2017 – A Review

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Tags

10 Best movies, 10 Worst movies, 2016, 2017, Disney, Hype, International Box Office, Marvel, Review of the Year, The Dark Tower, The Mummy (2017)

For a lot of people, 2017 was a marked improvement over 2016, but in many ways it was business as usual, with Hollywood preferring to churn out sequels, remakes and reboots instead of providing us with original material, or taking risks. The first half of the year was particularly disappointing. After an early burst of award-worthy movies such as Moonlight, La La Land and Manchester by the Sea (all 2016 movies most of us didn’t see until this year), there was hope for 2017 in the form of Logan, but that was an early high point, and from then on the big mainstream movies that we’d all been looking forward to let us down time after time, with only the likes of Spider-Man: Homecoming and War for the Planet of the Apes compensating for the overall dreariness of the movies competing for our attention. Soon, 2017 was inter-changeable with 2016, and as the year wore on, it seemed as if there would be no turn around, even though It and the flawed Blade Runner 2049 did their best to provide audiences with something different to appreciate.

In the end, the year saw itself out in time honoured tradition with a handful of award-worthy movies being released that will have more impact in the early part of 2018. Looking back, there were gems to be found and cherished, disappointments on an almost weekly basis, and enough rotten apples to make going to the cinema something of a risky business. It was a year that saw Netflix and Amazon release more original movie content, though a lot of those releases showed the problems inherent in streaming services believing they can just jump in and swim with the “big boys”. Both companies only succeeded in showing that it’s very early days for both of them, and that there’s a long way to go before their business models will provide them with critical and commercial success.

At the international box office, Disney once again ruled the roost, with six movies in the Top 10. Superhero movies also dominated, and Marvel continued their remarkable run of movies with all three of their 2017 releases placing within $32,000,000 of each other. But if there’s any hope that superhero movies aren’t the be-all and end-all of modern day movie making, then it’s in the fact that the top four spots have been taken by non-superhero outings. And the entry at number six is a Chinese movie that has quietly made its presence known by virtue of its being a major success in its home country. But if one statistic is more worrying than anything else, it’s that there are eight sequels in the Top 10, which can only mean that perhaps the mainstream studios are right after all, and all we want is more of the same, year after year. Now that’s depressing.

Top 10 Movies at the International Box Office

10 – Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales – $794,861,794

9 – Wonder Woman – $821,847,012

8 – Thor: Ragnarok – $848,013,810

7 – Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 – $863,732,512

6 – Wolf Warrior 2 – $870,325,439

5 – Spider-Man: Homecoming – $880,166,924

4 – Despicable Me 3 – $1,033,508,147

3 – Star Wars: The Last Jedi – $1,040,444,228

2 – The Fate of the Furious – $1,235,761,498

1 – Beauty and the Beast – $1,263,521,126

2017 was also a year when the hype surrounding certain movies proved to be just that: hype. If you were keenly anticipating the long-awaited first adaptation of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, then the pain you must have felt at seeing what was eventually released to a largely unsuspecting public must still be causing you some level of discomfort. Likewise if you were looking forward to Universal’s Dark Universe getting properly off the ground with The Mummy. Both movies showed that their makers had absolutely no idea what they were doing, and both franchises are officially dead in the water. This can only be a good thing as the possibility of there being any further outings in either world is just too terrible to bear.

Incredibly, though The Dark Tower and The Mummy were two of the worst movies released in 2017, there were others that equalled them for their poor quality and inability to tell a story coherently. Whether it’s a Top 10 or a Worst 10, putting said movies in the right order is always a challenge. The number one movie is usually an easy pick, which was definitely the case in 2017 with the 10 Worst Movies, with a certain TV adaptation proving that having a recognisable concept and worldwide fan base, along with big name stars, isn’t any guarantee of quality or success. Further down the list it becomes trickier, as the various degrees of awfulness have to be weighed and assessed. To be honest, this year’s list from number three to number ten could have been put together in a variety of ways and each would have looked right.

