This week, I unveiled my Top 20 and bottom 20 movies. What about the other 105 flicks that made up the crazy list? For your browsing amusement, here is the ENTIRE list of 2014 movies viewed by Gabbing Geek film fan extraordinaire. Enjoy!
The best films of the year deserve much greater examination. For a full review of each film #1-10, check out my list.
1 IMITATION GAME
2 BIRDMAN
3 DAWN OF THE PLANET OF APES
4 NIGHTCRAWLER
5 WHIPLASH
6 THE SKELETON TWINS
7 GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY
8 CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLIDER
9 GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
10 FOXCATCHER
There were more than just ten great films worthy of praise. For a full review of the excellent films that made up #11-20, check out my earlier entry!
11 FINDING VIVIAN MAIER
12 LOVE IS STRANGE
13 X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST
14 EDGE OF TOMORROW
15 BOYHOOD
16 THE GOOD LIE
17 GONE GIRL
18 PRIDE
19 SNOWPIERCER
20 WHAT IF?
Because they weren’t covered in any other article (who wants to read about the 92nd best film of the year?), I’ll include a quick blurb for #21-125 here. Cuz I am thorough like that!
21 JOHN WICK
A movie where Keanu was actually critical to the quality. Good stuff.
22 22 JUMP STREET
A rare comedy sequel better than the original! (Heh. I JUST realized as I was formatting this for publication that 22 Jump Street was #22. That was a total freaking coincidence!!!!)
23 THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Dallas Buyers Club-esque. Mostly acting over plot.
24 PARTICLE FEVER
A Doc that made me excited about physics! Still mad Texas lost the Hadron because of Congress!
25 LIFE ITSELF
I wonder if this would be so high if I wasn’t a huge Ebert fan?
26 BIG HERO SIX
Didn’t connect with me until my son made me see it a second time. Strong entry.
27 UNBROKEN
Better than the reviews but a little too Disney.
28 CHEF
29 LUNCHBOX
30 THE HUNDRED FOOT JOURNEY
My food porn trio. All very good movies about love, food, and the love of food.
31 FED UP
The Katie Couric Documentary you should watch with the Food Porn trio so you don’t look like this:
32 KILL TEAM
Brutal subject matter. Very compelling.
33 BEGIN AGAIN
This movie should have been in the top 15 easily but it lost a full star (ironic because the song that will likely win Best Song is called Lost Stars) because of credit scene that really detracts from the third act. So depressing that they made that choice.
34 INTERSTELLAR
2/3 of a great movie. The more I thought on this one (I originally gave it five stars) the more I disliked it. Still a good movie, but I think it is Nolan’s worst other than his earliest film.
35 FELONY
I love Tom Wilkinson
36 CHEAP THRILLS
Fun movie by the folks at the Drafthouse.
37 GET ON UP
Strong performances but a fairly typical biopic.
38 ST VINCENT
Good movie but too much was shown in the previews.
39 EQUALIZER
Best Liam Neeson movie of the year! Oh wait….
40 BOOK OF LIFE
Gorgeous with great charm and mood. I had it higher but Garcia poisoned the well harping on the Mumford and Sons cover. He’s kinda right….
41 HAPPY VALLEY
Fair doc covering the Penn State sex abuse scandal.
42 THE RISE AND RISE OF BITCOIN
Inaccurate title. The fall seems to happen in the doc.
43 SHOWRUNNERS
Movie about TV. My kinda doc.
44 KILL THE MESSENGER
A nice arthouse thriller.
45 WILD
Top notch performance by Witherspoon, meandering film.
46 MOCKINGJAY
Book split-itis rears its ugly head.
47 TO BE TAKEI
More about subject likeability than great documentary.
48 DINOSAUR 13
Got me mad. Mission accomplished.
49 CALVARY
Quirky indie pic that I’m glad I saw.
50 FAULT IN OUR STARS
Surprise of the year. I shouldn’t have liked this movie as much as I did.
51 MALEFICENT
Jolie was great as was the art direction
52 THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU
Should have either been more substantial or just settled for being an HBO original
53 LAGGIES
Sam Rockwell and Keira Knightly were excellent.
54 LIFE OF CRIME
Darkly funny
55 THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY
No prosecutorial or counterpoint provided
56 BELLE
I love Tom Wilkinson
57 MAZE RUNNER
Solid fun on a low budget
58 OBVIOUS CHILD
Appreciate the effort more than the delivery
59 TWO FACES OF JANUARY
Dark and exotic
60 BLUE RUIN
An indie thriller that cast Home Alone’s Buzz McCallister in a decent supporting role
61 LEGO MOVIE
Is this lower than you’d think? I wanted to like this more, but thought it was mediocre.
62 A MILLION WAYS TO DIE IN THE WEST
Underrated, but could have been tighter at 90 minutes. Sarah Silverman was amazing.
63 OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY
9/11 Memories are still hard.
64 TRUST ME
I like Clark Gregg. That is all.
65 A MOST WANTED MAN
Mediocre with a great performance by PSH. I wanted to be mad at him the whole movie, but he was such a great actor, I forgot it was him….
66 BAD WORDS
My kind of movie. Good solid middle.
67 NOAH
The religious hate it because it is not faithful to the Bible. The nonreligious don’t want to see a movie about Noah. I think I am the only person who wanted to see this. It was decent.
68 AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
I have a new rule for next year’s movies that it will be a “calendar year” movie only when it was available in Austin. A movie like Selma is Oscar eligible for 2014, but is only shown in 5 theaters until 2015. I don’t want those last minute entries to never show up on any list, thus the rule change. Ryan, a stickler for geek order, demanded I add August Osage County to 2014 to be consistent. Here it is at a mediocre #68. Happy, Ryan the Jerk?
