The Films of 2014

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

The Films of 2014

#1 Post by Jeff » Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:06 am

This is the home for general discussion of the year in film, especially for those films that don't have dedicated threads of their own.

It looks like there will be plenty of reasons to venture to the cinema this year, including:

- Paul Thomas Anderson adapting Thomas Pynchon
- Wes Anderson doing a Lubitsch-inspired European comedy in (mostly) Academy ratio
- Todd Haynes taking on Patricia Highsmith and Anton Corbijn taking on John le Carré
- David Fincher shooting the first film with RED's new 6K Epic Dragon camera
- Darren Aronofsky and Ridley Scott bringing back the biblical epic
- A four-hour, two-part provocation from Lars Von Trier
- Richard Linklater's long-awaited tale of Boyhood, filmed over 12 years
- A Jim Jarmusch vampire movie
- Marion Cotillard in the new film from les frères Dardenne
- Two films apiece for Noah Baumbach, David Gordon Green, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Atom Egoyan, François Ozon, Michael Winterbottom, David Ayer, and (just maybe)... Terrence Malick!
- The return of long-absent auteurs Peter Bogdanovich, Jonathan Glazer, Roy Andersson, and (maybe) Michael Mann
- The return of never-absent Woody Allen
- Mike Leigh's J. M. W. Turner biopic
- Clint Eastwood doing a musical
- An apparent return to Fucking form for Lukas Moodysson
- Kelly Reichardt's environmental thriller
- Sylvain Chomet making his live-action debut
- Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer finally making its stateside debut
- Jeff Nichols channeling John Carpenter
- Ken Loach's swan song
- Hollywood satire from David Cronenberg
- Steve Carrell borrowing Nicole Kidman's Virginia Woolf nose for Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher
- Götz Spielmann's followup to Revanche
- French flights of fancy from Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Michel Gondry
- Another stage adaptation from Roman Polanski
- Terry Gilliam getting all existential with Christoph Waltz and Matt Damon
- The Weinsteins finally letting us see James Gray's New York period piece
- Cinema Guild debuting the latest from Corneliu Porumboiu
- A Hawaiian romcom from Cameron Crowe
- A David Mamet thriller about the daughter of a special effects artist
- A batless film from Christopher Nolan, plus the directing debut of his ace D.P. Wally Pfister
- Guys like Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu and Tim Burton stepping out of their usual comfort zones
- George Clooney trying to bring back the spirit of The Dirty Dozen
- The Russo Brothers making a Captain America picture
- More Marvels from Spider-Man and The X-Men and the big-screen debut for The Guardians of the Galaxy
- Not Lynne Ramsay's western featuring Natalie Portman and whichever guys eventually showed up on set
- Denzel Washington subbing for Edward Woodward in The Equalizer
- Jose Padilha rebooting RoboCop and Kenneth Branagh rebooting Jack Ryan
- Sequels to the recent reboots of the Muppets, Planet of the Apes, and 21 Jump Street
- Arnaud Desplechin's English-language debut
- Disney's live-action Sleeping Beauty update
- Catherine Breillat going autobiographical again
- Adaptations of kid-lit classics The Giver and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
- Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller returning to Sin City
- John Carney's followup to Once
- 12 Years a Slave writer John Ridley's Jimi Hendrix biopic
- Alien Channing Tatum rescuing Mila Kunis for the Wachowskis
- Liv Ullman doing Miss Julie with Jessica Chastain
- Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory reuniting for Jonathan Demme in an Ibsen adaptation
- Henry Selick's long-awaited The Shadow King
- Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence doing a period piece for Susanne Bier
- Dennis Villeneuve's followup to Prisoners
- Richard Ayoade doing Dostoyevsky
- Errol Morris pointing his Interrotron at Donald Rumsfeld
- Jason Bateman and Diego Luna making their directing debuts
- Seth Macfarlane trying to bring back the comedy western
- Scarlett Johansson getting metahuman for Luc Besson
- Rob Marshall attempting to bring Into the Woods to the screen

And many others that I'm forgetting!

flyonthewall2983
Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:31 pm
Location: Indiana
Contact:

Re: The Films of 2014

#2 Post by flyonthewall2983 » Wed Jan 01, 2014 1:12 am

Michael Mann's Cyber (I think it's called) was pushed along with other Universal titles to 2015.

