Ranking the films of 2014- Special Screenings and Bottom of the Barrel

Usually I wait until at least December 31st to start posting, but I thought that I could get the 4 special screenings (which I am not ranking, but listing as a number) out of the way along with the 2 worst films that I have seen this year (since I can't imagine anything being as bad or worse than these 2 films that are still on my lists to catch up on in the last week of the year):

Special Screenings

170- Madagascar- Island of Lemurs- An IMAX film shown mainly at scientific centers, I loved the actual footage of Lemurs. Was not a fan of the scientists interviewed in this film who literally had nothing interesting to say. But the lemurs made up for it.

169- Saw- 10^th Anniversary re-release- It was interesting to see this since I hadn’t seen it since it first hit video 10 years ago. I still have issues with it, but it is a film that rolls along and does not let up. It was fun to see Michael Emerson from Person of Interest pop up. I had forgotten he was in it.

168- Anchorman 2- R-Rated Version- This was given a 1 week release. It was longer, cruder, and had a ton of extra footage mixed in. Again, just like the regular Anchorman 2, some of it works, some of it is extremely superfluous.

167- Ghostbusters- 30^th Anniversary re-release- I saw this at a Saturday night showing. There were probably about 100 of us in the theater. While watching it this time, I tried to view it without looking ahead to upcoming jokes and to watch the film as I must have in 1984. I was surprised just how scary certain scenes are. The audience loved it. It had a lot of younger people in the theater so I could not figure out if they had seen it before or not, but they were enjoying it a lot! Glad to see that it still works and is one of the great comedies.

While I honestly didn’t absolutely hate any films that I saw in 2013, 2014 had 2 films that I thought were absolute crap and pointless and that I would actively keep people from seeing.

Bottom of the Barrel

166- Winter’s Tale- Where do I even begin? A horse that is actually a dog? Will Smith playing Satan in the early 1900’s wearing a Jimi Hendrix T-shirt? A timeline that makes no sense if you actually think about it.A large section of film dedicated to a story that ends up having no influence on the outcome of a film. A model boat that luckily works and is sea-worthy to float a baby back to Manhattan. Colin Farrel having an Irish accent evenm though he grew up in New York on the streets and never set foot in Ireland? These are just a few of the problems with this film. I had seen the preview and thought it looked bad and hoped that the whole film would work, but boy was I wrong. This is bad moviemaking at its worst. Everyone gives it their all but, wow! Nothing works. Stay away from this stinker!

165- Legend of Hercules- This is the first of 2014’s dueling Hercules epics, neither of which was very good, but this one was actually boring and laughable! This is the one directed by Renny Harlin (a long way from Cutthroat Island, which, in retrospect, is Oscar winning) and starring Kellan Lutz. Hercules’ mother having sex with Zeus (who is apparently made up of wind and sheets) made me laugh in the theater along with the scene with Hercules wielding pillars made of styrofoam on the end of his chains and shackles… and those are the 2 good scenes! I actually dozed off a couple of times during this one for a moment or two and I can guarantee that I didn’t miss much. Again, stay away!