The Panda

Number 11 Gone Girl "You think you'd be happy with a nice Midwestern girl? No way, baby! I'm it." My Original Grade: A- Most Valuable Player: David Fincher for Directing Box Office: 166 million Tomatometer: 88% Reasoning: Gone Girl is one of the most mind-twisting, sick films of the year in the most satisfactory sort of way. The movie plays on so many strong ideas revolving around the media, news stories, and gender roles. The movie leaves you in suspense the entire way through waiting for each moment to unravel into something new and unexpected. David Fincher brings out the best of all of the actors, even managing to make Tyler Perry good in a role. Rosamund Pike (who I almost gave MVP to, except her performance is just as much a credit to Fincher as to herself) gives her career defining performance by bringing the Amazing Amy character to life as the most bone-chilling villain of the year. Gone Girl is sick in all of the right ways. Fun Fact: Ben Affleck's weight fluctuations in the film are due to him being cast as Batman during the shooting.

Number 12 The Fault in Our Stars "Funerals, I decided, are not for the dead. They are for the living." My Original Grade: B+ Most Valuable Player: Shailene Woodley as Hazel Grace Box Office: 124.9 million Tomatometer: 80% Reasoning: The Fault in Our Stars manages to buck the trend set by many romance movies before it by, shockingly, actually being good. While of course the movie was the hit it was because of the romantic aspect, there is so much more depth the movie provides besides that. The Fault in Our Stars never falls into the Nicholas Sparks sentiment, but it doesn't deny the corniness that sometimes comes out of romantic situations either. It doesn't exploit on the tragic aspects, but rather utilizes the joyous moments beforehand the make the tragedy feel like it truly is one. Not to mention Shailene Woodley absolutely kills it in her role, sadly because this is based off a young adult novel she won't be getting any of the awards consideration that she deserves from her performance. If the new trend in young adult movies becomes more like this and Catching Fire, then I am completely on board for more of these. Fun Fact: A replica of the Anne Frank house had to be built because the crew was denied the rights to use the real Anne Frank house for filming.

Number 13 Fury "Ideals are peaceful. History is violent." My Original Grade: A- Most Valuable Player: Roman Vasyanov for the Direction of Photography Box Office: 84.7 million Tomatometer: 78% Reasoning: The only other film that has gotten this close to capturing the violent realities of World War 2 was Saving Private Ryan, and the influence is quite notable. Fury is a very grim and bleak film, but it sticks with you as a harrowing trip the moral greys that aren't often brought up when looking at World War 2 and humanity in general. The cinematography is stunning and it brings the inside of the tank to full life and entrances you with invigorating action sequences. Had the script as a whole been a little stronger (the second act compared to the third act seem like two completely different writers) and had the third act not gone as over the top as it did, this would have easily been in my top 10, if not top 5. Fury is a very powerful movie with a lot more to say than some people have given it credit for. Fun Fact: All of the actors in the film went through a rigorous boot camp and it ended with them actually manning a real tank in a combat exercise.

Number 14 Blue Ruin "That's how it works, man. The one with the gun gets to tell the truth." My Original Grade: B+ Most Valuable Player: Macon Blair as Dwight Box Office: 258 thousand Tomatometer: 96% Reasoning: Blue Ruin is one of the best revenge flicks of the past decade, so good I think even Quentin Tarantino might end up a little jealous. The film takes a man who is in way over is head, somebody like me or you, and you watch as he makes mistake after mistake in this suspenseful thriller. The movie leaves you fully engaged from the beginning to the end, revealing bits of Dwight's motives at a time as he works to get his ultimate payoff. Macon Blair delivers a breakthrough performance that centers on him, and even in the long moments of silence you can tell everything going through his head just looking at his scared eyes. Blue Ruin is a film that most people probably missed, but they most definitely shouldn't have. Fun Fact: Benny mentions a man named Duce who got hit by a train, in the film. This is a reference to 'El Duce' the lead singer of a band called, 'The Mentors', who was actually hit by a train.

Number 15 X-Men: Days of Future Past "I'm gonna say to you what you said to us then: fuck off!" My Original Grade: A- Most Valuable Player: Bryan Singer for Directing Box Office: 233.9 million Tomatometer: 92% Reasoning: As somebody who only liked First Class and hadn't been a fan of the X-Men franchise since X2, X-Men: Days of Future Past really impressed me and reinvigorated a new liking to the franchise. Michael Fassbender and James McAvoy prove to be worthy additions to the X-Men cast and even usurp Ian McKellan and Patrick Stewart in their mastery of their roles. This return to form however has to be to the credit of the director, Bryan Singer. Singer brings back his distinct style to the X-Men movies and in the process renders all of the bad X-Men movies, we had been previously, void. Days of Future Past is a comic book movie with brains and a sense of artistic direction, and I hope future comic book movie directors look to this one to understand how it should be done. Fun Fact: Bryan Singer was inspired to cast Peter Dinklage in the movie because of his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones

I will take it.

