2013 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #8)

When Walt Disney’s daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers’ “Mary Poppins,” he made them a promise—one that he didn’t realize would take 20 years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles to hear Disney’s plans for the adaptation.

For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Sherman brothers, Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn’t budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp.

It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing films in cinematic history.

During a family reunion getaway, the Davison family comes under a sadistic attack. When Crispian Davison (Bowen) brings his new girlfriend (Vinson) along to celebrate the wedding anniversary of his parents (Moran and Crampton), the family’s evening together is shattered when a gang of mysterious killers begin to hunt the family down with brutal precision. Unfortunately for the killers however, one of the victims harbors a secret talent for fighting back.

Luke (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is in constant motion, a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer who travels from town to town with the carnival. Passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has in his absence given birth to their son Jason. Luke resolves to forsake life on the road and to provide for his newfound family, taking a job as car mechanic with Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). Robin soon discovers Luke’s special talents, and proposes to partner with him in a string of spectacular bank robberies. But it is only a matter of time before Luke will run up against the law – which comes in the form of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).

Avery is an ambitious rookie cop navigating a local police department ruled by the menacingly corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). When Avery, just beginning to balance his profession and his family life with wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ, confronts Luke, the full consequences will reverberate into the next generation. It is then that the two sons, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), must face their fateful, shared legacy.

London, 1962. Two teenage girls – Ginger and Rosa ­- are inseparable; they play truant together, discuss religion, politics and hairstyles, and dream of lives bigger than their mothers’ frustrated domesticity. But, as the Cold War meets the sexual revolution, and the threat of nuclear holocaust escalates, the lifelong friendship of the two girls is shattered - by the clash of desire and the determination to survive.

Martina Gedeck plays an unnamed woman who inexplicably finds herself cut off from all human contact when an invisible, unyielding wall suddenly surrounds the beautiful Austrian mountainside where she is vacationing. Accompanied by her loyal dog Lynx, she becomes immersed in a world untouched by civilization and ruled by the laws of nature. As she grapples with her mysterious circumstances, she begins an inward journey of spiritual growth and transcendence. Based on Marlen Haushofer’s eponymous classic novel, The Wall is both a riveting tale of survival and a gorgeous meditation that raises profound questions about humanity and our relationship to the natural world.

Story follows an outlaw (Ben Affleck) who escapes from prison and sets out across the Texas hills to reunite with his wife (Rooney Mara) and the daughter he has never met.

Story centers on a young New Yorker who seeks refuge from the pain of a difficult breakup, travels to France in search of distraction, quickly falls for an exotic woman and finds himself drawn into the dark underbelly of Paris.

Tells the story of how a murder at Columbia University in 1944 brought together the writers (Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs) who would spark the Beat Revolution.

Sarah Moss (Marling) is a brilliant operative for an elite private intelligence firm whose top objective is to ruthlessly protect the interests of their A-list corporate clientele. She is assigned to go undercover to infiltrate an anarchist collective known for executing covert attacks upon major corporations. Living amongst them in an effort to get closer to their members, Sarah finds herself unexpectedly torn between two worlds as she starts to fall in love with the group's charismatic leader, finding her life and her priorities irrevocably changed.

Follows three teenage friends -- Joe (Nick Robinson), Patrick (Gabriel Basso) and the eccentric and unpredictable Biaggio (Moises Arias) - who, in the ultimate act of independence, decide to spend their summer building a house in the woods and living off the land. Free from their parents' rules, their idyllic summer quickly becomes a test of friendship as each boy learns to appreciate the fact that family - whether it is the one you're born into or the one you create -- is something you can't run away from.

Follows two clueless cockney brothers who plot to rob a bank in order to help save their grandfather's old age home. But a strange virus is sweeping across East London, turning residents into zombies. The brothers band together to fight off the hordes of the undead.

A shockingly candid examination of how a street dealer can rise to cartel lord with relative ease, How to Make Money Selling Drugs is an insider's guide to the violent but extremely lucrative drug industry. Told from the perspective of former drug dealers, and featuring interviews with rights advocates Russell Simmons, Susan Sarandon, and David Simon (creator of The Wire), the film gives you the lessons you need to start your own drug empire while exposing the corruption behind the "war on drugs."