Category: Movies

With so many geeky movies coming out in 2014, I couldn’t pick just five, but this is my site, so you get ten.  Sue me!  Here are my choices in reverse order!

10: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Marvel has done an amazing job making characters I never liked before seem great.  The new trailer for Captain America sold me with its almost spy movie feel.  The only reason this movie dropped to number ten is that I am ready for some new Marvel characters to take the forefront.

9: Jupiter Ascending

 

The Wachowskis don’t always make good movies, but they always make interesting movies.  Everything they make is at least worth a watch, so a Sci-Fi movie from them is an exciting proposition.

8: The Lego Movie

We are finally getting a Justice League movie!  It is being made by the people from Lego, but still, it will probably be better than whatever Warner Brothers is going to make.  I rolled my eyes when I first heard about this movie, but the trailers have sold me.

7: Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

The first Sin City movie showed what we can do with modern CGI by almost literally ripping the pages out of the comic book and putting them on the screen.  I am a little worried since this movie has been in production forever, but the last one was great, so here is hoping.

6: Muppets Most Wanted

It’s the Muppets, so I will see it.  That is all.

5: Guardians of the Galaxy

Cult movie maker James Gunn is making a movie out of one of the strangest Marvel franchises out there? Yes he is, and it is a fantastic choice.  The Marvel movies have been starting to get a little to serious, so this should fix that.  I hope Guardians of the Galaxy is crazy silly.

4: The Hobbit: There and Back Again

It has been good so far, so I will have to see how it ends.  I am hoping this third movie ties everything together, and that the Battle of Five Armies is awesome!

3: Interstellar

Christopher Nolan has earned my trust, so I will see just about anything he makes.  This space flick should be wonderful.  If Inception has taught us anything, bring your thinking caps and expect the unexpected.

2: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1

Good heavens the last movie was good, so watching the next one is a no brainer.  The only reason it is not number one is that it is just half of the final book.  I hope they can make a full movie out of so few pages.

1: X-Men: Days of Future Past

It is strange, only X-Men 2 and First Class have been good, but the idea of merging the two worlds and bringing Bryan Singer back to direct is just so darn exciting!  If Jennifer Lawrence wasn’t huge before, she will be after having an X-Men movie and a Hunger Games movie come out in the same year.

That was my list, and hope you liked it.  What are you looking forward too?

Saving Mr. Banks is a 2013 film produced by Disney Pictures and directed by John Lee Hancock.  It seems that John Lee Hancock is the guy to get when you want to produce a sweet Bio-Pic, because Saving Mr. Banks is just as good as his previous directorial effort The Blind Side.

The story follows P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) as she flies to Los Angeles to try and co-write a script for Mary Poppins that she can live with.  Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) has been trying to make this happen for twenty years, so he is trying his best to get the difficult woman to work with him and his crew.  While writing the script Travers flashes back to her childhood, and to the father she loved Travers Robert Goff (Colin Farrell).

Like most “based on a true story” movies, there are several differences between it and the real-life tale, but what they have presented is quite good.  It is a touching story about the influence a father can have on a child.  Even a father with some serious flaws can positively shape the lives of his kids.

Had you told me before I saw this movie, staring both Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks, the performance that would blow me away would be Colin Farrell, I wouldn’t have believed you, but it is true.  He is the standout in this film full of talented people.  His portrayal of P.L. Travers’ father is almost perfect.  It is sad and sweet, and he makes Goff someone you can root for.  Now both Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks are predictably good, great in fact as is the rest of the cast, but Farrell was incredible.

John Lee Hancock, who is known for his sports biography movies, deftly applies his skills to this story of a quarrelling writer and billionaire.  He somehow makes a film about acquiring legal creative rights both interesting and enjoyable.  True he had great actors to work with, but it was him that kept the whole movie in focus and on track.  It was perfectly edited, so that it did not feel too long or that anything was left out.

It was a good film, and one that will no doubt be in the hunt for some Oscars next year.  Of course a movie created by Disney Pictures would paint Disney as the hero of this film, but still it was fun to watch.  I also hope that after this movie Farrell starts getting some better roles because he is more than capable.