Best movies of 2014

My list is another one that is mostly mainstream. I have not seen Birdman, Boyhood or Life Itself, which might pushing some others aside if they live up to what I've heard. I recently watched my top three again on DVD, which led to me changing my order. I still think The Winter Soldier was a higher quality movie, but Guardians of the Galaxy was just more fun.

Guardians of the Galaxy
Captain America: Winter Soldier
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Big Hero 6
Chef
How to Train Your Dragon 2
Gone Girl

 

What a concept with Guardians of the Galaxy. A movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and is fun to watch.

 

Throw in good sound track

 

That helps a lot too.

 

Whiplash is amazing.

JK Simmons should win best actor in a walk.

 

I saw two movies in the theater in 2014, and it will be obvious why it was so few in a moment. Big Hero 6 was really good. Planes Fire and Rescue...not so much.

 

It was funny, we went to the Drive-In to see Planes Fire and Rescue. The kids ran around like crazy people for an hour waiting for the movie to start. Both were asleep in the minivan 5 minutes into the movie. My wife and I are sitting there, saying, "OK, this probably would not have been my choice of films for a date night..."

 

Wow, I did no see a lot of current movies this past year:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/top/bestofrt/?year=2014

How does 'Snowpiercer' keep ending up on these lists?
That movie was so dumb.

I really wanted to like 'Jodorowski's Dune,' but I just didn't. It left me flat.

'Tim's Vermeer' was really interesting but got pretty tedious. I know that was Teller's intent, but I felt like I was being punished at a certain point. We get it, Teller.

'Grand Budapest Hotel' was wonderful, but well behind 'The Royal Tennenbaums,' 'Rushmore' and 'Moonrise Kingdom' on my Wes Anderson list.

The X-Men movie was meh. Wanted it to be better.
'Guardian of the Galaxy' was fun until the dumb ending.
I really liked the Captain America movie, which was nice because the first one was terrible. He was my favorite character when I was a kid.

'The Skeleton Twins' too self-conscious, and I disliked the characters. That movie can't work unless the viewer likes the characters.

'Chef' was a disappointment. I like food and cooking stuff, but this movie bored me.

'Edge of Tomorrow' was fun and interesting. I liked it. And the marketing and title changes have been interesting.

'Gone Girl' was good; too long, though.

'Under the Skin' was very good.

'The Normal Heart' was preachy.

I stil want to see 'Whiplash,' 'Birdman' and 'The Babadook.'

 

Didn't see quite as many as I would have liked this year. My tops, alphabetically

Birdman
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Edge of Tommorrow
Foxcatcher
Ida
Inherent Vice
John Wick
Life Itself
Nightcrawler
The Lego Movie
Two Days, One Night
X-Men DOFP
Under the Skin


I love that Snowpiercer exists. It's not on my list, but I'm glad it was made.

The Grand Budapest Hotel would be on the list within the context of Wes Anderson's film library; that is, it's excellent in terms of fitting in with the rest of his work, which as a whole will be really valuable to the film community for centuries to come. You're going to remember Wes Anderson. But as a standalone picture, I think it's about 20 minutes too short and too plot-driven.

 

I respect its existence a great deal. I will never watch it again or have no particular cause to do so. It's a very good short story, filmed.

Juxtapose that with a movie like Under The Skin, which, watched once, only begins to make sense as you go along. But it's film. And Linklater has made some pretty good films; A Scanner Darkly is one; so is Waking Life. But more often, Linklater is great thinker and writer and manager of actors. He has a camera on, and it's interesting, and it's good, and it's genuinely art -- at times risky art -- but generally I think he's received too much praise because of the era he's found himself in and because he's one heck of a nice person.

 

Linklater gets points for doing something different, and Boyhood, which I've now seen, is very good, but it's not on the level of what I would expect from a Best Picture winner or even maybe even nominee. I'm aware it is very likely to be nominated, but it's not even in the same class as Whiplash. Not even close.

 

'Under the Skin' was just so interesting both narratively and visually. It is the only movie that has really stuck with me over the past year.
I can't imagine what the novel is because I can't imagine the visual quality translated into text and working.
It's a difficult translation to imagine.

For example, I loved the novel 'Perfume.' I have never seen the film adaptation and I can't understand how it could be turned into a film.