Watched Exodus: Gods and Kings, the new Ridley Scott movie. It was okay, but not great. My viewing was also tainted by several people behind us constantly whispering, and another person constantly kicking my chair in the middle of the movie. Wait for it on Netflix if it was interesting sounding to you, or see it cheap if you can and need to see it in the theater (a lot of good special effects).
Alien is a fucking brilliant sci-fi film. It still holds up due to the lack of old CG and showing as little of the alien as possible. The tension and discomfort is relayed to the audience really well.
Aliens was definitely a step down on re-watching it. I dislike how James Cameron felt the movie needed to be an action film in the middle 1/3. The relationship between Newt and Ridley seemed melodramatic and forced however it made a good parallel for the show down between Ridley and the Queen. I wasn't a fan of the aliens evaporating after a few short bursts of a gun. It was still a great film.
I felt like I was compelled to finish off the whole set Alien 3 was surprisingly more appealing to me than Aliens. I didn't realise this was David Fincher's first film.
I should have never pressed play on the Alien Resurrection screen. It was so bad I couldn't laugh at it, pretty sure that Sigourney Weaver only signed up this one for the paycheck.
That might also be the case here, but I have a lot of trouble picking favorites. I saw a lot of good movies in 2014: Top Five, Guardians of the Galaxy, Interstellar, Gone Girl.
I think I am the only person I know who saw Top Five. If you decide to kill some time at a theater during this lazy week, I say check it out.
I think the only movies I saw in 2014 that were released in 2014 where Song of the Sea, Princess Kaguya, and Jellyfish Eyes. Jellyfish Eyes definitely doesn't make the cut. Tough call between the other two.
And now all the movies I've seen this year, first in order, then by if I've seen them before or for the first time, and then general groupings by how much I thought rate them compared to how I actually rated them.
**All 67 movies in order:** Before Sunrise Before Sunset Before Midnight Pacific Rim Ong-bak 2 Back to the Future Up Mud Thor The Dark World We're The Millers The Aviator Young Frankenstein 21 Jump Street The Thin Man The Heat The Blind Side Drunken Master White House Down Helvetica Riding Giants Frozen Rush Ender's Game Project A Captain Phillips French Kiss Mr. and Mrs. Smith Hunger Games Catching Fire 21 Jump Street When Harry Met Sally Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Monsters Godzilla Edge of Tomorrow RoboCop 1987 Saving Mr. Banks Guardians of the Galaxy In Bruges RoboCop 2014 Royal Tenenbaums Rush Hour Lego Movie Total Recall 1990 22 Jump Street Captain America Winter Soldier Cool Runnings Maleficent Snowpiercer The Cameraman Super 8 (in German) Grand Budapest Hotel Interstellar Predator X-Men Days of Future Past Lucy This is the End Lego Movie (again) Limitless Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies Boyhood Love, Actually Elf Muppets Christmas Carol Gattaca Scrooged Wall-E
**Seen before:** Before Sunrise Before Sunset Up (partly) Back to the Future Young Frankenstein Drunken Master Riding Giants Project A French Kiss Mr. and Mrs. Smith 21 Jump Street When Harry Met Sally Scott Pilgrim vs the World Monsters RoboCop In Bruges Rush Hour Total Recall 1990 Cool Runnings Super 8 (in German) Predator Lego Movie (again) Love, Actually Elf Muppets Christmas Carol Gattaca Wall-E
**First time:** Before Midnight Pacific Rim Ong-bak 2 Mud Thor The Dark World We're The Millers The Aviator 21 Jump Street The Thin Man The Heat The Blind Side White House Down Helvetica Frozen Rush Ender's Game Captain Phillips Hunger Games Catching Fire The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Godzilla Edge of Tomorrow Saving Mr. Banks Guardians of the Galaxy Royal Tenenbaums Lego Movie 22 Jump Street Captain America Winter Soldier Maleficent Snowpiercer The Cameraman Grand Budapest Hotel Interstellar X-Men Days of Future Past Lucy This is the End Limitless Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies Boyhood Scrooged
**Yup! (knew/heard it was good, was good):** Before Sunrise Before Sunset Before Midnight Back to the Future Mud The Aviator 21 Jump Street The Thin Man The Blind Side Drunken Master White House Down Helvetica Riding Giants Rush Project A Captain Phillips French Kiss Hunger Games Catching Fire When Harry Met Sally Scott Pilgrim vs the World Monsters Edge of Tomorrow RoboCop Guardians of the Galaxy In Bruges Rush Hour Lego Movie Total Recall 1990 22 Jump Street Cool Runnings Snowpiercer The Cameraman