Top 14 Films

I've watched a lot of films this year so this will be my first time doing a list like this.

14. LUCY
Rating: D -
Genre: Action
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik

After watching the trailer for this movie over a dozen times (yeah, that's a lot), I've have some pretty high expectations for this film. Watching ScarJo throwing around bad guys and kicking ass? Sign me up! Except...err, well this movie was just a big disappointment.

The movie starts off with ScarJo as Lucy, a young, vibrant, girl who is studying in Taipei, Taiwan. She is tricked into working as a drug mule by her boyfriend to a drug lord. But before she can even deliver the drugs, her boyfriend is shot and killed, and she is then captured by the drug lord and his crew. Later, she wakes up and finds the drugs are stitched and tucked inside her stomach. The drugs are apparently 'something kids in Europe are going crazy for'. However, the bags inside bursts and the drugs flow into her bloodstream. Thus, given her superhuman powers such as mind-reading, mental time travel, and the ability to change her hairstyle and clothes (lucky!).

But...this is where the film takes a nosedive. While Lucy is adjusting to her powers and running away from the drug lord and crew, she realizes she only has a limited time before everything goes haywire (I think, that's what I remember from this). As her powers grow and she discovers life and stuff like that. I just care less and less about this character. She became Amazon-like; she didn't care about the people around her, as evident by ScarJo's deadpan expression throughout the movie. And the ending was ****ed up. I mean Lucy became a super computer to share her knowledge with the world? Like what the ****. I was just angry I wasted two hours for that.

13. THE GIVER
Rating: C+
Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian
Starring: Brenton Thwaites, Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes

Another film that was a big disappointment to me. While the book was critically acclaimed and beloved by many, this on the other hand was very so so.

The movie is about Jonas, a young boy, who lives in an ideally, colorless, world of contentment. A world that's almost Utopia like. At the end of formal schooling, his classmates are assign to jobs for life. However, Jonas is assigned to be "receiver of memory" and meets up with The Giver, who shares with him the memories and troubles of the past and why their society is the way it is. Given the memories can be overwhelming for someone as Jonas, who has been living in a world of contentment for so long - however, instead of being shaken by it, he reacts to it in awestruck way. From there on, he begins to see the world differently; seeing it in color instead of black and white and skipping his daily injections, which are to sedate and calm him. But his actions are being watched by The Chief Elder (played by Meryl Streep), who sees Jonas destroying their so called perfect world, and wants to stop him.

The Giver wasn't as terrible as Lucy, but it wasn't exactly memorable either. Brenton Thwaites, who plays Jonas, doesn't bring much emotion to character and comes off as stiff compared to heavyweights like Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges. The story on the other hand was boring and redundant. It was almost as if I'm watching Divergent 2.0, except instead of a girl, it's a guy. I know the book came years before The Hunger Games, Divergent and other YA Dystopians came along. But unfortunately I think it came a little late to the party.

And oh, if anyone wants to know about Taylor Swift's character. She plays Rosemary, the daughter of The Giver, and was basically in the film for 3 minutes. She was the "receiver of memory" before Jonas. But after being overwhelmed by the negative memories, she applied for a release, the equivalent of suicide.

12. THE OTHER WOMAN
Rating: C
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann, Nicki Minaj

This film had the ingredients to become one of the best rom coms of 2014 (or the last five years or so, given how terrible this genre has become). Cameron Diaz? Check. Three women who want to take revenge on their douchebag boyfriend? Check. Leslie Mann? Check. Except that this movie reinforces why rom coms are so terrible these days. Sighs.

I barely laughed during the movie and the only time was when Leslie's character was drunk. Other than that, my face was pretty much blank. This movie relies on low brow humor (I think Leslie's character threw up a couple of times), and false female empowerment (they pretty much talk about men during this entire movie). And poor Nicki, while her scenes were fun to watch and I think she has potiental as an actress, she's relegated to playing the sassy black woman. Y'know? Snapping her fingers and being outspoken and all.

Overall, this movie was a lot better than The Giver and Lucy, but it wasn't all that great. Shame really, because the actresses (sans Kate Upton) are really amazing and this could've been another great movie. It was nice to see three women in a big budget comedy though, which you don't see much of these days.

11. THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2
Rating: B
Genre: Action/Superhero
Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx

I think I'm one of the few people who actually like this film. It's not good as the first movie by any means, but it's a pretty good popcorn movie. The movie starts off with Spider Man fighting off crime while talking with Gwen Stacy. Actually, I don't think I can write the summary of this movie because there are so many things happening all at once. Let's just say Spider Man is dealing with two supervillians: Electro (who is played by Jamie Foxx), and Peter's childhood friend, Harry Gordon. And on top of that, his on-and-off again relationship with Gwen Stacy. There we go!

Again, the reason why I love this movie is because it's fun, frivolous and a nice escapism for two (or three?) hours. Andrew Garfield perfectly embodies Spider Man, actually, he is Spider man. He's just so good in the role, I think he's better than Toby. Emma was perfect as always. The only complain I had and pretty much everyone agrees on it, is that there was too much happening. The storylines become messy and lack cohesive, no character development and the ending was disappointing. Unfortunately, Gwen becomes yet another victim (as her comic counterpart does) to the sexist, infamous trope: Women in Refrigerators. So sad to see her go and become another plot device to develop Peter's character and make him cry man-tears. Sighs.