BradWesley123 @ the Movies: 2014

A good, not great movie. It shows the 1% for what they really are, and the ramifications of excess and greed. DiCaprio and Hill give the performances of their careers. The main problem is the runtime. At about three hours long, the film is quite repetitive, circling plot points and ideas over and over again. But the positives of this film outweigh the negative, and it does a lot right. (The Lemons scene is possibly the best of 2013)
B+

A solid family flick that is fun and entertaining. The writing is pretty good, but at times is a bit too cloying. The direction is as good as it needs to be. The cast is quite good, with Emma Thompson convincing as the Prickly P.L. Travers and Tom Hanks having fun with Walt Disney. Colin Farrell also does some wonderful supporting work that nearly steals the film.
B+

Much better than I had anticipated going in. It's a thrilling, brutal war movie that puts you right into the action. The cast is solid, and the script is decent, but it's the action that puts you into the story. Not the type of "bad-ass" action, but the kind that gets you emotionally invested in the characters. One of the best films of 2013
A-

It doesn't cover any unexpected beats, but with acting this damn good, plot really doesn't matter. Streep is always great, and Julia Roberts gives maybe her best work ever.
B+

It's okay. It takes too long with the backstory (which is really a boring one), and we aren't given too much reason to care. Once it finally gets going though, it's not bad. The cast is decent, but not great. Costner comes off as the most interesting. Branagh's okay, but his villain adds nothing that we haven't already seen. My biggest problem is the action, which rarely happens. There's no big set piece, something that makes a great action movie.
B-

A wonderfully entertaining animated film. Watching it, you can tell how much the filmmakers clearly care about the source, and it rubs off.
B+

The cast is solid, and there are a few solid moments, but this is a movie where you just imagine what could've been. The premise is great, but the script at times is laughably bad, and it never establishes the right tone.
C-

Decent action remake that could've been a lot worse. The action and visual effects are quite good, and the amount of quality actors here surprising, but it never really goes anywhere, and it gets a bit boring toward the end.
Not very memorable.
C+

A surprisingly entertaining actioner featuring one of Kevin Costner's better performances in years.
B

A solidly thrilling action/mystery flick. Things do go a bit haywire towards the end, but Neeson keeps it from going too out of control.
B

Too cluttered and meandering to reach the beefcake high of the original, but thanks to several thrilling fight sequences, great visual effects, and a crazy performance from Eva Green make this a solid action movie.
B-

Some vibrant animation and solid voice work make this an entertaining, albeit unoriginal, early year animated flick.
B

A wonderfully fun family film that's too entertaining to really criticize. It's got a lot of cameos, some work better than others, and the original songs will likely put it back in the Oscar race.
B+

Likely to be one of the most divisive films of 2014, I found Noah to be an immersive, stunning, big budget biblical film. Director Darren Aronofsky clearly hasn't lost his indie roots, making this much more of a character study than anticipated. Noah is portrayed as devout, but conflicted man who will do anything that is commanded of him by God. The cast is great, but Crowe commands the screen, giving his best performance in over a decade. Try to take religion out of it, and I think you'll be amazed.
B+

The direction is thrilling, the script is solid, and the cast is top-notch. The only shame here is that it wasn't released during the summer, it would've killed even more than it has.
A-

I don't know where it will rank in his filmography, but for now The Grand Budapest Hotel is a heartfelt winner, and Wes Anderson't funniest film in over a decade.
A-

It's dull, and at some points boring, but it's too visually impressive and boasting of several fascinating concepts to call a complete failure.
B-

Even for a year that's been pretty weak so far, this is easily the worst I've seen so far. The only reason that I'm not giving it an F is Leslie Mann's performance, which accomplishes the mighty feat of making this watchable (barely).
D

Better than it's predecessor, but doesn't reach the other Spider-Man sequel. The cast is solid, and the visual effects are surprisingly good. The real problem here is the script, which clutters the film with too many characters, but never gives them much to do. The central love story between Garfield and Stone is still the main highlight.
B-

