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defrogBecause you can’t possibly have enough “Best Of The Year” lists on the Internet.
Films now. Music soon.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2014 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2013 for yr country, but 2014 for Hong Kong. Get me?
TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2014
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Interstellar
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street
4. Edge Of Tomorrow
5. Lucy
6. Godzilla
7. A Most Wanted Man
8. The Railway Man
9. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
10. The Monuments Men
HONORABLE MENTIONS
American Hustle
Only Lovers Left Alive
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
THE ONE FILM I LIKED THAT NO ONE ELSE DID
Kiki's Delivery Service
THE ONE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID
The Two Faces Of January
WORST FILM OF 2013
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
========================================
TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2014 (DIRECTOR'S CUT)
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
The film is full of Anderson trademarks – episodic storytelling, snappy dialogue, snappier camera pans and tilts, and deliberately obvious use of miniatures, all of which somehow manages to mix madcap humor and melancholy without going overboard on either. It’s also got a great cast to carry it along. The whole package is so well done and so much zany fun that even the plot holes don’t matter.
2. Interstellar
It may not have the narrative cleverness of previous Nolan films, but Interstellar is trademark Nolan in that that doesn’t go for the obvious storyline, and gives the audience something meatier to chew on. Everyone will probably find something to complain about, but I give high marks just for attempting something different, especially in the SF genre. Too few people even try to make films like this, and fewer still can pull it off.
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street
Great dialogue, great acting, great soundtrack and great Scorsese. If there’s anything wrong with The Wolf Of Wall Street, it’s the length – at three hours, it’s at least a half-hour too long, and that’s at least partly due to Scorsese including more drug/orgy scenes than was probably necessary to get the point across. That aside, this is Scorsese’s best film in a long time, probably since The Aviator.
4. Edge Of Tomorrow
Despite some familiar tropes, what really makes it work is that director Doug Liman and the screenwriters don’t take it too seriously. Which is good partly because there’s not much here you haven’t seen in other films, and partly because (like most time-travel films) the time-travel stuff only makes sense if you don’t think about it too much – which is also why Liman wisely doesn’t spend much time explaining it. The ending is a bit problematic, but overall it’s very well done – more so than any SF blockbuster has a right to be.
5. Lucy
Lots of people have complained that the film’s central idea – that humans only use about 10-15% of our cranial capacity – is an urban myth and pseudoscientific nonsense. I don’t really have a problem with that because, c’mon, it’s a Luc Besson film. And bullshit or not, Besson takes the idea and runs with it fairly well, though not without flaws (such as the CG-assisted car chase scene). But like a lot of his better films, it’s fun to watch, bad science and all. And Johansson really carries the film as the title character.
6. Godzilla
Maybe we didn’t really need another Godzilla film, but director Gareth Edwards made this worth watching by taking a slightly different approach of keeping the monsters in the background for much of the film. It works better than you might think. On the downside, whatever you may think of Roland Emmerich’s version, you have to admit that film had far snappier dialogue. Still, Edwards does a good job of setting the right pace for the story to unfold and make the monster scenes worth waiting for – and look great.
7. A Most Wanted Man
Despite some weak dialogue and slow pacing, overall it’s an interesting film that – like most Le Carre narratives – relies more on tension than action, and makes some good points about how the espionage game is as much about politics and secret agendas as it is about actually stopping bad guys. And despite the natural disadvantage of an American actor playing a German espionage agent in Germany, Philip Seymour Hoffman does pull it off.
8. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
A vast improvement over the first reboot film, and a strikingly well crafted exercise in paralleling the human and simian societies – at least when it comes to love, hate, fear, greed and the inevitability of war. On the downside, the dialogue hasn’t gotten any better, and while the story may be well structured, it’s also pretty predictable. That said, the fact that director Matt Reeves can still keep the tension simmering for most of the film is a remarkable achievement in itself. If we have to have a PotA reboot, DotPotA is a welcome upgrade to the franchise.
