I'll be unveiling that list over the next few days, but for now let's start with the Honorable Mentions. These are films I enjoyed, but not quite enough to include them on my 'Best of' list.
Just a heads up, even though I managed to see nearly all the movies I wanted to see this year, there are still quite a few I missed. Those are as follows:
- American Sniper
- Begin Again
- Citzenfour
- Frank
- Inherent Vice
- The Interview
- Life Itself
- Love is Strange
- A Most Violent Year
- Neighbors
- Nightcrawler
- The Raid 2: Berandal
- Selma
- The Skeleton Twins
- Unbroken
- Under the Skin
- Whiplash
- Wild
As we move into the awards season, you can bet your sweet booty I'll be catching up on all the ones I missed and expect to see a revised list of my favorite films of the year closer to the 2015 Oscar ceremony.
Now, without further delay, let's get started!
HONORABLE MENTIONS, 2014!
BIG HERO 6
Not quite on par with the best animated films of 2014, but an enjoyable addition nonetheless. Big Hero 6 is fun and benefits greatly from the adorable Baymax. It also serves as further proof that the best animators and storytellers have jumped ship at PIXAR and moved to Disney’s primary animation studio.
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS
Seeing as how I'm not quite the target audience for this one, I was pleasantly surprised to find The Fault in Our Stars a consistently funny and moving work. Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort are both fantastic.
GODZILLA
Godzilla suffers from a lack of compelling story or characters, but when has that ever not been the case for this franchise? Director Gareth Edwards manages to pull through thanks to some stunning visuals and superior monster-mashing sequences.
THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1
This one suffers from weak source material and the unnecessary splitting of said source material into two parts, which only further emphasizes the novel's shortcomings. Still, director Francis Lawrence manages to craft some great sequences and the cast is outstanding, as always.
THE MAZE RUNNER
Even though The Maze Runner was written before The Hunger Games, the film adaptation can't help but feel like a Hunger Games knockoff. Still, it's solid Young Adult fare and manages to be exciting despite its derivative nature.
MUPPETS MOST WANTED
I’m not sure why this was so ignored/panned by critics; in some ways it’s even better than 2011’s The Muppets. It feels more like a classic Muppet movie and it’s very, very funny.
WHAT IF
When Harry Met Sally-lite. What If is mostly forgettable, but still funny and charming. Daniel Radcliffe is the natural standout here as he continues to prove himself as one of our finest young actors.
So, that's that for the Honorable Mentions. Let's transition into something a little less fun (or more fun, depending on your point of view). Here are the worst movies I saw that were released in 2014.
THE WORST MOVIES OF 2014
(That I've seen, at least)
(That I've seen, at least)
THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is the Batman Forever of the Spider-Man franchise. That’s both a good and bad thing, I suppose. Good because it means this trainwreck offers up consistent, unintentional laughs. Bad because, well, no one wants to be compared to Batman Forever. Now that they’ve crashed and burned the Spidey franchise, perhaps Sony can get a creative team that actually cares about the character. Or, you know, go ahead and surrender the franchise to Marvel Studios.
DUMB AND DUMBER TO
One of the most depressing filmgoing experiences I’ve ever had. No one involved in the making of this film seems to care at all about what they’re doing. Cynical, spiteful, and painfully unfunny, Dumb and Dumber To is without question one of the worst movies ever made and totally unworthy of its predecessor’s name.
GOD'S NOT DEAD
Insulting on almost every level, from filmmaking to spiritual. God’s Not Dead assumes that if you don't believe in God you must be a terrible human being. Its arguments for the existence of God are unconvincing and it contains a neverending supply of storytelling clichés. There are so many superfluous subplots and characters that have nothing to do with the main storyline and they are all painfully boring. On the plus side, you've got Kevin Sorbo acting like a James Bond villain and almost non-stop laughs. I've never been so close to converting to atheism.
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES
Can you find Bilbo in the picture above? I’ll give you a second. Did you find him? Where was he? Buried somewhere in the midst of characters we couldn’t care less about? That pretty much describes the entire Hobbit trilogy and The Battle of Five Armies is arguably the worst of the bunch. It proves once and for all that the decision to split Tolkien’s carefree adventure novel into three dull-beyond-all-reason films was made solely in the hopes of making more money. Its one advantage over its predecessors is that it’s so blatantly stupid and, therefore, the easiest to laugh at.
LEFT BEHIND
I didn’t think it was possible, but this Vic Armstrong-helmed ‘remake’ is even worse than the Left Behind movie starring Kirk Cameron. Next to nothing happens in its entire two-hour (?!) runtime and, worst of all, Nicolas Cage seems to be barely awake through the whole thing. They don’t even let him have a trademark freakout in an attempt to save this travesty and that may be the worst sin of all.
WHEN THE GAME STANDS TALL
When the Game Stands Tall isn't quite sure what it's about, so it decides to try and be about multiple things and fails at all of them. The screenplay is riddled with all the same cliches you've seen in a dozen other sports films, but thanks to bland performances and direction, they're even more apparent here. So, so lame.
And that's that for Part 1: The Honorable Mentions and Not-Sa-Goods of 2014! Part 2 is on its way, so keep your eyes peeled. See you soon!
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