10 Worst Movies of 2017

10 – The Hunter’s Prayer

9 – Pottersville

8 – Hangman

7 – King Arthur: Legend of the Sword

6 – I.T.

5 – Attack of the Killer Donuts

4 – Sharknado 5: Global Swarming

3 – The Layover

2 – Death Race 2050

1 – Baywatch

But thankfully, where there are bad movies, equally there are good ones, but as mentioned above, the flurry of 2016 movies that reached the UK at the beginning of the year meant that this year’s Top 10 Movies list would be over-run by “older” titles. So a decision was made to only include movies actually released or first shown in 2017. However, this has led to the list becoming over-run in a different way. The opportunity to see some of this year’s award-worthy movies in recent weeks has meant that a few movies that were previously shoo-ins for the Top 10 have been demoted, and their places taken by these award-worthy movies. That’s not a complaint however, because now those movies will get the recognition they deserve in the year that they deserve it.

Top 10 Movies of 2017

10 – Detroit

9 – The Villainess

8 – The Big Sick

7 – The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected)

6 – Wind River

5 – Marjorie Prime

4 – Call Me by Your Name

3 – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

2 – Lady Bird

1 – The Florida Project

Whatever full-scale delights or unwanted horrors 2018 holds for us all remains to be seen, but as ever, hopefulness should be the year’s watchword. Although it could be argued that nobody sets out to make a bad movie, experience does teach us that people do complete bad movies and release them to the public. As already mentioned on this site (here), mega-budget, mega-hyped movies will have less of a public face on thedullwoodexperiment in 2018, and the focus will be on finding good movies overall, ones to recommend that might not have had the exposure of their big-budget cousins. That’s a pretty good challenge and one to look forward to.

In closing, I’d like to offer a big Thank You to everyone who visited thedullwoodexperiment in 2017 and read a review or some other post, or who became a follower (not sure that term feels right), or left a comment. Your interaction with the site makes it all worthwhile. I would also like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and many happy viewing experiences in the year ahead. And let’s hope we can all meet back here in a year’s time and still be buzzing about the movies we’ve seen and loved (or seen and hated), and that we still have that passion for movies that keeps us going and going and going. It’s been a pleasure sharing another year with you all.

2016 – A Review

01 Sunday Jan 2017

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

10 Best movies, 10 Highest Grossing Movies Worldwide, 10 Worst movies, 2016, 2017, Disney, International Box Office, Marvel, Posters, Review

If 2016 had to be summed up in one word, that word would be: Nooooooooo!!

Time and time again we were led up the proverbial garden path, promised so much, and by studios and production companies who must have known that their promises were emptier than the mind of a Republican voter on November 8. Sequels and remakes and reboots that nobody wanted clogged up our multiplexes and taught us to run for the hills in search of movies that didn’t play to the common denominator, and which wouldn’t treat us like sheep.

But luckily there were enough movies that fit that particular bill, and so 2016 wasn’t a total bust, and even though there are many who feel that 2016 was a good year for movies, the negative reaction that surrounded releases such as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Ghostbusters (to name but two) was a clear indication that the public wasn’t buying everything they were being told or sold. Inevitably, there was the battle between fans of Marvel and DC about whose product was the best, but it was a waste of time and data bytes: the problem for DC is that Marvel know exactly what they’re doing, and Warner Bros. (who are overseeing the DC Extended Universe) absolutely and positively don’t.

But aside from the continuing glut of superhero movies we were “treated” to, it was Disney’s year, with the top four highest grossing movies worldwide all being Disney-backed productions. The House of Mouse, in acquiring Pixar, and Marvel, and Lucasfilm, has put itself firmly on top of the pile in Hollywood, and there’s no likelihood of anyone toppling them anytime soon. That’s not necessarily a good thing, perhaps, but fortunately for Disney – and for us – they seem to know what they’re doing, and the high ranking for Zootopia is a perfect example.

