Taylor’s 2014 Awards

I know it’s late, and technically the award season is already over, but here are my awards just for fun! I made them about a month ago, and I have seen several movies since then that definitely would have made it in if I would have seen them earlier, i.e. Whiplash and Big Hero 6. I saw over 115 movies this year; some were amazing and some were not so amazing. Here are the best and a few of the worst:

Worst Films:

5. The Rover

4. Rio 2

3. The Nut Job

2. Noah

1. Wer

 

Visual Effects:

5.Maleficent

4. Hobbit

3. Interstellar

2. Guardians of the Galaxy

1. The Lego Movie

 

Production Design

5. Hobbit

4. Interstellar

3. Fury

2. Snowpiercer

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

 

Costume

4.Hobbit

3. X-Men

2. Guardians of the Galaxy

1. Grand Budapest

Sound Design:

4. Fury

3. Locke

2. The Boxtrolls

1. Interstellar

 

Editing:

5. Imitation Game

4. Nightcrawler

3. Boyhood

2. Gone Girl

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

 

 

Cinematography:

5. Gone Girl

4. The Imitation Game

3. The Boxtrolls

2. Grand Budapest Hotel

1. Interstellar

 

Music:

5. Grand Budapest Hotel

4. Hobbit

3. Begin Again

2. Guardians of the Galaxy

1. Interstellar

 

Supporting Actress:

4. Carrie Coon- Gone Girl

3. Rene Russo- Nightcrawler

2. Tilda Swinton- Snowpiercer

1. Kiera Knightley- Imitation Game

 

Actress:

4. Keira Knightley- Begin Again

3. Emily Blunt- Into the Woods

2. Helen Mirren- Hundred Foot Journey

1. Rosamund Pike- Gone Girl

 

Supporting Actor:

4. Tyler Perry- Gone Girl

3. Evan Peters- X-Men

2. Shia- Fury

1. Logan Lerman- Fury

 

Actor:

5. Ralph Fiennes- Grand Budapest

4.David Oyelowo- Selma

3. Jude Law- Dom Hemingway

2. Tom Hardy-Locke/ Drop

1. Jake Gyllenhaal- Enemy/Nightcrawler

 

Best Cast:

4. X-Men

3. Fury

2. Gone Girl

1. Grand Budapest

 

Adapted Screenplay:

5. Guardians of the Galaxy

4. The Imitation Game

3. Hobbit

2. Snowpiercer

1. Gone Girl

 

Original Screenplay:

5. Boyhood

4. Locke

3. Interstellar

2. Nightcrawler

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

 

Best Director:

5. Richard Linklater- Boyhood

4. Dan Gilroy- Nightcrawler

3. Christopher Nolan- Interstellar

2. Wes Anderson- Grand Budapest

1. David Fincher- Gone Girl

 

Best Animated/Kid’s Movie:

5. Alexander and the Terrible..

4. Book of Life

3. Lego Movie

2. How to Train Your Dragon 2

1. The Boxtrolls

 

Best Action:

5. Sabotage

4. Divergent

3. Nonstop

2. Fury

1. John Wick

 

Best Horror:

4. Deliver Us From Evil

3. As Above So Below

2. Annabelle

1. Oculus

 

Best Fantasy:

3. Guardians of the Galaxy

2. Hobbit

1. Days of Future Past

 

Best Sci-Fi:

5. Zero Theorem

4. Edge of Tomorrow

3. Signal

2. Snowpiercer

1. Interstellar

 

Best Romance/Romantic Comedy:

5. Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby

4. Longest Week

3. What If

2. Begin Again

1. Adult World

 

Best Comedy (Dramedy?):

5. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible…

4. This is Where I Leave You

3. Dom Hemingway

2. Frank

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

 

Best Drama:

5. Selma

4. Imitation Game

3. Enemy

2. Gone Girl

1. Nightcrawler

 

Best Films of 2014:

10. Enemy

9. Boxtrolls

8. Guardians of the Galaxy

7. Hobbit

6. John Wick

5. Interstellar

4. Gone Girl

3. Nightcrawler

2. X-Men: Days of Future Past

1. Grand Budapest Hotel

Still Watching Movies, I Swear

So, it’s been a while since our last post. We knew this would probably happen.

The past few months have been over-flowingly filled with getting a new puppy (meet Smeagol, our pride and joy!), moving (twice!), getting new jobs (Garret is now a parks and rec man, and I work in a video store!), starting classes again, and of course watching movies.

But because we have spent a lot of this time watching movies, we definitely have plenty that need to be talked about. We have seen about 20 new releases since our last post. While a handful of those have been painfully average movies, a good few were enough to remind us what really awesome story-telling and cinematography are all about, and what they are not about.

We have also seen many, many older movies in this time as well. I have gotten some chances to redeem myself for some of the classics (calling them classics for a lack of a better word… favorites?) that I never got around to watching before, like The Usual Suspects, Heathers, American Psycho, Se7en, etc. After watching each one of them I felt like hitting myself in the face for waiting so long to see them. I mean come on, they’re perfect. No wonder it’s been 15- 25 years since they came out and people still obsess over them. I mean damn, who knows how many conversations I sat through wondering why everyone was talking about what was in the box or who is Keyser Soze? I finally know these things! If you don’t dream of getting to wear the color red (or of killing the girl who does), or of Christian Bale (and then feel awkward about it because you know he’s insane), or of any of those movies; go watch them. Seriously. There really is a reason why each of those still exists in film conversation today.

The point to this post really is no matter how busy we get with everything else, we’re still watching movies.

I’ll post soon.

Taylor’s The Lego Movie Review

For my first separate movie review, I wanted to start off with something light. So I present, The Lego Movie.

I read somewhere where someone said that this movie was “the best film about blocks you’ll ever see” (remind me to find where I read that one day) and I loved how true and hilarious that is at the same time. Because yes, it is a film about blocks, but somehow it managed to really be a genuinely good movie. Of course it is a kids’ movie, but I promise you’ll laugh just as much as any kid will.

First of all, this movie has the advantage of being uber- nostalgic. I know that I always had tons of legos laying around everywhere when I was a kid, and I still love a lot of the characters they brought in. They even managed to do a really good job of mixing in well-known characters with some brand new ones (um hello, how cute was Uni-Kitty!?).

Second of all, the digitization! The movie had a pretty big budget, but who even cares when it looks that amazing! It’s the closest thing digital can probably get to stop-motion, and it manages to look flawless while doing it!

**Spoiler Alert!**

I found myself really into the story, which I was slightly shocked about because that doesn’t happen all that often with kids’ movies. And when they stepped out of the lego world and showed what was going on in the real world, I thought I might be pulled out a little bit, but I wasn’t at all! They managed to make it all work really well and the story fell right into place.

All in all, The Lego Movie was a great nod to your childhood and great laugh for you even in your adulthood, 4 stars.

Road to the Oscars

Road to the Oscars

Need to catch up on your Noms? Here’s a link to IMDb’s road to the Oscars.

Bear with us!!!

If anyone can’t already tell, our blog isn’t quite complete yet. We’re running into a few coding issues that will be dealt with soon enough. In the mean time, you can look forward to a posting that’s coming soon. Catch our review of some of the Best Picture Noms for this year. We’ll rate Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, Dallas Buyer’s Club, Her, and American Hustle. And soon enough we’ll have our own awards posted for the year.

—Garret