Empire's 50 Best Films of 2014

shamrock55

I thought locke and planet of the apes were among the worst films ive ever seen

The_Valeyard

Beano wrote: »

Dawn of the planet of the apes at 9? really? very disappointing film.

Wha???

It has a talking ape,
On horse back,
With dual machine guns!!!

What more do you want??

don ramo

overall id say its been an average year for film, when we look back in 10 years i dont think it will be a stand out year like 2012, but some pretty memorable films came out this year, some utter tripe also, more than i would have wished to see,

ive seen probably 50 films this year so 1 a week, which is pretty bad for me, id usually watch 2 if not 3 times that, a few to many blockbusters, not enough lower keys films, so maybe this year might go up if i get around to more 2014 releases over the next year or so,

ive seen 24 films on that list, which is all over the place quality wise, a few surprise omissions, but it looks pretty solid, bar the rankings of course,

don ramo

The_Valeyard wrote: »

Wha???

It has a talking ape,
On horse back,
With dual machine guns!!!

What more do you want??

a bazooka clearly

MisterAnarchy

e_e wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Anybody who thinks it's been a bad year just hasn't been watching the right movies, and for feck sake don't take Empire as the authority on film. :pac:

How does one find the "right" movies because that seems to be the hardest problem now.

Most of the mainstream stuff is garbage.
Perhaps I watch too many movies but I am finding movies in general ,especially mainstream movies utterly predictable and cliched.

I'm going back watching older classics I havent seen and foreign films because the new films just aren't good enough.
In the last week alone I watched V for Vendetta, The Keeper of Lost Causes and 8mm.
I'd say 2 films released this year came anywhere near them in quality.

It says it all really when a poor film like Guardians of the Galaxy is no 5 in the chart of the best movies of the year.
Its a kids film and not even a good one at that .
Sure it passed 2 hours but it was completely unmemorable bar a few scenes ,and I like sci fi films.
I did enjoy the Edge of Tomorrow though ,it was very entertaining,and funny unlike Guardians of the Galaxy .

don ramo

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

How does one find the "right" movies because that seems to be the hardest problem now.

Most of the mainstream stuff is garbage.
Perhaps I watch too many movies but I am finding movies in general ,especially mainstream movies utterly predictable and cliched.

I'm going back watching older classics I havent seen and foreign films because the new films just aren't good enough.
In the last week alone I watched V for Vendetta, The Keeper of Lost Causes and 8mm.
I'd say 2 films released this year came anywhere near them in quality.

It says it all really when a poor film like Guardians of the Galaxy is no 5 in the chart of the best movies of the year.
Its a kids film and not even a good one at that .
I did enjoy the Edge of Tomorrow though ,it was very entertaining.

the last few weeks ive seen Locke, The Imitation Game and Nightcrawler, 3 that i would recommend to anyone,

yeah its great to watch some old films, bring back great memories of when we first saw them, but im trying to stop doing that and watch some of the great films that i havent seen yet, i really wanna get more diversity into my watching habits, as all these blockbuster films are frying my brain, seen far to many this year,

MisterAnarchy

don ramo wrote: »

the last few weeks ive seen Locke, The Imitation Game and Nightcrawler, 3 that i would recommend to anyone,

yeah its great to watch some old films, bring back great memories of when we first saw them, but im trying to stop doing that and watch some of the great films that i havent seen yet, i really wanna get more diversity into my watching habits, as all these blockbuster films are frying my brain, seen far to many this year,

Nightcrawler was good ,I didnt like Locke though ,Imitation Games looks good allright,I am looking forward to seeing that on Bluray.

yeah its great to watch some old films, bring back great memories of when we first saw them, but im trying to stop doing that and watch some of the great films that i havent seen yet, i really wanna get more diversity into my watching habits, as all these blockbuster films are frying my brain, seen far to many this year,

Maybe you misread my post but I am doing the same,I am watching older films for the first time.

As regards the blockbusters ,well the Marvel ones anyway ,once you have seen one you have seen them all ,its movie making by numbers.

Sam Mac

Am I the only one who found Boyhood to be incredibly overrated, same as Wolf of Wall Street.

Pity that 'The Good Lie' didn't show up in that list. Excellent film.

cloud493

I found boyhood to be boring and it dragged on way too long. Still a pretty good movie, lots of neat touches I liked, and you have to admire the fact they even tried to do such a thing.

johnny_ultimate

The 'it was a bad year for film' arguments make me break out into an involuntary twitch

Every single year there are dozens of brilliant films released. Pretty much without fail. The only variable is that some years will inevitably have a higher cluster of 'masterpieces', just through sheer chance. But taking into account the whole cinematic spectrum - consider it one entity, not disparate sections - there is never, ever a shortage of great films to track down.