Grand Budapest Hotel Interstellar Predator Lego Movie (again) Boyhood Love, Actually Muppets Christmas Carol Gattaca Wall-E
**Okay category A. The Anti-Disappointment (thought it would be bad, turned out better than expected (either good or okay)):** We're The Millers Ender's Game The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Captain America Winter Soldier X-Men Days of Future Past This is the End Limitless
**Okay category B. Just Okay (knew/heard it would be okay, turned out okay):** Pacific Rim Ong-bak 2 Up (but only by skipping a lot) Thor The Dark World The Heat Royal Tenenbaums Super 8 (in German) Lucy Elf
**Disappointment (heard/remembered it was good/okay, turned out barely okay/bad):** Young Frankenstein (good - bad) Frozen (good - okay) Godzilla (good - okay) Saving Mr. Banks (good - bad) RoboCop 2014 (okay - bad) Maleficent (good - bad) Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies (okay - bad) Scrooged (good - terrible)
**Known bad (heard/knew it was bad, was bad):** Mr. and Mrs. Smith
**Ultimate Disappointment (heard it was bad, turned out worse than I could imagine):**
I think my most disappointing movie of the year was a tie between Saving Mr. Banks and Maleficent. I'd heard such good things about them, but blah.
Robocop 2014 was just dull and badly put together. Hobbit 3 was such a long way down from the pinnacle of LORT that it was disappointing in another way.
But if that's as bad as new movies got this year (that I saw) it's a fucking huge step up from the fucking pile of fucking shite that was Prometheus. Fuck that movie.
Saw Hobit the Last One, tonight. Was a Christmas present from my sister.
It was visually pretty at times, and super fake and stupid looking at others. Also it was the first HFR movie I saw. Can't say if I saw the difference or if I just though I saw.
The movie itself was meeeeh. Most of the film was, or at least felt like it was, about a big huge battle that ultimately seemed to matter very little. Elfs fought so there could be one scene with elf king going "Elfs have died and that makes me sad." and dwarfs fought for the two scenes of "Dwarfs are fighting there, we should help them". Only fight that had any amount of impact and emotion behind it was when humans fought to survive orc assault in the city.
And in the end eagles won the fight in about ten seconds of screen time. Also there was a second orc army I guess? But in the movie it was shown just as some end bosses and few of their minions.
No. Anything even remotely good anywhere later in the movie only served to remind me that all that had gone before could possibly have not been so bad, and so made the experience of the movie worse.
1. The Lego Movie 2. How To Train Your Dragon 2 3. Gone Girl 4. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier 5. Grand Budapest Hotel
Haven't found anything yet to really crack that yet, but I need to still see Foxcatcher, Nightcrawler, Frank, Top Five, The Imitation Game, Theory of Everything, American Sniper, Babadook, and Dear White People.
I also saw The Interview, probably the biggest hyped/most controversial film of the year. Surprisingly bad. I like Seth Rogen and James Franco, but this was just those guys on auto-pilot playing bumbling idiots. Too much bad improv, bad running jokes, and it doesn't take any advantage of the scenario. Seriously, do you know how easy it is to make jokes about Kim Jong-Un and North Korea? I couldn't believe they screwed up so badly. And I really enjoyed This Is The End and Pineapple Express.
I said it wasn't easy for me to pick favorites, but it's very easy for me to pick the worst movie I saw in a theater during 2014: Let's Be Cops, the result of a spontaneous "oh hey, we're all going to see a movie. What's playing?" trip.
Met up with an old friend of mine last night, who happens to be a huge horror movie buff. He told me about this Australian indie horror movie that has been getting lots of buzz, The Babadook, so we gave it a shot. Very good movie! It's been out in very limited release for a few weeks, but it's available on VOD for $7. This movie had all sorts of Shining-style mental creepiness. Did a very good job of working with a small cast and making every character very easy to relate with, which pays off as they begin to go through ever more fucked up shit.
Looking it up now, wow he wasn't kidding that it has good buzz. Rotten Tomatoes has like 130 reviews and only 3 of them are bad.
Comments
Alien is a fucking brilliant sci-fi film. It still holds up due to the lack of old CG and showing as little of the alien as possible. The tension and discomfort is relayed to the audience really well.
