The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2010

This is another one of those 50/50 years.  There's plenty of good, but plenty of "meh", mediocre and bad films.  The Academy Awards selections were a marked improvement over the previous year's.  Although, the pick for winner...does any still give a rip about King's Speech and did you even back then?  Looking at the list, I'd say by and large at least 8 of those were far better films than King's Speech.  King's Speech feels like that boring English movie that seems to be the shoe in stereotype for Best Picture in yesteryear.  Could you tell how much I care less about King's Speech?

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2008

Let's start this differently.  Take a look at these Academy Award nominees for Best Picture.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2006

This year turned out to be really easy, but contained a lot of my absolute favorites from the entire decade.  I remember being severely disappointed in the Best Picture nominees for this particular year.  And while I liked The Departed and think Scorsese's career deserved a Best Director statue, I was rooting against its Best Picture win, because its a remake and a lot of it (including full sequences and framings) were ripped straight from the original.  Also, this was the year of the Mexican director, but of the 3 that made big time films, they picked the one that wasn't even that good of a movie as a Best Picture nominee.  But, what can you do.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2005

2005 contains one of the most depreciated films to win Best Picture that I can recall.  Before it won the honors it was a well respected and genuinely liked film.  Once they were handed the trophy its been hated so much that its even been called one of the worst movies ever.  I'm talking, of course, of Paul Haggis' Crash.  I think the film is kind of safe, but I still enjoy it.  Its got some good performances and while the issues are a bit on the nose, they're still goo ones to see play out.  The storytelling pattern of Crash would be something that would be utilized in many films for the next few years as well.  2005 also marks the year I moved to Los Angeles and Crash had a lot of locations I was becoming familiar with, so I kind of easily warmed to it.  Its also notable that this is the year I joined forces with the infamous Scott Mendelson.

The Favorite Films Of My Lifetime: 2001

Well, I supposed you could say this is the "golden post" of this series.  Today's my birthday, and...this was an interesting year.  While there are some big big notables in 2001, there was also a lot of really shitty movies that were released.  I'd mark the year as overall weak, but when you pick out your favorites and "Best" films of this year it looks much stronger.  And how about that Best Picture winner?  I almost forgot that movie existed.  Is anybody still big on A Beautiful Mind anymore?  Does anybody even remember Gosford Park or In The Bedroom?  Yet, Fellowship and Moulin Rouge! still get plenty of discussion today.  That's why time is far more key than whatever the Oscars does "in the now".  And I hope this little lookback is kinda sorta proving that.

My 2013: My 2014 - 10 Films I'm Looking Forward To

So tomorrow 2013 will be over and we will be ringing in 2014.  While 2015 looks to be THE year to go to the movies (well, if you're a franchise person), 2014 will be no slouch.  There's already plenty of notable projects and I'm sure more will pop up as the year goes and we get some more trailers and extra buzz from screenings.  While 2015 has all the hype in the world, it also could be setting up for a big disappointment.  2014 on the other hand has the sort of "well, let's just get through this year so we can get to 2015" type feel with the movies, meaning its probably going to surprise and turn out to be pretty damn good in its own right.  Remember or summer 2011 was only the preface to summer 2012...and then 2011 wound up being the much better summer?  I'm not saying that will happen, I'm just saying let's not discount 2014 before its even begun.

Below are 10 films that are currently on my radar (there's more than 10 actually, but I have ten digits and its a nice clean cut off) going into 2014.

Christopher Nolan Resurrects JASON VOORHEES!

JASON LIVES!

Fantastic news came yesterday in the revealing some of the assets Warner Bros gave up to Paramount in order to share the wealth on Christopher Nolan's next film, the sci-fi thriller Interstellar (starring Matthew McConaughey & Anne Hathaway).  One of those items was giving Paramount a 5 year window to have full rights to the character Jason Voorhees and the Friday the 13th series.  And one thinks that if they were willing to give up half of what is sure to a box office success, then they obviously plan to put SOMETHING out regarding a Jason Voorhees adventure.

TRAILER: MAN OF STEEL #3

And on our 3rd look at the upcoming Superman opus, MAN OF STEEL, there's a lot to like and a lot to keep us wondering.  Zack Snyder and co have opened the door just a little.  I love that they seem to be holding back "the goods".  This is how you market a movie, damnit.  I'm guessing most of what we're seeing comes from the first hour of the film  Maybe a snippet here and there.  We get to see Michael Shannon confirming that he's going to be fantastic as General Zod.  We also get to hear Superman speak and also interact with Lois Lane

This is one I'm very excited for and I'm assuming many are also excited for.  If this film is a big success (i think it will be), this will drop the floodgates for WB/DC and maybe they'll actually take chances with their other characters and...actually make films about them!

MAN OF STEEL opens June 14

On a side note: Yes, I will be doing more than just making snarky remarks about trailers and posters.  I had to whip this place up pretty fast and am working on some more original content.  In May, my retrospective series will be returning aimed at the Fast & Furious franchise, followed by a Superman retrospective.