Number 16 Into the Woods "I was raised to be charming, not sincere." My Original Grade: A-/B+ (I was conflicted) Most Valuable Player: Chris Pine as Prince Charming Box Office: 52.3 million Tomatometer: 71% Reasoning: I was originally very worried about how Into the Woods would be handled on screen, as it is one of my favorite Broadway musicals from the mastermind of Sondheim. While, I did find Rob Marshall's direction to be rather uninspiring, the cast was very strong and had great ensemble together, and it still managed to capture the heart of what Into the Woods is all about. Chris Pine gave a great and hilarious performance as Prince Charming, Emily Blunt killed it as the Baker's Wife, and Meryl Streep proved that she actually can do musicals after the atrocity called Mamma Mia. The film was very fun, and it kept all the dark undertones I love about the broadway play, had a decent director been at the helm of this and it would have been a shoe-in for my top 10. Also on a side note, watch out for Lilla Crawford and Daniel Huttlestone, as child actors they did exceptional. Fun Fact: Anna Kendrick claimed that because the set pieces were so large and realistic, she and Chris Pine actually got lost on the set and needed a production assistant to rescue them.

Number 17 Only Lovers Left Alive "How can you've lived for so long and still not get it? This self-obsession is a waste of living." My Original Grade: B- Most Valuable Player: Anja Fromm for her Art Direction Box Office: 1.9 million Tomatometer: 85% Reasoning: This is the first instance on my list of a movie I gave a lower grade to winding up higher than films I gave higher grades to. My reasoning in this case is, Only Lovers Left Alive, has slowly grown on me since I saw it. The film leaves you in a delirious trance-like state while watching it and for a period of time after leaving it. The film was like a mind-numbing hypnotic drug, and while at first I found it unsettling, I have grown to appreciate it and near love the somber, under-city tone of it all. The entire movie moves at a slow pace and manages to be a darker, more horror-vibed version of Linklater's Before Sunrise. Only Lovers Left Alive is profound and wickedly entertaining in one of the most odd ways. Fun Fact: There was originally some action in the film, however when Jarmusch was asked to add more he removed all of it.

Number 18 The Imitation Game "Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine." My Original Grade: B+ Most Valuable Player: Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing Box Office: 14.6 million Tomatormeter: 89% Reasoning: The Imitation Game was one of the movie's I was originally skeptical about going into because it was Harvey Weinstein's new Oscar bait, and his campaign of, 'a vote for The Imitation Game is a vote for Turing!', was really irking. However, after seeing it, it would not be fair of me to discredit this film because I dislike Weinstein's politics, because the Imitation Game is some very excellent craft that keeps your eyes glued to the screen the entire way through. The ensemble in The Imitation Game is impeccable and it does a great job at making a true story from the 1940s still relevant to our time period today. My only big gripe was that it was unable to impact me emotionally as much as I felt like it should have, however The Imitation Game is one of (if not) the smartest bio-pics of the year. Fun Fact: In 2011 the movie's topped the black list for the best unproduced script of 2011.

Number 19 How to Train Your Dragon 2 "Good dragons under the control of bad people do bad things." My Original Grade: B+ Most Valuable Player: John Powell for composing, For the Dancing and Dreaming Box Office: 177 million Tomatometer: 92% Reasoning: How to Train Your Dragon 2 is the first of many 2014 Summer Blockbusters to make this list. What this summer lacked in big box office numbers it made up for in quality, and How to Train Your Dragon 2 is a testament to that. While, How to Train Your Dragon 2, doesn't reach the heights of the first one, it is still an incredibly engaging and emotional animated movie. I really have to give the movie props for being one of the ballsiest animated movies to come out in a while with how far it went with certain plot points and themes. Despite being, arguably, more ambitious it still doesn't have quite the emotional pull as the first one which ranks it a bit below it in my opinion (However, For the Dancing and Dreaming was one of the strongest emotional scenes of the year, big props to John Powell). Nevertheless, How to Train Your Dragon 2 delivered as one of the strongest animated movies in the past few years. Fun Fact: Kit Harington's character's line, "Don't you know anything," is a nod to the line she delivered with her Game of Thrones character which was, "You know nothing, Jon Snow."

