Top 10 Best of 2014 (From what I saw)

Last January I did my first every top ten list. I had set a new record for number of reviews on this blog, a record I've passed multiple times since, and wanted to do a Top Ten for all the movies that I had watched over that month.

Well that was a trend, like many of my trends on this blog, that never caught on and I haven't done a top ten since... until now. 

I wanted to up the ante a little bit and instead wanted to do a Top 10 List of the Best Movies I watched in 2014. Originally when I was scoping out this list, I didn't even think that I had watched over 10 movies in theaters... and while that may or may not be true, I did however see much more than I expected and I wanted to let you know what my favorite stuff was that happened in 2014. 

I'm not saying these are the best movies to come out of 2014. Out of the 8 or so movies that are up for Best Picture, I have seen two of them... which is better than where I was when award season came out last year but my point is, there's a 75% chance that I haven't seen the movie that is going to win Best Picture. (See that? Math!) This is just a fun list on my opinion on the best movies I saw in 2014. It was a good year for film and I want to point out what I had the most fun watching and reviewing this year. 

10. The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel in no way blew me away the first time I saw it. I was actually kind of surprised that it got nominated for an Oscar. 

If you remember from my review, I didn't actually plan on seeing this movie. I went with my friend mainly because there wasn't much else showing at the time. We went in, we enjoyed it, we left, and the movie was just kind of Ehh for me. 

The movie is mainly interesting by its visuals and the way it is shot. Its a Wes Anderson film and if you're not a huge fan of Wes Anderson, this movie isn't going to make a huge impact on you. However, the cast and the style is pretty fun to make the movie enjoyable. Its still a matter that I need to re-watch the movie, but I definitely think that more times I see this movie, the chances are I'm going to enjoy it more. It makes the rear end of the list because it mainly beat out the other films and left at least a little bit of an impression on me. 

I said at the end of my review that I'm not going to rave about this movie and I'm still not doing that. Its a fun film, good performances all around and an interesting story. But in the end its in the 10th spot for a reason. 

9. A Million Ways to Die in the West

Frankly, this movie probably shouldn't be on this list. A Million Ways to Die in the West really tanked at the box office and its been on a lot of people's worst films of the year list that I've seen about 2014. Watching it a couple more times, I totally understand the criticisms of this movie... its not as good as Ted and its not exactly a great comedy. 

That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy the hell out of it. 

This movie probably only gets on this list due to it being a personal guilty pleasure. I find Seth MacFarlane a lot funnier than he probably actually is. So much that despite all the horrible reviews, despite all the shit that was talked about this movie, I went out of my way to download this film and add it to my collection. 

I still laugh at most of the jokes and I enjoy that this was mostly just a pet project for MacFarlane. He wanted to do a Blazing Saddles Western comedy and because Ted was successful, he got to do what he wanted. What he wanted may not have been good in the eyes of the public, but I kind of admire that. 

I am with the rest of the world and kind of hope that this movie help MacFarlane realize that he's probably not a strong enough actor to carry an entire movie as the protagonist, but as a guilty pleasure comedy, I'm glad I have this one at my disposal so I can turn it on whenever I need a laugh. Others may not like it, but I find it entertaining and I really enjoy it. I think the fact that I realize that its a bad movie is the reason its on my number 9 spot and I can imagine some people might have put The Grand Budapest Hotel above A Million Ways to Die in the West, but this is a list of which of these movies I liked more and enjoyed more, and honestly, I enjoyed this movie more than The Grand Budapest Hotel.

8. The Interview

I'm realizing that as many great movies that came out of 2014, the first few at the bottom (or is it top) of this lists, are movies that weren't necessarily the best movies in the year, but had an effect on me, or were important enough to keep them in mind and important enough to put on this list. 

The Interview is a funny movie. It will no go down as one of the funniest movies of all time, but it will go down in history. 

There's a good chance that a decade or two down the road, when college students are talking about the United States relations with Asia and North Korea, this movie will come up in conversation. It won't be a huge unit, it won't take up a lot of time in classrooms, but I wouldn't be surprised if the conversation about this movie being pulled from theaters on threat of North Korean terrorist attacks, continues down the road. 

Its not a huge moment in history but its one of those tid bits they put in text books. "The Interview was an example of the stress between the United States and North Korea." pp. 89 in your text books. 

The movie in all reality is just a run of the mill comedy from Rogen and Franco. I could almost see this as a sequel to Pineapple Express. The reason this is on the list is because of the build up to seeing this movie and all the chaos that it ensued. 

Technically this shouldn't be on the list because I saw this in January and this should be a top ten list of 2014 movies I saw in 2014. But I'm going to let this one and any other movie I saw in Januaray slide. 

7. Guardians of the Galaxy

In the recent months or so, I've been kind of looking back at Guardians of the Galaxy and perhaps realizing that its maybe not the mind blowing incredibly good movie that I think everybody thought it was when they first saw it. I think this movie was a little bit sensationalized because of the fact that nobody expected this movie to be as popular as it was and therefore were so surprised that they're willing to overlook some of the flaws of the movie. 