Aliens was definitely a step down on re-watching it. I dislike how James Cameron felt the movie needed to be an action film in the middle 1/3. The relationship between Newt and Ridley seemed melodramatic and forced however it made a good parallel for the show down between Ridley and the Queen. I wasn't a fan of the aliens evaporating after a few short bursts of a gun. It was still a great film.
I felt like I was compelled to finish off the whole set Alien 3 was surprisingly more appealing to me than Aliens. I didn't realise this was David Fincher's first film.
I should have never pressed play on the Alien Resurrection screen. It was so bad I couldn't laugh at it, pretty sure that Sigourney Weaver only signed up this one for the paycheck.
I think I am the only person I know who saw Top Five. If you decide to kill some time at a theater during this lazy week, I say check it out.
Song of the Sea blows it out of the water.
**Movies seen for the first time**
Top New Dramas:
Captain Phillips
Rush
Top Older Drama:
The Aviator
Top Scifi Epic:
Interstellar
Top Scifi Action:
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
Top Stupid Action:
White House Down
Top New Comedy:
Lego Movie
Grand Budapest Hotel
Top Older Comedy:
The Cameraman (with live piano accompaniment)
Top Coming of Age:
Boyhood
Mud
Top surprise holy shit didn't know what that movie was going to be about:
Snowpiercer
Top Was Nowhere Near As Bad As I'd Heard It Was (biggest anti-disappointment):
Ender's Game
**Movies I've seen before**
Top Comedy:
In Bruges
Top Romantic Comedy:
When Harry Met Sally
Top Scifi Action:
Total Recall 1990
Predator
Top Documentary:
Riding Giants
**All 67 movies in order:**
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Before Midnight
Pacific Rim
Ong-bak 2
Back to the Future
Up
Mud
Thor The Dark World
We're The Millers
The Aviator
Young Frankenstein
21 Jump Street
The Thin Man
The Heat
The Blind Side
Drunken Master
White House Down
Helvetica
Riding Giants
Frozen
Rush
Ender's Game
Project A
Captain Phillips
French Kiss
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Hunger Games Catching Fire
21 Jump Street
When Harry Met Sally
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Monsters
Godzilla
Edge of Tomorrow
RoboCop 1987
Saving Mr. Banks
Guardians of the Galaxy
In Bruges
RoboCop 2014
Royal Tenenbaums
Rush Hour
Lego Movie
Total Recall 1990
22 Jump Street
Captain America Winter Soldier
Cool Runnings
Maleficent
Snowpiercer
The Cameraman
Super 8 (in German)
Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Predator
X-Men Days of Future Past
Lucy
This is the End
Lego Movie (again)
Limitless
Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies
Boyhood
Love, Actually
Elf
Muppets Christmas Carol
Gattaca
Scrooged
Wall-E
**Seen before:**
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Up (partly)
Back to the Future
Young Frankenstein
Drunken Master
Riding Giants
Project A
French Kiss
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
21 Jump Street
When Harry Met Sally
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Monsters
RoboCop
In Bruges
Rush Hour
Total Recall 1990
Cool Runnings
Super 8 (in German)
Predator
Lego Movie (again)
Love, Actually
Elf
Muppets Christmas Carol
Gattaca
Wall-E
**First time:**
Before Midnight
Pacific Rim
Ong-bak 2
Mud
Thor The Dark World
We're The Millers
The Aviator
21 Jump Street
The Thin Man
The Heat
The Blind Side
White House Down
Helvetica
Frozen
Rush
Ender's Game
Captain Phillips
Hunger Games Catching Fire
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Godzilla
Edge of Tomorrow
Saving Mr. Banks
Guardians of the Galaxy
Royal Tenenbaums
Lego Movie
22 Jump Street
Captain America Winter Soldier
Maleficent
Snowpiercer
The Cameraman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
X-Men Days of Future Past
Lucy
This is the End
Limitless
Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies
Boyhood
Scrooged
**Yup! (knew/heard it was good, was good):**
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
Before Midnight
Back to the Future
Mud
The Aviator
21 Jump Street
The Thin Man
The Blind Side
Drunken Master
White House Down
Helvetica
Riding Giants
Rush
Project A
Captain Phillips
French Kiss
Hunger Games Catching Fire
When Harry Met Sally
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
Monsters
Edge of Tomorrow
RoboCop
Guardians of the Galaxy
In Bruges
Rush Hour
Lego Movie
Total Recall 1990
22 Jump Street
Cool Runnings
Snowpiercer