One you forgot is St. Vincent De Van Nuys, the other 2014 Bill Murray comedy not directed by Wes Anderson.
A young boy whose parents just divorced finds an unlikely friend and mentor in the misanthropic, bawdy, hedonistic, war veteran who lives next door.
Maybe it's just me, but you can't go wrong with a plot like that.
Last edited by flyonthewall2983 on Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Soothsayer
Joined: Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:54 pm

Re: The Films of 2014

#3 Post by Soothsayer » Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:02 pm

Willem Defoe playing Pasolini on his final day...directed by Abel Ferrara. Very curious to see this:

http://variety.com/2013/film/internatio ... 200579433/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
captveg
Joined: Wed Sep 02, 2009 7:28 pm

Re: The Films of 2014

#4 Post by captveg » Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:08 pm

I'm hoping Tim Burton's return to biopic captures even a fraction of the brilliance of his Ed Wood.

I think you confused Disney's Maleficent with Cinderella on the release schedule, as the latter is a 2015 release.

User avatar
Jeff
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
Location: Denver, CO

Re: The Films of 2014

#5 Post by Jeff » Fri Jan 03, 2014 7:45 pm

captveg wrote:I think you confused Disney's Maleficent with Cinderella on the release schedule, as the latter is a 2015 release.
Indeed. Too much tipsy New Years rambling from me. Of course I meant "Disney's live-action Sleeping Beauty update." Fixed it.

User avatar
repeat
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2009 4:04 am
Location: high in the Custerdome

Re: The Films of 2014

#6 Post by repeat » Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:31 am

Jeff wrote:Jeff Nichols channeling John Carpenter
sorrysomehow wrote:Jeff Nichols has quickly become one of my favorite contemporary directors and I can't wait to see him tackle a new genre. Probably one of my most anticipated films of this year.
So excited about this - Mud was a solid movie, but to me a bit disappointing after the amazing Take Shelter. Good to see him working with Michael Shannon in the lead again, and John Carpenter -inspired sci-fi chase sounds right up my alley!

From the delayed 2013 titles, The Immigrant and Snowpiercer should finally hit the screens over here in a few months' time. Also looking forward to Alain Resnais reuniting with both Alan Ayckbourn and André Dussolier; Manoel de Oliveira showing no signs of slowing down; Mathieu Amalric directing (and starring in) a neo-noir adapted from Simenon; Thomas Vinterberg returning to Hollywood with no less ambition than last time, remaking Far From the Madding Crowd (with Carey Mulligan and Juno Temple); Mia Hansen-Løve's rave culture chronicle Eden & Olivier Assayas working with Juliette Binoche; Lisandro Alonso's weirdo fantasy project with Viggo Mortensen and Kaurismäki's DP Timo Salminen; a new film each from Dominik Graf, Christian Petzold and Christoph Hochhäusler; a 17th century historical drama from Marco Bellocchio; and of course the inevitable and always welcome new chapter from Hong Sang-soo...

Also, are there two different biopics of Yves Saint-Laurent coming up in 2014? The long since announced one from Bonello, and now suddenly on the Berlinale slate, another one from someone called Jalil Lespert :-s

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: The Films of 2014

#7 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Sun Jan 19, 2014 1:51 pm

repeat wrote:Also, are there two different biopics of Yves Saint-Laurent coming up in 2014? The long since announced one from Bonello, and now suddenly on the Berlinale slate, another one from someone called Jalil Lespert :-s
Lespert's take was actually announced ahead of Bonello's, back in March 2012; the Bonello project was announced at Cannes a couple of months later. The Lespert version is "authorized" in that it was made with the cooperation of Pierre Bergé (who's hinted that he might sue the people behind the Bonello version if it uses YSL's designs). From the mixed reviews out of France, it sounds like the Lespert version is basically a love story. It's already been picked up by TWC for U.S. release, for however little that's worth.

The Bonello film was originally to open in France on May 14th (strongly pointing to a Cannes premiere) but was recently pushed back to October 1st, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it'll still premiere at Cannes and they just want to put a little more space between its commercial release and the Lespert film, or maybe it'll go to Venice now. Given that France also saw fit to give us two Coco Chanel biopics in 2009, it's not too surprising that Saint Laurent should now get the same treatment...

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: The Films of 2014

#8 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:28 am

A couple of new releases from the Chinese New Year silly season:

The Man from Macau (Wong Jing) - The Last Tycoon (Wong's previous collaboration with Chow Yun-fat) belonged to the minority of "serious" Wong Jing movies like A True Mob Story, I Corrupt All Cops, and Colour of the Truth. The Man from Macau—notionally a spirtual successor to God of Gamblers and its assorted offspring—is Wong Jing at his Wong Jing-iest, which means dick jokes, bad puns, cleavage, fat women used for cheap laughs, over-the-top mugging, cartoon sound effects, characters spontaneously breaking into song, and comic book-style elements (Chow fights his enemies by throwing metal playing cards; a secret agent has a cybernetic eyeball with a built-in camera).

