Nine out of ten times, anything by Shakespeare would put me to sleep within a matter of minutes; and yet somehow "Much Ado About Nothing" defied those odds and kept me engaged throughout the entire run time. A passion project by Joss Whedon (director of "The Avenger's," and creator of "Firefly," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "Dollhouse."), the movie was filmed in about a week, stars all of Whedon's friends, and was filmed at his house. Supposedly everything was put together at the last second; some of the actors weren't even told that he was making the movie until a few days before filming started, Joss just called them and said "Hey I'm making a movie, you in?" One the best modern adaptation of Shakespeare's work, "Much Ado About Nothing" is easily the most delightful film of 2013.
For me anyway, this was probably the biggest surprise of 2013. I remember seeing the trailer for the first time and being rather unimpressed. I started hearing good things about it so I decided to go see it in theaters and I absolutely loved it. It's a story of a young woman working as a vocal coach who wants to follow in the footsteps of her father and work in the voice over industry, unfortunately for her the industry is a real boys club and she has trouble getting into it. One of my favorite things to see in a movie is a strong independent woman, and that's what this movie does such a great job at. Writer, director, and lead actress Lake Bell does an amazing job at giving women a voice, and did so by making one of the best movies of the year at the same time.
Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright make an amazing team. They first made waves with the fantastic British series "Spaced," but became legends with the "Three Flavours Cornetto" trilogy. The first installment was "Shaun of the Dead" and then "Hot Fuzz," both of which are some of my favorite movies. "The World's End" is the final installment in the trilogy and lives up to the previous installments greatness, "The World's End" is easily the funniest movie released in 2013. The plot of the story is a little ridiculous to say the least; it involves drinking and aliens, it's better not to go into detail in case you haven't seen it (which you should definitely do). "The World's End" is one of my favorite movies of the year; it's a laugh riot start to finish that contains a surprising amount of sincerity when it needs it.
Honestly, I was not a big fan of the previous Hobbit movies "An Unexpected Journey." It's not that I didn't like it, but it had such a different feel from "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy and wasn't exactly what I was expecting. "The Desolation of Smaug" reminded me of what I loved about the original trilogy. It was darker and more serious, had a lot more action, and even brought back a character or two from TLOTR. I also found the movie much more entertaining than the last movie; it was filled with scene after scene of excitement. Plus, the dragon Smaug finally made his long awaited debut and he was as awesome as we were all hoping for. Seeing this movie has got me pumped for the final installment in the trilogy, the only problem is I have to wait another year to see it.
It may be the 10 year old inside of me, but "Pacific Rim" is awesome. It's giant f*cking robots facing off against giant f*cking aliens, what more could you ask for? Pulled directly out of the genius mind of Guillermo Del Toro, "Pacific Rim" is nothing short of a visual feast. The fight scenes are downright epic, with some of the best CGI ever put into a movie. If a movie entitled Gravity wasn't released in 2013, "Pacific Rim" would win best visual effects at the Oscars. "Pacific Rim" doesn't have a great story or exceptional writing, but it's just so much fun. You can't help but watch the fight scenes with just a big dumb grin on your face. Going into 2013, this was one of my most anticipated films of the year; and "Pacific Rim" did not disappoint me.
No movie released during 2013 game me the joy I got from watching Disney's "Frozen," it is easily my favorite movie of the year by a long shot. I always loved Disney's animated movies, especially the movies we got in the 90's like the "Lion King," "Aladdin," and "Mulan." What I loved so much about "Frozen" is that it is a throwback to those movies. The singing, the princesses, and the story are everything I've wanted from a Disney movie for the past few years. Disney hasn't been their best for quite a while, we had "Tangled" back in 2010 which was great but was not classic Disney. "Frozen" is classic Disney, and it is fantastic. If this doesn't win best animated feature at the Oscars I swear I will punch a wall. There are a lot of movies that came out in 2013 that I loved, but none more so than "Frozen."
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