Big Hero 6 (2014)

This movie, like most Disney and (technically) Marvel movies, was incredibly bad-ass for a kids movie.  This had a good combination of action, comedy, fun, and yes, also feels.  This story involves a 14-year-old named Hiro (who's parents are dead, curse you Disney)  who is already graduated and a super genius living in San Fransokyo? If that even exists, it probably doesn't but I didn't even care.  This movie has awesome elements in it throughout, including a kick-ass villain, and a super sweet team of super heroes.  The animation was incredible throughout and had an amazing cast of characters.  I did not expect them to actually use the Fall Out Boy song in the movie. And Baymax is the exact robot I would want in my apartment helping me out... and maybe defeating crime? Sounds good to me.

RE: Airplane! (1980)

This movie is absolutely one of my favorite comedies, and even though its old it is still by far one of the best.  In this zany, quirky, wacky comedy a plane is going through a storm with a ton of sick people on board, including... anyone who can actually fly the plane, except for one man, and he must accept his fate and deal with his awful drinking problem.  This has talent flowing throughout as well, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as... Himself?  Peter Graves as the pilot and Leslie Nielsen of The Naked Gun as the "in-flight" doctor, and things only get some much crazier.  All I want to do is quote this movie all day, every one liner in this movie is repeatable and adorably loved.  This is one of those films where you realize things you didn't notice the first time you watched it.  Like especially the Jewish Sports Legends joke. Haha, this movie is insane, and if you don't know that, find out for yourself, this a movie worth owning and watching over and over again.

P.S. Do you... like watching gladiator movies?

RE: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

This movie gets a little more bad-ass every time I watch it. If you don't know the plot of this movie, I pity you. This movie was one of the biggest movies of the year and it certainly lived up to its expectation.This was a fantastic installment in the Marvel Phase Two cinematic universe. This stays away from phase 2's previous installments, with only 2 direct references to the previous films.  Like I said, this movie was and is awesome.  Perfect amount of action and comedy that everyone would expect from it, Stan Lee and all.  I find it interesting this is based off an actual comic though, just because it wasn't really heard of before this movie like Spider-man or The Hulk was.  Bradley Cooper as a talking raccoon, and Vin Diesel as a talking, walking tree? What more could you want alongside a stunning visual effects show and great makeup achievements, especially for Drax and Nebula.  I absolutely love every aspect of the film.  Not to mention Josh Brolin plays Thanos! It got better!

Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

I'm not entirely sure what I expected from this movie.  I definitely expected it to be good, but in reality... it was different.  When I first originally heard about this movie I honestly thought it had something to do with Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and after realized that it wasn't, I settled into a film about a washed up actor who used to be the star of a beloved comic book movie franchise.  Over the past couple years he's gone off the deep end.  His Birdman days are over, he has a drug addicted daughter fresh out of rehab, and a divorced wife.  he's also trying to write, direct, and act in his own play with certain actors he struggles dealing with.  All while arguing with his imaginary Birdman persona.  This movie was insanely well done.  Not only was the cinematography simply fantastic, but the acting was insanely good too.  This movie was brilliantly made to look like it was filmed in one continuous shot.  It wasn't, but it's insane to think of how much time it took to make it look that way.  This movie is nominated for 3 acting Oscars and to be honest, I don't know if any of them deserve it.  I'm not saying any of them were bad, they were all fantastic, but Oscar worthy?  Out of all of them though, Michael Keaton did the absolute best.  His contrast between his Birdman character, to his on stage character, to just his real life person Riggan Thomsan was simply amazing.  Everyone else, especially Stone, Norton, and Galifianakis did especially well.  The writing was also well done and very "artistic" in a sense, it just kinda flows really well with lots of imaginary imagery. This movie can be summed up as a great, fantastic piece of art.

