Ever since my first visits to the movie theater with my father as a very young child, I've been a movie lover. Some of my earliest memories are of movies like
E.T. and
The Neverending Story on the big screen. Thirty years later, watching motion pictures is still one of my favorite pass times. As an annual tradition now, I share my own Top 10 Movies from releases of the previous year. With cinema in a new golden age, this is no short task as I find myself moving around names of at least 20-30 movies to pick my ten favorites. This year was no exception so we need to get the general suggestions and rotten eggs out of the way before we move on to the Top 10.
Of course being the fan boy I am, I've got plenty of love for the super-hero flicks despite them not making my list. My favorite on-screen comics this year included
Guardians of the Galaxy (the sleeper hit of the year stealing the overall box-office crown) and
X-Men: Days of Future Past (the ultimate fusion of the silver screen X-verse which corrected Fox's continuity with the original trilogy.) I was left scratching my head at
The Amazing Spiderman 2 which was re-cut so many times there were scenes in the trailers which didn't even make the film itself. I saw the long-awaited
Sin City: A Dame to Kill For in the theater on my birthday and it certainly didn't disappoint- if you like the first one, check out the sequel for a juicy helping of the same.
Edge of Tomorrow, adapted from the manga novel All You Need is Kill was in my mind the blockbuster of the summer despite not putting up the numbers to show it. Overall I have to say
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was the most solid of the comic world's releases this year where they did something really special by making an espionage movie which played more like a Bond flick than a comic adaptation.
The biopic is another staple genre of the movie industry. At this point, its really hard to justify one making my own personal list since I feel this is an much overplayed go-to for Hollywood the past 10 years. However, for some poignant acting and socially-relevant stories, I'd highly recommend
Selma,
Cesar Chavez,
The Imitation Game,
Unbroken and
The Theory of Everything. Many of these will be highlighted for their acting during the awards ceremonies. One could also lump Darren Aronofsky's
Noah into this category as well. Stylized to the director's eye, I found it visually stunning while others called for his head.
Each year I tend to mention a takeaway or two from one of my favorite veins in the film world, Southern Gothic. This year, an independent film called
Blue Ruin garnered much critical acclaim. This vigilante story plays like a western but is set in the southeast and features some razor-sharp acting and a great script. Also,
Joe (based on the novel by the same name) is an abrasive coming-of-age story of redemption led by a grizzled Nicolas Cage and a wonderful supporting cast of found actors. This independent film's cast included Gary Poulter, a local vagrant who died on the streets of Austin just months after the filming.
The world of cinema lost many great actors this year. For a dynamic last performance, check out James Gandolfini in
The Drop which is a fusion of a gangster and a heist movie with Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace. As Philip Seymour Hoffman's last roles are played out, don't buy the hype of A Most Wanted Man or whatever computer-generated doppelganger is in store for the last Hunger Games movie. Instead check out
God's Pocket where he helps lead a great ensemble cast in a much over-looked movie. It's a solid drama with a five star script.
Other suggestions from 2014 worth a sit-down include
Filth,
Enemy,
Starred Up,
Words and Pictures,
The Rover,
Fury,
Autómata,
The Homesman,
Miss Meadows,
St. Vincent,
Life After Beth,
Chef and
Whiplash. Never heard of them? Just click on the name of any of the movies I've mentioned to read all about it at every cinephile's playground, IMDB. Now on to the countdown...
