Foxcatcher (2014)

Title: Foxcatcher

Based On: Foxcatcher: The True Story of My Brother's Murder, John du Pont's Madness, and the Quest for Olympic Gold

Written By: Mark Schultz

Director: Bennett Miller

Starring: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, and Mark Ruffalo

Released: 2014

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)

Title: The Battle of the Five Armies

Series: The Hobbit

Director: Peter Jackson

Starring: Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, and Richard Armitage

Released: 2014

Best of 2014

My top 5 movies of 2014 plus Honorable Mentions.

Best of 2014: #1 The Normal Heart

I talk about The Normal Heart and why it's number 1 on my top 5 movies of 2014 list.

Best of 2014: #2 Guardians of the Galaxy

I talk about Guardians of the Galaxy and why it's number 2 on my top 5 movies of 2014 list.

Best of 2014: #3 Captain America The Winter Soldier

I talk about Captain America: The Winter Soldier and why it's number 3 on my top 5 movies of 2014 list.

Best of 2014: #4 Interstellar

I talk about Interstellar and why it's number 4 on my top 5 movies of 2014 list.

Best of 2014: Honorble Mentions

I give my honorable mentions for best movies of 2014.

Birdman (2014)

Title: Birdman

Sub-Title: The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu 

Starring: Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, and Edward Norton

Released: 2014

Interstellar (2014)

Title: Interstellar

Director: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain

Rated: PG-13

Released: 2014

Divergent at the 2014 Teen Choice Awards

I am a fan of the Divergent novels. My favorite being Insurgent and least favorite being Allegiant. Now I don't hate that book because of the ending as I wasn't bothered by a certain event at the end of the Animorphs series, a book series that Roth is also a fan of. I don't like the final novel in the trilogy due to how much weaker it feels compared to the other two novels in the trilogy.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Title: Guardians of the Galaxy

Series: Guardians of the Galaxy

Director: James Gunn

Starring: Chris Pratt, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper

Rated: PG-13

Released: 2014

Lucy (2014)

Title: Lucy

Director: Luc Besson

Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, and Min-sik Choi

Rated: R

Released: 2014

The Normal Heart (2014)

Title: The Normal Heart

Based on the Play By: Larry Kramer

Director: Ryan Murphy

Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Jonathan Groff, and Frank De Julio

Rated: TV Movie (HBO)

Released: 2014

Personal Rating: 6/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot: A gay activist attempts to raise HIV/AIDS awareness during the early 1980s.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Real Tearjerker
I am not usually one to come away crying from a movie. Crying multiple times during a movie is nearly unheard of for me. So the fact that this movie pulled all the right heart strings to make me do so is beyond amazing. And why wouldn't this movie move me? The subject matter isn't happy and so neither is this movie. It is a time of history that needs to be remembered even though it is painful to do so. I'm only 27, as of viewing the movie, so I didn't have personal experience with the time period. I'd probably have left the movie with even more tears than I did if I were older.

Nice Bit of Continuity
There is a shot near the beginning of the movie where people are dancing and the camera eventually ends up looking at Ned who is just watching. He seems like he wants to join but he just doesn't have it in him to. That's basically me at parties and why I don't go to them for the most part. So I connected with Ned in that shot. Near the very end of the movie, right before the credits, there is the same basic shot of people dancing and the camera eventually ending up at Ned. But the feelings of both shots are completely different. It is a wonderful and haunting bit of continuity.

Ned's Tactics
Ned is a character that sees a goal and fights for it. He can't help but fight. This does mean that he angers his allies just as much as his enemies. Though his fighting may seem very strong it is his copping mechanism. He is afraid of failing so much that he acts strong so that he'll believe it and not become weak. His anger, though, is applied to his opponents and people he believes are bullshitting him. Ned can be a very kind and caring person to those he likes.

