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| Pretty much how I feel about making decisions on this list. |
This year, I've noticed, has been one of the more tougher ones to figure out the movies in the bottom half of the top 50. Mainly because a lot of the movies this time around don't have trailers or much information about them. I'm just blindly going along with my knowledge of who's involved in the film more that anything else. I'm pretty cool like that. It's especially tougher when you're talking about comedies because so much of those films rely on tone and visual gags that it's hard to determine what I'm going to like unless I see a trailer. So I'll just take the praise right now that I picked a few comedy gems for next year and I also selected some comedy duds, but they were low on my list, so no biggie. Either way it's a win-win situation for me!
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Taylor Kinney
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Writer: Melissa Stack
Release Date: April 25
This is an interesting film. It sounds like a very rated-R comedy - something from the mind of Bad Teacher (another underrated comedy starring Diaz). Basically when a woman finds out that her boyfriend has a wife, she partners up with said wife and plot revenge. Melissa Stack wrote a Hollywood Blacklist screenplay several years ago for a movie titled "I Want to F--- Your Sister." She even quit her daytime job as a lawyer after she sold the script. So I'm guessing we're going to get a fairly R-rated comedy but Nick Cassavetes, the director behind such tearjerkers as My Sister's Keeper and The Notebook is behind the lens for this one. Like I said, interesting. I think the two female leads are fantastic - Diaz can be hit or miss sometimes, but she's perfect for this role if she plays anything close to what she did in Bad Teacher. And Leslie Mann has always been fantastic. This is another movie where it's really hard to judge the tone and feel of the movie - so I put this one at a safe distance away because I can't tell how this film will turn out.
39. Three Days to Kill
Starring: Kevin Costner, Amber Heard, Hailee Steinfeld
Director: McG
Writers: Luc Besson, Adi Hasak
Release Date: February 21
I'm a sucker for spy movie and Luc Besson is an excellent writer in this action genre (Taken, Leon: The Professional, La Femme Nikita). So it comes as no surprise that I would be excited about this movie. Costner plays a dying Secret Service agent who decides to give up his professional life to reunite with his estranged wife and daughter only to be sucked in for one last mission with the promise of a miracle drug to keep him from dying. Riveting stuff, no doubt, and I do believe the script will be decent. The cast is solid - Costner is perfect for this role and I've enjoyed Amber Heard in all the movies I've seen her in. I'm just not on board with the director, McG. He's directed some mediocre movies lately (This Means War, Terminator Salvation) and I just can't take a guy too seriously if he won't use a proper name. It's all kinds of irritating! COLIN MAD. SMASH THINGS. RAWRR!! Now I need to take a cold shower. Thanks a lot, McG.
Starring: Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, Aaron Paul, Sigourney Weaver
Director: Ridley Scott
Writers: Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, Steve Zaillian
Release Date: December 12
Not only do we get one Biblical epic next year, but TWO, FOLKS! That's right, I know all the youths out there right now are just itchin' for movies that take place thousands of years ago and have no relevance to our modern world! Yeah, I'm not very tight with the Bible as of late (although I do have a dark history with that tome), so I can understand some of the shade being thrown about towards this movie - but you know what? It's Ridley Freakin' Scott! He could make a movie about the life of a brick of cheese in a refrigerator and I'd probably put it in my top fifty. The dude has some serious jones about historical pieces (Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood) so you know he's got the experience for this kind of movie. And the cast sounds fantastic, too! Christian Bale is playing Moses and Joel Edgerton is the dick Pharaoh, Rhamses, who is going to give all sorts of hell for Moses. Far be it for me to cast aspersions with the cast, but Edgerton is an Austrailian posing as an Eqyptian. They better have some amazing costumes and makeup, otherwise he'll seem as out of place as a hipster is at a McDonalds (unless they're eating there ironically). So you'd think with all the exclamation points this movie would be higher on my list, but I just can't shake the feeling that this movie might be a tad, well, boring. There, I said it. I don't expect some crazy choreographed fisticuffs between Moses and Rhamses, but I hope at least there is some sort of chase scene involving chariots and/or donkeys.
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| This is what came up when I searched for "The Judge 2014" Thanks, Google! |
37. The Judge
Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga
Director: David Dobkin
Writers: Bill Dubuque, Nick Schenk, David Seidler
Release Date: October 10
A comedy/drama film about a lawyer who returns to his hometown for his mother's funeral only to find out that his dad, the town judge, is under suspicion for the murder. I'm pretty confident that RDJ will bring his usual brand of self-aware comedy to this film. Outside of Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes, RDJ hasn't really done much except for the so-so road trip comedy Due Date. With this movie and Chef, it'll be nice to see him as an average Joe kind of character. I can't tell whether the movie is going to be more goofy with a slightly serious bent or if this movie will find the right balance of drama and comedy. I'd be fine either way, but I'm hoping for the latter - the plot just seems serious enough to warrant a more serious tone. One of the writers wrote The King's Speech and another wrote Gran Torino, so my guess is that it's more serious. The director has done such gems as Wedding Crashers, but some duds like The Change-Up. So it's a toss-up at this point. I think this one could be a surprise hit in the fall if it ends up being a more drama-oriented picture.
36. Walk of Shame
Starring: Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden
Director: Steven Brill
Writer: Steven Brill
Release Date: April 25
"A reporter's dream of becoming a news anchor is compromised after a one-night stand leaves her stranded in downtown L.A. without a phone, car, ID or money - and only 8 hours to make it to the most important job interview of her life." -IMDb. I really love Elizabeth Banks, from the moment I saw her comedy in the most best comedy of all time, Wet Hot American Summer. And this sounds like a great high-concept comedy that could be funny as hell. It's written and directed by the guy who wrote and directed Little Nicky, a film I loathe. So I'm a little hesitant about the final product. The supporting cast sounds great - Gillian Jacobs, Ethan Suplee, Bill Burr - they're all really funny actors. I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, but it's going to be easier once a trailer drops! If only I had a time machine, I could travel to the future and watch the trailer and then report back. (Listen, I know how stupid that sounds because why not travel to the future and just watch the damn movie? Well, I didn't think about that until just now. And I'm too lazy to press backspace.)
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