2013 Top 10 Best & Worst Films: No. 7

No.7 Best - Big Bad Wolves dir Navot Papushado, Aharon Keshales

From the directors of Israeli’s first horror film Rabies (2010), comes their follow up film that again delves into the genre, this time taking on a crime thriller element thrown into the mix. Big Bad Wolves takes place around a brutal series of murders that brings together the lives of three men; the father of the latest victim, a detective gone rogue and the most recent suspect who’s been released due to a police blunder. Now it’s well known that for quite sometime that a certain Quentin Tarantino has been quoted as saying Big Bad Wolves is the ‘Best Film of the Year’ and to be honest you can see why he’s come out with such a bold statement; the film plays out very similar in tone and dynamically as the recent crime thrillers that have come out of South Korea, with I Saw the Devil (2010) being the obvious comparison to be made; the film is rather violent and darkly laugh out loud funny, there’s never a dull moment throughout the film, you’re either wincing through violence, laughing out loud or racking your brains trying to unravel the mystery of the suspected killers innocence or guilt. Big Bad Wolves is wonderfully paced and is absolutely stunning to look at. The three main characters are all very well crafted allowing you to really connected with their story and be taken for a ride as they search for their individual goals. I really don’t remember there being any plot holes during this film and if I’m honest, I’d be pushed to throw any negative comments towards this fantastic movie, though I guess if I was to be very nit picky, I would probably say that Big Bad Wolves does pretty much follow the mould of the genre films coming out of South Korea, but to be fair to the directors; Big Bad Wolves never feels too much of a rip off or even a homage of them, as it’s certainly got it’s own distinct character and vibe at it’s core; it’s funny, violent, engaging and highly entertaining, what else can you really ask from an intelligent crime thriller?

No.7 Worst - Welcome to the Punch dir Eran Creevy

For an action film to have Ridley Scott’s name attached to it and starring a pretty solid cast with the likes of James McAvoy and Mark Strong in leading roles, you’d expect the film would deliver at least on some level, but unfortunately Welcome to the Punch is not only generic, but is riddled with caricatures of movie heroes and villains and isn’t helped further by the fact that the relationships between characters are so heavily underdeveloped that you really couldn’t care less for the plight of James McAvoy’s character as he hunts down the bad guys – as for the script and plot, it’s very convoluted and a bit of a mess for which the film attempts to clear up in a short space of time right towards the finale, which feels very rushed and a panic reaction to try and explain everything that has lead up to the big closing shoot out. Quite simply Welcome to the Punch seems too reliant on trying to replicate the structure of the Bourne films, that it forgets to actually do it’s own thing, it’s just dull and boring throughout and the twist ending is so predictable that the film really does end up being a damp squib.

2013 Top 10 Best & Worst Films: No. 8

No.8 Best - Pacific Rim dir Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo Del Toro returns with a bang – Pacific Rim is essentially the movie that the 10-year-old child inside of me has been waiting to see for years; the film harkens back to the old school Kaiju films featuring the likes of Godzilla, Gamera, and Mothra etc. The story is pretty simple, a wormhole opens a pathway between 2 worlds in the ocean that allows giant sea creatures to invade the Earth, in an attempt to battle off the threat; Mankind creates monsters of their own in the form of Jaegers (massive weaponised robots). Pacific Rim won’t be winning any awards for outstanding performances or well written and developed characters, but that really doesn’t matter with a film like this, as all your required to do is switch your brain off for 2 hours and experience all out war between the Kaiju and Jaegers; and unlike Michael Bay with his Transformers movies, Del Toro lets his creations do all the talking on screen with a distinct lack of fast camera movement and a more subtle and steady editing style, you can see all the battles unfold in all their glory that has you on the edge of your seat, fist pumped and feeling every blow that’s landed on screen; the soundtrack by Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones) certainly helps to get the adrenaline pumping through your veins, keeping the tempo of the film bursting along at a pretty fast pace throughout. The only real disappointment of Pacific Rim comes from the two Scientist characters, who are a little too immaturely written for my taste, but taking into account that the film is written for those of all ages then you can’t help but forgive the film for their silly childish actions; as it hardly tarnishes the overall experience. Of course you can’t have a Del Toro film without his trusty stead Ron Perlman; who again is absolutely fantastic – Pacific Rim is the film that I’ve been dreaming about for so many years and to finally see it realised on the big screen as successfully as this is why it’s one of my favourite films of 2013.