69 LAND HO
One man show. Not an actor. Just an awesome old man!
70 HERCULES
Good dumb fun. Wish this would have succeeded. I would have seen a sequel.
71 PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR
Meh
72 BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL
Charming. Pretty much the median film I saw this year.
Everything below was to the left of the bell curve. Still some good movies left though!
73 IVORY TOWER
Good subject matter; didn’t relate to people picked to act as the narrative
74 JODOROWSKY’S DUNE
Bizarre but I loved this passion of Jodorowsky
75 MAGIC IN THE MOONLIGHT
Don’t know why this wasn’t better…
76 3 DAYS TO KILL
Costner was great this year!
77 DRAFT DAY
Costner is again charming but the plot was not believable
78 MONUMENT MEN Wasn’t as dreadful as the critic who put it in the Bottom 10 indicate. It was a disappointment relative to what it could have been, but it was entirely mediocre.
79 NIGHT MOVES
Slow but intriguing.
80 ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE
Slow but beautiful
81 JOE
Well shot film in which Nicholas Cage shows some surprising subtlety
82 ROVER
Pretty and well-made but slow and tedious. Clever ending brings it up.
83 NO NO
Not enough interest
84 WOMEN AREN’T FUNNY
Would’ve been funnier if made by a man. I kid. I kid.
<<<Jenny pissed>>>
85 NON-STOP
Great fun but check your brain at the door
86 THE OTHER WOMAN
Nice rental
87 THEY CAME TOGETHER
Uneven farce.
88 DIVERGENT
Passable YA Thriller
89 WE COULD BE KING
Nice story but the narrative was off
90 MILLION DOLLAR ARM
Nice cast. Too condescending to Indians for my taste.
91 NEIGHBORS
Midtier funny movie
92 TMNT
Eh…it was Ok
93 JERSEY BOYS
Like watching Terminal directed by Spielberg, I wondered “Why did we need Eastwood for this?”
94 GODZILLA
Cranston was the only good thing about this forgettable blockbuster attempt
95 ROBOCOP
Ok but I don’t remember anything but Michael Keaton
96 DRACULA UNTOLD
Fun for what it was
97 THE JUDGE
One too many or one two few rewrites. I cannot tell!
98 CESAR CHAVEZ
Too sentimental.
99 LISTEN UP PHILLIP
Weak Wes Anderson imitation
100 HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
Not a $320M movie
101 BURT’S BUZZ
102 STARRING ADAM WEST
103 MISSION BLUE
104 ELAINE STRITCH: JUST SHOOT ME
Quirky eccentrics featured in docs.
105 ALEXANDER AND THE HORRIBLE…
Carrell saved this from being a trainwreck
106 MUPPETS MOST WANTED
Discount bounce. Not that good, but I paid $2
107 LUCY
1/2 a good movie. I remember thinking during the second half that this movie would have been great if someone like Luc Besson had directed it. Then the ending credits reminded me why this was not true.
108 JACK RYAN
Costner was the only thing good. He really gave several strong performances this year. Following his great turn as Pa Kent last year in Man of Steel, I am back on the Costner bandwagon.
109 SPIDERMAN 2
A big letdown given the quality of the first one. Tells you how high the bar has been raised with Superhero flicks. Andrew Garfield is not the problem.
110 MR PEABODY & SHERMAN
Cute but mediocre.
111 LET’S BE COPS
Surprisingly fun. Only saw because of the show time.
112 IN YOUR EYES
Joss Whedon has ONE thing that I like: Avengers movies. I was watching this thinking, this could’ve been better with a good screenwriter, only to learn Whedon wrote it.
113 SEX TAPE
Passable iTunes rental
114 THINK LIKE A MAN TOO
Passable iTunes rental
115 HALF OF A YELLOW SUN
Hard book (one of my faves) to translate and it shows
116 LOCKE
Boring but well-acted
117 RIDE ALONG
I would like to see the talented Kevin Hart have a good script. I think he is the heir apparent to Eddie Murphy, but I want to see his Trading Places.
118 DUMB AND DUMBER TO
Exactly what I expected
119 CITIZEN KOCH
Just because I agree doesn’t mean it’s a good doc.
120 TINY
This was a neat concept but it could have been covered in one small segment on Dateline or 60 Minutes
121 THE DOG
Unlikably Unlikable
122 TAMMY
Beneath the talents of a wonderfully funny lady
123 BLENDED
Actually spoke to me a time or two but otherwise a typical Sandler farce.
124 THE GIVER
Gave me Narcolepsy
125 FRANK
Jenny fave Michael Fassbender gets partial credit for trying but failing
BOTTOM 20
The films that aspired to be the worst 20 films of someone who saw a LOT of movies this year deserve extra damnation. Check out more on these painful atrocities against mankind in my worst of write up.
126 IN SECRET
127 THAT AWKWARD MOMENT
128 300 RISE OF AN EMPIRE
129 IF I STAY
130 ENEMY
131 RIO 2
132 NUTJOB
133 TRANCENDENCE
134 SERIAL KILLER CULTURE
135 THE CONGRESS
136 TRANSFORMERS
137 EARTH TO ECHO
138 I, FRANKENSTEIN
139 SABOTAGE
140 SIGNAL
141 THE MACHINE
142 VAMPIRE ACADEMY
143 PING PONG SUMMER
144 UNDER THE SKIN
145 IDA
Gabbing Geek 
2 thoughts on “Watson’s Top 145 Movies of 2014!”