TOP 10 MOVIES OF 2014

Another year, another top 10. And as always, so many movies, so little time. Managed to catch 46 movies this year (about 0.8 movie a week)

One thing I'm glad I did this year was to create this blog just to host my movie reviews. It keeps me focused on building my passion for reviewing and making films. Let's see how Kausern Reviews - The Movie Blog will evolve in 2015 and over the years.

Enough of reflection and on to the Top 10! (Click on the titles to read the full review)

Noteworthy mentions:  
THE HUNDRED-FOOT JOURNEY; an old-fashioned charming motion picture which explores the warmth of budding young love, the pursuit of a dream and the power of food and family. Veterans Helen Mirren and Om Puri's performance are enigmatic but the main star of the film is the charismatic leading man Manish Dayal.

LOCKE; a pure example of cinematic storytelling stripped down to its minimalist form. It's a one man show all the way and Tom Hardy's performance here is intensely engaging. The man who departs at the opening scene in his car is not the same man who reaches the destination at the end of the movie due to the events which will unfold along the way.

10.  CHEF; a small, intimate and light hearted movie that will guarantee to get you craving for Cuban sandwiches the second the credits start rolling. At the heart of this Jon Favreau's movie is a father and son story. A special shout out to John Leguizamo who plays the role of a loyal friend to the main character - he injects so much joy and energy into the film. And did I mention about the food scenes (the FOOD, OMG!)

9.  THE LEGO MOVIE; the script is smart and satisfying. The humour is delightfully random and the pace is infectiously energetic - "Everything is awesome!" And it caters for ages 5 and above. How the story unfolds is bordering mayhem, with many different random characters from the Lego universe coupled with explosions, horses and spaceships -  it looked like something out of the mind of a creative child placed in a room filled with Lego blocks. This is done intentionally to build up to the big emotional reveal in the last act.

8. HER; Spike Jonze's latest is an ambitious cinematic endeavour which explores the unconventional relationship between human and sentient machines. The story presented will cause viewers to reflect on their relationships, "What is love?" Joaquin Phoenix gives one of his best performance - his character is vulnerable, sympathetic and lost. But Scarlett Johansson (or her voice) steals the show as even a simple ‘sigh' is done with so much sincerity and ache. Special shout out to Arcade Fire's beautiful score.

7. NIGHTCRAWLER; a character study of a sociopath who is involved in the business of sensationalizing news to garner higher ratings. This isn't a feel good movie. It's dark, cynical, tense and at times downright uncomfortable.  The highlight of the film is Jake Gyllenhaal; his almost skeletal appearance, fake smile and dead eyes and his creepy "knowledge is power" personality really gets the audience under their skin. Equally impressive is Renee Russo's supporting character.

6. INTERSTELLAR; Christopher Nolan's most ambitious movie to date checks all the boxes of grandeur modern cinema story telling. But at the heart of it is a simple tale of sacrificial love that binds a father and his daughter. And without a doubt Matthew McConaughey is the human factor of this movie. His believable love for his family (and the despair he has to go through) makes this one of Nolan's most emotional film. 

5. THE JOURNEY; the Malaysia Boleh film which was worth every bit of the hype it generated. The movie is marketed as an east-west/father-daughter-Ang Moh son-in-law tension themed story but if you peel away the layers of the expected cultural and traditions nuances, the core of it is a beautiful and quiet story of forgiveness, reconciliation and closure.

4. X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST; is a film of grand ambitions and epic achievements but yet managed to retain an intimate scale. It doesn't feel like your typical superhero movie. In fact, it plays out more like a sci-fi film aka Terminator where our distant future is horrific and grim; mutants are massacred by the Sentinels - machines without soul or conscience. The only way to reverse the apocalypse is to travel back to 1973 and undo it all. Michael Fassbender, who dominated X-Men: First Class, is once again magnetic here but this sequel is truly James McAvoy's show.

3. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL; Wes Anderson's latest is an engaging unconventional adventure peppered with idiosyncratic humour, all framed up in obsessively composed and symmetrical shots (often with beautiful bright striking colours). His characters are often exaggerated and are caught in quirky situations. Ralph Fiennes' character is the concierge of the The Grand Budapest Hotel and the actor plays a caricature of himself - and nailed the performance. A big shout out also to Tony Revolori for his debut as the lobby boy, Fiennes' protege.

2. DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES; in the latest Planet Of The Apes installment, the lesson of every decision made will have consequences is explored in a tough and uncompromising way. The narrative is structured like a Shakespearean tragedy; it's about love and hate, peace and war, freedom and fear - where the characters are conflicted to choose the values they are against in order to achieve the results they desire eg. in order to keep the peace, one has no choice but to fight. DAWN is far more superior in every aspect compared to its immediate predecessor Rise of The Planet of the Apes. Besides having more depth and breadth in the narrative, the human characters here are more developed. Also, the personalities of the apes are fleshed out very well. There are some tender moments shared between apes and humans which would move even the hardest of hearts. A few words must be written about the amazing contribution of Andy Serkis for making Caesar the most compelling character in the movie despite very little dialogue - his eyes and mannerism are stunningly life-like. Caesar is a remarkable creation of human acting and CGI. While DAWN boast some big-name human stars, make no mistake – Serkis is the star.

1. LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON; I caught this Japanese film on a very long flight to the US. My sense of timing was blurred, I was extremely jet lag and have perhaps feasted on too many movies before watching this film. Yet, it managed to reach deep into my reserves and tore me apart into many pieces from the inside out. It just shows how forceful and powerful this motion picture is. It's a simple plot about two 6 year old boys who were accidentally swapped at birth. And their parents faced with the heartbreaking prospect of having to exchange them after they found out about the incident. The highlight of the movie is not the resolution but where it really shines is the character study on each of the parties involved and their relationships. There are several scenes in the movie which were too heart wrenching to watch because it reflected the sinful nature of man.


And here's a nice 2014 movie mashup video. Enjoy and Happy New Year!

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES (2014)

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Running Length: 2:24
Cast: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Luke Evans, Orlando Bloom, Evangeline Lilly, Aidan Turner, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Lee, Lee Pace, Hugo Weaving
Director: Peter Jackson

I was expecting the worst from THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES as judging from the trailer, it was filled with excessive wall-to-wall CGI battle scenes, which to me quite frankly has become a soulless boring movie experience (no thanks to the Star Wars prequel trilogy). Fortunately, it wasn't as numbing as I thought. In fact, it was pretty engaging. It's probably because the film makers managed to balance the big battle scenes with "quieter" heroic moments that allow the central characters to stand out. Surprisingly, this installment being the most action heavy, has the strongest focus on character development. Timeless themes such as honour, friendship, love and self-sacrifice are nicely blended here without over preaching it. And speaking of CGI, it's less intrusive here compared to the barrel ride scene in The Desolation of Smaug (that was unintentionally bad). Not as grand and epic in scope as The Lord of the Rings trilogy but The Battle of the Five Armies is the best film of The Hobbit's series. (And what's with Team America the eagles flying in to save the day once again?)

Rating: 7.5/10

RISE OF THE LEGEND (2014)

Genre: Action

Running Length: 2:11

Cast: Sammo Hung, Eddie Peng, Wang Luodan, Jing Boran, Zhang Jin, Wong Cho-lam, Angelababy

