We're homing in on the halfway point of this year. Amidst all the hype & surprises, hits & failures, borefests & fun rides:
Which are your Top 5 movies of 2014's first half?
Which are your Top 5 hypes of 2014's second half?
(if you have that many)
The 5 movies I really liked this year, in no particular order:
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Probably Wes Anderson's best movie after Rushmore and Tenenbaums. Ralph Fiennes nailed the role and for a change Anderson's stylistic finesse is put to good use rather than simply showing off a trademark. He also pulls off the right mixture of fun and sadness, which not a lot of people can get a hold of.
Edge of Tomorrow - Saying "Tom Cruise" isn't a criticism. The guy can play an action leading man unlike any other. And he happens to helm this, a particularly well-written action movie that takes its ideas beyond a catchy premise and develops them to quite an extent. The only thing standing in the way of perfection is the awkward finale.
Noah - I am not a religious person nor do I identify with the Judeo-Christian dogma, so I give a lot of credit to this movie for investing me (and itself) in its story rather than peddling the same trite notion over and over. There're some contradictions in it but then what would you expect from adapting from the Bible. Russell Crowe is great as Noah and I love the Shining-esque third act.
Jersey Boys - Weird choice. I'm not a fan of Clint Eastwood's "sentimental biopic period" and god knows I don't know or care about the Four Seasons and their songs. Same deal with Noah I guess - the direction and the acting sell the movie. Most musical biopics end up telling you why this or that band are important to music history, but this movie is more about the characters themselves rather than how much they transcended (or didn't). It's all about character interaction,conflict and development. And the actors are spot-on, no doubt thanks to the fact that most of them got lifted right out of the Broadway show.
Captain America 2 - Getting to the bottom of the barrel here. I'd rather vote something more memorable rather than Marvel Saturday Morning Cartoon #14, but it's just such a good Saturday morning cartoon. Evans and Johansson have GREAT chemistry and the action is of the intense, focused, clean-cut kind. My biggest gripe would be the Winter Soldier himself, and how irrelevant he is to the plot.
And now my 5 hypes:
Interstellar - Another guy that's always interesting to watch, Chris Nolan, combined with "reborn" Matthew McConaughey, in a "hard" science fiction movie. Nolan has an awkward relationship with scripts but I'm counting he learned from his mistakes in Inception.
Exodus: Gods and Kings - Maybe I'm psyched from Aaronofsky's Noah, but Ridley Scott doing his take on the Bible with Christian Bale as Moses is something I cannot pass over.
Maps to the Stars - This is strictly fanboyism, but I crave anything David Cronenberg makes these days. I've watched all of his movies since his film student days and I have a completionist's delight for watching every new movie he makes, even if the last couple weren't very good.
Magic in the Moonlight - It's hard to feel excited about a Woody Allen movie, considering he gets one out of the oven every year and most of them are super indulgent about their cast and plot. But every now and then we get one Midnight in Paris or Blue Jasmine, right?
Sin City 2 - This should be number one, because I've been literally waiting for years for this, so it fits the definition of hype to a T. I'm not excited about it because of the director, or the premise, or the cast, or any of that. I'm excited that the movie is happening.
Edited out because release got pushed to 2015:
(Jupiter Ascending - The Wachowski bros. seem to always be dangerously bordering pretentiousness, but you can't deny they're also always interesting and never boring. To me they belong to a higher order of filmmaking since The Matrix, and their subsequent bombs have only heightened my expectations for their next hit.)
Which are your Top 5 movies of 2014's first half?
Which are your Top 5 hypes of 2014's second half?
(if you have that many)
The 5 movies I really liked this year, in no particular order:
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Probably Wes Anderson's best movie after Rushmore and Tenenbaums. Ralph Fiennes nailed the role and for a change Anderson's stylistic finesse is put to good use rather than simply showing off a trademark. He also pulls off the right mixture of fun and sadness, which not a lot of people can get a hold of.
Edge of Tomorrow - Saying "Tom Cruise" isn't a criticism. The guy can play an action leading man unlike any other. And he happens to helm this, a particularly well-written action movie that takes its ideas beyond a catchy premise and develops them to quite an extent. The only thing standing in the way of perfection is the awkward finale.
Noah - I am not a religious person nor do I identify with the Judeo-Christian dogma, so I give a lot of credit to this movie for investing me (and itself) in its story rather than peddling the same trite notion over and over. There're some contradictions in it but then what would you expect from adapting from the Bible. Russell Crowe is great as Noah and I love the Shining-esque third act.
Jersey Boys - Weird choice. I'm not a fan of Clint Eastwood's "sentimental biopic period" and god knows I don't know or care about the Four Seasons and their songs. Same deal with Noah I guess - the direction and the acting sell the movie. Most musical biopics end up telling you why this or that band are important to music history, but this movie is more about the characters themselves rather than how much they transcended (or didn't). It's all about character interaction,conflict and development. And the actors are spot-on, no doubt thanks to the fact that most of them got lifted right out of the Broadway show.
Captain America 2 - Getting to the bottom of the barrel here. I'd rather vote something more memorable rather than Marvel Saturday Morning Cartoon #14, but it's just such a good Saturday morning cartoon. Evans and Johansson have GREAT chemistry and the action is of the intense, focused, clean-cut kind. My biggest gripe would be the Winter Soldier himself, and how irrelevant he is to the plot.
And now my 5 hypes:
Interstellar - Another guy that's always interesting to watch, Chris Nolan, combined with "reborn" Matthew McConaughey, in a "hard" science fiction movie. Nolan has an awkward relationship with scripts but I'm counting he learned from his mistakes in Inception.
Exodus: Gods and Kings - Maybe I'm psyched from Aaronofsky's Noah, but Ridley Scott doing his take on the Bible with Christian Bale as Moses is something I cannot pass over.
Maps to the Stars - This is strictly fanboyism, but I crave anything David Cronenberg makes these days. I've watched all of his movies since his film student days and I have a completionist's delight for watching every new movie he makes, even if the last couple weren't very good.
Magic in the Moonlight - It's hard to feel excited about a Woody Allen movie, considering he gets one out of the oven every year and most of them are super indulgent about their cast and plot. But every now and then we get one Midnight in Paris or Blue Jasmine, right?
Sin City 2 - This should be number one, because I've been literally waiting for years for this, so it fits the definition of hype to a T. I'm not excited about it because of the director, or the premise, or the cast, or any of that. I'm excited that the movie is happening.
Edited out because release got pushed to 2015:
(Jupiter Ascending - The Wachowski bros. seem to always be dangerously bordering pretentiousness, but you can't deny they're also always interesting and never boring. To me they belong to a higher order of filmmaking since The Matrix, and their subsequent bombs have only heightened my expectations for their next hit.)
![[Kira Must Die]](https://eg-forums-escapist-data.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/data/avatars/l/68/68539.jpg?1620622912){kind=avatar}
ays Of Future Past - (Very..."okay" visuals and a plot that seems good on the surface but is extremely stupid and nonsensical under any scrutiny.)
