Your most anticipated movies of 2014

[Uhura]

January is here and we have another year of film ahead of us. Since this seems to be the season of list-making it seems appropriate to ask: what are your most anticipated movie releases of 2014 and why? Here is my top 7:

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)
The Story:

Spoiler

I've always loved the cinematography and humor in Anderson's movies so this one is a no-brainer. The film looks gorgeous and it's easily my most anticipated movie of the year.

2. Ex Machina (Alex Garland)
The Story:

Spoiler

"Caleb, a 24 year old coder at the world's largest internet company, wins a competition to spend a week at a private mountain retreat belonging to Nathan, the reclusive CEO of the company. But when Caleb arrives at the remote location he finds that he will have to participate in a strange and fascinating experiment in which he must interact with the world's first true artificial intelligence, housed in the body of a beautiful robot girl."(IMDb)

This is the directorial debut of Alex Garland who is probably more well known for his writing chops. He wrote the screenplays for Sunshine, Dredd and 28 Days Later, for example. The plot sounds interesting but I really hope they manage to steer away from the more obvious fembot stuff.

3. How to Catch a Monster (Ryan Gosling)
The Story:

Spoiler

"A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town." (IMDb)

This is Ryan Gosling's directorial debut and the script was also written by Gosling, so the movie is a bit of a wild card in that sense. There isn't that much info on the movie yet but the cast is pretty solid and the premise is definitely interesting.

4. Nymphomaniac (Lars von Trier)
The Story:

Spoiler

"A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating." (IMDb)

I'm a bit behind on my von Trier (still need to watch Melancholia and the Antichrist) but based on the trailers, this movie seems quite intriguing. It'll be also interesting to see if Shia LaBeouf can pull off a more serious acting role.

5. X-Men: Days of Future Past (Bryan Singer)
The Story:

Spoiler

This is pretty much the only superhero movie/sequel that interests me this year. I'm not a fan of the current trailer for the movie, but I hope it's just a case of 'shitty trailer' and doesn't reflect on the quality of the actual movie. I really enjoyed First Class and I hope the mashup of different timelines works smoothly.

6. Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson)
The Story:

Spoiler

"In Los Angeles in 1970, drug-fueled detective Larry "Doc" Sportello investigates the disappearance of a former girlfriend." (IMDb)

The movie is based on Thomas Pynchon's eponymous novel. PTA is a bit of hit-or-miss director for me so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this movie.

7. Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg)
The Story:

Spoiler

"Complex look at Hollywood and what it reveals about Western culture." (IMDb)

The synopsis doesn't say much about the movie but I love Cronenberg and his films rarely disappoint. Definitely excited to hear more info about this one.


Honorable mentions: Gone Girl, White Bird in a Blizzard, Everest, Kill the Messenger, Birdman, Godzilla, The Lobster, Deliver Us from Evil, Anomalisa, Interstellar.

There is very little info out on some of the movies I listed here so this list will probably change a lot within the next two months. All in all, I hope there'll be some surprise blockbusters this summer à la The Pacific Rim and I especially hope that the new Godzilla turns out well.

So what are your most anticipated movies of the upcoming year?

 

[Casual Shinji]

1. The Grand Budapest Hotel

This one looks really good, and I wasn't even aware it was being made.

Nice to see Ralph Fiennes don the role of the patented Wes Anderson "lovable asshole".

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

Guardians of the Galaxy
X-Men Days of Future Past
i.Frankentstein
Need for Speed
Interstellar
Transcendence
Captain America The Winter Soldier

really that's my list. Too many to name, so these were the ones from the top of my head.

 

[Eamar]

The Hobbit: There and Back Again by a loooong way.

Other than that, X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 and Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The film I'm most curious about is Guardians of the Galaxy.

So... a load of massive blockbusters. I do watch other things too, I swear!

 

[Tzzimy]

300: Rise of An Empire.

 

[Crispee]

Captain America: The Winter Solider, The Hobbit: There and Back Again, Guardians of the Galaxy.

Would be excited about other things but those are the only things advertised so far that interest me.

 

[Elfgore]

300: Rise of an Empire- Sure it spits on historically accuracy even more than the first movie. It looks to be nothing but pure action and I love it.

The Hobbit: Part 3- Finally I get to see the battle of the five armies.

 

[Scarim Coral]

These lots-

Captain America The Winter Soldier

300: Rise of an Empire (This is soo a cash in since there was never a sequel to the 300 graphic novel but I know it will be an action fest film which I enjoy alot!)

X-Men: Days of the Future Past

The Hobbit Part 3

Guardians of the Galaxy

The Lego Movie

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Godzilla

How to Train your Dragon 2

 

[FPLOON]

GODZILLA!!