10 Highest Grossing Movies Worldwide in 2016

10 – Rogue One – $706,054,705

9 – Suicide Squad – $745,600,054

8 – Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – $772,540,251

7 – Deadpool – $783,112,979

6 – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – $873,260,194

5 – The Secret Life of Pets – $875,457,937

4 – The Jungle Book – $966,550,600

3 – Zootopia – $1,023,784,195

2 – Finding Dory – $1,027,771,569

1 – Captain America: Civil War – $1,153,304,495

There were some surprise successes in 2016, with perhaps the top honours going to The Conjuring 2, a muddled, middling sequel that somehow managed to rake in over $300 million at the worldwide box office. Then there was Sully, Clint Eastwood’s under-rated re-telling of the Miracle on the Hudson, starring Tom Hanks and profitable to the tune of over $200 million. And also there was Don’t Breathe – made on a budget of $9.9 million and finding enough favour to bring in over $150 million. Conversely, there were several movies that proved unable to recoup even their production budgets, movies such as Snowden, Free State of Jones, and Keeping Up With the Joneses (though that shouldn’t be a surprise with the last one).

Looking ahead to 2017, there are enough superhero movies on the horizon for one of them to claim the top spot again, though which one is more open to debate than in 2016. Away from all the spandex, it’s even harder to predict which movies might break free of any box office preconceptions, though it would be hard to bet against the likes of War for the Planet of the Apes, or Dunkirk.

If there was one area where 2016 did excel, it was with its movie posters. There were some great examples seen throughout the year, and sometimes they were the best thing about the movies they were promoting (Alice Through the Looking Glass, for example). Here are six of the best:

If 2016 reminded us of any one thing it was that when movies are bad, they’re really bad. It was one thing to realise that the reboot of Ghostbusters was unlikely to work, but it was also unlikely anyone realised in advance just how unfunny it would be (except for maybe the cast and crew). Time and again, movies that were hyped to the skies and back again proved disappointing at best, and cruelly exposed at worst. Three sequels did their best to ride roughshod over their predecessors – even Ride Along (2014) is a far better movie in comparison with its sequel – and Anthony Hopkins appeared in a brace of “thrillers” that gave new meaning to the phrase “overwrought”. Elsewhere, Sacha Baron Cohen appeared contemptuous of his fans, the Earl of Greystoke was tasked with looking realistic against a constant backdrop of CGI vistas and jungle foliage, Blue Steel was shown to be a tired relic from fifteen years ago, Jackie Chan made one of the most poorly edited and assembled movies of the year, the Ghostbusters reboot had to rely on overseas ticket sales to recoup its budget, and the worst movie of the year – by a huge distance – trampled repeatedly over the legacy of one of British TV’s finest comedy series. What a year, indeed.

10 Worst Movies of 2016

10 – The Legend of Tarzan

9 – Ghostbusters

8 – Misconduct

7 – Zoolander 2

6 – Skiptrace

5 – Grimsby

4 – Ride Along 2

3 – Solace

2 – Independence Day: Resurgence

1 – Dad’s Army

To be fair, there were worse movies made and released in 2016, but it’s equally unfair to pick on the likes of, say, Steven Seagal – seven movies released, all of them bad – because his movies are made on modest budgets, with modest ambitions, and with a minimum of effort. They’re never going to be anything more than what they are, and weirdly, there’s a strange “nobility” in that. But the movie’s on the 10 Worst list aren’t made by the likes of Seagal or his direct-to-video compatriots, they’re made by people and studios with resources and actors and crews that should be able to make better movies. And the most annoying thing about it all? That they just don’t care, as long as we pay to see their movies.

