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

[chasmmi]

19th - How to Train Your Dragon 2 - 90/100

 

What I was hoping/Expecting: I did really enjoy How to Train Your Dragon, I prefered Shrek and Kung Fu Panda from Dreamworks, but dragon was a damn good third best property and so I was kind of hopeful that this film may be great (especially considering some of the darker directions it went in in the first film.

 

What I got: A great animated sequel, it went bigger, it went darker and it went more epic and it nailed it. This film was ambitious and deserved to be a worldwide monolith box office wise. It was also probably the most beautiful animated film of the year and the epic battles were jaw dropping to watch. The emotional aspects of the film were maybe a little forced compared to how naturally it came across in the first film but this is really nitcpicking.

 

I've said many times that Kung Fu Panda is 1 film away from being the best animated trilogy in film history in my opinion. If KFP3 doesn't deliver though (please deliver KFP3), then this also has a shot at that title. In fact if done well and if the acting talent stay motivated by the roles then this is a universe and a concept that could span 5,6 or 12 films that all have potential to be good. That said though, Shrek was in a similar boat until Shrek 3 happened so...  

[chasmmi]

The next three could inspire differing levels of indignation from some members, so I'm gonna go try on some sets of Kevlar for about 40 mins or so then maybe get back to it

[baumer]

Yes I would personally prefer to eat my own spleen than watch that

So in other words you are a raving sociopathic lunatic with no friends.

Gotcha.

[chasmmi]

18th - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 90/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: I was expecting this to be one of the biggest turds of the year. I saw that first trailer and it made me die a little inside how bad the turtles looked. Add to that how Hollywood TNMT films have been getting worse and worse by the year and I was pretty much going to see it just to see how bad it would be.

 

What I got: Screw all of you Oscarbaiting, Nightcrawling, Locke yourself in a room with Thomas Hardy and spend 12 years filming what goes on when you do so arseholes! Do you know what I like when i go to the cinema? TO be entertained. To have fun, to embrace the silliness on screen and this film does that in spades. The action is fun and frenetic, the story doesn't get too bogged down in plot and the turtles themselves... oh they just happen to be the best realisations of the characters since the cartoon.

 

Seriously, I cannot believe how well this film nailed the characters of each turtle. This had no right to do this so well and of course it doesn't hurt in my eyes when Raphael is the main man as he is the coolest of the four. They're bringing in Beebop and Rocksteady for the sequel so book me a ticket front row centre for that as I love fun and I love pizza and this film gave me both.  

Edited February 22, 2015 by chasmmi

[Empire]

I really enjoy your write ups Chas.

[chasmmi]

17th - Book of Life - 91/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Nothing at all. It looked pretty bad to me and I knew very little about it except that I believe this is the reason that Pixar has cancelled its Day of the dead film which was a sad thing to hear.

 

What I got: Okay, there was one animated film that definitely got snubbed for the Oscar nomination, but depending on the quality of Kaguya and Song of the sea I would say that this was almost as big a snub. This film reminds me of so many things that just brought a smile to my face I loved this film.

 

Let's start with the music. Many moons ago there was a film called A Knight's Tale starring Heath Ledger. It's a film that I personally love and one of the nice touches it had was putting modern songs into a period setting. This film does that too and it's great here too, I love the singing here, I love the characters here. I love how the story doesn't descend into standard bad guy vs good guy fayre. It's got more depth and more complexity than I expected it to have too.

 

If you haven't seen this film and you like nice animated films with fun songs, fun characters and a lot of colour and pizazz then I cannot reccommend this enough. I really really enjoyed this film and it was quite possibly the biggest surprise of the year for me with regards to films I had no excitement about whatsoever.

 

Really, check it out.

[chasmmi]

I really enjoy your write ups Chas.

 

Thanks

[Kalo]

 

18th - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 90/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: I was expecting this to be one of the biggest turds of the year. I saw that first trailer and it made me die a little inside how bad the turtles looked. Add to that how Hollywood TNMT films have been getting worse and worse by the year and I was pretty much going to see it just to see how bad it would be.

