Re: Best of 2014
 

1. X-Men Days of Future Past
2. Edge of Tomorrow
3. Gone Girl r.
4. 22 Jump Street
5. Locke
6. Captain America TWS
7. Guardians of the Galaxy
8. Interstellar
9. Lego Movie
10. Grand Budapest Hotel

Re: Best of 2014
 

I love Grand Budapest Hotel. It's quirky and unconventionally funny. It's definitely on my top 10. I really enjoyed the chase seen.

Re: Best of 2014
 

After just watching Foxcatcher it could be my favorite from 2014.

Best of the Year:

1. Whiplash +
2. Interstellar
3. Birdman +
4. Grand Budapest +
5. Gone Girl
6. The Imitation Game
7. The Theory of Everything -
8. Fury -
9. Maps to the Stars +
10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes +

I still have to watch Nightcrawler and Boyhood, which I believe will make this top10. I'm also curious about Foxcatcher, Big Eyes, The Judge and Noah. I'm not really happy about my last 4 but I have so many movies to watch, I doubt it'll be like this when I watch everything that I want to.

Worst of the year:

1. Sex Tape
2. Monuments Men -
3. Divergent -
4. A Million Ways to Die on the West
5. Guardians of the Galaxy +

I just saw Jauja yesterday and while I liked the two other Alonso features I've seen (Los Muertos and La Libertad) better, I think Jauja is definitely worth seeing if only for the photography. Here are some screenshots I took of the film in it's very strange 4:3 aspect ratio with a rounded black trim (and watermark):
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps7b090893.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...psc07db78a.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...psa7c85aea.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...psb67b7506.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6c4f0f42.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps6c6070df.png
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/a...psfeeb960f.png

And make no mistake, this isn't just pointing a camera at a beautiful landscape. This is also some incredible lighting work that is at times theatrical, and always beautiful.

Re: Best of 2014
 

I haven't seen most of the movies from 2014 yet, but I have seen gone girl, and it's absolutely amazing.

Re: Best of 2014
 

1. Boyhood
2. Ida
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Force Majeure
5. Starred Up
6. Nightcrawler
7. Whiplash
8. Jodorowsky's Dune
9. Blue Ruin
10. Under The Skin


As for worst:

1. Men Women & Children
2.Night Moves
3. Dear White People
4. Chef
5. The Immigrant

2014 has been a damn good year at the cinema. And I think I can safely post my top 10 of the year as well as a few additional other categories.

Top 10 2014

1. The Interview
Was the funniest film I saw all year and easily the most controversial. Thankfully it lived up to the hype. Wrote a full review of it.

2. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Easily my favorite Wes Anderson movie. Beautifully crafted and acted and with Wes' signature camera movement and themes of unusual family structures around a father son-esque relationship between Gustov and Zero.

3. American Sniper
One of Eastwood's best and an excellent biopic of a legit war hero.

4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
My favorite MCU movie of this year, and I think the Marvel's answer to The Dark Knight.

5. Birdman
Very intense performances and beautiful cinematography. Give Keaton the Oscar! Also wrote a review.

6. Guardians of the Galaxy
The anti Man of Steel. Light and humorous, colorful, cool characters, and lots of fun!

7. Gone Girl
Perfect for date night! ;) Seriously though Affleck was great and the story was very good.

8. Whiplash
Who knew jazz classes were this intense? Also a full review is up.

9. Deliver Us from Evil
One part cop drama, one part exorcism movie, all Eric Bana as a bad ass.

10. Tusk
Kevin Smith continues down the rabbit hole of his strange new film making path. A little black comedy, but plenty of horror of the Lynch and Cronenberg type.


Biggest Surprises: John Wick & God’s Not Dead
God's Not Dead was a huge surprise. I have seen indie Christian flicks before. Heck I suffered through The Omega Code 2 in the theater and it was so dull I forgot I saw it for a decade. They have a reputation for being crap films with worse acting. This was actually pretty well put together. Now the flick is VERY flawed and ham-fisted, but the ultimate positive message about faith was good. Even if some scenes made me groan. John Wick was also a surprise in that Keanu has had a crappy run of flicks recently. So it was good for him to be in a simple revenge flick were he kills EVERYONE! Lots of great action and very stylish fight scenes.


