Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (20-11)

Bottom Ten | 90-71 | 70-51 | 50-36 | 35-21

So this is even later getting up here than I intended, considering the Oscars were last night and I've yet to write the post for the Top 10. The truth is that I grossly underestimated how much effort it would be to write even just a couple paragraphs for 100 films. By the time I had finished the first 80 I was writing about, I'm pretty certain my mind was fried like an egg. For my own sanity, I had to back away from the keyboard for a while. In the meantime, the usual things (especially work) got in the way, and it made it difficult to write last week. If I were shooting for timeliness with these posts I would have missed the mark.

But I'm not doing this for the hits (although I'd appreciate it if you click through and read on). I'm doing this because I have some things to say about the films I saw. Well, about 45-50 of them or so. The rest I see as an exercise to figure out how to say "eh, it was OK, I guess" in the form of two paragraphs.

Unlike last year, there aren't any clear favorites in my top 20. I'm pretty confident that my top 10 is my top 10, but there's a pretty good chance any of these could be #11, or even higher, depending upo which one I've seen most recently. We start with a film that should have won more than one Oscar, a film that was literally more than a decade in the making.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (35-21)

We're almost 2/3 of the way through the list, as we count down the next fifteen films. There's a lot of variety here, from two wonderful sci-fi films of completely opposite sizes, a lovely animated film, and a film where a person turns into a sparrow. First off is the first of two MCU entries on this list.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (50-36)

Bottom Ten | 90-71 | 70-51

We've passed the half way point in the hundred movies of 2014, and from here the groups get a bit smaller. Instead of 20 at a time, we'll go through 15 on the next two lists. Now that we're done with that piece of housecleaning, on to the next batch!

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (70-51)

To see the Bottom Ten, click here.

For 90-71, click here.

No need for any sort of introduction, here are the next twenty movies on the list.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 100 Films of 2014 (90-71)

This next set of twenty films is kind of a transition zone between the ten movies at the bottom of this list, which I didn't really care for, and the top 70% of the list, which on the whole I liked a good deal.  Up first is a film that kind of is the divider line between the Bottom Ten, and this transitional group.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 2014 Films, The Bottom Ten

Ayyy! Where's a jukebox I can pound?

Every list has to have an end to it. While the movies at the bottom of my list are not that good of movies, each one still had some elements which made them better than a complete waste of time. No, the movies that were complete wastes of time were not films that I happened to see. These were the ones that stunk from afar and needed no viewing to confirm their lack of quality. Instead, most of these movies sitting here at the bottom of my 2014 in film suffer from a lack of proper execution, little reason to exist beyond the potential for franchise dollars, or just a wild mismatch in tone. Without further adieu, here's the infamous ten.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: 2014 in Review

San Fransokyo, winner of the Best Fictional City Award for 2014.

One hundred films.

During my "2014 Film Year"* I saw 100 films from 2014**. Most were in the theater, but many were through Netflix, Amazon Streaming, and even a couple via iTunes. I never intended to watch this many films, it just kind of happened because of a few reasons.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Wild

Because Wild focuses on a long distance hiker, we felt that this would be a good opportunity for a cross-posted review on our hiking blog Red Faces, White Blazes. We liked the film, and (SPOILER ALERT) it will certainly make another appearance when Andrew's favorites of the year. Where? You'll just have to wait and see.

Verdict: Strongly Recommend

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Snowpiercer

Note: The bulk of this post will be fashioned after one of my favorite scenes from the film. It won't really be a spoiler per se, but it might be too close for comfort for some people. Also, it might make very little sense to you. Therefore, the first paragraph will be a very boring but concise review of the film.

In short, Snowpiercer is one of my favorite experiences at a movie theater ever. The action is taut and exciting, the sharp contrast in colors between the rebelling people from the end of the train and the vibrant colors displayed by those farther up the train is impressive. The story is fairly crisp and fun to follow. Best of all are the performances. Chris Evans, John Hurt, Octavia Spencer, Song Kang-ho, Go Ah-sung, Jamie Bell, and others do a wonderful job in their roles. Tilda Swinton is great as the "Great Engineer" Wilford's chief stooge, and Allison Pill damn near steals the show. See this film, preferably in a theater if you can.