No. 8 Worst - The Place Beyond the Pines dir Derek Cianfrance

It seems that Ryan Gosling fever is in full bloom at this moment in time and while he might have an ever growing fan base, I for one am starting to question his ability to perform believable characters outside his comfort zone, as for too long now he seems to be playing the same character over and over again. The Place Beyond the Pines ends up making into the Top 10 worst films list of 2013 mainly due to it’s failed potential; the films opening third actually starts off quite strong and the story of a stunt biker rider turning to bank robbery to financial support his broken family is quite intriguing, but unfortunately the film loses it’s way in the second third of the film, with the introduction of Bradley Cooper – who delivers a performance that reminds us all too well of what Ben Affleck has been renowned and slated for over the years. And after losing much of the films key interests during the second third, the films final act relies so much on convenient crossing of paths of certain characters that just feel contrived and do nothing more than infuriate you the viewer and leaves you really despising the film as it ruins the strong ground work laid in the opening third.  You could really argue that The Place Beyond the Pines isn’t the worst film you’ll ever see, but taking into account the rate in which this film drops off the cliff in terms of quality and overall enjoyment and believability, I feel compelled to pick The Place Beyond the Pines for it’s complete and utter waste of a strong opening to only end up delivering a very generic and contrived feeling of melodramatic drivel.

Back from Hiatus

Hey folks just a quick post to keep you all in the loop and to confirm the brief absence of posts over the past week or so. For those that weren't aware, this last week I've been away in Park City, Utah attending Slamdance Film Festival; where I was in attendance with the short film After Arcadia, which featured in the Anarchy Shorts section of the festival, but now I am back and looking to finishing the Top 10 Best and Worst of 2013 section in the very near future. I had planned on getting these up on the blog before heading out to Slamdance, but it turned out too be just a little too much to take on for myself with all the preparation that needed to be done prior to flying out to the States; that being said I did actually manage to get quite a bit written down in the draft stage for these posts so I should be looking to get them all up online for you guys to enjoy by the end of the week or middle of next week at the latest.

P.S. My Slamdance experience has been nothing short of spectacular and I'm planning to write a post talking about the week and will hopefully get something from the rest of the After Arcadia crew online for the site in the near future; will keep you all posted on the developments of this over the next few weeks.

2013 Top 10 Best & Worst Films: No.9

No. 9 Best - Trance dir Danny Boyle

In recent years I've become quite fond of Danny Boyle and his approach to cinema - I was caught off guard by Slumdog Millionaire (2008) after having very low expectations going into that film, but came away absolutely adoring it; heading into Trance my expectations were quite high given Boyle's recent successes and for the most part the film delivers on everything from which you'd expect from a Director of his calibre. The three main cast members all have great chemistry and their evolution of motivations genuinely feels very organic, it helps that they also all put in stellar performances that pull you right into the thick of their stories, Trance feels like it quickly goes by with a great even flow to the pacing helped greatly with its sharp editing style, it's a stunningly beautiful film to watch and has you puzzling through the direction in which the plot is heading making Trance a thrilling ride that engages your brain, not just with the plot but also from an emotional and ethical standpoint which is why it's made my Top 10 Best Films of 2013 list.

