2014 in Review: the Good, the Bad, and Everything in Between

[lassieface]

I didn't see a thread for end-of-the-year discussions. Figured we could chat about favorite movies, performances, scenes. Biggest letdowns. Most overlooked.

I think my favorite movie I saw this year was Enemy (also probably the most overlooked). There are a ton of movies I still haven't seen though.

I think I'd say my favorite scenes of the year were the ending of Enemy, the Quicksilver scene from Days of Future Past, and Starlord rocking out to Redbone in Guardians of the Galaxy.

I'm going to give the award for worst movie of the year to The Monuments Men.

[wurwolf]

I'm a total popcorn movie apologist, and I rather liked Godzilla. On the second watching the flaws are more obvious to me but it is still one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. I thought it did a good job of paying homage to the original Godzilla and Bryan Cranston's performance made the set-up portion of the movie (the part where I'm most likely to get bored and stop watching) more tolerable than other movies.

[Kete]

Here's my top 5.  I don't know the order of them, and I don't know if I will.

Lego Movie
Whiplash
They Came Together
Guardians of the Galaxy
Grand Budapest Hotel

[Darth Geek]

I think Lego Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy are still my favorites of this year. I will see Babadook in a few days, and I have high hopes for that.

[Darth Geek]

I'm a total popcorn movie apologist, and I rather liked Godzilla. On the second watching the flaws are more obvious to me but it is still one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. I thought it did a good job of paying homage to the original Godzilla and Bryan Cranston's performance made the set-up portion of the movie (the part where I'm most likely to get bored and stop watching) more tolerable than other movies.

Godzilla was one of the better movies of the year for me. But I think with about half an hour taken out of the non-kaiju portion of the film after Brian Cranston it would have been greatly improved.

[Miku Fan]

The only movies  i saw in theater this year were Rifftrax movies.  So, I liked every movie I saw.    I'd list them, but everyone knows, so  I skip listing them, and save some valuable monitor ink.

[wurwolf]

I'm a total popcorn movie apologist, and I rather liked Godzilla. On the second watching the flaws are more obvious to me but it is still one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. I thought it did a good job of paying homage to the original Godzilla and Bryan Cranston's performance made the set-up portion of the movie (the part where I'm most likely to get bored and stop watching) more tolerable than other movies.

Godzilla was one of the better movies of the year for me. But I think with about half an hour taken out of the non-kaiju portion of the film after Brian Cranston it would have been greatly improved.

Agree, it did definitely lag when the human drama took center stage after Bryan Cranston exited.

[wurwolf]

Here's my top 5.  I don't know the order of them, and I don't know if I will.

Lego Movie
Whiplash
They Came Together
Guardians of the Galaxy
Grand Budapest Hotel

My favorite joke from They Came Together was where Ed Helms was telling Amy Poehler that his father died some years ago and she said, "I'm sorry." Ed's response: "Apology accepted."

[Kete]

^ ^

[Kete]

Okay, I'm going to do it this way.  I love small emotional movies, but I also love the loud popcorn stuff.  I have a hard time comparing the two, so I'll just create 2 different lists.  Some of these movies could be on either list, but this is how I decided to split them.  I should probably do a list of documentaries too, but usually run about a year behind on documentaries.

Favorite Indy Movies of 2014
1   Whiplash
2   They Came Together
3   Calvary
4   God Help the Girl
5   The Double
6   The One I Love
7   The Skeleton Twins
8   White Bird in a Blizzard
9   Under the Skin
10   Blue Ruin
11   Infinitely Polar Bear
12   Cold in July
13   Frank
14   I Origins

Favorite Mainstream Movies of 2014
1   Guardians of the Galaxy
2   The Lego Movie
3   The Grand Budapest Hotel
4   St Vincent
5   Edge of Tomorrow
6   Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7   Big Hero 6
8   Boyhood
9   John Wick
10   X-Men: Days of Future Past
11   The Fault in Our Stars
12   Godzilla
13   Gone Girl
14   Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
15   Birdman
16   Interstellar

[Relaxing Dragon]

Something about the fact that both Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel can be considered mainstream movies in 2014 makes me smile.

I'm a total popcorn movie apologist, and I rather liked Godzilla. On the second watching the flaws are more obvious to me but it is still one of the most enjoyable movies of the year. I thought it did a good job of paying homage to the original Godzilla and Bryan Cranston's performance made the set-up portion of the movie (the part where I'm most likely to get bored and stop watching) more tolerable than other movies.

I feel the same way. Moreso, even. The human element of the movie was, by and large, a draw at best. Even the film's strongest defenders would say that. However, I feel that the visual and atmospheric scale of the movie more than made up for things. Which normally wouldn't be the case, but when the whole point of this new Godzilla is to draw comparisons to natural disasters and calamities, it all comes together.

Meanwhile, 2014 was a solid year. So many goodies to choose from that I actually need another week to put my list together, just because there's still stuff I haven't had a chance to see yet. I'm also going to try and do a favorite scenes list, which, shockingly, is something I never do but would like to start.

I also concur that The Monuments Men was a disappointment. I wouldn't call it worst by a longshot (I sat through Transformers 4; I have seen the other side of the rainbow), but it was absolutely my biggest letdown of the year, nearly at Prometheus-levels.

Also: everyone putting Whiplash on their list? Good job.

[TeamRAD]

Favorites of 2014:

The Raid 2
The Lego Movie
Nightcrawler

Favorite scenes:

The highway chase in The Raid 2.
Lou & Rick infiltrating the home invasion scene before police arriving.
The entirety of The Lego Movie and corresponding smile that was plastered on my face through-out it.

Performance:

Gyllenhaal

[Johnny Unusual]

Favourites

1. The Lego Movie
2. Guardians of the Galaxy
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
6. Grand Piano
7. Godzilla
8. They Came Together
9. How to Train Your Dragon 2


If you haven't seen Grand Piano, check it out.  It is an incredibly fun, silly thriller!  Plus Alex Winter is in it.  How often does that happen.  I think I have seen a good 2014 documentary, but I can't remember.
Not Good movies:
Monuments Men (It has a couple good moments, but this is one of the biggest wastes of casts in a good long while)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Not as bad as it's reputation, but still quite, quite bad.  Any movie that doesn't give Will Arnett something funny to say is a movie that has committed a crime).

[Soguru]

I still have a hard time getting past how much of a polarizing reaction I had to Battle of the five armies. I've almost never had a movie experience where I was like "I just can't watch this shit again", but that was one of those rare, unique instances. I'm still not sure whether I thought it was a bad movie, but it was something I can never see, ever again.

[lassieface]

I still have a hard time getting past how much of a polarizing reaction I had to Battle of the five armies. I've almost never had a movie experience where I was like "I just can't watch this shit again", but that was one of those rare, unique instances. I'm still not sure whether I thought it was a bad movie, but it was something I can never see, ever again.

Yeah. I it wasn't like I actively disliked it or anything. It had some cool parts. As usual, there was amazing attention to detail. And it's a cool universe to play around in. But I left the theatre thinking, "Huh. That was definitely a movie." Then I forgot I saw it.