Top 10 of 2013

January 25th 2014 marks the second birthday of this blog and following on from last year, I've again chosen the day before this anniversary as the day to post my Top 10 films of the previous year. The extra month from December has given me the chance to catch up on some of the cinematic releases I missed earlier in the year as well as see some of this year's crop of Oscar nominated films. I saw a lot fewer films in 2013 than in 2012, partly thanks to a new job and partly because of a mid year blip during which I briefly lost the love of writing and subsequently watched fewer movies. Nevertheless I saw a total of 271 films of which 94 were eligible to be included on this list. (Last year's numbers were 391 & 100). To be included, I had to see a film that was released in UK cinemas between 25/01/13 and 24/01/14. Because of the slightly odd timing for an end of year list and crappy cinema release dates in the UK, a few of last year's Oscar nominated films were eligible for this list and films such as Her, Dallas Buyers Club and Inside Llewn Davis, which haven't been released yet cannot be included. The films below begin at my 10th favourite of the year, progressing to my favourite and I've also included my girlfriend's top 5 for a female/weirdo perspective. There's no bottom 5 this year because I didn't see enough of the truly awful films. As always, click on a film's title for a full review (if I wrote one).

10. Rush. As a huge Formula One fan I had my doubts about an American director taking on one of the sport's most fierce rivalries but Ron Howard captured the two personalities of Hunt and Lauda brilliantly. He also captured the speed, danger and to some extent noise associated with the sport as well as the grease and glamour that accompanies it. As a fan of the sport, I felt that the film stayed true to the routes of the story yet entertained and my girlfriend was enraptured by the movie as much as I was despite only enjoying the sport for Jenson Button's face. The movie looks great and sounds incredible while it allowed one of my favourite actors, Daniel Bruhl to give a fantastic performance that helped him reach a larger audience than ever before.

2014 Oscar Nomination Predictions

With the awards season already in full swing, we're now on the eve of the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards. As with the 2013 Oscars I'm joining in with Film Actually's annual Oscar prediction competition and as with 2013, I'm going to use my Britishness as an excuse for a poor showing. As my fellow countrymen will know, the likes of The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Inside Llewyn Davis and Dallas Buyers Club haven't been released in the UK yet so it puts us at a slight disadvantage compared to our American chums. Despite this, I'm going to use my expert film knowledge as well as other award ceremonies as a guide and have a stab at predicting the nominations and winners in 21 of the categories. The list of my predictions is below and my predicted winner is in red.

According to my predictions, 12 Years a Slave will be the winner nominations wise with an impressive (14). Gravity will get (11) with American Hustle on (10), Captain Philips not far behind with (8) and The Wolf of Wall Street and Rush on (5) nominations apiece. 

For the Oscar winners, I'm predicting that Gravity will win a total of (6) awards with 12 Years a Slave taking (5) home and American Hustle (2).

For those who want to keep an eye on awards buzz all year round, head over to Film Actually for up to date and insightful awards news, predictions, rumours and lists.

BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
American Hustle
Captain Philips
Philomena
Nebraska

2014 BAFTA Awards Thoughts and Predictions

Early this morning, this year's BAFTA nominees were announced. Now widely considered as one of the major award ceremonies (along with The Golden Globes) in the run up to the Oscars, the BAFTA awards have long been a well respected and coveted prize on both sides of the Atlantic. Below is a full list of the 2014 BAFTA Award nominees, the winners of which will be announced at the 67th BAFTA Award ceremony on February 16th at the Royal Opera House. Alongside the list of nominees you'll find my prediction and personal choice of which film or person I'd like to see win.

BAFTA gave us no real surprises with its announcement this morning with the most nominations going to Gravity (11), 12 Years a Slave (10) and American Hustle (10). Saving Mr. Banks performed strongly with (9) nominations, continuing its showing as a dark horse during this year's awards season. Behind the Candelabra received (5) nominations, this despite it not being released theatrically in the States. It's Mandela (1) nomination that will perhaps be dubbed this year's snub but there are no nominations for Spike Jonze's Her and Dallas Buyer's Club, the latter especially I expect to perform better in America. 