Number 20 The Interview "Kim must die. It's the American Way." My Original Grade: B+ Most Valuable Player: Randall Park as Kim Jong Un Box Office: 3.1 million Tomatometer: 52% Reasoning: The Interview was the funniest straight comedy of the year for me, I streamed this movie alone and I laughed more than when I watched 22 Jump Street or Neighbors (22 Jump Street I streamed and Neighbors I saw in theaters). What saddens me is the controversy surrounding this movie really killed it both financially and critically, had that controversy not exist I believe this could have been a decent hit at the Box Office and it would have been looked more kindly upon by critics. The other thing that helped The Interview crack my top 20 was for the pure fact it managed to piss Kim Jong-Un off enough to have his country hack Sony Pictures, anything that pisses off a tyrannical dictator is A O.K. in my books. Fun Fact: On June 25th of this year the Korean Central News Agency promised a "merciless" retaliation if this film was released. It looks like for the first time in history North Korea actually (sort of) backed up one of their threats. To bad after they realized they pissed the U.S. off they tossed the blame of the attacks elsewhere. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR4q61byve4

The Panda's Top 20 Films of 2014 I finished my top ten worst of 2014 and so now it is time for me to deliver what are my top twenty films of 2014. I was originally just going to do a top ten with five honorable mentions but there were to many films I felt like I was snubbing (even giving an honorable mention to), so I decided to give my twenty best with no honorable mentions. These aren't necessarily the films I felt were the best made, although that does play a factor and in some cases they were, and they are my personal picks. I'd also like to point out, because of either no theater playing near me or the film coming out at a time where I simply couldn't make it to the theater, I was unable to see Whiplash, Foxcatcher, Selma, American Sniper, John Wick, Inherent Vice, or Nightcrawler. There were many people who did see those that included them on their lists, maybe some of them would have made this list, maybe none of them would have, however I have not seen them so they will not be making an appearance here (although if I see them in time they may be able to make an appearance on my best of the half-decade if they're good enough). Onto the films I did see, every film on my list really did earn their spot on here and none of the movies I am going to mention are on here because I had nothing else to put. I saw a total of 75 movies this year and there were 35 of them that I gave a B- or higher to (a definitively positive rating from me. I do like some of my Cs and C+s, but those were still more of a mixed like), however don't think that just because I gave one movie a higher grade than the other that it will necessarily be higher on the list, I did not take the grade I gave the movie into consideration when making this list. So naturally, there will be a few of instances where a movie I gave say a B+ to ranks higher than a movie I gave an A or A- to. Enough of my jabbering nonsense though, time to start the list.

I am going to start my top 10 of 2014 shortly, so I'd assume just continue on in this thread?

I just watched it so my 2014 movie tally would be at 75 (and I have 35 overall positive reviews, so a nice round number to end the year on), and it was probably the funniest straight comedy of the year. The jokes do slow down once they get into North Korea, but by that point I was invested enough to be alright with it. I really feel like had there not been a lot of fuss over the movie that it would have gotten a much better reception than it is right now. Production values and cinematography was some of the best that I've seen from a Rogen film and it's script is there with This is the End and Knocked Up as one of the smarter Rogen flicks. Really enjoyed it. B+

A's Birdman: Or The Unexpected Nature of Ignorance Boyhood Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Fury Gone Girl The Grand Budapest Hotel The Guardians of the Galaxy The Immigrant Interstellar The LEGO Movie Snowpiercer The Theory of Everything X-Men: Days of Future Past B's 22 Jump Street Bad Words Bears Begin Again Big Hero 6 Blue Ruin Captain America: The Winter Soldier Chef Edge of Tomorrow The Fault in Our Stars The Giver Godzilla How to Train Your Dragon 2 ​The Imitation Game The Interview Into the Woods Neighbors Next Goal Wins Noah Only Lovers Left Alive St Vincent Wild C's About Last Night That Awkward Moment Blended Divergent Dracula Untold God's Not Dead The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Life Itself Locke The Monument's Men A Most Wanted Man Muppets: Most Wanted Oculus Veronica Mars D's 300: Rise of An Empire Alexander and the No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Annabelle Dumb and Dumber To The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies Jersey Boys Maleficent A Million Ways to Die in the West Need For Speed Non-Stop Ride Along RoboCop Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles F's Deliver Us From Evil Endless Love I, Frankenstein The Nut Job Ouija Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Pompeii Transcendence Trans4mers: Age of Extinction Winter's Tale Z's America: Imagine a World Without Her

You can do this in this thread, whenever you start I will rename it DAJK's Top x Worst movies of 2014. You can do a top 10 or 20 or whatever.

