The Spectacular Now - Maybe 2013 was the year of Bob Odenkirk. His scenes were the best part of this movie for me. I had somehow gotten the impression that The Spectacular Now was a comedy, and it is not. Comparisons to Say Anything are wildly off base. This movie is a painfully truthful portrayal of alcoholism and depression.
Star Trek into Darkness - I'm not sure what to make of these movies that are not exactly remakes, but so deeply linked with the movies that came before them. I guess I could just say it makes me feel old, even though I was a very tiny person when Wrath of Khan came out the first time.
The Hobbit 2: Desolation of Smaug - Oh wait, I guess this was the year of Benedict Cumberbatch. Almost everything was wrong with this movie, and yet. It's just so magical, all those things up on the screen that only existed in my head for my whole childhood. Also Richard Armitage is dreamy. But then, Thorin Oakenshield probably shouldn't be dreamy--come to think of it, I'd say that "dwarves shouldn't be hot" covers a big fraction of what's wrong with The Hobbit 2.
Warm Bodies - I'm glad I didn't realize that was the kid from About A Boy until it was over. I think it would have been distracting.
Identity Thief - I could probably be convinced to see almost any movie Melissa McCarthy is in for a while even if it is pretty terrible. This one was pretty terrible.
Gravity - I have not been so emotionally involved in a movie in ages. At the same time, the great weakness of the movie is the way it tries to get the audience emotionally involved, by explaining for instance that when people die it is very sad. Still one of my favorite movies of this year.
Oblivion - I barely remember this movie. I might have fallen asleep during it. Have you read this book? It's pretty good.
World War Z - I don't have any inside knowledge of this, but it seems like this script must have been lying around, not called World War Z, and then someone got the rights to World War Z, and someone was like, "Well, we have this zombie script lying around, can we call it World War Z?" And the answer was no, but they did it anyway. After seeing this movie, I was thinking about whether it should have been more like the book, whether it would have been possible to make a movie of the book, something big and sprawling and loosely connected. Something more documentary-like, almost academically interested in the nuts and bolts of world-wide zombie infection. My conclusion: Contagion was a better adaptation of World War Z than World War Z. (p.s. my favorite thing about watching World War Z was seeing Peter Capaldi in a small role.)
In a World… This movie is a romantic comedy that gets right a bunch of things that romantic comedies almost invariably get wrong. No, that's not quite it. It's like, it traffics in all the dumb cliches of the genre, but it manages to make them work. e.g. you know that thing where the female lead is So Awkward even though she is obviously Cameron Diaz or whatever? Lake Bell manages to come across as genuinely dorky and odd and obsessive (even though she's model-gorgeous).
The Heat - see above re Identity Thief. This movie was much funnier than Identity Thief.
Much Ado About Nothing - I really did not plan to like this movie, because while it seems very awesome and fun to read or perform a Shakespeare comedy in your big gorgeous house for funsies, it also seems pretty self-indulgent to then release that thing in movie theaters, even if you are very good at what you do. In black and white no less! But I was totally charmed by it. I'll also second Thad F's opinion (I think it was Thad?) that Nathan Fillian should win some sort of prestigious award for his portrayal of Dogberry.
The rest, with my Netflix stars ratings:
Monsters University ***
The Way Way Back ***
Philomena ****Iron Man 3 ***
The Croods ***
Pacific Rim **
Side Effects ***
Red 2 **
The World’s End *****
This is the End ***
Ender’s Game **
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire ***