Gone Girl (2014)

You never really know someone till you're framed for their murder.  This movie was crazy and had me changing my mind at every turn. This film is about a man who finds his wife missing one day and everyone assumes he kills her based on the circumstances of her being "pregnant" and them having financial trouble. Rosamund Pike's performance was absolutely gorgeous and equally frightening.  As the movie progresses I get more and more scared for the characters and the awful fate they may befall.  This movie had me hating the media and the paparazzi just a little bit more than I already do, they're dicks.  Some of the writing was bland and plain, but the overall plot was fantastic, like I said, it had me rooting for somebody else at every turn.  Both Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris' performances were truly fantastic, and I've seen Ben Affleck do worse.  A character in this film had me thinking they are far worse than any Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates.. Extremely fucked up, interesting, and compelling story.  You wanna see a psychopath? Watch this film... In a dark room would be best.

Whiplash (2014)

Whiplash is scary.  This movie legitimately terrifies me.  No, it is not a horror movie, it's a drama about a young man (Andrew) who joins the prestigious Shaffer Conservatory of Music with the goal of being the best drummer in the world.  One day he gets noticed by a well known highly acclaimed professor Terence Fletcher and joins his class which is known as the best jazz class in the country.  It turns out Fletcher is a Nazi.  Not literally, he is just an evil, evil man, and also a fantastic teacher.  J.K. Simmons' on screen presence is so powerful and intimidating.  He scares everybody in his class, and he scares the audience of this film.  He's not only scary because he yells and swears and throws things, he also gains some intimidation from being two faced.  One minute he will be the nicest guy trying to help, and the next moment he will be doing what I mentioned earlier about his being a Nazi.  Miles Teller also does a fantastic acting job being this troubled drum student. At one point he seems crazier than Fletcher, and it's gorgeous.  This film also had some great editing, both in film and in sound and had me going down twists and turns not knowing what a character would do next.  All while keeping some awesome and realistic dialogue that made it feel like every conversation happened in real life.  This movie was great! Double meaning title throughout.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

This movie is simply brilliant.  Colorful imagery, fantastic cinematography, as well as editing and production design.  This movie had everything, and just about everyone.  The Grand Budapest Hotel offers us a a story like no other about the owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel during the time between the world wars, M. Gustave and his faithful lobby boy Zero who follows him around endlessly.  Gustave takes us on a journey as he is chased by police for a painting he "stole" from a woman who was his former lover who died and left the painting (which is extremely priceless) for Gustave in her will.  And man, we are taken on an amazing, fantastic adventure.  The cinematography for this film is phenomenal! Every line, every shot, every action sequence was beautifully shot and I give the director great props for doing this.  He even changes the aspect ratio of the film a couple times based on when the movie was taking place. Every role from Ralph Fiennes to Bill Murray was awesome. Seeing all these actors come together for such a brilliant movie is truly inspiring.  The movie is also incredibly and cleverly written.  Every line has you thinking.. "did they really just say that?" and the movie leaves you asking "did that all happen?" The movie is truly suspenseful and one I will be watching for years.

The Imitation Game (2014)

This movie could have been, in itself, an enigma/puzzle that would have been difficult to understand, and it most certainly was not.  This movie was honestly thrilling.  Alan Turing is a British mathematician who is hired by the government to solve a German machine known as "enigma"  Solve? Yes, solve.  The enigma works for the Germans as a machine that takes a secret German message and scrambles it into a code in which only the Germans know of.  Turing is hired to find that code, which changes on a daily basis.   The film itself is incredibly well written for what it is, and I actually learned quite a lot about not only WWII, but also Turing himself and interestingly enough, how homosexuality was treated back then in Britain. Benedict Cumberbatch pulls off a great performance that will somewhat seem like he's just playing his version of Sherlock Holmes, but still a very well played role.  The movie was awesome, yet I felt as if it was lacking something.  I couldn't exactly describe what, but all that aside, this movie taught me a few things and made me laugh and generally feel for Benedict's character.  A well deserved Oscar nomination.