OK NOW ON TO THE "REAL POST". DON'T CONTINUE UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN THE MOVIE, OR AREN'T BOTHERED BY KNOWING DETAILS ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN IN A MOVIE.

Summer Movie Reviews, Part One

Look, I intended to write about many many movies this spring and (now) summer, but things just didn't go that way. I will be writing about Under the Skin and Noah as promised, but not right now. Why? Well first off, they aren't summer films. Secondly, the former is so good (and strange) and the latter is so off the charts weird (and at times good) that they deserve their own posts. So keep watching for them. Also not included in this batch is Muppets Most Wanted, because there's little to write about it save for it being a very light, mostly forgettable, but still enjoyable adventure with the old familiar Muppets.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

It's hard to pin down why The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is so inessential. After all, Andrew Garfield is a damn good Spider-man, and Emma Stone is great as Gwen Stacy. Sally Field is a good Aunt May, and Paul Giamatti is fun (if underused) as Rhino. It looks gorgeous, with none of the effects problems that plagued even the best of the Raimi bunch. It even has one of the best scenes in the five Spider-Man movies*. It's a movie that is the lesser sum of its parts, and I'm not sure why.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The general understanding about Wes Anderson films tend to focus on the precise nature of his scenes. There is rarely any prop, any background, or any actor in the wrong place. The dialogue is written precisely, the music is perfectly chosen, and even the text on the screen is rendered in just the right font. The "Wes Anderson style" is distinct and instantly recognizable, as can be seen in this fake movie trailer from Saturday Night Live.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: Bad Words

First there was Bad Santa, and it was a pretty great film. Then came Bad Teacher, which had its moments, but wasn't anywhere as good as Bad Santa. Finally, there is Bad Words, a movie starring, directed, produced, and catered* by Bateman. It's his directing debut, but is far from the debut of the typical Jason Bateman "smarm" character, even if he's more of a potty mouth than Michel Bluth ever was. While I only enjoyed parts of the film, I would like to see how Director Jason Bateman does going forward, as I think he has some promise.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: The Wind Rises

I must admit that I am a late-comer to the Miyazaki appreciation club. You have to look at the other writer on this blog for a more in depth and well thought out overview of his work, as she has seen many more of his movies than I have. I suppose it is fitting that The Wind Rises is supposedly his last work, as it is the first one I've had an opportunity to see in a theater. And let me tell you, it was well worth it.

DVD Case Pantheon: Magnolia

Some of my favorite films are tightly built. They clock in at about 90 minutes, leave absolutely nothing inessential in the story, and yet still find time to have well developed characters. There is usually one main story line featuring a minimum of characters. Urgency and consequences are the name of the game.

DVD Case Pantheon: Punch Drunk Love

These days, an "Adam Sandler movie" is synonymous to many film lovers with laziness. It tends to evoke sloppy crapfests full of awful animal gags, gay panic jokes, and an excuse for Sandler and his friends to take a vacation while filming*. Save for the incredibly long (and often tedious) Funny People, he really hasn't stretched his limits too far in a while. Which makes Punch Drunk Love kind of an anomaly, a blip in his career that makes me wish he'd expand his horizons more often. Or at least work with better directors.

Remembering Philip Seymour Hoffman

It's been two weeks since I first received the news of Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, and only now have I really been able to put anything in writing about it. Most celebrity deaths are just blips in the day, which creates a momentary feeling of loss, or a bit of time remembering their career and the great things they did which you enjoyed. Sometimes you give it a bit more thought, perhaps even purchasing an album on iTunes, or watching one of their films on Netflix. In a few cases, you feel bummed out about it for a while, particularly if they were relatively young and perhaps still had a few great things to do left in them, or if you were a big fan of their work, and were just sad to see them go, even if they hadn't done anything at all for decades.

A rare few, however, really affect you.

Before I continue, a bit of perspective. I've never cried when hearing about the death of a celebrity*. No matter how much I admired or enjoyed their work, no celebrity death creates the level of loss that a death of a family member, friend, neighbor, or even beloved pet would create.

