You hate to say the "worst" of 2014, and only two came to mind as far as having talent in front of and behind the camera that created stories that never really took off. They are:
1. Sin City 2 - the guy at Sundance Cinema said this had a terrible marketing campaign, and yet this would've been an easy one: selling the sequel to the 2005 groundbreaking film that brought Frank Miller's vision to life. This sequel merely repeated the first movie but with banal dialogue and much of the same imagery, shootouts, and mean-spiritedness. And it ran out of ideas twenty minutes from the end. Me and two other people enjoyed saw this opening week. The next week it was gone. Robert Rodriguez needs new writers, ideas, and that elusive component, inspiration.
2. Under The Skin - My jaw hit the floor when Roger Ebert's guest critic said comparison's to Kubrick were not unwarranted. Oh, yes they are. This meandering, soulless, yet boldly original movie did create a world, had an unusual structure that was so slow, we really wondered what the point was. When viewing a preview of the film recently on DVD, I remembered the images and shots that made you pay attention; too bad the filmmakers couldn't back it up with heart, commentary, or...something.
One note: the big summer releases such as Godzilla, Captain America (albeit in April), and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were all good and solid, but none offered originality that will endure the test of time. My $.02. Another slight misfire, The Monuments Men, at least took on an original story and was watchable if not galvanizing. The characters seemed to be what was missing, and it is ironic that Scarlet Johansson in Under The Skin created the most memorable out or everyone in the above.
1. Sin City 2 - the guy at Sundance Cinema said this had a terrible marketing campaign, and yet this would've been an easy one: selling the sequel to the 2005 groundbreaking film that brought Frank Miller's vision to life. This sequel merely repeated the first movie but with banal dialogue and much of the same imagery, shootouts, and mean-spiritedness. And it ran out of ideas twenty minutes from the end. Me and two other people enjoyed saw this opening week. The next week it was gone. Robert Rodriguez needs new writers, ideas, and that elusive component, inspiration.
2. Under The Skin - My jaw hit the floor when Roger Ebert's guest critic said comparison's to Kubrick were not unwarranted. Oh, yes they are. This meandering, soulless, yet boldly original movie did create a world, had an unusual structure that was so slow, we really wondered what the point was. When viewing a preview of the film recently on DVD, I remembered the images and shots that made you pay attention; too bad the filmmakers couldn't back it up with heart, commentary, or...something.
One note: the big summer releases such as Godzilla, Captain America (albeit in April), and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were all good and solid, but none offered originality that will endure the test of time. My $.02. Another slight misfire, The Monuments Men, at least took on an original story and was watchable if not galvanizing. The characters seemed to be what was missing, and it is ironic that Scarlet Johansson in Under The Skin created the most memorable out or everyone in the above.
