My 2014 Complete Movie List: #30 – #21

Here are the movies that came in at #30 – #21 on my complete movie list for 2014. I would like to own all these movies so if anyone is interested in helping me out, my wallet would really appreciate it.

30. Big Hero 6

One of the great animated movies this year that really is for all ages. It has the humor, entertaining action and great visuals that enhance the already great action scenes. The star of the show, though, goes to Baymax (voiced by Scott Adsit). I just found the caring robot to be hilarious. I also like that the movie didn’t rely on its Marvel ties to succeed. You wouldn’t even know, from watching the movie, that it was inspired by a Marvel property if it weren’t for the cool Stan Lee cameo.

29. About Last Night

Waaaayyyy better than I expected to be. It has Kevin Hart in it but I didn’t realize how funny of a duo him and Regina Hall would actually create. They were hilarious almost every time they were on screen together. The movies story is not a reason to watch this movie, its the comedy that is brought to the table.

28. Need For Speed

I know this movie wasn’t a hit with critics and was extremely forgettable for many others but I actually enjoyed it more than I expected. I enjoyed how it brought more of a realistic factor than the ‘The Fast and the Furious’ movies have given us lately. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been really enjoying that series lately be we all know it has some of the most unrealistic things we’ve ever seen (that goes for the physical things the characters do and the repercussions that don’t happen to them). I liked how ‘Need For Speed’ didn’t try to mimic it.

27. Divergent

Another movie that was better than I expected. That must be the name of this section of the list. Anyways, I can’t pin point one thing that the movie did great but it did do a lot of good things and it kept me entertained consistently throughout. I’m interested to see where the series goes from here now that my expectations for them will be higher going forward.

26. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

Although this sequel isn’t as good as the original, it was still entertaining and had the aspects of the original and the comic book that I enjoyed so much. The ‘A Dame to Kill For’ was clearly the best story in the movie and took up a majority of the running time. The other stories with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jessica Alba were probably the worst stories of the movie series but probably needed to be fleshed out more. I am kind of surprised Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke decided to be a part of the movie after seeing it though. With the latter being on record saying how hard the makeup process is for his character, I’m surprised he decided to take part in a sequel that saw his character take more of a side show approach and just be the character that is forced into every story for not much of a purpose. Willis, on the other hand, came back just to appear as a ghost in a few scenes that did nothing but talk to himself as usual. The movie could have did without that. Lastly, I’ll say that Eva Green brought a great performance to a character that just refused to wear much clothes or any. Makes me think Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are a little pervertish.

25. Whiplash

This movie did a great job making a story about impressing someone so you can play the drums have so much tension. Kudos to writer and director Damien Chazelle for pulling that off. J.K. Simmons put on a memorable performance as a ruthless, disrespectful, vulgar music teacher. He captures you in every scene and you don’t know whether to hate him or laugh at every rude thing he says (of course I was on the latter side). Now there is one moment in the movie that I personally couldn’t stand. When Miles Teller’s character, Andrew, was driving to a performance, a truck hits his car on the drivers side. The car then flips over a few times. Andrew gets out of the car all scratched up and bloody and then proceeds to run to his performance. Now I know it’s a movie but wouldn’t you think he should be a little more hurt; Maybe to the point where he can’t RUN. He’s lucky he wasn’t DEAD because he did get hit by a truck on his side of the car. But whatever I guess.

24. The Judge

Yet another movie that was much better than I expected (I need to really stop saying that or at least come up with a different way to say it). I expected to enjoy Robert Downey Jr. (because he’s always awesome) and that I did but the movie itself kept me hooked for the majority of its 2 hour and 25 minute run time. The story took some forced twists and turns but I enjoyed them for taking the movie in a direction I wasn’t expecting before I walked into the theater. So I guess this time around I’m glad I JUDGEd a book by its cover (HAHAHA I’m so corny). Towards the end of the movie, though, it could have been cut short to make it a tad bit shorter but you could tell they were really trying to hit home with the emotions they wanted the viewer to feel.

23. Boyhood

Though it’s a long movie (around 2 hours and 44 minutes or something like that) it was pretty interesting see, not just a boy, but his whole family grow up throughout a movie. We don’t see that in movies really. We don’t see characters from when they’re kids grow and change into young adults. We don’t see how parents grow and change with their kids. We don’t see how siblings grow in comparisons to each other. This movie showed all that step by step but only skimmed past a few years of their lives. Also, thank goodness the movie had some comedy (Lorelei Linklater as Samantha shinned at the beginning of the movie with the laughs she brought to the table.) because I don’t think I could of just watched a straight up drama for almost 3 hours without seeing some action or laughing a little bit. Almost forgot that the fact that Richard Linklater keeping the same actors for the roles in the film and shooting the film over 12 years was really worth it. It actually felt like we were watching a real family grow up and mature right in front of our eyes.

22. Edge of Tomorrow

Tom Cruise is still trending up with another great action flick. The ‘Groundhog Day’ element in the movie made for some great action but also some unexpected humor. I was rolling see Cage (Cruise) fail several different ways as he found out how to win the war against the aliens. My girl Emily Blunt being in it also helps a good movie become a great movie. The ending, however, is a little weird and confusing but up until that point, the movie was very entertaining so it doesn’t hurt the end result too much.

21. Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Read my review here.

 

My 2014 Complete Movie List: #40 – #31 | My 2014 Complete Movie List: #20 – #11

(Photo Credit: Jerry Paxton – http://gamingshogun.com/2014/07/28/sin-city-dame-kill-comic-con-2014-red-band-trailer/; James – http://thesecondtake.com/tag/need-for-speed-movie/; Peter Knegt – http://www.indiewire.com/article/specialty-box-office-boyhood-blasts-off-to-summers-best-limited-debut-20140713)