Monday, January 13, 2014

Most Anticipated Movies of 2014

Other movies I am anticipating or am intrigued by: The LEGO Movie, Dawn of the Planet of the ApesMr. Peabody and Sherman, Godzilla, Into the Woods, This is Where I Leave You, Get on Up, Jupiter AscendingTammyExpendables 3 (if only for Harrison Ford and Kelsey Grammer, as I hated the first two movies), and several other small independent movies that are more difficult to judge until reviews and trailers come out.

10. Neighbors
After three energetic trailers I am pretty convinced that this will be one of the funniest movies of the year.  This is helmed by experience comedic talents: producers Seth Rogen and Eric Goldberg (This is the End) and Nicolas Stoller (Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Five-Year Engagement).  The cast is great starring Seth Rogen playing a mature family man, Rose Byrne (who was one of the funnier parts of Bridesmaids), rising star Dave Franco, and the what looks to be a surprisingly hilarious turn from former teen star punchline Zac Efron.  The set-up is fun, the jokes in the trailer work and it looks like it has not given them all away.

9. X-Men: Days of the Future Past
Based on my third favorite X-Men story of all time (note to self: make a blogpost about that).  I am ranking this low, because there is a lot that could go wrong.  Still the scale and effort going into this one is pretty incredible.  Having a lot of the main cast returning and the young versions of Xavier and Magneto meeting the older ones is going to be awesome.  There has been great casting, especially with Peter Dinklage as Bollivar Trask.  We will finally get to see the Sentinels and see an X-Men movie fully explore some of the more intense themes of the franchise.  Also Bryan Singer is directing again, he has not directed a great movie since X2, but there has not been a better X-Men movie since X2.

8. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan's follow-up to the Dark Knight trilogy.  While I was not a huge fan of Dark Knight Rises.  I really had fun with Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Inception and especially The Prestige.  There is little information available about this movie, but the teaser features some great atmosphere.  The cast features an interesting mix of great actors, many of which are in need of a good movie including: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Casey Affleck, John Lithgow, Ellen Burstyn, Topher Grace, Matt Damon and of course Michael Caine.  Looks to be a unique original sci-fi.

7. Big Hero 6
Disney has been on a roll with an impressive run of Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Winnie the Pooh, Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen.  All of which have been among my favorite films of their respective years.  Directed by Don Hall (Winnie the Pooh) and Chris Williams (Bolt) and based off of a lesser known Marvel property.  Disney seems to be taking an interesting concept that did not work in the comics and making it their own.  I love the concept art for this of the fictitious city of San Fransokyo.  It is always fun when Disney animation plays with modern day and the future and this definitely has the potential to be fun.  I also really respect that a voice cast has not been announced yet.  They are creating the story, characters and animation before the celebrity gimmick.

6. Gone Girl
The next film from star director David Fincher.  Much has been written about this movie, it is based on a popular book and is being adapted by its original writer (who is changing the ending for the film).  Affleck has been talking about what a great experience making this movie is, and he is definitely deserving of a lead role like this after his comeback in The Town and Argo.  Rosamund Pike has been reliable for years and looks to finally have her big break.  More interesting is that the cast of this drama seems to be composed of comedic actors such as Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, Casey Wilson, Patrick Fugit and Wendie Malick.  Of course the real draw is director David Fincher, who is one of the best working to day and this movie is right up his alley.

5. A Million Ways to Die in the West
I had a blast with Ted.  It was laugh out loud hilarious, surprising and even a bit touching.  I think that Seth MacFarlane is an interesting director and I love whenever I get to see him perform.  I am excited to see him in the lead of this movie in addition to an interesting random cast of Charlize Theron, Amanda Seyfried, Neil Patrick Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, Sarah Silverman, Ralph Garman and Liam Neeson.  The title and the setting of a western certainly has me intrigued.

4. Guardians of the Galaxy
Marvel has been taking a lot of chances on this rather unknown property and with the way that company plans ahead they have to be up to something really cool.  The concept art looks art and the casting has been interesting.  I am so excited to see Chris Pratt as a leading man in addition to the colorful supporting cast (Groot and Rocket Raccoon are going to play so well on the big screen).  This is going to be the lead in to Star Wars Episode VII, the type of fun space adventure that we have not seen in a long time.

3. They Came Together
I love writer/director/actor David Wain and have enjoyed all of his movies (The Ten, Role Models, Wanderlust).  He wrote this one with State/Stella pal Michael Showalter, with whom he created the masterpiece White Hot American Summer.  Little is known about this project yet, but it features a stable of comedic greats lead by Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler (along with Christopher Meloni, Ed Helms, Cobie Smulders, Max Greenfield, Jason Mantzoukas, Jack MacBrayer, Kenan Thompson , Michaela Watkins and Ken Marino).  Even if this doesn't make me laugh it is going to be interesting.

2. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
This is based on one of the best recent Marvel story arcs and a natural progression of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  This one has it all folks.  An increased role for Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D., the Winter Soldier, The Falcon, Sharon Carter, Crossbones, 42 and even Batroc the Leaper!  This looks to have an action/spy movie feel but at a superhero movie scale.  Chris Evans has been doing great things in this role and the addition of Robert Redford to the cast is intriguing.  I was pleasantly surprised with how much I loved Captain America: The First Avenger, but Cap the most interesting thing about Cap as a character is his man out of time element.  This should explore some interesting themes in addition to having some awesome action.  This is also directed by Joe and Anthony Russo who directed some of the best episodes of Community (Paintball two-parter!).

1. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
I would not have listed this in my top ten before October, but Catching Fire was easily one of my favorite movies of 2013.  It upped the ante so much and was such a huge jump in quality.  This story is getting interesting and I can't wait to see where it goes.  The stakes changed so much at the end and with the addition of one of my favorite actors, Julianne Moore, this is going to be my most anticipated movie of 2014.

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