 

What I got: Screw all of you Oscarbaiting, Nightcrawling, Locke yourself in a room with Thomas Hardy and spend 12 years filming what goes on when you do so arseholes! Do you know what I like when i go to the cinema? TO be entertained. To have fun, to embrace the silliness on screen and this film does that in spades. The action is fun and frenetic, the story doesn't get too bogged down in plot and the turtles themselves... oh they just happen to be the best realisations of the characters since the cartoon.

 

Seriously, I cannot believe how well this film nailed the characters of each turtle. This had no right to do this so well and of course it doesn't hurt in my eyes when Raphael is the main man as he is the coolest of the four. They're bringing in Beebop and Rocksteady for the sequel so book me a ticket front row centre for that as I love fun and I love pizza and this film gave me both.  

 

 

 

...I would quite enjoy being locked in a room with Thomas Hardy. 

[chasmmi]

16th - Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 - 91/100

 

 

What I was hoping/expecting:

Catching Fire was my favourite film of 2013, it blew me away how great it was and so naturally like most people I was eagerly anticipating this film possibly more than anything else of the year. Now I have not read the books and don't plan to anytime soon, but I was at least aware that there would be no actual games in this film and so I was interested to see the direction the film would take and whether the lack of games would help or hinder it.

 

What I got: I know many were disappointed with this installment of the film and claim it to be dull, or unneccesary as well as many other complaints. However personally I enjoyed this a lot. I like the politcal slant it carried and the mixture of fighting on a battlefield and fighting through propaganda. Jennifer Lawrence is still great in this, Donald Sutherland gets better and better as the President and everything simmers nicely for the duration of the film.

 

Now naturally, it will not be until November that I will know whether 2 films were needed or not (even if you've read the book you cannot say for sure if Part two is a 2 hour tour de force of cinematic brilliance), but I do feel there was enough here to enjoy the film even if it doesn't standalone as a film in itself. i do think it would have been much more shocking to end the film about 10 minutes before they did as that would have been awesome, however overall i really felt this was a great installment of the franchise if still a step down from Catching Fire. 

[Empire]

Thanks

The order of your choices is another story though.

[chasmmi]

The order of your choices is another story though.

 

Grrr

[baumer]

Someone kill me now.

Mockingjay is about as good as Citizen Kane.

[Kalo]

Someone kill me now.

Mockingjay is about as good as Citizen Kane.

you don't like Citizen Kane? I agree it's incredibly overrated but I still enjoyed it. 

[Blankments]

Maleficent higher than Whiplash.......

My issue is more he didn't mention GOD SHARLTO in his Maleficent write-up tsk tsk

[Blankments]

BTW EFF YEAH BOOK OF LIFE

[chasmmi]

15th - The Lego Movie - 91/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Like many, I was very dubious of a lego film being made and could see it easily turning out to be a cash grab ala Battleships or whatever. Then the trailer hit and it looked a lot of fun, especially with the cast assembled (both real and in film) so my optimism grew that this could actually be a bit of fun.

 

What I got: I was wrong, it was a lot of fun. How this got ignored for Oscars is a topic that everyone and their uncle has rambled on about for weeks so I won't retread that line here, but when there is a category that has to pick 5 films from a pool that is usually only about 9 viable films deep it seems odd that this could get consistently placed that low en masse.

 

This was probably the funniest animation of the year and maybe even top 5 or top 3 funniest film of the year full stop. It is silly but not too silly, tongue in cheek, but not too tongue in cheek and it blends the audio and visual humour brilliantly with concepts like the ghost being on a piece of string. The animation is top notch to with the snimated stop motion style really working to perfection in giving the feel to the viewer that this is truly a lego world and not a CGI one.

 

Character-wise too this film is immensly strong with so many potential favourites to pick from. After strong deliberation, I'd maybe go unorginal and plump for Batman as my favourite, but that could change before i even click post as the Ghost, Emmet, Spaceman, Unikitty and Good Cop/Bad cop are also wonderful characters (and I'd have loved to be in the room to witness how the man mountain Liam Neeson looked while voicing Good Cop )

 

Overall though a great film for anyone who loves animation.