Seriously, writing up my favourite films of the year (thread a few down from this one: http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2057347558) and I realised I'd easily make a top 30 or 40 of the year without any hassle, and all those films would be totally worthy of inclusion. Hell, there's a dozen or more significant films I've missed out on that Im dying to finally get around to. I've found the same the last number of years, and expect the same in 2015.

Which brings me to...

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

How does one find the "right" movies because that seems to be the hardest problem now.

A little bit of effort is all it takes

Pick up Sight & Sound every month. Read the likes of Slant, The Dissolve, Little White Lies - they're constantly flagging worthwhile releases of all shapes and sizes. Their end of year lists always tend to throw up hidden gems too.
Take risks. Don't just stick with favourite directors or genres.
Keep track of the films generating buzz at festival season - most major serious film sites run blogs covering them, and very often the likes of Cannes help indicate what you can expect for the rest of the year.
Join Letterboxd, and follow lots of different people. Use the watch list feature to easily note films that sound interesting so you can track down when they become available.
Simply check out what's playing at the Lighthouse, IFI or the Irish film festivals, even if you don't have immediate access to them. Browse the latest releases on iTunes to see what's out. Follow arthouse distributors like Dogwoof, Masters of Cinema, Second Run, Third Window, Arrow, Artificial Eye, Soda Pictures on Twitter to see what they're releasing.
Don't settle for what the multiplex is showing. Order DVDs and BluRays, take advantage of video on demand to find the films if you're not near a cinema showing them. Join your local film club - most major towns in the country have them (check out Access Cinema's website).

I genuinely struggle to keep track of everything worthwhile or interesting that's out, and I feel like I have a pretty much constant stream of films I want to track down. It's all about building a varied and vibrant list of resources. Get into that habit, and the great films will start coming to you because you simply cannot avoid them

e_e

MisterAnarchy wrote: »

How does one find the "right" movies because that seems to be the hardest problem now.

Listen to movie podcasts (I highly recommend Filmspotting), check out sites like Letterboxd and find a critic who has a similar taste to you (not just one that reviews multiplex stuff either). Also I'm not sure if you're near an arthouse/independent cinema but I find that there's almost always something very interesting playing there.

But I've truly never had a problem finding good stuff. I managed to see at least 100 new releases this year alone and can safely say that I enjoyed the majority of them.

Dirty Steve

e_e wrote: »

hmmmmmmmm

While Under the Skin might have had some nice visual aspects to it, as a whole it's not a very good film.

I like my films to have actual story lines; but that's just me...

e_e

Under the Skin had a story line, it just wasn't the film's primary focus.

My post wasn't about what you thought of the film though, it was about calling it "standard fare". Love it or hate it it certainly stood apart in terms of the year's movies and doesn't belong in the same conversation as film's that play it safe and aim for the middle ground. It's a film that dared to alienate a good number of people who saw it and good on it for that imo. It was a really risky, strange, challenging and rewarding film for me. A lot of year end lists are commending it for that too.

MakeEmLaugh

Admittedly, there's a lot of films I meant to catch up with this year but didn't (Stranger by the Lake, Ida, Mr Turner, Leviathan) but of the over 30 released that I did see, many didn't live up to expectations.

Maps to the Stars left me cold. Calvary was one of the worst films I've seen in years.

Such was the dearth of quality films this year, decent but unremarkable films like Nightcrawler and Her are being exceedingly overpraised.

As for mainstream Hollywood cinema... The Lego Movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, A Million Ways to Die in the West, X Men: Days of Future Past. They varied from watchable to dreadful.

There were some exceptions. The Wolf of Wall Street was Scorsese's best in a decade and a half, capturing the frenetic energy of a Goodfellas (I thoroughly enjoyed The Departed, but as it was a remake, most of the heavy lifting had already been done by Andrew Lau). 12 Years a Slave was excellent (though probably my least favourite of Steve McQueen's films so far). Boyhood was a fascinating experiment. Under the Skin was hypnotic.

Here is my Top 10 of the films released in the UK/Ireland this year.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. 12 Years a Slave
3. Boyhood
4. Under the Skin
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Starred Up
7. Interstellar
8. 20 Feet From Stardom
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Tim's Vermeer

e_e

Ha if anything to me Her and Nightcrawler were among the best and Wolf of Wall Street was the most absurdly overrated. Even watched it twice but it was just a load of noise signifying nothing. Nightcrawler did a similar scumbag character but was just so much more focused and thematically resonant imo.

Warper

Predictable safe list tbh

Anyone who thinks that it was a bad year for cinema obviously has no inclination to look beyond whatever the local cineplex is playing, and saying that all I can think is just how many indie or "art house" (I hate that term) films played across the country. I have a list of films released in the past year that I want to see and atm there's 78 titles on it, they include 71, The Homesman, Life or Riley, Stranger by the Lake, Force Majeure, Like Father, Like Son, We Are the Best, Norte the End of History, The Blue Room, The Dance of Reality, Boyhood, Dead Snow 2, The Crossing, Mr. X, Wetlands, Die geliebten Schwestern and so on. It has been a fantastic year for cinema and anyone judging the year based on whatever Empire recommends is doing themselves a disservice.

