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WAMG’s Favorite Films of 2014… So Far
Between January and August of 2014, local cinemas worldwide entertained moviegoers with themes of sci-fi, documentaries, animation, fairy tales, horror and thrillers.
Glowing up on the big screen were images of clicking colorful bricks, racing trains, mysterious creatures, superheroes – both shielded and guarded, coming-of-age tales and a fond farewell to the best Movie Geek ever.
Small and original storylines or epic stories with big stars, it’s been a good time at the movies this year and a lot for ticket buyers to choose from.
With so many to great films in the first half of 2014, including SNOWPIERCER, UNDER THE SKIN, ENEMY, LONE SURVIVOR, EDGE OF TOMORROW, and NOAH, whittling it down to a list of our “10 Favorite Movies of 2014… So Far” was a challenge.
Check out our lineup and let us know in our comments section below what your favorite movies have been this year. Some of these films are in theaters or you catch them at home on Netflix, OnDemand or a Premium Channel.
HONORABLE MENTION: THE LEGO MOVIE
Synopsis: The original 3D computer animated story follows Emmet, an ordinary, rules-following, perfectly average LEGO minifigure who is mistakenly identified as the most extraordinary person and the key to saving the world. He is drafted into a fellowship of strangers on an epic quest to stop an evil tyrant, a journey for which Emmet is hopelessly and hilariously underprepared.
WAMG review HERE
THE LEGO MOVIE is wildly creative and often hilarious.
Opening Weekend: $69 million
10. THE RAID 2
Synopsis: He thought it was over. After fighting his way out of a building filled with gangsters and madmen – a fight that left the bodies of police and gangsters alike piled in the halls – rookie Jakarta cop Rama thought it was done and he could resume a normal life. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Formidable though they may have been, Rama’s opponents in that fateful building were nothing more than small fish swimming in a pond much larger than he ever dreamed possible. And his triumph over the small fry has attracted the attention of the predators farther up the food chain. His family at risk, Rama has only one choice to protect his infant son and wife: He must go undercover to enter the criminal underworld himself and climb through the hierarchy of competing forces until it leads him to the corrupt politicians and police pulling the strings at the top of the heap. And so Rama begins a new odyssey of violence, a journey that will force him to set aside his own life and history and take on a new identity as the violent offender “Yuda.” In prison he must gain the confidence of Uco – the son of a prominent gang kingpin – to join the gang himself, laying his own life on the line in a desperate all-or-nothing gambit to bring the whole rotten enterprise to an end.
WAMG review HERE
THE RAID 2 is compelling drama punctuated by fist-pumping action, and stomach-churning violence that barely gives the audience a moment to catch their breath
9. PALO ALTO
Synopsis: Shy, sensitive April (Emma Roberts) is the class virgin —a popular soccer player and frequent babysitter for her single-dad coach, Mr. B. (James Franco). Teddy (Jack Kilmer) is an introspective artist whose best friend and sidekick Fred (Nat Wolff) is an unpredictable live wire with few filters or boundaries. While April negotiates a dangerous affair with Mr. B., and Teddy performs community service for a DUI — secretly carrying a torch for April, who may or may not share his affection — Fred seduces Emily (Zoe Levin), a promiscuous loner who seeks validation through sexual encounters. One high school party bleeds into another as April and Teddy finally acknowledge their mutual affection, and Fred’s escalating recklessness spirals into chaos.
WAMG review HERE
PALO ALTO methodically paints a portrait of a generation that’s simultaneously looking for the truth and yet trying to drink enough to forget it.
8. MALEFICENT
Synopsis: MALEFICENT explores the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the classic “Sleeping Beauty” and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turn her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king’s newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever.
WAMG review HERE
Angelina Jolie is incredible.
Opening Weekend: $69 million
7. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Synopsis: A growing nation of genetically evolved apes, led by Caesar, are threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.
WAMG review HERE
DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES leaves a lasting impression based on the impressive special effects, rich visual landscapes, and moving character interactions.