Thank heavens then, that there were plenty of movies to shout about in 2016. All were varied, distinctive, and most importantly, able to connect with audiences on an emotional level – yes, even Captain America: Civil War. They were all beautifully shot, edited and assembled, provided enough thrills, laughs and teary-eyed moments for another twenty movies, and featured some amazing performances – step forward Amy Adams, Paula Beer, Julian Dennison, Kate Beckinsale, and Géza Röhrig. And if all that wasn’t impressive enough, the movie at Number One created its own visual and aural languages in order to tell its story, an incredible achievement at a time when the majority of movies made won’t take even the smallest of risks on their way to the screen.

10 Best Movies of 2016

10 – Love & Friendship

9 – Everybody Wants Some!!

8 – Kubo and the Two Strings

7 – Zootopia

6 – Captain America: Civil War

5 – Life, Animated

4 – Frantz

3 – Arrival

2 – Hunt for the Wilderpeople

1 – Son of Saul

Of course, Son of Saul was released in 2015, but with release dates as they are in the UK, it was never going to be seen back then. It’s likely that 2017 will see the same thing happen, and a movie (or maybe more) making their way into the Top 10. With the likes of Toni Erdmann and Elle still to be caught up with, as well as A Monster Calls and Silence newly arrived at UK cinemas, it’s encouraging that 2017 looks promising already.

2015 – My Review

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

10 Best movies, 10 Worst movies, 2015, 2016, 5 Disappointing movies, Review of the Year

Overview

Well, that’s another year over with, another year in which we were promised much in principle but were seriously let down in practice. For every trailer that offered us an amazing cinematic experience it seemed as if the opposite had to be true when the movie finally arrived, and the offer was an empty one. With only two exceptions – Mad Max: Fury Road and Star Wars: The Force Awakens – the big-budget Hollywood blockbusters, the tentpole movies, were all disappointing. Furious 7 abandoned any attempt at retaining the minimum credibility that episodes five and six clung on to, while Avengers: Age of Ultron was bloated and unwieldy (as well as a rehash of the first Avengers movie).

As the year progressed we were treated – if that’s the right word – to reboots galore. We had Jurassic World, a surprise success at the box office that followed the template of Jurassic Park so closely you could have been forgiven for thinking you were watching a straight-up remake rather than a reboot. And we had Terminator: Genisys, a reboot so convoluted it quickly disappeared inside its own internal logic (or lack of it) and never found its way out again.

The summer brought us The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (shiny but vapid), Pixels (a great idea predictably ruined by Adam Sandler’s involvement), and the utterly disastrous Fantastic Four (no other comment needed). As the year continued we suffered through ill-advised misfires such as The Transporter Refueled and Pan, before being ambushed by James Bond himself in the far from thrilling Spectre. All in all, 2015 hasn’t been the best year for movies with huge promotional budgets stacked on top of huge production budgets.

So let’s get the 10 Worst Movies of 2015 out of the way. There were plenty to choose from, but these really did screw the pooch on almost every level.

10 Worst Movies of 2015

10 – Pan – when Neverland rocks to the sound of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit then you know things aren’t going to work out for the best; unnecessary and tiring to watch.

9 – Mortdecai – when this was released back in January, it seemed unlikely that there could be a worse movie in 2015 – how wrong could we be? But this is still dire, unfunny stuff that is probably still causing Terry-Thomas to roll in his grave.

8 – Fifty Shades of Grey – we all knew it was going to be bad, and on that level it didn’t disappoint, but it was the complete lack of chemistry between Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan that further hurt its chances of being taken seriously. The true masochism came from watching it all the way through.

7 – Jupiter Ascending – delayed from its original 2014 release date, this space opera from the Wachowskis was more like space junk, and featured a badly miscast Mila Kunis as a toilet cleaner-cum-princess. Pretty to look at but as empty as the void between the stars it depicts.

6 – The Boy Next Door – with its “be careful who you shag” central premise and defiantly unerotic approach, this was laughable for all the wrong reasons, not least the speed with which Jennifer Lopez’s cheated on wife jumps in the sack with her hunky neighbour – as you do.

