A Year Long Remembered: 2014 in Film Part 3

With the overall look at the year now out of the way along with the best and worst its time now to start delving into the final lists of the year.

And in this 3rd part I want to talk about my surprises, disappointments and regrets of the year and boy oh boy there are some big ones to talk about in each of those categories so lets get to the chase and dive right in.

Disappointments of 2014:

Oh dear oh dear there were some major disappointments this year for me, 3 major ones in particular.

3. The Amazing Spider-Man 2: This is my third pick for this list and this was a film that I was really excited to see beforehand having enjoyed the first Amazing Spider-Man with Andrew Garfield in 2012 but alas it had to get caught up with the School Holidays here in Australia and as a result I had to wait until the US got it before I could see it.

And the wait sadly was not worth it and the main reason that was is because of the script, frankly it has too much going on as it was wanting to build that cinematic universe but it forgot the fundamental tale of Peter and Gwen and that great chemistry between them was just thrown away like so much else of this film.

And in a way I am reminded of the 1983 film Two of a Kind which was the reunion picture between John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John and like that film this one felt like it was more interested in everything else rather than the central chemistry and Columbia Pictures is now paying a very heavy price for its meddling with this great character to fit a formula that doesn't work.

2. Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit: This was my most anticipated film of 2014 along with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Hunger Games Mockingjay Part 1 and the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and it came out in January, a very weird feeling.

But alas it was also very disappointing as I'm such a fan of the early Tom Clancy novels with this character (The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games are great reads) and the 1990 film version of Red October is one of my very favorite films but this new one is just a repackaged, retreaded and tired and so very average.

And by that I mean nothing feels at stake here (Red October dealt with the potential 3rd World War against Russia, here it's just an economic crash ZZZZZZ), the action feels very tedious to watch (Sir Ken Branagh is not an action director despite his good work on Thor in 2011) and the cast just sound bored (Chris Pine was a good choice for Jack but he's given nothing to work with same with Kevin Costner.)

But this is the new PG-13 Hollywood at work in this film: Don't go too far, don't be too risky with the violence and just go through the archives to find a easy to market villain otherwise we risk offending vital markets and with these sort of high energy action pictures where the heroes DON'T wear tights or a mask (Halle Fucking Lujah) it's not good enough and again like with Amazing Spider-Man 2 just because this sort of approach works elsewhere doesn't mean it can be tailored into a one size fits all approach.

But as disappointing as those were, this one just made my heart sink.

1. Interstellar: Coming in at number 1 on this list is Christopher Nolan's Sci-Fi epic Interstellar.

The reason I found this the most disappointing was that this was a big film I was very excited to see (I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan) but whilst I was sitting in my seat in the cinema watching this film I just felt my heart sink as it was going on and when it was over I just said to myself "This did not live up to my expectations."

And that is a shame because this was a very ambitious project but Nolan tried to do too much and while he excels at that dark toned hard edge filmmaking he gave us in the Dark Knight he's not so good at the more emotional melodrama that Spielberg and Cameron can do well and the mix of the two tones at times is very jarring which again is very sad.

But that's the disappointments out of the way its now time to talk about the surprises of the year.

3. August Osage County: This was the first film I saw in a cinema this year and going into it I did not expect much apart from a typical family drama.

Boy was I wrong as I was really surprised by how much effect it had on me when I walked out of it because if you have ever gone to an uncomfortable family gathering where the relatives start fighting and one has a bit too much to drink or too much on their mind to say well you will be reminded of that and not in a good way as was the case with me.

2. Grudge Match: Now this was one I did not expect anything from apart from just Stallone and De Niro doing bad parodies of their iconic boxing movie roles.

But I was wrong as I had a good time watching this film mainly due to Alan Arkin who is almost always good value in a comedy and though this one is not perfect (it's way too long when it should've been just a light hearted 80 to 90 minute boxing comedy but instead its nearly 2 hours) I did have a good time here and for that I was happy.

But my biggest surprise of 2014 was by far this one:

1. The Lego Movie: Talk about having low expectations I had next to none going into this film as I saw the big standees and the posters for it and thought to myself "You have got to be joking" but my weakness for animated films being as such I decided to go and see it.

And boy oh boy was I ever so glad to do so as this was so much fun to watch, Phil Lord and Chris Miller who also made the very funny 22 Jump Street wrote a great script with many great gags, the visuals were stunning, the song "Everything is Awesome" should be a shoe in for best original song at the Academy Awards next year as it is catchy as hell and the vocal performances were terrific across the board especially Liam Neeson (and yes he is doing both of those voices sometimes simultaneously.)

But not only was it a great animated film it was also a great comedy first and foremost and its great to see Lord and Miller giving comedy films a real kick in the ass after stagnation with the Judd Apatow Comedy Club formula of making comedies and like just about everyone else walking out of the cinema I couldn't help but sing:

"Everything is Awesome,
everything is cool when you part of a team,
Everything is Awesome,
when we're living our dream"

But after that bout of happiness it's time to talk about my regrets for the year and these are the ones I sorely wish I could've gotten the chance to see but the opportunity to do so eluded me and there are three big ones.

3. Sin City a Dame to Kill For: This one came out in Australian cinemas in September but like Amazing Spider-Man 2 it came out in the shadow of the School Holidays.

But sadly unlike the Amazing Spider-Man 2 I never got the chance to see this one before the year ends (its Australian DVD release is next month and the US Blu-Ray is region locked) and I would've loved to have gotten to do so as it looked very dark and very adult in its tone (something we sadly see too few of in films these days.)

And I know this film got horrible reviews and there were others telling me not to see it and that I'm not missing much but I would have loved to have had the chance to decide for myself on that front but happily that opportunity is not far away.

2. Boyhood: Richard Linklater's 12 years in the making film about a boy growing up has gotten a lot of acclaim and should win the Best Picture and Director Oscars but its cinema release in Australia was very limited.

And indeed such an opportunity did come my way when my main cinema picked it up for late October and I made plans to see it the week after as that would blend with Interstellar but sadly it was only on for one week and I had to find out why to which the response was "It was difficult to market and because of the 3 hour runtime the session times had to be very limited" and indeed they were as it only had 1 session a day for the week it was on.

Hopefully the disc release is not too far away.

But my biggest regret for the year is:

1. Life Itself: Based off the memoirs of the late great Roger Ebert.

Ever since I heard about this film I knew I had to see it as I'm such a Siskel and Ebert fan but sadly it was only shown on the Sydney and Melbourne film festival circuits and those places aren't the easiest for me to get to at the moment so alas I had to sit this one out and it's such a shame as this film going year for me would've felt more complete if I did get the chance to see it.

But happily my chance to do so is coming as the doco will be out on disc in the US early next year and there is no way in the world I will be prevented from importing it.

And so this was my look back on 2014 (in case you want to know my best and worst of the year be sure to listen to my Radio show as I revealed them there) and 2015 promises to be a huge year for films with some very big releases on the horizon like Mad Max 4, the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Spectre the new 007 film, Mockingjay Part 2 and the new Star Wars film being my top 5 most anticipated of the new year.

See you all at the movies.