Great Movies of 2013: Action and Thriller

This is my last installment discussing my favorite movies of 2013.  My first blog has my top 5, followed by a second blog on my favorite Romance and Comedy movies and most recently I wrote about my favorite Dramatic movies.  As mentioned before I'm not a fan of gore, so there will not be any commentary on Horror movies and I don't go out of my way to see any animated movies other than something from Aardman Studios.  Keeping with policy of no spoliers, there are none below.

In my top 5 movies I already said that Gravity was my favorite movie of 2013 and I rated Rush as my third favorite movie of 2013.  So, what other movies are great?  Per my opinion these both are worth watching,

Action:

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips (Adventure/Drama)  - Tom Hanks gives a great performance as Captain Phillips along with Barkhad Abdi who plays the Somali pirate in this action/dramatic movie based on the real life events that occurred on the Maersk Alabama.  You can see my original movie review here. 

When I started blogging I thought that I would write more movie reviews, but I rarely ever see a movie opening weekend anymore. As for action/dramatic movies I would put the story, cinematography and character development for Rush above Captain Phillips.  However, watching this movie is certainly a good use of anyone's time.  (My IMDB rating 8/10)

Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness - Action/Sci-Fi - This is the second installment in the original Star Trek reboot and it features a young crew led by Chris Pine as Captain James Tiberius Kirk.  In this installment a terrorist attempts to destroy a Young Federation of Planets and the team on the USS Enterprise has to stop this one-man  weapon of self destruction. 

What makes this movie enjoyable is the great action sequences, great CGI and these young actors bringing the original Star Trek characters back to life.  JJ Abrams does a great job in creating the pace of this movie and it is solid on the overall canon of Star Trek.  I think this movie is worth seeing if you are a Trekkie or not... But if you are a Trekkie you would have seen this back in May of 2013 and would have formed your own thorough opinion.  This movie was the first time a Star Trek movie was done in 3D and probably best watched on a 3D television.  There are a few particular sequences that were extremely well done and I won't spoil them for you.  This movie was released well before Christmas on DVD.  (My IMDB rating 8/10)

I made a concerted effort the last few weeks to see several Dramas, but I have not made the same effort with action movies.  I would like to see still of 2013 RED 2, Wolverine and Enders Game.  Other action movies I thought were solid include The Hunger Games: Catching Fire starring Jennifer Lawrence, Catching Fire Elysium starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster, and Oblivion starring Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman.   The latter deserves a George Lucas rewrite for the ending.  

Was there an action movie that was better than my four suggestions?  Was Superman really that super?  Are you not sick of Ironman?  Tell me what you think below.  

Somali Pirates Don't Say "R" - My review of Captain Phillips (Spoiler Free)

This movie is the dramatic retelling of the 2009 hijacking of the MV Maersk Alabama a US cargo ship off the coast of Somalia.  The movie stars Tom Hanks as the lead Captain Phillips and he delivers a quality performance which we have come to expect from him.  Tom Hanks plays the everyman leading the working class crew's cat and mouse antics to evade capture.  On the other side is actor Barkhad Abdi who leads the hijackers in his first movie roll.  The latter delivered a very strong performance and I felt a strong sympathy in this characters drive to support his family.  It is easy to hate criminals, but this movie makes the point that these pirates are victims as well.  I would not be surprised if this actor is nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

The movie is a thriller and the director (Paul Greengrass - The Bourne Supremacy and United 93) does a great job of building up to critical moments of drama.  It features several strong action sequences and they stand out because they lack the usual Hollywood bravado we have come to expect. There are no 'one-liners' and no great diatribes by Somali pirates.  What you will see is a lot of khat chewing, the stimulant that gives the pirates their courage.

It is interesting to see the techniques the crew uses in attempts to evade the pirates and how the pirates over come them.  You'll ask yourself why they wouldn't have any guns aboard a ship, especially considering the daily love fest of gun out of the states.  But this is a true story.... so hindsight is not here to save the day.

This movie goes into wide release October 11, 2013 and is well worth watching.

In conclusion: 8 out of 10

Click here for the official trailer.