9. The Railway Man
This film goes against the usual tropes of what might otherwise have been a standard over-the-top revenge thriller to the point that it put a lot of people off. Which may be why I liked it. It’s admittedly slow-burn, but great performances from just about everyone make it worth sitting through. It also has some things say about the effects of war and torture, and the psychological care that war vets generally don’t get (or want) because it’s unmanly.
10. The Monuments Men
This was a bit of a letdown given the brilliant cast and Clooney’s track record as a director. It feels a bit bare-bones – there’s enough to get the story across, but not really enough to get into the characters. But the cast makes it fun to watch, and credit to Clooney for not only selecting a worthy topic (and probably the one story from WW2 that hasn’t already been told a hundred times), but also borrowing visually from the classic ensemble war films of the 60s.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
American Hustle
The main attractions here are the topic (ABSCAM) and the acting, which is impressive all around. That said,American Hustle has two things going against it: (1) hair that is ridiculous to the point of distraction, and (2) it gets too bogged down in relationship melodrama from time to time, particularly in the middle of the film. But overall, it’s pretty good.
Only Lovers Left Alive
A little too slow, and I didn’t really buy the ending. But Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton really nail both their respective characters and their relationship as lovers. There’s also an awful lot of guitar/home studio porn, which is great for people like me. It’s not a bad film, and I appreciate Jim Jarmusch’s desire to avoid cheesy vampire horror tropes. I just came away feeling he could have done more with the premise.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Lots of people have heralded DoFP as the best X-Men film in the series. That’s probably true – provided you’ve seen the other X-Men films. Anyone else is going to be puzzled as hell, although I’ve seen all of them and there’s a few things here even I don’t understand. Still, as a franchise film, it really does capitalize on the reboot of First Classand takes things up a level to the point of putting the franchise back on track.
THE ONE FILM I LIKED THAT NO ONE ELSE DID
Kiki's Delivery Service
The live-action version, not the anime. Admittedly this is the more flawed of the two films, mainly due to the unconvincing CGI animals especially Kiki’s cat Jiji. For all that, I have to say, it’s a very charming movie (especially considering that director Takashi Shimizu is better known for horror films like The Grudge). Fūka Koshiba makes a very likeable Kiki, and Ryōhei Hirota nails the character of the aviation-obsessed Tombo. The ending is somewhat cheesy, but overall I really enjoyed watching it.
THE ONE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID
The Two Faces Of January
Critics went gaga for this old-fashioned thriller, but to me it came across to me as a pretty standard noir love triangle/jealousy angle. The paranoia isn’t all that contagious, and the story starts taking convenient shortcuts to get to its conclusion – which I also didn’t really find convincing. It’s okay, but it’s been done before, and done better.
MOST OVERHYPED FILM OF 2014
Guardians Of The Galaxy
It may be because I know so many fans of the comic book, but honestly I was expecting a lot more than I got from this. I’m not saying it’s a bad film – it’s actually quite entertaining, thanks to a sense of humor about itself and a likeable cast of characters, though it has to be said they’re more interesting as a group than they are individually. But it’s stuffed with standard blockbuster CGI overload stuff, and the storyline isn’t especially clever. As light summer entertainment goes, it’s generally a lot of fun, and I’m pleased to see a Marvel film that doesn’t have Iron Man or Wolverine in it – or indeed any character that non-fans have even heard of – do incredibly well. But does it justify the hype? Not really, no.
WORST FILM OF 2014
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
Well, yes, it’s everything you expect from both a Transformers movie and a Michael Bay movie – annoying asshat characters (this time it’s Mark Wahlberg doing the overprotective dad routine), female eye candy and a stupid storyline with a complete disregard for logic (because it gets in the way of the explosions). We only went to see it because we wanted to see Hong Kong get decimated by Dinobots. And even there, it was a bit of a rip-off. I will say the cameos by local HK actors and pop stars were amusing – especially the part where Michael Wong says, “We need to call the Central Government!” You can almost see Xi Jinping slow-clapping off-camera.
Tomorrow: the music!
dF out
Films now. Music soon.
STANDARD DISCLAIMER: If yr favorite movie of 2014 isn’t here, it’s likely because (1) I didn’t get a chance to see it, (2) it hasn’t been released in Hong Kong yet, or (3) I did see it but didn’t like it as much as you did. Also, if some of these seem kind of old, it’s because their release date was 2013 for yr country, but 2014 for Hong Kong. Get me?
TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2014
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
2. Interstellar
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street
4. Edge Of Tomorrow
5. Lucy
6. Godzilla
7. A Most Wanted Man
8. The Railway Man
9. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
10. The Monuments Men
HONORABLE MENTIONS
American Hustle
Only Lovers Left Alive
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
THE ONE FILM I LIKED THAT NO ONE ELSE DID
Kiki's Delivery Service
THE ONE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID
The Two Faces Of January
WORST FILM OF 2013
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
========================================
TOP TEN DEF FILMS OF 2014 (DIRECTOR'S CUT)
1. The Grand Budapest Hotel
The film is full of Anderson trademarks – episodic storytelling, snappy dialogue, snappier camera pans and tilts, and deliberately obvious use of miniatures, all of which somehow manages to mix madcap humor and melancholy without going overboard on either. It’s also got a great cast to carry it along. The whole package is so well done and so much zany fun that even the plot holes don’t matter.
2. Interstellar
It may not have the narrative cleverness of previous Nolan films, but Interstellar is trademark Nolan in that that doesn’t go for the obvious storyline, and gives the audience something meatier to chew on. Everyone will probably find something to complain about, but I give high marks just for attempting something different, especially in the SF genre. Too few people even try to make films like this, and fewer still can pull it off.
3. The Wolf Of Wall Street
Great dialogue, great acting, great soundtrack and great Scorsese. If there’s anything wrong with The Wolf Of Wall Street, it’s the length – at three hours, it’s at least a half-hour too long, and that’s at least partly due to Scorsese including more drug/orgy scenes than was probably necessary to get the point across. That aside, this is Scorsese’s best film in a long time, probably since The Aviator.
4. Edge Of Tomorrow
Despite some familiar tropes, what really makes it work is that director Doug Liman and the screenwriters don’t take it too seriously. Which is good partly because there’s not much here you haven’t seen in other films, and partly because (like most time-travel films) the time-travel stuff only makes sense if you don’t think about it too much – which is also why Liman wisely doesn’t spend much time explaining it. The ending is a bit problematic, but overall it’s very well done – more so than any SF blockbuster has a right to be.
5. Lucy
Lots of people have complained that the film’s central idea – that humans only use about 10-15% of our cranial capacity – is an urban myth and pseudoscientific nonsense. I don’t really have a problem with that because, c’mon, it’s a Luc Besson film. And bullshit or not, Besson takes the idea and runs with it fairly well, though not without flaws (such as the CG-assisted car chase scene). But like a lot of his better films, it’s fun to watch, bad science and all. And Johansson really carries the film as the title character.
6. Godzilla
Maybe we didn’t really need another Godzilla film, but director Gareth Edwards made this worth watching by taking a slightly different approach of keeping the monsters in the background for much of the film. It works better than you might think. On the downside, whatever you may think of Roland Emmerich’s version, you have to admit that film had far snappier dialogue. Still, Edwards does a good job of setting the right pace for the story to unfold and make the monster scenes worth waiting for – and look great.
7. A Most Wanted Man
Despite some weak dialogue and slow pacing, overall it’s an interesting film that – like most Le Carre narratives – relies more on tension than action, and makes some good points about how the espionage game is as much about politics and secret agendas as it is about actually stopping bad guys. And despite the natural disadvantage of an American actor playing a German espionage agent in Germany, Philip Seymour Hoffman does pull it off.
8. Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
A vast improvement over the first reboot film, and a strikingly well crafted exercise in paralleling the human and simian societies – at least when it comes to love, hate, fear, greed and the inevitability of war. On the downside, the dialogue hasn’t gotten any better, and while the story may be well structured, it’s also pretty predictable. That said, the fact that director Matt Reeves can still keep the tension simmering for most of the film is a remarkable achievement in itself. If we have to have a PotA reboot, DotPotA is a welcome upgrade to the franchise.