This won't convert anyone who isn't already on board with Wong's infantile humor, but it does show why his infantile humor is preferable to a wannabe like Badges of Fury. Badges of Fury seemed more and more desperate for laughs as it went on, withholding the really ridiculous stuff until the very end. Wong is too balls-out to pace himself that way and throws the kitchen sink into every scene. He's proudly and genuinely shameless, but however bad his jokes might be, they're bad in a way that privileges energy and effort above calculation.

And to be fair, there's actually some clever stuff here, like the surprise outcome of a baccarat game or the way co-producer TVB is actually incorporated into the plot. I also liked the understated visual gag where Chow's car phone turns out to be a handset connected to a cell. Best of all is the chance to see Chow let his hair down and prove that roles like Confucius and Cao Cao haven't sapped his playfulness. The biggest disappointment is the dearth of gambling scenes, which might have something to do with the killjoys at the Film Bureau. (They're at least somewhat sensitive to the subject matter, given the title change this underwent in the mainland—from "Casino Turmoil" to "Macau Turmoil"—and the similar retitling of Wong's recent Mr. and Mrs. Gambler.) But Chinese audiences evidently dig that stuff even if the regulators don't: the audience I saw this with actually gasped in unison when a character got a really good mahjong hand.

The Monkey King (Soi Cheang) - This year's Journey to the West movie sticks much closer to the text than last year's Stephen Chow entry, adapting the early chapters about the Monkey King/Sun Wukong's origins and his revolt against Heaven. (This is mostly the same ground covered in the classic animation Uproar in Heaven, the rightsholders of which have threatened a lawsuit against The Monkey King's producers for ripping off their title logo.) This spent something like three years in post-production and the result is inevitably an SFX orgy. Practically every shot seems to have a CG element, which typically varies from "acceptable" to "crap" (very rarely "good" or "great"). It's certainly more technically sophisticated than the TV versions, but a) so what, they spent somewhere around 300-500 million yuan and you could make multiple TV versions for that price, and b) the difference between the effects here and the effects there is more quantitative than qualitative. The overall aesthetic isn't much different, with unconvincing greenscreen work (the actors almost never seem to be inhabiting the same planet as the backgrounds) and a garish plastic sheen on everything from the costumes to the architecture.

The artificiality can be amusing, especially the contrast between the CGI and the practical effects. Some of the "demons" look like veterans of the Chuck E. Cheese house band, which has been widely criticized but in my opinion adds some goofy charm. But again, there's little visual imagination at work; like the TV adaptations, it's a mostly dutiful illustrated text, with a marking-time quality to much of the story. Where it takes liberties with the original, it's either for the sake of compression or nods to Hollywood-style formula. The Jade Emperor is given more power, so Chow Yun-fat can have a couple of big and awkward-looking fight scenes. There's a token romance between Sun Wukong and a fox spirit, which is as cringeworthy as it sounds but thankfully doesn't go very far. But the biggest change drastically alters Wukong's traditional character: he's no longer an antihero, just an unwitting dupe of the Bull Demon King.

To my mind this is an almost debilitating shift, eliminating the character's anarchic and vaguely political edge. In this version, for example, Wukong isn't even really upset when the Jade Emperor assigns him to oversee Heaven's stables, he's just goaded to anger as part of the Bull Demon King's plot. It's as if someone decided that the story needed to obey simplistic black hat/white hat logic and turned Wukong into a naive nice guy; I'm prepared to blame Donnie Yen here, since this is clearly his project more than anyone's. One knock-on effect is that the entire "uproar in Heaven" part (which takes up the last half-hour of the film) isn't an expression of the character's chaotic, anti-establishment drive, but just a big misunderstanding that as such goes on far longer than it has any right to. (This does at least open the way for a perversely anti-climactic ending where Wukong realizes his mistake and imprisons himself beneath Five Element Mountain.) Chow's JTTW movies are the wrong basis of comparison—this is really the Chinese equivalent of Man of Steel, another movie about a cultural icon that also had more money than brains and was also less interested in the character than in mind-numbing spectacles of destruction.
Last edited by The Fanciful Norwegian on Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:55 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: The Films of 2014

#9 Post by Cold Bishop » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:41 am

:( I'm disappointed to hear that Soi Cheang is behind The Monkey King. The trailer was absolutely excruciating.