Director: Roy Chow

Just like any other remake, in order to appeal to today's younger audience (who are more cynical and grounded), the new Wong Fei-hung flick RISE OF THE LEGEND is a relatively good remake: it is faithful to the source material but offers a more down-to-earth and grimmer motion picture (think Nolan's Batman series). The fight scenes are gritty (more of street brawl style) and the violence are amped up. The screenwriter should be applauded for her courageous efforts to deliver an unconventional plot - a combination of an origins story, a Young and Dangerous like gangster feel, a heist thriller, a story on revolution and the necessary sacrifice for the greater good, and of course a kung-fu action flick. Unfortunately, the result is more convoluted than necessary and will leave audiences more confused than they were before. The film makers even took the risk with the score, making it more light hearted; which to my opinion failed big time (it is only when they played the popular Wong Fei-hung tune, the film suddenly was elevated to epic status). Now to the question you are all waiting for; does Eddie Peng make a good Wong Fei-hung?  It is unlikely that Eddie Peng will replace Jet Li as your definitive Wong Fei-hung but he is a good choice to a younger Fei-hung. He is hunkier, has a signature bad-boy smirk and a lot more bada** Although Eddie is not a character actor, nobody would doubt that he has given his all to portray the legend. The fight scenes are more kinetic and stylish but the fight choreography still loses out to older Hong Kong flick (we actually do not have to go back that far. Just watch Ip Man and you can see a mark difference in the fight scenes). Lastly, the film looks gorgeous with its composition, lighting and choice of colors. Bring on the sequel!

Rating 6.5/10

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART 1 (2014)

Genre: Science Fiction

Running Length: 2:03

Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright, Natalie Dormer

Director: Francis Lawrence 

The film makers of THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY, PART 1 must be commended for taking the risk to divert this movie from the standard Hollywood blockbuster formula. MOCKINGJAY, PART 1 is more akin to a political commentary on the media's power to manipulate (compared to its fast paced action-heavy earlier entries of the series). With no Games this time around, there are no big action scenes but instead, the characters uses war of words, mind games and emotional blackmail to outwit one another. Indeed it is a valiant effort but by dividing the final book in the popular trilogy into two separate films, this film feels incomplete and more like a set-up to something better (hopefully, but we have to wait for a full year to find out *cough* *studio greed* *cough*)

Rating: 6/10

KUNG FU JUNGLE (2014)

Genre: Action
Running Length: 1:40
Cast: Donnie Yen, Wang Baoqiang, Charlie Young, Michelle Bai
Director: Teddy Chan

I made a big mistake of watching fight scenes from The Raid 1 and 2 on YouTube before catching KUNG FU JUNGLE. From the trailer, I was expecting MMA/street brawl kinda fight scenes like The Raid series with a decent storyline on honour, brotherhood and sacrifice just like the good old days HK heroic bloodshed genre. Alas, this movie was a frustrating experience. The plot is pretty straight forward; one man's quest to be the No. 1 martial artist in HK goes around challenging other martial artists - just like any beat em' up video game ie. Street Fighter. I was thinking, "How can this ever go wrong? It's just an excuse for characters to engage each other in long drawn fight scenes, right? And we have the always dependable Donnie Yen as the action director, right??" WRONG! To be fair, the fight choreography is pretty decent, especially the final fight scene. But everything else is just so embarrassingly poor - cheesy dialogue, uninspired acting and horrible CGI. And the movie just takes itself too seriously; our main villain is so OTT he literally froths at the mouth while the rest of the male performers spends a lot of time staring intensely at each other and emote before they go for each other's throats. The police operational scenes were boring and unnecessary. If you're looking at getting your fix of intense fight scenes, just watch The Raid 1 and 2 clips (or even old Jackie Chan fight scenes from his earlier films).   

Rating: 4.5/10

BIG HERO 6 (2014)

Genre: Animated
Running Length: 1:38
Cast (Voices): Ryan Potter, Scott Adsit, Daniel Henney, Jamie Chung, T.J. Miller, Genesis Rodriguez, Damon Wayans Jr., Maya Rudolph, James Cromwell, Alan Tudyk
Director: Don Hall, Chris Williams

As kids today are growing up faster due to their exposure to the Internet, producing an animated movie in Hollywood these days is definitely much more challenging than the yesteryears. The content needs to be edgy, globally appealing and politically correct. If The Little Mermaid was released in this day and age, it will be crushed to instant death at the box office by the likes of Frozen and Maleficent. Disney's BIG HERO 6 will unlikely generate the same mass following like Frozen, but nevertheless, it's a decent follow-up. In fact, I enjoyed Big Hero 6 more because it's geared more towards boys, it has no singing and the main theme of this animated film appealed to me; confronting death of a loved one (woah). Despite its sombre theme, the filmmakers managed to successfully balance the light-hearted elements with the serious stuff and presented it in a seamless entertaining experience. Two highlights for me; the cultural, architectural and geographical fusion of East meet West fictional city of San Fransokyo and of course, the lovable robot Baymax - which looks like a fluffy Michelin Man with the soul of Wall-E. Baymax is lovingly awkward, caring and full of heart; “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your pain?" :)

p/s: Since Big Hero 6 is a collaboration between Disney and Marvel Comics, stay right to the end for the post credit scene.