There were a lot of laugh your ass off scenes, and it's very funny. There were moments however, where I realized it had been a while since I laughed.
B

The visuals (effects and cinematography) are wonderful, and the director understands that audiences want to cheer for Godzilla, not against him. But the script is pretty all over the place, the human characters are fairly boring (especially Aaron Taylor-Johnson's lead), and as much as I love great build-up, Godzilla is not onscreen nearly enough.
B

It's everything that you could want from an X-Men movie, an action movie, a time-travel movie, a comic book movie, and (especially) a Summer movie. It's the best time I've had at the movies this year.
A

The visual design here is quite good, but everything else just felt off. Jolie does what she can, but the title character is really one-dimensional. The rest of the characters are even more thinly written. The script, like most of the recent batch of Live Action Disney fairy tales, it the weakest part, littered with clichés and poor pacing. It's greatest sin though, is that it's just so damn forgettable.
C-

One of the best Sci-Fi/Action movies to come out in a while, and Cruise's best film since M:I4. The visual effects are really good, and Dion Beebe's cinematography is incredibly strong. Cruise does some of his best work in recent memory, and Emily Blunt is equally strong. My only real problem was the ending.
B+

I'm a huge fan of the original, and while I don't think it was quite as good, I'm just delighted to get a comedy sequel were I can actually say that they're pretty close.
A-

As good, if not better, than the original. The animation is gorgeous, and the plot has a lot of wit, charm, and heart. Screw Godzilla, Toothless is the baddest dragon of the summer.
A-

I was actually surprised by how good I found this to be. The story isn't clingy, like so many Y/A adaptations, letting the characters and situations grow more naturally. Woodley proves again that she'll be a force to be reckoned with for the foreseeable future. One of the summer's first genuine surprises.
A-

Yeah, the visual effects are top notch, and at times the action is pretty mind blowing, but the script is just all-time bad, and the movie is just so unambitious (even for a Transformers movie). Even Bay seems to just be going through the motions.
C-

There are a few good bits, but watching it, the word waste comes to mind. Waste of talent, potential, and (damningly) time.
D

One of those movies where it's just so infectiously enjoyable, that you're willing to overlook the negatives. The cast is good, the plot isn't totally predictable, and the songs are extremely catchy.
B+

Possibly the best movie of the year. Excellent in every category; acting, writing, directing, etc.
A

Surprisingly ambitious but not quite taut enough to follow through, Lucy is a largely enjoyable film featuring a solid turn from Scarlett Johansson, and some descent action.
B-

There's a lot you could say about Guardians, but the most apparent is that's just flat out fun. Granted, Marvel still has a villain problem, with Lee Pace's Ronan never really taking off, but the main characters are so good that it doesn't weigh the film down. The cast is top notch, with Cooper's voice work as Rocket stealing every scene he's in. It's the best movie of Marvel's Phase 2 (which is high praise considering how good The Winter Soldier was) and it's got the biggest heart of any MCU movie to date. Also, the soundtrack is probably the best for any big budget blockbuster ever.
A-

I enjoyed this one more than I expected to, it's a lot of fun. The narrative jumps around a bit too much at times, but not enough to ruin it. The supporting cast is great, especially Nelsan Ellis as Brown's longtime partner, but the movie belongs to Boseman, who gives the best performance of the year, so far.
A-

Overly long and disjointed, the movie takes a while to actually kick into gear but, having no expectations whatsoever going in, I was reasonably amused. The action is solid, a couple jokes land, and Mel Gibson is easily the franchise's best villain (I honestly wish he had gotten more screen time). It's not a good film by any means, but it's entertaining.
C+

An incredibly slow and somewhat dull film. It does, however, finally kick into gear in the last half hour, and genuinely makes you wish it had been that engaging throughout. The cast is predictably strong.
B-