That being said, I still know that Guardians of the Galaxy has to go on this list, mainly because it was such a good time and it was such a surprise when I first saw it. It is a really fun movie and its probably one of the best movies that Marvel has put out onto its cinematic universe, and thats really cool, especially since it isn't your mainstream heroes, its something incredibly different. But upon watching a couple times after the first viewing I just wasn't as crazy about it a second time around. I enjoyed myself, but again, it didn't blow me away and that's why it fell down a couple notches on this Top Ten list for me. I still think its leagues and miles better than The Amazing Spider-man 2... so... that's good. 

The other really great thing about this movie is that it now has gotten me really excited about seeing Chris Pratt in a lot of things. I'm watching more and more of his stuff recently and I see that the guy is actually really talented and has the potential to do some really great things in the future. He's played Starlord, he's going to be a sort of adventuring guy in Jurassic World, and there are even rumors of him taking over as Indiana Jones in the next movie Disney is putting out. Put aside that I'm not wild about them rebooting that franchise, I think if anybody were to play it today, I think I'd go with Chris Pratt. 

That might chance with what I see of his performance in Jurassic World, but right now I am kind of excited by it. And to think, all of this started off with what I know now is a lovable performance of Andy Dwyer in Parks and Recreation (review maybe to follow)?

6. 22 Jump Street

I freaking love this film. It doesn't happen very often that a sequel gives me the same, if not more laughs than the original. I was so happy when I was able to get a copy of this movie 

This movie made me laugh, so hard in the theaters. Usually comedies make me laugh if they're good, this one had me not able to breath it was so freaking funny. I love the dynamic between Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. 

Like I said in my review of 22 Jump Street, the main problem I had with this movie is not so much that it is essentially the same movie as 21 Jump Street, its just how much they harp on the fact that it is the same movie as 21 Jump Street. A second time around that bothered me still. But I'll say again, if the only problem I have with the movie is that its aware of itself, I'm willing to look the other way on this one. This movie is incredibly good and the only reason it wasn't higher was because eventually I kind of forgot it came out this year. I don't know if that's because people forgot about it, or if it was surpassed by other comedies, or if it was so good that I thought it came out last year, but I'm not too worried about it. Its a good film. Not my favorite of the year, but still pretty damn good. 

5. Big Hero 6

Big Hero 6 kind of took me by surprise. It was a film that I wanted to see, but didn't want to see it enough to go out and see it myself. So I eventually saw it with my cousins son when I was babysitting. The result was me trying to hide the tears that were streaming down my fave because this movie is sad, funny, and just incredibly heart warming. 

I saw a video a few months back talking about the best comic book superhero films of 2014. The main contenders in that category were Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-men: Days of Future Past, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Amazing Spider-man 2. But some of the people commenting on the video wanted to include Big Hero 6 in that list. In many ways I want to do the same thing because this movie is so much fun in many ways. And there's a reason this film is higher on my list than Guardians of the Galaxy, because its higher on my list of my favorite superhero films of 2014. 

Big Hero 6 is just a darn good time and I can't wait for my next viewing of it. 

Frankly it was between this movie and The Lego Movie for my favorite animation of the year and I just have to go with this film. I really like The Lego Movie, especially upon the second time watching it, but I think this movie just hits a level of heart warming in more places instead of The Lego Movie that had a really good scene near the end that made my nostalgia go wild but other than that the movie didn't blow me away the way Big Hero 6 did. 

4. X-men: Days of Future Past

Speaking of one of the best superhero films of the year, X-men: Days of Future Past took what was

started in X-men: First Class, what was already happening in the original X-men and had world collide with X-men: Days of Future Past and it collided big time. The film was such a leap in a different direction than what I think anybody ever thought the X-men Universe was headed and now it sets the Universe on course for... I don't know quite yet, but its going to be amazing.

In essence, X-men Days of Future Past was the reset button for the franchise and enabled the franchise to keep the integrity of what we enjoyed from the original X-men franchise, toss out the stuff we didn't like about the X-men franchise, and put a new coat of paint on it for the new X-men franchise.

Honestly, I'm not sure exactly where the franchise is going to go. X-Men Apocalypse is going to be huge, then there's going to be a Deadpool movie with Ryan Reynolds and a Gambit movie with Channing Tatum. I'm not totally sure how exactly the franchise is going to continue, but its a good sign when you look at the people "rioting" online, demanding Sony give the rights of Spider-man back to Marvel, and nobody is saying the X-men should return to Marvel.

I think that mainly was caused by how great this movie was and how it, for the most part, showed that the X-men franchise had a direction and a plan for the future. I wasn't totally convinced the franchise was safe from Marvel, even after seeing The Wolverine, but now I have no doubt that we will continue to get films from Fox for a couple more years now, especially with plans to reboot The Interstellar Four, sorry, Fantastic Four, and more plans, I'm looking forward to what is coming out of Fox. Its fun when two studios can do it right and produce quality films. This way there is more of a variety and more films coming out each year. I'm excited for future X-men movies, and its because of this film.

