexander Payne, David O. Russell films are always required viewing ( well, maybe not I Heart Huckabees). On the heels of Silver Linings Playbook, Russell reteams with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence for a tale of '70s political corruption. Sprinkle in Jeremy Renner and fellow Russell vets Christian Bale and Amy Adams and this one's the front-runner for ensemble picture of the year. (Dec. 13)

The Monuments Men: Speaking of ensembles, this true World War II-set adventure features George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett and Jean Dujardin as an unlikely group of scholars tasked with retrieving stolen masterpieces from the Nazis. While the book it's based on was a rather dry, overly technical read, this cast could turn a physics textbook into something worth seeing. (Dec. 18)


Five more that look intriguing: Gravity (Oct. 4); 12 Years A Slave (Oct. 18); The Counselor (Oct. 25); Out of the Furnace (Dec. 6) and Saving Mr. Banks (Dec. 13)

Remembering James Gandolfini

Like everyone, I'm still processing the sudden passing of actor James Gandolfini at 51. While most are remembering him for his stellar work on HBO's The Sopranos, I find it's his supporting work in films that seem to resonate most with me today.

Before finding stardom as Mob boss Tony Soprano, Gandolfini spent most of the '90s playing what best could be described as "memorable heavies." Whether he was toying with Patricia Arquette in Tony Scott's True Romance or tussling with John Travolta in Barry Sonnenfeld's Get Shorty, Gandolfini's bad guys always had a quiet, almost soothing menace about them. They were soft-spoken, affable characters that put you at ease with a seductive smile and playful banter just before unleashing the inevitable hurt on their prey.

And while I'll always have a soft spot for those loveable grunts, Gandolfini proved he could tackle roles as diverse as a prison warden to the director of the C.I.A. and make them uniquely his own. He simply had a presence about him, a presence that made good films better and bad ones a little more enjoyable. His work will be missed.