Avatree

19. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED Charming, well-cast, touching, funny and little more than 80 minutes of pure escapism. What more could I want in a film?

20. THE LEGO MOVIE The Lego Movie is the anti-blockbuster: a film that from its conception must have been made purely to sell toys, yet something whose end result felt pure and sincere. The brilliance of the movie comes from Lord and Miller's genuine understanding of what makes Lego the icon that it has become; what makes it the connector across generations, and why it inspires so much innocent creativity among kids and adults alike. My love for Lego knows no bounds, and this genius piece of filmmaking truly does it justice.

21. Hello to Jason Isaacs. SKELETONS One review described this film as "intelligent nonsense", and that's pretty much a perfect description of this brilliant drama. None of it makes any sense, yet it manages to explore matters of life and death, and the blur between imagination and reality.

22. FLIGHT This visceral look at alcoholism is as brutal and heartbreaking as it needs to be. Denzel returns to form with a top performance, and although some of the movie feels like excess, for the most part it's a terrific study of obsession and principle.

23. RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES A groundbreakingly human take on this old franchise, RISE is one of few blockbuster reboots worth keeping. A sensible & sensitive drama with remarkable performances by all involved, the story of how the ape revolution began is an emotionally charged character piece, made all the more sad by our knowledge of where the story must end.

24. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS Another Coen gem, with the utterly brilliant Oscar Isaac to get us inside our moronic protagonist. The film is written like a folk song and the air of mystery that surrounds both the story and its participants makes the movie all the more soothingly intriguing.

25. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY HEY (HEY), WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU IF YOU DON'T LIKE THIS FILM. SERIOUSLY. How can anyone dislike GUARDIANS? Answer: they don't. It's out-there, it builds an interesting universe of societies and peoples, it's got characters who I care about, and it's got a rad beat. I never expected to cry in a Marvel film either, but hey, this broke everyone's expectations.

26. WHIPLASH thrilling, spectacular, ear-crushingly overdramatic, and a wonderful - if physically draining - experience in the cinema. one of the best war movies in a long time.

300M for a drama film? The odds of that happening are like 0.000000000000000000000000000000001% Why would it be an oscar contender?

27. THE LOSERS This is how to make an action B-movie! Some shocking imagery, a generic ex-military plot, a silly villain... but with a lighthearted tongue-in-cheek throughline. It's my idea of super fun, and I don't even particularly like action movies. (Or perhaps that's why...) Chris Evans gives his best performance, too.

28. TRANSCENDENCE Probably the most 'controversial' choice on my list, but it was a total surprise to me too. Johnny Depp? Awful reviews? Crappy trailer? I expected the worst. But this essay on the dangers of our exponentially-evolving technology, by Nolan's cinematographer Wally Pfister, is a genuinely fascinating film that isn't afraid to follow through on its provocative arguments. Naturally, it does look incredible on a cinematic, visual level as well.

29. LOCKE Rarely does a film rely so heavily on a single actor's performance, but Steven Knight's LOCKE is that film - and Tom Hardy manages to pull this astonishing feat off. He's on one road, going in one direction, and he can't stop what life - and the traffic - will bring to him.

30. NOAH I absolutely loved Aronofsky's strange re-imagining of this ancient, iconic tale, which in many ways brings the story down to earth and considers how Noah's insane claims could actually be taken by those around him. And nothing will beat Ray Winstone yelling MAN UNITED ARE INVINCIBLE!

31. PROMETHEUS Yeah, okay, it has plot holes the size of a small planet, but it engagingly explores ideas many times bigger than the majority of blockbusters will dare to in this day and age, and for that I must give it its due credit. Its visuals have purpose and its narrative has weight. Oh and Michael Fassbender is hugely enjoyable.

Okay, as you may or may not be able to tell, I did sort of give up on this a while ago. I find it hard to keep my concentration on one thing and as a result, I stopped doing this not long after starting it. But I don't want it to be left unfinished forever, so I am going to just rattle through the rest of this list, just naming the rest of my favourite films and not writing anything about them other than the odd line or two.

King Kong was not bloated. Hobbit, well that's a different matter.

The brilliance of TOTAL RECALL has little to do with Arnold.

this movie has the legendary so it will be great.

If only Noctis were here to witness this upgrade.

I love the premise of the movie but the script is utter garbage. I also think Jennifer Lawrence is very strange casting, given her strong support for feminism and standing up for women in hollywood. Box office wise it's going to be a disaster if this is a 100M+ film. It should have stayed at 35M. This is a serious movie. As mahna said above, most films have some humour in them; that doesn't mean the film is a comedy. Also Ethan, why are you thinking this will do 300M? This isn't some action blockbuster, this is a drama film.

it's kind of sad that there were more laughs in the credits than in the rest of that film.

love this shot from the trailer:

Chronicles of Ancient Darkness. Fox did buy the rights to make movies 10 years ago, but they haven't done anything with it and it looks like they never will.

Okay thanks. The Empire Strikes Back vs. Forrest Gump The Godfather vs. Jaws Jurassic Park vs. The Jungle Book The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers vs. The Dark Knight Mary Poppins vs. Back to the Future Star Wars vs. The Sting Spider-Man 2 vs. The Lion King Raiders of the Lost Ark vs. Doctor Zhivago