5 – The Transporter Refueled – when the makers can’t even spell their movie’s title properly you just know it’s going to be bad across the board. Ed Skrein makes Jason Statham look like Laurence Olivier, the plot gives new meaning toi the word ridiculous, and the stunts are distinctly underwhelming – so what was the point?

4 – Child 44 – possibly the worst literary adaptation of the year, this lacked everything needed of a good thriller, and wasted the talents of its experienced cast. When you don’t care if the killer is caught is when you know a movie isn’t working.

3 – Poltergeist – a remake that nobody wanted with a cast that weren’t even trying, this wasn’t even scary either, leading everyone to wonder why on earth it was greenlit in the first place.

2 – Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 – unapologetically dire, this is (allegedly) comedy at its most dispiriting. Painful to watch, and a movie that will leave your ribs untickled throughout, any idea of a third movie should be trampled on the moment it’s thought of.

1 – Fantastic Four – it couldn’t be any other movie, could it? Another movie where you have to ask yourself, didn’t anyone realise how bad this was going to turn out, and if they did, why didn’t they say something?

(Dis)honourable mentions: Blackhat, Hitman: Agent 47, Pixels, The Lazarus Effect, Aloha

5 Most Disappointing Movies of 2015

The year saw a variety of movies released that failed to fulfil their potential, and proved less than engrossing or entertaining. All of the following were movies that came with good advance word but though they weren’t bad per se, they still proved to be letdowns for one reason or another.

5 – Legend – Brian Helgeland’s uneven look at the criminal career of the Kray twins (brilliantly brought to life by Tom Hardy) lacked focus and didn’t really seem interested in them as gangsters, making the end result less than compelling.

4 – Southpaw – Jake Gyllenhaal, on a roll in recent years, plus Antoine Fuqua, equals: a boxing movie where the main character is unlikeable, and the story quickly descends into a murkily realised attempt at securing redemption – but without any emotional weight behind it.

3 – Tomorrowland: A World Beyond – an original sci-fi movie from Brad Bird, starring George Clooney, and a healthy dose of wonder? What could go wrong? Enough to rob the movie of its charm by the halfway mark and to turn it into a humourless plea for everyone to just get along and not be so selfish.

2 – Spectre – with every Bond movie there’s a huge degree of hype attached to it, but after the success of Skyfall (not entirely deserved, at that), this seemed to have accrued more than its fair share. Largely aimless, this outing tried to be clever in linking itself to the three previous movies with Daniel Craig, but ended up feeling and looking muddled and unsure of itself.

1 – Crimson Peak – terrific production design can’t compensate for a lack of story ideas in Guillermo del Toro’s Gothic romance. Worst still, he forgot to make it scary, a problem the movie never recovers from.

10 Best Movies of 2015

There was a point – somewhere around late September/early October of 2015 – when it looked as if this year’s Top 10 might only be a Top 6. The dearth of really good movies in the first half of the year made it seem as if the year wouldn’t – or couldn’t – catch up on itself. But since October, 2015 has got itself back on track and there’s been a handful of movies that have been released that have redressed the balance. The top three proved easy to choose, as they stood head and shoulders above the rest, but the rest of the list was trickier to place; even now it’s not certain that they’ll stay where they are in the list in a few days’ time.

10 – Bridge of Spies – Spielberg + Hanks + Cold War thriller = a happy audience, as this true story unfolds with all the fascination of a good fictional spy thriller. That it’s all true adds to the effectiveness and polish of Spielberg’s handling of the material, and there’s another effortless performance from Hanks to revel in.

9 – Slow West – an early contender for this year’s best Western, this tale of a lovelorn young Scotsman travelling the West to find his true love is refreshing and poignant beneath the expected violence, and features yet another compelling performance from the ubiquitous Michael Fassbender.

8 – Mad Max: Fury Road – high-octane thrills and spills galore in a movie that revels in being as gloriously, outrageously kinetic as possible. George Miller has no equal when it comes to making this kind of movie, and watching it was like getting to unwrap a very early Xmas present.