And now for my number 1. It should be no surprise to anybody who has kept track of my Best of 2014 list or who read my review of it when I posted it this Summer. Number 1 Some of these movies on this list had me put to sleep. Other movies gave me a nauseous headache from what I had to sit through. Others I left in anger and confusion at how quality professionals were able to screw up so royally. And others left me in sadness at horribly they handled strong pre-existing material. No other movie left me speechless, left me in an utter state of wanting to give up on the world and cinema, than America: Imagine the World Without Her. From the genius mind who brought you "2016: Obama's America" he comes at you with his sophomoric effort which manages to take all of the stupidity of 2016, all of the unethical forms of manipulative (and literally lie filled) documentary craft, and ups it about twenty notches while he uses stretched truths, exaggerations, anecdotes, and quite a bit flat out incorrect information in his attempt to defend White Supremacy. Literally. He spends the first half of the movie trying to explain how all of the wrongdoings in America's past such as Slavery, Imperialism, and Native American Genocide and says how none of those things were really bad things at all. He tries to talk about how there were blacks who oppressed the white man and how the natives were really better off by the Europeans taking them over. What's sad is it's this first half that's actually the more tame part of his movie, and also the only part that has any sort of structure. After that he goes off on his tangent about numerous things, such as explaining how Obama and Clinton's mentor was a Lucifer admirer, or teaching his entire audience about the complicated workings of Wall Street and the Economy and how it needs to work by talking about his hamburger joint, or saying how he doesn't deserve the upcoming jail time he is going to receive for attempting to buy an election because he believes all Americans commit 3 felonies a day and they get off scott-free. I can literally rant about this movie for five to ten times as long as its run time, that's how much I despise it. America: Imagine the World Without her isn't just one of the worst movies of the year, it's one of the worst documentaries made in cinematic history.

Number 2 Winter's Tale There were two quite awful Valentine's Day movies this year, and this is the one that has stuck out and haunted my memory of how atrociously bad it is since I saw it. Apparently this movie was supposed to have tear-jerking moments, but the only sad thing about it was seeing so many talented actors fall so low and give such awful performances to the point I don't even know if they're good actors anymore. I tried following along with this movie, I tried to let myself get invested, but there was absolutely nothing that this film was able to offer, it tried so hard to be something and it was evident (and not in a good way). I try so hard to blot this experience from my memory but all that happens is I see that same stupid, sparkly Pegasus thing and Russell Crowe giving quite possibly the worst performance of his entire career. To put it simply, Winter's Tale manages to make the Hallmark Christmas Films look like It's a Wonderful Life in comparison.

January 2nd 1.Into the Woods - 23.9m (95.5m) 2.The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies - 23.7m (217.2m) 3.Unbroken - 22.9m (93m) 4.Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - 20.3m (97m) 5.Woman in Black 2 - 15.7m (15.7m) 6.Annie - 13.2m (72.9m) 7.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - 7.3m (322m) 8.The Imitation Game - 6.7m (28.8m) 9.The Gambler - 5.6m (25.8m) 10.Wild - 4.4m (25.9m) 11.Big Hero 6 - 4.1m (208.7m) 12.Exodus: Gods and Kings - 4m (61.3m) 9th 1.Taken 3 - 35.7m (35.7m) 2.Selma - 26.5m (27.8m) 3.Into the Woods - 15.2m (118.3m) 4.The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - 14m (238m) 5.Unbroken - 13.9m (113.6m) 6.Inherent Vice - 12.7m (14m) 7.Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - 11.8m (114.2m) 8.Annie - 7.5m (83.9m) 9.The Woman in Black 2 - 5.5m (23.2m) 10.The Imitation Game - 5.4m (36.9m) 11.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - 4.3m (328.3m) 12.Wild - 3.4m (31m) 15th 1.American Sniper - 37.4m / 42.3m (45.3m) 2.Selma - 29.7m / 35.2m (75.4m) 3.The Wedding Ringer - 27.8m / 31.4m (31.4m) 4.Paddington - 22.7m / 25.4m (26m) 5.Taken 3 - 15.7m / 17.2m (60.5m) 6.Into the Woods - 10.8m / 13.2m (136.6m) 7.Unbroken - 10.1m / 11.8m (130.1m) 8.Inherent Vice - 7.5m / 8.1m (26.1m) 9.The Imitation Game - 6.8m / 7.4m (47.5m) 10.The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - 6.7m / 7.4m (248.6m) 11.Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb - 5.7m / 6.3m (123m) 12.Annie - 3.5m / 4m (89.2m) 22nd 1.American Sniper - 23.6m (80.2m) 2.Selma - 20.2m (105.7m) 3.Mortadecai - 17.8m (17.8m) 4.Paddington - 13.4m (45.6m) 5.The Wedding Ringer - 12.8m (50.3m) 6.The Boy Next Door - 7.4m (7.4m) 7.Taken 3 - 7.2m (71.2m) 8.Into the Woods - 6.8m (146.6m) 9.Unbroken - 5.9m (138.7m) 10.The Imitation Game - 5.2m (55.2m) 11.Strange Magic - 5.1m (5.1m) 12.The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies - 4m (254.5m) 29th 1.Project Almanac - 16.5m (16.5m) 2.Selma - 10.8m (122.1m) 3.American Sniper - 10.4m (96m) 4.Paddington - 8m (57.7m) 5.Mortadecai - 7.8m (29.6m) 6.The Loft - 7.5m (7.5m) 7.The Wedding Ringer - 6.1m (59.6m) 8.Into the Woods - 4.1m (153m) 9.Unbroken - 3.5m (143.9m) 10.The Imitation Game - 3.4m (60.4m) 11.The Boy Next Door - 3.2m (12.2m) 12.Taken 3 - 3m (75.9m)