A disappointing rehash that adds nothing new to the pre-existing formula. There are four stories in this one, as apposed to three in the last one. The first featuring Marv goes nowhere. As does the next one with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The final story focusing on Nancy's revenge just feels way too rushed. The title chapter, "A Dame to Kill" is the only one to recommend, even if it's way too loose. Had the whole movie focused on the "Dame", than it probably would have been worth recommending. The cast is fine, with Eva Green predictably stealing the movie as the title "Dame", but the visuals weirdly (even after nine years of technological advances) looks cheaper than before. Ultimately, it's just too boring too often.
C-

More of an experience than a film, Richard Linklater's 12 gamble pays off huge. The cast and the direction are great, but the real star of the film is the editing by Sandra Adair that keeps an incredibly consistent tone throughout. There a few problems though, Mason's mother's parade of dickhead husbands gets a tad grating, and slows the story down, but even with it, the film is never anything less than compelling.
A-

There's some decent action, and when it actually focuses on the title characters it's pretty amusing, but the movie is just really unoriginal. It spends way too much time on Megan Fox's April O'Neill, and it's pretty dull at times (something that should never be said about a movie featuring talking turtles).
C

Doesn't re-invent the wheel, but it's a solid, tense noir-thriller. Neeson gives one of his best post-Taken performances.
B

A better than expected actioner with a couple great performances by Washington and Marton Csokas, playing one of the year's finest villains.
B

A few funny bits and two charismatic leads can't fully salvage a movie that has been made numerous times before, each with more coherence than this.
C

A delightfully cynical thrill ride, with Fincher reveling in the murky landscape. The cast is strong too, with Affleck giving arguably his finest performance, and Pike inhabiting Amazing Amy to frightening effect.
A-

The plot should've been a lot tighter, and in incredibly overly-familiar in most spaces, but when the film strips all of the schmaltz and lets Downey and Duvall go at it, it really excels.
B-

There's a lot of things that I liked here, and some I even loved. Unfortunately, Ayer's poor scripting and weak character development hurt this. It does succeed at what it set out to do though, showing the brutality and inhumanity of war unflinchingly. It doesn't offer much else though. Lerman does some good work, but he feels almost too overpowered at times; Pitt's a strong anchor on any film, and is so here too. LaBeouf steals the film though. He doesn't get much dialogue, but in every scene, you can see so much boiling under the surface. Bernnthal and Pena are talented actors, but they're given virtually nothing here, and can't do much with what they get. The dialogue is fairly clichéd at times. The pacing is pretty wonky too, with battle scenes (however well crafted) seemingly going on forever. It's a good film, but it had the potential to be a great one.

Other highlights: Roman Vasyanov's cinematography, and the middle section that slows the pace down, allowing for character work (though even that's too little).
B-

It's hard to review a movie like this: it isn't a movie that's made for critics. What it is though is a strong action flick. Don't go in demanding too much, and you'll be rewarded. The action is very well down, and the film looks good. There's some strong world building, with a wide variety of colorful characters popping up. Reeves makes a Liam Neeson-esque action comeback, committing believably to the role. It's just an all around fun ride at the movies.
B+

Good, but a bit disappointing. Too predictable at times, and leaned to heavy on your average media satire clichés. The cast is strong though, with Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed doing some nice supporting work; but the movie belongs to Gyllenhaal, who creates one of the most original and creepiest movie villains in years.
B

Its not perfect, but it's pretty damn amazing. There are numerous flaws; the writing is somewhat underwhelming, and the ending left me somewhat cold (not the bonkers future humans/fifth dimension/ghosts ending, but the last meeting between Coop and Murphy. The heart of the movie is their love, but it gets brushed over too quickly so he can go find Brand). The movie is so ambitious and, for the most part, awe-inspiring though, that those flaws don't ruin the film.
A-

One of the strangest movies that I've seen in a while. Hilarious and heartbreaking, sometimes in the same scene, its an amazing achievement by Alejandro González Iñárritu and his collaborators. The cast is phenomenal, each one giving something more to their role. Extra kudos go to Norton, who makes a character that could've easily been a caricature something humane, and Keaton, who gives one of the most astonishing comeback performances ever (and likely an Oscar winning at that). Best movie I've seen thus far this year.
A

It's still better than most blockbusters, but never shakes the feeling of being a placeholder.
B