Top 8 Films of 2014 (so far)

These are my Top 8 films for 2014 so far. Why Top 8? Because that's how many 2014 films I've seen. I'm still trying to catch up on all of the 2013 films I've missed*. Plus, quite frankly, not many of the 2014 films that have come out so far have looked like they were worth seeing.

*Of the 2013 films I've caught up on, only the The Punk Singer would probably end up on my Top 20 list if I were to revise it. It's an inciteful documentary on Kathleen Hanna, a feminist pop culture icon and lead singer of the bands Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin.

8. 300: Rise of an Empire

Here's the thing: even the worst 2014 movie I've seen so far wasn't entirely bad. It is a largely unnecessary film, but it has its few merits. I enjoyed the gimmick of having the plot take place before, parallel, and then subsequent to the events in the original 300. And Eva Green is never not a welcome presence on screen.

This isn't what people mean when they say "use protection".

But everything else just seemed like a faint copy of the first movie, with returning actors Lena Heady and David Wenham giving particularly sleepy performances.

7. Odd Thomas

Blockbuster director Stephen Sommers (G.I. Joe, The Mummy, Van Helsing) scales things down for this adaptation of a Dean Koontz novel about a young man (Odd, portrayed charmingly by Anton Yelchin) who can see dead people, and also demons (called Bodachs) that portend death. The movie is mostly more lighthearted than that description implies, though the film is not without its share of tension (in a brilliant plot stroke brought over from the book,  Odd can see the Bodachs, but he can't acknowledge that he sees them or they will become aware of his gift and target him and those he cares about). But the movie also never feels like it has any stakes. The town where Odd lives feels ripped right out of a 50's TV comedy, where everything is Norman Rockwell-perfect and movie-y (his girlfriend works at an ice cream shop, and her name is Stormy Llewellyn for God's sake). A bold, gut-punch of a twist at the end can't fully overcome all of the apathy that the film engenders up to that point.

6. Enemies Closer

Let's get this out of the way: Enemies Closer is a terrible movie, and it appears that everyone involved in making the film was aware of that fact. The result is a movie that plays so loose that it seems ready to fall apart at any moment, but is held together by the sheer sense of fun that everyone seems to be having. Jean Claude Van Damme has never been this much fun, giving a gleefully over-the-top performance as the ruthless-but-environmentally-conscious villain. It's ridiculous B-movie fluff that you expect to find on Showtime at 1:00 a.m. But it's also unexpectedly entertaining, if not necessarily satisfying.

5. Knights of Badassdom

Knights of Badassdom has a complicated history. The plot and cast seem tailor-made to be an internet sensation and cult classic, but the film has been sitting on a variety of shelves for years. The eventual release was recut from the director's original without the director's input or permission, and the director has disowned it. What now exists is a tonally inconsistent film that tries to adhere to a mainstream plot, while containing way too much cult DNA for that plan to ever succeed. It's funny, then gory, then serious for a second, then patently ridiculous, and then funny again. It does still contain enough oddball characteristics to ensure a lasting cult status, but I also expect several years of online petitions demanding the release of the director's cut until the studio relents, at which point that will become the definitive edition of the film.

4. Veronica Mars

The movie was never going to be as good as the series. All viewers could hope for was to spend 110 minutes with some characters that they thought they'd never see again. On that scale, the movie delivers. It offers some closure on a few lingering issues left open by the series, checks in briefly with all of the old gang, shoehorns in a murder/blackmail plot, and leaves things back at the status quo.  As far as movie followups to cancelled TV series go, it wasn't Serenity, but thankfully it also wasn't X-Files: I Want to Believe.

3. Robocop

Judged completely on its own merits, the new Robocop is actually pretty good. It smartly scraps all of the original's satire of 80's capitalism and instead refocuses on issues of free will, media misinformation, and drone warfare. And it inverses the journey of its title character. In the original film, Robocop had his humanity removed, then had to rediscover it as the film progressed. The new film leaves his humanity intact, then has it slowly stolen away from him as his creators seek to make him more efficient. There are a few scene cuts that come together rather jarringly, as though a transitional scene was removed at some point, so the film sometimes lunges forward noticeably too quickly. But otherwise this reboot has a lot of good ideas, and executes them as well as any PG-13 blockbuster studio film can. Most importantly, it does not try to copy the original, which has a tendency to piss of diehard fans (just ask Michael Mann, whose Miami Vice got scathing reviews when it was released because people wanted it to be like the shitty 80's TV show instead of the incredible dramatic film that it was).

2. Snowpiercer

I'm not going to lie: this film will be hated by many who watch it. It is so batshit insane that it will alienate a lot of people who go into this film knowing only that it's a dystopian action thriller starring Captain America and that redheaded English lady who wins acting awards. But for those brave souls who watch it with an open mind, this is a film that has plenty to offer the senses. Plenty. Like, a LOT. It's pretty much just going to throw shit at your head until you just give up trying to make sense of it all and let the film drag you along on its literal journey through the class system (here's a hint: when Alison Pill shows up, it's best to just give in, because the movie will only get more surreal and erratic from this point onward).

This image is from the least-weird part of this scene.

It is a deeply cynical movie, and it will try desperately to hurt you while watching it, but it's a unique filmgoing experience to be sure.

1. Blue Ruin

Blue Ruin takes the classic revenge tale and injects every moment of screentime with a sadness and regret that is usually relegated to a single 30-second scene in action-focused revenge movie (if it's included at all). Instead, the character at the heart of Blue Ruin is weak and borderline incompetent. He knows that by committing the act of revenge, he is starting an inevitable chain of events that will likely destroy him. And he does it anyway, seeming less like he's doing it because he wants to and more because it's the only thing he can do. The film carries an air of tragic inevitability throughout, of which the main character is fully aware. Blue Ruin beautifully and sorrowfully illustrates the way a single act can start to spiral outward. It also never implies that there was any other way for things to happen.