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chasmmi

Chasmmi's top 50 (or so) films of the Year - Top 5 is finally on its way - will there be any shock entries?

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47th - Noah - 70/100

 

Noah2014Poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/expecting: In a perfect world, this was going to be an epic adventure on a grand scale as new life was breathed into a classical Biblical tale. However I was pretty much expecting Russell Crowe on a boat complaining... and apparently rock monsters too.

 

What I got: A dreary but servicable film that was half rock monsters and half Russell on a boat complaining. Now Noah is not actually a part of the bible I have read, but i do know that any 120 minute film based on a single story/character is going to have to do a lot of embellishing and fleshing out to make a workable film concept. To be fair I had no quarrell with the existance of the rock-eaters monsters, what I took issue with was how bland the drama felt.

 

Whatever one feels about the bible, it is undeniable that there are some blockbuster stories waiting to be told within its pages and Noah is one of those stories. Sadly one hour of sitting in a wood while Anthony Hopkins looks for berries followed by an hour of people sitting around in a boat casually discussing infanticide wasn't the best way to bring that story to life.

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46th - Sin City 2 - 72/100

 

Sin-City-A-Dame-to-Kill-For-teaser-poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Some over the top black and white (ish) action fun that maybe had a story tacked on if I was lucky.

 

What I Got: Some over the top black and white (ish) action fun that at times had a story tacked on which was hit and miss depending on the story in question. This was a hard film to mark as parts of it were still over the top fun (the Dame to Kill for bits especially), some of the was pretty meh (the poker stuff) and some of it was pretty rubbish (Jessica Alba bits) so overall the good and the bad sort of cancelled itlf out into one big pile of meh amidst a year of generally pretty decent films.

 

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45th - Dumb and Dumber To - 73/100

 

Dumb and Dumber To Poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Dumb and dumber was one of the Farrelly films I didn't like (I got into their work when Mary came along), so part of me was hoping that the improved acting talent of Carrey since then and a bit of maturation would have led to a better film than the first. My expectation though was that I was not going to like this as it attempted to retread the steps of the original film that I wasn't a fan of.

 

What I got: A film that was probably the second worst comedy of the year that I saw after sex tape (I don't consider Budapest a comedy) but that still had a few chuckle worthy moments here and there. Honestly I was surprised I didn't hate this. I didn't like it overly much but if a friend wanted to watch it, I wouldn't object too much to seeing it again. It could have been much much worse.

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44th - The Monuments Men - 74/100

 

The Monuments Men poster.jpg

 

What I was expecting/hoping: A film about an unknown part of WW2 history that was both interesting and awe-inspiring and that if done right could have found itself in the discussion for Oscar wins and so forth.

 

What I got: I forget which member it was, but somebody here in a review said that they kind of enjoyed this film not because it was great in itself, but because the true story was so fantastic that it kind of carried the weak execution by the filmmakers. That is a sentiment I agree with wholeheartedly. This story has the potential to be a film that sweeps at the academy awards: It's a true story, there are real life heroes, discussions on the values of human lives verses the values of art and culture. There is a 50,000 word thesis to be written of the moral, cultural and historical rights and wrongs of this mission and it's a thesis I'd almost be willing to read.

 

If there was any one film that I could magical wave a magic wand and make it the film the concept deserves it to be it's Interstellar, but if I was given a second wand after, I'd probably pick this one. I hope somebody revisits this story in about 10-15 years time and gives it the treatment it deserves as even a poorly executed retelling of the tale was enthralling enough to not be terrible.

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43rd - The Expendables 3 - 75/100

220px-Expendables_3_poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/expecting: The first Expendables was an awesome concept with a few decent scenes but ultimately disappointing compared to what it could have been. The second expendables massively improved the set piece aspect in my opinion and the silliness between Arnie and Willis and between Sly and Van Damme was all a lot of fun and I actually enjoyed it. For number 3 I was optimistic that they would finally get the story part right and create an awesome film for the franchise especially with the new additions to the cast.

