Out With the New :: Top Ten Films of 2014. No. Not Yours. Mine. So, There. *thbbth*

While I have yet to see everything I wanted to see spawned in 2014, I did manage to actually see more than 10 new films the past calendar year with nary a dud in the bunch -- well, except for I, Frankenstein. (No, honey, you're an Order of Grotesques.) And from superheroes to sci-fi, what a year for genre films, amIright? Thus and so, I am able to do one of them there Top Ten lists for the year. And though the line between best and favorite is definitely blurred, here be my list and one sentence recap for each flick.
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10. Life After Beth

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Love mean's never having to say, 
"Sorry, you're already dead."

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9. The Monuments Men

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Take that, Hitler.

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8. Jodorowsky's Dune
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Any idea where a fellow Spiritual Warrior can get 

his hands on one of those concept books?
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 7. Snowpiercer
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It's like Richard Scarry presents 
Jonathan Swift's Midnight Meat Train.

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6. Life Itself
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Two enthusiastic thumbs up.
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5. Willow Creek
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"Oh, Jim and Kelly went out that day..."
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4. Godzilla
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And they fought, and it was AH-Mazing.

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3. The Lego Movie
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Everything WAS awesome and THEN some.

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2. Guardians of the Galaxy
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I laughed, I cried, I might've even pooped myself a

little -- hands down, the best talking racoon suffering a

psychotic break and shooting people picture of the year.

 

1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Hail Hydra my ass.

C'mon, sing it with me: "When Captain America throws down on a tainted S.H.I.E.L.D. All those who chose to erode that S.H.I.E.L.D must yield. Then he's led to a fight, where a duel was do, but the Red and the White and the Blue came through! When Captain America took down the compromised S.H.I.E.L.D!

OK, I'm gonna admit to some bias here. How big a Cap fan am I? Aside from reading his adventures since I was kid in the 1970s? Well, there was that time when I was asked to do the eulogy for my 102 year old grandmother and felt it was appropriate to base it on Sam Wilson's tribute to Steven Rogers when he (sorta) died at the end of the Civil War. It went over like gangbusters. Also, when they first announced Chris Evans was cast as Cap I admit I cringed. I liked Evans and all of that. Thought he would be perfect as the cocksure Johnny Storm in The Fantastic Four -- but for Cap? Well, turns out I am the world's biggest idiot as Evans is damned near pitch-perfect in this role, bringing a lot of people around to a 'vanilla' hero that some of us knew was THAT cool all along.

And on top of that, you got Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Robert Redford, and Sebastian Stan being just as pitch-perfect in their roles. And, finally, Samuel L. Jackson gets to stretch his legs a bit, too. Kudos to the Russo brothers for plugging all those parts into a trio of action set-pieces: the assassination attempt on Nick Fury, the brawl in the elevator and escape from the Triskelon, and the fight on the causeway were all outstanding. But the quieter moments were just as good. (Cap touring the Smithsonian, his interactions with Wilson, and later when he's on the run with the Romanov.) And a big thank you for sticking Toby Jones' Arnim Zola inside a Commadore 64. That was nothing short of brilliant.

Anyhoo, enough with the nerd nerdgasming already. I also managed to see The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Trip to Italy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Force Majeure, The Taking of Deborah Logan, The Quiet Ones, Alien Abduction, and Edge of Tomorrow this year. Still on the 'To See' list is The Babadook, Interstellar, Birdman, Nightcrawler, Lucy, The Raid 2, Inherent Vice, Cold in July, Corner Gas: The Movie, and Space Station 76. I also have Ida and Night Moves in a couple of streaming queues, just need to claw out a few hours to get them watched. As for the 2015? Well, aside from Age of Ultron, I am really, really, really looking forward to this:

Until then, Boils and Ghouls, happy film watching.