Rating: 7/10

INTERSTELLAR (2014)

 

Genre: Science Fiction/Adventure

Running Length: 2:49

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Wes Bentley, David Gyasi, Matt Damon, Michael Caine, Casey Affleck, Mackenzie Foy, Topher Grace, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow

Director: Christopher Nolan

 

"The depth of the love of parents for their children cannot be measured. It is like no other relationship. It exceeds concern for life itself. The love of a parent for a child is continuous and transcends heartbreak and disappointment." James E. Faust

INTERSTELLAR is arguably Christopher Nolan's most ambitious movie to date. He is one of today's great modern cinema showmen. He is a master at balancing cerebral storytelling with moments of grandeur. And Interstellar checks those boxes; it simultaneously displays complex physics (but yet accessible to laymen and sounded reasonable enough) told on an epic big-budget cinematic canvas, but at the heart of it is a simple tale of sacrificial love that binds a father and his daughter. And without a doubt Matthew McConaughey is the human factor of this movie. His believable love for his family (and the despair he has to go through) makes this one of Nolan's most emotional film. The scenes between father and daughter made me shed some tears (thankfully it didn't go the way of Armageddon). But Interstellar is not all weepy as its incredible imagery is an amazing achievement that deserves to be seen on the biggest screen with the best sound system possible (watch it on IMAX) - the space travel and new worlds feels like the real thing (and not CGI) and the scene where the rocket lifts off, the bass shook the entire cinema I was in. And Hans Zimmer's score (with heavy use of organs) is gripping. That said, Interstellar is almost too perfect and there lies the problem. It has just the right balance of everything; family drama, love, great effects, action, some light hearted moments, betrayal etc. Personally, I find things more beautiful when they are still imperfect than when they are too perfectly crafted. Also, this film may not provide enough traditional entertainment value compared to Nolan's The Dark Knight or Inception, and thus could leave certain movie goers feeling underwhelmed. On many levels, Interstellar is a very good film. I liked it but not as much I wanted too.

Rating: 8.5/10

JOHN WICK (2014)

 

Genre: Action/Thriller

Running Length: 1:41

Cast: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, John Leguizamo, Ian McShane

Director: Chad Stahelski, David Leitch 

 

JOHN WICK is a straight forward revenge-based movie. Such movies do not have much of a plot. The narrative, just like a video game, is all about following our hero fighting through a series of increasingly difficult bad guys until he meets the Big Boss for a final showdown (usually under the rain because fighting under the rain is just more 'jantan'). It's all about the action scenes and the creative kills. Thankfully, they are delivered in truck loads and in old-school brutality fashion. The shootouts are short but effective and the mano-a-mano fight scenes don't drag on forever. Casting Keanu Reeves as the lead is perfect as Reeves' screen presence has always been his strongest asset (vs his acting range) and the directors really know how to capture that. There are some intentionally amusing scenes to give the film a little breather from being overly action-packed. A special shout-out to the portrayal of the villains as they (especially the Big Boss) are not the usual frothing-at-the-mouth bad guys but are portrayed more as business people (special note: after 25 years, nobody can still come close to Alan Rickman's Hans Gruber baddie). 

Rating: 6/10

NIGHTCRAWLER (2014)

Genre: Drama/Thriller

Running Length: 1:57

Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Renee Russo, Riz Ahmed, Bill Paxton

Director: Dan Gilroy 

 

Sociopath: A person with a psychopathic personality whose behaviour is antisocial, often criminal, and who lacks a sense of moral responsibility or social conscience.