 

What I got: A film that decided what we really wanted was to see a bunch of unknowns get captured for half the film. This was such a mistep for the direction of the franchise and I have no idea why they went with this storyline. Funnily enough the only cast members that seemed to understand what film they were supposed to be in were new additions: Gibson and Banderos were fantastic in this and probably added 10 points to my score and pushed it from disappointing to average.

 

The annoying thing about this franchise is that it's the sort of thing I'm liable to give chace after chance to regardless of the misteps as if they ever put together a great Expendables film it will be amazing.

Edited by chasmmi
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42nd - Neighbours - 75/100

 

A man carrying a baby, standing beside a younger man holding a beer, in front of a picket fence.

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Seth Rogen comedies are hit and miss for me. I find him immensely likeable and that helps me to enjoy the films quite a lot when they're to my taste (Knocked Up, Zack and Miri to name examples), however when I don't like his comedies I tend to find they miss with me completely. So with film I was expecting to find it either funny and charming or not funny at all.

 

What I Got: A film that was very funny in small parts but also fell flat for decent spells of the film too. I wanted to like this and I do in places, but it suffered from being not that funny in some stretches mixed with the fact that I watched it not long after seeing such far superior comedies beforehand. It was fun, I'd watch it again and probably enjoy it in spurts again. But I wish I had loved it.

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41ST - THE INTERVIEW - 76/100

The Interview 2014 poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping /expecting: To be honest I was expecting this to be total shit and a bad taste comedy using North Korea as an easy joke target. I was the only person in the winter game to think it would bomb completely and thanks to the DPRK Itechnically ended up being right :)

 

What I got: A film that was actually a lot better (and in part clevere than it had any right to be. Kim Jeong Eun was brilliant and the story had more depth that I was thinking it would. It was far from perfect but much better than I expected which made me satisfied with the film and there are only a few full on comedies from the year I prefer.

 

It places just above Neighbours as a film I was expecting to be bad that turned pretty good opposed to a film I expected to be great that turned out pretty good.

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40th - Alexander's Terrible, No Good, Horrible Very Bad Day - 77/100

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/Expecting: I vaguely remember the book from being a kid and I enjoyed the book if I recall correctly. But I also remember the book being about 7 pages long so turning it into a film was an interesting concept. However seeing Steve Carrell in it was a positive point.

 

What I got: Probably the most familiy friendly film I saw this year (even Big Hero 6 has a pubic hair joke), the only thing close to a joke for the adults that I remember was the 'Australian cowboys'. This film starts off pretty mediocre but as it progresses it actually gets more and more fun and the ending was actually enjoyable even to me as a guy about 20 years or so too old for the film style. I don't have young kids but I imagine if I did, this would be the sort of film I'd be hating because they want to watch it 4 times a day.

 

It was good and I liked it. But it wasn't completely my thing.

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Yes, the wolf in into the woods is intended to be peadophilic. It's actually more overt in the stage musical. I thought Depp played it super well, but that storyline in the movie doesn't play quite as well because all the other storylines are softened a bit too much.

 

Little Red Riding Hood also has often and largely been interpreted as a cautionary story about sexual awakening.  Most obvious is the symbolic red. So the Wolf playing the role of sexual predator in the musical fits but as you say it fits much better in an overall darker approach.

 

I also find it more effective when the actor playing Cinderella's Prince also plays the role of the Wolf especially considering his later not so charming behavior with the Baker's Wife later on.

Edited by TalismanRing
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39th - Rio 2 - 78/100

A group of blue birds sitting on the head of a crocodile, that is submerged in a river

 

What I was hoping/Expecting: I liked the first Rio, it was nothing ground breaking and the story was one that had been told a thousand times before but it was nice and a more than acceptable way to kill 90 minutes. If they could make a sequel that acheived the same I'd be fine with that although I'd prefer something a little more awesome if they could manage it.

 

What I Got: Yeah this was pretty much like the first. there was some awkward shoehorning of certain characters (like the birds played by James Fox and William) into the storyline but generally its another nice, inoffensive film featuring all the cast from original. Not every animation studio can be Pixar every time they make a film (not even Pixar it seems), but this could have turned out a whole lot worse and it wasn't so I was satisfied.  

