Friday, January 2, 2015

My Top 50 Films of 2014

Here are my top 50 films of 2014. 
This year I saw a total of 130 new movies. Id say up until number 103 I pretty much enjoyed them all. 
After that is when it got a bit iffy starting with the mediocre Annabelle. 

Real quickly here are the 5 worst movies I saw this year:

5. 7500

4. The Battery  (I may be being rough on this one but after hearing how great it was, I was super disappointed and it ended up just irritating the shit out of me. Just did not like this movie.

3.  A Field in England  (Another one some people seem to like but it was almost unwatchable to me). 

2. Camp Dread

1. and the worst movie I saw this year was Way of the Wicked. Horrible direct to video movie with Christian Slater. 


Now that the shit is out of the way, here are my top 50: 




50. 
COHERENCE




49. 

LATE PHASES




48. 

LUCY



47. 

STARRY EYES




46. 

THE SACRAMENT




45. 

PROXY





44. 

THE IMITATION GAME




43. 

ODD THOMAS 




42. 

COLD IN JULY





41. 

BLUE RUIN





40. 

THE RAID 2






39. 

HELLBENDERS





38. 

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER





37. 

WOLF CREEK 2






36. 

DEAD SNOW 2





35. 

THE PUNK SINGER 





34. 

IN FEAR 





33. 

KILLER LEGENDS





32. 

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN






31. 

OCULUS






30. 

THE BANSHEE CHAPTER






29. 

THE DOUBLE





28. 

FURY






27. 

THE HOBBIT: BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES





26. 

LONE SURVIVOR





25. 

BIRDMAN





24. 

THE DROP






23. 

THEY CAME TOGETHER





22.

A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES






21. 

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY






20. 

X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST







19.

INTERSTELLAR






18. 

GODZILLA






17. 

HONEYMOON






16. 

THE BABADOOK






15.

THE PURGE: ANARCHY







14. 

HOUSEBOUND






13. 

FILTH






12. 

GONE GIRL






11. 

A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST




AND HERE ARE MY 10 FAVORITE MOVIES OF 2014. 




10. 

CHEAP THRILLS


 LOVED it. Thought maybe the hype would hurt it but I loved it. Starts off fun...gets dark. All good. The cast is great. It was cool to see Pat Healy and Sara Paxton reunited from The Innkeepers. Ethan Embry was great and this was easily the best acting David Koechner has done. Theres still his usual goofy side but its got a darkness to it. Definitely recommend. Fun and fucked up.




9. 

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW


Im an unapologetic fan of the "first person/found footage" style in horror films. For me personally, it works. This one was easily the best of its kind in quite a while. Probably since the first Paranormal Activity. I actually thought this was one of the better horror flicks ive seen this year. I really loved the idea. The setting was creepy. I was glad that instead of having a movie where a bunch of teens are going around with cameras, you have these explorers with cameras on their helmets. That way you throw out the whole argument of "man why do they keep filming". It did a good job of really making you feel you are descending into hell.  I really think this one is underrated. 





8.

NIGHTCRAWLER


Great movie. Its more of a character study and Gyllenhaal does a great job here. Id say its one of his best performances. Rene Russo is great too in it. I was pretty much hooked from start to finish and I personally loved how the whole story wrapped up. Definitely looking forward to watching this one again. Very dark and very good. 





7. 

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES


I thought this was perfect from start to finish. I literally dont have 1 complaint about it. I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That was a great little origin movie and now we get the huge epic Apes movie. The special fx are incredible. Andy Serkis kills it as Caesar. Right along with him with an amazing performance is Toby Kebbell as Koba. He actually was part of most of my favorite scenes in this. Great movie. Loved it. Cant wait to see the next one. 






6. 

SNOWPIERCER


Awesome is the best way to describe this one. The direction was amazing as expected from Bong Joon-ho and the cast was really great as well. Has some great set-pieces. The movie is just a blast. Its on netflix so I highly recommend checking it out.





5. 

EDGE OF TOMORROW


- I was excited to see this and it ended up being even better than I expected. Easily the best and most purely fun SciFi flick ive seen in a while. Loved every minute. The action and fx are great and its got some great humor to it as well. I loved how they start Tom Cruise's character as pretty much a coward. Hes like the opposite of most of his characters and then grows throughout. If Cruise hadnt gone wacko in his personal life and turned people off of him, this would have been a much bigger hit. It deserves to be seen more than it has. Especially by those who love sci-fi action flicks. Also great to see Bill Paxton fighting aliens once again. Fun times all around.






4. 

ALAN PARTRIDGE


- Fuck, this was hilarious. I had never seen Coogan do this character before that hes known for but I had heard good things about this. Spotted it on netflix and decided to check it out. I really laughed my ass off with this one. So many great laugh out loud moments. Ive watched it 3 times this year and laughed my ass off each time. Best comedy of the year. 





3. 

THE GUEST


- Was dying to see this and as expected, I loved it. From the creators of You're Next, this is a bad ass thriller. Its simple but its stylish and goes in a direction you dont totally expect from the beginning. The music in this is awesome. Ive been hooked on the soundtrack for months before actually seeing the movie. The cast was great and im definitely a fan of Dan Stevens now. I thought he was good in A Walk Among the Tombstones and in this he is pretty damn cool. The main girl in this was great as well and look forward to seeing her in more stuff. Sweet little flick.





2. 

JOHN WICK


God damn I loved this movie. I actually loved it so much that it almost gave Under the Skin a run for its money as my favorite. As a lot of reviews have said, this is Keanu Reeves best since The Matrix. He does some of his best acting here too. The shootouts are exciting and the action is great. Its filled with great and entertaining characters played by John Leguizamo, Ian McShane, Willam Dafoe, plus a lot of other cool characters. The "villain" in this was Michael Nyqvist from the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo movies and I thought he was great. Hes not just a cookie cutter villain. He knows how dangerous John Wick is and only wants to protect his son and his business. Hes a really great character. I love the underground world this movie sets up and im glad people are loving it and seeing it. It NEEDS sequels. Its simply awesome.








1.

UNDER THE SKIN


- Some of the movies on this list may have more replay value than this but no movie this year got...under my skin...like this one did. I was just blown away by this film. It was really unlike any other movie ive seen. The closest comparison is that is feels a little David Lynch-ian. Maybe a little Kubrick too. Its not a movie I would recommend to everyone. Its very artsy and I could see some being put off by it. Me however, I couldnt get it out of my head. Theres some great images that are still stuck with me. The score was incredible as well. Very eerie. Thats why its my favorite movie of 2014. 




Thats it. On to 2015. Bring me Mad Max Fury Road god dammit.