No. 9 - Side Effects dir Stephen Soderbergh

From one psychological crime thriller to another, but on the flip side; Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects is a shambles. The film is riddled with problems and some of them are deep at its core giving it no chance to ever succeed. First of we've got the miscasting of Channing Tatum, who never looks comfortable in his role and there are moments with the choice of costume that you really do have to ask 'what were they thinking?' what doesn't help Side Effects further is that the script is utterly predictable, after the bedding in of the story begins to unfold, it's like your able to predict everything thats going to happen in the next 15 minutes at any point during the film. Jude Law again is awful, though it's hardly surprising as good performances from him are so few and far between anyway, but the final nail in the coffin for Side Effects is the character and the performance from Catherine Zeta-Jones, if you're not bored before her big role to play towards the end of the film, you'll be laughing at the screen by just how painfully awful her character is written. The posters might say 'Terrific, Tense, Edge of Your Seat' but in reality it's dumb, annoying and laughable, making it number 9 on my worst films of 2013 list.

2013 Top 10 Best & Worst Films: No.10

No. 10 Best - The Last Days (Los Ultimos Dias) dir. Alex Pastor, David Pastor

The Last Days I actually saw back at Film4's Frightfest in August, the Spanish Science Fiction deals with an epidemic that gives humans an irrational fear of the outside, forcing humanity to be trapped within the walls of the building that they find themselves consumed in during the outbreak. Set in Barcelona with stunning visuals of a different approach to the post-apocalyptic world that has normally been portrayed on the big screen over the years; The Last Days offers something a little more different and feels fresh for this, throw in some great character acting with a strong bond that builds between the films two main characters and their opposing goals whilst trying to work together and build some level of trust and The Last Days has a very compelling story to tell, the film also looks fantastic with some excellent cinematography and masterfully builds tension throughout - it's brutal at times and also has some poignant moments. Can't ignore the fact that the films ending will divide opinion for which the Directors did admit in their Q&A session, but you've got to give them and the film credit for sticking with their original vision and not taking the easy way out when they know full well that the ending will not sit well with a large portion of the audience; I was actually perfectly fine with the ending, though I'll admit that it could have had more impact going another direction, but that doesn't take away the fact that The Last Days is a brilliantly executed Science Fiction film that has brains as well as stunning visuals, something that is quite rare within the recent attempts of the genre; I Am Legend (2007, dir Francis Lawrence) this is not, more comparable to the likes of The Road (2009, dir John Hillcoat), and that is why The Last Days (Los Ultimos Dias) is at number 10 of my favourite films of 2013.

No. 10 Worst - Man of Steel dir. Zack Synder

Kicking off the Top 10 of the Worst films of 2013 is Zack Synder's Man of Steel; Now heading into the film I did have some contrasting preconceptions, first off hearing the name Zack Synder really does put me off any film, the guy has been atrocious for quite sometime and I was very surprised to see that he had been entrusted with the Superman reboot considering his poor recent performances at the Box Office, but then we had Christopher Nolan's name heavily attached to the project and the trailer hit accompanied with the Hans Zimmer score, ended up being one of the most exciting trailers for quite sometime. Unfortunately the fingerprints of Nolan wasn't enough to save this disaster of a reboot - for me Zack Synder betrayed the Superman character, with his seemingly uncharacteristic devalue of human life - Superman willingly lays waste to numerous buildings effectively killing countless people and his resolution to dealing with ZOD pretty much broke the whole film for me. As for the rest of the film, where it suffers most is it's use of the flashbacks, on one side you could argue that the non-linear approach is a break from the norm, but in reality these flashbacks do nothing than destroy any momentum that the films story tries to work towards and we are left with a meandering mess of an origin story that is brought to an end with the most ridiculously bloated action sequences, that while at first look great end up becoming downright painful to watch, it's honestly like watching a poorly directed Dragonball Z episode that' s being stretched out to breaking point. It's such a shame with so many highly talented people involved that Man of Steel is such a train wreck, but I have to admit that Henry Cavill's portrayal of Superman is actually very good, though unfortunately we aren't able to see much of his attempt to play Clark Kent; also the films score by Hans Zimmer is utterly brilliant, but these two positives aren't enough to save Man of Steel from becoming one of the worst films of 2013.

Breaking in the New Year 2014

Okay so the blog didn't kick off like planned last year; things just got a little too hectic and as time went by, the more I neglected the idea of putting out the blog, just due to the crazy amount of shit that I had going on throughout the year, but things have settled down now, though I did have a little addition to the family late last year and the little man has caused havoc ever since, but I've decided that one of my New Year's Revolutions would be to start up the blog and keep it up dated.