3. Edge of Tomorrow

I'm figuring out that 2014 is the year of movies that really surprised me. Again, Edge of Tomorrow was a film I didn't intend to see. I definitely didn't intend for it to be number three on my list of the Top Ten films of 2014. 

Tom Cruise was always a wild card for me, but I think this movie kind of made me realize that I really like the guy as an action star. I just recently watched Jack Reacher again, and that movie is even more fun the second time around, and same with this film. Its because of that and this film that I want to see Tom Cruise in more and more stuff. 

This movie plus Into the Woods, also introduced me to Emily Blunt who is becoming one of my favorite actress of today, I want to see her in more things and its mainly because of this film. 

The film has such a unique and creative turn on what we all thought was done really well in Groundhogs Day and I think Edge of Tomorrow was really the film that was under appreciated this year. 

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2014 was not a year in movies I was looking forward to that much. Sure I wanted to see X-men: Days of Future Past, but I wasn't clamoring to see it when it came out. I wanted to see where they were going with Guardians of the Galaxy, but I wasn't incredibly excited for the film. I actually was more excited about The Amazing Spider-man 2 than I was about the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger. 

With all the hype about 2015, with Age of Ultron coming out, and Batman Vs. Superman (before it got moved to 2016), I thought that 2015 was the year I needed to wait for and 2014 was just the filler...

And then Captain America the Winter soldier came out. 

This movie was the movie that got me excited about the comic book movies coming out in 2014. This

movie took the most bland and vanilla Avenger and made him my favorite. This movie made me incredibly conscience of something called a cinematic universe, and this movie was the film that got me excited about Marvel movies again.

In short, I love this film.

There was a lot of talk about whether it was this movie or X-men: Days of Future Past that took the place for top comic book superhero film this year, but for me it was really no contest. This movie was something new, something refreshing and really started this curve of superhero films not just being building blocks for some culminating event like The Avengers, this, I think, was the first really good Marvel movie. Thor: The Dark World was good and better than its origin story, but Captain America just took the franchise to a whole new level and I think really put the most credit towards the idea that any Marvel movie that comes out is going to be successful regardless of whether its good or not. People are going to see Ant-man for the sole reason of "Its Marvel" and I think its because of this film. All the other films built up the Avengers, this movie built up Marvel's reputation. This movie proved that Marvel is not just trying to make Franchise films, they're trying to make quality films. There's an argument that Iron Man 3 was trying to do that before The Winter Soldier, but I think The Winter Soldier is a better film so I'm giving the title to this film.

So in case you were not following, Captain America is definitely my favorite Superhero film to come out of 2014. Followed by X-men Days of Future Past, Followed by Big Hero 6... if its counted, then Guardians, then the Amazing Spider-man 2. That was a surprise for me.

1. American Sniper

Now this is subject to change for a couple reasons. I do not think this is the best film to come out of 2014. That might be strange to say since its at the top of my list. However, I do not think that this is my favorite movie of 2014. Furthermore, I probably saw this movie most recently out of all the movies on this list so the effect it had on me which is a lot of the basis for this list, is based off the most recent experience I had. It could possibly be because it is fresh in my memory that this is on the top. Maybe its because its one of the only Best Picture options on this list. I don't know, the point is. I really liked this movie, it was a wicked ride, I'm putting it on the top of my list for now. Deal with it.

The fact of the matter is, I came out of American Sniper not feeling like I was coming out of a movie as much as I felt I was coming out of a memorial.

The film made me aware of a story about a real American hero and call all the patriotic bullshit you want, this film was difficult to watch.

Its probably the personal connection being a member of the Army and watching this film, but here's why this is so high on my list. I had a class the other day where they surprised us and said we're all going to American Sniper. I got a little nervous because I remembered the experience that I had had in the theater and I wasn't sure if I was ready to go through it again. That's how crazy this movie is.

Now again, I do not think this is the best movie of 2014 and I would not be surprised if it didn't win Best Picture, in fact I'm pretty sure its not going to win Best Picture. There are problems with the movie. But walking out of it, it took me a while to recollect those problems because of the quality of the film.

Furthermore, this film was part of a process that opened me up to Bradley Cooper as a dramatic actor. I had seen him in American Hustle but after seeing him in this and Silver Linings Playbook, I am now convinced that Bradley Cooper is one of my favorite actors of today. So that's something thats good.

This list is subject to change... or not. But that's my Top Ten of 2014 at this very moment. I have no doubt that I'll probably watch more movies from 2014 that I missed but I need your help to point out the big ones I missed and I'll do reviews on them.

So give it to me straight, what were some movies I missed, what was your favorite movies of 2014 and are you excited for 2015? Comment and Discuss Below! Also shoot a tweet at me @cmhaugen24 and Follow me to get updates on new blog posts and more random stuff that goes on in my life.

I'll leave you with this. New trailer for Ted 2 coming out this summer. I might do a post on it but for now I'll just leave you with the trailer and say, I'm excited for this movie! Enjoy!