Final Thoughts
There is so much that can't be covered in a short review like this. My written reviews, like this one, are meant to look at what I consider the most important parts, and sometimes the only ones I can really remember, and not analyzing every little detail of the movie. So there is a lot I couldn't cover here. Jim Parsons does a great job. I am used to him playing Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory and so couldn't help but think of that while watching. This film came on my radar because Mark Ruffalo is in it. He is a great choice to play Ned. Plus Ned can be so adorable at times like when he is having his first dinner date with Felix.

The Normal Heart and Not Giving a Sh*t

I talk about a scene from The Normal Heart and how it affects people today.

Godzilla (2014)

Title: Godzilla

Series: Godzilla

Director: Gareth Edwards

Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, and Bryan Cranston

Rated: PG-13

Released: 2014

Personal Rating: 3.5/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot: The world's most famous monster is pitted against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity's scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lack of Monster Fights
One big drawback of this film is the lack of monster fights shown. When I go to a movie like Godzilla I want some awesome monster on monster action. While the fights in the film were artistic, they were too artistic for the kind of film this is. I'm not saying don't focus on the characters, but when you promise a monster fight give the kindness to show it. The monster fight at the end was great but the other fights in the movie always had something lacking.

Bryan Cranston
For all the Breaking Bad fans that are going to see this movie because of Cranston, this is for you. Cranston does a great performance as Joe Brody and makes each of his scenes very enjoyable. However, Cranston is not in this movie for very long. You can basically blink and then he's out of the movie. I can see why Cranston would be heavily advertised in the movie. You've probably heard this from everyone else. But in case you're one of the few that this is the first time you're hearing this, I wrote about it here.

The Opening Credits
There was artistic style put into this movie and you can see it in the opening credits. They give the beginning of the movie a feeling that they were shot way back when. Seamus McGarvey, the cinematographer for the movie, used 1960s camera lenses and digitally tinted those shots to give them the look they have in the final product. I love when people working on movies spend a little time and effort to create things like this.

Final Thoughts
This is a good movie with the fight scenes being artistically done. The first time Godzilla appears he causes a tsunami which is beyond awesome. However, the lack of detailed monster fights makes me have to suggest you wait until this comes onto dvd/blu-ray. The human story is good and Cranston is used to good effect, which is why I didn't rate this movie lower.

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

Title: Days of Future Past

Series: X-Men

Director: Bryan Singer

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, and Hugh Jackman

Rated: PG-13

Released: 2014

Personal Rating: 5/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot: The X-Men send Wolverine to the past in a desperate effort to change history and prevent an event that results in doom for both humans and mutants.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quicksilver
Now Quicksilver is an Avenger and Magneto's son in the comics. However, because of legal issues that make using the character extremely complicated in the movies, in this movie and any sequels him being an Avenger can never be mentioned. When I was reading the imdb trivia page for this movie the whole legal issue was overwhelmingly stupid.That being said: Quicksilver, played by Evan Peters, was a very enjoyable part of this film.

Charles Xavier's Story
I consider Charles the main character of this movie. Everything revolves around him. He was going to be the one to go back in time but he couldn't handle the journey so Wolverine was sent instead. The only reason Magneto got involved was because Charles knew he couldn't convince Mystique to stop without him. Plus Charles went through the biggest character change in the movie while the others just wobbled and basically ended where they began.

Deleting X3
The events of this movie eventually erase X-Men: The Last Stand which will probably cause the majority of you to cheer in jubilation and become happier than you have been in years. Even though I liked X3, I don't mind since the movie explains it logically (at least as logically as a story with time travel can be) and it means certain dead characters can come back to the franchise.

Final Thoughts
This was a fun ride. It's actually one of the few times I was out and about on my own so it makes seeing it extra special (yeah, I'm one of those people that don't care if I see a movie alone). The story line was good and I thought that the time travel aspect held up. It was heart-breaking to see Young Charles early in the film as how pained he was made him do something awful. If you liked X-Men First Class, this is a good follow up to it. The post credits scene seems to be setting up for the sequel that involves Apocalypse. If you're wondering: Yes, I had to look that up as when I watched it I had no idea what I was looking at.