Number 3 Transformers: Age of Extinction This is so much of an obvious choice by now that I nearly put this much lower on the list because it's another Transformers movie, however just because Bay continually gets it wrong doesn't mean I can give him the pass because I should have expected him to get it wrong again. This movie made me nauseous, it was three hours of total shit, and that is three hours way too long. Some of the movies on this list may have been terrible but at least I didn't have to sit through a Lord of the Rings length worth of their terribleness, I did with this. So I would be lying if I did not put Age of Extinction any lower than right here.

Number 4 Transcendence There was a point in time when I was legitimately looking forward to this movie. There was a point in time when I thought this might be Johnny Depp's return to form as an actual actor. There was a point in time when I was anticipating a smart, intellectual, sci-fi thriller. Boy was I wrong about that. Transcendence managed to be second dumbest movie of the year that thought it was actually intelligent (I will get to the dumber one soon), and I was personally shocked that it was only second because I really do think this movie killed a large chunk of my brain cells. The entire movie was painfully dull, everything was stiff, and whenever a plot advancement happened all you could do was shake your head at how ridiculous it was. Transcendence was an utter, royal misfire.

Number 5 Maleficent The first time I saw this I hated it but I thought maybe I just wasn't it's target demographic (which I am not), but then I had to see it again and I now have no forgiveness on how awful this movie truly is. It is an absolute bore while at the same time it manages to absolutely murder the spirit of what was once one of the greatest Disney villains out there. There is exactly one good scene in this movie and it's the scene that's also in the original Beauty and the Beast film, had that scene been the tone and feel of the entire movie it could have actually been good, but no Disney decided they wanted to add Maleficent to their Disney Fairies brand. This film also managed to make me lose faith in Sharlto Copely as an actor, that is how frustratingly bad it was. Sadly, as much as I hated this movie there were still four more films I managed to end up hating more.

Number 6 Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones Part of me didn't want to put the obviously poorly made horror films but in my opinion this one definitely deserved to be put on this list. The entire movie builds up just to climax with a stupid jump scare, there is nothing creepy or scary about this, it's flat out brainless nonsense. The Paranormal Activity series used to be strong, and then they just kept going on and on until we are at the point where each film is actually making the previous ones weaker with all of the convoluted tie-in's and throwbacks. Literally, the way this movie tried to tie in with the first one was one of the stupidest plot points of the year. This is the Paranormal Activity that officially made the entire franchise a joke.

I'll bet 50 points to two people American Sniper is over 125m DOM I bet 50 points to two people Selma's OW is over The Butler's I bet 50 points to two people Into the Woods DOM is over Unbroken DOM I bet 50 points to two people Mortedecai OW is over 12.5m I bet 50 points to two people The Woman in Black 2 OW is under 20m

You're forgetting heartland America is very conservative and many are very anti anything gay (sad truth). That will be what will hurt it quite a bit. However I am skeptical about how much it'll hurt it because TIG does a good job handling the theme and the anti-gay audience may not take too much offense since it's not like they can change the fact that this real life figure wasn't gay. My screening of TIG was sold out and I live in Texas so maybe (hopefully) in wrong about it and the heartland does support it.