That's currently on the top of the must-watch-in-theaters list... Others include:

Evangelion 3.0*
Ride Along
The LEGO Movie*
Vampire Academy
Mr. Peabody and Sherman*
Need for Speed*
Muppets Most Wanted*
22 Jump Street**
How To Train Your Dragon 2
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes*
Guardians of the Galaxy*
The Hobbit: There and Back Again

*Watching in theaters on Day 1... (Maybe...)
**I'm bringing my own mother with me to watch it... (She'll love it...)

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Not too many...I look forward to all of the Marvel movies (including Days of Future Past), the straight-to-DVD movie Justice League: War (DCAU) and, the live action adaptation of Kiki's Delivery Service.


Also Muppets Most Wanted. I don't know how I forgot about that!

 

[Azahul]

Other than the final Hobbit movie, Jupiter Ascending is really the only one on my radar at the moment. Pretty much purely because Cloud Atlas was so amazing.

 

[Uhura]

I've got to add a few movies on my list!

8. Sororal (Sam Barrett)
The Story:

Spoiler

It's an Australian neo-giallo, do I need to say more?! The cinematography looks gorgeous and the murder mystery is intriguing. I hope it does well.

9. Body Art (Luca Guadagnino)
The Story: I couldn't find the official synopsis for the movie but the story is based on Don DeLillo's novella The Body Artist.
The movie stars David Cronenberg (yes!), Sigourney Weaver and Isabelle Huppert.

 

[Uhura]

I like Lars von Trier as well (in spite of his incredibly stupid comments that one time and the fact that 'Antichrist' is very misogynistic), but I'm worried 'Nymphomaniac' will just be porn. I mean, one should expect a lot of sex based on the title alone, but I feel like it's going to open up the 'how far is too far' discussion all over again.

From the reviews I've read I get the impression that the film doesn't really read as porn, because the sex scenes are cold and clinical and hence not very arousing. But yeah, it's going to be a controversial movie and I hope that the discussions surrounding it don't get completely out of hand. I'm curious to see if Bob decides to review the movie for the Escapist, though. The subject matter is obviously a poor fit for this website, but I'm sure it's going to be tempting to post a review for a highly controversial movie. We'll see.

 

[Fijiman]

There are only three on my list. The LEGO Movie, the next Hobbit movie(if it's released this year), and possibly Godzilla. I have no intentions to see any other movies than those three as I either don't know enough about the other movies to care or they haven't even been announced yet.

 

[cojo965]

There is only one answer, just as there is only one King of the Monsters.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

I don't really like going to the cinema, but this year there are 3 movies that I'll make sure to go see-

Captain America: Winter Soldier
Guardians of the Galaxy
Godzilla

CA:WS looks like it's going to be really good. I can't wait to see what happens to SHIELD(looks like corruption or something) and if they'll do anything with HAMMER.

GotG will probably be good. The casting looks good and none of the other Marvel movies have disappointed me so far.

Godzilla looks like a non-bastardized, more serious take on the monster. The look of Godzilla and the fact that Toho has a hand in it are good signs, but I'm not getting my hopes up too far since there have been some very awful G films.

 

[Tohru_Readman]

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Captain America: Winter Soldier
The Wind Rises
The Lego Movie
How to train your Dragon 2
Guardians of the Galaxy
Hobbit: There and Back Again

I can't wait until Grand Budapest, have been watching the trailer on a never ending loop. The rest of the list I'm excited about too but a new Wes Anderson movie always wins out.

 

[Lucyfer86]

The next Hobbit ofc, can't get hyped on any other movie before i see that one.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I think my most anticipated films this year are:

X-Men: Days of Future Past - I absolutely loved First Class, so I have high hopes for this one. I'm intrigued at the merging of the past X-Men films with these ones, though I hope most of the film will be devoted to the cast of First Class since they're all stunning actors who put in fantastic work in the previous film. All in all, very excited for this one.

The Expendables 3 - While I don't think it'll be quite as good as The Expendables 2 I am still looking forward to being able to switch off at the cinema and watch awesome action heroes duke it out.

The Hobbit: There and Back Again - I think this is an obvious choice. I loved the first The Hobbit movie and though I haven't seen the second, I mean to soon. Nevertheless, I'm still excited for this.

And finally, Guardians of the Galaxy - While I'm not actually that much of a fan of Marvel's cinematic universe and I don't think any of the films bar the first Captain America were anything more than average, I still religiously go to the cinema and watch them. I'm looking forward to this one though partly because it looks to promise some sci-fi superhero goodness and also because there's a talking gunslinging raccoon in it.

Spoiler: Honourable mentions

RoboCop - Not because I think it'll be good, but because I want to see how bad it turns out to be.
Godzilla - Like RoboCop, I don't think it'll be good but I still want to see it because bad films are a laugh.
300: Rise of an Empire - I think this will at least be good but I can't really muster any more enthusiasm than that for it because that's kind of all 300 was as well.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier - As much as I loved the first film, nothing I've seen makes me think this will be anything more than average. I think it's because it looks more 'dark' and 'gritty' than Captain America, which is just dull.