7 – Spotlight – a slow-burning drama about the newspaper investigation in 2001 that exposed the extent of sexual misconduct by priests in the Catholic Church, this is potent stuff that’s sharply directed by Tom McCarthy and acted by a very talented cast. Quietly shocking, it has a cumulative effect in terms of the abuse it exposes, and is all the better for approaching the material in an unshowy, respectful manner.

6 – Inside Out – a wonderful return-to-form for Pixar, and one of their best movies over all, this look inside the mind of a teenage girl is full of sharp observations and droll humour. It’s also a beautifully realised movie, with Riley’s mind a fantastic cornucopia of visual ideas and creativity.

5 – Macbeth – the teaming of Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard was an inspired idea as together they make this one of the best-acted Shakespeare adaptations ever filmed. Brimming with violent imagery and psychological resonance, this breathes new life into the text and makes for a gripping, disturbing experience.

4 – The Witch – an unnerving psychological horror movie about the disintegration of a Puritan family following the abduction of an infant child, this is unsettling and darkly poetic. The horror is palpable, and the performances superbly modulated to provide the maximum emotional impact, making this an outstanding movie that is hard to let go of after it’s ended.

3 – Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – easily the best indie movie released in 2015, this simple yet elegant tale of friendship won and lost and won again is heartfelt and quietly profound. With some pertinent points to make about loving and belonging, this is fresh, funny, engaging and charming in equal measure, and features wonderful performances from Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and Olivia Cooke.

2 – The Revenant – visually stunning, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s latest is a brutal, uncompromising tale of survival and revenge in 1820’s Missouri that grabs the attention from its opening sequence and keeps the viewer hooked right through to the end. A triumph just in terms of the logistics of making the movie under harsh conditions, and with excellent performances by Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy, this is raw, vital stuff that finds so many different ways to amaze its audience.

1 – Carol – an almost flawless piece of movie making, the latest from Todd Haynes features outstanding performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, and excels in its recreation of Fifties’ America and the social and sexual mores of the time. Love has never seemed so vital and so fragile at the same time, and thanks to a script that teases out each nuance of the relationship between Carol and Therese, the movie is both passionate and profound.

Looking ahead…

2016 is already all about the bigger pictures, the would-be blockbusters such as Captain America: Civil War and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. With superheroes still trying to dominate the cinematic landscape, it’s even harder to determine which movies will emerge from under the shadows of the MCU and DC and make an impact on audiences who don’t need huge explosions and lots of running around in costumes to satisfy their cinematic needs.

But if I had to pick five movies from 2016 that I hope will do exactly that, it would be these: Everybody Wants Some; Hail, Caesar!; Finding Dory; The Finest Hours; and The Light Between Oceans. Each of these will (hopefully) bring something adventurous and different to the screen, and with the talent involved – and yes, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything – each should be at least vying for a space on the 10 Best list this time next year. So let’s hope that 2016 improves on 2015, and watching movies becomes an even more enjoyable pastime.

2014 – My Cinema Review

01 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

10 Best movies, 10 Worst movies, 2014, Cinema visits, CITIZENFOUR, Devil's Due, Review

For me, 2014 was a distinctly average year, peppered with some great surprises – Guardians of the Galaxy, CITIZENFOUR – and some huge disappointments – Interstellar, Godzilla. I saw 76 movies in all (forty down on 2013) and while I tried to be more choosy, time and circumstance stopped me from seeing a variety of movies that (I suspect) would have made the following 10 Worst and 10 Best lists look a whole lot different. My apologies then to The Imitation Game, Jersey Boys, If I Stay, This Is Where I Leave You, Nightcrawler and Boyhood.