That being said, there are just some deaths that stick with you. These rarely tend to be those of people who have lived long, full, interesting lives. I feel bad about Peter O'Toole and Pete Seeger dying, because it means we can only speak of them in the past tense now. However, they lived long, interesting lives, full of great work to cherish and remember.

Hoffman, however, was only 46 years old. He should have had 20, 30, or even 40 more years of work ahead of him. Yes, he leaves behind a prolific set of work on both the stage and screen, but once the films he already performed in are released, we will never get that charge of seeing his name in the credits. We'll never get a chance to see him perform on stage again, a place where he was apparently just as riveting, if not more so, to watch than on at the movie theater. Never again will he make a bad movie watchable, a watchable movie good, and a good movie great.

His death, like the also premature death of James Gandolfini last year, hits doubly hard because Hoffman was "one of us". By no means ugly, he wasn't the chiseled image of a Hollywood star. Like many great character actors, he was able to use his indistinct looks to his advantage. So many times he was able to disappear into the character he was playing.

The great thing was his ability to shine, no matter the size of the part. Whether he was one of the leading characters, such as in Synedoche, New York, a major supporting character such as his L. Ron Hubbardesque character in The Master, or just in a few scenes, such as his turn as Lester Bangs in Almost Famous, he was memorable. Hell, he's about the only thing I remember about the mostly forgettable Along Came Polly**.  Quite frankly, his casting in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire is the only real reason I decided to watch that film. I'm glad that he finished most of his scenes for the next two, even if it sounds like one scene may have to be fudged considerably to work without him.

In honor of this wonderful actor, and the memories he's given us at Doctor Strangeblog, this week we'll be doing a special Philip Seymour Hoffman edition of the DVD Case Pantheon. I'll bend the rules for this week, having two challengers (Punch Drunk Love and The Master), as well as two posts about films already in the pantheon (Magnolia and Synedoche, New York). Along the way, there may be a few other surprises as well.

Unless you are a young child, or refuse to watch movies made after 1990, you've likely seen at least one of his films. If you have, I would recommend you seek out more. I still have a bunch to get to, despite enjoying him in many movies, several of which are either in my pantheon, or itching to get there. For example, I've yet to see Capote, the movie that won him an Oscar. Many of his films are available via streaming on Netflix, and most of the rest are available via disc.

*The closest I came was when I heard about Roger Ebert. Despite his illness and other health issues, it still seemed like such a shock.
**That and the introduction to me of the word "shart". Which was in large part due to the memorable performance of Hoffman, whose character in the film spoke the line containing the word.

Dispatches from the Popcorn Stadium: The Lego Movie

It finally happened. After 65 years of being in our homes, garages, various heating units, and expanding even into theme parks and video games, LEGO released a feature film. While many would be ready to dismiss this February release as one star-studded commercial, I decided to give it a chance and see how it fared trailing the coat-tails of the truly spectacular 2013 Oscar nominees.

My Favorite Movies of 2013 Final Six, Part Two (SPOILER FREE)

OK, we've made it through all but three of the films on the list. In case you've missed the other parts of the list, I've provided you with links to their posts.

Back half of The Final Six | Films 7-15 | Films 16-25

Like the previous three movies on the list (two ranked #3 and one ranked #2, but pretty much everything in the final six is close enough that ranks don't matter), each of these will get a longer post going into more detail (and including spoilers) at some point over the next few days. Now enough housecleaning, let's see those final three!

My Favorite Movies of 2013: Frozen (SPOILERS)

Right from the start of the movie I really enjoyed Frozen. With the unconventional start under the ice, as the saw begins cutting it into blocks for the townspeople, it had me hooked. Granted, the appearance of the northern lights a few minutes later helped as well. Through the sadness of "Do you Wanna Build a Snowman", the mixture of anticipation and dread in "For the First Time", the coronation, the bouncy fun of "Love is an Open Door", and the reveal of Queen Elsa's powers I was really enjoying the film. Had it just stayed at that level, I would have been pleased with the film.

However, what followed was the scene that would take the film from like to love. I'm talking about "Let It Go".