Bad Johnson (2014)
[4] Cam Gigandet (Easy A, Twilight) stars as a playboy whose penis detaches and manifests as its own person (Nick Thune). I'm all for absurd concepts and sex comedies, but Bad Johnson plays it too safe and formulaic to leave…
Life Itself (2014)
[7] Steve James (Hoop Dreams) directs this documentary about the life and career of Roger Ebert, arguably the most famous and most well-loved film critic who ever lived. Life Itself begins near the end of Roger's life, after cancer has…
Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
[8] James Gunn (Slither) co-writes and directs one of the best Marvel movies ever. The plot is simple, nothing new or groundbreaking. Good guys gotta stop bad guys from literally destroying the world. Been there, done that, right? And like…
Snowpiercer (2014)
[9] South Korean director Bong Joon-ho (Mother, The Host) directs this tale of class warfare set in an ice-age Armageddon wherein the last few living humans reside aboard a technologically advanced train that constantly circumnavigates the globe. Chris Evans (Captain…
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
[9] In this sequel from director Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), the virus introduced in the previous film has obliterated more than 99% of the human population worldwide. In San Francisco, there is a small colony of humans focused…
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
[7] It's the future and an alien race has just about taken over all of Europe and Asia. Tom Cruise enters this scenario as a cowardly military spokesperson forced into the front lines of combat by a shit-if-I-care general (Brendan…
The Dance of Reality (2014)
[5] The Dance of Reality is the first film in decades from well-loved cult filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, The Holy Mountain). The film is a quasi-autobiography from the filmmaker, covering his childhood in a Chilean coastal town. Jodorowsky is…
Jodorowsky’s Dune (2014)
[8] "For me, movies are an art. More than an industry. As essential to the human soul as painting, as literature, as poetry... Movies are that for me…" Like Lost in La Mancha, a chronicle of Terry Gilliam's ill-fated attempt…
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)
[7] This sequel taps into two powerful currents of audience identification: the love between parents and children, and the love between people and animals. You can approach these with cloying calculation, as many family films do, or you can attack…
Maleficent (2014)
[7] Angelina Jolie headlines in this pleasantly surprising revisionist version of Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Jolie plays Maleficent, the dark fairy villain of the original fairytale. But in this new version of the story scripted by Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the…