Perhaps the most dispiriting aspect of cinema going in 2014 was the box office returns of certain movies that, for me, show a complete disregard for their intended audience, and elevate the dumbest material to even dumber heights. The king of the worldwide box office for 2014 is Transformers: Age of Extinction, bringing in over a billion dollars and securing the eventual release of a fifth movie in the franchise (God help us). And even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, possibly the most ill-considered and misbegotten movie of the year, still managed to amass nearly half a billion across the globe. As a triumph of marketing over content, the movie must be regarded as a success, but otherwise just shows that there are too many Turtles fans out there who don’t – or won’t – read reviews. So here are the top 10 movies at the box office for 2014:

1 Transformers: Age of Extinction – $1,087,404,499

2 Guardians of the Galaxy – $772,462,030

3 Maleficent – $757,752,378

4 X-Men: Days of Future Past – $746,045,700

5 Captain America: The Winter Soldier – $714,083,572

6 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – $708,982,323

7 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – $708,279,489

8 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 – $669,719,406

9 Interstellar – $641,387,217

10 How to Train Your Dragon 2 – $618,909,935

Seeing Maleficent at number three is probably the biggest surprise on the list, and I suspect that, say, six months down the line, some of those positions will change – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies has yet to finish its theatrical runs, and the same goes for Interstellar and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1. Seeing so many superhero movies in the list isn’t such a surprise, but the fact that what was for many the most intelligent and thought-provoking sci-fi movie of 2014 – sorry, Mr Nolan – reached number seven.

Actually visiting the cinema remained an exciting/frustrating experience, exciting because of seeing a movie on the big screen (that stuff never gets old), and frustrating because there’s still too many people who visit the cinema and treat it like they’re still at home: talking, texting, and rustling sweet wrappers and slurping drinks as if they were all by themselves. When I saw Magic in the Moonlight a woman’s mobile phone rang. Unfazed (or bothered) she answered it, told the person at the other end she was at the cinema, that she was seeing “that new Woody Allen movie”, and “so far, it’s okay”. And she was offended when the gentleman behind her asked her to switch it off.

Compiling the 10 Worst and 10 Best lists below was harder than expected. Of the worst – the number one movie aside – it was difficult to judge how bad each movie was from each other. Most are the cinematic equivalent of a car crash, bad ideas given money in the hope that things will improve somehow. One movie, Serena, was so difficult to place I thought about giving it its own category: The Movie That Gets Worse Every Time I Think About It. And the list shows that even stars of the calibre of Johnny Depp and George Clooney aren’t immune from making real clunkers from time to time.

THE 10 WORST MOVIES OF 2014

10 47 Ronin

9 Need for Speed

8 The Monuments Men

7 The Face of an Angel

The 10 Best list was even harder to judge and assemble. The number one movie was in place from the moment I saw it, and The Grand Budapest Hotel was always going to be in the top three, but looking back over 2014, the number of strong, superbly crafted movies came as a bit of a shock. I could have stretched the list to fifteen* (and I did consider it for a while), but in the end it seemed like cheating, or making my choices easier. This list’s Serena was Rosewater, a movie I saw at the London Film Festival, and which was one of several 9/10 movies I saw there. It’s place on the list was assured, but again, just where was a problem I couldn’t figure out when I looked at the other movies on my list. Even now I’m not completely happy with where it is, but the decision’s been made, so that’s that.

THE 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2014

10 Mr. Peabody & Sherman

9 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

8 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

7 Gone Girl

6 Guardians of the Galaxy

5 Rosewater

4 Philomena

3 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

2 The Grand Budapest Hotel

1 CITIZENFOUR

*The movies that didn’t make the Top 10: A Little Chaos, Pride, Edge of Tomorrow, Phoenix, and The Boxtrolls.

One last thought: when I first started writing this particular piece, I had an idea that the number one movie wouldn’t actually be a movie, but a TV series (weird, huh?). For me, the absolute best thing I saw in 2014 was Fargo. If you haven’t seen it for fear it will tarnish your memory of the original movie, or that it can’t possibly match it for wit and invention then have no fear, it’s the most sublime “movie” (albeit in ten parts) you’re likely to see for some time to come. And to everyone who has seen it, I’ll bet, like me, you can’t wait for the second series to come around later this year – “for sure”.

