Every year I like to take a look at what movies are in the pipeline for the following year and make a list of my most anticipated movies, if for no other reason than it's fun to go back and see if I was right or way off base on whether something would be good. As you'll see in my 2013 list, some of the movies didn't even get released and may even be on the 2014 list as well. We'll start with my 2013 list and what I ended up thinking of them (barring the ones that haven't been released yet, of course):
1. THE COUNSELOR (Ridley Scott)
2. BEFORE MIDNIGHT (Richard Linklater)
3. TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE (Steve McQueen)
4. THE MONUMENTS MEN (George Clooney)
5. THE WORLD'S END (Edgar Wright)
6. GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuaron)
7. TO THE WONDER/KNIGHT OF CUPS/VOYAGE OF TIME/UNTITLED (Terrence Malick)
8. OUT OF THE FURNACE (Scott Cooper)
9. MUD (Jeff Nichols)
10. CALVARY (John Michael McDonagh)
11. ONLY GOD FORGIVES (Nicolas Winding Refn)
12. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (Derek Cianfrance)
13. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (Martin Scorsese)
14. A MOST WANTED MAN (Anton Corbijn)
15. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Joel & Ethan Coen)
16. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG (Peter Jackson)
17. SIDE EFFECTS (Steven Soderbergh)
18. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS (Paul Greengrass)
19. THE ZERO THEOREM (Terry Gilliam)
20. TRANCE (Danny Boyle)
Of this list, several were not released in 2013 (THE MONUMENTS MEN was pushed to February, 3 of the 4 Malick movies don't even have release dates yet, and thus won't be on my 2014 list, not making that mistake twice, CALVARY will premiere at Sundance 2014, as will A MOST WANTED MAN, and I have no idea when we'll see THE ZERO THEOREM stateside).
So here's what's left:
1. THE COUNSELOR - B-
2. BEFORE MIDNIGHT - A+
3. TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE - A
5. THE WORLD'S END - C+
6. GRAVITY - B-
7. TO THE WONDER - C-
8. OUT OF THE FURNACE - A+
9. MUD - B
11. ONLY GOD FORGIVES - A
12. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES - B
13. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET - B
15. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS - A+
16. THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG - B+
17. SIDE EFFECTS - B
18. CAPTAIN PHILLIPS - A
20. TRANCE - B-
Just like last year with THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, my #1 pick kinda let me down this year, as did many of the other high ranked movies on this list, but overall 2013 wasn't a great year for me, very few movies really blew me away, unlike last year.
As with any upcoming year, making a list of 20 movies I'm highly anticipating is pretty easy for me, hopefully these 20 will live up to my expectations a little more than 2013's list.
1. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (Wes Anderson)
2. INHERENT VICE (Paul Thomas Anderson)
3. FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller)
4. THE MONUMENTS MEN (George Clooney)
5. CALVARY (John Michael McDonagh)
6. NIGHT MOVES (Kelly Reichardt)
7. INTERSTELLAR (Christopher Nolan)
8. MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (Jeff Nichols)
9. A MOST WANTED MAN (Anton Corbijn)
10. NYMPHOMANIAC (Lars von Trier)
11. ENEMY (Denis Villeneuve)
12. MOJAVE (William Monahan)
13. ANIMAL RESCUE (Michael R. Roskam)
14. THE DOUBLE (Richard Ayoade)
15. UNDER THE SKIN (Jonathan Glazer)
16. 99 HOMES (Ramin Bahrani)
17. THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN (Peter Jackson)
18. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (Bryan Singer)
19. ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE (Jim Jarmusch)
20. TUSK (Kevin Smith)