9. The Railway Man
This film goes against the usual tropes of what might otherwise have been a standard over-the-top revenge thriller to the point that it put a lot of people off. Which may be why I liked it. It’s admittedly slow-burn, but great performances from just about everyone make it worth sitting through. It also has some things say about the effects of war and torture, and the psychological care that war vets generally don’t get (or want) because it’s unmanly.
10. The Monuments Men
This was a bit of a letdown given the brilliant cast and Clooney’s track record as a director. It feels a bit bare-bones – there’s enough to get the story across, but not really enough to get into the characters. But the cast makes it fun to watch, and credit to Clooney for not only selecting a worthy topic (and probably the one story from WW2 that hasn’t already been told a hundred times), but also borrowing visually from the classic ensemble war films of the 60s.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
American Hustle
The main attractions here are the topic (ABSCAM) and the acting, which is impressive all around. That said,American Hustle has two things going against it: (1) hair that is ridiculous to the point of distraction, and (2) it gets too bogged down in relationship melodrama from time to time, particularly in the middle of the film. But overall, it’s pretty good.
Only Lovers Left Alive
A little too slow, and I didn’t really buy the ending. But Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton really nail both their respective characters and their relationship as lovers. There’s also an awful lot of guitar/home studio porn, which is great for people like me. It’s not a bad film, and I appreciate Jim Jarmusch’s desire to avoid cheesy vampire horror tropes. I just came away feeling he could have done more with the premise.
X-Men: Days Of Future Past
Lots of people have heralded DoFP as the best X-Men film in the series. That’s probably true – provided you’ve seen the other X-Men films. Anyone else is going to be puzzled as hell, although I’ve seen all of them and there’s a few things here even I don’t understand. Still, as a franchise film, it really does capitalize on the reboot of First Classand takes things up a level to the point of putting the franchise back on track.
THE ONE FILM I LIKED THAT NO ONE ELSE DID
Kiki's Delivery Service
The live-action version, not the anime. Admittedly this is the more flawed of the two films, mainly due to the unconvincing CGI animals especially Kiki’s cat Jiji. For all that, I have to say, it’s a very charming movie (especially considering that director Takashi Shimizu is better known for horror films like The Grudge). Fūka Koshiba makes a very likeable Kiki, and Ryōhei Hirota nails the character of the aviation-obsessed Tombo. The ending is somewhat cheesy, but overall I really enjoyed watching it.
THE ONE FILM I DIDN’T LIKE THAT EVERYONE ELSE DID
The Two Faces Of January
Critics went gaga for this old-fashioned thriller, but to me it came across to me as a pretty standard noir love triangle/jealousy angle. The paranoia isn’t all that contagious, and the story starts taking convenient shortcuts to get to its conclusion – which I also didn’t really find convincing. It’s okay, but it’s been done before, and done better.
MOST OVERHYPED FILM OF 2014
Guardians Of The Galaxy
It may be because I know so many fans of the comic book, but honestly I was expecting a lot more than I got from this. I’m not saying it’s a bad film – it’s actually quite entertaining, thanks to a sense of humor about itself and a likeable cast of characters, though it has to be said they’re more interesting as a group than they are individually. But it’s stuffed with standard blockbuster CGI overload stuff, and the storyline isn’t especially clever. As light summer entertainment goes, it’s generally a lot of fun, and I’m pleased to see a Marvel film that doesn’t have Iron Man or Wolverine in it – or indeed any character that non-fans have even heard of – do incredibly well. But does it justify the hype? Not really, no.
WORST FILM OF 2014
Transformers: Age Of Extinction
Well, yes, it’s everything you expect from both a Transformers movie and a Michael Bay movie – annoying asshat characters (this time it’s Mark Wahlberg doing the overprotective dad routine), female eye candy and a stupid storyline with a complete disregard for logic (because it gets in the way of the explosions). We only went to see it because we wanted to see Hong Kong get decimated by Dinobots. And even there, it was a bit of a rip-off. I will say the cameos by local HK actors and pop stars were amusing – especially the part where Michael Wong says, “We need to call the Central Government!” You can almost see Xi Jinping slow-clapping off-camera.
Tomorrow: the music!
dF out
