It is possible I had no more fun at the movies all year than with Thor: The Dark World. The film is just a pitch-perfect comic-book movie, one that is not only unafraid to wholeheartedly embrace its pulp roots, but actually feels like something I could have seen in a Thor comic or cartoon series. And yet, what really blows me away here is that even while The Dark World is gloriously, gleefully unhinged – this is easily the funniest movie Marvel has ever made, and has some of the most creative set-pieces in the entire superhero cinema canon – it is also grounded in some of the most rock-solid, expertly thought-out internal logic, tonal and otherwise, I have ever seen from a blockbuster tentpole. It saddens me a bit that many critics and viewers dismissed this film; what does it say about our modern movie-going culture when we can’t just take wonderfully well-executed fun for what it is? Entertainment is still a crucially important part of cinema, and few films this year entertained as well as this one.
Thor: The Dark World is now playing in theatres.
[h2]This is the End[/h2]
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg swung for the fences on this one, aiming to make something both ludicrously silly and emotionally, thematically poignant, and it really is awe-inspiring to see how far they hit it out of the park. When I reviewed the film, I said it was hard to believe that This is the End exists, and that is exactly how I still feel – something this completely unhinged, this audacious and insider-y and committed to making every moment, whether it be horrifyingly over-the-top or intimate and character-based, work to the fullest extent, should by all rights feel like a mess.
It’s an apocalypse comedy, dealing with religious themes of sin and redemption, about real-life celebrities playing totally whacked-out versions of themselves, trying to repair broken friendships before the end comes. And when the end does come, it is accompanied by a Backstreet Boys reunion. This movie should not work. And yet it does – it works beautifully, and hilariously, and gloriously, and if this is what Rogen and Goldberg could achieve in their first time in the director’s chair, their future seems effectively limitless.
This is the End is now playing on Blu-Ray and DVD. Read my full review of the film here.
That’s it for me! You now know what my 30 favorite films of 2013 were – here’s my Top 10 again if you need a refresher – so tell us, what were your favorite movies? Sound off in the comments!