The Grizzly Squid Top Five Movies of 2013

It’s been a great year for cinema! With 56 films under my belt over the past twelve months it has been difficult to decide on all my favourites. The first thing one must do is design the criteria by which you will create the list. Most exciting? Not all entertainment is based on heart pounding excitement. Biggest box office? There were some fantastic low budged winners this year. The tried and tested ‘Brian Faces’ score? While this common system of ranking is useful, it only represents instant effect, not the lingering memory of a film. 

The Brian reviews have always been intensely personal, based upon my one requirement from the cinema experience – was I entertained? So with that in mind the following list consists of the top five films of 2013. These are no ordinary movies. They are the films I would recommend to myself if for some reason I lost my memory of the last 12 months. Let me know what you think. If I do ever suffer from selective cinema amnesia, what would you recommend I see from the last year? Share your thoughts in the comments section. Show time!

5. Pacific Rim

After a very early release trailer, this movie was high on my summer list of expectation. After viewing, ‘Pacific Rim’ became the film that defined the summer cinema experience. Giant robots fight giant monsters. The concept was that simple and ticked so many little boy childhood boxes that it could not fail. Now that’s not fair. The film could have been terrible and it does have its critics. But ‘Pacific Rim’ was just dam good story telling. Titanic battle scenes are kept to a special Goldilocks amount of just enough. Everything is geared towards homage to the classic monster movies of years gone by but fresh enough to be interesting. If mega monsters and Jaegers are not enough to keep you entertained, ‘Pacific Rim’ is a visual wonder. Not just for its lavish CGI, it gets so much detail packed onto the screen from costumes to character behaviour. There is a lot going on here, not just a two dimensional summer beat em up. ‘Pacific Rim’ was the first film of the year that I planned to see again before I had even finished watching it!

4. Wreck-It Ralph

Essentially a story of one man as he battles to have his achievements acknowledged by his peers. Along the path to self-discovery he will also unleash an alien plague, expand the perceptions of his colleagues and allow one little girl to become a hero. Oh, but they are all computer game characters living in an arcade. ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ was a great surprise earlier in the year. How could I be surprised by Disney? This is a feel good story with some fantastic moments. King Kandy is a villain who could be from any ‘Saw’ film and Ralph has so much warming charm that we could sit through a dozen sequels (please don’t make a dozen sequels, two should do it). This is just one great ride to jump on. Plus, I totally didn’t cry when Ralph falls towards the volcano at the end. Not one bit.

3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

JLaw is back and with twice the budget! The second of four films in the ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy was one of my most highly anticipated movies of the year. The original had been on my top five for 2012 so the sequel had a lot to live up to. And it hit the mark bang on! As a fan of the books I was rewarded with the characters I loved being rendered fittingly, fantastic visuals, cool action, great dialogue, fantastic acting and a great sound score. Honestly, ‘Catching Fire’ is just great fun. My highest accolade has to go to the director. Why? Because he does something quite brave for a book conversion that can be forgotten or down right disregarded. Francis Lawrence doesn’t change anything. That is actually quite brave because the Hunger Games books are a first person account of life in Panem. Nothing is left out. Katniss does not always go into the technical details of her world but for a move to work we need to. That, frankly, takes time and movies don’t have a lot to go around. Doing it this well and this seamlessly just makes the movie all the more enjoyable.

2. Gravity

This movie blew my socks off. Frankly it is the best thing Sandra Bullock has ever been. ‘Gravity’ treats us to the visual spectacle that is 3D movies. The banner first waved by ‘Avatar’ had begun to dip but this film pushes it back to the forefront of cinema. I have largely been disappointed by 3D since its reintroduction. I see this fad constantly bolted onto movies and the only noticeable feature is that I have to ware stupid bloody glasses and pay more. But not with ‘Gravity’. No – with this movie you purchase your ticket, put on your glasses and run (yes, run! When was the last time you were so excited you did that at the cinema?) To get the seat dead centre at the front of the theatre.  ‘Gravity’ is many things. It is a survival story, it is story of rebirth, and it is a visual spectacle. We go from personal drama to spinning camera work that would put a fighter pilot into a fit. ‘Gravity’ takes all these elements and doesn’t just weave them together but makes them work work work! In case my enthusiasm has been in anyway lost on you let me be clear – films like ‘Gravity’ are the very real reason that cinema exists.

 The Grizzly Squid movie of 2013 is....

1. Cloud Atlas

‘Cloud Atlas’ didn’t so much as hit the cinema screen in February but rather lightly tap it. We knew it had Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and a couple of other well know actors and that it was nearly three hours long. That’s about all I knew going into the theatre. Never have I been so surprised. I don’t know if ‘Cloud Atlas’ will be one of my all-time favourite movies but frankly I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it this year. This is the sole reason that it has survived on my top five and just about beaten ‘Gravity’ from gold. ‘Cloud Atlas’ is several short stories that take place at different points in time. The same caste appears in each setting but play different parts. The stories aren’t event linked directly. So why first place? Because ‘Cloud Atlas’ made me feel good. I can’t remember leaving a cinema screen ever and feeling complete and utter contentment. My perception of this movie was simple. Humans are by nature free. We will always strive to be free and in fact have never failed in all our history against anything that would deny us the ability to be ourselves. Sound preachy? It probably is. I don’t care. I love this film. This is beautiful cinema. 

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment on your own thoughts. Also, what was your film of 2013? I would love to know!

Roll on 2014!