User avatar
The Fanciful Norwegian
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:24 pm
Location: Teegeeack

Re: The Films of 2014

#10 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:53 am

I didn't mention Cheang in the body of the review because I can't convince myself he did anything except tell the actors where to stand on the greenscreen sets. He doesn't seem to have been that involved in the long post-production, given that he used the time to make Motorway (complete with heavy reshoots) and direct the second units on Drug War and Blind Detective. I can see why the Monkey King would be an attractive character to a director so interested in extremes, and the revised story (which is rather depressingly the last released work of the late screenwriter Szeto Kam-yuen) has a fatalistic element that's somewhat of a piece with Cheang's work, with Wukong being batted around by forces beyond his ken. But mostly it screams "Donnie Yen vanity project" and it's worrying that Cheang's next film is also a collaboration with Yen, though one that thankfully sounds nothing like The Monkey King.

Movie-Brat
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:14 am

Re: The Films of 2014

#11 Post by Movie-Brat » Mon Feb 03, 2014 4:23 pm

What about Godzilla? In my case, that's my most anticipated movie of 2014. I've been keeping an eye on the movie since its first announcement in late 2009.

User avatar
dad1153
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:32 am
Location: New York, NY

Re: The Films of 2014

#12 Post by dad1153 » Sun Feb 09, 2014 5:47 am

Attended a decently-packed Saturday Q&A screening with the directors of the 2012 Paraguayan thriller 7 Boxes, which premiered at Cinema Village in NYC this weekend. There's an opening scene setting up the market where most of the action takes place (shot like a series of fast-moving still photographs with a Canon D1, same camera used to shoot the flick) that's breathtaking and easily the best part of the film that sets up its characters and settings rather quickly. The simple premise, wheelbarrow-pushing poor kid agrees to babysit seven boxes for a few hours in exchange for enough money to buy a cellphone he wants bad, recalls "El Mariachi" meets "Slumdog Millionaire" as things just keep piling on for Victor as the military, fellow wheelbarrow pushers and the "owners" of the boxes put their sights on him. While there are some unbelievable moments/scenes of too-convenient idiot plot/impossible coincidence bailouts for Victor, "7 Boxes'" action/violence beats are short, well-paced and intense... but they're not what the movie's about. It's the type of little indie flick that gets butts in seats by appearing outwardly to be edgy and "cool," but doesn't forget the old-fashioned appeal of humor (not slapsticky but entirely derived from the absurdity of being poor and needing money) or an unexpected kiss between a boy and a girl making the entire audience gasp as loudly as a sudden bloody stabbing you didn't see coming 10 minutes prior.

Celso Franco's portrayal of Victor is garnering the bulk of the (mostly) positive reviews, except I think that "7 Boxes" works as an ensemble piece and not only because you care about the plight/dreams of Victor wanting/dreaming about the things he can't afford. There's at least a half-dozen characters (Liz, Victor's sister, Jim, Gus, etc.) that you really end up caring and liking (even the villains and henchmen get scenes illuminating their reasons for what they do, particularly Nelson), which makes the cutting around from one group to another as the night unfolds the rare instance where the plot builds and builds to a pretty tense (and worthy) payoff. The movie's very last scene kind of bookends with the strong opening, and though there's sting to the realities being shown (a pretty grim aftermath) it speaks to the overwhelming power of movie fantasy and wish fulfillment. Think "The Truman Show," Paraguayan (i.e. broke but persistent) style. :)

User avatar
warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: The Films of 2014

#13 Post by warren oates » Mon Mar 03, 2014 3:33 am

By contrast, Non-Stop makes several previous thriller films of all the involved parties -- Orphan, Taken 2, Chloe -- look like the masterpieces they aren't. This is a film conceived by a committee -- on crack. Nothing in it makes any sense at all, least of all the motivations of all the major characters. The line for me was crossed near the film's opening, when an airline pilot with good evidence of an imminent threat to his plane refused to divert to Nova Scotia because it was 95 minutes away... And Iceland was 2 hours... And the U.K. another mere 3. All about the same, so we'll just keep going, the pilot reasons, in a manner that nobody ever would after 9/11. But the final straw for me was when air marshal Neeson finds the
SpoilerShow
ticking bomb hidden in the briefcase underneath the smuggled cocaine -- (get it!?) -- because nobody checking luggage for suspicious stuff would ever look further than a big package of white powder. Well, I didn't get it either. It's a twist on a twist on a twist, far too clever for itself and anyone else.
At one point the audience actually started laughing en masse at the silliness of it all. Nevertheless, at the end, a fair number of the same people applauded. Which explains at least the initial box office receipts.