2013 – My Cinema Review

01 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by dullwood68 in Movies

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

10 Best movies, 10 Worst movies, 2013, Captain Phillips, Cinema visits, Cineworld, IMAX London, Nothing Left to Fear, Review

In 2013 I saw 106 movies at the cinema, from Gangster Squad to Frozen. On the whole I think it’s been a good year, just above average in fact, and a definite improvement on 2012 (you could say I was far more choosy back then).

There have been some turkeys – I Give It a Year and The Hangover Part III spring to mind – and some nice surprises: Danny Boyle’s Trance (as gleefully misleading a movie as you’re ever likely to see); Warm Bodies (a rom-zom that makes a virtue out of its sweet nature); and Kill Your Darlings (the treacherous early days of the Beat Generation featuring Daniel Radcliffe as Allen Ginsberg).

There were movies I wanted to see but missed through bad timing and/or lack of opportunity: Carrie, The Way Way Back, Only God Forgives, and a couple I actively avoided: the Coen Brothers-scripted Gambit, and R.I.P.D.

The actual cinema-going experience improved during 2013, at least for me personally. Here in the UK there’s a cinema chain called Cineworld (see image above). They operate a monthly subscription service. For a fixed fee each month (currently £18.90) you get a membership card that guarantees you a free ticket to as many movies as you can manage each month, and a healthy discount on food and drink purchases. It’s a great idea, and without it I definitely wouldn’t have seen 106 movies (probably nearer 60-70). For me, a trip to the cinema can mean seeing 4-5 movies in one day (and all the hot dogs I can eat).

I also travelled quite regularly to the British Film Institute’s IMAX screen in London. The IMAX screen is approximately 20 metres high by 26 metres wide and is easily the best way to see a movie, particularly a blockbuster like The Wolverine or Pacific Rim. It’s also a great way to treat someone for their birthday: I took one of my friends five times during 2013 (to see Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Man of Steel, Thor: The Dark World, and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug), and enjoyed a couple of visits with my daughter as well (The Lone Ranger and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire).

Working out which were the best and the worst of 2013 hasn’t been too difficult, although I will admit that one movie could have fallen into either camp; I don’t know if it’s just me but each year there’s always one movie that I can’t decide whether I love or hate. This year it was Frances Ha. Thankfully, other movies have come along to ensure it doesn’t end up in either list, and ultimately I’m glad because my final feeling on the movie is that it’s neither very good nor very bad, just okay (which is almost a condemnation in and of itself, I know).

Anyway, here they are then, the Best and Worst of 2013. If I’ve trashed a movie you thought was wonderful, then please accept my apologies here and now. If I’ve praised a movie you thought was a total pile of what Americans call “horse puckey”, then that’s easier to deal with: get over it, it’s just my opinion. Now, where’s that 20th Century fanfare…?

THE 10 WORST MOVIES OF 2013

10 You’re Next

9 Planes

8 Elysium

7 Walking With Dinosaurs The 3D Movie

6 A Good Day to Die Hard

5 The Hangover Part III

4 Grown Ups 2

3 I Give It a Year

2 After Earth

1 Nothing Left to Fear

THE 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2013

10 Side Effects

9 The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

8 Blue Jasmine

7 Monsters University

6 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

5 Classe tous risques (1960)

4 Nebraska

3 Before Midnight

2 All Is Lost

1 Captain Phillips

So, there you have it, two seafaring tales at the top of the 10 Best, and three sequels in the 10 Worst (that’s as much analysing as I’m prepared to do). I like preparing end of year lists, but this is the first time I’ve shared them with a wider audience. I hope they stimulate some discussion, even an argument or two (that’s healthy, right?), and if you feel the need to comment, please do.

Thanks for reading!