Although advertised as a thriller, NIGHTCRAWLER is actually a character study of a sociopath. In the beginning, we are introduced to our main character's initial "career" - carrying out petty activities. And when confronted, what happened thereafter will give the audience a clue who we are dealing with because as the film progresses, our anti-hero gets much worse. This isn't a feel good movie. It's dark, cynical, tense and at times downright uncomfortable. Viewers will be able to relate to the premise of the film where the sensationalisation of a piece of news is more important than reporting the truth to garner ratings (interesting enough, the core value of the TV series Newsroom is somewhat opposite of this film but I digressed). However, the most notable highlight of the film is Jake Gyllenhaal performance. He undergoes a radical physical transformation to play the part of the main character. His almost skeletal appearance, fake smile and dead eyes and his creepy "knowledge is power" personality really gets the audience under their skin. I thought his performance in last year's equally disturbing film Prisoners was mind blowing (soft spoken, eye twitching when stressed) but Gyllenhaal's performance here is a game-changer for his career. He deserves to get an Oscar nomination nod for this film. Equally impressive is Renee Russo's supporting character and the interesting relationship between her and Gyllenhaal. My favourite scene in the movie is at a Mexican restaurant where we can literally experience the balance of power shifting from one to the other. That amazing scene made my jaw dropped. The movie of course is not without its flaws as it occasionally runs into pacing issues and some of the plots are a little far fetched. The score is serviceable and the photography is noteworthy as it managed to capture the darker underbelly of LA suburbs. 

 

Rating 8.5/10

THE BOOK OF LIFE (2014)

Genre: Animated
Running Length: 1:35
Cast (Voice): Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Channing Tatum, Ron Perlman, Christina Applegate, Ice Cube, Kate del Castillo, Hector Elizondo
Director: Jorge R. Gutierrez

Ahhh..."death", one of my favourite subjects. To be specific, it's actually the concept of mortality explored in films that has always fascinated me. So it was with great expectations I went into THE BOOK OF LIFE, an animated film (targeted at young audiences) which used Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration as the canvas to paint its story. Although it's heavily sugar coated, I must say this movie is surprisingly effective in exploring the serious subject of death. Although the narrative has many layers; the main story is actually told by a museum tour guide to a group of kids and the story narrated has 3 worlds with many characters crossing over from one world to another, it was actually quite easy to follow. However, the plot could have benefited with a "less is more" treatment as towards the second half, it was trying very hard to jam packed the remaining minutes with almost everything from the Pixar playbook; being true to yourself, sacrifice, friendship, forgiveness etc. If the writers could have just focused on the romantic triangle plot and perhaps dive deeper into the subject of mortality, it would have been a much better viewing experience. And speaking of that, this is indeed an experiential movie. The landscape is bright and colorful even though it's filled with skeletons and skulls. The characters (especially the supporting cast) are strangely shaped and odd-sized but compelling nevertheless. And the song choices are inspired and creative, especially the recognizable pop songs which are sung with a dash of Mexican flair and passion.

(The desire to experience Mexico's Day of the Dead celebrations has just gone up a few notch in my bucket list!)

Rating: 7/10

THE MAZE RUNNER (2014)

Genre: Adventure/Science Fiction

Running Length: 1:53

Cast: Dylan O'Brien, Aml Ameen, Ki Hong Lee, Blake Cooper, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter, Kayla Scodelario

Director: Wes Ball

THE MAZE RUNNER is suspenseful, fast moving and will keep viewers guessing for a good 3/4 of the movie. Despite its engaging start, the final reveal is somewhat cliché. It's satisfying nevertheless but it doesn't sucker punch you in the gut. The performance of the actors are serviceable but our main star is unfortunately forgettable. The only standout is this Asian dude - not because of his acting chops but I was distracted by his neat hairstyle throughout the movie. I would imagine being stuck in the maze for 3 years, one would assume his hair would be caveman-like but noo...he looks like a YouTube celebrity. Somehow it doesn't gel (See what I just did there *smirk*). The soundtrack is from the school of Hans Zimmer which is actually not bad. In summary, The Maze Runner is entertaining and a cut above the other "dark dystopian future, one special teenager to save them all" films which are adapted from YA novels.

Rating: 7.5/10