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38th - Let's Be Cops - 78/100

Let's Be Cops poster.jpg

 

What i was expecting/hoping: I only really heard much about this film when it appeared on a bottom 10 list for 2014 for the year for some youtube video reviewer person. Usually this would not be something that would inspire me to watch a film, however I saw that the two main stars were from New Girl and before Brooklyn Nine Nine came along, that show in my opinion was arguably the best sitcom currently being made in the US. So that actually gave me hope this might actually be funny.

 

What I got: A film of two halves. The first half did not really work for me at all and I almost felt like I was getting not much more than a discount version of the sit-com. Then Rob Riggle turns up and things actually start to get both funny and interesting. I like how Johnson's character actually takes the facade seriously and becomes almost cop-like as opposed to it consistantly being 400 horrible takes on the same joke of "I have a policeman's badge so I'll make you do something silly'.

 

The ending of this film is also far more dramatic than it has any right to be and actually does a decent job of briefly transforming into a serious 'kill the bad guy' film for 15 minutes. The opening 30 minutes of this suggested I could be placing this film very low on the list indeed, but after the supermarket break in, it gets better and better to the point that it actually ends being very entertaining indeed.   

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37th - Mr Peabody and Sherman - 80/100

Mr Peabody & Sherman Poster.JPG

 

What I was expecting: This was a film I avoided for most of the year. It looked like something based on some oldy worldy comic strip that only Americans will have ever heard of... and it turns out that is pretty much the case. So in the same way I had little interest in things like Rocky and Bullwinkle when that was made into a film, I didn't really care whether I saw this or not.

 

What I got: For one thing, I am fully on the side of the argument that feels that the animation quality is horrible. It feels like a 3D movie and not just a movie that is in a 3d environment, I didn't like it. I also didn;t like the two main characters at all. Mr. Peabody was far too perfect at everything and Sherman was too "Oh Gee whizz Mr. Peabody! Let's go on another crazy adventure" for my liking.

 

Then the time travelling happened and everything got very fun. The scenes in France and Egypt were good and the Trojan Horse stuff and Da Vinci were excellent. I actually found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion (especially for Da Vinci's Robot). This film started of having everything against it with regards to the chances that I may like it, yet in the end pulled it around to the extent that I would happily watch a sequel if one were to appear.

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36th - Hercules - 80/100

Hercules (2014 film).jpg

 

 

What I was hoping/Expecting:  It's the Rock. Surely this will be lots of fun, a bit stupid and essentially a hark back to the wonderful world of 1980's action films. Maybe the modern Conan if it knocks it out of the the park.

 

What I Got: A serviciable action film. It could have been better and could have been worse but I still liked it and it was kind of interesting to see Hercules as more of a quasi-charlatan building a reputation off legends than actually being the demi-god of the legends. The film's highs are not as high as those in the previous 2 films of this list, but the lows also drop nowhere near as low either.

 

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I actually haven't seem the last five of those, Mr. Peabody and Sherman was just added to Netflix though, so I may check it out.

 

42nd-32 are almost entirely films that only people who see a lot of films each year or specifically seek out the film will have seen I expect.

 

But yes Peabody was much better than I expected. And it reiterates what I keep thinking about 2014 in that it is crazy that the film in 41st out of 55 is still a film I enjoyed a lot.

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35th - Lucy - 80/100

Lucy (2014 film) poster.jpg

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Basically this film sucked me in with the trailer. It looked very cool, the premise was stupid beyond belief (a plus in my book) and it had the second best dude of Korean cinema Choi Min Sik in it. How could it possibly go wrong?

 

 

What I got: A cool, stupid beyond belief (in a good way) film with Choi Min Sik being an absolute dude in every scene he has, :) Seriously though, if you heard the 10% of brain premise and were still hoping for a serious or believeable film then you clearly hadn't taken your meds that morning as this was clearly meant to be the stupidest film of the century and it delivers in spades. The action is good, the acting is good and it is generally entertaining from start to finish.

 

The only thing that stops me giving this a score in the 90's is the ending where it seems that Scarletts character from Under the skin decided to make an unexpected dash for freedom via this film and brought all her black goo along with her for the ride. Yeah I really do wish they had nailed the landing on this film but sadly it ends with a stumble.

 

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