Beefy78

No love for 'Next Goal Wins' on here?

Telecaster58

My list of the 10 best films of 2014 necessarily takes in a few that pre-date the year owing to the lag between release and eventually getting here. These were all films I saw on the big screen this year.

Grand Budapest Hotel
Metro Manila
Nebraska
God's Pocket
The Past
Nightcrawler
The Babadook
The Golden Dream
Ida
Whiplash

MakeEmLaugh

Deleted User wrote: »

Anyone who thinks that it was a bad year for cinema obviously has no inclination to look beyond whatever the local cineplex is playing, and saying that all I can think is just how many indie or "art house" (I hate that term) films played across the country.

I have a list of films released in the past year that I want to see and atm there's 78 titles on it, they include 71, The Homesman, Life or Riley, Stranger by the Lake, Force Majeure, Like Father, Like Son, We Are the Best, Norte the End of History, The Blue Room, The Dance of Reality, Boyhood, Dead Snow 2, The Crossing, Mr. X, Wetlands, Die geliebten Schwestern and so on.

It has been a fantastic year for cinema and anyone judging the year based on whatever Empire recommends is doing themselves a disservice.

So, wait, you haven't actually seen any of the films you listed, and you're using them as evidence that it has been a fanstastic year for cinema?!

johnny_ultimate

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

So, wait, you haven't actually seen any of the films you listed, and you're using them as evidence that it has been a fanstastic year for cinema?!

By the same extent...

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Admittedly, there's a lot of films I meant to catch up with this year but didn't (Stranger by the Lake, Ida, Mr Turner, Leviathan) but of the over 30 released that I did see, many didn't live up to expectations.

Such was the dearth of quality films this year, decent but unremarkable films like Nightcrawler and Her are being exceedingly overpraised.

MakeEmLaugh

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

So, wait, you haven't actually seen any of the films you listed, and you're using them as evidence that it has been a fanstastic year for cinema?!

I'm using them as evidence of the diverse range of films on offer this year. While I have 78 films from this year I want to watch I've also seen a considerable number and the range of films has been staggering. We live at a time when access to cinema from around the world is just a few clicks away, services like VOD have made it easy to watch the best the world has to offer and as such saying its been a bad year for film is nonsense. We've never had it this good and it's improving each year.

MakeEmLaugh

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Here is my Top 10 of the films released in the UK/Ireland this year.

1. The Wolf of Wall Street
2. 12 Years a Slave
3. Boyhood
4. Under the Skin
5. Inside Llewyn Davis
6. Starred Up
7. Interstellar
8. 20 Feet From Stardom
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Tim's Vermeer

I'll have to amend this to include Blue Ruin somewhere. I watched it today on US Netflix.

Very good thriller, funded by Kickstarter, I believe. A fine example of what that website can achieve.

No real stars of note (unless you count Devin Ratray - aka Buzz from Home Alone) but great adherence to the principle Chekhov's gun.

There was also a bit of deus ex machina I could've done without (reminding me of Eli Wallach's great line from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - "When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk).

OldeCinemaSoz

Just watching the excellent KINGS SPEECH on the telly at the mo
and just putting in ME TUPPENCE WORTH in...

just shading it is UNDER THE SKIN.
then the very excellent FILTH.
then up there is NEBRASKA.

there's others but those are in my top three.

Not a bad year for films if I may say.

cloud493

I didn't know whiplash was out yet.
I wasn't a fan of the kings speech, off topic

MakeEmLaugh

OldeCinemaSoz wrote: »

just shading it is UNDER THE SKIN.
then the very excellent FILTH.
then up there is NEBRASKA.

there's others but those are in my top three.

Not a bad year for films if I may say.

Only one of those films was released this year.

e_e

cloud493 wrote: »

I didn't know whiplash was out yet.
I wasn't a fan of the kings speech, off topic

Not out until January technically, but it's had a few previews here.

cloud493

Ah ok, lucky people

Technically her and wolf of wall street are 2013 so.

e_e

Yeah as one of the lucky few I can say it was great.

Ping Chow Chi

My ratings for the year will go as follows (only seen 6 films)

1.The Imitation Game
2.Winter Soldier
3.GoTG
4.American Hustle (Ive not seen the last 15 minutes, the plane journey finished before the end of the film!)
5.Lego movie
6.X-Men

There is nowt wrong with popular films lads!

Big Whiskey

ive only seen about 6 of these

OldeCinemaSoz

MakeEmLaugh wrote: »

Only one of those films was released this year.

Are you COUNTING THE YEARS, son?

Bipolar Joe

What the fuck are you talking about?

OldeCinemaSoz

Best EXTRAS of the year?

FILTH. only DELICIOUS.