The Cameraman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Predator
Lego Movie (again)
Boyhood
Love, Actually
Muppets Christmas Carol
Gattaca
Wall-E
**Okay category A. The Anti-Disappointment (thought it would be bad, turned out better than expected (either good or okay)):**
We're The Millers
Ender's Game
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
Captain America Winter Soldier
X-Men Days of Future Past
This is the End
Limitless
**Okay category B. Just Okay (knew/heard it would be okay, turned out okay):**
Pacific Rim
Ong-bak 2
Up (but only by skipping a lot)
Thor The Dark World
The Heat
Royal Tenenbaums
Super 8 (in German)
Lucy
Elf
**Disappointment (heard/remembered it was good/okay, turned out barely okay/bad):**
Young Frankenstein (good - bad)
Frozen (good - okay)
Godzilla (good - okay)
Saving Mr. Banks (good - bad)
RoboCop 2014 (okay - bad)
Maleficent (good - bad)
Hobbit 3: The Battle of Five Armies (okay - bad)
Scrooged (good - terrible)
**Known bad (heard/knew it was bad, was bad):**
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
**Ultimate Disappointment (heard it was bad, turned out worse than I could imagine):**
Robocop 2014 was just dull and badly put together. Hobbit 3 was such a long way down from the pinnacle of LORT that it was disappointing in another way.
But if that's as bad as new movies got this year (that I saw) it's a fucking huge step up from the fucking pile of fucking shite that was Prometheus. Fuck that movie.
It was visually pretty at times, and super fake and stupid looking at others. Also it was the first HFR movie I saw. Can't say if I saw the difference or if I just though I saw.
The movie itself was meeeeh. Most of the film was, or at least felt like it was, about a big huge battle that ultimately seemed to matter very little. Elfs fought so there could be one scene with elf king going "Elfs have died and that makes me sad." and dwarfs fought for the two scenes of "Dwarfs are fighting there, we should help them". Only fight that had any amount of impact and emotion behind it was when humans fought to survive orc assault in the city.
And in the end eagles won the fight in about ten seconds of screen time. Also there was a second orc army I guess? But in the movie it was shown just as some end bosses and few of their minions.
1. The Lego Movie
2. How To Train Your Dragon 2
3. Gone Girl
4. Captain America 2: Winter Soldier
5. Grand Budapest Hotel
Haven't found anything yet to really crack that yet, but I need to still see Foxcatcher, Nightcrawler, Frank, Top Five, The Imitation Game, Theory of Everything, American Sniper, Babadook, and Dear White People.
I also saw The Interview, probably the biggest hyped/most controversial film of the year. Surprisingly bad. I like Seth Rogen and James Franco, but this was just those guys on auto-pilot playing bumbling idiots. Too much bad improv, bad running jokes, and it doesn't take any advantage of the scenario. Seriously, do you know how easy it is to make jokes about Kim Jong-Un and North Korea? I couldn't believe they screwed up so badly. And I really enjoyed This Is The End and Pineapple Express.
Comedy 2014
Grand Budapest Hotel
Drama 2014
Gone Girl
Action 2014
Edge of Tomorrow
Guardians of the Galaxy
It will also be the best movie of 2015.
I found myself laughing at Gone Girl, didn't expect to like that film. Wasn't great, but entertaining.
Edge of tomorrow had it's quirks, but too tropey. Didn't like towards the end mostly, all the support characters were pointless.
Lego movie was so meh. Everything is awesome is everything I remember about the film and want to forget.
Maleficent was ass.
Prometheus was a disapointment. Had so much potential to be great, but was written with so much dumb, I can't even.
Non stop was too much like Bourne Identity + Flight Plan
Chef was o....k but longer than it needed to be.
I really liked Enders Game.
Xmen Days of Future past had only one good scene. If you've seen the film, you know which one I'm talking about. (I hope)
A million ways to die in the west, doesn't like up to the title. Wasn't anywhere near as funny as it was trying to be.
Lucy was ite. Bit dumb, but ite.
The Equalizer, can't quite make my mind up about this film. Therefore it's bad.
Snowpiercer was dumb as hell, but I liked it.
Annabelle killed the only black character, therefore racist.
Fell asleep during the Book of Life
Looking it up now, wow he wasn't kidding that it has good buzz. Rotten Tomatoes has like 130 reviews and only 3 of them are bad.