Top 5 movies to see this year

This is certain to be a fantastic year in film for those of us who only want to watch remakes, adaptations and sequels.

After swimming through an ocean of mediocrity (A.K.A. the Internet), a solid list of projects that are actually exciting became pretty clear. Here are the top five picks for movies that look like they could be pretty damn okay in 2013.

The Place Beyond the Pines

This latest film from Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stunt rider who commits robbery in order to provide for his newborn son.

Basically, The Place Beyond the Pines will be 140 minutes of Gosling being badass combined with beautiful cinematography and cool motorcycle chases and some father-son storyline-induced tears. Go see it.

The World’s End

The highly anticipated third act to Edgar Wright’s Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (the previous installments being 2004’s Shaun of the Dead and 2007’s Hot Fuzz) is sure to be a great one.

The World’s End follows a group of five childhood friends who go on an epic pub crawl after a 20 year reunion, only to find that it coincides with the apocalypse. Starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, if The World’s End is half as good as its predecessors, we are in for a treat.

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Shooting a comic book adaptation is tricky business (see: The Fantastic Four). Unfortunately, different entertainment forms hold different boundaries and when an esteemed story is brought to the world of film, it can be disappointing. This was definitely not the case with 2005’s Sin City, which was extremely well received, both critically and commercially.

Seven years later, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is going to be released and we should all be very excited. The story will be more open this time, allowing characters from the previous installment to return whilst still allowing proper adaptations from the original stories. Frank Miller and Robert Rogriquez will both be returning to direct this project.

Stoker

Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) can easily be considered one of Korea’s most influential modern filmmakers. Stoker, a horror starring Mia Wasikowska and Nicole Kidman, marks Chan-wook’s first English speaking film. Details of Stoker have been kept fairly quiet, but has garnered quite a bit of buzz through festivals.

It is to be scored by Clint Mansell, who is famous for scoring a number of Darren Aronofksy films (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan). Even if you are not a huge fan of horror films, you should strongly consider making a big exception for this film.

Ender’s Game

Widely considered one of the greatest science fiction novels of all time, Ender’s Game will finally be coming to a theatre near you this November. Based on the 1985 novel by Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game follows a young boy brought to a training centre to prepare for war with an alien species.

Starring an ensemble cast including Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, and produced by Fringe producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, this is certain to be one of the least Halo-esque sci-fi films in recent history.