Review of the Year 2014

Last year I managed to see 85 films. None of which reached the dizzying heights of Gravity (except of course Gravity which I managed to see again in january..)

I did see some corkers mind. And mainly down to the Odeon and its screen unseen Monday's.. Nightcrawler and Whiplash are two of my favourites this year.. Whiplash would have been film of the year if not for 

a) I saw Gravity in the beginning of the year

b) I saw Blade Runner at the end of the year and

c) it's not officially out until 16th January 2015..

Thinking about it, my favourites this year have all been non-blockbusters. 'Locke', 'Tracks' and 'Dallas Buyer's Club' were three surprises I wasn't expecting. I can see myself turning into a movie snob and shunning the multimillion dollar, budget busting fodder I used to be so fond of.. If Michael Bay's going to keep spewing out thankless, soul destroying roadkill like Transformers 4 then what do you expect... 

OK, talking of Transformers let's start with toilet end of the brush... so you speak.. 

And, despite what you may think Age Of Extinction wasn't the worst film of the year. That honour goes to Mr Lutz and the little gem that was 'The Legend Of Hercules'(not to be mistaken for the far superior Dwayne Johnson one) . If you want to know what I thought of it you'll have to follow the link as I've managed to push the memory of that film deep, down into the dark recesses of my soul so that it'll never bother me again.. Close on its heels were Sabotage, Transcendence and the afore mentioned Transformers.. Although in the cases of Sabotage and Transcendence I think I was more disappointment really because I genuinely expected more from both directors and certainly the cast..

The best comedies this year were thanks to Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Both 'The Lego Movie' and '22 Jump Street' were hilarious. Also I was lucky to catch 'What We Do In The Shadows' which had a very short run but was equally as funny.. Let's not forget Wes Andersons latest (and some would say funniest) 'Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'Bad Neighbours' (although I think I may have been on my own with that last one!)

'The Zero Theorem', 'The Double' and 'Under The Skin' were my 'weird trilogy' this year. I enjoyed them all, mainly because they stood out amongst the rest of the ordinary films I saw.. This was definitely Scarlet Johansson's year. As well as excellent support in 'Captain America:Winter Soldier' and her staring role in 'Lucy' she also showed that she wasn't just Blockbuster fare after driving around Glasgow in a transit van.. Unfortunately I missed 'Her'.

Talking of Superheroes the highlight was 'X-Men:Days Of Future Past'. It was good to see Bryan Singer back on form and back at the helm of the X-Men franchise (which I managed to see three times) . 'Guardians Of The Galaxy' was surprisingly entertaining and 'Captain America:Winter Soldier' has helped built up the anticipation for this year's 'Avengers:Age Of Ultron'.

'The Amazing Spider-man 2' followed on from the first 'The Amazing Spider-man' in that it was equally rubbish (despite looking forward to it after the trailer).

I only managed three foreign language films this year and to be fair I enjoyed them all. The best, of course didn't really require any language as the action spoke for itself..

Once again the autumn showing made up for the 'meh' spring/summer offerings. Most notably Mr Finchers 'Gone Girl' and the excellent 'Nightcrawler' which I really enjoyed. I'm not sure if the fact that I saw it three weeks before its official release helped and that I felt part of a special VIP group.. 

The Christmas movies this year were rubbish. I saw Ridley Scott's 'Bladerunner' at the beginning of December and then 'Exodus' on boxing day and it was quite sad to see how far he'd fallen since 1982. I'm a Ridley fan, Christ I even watched the 'car crash' that was 'The Councillor'.  So let's hope he improves with The Martian in November.

If I was going to list a top 10 films (excluding Gravity & Bladerunner) it would probably be the following:

10 - Under The Skin
 9 -  Godzilla
 8 -  Edge Of Tomorrow
 7 - The Raid 2
 6 - Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes
 5 - The Lego Movie
 4 - 22 Jump Street
 3 - X-Men:Days Of Future Past
 2 - Nightcrawler
 1 - Whiplash (I know it's not out yet... but it's my list..)

Overall it's generally been the smaller, quirkier, off the radar films that have been the best in 2014 (in my opinion). It'll be interesting to see how the blockbusters stand up this year. I'm looking forward to Marvel's aforementioned 'Avengers 2' and 'Antman'. There's also 'Tomorrowland', 'Jurassic World' and 'Mad Max' to get excited about..