Biggest Disappointment: The Lego Movie
Everything is NOT awesome!


Worst Movie: The Theory of Everything
You can take this with a grain of salt since there were no movies I saw this year just so I could rant about them on the internet. I tried to only see good movies in the theater and avoided a lot of movies that looked like crap during 2014's s**t summer season and dump months. Either way this was still dull and pretentious Oscar bait.

The difference between the Before trilogy and Bob Dylan's musical career is that the Before trilogy was still good after 20 years. A better example for this analogy might be Radiohead.

Re: Best of 2014
 

I'd have to say Guardians of the Galaxy was the newest movie that I could not get through because it was so dull.

Foxcatcher is probably my favorite from 2014, and it was also my biggest surprise because I never expected such strong performances from Tatum or Carell.

Watched a lot more 2014 films since positing this so time for an update:

1. Boyhood - Richard Linklater
2. Under the Skin - Jonathan Glazer
3. Coming Home - Zhang Yimou
4. Ida - Pawel Pawlikowski
5. Two Days, One Night - Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
6. Tracks - John Curran
7. Whiplash - Damien Chazelle
8. The Grand Busapest Hotel - Wes Anderson
9. Interstellar - Christopher Nolan
10. Charlie's Country - Rolf De Heer

11. Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 - Lars Von Trier
12. Birdman - Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
13. Nightcrawler - Dan Gilroy
14. The Railway Man - Jonathan Teplitzky
15. Noah - Darren Aronofsky
16. Only Lovers Left Alive - Jum Jarmusch
17. The Lego Movie - Christopher Miller/Phil Lord
18. Force Majeure - Ruben Ostlund
19. Goodbye to Language 3D - Jean-Luc Godard
20. Nymphomaniac Vol. 2 - Lars Von Trier

Why is Ida so much higher than Force Majeure? I think Force Majeure blows Ida out of the water, shame it wasn't even nominated. I hope Leviathan wins Best Foreign film, and I haven't even seen Leviathan

They are very different movies so it is hard to compare but Ida was much better in one way, visually, and I felt as though Force Majeure lost its way slightly. By that I mean that it was an excellent concept but its script had a couple of things that I found frustrating - particularly the husband being so adament that he didn't run away and the wife being so intent on bringing it up in front of other people. These things didn't feel quite right and they ended up affecting my enjoyment in the second half of the film.

I would agree that the first half is better than Ida.

Yes, the photography in Ida was nice but for me that's basically all it has going for it.

I think those scenes that you're referring to in Force Majeure worked quite well with the themes and the rest of the film. Considering how the husband gets emasculated by his wife, those scenes sum up the entire film in a way.

Absolutely agreed on Force Majeure being far better than Ida...seen Leviathan and that is also better than Ida...

Loved Blue Ruin quite a lot, but isn't it 2013?

There are many films I see in this thread that I haven't seen yet, from the ones I have Force Majeure, Birdman, Leviathan and Gone Girl were terrific...there were other good films too...2014 seems to me a very good year in terms of quality films...

Re: Best of 2014
 

Blue Ruin only played festivals in 2013, so no, it's 2014.

Re: Best of 2014
 

1- Whiplash +
Easily the most amazing of the year and truly inspirating and intense. Top 3 ever.

2- The Raid 2
Awesome choregraphy and very nice storyline. Some of the best fighting scenes I've ever seen. Iko Rock .

3- Nightcrawler +
Awesome performance by Gyllenhaal and a great movie.

4- Gone Girl
Surround by great acting and awesome storyline this movie is a home-run. David Fincher strikes again

5- American Sniper +
Great and astounding view of the mental of a soldier and the modern war in general. Love it.

Re: Best of 2014
 

1. Whiplash
2. Birdman
3. Interstellar
4. Gone Girl
5. Nightcrawler
6. Guardians of the Galaxy
7. Enemy
8. Grand Budapest Hotel
9. X-Men DOFP
10. Captain America - The Winter Soldier