 

[chasmmi]

14th - Xmen: Days of Future Past - 92/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Xmen along with Spiderman re-put comic book films on the map film-wise. And like Spiderman the series began on a similar trajectory: Very good opening film, followed by amazing second film and finalising the trilogy with a pretty horrible third. However, unlike Spiderman, the series reboot with First Class was pretty awesome and breathed new life into a dying franchise to the point that this was one of my most anticipated films of the year and my number one hope for Superhero films.

 

What I got: Well to start with, the best scene of the year took place in this film (you know the scene I'm talking about) and another film that could easily be the top film of the year for many people. In fact I'd go as far to say that this would have made my top 5 for 2013, that's how strong both this and the next 13 films are.

 

The set pieces in this film are great, the characters are great, the effects are great and anything with Hugh Jackman is always awesome especially when it's Wolverine. I do love a good dramatic film but there is something wonderful about seeing a Blockbuster level and style film also pull out a story and plot that backs up the quality of its special effects.

 

We do seem to be entering an era where big budget explodathons are expected to come with a little more attached and it must only be a matter of time until the academy is forced to acknowledge a Marvel or DC outing (not for the win, but the nomination at least). I personally can't wait until Apocalypse and beyond and roll on the superheroes of 2015 if 2014 is the platform     

[Kalo]

 

14th - Xmen: Days of Future Past - 92/100

 

What I was hoping/expecting: Xmen along with Spiderman re-put comic book films on the map film-wise. And like Spiderman the series began on a similar trajectory: Very good opening film, followed by amazing second film and finalising the trilogy with a pretty horrible third. However, unlike Spiderman, the series reboot with First Class was pretty awesome and breathed new life into a dying franchise to the point that this was one of my most anticipated films of the year and my number one hope for Superhero films.

 

What I got: Well to start with, the best scene of the year took place in this film (you know the scene I'm talking about) and another film that could easily be the top film of the year for many people. In fact I'd go as far to say that this would have made my top 5 for 2013, that's how strong both this and the next 13 films are.

 

The set pieces in this film are great, the characters are great, the effects are great and anything with Hugh Jackman is always awesome especially when it's Wolverine. I do love a good dramatic film but there is something wonderful about seeing a Blockbuster level and style film also pull out a story and plot that backs up the quality of its special effects.

 

We do seem to be entering an era where big budget explodathons are expected to come with a little more attached and it must only be a matter of time until the academy is forced to acknowledge a Marvel or DC outing (not for the win, but the nomination at least). I personally can't wait until Apocalypse and beyond and roll on the superheroes of 2015 if 2014 is the platform     

 

excellent review, I Loved what you said about the academy recognizing Superhero films. I really think DOFP. was at least good enough to be in talks for BP. 

[chasmmi]

13th - Edge of Tomorrow - 93/100

 

What I was hoping/Expecting: It looked shit, it sounded shit and probably was going to turn out to be Tom Cruise just doing 21st century Tom Cruis-y things where he jumps off something, saves the day and gets the girl. Suffice to say, I had very little expectation for this and only even went to watch it because there wasn't much else to choose from that week.

 

What I got: Well this was a shock! You'd expect the summarisation of Groundhog Day with Aliens would be the sign of a stupid horrible film and yet this is one of the cleverest and entertaining films for many a year. The way it plays with timeline, the way you are never quite sure how much Cruise knows at any one scene is just so well done that it isn't even funny.

 

Seriously, this is a stunningly well done film and probably the best non-Tropic Thunder role Cruise has done since Minority Report at least. This is a great great film with twists, turns and just a wonderful progression of character over the 100 minutes. I'd tell you to all to go it, but no self respecting forum member hasn't seen this yet.   

[chasmmi]

excellent review, I Loved what you said about the academy recognizing Superhero films. I really think DOFP. was at least good enough to be in talks for BP. 

 

Thanks, and to be honest I think the superhero films this year were just unlucky that the 'Oscarbait' films this year were also very strong. In a weaker year, it may well have been more possible