Inherent Vice (2014)

I absolutely love movies that take place in the 70's, and this one (taking place in 1970) is a gem in representing that time.  Inherent Vice takes you into the life of Larry "Doc" Sportello, a private investigator and former doper who is set out to help a former lover of his.  I can only really describe this as one lead taking him to a certain location which takes him towards like 7 other leads to different investigations somehow having to do with each other.  Despite this, the movie actually flows really well and has pretty good pacing.  The writing is quirky and funny and real.  Joanna Newsom, who narrates the film, does a fantastic job playing her minor character and narrating for Doc.  She plays this off really well because the feeling Doc feels, she expresses.  Everything had a real and well played 70's look to it and I most definitely loved it. Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin both deserve some kind of award for this movie. Phoenix played his role really well as a pot smoking, private investigator hippie, and Josh Brolin did a fantastic job being... well... a crazy, crazy man.  Overall the movie was incredibly well written, and I give it props.  A whole ounce worth.

American Sniper (2014)

I didn't know what I expected when I went to the theater to see this movie.  I expected it to be good definitely, but I certainly didn't expect it to be this good.  This movie tells the story of Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL sniper who has a recorded 160 confirmed kills and his trials throughout being a Navy SEAL.  He struggles greatly being back home in America saying that he isn't doing his duty for America.  What I love and respect about both Chris Kyle and this film is that Chris knows that his sniping job isn't done for kills.  Everybody constantly congratulates him on his killstreak, and every time his response is almost silence and just saying it's his job and he's just helping to save America and I heavily respect this man for it.  As far as the film goes I think it was fantastic.  Great cinematography and editing, and all the sounds were superb.  Bradley Cooper's acting was great, not stunning, but great.  He played the role really well, taking in Chris' personal workouts and attitude.  This main character is such a kind-hearted man and yet the things he goes through in war are insanely brutal.  This is by far my favorite war movie, and I will most likely find myself watching it again, and again, and again.  

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

I don't remember much from Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but I remembered enough for this movie to make sense.  Then when it came to make sense to me I began to pay more attention to the "morals" of this particular story.  The apes have taken over a particular part of a forest nearby San Francisco and there are some disputes over territory between the humans and apes.  The apes just want to have the forest to themselves and be left alone by humans and more importantly, their weapons.  This movie shows that there are fucked up humans just as much as there are fucked up apes.  Some apes are better than others, as are some humans.  I watched this film for the visual effects it is nominated for, and as far as I'm concerned so far, it won.  Every ape is computer generated using motion capture and it is beautiful.  Every move made by the apes is incredibly ape-like, and everything else is incredibly detailed.  Gary Oldman played a good part that I honestly wish was involved more even though his character threw in some surprises to this ape/human war.  A fantastic addition to the "of the Apes" franchise.  

Hey Everyone

To anybody who actually reads this, just a heads up.  I'll be trying to fit in watching as many movies as humanly possible. Until February 22nd however, I'll be focusing more on the Oscars and everything that usually entails from a movie review page during "Oscar season" So basically... enjoy!

Selma (2014)

Selma is a film brought to life one screen by a marvelous cast and an amazing director.  Telling the story of Martin Luther King Jr. after his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.  There was actually a lot to King's story that I didn't already know, and a learned a significant amount from this film.  Every shot in the movie was either breathtaking for the peace protests and church sermons, or horrifying through every brutal riot.  It's crazy what the government used to do to people back then.  President Johnson constancy shoves off King in this film showing that the Civil Rights Movement went far beyond King winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Stock footage of the riots throughout the film helped us identify exactly what was going on through a minimally choppy and somewhat well paced film.  The cast of this film was absolutely fantastic.  Tim Roth, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson, and even Giovanni Ribisi make the roles in this movie really stand out.  David Oyelowo by far though did a fantastic job playing King.  Every speech given by David was enthralling and captivating in only a way King could pull off.  I've never been more pleased to listen to a church sermon.  I think this film deserved a little more credit as far as the Oscars are concerned however.  Most of the acting was brilliant and some of the cinematography was fantastic to watch.  Overall the movie was entertaining as much as it was moving.  Not my pick for best picture this year, but definitely a great film.