Sunday, January 11, 2015

My top Movies of the Year 2014

       
Okay here it is with much pain and agony I present my top ten movies of 2014. I do this because I feel movie dates are still the best type of dates to go on.  That said 2014 by volume may have been the best year for movie dates because there were just so many good movies to see.  On my list I have my top 10 but my honorable mentions are just as good as my top ten.   However, there were a lot of good movies 2014 didn’t many GREAT movies.  Many my top 4 are great but that is a low great.  And my 5-10 where low okay.  2014 had more repeated brands than I ever remembering one year having.  There were remakes and sequels hardly any room for an original film story.  Don’t get me wrong remakes and sequels can be great films.  I think of the Fugitive as a great remake or the Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which followed a bad remake.  I think the Lords of the Rings was an excellent series.  Each of the sequels was just as good as the original.  I think the Terminator had good sequels.  So, I’m not knocking a movie because it’s a sequel or a remake.  I do feel that sequels and remakes have to have their own stories and fresh ideas.  I think that’s why some of 2014’s remakes and sequels didn’t hit the ball out of the park.  That said it does look like it’s a trend because 2015 has almost as many remakes and reboots of successful brands as 2014 did.  That’s starting with the reboot of Star Wars.  Anyway, here is my list with some explanation.

1.                  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.  Good almost great movie.  I love this new rebooted angle.  The only part that dragged a little was the fight scene at the end.  I hope they continue the series.
2.                  The Equalizer.  I had to give Denzel this spot.  He had been crushing movies since Training Day.  This movie he goes back to his Man on Fire roots.  I hope that do a sequel.
3.                  The Edge of Tomorrow.  I never liked Tom Cruise in a movie before but seeing him get his butt beat and killed over and over again was fun.  I love the story.  The ending was medium but didn’t ruin it.
4.                  Guardians of the Galaxy.  Marvel had to go here.  So many super heroes are not from Earth that this allows them to include them.  Sure it’s all about Earth but now we get to see another take on a populated Universe besides Star Wars version.
5.                  Interstellar.  This is many people’s number one movie but to me it was to focused on the scientific fantasy of the story and not the entertainment aspect.  I don’t think having a few monsters or alien life forms would have messed up the science.  But so what if it did save the true scientific discussion for the documentary.  Writers are liars anyway so find a way to make it happen.
6.                  The Hunger Games Mocking Jay PT 1.  I like Katness so much that I can tolerate all of the extra loves elements added to the story. I love the additions to expand the sci-fi of the story.  I think it is what Hunger Games was meant to be.
7.                  X-Men Days of Future Past.  Well, I ain’t going to lie it took me a minute to get over the shape shifting sentinels I was able to enjoy the film.  I was disappointed that the story didn’t focus on the X Men battling the Sentinels.  However, I enjoyed seeing Biship on the big screen.  
8.                  The Hobbit the Battle of the Five Armies.  Now, this film sums up what was missing in the films of 2014.  How I explained this movies’s short comings is image a boxing match with a Dragon and when you go to the fight the Dragon goes down in the first round.
9.                  The Maze Runner.  I enjoyed this film.  I took a lot from The Lord of the Rings and while I don’t agree with the concept of man’s savage nature the question of how will human children behave if left to construct their own society is a interesting question.  I also liked how they answered the question in this story.  
10.              The Giver.  This was the first book to have children killings.  This was the book that influenced the Hunger Games and Maze Runner.  It wasn’t as action packed but it also didn’t have big boring love element.
Honorable mentions.  These are all films that are just as good as the films 5-10 but the part that messed them up was a little bigger or more prominent.  I will just list what messed up the film for me.
1.                  Sin City, A Dame to Kill for.  Nothing really stood out but the was less smart or diverse plot wise.  The first Sin City had many different stories but this one just had one.  Really I don’t know what this story missed I just didn’t think it was great.  Maybe I have to see it again which I will.
2.                  RoboCop. New and fresh reboot but less racial diverse and the story was the same.  They should have stole from all of the headlines about Police and civilian relations and wrote a new RoboCop story like JJ Abrams did with Star Trek and they did with Planet of the Apes.
3.                  Purge 2.  This is the only movie on this list which I didn’t see in the theater.  I enjoyed this sequel better than I did the first part.
4.                  Dracula Untold. The special effects were great but the story wasn’t fresh enough.  Underworld changed the game.  This was a low budget story.  It needed more fighting and more story.  Something.  But good none the less.  I don’t even think I liked the ending.  The reboot of the Wolfman was better.
5.                  300 Rise of an Empire.  Again you go to see a Mike Tyson fight and when you get there he’s not there.  I wanted to see King Xerxes get his big ass fight on but no it’s a story about a crazy woman.  Not bad but I can count the films I liked where the main character was somebody I wasn’t supposed to like.
6.                  Tyler Perry Single Mom’s Club.  Hot film.  No complaints.  The only problems is that it’s a comedy and comedies have to be Rush Hour to contend with Sci-fi for me.
7.                  Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Good reboot got me interested in a story I don’t like.  This time the turtles didn’t seem like white boys acting like black kids as much.  Maybe because white kids act cooler now and the contrast isn’t as big as it was before.
8.                  Pompeii.  For a movie were everyone knew what was going to happen it did a good job of writing a background story.  The ending was a little weak also.
9.                  Captain America Winter Soldier.  Man there’s no way if you would have told me this movie would not have made my top ten in 2013 I would have not believed you.  However it didn’t make my top ten.  I only became a fan of Captain America after his 2011 movie.  Now the magic has worn off maybe.  Or maybe it was just the weak story.  No matter what this movie was medium.
10.              Godzilla.  This is another movie that could have been so much more.  I should have put it in my top ten just because it was so much better than the 1998 remake.  I felt jept because again I wanted to Godzilla fight more.  But what could I complain ALL of the old Godzilla movies are told the same way.  I think that Pacific Rim was a game changer for all of these large monster films. 
11.              Transformers Age of Extinction.  I have never put a Transformer film in my top ten but this came the closest.   I think Mark Wahlberg was the big factor.  I also think that it wasn’t too slap stick.  Who knows I doubt I will ever watch it again.


Horrible I only feel two movies got me for my money last year.  These two movies missed there trailers mark.
I Frankenstein.  I don’t know what happened to my man Kevin Greviox but this was far from Underworld.  It was like a bad knock off of Underworld.
Divergent.  This was bad all the way around.  I was a bad book and a even worse movie.  I thought they would allow the film production process to work out all of the correctable parts.

What’s or the forefront. 2015 looks to be another good year of film.  I’m looking forward to bunch of films.   Road Warrior, Star Wars, Avengers Age of Ultron and Jurassic Park 

As always I include my wife’s top ten and my son’s.
My wife
1.      The Equalizer
2.      Guardians of the Galaxy
3.      The Giver
4.      Maze Runner
5.      The Hobbit Desolation of Smoug
6.      Planet of the Apes
7.      Captain America Winter Soldier
8.      Malificent
9.      Pampeii
10.  X Men Days of Future Past.
My son
1.      Interstellar
2.      Guardians of the Galaxy
3.      The Giver
4.      X Men Days of Future Past
5.      Maze Runner
6.      The Hunger Games Mocking Jay PT 1
7.      RoboCop
8.      Dawn of Planet of the Apes
9.      Purge 2
10.  Ninja Turtles

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