Just to bring all readers up to speed, the latest crack for us here at CursedFilm (being myself Ricky Everett & Robert Cooper) we have recently finished a final draft on a short Christmas film script titled 'Skag Clause: Homecoming' of which in the near future once we've ironed out some of the small creases remaining I will post a link up for you all to read and enjoy - probably the best way to describe the script would be to imagine Hobo with a Shotgun meets Bad Santa and you won't be too far away with the overall tone of the script.

And after only 2 paragraphs I can report that already Tobias, my 8 week old Son has interrupted this first post for the blog (discounting the false start last year), but I guess this is the challenge I'm in for and this time around I will make sure that I keep on top of the blog and hopefully in a couple of weeks time I'll be meeting up with the other half of the CursedFilm duo Mr. Cooper and encourage him to start regularly posting on the CursedFilm Blog. So a little bit about my vision for how the CursedFilm Blog is going to be run here; We will aim to write up and post reviews for various films on a semi-regular basis, whether they be big new releases, older films that we've revisited recently or even some older films that we've watched recently or that have been sat on our pile of shame for quite some time. But to kick off the year I think that I will be posting in the next week or so a rundown of my personal Top 10 Best & Worst films that 2013 had to offer, now these won't be any kind of full review of each of the film, rather just some thoughts and opinions as to why I felt that they were inducted into the Hall of Fame/Shame of 2013.

At the back end of August last year, I had planned to get the Blog up and running with a full review of Film4's Frightfest which I attended and managed to watch a full roster of 24 films over that weekend, given that life got too busy and now so much time has passed since then, I don't feel that it would be appropriate to be writing a full review of last year's FrightFest as anyone that had wanted to catch up with all the goings on at the festival have already read countless reviews and feedbacks and probably even caught up with a vast number of the films screened at Festival already, but I would like to and plan on writing a small piece about the FrightFest Festival as a whole, having been to quite a few over the recent years and maybe talk about some of the highlights and what I feel makes the festival such a great experience.

Now that I've got the format of the blog out of the way for all you readers out there (if there are any at this point in time) I'll finish with a round up of what's next for us here at CursedFilm;

In just over a weeks time I'll be flying off to SlamDance20 as part of the crew on a short Sci-Fi film titled 'After Arcadia' which has been officially selected for the Anarchy Shorts section of the Festival and the trailer for the film has also been entered into the Trailers competition that SlamDance are running this year. I was lucky enough to be Director of Photography on such a great little team and the end product really shows off all the dedication and hard work that went into producing the film; hopefully this will turn out to be a great experience and even though we here at CursedFilm have had some success with Awards and Festival screening at a Graduate level, After Arcadia poses the first real breakthrough onto the Festival circuit as Independent Filmmakers - the film itself is a short Science Fiction piece that tells the story of a Scientist that accidentally destroys the world and his efforts to erase his mistakes, it features plenty of time travelling and homage to the likes of past Twilight Zone episodes, I hope that the film really finds its audience out at the festival and hopefully acts as a springboard for the Writers and Directors (Joe Tippett & Robert Brice) to take the next step on there filmmaking path. Below I will put a link to the Facebook page for the film where updates are being posted and the crew can be followed throughout the Festival and onwards on Twitter @afterarcadia & Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/AfterArcadia?fref=ts

Up next for us at CursedFilm - we are hoping in the next few weeks to begin working on a new script - this time looking to tackle the Werewolf genre; this mostly stems from my absolute love for the John Landis film An American Werewolf in London, for which I was subjected to at far too young an age, but ever since it has been one of my all time favourite films and personally we here at CursedFilm feel that Werewolves have been shortchanged when it comes to the big screen; we're looking at incorporating a crime/police angle to the script and with my love of the Italian giallo, I'm sure some of that genre might seep its way into the DNA of the script.

That's all for tonight; keep a look out in the next coming days and weeks as I post up my end of year Best and Worst films of 2013, until then I bid you farewell film fans.