Opening Weekend: $72 million
6. CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER
Synopsis: After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” finds Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with Natasha Romanoff aka Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy while fighting off assailants sent to silence him at every turn. When the full scope of the villainous plot is revealed, Captain America and the Black Widow enlist the help of a new ally, the Falcon. However, they soon find themselves up against an unexpected and formidable enemy—the Winter Soldier.
WAMG review HERE
This crackling action-adventure tale may be the brightest gleaming jewel in Marvel’s dazzling movie crown.
Opening Weekend: $95 million
5. TRUST ME
Synopsis: TRUST ME tells the sharp, comic story of Howard Holloway ( Clark Gregg), a down-on-his luck agent for child actors and truly one the last good guys left in Hollywood. After discovering a 13-year-old acting prodigy (Sharbino), he is poised to close the deal of a lifetime which would catapult his tween client and, at long last, himself, into the big time. With the support of his gorgeous new neighbor (Amanda Peet), he must wrangle the actress’ volatile, overprotective father, dodge a scheming producer (Felicity Huffman), and outwit his uber-slick nemesis (Sam Rockwell). As he arrives on the brink of the Hollywood dream that’s eluded him for a lifetime, he begins to sense that his innocent young starlet may not be quite what she seems. This is the second feature film written and directed by Gregg, who made his directing debut with Choke, an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel that starred Sam Rockwell.
WAMG review HERE
Clark Gregg bucks his beloved SHIELD Agent typecasting by writing, directing and starring in this smart, sincere, darkly comic tale of Hollywood extremes that proves he has much more to offer than playing a guy in a suit with a gun.
4. GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Synopsis: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.
WAMG review HERE
Thanks in part to his terrific script but mostly to a magnificent central character played by Ralph Fiennes, Wes Anderson pulls out his best film yet.
3. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
Synopsis: From Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers, comes a new team—the Guardians of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure, Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy” expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand – with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.
WAMG review HERE
It’s original, smart, it doesn’t talk down to audiences, and it’s above all, an emotional film about outsiders finally finding a place to fit in.
Opening Weekend: $94 million
2. LIFE ITSELF
Synopsis: Acclaimed director Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and executive producers Martin Scorsese (The Departed) and Steven Zaillian (Moneyball) present LIFE ITSELF, a documentary film that recounts the inspiring and entertaining life of world-renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert – a story that is by turns personal, funny, painful, and transcendent. Based on his bestselling memoir of the same name, LIFE ITSELF, explores the legacy of Roger Ebert’s life, from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism at the Chicago Sun-Times to becoming one of the most influential cultural voices in America.
WAMG review HERE
LIFE ITSELF is a heart-wrenching love story, a witty tale of news hounds, a glitzy jaunt through “Tinsel Town”, mixed together with great warmth, skill, and affection.
1. BOYHOOD
Synopsis: Filmed over 12 years with the same cast, Richard Linklater’s BOYHOOD is a groundbreaking story of growing up as seen through the eyes of a child named Mason (a breakthrough performance by Ellar Coltrane), who literally grows up on screen before our eyes. Starring Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette as Mason’s parents and newcomer Lorelei Linklater as his sister Samantha, BOYHOOD charts the rocky terrain of childhood like no other film has before. Snapshots of adolescence from road trips and family dinners to birthdays and graduations and all the moments in between become transcendent, set to a soundtrack spanning the years from Coldplay’s Yellow to Arcade Fire’s Deep Blue. BOYHOOD is both a nostalgic time capsule of the recent past and an ode to growing up and parenting. It’s impossible to watch Mason and his family without thinking about our own journey.
WAMG review HERE
Richard Linklater has transcended the “coming-of-age drama” and has in fact achieved a cinematic marvel.
As to what’s coming up in the remaining months of 2014, MY OLD LADY starring Maggie Smith and Kevin Kline, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s BIRDMAN (Oct. 17), Graham Annable’s and Anthony Stacchi’s THE BOXTROLLS (Sept. 26), Christopher Nolan’s INTERSTELLAR (Nov. 7), Tim Burton’s BIG EYES (Dec. 25), David Ayer’s FURY (Nov. 14), Bennett Miller’s FOXCATCHER (Nov. 14) and David Fincher’s GONE GIRL (Oct. 3) are just a few of the films we can’t wait to see. How about you?
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