The Giver and Color

And today I found out that this is the first book in a series. Now I have more books on my to-read list.

UPDATE: The Giver will be shot in both color and black and white according to this article.

Now I know making a movie adaptation of a book is a hard thing to do. Hell, I would never want to be in charge of one. People would want it to be true to the book and others wouldn't mind the adaptation changing things. And people will hate you for the adaptation no matter what.

But one thing you can't change in a movie adaptation is the heart and soul of the book/source material. So making a story modern day (Elementary and Hannibal) is okay but if you change important parts of the source material (DOOM and Nickelodeon's Animorphs tv show) then not so good.

Movie adaptations sometimes feel as if they were written by people who had no clue about what made the books so enjoyable. So when I see a trailer I try to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and other times the trailer makes me so mad I just rage while thinking about it.

The Giver's trailer is in color. Now I haven't read the book since fifth or sixth grade so I don't remember what happens all that well and I'm using Wikipedia as a basic guide to what happened. But the thing I remember is that the book is in black and white. This is part of the symbolism of the book.

The Giver is a dystopian novel. I am a big fan of this sub-genre since it tends to show what people value at any given time. They are fears of a given time kept for all eternity in story form.

The Giver's big thing is sameness. That everything is the same to keep the peace and even color has been taken out of people's lives. This isn't the first time that pain being removed to keep the peace has been done in a Young Adult novel (and, yes, I'm focusing on Young Adult novels written before and during The Giver's release, at least when I read The Giver).

So the movie getting the color wrong makes me doubt if it can get anything right. The color in the trailer is so distracting for me that I can't remember what was shown in the trailer. If I ever do an insightful look at a The Giver trailer I will have to watch it a few more times to review it.

Divergent (2014)

Title: Divergent

Director: Neil Burger

Starring: Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Kate Winslet

Rated: PG-13

Released: 2014

Personal Rating: 4.5/6

Oscars: N/A

Plot: In a world divided by factions based on virtues, Tris learns she's Divergent and won't fit in. When she discovers a plot to destroy Divergents, Tris and the mysterious Four must find out what makes Divergents dangerous before it's too late.
-----------------------------------

From Book to Screen
I have read Divergent and so when I saw this movie I couldn't help but compare it to the book. One thing that bothered me was the fact that Peter is actually sort of likable in this movie. In the books there is no doubt that he isn't a good guy (and his arc in Allegiant will mean jack shit if they don't build him up to be a total asshole). I thought that the Tris/Four love story was done well. They at least got it out there though I think it was a little bigger in the book. Only problem with Four/Tobias was that I believe he was revealed to be Divergent earlier. I think double checking these facts is a good reason to re-read the trilogy!

Caleb
Okay, I won't say where his storyline goes for those who haven't read the book but...it's so heartbreaking seeing him on screen. I like how he is portrayed by being the brother who Tris admires. It's great seeing him be an outstanding member of the Abnegation faction and then seeing he wanted to be Erudite all along. The makers of the movie did a good job with this character.

Special Effects
They were good. There are different points in the movie where Tris goes into either her's or Four's fearscape. The fearscape is somewhere you enter by way of a serum and its purpose is for you to face your fears. It's used by Dauntless for their initiation. Besides the fearscape, the testing that Tris goes through in the beginning of the movie another serum is used. I especially liked the testing, though it didn't go down as in the book, since the effects used really contributed to the atmosphere the scene needed.

Final Thoughts
This movie was very enjoyable. The movie does a decent job at explaining the book's material to a theater audience. So if you know nothing about Divergent, when you leave the theater you should understand the world people like me have fallen in love with. If you see the movie and want to read the books I would say that's not a bad call as it will expand your understanding of the world of Divergent. I am probably one of the few hoping that a certain event in Allegiant isn't changed for the movie version. Here's hoping!