User avatar
cdnchris
Site Admin
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 2:45 pm
Location: Washington
Contact:

Re: The Films of 2014

#14 Post by cdnchris » Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:20 am

warren oates wrote:
SpoilerShow
ticking bomb hidden in the briefcase underneath the smuggled cocaine -- (get it!?) -- because nobody checking luggage for suspicious stuff would ever look further than a big package of white powder. Well, I didn't get it either. It's a twist on a twist on a twist, far too clever for itself and anyone else.
Don't get me wrong, this film was beyond ludicrous but
SpoilerShow
Wasn't it in the drugs because they convinced the other air marshal to smuggle it for them past security (they promised him money, right?) I can buy someone needing money smuggling drugs through security, but I doubt very much someone would willingly smuggle a bomb on board a plane for money. That was actually the only part of the scheme that made any sense to me and actually seemed somewhat clever.
I'm good at suspending disbelief with films like this and can buy in to inane schemes (I still love The Rock despite the idiocy behind the whole reason as to why Ed Harris took those hostages, though it at least adds another layer to that character) but the motivation to the one in this film was ridiculous. Even my wife (who eats these types of films up) was rolling her eyes.

I was annoyed with plenty of things like you, the pilot for one (and I'm not sure why this is as the film could have still continued on its course if they did divert) and Moore was absolutely wasted (why was she here?) Neeson makes a decent action hero, though, and he probably elevates the otherwise dire material, which I think had promise (I like thrillers in tight quarters.) Action scenes were decent since I could mostly follow them, plus I kind of liked that shot of Neeson floating as he grabs the gun and takes aim. I also liked some of the conflicts between him and the passengers, but man, did everyone come around really quick when he made his confession.

User avatar
colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: The Films of 2014

#15 Post by colinr0380 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 2:05 pm

How does it compare to the timeless classic Turbulence? (And was that a Mad Mad Mad Mad World homage I noticed at the very end of the trailer?)

User avatar
Black Hat
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: NYC

Re: The Films of 2014

#16 Post by Black Hat » Mon Mar 03, 2014 7:27 pm

Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clerq was positively fantastic. I know very little of the ballet and saw this on a whim as a result of being struck by the imagery on its poster. It was a revelation on feeling, strength, resilience and relationships but also a reminiscence of on opportunity lost. It hit on every sense you have as a human being and I think that's why the two thirds full audience remained seated in meditative chatter long after the end credits had rolled. Highly recommended.


User avatar
hearthesilence
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
Location: NYC

Re: The Films of 2014

#18 Post by hearthesilence » Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:02 am

I agree with the commercial's message but no.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The Films of 2014

#19 Post by swo17 » Sat Mar 08, 2014 2:26 am

I'll say yes.

lady wakasa
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2006 10:26 pm
Location: Over Yonder
Contact:

Re: The Films of 2014

#20 Post by lady wakasa » Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:46 pm

After a number of adventures, several of them not so good, I saw Matthew Barney's River of Fundament in Feb. It's supposed to be doing a roadshow in the near future (31 cities, don't know which ones). Not expecting a DVD because, Barney.

I thought it was kind of ingenious... but I spent most of my teen years reading everything I could find about ancient Egypt because of dreams of becoming an Egyptologist. (The story very closely follows one of the major funerary myths.)

Sadly, it comes across as pretty inaccessible w/o that background (with the possible exception of reading Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings). Sad, because the story really is straightforward.

And the ancient Egyptians are looking a lot crazier than I remembered, LOL.

User avatar
warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: The Films of 2014

#21 Post by warren oates » Sat Mar 22, 2014 1:54 am

I'd like to recommend Cheap Thrills, a surprisingly well-written and directed pitch black horror/comedy/high-concept contained thriller. There's really not too much to say about this film except that it almost always has the courage of its convictions, often goes a little further than you think it will and usually gives you good reasons to believe that characters do what they do (after that initial suspension of disbelief, of course.)

On the other hand low-budget high-concept horror hand, The Den, while it tries pretty hard to justify its found footage conceit (all the while stretching the truth about how much people use video chat and how little they shut their laptops off or just, you know, physically closed), falls apart when we find out who the big baddies are and why they're doing it all, which is really just the lamest possible ripoff of
SpoilerShow
Hostel and/or Demonlover, but that latter reference is probably giving the film way too much credit.