At The Back - A LAMMY Nominated Blog

I started writing about films early last year and have since written close to 500 film reviews. Although I started writing as a means of expressing my opinions about the films I saw, I soon joined with The Large Association of Movie Blogs, known commonly as The LAMB. Through The LAMB I've found some excellent blogs, writers and tweeters who have entertained me, helped me to expand my film knowledge and discover hidden gems while also helping me to promote my blog through tweets, the LAMB Forums and a number of the regular features the site runs.

A yearly feature of The Lamb are The LAMMYs, which must surely be the largest Awards Competition for online film criticism in the world. The awards encompass many areas of blogging from design, writing, knowledge, blogathons and even reach as far as podcasting. One of the categories is for the Best New LAMB, open to any blog which joined the Association in the last twelve months. I got home from work yesterday afternoon to discover that my little film blog had been nominated along with nine others in the Best New LAMB category.

I was shocked by this nomination as around 300 blogs were eligible for this award. I'm also extremely grateful to anyone who nominated me and would also like to extend a special thanks to anyone who has read, enjoyed or shared this blog in the last fifteen months. The views and comments I get make the hours it takes to write more one review a day worth the time and effort.

I'd also like to wish good luck to all my fellow nominees. I've stopped by each of the other nominees blogs in the past and I'm a regular reader of a few. It's a very strong category and I feel honoured to be included in it. Congratulations to the nominees in the other categories too.

A full list of nominees can be found here on the LAMB website and voting runs until April 30th 2013.

Top 10 of 2012

January 25^th 2013 marks the one year anniversary of my blog and this felt as good a day as any to publish my Top Ten of 2012. I considered publishing it earlier, to coincide with my Top 10 New to Me Films of 2012, but the extra month gave me a chance to see more of this year’s Oscar frontrunners and also made sense as it brings to a close my first year of blogging. I saw a total of 391 films this year, of which exactly 100 are eligible for last year’s Top 10. To be eligible I had to see it in the cinema sometime between 25/01/12 and 24/01/13. I’m yet to see the likes of Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty so they may be included next year. Also, films such as The Artist and Shame have been discounted as I originally saw them before I started blogging. The ten films are in reverse order and you can click on the title for a full review. After the Top 10 there will also be a list of my girlfriend’s Top 3 and my 5 worst films of 2012 too. Enjoy…

2013 BAFTA Awards Thoughts and Predictions

Early this morning the nominations for the 66th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAS) were announced. Recently my thought had been turned towards the Oscars for Film Actually's Oscar Prediction Competition (my predictions here) and I'd almost forgotten about my own country's premier film awards. While there are a few more British films that you'd expect in the Oscar nominations the US still dominates. Lincoln leads all films with 11 nominations, followed by Life of Pi and Les Miserables with 9. Skyfall holds up the British end with 8 but fails to make the Best Film list. The nominations are listed below. I'll predict the winner (in bold) and below list my thoughts and who I'd like to or think deserves to win. You can click on the title for my full review.

Although Lincoln leads the nominations my predictions have Life of Pi as the big winner with 6 wins followed by Anna Karenina with 3 and Lincoln, Amour and Zero Dark Thirty with 2 apiece. The awards will be handed out on February 10th 2013. 

 

Best Picture
Argo
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Zero Dark Thirty

No real surprises here although Skyfall misses out on Bond’s best chance ever for a Best Film nomination. These five seem to be the ones that are cropping up on every awards list around. Personally I’d like to see Life of Pi win but my prediction is Lincoln.

The Versatile Blogger Award

Gary at Head in a Vice recently, and very kindly chose me for The Versatile Blogger Award. I don't really know much about this but was flattered to be considered nonetheless. There are various rules that come with this award, some of which are fun, others less so. Here they are. 

1. In a post on your blog, nominate 10 fellow bloggers for The Versatile Blogger Award; and link to them.

2. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.

3. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.

4. In the same post, share 10 completely random pieces of information about yourself.

5. In the same post, include this set of rules.

6. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.

Here are some blogs which I've enjoyed over the last six months or so that I've been blogging.