Friday Top Five: Most Anticipated of 2013

The movie year is more than halfway over. That means it's almost time to be done with these disappointing summer movies and finally get to those Oscar hopeful / prestige movies. So, this week, I will be counting down my top five most anticipated movies for the rest of the year. Just as a disclaimer, I would like to say that a few of the movies I'm very excited about are either already in theaters or opening very, very soon. (Examples: I'm planning on seeing Fruitvale Station and The Way, Way Back this weekend and The Spectacular Now, Blue Jasmine and Elysium all open in the next few weeks). So, I'm mostly going to focus on fall / early winter releases with this list:

5. Oldboy (Spike Lee)
Release Date: October 25, 2013
Starring: Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley
This is Spike Lee's remake of the super violent, super amazing Korean movie of the same name. The original Oldboy is bad ass in every way you can possibly imagine, featuring a ballsy story line and brutal violence. I'm not opposed to film makers remaking foreign films (especially when that director is Lee), because most Americans won't even give movies with subtitles a chance. Here's hoping the remake, and maybe even subsequently the subtitled original, will find a whole new audience.

4. American Hustle (David O. Russell)
Release Date: December 25, 2013
Starring: Christian Bale, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Robert DeNiro
Umm... look at that cast! O. Russell has been pretty flawless lately, going 2 for 2 with his last two efforts the flawless The Fighter and the sweet Silver Linings Playbook. This is the story of a conman who is forced to work with the FBI to help take down the mob. So, it pretty much sounds like everything you want out of a movie.

3. 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
Release Date: October 18, 2013 (limited)
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson, Alfre Woodard, Garrett Dillahunt, Quvenzhané Wallis
Besides this, McQueen has made two movies. Those two movies (Hunger, Shame) are damn good. So, the combination of McQueen and star Fassbender (who appeared in his previous efforts) is already cause for excitement. Again, look at that cast! This movie is the story of a free black man sold into slavery during pre-Civil War times.

2. Inside Llewyn Davis (Coen Brothers)
Release Date: December 6, 2013
Starring: Oscar Issac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garrett Hedlund, John Goodman, Adam Driver
As far as I'm concerned, the Coen Brothers are the closest thing to flawless in the context of making movies. This is their take on the 1960s folk scene and based solely on the trailer, I think they already have the most beautifully shot film of the year (Will there be a better shot than that cat starring at himself in the window of the subway? Probably not).

1. The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)
Release Date: November 15, 2013
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Matthew McConaughey, Jon Bernthal, Jon Favreau, Kyle Chandler, Shea Whigham
This trailer was released a few months ago and it pretty much blew me away. Not only does it look like a less brutal version of American Psycho, but also it features DiCaprio dancing to Kanye West! What more could you want from a movie? Scorsese barely makes a mistake, and this cast is on point. If I made a list of my top five movies of 2013 so far, this trailer would be number 1. Looking forward to November!

Flight

I will admit to one thing right off the bat - I am not Denzel Washington's biggest fan. Sure, he's a great actor, when he tries. But for every Training Day, there are a dozen mediocre movies where he merely shows up and coasts along. When Washington is good, he's so good, and he can be similiar to Daniel Day-Lewis in the way that he never takes on a movie that he isn't going to completely rock the part. More often than not, I find Washington disappointing because he's capable of so much more. But, in Flight, he lives up to all of his potential and then some. This is, by far, the best part of his career and he nails it.

Flight is the story of pilot Whip Whitaker (Washington). He's a great pilot, and he knows it. He's cocky and selfish and proud. Whitaker is not a likable character at all. In fact, it sort of seems like Washington goes out of his way to fight his natural urges to be likable. Whitaker has a drinking problem, and a drug problem. The movie opens in a hotel room where he has had a romp with a hot flight attendant half his age. They wake up for their early morning flight from Orlando to Atlanta hung over from the night before, so they do a little coke to straighten themselves out. Once aboard the plane, Whitaker drinks some vodka too. Although drunk and on coke, Whitaker manages to fly the plane out of some initial turbulance and it's smooth sailing... until the last few moments of the flight when all hell breaks loose. What follows is an intense scene, probably the best plane crash ever put on film, and surely the greatest moment in a movie so far this year. Whitaker manages to land the plane, losing very few lives, saving almost everyone and becomes a hero.

Of course, eventually his toxicology screening comes back and it finds out his blood alcohol level was at 2.4! The film then follows Whitaker as he struggles with his alcoholism while trying to help a recovering heroin addict (Kelly Reilly). He also teams up with a lawyer who is almost as cocky as he is (Don Cheadle). Throw in John Goodman as a hilarious drug dealer and Flight is a compelling character study directed by Robert Zemeckis in his first live action movie since Castaway.

Reilly is killer as the heroin addicted Nicole. Goodman is one juicy scene away from a much deserved Oscar nomination (even though he looks like he is wearing his old costumes from The Big Lebowski). But Flight is entirely about the performance of Denzel Washington. He is in virtually every scene and he manages to make a man so unlikable feel compelling and fascinating. There is a particular scene in which he tries to convince a flight attendant to lie for him that would win him an Oscar (in a year he's not up against Daniel Day-Lewis, anyways). Washington is so damn good that words can barely describe.

The movie, however, I had issues with. Besides the heavy handed religious issues and the sometimes over-the-top zealot characters, my biggest problem was the Lifetime movie ending. Denzel's warts and all performance deserves so much better than what he's given at times. Still, Flight is definitely worth seeing because when it's good, just like Denzel's career, it's real, real good.

Grade: B-