Movie-Brat
Joined: Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:14 am

Re: The Films of 2014

#22 Post by Movie-Brat » Sun Apr 13, 2014 5:52 pm

Oculus

I was left impressed with what was done. The only thing I knew about this film was the fact that Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff were in it and it was getting positive reviews. Yes, a WWE Film is getting positive reviews. And I have to really congratulate the filmmakers for what they accomplished. It's a Loevcraftian Horror film that messes with one's perception of the film's events and is left open to interpretation; did the siblings do themselves in or did the mirror really cause everything to go wrong? It has strong acting (Katee Sackhoff can look downright vicious, I like that) and there is good tension, hell the jump scares are used sparingly and even where there are, it's being built up.

User avatar
dad1153
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2009 10:32 am
Location: New York, NY

Re: The Films of 2014

#23 Post by dad1153 » Sun Apr 27, 2014 7:43 am

A buddy and I went last night to see The Vicious Bros. latest, EXTRATERRESTRIAL (2014) at NYC's Tribeca Film Festival. Working with 10 times the budget/scope/ambition of their previous "Grave Encounter" movies, "Extraterrestrial" wouldn't have felt out of place in the 90's next to "Fire In The Sky," select "X-Files" episodes and every space abduction movie ever made, except with the scary loud noises dialed up to 20. In a charming retro twist the aliens look rubbery and straight out of central casting, as are their standard-issued horror movie growling and stalking behavior. Every 15 or so minutes "Extraterrestrial" switches genres, going from horror and found footage to science-fiction and conspiracy thriller, with a sappy romantic story and a truckload of "Cabin In The Woods" cliches as through lines before a pair of final act twists lift the ending into something that redeems the movie... somewhat. Gil Bellows and Michael Ironside deliver fun support work, but sadly aren't given enough screen time because the disposable youthful leads (no better or worse than the norm for these types of films) hog the spotlight. It's good to have "Grave Encounters" veterans Sean Rogerson and Mackenzie Gray show up, but they're not given nearly enough to justify their day or two on the set.

It's obvious The Vicious Bros. are talented filmmakers, but they seem content to just bring vitality and energy to common easy-to-market premises whose budgets they tailor their creativity around. I look forward to seeing what these guys do when they get a few more films under their belt and get more ambitious than merely planting their flag on a well-worn movie genre.

User avatar
warren oates
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 12:16 pm

Re: The Films of 2014

#24 Post by warren oates » Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:43 pm

There's nothing else on the forum yet about Blue Ruin, except a pithy zedz dismissal ("generic crap") in his post about another film. I'd have to disagree. For the second time this year (the first was Cheap Thrills) a no-budget independent genre picture has outclassed most other recent and more high-minded Indie dramas I've seen about similar themes. The writing and directing are taut and genuinely thrilling. Things unfold in a suspenseful and unpredictable direction in this story that's driven largely by realistic and relatable characters thrust into extraordinary circumstances. The film also has a willingness to break stuff and make huge messes that consistently surprised me and challenged my expectations of the sorts of things I'd see in a film at this budget level. Both the practical and visual effects were integrated seamlessly and with a polish that rivals much more expensive productions. I do have some minor qualms about the casting of the lead who -- perhaps especially underneath that hobo/hipster beard he eventually loses -- has what I can only describe as too much of a comedy face.

Also saw Locke and liked it way more than I expected. It's maybe the best one-man fiction feature I've yet seen. And with its simple commitment to character and a sort of grounded real world drama blows the contained thriller histrionics of something like Buried out of the water. Just Tom Hardy as the title character Locke in a car in the midst of a harried commute, trying to reach out to his colleagues, his bosses and his family, on what might be the worst night of his personal and professional life. The drama feels very play-like structurally, but there's no way this would fly on stage. It requires the reality of its moving location, the car itself, the traffic and of all the lights in the background.

User avatar
Cold Bishop
Joined: Tue May 30, 2006 9:45 pm
Location: Portland, OR

Re: The Films of 2014

#25 Post by Cold Bishop » Wed Apr 30, 2014 2:38 am

I'm not sure if we have a dedicated thread for this, but if your pockets aren't aching from that Borowczyk box set, I can't think of a better thing to donate to than this: the American Genre Film Archive, headed by the Alamo Drafthouse, Paul T. Anderson and Nicolas Winding Refn, meant to preserve and help make available to theaters films that aren't likely to make it into any major film archive or restoration foundation.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the- ... chive#home

Post Reply